Stories below the fold

My film review of Catching Fire is now at BNN.

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The FreeLibrary podcast discusses Blackwater.

‘Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries’
These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth’s foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth’s foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.

AEHouseman

The wars of Africa are often blamed on mercenaries, but the dirty little secret is that if they had hired a couple of good mercenaries to stop the wars in Central Africa, instead of UN Peacekeepers, maybe one or two million people would still be alive. 

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Welcome to Cuba.

how dare he write what he sees
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TheAncientStandard remembers when medieval Afghanistan was under the Ghurid dynasty and not run by 8th century inspired bigots:

Archaeologists believe the city was a cosmopolitan area, home to Muslims, Jews, and Christians, who were able to live harmoniously despite their differences.

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related item: unsung heroes trying to eliminate Polio in Afghanstan.

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The Philippines rejoices because Pacman made a comeback...but now the tax police are after his winnings.

The tax case arose from the alleged failure of Pacquiao’s accountant to report in his income tax returns (ITR) the multi-million-dollar taxes collected by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from his prize winnings for the years 2008 to 2009.

so he didn't pay Philippine taxes on the money taken by the US tax collectors???



On line polls are garbage because they allow activists to manipulate the results.

Guess who is doing this to manipulate the Vatican? Father Z has the story.

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CDC has reports on homicide, suicide, infant deaths etc. this week.

The report on homicide includes ways to combat it: But with Obama pushing the meme of victimhood (ergo justifying violence), he is undermining the public health attempt to fight this social problem.

And the press'/media glamourizing homicide/suicide as justis not helping.

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