Lame Duck Laffs Last

Algeria Daily has a piece on OPEC telling Mr. Bush, who in his last year is what is considered a "lame duck" president, to go fly a spy satellite somewhere, thereby refusing to boost oil production. http://www.algeriadaily.com/ (It was actually a reprint of an article from The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23327796-12335,00.html) They seem to be under the same illusion that we were when we were told - back when oil was $25/bbl.- that invading Iraq would bring Oil Heaven to all of us...field hands. They seem to be unaware that the war has driven the price of oil to over $100/bbl. and rising. Lame duck gets laughed at. Maybe Hugo Chavez will give us a deal again? If only Mr. Ben Bernanke were the head of OPEC! Then we would see some kowtowing! ....................................... Equal Time Allotment

"Could a lame duck do this? Bin Laden, you been served!!"

A Scourge For All Seasons

Mr. Bush has rejected a bill from Congress which would ban waterboarding. Mr. Bush believes in God and Torture. Perhaps he has talked to a greater father again about this? Perhaps he has talked to Pazuzu, the father of Pain? Lord of the Flies? Gods of X universes of battle and torture? What history will contain you, Mr. Bush? You are greater than any mere presidential library. You are a Scourge for All Seasons.

Pazuzu (Archaeologists believe that the statue portrays Pazuzu in his "Howdy, folks!" attitude. I believe it is his "Hi, Mr. President" posture, as well as his "Ya'll come back and bring Pastor John Hagee with ya!" persona.)

......................................

{Philosophical Aside: Prophetic imagery in human consciousness. Pazuzu was the demon in The Exorcist. His idol was located in southern Mesopotamia, or Iraq. I know the thesis of From Caligari To Hitler has been attacked recently, BUT the imagery of the mind is not only Present data; it is Memorious of the Past and Prescient of the Future. Each image comes with the actual "am" or "is" and also the potentials: "was, were" and "will be". Our demons and angels are past, present, and future and we are aware of it, but often will not admit it.}

The New Iraq War

I heard a retired General saying that we cannot start to leave Iraq. We have to forget everything that was screwed up by the previous (i.e., Bush ) administration and stay in for as long as it takes. Do you recall the recent unpleasantness on Okinawa? It seems an American soldier raped a local girl. We have soldiers on Okinawa after having defeated Japan in 1945. By my reckoning, that is 63 years. Why? (Oh, I already know the facile answers of strategic bushwa that have been spewed for 63 years.) I answer the General: It is Bush's War. It never was America's war. The American people were manipulated, lied to, and coerced into this infamy. Let Bush and Big Oil maintain their war. Let the NeoCons run it from whatever burrows they inhabit. Let Mr. Feith send troops to be killed from his hutch in Georgetown. Do not take over this abomination and call it America's!

BUSH The Movie: 1

Casting has begun on the film which will immortalize the Bush presidency. The first to be cast was Paul "Bet a Billion" Wolfowitz. Guess who will play him.

"It's going to cost how much !?"

Leonard Rossiter as Paul Wolfowitz.

I'm Too Busy Working On Gas Prices To Change The Clock!

Economy 

In the same news conference during which he expressed surprise that analysts thought the price of gas would hit $4.00 per gallon in the Spring ( it is $ 3.25 right now bei mir ), the President said later that he was unable to do some other such-and-such or so-and-so because his time was pretty much tied up with rasslin' with big and tough guy-type economic problems, such as fixin' to do something about the price of gas.

It was one of those "Saddam Hussein has killed all the Mandelas" moments. (A George Bush foggy quote from 2007.)

I bolted out of my reverie, peered closely at the TV, wondered whether it was the same day or whether I had passed out after his first remark and gone into a cataleptic state and only recovered in time to hear his second remark. I would say something like: "I think he's loosing it", but that would be totally misleading, implying as it does that he had had some sort of grasp of it in the first place.

Back to economics. The price of the cheap green peppers is $ 1.59 per pound. These were the cheapies, not like the reds and yellows which were always a bit pricey and made you wear a tie if you served them for dinner. Inflation was 4.3% for 2007. Adjust for energy and food and it was 2.5% ( I have no idea why the Government adjusts for energy and food by subtracting them out of inflation. It's not as if we can do without them. You would think the absolutely necessary items would carry a bit more weight, rather than the reverse. Why not just subtract everything else out. like air and gravity? ) So...the inflation due to energy and food was 1.8%, or 42% of the total inflationary figure. It is likely to increase. As energy increases, thus increasing inflation, the cost of food will increase ( due to distribution and things like ethanol ). Voluntary steps won't work. The only thing we can voluntarily do is jump off a cliff together.

 I am afraid that people will look back to the good old times of the Greatest Generation and realize that when they call for a Manhattan Project to accomplish energy independence or some other goal, they will yearn for those wonderful old days. They little realize that the Manhattan Project, beyond needing an enormous stimulus of war, also needed total government control and intervention. This is why it would be sort of nice to have a functioning administration that can do more than threaten, strut, leer, and shoot people in the face.

Daylight Savings
Fall Forward, Spring Back ( or some variation thereof ) is upon us.

