The Impending Collapse of Islam

David Wood has spent more than a decade exposing the inconsistencies of Islam.  He does this by quoting the Quran or the various authoritative Hadiths.  He started down this path because his best friend in college happened to be a Muslim.  Though once an atheist, David had converted to Christianity and pursued a doctorate in theology.  By the time they graduated, his friend was also a Christian.  As he had spent time converting his friend, he expanded that to YouTube.

In his latest video, he details the quandary that Islamic countries are now in.  An alarming number of Islamic youth have abandoned Islam while still observing the rituals of Islam.  Many have watched videos by Act 17 Apologetics, driven there by the constant denunciations hurled against Wood.  Really, I first watched Alex Jones after he was called out for something in the MSM.  It's that Barbra Streisand Effect.  The leaders know that a sizable portion of the flock no longer believes in Islam, but maintains the fiction to escape apostacy.  Apostacy is a death penalty offence.   What to do?  To address it openly might expose to all just how widespread it is.  Not to address it allows it to spread further.  Neither option is good.  However, the second option provides the appearance that all is well.

I have long complained that our leaders have failed to understand who we are fighting when Islamic terrorists attack.  Always they would tell us that Islam is a religion of peace and the terrorists are just bad apples who misinterpret the Quran.  While Western leaders have deluded themselves as to who we fight, David Wood knows the truth.  Like sappers digging under a castle wall during a long siege, he and his fellows have undermined the ideology.  As he has used the Quran and the Hadiths to dig his tunnel, Islamic apologists have no defense.  To deny his arguments is to deny Islam.  To accept his arguments is to demolish Islam.

Recommended.

The Madness of Crowds

Peter Robinson interviewed Douglas Murray about his latest book, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity.  During the discussion, Murray outlined four issues that have been tearing at the foundations of America.  First, feminism.  Though initially a movement to provide equality to women, it has morphed into an excuse for misandry.  Hatred and revenge against men who are long dead is now the desire.  Second, civil rights.  Like with feminism, the initial goal of equality has given way to a desire for payback.  Again, those who committed the misdeeds against blacks are almost all long dead.  Third, gay rights.  As with the prior two, it is no longer acceptable to be equal under the law.  Churches must stop teaching against homosexuality.  Religion must tolerate us, but we do not need to tolerate religion.  Lastly, there is the trans-rights movement.  Murray was more circumspect with this one as it is in its infancy.  However, he notes that it has already had clashes with feminism.  Murray describes these four movements as a new ideology, a new religion.  With the vacuum created by the flight from religion, this has taken its place.  Unfortunately, they are not compatible with traditional Western values of the Enlightenment.  Is Western Civilization going to give way to this new ideology that embraces new prejudices?  Murray is on the fence.

His previous book was The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.  That was touched upon in the discussion.  He brought up the murder of a French teacher by a recent Islamic immigrant.  President Macron reacted very strongly, seeking to defend the secular values of France against Islamist radicalism.  He was denounced by the leaders of Turkey and Pakistan.  Not surprising.  However, he was defamed by Western editorials in The New York Times and the Washington Post.  He saw this as very revealing that France was framed in the wrong for seeking to maintain the secular values.  If Islam were to gain control, there would be no tolerance the other way.

At one point, Murray likened the United States to an elephant being taken down by small predators.  If the elephant had just stomped them as they arrived, it could weather the attack.  He had recently toured America, notably Portland, Seattle, and Washington DC.  To him, the outlook is grim.

Peter Robinson is an excellent interviewer who does a great deal of preparation.  His Uncommon Knowledge interviews are highly recommended.  In fact, he has some of the best exchanges with one of my favorite economists, Thomas Sowell.

The Third Man (1949)

Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) is an American pulp novelist who has arrived in Vienna, Austria, to stay with his friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles).  In 1949, Vienna is a divided city, having English, Russian, American, and French sectors, very like Berlin.  No sooner does he arrive at Harry's flat than he learns that his old friend died in a car accident only a few days prior.  He finds his way to the funeral.  Afterwards, he is invited for a drink by an Englishman named Calloway (Trevor Howard).  Holly eventually realizes that Calloway is a policeman probing for information.  Indeed, Major Calloway announces that Lime was a criminal who escaped arrest by his untimely death.  Unsatisfied, Holly starts investigating the death.  He meets Harry's girlfriend, Anna (Alida Valli), an actress.  She was not there when Harry died, but Holly finds that he is attracted to her.  He meets the two men who were with Harry at his death.  Still looks accidental.  However, a local says that he saw a third man on the scene.  Now, Holly believes his friend was murdered and Calloway is blind to it.  Before Holly can learn more, the witness is dead, and he is being accused of the murder!

Cotten is terrific as the clueless American who doesn't realize he's in a foreign country that follows different rules.  Despite being clueless, he is persistent.  Welles is excellent as Harry Lime, a thoroughly charming rogue who rationalizes misdeeds with witticisms and offers a what-can-I-do shrug about the ill fate of his allies.  He can threaten death in one breath and abiding friendship in the next.  For such a small role, he does a lot with it.  Howard is his usual commanding self.  I can't recall a role where he wasn't the stern commanding type.  However, his back and forth with Cotten provide some amusement.  Alida Valli plays a surprisingly deep role, possessing loyalty to Lime, affection for Holly, and reasons to avoid the authorities.  A conflicted character that is well-portrayed.

The classic thriller, one of the all-time great Film Noir movies.  Not only does it have Welles, Cotten, and Howard, it also boasts two future leaders of MI-6.  Bernard Lee (M from 1962 to 1979) appears as the tough yet genial Sgt. Paine.  Robert Brown (M from 1983 to 1989) appears as a nameless policeman.  The assistant director was Guy Hamilton, who would go on to direct four Bond films, notably Goldfinger (1964).  Another Bond director, John Glen, was only a teenager when he worked as an assistant sound editor on this film.  He went on to be editor of three Bond movies and directed every Bond film in the 1980s.

