David Irving Talk - May 21st Central London - Review

(Note:  this is an unofficial review - any mistakes etc are solely the author's)

David Irving gave some tantalising glimpses into the work that will be part of his forthcoming book, a biography of Heinrich Himmler, aswell as other important historical issues.

Most historians read twelve books on a subject and then write a thirteenth from a slightly different slant.  Not so David Irving.  Irving conducts research in the true sense of the word and what makes Irving lectures so interesting is that he draws you into the hunt.  You become a Dr Watson by the side of  a Sherlock Holmes, a Lewis beside Inspector Morse.  He uncovers new records, documents, photos.  He tracks down and interviews people who were there when great historical events happened and who have never been interviewed before.  He tracks them down, interviews them and wins their respect.  He hunts for the truth and the hunt, with all its twists and turns, becomes as interesting as the new facts he uncovers.  The new facts and information he unearths shed a dramatically different light on events than hitherto was thought, and the implications are dramatic.

During this lecture he gave us fascinating glimpses into the life of Heinrich Himmler.  One example that stood out was his uncovering of two paintings of the beautiful Paula, who was the fiancee of Himmler's elder brother Gebhard.  Heinrich  (Heinie) did not approve of this girl and asked his brother not to marry her.  When he refused, Heinie hired a private eye who uncovered evidence of an earlier passionate relationship between Paula and a young painter.  The 2 paintings that Irving has tracked down are by this same young painter and would appear to validate Heinie's concerns.

Irving also showed us a photograph of a unknown bewitching young woman that was tied into the back of Himmler's Memoirs.  This photo will soon be on the Focal Point website as Irving is appealing for information about her. Irving also gave us some insights into the developing knowledge of the Jews/''anti-semitism'' of the young Heinie and how he threw himself into University life joining numerous Societies and Clubs and earning himself a duelling scar.  This scar was well sewed up, so much so that it is not apparent in later life.

He covered Himmler's political differences with Hitler and Himmler's efforts to thwart anti-Hitler plots.  Himmler had these plots monitored to the last possible moment in order to catch the maximum number of plotters, however Stauffenberg was the one man that Himmler's organisation did not suspect.

Irving gave us an amazing account of how preposterous the official version of Heinrich Himmler's death is.  The Official Establishment History is that Himmler committed suicide in British custody by hiding a cyanide capsule in his tooth.  The Official version goes that Himmler while at a POW camp near Bremen he gave himself up to the authorities, was searched and then was taken to a house on Lunenberg Heath, searched again and given a medical check up.  The medical examiner took him to the window and spotted a hidden cyanide capsule at the back of his mouth.

Himmler then rushed to the other side of the room and bit on the capsule.  Irving showed us the regulation issue cyanide capsule that SS officers carried to gasps from the audience.  The capsule was the size of cigar and kept in a case which was even larger than of a cigar case.  To hide this in one's mouth would be nigh impossible.  The inconsistencies begin to pile up.  Colonel Murphy  who was put in charge of interrogating Himmler mentions in his diary that on driving to the Lunenberg Heath house he chatted to Himmler on the backseat of a car, while Himmler ate a British Army sandwich (hardly easy to do with a cyanide cigar sized capsule there!).  At the house, which by the way is referred to by the Allies as 'a house prepared for such purposes' (interrogation would be a kind word for it), Himmler was inspected so the official version goes by a medical examiner who on bringing Himmler over to the window to get extra light realised that Himmler had a concealed capsule in his mouth.  Himmler then ran to the other side of the room and bit on the capsule. Irving with a smile notes that the official time of this event is 11pm and that there were no street lamps or full moon!  All the military personnel in any way involved with the Lunenberg Heath house were vowed to secrecy about the event, so it is hard to piece together what  happened to those senior captives who went there.  However Irving does well.  He looks at the notes to the sketches that war artist Terrence Cuneo made for his official painting of Himmler's body.  These are notes that other historians have never examined - and what does Irving find?    A reference to 'nose broken'.

