Twenty Years Ago, the Wall fell…

Twenty years ago, to this day, in Berlin, Germany, the most significant and historic event was the fall of the Berlin Wall, which led to the full reunification of the two Germanys less than a year later. I was in my first year in college at Gallaudet and I remembered watching the news with happiness, being amazed by watching such a historic event, people standing on the top of the Berlin Wall, crowding, cheering and celebrating. The fall of the Berlin Wall didn’t began with the government of East Germany screwing up the memo communication between leaders and subordinates about a new policy allowing citizens to go into West Berlin and West Germany without delay or permission. Rather, it originated on the date of June 12, 1987.

That’s when President Ronald Reagan made this famous speech in front of the walled Brandenburg Gate, calling upon Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to open up and tear down the Berlin Wall:

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

It took awhile, since it was bounded to happen anyway. By 1988, Gorbachev’s reform policies encouraged Eastern Bloc countries to craft own policies as they see fit, freeing themselves from the rigid Soviet sphere of influence and oversight. The Soviet Union was engaged in a losing war in Afghanistan and its economy was hemorrhaging, with runaway inflation and greater public dissatisfaction. Hungary was the first Eastern Bloc country to open up its border to western Europe by the summer of 1989, setting up a chain of events for the next four months.

But the Berlin Wall itself, which separated West and East Berlin since 1961 (when it was constructed on order by Soviet Premier Khrushchev in communication with East Germany leadership), came to symbolize the national split on purely political, ideological, and military lines. Prior to its construction, million of citizens from East Germany were escaping or emigrating into West Germany. Since the wall was put up, the emigration stopped and any escape was becoming more risky or deadly. Several people risked their lives crossing the zones separating West/East Berlin and West/East Germany, some lost their lives in the attempts. One East German border guard made the leap of defection to the west in this famous photograph in 1961.

In September 1989, East German citizens were beginning to crowd in front of the Berlin Wall, chanting they wanted to be out and travel freely. The public confidence toward the government was all-time low. The threats of a violent revolution was looming in the air. On October 18, 1989, the longtime leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker was ousted and was replaced by Egon Krenz. By the last week of October and the first week of November, the number of people protesting and showing up by the Berlin Wall swelled to about a million in East Berlin. The East German government buckled under pressures, fearful of committing its troops to the East German zones of the Berlin Wall in the full view of Western media capturing people standing on the wall by the Brandenburg Gate. They did not wanted a repeat of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China earlier that year. After all, this was about reawakening and reuniting the national spirit of Germany so long divided by the victorious powers at the end of World War II.

The day of November 9th, 1989 marked the momentous fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain of Europe. People were chipping away the wall on both sides, either making a symbolic hole through it or taking the pieces as souvenirs. Before long, cranes were brought in to remove and lift up the singular sections of the wall before the cheering masses on both sides. At the famous Checkpoint Charlie, people from both sides freely walked through without restriction, as seen as below:

It was the peaceful fall of the East German government. The leadership and government were gradually abolished over the time, merging with the government of West Germany. The East German military eventually merged with the Bundeswehr (West German military). Egon Krenz was eventually replaced by two more head representatives of East Germany, the last temporary head of state was a woman. By October 3, 1990, the government and East Germany ceased to be and the whole of Germany was at last reunified.

Looking back twenty years, it amazed me how much times and things have changed. I have not visit Berlin or Germany yet, hopefully I may one day. That day, I witnessed such a remarkable historic event. In fact, 1989 was really a remarkable year.

The history of the Berlin Wall’s fall can be seen here.

Muslim Gunman/Psychiatrist Freaked Out Walter Reed Medical Staff

Update: Officer Mark Todd also a hero. George W. Bush’s secret visit to Fort Hood. See end of this blog below.

The Muslim shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist, who killed 13 people and wounded 30 more yesterday at Fort Hood, freaked out the medical staff at the Walter Reed Army Hospital with his extreme statements about unbelievers, according to those who knew him as reported in this www.npr.org article today. He even shocked a fellow Muslim psychiatrist attending a lecture by Major Hasan, prompting him to criticize Hasan for “misrepresenting” the Qu’ran’s teachings. Hasan gave him a stare-down instead. Read on…

Excerpt:

DANIEL ZWERDLING: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: I understanding you’ve spoken with someone who knew him, worked with him at Walter Reed.

