tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post7115820652569876..comments2024-03-28T22:51:37.034+11:00Comments on loon pond: In which calm in the bush is shattered by the shrieks and squawks of the major Mitchell in full cry ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-73416154287844265172016-09-13T11:52:38.148+10:002016-09-13T11:52:38.148+10:00Thanks for that link to Robert Manne's The Mon...Thanks for that link to Robert Manne's The Monthly article, Anony. A most interesting (if somewhat long) read in a publication I usually pay absolutely no attention to (vita brevis).<br /><br />I guess the question is "where to from here" ? But then I guess it always is.GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-4099093650289670122016-09-13T08:45:52.081+10:002016-09-13T08:45:52.081+10:00Ah, FD, in my befuddled old memory I had thought t...Ah, FD, in my befuddled old memory I had thought there were Vandals involved in 410 CE - kinda one in, all in thing. But a perusal of the Google World Encyclopedia says that you are right and it was just Visigoths.<br /><br />So it goes.GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-59134638406645619392016-09-13T01:20:56.358+10:002016-09-13T01:20:56.358+10:00GB, minor quibble on the sack of Rome thing. Yes, ...GB, minor quibble on the sack of Rome thing. Yes, Brennus, and yes, Alaric in 410 with his Visigoths. But the Vandali came later, in 455, under their king Gaiseric (also known as Genseric).<br /><br />Both Alaric and Gaiseric were somewhat Romanised, as their tribes had been in close contact with the Romans for over a century. Alaric, having campaigned alongside the Roman armies for several years, went rogue when he the Romans failed to respect the Visigoth efforts. He went on a tear and spent years ripping up Greece (most of those ruins were ruined then) but forming a kind of best-of-enemies vibe with his opposite number, the half-Vandal Roman general Stilicho. But his activities in Rome itself were more of the nature of demanding money with menaces - "Ooooh, that's a nice statue there, guv, wot a terrible shame if it came to grief, if you know wot I mean...". Brennus had done much the same 800 years earlier.<br /><br />Gaiseric, who was half-Roman, did to Italy what Alaric had done to Greece. Raised hell out of his North African base of operations for 30 years, and he did a job on Rome in 455 - they don't call it vandalism for nothing. But again, this was less rape and more plunder. Both Alaric and Gaiseric were trying to get loot to install their own candidates for Emperor, and trashing the place completely would be a no-no.<br /><br />Rather, it was the <b><i>fourth</i></b> sack that really merited the title. That was by the Ostrogoth Totila about a century after Gaiseric. After being besieged, captured, sacked, lost, besieged again and recaptured, Rome was pretty much a wasteland. The Ostrogoths eventually lost that war, but by the end of it the Eternal City's population had fallen from the half-million residents when Alaric pillaged it, to 35,000 beggars...<br /><br />BTW, Mitchell bitches about history. The worst thing about it is these days most of it seems to be written by barely-competent journos reaching outside their area of expertise. But you know, they "remain in touch with the community and their expectations", which is all that counts for the boss cocky.FrankDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-20294411959626610302016-09-12T20:06:16.914+10:002016-09-12T20:06:16.914+10:00"you know which one, then, ?"
Knowing i..."you know which one, then, ?"<br /><br />Knowing is not so certain.<br /><br /><i>Throughout history, Zarqawi argues, the Shi’a have stabbed the Muslims in the back. As the medieval scholar Ibn Taymiyyah understood, they served the Mongols when they subjugated Islam. When Islam stood at the gates of Vienna, Shi’a treachery at home forced the Muslim armies to retreat. Now they have allied with the Americans in their grasp for power. Their ultimate ambition is to create a great Shi’a state that includes Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon. They cunningly hide their true nature with “honeyed” words, “exploiting the naiveté and goodness of many Sunnis”. <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/june/1464703200/robert-manne/mind-islamic-state" rel="nofollow">Their religion “has nothing in common with Islam”.</a> Perhaps worst of all, throughout history they have served the interests of the Jews.</i>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-29354115414734400732016-09-12T17:13:12.517+10:002016-09-12T17:13:12.517+10:00"That'd be a Shiah town."
Aah, you ..."That'd be a Shiah town."<br /><br />Aah, you know which one, then, Anony ?<br /><br />But never mind, Temujin wouldn't have known the difference either. Unless maybe it was Otrar, of the Sunni Khwarezmid Empire. GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-6197919636242133172016-09-12T16:22:14.280+10:002016-09-12T16:22:14.280+10:00"Genghis Khan has lately been reinterpreted....."Genghis Khan has lately been reinterpreted..." More so the Huns! From being all but written out of history to writing it large. Europe, China.. Eurasian empire and trade.. the Huns it seems wrote the book on it all. Did those who followed know?<br /><br /><a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=bnv4CgAAQBAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Hyun+Jin+Kim%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s" rel="nofollow">The Huns</a> by Hyun Jin Kim<br /><br /><a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=fX8YAAAAQBAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Hyun+Jin+Kim%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s" rel="nofollow">The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe</a> - Hyun Jin Kim<br />The introduction there <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=fX8YAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">available to read</a> provides an interesting overview of the Mongol and earlier astonishingly reinterpreted Hun history.<br /><br />http://shaps.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/dr-hyun-jin-kim<br />http://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/display/person602144<br />http://unimelb.academia.edu/HyunJinKim<br /><br />The usual: <a href="http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch26.htm" rel="nofollow">Vandals and Huns – the Empire from 410 to 450 CE</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-59614530153139471632016-09-12T15:26:57.660+10:002016-09-12T15:26:57.660+10:00"After having conquered a Muslim town..."..."After having conquered a Muslim town..." Fundamentally imprecise. That'd be a Shiah town.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-72139964409307069752016-09-12T15:06:39.485+10:002016-09-12T15:06:39.485+10:00How lucky are we?
