'god's War', Christopher Tyerman. Book Review

Yes those nasty Crusades. In the post-modern, Marx-droid universe of salivating moppets and eager to please relativists ['please daddy tell us again about how nice the Saracens were and evil the Christians?']; it is quite easy to lose sight of reality. Muslims and Arabs good, Christians bad. Arab, Muslim and Turkish imperialism good, European fascist. So it is refreshing to read a dense, intellectual and accurate piece of work which describes the Crusades as they were – a complex political, military, and very human response to pre-modern Arab and Turkish designs at world conquest. They might have in effect saved Europe. Tyerman's overall conclusion is that, '..the internal, personal decision to follow the cross, to inflict harm on others at great personal risk, at the cost of enormous privations, at the service of a consuming cause, cannot be explained excused or dismissed either as a virtue or sin. Rather, its very contradictions spelt its humanity.' How true. The Crusades, erupting from Pope Urban II's call in 1095 to help the Eastern church against Turkish or Saracen depredation was full of cross purpose, material aims, personal vanity, spiritual earnestness, military valor, and political intrigue. That is what makes them such a great story. The Crusades were in many ways, extraordinarily successful. Men, money, material, and complex logistics were stretched over a thousand miles from the European heartland to the Holy Land and the Eastern mediterranean. The crusaders were usually quite outnumbered. Each of the 5 major Crusades, lasting roughly from 1095 to 1299 could only muster some 30.000 – 40.000 men, many of whom would melt away after a few months of soldiering, confident that any work combatting the Turks would gain them access into heaven. The Muslims, aided by their intimate knowledge of geography, millions of citizens from which to draw armies, proximate logistics, and supply, should easily have repulsed these infidels from any and all conquests. The fact that the crusaders were able to organise; embark; conquer; hold and build the incredible line of castle fortifications some of which, like the Krak de Chevaliers are still standing today, is one of the great achievements of pre-modern warfare. Tyerman's book is valuable because it relates history as it most likely was. The Crusades were viewed in Western Europe as bellum justum – a just war – a war to reclaim once Christian lands from infidel Turks; a war to push the Muslims out of Europe; a war to help save the Eastern church and bring it under the control of the Western. The casus belli for the conflict was varied and justified by theologians and lay political leaders alike. Jerusalem, the home of Christ and the origins of the Church had a profound and special attraction for an extremely religious and devout population. Tyerman rightly asserts that Muslim supremacism and war mongering made the Crusades a necessity. Large parts of Europe were under Muslim dominaton and, 'jihad was fundamental to the Faith, described by some as a sixth pillar of Islam. In theory fighting was incumbent on all Muslims until the whole world had been subdued, but it was a spiritual as well as military exercise from the start, and a corporate not individual obligation.' You won't read such an honest assessment of jihadic Mohammedism in the New York Times. Without a response Western Europe might very well have suffered the fate of the Eastern Church. As Tyerman states, 'it is hard to argue that we are dealing with an age any more credulous or unthinkingly accepting of religious truth than our own.' Certainly so. Contrary to modern media and educational manipulation, the Europeans of the 11th century and of the Crusades were not simpleton mental midgets, scurrying around mud hovels, wearing hair shirts practicing witch craft or listening to papal sermons with rotted teeth falling out. Western Europe in the early medieval period was a bustling, thriving, urbanising scene of activity, invention, and dynamism – everything one would expect to find and see, in an era of change, which heralded the creation of the modern political-economy. Tyerman's chapters are broken into outlining the 5 major crusades – all of them described in rather exhaustive fashion. Details on the military, political and church-oriented spiritual complexity are compelling and very human. The highly successful First Crusade, featuring many of France's and Germany's leading noblemen, families and Knights, is summarised by Tyerman as a dramatic episode, an event rarely told. The First Crusade's conquests from the borders of the shrinking Greek state [some 100 odd miles outside of modern day Constantinople or Istanbul], through the rough terrain of Anatolia, down the Lebanese coast, and on through to the borders of modern Gaza and east to Jerusalem, north east to Edessa, were an astonishing feat, accomplished in just 2 short years of fighting. A force of roughly 40.000 men, from different states, under various leaders with political infighting and intrigue, and weakly supported by the Greeks of the Eastern empire, had landed, marched, fought and won numerous victories over far larger Turkish hosts. From 1097 to 1099 when Jerusalem was taken, the Christian forces were always in demand and need of men, food, water, supplies, military weaponry, and the medieval tank or mounted Knight. Fully armed mounted knights were extremely expensive to maintain and only the rich could afford to pay their own way to the Holy Land, including horse, armor, servants and food. Of a force of 30.000 the crusaders might be lucky to count on 2.000 such men, their power often assuring a Christian victory over the lighter armed Turkish forces. As Tyerman notes about the complexity and astonishing prowess of the First Crusade, 'Yet the political, material, and military pillars of victory fail adequately to describe the structure of the First Crusade or alone explain its success. Although it