Today's links - no comments

Just some links, with the minimum of comment...

'A Muslim leader says there are "similarities" between new powers to tackle Islamist extremism and Hitler's demonisation (!) of the Jews.'

"He [Hitler] was democratically elected and gradually he created a bogey identity, that is, the Jewish people, and posed to the Germans that they were a threat to the country.

"On that basis, he started a process of elimination of Jewish people.

"I see the similarities. Everything moves step by step. I am saying these are dangerous times and we must take note of this."

I think it would be an insult if I even tried to comment on that.

What's next? Here's Eric on the destruction of historic Mecca and Medina in the name of Wahhabism (or Salafism).

More on Hiroshima at the BBC. The dropping of the Bombs is still controversial. On the one hand, we have this, at Come Clean:

* New evidence which shows there was no military need to drop the bomb.
* The role of America's Soviet strategy in the decision to drop the bomb.
* The danger of nuclear confrontation between the US and Iran in the Middle East, and between the US and North Korea in East Asia.

And, on the other hand, Oliver Kamm, with this quote from the Journal of Military History:

What can be stated as fact, is that the estimate that American casualties [required to defeat Japan with conventional forces] could surpass the million mark was set in the summer of 1944 and was never changed.

Nearly there, now. Here's Laban Tall on Our Caring Nation with reference to the recent shootings in London. In fact the original Times article puts the problem even more clearly:

"A few minutes later I heard gunshots. I was still awake at about 2 o'clock, but no police arrived by the time I went to sleep..."

Discuss.

Here's Andrew Bartlett on "Britishness"; part 2 is here.

And on a lighter note, via Pete Ashton, there are some interesting downloads at These Are the Breaks:

The breakbeat is one of the most important elements of electronic music. It's provided the backbone for hip-hip, drum and bass, two-step, nu skool breaks, and countless other styles. DJs actively hunt down and collect breaks, keeping their eyes out for multiple copies of pristine originals. And nothing is more exciting than discovering an obscure break, one that has yet to be sampled into a track.

That's your lot for now.