Recent scientific work in Indiana, where a number of counties had been in the habit of not correcting for DST, has indicated strongly that Daylight Savings actually costs more! It is more the pity, since adjusting DST was the only substantive work on Energy that the Executive and Legislative branches were able to perform in the aftermath of Katrina.
Although DST may have worked well during World War II, it seems likely that now air conditioning units run longer during the extra light hours and there is a bit more heating in the dark hours in the spring and fall. The costy difference is substantial. If people need more sunlight, my view is that they may get out of bed earlier. That way they need not inconvenience their neighbors by forcing them to adjust to their energy-wasting nonsense.  

Jerusalem 
There was a terrible shooting at a Yeshiva. How long, oh Lord, shall we go on like this? Freedom is definitely a two-edged sword. It forces you to do things.

 If we were not free, we could run a Pastor John Hagee scam or dodge or ruse or caper whereby we say we know the mind of God and wait for God to fire up that good old eight cylinder Plan Eternal, thus getting us off the hook of freedom. When things get tough, let God handle it. When there are tough choices, let God do it. When there is work to be done, slough it off on God. Certainly God must wonder where we all were when He was handing out the Free Will. (Perhaps we got it wrong and went to the theater where "Free Willy" was showing.)

Hagee The Horrible 1

I sat through the video of the perfect simpleton McCain receiving his endorsement from John Hagee, a man who calls the Church into which I was born "the Great Whore" of Revelations.

When Senator Obama was endorsed by Louis Farrakhan, I do not recall him standing together with Mr. Farrakhan on a podium, smiling and embracing. Not at all. Mr. McCain could not hie himself down to Hagee Town quickly enough, by contrast. The odious Glenn Beck has also had Haggee the Horrible on his cable show and asked the pastor whether Obama was the Anti-Christ. Hagee demurred, knowing full well that he himself was, I suppose.

This is the John Hagee who has claimed that Jesus was not sent to be the Messiah. It is by this subterfuge that Hagee the Horrible is able to write his book "In Defense of Israel", which is his obeisance to the extreme right wing of Israel politics. He has said that his book would shake Christian theology. Undermine is the mot juste, Hagee, undermine. Did you think I was exaggerating when I have said Hagee is the Anti-Christ? I have been aware of this creature for a long time. When I first saw him and heard him, I knew him for what he was. This has not ended...not by a long shot, or a long chalk.

Our Lady of Akita at Sheita Hoshikai,

Weeping

The link for the Catholic League: http://www.catholicleague.org/ The most recent post on this disgrace is: http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1402  

Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued the following remarks today regarding Sen. John McCain’s ties to Pastor John Hagee: “Now that he has secured the Republican nomination for president, and has received the endorsement of President Bush, McCain will now embark on a series of fundraising events. When he meets with Catholics, he is going to be asked about his ties to Hagee. He should also be asked whether he approves of comments like this: ‘A Godless theology of hate that no one dared try to stop for a thousand years produced a harvest of hate.’ “That quote is proudly cited by David Brog in his recent book, Standing with Israel. Both Brog and Hagee clearly identify the Roman Catholic Church as spawning a ‘theology of hate.’ “This is nothing if not hate speech. There are so many good evangelical leaders in this country—Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Richard Land, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Dr. Al Mohler, Chuck Colson—and none has ever insulted Catholicism. To be sure, they have expressed theological differences, and that is to be expected; that is all fine and good. But they have never sought to denigrate Catholicism. That’s what makes this situation so outrageous. Of all the great evangelical leaders, the one McCain cites as ‘the staunchest leader of our Christian evangelical movement’ just happens to be a Catholic basher. “In 2005, when I was fighting with those senators who were making it all but impossible for pro-life Catholics to get on the federal bench, I said the following: ‘So as not to be misunderstood, let me repeat what I’ve said before: the Catholic League believes there are no anti-Catholic senators.’ That remains true. “So no one should take from my criticism of McCain on this issue that I in any way think he is anti-Catholic. If anything, John McCain has been a good friend to Catholics. But he and his staff have thus far grossly mishandled this issue. We await their next move.”

If anyone thinks this is all a tempest in a teapot, these same people thought (1) there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, (2) the financial institutions of the USA were operating for the good of the country, not just their own greed, (3) Hitler had some good ideas, he just went overboard on that anti-Semitism thing.

Many Catholics seem to believe that they are under attack, as this quote attests: http://www.catholic.com/projects/pillar_military.asp  

You see, a high proportion (over 25%) of our troops are Catholics. Most are young and not well educated in the faith, so they are easy targets for the propaganda of anti-Catholic zealots. Whether on a ship, on base, or in a foxhole, these troops are a captive audience for the Fundamentalists, who are encouraged by their own chaplains to evangelize Catholics and recruit them for Protestant Bible studies. Protestant chaplains have even been known to hand out Jack Chick publications—the worst anti-Catholic propaganda of all.



Hmmm...Catholics under siege by American Fundamentalists. What irony is there in all this?
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Driving In Palestine

The PAA, or Palestinian Automobile Association, told me to forget about my annual winter vacation in the Gaza. You would think by now I would pay attention. However, since I cannot afford the resorts on the Gulf of Agaba, I settle for the Mediterranean and fun in the sun on a strand that sometimes resembles Omaha beach on Normandy not so long ago. I spotted this traffic sign:

Pastor John Hagee Dreams Of Catholics

...and tosses and turns in his sleep, disturbed by lurid images of Papacy and ... The Great BABYLON !

