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The ancient inhabitants of what is today central and southern California used to ingest the small black seeds of Jimson weed to "commune with deities through visions".[28]
Datura stramonium, known by the common names Jimson weed or Devil's snare, is a plant in the nightshade family. It is believed to have originated in Mexico,[2] but has now become naturalized in many other regions.[3][4][5] Other common names for D. stramonium include thornapple and moon flower,[6] and it has the Spanish name Toloache.[7] Other names for the plant include hell's bells, devil’s trumpet, devil’s weed, tolguacha, Jamestown weed, stinkweed, locoweed, pricklyburr, and devil’s cucumber.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
common_man
Please read, understand and take the linked test:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/1120/After-Paris-attacks-many-Muslims-say-they-feel-more-French-than-ever
&
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2013/1210/More-than-Bastille-Bonaparte-and-brie-Test-your-knowledge-of-France-with-our-quiz/Population-size
Merci,
common_man
hookrider, You are always welcome:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_(social_sciences)
common_man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_Parenthood
In the US, abortion providers have been threatened with death, and facilities that provide abortions have been attacked or vandalized.[146][147] Planned Parenthood clinics have been the target of a number of instances of violence by anti-abortion activists, including bombing, arson, and attacks with chemical weaponry.[161] In 1994, John Salvi entered a Brookline, Massachusetts Planned Parenthood clinic and opened fire, murdering receptionist Shannon Elizabeth Lowney and wounding three others. He fled to another Planned Parenthood clinic where he murdered Leane Nichols and wounded two others.[162] In 2012, a Grand Chute, Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood clinic was subject to a bombing perpetrated by an unknown individual.[147] In 2015, a Planned Parenthood clinic in Pullman, Washington was heavily damaged by arson.[163]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence
Serious business concerning more refugees from Syria by Robert Parry:
Obama’s Fateful Syrian Choice
September 18, 2015
Exclusive: President Obama faces a choice that could define his legacy and the future of the American Republic: He can either work with Russia’s President Putin to stabilize Syria or he can opt for a confrontation that could lead to an open-ended war with grave risks of escalation, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
There is an obvious course that President Barack Obama could follow if he wants to lessen the crises stemming from the Syrian war and other U.S. “regime change” strategies of the past several decades, but it would require him to admit that recent interventions (including his own) have represented a strategic disaster.
Obama also would have to alter some longstanding alliances – including those with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel – and correct some of the false narratives that have been established during his administration, such as storylines accusing the Syrian government of using sarin gas on Aug. 21, 2013, and blaming the Russians for everything that’s gone wrong in Ukraine.
President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, attends a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Dec. 12, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, attends a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Dec. 12, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
In retracting false allegations and releasing current U.S. intelligence assessments on those issues, the President would have to repudiate the trendy concept of “strategic communications,” an approach that mixes psychological operations, propaganda and P.R. into a “soft power” concoction to use against countries identified as U.S. foes.
“Stratcom” also serves to manage the perceptions of the American people, an assault on the fundamental democratic precept of an informed electorate. Instead of honestly informing the citizenry, the government systematically manipulates us. Obama would have to learn to trust the people with the truth.
Whether Obama recognizes how imperative it is that he make these course corrections, whether he has the political courage to take on entrenched foreign-policy lobbies (especially after the bruising battle over the Iran nuclear agreement), and whether he can overcome his own elitism toward the public are the big questions – and there are plenty of reasons to doubt that Obama will do what’s necessary. But his failure to act decisively could have devastating consequences for the United States and the world.
In a way, this late-in-his-presidency course correction should be obvious (or at least it would be if there weren’t so many layers of “strategic communications” to peel away). It would include embracing Russia’s willingness to help stabilize the political-military situation in Syria, rather than the Obama administration fuming about it and trying to obstruct it.
For instance, Obama could join with Russia in stabilizing Syria by making it clear to putative U.S. “allies” in the Mideast that they will face American wrath if they don’t do all that’s possible to cut off the terrorists of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda from money, weapons and recruits. That would mean facing down Turkey over its covert support for the Sunni extremists as well as confronting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf sheikdoms over secret funding and arming of these jihadists.
If Obama made it clear that the United States would take stern action – such as inflicting severe financial punishments – against any country caught helping these terrorist groups, he could begin shutting down the jihadists’ support pipelines. He could also coordinate with the Russians and Iranians in cracking down on the Islamic State and Al Qaeda strongholds inside Syria.
On the political front, Obama could inform Syria’s Sunni “moderates” who have been living off American largesse that they must sit down with President Bashar al-Assad’s representatives and work out a power-sharing arrangement and make plans for democratic elections after a reasonable level of stability has been restored. Obama would have to ditch his mantra: “Assad must go!”
Given the severity of the crisis – as the refugee chaos now spreads into Europe – Obama doesn’t have the luxury anymore of pandering to the neocons and liberal interventionists. Instead of talking tough, he needs to act realistically.
Putin’s Clarity
In a sense, Russian President Vladimir Putin has clarified the situation for President Obama. With Russia stepping up its military support for Assad’s regime with the goal of defeating the Islamic State’s head-choppers and Al Qaeda’s terrorism plotters, Obama’s options have narrowed. He can either cooperate with the Russians in a joint campaign against the terrorists or he can risk World War III by taking direct action against Russian forces in pursuit of “regime change” in Damascus.
Though some of Official Washington’s neocons and liberal war hawks are eager for the latter – insisting that Putin must be taught a lesson about Russia’s subservience to American power – Obama’s sense of caution would be inclined toward the former.
The underlying problem, however, is that Official Washington’s foreign policy “elite” has lost any sense of reality. Almost across the board, these “important people” lined up behind President George W. Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, arguably the worst blunder in the history of U.S. foreign policy.
But virtually no one was held accountable. Indeed, the neocons and their liberal interventionist sidekicks strengthened their grip on the major think tanks, the op-ed pages and the political parties. Instead of dialing back on the “regime change” model, they dialed up more “regime change” schemes.
Although historically the U.S. government – like many other imperial powers – has engaged in coups and other meddling to oust troublesome foreign leaders, the current chapter on “regime change” strategies can be dated back to the late 1970s and early 1980s with what most American pundits rate a success: the destruction of a secular regime in Afghanistan that was allied with the Soviet Union.
Starting modestly with President Jimmy Carter’s administration and expanding rapidly under President Ronald Reagan, the CIA mounted its most ambitious “covert” operation ever – funding, recruiting and arming Islamic extremists to wage a brutal, even barbaric, war in Afghanistan.
Ultimately, the operation “succeeded” by forcing a humiliating withdrawal of Soviet troops and driving the Moscow-backed leader Najibullah from power, but the cost turned out to be extraordinary, creating conditions that gave rise to both the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
In 1996, the Taliban took Kabul, captured Najibullah (whose tortured and castrated body was hung from a light pole), and imposed a fundamentalist form of Islam that denied basic rights to women. The Taliban also gave refuge to Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda band enabling them to plot terror attacks against the West, including the 9/11 assaults on New York and Washington.
In response, President George W. Bush ordered an invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in late 2001 followed by another invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 (though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11). Those “regime changes” began a cascade of chaos that reached into the Obama administration and to the present.
As Iraq came under the control of its Shiite majority allied with Shiite-ruled Iran, disenfranchised Sunnis organized into increasingly vicious rebel movements, such as “Al Qaeda in Iraq.” To avert a U.S. military defeat, Bush undertook a scheme of buying off Sunni leaders with vast sums of cash to get them to stop killing U.S. soldiers – called the “Sunni Awakening” – while Bush negotiated a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops.
The payoffs succeeded in buying Bush a “decent interval” for a U.S. pullout that would not look like an outright American defeat, but the huge payments also created a war chest for some of these Sunni leaders to reorganize militarily after the Shiite-led regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki refused to make significant economic and political concessions.
Obama’s Misjudgment
Obama had opposed the Iraq War, but he made the fateful choice after winning the 2008 election to retain many of Bush’s national security advisers, such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates and General David Petraeus, and to hire hawkish Democrats, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Council aide Samantha Power.
Obama’s pro-war advisers guided him into a pointless “surge” in Afghanistan in 2009 and a “regime change” war in Libya in 2011 as well as a propaganda campaign to justify another “regime change” in Syria, where U.S. Sunni-led regional “allies” – Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf sheikdoms – took the lead in a war to oust President Assad, an Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Syria was allied with Iran and Russia.
At the same time, the Sunni rebel group, “Al Qaeda in Iraq,” expanded its operations into Syria and rebranded itself the Islamic State before splitting off from Al Qaeda’s central command. Al Qaeda turned to a mix of foreign and Syrian jihadists called Nusra Front, which along with the Islamic State became the most powerful terrorist organization fighting to oust Assad.
When Assad’s military struck back against the rebels, the West – especially its mainstream media and “humanitarian war” advocates – took the side of the rebels who were deemed “moderates” although Islamic extremists dominated almost from the start.
Though Obama joined in the chorus “Assad must go,” the President recognized that the notion of recruiting, training and arming a “moderate” rebel force was what he called a “fantasy,” but he played along with the demands from the hawks, including Secretary of State Clinton, to “do something.”
That clamor rose to a fever pitch in late August 2013 after a mysterious sarin gas attack killed hundreds of Syrian civilians in a Damascus suburb. The State Department, then led by Secretary of State John Kerry, rushed to a judgment blaming the atrocity on Assad’s forces and threatening U.S. military retaliation for crossing Obama’s “red line” against using chemical weapons.
But the U.S. intelligence community had doubts about the actual perpetrators with significant evidence pointing to a “false flag” provocation carried out by Islamic extremists. At the last minute, President Obama called off the planned airstrikes and worked out a deal with President Putin to get Assad to surrender Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal even as Assad continued to deny a role in the sarin attack.
Still, the U.S. conventional wisdom held fast that Assad had crossed Obama’s “red line” and – amid more bellicose talk in Washington – Obama authorized more schemes for training “moderate” rebels. These sporadic efforts by the CIA to create a “moderate” rebel force failed miserably, with some of the early trainees sharing their weapons and skills with Nusra and the Islamic State, which in 2014 carried its fight back into Iraq, seizing major cities, such as Mosul and Ramadi, and threatening Baghdad.
As the Islamic State racked up stunning victories in Iraq and Syria – along with releasing shocking videos showing the decapitation of civilian hostages – the neocons and liberal war hawks put on another push for a U.S. military intervention to achieve “regime change” in Syria. But Obama agreed to only attack Islamic State terrorists and to spend $500 million to train another force of “moderate” Syrian rebels.
Like previous efforts, the new training mission proved an embarrassing failure, producing only about 50 fighters who then were quickly killed or captured by Al Qaeda’s Nusra and other jihadist groups, leaving only “four or five” trainees from the program, according to Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of the U.S. Central Command which has responsibility for the Middle East.
The Current Crisis
The failure of the training program – combined with the destabilizing flow of Mideast refugees into Europe from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other countries affected by the regional chaos due to “regime changes” – has brought new calls across Official Washington for, you guessed it, a U.S.-imposed “regime change” in Syria. The argument goes that “Assad must go” before a solution can be found.
But the greater likelihood is that if the U.S. and its NATO allies join in destroying Assad’s military, the result would be Sunni jihadist forces filling the vacuum with the black flag of terrorism fluttering over the ancient city of Damascus.
That could mean the Islamic State chopping off the heads of Christians, Alawites, Shiites and other “heretics” while Al Qaeda has a new headquarters for plotting terror strikes on the West. Millions of Syrians, now protected by Assad’s government, would join the exodus to Europe.
Then, the option for Obama or his successor would be to mount a major invasion and occupation of Syria, a costly and bloody enterprise that would mean the final transformation of the American Republic into an imperial state of permanent war.
Instead, Obama now has the option to cooperate with Putin to stabilize the Syrian regime and pressure erstwhile U.S. “allies” to cut off Al Qaeda and the Islamic State from money, guns and recruits. Though that might seem like clearly the best of the bad remaining options, it faces extraordinary obstacles from Official Washington.
Already there are howls of protests from the neocons and liberal interventionists who won’t give up their agenda of more “regime change” and their belief that American military power can dictate the outcome of every foreign conflict.
So, whether Obama can muster the courage to face down these bellicose voices and start leveling with the American people about the nuanced realities of the world is the big question ahead.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/18/obamas-fateful-syrian-choice/
common_man
Some news on old to share:
An astonishing complex of ancient monuments, buildings, and barrows has lain hidden and unsuspected beneath the Stonehenge area for thousands of years. Scientists discovered the site using sophisticated techniques to see underground, announcing the finds this week.
Among the discoveries announced Wednesday are 17 ritual monuments, including the remains of a massive "house of the dead," hundreds of burial mounds, and evidence of a possible processional route around Stonehenge itself.
There's also evidence of a nearby mile-long "superhenge" at Durrington Walls that was once flanked by as many as 60 gigantic stone or timber columns, some of which may still lie under the soil.
The discoveries result from the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, a four-year effort to create a high-resolution, 3-D underground map of the landscape surrounding Stonehenge.
The project team, led by researchers from the U.K.'s University of Birmingham and Austria's Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, mapped the area down to a depth of about ten feet (three meters) using ground-penetrating radar, high-resolution magnetometers, and other state-of-the-art remote-sensing equipment.
In all, nearly 3,000 acres have been excavated virtually, making this the largest and most ambitious project of its kind ever undertaken anywhere in the world.
"Nobody had any idea this was here," says lead scientist Vince Gaffney, professor of landscape archaeology at the University of Birmingham. "Instead of a monument in isolation, we find that Stonehenge was part of a rich monumental landscape."
Profound Find
Many of the 17 newly discovered monuments appear to be shrine-like structures. The small circular constructions, contemporaneous with Stonehenge's busiest period, are placed around the main stone ring and form a sort of Neolithic analogue to the Via Dolorosa, held to be the path Jesus walked to crucifixion, Gaffney suggests.
"What we could be witnessing here is the birth of the idea of ceremonial procession, or a liturgy," he says.
For centuries, the enigmatic stone circle, built over 4,000 years ago on England's Salisbury Plain, has awed and intrigued visitors. (See "Stonehenge Revealed: Why Stones Were a Special Place.")
"Stonehenge is where archaeology got its start," says Nicola Snashall, an archaeologist from England's National Trust, which looks after the monument.
"Antiquarians like John Aubrey and Inigo Jones began digging here in the 17th century to try to unlock its secrets—some of the world's very first archaeological excavations."
With no written records to fall back on, the mysterious stone structure has spawned countless theories involving Celts, Druids, Romans, and even the King Arthur legend. Its original shape has been a matter of great debate, including whether it was built as a semicircle, as seen today, or a full circle of stones.
This past summer, a chance dry spell revealed patches in the soil that marked where stones once stood. But nobody suspected the incredible wealth of ruins that lay hidden beneath the soil.
Deep Views
High-tech remote sensing and underground mapping is changing not only what is known about Stonehenge, but also the way archaeology is done.
In Orkney, a group of islands in northern Scotland, such a survey revealed a vast, sophisticated and entirely unsuspected Neolithic temple complex that predates Stonehenge by over 500 years. Archaeologists suggest the site may even have influenced the building of Stonehenge. (Read "Before Stonehenge" in National Geographic magazine.)
"Technology is opening doors for archaeology we could only dream about 15 years ago," says Gaffney, who compared the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project with a 3-D underground mapping project he undertook at the ancient British-Roman settlement of Wroxeter in the late 1990s.
"Back then, it took us four years to map 78 hectares, with about 2.5 million data points," he recalls. "With this latest survey at Stonehenge, we were doing that much in a week, [finding] new types of monument that had never been seen by archaeologists.
"All of this information has been placed within a single digital map, which will guide how Stonehenge and its landscape are studied in the future."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140911-stonehenge-map-underground-monument-radar/
common_man
Does anyone know the best broker for micro penny stocks?
Which broker can handle a buy at .000002?
We thank you in advance.
And why not kindly capture all of Cecil's 24 male offspring who will be killed by Jerico, the new alpha male, and place them in zoological gardens so nature lovers can marvel at their power and beauty? Doctor Walter Palmer could do good to save them. Forgiven.
common_man
Obviously some interest (is here).
Do you know how much the company is truly worth? Any calculations are appreciated greatly.
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing” Thanks, fuagf!
common_man
I believe you and commend you for knowing Steph. People like her are rarer than nuggets of gold. She would be fabulous as a political consultant to bring more understanding to world government. Would you help me to meet her, please?
common_man
Okay, Steph, Let's save it for another world or place or conscientiousness. Yes, let's go for the latter. I accept your wishes. No face to face here. Any ideas on another conscientiousness? It would be more than something. It would be revolutionary! And we can do it if we put our ideas together.
Stephanie, I would be honored to know you more and I want to know hatred, so please let me meet you. We live within the same area. Send me a message, private, naturally, to protect our identities, or send to fuagf, who has my data. I am fearless regarding ignorance and hatred. Blessings,
common_man
Yours is a fine piece of writing. I wish I could meet you someday.
common_man
Being patient is what they are up to.
What a pleasant name: Gran Turismo Legend Automotive Holdings Inc.
What a pleasant name: Gran Turismo Legend Automotive Holdings Inc.
Turkey, Ukraine and the Middle East. Dux femina facta.
We ought to give our "national alls" in thoughts and action to allied nations closer to the conflicts than we are half a hemisphere away.
And if we're so-called Christians, we ought to let our
Muslim allied nations receive our support, and not take up arms ourselves against that fastest growing religion.
Ukraine has Crimean Turks who are Sunni and therefore allied in spirit with the Sunnis of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, et ita porro.
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ought to be our best friend. After all, their ancestors had an empire for about 600 years, and we are essentially an empire in all but word.
Ahmet Davutoglu is the kind of leader who can receive and accept our help and run with it to achieve universal goals. Nobody more than Turkish citizens and Turkic peoples wants to stop the Islamic Caliphate or Da'esh.
Now if the Armenians would simply by convert by fiat to the western script, they would be up-to-date among western nations, and still keep the Armenian script for historians, amateur linguists and religious scholars.
Turkey did this back in 1928; many are studying Ottoman writings in Ottoman Persian-Arabic original script.
The word 'genocide' was first used in 1947. Previously, mega-killings were called holocaust.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey
c_m
New York Times book review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/books/review/james-risens-pay-any-price.html
common_man
Revolving and evolving by means of cooperating with all.
Glad your weather is improving. 40% chance of rain here Friday.
Blessings to all composers and readers.
Ancient knowledge:
A woman is shot DEAD,
in a Walmart store in northern Idaho state,
by her two-year old son, a toddler, a baby, an infant.
He reached into her purse,
where there was a hand gun, a pistol,
with a bullet in the firing chamber,
without the safety being engaged.
Who would carry a concealed gun
into a store?
Who would have a chambered round?
Who would not use the safety feature?
Nominate for Darwin Awards?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards
common_man
Politicians must stop fellating their corporate overlords now.
I forwarded your fine post to friends on three continents, and I sent you a personal reply to your email address... Thank you.
Some decent music: http://tunein.com/radio/Radio-Mizrahit-s171349/
Some amazing comments after this story:
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-arrests-members-jewish-extremist-group-184101993.html
Happy Hannukah to humans of good will!
common_man
The movie, ORIGINS,
James Brown, what a hard life he had, yet he brought pleasure to so many.
We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers.
Wikipedia says:
James Joseph Brown[1] (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American recording artist and musician. One of the founding fathers of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as "The Godfather of Soul". In a career that spanned six decades, Brown influenced the development of several music genres.[2]
Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. Joining an R&B vocal group called the Avons that later evolved to become The Famous Flames, Brown served as the group's lead singer.[3][4] First coming to national public attention in the late 1950s as a member of The Flames with the ballads "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a tireless live performer with the singing group The Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra. Brown's success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World". During the late 1960s, Brown moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music-making that influenced the development of funk music.[5] By the early 1970s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of The J.B.'s with records such as "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and "The Payback". Brown also became notable for songs of social commentary, including the 1968 hit "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud". Brown continued to perform and record for the duration of his life until his death in 2006 from congestive heart failure.
Brown recorded 16 number-one singles on the Billboard R&B charts.[6] Brown also holds the record as the artist to have charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 which did not reach number one on that chart.[7][8] Brown was honored by many institutions including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame.[9] In Joel Whitburn's analysis of the Billboard R&B charts from 1942 to 2010, Hot R&B Songs, James Brown is ranked as number one in The Top 500 Artists.[10] Brown is ranked seventh on the music magazine Rolling Stone's list of its 100 greatest artists of all time.[11]
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Music career
2.1 The Famous Flames
2.2 Mr. Dynamite
2.3 Soul Brother No. 1
2.4 Godfather of Soul
2.5 Decline and resurgence
2.6 Final years
3 James Brown Revue
3.1 Concert introduction
3.2 Concert repertoire and format
3.3 Cape routine
3.4 As band leader
4 Social activism
4.1 Education advocacy and humanitarianism
4.2 Civil rights and self-reliance
4.3 Political views
5 Personal life
5.1 Marriages and children
5.2 Drug abuse
5.3 Legal troubles
6 Death and aftermath
6.1 Death
6.2 Memorial services
6.3 Last will and testament
7 Legacy
8 Tributes
9 Discography
10 Filmography
11 Biopics
12 In other media
13 Further reading
14 References
15 External links
Early life[edit]
James Brown was born on May 3, 1933, in Barnwell, South Carolina, to 16-year-old Susie (née Behling; 1917–2003) and 22-year-old Joseph "Joe" Gardner Brown (1911–1993) in a small wooden shack.[12] Brown's name was supposed to have been Joseph James Brown, Jr.; however, his first and middle names were mistakenly reversed on his birth certificate.[1] Brown later legally changed his name to remove the "Jr." designation. His parents were both African-American; in his autobiography, Brown stated that he also had Chinese and Native American ancestry.[13][14] The Brown family lived in extreme poverty in nearby Elko, South Carolina, which was an impoverished town at the time.[7] They later relocated to Augusta, Georgia, when Brown was four or five.[15] Brown's family first settled at one of his aunts' brothels and later moved into a house shared with another aunt.[15] Brown's mother later left the family after a contentious marriage and moved to New York.[16] Brown spent long stretches of time on his own, hanging out in the streets and hustling to get by. Brown managed to stay in school until sixth grade.
Brown began singing in talent shows as a young child, first appearing at Augusta's Lenox Theater in 1944, winning the show after singing the ballad "So Long".[17] While in Augusta, Brown performed buck dances for change to entertain troops from Camp Gordon at the start of World War II as their convoys traveled over a canal bridge from near his aunt's home.[17] Brown learned how to play piano, guitar and harmonica during this period. Brown became inspired to become an entertainer after seeing footage of Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five performing "Caldonia" in a short film.[18] During his teen years, Brown briefly had a career as a boxer.[19] At 16, Brown was convicted of robbery and was sent to a juvenile detention center in Toccoa.[20] Brown formed a gospel quartet with four fellow cellmates, including Johnny Terry. Stories differ as to how Brown was eventually paroled, including a story that Bobby Byrd's family had helped to secure an early release, while another stated that Brown got his parole after a car and motor manufacturing company owner, S.C. Lawson, agreed to be a sponsor after Brown had promised to look for a job guaranteed for two years.[21] Brown was paroled on June 14, 1952.[21] Upon his release, Brown joined a gospel group and worked at several jobs, including the Lawson Motor Company and as a janitor at a local school.[22] Brown and Bobby Byrd reportedly met following his release from prison and the two became friends.[23]
Music career[edit]
The Famous Flames[edit]
Main article: The Famous Flames
Brown joined Byrd's group, which highlighted under two names, as an a cappella gospel group called the Gospel Starlighters, and an R&B band known as the Avons.[23] Brown had allegedly joined the band after one of the group's members, Troy Collins, was killed.[24] With Brown and Byrd, the group consisted of Sylvester Keels, Doyle Oglesby, Fred Pulliam, Nash Knox and Nafloyd Scott. Influenced by R&B groups such as Hank Ballard and The Midnighters, The Orioles and Billy Ward and his Dominoes, the group changed their name, first to the Toccoa Band, and then to the Flames.[22][24] Nafloyd's brother Baroy later joined the group on bass guitar and Brown, Byrd and Keels switched lead positions and instruments, often playing drums and piano. Johnny Terry later joined while Pulliam and Oglesby had long left.[25]
Berry Trimier became the group's initial manager booking them at parties near college campuses in the Georgia and South Carolina areas.[26] The group had already gained a reputation for being a live act when they renamed themselves the "Famous Flames".[27] By 1955, the group had gotten in contact with Little Richard, who Brown idolized, while performing in Macon.[28][29] Richard convinced the group to get in contact with Richard's manager at the time, Clint Brantley, at his nightclub.[30] Brantley agreed to manage them after seeing the group audition for them.[31] Brantley then sent them to a local radio station to record a demo session, where they performed their own composition "Please, Please, Please", which was inspired when Little Richard wrote the words of the title on a napkin and Brown was determined to make a song out of it.[31][32][33] The Famous Flames eventually signed with King Records' Federal subsidiary in Cincinnati, Ohio and issued a re-recorded version of "Please, Please, Please" in March 1956. The song became the group's first R&B hit, selling over a million copies.[34] None of their follow-ups produced similar success. By 1957, Brown had replaced Clint Brantley as manager and hired Ben Bart, chief of the Universal Attractions Agency. That year, the original Flames broke up after Bart changed the name of the group to "James Brown and The Famous Flames".[35]
In October 1958, Brown released the ballad, "Try Me", which hit number-one on the R&B chart in the beginning of 1959, becoming the first of seventeen chart-topping R&B hits.[36] Shortly afterwards, Brown recruited his first band, led by J. C. Davis and reunited with Bobby Byrd, who joined a revived Famous Flames lineup that included Eugene "Baby" Lloyd Stallworth and Bobby Bennett, with Johnny Terry sometimes coming in as the "fifth Flame". Brown,The Flames, and his entire band debuted at the Apollo Theater on April 24, 1959, opening for Little Willie John.[24][37] Federal Records issued two albums credited to Brown and the Famous Flames. By 1960, Brown began multi-tasking in the recording studio involving himself, the Famous Flames and his band, sometimes named the James Brown Orchestra or the James Brown Band. That year, the band recorded the top ten R&B hit, "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes" on Dade Records, owned by Henry Stone, under the pseudonym "Nat Kendrick & The Swans", due to label issues.[38] As a result of its success, King president Syd Nathan shifted Brown's contract from Federal to King. While under King, Brown, under the Famous Flames lineup, released the album, Think! and the following year, released two albums with the James Brown Band earning second billing. With the Famous Flames, Brown sung lead on several more hits including "I'll Go Crazy" and "Think", songs that hinted at his emerging style.[24]
Mr. Dynamite[edit]
By 1962, Brown scored a hit with his band with their cover of the instrumental, "Night Train", becoming not only a top five R&B single but also Brown's first top 40 entry on the Billboard Hot 100. That same year, the ballads, "Lost Someone" and "Baby You're Right", the latter a Joe Tex composition, added to his repertoire and increased his reputation with R&B audiences. On October 24, 1962, Brown financed a live recording of a performance at the Apollo and convinced Syd Nathan to release the album, despite Nathan's beliefs that no one bought live albums due to the fact that Brown's singles were already bought and that live albums were usually bad sellers.