ZWERDLING: Earlier today, I spoke to a psychiatrist who worked very closely with Hasan and knows him very well. And he said, you know, from the beginning -and Hasan was there for four years – the medical staff was very worried about this guy. He said the first thing is he’s cold, unfriendly. At least that’s who he came off. He did not do a good job as a psychiatrist in training, was repeatedly warned, you better shape up, or, you know, you’re going to be in trouble. Did badly in his classes, seemed disinterested. But second of all – and this is, perhaps, you know, more relevant. The psychiatrist says that he was very proud and upfront about being Muslim. And psychiatrist hastened to say, and nobody minded that. But he seemed almost belligerent about being Muslim, and he gave a lecture one day that really freaked a lot of doctors out.

They have grand rounds, right? They, you know, dozens of medical staff come into an auditorium, and somebody stands at the podium at the front and gives a lecture about some academic issue, you know, what drugs to prescribe for what condition. But instead of that, he – Hasan apparently gave a long lecture on the Koran and talked about how if you don’t believe, you are condemned to hell. Your head is cut off. You’re set on fire. Burning oil is burned down your throat.

And I said to the psychiatrist, but this [could] (sic) be a very interesting informational session, right? Where he’s educating everybody about the Koran. He said but what disturbed everybody was that Hasan seemed to believe these things. And actually, a Muslim in the audience, a psychiatrist, raised his hand and said, excuse me. But I’m a Muslim and I do not believe these things in the Koran, and then I don’t believe what you say the Koran says. And then Hasan didn’t say, well, I’m just giving you one point of view. He basically just stared the guy down.

INSKEEP: So we have a picture of a man, then, who, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, was disliked by his colleagues. Or maybe disliked is not the word. Disturbed some of his colleagues is perhaps a better way to put it.

Wow. Absolutely shocking. Especially how did the Army let this guy goes around while in uniform? They should have seen the warning signs already and kick this loser out of the Army. Now that he’s alive and recovering, I can only hope they hang the bastard or put before a firing squad after a trial, just like the Army sentenced Sergeant Hasan Akbar to death back in 2005 (he’s still on death row, awaiting the sentence to die by lethal injection if the appeal fails). Placing both of them before a firing squad seem more apt than by lethal injection.

In other news, police Sgt. Kimberly Munley is a hero for stopping the Muslim shooter. Four cheers for her! All she did was directing traffic at Fort Hood before the shooting rampage started. She was few feet from the shooter when she opened fire, pumping four bullets in him, bringing him down, which by sheer luck, he survived.

My Pet Jawa blog has the lowdown on Major Hasan wearing a white clothing of martyrdom for weeks, giving away furniture and Qurans to neighbors prior to his shooting rampage. A YouTube video is included showing Major Hasan in white clothing at a convenience store in the morning before the attacks. In my Facebook profile, a friend questioned me why do I think the shooter is motivated by his religious belief? Well, my Islamist-apologizing friend, his actions were clearly pre-mediated by his religious belief. Witnesses stated that he yelled “Allahu Akbar!” as he began the shooting. See here. Doesn’t look like a Buddhist, Wiccan, or a Hare Krishna to me, eh?

Another shocking news that would have been a serious concern for us public sheep is that the unemployment rate is now 10.2%, breaking the old record set back in 1983. The timing of the announcement is interesting: about 12 hours after the shooting rampage at Fort Hood occurred, the nation’s still glued to the tragedy instead of being really concerned of the economy’s freefalling.

Yesterday, while the soldiers were gathering at the Soldier Readiness Center in Ft. Hood and before Hasan unloads his Allahu Akbar madness, there was a huge protest rally at the Capitol Hill, thousands of people opposing the madness of Obama/Pelosi’s monstrous health care bill, pictures included (hattip to Gateway Pundit) in that blog. The health care bill is an absolute nightmare for America, a recipe for more fraud, waste and abuse on a massive scale, and a dark opportunity for the Democrats to control and micromanage the health and life of every American, reducing the nation to that of a third world country with lower costs of living and poorer standards. Worse, it would criminalize Americans who won’t buy into government-enforced health care package, courtesy of Pelosi’s mad dabbling in the HR 3962.

Why I still cannot shake off the imminent air of doom regarding the death of the US dollar very soon? Hmm…..

11.08.09: Beside Officer Kimberly Munley, police officer Mark Todd is also a hero for taking down Hasan. In other news, a day after the attacks, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, made a secret visit to Fort Hood to avoid press coverage, consoling the survivors and their families for almost 2 hours, then left the base quietly. Where was Obama that day or the next day?

Funniest photo of the day

Love this one.

Heh.

