One of the basic contributions of France to civilization was the salon, where the most intelligent and literate of Parisian society would gather in elegant relaxation to courteously discuss any matter of interest.

The founder of the French salon was Catherine de Vivonne (1588-1665), known as the Marquise (for she was married to a French noble or Marquis) de Rambouillet.  In 1618, she began receiving guests in her salon bleu of the family home, the Hôtel de Rambouillet on the Rue St. Thomas-du-Louvre in Paris.

There were nobles like La Rochefoucauld, cardinals like Richelieu, generals, scholars, poets, artists, wits, and the most cultured ladies of French aristocracy.  There was good cheer, good manners, discussion flourished, and erudite conversation became an art.

I am in no way going to compare myself to the Marquise (or TTPers to Richelieu!), yet we may be witnessing the emergence of a salon that she might appreciate on To The Point.  I am referring to the massive response - 70 posts - to Beatles in Baghdad in our User Forum.

I very much appreciated the responses and comments regarding The Fragility of Islamofascism posted in the TTP User Forum.  I also received requests to explain the Koran's "Satanic Verses" more fully.

The saga of the Satanic Verses starts with the earliest accounts of Mohammed's life written by accepted Islamic scholars such as Ibn Ishaq (died 767 AD) and al-Tabari (d. 923).

"Accepted" means by Islamic tradition.  Mohammed supposedly died in 632 and Ishaq wrote about him over 100 years later - so could not have interviewed anyone who knew him.  Yet we only know of Ishaq through quotes of him by Tabari, who lived 300 years after Mohammed.

Thus the earliest source of Mohammed's life and the alleged founding of Islam was written three centuries later.  The saga of Mohammed is a myth for which there is no genuine historical evidence whatever. 

I discussed this in The Myth of Mecca, written a few days after the Moslem attack on America of September 11, 2001.

So we are talking "sacred history" here, not actual history. 

There's a profound disgruntlement in the Force over the impending Iran deal, ranging from the Israelis to the Saudis, and from the French to the Gulfies.  It isn't just words, apparently - there are rumors suggesting that some of the disgruntled Arabs are arranging to get their own nukes, just as Netanyahu foresaw (or perhaps even knew), and as Kissinger warned (and perhaps knew).

The powers-that-be have bought into the false option of either making a deal or going to a war footing. It was once known as the Sarkozy Option:  Iran with the bomb, or bomb Iran.

It need not be, and everybody knows it.  Deep in the subtexts, and every now and then in public, we hear about the White House's not-so-secret dream that the Iranian regime will either moderate or fall.  It's worth recalling that Gorbachev managed both.  First he reformed, via glasnost and perestroika, and then he fell.  There was never a fatal choice between a deal and war.

Indeed, regime change is a constant leitmotif of the world today, having reshaped Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, threatened Syria and Venezuela, aimed at Jordan, and raged across Africa.  It can be done in Iran and here's why.

The "news" is resolutely out of context.  A subject about which virtually nothing is known - the mystery of the missing airplane - gets saturation "coverage," while events of potentially earth-shaking importance are largely unreported.

Any self-respecting "news network" would relentlessly run stories about the ongoing demonstrations from Caracas to Maracaibo - demonstrations surely the equal of those from Maidan Square in Kiev - but no.

The Venezuelan uprising may turn out to be the biggest story of all, because it is part of a world-wide battle that pits anti-Western tyrannies against their own people, and against their neighbors.  It is of a piece with Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran and Russia itself, where, just a few days ago, fifty thousand Muscovites demonstrated against Putin's imperialist moves in Ukraine.

I've been saying for years that we're the target of a global war, that the Pyongyang-Beijing-Moscow-Tehran-Damascus-Havana-Caracas  Axis of Evil is hell-bent to dominate and destroy us.  Now the evidence is so clear that only a willfully blind man could fail to see it.