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Bicycles & World War II Spies 10

Bicycles & World War II Spies
Agents practising being interrogated. The rural situation of camp X can be glimpsed from the background. (From the Pelham-Burn collection, reproduced by courtesy of Lynn-Philip Hodgson) On 6 December 1941, just one day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, a British spy training camp opened in Whitby, Ontario, some 50 kilometres east of Toronto. The ...

My Dutch Family History 11

My Dutch Family History
Oma & Opa on their bicycles on a visit home – Netherlands, 1990s / The Urban Country My Mother’s parents were born in Ravenswaay in the Province Gelderland in the Netherlands. They both grew up on small farms across the road from each other in the 1930’s. The Germans invaded the Netherlands on May 10th, ...

I will Always Remember

November 11th is a day that is very near and dear to my heart. 11 November 1918 marks the end of the Great War (also known as World War I… also known as the war to end all wars). It is a day in which I believe we should all take the time to remember ...

The Rise of a Dictator 1

On Saturday evening we returned from 3 days in beautiful Sanya, China where we visited along with my old friend Mark who currently lives in Shanghai. Sanya is definitely a beautiful tropical place and I’ll post some pictures after I return to Canada. But for now the current topic on my mind is how Adolf ...

Bloodwater USA

Oops, I meant Blackwater USA. Blackwater USA is a private mercenary firm that provides the US Government with a wide range of military-like security services. Blackwater has been generally secretive and operates with impunity from being tried under Iraqi law, they are immune from receiving a Court Martial and they are immune from the Military ...

The Ultra Secret 2

Flying 1700KM twice a week has some perks, including giving me the opportunity to do lots of reading; something that has been lacking in my life this summer. There are so many things I want to write about, so I’m going to try to write a little more often now that I have a laptop ...

Bomb Muslim Holy sites to deter terrorism? Huh?

Where do you think racism against Muslims in the United States comes from? Sometimes it comes from the media; sometimes from the churches. But in the case I’m describing below, it comes from the government itself. Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo (Who is also trying to run for President) made one of the most ridiculous comments ...

What to do in Iraq? 2

With former President Jimmy Carter calling the Bush Administration the “Worst in history”, I figured today’s topic should relate to the war in Iraq. A lot of my readers credit me for complaining about the U.S. involvement in Iraq, but like many other people covering Iraq, I haven’t provided any alternative solution to the war ...

The wars go on with brainwashed pride

This classic Guns N Roses song from 1991 could have been written yesterday. This song is a very fitting opposition to the neo-Conservatives quest for democracy in the Middle East; with “brainwashed pride” and the “hate we’re breeding”. I wonder if Guns N Roses would have been chastised if they released this song in 2003 ...

“War on Terror” or “War for Terror"? 3

President Bush went to Iraq to free the Iraqi’s, to destroy Saddam’s WMDs, to protect America’s freedom and to make peace in the Middle East. Bush was heavily influenced by his neoconservative aids and did everything he could do to ensure the plan went through; deceiving almost everyone. The only consistent aspect of Bush’s speeches ...