this is a little better in terms of presenting a more critical narrative and drawing attention to the unreliability of the sources, but i want to comment a little on the context around the lack of resistance in spain, and the more serious resistance in france, leading to an analysis of the significance of the battle of tours. he split the podcast into two videos, so i've posted both.

you have to understand that spain was a central part of the empire and the visigoths were barbarians; these were german speaking arians with crude customs that the latin-speaking, romanized locals would not have liked much, despite their own transgressions against roman imperialism, when it existed, which was mostly in the northern parts of the peninsula (the southern parts being more romanized). the berbers, on the other hand, were also a romanized people, fighting under the direction of what must have seemed like a new empire.

so, how would the average spaniard have really seen the situation? there's a good chance that they may have seen the arab-berber invasion as the empire coming to liberate them from the barbarians. and, as it was in egypt and the levant, that might have been a factor in the ease of the initial conquests.

when they got to france, they finally found a different ethno-cultural makeup - a people that were never romanized that were defending their homeland from invasion. if the romanized spaniards saw the caliphate as the return of the empire to save them from the barbarians, the franks would have seen them as a new empire to protect their territory from, as a new hegemon to fight. 

however you want to look at it, it's clear enough that the muslim armies met their first serious non-greeek resistance in france. for the first time, they met a people unwilling to submit to them. so, they never came back...

but, i think that putting it into those terms demonstrates that the muslims would have had a fight on their hands, at least. it's worth remembering that these german tribes were barely christianized, and in many cases not christianized at all. what stood behind martel in the directions of scotland and poland was not "christendom" but a wilderness inhabited by pagan tribes, many of which were soon slaughtered by charlemagne. so, what exactly did martel save? and, the answer is the forces that undid christianity in the end, rather than christianity itself. it's consequently perhaps more worthwhile to suggest that, by preventing the muslim conquest of germany, martel ensured that the process that led to the renaissance, the reformation and the enlightenment was able to take place. but, would the northern barbarians have not resisted arabization as strenuously as they resisted romanization? i see no reason to think they would not have.

it follows that what the battle really represented was the muslims hitting the demarcation point of actual roman influence; for the muslims to conquer france would mean bringing new lands into the empire, rather than carrying through with a mop-up operation around the crumbling cities of the late empire. and, it's worth pointing this out: they failed the minute they found an actual, real opponent.

i'm consequently coming down somewhere in the middle of the narrative. the battle was clearly a turning point in history, but the reasons for it are perhaps deeper-seated than is often realized, and the muslims had no doubt reached their limits, whether they had to die proving it or not.

i will state this as clearly as i can.

if russia aligns with the chinese, then they are unstoppable and we're fucked.

but, if we can peel the russians away and build an alliance with them, then we have some chance of hemming the chinese in.

so, what do the idiots in washington do? they insist on depleting military resources fighting against our only possible way out. 

thankfully, the russians are patient and understand this better than anybody. we've been through this already....repeatably...and we have to just hope that washington eventually pulls it's head out of it's ass and figures it out.

otherwise, we're going to end up a province in a chinese mercantilist empire that is just going to bleed us dry until there's nothing left.

as far as i know, the only area of the world that has never been conquered is sweden. germany is in a grey area, because it loses wars, but it never gets colonized. 

russia has been conquered, but only from the east. it was vicious, and ruined it....

but, if there is even one lesson in history, it is clear: only a fool would pick a fight with the russians.

the current context makes them just that much more stupid, as any halfways competent person would look at this board and instantly realize that russia will determine the outcome. again.

we will never beat the chinese at anything - economic or military - without russian help.

if this is the great struggle of our time - america v china - then the russians will determine the outcome, by picking the winner in the fight.

fighting them is dumb - we should be courting them.