Telecom Immunity

I shall ardently support immunity for the spineless Telecom companies involved in government domestic spying...if they and their government support immunity for the rest of the population... Immunity from tyranny and terror for all of us. President Bush resigns now!

Waco War on Terrorism

Branch Davidian Pennant

It was 15 years ago February 28 that the siege at Waco, Texas began, pitting the US government against the Branch Davidians. It was our early experience with Terrorism and it was US Government Terror against its own citizens. The siege commenced February 28, 1993. Bill Clinton had been President for a short time so the plan had been in motion since George H.W. Bush's presidency. All the figures are coming together again: Bush, Clinton, Terrorism! Waco was a perfect setting for the horror. In 1916, a young black man convicted of murdering a white woman was lynched in the town square. In 2006, the Waco City Council officially condemned the lynching. It took 90 years. The siege of Waco ended in April 19, 1993 with the burning of the compound and most of the Branch Davidians. I mentioned in 2006 my talk with a Roman Catholic lady with whom I was discussing politics. She said that no matter what one says about the problems of the USA, we do not kill people who do not agree with us. This was the day after the remaining Branch Davidians who had not been burned were released from their 12 years in jail. I brought the Branch Davidians to her attention, and she became silent and thoughtful, then said in a low voice that she had forgotten that incident. We have never really left Waco station, have we, pilgrims?

Miracles

Of course I believe in miracles. I do not believe that the processes which make up the Universe can be so complete as to prohibit leaps and jumps and sports outside the prisons of normative physical laws. Einstein once said, referring to his criticism of Quantum Physics, that God does not play dice with the Universe. This puts Einstein directly opposed to Heraclitus who not only said that everything changes or flows, but also that the God does play and He does so all the time! God does not catalogue. God does not put into boxes. God makes increase and diversity, not diminution and conformity. The law of God is like the soil where a million millions of flowers bloom, all different, yet in many ways alike. The One and the Many. When we put the Universe into the Box of One: one grand unified theory, we shall no doubt find that as we turn our backs to get a cup of tea for Kurt Schrodinger and his cat, upon our return, the Box will have been opened, and a telescoping matryushka parade of boxes will have spilled out, creating a new infinity of things for scientists to encapsulate! Miracles come in all sizes.

Them Thar Catholics Is Hooers!

I decided to review the matter of McCain and his slimy, toxic embrace by Pastor Johnny Hagee. Pastor John, by the way, is the cretin who believes the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon. He has quite a stash of knowledge purporting to know the mind of God backing all this up. Hank Jakubowski, one of the members of the Greybeards Alliance, or the Alliance des Vieux Gris, is an observant Roman Catholic. He, of course, was fuming at McCain. He had intended to vote for the old boy and now he has this anti-Catholic thing working. Jake Jakubowski says that if you think the Sunni-Shi'a thing in Iraq is bad, just wait until we get the Polish American Catholics going after those slack-jawed, knuckle-dragging Hagee Evangelical Dispensational sons of loose ladies! I was amazed. I mean, I have wasted hours talking about Republican chicanery and might as well have talked to the wall as talked to Jake. But now, everything is different. I decided to re-think the whole situation, just to make sure I had not rushed to judgement. That would be the Christian thing to do; the Catholic thing, too. Not to mention the Jewish thing. ... And in the Koran itself, we read: ‘O people of faith! If a person brings you some news, inquire into it carefully, lest you should harm others unwittingly, and afterwards be sorry for what you did.’ So, let us check it out. After some time Googling crackpot pastors, I had enough. Unless McCain denounces this support, Catholics will be repelled by the Republican stench.

Dead Baby Bookmarks

I was looking for something about Palestine.

I was searching in Arabic language papers and I was in a hurry. Since my reading is not good enough to speed read Arabic, it was a slow process. Therefore, I depended on the pictures appended to the side of each item to give me a first indication of what the listed articles were about.

Finding the item with the photo of a man holding a dead baby, I decided this was indeed an article about Palestine, and it was. Within the body of the article was the info I wanted, none of which had anything to do with dead babies. (It had to do with the Arabic spelling of "Palestine", hence the search in Arabic language sources.) It seems we may bookmark items about Palestine with photos of dead babies and any subsequent search will be quite efficient in picking out the Palestinian data.

I sat back and exhaled, realizing what I had just done and what the process was. What a world of jackals we inhabit.

Son Of A Bush!

John McCain has kissed the hem of Pastor John Hagee's cloak in gratitude for his endorsement. As I have said before, I believe Hagee to be a side-kick of the Anti-Christ, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who deceives with what we are familiar. We are certainly familiar with Christianity and ignorant Intolerance. And so is Pastor Johnny.


McCain "Proud" of Endorsement From John Hagee Who Calls Catholics "The Great Whore." 
Where's Tim Russert Now?
Posted February 29, 2008 02:14 PM (EST) Jane Hamsher http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/mccain-proud-of-endorse_b_89227.html
Mr. McCain, who has been on a steady search for support among conservative and evangelical leaders who have long distrusted him, said he was "very honored'' by Mr. Hagee's endorsement. Asked about Mr. Hagee's extensive writings on Armageddon and about what one questioner said was Mr. Hagee's belief that the anti-Christ will be the head of the European Union, Mr. McCain responded that "all I can tell you is that I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee's support.''