Worst Countries for Women Identified: All Muslim, Global Gender Gap Index Revealed

No surprise: according to the Global Gender Gap Index report, 19 out of 20 countries in the world are the worst places for women, all are Muslim countries. Afghanistan, Somalia, the Sudan, Iraq, etc. are not included due to lack of data and cooperation.

Excerpt:

The 2009 report by the World Economic Forum has listed predominantly Islamic nations in the bottom of their annual Global Gender Gap (GGG) Index.   This included such major nations as Pakistan (ranked 132 out of 134), Saudi Arabia(ranked 130 out of 134), Iran (ranked 128 out of 134), Egypt (ranked 126 out of 134), and Turkey (ranked 129 out 134). Yemen, which is 99 percent Islamic, was the bottom ranked nation as 134 on the Global Gender Gap Index.  The only nation not predominantly Islamic in the bottom of the Global Gender Gap index was Benin.

Read it all here. That’s over 500 millions women in the Islamic countries, not counting those living in the Western countries, continuing to endure the 1400+ years worth of medieval, political, and cultural constraints originated from Arabia.

One of the most persistent and annoying myths about Islam so oft-invoked by Muslim clerics and women themselves is that Islam respects women. Yeah, right.

Jim Arlandson, a PhD, teaches world religions and philosophy, has a fascinating article criticizing Islamic apologists for twisting the language and interpretation of the Qu’ran when it comes to sanctioning violence against women, Muslim and non-Muslim. Contemporary Islamic apologists insisted that the Qu’ran is misunderstood by Western minds. Sure, we have seen plenty of violence, strong rhetoric, and screaming intimidation from the Islamists everywhere, because they’re doing it for Islam, never mind the deafening silence of the so-called “moderate” Muslims unwilling to counter them.

And I thought the Church of Scientology and its intimidating practices were bad enough.

In Islam, there’s no equality for all, only the teachings of Islam decides who’s equal and who’s not.

Stupid Law of the Day: Chinese Kids Required to Salute Passing Cars

In China, elementary school children walking to and from schools are required by law to salute – as in hand-saluting from head – at the drivers in passing vehicles, according to this New Propaganda York Times article.

Excerpt:

HUANGPING, China — All the students at Luolang Elementary School, a yellow-and-orange concrete structure off a winding mountain road in southern China, know the key rules: Do not run in the halls. Take your seat before the bell rings. Raise your hand to ask a question.

And oh, yes: Salute every passing car on your way to and from school.

Education officials promoted the saluting edict to reduce traffic accidents and teach children courtesy. Critics, who have posted thousands of negative comments about the policy on China’s electronic bulletin boards, beg to differ. “This is just pitiful,” wrote one in a post last year. Only inept officials would burden children with such a requirement rather than install speed bumps, others insisted.

Talk about stupidity. But China is known for having too many stupid laws and nonsensical edicts pushed by local officials too incompetent or just stupid to have common sense. Such examples such as forcing employees to buy 23,000 packs of brand-specific cigarettes, government officials barred from hiring female secretaries, or hiring police officers to hunt down and kill all dogs in one province (after ONE dog bit a government official).

Not to be slight to one country for having them, we have some really stupid laws in the US. Where I live, the township passed a new law required all moving vehicles to turn on their headlights and wipers at all times, even in broad daylight and clear blue sky. I tried to find it in the township’s website for that code enforcement but it looks like it was either removed or that law has been repealed, perhaps prompted by outrage from local citizens?

Nevertheless, China is poised to “lead” the world in the 21st century, given its growing political and economic clout in the global affairs. If it is any indication, the intelligence and cultural upbringing of government officials in China, in the light of pushing through these stupid laws and edicts in the provinces, may spell troubles for the rest of us. After all, China is to be the “leader” of the world in the 21st century, warts and all. 

Free Speech to be limited for Islam’s sake, thanks to Obama

This is the most unfortunate and saddest time for free speech worldwide and in America: new UN policy to limit free speech and freedom of expression worldwide for Islam’s sake, all thanks to Obama and his foolish “engagement” policy with the Islamic countries (and non-Islamic countries under dictatorship). Anne Bayefsky has reported this for the Weekly Standard:

The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends.

President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. Islamic states quickly interpreted the president’s penchant for “engagement” as meaning fundamental rights were now up for grabs. Few would have predicted, however, that the shift would begin with America’s most treasured freedom.

