Showing 1 - 10 of 77
Isis thwarted
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 26/12/2019
» Until the 20th century, jihadists had no bones to pick with the US. Their ire was directed at the UK and France who coveted their lands, and the Jews trying to carve out their own. They got good press when T.E. Lawrence led the Arabs against the enemy Ottoman Turks. The silent film The Sheik romanticised them. The Riffs were favoured in their uprising against Spain. They didn't participate in the North African campaign in World War II.
Banks grows on you
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/08/2018
» It's a relief to read a crime thriller that doesn't bill itself as a psychological mystery. Frankly I'm not an armchair psychologist, much less psychiatrist. I much prefer simple -- what you see is what you get -- people to complex -- you don't know the real me.
The enemy is them
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/10/2017
» Yank seafarer and treasure hunter Clive Cussler is a prolific author of adventure stories, several co-authored. His series include Dirk Pitt, Sam and Remi Fargo, Isaac Bell, Kurt Austin and The Oregon Files. To his credit they are all popular. Dirk Pitt perhaps the most.
A fatal prank
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 16/03/2018
» Pranks are supposed to be fun. They seldom are. They're cruel. The victim invariably suffers. When complaining, he or she is admonished: "Can't you take a joke?" A pail of water falling on the head when opening the door. Being told that a loved one has had an accident. A snake put in a car. Hilarious?
A crisis of faith
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/04/2017
» While martyrdom indicates the intensity of belief in, not the truth of, a religion, religious wars have been bloody throughout human history. Though not regarded as a war of religion, six million Jews died in the Nazi Holocaust. Christianity in general, Catholics in particular, experienced persecution for centuries.
Scandinavian myth
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/02/2017
» However much we desire to live in peace, when our nations' leaders beat the drums of war we are obliged to exchange our sickles for guns and march off to combat evil (our side of course good). Through training and luck we return victorious from the fray, perhaps without a leg but with a medal to compensate for it.
The partisans
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 10/11/2017
» Before setting out on his war of conquest, the Fuhrer laid down his rules to his erstwhile ally. Whichever land II Duce defeated was Italy's alone. The lands Adolf took were solely Germany's. Albania fell and Italy took full possession. It also got the small piece of southern France it took while the Third Reich got the rest.
A Chinese empire?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/11/2017
» As a youngster in the Big Apple during the Great Depression, I recall men with billboard signs with "The world is coming to an end -- REPENT". The people they passed on the streets shrugged them off. l didn't fully understand what it meant, but I knew that threats aren't to be taken lightly.
The future is now
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/03/2016
» While there have been vast improvements in the military sector for millennia, the soldiers wielding the weapons remained much the same. Basic training toughens them, yet their bare strength is no match for a bear or an ape. Psychologically they are vulnerable to stress.
Vatican thriller
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 25/08/2017
» Christianity hasn't been around long, its two millennia shorter than Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism. The God-Mary match captured the public's imagination and Holy Mother Church has been matched with God ever since. It survived its encounters with the Saracens and the Reformation, and now has an estimated following of 1 billion.