Himmler did not have a broken nose on arriving at the house.   On showing Himmler's death mask to a Forsensic friend what was Irving told?  "  Oh, he's been badly beaten hasn't he!"  In short the Lunenberg House was an interrogation, torture and execution house and many other prominent Axis officials met the same fate there often at the hands of fluent German speakers of Jewish extraction serving in the Allied Armies.  Thus the Allied pompous moral hypocrisy is exposed.

 Another issue that Irving illuminated was the Hess flight to Scotland, and concluded that in many respects it was a success.  Hess after his capture was searched and a letter to the King was found on his person, this was given back to him.  He was then held in the local police station.  While being held there he was visited and had a long chat with the Duke of Hamilton.  When Hess was taken to Glasgow police station he was again searched, but no such letter was found.  Two days later the Duke of Hamilton - who never usually made private visits to the King - visited the King.  No one but David Irving seems to have seen the inference.  Throughout 1940 the Queen Mother was plotting with British Admirals to overthrow Churchill, who was thoroughly disliked by the non-Jewish Aristocracy.

 Irving is often described as a 'Holocaust Denier', but he only briefly touched on anything to do with the Concentration Camps.  This was to mention an often forgotten fact that in 1947 the Communist Authorities in Poland launched their own investigation of the Auchwitz Camp and concluded by saying that 300,000 people of ALL nationalities had perished there.  This is quite something, when later on in the Century the Auchwitz Camp Tourism Authority were saying that 4 million had died.  The official figure now is being constantly reduced and now stands at 1.1 million. 

 He also described the story of Anne Frank and her family as conclusive proof that the events of WWII did not happen in the way that the Holocaust Propagandists claim.  Afterall Anne Frank died of typhus  as did several guards there, and after the camp was taken over by the allies a British lady translator sent from Bletchley Park also died of Typhus. More people died in the camps of typhus after they were liberated by the allies than during the period when they were under German control.  Anne Frank's father fell ill there while an inmate under the Germans and was nursed back to health in the Auchwitz medical centre.  When the Soviet Army was approaching, the Camp Commandant gave the prisoners the choice of either waiting for the Soviets or coming with them westwards.  Anne Frank's father chose to go with the retreating Germans westwards.  Hardly the picture that Hollywood likes to show us.

On other issues, Irving told us how he discovered that there was a survivor to the Sikorski plane crash  (Sikorski was the leader of the Free Polish Forces).  His death has always been attributed to the British, however proof is hard to come by.  Irving once discovered that a pilot of the plane a certain Charles Massey was still alive in the 1960's.  On further investigation he discovered he was living behind South Kensington Tube Station.  After going to visit him, Irivng arranged an interview with him 3 days later.  2 days later Charles Massey vanished - and was never heard of again by his wife and daughter.  Thirteen years later Irving had a call from Massey's daughter asking for his help.  Charles Massey had died and his newly-discovered flat in Cheltenham was covered with photos of his beloved daughter.  A daughter he had never contacted in 13 years.  At his sparsely attended funeral there was a Air Chief Vice Marshall of the RAF who  arrived in a chauffeur driven car, placed a wreath and then left.  As there are only 6 such ranks in the RAF, Irving soon found out who he was and phoned him. The RAF officer refused to talk to him.  So what or who made Charles Massey flee his family and former life and live a secretive, reclusive life in Cheltenham two days after being contacted by David Irving?  The obvious conclusion is that 'The Powers that Be' gave him a stark choice - no doubt he health of his family being used as an incentive. 

Irving drove home the point by describing a similar air crash that happened to General De Gaulle while flying in a British crewed and owned plane to visit Free French troops.  Miraculously surviving the crash, it was discovered that vital areas of the plane had been cut through with acid.  De Gaulle vowed never to let the British or Americans anywhere near any plane that he flew anywhere ever again.

