Happy Easter

Muslims still want to kill Westerners.
That, despite President Puffy Chest telling us that WE, are not at war, with them. Good thing that British MI5 didnt get Obama's memo on the non-war thingy, and abandon their investigation of these guys.
Secretary Hilary is (I'm certain) working harder than she's ever worked before on the Ship captain kidnapping thingy, and we're told that the state dept is working on a "negotiated resolution" to the whole ugly incident.

I say send in a SEAL team to conduct "negotiations". We tried the "negotiations" route, way back in 1979, when Iranian....um.........."extremists" (who also happened to be Muslim) kidnapped a bunch of American citizens.
444 days later, those Americans were allowed to return home. Maybe we're better at negotiating now. Maybe showing people (who think its a reasonable idea to attack a freighter with a small motorboat) that we're flexible is a good negotiatin' tool. That even though we possess Aircraft carriers with F-18's on them, that we can listen to their greivences. That we're really NOT big bad bullies, who boss their ways and their views around the world.

We've evolved.
We're progressive now.
I bet the crew of the ship feels better that they progressively used the ship's firehoses to blast the would be pirates off their ship before negotiations had a chance to take effect. The ships crew is safe and sound, and not in Pirate captivity because they "negotiated" their own release, and werent all concerned with their images in the process.



Pontius Pilate sent four Roman Officers to verify that Jesus was indeed dead.

The Jewish Sanhedrin had Pilate dispatch 16 of the best Roman troops ( who were trained to defend against an entire batallion) to "protect" the entrance of the tomb where Jesus's body lay.
Then Pilate had the Roman Seal placed on the 2 ton stone in front of the Tomb, and anyone who broke that seal, (if the Crack Roman special forces unit didnt get them first) did so knowing that the penalty for breaking the seal, was death.
And something happened, which caused the Roman Crack Unit to flee like scared (latter day ) United States state department negotiaters. The soldiers ran to the Sanhedrin, who then informed the Roman special forces unit that they were to tell the world "they ALL fell asleep, and that some of Jesus' bold brave followers (you know, those brave bold disciples who would risk breaking the seal under penalty of death, but now hid in shivering fright in a secluded secret room somewhere) THOSE followers rolled the tomb's entrance blocking stone, a few hundred meters UP a steep hill, and stole Jesus's body". Under penalty of death.
Did I mention that part?? Yeah that really adds up.

The Sanhedrin's story would protect the soldiers from the Roman Army's penalty of death for abandoning their posts. Tough choice, huh? A win-win for all concerned parties. Smart negotiating, I'd say.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the disciples were more a-scared and even less informed than the Roman Special Forces Unit. At least the Romans witnessed something remarkable. The disciples were just plain scared.

As usual, and as though a 21st century Hollywood writing team came up with the idea originally, some women figured it all out first. Sorta like the original Laura Croft Tomb Raider Adventure story. Without the outfits and the gratituitous Hi-YAAAA's! flyng all over the place.
A woman is the first to figure out how the world gets saved. A coupla women on their way to do their womanly duties, discover that not only are the big bad romans not there, the dead body they went there to ceremonially treat, wasn't there either.

There are over 24 THOUSAND different ancient- historical references to this event.
The second most "verifiable" ancient book , based upon the number of sanscripts with similar references, is Homer's "Iliad".
There are 6 hundred some for Homers work.
The difference between the first most, and second most, is like comparing an aircraft carrier to a motor boat.
No event in the history of the human race (save possibly the recent innaguration of President puffy chest), has changed mankind more than that one event.
Whether you believe it occured or not, nothing has changed more individual human lives, than that one (historically verifiable) event.

Hippity Hoppity there IS stilll hope today.......................................