So Much To Blog, So Little Time

There are numerous fascinating posts out over the past few days that I have wanted to blog but have just run out of time. Here they are:

PJM:  Michael Ledeen provides a reminder - totalitarianism must win out or be defeated.  There is no middle ground.  He puts it in terms of Iran, but I think it equally as applicable to the insane idea of negotiating with the Taliban.

That’s no doubt the “deep down” reason why Obama worked so hard — indeed is still secretly working hard — to get his version of the Hitler/Stalin pact with Iran. Somebody ought to remind Obama how that great triumph of totalitarian diplomacy worked out for the two of them.

Big Lizards has some additional cogent thoughts on the Obama decision to negotiate with the Taliban.

NRO:  Real capitalism exists only in Communist China - - - well, the special district of Hong Kong, where limited government, a laughably simple tax code, and no major regulatory regime to speak of stand in direct contrast to the U.S.  How would we like to see Hong Kong's near 6% growth this year.

The Daily Gator:  A rogues gallery of the Top Ten Lunatic Fringe Ron Paul Supporters.  Paul almost makes Obama's choice of associations look benign.

PJM:  Spengler puts "private equity and creative destruction" into context, taking Gingrich and Perry rightfully to task.  Theirs is an attack from the left on capitalism - and I say that as one who would much prefer to see Gingrich in the White House than Romney:

Want to see what America would look like without private equity? Move to Detroit and contemplate the ruins of a city ruined by the placid conformity of auto industry executives. The economic impact of the corporate takeover business can’t be measured by the outcome of takeovers as such. Private equity transformed the way American business thought about the world.

Across The Fence:  Mark Meckler, of Tea Party fame, discusses his arrest in NYC for possession of a firearm (unloaded, in a case in his luggage, for which he had a valid permit) after he tried to declare it before boarding a plane at LaGuardia airport.  NYC ultimately dropped the charges, but is refusing now to return his gun.  It is all a Constitutional travesty.

PJM:  Kevin Martin discusses the dissatisfaction of progressive blacks with Obama

Belafonte and others would be hard pressed to find anyone in the black community who could claim they are better off today than they were 3 years ago.

That goes hand in glove with my post the other day, that now is the time for conservatives to make a real push for the black vote.  If we can convince 1 in 10 of the reality - that "on the two most important issues facing blacks today, jobs and education, their best hopes lay with the right," then the Democrats will be put in dire straits.

NRO:  Five Muslims have been arrested in the UK and charged with violating a new hate speech law for stating in a leaflet that gays will go to hell and should receive the death penalty.

The passage of the law, and its first use this week, is the continuation of a worrying trend in the United Kingdom. Laws governing thought and speech, rather than deed, are becoming commonplace. . . . Worse, it cripples free expression and leaves people looking over their shoulders.

The UK, from which the concept of freedom of speech springs, has taken a worrying turn against it since the 1980's - to the extent that I find myself today, for the first time, coming down on the side of the radical Muzzies.

Ironic Surrealism:  Obnoxious, hypocritical, outrageous . . . . are just a few of the adjectives one could quite legitimately apply to the DNC Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who has once again tried to blame the Tea Party for the shooting of Congresswoman  Gabrielle Giffords.  What a detestable woman.

Got Medieval:  If you like the legend of King Arthur, GM provides some of the fascinating backstory of the legend's author, Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Woman Honor Thyself: Gender confusion [shiver] is being foisted on us by "lefties and Hollywood bozos:"

The underlying and not so subtle aim is to blur and haze the line between men and womens’wear, thus blurring the line between men and women period.

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From Out Of The Mist Of History & Legend . . .

In terms of sheer staying power, there can be no doubt that the greatest figure of romance and legend to come out of Britain is Arthur Pendragon - the legendary King Arthur. The stories of King Arthur and his round table have been told, retold and embellished for well over a millennium.

One of the mysteries of history has been whether Arthur was an actual historic figure. A little history is order. Britain was conquered and occupied by Rome in 43 A.D., In 410 A.D., Rome, with its fronteirs under attack elsewhere, withdrew its soldiers from Britain. Britain became an open land divided amongst Dark Age kings and subject to invasion from waves of Saxons. There are few written sources from that period, with the primary source being De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On The Ruin & Conquest Of Britain), written by St. Gildas (500A.D. to 570 A.D.). It has long been speculated that one of the figures mentioned by Gildas was the historical Arthur.

The Arthurian legend was later flushed out in subsequent works on the life of Gildas, and then given its most famous form by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his 12th-century work of historical fiction, Historia Regum Britanniae. For centuries, historians have sought to weed through the legend to find evidence of the historical Arthur.

And now, historians believe they have found Camelot and the Round Table. This from The Telegraph:

Researchers exploring the legend of Britain’s most famous Knight believe his stronghold of Camelot was built on the site of a recently discovered Roman amphitheatre in Chester.

Legend has it that his Knights would gather before battle at a round table where they would receive instructions from their King.

But rather than it being a piece of furniture, historians believe it would have been a vast wood and stone structure which would have allowed more than 1,000 of his followers to gather.

Historians believe regional noblemen would have sat in the front row of a circular meeting place, with lower ranked subjects on stone benches grouped around the outside.

They claim rather than Camelot being a purpose built castle, it would have been housed in a structure already built and left over by the Romans.

Camelot historian Chris Gidlow said: “The first accounts of the Round Table show that it was nothing like a dining table but was a venue for upwards of 1,000 people at a time.

“We know that one of Arthur’s two main battles was fought at a town referred to as the City of Legions. There were only two places with this title. One was St Albans but the location of the other has remained a mystery.”

The recent discovery of an amphitheatre with an execution stone and wooden memorial to Christian martyrs, has led researchers to conclude that the other location is Chester.

Mr Gidlow said: “In the 6th Century, a monk named Gildas, who wrote the earliest account of Arthur’s life, referred to both the City of Legions and to a martyr’s shrine within it. That is the clincher. The discovery of the shrine within the amphitheatre means that Chester was the site of Arthur’s court and his legendary Round Table.

With this discovery, can finding the Holy Grail be far behind?

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