Pastor Hagee refers to the Catholic Church as The Great Whore or the Whore of Babylon. Thank you, John McCain. Thank you, Republican Party. Thank you once again, you unmentionable creeps and Sons of a Bush!

Holocaust Denial!

Israel minister warns Palestinians of "shoah" By Adam Entous and Joseph Nasr Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:29am EST http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2868601720080229?sp=true A senior Israeli defense official said on Friday that Palestinians firing rockets from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would bring upon themselves what he termed a "shoah", the Hebrew word for holocaust or disaster. The word is rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews. Many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other contemporary events. ..."The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger 'shoah' because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Vilnai told Army Radio. Yes. The term has been rarely used in my lifetime to mean anything else, and when someone has used it in a different context, there have been complaints and protests. Somebody's mask is beginning to slip. When we are about the important business of murder, we should all be on the same page. Check with Olmert. Check with Cheney. On the other hand, Hamas has been lobbing rockets into Sderot in southern Israel. From the pictures, it appears that Sderot is home to a number of the Ethiopean Jews brought to Israel some time ago. I do not deny Israel's right to fight back. I utterly condemn a frame of mind that wishes to deliciously visit a Holocaust upon one's enemy AND those who live in the enemy's proximity. It is too Western for my taste. see also: مسؤول إسرائيلي يتوعد غزة بـ"هولوكوست واسعة http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/middle_east_news/newsid_7270000/7270820.stm

Hillary and Hugo

The Wall Street Journal CAPITAL JOURNAL By GERALD F. SEIB Clinton, Obama and a Difference That Matters February 26, 2008; Page A2
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120399018818292447.html
We quote:  
In a major speech yesterday at George Washington University, Sen. Clinton drove the wedge deeper: "If I am entrusted with the presidency, America will have the courage, once again, to meet with our adversaries. But I will not be penciling in the leaders of Iran or North Korea or Venezuela or Cuba on the presidential calendar without preconditions; until we have assessed, through lower-level diplomacy, the motivations and intentions of these dictators."

The only problem I have with an ID card with a photo of Hugo Chavez and where it says "Occupation? : Dictator" is that he was elected a couple of times by the voters of Venezuela in elections that were characterized as open and fair by all international observers. What does one make of that?
He also survived an attempted coup which was notoriously and unabashedly backed by the USA. Recently, he has shut down a TV station. However, this TV station was openly supportive of the coup attempt, rather as if CBS were to come out and call for the military to overthrow George Bush. I think the FCC might take a few steps to correct that.
This shows me that I have not grasped the NeoCon ( yes....Hillary thinks like a NeoCon...it's all about Power.) daffy-nition of Democracy. Nor the Mad-libs definition, too. The same thing happened when the incalcitrant Palestinians had the nerve to elect Hamas. Damn fools!

Ralph's Nadir

I once voted for Ralph Nader. I shall not this time. I still like his sister. Things are a bit too important for his Uncle Tonoos shtick.

Welcome, Comrades!

Mabruk, ya zumalaa' ! Congratulations to the newest American Province: Wilaaya 'Iraq ( or Vilaaya 'Iraq ) I am not sure whether we should use "wilaaya" or "vilaaya" for "province". I tend to favor Vilaaya. It is more Turkish and Ottoman. It reminds me of Empires past. ...vilaaya...VIlaaya....viLAAya... Oh, well. We had better get it right. John McCain is promising more wars and longer wars. We are gonna get us some Provinces!

Bill O'Reilly Is Ever Cool

There has been a hub-bub about Bill O'Reilly's use of the term "lynching party" in conjunction with some utterance of Michelle Obama.
Firstly, this is the Bill O'Reilly that didn't know that "colored folks" had restaurants where an old white guy could get something to eat. Remember?
Secondly, Bill O'Reilly is a Media Conservative Talker and he said that he would NOT join a lynching party. Get it? NOT!

What Mr. O'Reilly has done is shown us the concepts that Media Conservative Talkers use, how they construct or interpret Reality, if you will. Mr. O'Reilly intimates that people like himself; the Ledeens, the Ingrahams, the Limbaughs; view reality as a construct wherein "lynching parties" might yet be a good idea to knock some sense into various "colored folks" who, for one reason or another, need some sense-knocking.

Mr. O'Reilly says uncategorically that he will not take part in the "lynching party"! He is saying that "lynching party" is a valid conceptual way of looking at things, BUT he will not take part. He knows that it is bad. He's O.K.

Supply Blind-Sided

Supply Side Economics: If I were Super-duper Rich, my idea of Supply Side or "trickle down" would be a "trickle down" by way of a maze, a "trickle down" by a route so labyrinthine and circuitous that you clowns would never get a smell of a greenback. My idea of "trickle down" would be like my brother's idea of Vermouth in a Martini: you waved the bottle over the shaker...that's enough Vermouth! Same thing. I would wave a C note over your heads and that's "trickle down" for youse schlubs! Drat! I have just been informed that this is what we already do!

Mea Culpa Again?