Brown (middle) & The Famous Flames (far left to right, Bobby Bennett, Lloyd Stallworth, and Bobby Byrd), performing live at the Apollo Theater in New York City, 1964
Live at the Apollo was released the following June and became an immediate hit, eventually reaching number two on the Top LPs chart and selling over a million copies, staying on the charts for 14 months.[39] In 1963, Brown scored his first top 20 pop hit with his rendition of the standard, "Prisoner of Love". He also launched his first label, Try Me Records, which included recordings by the likes of Tammy Montgomery (later to be famous as Tammi Terrell), Johnny & Bill (Famous Flames associates Johnny Terry and Bill Hollings) and the Poets, which was another name used for Brown's backing band.[24]
In 1964, seeking bigger commercial success, Brown and Bobby Byrd formed the production company, Fair Deal, linking the operation to the Mercury imprint, Smash Records.[24][40] King Records, however, fought against this and was granted an injunction preventing Brown from releasing any recordings for the label. Prior to the injunction, Brown had released three vocal singles, including the blues-oriented hit, "Out of Sight", which further indicated the direction his music was going to take.[41] Touring throughout the year, Brown and the Famous Flames grabbed more national attention after giving an explosive show-stopping performance on the live concert film, The T.A.M.I. Show. The Flames' polished choreography and timing as well as Brown's energetic dance moves and high-octane vocals upstaged the show from proposed closing act, The Rolling Stones. With a new deal with King, Brown released his composition, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", which became his first top ten pop hit and won Brown his first Grammy Award.[42] Later in 1965, Brown issued "I Got You", which became his second single in a row to reach number-one on the R&B chart and top ten on the pop chart. Brown followed that up with the ballad, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" which confirmed his stance as a top-ranking performer, especially with R&B audiences from that point on.[42]
Soul Brother No. 1[edit]
By 1967, Brown's emerging sound had begun to be defined as funk music. That year, he released what some critics cited as the first true funk song, "Cold Sweat", which hit number-one on the R&B chart and became one of his first recordings to contain a drum break and also the first that featured a harmony that was reduced to a single chord.[43][44] The instrumental arrangements on tracks such as "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" (both recorded in 1968) and "Funky Drummer" (recorded in 1969) featured a more developed version of Brown's mid-1960s style, with the horn section, guitars, bass and drums meshed together in intricate rhythmic patterns based on multiple interlocking riffs.
Changes in Brown's style that started with "Cold Sweat" also established the musical foundation for Brown's later hits, such as "I Got the Feelin'" (1968) and "Mother Popcorn" (1969). By this time Brown's vocals frequently took the form of a kind of rhythmic declamation, not quite sung but not quite spoken, that only intermittently featured traces of pitch or melody. This would become a major influence on the techniques of rapping, which would come to maturity along with hip hop music in the coming decades. Brown's style of funk in the late 1960s was based on interlocking syncopated parts: funky bass lines, drum patterns, and iconic guitar riffs.[45] The main guitar ostinatos for "Ain't It Funky" and "Give It Up or Turn It Loose" (both 1969), are examples of Brown's refinement of New Orleans funk; irresistibly danceable riffs, stripped down to their rhythmic essence. On both recordings the tonal structure is bare bones. The pattern of attack-points is the emphasis, not the pattern of pitches. It's as if the guitar is an African drum, or idiophone. Alexander Stewart states that this popular feel was passed along from "New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the 1970s."[46] Those same tracks were later resurrected by countless hip-hop musicians from the 1970s onward. As a result, James Brown remains to this day the world's most sampled recording artist,[47] with "Funky Drummer" itself becoming the most sampled individual piece of music.[48] "Bring it Up" has an Afro-Cuban guajeo-like structure. In fact, on a 1976 version, Cuban bongos are used. All three of these guitar riffs are based on an onbeat/offbeat structure. Stewart states: "This model, it should be noted, is different from a time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle."[49]
It was around this time as the musician's popularity increased that he acquired the nickname, "Soul Brother No. 1", after failing to win the title "King of Soul" from Solomon Burke during a Chicago gig two years prior.[50] Brown's recordings during this period influenced musicians across the industry, most notably groups such as Sly and the Family Stone, Funkadelic, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s as well as vocalists such as Edwin Starr, David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards from The Temptations, and Michael Jackson, who, throughout his career, cited Brown as his ultimate idol.[51]
Brown's band during this period employed musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition. He was noted for his ability as a bandleader and songwriter to blend the simplicity and drive of R&B with the rhythmic complexity and precision of jazz. Trumpeter Lewis Hamlin and saxophonist/keyboardist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (the successor to previous bandleader Nat Jones) led the band. Guitarist Jimmy Nolen provided percussive, deceptively simple riffs for each song, and Maceo Parker's prominent saxophone solos provided a focal point for many performances. Other members of Brown's band included stalwart Famous Flames singer and sideman Bobby Byrd, drummers John "Jabo" Starks, Clyde Stubblefield and Melvin Parker, saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney, trombonist Fred Wesley, guitarist Alphonso "Country" Kellum and bassist Bernard Odum.
In addition to a torrent of singles and studio albums, Brown's output during this period included two more successful live albums, Live at the Garden (1967) and Live at the Apollo, Volume II (1968), and a 1968 television special, James Brown: Man to Man. His music empire expanded along with his influence on the music scene. As Brown's music empire grew, his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. Brown bought radio stations during the late 1960s, including WRDW in his native Augusta, where he shined shoes as a boy.[42] In November 1967, James Brown purchased radio station WGYW in Knoxville, Tennessee for a reported $75,000, according to the January 20, 1968 Record World magazine. The call letters were changed to WJBE reflecting his initials. WJBE began on January 15, 1968 and broadcast a Rhythm & Blues format. The station slogan was "WJBE 1430 Raw Soul". Brown also bought WEBB in Baltimore in 1970.
Brown branched out to make several recordings with musicians outside his own band. In an attempt to appeal to the older, more affluent, and predominantly white adult contemporary audience, Brown recorded Gettin' Down To It (1969) and Soul on Top (1970)--two albums consisting mostly of romantic ballads, jazz standards, and homologous reinterpretations of his earlier hits—with the Dee Felice Trio and the Louie Bellson Orchestra. In 1968, he recorded a number of funk-oriented tracks with The Dapps, a white Cincinnati band, including the hit "I Can't Stand Myself". He also released three albums of Christmas music with his own band.
Godfather of Soul[edit]
Main article: The J.B.'s
Brown after a concert in Tampa on January 29, 1972
In March 1970, most of Brown's mid-to-late 1960s road band walked out on him due to money disputes, a development augured by the prior disbandment of The Famous Flames singing group for the same reason in 1968. Brown and erstwhile Famous Flames singer Bobby Byrd (who elected to remain in the band during this tumultuous period) subsequently recruited several members of the Cincinnati-based The Pacemakers, which included Bootsy Collins and his brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins; augmented by the remaining members of the 1960s road band (including Fred Wesley, who rejoined Brown's outfit in December 1970) and other newer musicians, they would form the nucleus of The J.B.'s, Brown's new backing ensemble. Shortly following their first performance together, the band entered the studio to record the Brown-Byrd composition, "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine"; the song and other contemporaneous singles would further concretize Brown's influence in the nascent genre of funk music. This iteration of the J.B.'s dissolved after a March 1971 European tour (documented on the 1991 archival release Love Power Peace) due to additional money disputes and Bootsy Collins' use of LSD; the Collins brothers would soon become integral members of Parliament-Funkadelic, while a new lineup of the J.B.'s coalesced around Wesley, St. Clair Pinckney, and drummer John Starks.
In 1971, Brown began recording for Polydor Records which also took over distribution of Brown's King Records catalog. Many of his sidemen and supporting players, including Andre Beeka, Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Vicki Anderson and former rival Hank Ballard, released records on the People label, an imprint founded by Brown that was purchased by Polydor as part of Brown's new contract. The recordings on the People label, almost all of which were produced by Brown himself, exemplified his "house style". Songs such as "I Know You Got Soul" by Bobby Byrd, "Think" by Lyn Collins and "Doing It to Death" by Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s are considered as much a part of Brown's recorded legacy as the recordings released under his own name. That year, he also began touring African countries and was received well by audiences there. During the 1972 presidential election, James Brown openly proclaimed his support of Richard Nixon for reelection of the presidency over Democratic candidate George McGovern.[52] The decision led to a boycott of his performances and, according to Brown, cost him a big portion of his black audience.[53] As a result Brown's record sales and concerts in the United States reached a lull in 1973 as he failed to land a number-one R&B single that year. Brown relied more on touring outside the United States where he continued to perform for sold-out crowds in cities such as London, Paris and Lausanne. That year, Brown also faced problems with the IRS for failure to pay back taxes, charging he hadn't paid upwards of $4.5 million, five years earlier, the IRS claimed he owed nearly $2 million.[54]
In 1973, Brown provided the score for the blaxploitation film Black Caesar. He also recorded another soundtrack for the film, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off. Following the release of these soundtracks, Brown acquired a self-styled nickname, "The Godfather of Soul", which remains his most popular nickname. In 1974, he returned to the No. 1 spot on the R&B charts with "The Payback", with the parent album reaching the same spot on the album charts; he would reach No. 1 two more times in 1974 including "My Thang" and "Papa Don't Take No Mess". Later that year, he returned to Africa and performed in Kinshasa as part of the buildup to The Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Admirers of Brown's music, including Miles Davis and other jazz musicians, began to cite Brown as a major influence on their own styles. However, Brown, like others who were influenced by his music, also "borrowed" from other musicians. His 1976 single "Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)" (R&B #31) used the main riff from "Fame" by David Bowie, not the other way around as was often believed. The riff was provided to "Fame" co-writers John Lennon and Bowie by guitarist Carlos Alomar, who had briefly been a member of Brown's band in the late 1960s.[55]
Brown's "Papa Don't Take No Mess" would be his final single to reach the No. 1 spot on the R&B charts and his final Top 40 pop single of the 1970s, though Brown continued to occasionally have Top 10 R&B recordings. Among his top ten R&B hits during this latter period included "Funky President" and "Get Up Offa That Thing", the latter song released in 1976 and aimed at musical rivals such as Barry White, The Ohio Players and K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Brown credited his then-second wife and two of their children as writers of the song to avoid concurrent tax problems with the IRS. Starting in October 1975, Brown produced, directed, and hosted Future Shock, an Atlanta-based television variety show which ran for three years.
Decline and resurgence[edit]
James Brown performing in Hamburg, 1973
Although his records were mainstays of the vanguard New York underground disco scene exemplified by DJs such as David Mancuso and Francis Grasso from 1969 onwards, Brown did not consciously yield to the trend until 1975's Sex Machine Today. By 1977, he was no longer a dominant force in R&B. After "Get Up Offa That Thing", thirteen of Brown's late 1970s recordings for Polydor failed to reach the Top 10 of the R&B chart, with only "Bodyheat" in 1976 and the disco-oriented "It's Too Funky in Here" in 1979 reaching the R&B Top 15 and the ballad "Kiss in '77" reaching the Top 20. After 1976's "Bodyheat", he also failed to appear on the Billboard Hot 100. As a result, Brown's concert attendance began dropping and reported disputes with the IRS caused Brown's empire to collapse. In addition, Brown's former band mates, including Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker and the Collins brothers, had found bigger success as members of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic collective. The emergence of disco also stopped Brown's success on the R&B charts as its slicker commercial style had superseded his rawer funk productions.
By the release of 1979's The Original Disco Man, Brown was not providing much production or writing, leaving most of it to producer Brad Shapiro, resulting in the song "It's Too Funky in Here" becoming Brown's most successful single in this period. After two more albums failed to chart, Brown left Polydor in 1981. It was around this time that Brown changed the name of his band from the J.B.'s to the Soul Generals (or Soul G's). This band's name remained that way until his death. Despite a decline in record sales, Brown enjoyed something of a resurgence in this period starting with appearances in the feature films The Blues Brothers, Doctor Detroit and Rocky IV, as well as guest starring in the Miami Vice episode "Missing Hours" (1987). In 1984, Brown teamed with rap musician Afrika Bambaattaa on the song "Unity". A year later he signed with Scotti Brothers Records and issued the moderately successful album, Gravity, in 1986. It included Brown's final Top 10 pop hit, "Living in America", marking his first Top 40 entry since 1974 and his first Top 10 pop entry since 1968. Produced and written by Dan Hartman, it was also featured prominently on the Rocky IV film and soundtrack. Brown performed the song in the film at Apollo Creed's final fight, shot in the Ziegfeld Room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and was credited in the film as "The Godfather of Soul." 1986 also saw the publication of Brown's autobiography, James Brown: The Godfather of Soul, co-written with Bruce Tucker. In 1987, Brown won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Living in America".
In 1988, Brown worked with the production team Full Force on the new jack swing-influenced album I'm Real. It spawned his final two Top 10 R&B hits, "I'm Real" and "Static", which peaked at No. 2 and No. 5, respectively, on the R&B charts. Meanwhile, the drum break from the second version of the original 1969 hit "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" (the recording included on the compilation album In the Jungle Groove) became so popular at hip hop dance parties (especially for breakdance) during the late 1970s and early 1980s that hip hop founding father Kurtis Blow called the song "the national anthem of hip hop".[56]
Final years[edit]
James Brown performing in June 2005
After his stint in prison during the late 1980s, Brown met Larry Fridie and Thomas Hart who produced the first James Brown biopic titled James Brown: The Man, the Message, the Music, released in 1992. James Brown returned with the album Love Over-Due in 1991. It included the single "(So Tired of Standing Still We Got to) Move On", which peaked at No. 48 on the R&B chart. His former record label Polydor also released the four-CD box set, Star Time, spanning Brown's career to date. Brown's release from prison also prompted his former record labels to reissue his albums on CD, featuring additional tracks and commentary by music critics and historians. That same year, Brown appeared on rapper MC Hammer's video for "Too Legit to Quit". Hammer had been noted, alongside Big Daddy Kane, for bringing Brown's unique stage shows and their own energetic dance moves to the hip-hop generation, with both Hammer and Kane listing Brown as their idol. Both musicians also sampled Brown's work, with Hammer having sampled the rhythms from "Super Bad" for his song, "Here Comes the Hammer", from his best-selling album, Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em. Before the year was over, Brown, who had immediately returned to work with his band following his release, organized a pay-per-view concert following a show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre, that was well received.
Brown during the NBA All-Star Game jam session, 2001
Brown continued making recordings. In 1993, his album Universal James was released. It included his final Billboard charting single, "Can't Get Any Harder", which peaked at No. 76 on the US R&B chart and reached No. 59 on the UK chart. Its brief charting in the UK was probably due to the success of a remixed version of "I Feel Good" featuring Dakeyne. Brown also released the singles, "How Long" and "Georgia-Lina", which failed to chart. In 1995 Brown returned to the Apollo and recorded Live at the Apollo 1995. It included a studio track titled "Respect Me", which was released as a single; again it failed to chart. Brown's final studio albums, I'm Back and The Next Step, were released in 1998 and 2002 respectively. I'm Back featured the song "Funk on Ah Roll", which peaked at No. 40 in the UK but did not chart in his native US. The Next Step included Brown's final single, "Killing Is Out, School Is In". Both albums were produced by Derrick Monk. Brown's concert success, however, remained unabated and Brown kept up with a grueling schedule throughout the remainder of his life, living up to his previous nickname, "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", in spite of his advanced age. In 2003, Brown participated in the PBS American Masters television documentary James Brown: Soul Survivor, which was directed by Jeremy Marre.
Brown celebrated his status as an icon by appearing in a variety of entertainment and sports events, including an appearance on the WCW pay-per-view event, SuperBrawl X, where he danced alongside wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller, who based his character on Brown, during his in-ring skit with The Maestro. Brown was then featured in Tony Scott's short film, Beat the Devil, in 2001. Brown was featured alongside Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo, and Marilyn Manson.[57] Brown also made a cameo appearance in the 2002 Jackie Chan film The Tuxedo, in which Chan was required to finish Brown's act after Brown was accidentally knocked out by Chan.[58] In 2002, Brown appeared in Undercover Brother, playing himself.
The beginning of 2005 saw the publication of Brown's second book, I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul, written with Marc Eliot. In February and March he participated in recording sessions for an intended studio album with Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, and other longtime collaborators. Though he lost interest in the album, which remains unreleased, a track from the sessions, "Gut Bucket", appeared on a compilation CD included with the August 2006 issue of MOJO.[59] He appeared at Edinburgh 50,000 – The Final Push, the final Live 8 concert on July 6, 2005, where he performed a duet with British pop star Will Young on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag". He also performed a duet with another British pop star, Joss Stone, a week earlier on the United Kingdom chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Before his death, Brown was scheduled to perform a duet with singer Annie Lennox on the song "Vengeance" for her new album Venus, which was released in 2007. In 2006, Brown continued his "Seven Decades of Funk World Tour", his last concert tour where he performed all over the world. His final U.S. performances were in San Francisco on August 20, 2006, as headliner at the Festival of the Golden Gate (Foggfest) on the Great Meadow at Fort Mason. The following day, August 21, he performed at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, at a small theatre (800 seats) on campus. His last shows were greeted with positive reviews, and one of his final concert appearances at the Irish Oxegen festival in Punchestown in 2006 was performed for a record crowd of 80,000 people. He played a full concert as part of the BBC's Electric Proms on October 27, 2006, at The Roundhouse,[60] supported by The Zutons, with special appearances from Max Beasley and The Sugababes. Brown's last televised appearance was at his induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame in November 2006, before his death the following month.
James Brown Revue[edit]
Brown's most famous MC was Danny Ray (center)
For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist.[61] The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during the ballads.[62] Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters.[63][64]
Concert introduction[edit]
Before James Brown appeared on stage, his personal MC gave him an elaborate introduction accompanied by drumrolls, as the MC worked in Brown's various sobriquets along with the names of many of his hit songs. The introduction by Danny Ray, Brown's most famous MC who appeared on stage with him for over 30 years, captured on Brown's 1971 album Revolution of the Mind: Recorded Live at the Apollo, Vol. III album, is a representative example:
I'd like to know, are you really ready for some super dynamite soul? Then thank you, 'cause now, it's star time! Introducing, ladies and gentlemen, the young man that's had over 35 soul classics. Among these classics are tunes that will never die - tunes like "Try Me" ... "Out of Sight" ... "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" ... "I Feel Good" ... like a "Sex Machine" ... because you're "Super Bad" ... "Get Up, Get Into It, and Get Involved!" ... because you've got "Soul Power!" Introducing the world's greatest entertainer, Mr. Dynamite, the amazing Mr. Please Please himself, the hardest working man in show business, ladies and gentlemen, the star of our show, James Brown!
Concert repertoire and format[edit]
Brown and MC Danny Ray during cape routine, BBC Electric Proms '06 concert
James Brown's performances were famous for their intensity and length. His own stated goal was to "give people more than what they came for — make them tired, 'cause that's what they came for.'"[65] Brown's concert repertoire consisted mostly of his own hits and recent songs, with a few R&B covers mixed in. Brown danced vigorously as he sang, working popular dance steps such as the Mashed Potato into his routine along with dramatic leaps, splits and slides. In addition, his horn players and backup singers (The Famous Flames) typically performed choreographed dance routines, and later incarnations of the Revue included backup dancers. Male performers in the Revue were required to wear tuxedoes and cummerbunds long after more casual concert wear became the norm among the younger musical acts. Brown's own extravagant outfits and his elaborate processed hairdo completed the visual impression. A James Brown concert typically included a performance by a featured vocalist, such as Vicki Anderson or Marva Whitney, and an instrumental feature for the band, which sometimes served as the opening act for the show.
Cape routine[edit]
A trademark feature of Brown's stage shows, usually during the song "Please, Please, Please", involved Brown dropping to his knees while clutching the microphone stand in his hands, prompting the show's longtime MC, Danny Ray, to come out, drape a cape over Brown's shoulders and escort him off the stage after he had worked himself to exhaustion during his performance. As Brown was escorted off the stage by the MC, Brown's vocal group, The Famous Flames, continued singing the background vocals "Please, please don't go-oh-oh".[66] Brown would then shake off the cape and stagger back to the microphone to perform an encore. Brown's routine was inspired by a similar one used by the professional wrestler Gorgeous George, as well as Little Richard.[67][68][69]
Brown performs a version of the cape routine over the closing credits of the film Blues Brothers 2000 and on the T.A.M.I. Show (1964) in which he upstages the Rolling Stones. The Police refer to "James Brown on the T.A.M.I. Show" in their 1980 song "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around."
As band leader[edit]
Brown demanded extreme discipline, perfection and precision from his musicians and dancers — performers in his Revue showed up for rehearsals and members wore the right "uniform" or "costume" for concert performances.[70] During an interview conducted by Terri Gross during the NPR segment "Fresh Air" with Maceo Parker, a former saxophonist in Brown's band for most of the 1960s and part of the 1970s and 1980s, Parker offered his experience with the discipline that Brown demanded of the band:
You gotta be on time. You gotta have your uniform. Your stuff's got to be intact. You gotta have the bow tie. You got to have it. You can't come up without the bow tie. You cannot come up without a cummerbund ... [The] patent leather shoes we were wearing at the time gotta be greased. You just gotta have this stuff. This is what [Brown expected] ... [Brown] bought the costumes. He bought the shoes. And if for some reason [the band member decided] to leave the group, [Brown told the person to] please leave my uniforms ....
—Maceo Parker[71]
Brown also had a practice of directing, correcting and assessing fines on members of his band who broke his rules, such as wearing unshined shoes, dancing out of sync or showing up late on stage.[72] During some of his concert performances, Brown danced in front of his band with his back to the audience as he slid across the floor, flashing hand signals and splaying his pulsating fingers to the beat of the music. Although audiences thought Brown's dance routine was part of his act, this practice was actually his way of pointing to the offending member of his troupe who played or sang the wrong note or committed some other infraction. Brown used his splayed fingers and hand signals to alert the offending person of the fine that person must pay to him for breaking his rules.[73]
Brown's demands of his support acts were, however, quite the reverse. As Fred Wesley recalled of his time as MD of the JBs, if Brown felt intimidated by a support act he would try "To undermine their performances by shortening their sets without notice, demanding that they not do certain showstopping songs, and even insisting on doing the unthinkable, playing drums on some of their songs. A sure set killer."[74]
Social activism[edit]
Brown shakes the hand of the painter Groover, who gave him a picture during his tour in Guadeloupe in the 1980s
Education advocacy and humanitarianism[edit]
Brown's main social activism was in preserving the need for education among youths, influenced by his own troubled childhood and his forced dropping out of the seventh grade for wearing "insufficient clothes". Due to heavy dropout rates in the 1960s, Brown released the pro-education song, "Don't Be a Drop-Out". Royalties of the song were donated to charity used for dropout prevention programs. The success of this led to Brown meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House. Johnson cited Brown for being a positive role model to the youth. After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, Brown provided a free city-wide concert in Boston to maintain public order (over the objections of the police chief, who wanted to call off the concert, which he thought would incite violence.). A lifelong Republican like his best friend, Ray Charles, James Brown gained the confidence of President Richard Nixon, to whom he found he had to explain the plight of Black Americans.[75] Brown's outspoken support of President Nixon and the Republican Party in the election of 1972 led groups such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP and the National Urban League to launch a nationwide boycott of his businesses, at a time when Brown was the most successful Black entrepreneur in America (below). He was also harassed by J. Edgar Hoover and the IRS, probably because Hoover thought it "dangerous" that a young "Black radical" had the ear of the president.[75]
Throughout the remainder of his life, Brown made public speeches in schools and continued to advocate the importance of education in school. Upon filing his will in 2002, Brown advised that most of the money in his estate go into creating the I Feel Good, Inc. Trust to benefit disadvantaged children and provide scholarships for his grandchildren. His final single, "Killing Is Out, School Is In", advocated against murders of young children in the streets. Brown often gave out money and other items to children while traveling to his childhood hometown of Augusta. A week before his death, while looking gravely ill, Brown gave out toys and turkeys to kids at an Atlanta orphanage, something he had done several times over the years.
Civil rights and self-reliance[edit]
Though Brown performed at benefit rallies for civil rights organizations in the mid-1960s, Brown often shied away from discussing civil rights in his songs. In 1968, in response to a growing urge of anti-war advocacy during the Vietnam War, Brown recorded the song, "America Is My Home". In the song, Brown performed a rap, advocating patriotism and exhorting listeners to "stop pitying yoursel[ves] and get up and fight." At the time of the song's release, Brown had been participating in performing for troops stationed in Vietnam. A day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Brown gave out a televised concert at the Boston Garden to calm concerned Boston relatives.[42] The show was later released on DVD as Live at the Boston Garden: April 5, 1968. According to the documentary, The Night James Brown Saved Boston, then-mayor Kevin White had strongly restrained the Boston police from cracking down on minor violence and protests after the assassination and religious and community leaders worked to keep tempers from flaring.[76] White arranged to have Brown's performance broadcast multiple times on Boston's public television station, WGBH, thus keeping potential rioters off the streets, watching the concert for free.[76] Angered by not being told of this, Brown demanded $60,000 for "gate" fees (money he thought would be lost from ticket sales on account of the concert being broadcast for free) and then threatened to go public about the secret arrangement when the city balked at paying up afterwards, news of which would have been a political death blow to White and spark riots of its own.[76] White eventually lobbied the behind-the-scenes power-brokering group known as "The Vault" to come up with money for Brown's gate fee and other social programs, contributing $100,000. Brown received $15,000 from them via the city. White also persuaded management at the Garden to give up their share of receipts to make up the differences.[76] Following this successful performance, Brown was cautioned by President Johnson to visit cities ravaged from riots following King's assassination to not resort to violence, telling them to "cool it, there's another way".[77]
Responding to pressure from black activists, including H. Rap Brown, to take a bigger stance on their issues and from footage of black on black crime committed in inner cities, Brown wrote lyrics to the song, "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", which his bandleader, Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis accompanied with a musical composition. Released late that summer, the song's lyrics helped to make it an anthem to the civil rights movement. Brown only performed the song sporadically following its initial release and later stated he had regrets recording it, saying in 1984, "Now 'Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud' has done more for the black race than any other record, but if I had my choice, I wouldn't have done it, because I don't like defining anyone by race. To teach race is to teach separatism."[78] In his autobiography he stated:
The song is obsolete now... But it was necessary to teach pride then, and I think the song did a lot of good for a lot of people... People called "Black and Proud" militant and angry – maybe because of the line about dying on your feet instead of living on your knees. But really, if you listen to it, it sounds like a children's song. That's why I had children in it, so children who heard it could grow up feeling pride... The song cost me a lot of my crossover audience. The racial makeup at my concerts was mostly black after that. I don't regret it, though, even if it was misunderstood.”[79]
With the release of a movie about his music and life, there has been a strong resurgence of interest in Brown's importance to civil rights and the black community. In the summer, 2014, the website Portside posted this commentary on the impact of the song "Now 'Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud"
"He was a civil rights icon. Put James in the pantheon of the most impactful black men of the 20th century, and he would not be out of place. How can I make such an assertion? One song: "I'm Black and I'm Proud."
