800 Martyrs of Otranto Beheaded By The Ottomans In 1480

Picture this: a very large Muslim army lands at the city gates bent on conquest. Only 400 guards man the walls, most of whom slip away and flee in terror leaving the city’s inhabitants to defend themselves which they did quite spiritedly. After a long siege, the Muslims successfully breech the walls and slaughter most of the people left inside. The surviving males above the age of 15 are given the choice of converting — tempted to do so by an apostate Catholic priest who abandoned the faith to save his skin — or death. 800 souls chose the latter and were martyred. Their sacrifice gave the bickering and divided Italians the time to regroup and save their own lands, arguably all of Christian Europe as well, from being conquered. A fascinating and inspiring story and while some folks might find the comparison to be extreme, [Alfredo] Mantovano compellingly exhorts the West to draw a lesson from this massacre:

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AND THEN, A MIRACLE:

Ahmed condemned all the eight hundred prisoners to death. The following morning, they were led with ropes tied around their necks and their hands bound behind their backs to the Hill of Minerva, a few hundred meters outside of the city. De Marco writes:

“All of them repeated their profession of the faith and the generous response they had given at first, so the tyrant commanded that the decapitation should proceed, and, before the others, the head of the elderly Primaldo should be cut off. Primaldo was hateful to him, because he never stopped acting as an apostle toward his fellows. And before placing his head upon the stone, he told his companions that he saw heaven opened and the comforting angels; that they should be strong in the faith and look to heaven, already open to receive them. He bowed his head and it was cut off, but his corpse stood back up on its feet, and despite the efforts of the butchers, it remained erect and unmoving, until all were decapitated. The marvelous and astonishing event would have been a lesson of salvation for those infidels, if they had not been rebels against the light that enlightens every man who lives in the world. Only one of the butchers, named Berlabei, believed courageously in the miracle and, declaring himself a Christian in a loud voice, was condemned to be impaled.”

During the beatification process for the eight hundred, in 1539, four eyewitnesses spoke of the prodigy of Antonio Primaldo, who remained standing after being decapitated, and of the conversion and martyrdom of the executioner. This is the account of one of the four, Francesco Cerra, who in 1539 was 72 years old:

“Antonio Primaldo was the first to be slaughtered, and without his head he remained upright on his feet, nor could any of the efforts of the enemy knock him down, until all were killed. The butcher, stunned by the miracle, confessed that the Catholic faith was the true one, and insisted on becoming a Christian, and for this the pasha condemned him to death by impaling.”

"EAT, FRY, LOVE: a Cautionary Remix" (William Shatner's video warning about serious turkey fryer accidents)

Published on Nov 12, 2012

In 2011, State Farm teamed up with William Shatner to produce a short video dramatizing an actual accident where the celebrity was burned in a turkey fryer mishap on Thanksgiving. As a result of the video and safety campaign last year, State Farm grease & cooking related fire claims occurring on Thanksgiving Day were carved in half and the daily average for the entire month reached a seven year low. It seems that William Shatner really DID help save the world from exploding turkeys. To get the safety message out in 2012, State Farm worked with John Boswell, aka melodysheep on YouTube, to auto-tune the Shatner turkey fryer video. Called "Eat, Fry, Love: A Cautionary Remix", Boswell injected the perfect blend of creativity and repetition to create a Thanksgiving safety anthem sure to have families clamoring for a moister, tastier and turkey.

Windows on the World...a poignant, small surprise

I was just going through some cookbooks to see what I wanted to have my husband take to the swapmeet. Even though it's mostly electronics (and requires, interestingly, a ham radio license in order to be a seller there), he finds that my old cookbooks are really hot sellers!

In a book published in June, 2001, I just now found a recipe from the restaurant in the World Trade Center (Windows on the World) for "Roasted Wild Turkey with Cornbread-Bacon Dressing".

This book is a collection of recipes from various restaurants, most of which are in the Los Angeles (or Southern California) area except for a few, like this one.

It calls for a 12-14 pound Turkey so my husband, who wants me to save this book because of it's symbolic value, asked if we (me) could make this for Thanksgiving!

I woud try and type it out for you, but it's awfully long and that would probably be a violation of the book's copywright. Oh well.

Sadly, I'll bet that this recipe died with all of the people who were victims on that horrible, fateful day: September 11, 2001.