A number of the members of the United Antiquities meet at Hanaan's Diner, kvetch and klatsch I call it. The place is called Coffee Clutch and that name is reminescent of klatsch, but unfortunately brings to mind an image of someone undergoing an infarction, which, considering the nature of the food available, might be truly what the name's original signification was. The owners of the convenience store across from Hanaan's were being deported by the US government for irregularities in their method of entry into our fair country. They were Albanians. They were Roman Catholic Albanians and hard workers. Albanians are tough. The Albanian RC Church is the only church I know that has had a shooting in the parking lot. Habeeb told us this bit of news from Homeland Security. We called him Habeeb even though his name was Boutros. Habeeb is "boyfriend" and when we call him this, we actually say "Habeeb" and look at Hanaan and wink lasciviously, thus from afar implying a love that dare not speak its name or address or phone number. O.K. So instead of playing Long Story, Short Story...or Good Cop, Bad Cop, I shall get right down to it. Jacobowski was upset that I said our leaders were the scum of the Earth. He had a point. Perhaps I had been over the top. However, I remember it was about Kosovo. (Kosovo and Albanians...and more Albanians are Muslim than RC. I used to live a few blocks away from an Albanian Mosque. They were a quiet group that unfortunately used everted truck tires for decorative planters, but their presence certainly kept any trouble out of the neighborhood.) And our government recognized its independence with the same type of haste it usually reserves for bombing Muslims. ( there...I am not really going to say that I'm sorry...you may sense it already.) In fact, I do not think Geroge W. Bush has evidenced an equal rush to judgement since he was the Governor of Texas and actively weighing whether clemency should be extended to convicts about to be executed. (Don't worry. It was not extended. Clemency Stayed Home.) So I brought up Kosovo, saying "Why Kosovo?" What was there about Kosovo that merits such attention while everything else around us is climbing into the proverbial wicker hand basket and buying a one way to Hell? Saudi Arabia was what the combined mental powers of the Greybeards came up with, assisted by Hanaan's Knife. She has a way of drawing her meat cutting knife from left to right in front of her when she mentions the Malika Zaiteeya, or Oily Kingdom. It is fairly daunting to view this. I mean, Hanaan gives one the impression that she has a number of scores to settle with Life, starting with that nose business she was dealt, and the knife of Hanaan in action not directly related to cutting meat, but in a more generalized threat of slaughter, gives one pause. Pointing to the newspaper she had been saving, she pointed to an article about how Saudi Arabia was giving money to open schools in Alabanian Kosovo. At this point, it might be well to recall that Albanians are mostly Muslim in the area. So...Saudi financed schools...why does that ring a bell? George W. Bush stumbled over himself in a "Rush to Recognition" as a favor to his old pals, Saudi Arabia. No apology from here. I do believe we are owed one by Bush/Cheney. We shall wait for it: APOLOGY BUSH/CHENEY 2034 !

The Notorious V.I.P. ( Vice Imperial President )

Obama

...has my vote. I have flip-flopped more times than Romney. Essentially, I see McCain as a continuation of War. I see Clinton as a continuation of War. Illegal wars...in Iraq and Kosovo. Now Kosovo independence. President Bush goes to Baghdad...undeclared by Congress. President Clinton set off on his war horse into Kosovo, another war undeclared by Congress. This has become the accepted way of doing business. Why not an imperial presidency if the Congress has no backbone to do its duty. My opinion is that of Patrick Buchanan: http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/COLUMNISTS0202/802220305/1119/COLUMNISTS By intervening in a civil war to aid the secession of an ancient province, to create a new nation that has never before existed and, to erect it along ethnic, religious and tribal lines, we have established a dangerous precedent. Muslim and Albanian extremists already are talking of a Greater Albania, consisting of Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian-Muslim sectors of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. I may study Arabic and read Arab literature, may love the culture and the people, but I do not ever endorse pan-Islamic politics. It is not my business and in the present day it may lead to severe problems. Wherever there is an opportunity for war and discord, our leaders are first to jump in. Yet they are incredibly stupid - except for looking to their own enrichment. How do I know? Just look into a detailed study of the Iraq War and its aftermath up to the present and see the stupidity of the ruling class in the USA.

Our ruling elite has the morals of jackals and hyenas. Soon there will be more fighting, terrorism, and guerilla warfare opening in a theater near you.

Xmas Sales

The Christmas Season was a bust for a number of retailers. A large number of Santas were given the boot. I saw some of them living on the streets. They were cold and drunk. For $1 they would pose for a picture. I asked them to repeat the slogan President Bush used after 9/11.

Reality As A Construction: Bernard Lewis

Norman Podhoretz presented a case in June 2007 for bombing Iran.
Norman Podhoretz has a good many philosophical fish to fry and is hardly a disinterested observer.

However, when one thinks about it, how could anyone who is calling for the Dresdenization of another country be anything but interested. Norman Podhoretz is very, very , very interested. He cites Bernard Lewis. In case you do not know who Mr. Lewis is, let Podhoretz introduce him: ..Bernard Lewis, the greatest authority of our time on the Islamic world...
Perhaps Mr. Podhoretz means that Mr. Lewis is the greatest authority in the West about the Islamic world, or the greatest non-Islamic authority on the Islamic world. Usually Mr. Podhoretz means "So-and-So agrees with me" when Mr. Podhoretz call So-and-So the greatest whatever.
Just a note: Bernard Lewis is not the greatest authority on anything except Bernard Lewis. Mr. Lewis was in the situation perhaps of being focused on the world of Islam when few others in the West were. That is about it: right place, right time. Serendipity, not greatness. Greatness calls for serendipity and strength of insight.