is misleading to assume that all recruits and followers shared a similar intensity of religious motivation and zeal, without the element of ideology and spiritual exhiliration, there would have been no march to Jerusalem, let alone a successful conquest.' Military superiority, good organisation, personal genius, luck, good planning and a rough hewn solidarity were the reasons why the First Crusade succeeded. These crusaders had faith, believed in their cause and went through amazing deprivations before finally, in 1099 attacking, sacking and controlling their objective – Jerusalem. In spite of this success the Crusades were doomed to failure if and once the Muslims could unify their command and take advantage of Christian manpower weakness, internal political dissension and lack of Western European support. Importantly for the Muslims, the varied Christian states and sundry crusaders always had a hard time creating political and miltiary unity. Without a unified chain of military and political command, Christian conquests became difficult to defend. Another issue was resource scarcity. During the 200 years of the Crusading wars only a small fraction of European power was involved in trying to wrest and protect the Holy Land from Muslim occupation. If the average Crusade had about 40.000 fighting men involved it represented a small fraction of European manpower and also value-added GDP. Logistically such a force would entail a further 400.000 people to support the Crusade including those involved in shipping, transport, supply manufacture, arms provisioning, food supply, various support work and aiding the army directly in engineering, food and siege work. At most about 500.000-700.000 people would have been occupied in some way with the Crusades. Europe's population at that time was about 30 million in 1100 doubling by 1300 to more than 60 million. This signals that Europe was a fast changing, very productive and extremely wealthy society. So in effect we can say that less than 2 % of Europeans were involved with the Crusades – a rather paltry amount. The problem for the Christian East was getting money out of their fast growing home economies, and using such wealth to secure and deepen their hold on the Holy Land. Medieval Europe was still in the nascent phases of nation state creation. Its richest territory was Germany which was made up of many different and competing sub kingdoms. The German Emperor whilst powerful, did not have anything approaching the machinery of a modern state, nor the ability to extract monies to the level the later states would deem justifiable. France was not yet unified [and wouldn't be until after the Albigensian or Cathar crusades in southern France in the early 13th century]; Spain was bifurcated by Muslim conquest; Italy was split into many kingdoms; and the other parts of Europe were fragmented, small and preoccupied with internal matters. In short in about 1100, the European modern state and its ability to create wealth, tax it, and use it to fund centralised armies was not yet in existence. Therein lies the major factor for the eventual collapse of the Crusading ideal. Without a strong nation state structure where GDP can be centrally taxed and armies centrally managed, the Crusades were left with wealthy Kings and Lords paying the costs, supported by European wide Church taxation or tithes so make up the short fall. Even this was not enough. Many crusaders paid their own way, supporting themselves as they went with plunder. In fact many states such as France went into financial ruin due to the Crusades with some states and their noblemen spending an entire year or more of revenue just to reach the Holy Land. The Crusades were a very costly business indeed. Along the routes between Europe and the Holy Land, pillage and theft was common, and much of it directed against fellow Christians and where possible, the Jews. Attacks against Jews by crusaders along the path of their march, were legion. Tyerman relates that, 'Nothing in official Christian doctrine justified slaying Jews. Pope Alexander II had explicitly prohibited it when drawing a careful distinction between them and Muslims in 1063.' Without plunder or the promise of it, the Crusades never would have happened. This says nothing about the sack of Constantinople itself in 1204 and the looting of its wealth. Along with plunder comes carnage and the Crusades if savage, were no more savage than any other pre-modern war. The myth that the Muslims were tolerant multi-cultists devoted to easing the pain of conquered Jews and Christians and never engaging in mass slaughter and savagery is junk and bunk. As Tyerman elucidates, 'The recent Turkish conquests in the Near East had been accompanied by carnage and enslavement on a grand scale.......Massacres as well as atrocity stories were – and are – an inescapable part of war. In the face of a Muslim counter-attack, letting the locals live may not have seemed a prudent option to the Christian victors, however obscene the alternative.' How real that statement is. The Turks, and the Arabs before them, warred, raped, murdered and annihilated their way through Christian and Jewish territory. Submissive and cowed populations make convenient and easy to rule apartheid empires. So it was with the Muslim states of the Holy Land. Tyerman's book is a great one volume piece on why the Crusades happened, how they occured and just how complicated a story it all is. But a couple of things stand out when reading it. The faith and confidence of 11-14th century Europe is one. Their logistical and sometimes military brilliance in campaigning far from home is a second. The engineering achievements in fortifying and bringing to economic life an uncompromisingly harsh land is a third. And perhaps most importantly of all, is their clear headed appreciation of what Islam was all about – a cult of Mohammed, which desired to wipe out civilisation. It is a lesson that one thousand years later still resonates.

