Letters to the Editor
maureenodonnell
Published Letters: 475 Editor's Choice: 5
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How things converge! McCain's friendship with Pastor John Hagee, Obama's middle name..
[Read the article: Obama should be proud to be named Hussein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One definite advantage Hillary Clinton has is that she's not a "God-botherer" and her religion, nominal or otherwise, is not a big issue. I've just read Glenn Greenwald and, if his representation of Pastor John Hagee is accurate, I could easily imagine that Hagee is a kinsman of Rev. Ian Paisley who kept the sectarian pot boiling in Northern Ireland for many awful years, a sectarianism to which the IRA responded in a ver evil way. According to Hagee (I'm reliant on Glenn Greenwald for this) Catholics were resposible for the Holocaust. Germany was divided along religious lines after the Reformation. Hitler, an Austrian was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church, Bavaria was predominantly Catholic and it was there that Hitler got his first toehold on political power in Germany. Ergo Catholics were responsible for the Holocaust. I haven't had time to absorb all the ramifications but, apparently, Senator Joe Lieberman in somewhere in there as we go back to the future once more. Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants...The French are correct: "The more things change the more they stay the same". In a vast country such as the U.S. there must be Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, Rastafarians, Zoroastrianists (add others) but they're being left out of the picture completely.
Meanwhile, "The Other Boleyn Girl" is due for release and this is firmly set in Reformation England when King Henry's carnal desires got the better of him and the dissolution of the monasteries proved an irresistible method of enriching himself. Those in the know reckon that the l969 film "Anne of a Thousand Days" was much better in dealing with adultery, illegitimacy and incest in Henry's court. That film also had the great actor, Richard Burton. If the wars that followed the Reformation are now to be fought in 2lst century America, all I can say is destiny moves in mysterious ways and the results are rarely pretty.
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The boy who cried "Wolf" is a salutary tale and a warning against complacency
[Read the article: Obama hits back at Clinton ad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just two snippets from Europe that might be of some interest. As many people now know, Prince Harry (grandson of the UK's Queen Elizabeth) has been fighting the Taliban in Helmand province in Afghanistan. This fact was subject to a media "blackout" for various security reasons. He's back in Britain now and his protection has to be upgraded. "The Times" of London claims to have seen messages posted on a password-protected al-Quaeda forum called al-Ekhlaas with blood-curdling threats of various kinds.
As well, three Afghan asylum-seekers in Irelan have been arrested in a small town in the south-west after a police raid in which the media claims bomb-making equipment and detonators were found. This is a developing story and the men are still in custody under the Offences Against the State Act. The whole thing seems very puzzling unless you know that Shannon Airport is only about thirty miles from where these three men were arrested. The American military uses this airport when soldiers etc. fly to and from the Middle East. What Americans may not realise is that Europe has been flooded with asylum-seekers from almost every non-European country you can think of; some are genuine, some are not. The jihadists responsible for the devastation of the Twin Towers formed their gang in Hamburg, Germany. I've never been able to understan what is meant by "There's nothing to fear but fear itself". If there was an armed burglar in my house it's not so much fear I'd be aware of but the need to escape - yhe fight or flight reaction. Maybe I've misinterpreted some of the posts but I thought some people were downplaying the idea of fear. The war in Iraq has been a fiasco but what about the Taliban in Afghanistan? Would ignoring the Taliban make it go away? It seems unlikely. Bush is "the boy who cried 'Wolf'" but that doesn't mean that there are no real wolves out there.