Jim

As an aside, your narrative confirms what Jerry Pournelle and some others have been saying. Sudden cooling of the Earth is much more hazardous than “global warming”.

It also seems to happen very rapidly. Actual glaciation is not an impossibility. And if H Sapiens is actually capable of heating the planet, he is also capable of cooling it and doing so way too much. Think that will slow down some big mouths? Perish the thought!

Back on topic. So the critical era seems to be between 1300 and 1400 AD. Not 700 AD. My goof. A widespread reaction/overreation almost everywhere, abating in most areas, continuing in one.

And then we have that one area’s behavior being conciously emulated in the XXth Century
for irrational reasons. (Nazis were called “the easterners” for their rejection
of western civilization.)

And the “White” or “Great” Russians seemingly did the same. I would classify the Japanese as having replicated such behavior without
any Arab/Muslim input.

As these latter nuisances have been abated,
we are now looking at the heart of the problem along with some auxillaries in our own midst.

So the big “why” is why such a large segment of the human race clings to folkways that cause them as much continuing pain as they can cause their enemies?

One little “why” comes into sharper focus. And that is hatred of Jews. Jews, historically the next-door neighbors of Arabs, do NOT inflict continuous suffering upon themselves. Drunks hate AA not in spite of its promoting sobriety but because
it so promotes. Same difference with Arabs and Jews. Pathological envy.

Now nobody ever gets a practicing alcoholic sober except the alcoholic himself. HOWEVER, forcible detoxification is mandated from time to time just to get things started. General Petraeus seems to have done that with several assorted groups.

So there we may have it: A mini ice age ignited a widespread state of frenzy in the quest for survival. Frenzy, as often happens, continued for a while after the need for it had vanished. Then it abated everywhere except one area.

And that is where we are today.

Thanks for the input, Bart. Any comments on your part? Feel free to sharpshoot me if you think I am being goofy. Other BCers also welcome.

Things turned vastly more militant, extreme, and vicious in the 14th Century, and — here’s the key thing — not just in the case of the muslims. Look at *Europe’s* history in the 14th Century.

Hundred Years’ War, pre-occupation with witchcraft, scapegoating of Jews, plague, death, starvation, and destruction. All tremendously violent.

I think the common factor is revealed in the freezing over of the Baltic in the early 14th Century and the widespread crop failures (cold summer) in the 1310s. See also the collapse of Viking colonies in *Green*land.

The climate turned sharply colder, food became scarce. The Ming expelled all foreigners and eliminated Christians. Even in India, things were difficult, the language Urdu (~Hindi) reflecting the Turkic word for ‘horde.’

It is reasonable to postulate that the extreme militancy of Islam arising in the 14th century was one reflection of a worldwide phenomenon. In the preceding warm centuries populations flourished, and became unsustainable with the return of cooler times.

The real difference is that such extreme militancy became enshrined amongst the arab practitioners of islam … and persists to this day. Most other cultures grew out of it.

Obama is not descended from slaves, unless there’s what used used to be called “a touch of the tarbrush” in his Kansan side. He is very likely descended from slave-traders.

Now, every culture has had its version of slavery. Among other things, I’m part Iroquois and part Huron–half my ancestors ate the other half. No one should be huffy about lineage that way. Around the end of his first term, Obama will get a lesson in that.

In “normal conquests” the conquering party secures the material wealth on the conquered for itself and goes on from there. Life for the conquered is not *too* much different than pre-conquest.

In the XXth Century though we saw the rise of the totalitarian states. When they conquered some place or the other, life then became living hell for the conquered and then for the conquerors themselves.

If, as you say, there is a sharp difference in the aftermath of Muslim conquests beginning around 700AD, then the question of “why” arises and may be of some importance.

In WWII, Wahabis/Baathists/thugs were bosom buddies with the Nazis, although not with the generality of the Afrika Corps and Luftwaffe.
The common bond seems to have been a mutual enthrallment with the occult.

Do you know of anything similar in that 700AD time frame? And BTW, when was Timur Il Lang
running loose? His “Way of the Tree of Life”
would seem to fit right in with all this.

It is that, and kickback time to the NGO’s and the unions.

What really needs to be articulated is that there is not an “infrastructure crisis”. There. is. no. problem. I keep trying to get an honest answer of Democrat functionaries on this, and all I ever get is the same thing that we get out of trolls here: “A bridge collapsed in Minneapolis”. There. is. no. infrastructure. issue. This is just another giveme to the unions and connected contruction firms. It is another bubble in the making.

So is the “green tech industry”, that is just a replay of the tech bubble of the nineties, only this time it will not be driven by markets and private monies, but public monies and government diktat. It will be a complete fraud.

The “entrepreneurs” and “VC’s”, involved this will almost all be highly politically connected Democrats or their children. You can take that to the bank.

I sat in a largish presentation by a major Silicon Valley VC firm (just about everyone here would know the name immediately) and it was chuck full of Democrats. I do not mean Democrat voters, I mean high level Democrat Party insiders. I could find only one non-liberal in the bunch.

And the way these so called “venture capitalists” were talking about public fund were just scary. They were just salivating at the thought of that gravy train. Oh, and these “tech geniuses” all were true believers in AGW.
It was like going to a well heeled chiropractor’s convention or something — all that earnest and loony pseudo-intellectualism and pseudo-science coming out of self acclaimed professional.

Of course, none of the this will work. Not the infrastructure gambit, not the “green tech industry”, none of it. It is just a rip off of the nation; and the misapplication of capital at this time will be devastating.

It is pure gangsterism. There is no difference here between them than the PRC Communist Party members.

What is wrong with the GOP? People will understand this stuff; they need to get it out there.

Democrats seem hell bent on recreating the 1930′s. It as if they want to eradicate 60 years of progress. Eventually it will get deadly — it may even break the country apart eventually.

I never thought that they were thiscrazy and arrogant.

The way he is going, I am beginning to think he will be isolated by late summer. I have never seen a new administration that was so tone deaf. It is a terrible start. He is essentially waging war on half of the population.

The administration may turn out to be one of the most tragic moments in our history.
The Left may be surprised with the dénouement.