[Pan_Yan]

Not sure I completely agree with the author's conclusions but it's at least an interesting take on things.

[spokeshave]

...what was it that Mao said....let a thousand flowers bloom....?

[Rodamala]

[matthew fuller]

Mark for latre.

[knarf]

We should start posting our stories about ISIS, muslims and all the rest with the strike-out or at least the parenthrtical SUBMISSION

For example;

Knights Templar shows how to fight ISIS (SUBMISSION) and win
or ...
Knights Templar shows how to fight ISIS SUBMISSION and win

..because all these groups are the same think ... ISLAM.
and islam translates into submission, which is NOT a religion but a dictatorial politic of fear and death ... if you don't

[Boogieman]

“A baron could own lands in France but could also be nominally sworn to a lord in Burgundy or have vassals in the Holy Roman Empire who were nominally fighting his king, though they gave fealty to him.”

I play a strategy simulation called “Europa Universalis” that starts in this era, and it really is kind of a free-for-all. In the current game I am playing, Portal somehow inherited the throne of Scotland, and the Teutonic Knights, who are located on the Baltic, managed to get most of southern Italy ceded to them by Naples. The map starts out historically based, but after a century, there is no telling what the crazy web of alliances, vassals, royal marriages, and wars will produce.

[Boogieman]

“Portal” should read “Portugal”

[redangus]

The world has always been one benevolent super power away from anarchy. Mr. Obama has neutered the most recent super power and anarchy is filling the vacuum.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Just finished reading “The First Templar Nation”. Fascinating reading...

http://www.invisibletemple.com/book-first-templar-nation-by-freddy-silva.html

[The Duke]

Forget the Knights Templar, look at how the Texas Rangers took down the Comanches. A textbook example.

Summary: Be 100% aggressive and unrelenting at all times.

[Elsie]

Two men considering a religious vocation were having a conversation. “What is similar about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders? “ the one asked.

The second replied, “Well, they were both founded by Spaniards — St. Dominic for the Dominicans, and St. Ignatius of Loyola for the Jesuits. They were also both founded to combat heresy — the Dominicans to fight the Albigensians, and the Jesuits to fight the Protestants.”

“What is different about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders?”

“Met any Albigensians lately?”