Tag Archives: ISIS
One Year Later
It was on October 7, 2023, that Hamas launched its sneak attack on Israel, killing more than a thousand people and starting a war that not only has has no end in sight, but has now expanded into Lebanon. Where do we go from here? Last month I thought we might dive into the topic […]
Death Of A Terrorist
It’s Flashback Friday. Today’s post first ran on January 19, 2015. I saw the report about the death of a Canadian terrorist last week, first online then, the next morning, in my newspaper. I read the whole article instead of just skimming, noted some interesting details and that was about it. I thought about doing […]
What Privacy?
I wrote this post in 2016, but apparently it was never posted. I have no idea why. Canada has some of the highest, perhaps the highest, cell phone rates in the world. Getting a phone is fast and easy, as long as you have money. Getting a cell phone in Iraq is quite another story. […]
The Tomb
As I have mentioned, I’m traveing this month, a combination of business and pleasure. The pleasure part will produce a post or two (as I write this I have 15 partially finished, some travel-related, others not) but those will wait for my return to Canada. In the meantime, some of my favorites from the past, […]
The Ruined Palace
A flashback for this Wednesday, from a trip I took to Iraq in 2015. Somehwere I think I still have a couple of posts written at the time that still haven’t been published. The Peshmerga guards ask if we would like some tea. I don’t drink hot drinks, but I know it would be culturally […]
Thoughts on Martin Scorsese’s “Silence”
It bombed at the box office, which didn’t surprise me. I saw it a couple of weeks ago at the tail-end of its theatre run, and have thought for a while about what I want to say about it. It is not your usual Hollywood fare, far too serious at a time when America is […]
Sharing Tea
This time last year I was in Iraq. I had plans to return this month, but the fighting in the Mosul area made the trip unwise. I wrote the words below last November, and for some reason I don’t seem to have posted them before. With the current fighting expected to produce another half million […]
Useless Political Correctness
The headline reads “Document reveals RCMP strategy for possible ‘flood of foreign fighters’ fleeing Mosul offensive.” I think it is supposed to make me feel safer. I am pleased to read that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are prepared to deal with returning fighters. I would expect no less of our national police force. […]
Two Years Later
Two years ago today a lone gunman, who we discovered later had been inspired by ISIS and had just killed a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial, stormed through the front doors of the Centre Block of Parliament Hill. For many Canadians it was extremely disturbing to think that such a terrorist attack […]
Don’t Panic!
I can hear his voice as I read the book, which feels a little strange in a way. I still think of him more as a broadcaster than as a writer. The authoritative and somewhat soothing tones are accompanied by word pictures of death and destruction. I had been on the wait list at the […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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