Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


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"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

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"Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS

"You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante

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Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


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Al Qaeda letter could herald new U.S. attack
Fri 12 March, 2004 08:23
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A letter in Arabic claiming responsibility for the Madrid train bombings on behalf of al Qaeda has reinforced fears of another imminent attack on the United States, Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge says.

Islamists consider Spain as belonging to the heart of Dar-al-Islam. They have never accepted the legitimacy of their expulsion in 1492, nor, of course, of the gradual 700-year Reconquest that preceded it. That gives them a problem with people like, say, me, who have never accepted the legitimacy of their invasion of Spain in 711. (And no, they weren't just looking for coffee and a paper!)

Btw -- read the linked Reuters piece, and then tell me: what's up with referring to this attack as "guerrilla" rather than "terrorist"? Does Reuters's stylebook hold that terrorism becomes guerrilla warfare as soon as it's established to be Islamic? (Hat-tip to LGF for that point.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:12 PM