Before that song, if you wanted to start a fight with a man of color, all one had to do was call him black. Up until the mid-sixties, we were trying define ourselves: not colored anymore, now Negro. But black was not something we called ourselves. And along comes this little man and proudly states, "I'm black and I'm proud!" He took the thing that the oppressor used to bludgeon us and made it a weapon of pride for us.
That song caught on like wildfire. One day, our heads were down, the next day, our heads were held high, proud of who we were. We had all these groups, civil rights groups, Muslims, Panthers, but it was JB who gave us our swagger. That song lifted up an entire race! He put us on his back and carried us. Dr. King gave us our rights. JB gave us our dignity. Civil rights icon? You better believe it.
When that song came on the radio, cars stopped in the street. People turned up their radios, came out of their houses, and sang along with it; radio stations put it in a loop and played it for hours. The next day people greeted each other with "Hello, black man!" "My black brother." JB made black beautiful overnight." (Portside.com, 2014)
In 1969, Brown recorded two more songs of social commentary including "World" and "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing", the latter song pleading for equal opportunity and self-reliance rather than entitlement. In 1970, in response to some black leaders for not being outspoken enough, Brown recorded "Get Up, Get into It, Get Involved" and "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing". In 1971, Brown began touring Africa and was made "freeman of the city" in Lagos, Nigeria by Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, for his "influence on black people all over the world."[80] With his company, James Brown Enterprises, Brown helped to provide jobs for blacks in business in the communities.[81] As the 1970s continued, Brown continued to record songs of social commentary, much prominently, 1972's "King Heroin" and the two-part ballad "Public Enemy", which dealt with drug addiction.
Political views[edit]
During the 1968 presidential campaign, Brown endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey and appeared with Humphrey at political rallies. Brown began supporting Republican president Richard Nixon after being invited to perform at Nixon's inaugural ball in January 1969.[82] Brown's endorsement of Nixon during the 1972 presidential election negatively impacted his career during that period with several national Black organizations boycotting his records and protesting at his concert shows.[83] Brown stated he was neither Democratic nor Republican despite his support of Republican presidents such as Nixon and Ronald Reagan.[84] In 1999, when being interviewed by Rolling Stone, the magazine asked him to name a hero in the 20th century, Brown mentioned Republican Senator and former segregationist Strom Thurmond, stating "when the young whippersnappers get out of line, whether Democratic or Republican, an old man can walk up and say 'Wait a minute, son, it goes this way.' And that's great for our country. He's like a grandfather to me."[85] In 2003, Brown was the featured attraction of a D.C. fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.[86] Following the deaths of Ronald Reagan and his friend Ray Charles, Brown said to CNN, "I'm kind of in an uproar. I love the country and I got – you know I've been around a long time, through many presidents and everything. So after losing Mr. Reagan, who I knew very well, then Mr. Ray Charles, who I worked with and lived with like, all our life, we had a show together in Oakland many, many years ago and it's like you found the placard."[87]
Personal life[edit]
At the end of his life, James Brown lived in a riverfront home in Beech Island, South Carolina, directly across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia. Brown had diabetes that went undiagnosed for years, according to his longtime manager Charles Bobbit.[88] In 2004 Brown was successfully treated for prostate cancer.[89] Regardless of his health, Brown maintained his reputation as the "hardest working man in show business" by keeping up with his grueling performance schedule.
Marriages and children[edit]
Brown was married three times. He married his first wife, Velma Warren, in 1953. Over a decade later, the couple had separated, with their divorce finalized by 1969. Despite this, Brown and Warren maintained a close friendship that lasted until Brown's death. Brown married his second wife, Deidre "Deedee" Jenkins, on October 22, 1970. The couple were separated by 1979 and their divorce was finalized less than a year later on January 10, 1981. His third and final marriage was to Adrienne Lois Rodriguez (March 9, 1950 – January 6, 1996). Brown married her in 1984. After a contentious marriage that made headlines due to domestic abuse complaints, Rodriguez died in January 1996. Less than a year after her death, Brown hired Tomi Rae Hynie to be a background singer for his band. Brown and Hynie began dating shortly afterwards.
On December 23, 2002, Brown and Hynie held a wedding ceremony that was officiated by Rev. Larry Flyer. Following Brown's death, controversy surrounded the circumstances of the marriage, with Brown's attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, reporting that the marriage wasn't valid because Hynie was married to Javed Ahmed, a Bangladeshi whom Hynie claimed married her for a Green Card in an immigration fraud. Though Hynie contended the marriage was annulled, the annulment didn't occur until April 2004.[90][91] In an attempt to prove her marriage to Brown was valid, Hynie produced a 2001 marriage certificate as proof of her marriage to Brown, but she did not provide King with court records pointing to an annulment of her marriage to him or to Ahmed.[92] According to Dallas, Brown was angry and hurt that Hynie had concealed her prior marriage from him and Brown moved to file for annulment from Hynie.[93] Dallas added that though Hynie's marriage to Ahmed was annulled after she married Brown, the Brown-Hynie marriage was not valid under South Carolina law because Brown and Hynie did not remarry after the annulment.[92][94] In August 2003, Brown took out a full-page public notice in Variety featuring Hynie, James II and himself on vacation at Disney World to announce that he and Hynie were going their separate ways.[95][96]
Brown had numerous children and acknowledged nine of them including five sons – Teddy (1954–1973), Terry, Larry, Daryl and James Joseph Brown II and four daughters – Lisa, Dr. Yamma Noyola Brown Lumar, Deanna Brown Thomas and Venisha Brown.[97] Brown also had eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Brown's eldest son, Teddy, died in a car crash on June 14, 1973.[98] According to an August 22, 2007 article published in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, DNA tests indicate that Brown also fathered at least three extramarital children. The only one of them who has been identified is LaRhonda Pettit (born 1962), a retired air stewardess and teacher who lives in Houston.[99] During contesting of Brown's will, another of the Brown family attorneys, Debra Opri revealed to Larry King that Brown wanted a DNA test performed after his death to confirm the paternity of James Brown II — not for Brown's sake but for the sake of the other family members.[100] In April 2007, Hynie selected a guardian ad litem whom she wants appointed by the court to represent her son, James Brown II, in the paternity proceedings.[101]
Drug abuse[edit]
For the majority of his career, Brown carried around a strict drug and alcohol-free policy with any member in his entourage, including band members, firing people who disobeyed orders, particularly those who used or abused drugs and alcohol. Some members of Brown's vocal group the Famous Flames were fired due to alcohol use. Noting of the policy, some of the original members of Brown's 1970s band, The J.B.'s, including Catfish and Bootsy Collins, intentionally got high on LSD during a concert gig in 1971, causing Brown to fire them after the show because he had suspected them to be on drugs all along.[102]
However, by the mid-1980s, it was alleged that Brown himself was using drugs. After meeting and later marrying Adrienne Rodriguez, she and Brown began using PCP ("angel dust"). The drug resulted in domestically violent outbursts from Brown and he was arrested several times for domestic violence against Rodriguez while high on the drug.[103] After a 1988 arrest from allegedly hitting his wife with a lead pipe and shooting at her in their car during an argument, Brown went on the CNN program Sonya Live in L.A. and appeared to be behaving erratically in response to questions asked by host Dr. Sonya Friedman, refusing to discuss the domestic issue with Rodriguez, instead wanting to bring more focus on his professional life. At one point during the interview, Brown began shouting out his song titles to one of Dr. Friedman's questions. The interview later went viral and led some to assume that Brown was either drunk or doped up.[104]
One of Brown's former mistresses recalled in an GQ magazine article on Brown some years after his death that Brown would smoke PCP "until that got hard to find," and cocaine, mixed with tobacco in Kools cigarettes.[105] In January 1998, he spent a week in rehab to deal with an addiction to prescription painkillers; a week following his release, he was arrested for an unlawful use of a handgun and possession of marijuana.[106]
Legal troubles[edit]
Brown's personal life was marred by several brushes with the law. At the age of 16, he was convicted of theft and served three years in juvenile prison. On July 16, 1978, after performing at the Apollo, Brown was arrested for reportedly failing to turn in records from one of his radio stations after the station was forced to file for bankruptcy.[54][107] In 1988, Brown was arrested twice, first for drugs and weapons charges in May, and later in September of that year following an alleged high-speed car chase on Interstate 20 near the Georgia-South Carolina state border. He was convicted of carrying an unlicensed pistol and assaulting a police officer, along with various drug-related and driving offenses. Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, he was eventually released in 1991 after serving only three years of his sentence. Brown's FBI file, released to The Washington Post in 2007 under the Freedom of Information Act,[108] related Brown's claim that the high-speed chase did not occur as claimed by the police, and that local police shot at his car several times during an incident of police harassment and assaulted him after his arrest.[109] Local authorities found no merit to Brown's accusations.
In another incident, the police were summoned to Brown's residence on July 3, 2000 after he was accused of charging at an electric company repairman with a steak knife when the repairman visited Brown's house to investigate a complaint about having no lights at the residence.[110] In 2003, Brown was pardoned by the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services for past crimes that he was convicted of committing in South Carolina.[111]
For the remainder of his life, Brown was repeatedly arrested for domestic violence. Adrienne Rodriguez, his third wife, had him arrested four times between 1987 and 1995 on charges of assault. In January 2004, Brown was arrested in South Carolina on a domestic violence charge after Tomi Rae Hynie accused him of pushing her to the floor during an argument at their home, where she suffered scratches and bruises to her right arm and hip. Later that year in June 2004, Brown pleaded no contest to the domestic violence incident, but served no jail time. Instead, Brown was required to forfeit a US$1,087 bond as punishment.[112]
In January 2005, a woman named Jacque Hollander filed a lawsuit against James Brown, which stemmed from an alleged 1988 rape. When the case was initially heard before a judge in 2002, Hollander's claims against Brown were dismissed by the court as the limitations period for filing the suit had expired. Hollander claimed that stress from the alleged assault later caused her to contract Graves' Disease, a thyroid condition. Hollander claimed that the incident took place in South Carolina while she was employed by Brown as a publicist. Hollander alleged that, during her ride in a van with Brown, Brown pulled over to the side of the road and sexually assaulted her while he threatened her with a shotgun. In her case against Brown, Hollander entered as evidence a DNA sample and a polygraph result, but the evidence was not considered due to the limitations defense. Hollander later attempted to bring her case before the Supreme Court but nothing became of her complaint.[113]
Death and aftermath[edit]
Death[edit]
James Brown memorial in Augusta, Georgia
On December 23, 2006, Brown became very ill and arrived at his dentist's office in Atlanta, Georgia, several hours later than his appointment for dental implant work. During that visit, Brown's dentist observed that Brown looked "very bad ... weak and dazed." Instead of performing the dental work, the dentist advised Brown to see a doctor right away about his medical condition.[114]
Brown checked in at the Emory Crawford Long Memorial Hospital the next day for a medical evaluation of his condition, and he was admitted to the hospital for observation and treatment.[115] According to Charles Bobbit, Brown's longtime personal manager and friend, Brown had had a noisy cough since he returned from a November trip to Europe. Bobbit also added that it was characteristic of Brown to never complain about being sick, and that he often performed while ill.[114][114] Although Brown had to cancel upcoming shows in Waterbury, Connecticut and Englewood, New Jersey, Brown was confident that the doctor would discharge him from the hospital in time to perform the New Year's Eve shows. For the New Year's celebrations, Brown was scheduled to perform at the Count Basie Theatre in New Jersey and at the B. B. King Blues Club in New York, in addition to performing a song live on CNN for the Anderson Cooper New Year's Eve special.[115] However, Brown remained hospitalized, and his medical condition worsened throughout that day.
On December 25, 2006, Brown died at approximately 1:45 am EST (06:45 UTC) from congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia, at age 73, with his personal manager and longtime friend Charles Bobbit at his bedside.[116] According to Bobbit, Brown stuttered "I'm going away tonight", and then Brown took three long, quiet breaths and fell asleep before dying.[117]
Memorial services[edit]
Public memorial at the Apollo Theater in Harlem
Public funeral in Augusta, Georgia, with Michael Jackson attending
After Brown's death, Brown's relatives and friends, a host of celebrities and thousands of fans attended public memorial services at the Apollo Theater in New York on December 28, 2006 and at the James Brown Arena on December 30, 2006 in Augusta, Georgia. A separate, private memorial service was also held in North Augusta, South Carolina on December 29, 2006, which was attended by Brown's family and close friends. Celebrities who attended Brown's public and/or private memorial services included Michael Jackson, Jimmy Cliff, Joe Frazier, Buddy Guy, Ice Cube, Ludacris, Dr. Dre, Little Richard, Dick Gregory, MC Hammer, Prince, Jesse Jackson, Ice-T, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bootsy Collins, LL Cool J, Li'l Wayne, Lenny Kravitz, 50 Cent, Stevie Wonder, Todd Williams and Don King, among others.[118][119][120][121] All of the public and private memorial services were officiated by Rev. Al Sharpton.[122][123]
Brown's public and private memorial ceremonies were elaborate, complete with costume changes for Brown and videos featuring him in concert performances. Brown's body, which was placed in a Promethean casket, which is bronze polished to a golden shine, was driven through the streets of New York to the Apollo Theater in a white, glass-encased horse-drawn carriage.[124][125] In Augusta, Georgia, the procession for Brown's public memorial visited Brown's statue as the procession made its way to the James Brown Arena. During the public memorial at the James Brown Arena, nachos and pretzels were served to mourners, as a video showed Brown's last performance in Augusta, Georgia and the Ray Charles version of "Georgia on My Mind" played soulfully in the background.[119][126][127] Brown's last backup band, The Soul Generals, also played the music of Brown's hits during the memorial service at the James Brown Arena. The group was joined by Bootsy Collins on bass, with MC Hammer performing a dance in James Brown style.[128] Former Temptations lead singer Ali-Ollie Woodson performed "Walk Around Heaven All Day" at the memorial services.[129]
Last will and testament[edit]
James Brown signed his last will and testament on August 1, 2000, before Strom Thurmond, Jr., an attorney for Brown's estate.[130] The irrevocable trust, separate and apart from Brown's will, was created on Brown's behalf in 2000 by his attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, who was named as one of three personal representatives of Brown's estate. Brown's will covered the disposition of his personal assets, such as clothing, cars and jewelry, while Brown's irrevocable trust covered the disposition of music rights, business assets of James Brown Enterprises and Brown's Beech Island estate in South Carolina.[131]
During the reading of Brown's will on January 11, 2007, Thurmond revealed that Brown's six adult living children (Terry Brown, Larry Brown, Daryl Brown, Yamma Brown Lumar, Deanna Brown Thomas and Venisha Brown) were named in the will. Hynie and James II were not mentioned in the will as parties who could inherit Brown's property.[130][132] Brown's will was signed ten months before James II was born and more than a year before Brown's marriage to Tomi Rae Hynie. Like Brown's will, his irrevocable trust also did not mention Hynie and James II as recipients of Brown's property. The irrevocable trust was established before, and had not been amended since, the birth of James II.[133]
On January 24, 2007, Brown's children filed a lawsuit against the personal representatives of Brown's estate. In their petition, Brown's children asked the court to remove the personal representatives of Brown's estate (including Brown's attorney and estate's trustee, Albert "Buddy" Dallas) and appoint a special administrator because of perceived impropriety and alleged mismanagement of Brown's assets.[134][135] To challenge the validity of the will and irrevocable trust, Hynie also filed a lawsuit against Brown's estate on January 31, 2007. In her lawsuit against Brown's estate, Hynie asked the court to recognize her as Brown's widow, and she also asked the court to appoint a special administrator for the estate.[136]
Legacy[edit]
James Brown received a variety of awards and honors throughout his lifetime and after his death. At one city, fans voted to honor Brown by naming a bridge after the entertainer. In 1993, the City Council of Steamboat Springs, Colorado conducted a poll of its residents to choose a new name for the bridge that crossed the Yampa River on Shield Drive. The winning name with 7,717 votes was "James Brown SoulCenter of the Universe Bridge". The bridge was officially dedicated in September 1993, and James Brown appeared at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the event.[137] Although a petition was started by a local group of ranchers to return the name of the bridge to "Stockbridge" for historical reasons, the ranchers backed off after citizens defeated their efforts because of the popularity of Brown's name. Brown returned to Steamboat Springs, Colorado on July 4, 2002 for an outdoor music festival, performing with other bands such as The String Cheese Incident.[138]
During his long career, James Brown received several prestigious music industry awards and honors. In 1983, Brown was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Brown was named as one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural induction dinner in New York on January 23, 1986. However, the members of his original vocal group, The Famous Flames (Bobby Byrd, Johnny Terry, Bobby Bennett, and Lloyd Stallworth) were not inducted.[139] However, on April 14, 2012 The Famous Flames were automatically and retroactively inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside James Brown, without the need for nomination and voting, under the premise that they should have been inducted with him back in 1986.[140][141] On February 25, 1992, Brown was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards. Exactly a year later, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th annual Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards.[142] A ceremony was held for Brown on January 10, 1997 to honor him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[142]
On June 15, 2000, Brown was honored as an inductee for the New York Songwriters Hall of Fame. On August 6, 2002, James Brown was honored as the first BMI Urban Icon at the BMI Urban Awards. His BMI accolades include an impressive ten R&B Awards and six Pop Awards.[143] On November 14, 2006, Brown was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and he was one of several inductees who performed at the ceremony.[144] In recognition of his accomplishments as an entertainer, Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors on December 7, 2003.[142] In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked James Brown as No. 7 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[145] In an article for Rolling Stone, critic Robert Christgau cited Brown as "the greatest musician of the rock era".[146]
He appeared on the BET Awards June 24, 2003, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Michael Jackson, and he would perform with him.
Brown was also honored in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia for his philanthropy and civic activities. On November 20, 1993, Mayor Charles DeVaney of Augusta held a ceremony to dedicate a section of 9th Street between Broad and Twiggs Streets, renamed "James Brown Boulevard", in the entertainer's honor.[142] On May 6, 2005, as a 72nd birthday present for Brown, the city of Augusta unveiled a life-sized bronze James Brown statue on Broad Street.[142] The statue was to have been dedicated a year earlier, but the ceremony was put on hold because of a domestic abuse charge that Brown faced at the time.[147] In 2005, Charles "Champ" Walker and the We Feel Good Committee went before the County commission and received approval to change Augusta's slogan to "We Feel Good". Afterwards, Official renamed the city's civic center the James Brown Arena, and James Brown attended a ceremony for the unveiling of the namesake center on October 15, 2006.[142]
On December 30, 2006, during the public memorial service at the James Brown Arena, Dr. Shirley A.R. Lewis, president of Paine College, a historically black college in Augusta, Georgia, bestowed posthumously upon Brown an honorary doctorate in recognition and honor of his many contributions to the school in its times of need. Brown was scheduled originally to receive the honorary doctorate from Paine College during its May 2007 commencement.[148][149]
During the 49th Annual Grammy Awards presentation held on February 11, 2007, James Brown's famous cape was draped over a microphone by Danny Ray at the end of a montage in honor of notable people in the music industry who died during the previous year. Earlier that evening, Christina Aguilera delivered an impassioned performance of one of Brown's hits, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" followed by a standing ovation, while Chris Brown performed a dance routine in honor of James Brown.[150]
On August 17, 2013, the official R&B Music Hall of Fame honored and inducted James Brown at a ceremony held at the Waetejen Auditorium at Cleveland State University.
Tributes[edit]
As a tribute to James Brown, the Rolling Stones covered the song, "I'll Go Crazy" from Brown's Live at the Apollo album, during their 2007 European tour. On September 12, 2007, barely nine months after James Brown's death, Bobby Byrd, the original leader and founder of The Famous Flames vocal group along with Brown, died of cancer at 73 years old.[151] Jimmy Page has remarked, "He [James Brown] was almost a musical genre in his own right and he changed and moved forward the whole time so people were able to learn from him."[152]
On December 22, 2007, the first annual "Tribute Fit For the King of King Records" in honor of James Brown was held at the Madison Theater in Covington, Kentucky. The tribute, organized by Bootsy Collins, featured appearances by Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D of Public Enemy, The Soul Generals, Buckethead, Freekbass, Triage and many of Brown's surviving family members. Comedian Michael Coyer was the MC for the event. During the show, the mayor of Cincinnati proclaimed December 22 as James Brown Day.[153]
Discography[edit]
For an extended list of albums, compilations and charting singles, see James Brown discography.
Notable albums
Four of James Brown's albums appeared on the Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time:[154]
Live at the Apollo (1963) (#25)
In the Jungle Groove (1986) (#330)
Star Time (1991) (#79)
20 All-Time Greatest Hits! (1991) (#414)
In addition, Brown's 1970 double album Sex Machine was ranked 96th in a 2005 survey held by British television station Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.[155] Other notable albums, originally released as double LP records, feature extensive playing by The J.B.'s and served as prolific sources of samples for later musical artists, including:
Get on the Good Foot (1972)
The Payback (1973)
Hell (1974)
The 1968 Live at the Apollo, Vol. II double LP album was notably influential on musicians at the time of its release. This classic album remains an example of Brown's energetic live performances and audience interaction, as well as providing a means of documenting the metamorphosis of his music from the R&B and soul styles into hard funk.
Notable singles
Until the early 1970s, Brown was famous mostly for his road show and singles, rather than his albums (with his live LPs as a major exception). Six of his hit singles appeared on the Rolling Stone Magazine's 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time:[156]
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (1965) (#72)
"I Got You" (1965) (#78)
"It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1966) (#123)
"Please, Please, Please" (1956) (#142)
"Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968) (#305)
"Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" (1970) (#326)
Complete singles reissue
In 2006, Hip-O Select Records began a multi-volume reissue of James Brown's complete singles (both A-sides and B-sides) on CD. Eleven volumes have been released, covering the periods 1956–60, 1960–63, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–69, 1969–70, 1970–72, 1972–73, 1973–75, 1975–79, and 1979–81.
Filmography[edit]
The T.A.M.I. Show (1964) (concert film)
Ski Party (1965)
James Brown: Man to Man (1968) (concert film)
The Phynx (1970)
Black Caesar (1973) (soundtrack only)
Slaughter's Big Ripoff (1974) (soundtrack only)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Doctor Detroit (1983)
Rocky IV (1985)
James Brown: Live in East Berlin (1989)
When We Were Kings (1996) (documentary)
Soulmates (1997)
Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
portrayed by Carlton Smith in Liberty Heights (1999)
Holy Man (1998)
Undercover Brother (2002)
The Tuxedo (2002)
The Hire: Beat The Devil (2002) (short film)
Paper Chasers (2003) (documentary)
Soul Survivor (2003) (documentary)
Sid Bernstein Presents... (2005) (documentary)
Glastonbury (2006) (documentary)
Life on the Road with Mr. and Mrs. Brown (2007) (documentary; release pending)
Live at the Boston Garden: April 5, 1968 (2008) (concert film)
I Got The Feelin': James Brown in the '60s, three-DVD set featuring Live at the Boston Garden: April 5, 1968, Live at the Apollo '68, and the documentary The Night James Brown Saved Boston
Soul Power (2009) (documentary)
Biopics[edit]
James Brown: The Man, the Message, the Music (1992), the first biopic about James Brown[citation needed]
Get on Up (2014), Mick Jagger and Brian Grazer began producing a documentary film on Brown in 2013. A fiction film had been in the planning stages for many years and was revived when Jagger read the script by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth.[157] The film Get On Up was released in theaters on August 1, 2014. Chadwick Boseman plays the role of James Brown in the film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brown
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May - August 2011
History
Before the rise of the Roman Empire, and before the fruitful era of the ancient Greeks, a great sea-faring people once dominated the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, these people were the first “colonizers” of the western world, spreading their civilization, language, culture, and DNA from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean. Ancient Phoenicia was once a rich, blossoming civilization that consisted of several cities founded along the Levantine coast, where lie modern-day Lebanon, Israel, and western Syria. Newer Phoenician cities were eventually established throughout the Mediterranean around the 8th century BC, from the islands of Cyprus, Malta, Sicily and Sardinia, to the peninsula of Gibraltar, the south of mainland Italy, Tunisia in northern Africa, and even as far west as Cádiz -- a city on the Atlantic coast of Spain. Unfortunately but true, history is often told from the biased perspective of those who are victorious, as opposed to those who are defeated. In this specific case, the fall of the great Phoenician civilization gave rise to Greece, and in turn, the Roman Empire. As such, much of what is known today about the Phoenicians and their culture has either been written by the Greeks or Romans, or has simply been lost to time. Millennia-old Phoenician cities and ports across the Mediterranean lie masked beneath the remains of later Roman cities – or worse, buried beneath large modern-day cities like Cagliari, the capital city of Sardinia.
It seems as though these so-called Phoenicians faced the unforgiving wrath of history. Well, that may true when speaking solely about archeological remains; however, what the average person does not know is that the Phoenicians have made a lasting impact on the Mediterranean region, and even more importantly, the world. The letters that you see on this page – in fact, the entire Latin, Greek, and even Arabic alphabets – are derived from the alphabet of the Phoenicians, the first written and recorded phonetic alphabet in modern history. To prove a point, the first two letters of the Phoenician alphabet were ‘aleph’ and ‘bet,’ which the Greeks soon modified into their own ‘alpha’ and ‘beta,’ while the Arabs similarly developed their own ‘alif’ and ‘be.’ The Etruscans soon adopted this innovative form of written communication, which was in turn modified and adapted by the ancient Romans to create the Latin alphabet. The first two letters of the Etruscan, then Roman, alphabet were ‘A’ and ‘B’. The Phoenicians, who were experienced and successful maritime merchants, would trade their unique alphabet with their neighbors in exchange for precious artifacts and minerals. Moreover, any purple clothing that may be occupying your closet space at this given moment can be credited to the Phoenicians who were the first to discover and create purple dye using mollusk shells from the depths of the Mediterranean. As sea-faring people, the Phoenicians mastered the Mediterranean and used it as their tool. Using wood from the abundant cedar trees of Lebanon, they were able to construct vast fleets of enormous ships that were able to carry them as far as the eastern coast of Europe and even the western coast of Africa. The art of ship making was developed and perfected by the Phoenicians. Thus, by a far stretch, we can even partially credit Columbus’s “discovery” of the Americas to the ancient Phoenicians.
Background
Almost two centuries after the fall of ancient Phoenicia, many historians adamantly argue that the inhabitants of this civilization have been lost in history, perhaps mixed in with the later populations that ruled the area; however, the key to finding what remains of these peoples lies somewhere in the Mediterranean, and the most obvious place to look: modern-day Lebanon, their original homeland. Oral tradition holds significant importance in the villages and towns along the mountainous terrain of Lebanon. As a people who were constantly under persecution and domination since the end of the Phoenician era, it only makes sense that oral tradition is the best destruction-proof way of remembering and passing down the history of this ancient country. As such, for centuries, oral tradition in parts of Lebanon has held fast to the belief that modern-day Lebanese are the descendents of their Phoenician forefathers. Although Phoenicia collapsed and faced further imperialism from neighboring civilizations, the original inhabitants of this land did not just disappear overnight. In a similar example, the collapse of ancient Rome did not simultaneously wipeout of all the Roman people. The mountainous landscape of the Levant made it difficult for most invading armies to reach the populations living in the mountain ranges of Lebanon. Thus, genetic influence from conquering neighbors was relatively minimal until the start of the Crusades; foreign powers, such as the Ottoman Empire, actually ruled ancient Phoenicia with minimal contact with the resident populations that were living in difficult-to-reach places.
