Do not give up hope. Those cute little elephants are going to smush all those tacky little donkeys in a few weeks. Strata-Sphere is predicting what I've been saying all along. Right now we would not lose either the House or the Senate. Has anyone, besides this cockeyed optomist considered if we have a large turn-out and the Dems do not, things could look even brighter? Even Drudge is calling it, that we will hold Congress.
Today is short and sweet with no rants. I don't have the time or the energy. I leave tomorrow for my week in Tombstone. I will keep up the blog, and promise no to let quality slide like I've done today. I've just tried something a little different. It's an opera thing.
So the Mexican drug gangs have adapted that charming little radical Islamic idea of beheading enemies. I would like to ask what this world is coming to, but I think we all know.
Good manners for space tourists. Don't play with your grape juice.
Thanks to Harold Hutchinson's post over on GOP Progress, I picked up this piece from Blackfive with the details of that dastardly CNN ploy in Iraq where they show the beheadings of our soldiers. From what I can tell the Pentagon has pulled their press passes for Imbeds.
Hotline On Call is full of all kinds of juicy political dirt today.
I don't know what was tackier, Harold Ford, Jr.'s disparate ploy to break up Bob Corker's press conference, or Corker's hot-headed to it.
The Captain's Quarters (you must read his homage to STAR TREK today) has a review of the Met's 2000 production of Don Giovanni with Bryn Terfel as Don Giovanni. If you are a Sherrill Milnes fan, them's fightin' words! That year the Met chose to go with Terfel instead of giving Milnes his own new production of Don Giovanni that he rightly deserved. Terfel's Giovanni is heavy and evil. Milnes magnificant baritone, his exqusite bel canto will never be duplicate. Some critics say he would rush in where angles would fear to trod and just hit it, but that is why his operas are so incredible to watch. He just goes for it, hitting high notes the best tenors can't hit. His Giovanni is a rake about town, but never evil, with this undercurrent of sensual passion only Sherill Milnes could achieve on stage.
FYI, if you want operatic perfection, try the old RCA recording of Tosca with he, Placido Domingo, and Leontyne Price. No one could do Tosca like Leontyne and Milnes' Scarpie ozes oily charm. You keep wondering why Tosca just doesn't run off with Scarpia.
Why bother posting this? Well, contrary to common believe, Don Giovanni was based on an actual character, Don Juan of Austra, the illegitimate son of King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and half brother to King Phillip II of Spain (husband of Bloody Mary) of Spanish Armada fame. If Don Juan had not died in his prime, of typhoid, we would probably all be speaking a Castillian version of Spanish and illegal Mexican immigration would be a mote point.
Don Juan of Austria was landless, often penniless, a naval genius, and the term "Don Juan" was coined because of his proclivities with the ladies. He loved women. He was a legendary lover of women. Phillip II was basically an inferrior person and constantly resented Juan's charm, his legendary good looks, and ability to command. He roamed from Span to Italy with his escapades, fought duels and because of his genius as a naval tactician, fought back a massive Islamic navy at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 the entire tide of Islamic invasion of Europe was turned back long enough to allow European forces to take a rest. Our ignorant world does not realize Western Europe has been fighting the invasion of Islam since the 800. And, due to political correctness and the fear of insulting Islam, Don Juan of Austria and the importance of his victory at Lepanto is now forgotten. Probably the only aspect of the story that is remembered, besides the original Tersio de Molina's play about Don Juan is a simple, quaint little play inspired by the victory. It is known today as Otello.
People need to understand that this "War on Terror" we are fighting is nothing new. It is just another version of radical Islam's vision of conquest.
634-Islam conquest of
635 -
636-Moslems conquer
640-Islam conquests in
641- Moslems conquer
642 -Moslem conquest of
651-Moslems conquer
674- Moslems establish colony on
705 -Jewish Western Africans given no mercy by conquering Moslems - many commit suicide to escape slavery
711-Moslems invade
717-Moslems began conquest of Constanople
718-Moslems take Constanople,Moslems invade
722-Judaism outlawed in
732 - Charles Martel defeats Moslem invasion of western Europe at battle of
750 -Moslems begin incursions into
800-Islamic traders reach
900- Moslems control most of
922
950- Moslems arrive in
979 - Islamic slave raids into
1050 - Moslem, Japanese, Chinese merchant ships begin to raid coast of the
1096 -First Crusade Against Islam Begins
1164-Saladin begins campaign against Crusaders
1174-Saladin conquers
1187 - Saladin conquers
1200-Age of Crusades, Implosion of Islam, High Middle Ages,Moslems began conquest of
1250-Islamic traders establish Philippine city of
1326 -Mongols forced to convert to Islam
1330 - Kahn of the Golden Horde converts to Islam goes subjugates
1400-Moslem raiding parties hit
1490-
1511 -
1530-Christians in Abyssinia call on
1538-Turkish Navy (Islamic) takes control of the
1571-
1600 -For next 100 yrs, nearly 20% pf Spanish & Italian population taken and sold into Islamic slavery
1622- 7000 English abducted and sold into Islamic slavery by 1644
1636 -Islamic Navy of
1640- Islamic Navy repeated attacks on Cornwell enslaves 3000 people a year
1677-Tribes in
1828-
1955-Moslems from
1967-
1968 -
1979-President Jimmy Carter fails to prop up
Americans held hostage in
1981-
1983 - Iranian terrors bomb
1990-
1991-
1993 - 1st
2001-Sept 11 - al-Qaeda attacks US,Taliban removed in
2003 -
Trivia question: What role did Sherill Milnes play in Otello?
![Pink Flamingo [Home]](http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii147/blog_photos_album/flamingo_crossing.jpg)