Anyway, what is wrong with the following:  
The Case for Bombing Iran Norman Podhoretz
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/The-Case-for-Bombing-Iran-10882  

But listen to what Bernard Lewis, the greatest authority of our time on the Islamic world, has to say in this context on the subject of deterrence: MAD, mutual assured destruction, [was effective] right through the cold war. Both sides had nuclear weapons. Neither side used them, because both sides knew the other would retaliate in kind. This will not work with a religious fanatic [like Ahmadinejad]. For him, mutual assured destruction is not a deterrent, it is an inducement. We know already that [Iran’s leaders] do not give a damn about killing their own people in great numbers. We have seen it again and again. In the final scenario, and this applies all the more strongly if they kill large numbers of their own people, they are doing them a favor. They are giving them a quick free pass to heaven and all its delights. Nor are they inhibited by a love of country: We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world. These were the words of the Ayatollah Khomeini, who ruled Iran from 1979 to 1989, and there is no reason to suppose that his disciple Ahmadinejad feels any differently.

There are numerous things I find distasteful about this claptrap. I assume I have made my disdain for Bernard Lewis sufficiently clear that I need not repeat it. What else is wrong?
MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction is cast as the way rational beings live with nuclear weaponry! MAD is not the Western-style logical and rational way of doing things. It was the historical outcome of the events that led up to it: the revolution in Physics, World War I, the Communist Revolution, World War II and its aftermath. Therein is the genesis of MAD. It is NOT THEE way that people who are part of the in-crowd must do nuclear war.

The USA and the Soviet Union found themselves at a point of history and MAD was their response. Beyond this, the Soviet Union and the USA accomplished one of the greatest Moral and Ethical victories in the history of mankind: they did not lose control, they did not go to war. They backed away from the mad MAD system they created. (Of course, the Nuclear Confrontation Era is being re-built now, but that does not diminish the accomplishment. Furthermore, after what I have seen in the last 15 years or so, I do not trust the USA to be able to play the game of Thermonuclear Warfare in a manner that will attain the same outcome as it did in the original Cold War game.) MADmen with bombs.

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Hari Seldon Speaks

Hari Seldon

note: I used a photo of Asa Kasher to represent Hari Seldon.

Upon reading the Terra Daily article

Shenzhou VII Spaceship Airlock Module, Spacesuit Pass Initial Ground Tests

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Shenzhou_VII_Spaceship_Airlock_Module_Spacesuit_Pass_Initial_Ground_Tests_999.html

we headed right to the Seldon vault where the darkling enery hologram of Hari Seldon was drinking a cup of Earl Grey, hot, thanks to the Grace Tea Company of NY.

We asked him whether, when man returns to the Moon, the flight will be Chinese or American. He picked up his Magic 8 Ball and peered at it. We laughed. It breaks the tension, you know.

Anyway, the odds that it will be a Chinese mission has increased from 33% to 37%.

I am going to call my bookie in Vegas...or Vega.

John McCain, The Hanoi Candidate

The NY Times story on John McCain seems to be an expose on his lack of discretion and bad judgement on what is proper. I had certainly forgotten about his totally improper intervention in the matter of Charles Keating, and I am glad to have been reminded of it. My father all along has been saying he does not trust John McCain, especially he does not trust his well known hair trigger temper.  
However, all of this seems to be marginalia to the true story. First, cherchons la femme: a Ms. Iseman.  (A lobbyist linked to Mr. McCain)

Note how extremely close the name "Iseman" is to "Iselin". The handler of the Manchurian Candidate, Raymond Shaw, was his mother, Mrs. John Iselin.

 

A coincidence? Furthermore, the Manchurian Candidate was a combatant, he was fighting against a Communist foe, he was taken prisoner in a war zone, and he was held prisoner for a number of years. It was during those years of incarceration that the Communists began their brainwashing of selected POWs. What really went on in the Hanoi Hilton? Was it anything like what went on in Machuria during the Korean War, when young Americans were brainwashed and then sent back home, ticking time bombs in the control of their various handlers, waiting to the exactly right moment to go off? Was the Hanoi Hilton this?

Or was it this?
 

and this?

Please note that in the 1962 version of The Manchurian Candidate directed by John Frankenheimer, the Iselin home is cluttered with Lincoln paraphenalia. As "Richie Rich" points out in his review: http://richeyrich.wordpress.com/movie-reviews/the-manchurian-candidate-a-photo-study/ Frankenheimer obviously wanted it clear which side of the political spectrum his villains were coming from. In former times, Lincoln was the primary symbol of the Republican party.

 

Are we going to becomes dupes to the insidious plottings of Dr. Yen Lo and his NeoConservative Stooges yet again? 

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The Bush Legacy

Why not fix New Orleans? There's a legacy. This spring, a group of Muslim and Jewish students at the University of Michigan is going to go South and help in the re-building of New Orleans. That is a good idea. It will help re-build the nation after 8 years of Radical NeoCon Conservatism. The smiling face of American Radical Conservatism:

The Jetsons' Kids Pay Off The Bush Deficit

Smaller space transports, but it was worth it to balance the budget. Now the question is whom shall we elect in 2040? (That is, after Judy Jetson answer the question where she is going to park her turbo!)