It is also important to note that Lebanon’s complicated history has caused Phoenician identity to become a delicate subject. During the Lebanese civil war – a conflict primarily between Lebanon’s religious sects – some Maronite Christians in Lebanon tried to claim a unique and direct ancestry from the Phoenicians, implying that they held a more legitimate historical claim on the land than non-Christians.1 To this day, many Lebanese cower at the mention of the word ‘Phoenician.’ Lebanon must move beyond its political and sectarian strife in order to embrace the truth behind its history, a common and uniting factor amongst all Lebanese regardless of religion or lack thereof. As a Lebanese-American, I value and admire Lebanon’s rich and complex history, and as such, I believe it is a shame to ignore or erase any part of our past due to politics. It is a history that is unique from that of its neighbors, but a history that has shaped and defined Lebanon’s culture, a history that is shared with many other modern-day nation-states throughout the Mediterranean. And so, I embarked on a journey across the Mediterranean, digging deep into our Phoenician past in order to find and make known all that remains genetically, culturally, and linguistically of our ancestors. It is my belief that, to this day, various peoples throughout the Mediterranean Sea take pride in their historic Phoenician identity, something that unites all corners of this expansive sea.
Genetics and Lineage
The creators of the written alphabet may have vanished from our history books, along with all of their written records; however, their alphabet can still be found in several locations around the Mediterranean – a special kind of alphabet called DNA. In recent years, an extensive genetic research project funded by the National Geographic Society has made its way around the Levantine coast, southern Europe, the Mediterranean islands, and northern Africa in an attempt to trace the modern-day descendents of the ancient Phoenicians. After taking DNA samples from a preserved Phoenician sarcophagus, the genetic research team journeyed to the historic Phoenician port-cities of Lebanon to begin their project. It is a known fact that the Phoenicians traded all sorts of materials, from timber to wine and minerals; yet, they also carried something else with them on each of their journeys across the Mediterranean: their genes.
One of the most significant results from this genetic research project was its ability to prove that modern-day Lebanese people of all religious communities share a common ancestral identity that dates back dozens of centuries.2 These tests confirmed a theory that the Phoenicians were in fact the same people as the Canaanites – the ancestors of today’s Lebanese – that inhabited the Levant area, according to the Bible. They most likely referred to themselves as Canaanites, not Phoenicians, since ‘Phoenician’ was a title attributed to them by the Greeks. 3
The results of this genetic investigation only become more interesting as we move beyond the frontiers of Lebanon. Dr. Pierre Zalloua, one of the lead researchers in this National Geographic project, explained in an interview that the key Phoenician identifying gene is “abundantly present in the Iberian peninsula,” meaning Spain and Portugal.4 In fact, throughout the entire coastal region of the Mediterranean Sea, as many as one in 17 men is a descendent of the Phoenicians.5 Taking into account the expanse of the Mediterranean as well as the number of civilizations and peoples that have populated it through the years, it is quite shocking to discover that one in 17 men are descended from ancient Phoenicia of the Levantine region.
Halfway between Italy and Tunisia, on a little island called Malta, Phoenician lineage was identified in 30 percent of the sample population, meaning almost one in three Maltese are of Phoenician descent.6 This is a significantly large figure, considering the number of centuries that have passed and the number of invasions that Malta has witnessed in all those years. Through periods of Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, and British rule, the inhabitants of the Maltese islands astonishingly maintained a large amount of consistency in their ancestral lineage. This is arguably one of the most interesting discoveries to date regarding Phoenician ancestry, as it highlights a strong genetic relationship between the Maltese and the Lebanese.7 Many Maltese today still proudly proclaim their Phoenician ancestry, acknowledging that they are the modern-day descendents of the ancient seafarers that settled on their islands. Both the Maltese and the Lebanese, although half a sea apart, have maintained an attachment to their supposed ancestral histories, until now, a time in which science is finally able to legitimize these previously unverified ancestries.
Sailing southwest from the southern shore of Malta, we eventually reach a fabulous city known today as Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Once named Carthage, the little piece of northern African coast became the largest and chief Phoenician colony outside of Phoenicia. What happened to Carthage? After the second Punic War, Rome defeated the Carthaginian army and managed to burn the city to the ground. Although it was once a thriving Phoenician hub, today only a small number of Tunisians in Tunis are believed to be of Phoenician descent. "They left only a small [genetic] impact in North Africa," says Dr. Spencer Wells, the man credited with starting this genetic research project. No more than 20 percent of the Tunisian men sampled were found to be carrying Y-chromosomes that could have originated in ancient Phoenicia. Actually, most men were found to be carrying “the aboriginal North African [gene], M96."8 Although Rome managed to completely destroy one of the Phoenician’s largest cities, it was not able to wipe the Phoenicians off the map. Science has proven that even in a city that was burned down and completely depleted, the Phoenicians still left their genetic footprint, although minimal, two centuries later.
There is a clear and obvious genetic web that stretches across the Mediterranean Sea connecting various inhabitants from east to west. The biological aspect of Phoenician identity undoubtedly exists, but perhaps it is necessary to evaluate a more evident aspect of this identity in order to determine whether the recent scientific discoveries bear any importance to the peoples of the Mediterranean.
Culture
After the foundation of Carthage in the early 8th century B.C., the western coast of the Mediterranean began to witness the birth of numerous Phoenician colonies.9 Phoenicia’s era of colonization and sea exploration had begun.
The Phoenicians are believed to be the first people in modern historyi to settle and populate the island of Malta and its sister island, Gozo.10 Beginning in roughly 900 B.C. Malta was purely a Phoenician island, until the victory of Rome in 218 B.C. However, throughout the duration of Rome’s conquest of the islands, the inhabitants of Malta are believed to have “remained strictly Punic [Phoenician]ii in their belief” and to have “clung tenaciously to their Punic identity.”11 The Maltese people were still proudly Punic, and thus the carryover of Punic culture continued into Roman times.12 They would intentionally re-dig and re-use the tombs and burial sites of their forefathers in order to reaffirm their Phoenician identity, and perhaps out of spite to the Romans.13 First-hand literary accounts provide us with an insight into what life was like for the Phoenicians before the Romans arrived. In the first century B.C., Diodorus of Sicily described life in Punic Malta:
“It possesses many harbours which offer exceptional advantage, and its inhabitants are blest in their possessions; for it has artisans skilled in every manner of craft…and the dwellings on the island are worthy of note, being ambitiously constructed with cornices and finishes in stucco with unusual workmanship. The island is a colony planted by the Phoenicians, who, as they extended their trade in the western ocean, found in it a place of safe retreat, since it was well supplied with harbours and lay out in the open sea; and this is the reason why the inhabitants of this island, since they received assistance in many respects through the sea-merchants, shot up quickly in their manner of living and increased in renown.”14
Historical evidence, such as Diodorus’s description of Malta, proves that Phoenician culture not only thrived in Malta, but also persisted through the centuries. Their identity was a point of pride that obviously resisted the influence of change. Therefore, it is entirely possible that this attachment to their Phoenician heritage still exists today amongst the Maltese, as it does amongst many Lebanese. One historical scholar, Claudia Sagona, writes, “For at least one thousand years Malta and Gozo claimed Phoenician-Punic culture as its own; today it is an intangible presence.”15 This would explain why, while visiting Malta or Gozo, one would come across numerous restaurants, hotels, streets, and villages whose names descend directly from the Phoenicians and/or their culture. According to Professor Anthony Bonanno, professor of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta, “There is a certain amount of belief [in Malta]…maybe in certain respects pride, that the Maltese derive from the Phoenicians.”16 Additionally, yet perhaps a bit subjective, one can note similar or overlapping characteristics between the modern-day people of Malta and Lebanon that could be attributed to their common ancestors. Bonanno noted that the Maltese “tend to be very good businessmen,” a characteristic that was quite typical of the Phoenicians and is today often attributed to people of the Levantine, including Lebanese, Syrians, Jews, and Palestinians.17
Although Carthage also fell to the Romans, the persistence of a Phoenician past is almost as evident as it is in Malta. The population of the once-great city was enslaved and taken away, explains Tunisian archaeologist Nejib Ben Lazreg.18 "This doesn’t mean the culture disappeared. It had become so rooted in North Africa that it was centuries before people abandoned the language. In fact, by A.D. 193, Rome had a [Phoenician] emperor from North Africa, Septimius Severus, and he spoke with a strong Phoenician accent.”19 As in Malta, one can also locate remnants of Carthage’s Phoenician past solely by observing the names and origins of modern streets, towns, and institutions. Clearly, the Phoenician history of North Africa carries a bit of importance for some Tunisians.
Road signs, restaurants, and town throughout Spain and Sardinia also bear traces of Phoenician culture. A few towns in Spain have retained their Phoenician names to this day (with slight adaptations in pronunciation), including Carteia, Cádiz, and Málaga, and even the island of Ibiza. The entire region of Andalucía in southern Spain was once a large Phoenician region, and a lot of what the Phoenicians brought there culturally still remains today. Similarly, in Sardinia, Nora and Bithia are two towns of Phoenician origin, as well as Sulcis, the name of the southwestern province of the island.
Phoenician culture also has its remnants in contemporary religions practiced around the Mediterranean. Although the pagan populations of the Mediterranean were eventually converted to one of the three main monotheistic religions, it is quite unrealistic to assume that all of their pagan habits, traditions, or aspects of worship were completely abandoned. On the islands of Malta and Gozo there are old churches and chapels that have been built along the coastline; it is not a coincidence that many of these churches face out into the sea. The positioning of these churches is significant because it gives evidence to the lasting impact of the pagan Phoenician culture on modern-day Christianity. It was common Phoenician practice to build temples and sanctuaries along coastal promontories in order to provide either a place of prayer or a visible spiritual sanctuary for passing Phoenician sailors. This cultural habit may have been carried over into the Christian era, during which churches were built in similar positions in order to provide a place of prayer or to serve as a visible spiritual reminder for fishermen out at sea.20 Interestingly, one Phoenician sanctuary in Malta -- called Tas Silg – is known to have remained in continuous use by later religious invaders including the Byzantines, the Arabs, and the Normans.21 This was actually common practice throughout the entire Mediterranean, as many pagan temples and sanctuaries were later converted into Christian houses of worship. Additionally, one theory relating to the Phoenicians makes a claim as to why the Virgin Mary is so revered within the Catholic Church. Many Mediterranean towns and villages hold annual religious processions during which a statue of Mary is carried through the streets. This is done in reverence to the Virgin, the mother of Jesus Christ. However, more than likely, this tradition originated in pagan times, when Astarte (the most important Phoenician goddess) would be venerated with similar public processions.22 Astarte was one of the most important figures in all of the pagan Mediterranean civilizations, iii including the Greeks and the Romans. Perhaps those once-pagan people desired another important feminine figure in their new religion upon converting to Christianity. Such examples of Phoenician culture in today’s Mediterranean societies are visible indications that remnants of the ancient civilization do exist, and are still rife in the region. They can be quite obvious at times, especially when there are noticeable similarities between one country and another; however, some aspects of Phoenician culture require a little more scrutiny to figure out – the language, for example.
Language
The question remains as to whether or not the Phoenicians have left a linguistic impact in the Mediterranean aside from their written alphabet, whose adaptations have now spread across the globe. Various theories exist, some claiming that modern-day Maltese and Lebanese (a Levantine dialect of Arabic) are the two closest relatives to the Phoenician language, while others argue that the spoken Phoenician language has been completely erased. Their language once thrived throughout the region, but it is a language that is no longer spoken today exactly as it was spoken thousands of years ago. However, it has not disappeared entirely.
In the 5th century A.D., after North Africa had already been Romanized and converted to Christianity, the inhabitants of Carthage reportedly still spoke Punic (see Endnote ii). Records show that Latin churches were employing people to preach in Punic, rather than Latin, meaning that the spoken language in Tunisia before the Islamic invasions was still the Phoenician language.23 On the Maltese islands, the earliest records of language were found to be in written in Phoenician.24 The Phoenicians definitely introduced their language to Malta, and it was a language that stuck with vigor, much like in Carthage.25 “The people [in Malta] were speaking, writing, reading Phoenician/Punic for at least six hundred years. The Romanists tell us that in the first hundred years or so of Roman occupation, nobody would [have known] that the Romans were [in Malta], neither from the language nor from the inscriptions.”26 It is thus quite unreasonable to assume that the language would one day, all-of-a-sudden, disappear. “Even if the Romans Romanized Malta later on, the people of the land would still have spoken Punic.”27
Carthage and Malta shared an almost identical linguistic timeline throughout the first few centuries A.D., even through the Islamic invasions that soon after took over North Africa. The Arabs that invaded North Africa later invaded the Maltese islands, bringing with them the influence of their language, Arabic. As we have seen, records show that the Phoenician language long outlived the Phoenician era in Malta and Carthage; therefore, it must have been relatively easy for the later invading Arabs to Arabicize another prior-existing Semitic language, such as Phoenician. To make a contemporary comparison, if the Spanish were to conquer Italy, the Italian language would very easily adapt into Spanish due to their common Latin root. But when an invading civilization tries to change a language, it is almost impossible to entirely eliminate every element of the language that existed previously in the area (much like the earlier example of Christianity trying to replace the various pagan religions). Therefore, we can assume that pieces of the Phoenician language have survived through the centuries and thus still exist today in modern-day Maltese, which of course is now a mix of Phoenician, Latin, Italian, Arabic, French, English, etc. (due to Malta’s history of constant foreign domination).
But why is it that many scholars pinpoint Lebanese as the closest relative to the Maltese language? These two small countries have never had any historical connections – that is, except for the era of the Phoenicians. Professor Anthony Frendo at the University of Malta believes that these two languages are so strikingly similar due to their common ancestry.28 Lebanon’s linguistic history is similar to that of Carthage and Malta; Phoenician (later Aramaic)iv was the spoken language until the arrival of a related Semitic language – again, Arabic. Lebanon’s spoken language today is a dialect of the Arabic language, with Phoenician roots and a significant amount of Turkish, Persian, French, and English influences. The once-Phoenician language of the Levantine was transformed under heavy Arabic influence, much like the Maltese language. A large percentage of the grammar, vocabulary, and every-day verbs of the Levantine dialect of Arabic are words and rules that differ significantly from those of Classical Arabic. However, a good number of Levantine words are also shared with the Maltese language.v The same can be said about several family names that are mutual between Malta and Lebanon, yet are non-existent in many other Middle Eastern and North African countries. In fact, many Maltese scholars who have traveled to Lebanon claim that the Lebanese tongue is much closer to Maltese than any other language, in terms of the two populations being able to understand each other.29 To give an example of overlapping vocabulary, the modern Levantine and Maltese word for ‘outside’ is ‘barra,’ while the Arabic translation would be ‘khaarij.’ Since many words (and names) are shared between Lebanese (and the greater Levantine dialect) and Maltese, but not with Arabic, simple logic can deduce that the origin of these words and names must be Phoenician. Therefore, the ancestral root of modern-day Maltese and modern-day Lebanese is still Phoenician, albeit with several other languages sprinkled on top. Interestingly enough, a few of those Phoenician words that are used in Maltese and Lebanese can still be heard in parts of Tunisia, but often as a synonym to the more commonly used Arabic word. And so, millennia after the creation of the Phoenician language, its linguistic roots are still pumping blood through the veins of the Mediterranean.
The Truth Behind Phoenician Identity As It Exists Today
Acknowledging that a population has fallen under the reign of foreign imperialism does not mean that the inhabitants of that area have genetically, linguistically, or culturally transformed to become identical clones of the invading population. If that were the case, then almost all Europeans should be called Romans since Rome once dominated most of the European landmass. Many Africans would be called French and Indians would be called Brits. Drawing a parallel, we should not make the mistake of stripping the descendents of the Phoenicians from their historical identity. Their legend has suffered under the victory of the Romans and the Greeks, which is why our history books rarely mention the Phoenicians. Claudia Sagona explains it perfectly:
“The modern perception of the superiority of Greek and Roman civilization over that of Phoenician-Punic culture has led to an entrenched view that the Greeks colonized the west prior to Phoenicia, even though the Greeks themselves recognized that Phoenicians had preceded them.”30
The Phoenicians were one among the most intelligent and well-accomplished civilizations to ever populate this planet. It would be a disgrace and a mistake to erase them from our past.
Although it may be an ancient, complex, and extremely diverse region of the world, the Mediterranean still retains what the Phoenicians once had. There is a cohesive gene pool, cultural remnants, and ancient linguistic roots that together exist to make up the modern Phoenician identity. If these things remain, then the Phoenicians have not been lost to history. From Lebanon, to Italy, to Malta, to Spain and Tunisia, thrives a proud understanding of what links these diverse nations. Regardless of nationality or religious background, and regardless of whether or not these people proudly and publicly claim it as they do in Malta or in Lebanon, the fact remains: our past was still Phoenician.
1 Rick Gore, “Who Were the Phoenicians?” National Geographic Magazine Oct. 2004, 26 May 2011.
2 Tom Perry, “In Lebanon DNA may yet heal rifts,” Reuters 10 Sept. 2007, 28 May 2011.
3 Gore, “Who Were the Phoenicians?”
4 Perry, “In Lebanon DNA may yet heal rifts.”
5 Paul Rincon, “DNA legacy of ancient seafarers,” BBC News 31 Oct. 2008, 27 July 2011.
6 Perry, “In Lebanon DNA may yet heal rifts.”
7 Salim George Khalaf, “Proving History Through Science,” Phoenicia.org 3 Feb. 2011.
8 Gore, “Who Were the Phoenicians?”
9 Piero Bartoloni, Archeologia Fenicio-Punica in Sardegna (Cagliari, Italy: CUEC, 2009) 23.
10 Claudia Sagona, et al., Punic Antiquities of Malta (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters-Leuven, 2006) 13.
11 Ibid., 14.
12 Anthony J. Frendo, Personal Interview, 8 June 2011.
13 Claudia Sagona, et al., Punic Antiquities of Malta, 13.
14 Claudia Sagona, et al., Punic Antiquities of Malta, 12.
15 Claudia Sagona, et al., The Archeology of Punic Malta (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters-Leuven, 2002) 1.
16 Anthony Bonanno, Personal Interview, 6 June 2011.
17 Anthony Bonanno.
18 Gore, “Who Were the Phoenicians?”
19 Ibid.
20 George Azzopardi. Personal Interview, 31 May 2011.
21 Claudia Sagona, et al., The Archeology of Punic Malta, 274.
22 Andrew Galea. Personal Interview, 20 June 2011.
23 Anthony J. Frendo.
24 Anthony Bonanno.
25 Ibid.
26 Anthony J. Frendo.
27 Ibid.
28 Anthony J. Frendo.
29 Anthony Bonanno.
30 Claudia Sagona, et al., The Archeology of Punic Malta, 26.
Endnotes
i Prehistoric nomads are known to have lived on the Maltese islands. However, the first modern human inhabitants of the islands were the Phoenicians.
ii The word “Punic” is derived from the Latin word “Poeni” which itself is a derivation from the Greek word “Phoinikes,” meaning Phoenicians. The title “Punic” is often used to refer to the populations of Phoenicians that left their homeland to settle around the Mediterranean.
iii Astarte (pronounce ‘Ashtart’ in Phoenician) was the goddess of fertility, sexuality, and war. She had many symbols, including the lion, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle. She was referred to as Aphrodite by the Greeks, Isis by the Egyptians, and Venus by the Romans.
iv The Aramaic language was an adaptation of the language spoken by the Canaanites, or Phoenicians. The Aramaic language was formed by the 8th century BC. Aramaic was the lingua franca of much of the Middle East before the conquest of the Arabs, who spread the Arabic language. Today in the Levant, only a few thousand people still speak dialects of Aramaic.
v Not much research has been carried out or published concerning the linguistic relationship between Lebanese and Maltese. However, throughout the duration of my research in the Mediterranean, I intentionally spent quite some time recording verbs, prepositions, grammatical concepts, vocabulary, family names, etc. that are almost identical, if not exactly the same, between Lebanese and Maltese.
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Salim is from Shalim, Phoenician god of dusk, whose place was Urushalim/Jerusalem
"A Bequest Unearthed, Phoenicia" — Encyclopedia Phoeniciana
Phoenician International Research Center (PIRC)
Read more: Rediscovering Ancient Phoenicia: The Truth Behind Phoenician Identity in the Mediterranean http://phoenicia.org/Rediscovering_Ancient_Phoenicia.html#ixzz3IEimaiN5
http://phoenicia.org/Rediscovering_Ancient_Phoenicia.html
common_man
Wikipedia: BREASTS NOT BOMBS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry_Glaser
She needs to talk with Mr. Vladimir Putin, please.
common_man
Stephanie, in time we will know all we seek to understand.
Football is in 2014 our greatest sport as a species. Yet it is
the most dangerous to the fans, from fanatics ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_hooliganism
The worst fanaticism was the Nika Riots in 532 AD at the chariot races in the hippodrome of what is modern Istanbul. Maybe 30 000 died in the violence,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots
Nowadays, we can enjoy these emotional events vicariously through technology and survive, which is our highest natural law.
common_man
Dear Stephanie, I cannot yet use Google voice recognition translation, but for a computer scientist it should be second nature. I see it has closed captions in Spanish and has a musical score. One could translate each expression using translate.google.com for each phrase. It is dramatic and exciting. Buena suerte.
From prison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Althea,_from_Prison
WHEN Love with unconfinèd wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair 5
And fetter'd to her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.
When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames, 10
Our careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free—
Fishes that tipple in the deep 15
Know no such liberty.
When, like committed linnets, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my King; 20
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlargèd winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.
Stone walls do not a prison make, 25
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free, 30
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.
common_man
On languages:
(Chinese characters show fine in preview mode, but are shown as question marks when published. Sorry. But at least there are the four tones marked by number on the Pinyin.)
Thank you, fellow wayfarer, for appreciated increase in historical knowledge and hopefully UNDERSTANDING.
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countrynames_chinese.htm
Here's something that may someday be important in the Americas:
Asia China
___ Chinese Country Names
List of Chinese Names of Nation-States in Simplified Chinese and Hanyu Pinyin romanization (pinyin with numbers).
List arranged alphabetically by English names of country.
The list is provided in Unicode (charset=UTF-8), you need fonts to display Simplified Chinese. Below a small test.
Unicode Image
?? Zhongguo
Zhongguo (China) What you should see
Keywords: Chinese country names, Hanyu Pinyin Romanization, English country names, local country name
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4
Countries: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S TU V Y Z
English Name
Chinese Name
Pinyin
Local Name
A
Afghanistan ??? a1 fu4 han4 Afghanestan
Albania ????? a1 er3 ba1 ni2 ya4 Shqiperia
Algeria ????? a1 er2 ji2 li4 ya4 Al Jaza'ir
Andorra ??? an1 dao4 er3 Andorra
Angola ??? an1 ge1 la1 Angola
Anguilla ??? an1 gui1 la1 Anguilla
Antarctica ??? nan2 ji2 zhou1 Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda ??????? an1 ti2 gua1 he2 ba1 bu4 da2 Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina ??? a1 gen1 ting2 Argentina
Armenia ???? ya4 mei3 ni2 ya4 Hayastan
Aruba ??? a1 lu2 ba1 Aruba
Australia ???? ao4 da4 li4 ya4 Australia
Austria ??? ao4 di4 li4 Österreich
Azerbaijan ???? a1 sai4 bai4 jiang1 Azarbaycan
B
Bahamas ??? ba1 ha1 ma3 Bahamas
Bahrain ?? ba1 lin2 Al Bahrayn
Bangladesh ???? meng4 jia1 la1 guo2 Bangladesh
Barbados ???? Ba1 ba1 duo1 si1 Barbados
Belarus ???? bai2 e2 luo2 si1 Byelarus
Belgium ??? bi3 li4 shi2 Belgique/Belgie
Belize
??? bo2 li4 zi1
Belize
Benin ?? bei4 ning2 Benin
Bermuda ????? bai3 mu4 da2 Bermuda
Bhutan ?? bu4 dan1 Bhutan
Bolivia ???? bo1 li4 wei2 ya4 Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina ???? - ????? bo1 si1 ni2 ya4 - hei1 se4 ge1 wei2 na4 Bosna i Hercegovina
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?????
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common_man
Why some doctors are in favour of medical cannabis.
by Bianca Nogrady
The politics of medical cannabis may be complicated. But for some people it makes a world of difference in relieving pain, nausea, seizures, and other symptoms.
With the recent political debate around medical cannabis trials, you could be forgiven for thinking that the notion was something altogether new.
In fact, cannabis has been used medicinally for thousands of years in India and Asia. It was introduced to western medicine in the mid-nineteenth century by an Irish doctor William O'Shaughnessy, upon his return from service in India, and become a popular therapy around the world.
Even former US president Richard Nixon's 1972 National Commission on 'marihuana' supported studies of its use in the treatment of conditions such as glaucoma, migraine and cancer (although Nixon subsequently ignored his own Commission's findings and instead declared a 'war on drugs').
The criminalisation of marijuana saw it swiftly fall from medical favour. However, it seems that medical cannabis's star is once again rising, with some evidence suggesting it may offer considerable relief in conditions where few other treatments are able to help.
Making people more comfortable
Cannabis's therapeutic benefits stem from the way it stimulates with the body's own method of making us feel good, known as the endocannabinoid system, explains Emeritus Professor of Anaesthesia Laurence Mather, from the Northern Clinical School at the University of Sydney.
"The endocannabinoid system in the body is not a pain relieving system like the endorphin system, like for morphine-type things, it's more a general wellbeing system, and it works by making people feel more comfortable with themselves," Mather says.
"It doesn't ablate pain, it makes the body more accepting."
Cannabis helps with a very specific type of pain that does not appear to respond well to pain relieving treatments, such as opioids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS).
"It does not work, for example, in post-operative pain … and in acute pain such as from a surgical incision," Mather says.
However, it is showing considerable promise in treating what is called 'neuropathic pain', which generally refers to pain that stems from diseased or damaged nerves. For example, researchers in the United States are testing the use of cannabis to treat the pain associated with sickle cell disease – a condition in which mutated blood cells can cause lifetime chronic pain that has been described as being worse than the pain of labour or cancer.
No-one's smoking anything
It's estimated thousands of Australians are risking arrest by using cannabis for medical reasons. A national clinical trial has been announced but legalisation could be many years away, and then for expensive pharmaceutical drugs only. RN's Background Briefing investigates the science and the politics of medical cannabis.
Stimulating appetite
The appetite stimulating effects of marijuana – more commonly known as 'the munchies' – have also proven useful in countering the bodily wasting associated with a range of conditions from HIV/AIDS to cancer.
"That was observed back in the '60s and '70s, particularly by the recreational users of the time … they noticed the incidence of weight gain was more favourable in those that used cannabis than others," Mather says.
