blame it on the weatherman

Some 500 years ago Muslim armies encircled Byzantium the richest country on earth,

Byzantium was also considered by many to be the centre of Christendom.

A legend claims that while the Muslims readied their slaughterers for an invasion, the rulers of Byzantium held a conference.

The conference discussed:

1. What colour were the virgin Mary's eyes?

2. How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?

The Muslims took that country and in a few years turned it into the hole in the wall that is Turkey.

From the richest country in Christendom to Turkey in a few short Islamic steps.

Where do we sign up for that?

I always wondered did Byzantium fall because it had somehow turned its back on God. Although nominally Christian, it is said to have become grotesquely dissolute and corrupt. Its people worshipped money and sex and pleasure and themselves.

Remind you of anyone?

By the way, the notion that the Byzantines debated the colour of the BVM's eyes as an invasion force menaced their homes and their land, is occasionally cited approvingly by those who wish to sneer at the Catholic Church.

But so far no one has found any evidence that such a discussion ever really took place in the High Councils of Byzantium,

It's an apochryphal story.

Still it came back to me this week.

As the worldwide Muslim Al Qaeda terror army continues to mass on our borders, the leaders of the world's sovereign nations have gathered in Paris, to discuss... the possibility of controlling the weather.