So to conclude, I would say that after attending a David Irving meeting, you come away with the feeling that you have been given an Orwellian glimpse into how the world REALLY works and that the powers that rule in this Country of ours are no 'Patriotic Gentleman in Shining Armour'.  Instead one begins to realise that our real rulers are a secretive, closely knit band of alien parasites -  ruthless, vicious predators who have no business being in our countries, never mind ruling them.  What they fear is that their presence and the extent of their power and influence become widely known as that will foreshadow their eventual fall, hence they ruthlessly oppress anyone who attempts to shine the spotlight on their doings.  If proof of these assertions were needed one only has only to seriously consider the situation in which David Irving currently finds himself and one will reflect that there is no other reason why a  Historian of David Irving's stature should face the persecution he does.    

Heathenry

 
 
The term 'heathenry' can be used to denote both the ancient pagan religion of the Germanic peoples and modern reconstructed versions of that religion such as Ásatrú. The linguistic/anthropological term 'Germanic' refers to a group of Northern European tribes who at one point shared a common language, culture and religion. By the year 500 CE, the Germanic culture had spread out into the areas of Europe which were to become present day Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Holland, and England. By the year 700 CE, the various dialects of the common-Germanic language were becoming mutually unintelligible and evolving into German, Dutch, English, and the Scandinavian languages.
 
The information that has come down to us about the pre-Christian religion of the Germanic peoples spans a wide range in terms of time and place. The religion of the tenth century Icelanders as described in the sagas is notably different from the religion of the Germanic tribes bordering the Roman Empire as described by Tacitus-- although a comparison between the two yields a continuous core of belief at a deeper level. Some modern heathen groups focus on the common threads throughout all incarnations of Germanic paganism. Others focus on the heathen practices of a particular place and time, such as Anglo-Saxon England or Viking Age Iceland. The sources and evidence for the actual beliefs and practices of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples are subject to a great deal of interpretation and reinterpretation by philologists, archaeologists, and historians and are being examined by new academic disciplines all the time. The continuing scholarly debate allows modern heathen groups a measure of leeway in determining which religious practices are "authentic".
 
Heathenry, like all ancient European pagan religions, is polytheistic. Heathens recognise numerous sentient entities, generally referred to as 'wights'. In addition to humans, these include major gods, local gods, ancestral spirits, and various sorts of beings familiar from Germanic folklore (elves, brownies, trolls, etc.). Heathens regard all these entities as real parts of the natural world, distinct individuals capable of independent thought and action, just as humans themselves are. Wights are understood to vary in their concerns and behavior on the basis of mood, character, and circumstance, and two wights of the same kind may have very different personalities. Individual heathens may form various sorts of mutually beneficial relationships with any number of particular wights of their acquaintance. One heathen might be oath-bound to Thor and leave offerings for his house brownie, another might honour her disir (female ancestral spirits) on a regular basis, another might work closely with the class of gods known as the Vanir.
 
Many of the gods honoured by heathens are well known from 'Norse Mythology': Odin, Frigg, Thor, Tyr, Freya, etc., however it is misleading to think of heathen gods as Scandinavian, since some of them were widely recognised throughout the Germanic world. The god known to early Germanic tribes as Woðanaz became Oðin in Old Norse, Woden in Anglo-Saxon and Old Saxon, and Wuotan in Old High German. Some deities recognised and honoured by heathens today were never known in the Scandinavian countries, for example the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, the German goddess Holda, and the Dutch goddess Nehalennia.
 
The main heathen religious rite is called a blót (rhymes with 'boat'). In ancient times, a blót was a ceremonial animal sacrifice. Blóts were held to honour and thank the gods and ancestors or to gain their favour for specific purposes such as peace, victory, or good sailing weather. Blood from the sacrificed animal was sprinkled upon statues of the gods and upon all present as a blessing. The meat was cooked and shared at a community feast. It would be highly impractical for modern heathens to blót the ancient way, since the skills necessary to humanely slaughter an animal are no longer routinely taught in our society and the circumstances under which animals can be killed for meat are highly regulated. Modern heathens have therefore replaced the animal offering with an offering of mead. Germanic peoples associated mead with blood and saw it as blessed and holy. (In the mythology, the blood of a wise being called Kvasir was mixed with honey to create mead.) During a modern blót, mead is ceremonially poured for a god (into an offering bowl, onto a fire or onto the earth). Sometimes it is also sprinkled on the participants. A feast usually follows.
 