Surprise Christmas Hit By R4

As usual at Christmas, there is much talk of what will be this year's must have toys. Toys such as Elmo Live by Fisher-Price are, as you can expect many experts forecast list. This year however, the crown of the most wanted toys May not go to any well-established multi-nationals. Instead of this year's Christmas's most sought-May intruder R4 Nintendo DS.
R4 opens the possibility of a DS to read from an SD card. This opens a lot of possibilities. One is that the Nintendo DS will be compatible with homebrew applications, which can be stored on the SD and added to the R4.
Since the R4 gives its users many opportunities to use their DS in many ways, he was seen crawling up the Amazon list of best-sellers. Although it will probably not be on the news as the best selling toys of Christmas, because it is not in stock street stores yet, it could face problems of stock, as all the best toys. It's an example of the type of application for the R4 DS Organize. This software lets you use your DS as an office suite. It includes a file browser, web browser, text editor, image editor, calculator, calendar, contacts list, among other useful functions.
Moon shell is an operating system of the R4 that allows you to navigate through the homebrew applications, as well as integrating an MP3 player, video and photo viewer. There are several operating systems available, but Moon shell is the most popular.
The R4 also allows people to stay in touch with their friends and family. Homebrew applications enable users to connect to their MSN, AIM or Yahoo Messenger. Most interesting of all, Skype can also be used with the R4. This means that the DS may well be used as a cell phone as long as a Wi-Fi is available.
DS Libris allows the DS to display eBooks, turn the machine in a small library of books for you to read at your pleasure. DSVNC can be used to control a PC. Boro DS is a Web browser. The list of new ways to use a DS with an R4 continues.
Nintendo really not have much of potential for the DS, first by the exclusion of a flash player like the PSP has. The R4 has correct this problem, but Nintendo are keen to have people to use their own device for reading flash memory card, so they have introduced a new model of DS, the ISD.
The main reason for the flash drive in the DSI is to store the pictures taken on new cameras to the ISD and music files. It seems unlikely that Nintendo will allow homebrew applications to be run by the ISD, but Nintendo R4 had a history of strict control over what is published on their systems.
Nintendo, perhaps have strict controls of the steam from the early 80s, when the video game market is in decline due to a large number of poor-quality games that flooded the market. In response, the Nintendo Entertainment System is the first console to include a chip that has prevented games is made without the approval of Nintendo.
This has far of choice. The R4 is the choice of return.

How To Win Your Ex Back

How To Win Your Ex Back
Wether you are a man or a woman, you have probably had more than your fair share of relationships. The relationships that are really hard to get over though are the ones with someone who you feel you really love. You probably feel like your whole world is upside down and the only person you can think of is your ex.
Your friends probably tell you to just "get over it", but they are not in your shoes and do not understand your situation. It's easy for them to talk and talk because they were not the ones involved in the relationship. Friends will also tell you to go out and look for another person to date because "there are so many fish in the sea". But the fact is that, the one fish you had was very special! Some people are so ill affected by a break up they could even feel it physically. Nausea, headaches, loss of appetite or weakness and lack of energy are common symptoms. The whole process is like an emotional roller coaster and can really take it's toll on the body. People that have recently broken up and are really dedicated to getting their lover back will do a lot of research perhaps reading books on fixing a break up or just looking the internet.
Why did you break up?
Breakups can happen for reasons ranging from basic disagreements wether it's financially or differences in opinion. Perhaps it was because of infidelity. Some couples don't even know why they have broken up! This is usually because they get into so many fights in a short period of time that they forget why they were fighting in the first place! If there is one mistake people make is to try to make the other person jealous. Do not show up on purpose with another person! Red alert, red alert! Don't do this unless you want it to end for good!
What good programs are out there?
One of the best programs out there is most definitely "Pull Your Ex Back". Pull Your Ex Back is a very popular program that will teach you exactly how to get rid of the breakup pain within minutes, what things you need to say to your ex when you meet again and most of all how to stop a breakup from happening again.
Remember that 90% of people don't know how to fix a breakup and actually make mistakes that forever destroy the relationship, with no chance of getting back together again.
To get "Pull Your Ex Back" click the link here: Get Your Ex Back