This observation led to the development of a drug called dronabinol, which is a synthetic version of the main psychoactive component of cannabis – tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This drug is used not only to treat weight loss associated with HIV/AIDS and cancer, but also the nausea and vomiting often associated with cancer therapies.
Other conditions
While THC is the most famous of cannabis ingredients, it is not the only one proving beneficial in the medical arena. Another drug, nabiximols, an oral spray which is available in Australia under the brand name of Sativex, contains both THC and cannabidiol, and is used for the treatment of muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis.
Given cannabis's potential to alter our mood, thinking and behaviour, it should come as no surprise that it's also being investigated for treatment of psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. A recent US study found a 75 per cent reduction in PTSD symptoms with the use of medical cannabis, and in many US states medical cannabis is approved for use in individuals with PTSD.
There is also growing support for the use of cannabis to treat severe childhood epilepsies, such as Dravet's syndrome, with anecdotal evidence from parents suggesting cannabis drastically reduced the frequency of their children's seizures.
Fewer side effects
Likewise, some argue that medical cannabis could provide a much safer and more pleasant alternative to the existing pain relief options used in palliative care.
"The side effects of many things that are used for treating these conditions such as heavy duty pain and things of that kind – treating them with opioids or treating with NSAIDS – are far more dire than they are from cannabis," says Mather.
"People can die from morphine, they stop breathing; people can die from paracetamol because it buggers their livers, people can die from NSAIDS because it buggers their kidneys, but cannabis doesn't do any of these things."
Like any drug, cannabis has its side effects, although what's interesting with medical cannabis is that the effects most sought after by recreational users are generally the effects most avoided by medical users, says emergency medicine specialist Dr David Caldicott, from the Australian National University and Calvary Hospital in Canberra.
"The product that is beginning to emerge globally is one that is bred and used for largely recreational purposes and so these are strains now which contain a much higher concentration of the psychoactive component, which is THC, and that isn't necessarily the most useful component," says Caldicott.
"Many people who consume this product medicinally actually don't like this effect, they choose strains, say for example in the US, that are much lower in THC concentration and higher in the cannabidiol concentrations."
In parts of the world where medical cannabis is legal, considerable effort has gone into developing strains of marijuana that are carefully tailored for medical use, to reduce the unwanted side effects and boost the more desirable ingredients.
Lack of good data
But medical cannabis presents a conundrum for medical professionals. Its illegality in large parts of the world means most medical users are self-medicating and this also makes it a difficult drug to study in clinical trials.
As a consequence, a significant proportion of medical cannabis research is based on self-reported use and outcomes, rather than large, carefully-designed, randomised trials, says Professor Ian Olver, head of the Cancer Council Australia.
"Probably two decades ago I remember sitting on a panel that reviewed the evidence [for medical cannabis], and in most cases the evidence is anecdotal," says Olver. As a result, he is cautious about the idea of more widespread availability of medical cannabis but acknowledges that there may be some patients for whom it is their only recourse to relief.
"If you've got a patient who's been through conventional therapy and has not responded, you're sympathetic to them if they find something that's worked, but that's quite different to saying something should be widely available for everyday use of pain," he says.
Olver says there is also concern about the possible side effects of smoking marijuana, even for medical purposes, as this could introduce cancer-causing chemicals into the lungs.
However Caldicott says there are other methods of delivery being considered, such as e-cigarettes, which would not only be more palatable for non-smokers but could avoid the potential side-effects of smoking. The active components of cannabis can also be infused into tinctures, which could be a useful option for use in children.
Ultimately, the medical cannabis debate is not about making it widely available for a broad range of health conditions – as currently occurs in many states in the US – but about giving a small number of patients an option where they may have none.
"Medical cannabis is never going to replace paracetamol," says Caldicott.
"We're not talking about the sky falling in, we're talking about a niche market which would be very tightly regulated."
Published 27/10/2014
More info
No-one's smoking anything - Background Briefing, ABC RN
Fact file: Cannabis - ABC Health & Wellbeing
email a friendemail ABC Health & Wellbeing
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L Chapman :
27 Oct 2014 7:53:39pm
A lot changes in two decades. A lot of research gets done in two decades. A simple search in Google Scholar will show up multi-centre double-blind randomised trials for the efficacy of cannabis for relieving pain.
Not to mention the safety. Dr. Caldicott mentions that cannabis won't replace paracetamol, but perhaps it should be a second-line treatment, before things like hydrocodone and oxycodone, though the administration of cannabis seems to be safer than all of these drugs.
Reply Alert moderator
John Wills :
27 Oct 2014 8:29:58pm
There are many measures within this debate that have no research to substantiate their end.
The strange aspect is that cannabis has been a partner to man since it's growth in the middle Asiatic region dating way back.
What has changed is the reason for use, I suspect pain management has always been!.
The difference today is who has hijacked this excuse in rationalizing sales of what has become a THC dominant need.
Cleary CBD has dominated research within chronic pain and epilepsy, what we see now is an attempt of promotion of both parts of weed by those who unknowingly benefit on both sides of it's impact.
Yes I do support High CBD Cannabis but not High or equal ratio CBD/THC given the psychosis forming effects of THC.
Cheers
JW
As Caldicott said.
"We're not talking about the sky falling in, we're talking about a niche market"
CBD dominant cannabinoids are what he is mentioning.
Reply Alert moderator
jimheffner :
27 Oct 2014 9:50:57pm
If Cannabis needs to be tightly regulated it would be only fair that every nostrum in the FDA pharmacopeia that has more deaths than Cannabis should be just as regulated. That includes all the over the counter non-prescription items in our stores like aspirin and antacids. Stop the lies and legalize.
Reply Alert moderator
Me of wherever :
28 Oct 2014 8:53:44am
At 75 and in bad pain with arthritis and D.I.S.H I would welcome the relieve with Medical Cannabis. I am trying to get some even now so I can have some respite. If it is possible to Legalize it please do.
Reply Alert moderator
DRex :
28 Oct 2014 9:06:12am
The push for access to legal cannabis comes from enthusiasts for their favorite intoxicant. Cars drive around with bumper stickers for beer, Jesus, you name it whatever the favourite intoxicant is, on them. Have the guts to say what the real agenda is and don't prostitute medicine to legitimise its use
Reply Alert moderator
http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/stories/2014/10/27/4115279.htm
common_man
Here below is what Kaiser Permanente says about ebola. (They are a health maintenance organization in the western United States.)
A message from Kaiser Permanente about Ebola
The outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa and recent cases here in the United States are serious. We want you to know that Kaiser Permanente is monitoring the situation closely and taking direct action in response to be sure we’re ready. As always, your health and well-being are our top priorities.
Most public health experts continue to believe it’s very unlikely that Ebola will become an epidemic in the U.S. Even so, we’re committed to being prepared in the rare event the virus does spread beyond the recent cases in Texas.
What is Kaiser Permanente doing to prepare?
We’re dedicated to protecting our patients, members, physicians, nurses, and entire staff. We’ve taken a wide range of steps to be ready to safely evaluate and treat anyone who might have Ebola:
We’re meeting or exceeding all recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and are working closely with public health officials. This includes making sure our caregivers have the right equipment and training in case they do need to treat a patient with Ebola.
We’ve updated our clinical procedures and training protocols based on the latest information from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the handful of cases here in the U.S.
We’re following national and state standards for early detection and care.
We have an expert team of infectious disease and emergency management specialists overseeing the process to make sure our patients and staff are protected.
What to do if you have symptoms or think you’ve been exposed
Public health experts have confirmed that Ebola can only be spread through direct contact with the body fluids of someone sick with Ebola, or objects contaminated with the virus (like needles).
This means:
Ebola is NOT spread through casual contact.
Ebola can only be spread when people who have the virus are actively showing symptoms.
If you recently traveled to Sierra Leone, Guinea, or Liberia and have a fever or are otherwise ill, or you’ve been in contact with someone who was diagnosed with Ebola, call our appointment and advice line for additional instructions at 1-888-256-2039.
Please call us before coming to a Kaiser Permanente facility. This will help our medical staff direct you to the right location and quickly provide you with the best care possible. However, if you reasonably believe you’re experiencing a medical or psychiatric emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.
What are the symptoms?
The most important early symptom of Ebola in someone who’s been exposed to the virus is a fever. Patients may also have: headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, lack of appetite, or abnormal bleeding. Symptoms may appear anytime from 2 to 21 days after exposure to the Ebola virus, though 8 to 10 days is most common.
For more information
Visit kp.org for updates about Ebola from Kaiser Permanente. For the latest information, including details about prevention and symptoms, please visit the CDC website.
common_man
Look out Amazon... never mind the folks that will take pot-shots at the drones...Nature is fighting back!
“Magpies” (actually not corvids at all in Oz) and Quadcopters
Snowy plover making a comeback on Pacific coast
Dear fuagf,
Possibly a non sequitur to stars and supernovae; however everything seems to be connected on one level or another.
I perused-read in the Bellingham, WASHINGTON STATE newspaper that a species of avian bird is coming back. I tried to comment, but I up until now have refused to join any corporate social medium site to comment.
Here's the text: LEADBETTER POINT, WASH. — A tiny shorebird that nearly went extinct is making a comeback thanks to a $150 million habitat restoration effort.
The Longview Daily News reports (http://is.gd/XrexPy ) officials in Washington counted a record high 67 western snowy plovers in their last count in January. Oregon and Washington together, which are counted as a single recovery unit by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, had more than 250 breeding pairs this year.
Researchers found 28 nests on the Long Beach Peninsula this year compared to 10 last year.
A biologist for the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge cautions to not plan a celebration yet, because numbers fluctuate over time.
But wildlife official say the work to improve about 250 acres of the plovers' habitat has also helped other species, including elk, deer, raptors and a type of flowering plant that has not been seen in this state in 60 years.
Fish and Wildlife plans to add another 200 acres to that amount over the next 10 years.
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/10/05/3896092_snowy-plover-making-a-comeback.html?sp=/99/101/369/&rh=1#storylink=cpy
My comment WAS going to be simple without any individual ad hominem attacks.
WE MUST HAVE RESPECT FOR ALL LIFE, EVEN FOR POISONOUS SPECIES LIKE SOME Homines sapientes.
Although I have never lived in Bellingham, some of my tribe have gone to college there. And after reading the following article, I would like trying to spend my last days there near Bellingham in Whatcom County next to the border with British Columbia, Canada.
Owner of Blaine inn offers pot tours - but no toking allowed.
BLAINE — Pot tourists can learn about the medical and recreational sides of the marijuana industry in Whatcom County during four-hour tours that begin this month.
Bob Boulé, owner of Smuggler’s Inn Bed and Breakfast in Blaine, is launching the tours for guests of the inn. Tours cost $175 per person. Participants must be 21 years old.
The point of the tours is to learn, not to get high.
“It’s not a party type situation at all,” Boulé said. “What we’re trying to do is get people who are interested, who have a need to learn more. We’re stressing the educational part.”
The inn has a 38-foot stretch limo that can seat 14 people.
Boulé said he was launching the tours because he had received a number of queries, including from people who wanted to change the pot laws where they live.
“We were getting calls from other states and countries trying to find out more,” he said. “These people are also looking at if it’s successful in this state, would they be able to take that knowledge and those connections back to their state about changing things.”
So far, Washington is just one of two states to legalize recreational marijuana. And it’s among the 23 states to allow medical marijuana; the District of Columbia also has approved medical pot.
Tour-goers will learn about recreational and medical pot, including meeting local growers and going to local retail pot stores; hydroponics supplies; edibles; and glass blowers, who make paraphernalia such as pipes and bongs.
Recreational pot growers are just getting going in Whatcom County, so that portion of the tour may focus on medical growers for now.
“It’s the recreational people who don’t have enough supply to do the tour type thing. They could if the tours are small, but if I brought in 14 people it could be a little overwhelming for them,” Boulé explained.
In August, state regulators told tour bus companies that state law and federal safety regulations banned consuming or otherwise using marijuana on their vehicles.
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission issued the notice after a number of transportation companies applied for permits to offer marijuana-themed services. Charter companies that don’t comply will lose their state permit.
The commission currently regulates three charter companies in the state that offer marijuana tours. They are Good & Goods, doing business as The Original Cannabus; Ride the Cannabus; and Kush Tourism. None are based in Whatcom County.
But those regulations apply to larger charters, not Boulé’s smaller limo service.
Still, Smuggler’s Inn is licensed as a non-smoking facility, and the non-smoking rule extends to transportation for guests.
That means, for example, that tour-goers won’t be able to smoke marijuana in the limo or inside their rooms at the inn, but they will be able to consume their edibles in those locations. As for lighting up, they’ll be able to do that at designated outdoor areas on inn property.
Book a tour by calling Boulé at 360-332-1749.
Reach Kie Relyea at 360-715-2234 or kie.relyea@bellinghamherald.com.
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/09/10/3849341/owner-of-blaine-inn-offers-marijuana.html#storylink=cpy
common_man
Dear fuagf,
Your writing is so kind to introduce us readers to the great down under like gimme a home among the gum trees did.
Unknown writer on Craigslist (anonymously reported to DHS):
SURVIVAL
HOW TO SURVIVE MARTIAL LAW
This article will start off assuming that the Reader is already subject to MARTIAL LAW; that is, the "suspension" of the Constitution. Curfews, rationing of basic goods, enforced relocations, confiscation of firearms and supplies, and summary arrest/execution by soldiers, paramilitary police and other jack booted types wielding assault rifles. Basic survival tips will be followed with some detailed ideas on how this country should be run once we take over. IF you're reading this before MARTIAL LAW is imposed by the current corrupt government, and IF you are reading this while you're still nominally under Constitutional Law, it's urgent you read from the beginning to end so as to appreciate the opportunities you currently have to not only protect yourself and yours, but to attempt to stop all of this from ever happening.
Rule #1 Never take the government's word at face value-except when they tell you that they'll kill you. Government and it's components of career politicians, bureaucratic vermin, and their agents of enforcement, the SS ninja wannabes, have survived on illusion and lies, and for a lot longer than you'd think. It's the very nature of the job; being part of an empire wrapped in the cloak of American political traditions of Freedom, that corrupts. All that power, attracting the most venal along with the most patriotic to defend America. All that license under ever mutable law written by money whores to lie, steal, embezzle, blackmail, extort, poison, torture, enslave, murder. Is it any wonder then that such human scum would get together and work "the system" to set themselves up as kings, dispensing with the pretty coverings of Constitutional limitations that trip their crimes like a prom dress? They take as much as they can, while keeping YOU ASLEEP, AS YOU LET YOURSELF BE SEDUCED AND PUT ASLEEP BY THEIR FELLOW TRAVELERS IN THE MEDIA AND CORPORATE BOARDROOMS.
Rule #2 KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! Do NOT tell anyone anything that could get you in trouble. Assume anything can get you in trouble, because it probably will. Especially with any government official, but anyone looking to gaining a favor with the state can and will snitch on you. The rat who would sell you out for his thirty pieces could be: *A small businessman looking for a in with the state so he can make money a little easier. *A former friend who's looking to get some revenge. *Someone desperate for even some food. Times are tough and will get tougher. Again, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! Review the remaining rules of surviving MARTIAL LAW with Rule #2 ALWAYS in mind. Because some rat on two legs you say the wrong thing to, WILL snitch to the "authorities" in exchange for favors or even brownie points, and then you get to find out how ironclad Rule #1 is. KEEP YOUR BIG MOUTH SHUT!!
Rule #3 ANY AUTHORITY FIGURE IS THE ENEMY! Unless you are waging a war of liberation-gathering intelligence or spreading disinformation or infiltrating-have no relation with nor voluntary contact with any soldier, police officer, bureaucrat, or anyone in authority in private life cooperating with MARTIAL LAW. Review Rule #1: Assume they're all liars, con artists, hustlers, thieves, and sellouts. Same goes to any fellow travelers in big business; they and government have been in the same bed for centuries. Stay away from them as much as possible. Tell them lies. Don't do any business with them. Unless they're sticking a gun in your face don't even acknowledge that they exist. Shun them, their family and any sycophants that fawn over them for a few favors.
Rule #4 YOUR PERSONAL SURVIVAL IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OBEYING ANY DICTATE! If you're prohibited from having an item that helps you survive, get the item, review Rule #2 AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. If you're prohibited from having extra food, medicine, guns (no brainer) then you will CACHE your prohibited items in a place where they won't easily be found. Use your imagination. One idea is to store "whatever" in sealtight waterproof containers in remote wooded areas, known ONLY TO YOU! Firearms are metallic; they can be detected by metal detectors unless you store them deep underground or in a place they won't think of looking right away, like sealed in wider metallic tubes, away from your property. And if you by chance acquire or keep firearms knowing HOW TO USE THEM(sight alignment, trigger squeeze) and RELOADING AMMUNITION will be mandatory. IF YOU'VE NEVER USED A GUN BEFORE, To use a gun, first find the PROPER AMMUNITION FOR IT. After loading, pointed end forward, the ammo into the magazine, cylinder, or chamber load the weapon. On semiautomatic pistols if the slide-that moving part on top-is locked back there's a small lever on the left side of the gun. Push on it and it will close. Otherwise you'll have to pull the slide back yourself. Pistols are concealable, rifles and shotguns are for starting a fight. Shotguns you load from a port on the underside, behind the fore stock or it breaks open. Rifles come in several varieties; single shot, pump, bolt action, automatic, and feed from the chamber, a internal magazine or has a detaching magazine. The rifle you want first and foremost is a automatic rifle in a military common caliber. That coupled with proper marksmanship transforms you from a victim to a freedom fighter.
Rule #5 While keeping the above rules in mind, HELP OUT THOSE WHO ARE RESISTING! They, unlike you, have decided that there's nothing to lose and therefore deserve anyone's help who's willing to risk their lives. Do you think MARTIAL LAW is going away on it's own? Those bastards in black will have a sudden change of heart and do something worthwhile for a change and not oppress you? At The VERY LEAST: have extra food, water for resistance fighters, basic medical supplies, ammo caches(hint, these should be concealed). Those who fight will need to keep hidden, yet be able to communicate with fellow fighters. You can be a intermediary. If you have skills, like welding, machine tools, chemistry, you can make weapons, ammo, other things the resistance needs. If you have inside information, share it. If you have videography experience, tools, Make how-to videos on resisting the theft of your freedoms. If You have medical training, Set up a underground hospital. Not all Patriots can or should pick up a rifle and blow a traitor's head off. By uniting in common cause with all one has to offer the traitors can be defeated, and Freedom restored to the land. If you're not at least giving aid to those helping to liberate you, forget this article, go back to being a victim of government oppression.
Rule #6 With the utmost care develop a SURVIVAL NETWORK. This is a group of people with skills and/or resources who can help each other in areas they would be lacking on their own. It could be anything from extra food, medicine, repair parts, fuel, transportation-whatever. In any given neighborhood you can have machinists(weapon makers), medical personel, drivers(good knowledge of local roads), gardeners(agriculture knowledgebase). Petty bureaucrats secretly opposing martial law are prime candidates to spy, steal, or commit sabotage. Computer technicians can hack government systems and create surveillance systems and guidence packages for missiles. Construction workers can build secret rooms to hide anything from a arms cache to a secret factory. People in the media can smuggle cameras and work with computer techs to bug enemy meetings, and produce freedom media that documents sucessful means of resisting. Salesmen can "borrow" merchandise from their stores for use, anything and everything is useful. Especially useful will be disgruntled cops and military who can provide everything from intel on raids to weapons to training. Keep the numbers of your group "small": smaller cells are more difficult to penetrate by enemy agents and professional snitches. Keeping that in mind, a means of communication independent from wiretapped phones and audible eavesdropping devices must be developed amongst you. Runners can be a athlete or a kid on a bike. They can carry small packages, or notes with a handy breakable vial of flammable liquid if discovered. With a sealed packet of potassium chlorate taped to it, the gasoline will automatically ignite, otherwise you'll have to actually light that incriminating evidence.
A mail drop can be a home, a hollowed out tree trunk, a hole in the ground, a open fence pole, anything. Just be sure it's discreetly out of sight of surveillance. If God's really blessing you, one of your group will be a SMART SURVIVALIST. This will be a exceedingly rare breed, because although most in this group were smart enough to prepare for the collapse to begin with, they WEREN'T smart enough to avoid detection of their awareness and distrust of government. They signed form 4477 registration forms for their firearms, used credit cards and checks for their weapon and ammunition purchases, registered for weapons permits, or registered themselves with gun clubs and shooting organizations. These people more than likely got swept up in pre-dawn raids or got blasted resisting. The SMART SURVIVALIST prepared-and kept his mouth shut about those preperations. He or she never signed federal permit forms for purchases or carry license. He or she presented a "average American" profile or totally disappeared. Get or find one in your group and you'll have a literal treasury of knowhow and resources to survive, maybe even start taking back a little?
Rule #7 AVOID GOVERNMENT MONITORING AND CONTROL! Know where the cameras are and how to avoid them. Know who patrols where, and what routine they follow so as to avoid contact. Know your snitches and always feed them b.s. if you can't avoid them. Find ways around checkpoints. Side streets, forest paths, neighbor's yard, railroad tracks, tunnels; whatever go arounds nessesary to getting from point a to point b without a pack of government troops searching you, checking your ID. I can't and won't go into detail, how you find your way will be up to you.
Rule #8 AVOID A GOVERNMENT ROUNDUP. It could be from a disaster, an attack, or even because they've decided to end the pretense and show you what they really think of you and your "rights". You'll just wind up in a detention camp where your freedom of movement and resources will be strictly controlled. That means having a place to go away from your area, a means to get there, and supplies. Very difficult to do in a martial law situation, with shortages and rationing at gunpoint. Remember the victims of Hurricane Katrina? Remember how they were set up to be stranded in New Orleans by the government? How they were constantly baited with false hope of rescue for a week after the catastrophe? How they eventually were herded by FEMA into concentration camps? You disregard Rule #1, you'll find out. Get a safe house of your own, an abandoned home, an empty storefront or even a patch of woods. When the troops start going street to street, house to house have escape routes by lesser used streets, trails, whatever. You may have to go on foot, so have a light backpack with a few days worth of nonperishable food, portable water purifier, a first aid kit, a light sleeping bag-and your weapon. A mountain bike may be a more optimal and versatile escape mode than your road-dependent car. Better to be on the run, desperate-and have your freedom-than be imprisoned in a FEMA slave camp.
Rule #9 Find a way you can successfully resist. Probably not with guns or bombs, but there's plenty of ways you can monkeywrench the basic functioning of the state during MARTIAL LAW. If you work for the state you have plenty of opportunities to mess things up, but even private firms are subcontracted by the government. You know who's just earning a paycheck, who's backing this war against the people, and who's getting off on "just following orders". If you can take action, great, concentrate most of your planning on getting away with the job. Otherwise, get contacts with Patriots and be the most reliable source of intelligence you can be. Every bit of drag on the government beast helps, perhaps in botching that paperwork, breaking that surveillance camera in disguise, or misdirecting that bureaucrat or soldier cop. That act might be the beginning of a butterfly effect of bringing down the state of MARTIAL LAW and restoring Freedom to our nation. Always keep that in mind. You must find your own way, but find it you must, if you want what was stolen from you back!
As far as a detailed list, here's what I have:
1. A sturdy army surplus backpack.
2. A first aid kit, including bandages, iodine, alcohol, gauze and painkillers.
3. Close range "melee" type weapons. I have a hand made bearded axe that will go through solid walls, a weldor's chipping hammer (nasty looking thing), bowie knife, and assorted pocket knives. 4. Long range weapons. You will need a rifle, not a sniper's rifle. Choose somthing that uses common ammunition, somthing you will not have a problem finding in looted sporting good stores, dead bodies and trashed houses. Choose somthing lite that you can strap to your back and above all MAKE SURE YOU KNOW HOW TO USE IT.
5. Clothing. At least one set each of hot weather and cold weather clothing, you can always ditch what you don't need.
6. Boots. A sturdy new pair of military combat boots, preferrably steel toes. Trust me on the steel toes, when you're stuck with no weapons you'll be glad you have them. Make sure they are comfortable and broken in. Water proof boots are good for woodland areas, for areas like bayous and such make sure you have vietnam era jungle boots.
7. Manuals. When you're on the run, starving, and out of water you won't be thinking clearly, manuals are a good way to ensure you will not forget important information. I currently have my improvised munitions handbook, an army wilderness survival handbook and a wilderness observation and tracking book.
8. Water. Make sure you have a canteen and get purification tablets to refill. I can't stress water enough.
9. Rain gear. This one is obvious.
10. A fire kit. When you're freezing in the woods you will not be able to rub two sticks together. Make sure all your matches and lighters are sealed in plastic. Bring kindling if you can. I have also included lighter fluid.
11. Light. Bring an army style red lensed flashlight. The red light will not ruin your night vision (your natural night vision) so you will not be left in the dark when you have to turn it off.
12. Medicine. Any important medication you may be on i.e. insulin, asthma medications.
13. Radios. If there are others in your group you will want to be able to communicate with them if you get lost.
14. Hand signals. If you have others in your group you will need to be able to communicate with them silently, make sure everyone in the group understands the hand signals.
15. Navigational equipment. Bring a compass and maps of the surrounding area. Good maps include road maps, hiking maps, and topographical maps. MAKE SURE you know how to use a compass and read a map.
16. Shelter. A tent if you can carry it, somthing that will keep you out of the wind and rain. If it's too big to carry in your bag and run at the same time leave it behind. You will then have to improvise.
17. A handcrank radio. You will want to keep updated on new reports and such.
18. Batteries. Lots of batteries
19. A watch
20. Cooking equipment. This includes a pot of some sort, eating utensils, and somthing to cut wood with. I'd suggest a "Commando Saw" which is like barbed piano wire and will fit in your pocket.
21. Fishing equipment. Maybe not a rod, but bring hooks, lots of line, and lures. LEARN TO FISH
22. Knowledge. This is your absolute best weapon. Once you have chosen the place or area you will run to make sure you know it like the back of your hand. No doubt others have thought of the same location, it will be your knowledge of the area that makes your better. If there is a stream, know where it starts and where it goes. Know the hills, the mountains, the trails, the flora, fauna and climactic condiditons year around.
SECTION 2: HOW DO YOU TAKE A NATION BACK THAT'S UNDER MARTIAL LAW?
To be honest it's probably the most difficult challenge anyone can face. Because you're starting a conflict from scratch inside the belly of the beast. You can't fight for territory when you've only got a few guns against divisions of enemy troops equipped with automatic weapons, armor, air support, the pitiful acquiescence of a "people" who long ago gave up Liberty for the trap of existence in a childlike, cushy debt slavery. So the smart coup leaders that prosecute a martial law takeover will do it against a population that's already been pacified in one way or another. Now with the gilding stripped off their chains they're as frightened hostages willing to go along with ANYTHING the state orders, so long as they have some semblance of their former "lives". Aside from some disgruntled vets, the American People, untrained in the military arts or even basic survival, have been pacified, or the coup would never have taken place.