Sumbel is a heathen ritual drinking ceremony based on the ancient Germanic tradition of the drinking of the minni (memory cup). Sumbel usually takes place following a blót. Mead or ale is ritually blessed. Depending on group preference, either a horn containing the blessed mead is passed to all the participants in turn, or the blessed mead is poured into each participant's individual drinking vessel. Rounds of toasting follow with gods and ancestors being named and honoured. During sumbel, participants may also boast about deeds they intend to accomplish. Such boasts are seen as public promises and the boaster is held accountable by all present, including the gods. Sacred words spoken over the sumbel horn are drunk down with the mead and become part of the wyrd of the speaker and other participants.
Local heathen groups are most commonly called kindreds or hearths (in English speaking countries). Most consist of around five to fifteen members. Some groups have formal membership criteria which may include asking new members to swear certain oaths. Others are completely informal. Some kindreds or hearths are led by a priest or priestess called a godhi or gydhja (Old Norse terms meaning, roughly, 'god-man' or 'god-woman'). A person identified as a godhi or gydhja may have received formal credentials after completing a training program with one of the national (or international) heathen organisations. (Some countries or states accept credentials from major heathen organisations and grant godhis and gydhjas the same rights as recognised clergy from other religions.) Alternatively, a person may become known as a godhi or gydhja simply by being accepted by their hearth or kindred as the best person for the job. Many kindreds believe that all heathens are capable of acting as priests. In such groups the members share out organisational duties and take it in turns to lead rites.
 
Kindreds and hearths hold celebrations based around blót, sumble and feasting at rites of passage (such as weddings or baby-namings), seasonal holidays, oath-takings, rites in honour of a particular god or gods, and rites of need (in which the gods are asked for help). Some groups meet for a blót on a monthly basis while others celebrate together only a few times a year. Different heathen groups observe different seasonal holidays, depending on their cultural/religious focus. The three most widespread heathen holidays today are Winternights, an autumn feast heralding the end of the agricultural season and the coming of winter; Yule, a twelve day celebration beginning on (or near) the winter solstice; and a feast of the goddess Eostre (or Ostara) in the spring.
 
Heathens strive to live up to the Germanic heroic ideals of honour, courage and hospitality. They are expected to be true to their word, keep all sworn oaths, and take personal responsibility for their actions. Heathens believe that every action they take will affect the web of wyrd and therefore have implications for their own future choices and for the future choices of others.
 
Although magic was part of ancient Germanic culture, it did not play a part in the religious rituals of blót and sumbel. Therefore, it is not seen as an intrinsic part of the religion. Although all heathens share a belief in the ability of the gods to enact change in the world, they do not all believe in the ability of magicians to do so. Still, many modern heathens choose to study and practice Germanic forms of magic involving runes, galdor or seidh, and some groups incorporate such magic into their religious rituals.

'Holy Shroud made by Giotto'

Hidden number 15 key to authorship and dating claims expert

The Holy Shroud of Turin, one of the most venerated objects of Christianity, was made by Italian pre-Renaissance artistic great Giotto, an Italian expert says.

Luciano Buso, who has written a book on his sensational claim, says several veiled appearances of the number 15, hidden in the fabric by the artist, indicate Giotto created the shroud in 1315.

This would coincide with carbon dating, contested by religious experts, which dates the shroud to the early 14th century, Buso contends.

"I have examined extremely clear photos of the Shroud and spotted a number of occurrences of the number 15, in the face (of Christ), the hands, and in one case even shaped to look like a long cross," said Buso, a painter and art restorer from Treviso.

The great late-Gothic artist did not mean to perpetrate a hoax when he created the Shroud, Buso contends.

"He wasn't trying to fake anything, which is clear from the fact that he signed it 'Giotto 15', to authenticate it as his own work from 1315".

Countless pilgrims visit the Shroud, believed to be the sheet Christ's body was wrapped in after the Crucifixion, in a Turin church every year.