This is really bad enough. The Obama administration has been working on a joint policy project with a country long known for its human right violations and suppression of free speech: Egypt. It was in Egypt when the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam was adopted and signed in 1990 by the member-states of the Organization of Islamic Conference. Tbe CDHRI is seen as a counterweight to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, because of different religious and cultural principles and values between them.

I should point out the CDHRI is nothing more than a justifying excuse for the dictatorial Islamic leaders to look “good” for the world’s eyes, pretending they care about the dignity of their citizens and minorities while subjecting them to harsh rules and little freedom. The CDHRI only benefits the Islamic governments more than it benefits the peoples of the Islamic countries, therefore the UNUDHR may not apply to them as long as CDHRI is in effect. The Cairo Declaration doesn’t really guarantee free speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and equal rights. Worst, it forbids any criticism of Islam.

Which mean critics of the Islamic regimes or the most horrible practices of Islam should not really speak out, because doing so, it is seen as criticism of Islam itself. This is the thinking among the member-states of the OIC as Islam is its foundational religion. This places the religion – Islam – above all individuals and minorities worldwide.

The Western viewpoint is that all religions are not above individuals and therefore is subjected to any criticism. As Bayefsky reported the European opinion on the latest matter:

Even the normally feeble European Union tried to salvage the American capitulation by expressing the hope that the resolution might be read a different way. Speaking on behalf of the EU following the resolution’s adoption, French Ambassador Jean-Baptiste Mattéi declared that “human rights law does not, and should not, protect religions or belief systems, hence the language on stereotyping only applies to stereotyping of individuals . . . and not of ideologies, religions or abstract values. The EU rejects the concept of defamation of religions.”

It is unfortunate that Obama has choose to go this direction in order to appease the Islamic countries, including the regimes that have done terrorism or support terrorism against the United States of America. The world has just become darker, thanks to Obama!

From my blog, dated 3/15/08: My Five Principles of Free Speech.

“Not Evil, Just Wrong”, grassroot movie to expose global warming hysteria and anti-human environmentalism

Today is the biggest launching of a grassroot documentary movie, “Not Evil, Just Wrong”, which meant to expose global warming hysteria, anti-human environmentalism and the inconvenient problems with Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”. The movie is produced by two Irish filmmakers, Ann McElhinny and Phelim McAleer, the latter famously asked Gore an inconvenient question about errors in his film, which Gore refused to answer.

Jeremy D. Boreing has a great article at BigHollywood about the human costs of environmentalism and the globetrotting works of the two Irish filmmakers, they highlighted the pain and suffering of peoples in poverty-stricken countries brought about by insensitive and deceptive environmentalists from Europe and North America, under false pretenses, trying to fight the “evils” of capitalism and industrial pollution. They were not looking out for these peoples, but against the efforts to improve their lives and to get them out of poverty.

Excerpt:
In a world where so much of the debate (if you could argue that there is any real debate…) over climate change is focused on the science, it is the human story that most interests and appalls Phelim and Ann.

In 2005, the couple traveled to Romania with a mission.  It was being reported in the European press that a greedy western mining corporation was invading the quaint, idyllic Romanian village of Rosia Montana to extract the regions’ gold deposits and exploit its people.  For Phelim and Ann, both experienced documentarians, this seemed like a story worth telling.  The problem, as they soon learned, was that the story was a lie.  Far from quaint and idyllic, Rosia Montana was a badly impoverished village that modernity had largely passed by. “These people weren’t making a lifestyle choice.  They were in deep, deep poverty.  They couldn’t wait for the mine to open and inject fresh money and jobs into the local economy. But stopping that were activists from Switzerland and Belgium. These rich western environmentalists didn’t care.  They were content to watch people live in misery and view it as a “culture” that needed to be preserved, but if you talked to the local people they viewed poverty as a curse that was killing their children early and needed to be eradicated as soon as possible.”

What Phelim and Ann discovered was a far bigger story – one that would give their film, and their lives, a whole new shape.  It was the largely untold tale of western activists advancing Marxist ideology under the guise of environmental protection. “This romantic notion that starving people are ‘poor but happy’ has to stop.  Someone needs to tell these environmentalists that humans are actually part of the environment.”

Very true. Hence that’s what the movie, “Not Evil, Just Wrong” is about. I have seen the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth” and I had troubles accepting the entire premise, as it seems very disingenuous and inconsistent. The Kyoto Treaty was a sham treaty and the science of climate change was aggressively skewed to favor Gore’s argument. The Marxist-driven environmentalists wanted to reduce much of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in America and the world to the levels of a pre-industrial dark age.