It is simply fear of loss after being so coddled, so divorced as a culture from personal responsibility which can lead to anger, and then revenge. So the better way to pacify is to bring it on in a overwhelming torrent onto a population unprepared for it, unprepared for hardships. Take away their culture, their moral cores, their connections to God. Ply them with diversions and trinkets . Condition them to find solace in material things, in distractions like spectator sports, movies and television. Keep them hypnotized by a junk culture while their means of sustenance, their jobs, are shipped overseas piecemeal, so they don't wake up. Keep them hypnotized while their rights are legislated into impotence and irrelevance by the state's enforcers. Keep them hypnotized by a junk culture, as even the know how of being able to survive outside the system, basics like growing food, repairing cars and equipment, marksmanship and so-on, is all but gone. And all the time tell them they're free and prosperous. Eventually you'll have a people much like modern America's dumbed down materialistic debt slave. Such a people as ours, constantly fed lies about this corrupt system in the media, are ready for a fall now as I write this. All that's needed is a plausable pretext, a cover story for them to accept.
People can be stubbornly stupid when it comes to misdirected hope. Many of these slaves will actually defend the system that has enslaved them. Such is the enemy's genius at their social engineering. All those slavishly obeying the state in a martial law environment, for some forlorn hope that their lives will somehow go back to the false paradise of the late 20th century, will in effect be the enemy themselves. But you won't be alone. The enemy's genius is formidable, but not perfect. Quite frankly they're overconfident, and even if they weren't, they're not God. They can't see all, and they will make fatal mistakes. God will put stumbling blocks in their path to protect you. The question will be, will you be wise enough to exploit those mistakes to help bring their downfall? With whole regions of the country infiltrated and secured, secret industry can develop. Light weapons can be constructed at first, but eventually heavy weapons could be designed and made, and distributed. Ammunition, food, fuel, medicine, all these can be manufactured on or made with basic machine tools and chemistry. The time will come, if the enemy still clings to their foolish hope of defeating the American People with the brainless thugs and sheeple that lick their boots, that entire territories can be openly liberated.
BUT LET'S NOT LET THIS SCENARIO PLAY OUT! Because a MARTIAL LAW will lead to CIVIL WAR, and national destruction, what I suggest is that it's much better to organize right now! We still have a political process we can use if we learn how to use it effectively. We can together find small towns and take them over, like the Libertarian's Free State Projects, only focused onto individual towns. Take them over, and spread out from there. We as Americans need a standing example of what a Free State is. Even some in the traitorous elite don't want to see MARTIAL LAW because they recognize the exquisite control and enslavement the current American political system has over Americans, and want to keep their power. They can be used, then abused. Individually, if you have guns, bury spares of your fighting arms, or sell them privately to new Patriot recruits. This will get easier as deteriorating conditions bring the reality of our situation home, and the government's conduct in New Orleans make personal preparation a priority. Buy lots of ammo, food, medicine, reloading supplies. Get these at gun shows for CASH ONLY. Go to gun shows while they're still legal! Find books on basic manufacturing processes, that's vital!
If you have EVER joined a gun group, bought guns and ammo with credit cards, checks, and/or signed registration forms and permits HIDE AND/OR SELL YOUR EXCESS GUNS TO MOTIVATED PATRIOTS! Start driving around: look for abandoned homes, businesses, and roads or trails that'll get you to them. Caves, forest haunts, old barns, the nastiest trailer in that tired old trailer park. When you recruit, don't let them put their names on any forms that could implicate them in the eyes of the government. Keep your profile low. Patriots will need infiltrators, safe houses, spies. You can't do that if you're still running around openly displaying a "I'm the NRA" sticker or a Gadsen Flag. Sorry. Take your Recruits and:
*Toughen yourselves and them up. Strengthening exercises, Camping, survival courses, hand to hand combat courses. Even getting them to let their TV gather dust to do anything that will be of benefit. Demonstrations, projects, meetings, find places to hide out.
*Shooting, and lots of it! Paintball to teach tactics. A range of some sort for battle rifle practice. Airguns and required turning in of targets for their own practice-the airsoft guns are coming along as viable training tools and as soon as they perfect a paintball that'll cycle through them you should splurge a couple hundred bucks and get some guns and paintballs. Group buy ammo, parts, food, knowledge, a legal fiction to acquire property not under your own name, nor any connection to you. Have your stashes in several small units throughout the area you figure you're going to operate. The more the better, and, no one person should have knowledge of where all the caches are at. A cache should have ammo for the standard weapon/caliber your group should standardize on. I recommend a military pattern rifle in 7.62NATO, along with spare parts because they'll break down with all the shooting and abuse you're gonna heap on them. Enough ammo to refill all your carry mags for a mission. Also, stockpile nonperishable food. Should have lots of calories, carbs, protein, Medical supplies.
You won't get a lot of recruits. The enemy's cultural weapons are pretty damn powerful, and their mind control of Americans is exquisite, but not foolproof! On occasion a event will occur that will defy their spin control and b.s., like the live coverage of Hurricane Katrina and their criminal abandonment of a city so people would be screaming for FEMA/Big Brother to save them. All so gangsters wanting a "Las Vegas on the Gulf" can buy property cheaply. Point out the criminal abandonment of the government to their People. A lot of eyes were opened by Katrina, and not all of them are going to be shut again by the system's lies. Take your opportunities as they come. I have a plan of peaceful political action that can be used, so here's a excerpt of my essay, "Message to Mr. and Mrs. America" at my blog freedomguide.blogspot.com: Taking back the government-peacefully!
This is the preferable manner of reclaiming our Freedom. To be effective, one must have a understanding of America's political system as it relates to our cause. We have a president, a vice-president and their agents, a congress, a federal judicial system, and the duplication of this political layout among the states. Beyond that you have the many thousands of county and local governments. So what will work? Take over the presidency? It's long been proven that unless you have the blessings of the two official parties of this nation, you cannot seriously run for president. Even the president can only do so much because America's system of government is extremely compartmentalized, so that unless you have a common ideology and party mechanism guiding and controlling the various components, it's impossible for one man to dictate policy. All a president could do is use the office as a bully pulpit and wake people up. But he would absolutely have to watch his back. Remember JFK?
Congress is made up of 540 members, 100 senators and the rest in the house of representatives. All are elected in staggared election cycles so it would take approximately a decade of successful nationwide campaigning to create a majority party. Yes, congress writes the laws and taking it back is essential in our struggle, but even factoring out the two official parties and their political machines the structure of this body demands a massive political machine of our own. Massive organizations that have a heirarchial structure have been penetrated, subverted and corrupted by our enemies since the beginning of time. It's a process that to them is a natural as breathing. Then there's all the fundraising that would be needed, and we're not rich. The only ones with money in America are the same pack of vampires who've been sucking us dry. So a singular, national organization will not be sucessful. Independent and rogue candidates however do have some success. Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Ron Paul of Texas are some of the successes. Most candidates are attorneys who've long ago prostituted themselves. They whore themselves to the political machine that will take them where they want to go. All they want is power, and in exchange they have legislated the monstrosity American government has become. The democrats and republicans, their bosses for all practical purposes appoint these elitists their congressional seats, and they're prepared to spend whatever cash it takes to retain that seat. Vote fraud of course is part of their arsenal.
It's likely there are no rich left in these times who would willingly sacrifice their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. They're either sold out or scared. So any candidates for congress will have to be raised and funded by us. That means we have to do it in a grass roots manner. We have to build not one political machine, but a army of political machines that are independent of one another, yet cooperative. This form of political resistance lends itself naturally to our groups. It will go like this: The group helps other groups form. They in turn during the next local election cycle turn out and get the candidates they choose elected in town and county governments. Much of the oppressive laws plaguing us are drafted and enforced locally. Taking over local governments will not only give the freedom groups relief from local law enforcement harassment, it will give us the tools to revoke and repeal such things as:
*Property taxes that allow the government to seize that home you're working a lifetime to pay for if you miss one "rent" installment. Those in power whine that property taxes are for the schools and the children, isn't that what their gambling rackets known as the lotto are for? And they're willing to make you and yours homeless for the children. All those damned zoning restrictions, regulations, speed trap traffic laws designed to churn up "tax" revenue, laws criminalizing all sorts of things and actions that bother nobody. Think of any local ordinance that seems to have been drafted by a neurotic control freak, the list would be endless! Un-Constitutional, pro criminal gun control legislation. A big part of their program's disarming us so that we're helpless and have to rely on them exclusively for protection, establishing dependence. Not that the cops are legally obligated to your personal protection of course.
*Anything that pledges cooperation with state and federal authorities, at least until we take our nation back! When we take back a local government and bring that jurisdiction back into line with the classic tenants of American government, it will be a beacon of light, an example of successful peaceful resistance. It will immediately inspire and launch similar efforts in neighboring communities. Each composed of small, decentralized groups working together on the big problem, so that one day they can afford to bicker on the small stuff-that the Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Christian Patriots and Conservatives currently do. So together, with control of enough cities and townships, the combined efforts of those groups can take over counties. With control of enough counties, an entire state can be taken over by our groups. Why take that next step? The list of things we can do when we take back our local governments is vast, but then there would be the call to centralize governmental control with state and federal authorities. So when this begins we must be as aggressive as possible-being examples to others, advising, and most importantly WE MUST NOT FIGHT AMONGST OURSELVES OVER THINGS WE CAN DEBATE AFTER WE RETAKE OUR LAND! Backbiting will be exploited by our enemies, it will be our biggest downfall.
common_man
Turkish hostages freed, but questions linger
Associated Press By SUZAN FRASER and RAPHAEL SATTER
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities say they have freed 49 hostages from one of the world's most ruthless militant groups without firing a shot, paying a ransom or offering a quid pro quo.
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But as the well-dressed men and women captured by the Islamic State group more than three months ago clasped their families Saturday on the tarmac of the Turkish capital's airport, experts had serious doubts about the government's story.
The official explanation "sounds a bit too good to be true," said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who chairs the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies. "There are some very legitimate and unanswered questions about how this happened."
The hostages — whose number included two small children — were seized from the Turkish Consulate in Mosul after the Islamic State group overran the Iraqi city on June 11. Turkish leaders gave only the broadest outlines of their rescue Saturday.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the release was the work of the country's intelligence agency rather than a special forces operation.
"After intense efforts that lasted days and weeks, in the early hours our citizens were handed over to us and we brought them back," Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu was the star of the homecoming ceremony Saturday, flying the hostages back to Ankara on his plane and delivering an impassioned address to the crowd. Families rushed the aircraft to greet their returning loved ones. The ex-hostages emerged wearing clean dresses and suits and showed little sign of having been held captive by fanatical militants for more than three months.
The hostages' joyous reunion at the airport came as an enormous relief after the recent beheadings of other hostages — two U.S. journalists and a British aid worker — by the Islamic State group. The gruesome deaths briefly reignited a debate over whether the U.S. or British government should pay ransoms to free hostages.
Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported no ransom had been paid and "no conditions were accepted in return for their release," although it didn't cite any source for its reporting.
View galleryIslamic State extremists
This undated file image posted on a militant website on Jan. 14, 2014, which has been verified and i …
The agency said the hostages had been held at eight separate addresses in Mosul and their whereabouts were monitored by drones and other means.
The Iraqi government said it had no information about the rescue.
The hostages declined to answer all but the most general questions, although a couple hinted at ill treatment or death threats.
Ex-hostage Alptekin Esirgun told Anadolou that militants held a gun to Consul General Ozturk Yilmaz's head and tried to force him to make a statement.
Another former hostage, Alparslan Yel, said the Islamic militants "treated us a little better because we are Muslims. But we weren't that comfortable. There was a war going on."
Yilmaz thanked Turkish officials but gave no details about the captivity or release.
"I haven't seen my family for 102 days. All I want to do is to go home with them," he told journalists.
How the hostages traveled from Mosul to Turkey and why the Islamic State would relinquish such a useful bargaining chip remained unclear.
"I think it's fair to say that we haven't been told the full story," said Aaron Stein, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute who has studied Turkey's security policy.
It's also unclear whether the release will change Turkey's policy toward the Islamic State. It had been reluctant to join a coalition to defeat the militant group, citing the safety of its 49 kidnapped citizens.
But even with the hostages' release Stein said he doubted that Turkey would suddenly adopt a much more muscular attitude toward the militants.
"There will some changes, but not as much as people hope," he said.
In Washington, one U.S. official said Saturday that while the Obama administration was pleased with Turkey's contributions so far, it hoped that the change in circumstances of the hostages would allow Turkey to take on a more robust role. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about diplomatic matters.
The successful operation was likely to prove a boon to Turkey's government. Davutoglu, flanked by Yilmaz and others, made sure to highlight Turkey's success and blast the political opposition. He also thanked the "nameless heroes" involved in the release.
___
Satter reported from Istanbul. Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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Ibrahim
Ibrahim 1 minute ago 0 0
Evidently, PM Erdogan is Jihadist Mozlem Brother who supports together with the Jihadist in Chief of the White House Hussein Obama the Jihadist barbarian terrorist Mozlem brother thugs of ISIS, al Qaida, Hamas that commit crimes against humanity every single day. Turkey supports the expansion of the Jihadist thugs of ISIS in Syrian Kurds areas using Obama's provided US tanks, US Humvees and US artillery and missiles. The American people are betrayed by the Jihadist thugs loving Obama who supports the Caliphate of ISIS and its expansion while his forced promises to fight ISIS proved to be hoax and going against the strategy of US top generals that support the destruction of ISIS in Syria and Iraq using ground forces together with air strikes. Shame on the Jihadist thug sympathizers Turkish PM Erdogan and shame on the fake phony fraud Obama who lies to the American people and hiding his traitorous support of the worst enemies of America together using the blind support of the liberal Jihadists of the Democrats and their deceitful media of the NY Times, AP and ABC.
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Fed Up in West Texas
Fed Up in West Texas 30 minutes ago 1 14
I think Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu needs to tell the rest of the world what deal was made to get their hostages back. ISIS would NOT just let them go.
Saying that "without firing a shot, paying a ransom or offering a quid pro quo" is a BLIVET.
Two probable agreements made:
1) Turkey will not join the coalition being formed to fight ISIS
2) Turkey will impede the ability of the Kurds to fight back
A third possible agreement is that ISIS will whack the Kurds in Iraq, Syria and possible even Turkey and give Turkey plausible deny-ability.
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Saint
Saint 31 minutes ago 1 4
The Al Nusra front rebels are Sunni Syrians joined by all types of Mujahedeen from Sunni Arab neighboring countries and Europe, the US and Chechnya.. The ISIS group started as a Sunni radical group in Iraq and some parts of Syria and they were also joined by all types of Mujahedeen from Sunni Arab neighboring countries, Europe and the US... These two groups have one financing entity that is Saudi Arabia and one training and arming entity that is USA in the form of the CIA of course... The VOLUNTEERS coming form all types of Muslim and non Muslim countries change allegiance to anyone of the two groups and join forces without any regulations or control... Also, the former Saddam army generals who are also Sunni, joined the ISIS group and trained them how to use military tactics and army weapons against Maliki the Shea Prime Minister of Iraq... This is why the ISIS decided to attack the Kurds because Saddam generals told them that capturing Mosel Dam and the Oil fields will be a great asset.. This angered the US because the Kurds are US allies and Israeli allies which triggered the US bombing against ISIS.
The US public opinion is influenced by the beheadings graphic videos of journalists, but the problem is that they do not know the role of the US/CIA in arming these very terrorists and that the bombing in Syria will likely weaken Assad and enforce the terrorists .. Obama just asked for 500 million dollars to arm the Syrian rebels
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MC
MC 23 minutes ago 2 0
USA supports the Free Syrian Army. We DO NOT support IS or al-Nusra Front.
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Saint
Saint 3 minutes ago 0 0
@ MC This what the CNN tells you right, keep watching CNN, MSNBC, FOX and you will be safe! No you will see worse than 9-11 in your home town wake up before it is too late...The US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Jordan are all instrumental in instating all the Sunni Islamic Terrorist groups in the Arab World.. These groups are the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Al Nusra in Syria.. All these terrorists were trained by the CIA in Turkey and deployed through the border to Syria and Iraq...This is to destabilize secular Assad and Shea Muslim Iran backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon..For example here is where we get the Intel about the relationship between Al Nusra front and the CIA...Former al-Qaeda member Sheikh Nabil Naiim has released astounding video testimony in which he asserts that the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, the primary fighting force in Syria attempting to topple President Bashar al-Assad, is a CIA operative. Sheikh Nabil Naiim, considered to be the historical leader of the Islamic Jihad movement in Egypt, led the Safwa al-Qaeda training camp, where he met Osama Bin Laden. Naiim then moved to Sudan with al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and was officially recognized as an al-Qaeda member. Having been directly involved in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat, Naiim was imprisoned after an attempt to assassinate Hosni Mubarak and only released after Mubarak’s regime collapsed. Naiim subsequently abandoned violence and is now outing his former comrades as being on the CIA payroll. Sheikh Naiim states:
the leader of the Nusra Army (Mohammed al-Jawlani), who declared his support for Ayman al-Zawahiri, is a CIA operative in the al-Nusra.
Naiim also identified al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as a US double agent. He says:
What is Zawahiri going to give you? Scud missiles? He owns nothing and he’s constantly on the move. All he owns is the recording that he releases every 6 months. But these however are his orders from the Americans.
Speaking of being “fooled by an American plot,” Naiim states that “the US has been allowing us (al-Qaeda) to fight in Afghanistan for 18 years and have funded and supported us,” adding that members of the militant group were being manipulated. He then turns his attention to al-Nusra terrorists fighting to topple Assad in Syria, warning them:
You are fighting the war in Syria on America’s behalf. Eventually you will be called terrorists and you will be killed or put in prison just like what happened to us after Afghanistan. These leaders are manipulating you, you will find yourself dying and the Americans fulfilling their goals not yours.
Naiim’s assertion that Jabhat al-Nusra is being directed by the CIA would demolish claims by the White House and other NATO powers that there is a distinction between the al-Nusra Front, He states that the Syrian crisis is a proxy war that the US is conducting via unwitting young mercenaries that think they are waging a holy war to bring the Islamic Caliphate back and implement the Sharia. However, he states that the harsh truth is that every one of these militants will end up either in prison or dead once the US is done with them. He also reveals that these groups are being led by CIA agents.
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Nikita Ni
Nikita Ni 6 minutes ago 1 0
Nasty Turks cutting deals with terrorists because they are terrorists ! All the so-called hostages freed just like that but our journalists get executed. All BS !
Don't know how long it will take for us to realize that we cannot trust these Turks under any circumstance. There's a reason why they are still not in the EU and never will be. They don't want to join the coalition to fight these barbarians….becuase they are the same! Remember what they did to the Greeks, Armenians,Kurds etc ? Greeks fought them and threw them out and no trace of them in Greece anymore! Time to wipe these monsters off the face of the earth! Islam is the most flawed religion in the world.
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john
john 1 hour ago 2 24
The Turkish prisoners were diplomats, and Sunni btw Most Muslims in Turkey are Hanafite Sunnis forming about 72%, and Alevis of the Shia denomination, form about 25% of the Muslim population but me thinks Isis really did not want to provoke a war with Turkey, geographically, they are just too damn close...to Mosul. I think Isis is maybe coming to realization, that they are going to boxed in and have awaken the western powers to action, and maybe they F''ed up by the public beheadings of innocent westerns who were not infidel combatants. In their religious fevor, they got cought up in the moment, and now they are are going to pay....
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Turk
Turk 1 hour ago 6 4
your comments really brillant greetings from turkey my friend, there are too many turkish hater comments in yahoo pages , but your comments are objective
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The Grinch
The Grinch 1 hour ago 2 3
History proves that the Turks are a people who know how to make "races" and types of people disappear by "relocation". Don't mess with Turkey when you are much weaker than them.
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James C.
James C. 1 hour ago 0 3
john. You are giving them too much credit for humane behavior. These people are not as stupid as you think. They do outsmart themselves occasionally. They are not going to back away from brutality. But they are getting hit harder by airstrikes than people realize. While they demonstrate bluster, they still know fear also. But they behave more like bullies. Give them a good taste of their own medicine, and you learn they aren't as tough as they think. That fact, and the possibility of Turkey joining and putting boots on the ground, would be more than they could handle militarily. It is also a move to buy support and sympathizers from inside Turkey. We now have to be careful about including Turkey in any future plans involving ISIS. They know their ambitious plans only have a chance if the movement spreads. Our greatest challenge is to not provide them with any propaganda material. While doing that, kill as many of them as possible, especially the leaders. Like it or not we created all this by taking a bad situation and making it far worse. This is the problem when no matter who you choose to deal with in the area, you are still making a deal with a devil. The current plan about arming and training moderate rebel groups in Syria has me laughing through the tears. How do you verify which is which? They likely all have their own people imbedded in all those groups. Look at the Afghan soldiers that were plants, who just waited for the right time and opportunity to reveal themselves. If the followers realized their leaders were really cowards, and they were just dying for their ambitions, do you think they would still follow? History says yes. Humans are in reality not that intelligent. We simply declare we are, then prove ourselves wrong. But then we are too stupid to even realize we are wrong. So the beat goes on, until maybe we finally screw up totally, and cause our extinction. If you think we are not mostly herd animals, just look at how few have individual ability to think for themselves, and not blindly follow both false leaders, and equally dumb peers. In many herds the whole herd does not even see the leader. They follow the butts of the animals in front of them. You have heard the saying " go with the flow ?". That is herd mentality.
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007
007 39 minutes ago 3 3
Turkey needs to shut down the transport of black market oil rigs coming from ISIS. This is a country that cannot be trusted. "Whoever is not for us, is against us!" By the way, there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim.
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A.
A. 7 minutes ago 0 0
@007, Read the latest EU reports on how the EU member states have been buying and using the ISIS oil. And France, Italy, Germany and China also negotiated with ISIS in order to rescue their citizens. So, all these countries are now in your target list?
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DD
DD 5 minutes ago 0 1
@007, If you keep putting all Muslim's down and do not separate these Barbarians THUGS that they are not even human's nor are they Muslim's AND put them all among these Barbarian's. If you do not at least give a chance for the true Muslim's to speak out and when they speak against these Barbarians you will find them say " WHAT IN THE HECK THEY ARE PUTTING US DOWN AMONG THESE BRABARIAN'S THUGS, AND EVEN IF WE FIGHT THESE THUGS DISHONE THEM AND SO ON WHY SHOULD WE DO IT. It's as the saying goes Dam if you do Dam if you don't. Why not show support those who speak and fight against these Barbarians separate the power crapping politician's that they only want to sit in that high office and hell with the population as in Saudi Arabia Qatar (Turkey they buy oil from ISIS) , and so on. History speaks for itself. Europe's Jews weren't killed by Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, or Baha'is, he said, "they were murdered by people who professed to believe in Jesus, who professed to be Christians and used the Bible to justify the killings. I would remind that people can cherry-pick from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran to justify anything they say or do. That doesn't make it right."Well let's see first you were with Al Qaida. You went to Syria as Al-Qaida member they kicked your A(SS) out. You decided to create your own State and call it IS( Islamic State) You declared, and appointed yourself as the "caliph", or ruler of all the world's Muslims. Well I do not see anyone from the almost 1.9 Billion of Muslim's excepted you as their so called "caliph" except for approx.. 10.000 some of them were Christians Jewish none believers but they converted to "Islam" but not the Islam as I know it to be. According to true Islam and true Muslim's no one shall be converted to Islam by the "SWORD" True Muslims will convert if they believe deep down to their soul this is what they want as anyone who convert to Christianity or Judaism's. By he way that so called . We know the Quran orders believers to fight in combat against those who are the oppressors, aggressors and terrorists and those who are assaulting and killing the innocent men, women and children. But it gives out clear orders - NOT TO Fight against those who are not fighting against you...Now here is an example that answer your post. It is our duty and privilege to present the truth and proof about Islam and what it represents. We desire to clear up misconceptions and misunderstandings about Islam to help others see the true message that came with all of the prophets from Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, peace be upon them all. "The message is: La ilaha illa Allah (none has the right to be worshipped except Allah)."I would like to ask you a question - 'If you hear something you like in the answer or something that really makes sense to you - then are you prepared to accept the message of worshipping your Lord without any partners?"After all, Islam is really all about this one subject anyway. There is not such a meaning in the Quran, ordering or even permitting the Muslims to ever attack innocent people whether they are Christians, Jews, or any other faith for that matter. Combat is only ordered against those who are attacking or killing the innocent Muslims. The word used most often in Quran, that is so often mistranslated as kill; slay; or slaughter is not jihad, it is Qital and if you look to the Arabic, you will quickly understand this word in today's usage would clearly be combat. Naturally, just as here in the U.S. we must stand up for righteousness and strive to prevent oppression, aggression and tyranny. Quran tell us the verses dealing with this topic are specific and not intended to imply a general meaning for just anyone to decide to go around combating non-Muslims. The early Muslims had been driven out of their homes and turned out into the desert to starve. After finally, relocating in Medina, verses came in Quran instructing them to make hajj (pilgrimage) back to Makkah. Finding their way blocked and after several years of making agreements and treaties that the others continually broke, the Muslims were at last, told they could now fight in combat against the tyrants who had so horribly mistreated and abused them in the past. However, this would only be acceptable to Allah if they remained within very specific limitations. The word "Qital" in Arabic in this instance refers to "combat" rather than what some have used "kill" because the word "kill" is far to general, while the word "combat" appropriately describes what is intended by the usage in this passage. Allah Knows Best. It should also be noted the usage of the word "Fitnah" in the same verse denotes a horrible condition, not unlike what we find today when there is terrorism and tyranny against the moral and just society at large. It would be easy to properly understand the meaning as, "Engage them in combat, even killing them, until the state of "Fitnah" (terrorism) no longer exists in the society and people are free to worship Allah by their choice. "these verse are not designed to promote terrorism, but rather these are very orders from Above to the Muslims to be the first of those who stand out aggressively against all forms of terrorism and oppression. Once this is in place, there really isn't a question anymore, due to the necessity as we see today, to prevent and subdue enemies of freedom, liberty and justice. In other words, we could easily say Allah ordered believers in the Quran to wage combat against terrorism - 14 centuries ago. And the "struggle against oppression, terrorism and tyranny" in the Arabic language, it is called, "Jihad." "Islam declared the WAR ON TERRORISM - over 1,400 years ago! "Does the Koran Forbid the Killing of Non-Muslims? Koran’s verse 5:32. This famous line is actually only a small part of the verse, and is not even a complete sentence. Here is the line, as it is usually quoted, clipped and cropped, by apologists:“…whosoever killed a human being… it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind…”To get a better understanding of the origins of this verse and its intended meaning in the Koran, let’s go through the complete verses 5:32-37 (Pickthall’s translation), starting with 5:32:5:32: “For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah’s sovereignty), but afterwards lo! Many of them become prodigals of the earth. "Does the Quran command Muslims to kill others? No -it clearly states its forbidden .A. From the Qur'an
1. "…We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul - unless for a soul[1] or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And, whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely." [Qur'an, 5:32]
This verse establishes the sanctity of life.
2 "…And do not kill the soul[3] which Allah has forbidden except by right…" [Qur'an, 6:151] 3. "And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except by right. And whoever is killed unjustly, We have given his heir authority but let him not exceed limits in [the matter of] taking life. Indeed, he has been supported [by the law]. " [Qur'an, 17:33].