THANKSGIVING: how to cook the perfect bird

Science may never produce the perfect turkey. But it might add a dose of insight into your Thanksgiving meal. At the very least, it can be a good conversation starter.

"I'm a scientist who cooks by understanding what happens," Barnham said. "I don't see how it could make it any worse to understand what’s happening."

"Basically," he added, "the best way of cooking a turkey is the way you cooked it last year."

Turkey Science: Achieving a Perfect Bird

Obama Administration to Support Anti-Israel Resolution at UN Next Week

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.

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In the next couple of weeks, we may know what the future of the Middle East will look like, as well as the future of the Obama presidency.

VERY scary times we're living in now...

From Legal Insurrection: Joe Biden's Prediction About To Come True

From a friend, in Cairo

My Fellow Americans:

My life has taken a dark turn (so to speak.) I am being stalked by a powerful, menacing Halfrican American! I went to Istanbul not too long ago and was followed there by none other than Barack Obama. Now I'm in Cairo and Obama's coming here. I swear to Allah, if the man shows up in Porter Ranch I'm calling the cops!

Meanwhile, unlike Turkey, where the excitement prior to the Messiah's visit was palpable, here in Egypt, not so much. The Egyptian attitude ranges on the excitement scale from total indifferenence to somewhat annoyed about the abominable two day traffic snarl Barack's visit will invariably create.

Why the difference in attitude, you ask? Well, I think for a couple of reasons. First of all, since this is a Muslim country, they are always looking for a reason to be pissed and/or "dissed." Since Obama chose to go to Turkey as his first Muslim country, every other Muslim country is now insulted. Not to mention, among Muslim countries Turkey is not considered a real Muslim country, so that added insult to injury.

Second of all, since the Turkey visit Obama has made yet more decisions about the War on Terror (and therefore Muslims) that are none too popular around here. In fact, there was a political cartoon in the newspaper depiciting Obama in a cowboy hat and boots, basically saying that there was no difference between Obama and George W. Bush. (If only that were true.)

Nonetheless, Cairo is on high security alert, Muslim style. Although the exact location of Obama's speech is supposed to be a state secret, it was nonetheless published on the front page of all the newspapers along with photos of Cairo University preparing the campus for his visit. Plus maps of the campus. There will be 300 well chosen students and 2,700 Egyptians with wasta ( political influence) attending. No motorcade, as he is arriving by helicopter. I'm sure more security details will be leaked as soon as they are available.

Meanwhile, there are tons of American security people staying at my hotel. Leon Panetta could easily hold a staff meeting in the fittness center or lounge any time of the day or night. But, boy do those guys have their work cut out for them. If Obama survives this visit without incident then we'll know he really is the Messiah.

Meanwhile, as we say in New York, not for nothin' but it turns out Sean Penn is also in town. Penn is shooting a movie here, the Valerie Plame story. He plays her vile, lying husband, Joe Wilson. (Type casting?)

Obama, Sean Penn, suddenly Cairo is lousy with famous Americans, or alternatively, one could say lousy, famous Americans are all over Cairo.

(name withheld by request)

Obama Stalkee

Obama fails in Pakistan and Turkey

Report: Pakistan rejects U.S. plan, wants drones
By Bridget Johnson
Posted: 04/08/09 11:56 AM [ET]

U.S. envoys met with Pakistani leaders on Tuesday to ensure that the $7.5 billion that President Obama plans to send their way over the next five years will be used to achieve common goals in the fight against extremism.

But according to a Pakistani newspaper, regional envoy Richard Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen came up empty-handed and received a "rude shock" when a proposal for joint operations against al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the volatile tribal regions was rejected.

Dawn newspaper reported that Pakistan also asked the U.S. to turn over the unmanned drone missions over the territory to them, saying that the drone strikes were fueling extremism.

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...I question the premise that Obama "means well" in "O'S AMATEUR HOUR":

The real climax of President Obama's Spring Apologies Tour wasn't his photo op with our troops in Baghdad or even his "American Guilt" concerts in Western Europe.

While fans in the press cheered wildly at every venue, the real performance came in Turkey. And it was a turkey.

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And Drudge Report has the clincher: "SHOCK: Turkish TV Reports On Obama In Blackface? Turkish Flash T.V. MOCKS U.S President Obama

Jesus is not son of God. He is a Prophet of Islam.

Thousands of Muslims urge Pope not to visit Turkey