About the Author
How To Win Your Ex Back

Why Only One Out of Thirty-Three People Read Books

It happens every spring, but this year, the questioning has been particularly intense. Every month of April, on occasion of the London Book Fair, newspapers publish articles speculating if it still makes sense to publish books.At the turn of the century, one thousand book titles were published for every feature-length movie made. Today, the ratio is one to six hundred. The number of movies produced every year has increased and, at the same time, the number of published books has diminished."We live in a visual world," sociologists argue. "In many areas, the written word is becoming a relic of previous centuries." Media analysts blame the trend on video-games and portable DVD players. Others simply say that reading requires too much effort after our long work schedules.In my view, those commentators are missing the point completely. Despite the abundance of cheap visual entertainment, readers' motivation remains strong. The reason why people read books has nothing to do with the demands of society and everything to do with individual psychology.1.- MINORITY VIEWS: Visual media, due to its structure and economics, is unable to express minority views in a consistent, intellectual manner. In this respect, all has been tried and all has failed. Complex ideas cannot be transmitted without the written word. No photograph and no movie can replace a chain of reasoning built in clear sentences.2.- DIVERSITY: Films, television, and radio, despite the growing number of channels, can only thrive when they aim at large audiences. They can offer multiplicity in the multitude, but no original ideas. Digital video has reduced the budget necessary to make a movie, but not the distribution costs. Actors, good lighting, and a decent soundtrack are still expensive. Books, on the other hand, can still be published and distributed cheaply.3.- FRESH IDEAS: In a movie, special effects cannot cure the problems of a weak scenario. Even great acting is unable to sustain a filmed story that doesn't make any sense. How long ago is it since you saw a really thought-provoking movie? How often do you gain deep insights from watching television? The written word remains the ideal means to transmit innovative ideas.The good news about reading is that three per cent of the population still remain avid readers. One out of thirty-three is not a bad proportion at all. A strong audience for writers is still there and it is not going to become smaller in the foreseeable future.Do people read internet blogs for the same reason that they love books? Is it because they want to read original ideas? Do they do it in order to enjoy some fresh writing?
I suspect that, for most, the main drivers are the joy of discovering something new and a steadfast refusal to join the other thirty-two.
JOHN VESPASIAN writes about rational living. He has resided in New York, Madrid, Paris, and Munich. His stories reflect the values of entrepreneurship, tolerance, and self-reliance. See John Vespasian's blog about rational living.

How to Start Beekeeping For Business

Many people have no idea that beekeeping is an extremely profitable industry and is a million dollar industry.But although there is a lot of money to be made, the money does not come without a lot of time and hard work.If you are planning to start a beekeeping business you will want to do as much research as possible.One of the most important things that you have to realize is that it takes some time for bees to adjust.Bees may not produce a large amount of honey when you first begin a colony because they may eat their own honey or they may simply not be able to produce much honey after a harsh winter season.Therefore if you want to be successful at beekeeping you will really have to understand what you are doing.It may be cheap to just setup everything and hope for the best but if you have no idea about the special equipment and techniques that are required for getting maximum results from your bees, you can just expect to get poor results.If you are ready to properly learn about beekeeping, you should start by joining a local beekeeping association or reading beekeeping books.thebeekeeper.info is an excellent resource for learning how to get started with beekeeping for business.Beekeeping is very similar to farming in the mindset that you have to adopt. It is essential to stay on top of the latest trends and learn about new techniques in order to keep your business successful.If you would like to read more about beekeeping for business go to http://www.thebeekeeper.info.
About the Author
Aaron Foreman is a writer on beekeeping and recommends Beekeeping for Beginners as the most comprehensive guide to beekeeping available.
Learn more about how to start beekeeping for business at http://www.thebeekeeper.info

