The Shadows with the immortal Wonderful Land. This single is from 1962, can you believe it? Almost half a century old and still, well, wonderful.
I picked this youtube audio still 1° because sound quality is real good and 2° because of the sketch, which intrigued me. When I saw it I wanted to bet it was an artist's impression of a scene in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, and 'lo and behold, that turned out to be true. The artist in question is Ted Nasmith, a Canadian and like me a Tolkien aficionade, although through his art he takes his fondness for that Englishman's masterpieces to an entirely higher level. The white city on that hill in the middle of the plain is Gondolin. The character looking out over it Tuor. I thank God on my bare knees for letting me discover Tolkien. A long time ago that was. Fall 1982. Started by devouring The Lord of The Rings. Discovered The Silmarillion, which actually treats Middle Earth history thousands of years placed back in time vis-à-vis LOTR, in the early spring of the following year.
The Offspring with Self esteem, a smash hit from the aptly named album Smash (1994).
If there is anyone who still thinks that in-your-face prayer sit-ins like these ones, the ones in France, in Milan, or in NYC of all places, are just a koinsidens, I have a bridge across the Dniepr to sell you. Islam is going right now through some major transformation, but a renaissance it ain't. It's more like a schoolyard bully waking up from dozing at his desk in the back of class and deciding to wreak havoc during playtime. Indeed, all across the planet muslims are behaving more assertively at the expense of their surrounding population, be it Jews in Malmo, Christians in the Philippines, or Moscow commuters finding their way to office blocked by hordes of paedophile worshippers.
Assertivity can be understood, if not condoned, when the mechanism behind it grants it a certain raison d'etre. Germany woke up in the late nineteenth century/early twentieth century to claim its place at a European table long dominated by France and England, because it had something to show for being braggard: its own Industrielle Revolution, Krupp steel, talented chemists, amazing engines developed by messrs Benz and Diesel.
Islam has no such thing, yet it too claims a place at the global table, what do I say, at the head of the global table. Islam is like Mike Tyson storming in at a congress of astrophysicists and demanding he be given his rightful place. As the most recent UN Arab Development Report shows, the quintessential muslim nations keep lagging behind in just about everything except the production of oil and terrorists, and even those not spending their black gold revenues on madrassas on the other side of the planet have to rely on western and Asian engineers, architects and builders to construct their desert phantasmagorias. As for non-arab muslim nations, when was the last time you bought a car made in Pakistan? Any Nobel Prize winner in sight to succeed Ahmed Zewail?
In short, muslims have NOTHING to justify their increasing presence on our TV screens. I don't want them. You shouldn't want them. Every goddam fucking day there's a steady drip drip drip, although I suspect it's already become a torrent, of news stories about the horrible treatment of non-muslims in archetypical muslim nations. If they want to show us that's where they intend to take us, by taking ungranted possession of Madison Square Garden or the Place de la Concorde, it's time we wake up and tell them that they too can get their own private Srebrenica if they just keep pestering us for too long.
I realize I'm a bit late with the news, but the demo a delegation of Vlaams Belang and Cities Against Islamization intended to hold in front of the US Embassy on September 11, to commemorate the 9/11 victims, protest against the Ground Zero mosque, and warn against Europes ongoing islamization, was forbidden at the last moment by the Brussels mayor, Freddy Thielemans.
Filip Dewinter, the VB's most recognizable face although he is "only" its fraction leader in the Flemish Parliament, then staged a short, "illegal" demo in front of the VB offices in central Brussels on the Madouplein/Square Madou:
On DowneastBlog, we have already shed some light on the sad personage of Freddy Thielemans, a disgusting Parti Socialiste pork barrel spender and archetypical dhimmi.
It was this scumbag who in 2007 forbade the VB to stage a 9/11 commemmoration (while a few days earlier allowing a muslim demo which had not even been officially requested), and who orchestrated the violent arrest of several VB MP's who were not even demonstrating, but talking to reporters. Most internet aficionados, at least the ones interested in politics, will remember a photo like this all too well:
In 2006, Thielemans also managed to appoint a muslim woman as acting mayor of Brussels for a couple of months. This woman was Faouzia Hariche, like Thielemans a heavyweight, be it not in the literal sense like Fat Freddy, in the Brussels chapter of the Parti Socialiste (PS). When Thielemans, on account of health problems due to his lavish lifestyle, had to be hospitalized in December in 2006, he appointed Hariche in direct violation of the official procedure, which would have seen his first deputy as temporary mayor. As it was, the Brussels Parti Socialiste was all too eager to opt for Hariche, even though she was only the 7th in line. Her first act as Brussels mayor was to land her husband, Mohamed Laghmiche, in the well-paid director's seat of one of Brussels' numerous subsidy sponges, a "youth organization" of which, surprise surprise, she herself was the Chairwoman. But I digress.
The scandalous prohibition of what was never intended to be more than a peaceful demo and commemmoration, on very dubious grounds, is once again a stark reminder of what a Europe dominated by the Left and Islam will look like. At first glance, Brussels is a gleaming and prosperous metropolis - and to be sure, that impression would not exist if it weren't true to a large extent.