Love isn't color-blind white online daters spurn blacks

Interracial romance is nowhere near the eyebrow-raising phenomenon it used to be. In the past four decades, the pendulum of approval has swung from three-to-one opposed to three-to-one in favor. But though love may be blind, it's still not really color-blind. New stats from more than 1 million online daters show that whites mostly stick with whites and rarely respond to overtures from potential black love interests.

Young, black men, on the other hand, were most likely to throw themselves wide-open into the romantic fray and were willing to date all races, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley. They took a look at racial preferences and online communications of people who subscribed between 2009 and 2010 to a major Web-based dating service that they agreed to not name.

Subscribers indicated a racial preference in their cyber-profile, tailoring their profiles to reflect a desire to date people only of the same race, of another race or of any race. Using their profiles, researchers compared their stated racial preferences with the races of the people they ended up contacting. (More on Time.com: The Authentic Self: How Do You Know If You're 'Really' Racist or Sexist?)

“The Internet has changed things,” says Jerry Mendelsohn, a U.C. Berkeley psychologist who led the study. “There is no segregation on the Internet. So the question then becomes, When you have a free situation where people can contact whom they please, what will happen?”

Taken as a group, whites, women and older people were choosiest about sticking with others of their color. More than four of five whites contacted other whites, while just 3% reached out to blacks. The ratios stayed the same for young and older people, too — 80% chose not to contact others from outside their race. And only 5% of white subscribers responded to inquiries from someone from another race.

What about people who said they were indifferent? For whites who claimed to be, about 80% still contacted whites. Blacks who said they were color-blind when it comes to Cupid were more likely to contact a white than to contact a black. (More on Time.com: Passing as Black: How Biracial Americans Choose Identity)

"Were they hypocritical? Alert to the realities of the social world? Striving for political correctness? Attempting an optimizing strategy of self-presentation? Our data do not permit us to choose among those alternatives," the authors wrote.

The findings, which the authors are in the process of submitting for publication, are significant because Internet dating has become such a linchpin of modern-day romance. About one in five Americans has tried online dating, be it eHarmony of match-making via Facebook.

Time was, it was embarrassing to admit you met your significant other through a dating site; now it's almost expected. In fact, the researchers reported that the percentage of couples who connected online is now nearly on par with those who met the old-fashioned way, though friends or family. (More on Time.com: Will Facebook Steal Online Dating Sites' Girl?)

But as acceptable as online dating and inter-racial dating have ostensibly become, those looking for love are still sticking with those who look like them. U.S. Census data from 2000 shows that black-white couples make up just 1% of American marriages. Most frequent inter-racial couplings? Black hubby and white wife.

And even black subscribers preferred black partners. Although they were ten times as likely to contact whites as whites were to contact blacks, overall, blacks sent online inquiries to people of their own race more often.

Why are blacks more willing to take a chance on white folk? Mendelsohn speculates that blacks are simply acting like minority populations of any kind, trying to meld into the dominant structure. One of the best ways to do that, he contends, is through intermarriage. (More on Time.com: Seeking My Race-Based Valentine Online)

“Because of the particular history of black-white relations in U.S. history, whites are reluctant to go along with it,” he says. “I don't think this is a simple question of racism.”

For the average white person, he says, there is no advantage to becoming involved with a black person, and there are disadvantages. “You will have trouble with family, with friends, and every time you go to a restaurant people will be looking at you. So you think, Why bother?” says Mendelsohn.

“Segregation, it seems, is sort of built into the social scene for the time being.”

Priest Sex-Abuse Case Hits Church of Pope's Adviser

The latest sex-abuse case to rock the Catholic Church is unfolding in the archdiocese of an influential Italian Cardinal who has been working with Pope Benedict XVI on reforms to respond to prior scandals of pedophile priests.

Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was arrested last Friday, May 13, on pedophilia and drug charges. Investigators say that in tapped mobile-phone conversations, Seppia asked a Moroccan drug dealer to arrange sexual encounters with young and vulnerable boys. "I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues," he allegedly said. Genoa Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, who is the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, had been working with Benedict to establish a tough new worldwide policy, released this week, on how bishops should handle accusations of priestly sex abuse.