Reminiscences Of A Must Read Book

If you haven't read it, Edwin Lefevre's Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a classic book for active investors & traders. Although written in 1923, it is filled with useful thoughts, ideas and stories for anyone interested in trading, sentiment, charting, as well as general trade money management.
It details the fictional speculator Larry Livingstone, who is widely believed to be a pseudonym for fabled trader Jesse Livermore. Livermore/Livingstone utilized the ticker tape and chalk boards in the "bucket shops" to determine how a security would move in the short-term, without much regard to the fundamentals. The often used phrase (quoted in different ways) from this book is "The Tape Tells All" .... meaning the Chart (in modern terms) tells you what you need to know about the stock .... fundamental news, sentiment, etc are all shown in one way or another on the chart.Jack Schwager interviewed 30 of the greatest traders of all time (in his famous book Market Wizards) and asked them what book they found most valuable and would recommend to aspiring traders -- the most frequent response by far was Reminiscences.
Here is a sample of some of the many quotes from this timeless book that will certainly make you think and can help set the proper mindset of a successful investor:
But if after a long steady rise a stock turns and gradually begins to go down, with only occasionally small rallies, it is obvious that the line of least resistance has changed from upward to downward. Such being the case why should anyone ask for explanations? There are probably very good reasons why it should go down.
The speculator's deadly enemies are: Ignorance, greed, fear and hope. All the statue books in the world and all the rule books on all the Exchanges of the earth cannot eliminate these from the human animal.
At the same time I realise that the best of all tipsters, the most persuasive of all salesmen, is the tape.
I trade on my own information and follow my own methods.
Among the hazards of speculation the happening of the unexpected - I might even say of the unexpectable - ranks high.
The game does not change and neither does human nature.
A speculator must concern himself with making money out of the market and not with insisting that the tape must agree with him. Never argue with it or ask for reasons or explanations.
It sounds very easy to say that all you have to do is to watch the tape, establish your resistance points and be ready to trade along the line of least resistance as soon as you have determined it. But in actual practice a man has to guard against many things, and most of all against himself - that is, against human nature.
He will risk half his fortune in the stock market with less reflection that he devotes to the selection of a medium-priced automobile.
"I can't sleep" answered the nervous one."Why not?" asked the friend."I am carrying so much cotton that I can't sleep thinking about. It is wearing me out. What can I do?""Sell down to the sleeping point", answered the friend.
When I am long of stocks it is because my reading of conditions has made me bullish. But you find many people, reputed to be intelligent, who are bullish because they have stocks. I do not allow my possessions - or my prepossessions either - to do any thinking for me. That is why I repeat that I never argue with the tape.
Remember that stocks are never too high for you to begin buying or too low to begin selling.
I did precisely the wrong thing. The cotton showed me a loss and I kept it. The wheat showed me a profit and I sold it out. Of all the speculative blunders there are few greater than trying to average a losing game. Always sell what shows you a loss and keep what shows you a profit.These are just a few of the pearls of wisdom found in this entertaining book that has held the test of time. Livermore was certainly a proponent of trend following ("the trend is your friend" is often attributed to him) and letting winners run while cutting losers short.

Having Fun in Reading With Book Clubs

People, who want to read books, have fun and entertainment in life. Books not only increase our knowledge, but also they also give us a sigh of relief from stress. These books are helpful for making our future because it gives us the par of excellence. By reading books, we can get the perfect solution of our problem. They give us the proper way to solve problems. An individual, who reads books, becomes mentally and spiritually strong. But today people do not want to read books because they want a fast alternative for getting information. They want to access knowledge by browsing various websites. The main benefit of Internet is that we can access it from any part of the world within a few clicks. On Internet, we can get knowledge on any topic. The people, who have the busy schedule in life, want to use net because it saves their money and time. There are so many book clubs available that attract the people for reading. These book clubs are also known as discussion groups or reading groups because they also organize a meeting of its group members. The meeting of the clubs gives the full freedom to the members to give his views over books. Most of the book clubs also provide a monthly magazine that gives the information about the recent published books.
India Today Book club, the exclusive book club, brings the wide collection of unique and distinctive books in the different categories for instance, Art and Reference Books, Fitness and Health, Classics, Children’s reading books, Information technology, Gardening, Medicine, History and many more. This book club sends books at the member’s address at no extra cost. It also provides the superb quality books on the heavy discounts. An individual can easily afford these books at the reasonable prices. This book club also gives a facility to its members to send a book as a gift to their well wishers. It sends the books in a very awesome gift wrapper. For placing order on ITBC, you have to select a book and payment of mode. You can also make payment by credit card, cheque or Demand Draft. This club provides books for the whole family.
To summarize, if somebody wants to make his bright future, then he should read books. These books really help him in making his career.