...and stay out of ukraine!

we're going to need the russians later on, and this administration is making a mistake in alienating them.

canada can't outspend america on stimulus, but it can play along and join in. competition, here, is stupid.

there's going to be things we're better positioned to produce, and we should focus on supply chains where it makes sense - and otherwise get out of the way.

in fact, we have our own infrastructure to rebuild, including infrastructure for essential goods and services.

so, my suggestion is to embrace an enlightened parallelism - engage with what they're doing, but emulate them, more than anything else. our investor class does well with these agreements but, overall, if they need to rebuild due to bad trade agreements, then everything that's true about them is even more true about us - and we need to react that much more.

i don't want to be an american, but i don't want to be a mexican, either. we have to maintain this balancing act, and it's by co-operating when it's in our self-interest, while not forgetting that we need sovereignty and independence, too.

i took a shower and got some sleep....

i think i can get the july section done today, and maybe most of the august section.

as mentioned: i realized going through this that i had to do this, due to how i left the files. but, it should be relatively fast. and, then it's done. 

forever.

the alephs are on hold but i intend to actually catch up.

today's post is not an official release but a compilation i helped put together for members of the skinny puppy internet mailing list, epilogue. there's no price tag here.

my remix would eventually end up on my remixes compilation, inri032.

====

so, i'm going through some old files and decided to put this up...

the backstory is connected to a covers compilation put together by cleopatra records called "hymns of the warlock", as well as a remix compilation put together by nettwerk records called "remix dystemper". this compilation was put together between the releases of those two compilations.

the easiest thing to say is simply that there were always two different types of skinny puppy fans, related to a now historical split in electronic music between those who preferred "ebm" (that is electronic booty/body music) and "idm" (intelligent dance music). ebm is only reasonably listened to in clubs because it's simplistic and repetitive; idm is the kind of thing you put on when you're doing homework or reading a book. the separation has been much maligned, but it is intuitively obvious that there are some types of electronic music that do not have much depth (and yet are fun to dance to) and some types of electronic music with dozens of layers to disentangle (and may be less danceable), so i see little point in getting silly about it. skinny puppy existed in a middle point; they always had the ability to attract both audiences because their music was both highly danceable and yet also in an art rock and political/punk rock tradition. this is not unique within electronic music, but it *is* rare. they're not considered to be the high point of electronic art music in the modern era for no reason.

throughout the 90s, skinny puppy fans connected with each other and discussed various topics over the epilogue internet mailing list. within this list, there was much derision directed at the cleopatra compilation due to it's over-representation of the ebm side of the band's sound. the more musically inclined members of the list claimed they could put together a better record, were challenged to do so and eventually did.

i was a fairly recent addition to the list and volunteered for distribution for the sole reason that i had the tools to do so (cd burners were still relatively rare in 1998). the cover art was put together by other members of the list and sent to me for reproduction.

while i would argue that the disc more accurately represents the experimental aspect of the band than either of the officially released compilations did, i listen to it now and wish i would have been more selective. the reality is that i didn't really have the standing necessary in the list (you have to have an understanding of 90s internet communications to get that, i guess) to act as a filter on material coming in. nor did i receive enough material to have the luxury of cutting tracks. there's some interesting remixes/reconstructions, but some of it is very blatantly the work of amateur musicians. i should also point out that i considered some of those amateur musicians to be my friends.

it's up here, as is, for listening ears. should either of the kevins express an opposition to this (i doubt that, but i am not able to tap into their consciousnesses from a distance), they own it and get to make the choices.

now, yes, it may be the case that popeye's unfortunate abuse of the language and blatant double negative literally suggests he is a doctor, but i have no desire to be disingenuous, or to misquote cartoons to prove a point. colloquialisms aside, he clearly intended to explain that he is not a doctor - despite losing his patients on a frequent basis.

 actually, a quick perusal of the literature provides for a definitive answer:

"I ain't no doctor" - popeye

alas.

"popeye is not a doctor"

well, you don't know that, though.

the data on iron is actually a little surprising. 

you get iron from spinach, right? everybody knows that. just ask popeye.

in fact, according to the usda, spinach is not a particularly great source of iron at all. better sources are:

- red peppers

- tomatoes

- leeks

- potatoes

- radishes

- shallots

spinach isn't even in the shortlist.

but, i'm already eating peppers & tomatoes in my pasta bowl.

let me get the results first....

so, is this iron working?

i dunno. 

i know i'm still awake.

you supposedly only use a mg or two a day, so what i'm doing makes more sense than it seems on first glance. there may only be .2-.3 mg in each of these slices, but if my body gobbles it up, i'm giving myself .4-.8, and that's hopefully going right into the stores. and, it's a persistent, small amount with vitamin c, so it's about as much as i can possibly absorb - if i can absorb any at all

if it works, the next step is to replace the roast beef with spinach.

and, i might have to make that permanent.

ok, i think i'm over the hump on this and it should be quick from here...