As Phelim perfectly explained to Boreing:

“The vast majority of human history has been spent in darkness and hunger and tyranny.  That’s what these environmentalists, by their actions, seem to want to bring back, only not for themselves, of course.  They just want everyone else living in huts and starving to death but with a “quaint” centrally approved lifestyle while the environmental elite run the show. America’s existence and success is the only thing stopping them, and it’s the proof that they’re wrong, which is why they have to destroy it.”

That is the crux of the anti-human, anti-growth environmentalism. The people behind that movement need to be stopped in their tracks before they would do irreparable, devastating damages upon humanity. Quite so, the human race has come this far ahead in life, and I believe, we are just starting to scratch the surface on our human evolution and progress. That being said, there are benign, political-free ways to minimize our impacts to the environment without sacrificing life, progress and liberty in the process.

It’s time for Gore and the anti-human environmentalist movement to come clean and admit the errors of their ways.

Since I have not yet seen the movie, I support its message and the filmmakers’ efforts wholeheartedly. Recently, I sent an email message to the people behind the movie, asking if the movie is or will be captioned for the deaf? (UPDATE: they replied back and yes, it is subtitled for the deaf!) I look forward to the captioned version of the movie in DVD in the near future.

Blogger’s disclaimer: Perusing the unconstitutional ruling imposed by FTC requiring bloggers to disclose any association with any for-profit entity for online product review, this blogger is not associated with the film producers of “Not Evil, Just Wrong” and is not affiliated with BigHollywood. This blog is a freely-opinionated review and this blogger was not paid or asked by either party named above.

Happy Columbus Day! Why the fuss?

Happy Columbus Day, y’all.

So why the fuss about abolishing a national holiday dedicated to one of the greatest explorers in history? The man who conclusively proved wrong to many naysayers who generally assumed the world was really flat and that there was nothing but dark abyss at the world’s edge. He did not only set to prove them wrong but to demonstrate that by following the sun, the stars and trailing the trade winds on the sea going westward, he could reach the West Indies Islands on the other side of the world (where southeast Asia is located). He did not expect strange new lands and peoples to be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean along the way. He mistakenly thought he had reached the shores of the long-lost Atlantis (he landed on the shores of San Salvador).

Most disappointedly, the city of Columbus has choose not to celebrate the day for its namesake, preferably to slink away and pretend that there’s no Columbus Day to celebrate, treating it as an Italian-American community thing (not really, Columbus’ day has long been celebrated since the colonial days). I say that’s wrong. Sure, he had faults (who else isn’t?) but to pass 21st century judgment on a 16th century explorer is sadly pathetic and ridiculous. Political-religious circumstances and pressures of the 15th to 16th century Old World were very different, enormously difficult and bloody. There were little scientific and medicinal standards of the time, and much of the peoples lived in general ignorance buoyed by religious and social concepts of the world they knew and lived in. Further, it was a especially difficult period for Christoffa Corombo (his original Genoese name) trying to raise money and support for his West Indies navigation voyage. He was repeatedly turned down by few monarchies around Europe, even the King and Queen of Spain. The latter monarchy changed its mind, funded and supported him for the great sea voyage west, notwithstanding their doubts of its success.

Modern critics of Columbus tended to focus on the very negative aspects of his exploration history of the new world, their sensibilities offended by Columbus’ cruelty to the natives and their subsequent enslavement. What they overlooked the facts that Columbus was under enormous pressures to deliver the riches to the Spanish monarchy who were paying him generous sums and expected a return of investments from him. His crews were more or less mutinous toward him, their lives depended on his navigation and leadership skills. Worse, few threatened to kill him. If he doesn’t deliver on promises and returns, he would risk losing support for future voyages of the new world. And remember, as soon after he returned to Spain from his first voyage, words got spread out to Europe of Columbus’ discovery of the new world, other explorers and monarchies would soon get on their own voyages and compete against Columbus and Spain, respectively. As vanity and ego were the norm of that time, Columbus couldn’t risk losing his fame and fortunes in the process and neither could Spain lose such a grand opportunity.

Like I said, there were little scientific and medicinal standards in the 15/16th century Europe, though it was the beginning of that modern standards. Peoples lived and died under all sort of circumstances throughout the human history. Peoples died of various diseases brought about by warfare, famine, poor treatments, or sheer stupidity. To blame Columbus for all the wrongs and faults for his pioneer explorations, as his critics repeatedly pounded on, is futile and a waste of time. Do you wanted to go on living in perpetual ignorance of how other peoples of long ago lived their lives much different than what it is like for us today and feign outrage at how they were treated long ago?

