Crusades in context

Just noticed a couple of items that Discoshaman posted before he and TulipGirl and family left for two weeks' holiday in Egypt. Discoshaman has a way of getting right to the point, for example, putting Arab complaints about the Crusades into perspective:

Liberals, and the 3rd World bigots they pander to, can't shut up about the Crusades. Listening to them, one would think Western Europe decided to annex the Holy Land on some sort of ecclesiastical lark.

Lost somehow is the fact that the Crusades, while not politely conducted, were only a minor counter-offensive in a 1400 year history of almost unbroken aggression against Christians by militant Islam. Do these idiots never stop and ask HOW there were Arabs in a former Roman colony to begin with?

He provides details and makes the connection to the Western left's impulse to cultural suicide.

Then there's a nice, concise five-point breakdown of what Rathergate was really all about. Hint: It wasn't just an "oopsie, my bad" on the part of CBS. The item begins with this paragraph, which concludes with a wonderful turn of phrase:

It's possible to interpret Rathergate as a mere journalistic fumble, but it requires a childlike faith. A more rational interpretation is this: it's a clear-cut example of what conservatives face every election cycle -- a constant headwind from the blowhards of the Fourth Estate.

Nice. The shaman and his girl should be back and posting again any day now -- looking forward to it.