Seppia's defense lawyers are expected to argue that those conversations — monitored since Oct. 20, 2010 — were just words, sex games that were played by adults. It was just a game even when he claimed to have "kissed on the mouth" a 15-year-old altar boy, according to the defense.
http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...?xid=rss-world

Few weeks old but still newsworthy.

Samurai Sword Used to Slay Poet

An Islamist militant has hacked a North Ossetian poet to death with a samurai sword, which was found in the suspect's home after police killed him for resisting arrest, investigators said Thursday.

The sword attack was revenge for a 2008 poem by Shamil Dzhikayev denouncing Muslim pilgrims on Hajj who purportedly urinated on a memorial to children slain during the Beslan school siege in 2004, Chechnyatoday.com reported.

The suspect, David Murashev, 34, was cornered by police officers in North Ossetia's capital, Vladikavkaz, on Tuesday, the Investigative Committee said. He shouted that he had slain the 71-year-old Dzhikayev for offending his "sacred faith" and opened fire, injuring three officers before being shot dead.

North Ossetia is a predominantly Christian region, but Murashev was believed to have come under the influence of a visiting preacher of Wahhabi Islam, the news portal Yuga.ru said.

Searches at the homes of Murashev and unidentified associates found the samurai sword, firearms, extremist literature and a suicide bomber's belt, the Investigative Committee said on its web site. The sword and other evidence was featured on a video posted on the site.

Dzhikayev published his 12-line poem about the Beslan memorial desecration in the Ossetian language in a local magazine. It ends with the poet saying his dog will "urinate on the graves" of "young wolves going on Hajj."

The people suspected of urinating on the Beslan memorial, including Chechen and Ingush natives, were beaten by Beslan residents as they stood at the memorial in 2008. Chechen officials said later that the pilgrims had intended to pray, not urinate.

'Jesus: A Prophet of Islam' – Muslim Group Runs Provocative Billboard Campaign

Billboards have emerged across Sydney, Australia, carrying the slogan “Jesus: a prophet of Islam.” The advertising campaign is being run by Islamic group “MyPeace,” which has said that the purpose of the campaign is to encourage interfaith relations between Christians and Muslims.

However, a number of Christians in the region have condemned the controversial campaign and called for the billboards to be removed, labeling them as provocative and offensive to Christianity.

Catholic bishop Julian Poreous, of the Archdiocese of Sydney, has clarified that for Christians Jesus was “more than a prophet” as the campaign suggests.

He said: “He is the Son of God. He is acclaimed Lord and Savior of humanity.”

MyPeace has claimed it means no offense by the campaign and that it simply is trying to show to everyone that Islam follows the teachings of Jesus too. By encouraging this common ground to be found between the two faith groups, the organization hopes closer interfaith communications can come about.

Bishop Poreous, however, commented: “In Australia with its Christian heritage a billboard carrying the statement `Jesus A prophet of Islam' is provocative and offensive to Christians.”

The bishop has also lamented that the incendiary campaign has the potential to damage relations between the Christian Church and the Muslim community.

“It is important that religions do not set out to antagonize those with differing beliefs. This would threaten the social harmony which we enjoy in Australia.

“Dialogue between the religions can only take place when it is founded in mutual respect. It is not fostered by provocative statements,” he said.

“For the sake of preserving social harmony and respect between major world religions these billboards should be withdrawn, along with others which carry messages directly offensive to Christians."

Interestingly, Diaa Mohamed of MyPeace, has reported to Fairfax, one of Australia’s leading media groups, that the campaign has received an “overwhelmingly positive feedback from Christians, atheists, Muslims, everyday Australians.”

MyPeace has said that it has decided to extend the campaign beyond the original four weeks, and follow-up billboards will carry even more controversial slogans such as “Holy Quran: the final testament," and “Muhammad: mercy to mankind.”

It is planned that the campaign will spread to buses running throughout Sydney.