No really, how incredibly lucky...How lucky are we?<br /><br />No really, how incredibly lucky are we that in the year 2016, a broadsheet journal can party like it's 2003 again with great swathes of tosh from ex-editor Mitchell, spankings from failed PM's office managers, and perhaps a large side-serve of old-and-out-of-the-way ex-PM Mr Howard.<br /><br />We may be poorer in natural resources, by by god we are rich in powerfully irrelevant opinions. Looking forward to the next circulation figures. Will be interesting to see if we can tickle 100,000 readers again. Or not.via collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14342963456605644101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-4741445140414496552016-09-12T14:44:57.612+10:002016-09-12T14:44:57.612+10:00Right on, DW, right on. My old mate Temujin was a...Right on, DW, right on. My old mate Temujin was amongst the more enlightened of bloodthirsty autocrats - but he was only bloodthirsty with enemies, and very consultative amongst his own.<br /><br />Indeed, there is a story that, in Temujin's Empire. a naked woman could carry a basket of gold across Mongolia and never be even slightly molested. Prolly a really good bit of propaganda, but at least the thought, and even the intent, was there.<br /><br />However, Temujin was the "source" of one of the better anti-Muslim jests. After having conquered a Muslim town, Temujin rode in, climbed up on a pile of rocks, and addressed the assembled couple of hundred survivors as they huddled in front of a mountain of dead Muslim bodies.<br /><br />"You must really have insulted your god," said Temujin, "for him to have sent me upon you."<br /><br />Meanwhile, that evil Turko-Mongol, Timur The Lame was indeed an evil man - that is, if such a thing as evil exists, which, of course, we all doubt. And even if it does, it is surely banal.<br /><br />I also believe that one of the great 'bad examples' of history: Attila The Hun, was actually fairly civilised, and a very capable ruler along Temujinian lines. And the Huns didn't sack Rome: that was the Celts (Brennus in 387 BCE) and the Visigoth/Vandals (Alaric in 410 CE)GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-15652301604988478402016-09-12T13:39:50.681+10:002016-09-12T13:39:50.681+10:00Hi Dorothy,
I'm afraid that in the sort of hi...Hi Dorothy,<br /><br />I'm afraid that in the sort of historical revisionism that Mitchell would abhor, Genghis Khan has lately been reinterpreted as a much more enlightened and tolerant ruler who practised meritocracy in promoting the men under him.<br /><br />Although an animist he was religiously tolerant, with Christian, Muslim and Jewish practitioners amongst his followers. Whilst he would brutally crush any dissent against his rule more often than not only the ruling elites who opposed him would be executed.<br /><br />He also soon realised the importance of strengthening trade links between the Europe, Persia and China via the Silk Road. Under his rule technological advances found in one part of his empire would be disseminated across all of his lands. Therefore the production and use of paper, gunpowder, paper money and even the compass were spread both east and west.<br /><br />http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav022709a.shtml<br /><br />I would suggest the bloodthirsty and intolerant Tamerlane as a much more suitable ideological neighbour for Chris Mitchell.<br /><br />http://guides.wikinut.com/The-bloodthirsty-career-of-Tamerlane/1ez3t1r1/<br /><br />DiddyWroteAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-34223363143524674982016-09-12T12:11:52.434+10:002016-09-12T12:11:52.434+10:00"Cowboys and Indians" sounds apt; certai..."Cowboys and Indians" sounds apt; certainly, my natural reaction on reading Mitchell is *uggh*.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-11873156459720492022016-09-12T11:52:57.393+10:002016-09-12T11:52:57.393+10:00No matter that source material may have been obtai...No matter that source material may have been obtained <b>illegaly</b>, DP, all that does matter is whether they can get away with publishing on the strength of it. Think about that, as <a href="https://radio.abc.net.au/programitem/perDaOGXEQ?play=true" rel="nofollow">The Guru</a> would say.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08158673564017581517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-20745652952432825652016-09-12T08:59:16.623+10:002016-09-12T08:59:16.623+10:00Heh. Back in the moderately long ago, my mates an...Heh. Back in the moderately long ago, my mates and I would identify people we thought were Single Issue Fanatics (SIF). And it turns out there's lots of them. So when the mighty Mitchell says: "... a profession allowing single-issue activists to take control ...", all I can say is that Mitch himself is, without doubt, one of our nation's foremost SIFalytics.<br /><br />Of whom you got it absolutely correct, DP, when you pronounced "You have to be a rabid ratbag, on the fringe of sanity..." And the Murdochratians surely are.<br /><br />But then, just to top it all off, Maj Mitch comes out with: "Brandis tried valiantly ... to make Brissenden understand what Dastyari had actually done ...". But way too little, too late; the subject matter switch was in. And don't the Right Wingnuts just freak out when their own favourite tactic is used against them.GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-1367394412312550532016-09-12T08:04:20.107+10:002016-09-12T08:04:20.107+10:00What's that white thing with the coloured lett...What's that white thing with the coloured letters in Uncle Rupe's hands? Some ancient cryptal parchment? It seems to be the centre of attention for all in that old coloured photograph.Mercurialnoreply@blogger.com