But already the rot has set in and is reaching a dangerous treshold. For the moment, Brussels is a city with a Janus Head. On the one hand it is the capital of the European Union and it boasts a plethora of international institutions, the headquarters of numerous corporations big and small, the second largest number in the world of accredited journalists and so on.
On the other hand, its population counts already 25% muslims, and that number will do nothing but rise in the future. With it, the levels of unemployment and criminality.
Itself thoroughly in the grip of socialist rule, Brussels is currently the hottest dossier in the Belgian governmental crisis, which revolves around the aspirations of most Flemings to have more say about their own money and safeguarding their cultural and territorial presence in and around Brussels, and the anachronistic desire of most Walloon parties to keep their lavish socialist system afloat and even enhance it (a key demand is even more "federal" money, read Flemish, for francophone-dominated Brussels).
What we are witnessing is that after hundred years of misbegotten socialist experiments in the economy, the Walloon negotiators, who are the socialists since they got a staggering 36% of the vote in this year's parliamentary elections, want... more of the same. And this after anno 2010 the 800 pound gorilla in the Room of Economic Understanding is the conclusion that socialism, redistribution, heavy taxes, and excessive government regulation simply DO-NOT-WORK. The historic body of evidence that socalism destroys a country's economy is now so overwhelming, from the USSR over Argentina, afrosocialism and Cuba to present-day predictables like Venezuela, Spain and the US, that it is simply and truly amazing, what do I say baffling, that hard earned lessons are forgotten the moment they are being taught.
But not only does the leftist/islamic alliance, so clear to see now, present a grave warning to Europes future with regards to economic matters.
On the political level too, the emergence of this incongruous axis will also introduce a sweeping change compared to the past. Europe, though envious of the US, mocking it simultaneously, and often offering a lukewarm response when asked for help from across the ocean, was and still is the US's "best friend". European leaders may harp about American jingoism, but have sent their armies to Afghanistan, even though often hamstrung by ridiculous caveats.
A future Europe, dominated by islamosocialism, will not even do that. As a fine study in microcosm of this inevitable reality, one of the other demands of the Socialistische Partij/Parti Socialiste in the current negociations to form a new Belgian government, was that Belgium withdraw its military as soon as possible from AF. Small wonder, when both parties have now reached a stage by which they cannot even exist in any meaningful way without the muslim vote.
I see hopeful signs across the Atlantic that America may not be ready yet to follow Europe's path. But if it manages to get past what I hope was but a short lived and foolish love affair with EUtopianism, it should prepare for the eventuality that in decades to come, it may find it is alone.
You'd almost forget it, but seventy years ago the then fiercest air battle ever was fought over the British Channel between the RAF and the Luftwaffe. I wonder what happened on September 13, 1940?
ENEMY ACTION BY DAY
Enemy activity was on a light scale, but during the morning small raids were continuously active over Kent and the London area. Bad visibility hindered interception by our fighters, but one enemy aircraft was destroyed and three others were damaged.
East
As a result of an SOS a fighter sweep was carried out 20 miles North-east of Kinnairds Head, but no reports of interception have been received.
South East
From 0730 hours, a number of raids, mostly by single aircraft, crossed the Coast between Hastings and Beachy Head and penetrated to the Thames Estuary and London area. Up to 0930 hours some six such raids were reported, but thereafter a steady stream of raids developed, most of which originated from the Dieppe area. It was reported that enemy aircraft crossed the Coast at the rate of one about every 8 minutes. One raid penetrated to Chelmsford, but practically all the others proceeded to the South London area, returning to Dieppe.
Between 1300 and 1500 hours, these scattered raids continued and appeared to have as their objectives, Biggin Hill and targets in mid Kent. One raid was plotted towards Rochford, and one raid, reported to be a long-nosed Blenheim, attacked Dover Harbour.
From 1500 hours until night operations began, enemy activity consisted chiefly of reconnaissance flights between North Foreland and Beachy Head.
South and South West
In the early morning, one raid flew parallel to the Coast from 15 miles South of Selsey Bill, westwards into Lyme Bay.
Between 1300 and 1500 hours, three raids were active from Selsey Bill to Tangmere, and there were three reconnaissances in the Straits between Dungeness and Foreness.
At 1800 hours, one reconnaissance was made from Boulogne along the Coast to the Isle of Wight.
West
A vessel was attacked off Copeland Light (Near Belfast) at 0650 hours, by an aircraft reported to be a four-engined bomber.
Check out this fragment from the movie Battle of Britain, 1970. The making of this famous film lies now further behind us than did the actual battle at the time this movie was shot.
Te "Heinkels" you see here are actually Spanish CASA 2.111's, a Spanish version built under license by Construcciones Aeronauticas S.A.. After the Second World War, getting to Junkers engines naturally became a huge problem, and a solution was found - oh the irony! - by installing British Rolls Royce Merlin 500's. The Spanish Air Force used these obsolete planes till the early seventies.
