I think that, for the most part, Americans' knowledge of history comes from movies and television. It's hard to deal fully with real history in either medium. Hardly anyone knows, therefore, that after the death of Hitler in the bunker and the surrender of Germany in World War II, there was a vicious Nazi terrorist resistance to the occupiers of the Reich. Formed by remnants of the SS who called themselves the "Werewolves," they are described by Canadian historian Perry Biddiscombe in his book, The Last Nazis: "The Werewolves did considerable damage. Their...guerrilla warfare and vigilantism caused the death of several thousand people, either directly or through the...reprisals that they provoked. The property damage...equaled tens of millions of dollars." Big numbers in that long-ago world, big enough to constitute an "insurgency" every bit as worrisome as the Iraqi version, at least early on. And it provoked a brutal repression on our part.

[One of the most infuriating aspects to the Duke Rape Case is the media's refusal to disclose the name of the woman involved.  She is only identified as "the accuser," while the real victims in the case, the Duke lacrosse players, have had their names and pictures broadcast to every inhabitant of the planet. Not in this article.  The woman's name is Crystal Gail Mangum.  Google her name and you will get 16,000 hits.  There is even a Wikipedia entry on her.  So we are hereby happy to end the journalistic conspiracy and insert her name along with "accuser." ---JW] CBS's "Sixty Minutes" broadcast Sunday (1/14) showed many people the gross abuse of prosecutorial power in the Duke rape case. Durham district attorney Michael Nifong indicted three Duke University lacrosse players last April after a stripper who performed at a team party claimed she had been raped. The accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum, picked the three defendants from a photo lineup consisting only of lacrosse players, a violation of police procedures.  (Clearly innocent people are supposed to be mixed in with suspects.) Liberals rushed to condemn the Duke lacrosse players because they loved the narrative: rich white guys abuse poor black woman.  Some furious backtracking is taking place as evidence of their innocence mounts.  A new verb, to "nifong," has been coined.  It's a synonym for "to frame."

There were a lot of responses to and questions about Arabia in America.  After discussing them, we'll discuss how "global warming" is just a scam to de-industrialize America and has nothing to do with cutting world-wide CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. John Boland made a very informed and cogent case for the safety and practicality of nuclear power.  Ryan M. asked about the role of natural gas, in light of The Natural Gas Solution from last May. Bill Gregory mentions the trillion barrels of oil in Colorado and Wyoming that can be extracted from oil shale with new in situ technology. While I am all in favor of more nuclear power plants, they produce electricity and not gasoline to run our cars.  I focused on coal not for power plants but on coal-to-oil liquefaction plants to replace the 11 million barrels of foreign oil we import every day. The grotesque phoniness of the Left on global warming is most clearly demonstrated regarding coal.  Pelosi Galore is forming a new House Committee on Global Warming, while Barbara Boxer is submitting a bill to ban all coal power plants in the country.  It's all hate-and-blame America all the time.

The Supreme Leader of Iran - the man who really runs the place, not the Persian Midget Ahmadinejad - is the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.  Some people confuse him with his mentor and founder of the Iranian Revolution, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as the spellings are confusingly similar. But Khomeini died in 1989, and Khamenei assumed power after that.  Ever since, he has been the Terror Master in Chief, the principal sponsor of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, especially against Israel and America in Iraq.  Now, at age 66, he is dying. Thus the mullahs are now engaged in a succession struggle, and they are worried that the Iranian people might seize the moment to act against the regime.  Most worried of all is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as there is an effort being made in the Majlis, the Iranian Parliament, to impeach him.

Debate over the new strategy for Iraq mostly has been between those who regard it as a "last chance" for victory, and those who think the war already is irretrievably lost.  About this, two observations: The first is that we have a much lower threshold for what constitutes defeat than our grandparents did.  In the summer of 1942, the Japanese were planning to invade Australia, and German tanks were parked at the Eiffel Tower.  But few then said we should throw in the towel. Our parents and grandparents realized the fascists we were fighting then were really nasty guys; that living in a world in which they were dominant would be intolerable.  They realized our country had great strengths, and our enemies had weaknesses.  If our strengths could be mobilized, and their weaknesses exploited, victory would be ours. We did mobilize our strengths.  Half our gross domestic product was devoted to the war effort. Things sure are different now.

Notice from the header above that this article is in the category of "Replies from Dr. Jack."  It is my fault this category has been defunct for a while, even though it remains listed in the left side bar.  One reason is because I try to participate in our User Forums and respond to member questions there.  But this means a short response, and often a member comment or question requires something longer. So I am re-instituting the "Replies" section and will try to have at least one every week from now on.  What triggered this was a question member Jeffrey W. had regarding Red State Louisiana.  I had predicted that the destruction of the New Orleans' corrupt 9th ward meant the destruction of the Democrat Party machine in the state and the election of Republican Bobby Jindal as governor this coming October. Jeffrey asked:

Interesting article, but what are your thoughts about the machinery which re-elected Ray Nagin even after the Katrina disaster? How could this play out when the time comes to elect a new Governor? Do you think enough of this machinery is still intact to thwart a Republican victory? 

The Jade Steps Chapter Thirty: The Glory of Otumba They set off as dawn broke to stumble into Tlacopan where the chiefs of the city met them with fear in their eyes. "Malinche!" they addressed him.  "We warned you to stay here where you would be safe, and not to go to Tenochtitlan.  Now you have been destroyed, and we with you, for the Aztecs will soon follow to kill you and us." Cortez stood arrow-straight and calmly spoke to Malinali.  "Doña Marina, inform these gentlemen that we greatly value their friendship and shall see they not suffer for it." The chiefs remained worried.  "You must not stay here, Malinche, for the Aztecs are sure to attack.  Not far from here is the temple of Otoncalpulco with a large courtyard surrounded by a wooden wall.  There you will be safer.  I will order our people to carry your wounded on litters and help in which ways we may." Cortez thanked them profusely and the chiefs issued their orders.  One of them turned to Malinali.  "Malinche must know that we are Tepanecs, not Aztecs.  Our kingdom was the first to be enslaved by them. It was our hope that Malinche was the answer to our prayers to be free of their rule."  He looked pleadingly into Malinali's eyes.  "Is there any hope left?" Malinali returned his gaze.  "As long as Malinche is alive, there shall always be hope."