Hail, Britannia!

It's a long time till it's home time for us. We have to live with the death of our friends at the hands of man-eating monsters on our way, but let's see the monsters for what they are; and ourselves.

We are clever and brave, and our enemies are one-eyed monsters who feed on human flesh. Frankly, today my heart is just not in yet more enquiry into fascism. I do, however, want to keep within the field of our struggle against Islam; and it seems just so to take a piece from Euripides to cast an old light on a new situation. We'll witness the burial of our friends over the next few days, and we'll live with the mained and crippled for the remainer of their lives as reminders that we didn't do enough soon enough to prevent this miserable tragedy. But we are clever and brave. We will win this fight. We'll win it because of our love of the world of life. We'll win because we won't let ourselves become fascists like our enemies. They bang their heads against a rock.

When Odysseus and his men were washed ashore and found safety in a cave, they also fiound themselves captive of a cannibal. Yes, there were even Left fascist dhimmis there. Not much changes.
***
From Euripides, Cyclops.

ODYSSEUS (AKA Nobody): What boon shall I receive of thee to earn my thanks?
CYCLOPS: I will feast on thee last, after all thy comrades.
ODYSSEUS: Fair indeed the honour thou bestowest on thy guest, sir Cyclops!
***

When Odysseus, (who identified himself to his captor Cyclops as "Nobody from Nowhere,") figures out a plan-- to get Cyclops drunk till he's passed out and to then jab him in the eye with a burning stake-- all he has to do to save himself, his men, and the others captive on the island, is get some help from the others, sort of like us in our struggle against Islam. When Cyclops falls down drunk, the game's afoot:
***

LEADER OF THE CHORUS: Silent we stand with bated breath.
ODYSSEUS: In then, and mind your fingers grip the brand, for it is splendidly red-hot.
LEADER: Thyself ordain who first must seize the blazing bar and burn the Cyclops' eye out, that we may share alike whate'er betides.
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS: Standing where I am before the door, I am too far off to thrust the fire into his eye.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS: I have just gone lame.
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS: Why, then, thou art in the same plight as I; for somehow or other I sprained my ankle, standing still.
ODYSSEUS: Sprained thy ankle, standing still?
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS: Yes, and my eyes are full of dust or ashes from somewhere or other.
ODYSSEUS: These are sorry fellows, worthless as allies.
LEADER: Because I feel for my back and spine, and express no wish to have my teeth knocked out, I am a coward, am I? Well, but I know a spell of Orpheus, a most excellent one, to make the brand enter his skull of its own accord, and set alight the one-eyed son of Earth.
ODYSSEUS: Long since I knew thou wert by nature such an one, and now I know it better; I must employ my own friends; but, though thou bring no active aid, cheer us on at any rate, that I may find my friends emboldened by thy encouragement.
(ODYSSEUS goes back into the cave.)

***
LEADER: That will I do; the Carian shall run the risk for us; and as far as encouragement goes, let the Cyclops smoulder.
CHORUS (singing): What ho! my gallants, thrust away, make haste and burn his eyebrow off, the monster's guest-devouring. Oh! singe and scorch the shepherd of Aetna; twirl the brand and drag it round and be careful lest in his agony he treat thee to some wantonness.
CYCLOPS: (bellowing in the cave) Oh! oh! my once bright eye is burnt to cinders now.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS: Sweet indeed the triumph-song; pray sing it to us, Cyclops.
CYCLOPS: (from within) Oh! oh! once more; what outrage on me and what ruin! But never shall ye escape this rocky cave unpunished, ye worthless creatures; for will stand in the entrance of the cleft and fit my hands into it thus. (Staggering to the entrance)
LEADER: Why dost thou cry out, Cyclops?
CYCLOPS: I am undone.
LEADER: Thou art indeed a sorry sight.
CYCLOPS: Aye, and a sad one, too.
LEADER: Didst fall among the coals in a drunken fit?
CYCLOPS: Nobody has undone me,
LEADER: Then there is no one hurting thee after all.
CYCLOPS: Nobody is blinding me.
LEADER: Then art thou not blind.
CYCLOPS: As blind as thou, forsooth.
LEADER: How, pray, could no man have made thee blind?
CYCLOPS: Thou mockest me; but where is this Nobody?
LEADER: Nowhere, Cyclops.
CYCLOPS: It was the stranger, vile wretch! who proved my ruin, that thou mayst understand rightly, by swilling me with the liquor he gave me.
LEADER: Ah! wine is a terrible foe, hard to wrestle with.
CYCLOPS: Tell me, I adjure thee, have they escaped or are they still within? (During the following lines, ODYSSEUS and his men slip by the CYCLOPS, despite his efforts to stop them.)
LEADER: Here they are ranged in silence, taking the rock to screen them.
CYCLOPS: On which side?
LEADER: On thy right.
CYCLOPS: Where?
LEADER: Close against the rock. Hast caught them?
CYCLOPS: Trouble on trouble! I have run my skull against the rock and cracked it.
LEADER: Aye, and they are escaping thee.
CYCLOPS: This way, was it not? 'Twas this way thou saidst.
LEADER: No, not this way.
CYCLOPS: Which then?
LEADER: They are getting round thee on the left.
CYCLOPS: Alas! I am being mocked; ye jeer me in my evil plight.
LEADER: They are no longer there; but facing thee that stranger stands.
CYCLOPS: Master of villainy, where, oh! where art thou?
ODYSSEUS: Some way from thee I am keeping careful guard over the person of Odysseus.
CYCLOPS: What, a new name! hast changed thine?
ODYSSEUS: Yes, Odysseus, the name my father gave me. But thou wert doomed to pay for thy unholy feast; for I should have seen Troy burned to but sorry purpose,unless I had avenged on thee the slaughter of my comrades.
CYCLOPS: Woe is me! 'tis an old oracle coming true; yes, it said I should have my eye put out by thee on thy way home from Troy; but it likewise foretold that thou wouldst surely pay for this, tossing on the sea for many day.
ODYSSEUS: Go hang! E'en as I say, so have I done. And now will I get me to the beach and start my hollow ship across the sea of Sicily to the land of my fathers.
CYCLOPS: Thou shalt not; I will break a boulder off this rock and crush thee, crew and all, beneath my throw. Blind though I be, I will climb the hill, mounting through yonder tunnel.
LEADER: As for us, henceforth will we be the servants of Bacchus, sharing the voyage of this hero Odysseus.

THE END

Time for some music here at the Fortress, and a bit more literature, in keeping with our high optimism about the reform of Islam and all it's poor moderates who had their religion of peace hijacked. Volume please!


The Clash, "Rock the Casbah."

Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin’ to the top
The sheik he drove his cadillac
He went a’ cruisnin’ down the ville
The muezzin was a’ standing
On the radiator grille

Chorus
The shareef don’t like it
Rockin’ the casbah
Rock the casbah
The shareef don’t like it
Rockin’ the casbah
Rock the casbah

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy casbah sound
But the bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

Chorus

Now over at the temple
Oh! they really pack ’em in
The in crowd say it’s cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy casbah jive

Chorus

The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the casbah way

As soon as the shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare

As soon as the shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed

Chorus

He thinks it’s not kosher
Fundamentally he can’t take it.
You know he really hates it.
***

Rock the casbah! Music to my ears.