4. "And [the believers are] those who do not invoke any deity with Allah, nor kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except by right, nor commit zina." [Qur'an, 25:68]
This verse conveys the heinousness of unjustifiably taking a human life, and indicates that wrongful murder is close in enormity to shirk and zina.
5. "And fight, in the path of Allah, those who fight you…" [Qur'an, 2:190]
This verse indicates that only those involved in combat are to be fought, which excludes non-combatants such as women, children and civilians; a regulation detailed further by narrations from the Sunnah, as mentioned in the following section.
6. "Among mankind is he whose speech impresses you in worldly life, and he calls Allah to witness as to what is in his heart, yet he is the fiercest of opponents. And, when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein, and to destroy crops and lives. And Allah does not love corruption." [Qur'an, 2:204-5]
These verses indicate that wanton destruction and indiscriminate killing are tantamount to working mischief /corruption upon earth. Warning Against Wrongfully Taking Life.
3. "A Muslim remains in latitude concerning his religion as long as he does not take a life."
4. "Avoid the seven ruinous [sins] … associating partners with Allah, sorcery, unrightfully taking life which Allah has prohibited, consuming riba, consuming the property of an orphan, fleeing on the day of marching [in battle], and accusing a chaste, oblivious believing woman of adultery." Specific Narrations Regulating Killing During War
5. Ribah ibn al-Rabi` al-Tamimi says, "We were with the Messenger of Allah in a battle. He saw people gathered, and then he saw a slain woman, whereupon he said, "This [woman] was not fighting!"
Another version adds, "Thereupon, the Prophet objected to the killing of women and children."
Another adds, "Catch up with Khalid and tell him: The Messenger of Allah commands you not to kill [women and] children, nor hired workers."
6. Ibn `Abbas says: The Messenger of Allah, when dispatching his troops, would tell them, "….Do not behave treacherously, nor misappropriate war-booty, nor mutilate [those whom you kill], nor kill children, nor the people in cloisters."
Another version contains, "…Do not kill a decrepit old man, nor a child, nor a youngster, nor a woman…"
Another contains, "…Do not kill a woman, nor a child, nor an old, aged man…"
Another contains, "Do not kill a child, nor a woman, nor an old man, nor obliterate a stream, nor cut a tree…"God/ Allah Bless you.
They cutting the hands for those who steal yet they steal from woman and children men they Rape woman and Children. These are not Muslims, and those who support them are not Muslim's either I read the same book that you might have read or not. Islam is submission to Allah through Tawhid (belief in the Oneness of Allah/ monotheism), resignation to Him through obedience, and disavowal of Shirk (associating others with Allah in His Divinity or worship) and its people.Besides, a Muslims are thus called as they show complete submission to Allah and obey Him, abiding by His Commandments and refraining from what He has prohibited. Islam is also a name for all the Commandments of Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (peace be upon him), including Salah (Prayer), Sawm (fast), Zakat (obligatory charity), Hajj (pilgrimage), faith and so on. Such categories fall under Islam.Islam is submission to Allah through Tawhid (belief in the Oneness of Allah/ monotheism), resignation to Him through obedience, and disavowal of Shirk (associating others with Allah in His Divinity or worship) and its people. No religion is known to be named after its prophet with the exception of the religion of the Christians, It was named after Christ, the son of Maryam (Mary), peace be upon them, after the religion had been distorted. This name is totally wrong. But every religion can be attributed to its prophet; we can say: "The religion of Musa (Moses, peace be upon him), the religion of `Issa (Jesus, peace be upon him) and the religion of Muhammad (peace be upon him)," in the same way we can say: "Islam is the religion of such and such a person" and so on. If it was not for American and European countries all that have oil their oil will be nothing but sitting deep into the ground with not even one penny these B..S...T Kings Dictatorships will not survive one second. only 5% of Saudi Arabia are rich the rest they give them free housing food and cloth and they shut them up. same goes to the rest of all so called Arabian Gulf. Where are they not denouncing ISIS and Al Qaida? no one is you know why? they want to keep their A..S's on that chair they give money to Al Qaida and ISIS so that they will not attack them. But at the end they will end up with the Stick up their A*SS. When ISIS has all the money it needs there is no need for them anymore then their turn will come. When ISIS has all the money it needs there is no need for them anymore then their turn will come. What will you say then? Do you remember Desert Storm? who saved Kuwait? please stop watching news because you are brain washed. What do you thing these Thugs Barbarian Animal's are doing how many innocent Children woman men all Muslim's killed by Bin Laden he killed more Muslims than America or any other country killed for the entire 20th and 21th century. ISIS has killed Chopped heads of Innocent Children Woman men in one day that American Killed in 100 years. Shut that #$%$ mouth of yours and stop being brain washed by some SH**TY Imam or Sheikh they know nothing about true Islam or what they want is money no more no less. Tell me where is the Holy book it says you kill Christian's Jewish? I'm Muslim Read the Quran and Bible and no where it say kill the Christian's or Jewish if you do not believe in Jesus(ISSA pbuh) you are not true Muslim. If you do not believe in Moses pbuh) you are not a true Muslim. Where in the Quran it says you must convert to Islam by the Sword or be killed? Muslims are supposed to advise everyone by using a gentle and simple approach to attract the hungry souls to the Way of Allah(SWT). Actually, the problem is not so much calling or inviting to people to the message of Islam, as it is the way that we go about it. The way that we present ourselves and the message is most important and unfortunately, something that many of the Muslims are not taking into consideration these days.as ISIS is doing by the Sword. They have actually ruined the image of dawah due to the rigid methods, mistakes and misunderstandings they are applying. This gives a very negative impression about Islam and the Muslims in general. Considering all of the detraction and negative media against Islam and Muslims occurring in these days, it is vital that we approach our dawah with wisdom, kind invitation and logical discussions. A wise man once said, "Debates bring a lot of heat, but not very much light." Forcing someone by the SOWRD That is NOT dawah. That is a waste of time and energy. The fact is, that this will turn people away from the truth and destroy the pure message of Islam. When we are going to talk with folks about Islam, we should first begin with the word itself. Let people know that there is a difference between the word "Islam" "ISLAM" can be understood both, as a verb and as a noun. As a noun, it is the religion that was completed by Allah for all human beings 1,400 years ago. The message came with Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the Arabic language. As a verb, the word "Islam" means the surrender, submission, obedience and peace in sincerity with Allah. "Prophet hood" in Islam is also an area that brings people to a better understanding of Muslims and what Islam is really about. as much as we love and honor and respect all of the prophets from Adam to Abraham and Moses and David, Jesus and Muhammad, peace be upon them all. As a matter of fact, that is where people begin to go the wrong way, by over praising something or someone in the creation. All praise and worship is due to Allah, alone. You might like to read and share the messages about Muhammad, peace be upon him, and Jesus, peace be upon him, from the Muslim perspective. NOT BY THE SWORD THAT IS HOW BEING GOOD MUSLIM, NOT AS THESE THUGS MURDERES ARE GOING ABOUT IT. TO CONVERT IS A CHOICE FROM THE HEART AND SOUL OF SOMEONE NOT BY FORCING THEM AND IF THEY DO NOT THEN THEY WILL BE KILLED THIS IS NOT HOW YOU USE DAWAH .I have spoken out on this THUGS MURDERS BEFORE AND ?I'M SPEAKING OUT NOW. THIS IS NOT WHAT ISLAM IS ALL ABOUT ?ISLAM HAS BEEN HIJACKED BUT THUGS CALLING THEMSELVES ?MUSLIMS. You cannot force people to convert nor do you kill them if they ?do not. That is a choice not by the sword. DO YOU WANT SOMEONE ?BECAUSE HE OR SHE IS AFRIAD FROM BEING KILLED TO SAY YES I ?HAVE CONVERTED BUT IN HIS OR HER HEARTS, ARE NOT ?MUSLIMS? NO ONE SHOULD FORCE ANYONE TO FOLLOW THIS ?RELIGION OR ANOTHER. IF YOU SEE CHRISTIANS CHARITIES ?MORMONS DO GOOD WORK ALL OVER AND IF ANYONE WANTS TO ?CONVERT TO CHRISTANITY OR JUDAISM OR WHATEVER THIS IS ?THEIR CHOICE AND IT IS BETWEEN THEM AND God/ Allah not your ?business or mine or anyone's else.
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KW_Denver
KW_Denver 12 seconds ago 0 0
DD - Next time, put your comments in book form, with and intro and chapters, to make it easier reading. SHeesh.
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Edward
Edward 43 minutes ago 2 10
Released on the promise that Turkey will not help the U.S. or any other infidels. Turkey also had a Turkish official in the Embassy with our murdered Ambassador Stephens 2 hours before the attack. Why has that fact been left out of all the stories about Benghazi? Was that person ever looked into as a terrorist supporter. Something stinks . Turkey is not our allay. They also have now gone along with ransom. Every country can be bought if the price is right.
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s
s 50 minutes ago 2 9
If Turkey is one of our strong allies then it's time to worry. Turkey has no intent except to control it's people and dodge a fight with anyone including ISIL which might cost them in lives and treasure. There is a lot about the mid-east that defies logic. As long as you accept "their way", no problem. But, do not think for an instance they welcome your philosophy nor will they accept true democratic freedom. The religion itself denies the possibility. P.S. Has anyone ever understood or found the truth about why our government whisked the Saudi's out of America after 9-11? I seem to remember some guy claiming it was that dirty old Saddam responsible while the majority of the terrorist were Saudi and Saudi money funded them. Ditto Osama. Why, after all this time, has no one in power or "lamestream" media looked into the connection. And I'm supposed to believe the #$%$ I'm being fed today? I'll make Lindsay (their gonna kill us) and John (trust what I say and ignore what I do McCain a deal. Grab a gun and go and I'll go with you. Otherwise sit down and shut up you war mongering fools. The situation is to intense for your fanning of the flames.
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Nikita Ni
Nikita Ni 12 minutes ago 0 0
They pretend to be one of our strong allies but they are not! We need to learn that they cannot be trusted. Maybe we need to start teaching that to our students as the Greeks, Armenians etc teach in their schools. It's time the new generation learned who the enemy is.
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Bob S
Bob S 11 minutes ago 0 0
s: I would think that if what you say is true someone in the Obama administration would have leaked it out. This proves that the Bush administration did the right thing.
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NoMsCankles
NoMsCankles 35 minutes ago 2 4
Turkey is not worried about IS taking over Turkey, hardly...and Turkey always has their borders open to American's and EU members...then now you want to blame Turkey for the sickos from the US & the EU that want to cross into Syria and join IS? Turkey is now OUR KEEPER? Get real people...should we stop a Turkish citizen from entering Canada or Mexico? Don't blame Turkey for the sickos leaving here that want to join IS...those sickos were raised here and in the EU...you all starting to sound just like your anointed one, always blaming someone!
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NoMsCankles
NoMsCankles 25 minutes ago 2 1
..there's only 3 types of people on here saying we should kick Turkey out of NATO, because they have their own interest in mind, or they are just stupid American's that have never been anywhere in the world and are completely clueless...so that would be #1 Stupid uneducated American's...the next 2 would be Greeks & Jews...there ya have it...and for different reasons...you can also include all Armenian's in this country...they're still crying...what the Turks did to them, we did to the American Indian, and I don't hear any of them whining..unlike the Armenian's they are too proud.
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CJ
CJ 4 hours ago 0 10
I'm sure they met their demands. It wasn't for free. They negotiated with the terrorist.
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A.
A. 4 hours ago 1 1
France and Italy also negotiated with IS in order to save their citizens. But the UK and US refused that, and saw their citizens being beheaded by British Jihadis.
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CJ
CJ 4 hours ago 0 2
Well we can't negotiate , we would lose all control. We need to go over their and squash them before it's to late. It's going to take more than airstrikes to do that.
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CJ
CJ 4 hours ago 0 3
All the airstrikes will do is scatter them like cockroaches.
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Bati
Bati 2 hours ago 1 2
What if it was you and/or a relative who was captured? Would you then want and expect your country to rescue yourself and your loved ones? I think yes.
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CJ
CJ 1 hour ago 0 3
Yes but we can't give into that. We have special forces that take care of this kind of #$%$. How do you think we managed to get ben laden?
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jim
jim 54 minutes ago 1 3
turkey is ruled by ISIS
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wildcrzy
wildcrzy 2 hours ago 0 8
Only because Turkey wouldn't allow the United States to use it's air bases.
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RonG
RonG 55 minutes ago 2 9
Not surprised, Turkey is responsible for GENOCIDE BEFORE IN THEIR HISTORY and NOW and is in bed with ISIS, that is why even as a NATO member they are refusing to join the west to attack ISIS. Majority of ISIS thugs are flying to Turkey and organize in their southern cities and then move freely to Syria and Iraq to commit all these atrocities. Turkey gave arms to ISIS and allows ISIS to sell and deliver the oil thru their territory from Syria and Iraq. Turkish Islamic government recently said they will accept the Muslim Brotherhood cockroaches after Qatar kicks them out. Turkish Islamic government is a modern version of ISIS cancer.
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Lead Apron Please
Lead Apron Please 3 hours ago 4 37
I would venture to say ... that terrorist muzlims don't act generous without something in it for them. - And in this case, not being attacked by the Turkish Army has it's benefits. Having lived with the Turks for over a year ... I would say that they offered a token amount to ISIS to release their citizens, but loaded it with a threat. A threat that "If their offer wasn't taken they would be insulted and would have to save face by attacking the offenders." It is the way things are in that part of the world.
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NJC
NJC 3 hours ago 3 8
You failed to mention that ISIS adheres to similar notions as those of the Ottoman empire where in thousands of Armenians and Christians were (in the early
19th century) beheaded on their way out of Smyrna
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CONNIE
CONNIE 2 hours ago 1 7
Exactly, and you can bet they got something pretty valuable, they dont' deal in small change, as we have clearly seen ~
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Gocyolu
Gocyolu 32 minutes ago 1 1
NJC you are a #$%$! not?
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Dia
Dia 3 hours ago 5 60
Okay, we've got the hostages freed, now we don't have to worry about them becoming collateral damage. So let's get in there and finish the job! Let's eradicate those rabid dog terrorists from the face of this earth once and for all! Seriously, if you have a cancerous tumor, you have the surgeons cut it out; I consider the terrorists just that - a cancer on humanity. We know where they are, so what are we waiting for? Bomb them out of existence and let's be done with it!!!
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Sturm Adler
Sturm Adler 3 hours ago 19 6
Dia....You are either foolish or stupid, maybe both !
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BarakAlypse_Now
BarakAlypse_Now 3 hours ago 10 3
I dunno, but doesn't ISIS have higher poll ratings in Iraq than Obama?
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CONNIE
CONNIE 3 hours ago 5 6
Not tha simple Dia. Maybe being a little more informed might help.
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Doc
Doc 2 hours ago 1 5
Ya, because they are all in one building just waiting for Rambo to come in.
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Terry
Terry 2 hours ago 3 4
Isis is running scared,they know their time is about over,they all will be killed,they have gone to far in their animal like behavior,death to them all.God is not on their side only Satan is their god and they will learn just like Hitler.
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Jessica
Jessica 2 hours ago 1 4
Keep dreaming
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Terry Jirovsky
Terry Jirovsky 1 hour ago 1 0
Right on!
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Highlander
Highlander 1 hour ago 0 2
When are people going to wake up. You can't kill off religious extremists ideas. Just like the evangelicals in the U.S. There work is never done. All you can hope to do is degrade them. At least in this country the Constitution hold them back but they keep at it. In the Middle East nothing holds them back. Until other Muslims start building a govt. That does.
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Ronnie B
Ronnie B 1 hour ago 0 0
@Sturm Adler ,I am not foolish or stupid, but since you are in to name calling, you are a #$%$ slap #$%$#$%$ sucker
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s
s 1 hour ago 1 0
You go first and I'll go with you. Otherwise sit down and shut up!
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Larry ZED
Larry ZED 47 minutes ago 0 6
This is why Turkey did not want to join the coalition.
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R
R 49 minutes ago 0 1
What Americans refuse to understand is that there are no moderate Muslims. Their religiousgoal is to rule the world by killing all the infidels . This mayhem has been going on since the 700s. ISIS has been beheading people everyday in Iraq but they only show the Americans and the British. Maybe if they behead a dog..that would wake up America.
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NoMsCankles
NoMsCankles 37 minutes ago 3 2
..there's only 3 types of people on here saying we should kick Turkey out of NATO, because they have their own interest in mind, or they are just stupid American's that have never been anywhere in the world and are completely clueless...so that would be #1 Stupid uneducated American's...the next 2 would be Greeks & Jews...there ya have it...and for different reasons...you can also include all Armenian's in this country...they're still crying...what the Turks did to them, we did to the American Indian, and I don't hear any of them whining..unlike the Armenian's they are too proud.
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Bob S
Bob S 16 minutes ago 0 0
NoMs: I can tell you are a member of DAESH and the hate you have has no meaning on this board.
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Brett
Brett 1 hour ago 0 3
Turkish Muslims were released. No Americans, Jews, or Christians will be released from anything buy life by these sadistic killers. They need to be removed from the world population. Period. Don't give them any slack for "kindness".
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Peter
Peter 1 hour ago 0 4
So Turkey gets these people freed because of mysterious conditions and Turkey has not joined the Coalition. Either they were scared they wouldn't be able to free them if they joined the fight against IS or they made a deal with them.
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GB
GB 1 hour ago 0 1
Betting Turkey doesn't join forces with us now. They probably held back one or two and if they do they both will be executed. Just a gut feeling.
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Peter
Peter 1 hour ago 0 4
So Turkey gets these people freed because of mysterious conditions and Turkey has not joined the Coalition. Either they were scared they wouldn't be able to free them if they joined the fight against IS or they made a deal with them.
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GB
GB 1 hour ago 0 1
Betting Turkey doesn't join forces with us now. They probably held back one or two and if they do they both will be executed. Just a gut feeling.
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Mark V
Mark V 13 minutes ago 0 0
I keep saying you can't trust a single stinking muslim. Turkey claims they didn't pay a ransom or agree to any conditions upon their release. What a crock, especially since the Turkish leader has been running his mouth recently against he very countries they are supposed to be allied with...NATO. Western Civilization should band together and put an end to islam all over the world once and for all.
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Nikita Ni
Nikita Ni 23 minutes ago 3 2
Nasty Turks cutting deals with terrorists because they are terrorists ! All the so-called hostages freed just like that but our journalists get executed. All BS !
Don't know how long it will take for us to realize that we cannot trust these Turks under any circumstance. There's a reason why they are still not in the EU and never will be. They don't want to join the coalition to fight these barbarians….becuase they are the same! Remember what they did to the Greeks, Armenians,Kurds etc ? Greeks fought them and threw them out and no trace of them in Greece anymore! Time to wipe these monsters off the face of the earth! Islam is the most flawed religion in the world.
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Ingleside
Ingleside 1 hour ago 0 1
Propaganda at best. Turks are a bunch of sheep like other host countries. That's why they are popping up there. They cowardly accept their fate.
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voiceinwilderness
voiceinwilderness 49 minutes ago 0 1
I will go on record and tell you that the President plan against ISS will be very-very sucessfull, most will not believe the results of this President success, and just so you will know, the next President will not be dealing with this crisis, but I can tell you without blinking a text there will be other crisis's to deal with,stay tuned.
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Curious
Curious 1 hour ago 3 3
The US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Jordan are all instrumental in instating all the Sunni Islamic Terrorist groups in the Arab World.. These groups are the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Al Nusra in Syria.. All these terrorists were traind by the CIA in Turkey and deployed through the border to Syria and Iraq...THis is to destabilize secular Assad and Shea Muslim Iran backed groups in Iraq, Syria and LEbanon..For example here is where we get the Intel about the relationship between Al Nusra front and the CIA...Former al-Qaeda member Sheikh Nabil Naiim has released astounding video testimony in which he asserts that the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, the primary fighting force in Syria attempting to topple President Bashar al-Assad, is a CIA operative. Sheikh Nabil Naiim, considered to be the historical leader of the Islamic Jihad movement in Egypt, led the Safwa al-Qaeda training camp, where he met Osama Bin Laden. Naiim then moved to Sudan with al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and was officially recognized as an al-Qaeda member. Having been directly involved in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat, Naiim was imprisoned after an attempt to assassinate Hosni Mubarak and only released after Mubarak’s regime collapsed. Naiim subsequently abandoned violence and is now outing his former comrades as being on the CIA payroll. Sheikh Naiim states:
the leader of the Nusra Army (Mohammed al-Jawlani), who declared his support for Ayman al-Zawahiri, is a CIA operative in the al-Nusra.
Naiim also identified al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as a US double agent. He says:
What is Zawahiri going to give you? Scud missiles? He owns nothing and he’s constantly on the move. All he owns is the recording that he releases every 6 months. But these however are his orders from the Americans.
Speaking of being “fooled by an American plot,” Naiim states that “the US has been allowing us (al-Qaeda) to fight in Afghanistan for 18 years and have funded and supported us,” adding that members of the militant group were being manipulated. He then turns his attention to al-Nusra terrorists fighting to topple Assad in Syria, warning them:
You are fighting the war in Syria on America’s behalf. Eventually you will be called terrorists and you will be killed or put in prison just like what happened to us after Afghanistan. These leaders are manipulating you, you will find yourself dying and the Americans fulfilling their goals not yours.
Naiim’s assertion that Jabhat al-Nusra is being directed by the CIA would demolish claims by the White House and other NATO powers that there is a distinction between the al-Nusra Front, He states that the Syrian crisis is a proxy war that the US is conducting via unwitting young mercenaries that think they are waging a holy war to bring the Islamic Caliphate back and implement the Sharia. However, he states that the harsh truth is that every one of these militants will end up either in prison or dead once the US is done with them. He also reveals that these groups are being led by CIA agents.
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Even sight
Even sight 2 hours ago 0 4
I think it's fair to say they haven't been told the whole story? No ransom or military operation, and they think it's fair to say they don't know the whole story?
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DRH
DRH 31 minutes ago 0 2
Now Turkey can help the US fight ISIS now... With all it's hostages back!
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Edward
Edward 2 hours ago 0 4
I.S. is now running scared. The first easy victories went to their head. They now realize they have awakened several "sleeping giants" and are going to get their butts kicked.
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Charles
Charles 1 hour ago 0 3
Turkey is proving itself to be very much in the Muslim camp and not much of a dependable ally. NATO needs to open it's eyes.
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Edward
Edward 3 hours ago 0 4
I.S. is now running scared. The first easy victories went to their head. They now realize they have awakened several "sleeping giants" and are going to get their butts kicked.
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charlos2
charlos2 1 hour ago 0 1
The Turks weren't the only diplomatic mission in Mosul. There was a U.S. Embassy Office in Mosul as well. Was that mission evacuated before the beheaders arrived? Why didn't we protect our personnel by blasting the invading rapists and crucifiers ahead of time? We're protecting them everywhere else in Iraq!
There is something smelly about the seizure of Turkish consular personnel in Mosul vis-a-vis the evacuation of Americans.
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Richard Fitzwell
Richard Fitzwell 24 minutes ago 0 2
Turkeys as a bird sometimes will drown in the rain if they look up and their beaks fillip with water. When I looked that up, I was surprised.
Now the nation than has the same name as the bird, shows IQ of the bird. Nice going Turkey for supporting terrorists.
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DukeoftheNorthernWoods
DukeoftheNorthernWoods 2 hours ago 0 3
The entire world capitulates to the equivalent of drive=by shooters. Unless we develop and install true leaders, we are doomed.
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Marcia
Marcia 1 hour ago 0 0
Unfortunately, in circumstances of this nature, it is always a speculation that Turkey actually has had a hand in forwarding the militant's agenda at some earlier point in time. Whether or not they agree with the militant's agenda today is obviously not very clear.
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Edward
Edward 1 hour ago 0 2
Turkey is a Muslim nation that has allowed the steady flow of weapons to ISIS. They support Sharia law and hate America. I work with enough of these guys to know that like Obama, when the chips are down they will side with the Muslim terrorists.
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Cody
Cody 1 hour ago 0 2
Its because they are funneling their money operations allowing them to operate and sell black market oil.
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Atila
Atila 1 hour ago 0 0
yes yes
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Atila
Atila 1 hour ago 0 0
isis doesn't know whats coming at them-they are #$%$-all the might of the world!Screw them with no mercy!
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damd69
damd69 1 hour ago 0 0
isis freed them just in attempt or to get turkey not to go after them which wouldn't have happened anyway their too busy sitting on the sidelines doing nothing but covering their own tails in that area
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JimmyP
JimmyP 7 hours ago 0 8
IS is rewarding Turkey for agreeing NOT to help in the campaign to defeat them. And Turkey actually borders Syria.
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JimmyP
JimmyP 7 hours ago 0 8
IS is rewarding Turkey for agreeing NOT to help in the campaign to defeat them. And Turkey actually borders Syria.
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Marshall
Marshall 58 minutes ago 0 0
I am willing to bet there was either a prisoner swap or some significant amount of money or weapons traded. This was most certainly NOT and act of mercy or kindness from ISIS because they are murderous MUSLIM PIGS.
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Charles
Charles 14 minutes ago 0 0
I find it hard to believe all of this and wonder if they are together at some type i do not trust Turkey i hope i am wrong.
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DEFAULT_USERNAME
Commenter 2 hours ago 0 0
Great, now they have no reason to not join the fight on Isis and put Turkish boots on the ground and contribute some money. Or do they?
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RPC
RPC 22 minutes ago 0 0
I wonder what kind of deal they made... but you know we did the same for a guy who deserted his post and Comrades and now he sleeps in a warm bed and is going back to school. I don't get it but this deserter will someday get what is coming to him.
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just wondering
just wondering 4 hours ago 0 0
I hope that ALL the hostages are checked out.
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Mark14
Mark14 48 minutes ago 0 0
How can questions already be lingering the same day the hostage release is announced?
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Kat
Kat 2 hours ago 3 1
Perhaps the only goal the USA should have is to obtain our citizens that are being held by ISIS and get out of there as safely as possible and leave these militants to destroy each other and themselves. Let them take over Iraq, Iran and Syria and Turkey and when these countries cry for help let them call upon their imaginary false god allah! And should they ever attempt to hurt our ally Israel we will deal with them according to how our one true G_d directs us to do. ENOUGH already. We DO NOT need their oil, we DO NOT NEED anything these EVIL people have. We have enough resources In our own country. Enough already! Let them loose on each other then the USA can go in and finish the job. Lastly, it is rumored that three of the five prisoners that the POTUS released in exchange for Berdahyl are now in Iraq directing these militants in their evil war. Why isnt the news media reporting this? If true , this is an outrage!! Where are the journalists that have integrity? Yahoo stop protecting this liberal POTUS and let the comments on this site be posted.
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Robert
Robert 2 hours ago 0 0
Journalists and integrity? I remember when we had such a thing in this country but it was a long time ago.
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Kat
Kat 1 hour ago 0 0
Robert - sad but true - that is why I posed the question. TY for ur comments.