Hmmm...

I say, Cymbalta, what shall I write about today?

Sabah ul Khayr, Kerbala!

People are still dying in Iraq. Soldiers are still being killed in Iraq. Is a diminished violence all our leaders can produce?

Zombie Media

Post production work is almost finished on my new film, Cable TV Zombies, so look for it to open at a theater nearby. I shall not take a break and get right into my next one, sort of an thriller with an erotic undertone, El Laberinto Dos Sostenes. Cable TV Zombies, or CTZ as I shall hereafter call it, missed the primaries, but will be around in good time for the general election. At the risk of giving it all away, it is all about how a malfunctioning satellite, about the size of a bus, falls to Earth, scattering its radioactive material (!?) around a cemertery, thereby (as usual ) causing some of the more obnoxious inert types to rise from their graves. A crowd of these Zombies converge on major Media centers and take over the cable TV coverage of politics, with special focus on a network called Fuchs ( note: German for "fox" ) News and this gives us a chance to make numerous sophomoric puns on the network name by some of the sillier Zombs. There is the usual Sunday Morning Political Talk shows with Zombie hosts asking inane questions ( "What is you opinion of passing the Deficit on to our grandchildren...particularly since we will still be around?" -Surely not? Well, yes. We're Zombies after all...or more properly, Re-Animated Previously Used Life Forms. -I say, do you think they'll be pissed? Who...? -The grandkids...will they be pissed? Probably. Very probably....very irate. They'll probably piss on yer grave. -No! Well, it's good, then, that we no longer inhabit the loamy mess!") There are Zombie books about The Greatest Generation and Zombie books about How Great Is Ronald Reagan and Zombies get jobs as columnists for major newspapers. ("I wuz in the airport the other day and saw a book about Kipling. I ate a few pages, then did a regurge...like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, only more pompously. I asked the constant reader why Kipling ? Or, more succinctly, why do Democrats "kiple"...or not "kiple"...I ferget which.") A new Zombie jumps into the presidential race, speaks to the Zombie generation - a demographic that seems to encompass just about all the populace - and is elected president. We invade Iran on February 1, 2009. Zombies do not see things as infinite shades of grey, just black and white....or warms brains or cold. Shadings of meaning...cause Zombie...go insane, as if being insane is worse that the formaldehyde Dawn of the Dead that comes every day after a thermonookler exchange. (NOTE: ever cool Zombie Semiotic here! Think of Nuclear War, think of millions killed! Think of the life-giving sun ever afterwards in a pukey haze...think of the Sun floating in a jar of formaldehyde accompanied by a wrinkled raisin Earth, circling forever and waiting for the Medical Examiner of the gods to arrive.) I could not post a trailer, but I managed to get the Woman Newscaster from Fuchs News. Notice her hair is black. This was the Art Director's idea to differentiate Zombie Media ( black hair and crazed and lusting for eats ) from the usual Media (blond hair and accentuated bosoms and leering guys ). And her name is Ann.

"We will be covering the Election outcomes like flies on dead meat. Stay tuned.Speaking of dead meat, there's an accident working to clear at 24th and Lex. Many brains scattered..."

A Fuseli Future With Monsanto's Sugar Franken-Beet

Fuseli painted The Nightmare. I just saw it over Christmastide at the Detroit Institute of Arts. It is as unsettling as ever. I also went to the ROM, or Royal Ontario Museum, recently and looked at glassware along with their new addition which looks as if they got into a fight with the University of Toronto next door, and the U of T took a broken beer bottle and bashed old ROM in the facade with it. Now from the brave, new world of Genetically Engineered Foodstuffs...or Golem cuisine. http://jcarrot.org/ge-sugar-coming-soon-to-candy-in-you/ Sorry to be the bearer of scary news on Valentines Day, but if you thought GMOs in your tofu was a bummer, guess what Monsanto is bringing you next - yep, GE sugar for your Valentine! About half of sugar produced in the U.S. comes from sugar beets (the other half is cane sugar). In the next few weeks, sugar beet farmers throughout the U.S. will be considering what type of sugar beets to plant, and food companies will have to decide what types of sugar they will accept. And this year, there is something new for farmers and the sugar cooperatives to choose from — Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beet, genetically engineered to survive direct application of the weed killer, Roundup. In addition to the specter of eating GE sugar, the sugar that comes from these novel plants will also have much heavier loads of pesticides on them. At the request of Monsanto, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency increased the allowable amount of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup that kills plants) residues on sugar beetroots by a whopping 5000% at the time USDA permitted the growing us GE sugar beets. The inevitable result is more glyphosate pesticide in our sugar. The thoughtful people at the site have filed a complaint challenging USDA deregulation of the Monsanto Sugar Franken-Beet. Other work is being done. Follow the link above to the site for more information. Get your sweet heart a Franken-tine candy sampler!

The Golem about to eat an apple...I hope.

