Old Man Of The Mountain

Betty Boop - The Old Man Of The Mountain - 1933 HD
Betty Boop HD

JMSmith is talking about the Old Man of the Mountain, and that sparks a vague memory of old cartoons and YouTube delivers this one featuring Betty Boop. Here's the intro to JMSmith's post:

Notes on Assassination
 

“The extirpation of the Assassins or Ismaelians of Persia may be considered as a service to mankind.” - Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776)

Ismaleans are the largest branch of Shia Islam.  Shia Islam itself is in some respects comparable to Catholic Christianity, at least insofar as it grants great authority to Imams, who are honored as successors to Mohammed, the Prophet, much as Catholic Christians grant great authority to Popes, who are honored as successors to Jesus, the Christ.   Sunni Islam on the other hand is in some respects comparable to Protestant Christianity because it is grounded on the scripture of the Koran and hadith.

The Order of Assassins to whom Gibbon refers was an Ismaelian sect that flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth century.  Although dispersed throughout Syria and Persia (Iran), the Order of Assassins operated with the discipline and policy of an organized state.  Its capital was a mountaintop fortress known as Alamut Castle, located north of Tehran, wherein dwelt a dictator known to West as the Old Man of the Mountain.  This Old Man did not, however, give law to a large territory, but rather to  a large network that spread through neighboring states, much as veins of blue mold spread through cheese.  There were “knots” in this network—minor fortresses subordinate to Alamut—and the whole might be likened without originality to a spider’s web.

The Order of Assassins (or Nizari Ismaili state) is of course best remembered for eschewing open battle and employing the stealthy strategy of targeted assassination, a word that is derived either from the first Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-I Sabbah, or from their rumored use of hashish.  So, as Gibbon goes on to say,

“Among the hills south of the Caspian, these odious sectaries had reigned with impunity above an hundred and sixty years; and their prince, or imam, established his lieutenant to lead and govern the colony of mount Libanus [that is to say Mount Lebanon, on the Syrian coast] . . . . With the fanaticism of the Koran, the Ishmaelians had blended the Indian transmigration, and the visions of their own prophets: and it was their first duty to devote their souls and bodies in blind obedience to the vicar of God.  The daggers of his missionaries were felt both in the East and West: the Christians and the Moslems enumerate, and perhaps multiply, the illustrious victims that were sacrificed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment, of the old man (as he was corruptly styled) of the mountain.”

He goes on to talk about assassination and Israel's recent targeting of Iran's nuclear scientists. 

Which reminds me of an old story about a man going to visit a scientist at his home. The scientist is working on building some fearsome new weapon. The man tries to dissuade the scientist from completing his weapon, as the leader to whom the new weapon will be entrusted is seriously deranged. The scientist refuses on the basis that he is not responsible for what fearless leader does. While the scientist is distracted, the man slips into the scientist's imbecile child's room and places a loaded revolver in the kids bed. He then leaves. The scientist discovers the gun and asks 'what kind of lunatic would give a loaded gun to a imbecile?'

Meanwhile, France denied Israel permission to participate in their air show, and here's Israel's response:

Israel Defense Industries

Iran has been stirring up shit in the mideast ever since their last revolution. It's time somebody smacked them down.