Paris
France has declared a national state of emergency and tightened borders after at least 128 people were killed in a night of gun and bomb attacks in Paris.
Eighty people were reported killed after gunmen burst into the Bataclan concert hall where an American band (Eagles of Death Metal) was playing and took hostages before security forces stormed the hall.
People were shot dead at restaurants and bars at five other sites in Paris. At least 180 people were injured.
These are the deadliest attacks in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings.
The NY Times reported that the Islamic State claimed responsibility this morning for the catastrophic attacks in the French capital, calling them “the first of the storm” and mocking France as a “capital of prostitution and obscenity,” according to statements released in multiple languages on one of the terror group’s encrypted messaging accounts.
I am numbed by what has happened and disgusted by the acts of terror and violence. My heart, thoughts and prayers go to the people of Paris...rester forte, nous sommes avec vous.

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Le jour de gloire est arrivé
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'étendard sanglant est levé,
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You cannot have Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité without Sécurité. It's time to be more angry than sad. Thoughts and prayers won't stop the next attack. This war against civilization must be fought or lost. The free world has overwhelming economic and military advantages and must use them to take the fight to the terrorists and all who support them. Resist all attempts to blame anyone other than these murderers and their horrific ideology. Vive la France.
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Syrian Refugee Infiltration Invites Attack on America
At times, I feel I am cursed by a good education. Both at Monsignor Farrell and then again at Columbia University we read the classics, including the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid. One of the great classical stories of warning was of the Trojan Horse. For those of you who don't know, the Trojan Horse was military subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the 10-year long Trojan War. The Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse and hid their “Special Forces” inside while the remaining troops pretended to sail away. The Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy and celebrated. That night the Greek Special Forces climbed out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of darkness. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war and ultimately the Trojan civilization.
Now, if I told you that we could send 10,000 of our best and our smartest American Special Forces into Syria to fight ISIL under the pretext that they were going to sign up as "Jihadi Jims" and then our trained American Warriors would be able to infiltrate and then destroy ISIL once and for all from the inside, you would say that the plan is brilliant - worthy of Patton. How do we know that this isn't ISIL's plan with the refugee crisis? How do we know that this isn't a Trojan Horse - one of the oldest military strategies known to man? How do we know the plan isn't in place to reign terror down on our very soil? We don't. And we can't.
The fact is, if even one Jihadi crosses our borders, we will have failed. They are refugees. I get it. But put them somewhere. What happened to Guantanamo? Put them there until you can screen and evaluate. Many of our ancestors went through Ellis Island and this is no different than the quarantine that many were subject to - akin to the opening scene in Godfather II. How else can we know that this is not a Trojan Horse? This is yet another in a series of recent U.S. Foreign Policy and Domestic Security blunders. And this is not about winning. This is about survival and if things don't change, we will be digging our dead out of the rubble of the Freedom Tower - or worse.
Some will say, I am being too charitable. There are many that say the Government shouldn't be in the business of sorting the good from the bad. Ask a family that lost a loved one on 9-11 or in Iraq or Afghanistan and they might tell you that we should let them all die and let God sort it out. It worked for the Greeks who sacked Troy and destroyed a civilization. I hope and pray that the American does not go the way of the Trojan.
Richard Luthmann
Silver Lake
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Vivre La France but also Vivre our Civilization!!
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