Armenian Genocide: not that bad.

I learned in my Ottoman history course, that the Armenian genocide wasn't a genocide, and that they in reality started it first. As such, they got their just reward. I consulted Hugh Fitzgerald of Jihad Watch, and he recommended Dadrian's books and Balakhian's book on the American response to it. Balakhian is a healthy dose of reality and should be read by all. You can easily find it on the shelf, as opposed to other more needy books. I have found it most interesting, and fact filled. We learn that the army and navy of the Ottomans was dismantled because Abdul Hamit II thought that the soldiers would use the weapons on him, so they were ill prepared for anything, which is why they had to ask for German help in WWI. This unprotective army contributed to the uprisings and desire to get rid of an incompetent (or even impotent) caliphate, through the means of the Young Turk movement. This was headed in part by Mustafa Kemal, later called Ataturk, but he was no hero.

Be sure and read these books, as they are an effective counter measure against negationism. Also, Balakhian's book has a concluding chapter which details when and how it was denied. Even Bernard Lewis denies it.

2 bad books.

I have to read 2 books for these first 3 weeks, and they are terrible. One is on the Snake handlers of the Appalchian mountains in the Southeastern USA, and the other is about Vodou (Voodoo) priestess in New York city (Brooklyn). These are, respectively:

Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Brown, Karen McCarthy. Universtiy of California Press, 2001.

Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalchia. Covington, Dennis. Penguin, 1995.

Mama Lola is very boring, and right in the Introduction, Ms. Brown says that she made up a lot of the stuff in the chapters. The books is half a family history and half a story of the voodoo gods that Mama Lola encounters in her job as a healer. It's praised as a postmodern, feminist book, but she is an anthropologist and the book doesn't appear to be worth the printing. I wouldn't recommend it.

The snakes is slightly better, as it starts off covering a trial about Glenn Summerford and his attempted murder of his wife with the churches snakes. It is fast paced and exciting, as the author is a journalist, who knows how to make a juicy story. However, it is still not worth wasting your money on.

More hidden cams from Iran.

There are 2 new cams at bia2: #19 & #20. Go and see. There's some leg shots, and road shots. Very good, shows us reality in Iran.