The Soviets’ Inner Wall

…’from Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended over Europe’ – speech made by Winston Churchill in 1946 in Fulton, Missouri
West Berliners waving to relatives across the Berlin Wall, Christmas 1961, Photo: Wikipedia
At the end of World War II, the victorious Allies divided Germany from 1945 to 1949 into four sections, each administered by a different allied country, in order to prevent the spread of Nazism (National Socialism). Continue reading

The Hessian Powder Magazine

On the Carlisle Barracks grounds in Pennsylvania, a non-descript rectangular stone building was witness to so much of our early American history. The entrance is in the middle, a heavy and simple wooden door with rusted thick latches. It is now a self-guided museum which opens at daylight and closes at sun-down. It was captivating to step inside and to visit alone the former prison cells and powder storage magazine, now a museum which describes the rich history that surrounds the area. Continue reading

Borders Do Matter

Fintina Alba monument called “Troita”
Political elites have used social engineering to control masses of people and territories over the millennia. They have redrawn borders and moved tribes and herded people into harsher environments, not ideally suitable for human habitation and agriculture; they have sent humans to occupy already heavily populated areas through invasion, conquering them, destroying the local inhabitants’ religion in the process, and forcing them to accept the conquering religion of Islam. Christians organized their own crusades in response, to regain the territories occupied by Muslims. Continue reading

A 1979 Time Magazine Article About Islam

We Muslims are one family even though we live under different governments and in various regions.” – Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s revolution

Time cover http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19790416,00.html
Thirty-seven years ago, Time magazine dedicated its cover to “Islam, The Militant Revival,” and published a lengthy article, “The World of Islam,” in which John A. Meyer wrote, “We want to examine Islam’s resurgence, not simply as another faith but as a political force and potent third ideology competing with Marxism and Western culture in the world today.” It was April 16, 1979. Continue reading

Western Europe’s “Headache”

India_location_map_svg Map of India with tribe location Photo: Wikipedia
The invasion of Europe by young military-age Muslim men from the Middle East and Africa has pushed one Western European “headache” to the back burner – the Romanian gypsies, with their nomadic lifestyle and “criminality,” petty theft, pickpocketing, and begging around train stations and major tourist attractions; these gypsies have irritated the European Union bureaucrats and the selectively multicultural Europeans. Continue reading

“Combating Hate in Europe” Forum

Combating Hate in Europe photo From left to right: Fred Hiatt, Washington Post moderator, Peter Wettig, German Ambassador, Gerard Araud, French Ambassador, David O’Sullivan, EU Ambassador to the U.S.
(Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016)

Despite the snowy conditions in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum held a program on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2016 on the topic of “Combating Hate in Europe.” http://www.ushmm.org/online/watch/index.html
In advertising the forum, the museum explained the importance of such a program.
“Around the world, antisemitism, religious persecution, and violent extremism are on the rise, and each threatens the stability and freedoms that democratic leaders are working to preserve.” Continue reading

Harold, the American Soldier at the Battle of the Bulge

Aside

I dedicate this essay to my friend and mentor, Harold Turner, a WWII veteran who fought and survived the Battle of the Bulge.

Harold at Veterans Day Parade in Okolona, MS 2012 Harold Turner
Veteran’s Day parade in Mississippi
A two hour flight later I was in my beloved South, assaulted by humidity and cold. A heavy and constant rain made it difficult to drive my rented Corolla. I expected humidity and hot and I was shivering in my light clothes. Continue reading

A Visit to Ca’D’Zan and to The Ringling Brothers Museum

Ca'D'Zan Ca’D’Zan Mansion
Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015
On a beautiful October day, we finally experienced Ca’D’Zan, the House of John, the 1920s Venetian Gothic palace on Sarasota Bay, home of John and Mable Ringling, their Museum of Art, and the beautiful gardens decorated with replicas of Italian statues. Located in Sarasota, Florida, the property was bequeathed to the state of Florida in 1936. Continue reading

Inhumanity, When the Night Does Fall

“Today it is the unborn child; tomorrow it is likely to be the elderly or those who are incurably ill. Who knows but that a little later it may be anyone who has political or moral views that do not fit into the distorted new order?” – Attributed to Dr. Mildred Jefferson
Landscap Buchenwald near Weimar
April 24, 1945 Photo: Wikipedia
People are desensitized to violence every day – there is so much of it in real life, in computer games, and on television. The plots of Hollywood enhance cruelty, senseless and twisted insanity, tribal violence, wars, gang violence, and drug violence. Jihadi violence is on display every day. The good guys are maligned and the bad guys are celebrated, rewarded, and protected in the halls of power. Continue reading

The Spirit of America 2015

Spirit of America 3A crowd of 7,500 patriotic Americans attended the U.S. Army’s 2015 Spirit of America show, a performance highlighting our proud history through the eyes of the American Soldier. Aptly named, the Patriot Center on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, was brimming with excited men, women, and children who came to pay their respects to our elite soldiers who have sworn to uphold our Constitution and to defend our country so that we may enjoy the freedoms that most take for granted. Continue reading