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Mike
Mike 3 hours ago 0 2
Turkey needs to be kicked out of N.A.T.O. They can't be trusted to help fight these animals !
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Isa
Isa 3 hours ago 0 0
Most likely, Turkey either paid a ransom, or gave up intelligence on the Kurds or Americans, or something of similar huge value to ISIS. Turkey is home to at least one major NSA facility, so Turkey knows a lot that can hurt America and Americans.
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Isa
Isa 3 hours ago 0 0
Most likely, Turkey either paid a ransom, or gave up intelligence on the Kurds or Americans, or something of similar huge value to ISIS. Turkey is home to at least one major NSA facility, so Turkey knows a lot that can hurt America and Americans.
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bark4squirrels
bark4squirrels 2 hours ago 0 0
And for this he will except the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood who were kicked ot of Egypt.
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Mark O. Pierce
Mark O. Pierce 3 hours ago 3 1
Does this seem like a lot of fuss over a terrorist group to you? This "terrorist group" has seized land, equipment, oil, and money in the territory they now claim as their own. Somebody is buying their stolen oil, which helps keep them going strong. Personally, I have no use for oil. I do have a use for gasoline which comes from oil. My point being that somebody is buying oil from this group, which is not rightfully theirs. They do this knowing that they are working with criminals when they buy it. They are attempting to recreate the old Caliphate, and even expand it beyond what it used to be. They have sold some of the people they have captured as slaves. They have killed many people who would not convert to their brand of Islam. They have done a lot more things that any civilized person would see as crimes. The way you eradicate evil is to pull it up before it gets it's roots deeper into the ground. The longer these criminals hold onto the land they have invaded, the harder it will become to shut them down. The longer we wait to shut them down, the more powerful they will become. They are terrorists, but their aim is to be accepted as a nation, and if they are accepted as a nation, they will continue to attempt to spread the territory they claim. Twice, Turkey has been the home to a great empire. Both times the people who created those empires were originally very small in power when they got started. ISIL needs to be destroyed here, and now.
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Terry
Terry 2 hours ago 0 0
ask putin,they are backing isis
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Earl
Earl 2 hours ago 0 1
I think Obama and Kerry have VERY LITTLE UNDERSTANDING of how to deal with the various Middle East cultures and mentalities.
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Rick
Rick 1 hour ago 0 0
Turkey made a deal with the devil. The Islamic State new that if Turkey wanted to they could made it harder for ISIS to sale oil. They decided to play nice with Turkey in exchange for Turkey not securing its borders.
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Alfred
Alfred 1 hour ago 0 0
How does one sale oil?
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Whodoman
Whodoman 2 hours ago 0 1
Radical Islam wants to take over the world and has boiled up over and over for centuries. It's time to end the cancer.
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PetY
PetY 3 hours ago 0 0
Provide safe passage to IS fighters from join the fight in Syria and Iraq? Turkey got to know who help those IS wannabe when they 1st come into join the fight via Turkey. From all the report of captured wannabe IS Jihadists, Turkey seems to be the destination of arrival and departure.
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American Pride
American Pride 1 hour ago 0 0
Of course they released then unharmed, Turkey is allies of theirs. Those going to Syria to fight with ISIS fly into Turkey then flow across the Syrian border.
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Charlie
Charlie 1 hour ago 0 0
I think Turkish hostages was just a show put on for the west. I think Turkey is behind Islamic State group . Where did Isis get all the weapons and training from? You don't think Turkey mite of had a hand in that?
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Dave
Dave 1 hour ago 0 0
I don't trust any of them motherfutchers. They live by the sword time to make them die by it.
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American Pride
American Pride 1 hour ago 0 0
Of course they released then unharmed, Turkey is allies of theirs. Those going to Syria to fight with ISIS fly into Turkey then flow across the Syrian border.
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Charlie
Charlie 1 hour ago 0 0
I think Turkish hostages was just a show put on for the west. I think Turkey is behind Islamic State group . Where did Isis get all the weapons and training from? You don't think Turkey mite of had a hand in that?
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Dave
Dave 1 hour ago 0 0
I don't trust any of them motherfutchers. They live by the sword time to make them die by it.
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C.C
C.C 3 hours ago 0 2
For the most part Turkey remained neutral in the Iraq war. Therefore, why would anyone expect Turkey to get involved in cleaning up this mess in Iraq, that has been largely created by the war.
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MC
MC 47 minutes ago 0 2
Turkey is being rewarded for not participating in the Obama coalition. Whether there was an agreement to this effect or whether IS is just thanking Erdogan for a decision that they liked, it will cause further doubts about whether Turkey can be trusted with it's current government.
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jim
jim 1 hour ago 0 0
Where are our Orthodox Bishops which were kidnapped ? Find them and release them.
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alex m
alex m 2 hours ago 0 1
I would expect a lot of head bowing and hand shakes after this showing of acceptance
to ISIS.Turkey has shown it's true color in expressing that all Muslims are our friends.
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christine w
christine w 8 hours ago 0 8
This is the propaganda shift. It's part of the "we're not so bad, after all" tune that ISIS wants the world to hear. Can't help but wonder if the motive is to sway Turkey's opinion from entering into the conflict. This cancer will find any way to attach itself to a new host.
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Debra
Debra 7 hours ago 2 1
It has been attached..your fallacy is thinking its a new host. Turkey is one of many terrorist nations fueling the Syrian coup along with the US military-industrial empire.
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Neelie
Neelie 4 hours ago 0 0
Turkey is a terrorist nation? That's a good one.
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Minority Mandate
Minority Mandate 2 hours ago 0 0
If Turkey isn't that interested or overly concerned about ISIL why should we be? When they offer to pay for our Air Force to fly from their bases we should talk.
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Robert
Robert 1 hour ago 0 0
This is just Isis playing the Turkey Government not to join in any attack against them.
They will abduct and kill Turkish citizens in the future without reason.
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SanJuanKid
SanJuanKid 11 minutes ago 0 0
Without firing a shot, paying a ransom or offering a quid pro quo? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...
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Twenty-One
Twenty-One 3 hours ago 0 0
The Turkish idiots paid the terrorists the ransom.
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Kevin11
Kevin11 8 hours ago 0 6
Congratulations Turks, BUT with your gov't paying a ransom there will be more hostages taken. Share your jubilation now, but what will you tell the next class of hostages that are taken due to the ransom they now expect?
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Galileo
Galileo 2 hours ago 0 3
The best way to lead ISIS into submission is to capture their wives and remove their veils. They will then start shaking and trembling, and their fig leaves will fall.
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Busan Brew
Busan Brew 6 hours ago 4 29
So happy, so ....
Wait, no one knows what the other side got for the trade.
Yeah, its nice for the people and families, but a time bomb for the rest of the planet.
I really wish people studied history more. Nothing ever comes out of appeasement or playing the short game. Your opponent will always come back with the tools they got got fashioned into deadly weapons.
How much you want to bet that we will find out that many of these nutters got training on the US dime in the more than 10 years of mismanaged stupid over there.
Korea, learned nothing. War continues
Vietnam, learned nothing. Lost, but wont admit it.
Gulf War, learned nothing. Won, kinda?
Gulf War 2, learned nothing, Won, but spent billions trying to figure out what happens next.
Gulf war 3, only just begun.
Christ at least we were smart enough as a country to call it quits in Korea and Vietnam. What the hell is so special about Iraq... Oh, yeah....
Why even ask.
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Who Me.
Who Me. 4 hours ago 2 1
Oil....
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Starfoxusa
Starfoxusa 3 hours ago 0 0
Who Me. oil? Yes but now the US is in a much better position with oil. Notice no rise in oil prices because of Russia and the middle east conflicts. In fact gas prices fell to below $3 a gal. in my area. The US is expected to become an oil exporter again in as little #$%$ years. They are even considering removing the export ban to help the EU with using less Russian oil and gas.
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Starfoxusa
Starfoxusa 3 hours ago 0 0
These are the facts, prove me wrong cowardly downers.
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Citizen concerned
Citizen concerned 6 hours ago 0 4
Key here is the fact that we don't know what Turkey did (pay ransom, etc.) to win the release. Paying ransom just encourages more kidnappings. Just a vicious circle.
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nixontapes
nixontapes 58 minutes ago 0 1
This was all staged to make Turkey look good and make ISIS look human. ISIS would not be the force they are without Turkey's "blind eye" complicity allowing ISIS to stage and regroup on Turkish soil. Turkey is now the bastion of the Muslim Brotherhood and cannot be trusted as an ally. Why we have not tossed them from NATO is a question I would like to see answered.
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Gus
Gus 3 hours ago 0 2
Well there goes my opinion of Turkey's ability to defend itself. Iran could probably wipe these people out in ten minutes and are probably planning to do so if given cause. Or it may be why ISIL doesn't mess with them. We have an airforce base in Turkey but they won't allow air strikes out of Incirlik. We should do it anyway.
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CONNIE
CONNIE 3 hours ago 0 1
They wont' be harmed......the deal has been made, and it is NOT with the United States.
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Mr. President
Mr. President 1 hour ago 0 1
The turkies and Qataris,
CREATED, TRAINED,
ARMED and FINANCED,
the DAESH Group.
Of course, Daesh will free any,
turkey or qatari, hostage, they're
their masters.
The turkies, the BrotherHERD
of Moslims, the MOTHER of all
TERRORIST groups, and Daesh group,
hold same Islamist, Terrorist and
terrorism ideals and values,
principles, and believes.
Their, main goal is to destroy,
the West and Christianity and
establish, again, their own
Islamic khalifah,
that will control the entire world
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Puo
Puo 3 hours ago 0 0
Wow! IS will be shooting themselves in the foot when they find out that over half of those Turks were actually Hindu.
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Surgeon Boy
Surgeon Boy 3 hours ago 0 0
What kind of deal did they work to negotiate the release of those hostages? Land border squatting rights in Turkey?
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sonsofliberty
sonsofliberty 4 hours ago 0 0
A secular republic taken over by bearded twits of a third rate religion of repression and hate...
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Ezequiel
Ezequiel 5 hours ago 3 1
Turkey is next. The fight against IS is naturally going to spill inside Turkey. Just imagine the monumental mess created by Obama. Kurds are going to be armed by the USA and those weapons are going to be used against IS as well as against Turkey.
What is more important to the Kurds than their fight against Turkey? Their conflict with IS relates to a few oil fields, while their conflict with Turkey refers to the prospect of Kurdistan being a real nation.
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James C.
James C. 2 hours ago 0 0
Could it be ISIS realized Turkey represented the greatest military challenge in the area? This was the bribe to keep them out of the conflict by buying a little goodwill?
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Tish
Tish 3 hours ago 0 2
What did you guys promise the terrorists.I'll bet it involves not opposing them in any way shape or form and possibly safe haven if they need it!
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Wayne M
Wayne M 4 hours ago 0 0
So is this a pay off by the crazies not to attack them or is this no longer an excuse not to join in destroying these crazies?
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optimistmiser
optimistmiser 4 hours ago 0 0
Turkey can now start to roll its tanks and full military capabilities against ISIS.
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Geoff Z
Geoff Z 1 hour ago 0 0
don't remember this hitting the news and turkey has kept quiet about it since. perhaps if the west would shut up of strategy, networks/youtube/internet refuses to show beheading videos this terrorist wouldn't be able to sustain their relentless PR campaigns. but nobody has the balls to take that sort of stand.
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Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith 4 hours ago 0 0
Incerlik Air Base in Turkey is crucial to the upcoming operations. Sure hope they didn't use that as a bargaining chip.
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Richard
Richard 4 hours ago 0 0
Could it be that ISIS release the hostages so that Turkey would not the American coalition against them?
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Richard
Richard 4 hours ago 0 0
Could it be that ISIS release the hostages so that Turkey would not the American coalition against them?
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Jim
Jim 6 hours ago 4 18
Yep - the Arabs brought this upon themselves. They have a situation that is out of control and someone needs to go in and clean house - in a big and most profound way. I prefer never to see an innocent man, woman or child killed by a Arab backed terrorist. Someone needs to stand up to those countries and demand they act now or we go in and make their lives a total hell. it will force them to focus inwardly and spend their billions on rebuilding rather than killing. And if anyone is going to die it will be an Arab person - terrorist or other - for allowing their evil to spread so far and wide without controlling it themselves.
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Frank
Frank 5 hours ago 0 1
Agree to the most part but we continue to sell and give heavy arms and military equipment to various groups in the area. So often those are eventually used on us. We need to do a better job there.
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Bill
Bill 5 hours ago 3 1
Where have you been the last 20 years Jimmy boy. The arabs brought this on themselves? Those countries have been at war with each other for a long time. But we have totally de-stabilized the mid east and what is going on now is in large part due to our meddling. Wake up Jimmy.
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Steve
Steve 4 hours ago 2 2
That someone who stands up cannot be the US. I don't think they can be backed by the US either, which effectively means it won't happen. If the US does go in, anything accomplished will be called "imperialism" or "crusading". Giving anyone in the Arab world a weapon is stupid beyond belief.
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Sharon
Sharon 4 hours ago 1 1
They have to do this themselves!
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Muhammad
Muhammad 4 hours ago 1 0
lls, make their life a living hell? this country has more blood on their hands than other. always talking fighting for freedom but you are the real terrorist. why do us? I knew the answer to this as a 3rd grader. there is a pattern.
For me, Hamas, ISIS, Islaamic Jihaad, even Hitler is the lesser of the two evils and I hope those still fighting get at this government and their families and you blind patriots
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Muhammad
Muhammad 4 hours ago 0 0
"why do they hate us?"
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Patrick
Patrick 4 hours ago 0 0
The "Arabs brought this on themselves" !? Do tell? The US had NOTHING to do with any of this!? Is that what you're ignorantly claiming?
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Jason John
Jason John 4 hours ago 0 0
A lot of great insights in your comments, the fact of the matter is. If we set feet on the ground? Then it is safe to say that Our Troops are setting up for the biggest fight in this Country's History. Remember England going up against Russia? The history in World War 1, 2 will repeat it self, rather than dealing with #$%$, We are dealing with the belly of the Beast, the Real sons of Cain.
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Jimguyy
Jimguyy 4 hours ago 0 0
Another Ottoman Empire?
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...
... 4 hours ago 0 0
Well, never bite the Islamic hand that feeds you.
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tom
tom 4 hours ago 0 0
Too bad, 'cause there was a blogger who was going to go in and rescue those Turks all by their lonesome. So is the war over? Can we all go home now, or do you have some more inflammatory rhetoric to impart?
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America
America 6 hours ago 0 1
Thank a Liberal.
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Patrick
Patrick 5 hours ago 0 0
I am glad the hostages held their heads high and was able to keep them attached to their bodies.
Cheers.
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Oscar
Oscar 4 hours ago 0 4
You have the families of 50 well connected individuals who were already making deals of their own and appearing to circumvent your authority. Mix this with your apparent lack of spine to take military action against some distant cousins.......what do you do? What will you do?
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Magoo
Magoo 2 hours ago 0 0
Now can TUrkey join the fight on Terror as we asked previously and were denied to join.
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Magoo
Magoo 2 hours ago 0 0
Now can TUrkey join the fight on Terror as we asked previously and were denied to join.
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Patrick R
Patrick R 9 hours ago 0 2
It is great that those people won't be executed but it also discredits any stance other countries are taking to not make deals with terrorists. I don't think we have to reach very far to assume some deals were made that aren't going to help anyone but them. This is becoming very frustrating that we actually think something is going to change. We either go all in or pull everything back. Let's quit half-assing stuff.
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Robert
Robert 1 hour ago 0 0
Lots of our "enemies" and lots of "enemies of our enemies"--but no friends. We can use our air power and intelligence drones to contain the herds of Islamic factions but we would be foolish to get between them. Any general that says "we need boots on the ground" should immediately be cashiered out of the service.
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Nei
Nei 3 hours ago 0 0
This "Happy event" was only made possible by Turkeys move towards the extreme Islamic doctrines as evidenced by their support of the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist groups like Hamas. They need to be kicked out of NATO and shunned by the EU. The domino effect that started with the USA invasion and toppling of Saddam in Iraq and continues today with the complete failure of Islamic nation states is a very dark historical moment for the West.
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Cindy
Cindy 4 hours ago 0 0
this is probably a ploy to gain sympathy for their cause whatever that is.Do not trust them. They are money hungry killers who have no souls.
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Edward
Edward 3 hours ago 0 0
Let me understand, Someone who kidnaps your child, in order to to secure your promise of non intervention, is actually someone you can work with after they release that child.
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larry n
larry n 3 hours ago 0 0
I served with some Turks in Nam.. They unlike Obama will take you to task at the point of a knife.
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Someone
Someone 2 hours ago 0 0
The leadership in Turkey has drastically changed since Nam.
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SOBEflyGUY
SOBEflyGUY 3 hours ago 0 5
OBVIOUS!
This liberation of Turkish hostages is an OBVIOUS agreement between ISIS and the Turkish Prime Minister in Ankara, Ahmet Davutoglu who without a doubt will not let American Military stage any attacks into Syria and ISIS from their soil after this!
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Scott
Scott 4 hours ago 0 5
Obama's brilliant quote during his last address. "Let me make this perfectly clear, the group known as the Islamic State ISIS is not Islamic" Thanks mr. president. He then went on to say that the Pope was not Catholic and that Babe Ruth was never a New York Yankee.
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Barbara Colvin-Kerr
Barbara Colvin-Kerr 3 hours ago 0 0
Turkey has been aiding ISIL. The "hostages" were a good excuse to NOT be part of "attacking Muslims." Turkey wants the USA and other Sunnis to deal with the Assad government and ISIL so a gas pipeline to the EU will not be built by Assad/Iran/Russia. Read Seymour Hersh The Red Line and the Rat line
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Barbara Colvin-Kerr
Barbara Colvin-Kerr 3 hours ago 0 0
Turkey has been aiding ISIL. The "hostages" were a good excuse to NOT be part of "attacking Muslims." Turkey wants the USA and other Sunnis to deal with the Assad government and ISIL so a gas pipeline to the EU will not be built by Assad/Iran/Russia. Read Seymour Hersh The Red Line and the Rat line
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OldVet72
OldVet72 5 hours ago 0 4
"The Anadolu Agency reported no ransom had been paid and "no conditions were accepted in return for their release."...So they want us to believe that this one time, ISIS simply released hostages out of a sense of compassion? What a loadacrap. If no money exchanged hands then the Turks have agreed to allow ISIS unrestricted access across their borders to escape attack by NATO. Turkey needs to be expelled from NATO.
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DEFAULT_USERNAME
Commenter 43 minutes ago 0 0
Turkey is the gateway in and out of Iraq and Syria into the rest of the world. The Turks most likely threatened to arrest all travellers of fighting age to enter or exit Syria and Iraq... simple as that. And oo many Western brainwashed as*ses that islam, various brands of it, that are going to fight along their brethren... some of them go to be humped as extra entertainers for ISIS
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LoyalAmerican
LoyalAmerican 5 hours ago 0 0
Turkey is happy to have its 49 hostages returned to them. But IS does do this out of any humanitarian concerns. The West and other countries need Turkey to be committed to taking down the IS. That means Turkey must play ball with the Kurds and others that Turkey normally does not like. Obviously the IS feels they will make Turkey more than reluctant to allow others to use Turkey as a springboard to attacking the IS.
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Sanctuary
Sanctuary 5 hours ago 0 1
Oh good, now you do not have a legitimate excuse to not go after them. Unless that is, you are aiding and abetting those murderous jackals?
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ANGEL
ANGEL 6 hours ago 0 1
Can't Obama and his cronies see the writing on the wall. Turkey made an agreement with IS not to join into the coalition but to keep out of the fighting. It is really obvious to anyone with 1/2 a brain that IS hates the US and the UK and will cause havoc as long as we are flying our fighter jets and bombing them. This is definitely a no win fight.
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eyesopen
eyesopen 3 hours ago 0 5
This was clearly a political gesture on the part of IS to keep Turkey on the sidelines and out of the international coalition that will be hampered by its absence. We will see if Turkey subscribes to the plan. If it does, that should call into question its value as an ally and NATO member.
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Ron
Ron 5 hours ago 0 0
ISIS is obviously starting its campaign to have the world recognize it as a country on its own right. I am certain that many in the West will point and say that this OK because it's just the Sunni looking for self identity. Just like they will say about Iran that they just wish to have respect. I have a bridge up sale...
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Duke
Duke 5 hours ago 4 11
ISIS used the release of the Turks as a tactic to show that if a nation leaves ISIS alone, that nation will not see beheadings of its citizens. Bomb ISIS or fight ISIS, then ISIS will use terror to fight back since it can't go to that nation and bomb it back. Not yet anyway. ISIS continues to grow with foreign recruits joining more and more. Those recruits will be the bombers of the nations they came from. Just a matter of time.
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rayg
rayg 3 hours ago 1 19
Turkey will likely be serving as open spies for ISIS, relaying information provided by the Western nations including US of military plans and targets.
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rayg
rayg 3 hours ago 1 19
Turkey will likely be serving as open spies for ISIS, relaying information provided by the Western nations including US of military plans and targets.
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Ibrahim
Ibrahim 49 minutes ago 4 3
Evidently, PM Erdogan is Jihadist Mozlem Brother who supports together with the Jihadist in Chief of the White House Hussein Obama the Jihadist barbarian terrorist Mozlem brother thugs of ISIS, al Qaida, Hamas that commit crimes against humanity every single day. Turkey supports the expansion of the Jihadist thugs of ISIS in Syrian Kurds areas using Obama's provided US tanks, US Humvees and US artillery and missiles. The American people are betrayed by the Jihadist thugs loving Obama who supports the Caliphate of ISIS and its expansion while his forced promises to fight ISIS proved to be hoax and going against the strategy of US top generals that support the destruction of ISIS in Syria and Iraq using ground forces together with air strikes. Shame on the Jihadist thug sympathizers Turkish PM Erdogan and shame on the fake phony fraud Obama who lies to the American people and hiding his traitorous support of the worst enemies of America together using the blind support of the liberal Jihadists of the Democrats and their deceitful media of the NY Times, AP and ABC.
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whytruthhurts
whytruthhurts 5 hours ago 0 0
The West should have done the same to protect its people but they are too arrogant but they wanted to talk to Taliban.
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JimP
JimP 5 hours ago 0 0
The best plan is for the U.S. to simply leave the Middle East. Completely. All troops, all citizens, all diplomatic facilities. And have zero presence in Saudia Arabia or any other "friendly" Arab states, either. That includes aids workers and missionaries. All Americans need to vacate the Middle East, immediately. Once our people are out of harm's way, we can begin to deal with ISIS more effectively. As in nuking the frak out of them.
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Jerry
Jerry 1 hour ago 0 1
Apparently our allie is in bed with ISIS. AND, our wannabe citizen hasn't figured this out yet. "our Islamic leader"
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We apologize an error has occurred.
We apologize an error has occurred. 5 hours ago 1 17
Turkey and ISIS are both Islam Sunni. ISIS admittedly is extremist Sunni but that shouldn't bother Turkey with the hostage return. While Turkey is contained in the Levant, their military strength, the strongest in the region, should provide enough deterrent to ISIS aggression there in the near future.
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Jim
Jim 7 hours ago 5 31
Awesome - now go and kill every ISI person we can find. Also do not forget to target their families and Arab leaders too. There is so much evil in Arab states we need to do a cleansing just to ensure our world will be dare for years to come. there is no greater evil in our world than that coming from all Arab states. Arabs are our new and far worse version of NATZEEZ. Even their so called monarchs - they are funding terror while they sit in their palaces laughing at the world. Someone needs to go to every Arab state and create a lot of chaos like President Bush did in Iraq. Someone needs to attack every major city infrastructure and have them to concentrate on rebuilding their own countries. We of course should control their oil for a period of time until we pay off all of our war debt. Then we can somehow quickly those evil families go back to terror.
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The REAL J.J.
The REAL J.J. 2 hours ago 4 3
One of the main problems with the moronic so called religious right wing Republican Tbillies is that they jump to the lowest common denominator of thought immediately and run with it without any further thought of the damaging effects that their collective statements may cause, that is a symptom of a low IQ. A low IQ is the reason why Tbillies don't understand President Obama with any of his strategies for America, even when they work out and are proven to be correct decisions in retrospect. Tbillies can't admit they were wrong with anything so they can grow intellectually so don't expect their comments to stop anytime soon... Tbillies are not respected by the educated in the United States of America because they continually put party over country at the expense of things like infrastructure spending among other important programs because they are unable to see the big picture, austerity has its place in time and measure but the Tbillies lack the wisdom to know when and where to properly use it . Tbillies are simply tolerated by big business for one reason and that reason is for money. Tbillies make money for big business because they are stupid enough to be used by big business to do their dirty work for them. Right wing media talking heads jump on the band wagon as well with securing cash from Tbillies, Limbaugh and the like perpetuate misinformation then make money off that information and become millionaires thanks to the Tbillies lack of due diligence from independent, unbiased sources. Tbillies don't understand thoughtful, meaningful strategies or see the big pictures in life because they are betting on the bible and their interpretation of it to be true, they expect the world to end and soon, furthermore Tbillies are extremely selfish in thought and do more harm than good with everything they type or verbally speak leaving behind only hate in their wake... Please think before you comment and I realize I say that in vain. BOTTOM LINE... Turkey did whatever they did to protect their people from harm, good for them in doing so, but now it is time for they to get behind the coalition to stop terrorism where ever it springs up in the world... in ending, the Turks must get the benefit of the doubt before the Tbillies begin throwing their negative and unwise comments around to the world population on social media undermining their own country.
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Lardo
Lardo 2 hours ago 0 0
Funny how the only countries not concerned with ISIL are the countries where ISIL exists. Why should my son die to protect people who do not want to be protected.
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Lardo
Lardo 2 hours ago 0 0
The U.S. is not concerned about it's safety, it's concerned that a few big oil companies are not in control of the Oil now controlled by ISIS. Oh ye gullible.
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http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-49-hostages-freed-041758739.html
common_man
A six-year old's take on the meaning of life:
The truths that come from the mouths of babes can be nothing short of incredible sometimes.
In this stop-motion animation film about the real meaning of life, a 6-year-old girl narrates and asks, "How sad would it be to get to the end of your life and realize you never truly lived?" After citing scientific research finding the main regrets of elderly people to be the things they didn't do rather than the things they did, she encourages us to genuinely consider the path we would like our lives to take.
"This is your life, you're in control," she says in the video uploaded to YouTube. "You gotta do what feels right in your heart ... A great man or woman will never fit in because they stand out."
As you listen to her explain the meaning of life, it's easy to reminisce on your own childhood, the days when you were guided strongly and honestly by your own heart to follow your dreams -- no matter how big.
"If greatness was easy, you would see a lot of successful people, a lot of great people -- astronauts, professional athletes or superheroes," she says. "But you don't -- you see a lot of people with big mouths making excuses on Facebook trying to get 'likes,' but they don't even like themselves."
She is sharing a lifetime of knowledge in this video, from which we could all stand to learn a thing or two.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/6-year-old-girl-explains-meaning-of-life_n_5830342.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
The closed captioning is not too accurate. Comments are good.
common_man