Different circumstances, different times, people! You can not be stuck feeling guilty in the 21th century just because what other peoples did to others in the 16th century? So what, move on! We learned what happened in these times and places, whether it was painfully interesting or horribly tragic, happened a long time ago. We can only hope and learn not to repeat such tragic events.

For those who still pound on Columbus’ enslavement of the new world’s natives, how about looking into the long history of the Muslim Arabs conquering half of Africa, began the enslavement and forced conversion of the black Africans, and started the vast slave trade? Prepare to be shocked and outraged, since your history teachers didn’t tell you about that? The Arabic word for the black is the same as the Arabic word for slave: “abed”. What a wonderful “religion” Islam is. *eyes rolled*

Debbie Schlussel has a nice blog about Columbus’ day and pointing out a fascinating blog about Columbus probably being a Jew. I agreed with her on this:

Columbus shouldn’t just be a celebratory figure in the Italian-American community. He’s someone all of us who live in America should celebrate. He helped open the West to us all.

I hope the “progressive” liberals don’t even dare to rename the city of Columbus just to appease the silly sensibilities of the PC-obsessed left. The people of Columbus would arrive in pitchforks and calling for their heads.

One last thing: my great-grandfather (on my father’s mother’s side of the family) was a Knight of Columbus, being the son of the Scottish/Irish Catholic immigrants and one of the founders of Santa Cruz, California. The Knights of Columbus, still active today, is a large Catholic fraternal organization for the American Catholics whose immigrant forebears came to America for new opportunities and new life but endured discrimination by anti-Catholic sentiments and the lack of social services for the Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Europe.

Happy Columbus Day.

And Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadians up north of USA.

Update: Here’s the book that does refute all the smears, stupid criticism and futile hatred upon Christopher Columbus: The Enemies of Christopher Columbus by Thomas A. Bowden. Check it out.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown out today

Dan Brown’s newest novel, “The Lost Symbol” came out today, six years after he published “The Da Vinci Code”. I have not purchase the book yet but I do know what it is all about: uncovering the secret history and architecture of the nation’s capital – Washington, D.C. and its creators, the Freemasons. The book, once I’ll read it, will certainly bring fond memories for me.

You see, I know much of Washington, D.C. like the back of my hand. I attended Gallaudet University, located in northeast DC, in the early 1990s. During my free times, I took the opportunity to explore the city, knew most of the routes and visited few certain places long overlooked by tourists. I always felt there was something very peculiar and odd about the routes in and around the Capitol Hill, the Mall, and the White House. I didn’t realize the significance of it until I first started reading Dan Brown’s book, “Angels and Demons” in 2003, but it was his second novel, “The Da Vinci Code” that sparked a whole slew of books covering the esoteric history of the Freemasons, the Illuminati, and so on. One of these Dan Brown/Da Vinci Code-related subjects covered a secret history of Washington, D.C. and it piqued my interest to return to Washington, D.C. and re-explore these routes and places. One of the places that I never went to before was the other George Washington monument in Alexandria, Virginia, near where I grew up (I lived in a neighborhood very close to the George Washington Mansion in Mount Vernon).

The George Washington Masonic Memorial is a wonder to behold. I visited the site in 2004 and came away very impressed. It’s a must-visit. When you enter it, you will be awestruck by a giant bronze statue of George Washington and the giant mural paintings by Allyn Cox in the memorial hall area. There are so much to explore there, so go visit it in your free time.

Dan Brown’s new novel will certainly spark greater awareness and interests about the nation’s capital and its secret history. Since I have not read the book, I cannot go into details but I can say this book will bring back fond memories for me.

One more thing… see this picture below? I took it in 2004.

This statue is located in Washington, D.C., very near the Capitol Hill. He was a soldier, writer, lawyer, and a very influential Freemason. He was the only Confederate officer to have this statue made in his honor. It was also a very controversial issue for his supporters and critics. Who was he and where is this statue located at? Good luck.

How very influential he was? So influential that he regularly corresponded with Giuseppe Mazzini of Italy, the Viscount Palmerston of England, and Otto von Bismarck of Germany. They were all Freemasons and respective leaders of their nations.

Remembering 9/11/2001 Today

Firefighters raising the American flag on a damaged pole the day after the attacks

Remembering those who has died on 9/11/2001 as results of al Qaeda attacks in the United States.

Never forget, never again and never surrender!