Highly recommended.  In fact, Roger Ebert listed it among the 10 best films of all time.

Nothing to See Here. Move Along

Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman who procured minors for Jeffrey Epstein, has been found guilty.  Good news.  On a related topic, the guards who notably failed to prevent Epstein's suicide and sought to cover up their failure by falsifying records were also in the news.  Yes, the charges against them have been dropped.  Nothing to see here.  I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but really?

Was Epstein the only person who engaged in sex with the minors that Maxwell acquired?  Epstein had dealings with people high up in government, academics, and even British royalty.  Some names - Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew - have been revealed.  These are people of power and it is likely that they would want this case closed.  That the case against the guards has been dropped gives the impression that the Epstein Scandal is being swept under the rug.

Move along.  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Starship Grounded

The FAA had initially planned to finish its Environmental Assessment on December 31st.  Nevermind.  It is now scheduled to finish on February 28.  Of course, government bureaucracies are always slow, but one wonders how the Boca Chica site was approved 7 years ago for rocket launches but now needs more studies to approve rocket launches.  Huh?  Or is this payback?  Has Senator Warren contacted the FAA and put some pressure on this freeloader who mocker her on Twitter?  Or, now that his latest lawsuit against SpaceX was dismissed, has Jeff Bezos lobbied for a new delay so he can make up some ground with his New Glenn rocket?  Whatever the case, it is sad to see that progress and innovation are being slowed by government.  I can guarantee that China is not putting roadblocks in front of its space program.  Heck, the Chinese have boosters falling on remote villages almost every launch.

We are in a space race to see who will dominate: the China or the West?  China understands the stakes.  Apparently, the US government does not.

History Debunked

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."

- George Orwell

Recently, I happened upon a YouTube channel: History Debunked.  The host has written several books on history that cover unusual subjects: The Suffragette Bombers, British Concentration Camps, The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam, and many others.  He discusses these topics on his channel.  However, most of his recent videos - which are numerous - touch upon the rapidly changing demographics of the UK and efforts to convince the populace that it has always been thus.  To hear him tell it, Winston Smith is working diligently at the BBC to convince the voters that populations of African and Indian people have been present since Roman times.  This is absurd.  However, three years ago, I watched Mary, Queen of Scots and was annoyed by the anachronistic casting.  Was this just another effort to convince the viewer that the British Isles had been multicultural for centuries?  That strikes me as crazy.  Then again, I have a degree in history and read history books for entertainment.  Most people only learn what is taught through high school, which is very basic.  I have often been amazed at how little history many people know.

History Debunked mostly discusses England and the English, but, as the center of the Anglosphere, that has had ripples throughout the world.  Definitely worth a look.  Recommended.

Barbarella (1968)

It is the distant future and Barbaralla (Jane Fonda) strips off her space suit in Zero-G.  No sooner is she naked than the President of Earth contacts her.  She must go to Tau Ceti and find the missing scientist, Durand Durand.  He explains that the scientist has created a positronic ray that could lead to war, something unknown in the current era.  She sets course and soon crash lands on Lythion, where she is promptly captured by delinquent children.  After tying her to a post in the ruins of Durand Durand's ship, the children (multiple sets of twins, oddly enough) unleash a mob of razor-toothed animated dolls upon her.  Luckily, she is rescued by Mark Hand the Catchman.  It is his job to catch errant children and send them to the city of Sogo.  The Catchman tells her that Durand is likely in Sogo and suggests she look there.  He has made repairs to her ship.  She once again wrecks her ship but this time in the labyrinth that surrounds Sogo.  Here she meets Pygar (John Phillip Law), a blind angel.  He introduces her to Professor Ping (Marcel Marceau in a speaking role), who offers information on Sogo and the Great Tyrant.  Most notable is that the city rests upon a living lake called the Matmos, a being that feeds on evil.  Serving as eyes for Pygar, she flies over the labyrinth and infiltrates Sogo.  Both she and Pygar are captured by the Concierge and the Black Queen, aka the Great Tyrant.  Sentenced to death, she is locked into a glass cage and set upon by swarms of birds.  Before she is finished off, a secret door opens and she is spirited away to the secret lair of the resistance where she meets Dildano (David Hemmings).  Dildano provides the means to enter the Black Queen's private chamber in exchange for weapons from Barbarella's ship.  Once again infiltrating Sogo, Barbarella is again captured by the Concierge.  He tries to kill her with his excessive pleasure machine, but the machine is no match for Barbarella.  Infuriated, the Concierge ponders some new fate for her, but, upon learning that she has a means to enter the Black Queen's chamber, he has a new plan.  He locks both Barbarella and the Black Queen in the chamber then crowns himself the new tyrant.  However, Dildano has launched his rebellion.  The Concierge, who is in truth the missing Durand Durand, uses his positronic ray to eliminate the rebellion in a flash.  The Black Queen has a secret weapon of her own: she can unleash the Matmos to destroy Sogo.

The film is thoroughly 1960s.  The effects are all psychodelic and the costumes outlandish.  Barbarella mostly proves to be a hapless heroine more reminiscent of The Perils of Pauline.  The big selling point for the film is the nudity and sex kitten nature of Barbarella.  She uses sex as a reward for the Catchman, an incentive for Pygar, and for humor with Dildano.  Her seemingly insatiable sex drive is what destroyed the excessive-pleasure machine.

A goofball sci-fi adventure that is more an excuse to have Jane Fonda in various sexy outfits or no outfit at all.  Of particular note, Fonda was married to the director, Roger Vadim, at the time!  Definitely a movie to see once.