A Joyous Easter

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.  - Matthew 28:6

The Origin of the Ashkenazi Jews

Interesting reading and links from Razib:

"Roughly the Ashkenazi Jews are a half and half mix of a Middle Eastern population and various European groups. The majority of the European ancestry is “Southern European,” probably something like Italian. But, a minority of the European ancestry is like “Eastern European.” Additionally, the former admixture pre-dated the bottleneck, and probably dates to ~1000 A.D., while the latter event post-dates the bottleneck."

*snip*

And from the comment section, Dx states:

"As to the 2nd wave, there is a curious onomastic tidbit. While traditional Ashkenazi male given names are a mix of Hebrew, German, and Romance etymologies, the female given names have an additional, and historically widespread, layer of etymologically Slavic names. The traditional given names are after a deceased ancestor, and thus show remarkable (albeit by no means perfect) persistence over time. The thing about these etymologically Slavic feminine given names is that they come from Old Czech, and are already attested in the old Prague records. It could be interpreted as a hint that Prague, hypothesized to be the earliest post-bottleneck population center, is also where the elements of the sex-biased admixture took place. Alas, no ancient DNA…" 

The Last Crusade

Trump's win has shaken things up with the right as well as the left. What do you all think about this post by author John C. Wright? Is it a lone voice in the darkness or a rallying cry that will be taken up by the men of Christendom?

"We are behind enemy lines. A darkness is haunting the world. The lamps are going out. As the lamps die one by one, the darkness grows.

For too long, far too long, we have patiently watched the denigration, the desecration, and the destruction of all cherished things in life, great and small. We have seen our freedoms eroded, our wealth robbed, our culture corrupted, our laws and customs turned from loyal watchdogs to ravenous wolves, trespassing on the very rights they were erected to protect.
Nor is the corrosion limited to politics. The political order is the fruit of but one branch; the culture is the trunk; the soil is the moral foundation of the people. The bedrock is faith.
But in these days the rock is shattered, the soil is poisoned, the trunk is hollow, so the fruit is maggoty and putrid.  The religious, moral and cultural sources from which politics spring have also been savaged, beaten, and exiled. A whole world has been buried under a bottomless trashheap of lies and curses.

All branches of life are afflicted. The enemy is victorious on all fronts."

Read the rest HERE.