Uncle Joe Lieberman Speaks, Then Plays Handel Erhlekh

Senator Lieberman has graced us with his presence in the Connecticut Post. http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_8265434

Lieberman says some waterboarding OK  
By PETER URBAN Article Last Updated: 02/15/2008 01:39:42 AM EST

Beyond the obvious amusements we have come to expect from Uncle Joe, we find this:   

"We are at war," Lieberman said. "I know enough from public statements made by Osama bin Laden and others as well as classified information I see to know the terrorists are actively planning, plotting to attack us again. I want our government to be able to gather information again within both the law and Geneva Convention." 

 We are at war with Osama bin Laden and his gang. Given the way we run this war and how Uncle Joe and his friends squander resources on Al Qa'ida, I would have hated to see a real conflict with something like the old Soviet Union.
We could have spent a trillion trillions of $ on a real opponent with a nation state and army and navy and all the fixin's !
We aren't in a war. We have been looking for a war.

We had a vendetta against Al Qa'ida which we came very close to being successful at, but we decided that was not what we wanted. We wanted the military version of the blue plate special...with all the above mentioned fixin's. Oh, well, the USA is the greatest country on earth and it is the strongest in history and it is blessed by God before all others...and the mantras go on and on, and they sound eerily like the voices of Raymond Shaw's platoon in The Manchurian Candidate ( 1962):  

Raymond Shaw is the best, finest, bravest soldier I have ever known in my life.

There is a game in the Hasidic areas of Brooklyn called Handel Erhlekh, the name meaning something like "wheeling and dealing...ethically!". It is based on the Monopoly board game and it is played the same way. It includes some cards which deal with ethical issues, thus creating a reward for good choices and a kiester kick for bad: “Yiddeshe Tokhter! Du host aroys gelakht ven mener hoben gehert! Zeyer a groyse pritzus! Shtel dokh in ‘mikhutz lamakhane’ un blayb aroys 3 gang.” (Jewish daughter! You laughed when men could hear you. Very immodest! You’re excommunicated! Lose three turns.)

Uncle Joe is known as being a uncritical backer of everything the Likud party does. We wonder how he would play Handel Erhlekh: “Geholfen di Tziyonistishe medinah! Fun a shaykhes tzu reshoim kumt keyn guts nisht aroys! Nor shoden! Tu teshuvah! Zitz in a yeshivah 2 geng, un tzol far di yeshiva vifel es kost far yededn aroys gebliben gan $50 far tzedokoh!”  
(You helped the Zionist country! No good can come out of an association with evil people, only bad! Repent! Sit in a yeshivah for two turns, and pay $50 tuition per day to charity).

The Hasidic opinion of Israel, di Tzionistishe medinah, may surprise you. Note that the Yiddish for the country is "medinah" which is the same word as Arabic for city "medina" and, of course, the foremost city, Al Medina. If we speak of similarities, then consider that a small contingent of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women in Rabat Beit Shemesh have taken to wearing a hijab.

I forget what I started this post about... for more on Handel Erhlekh, visit the site Jewschool
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Our Lives In The Bush Of Ghosts:6

Pre-War Residences...or Peace Blocks ?!

(Intro Note: Amos Tutuola wrote a novel entitled "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", hence my title.)

I always remember the old film "The Shape of Things to Come", I remember H.G. Wells, I remember Olaf Stapledon and Orwell. I believe I lived then in a Peace Block development somewhere in what used to be London.

...then there was Hitler, World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam, the Era of Ever Increasing Deficits, and the Age Of War Without End... Did a canny realtor get the low down on World War III - or IV as some pundits would have it. Shall we have as many wonderful world wars (www) as there are Superbowls and go through the Roman numerals from I to L to C and on to M? If we are still in the Pre-War Era, perhaps we may still do something about it.

Note On Intelligent Design

After my post the other day on Intelligent Design and other Oxymorons, someone actually asked me why I believed ID to be idolatrous polytheism. To sum up the court case in Kansas: (I put logical operators in capitals.) IT IS NECESSARY that an intelligent designer exists to make sense of the world as we know it. IT IS POSSIBLE that the intelligent designer is not God. from this I deduce...and anyone deduces who follows the logic of the matter, IT IS POSSIBLE that the intelligent designer is an entity other than God. hence, IT IS POSSIBLE that there exists God and an Intelligent Designer. The Intelligent Designer has God-like properties, inasmuch as the inputs of the Intelligent Designer are NECESSARY for God's creation of things in the world. THEREFORE, we have TWO entities with God-like properties: God and Intelligent Designer. THEREFORE, IT IS POSSIBLE we have 2 Gods, or at least a God and a God-like entity. The definition of Polytheism: at least 2 gods, usually more. A God and a Demi-god, both existing from all eternity...and the Intelligent Designer has to exist from all eternity, else who would have designed the Intelligent Designer?...comes so close to polytheism that hell rejoices. I added "idolatrous" for good measure.

Get A Horse!

photo: Tiddlycove in FrEAKING NEWS

Having spent some time in Toronto, I come back very appreciative of the public transport system and the Ukrainian area called West Bloor Village. If we leave aside bakeries of unparalleled cleanliness with sweets lining the windows as if in some Photo Shop extraganza, we shall deal with transportation alone. If we ignore the world's best cream cheese at Daiter's Deli, we shall deal with buses and subways and trains. Yes, trains! There is real transport for people, just as it would be if people and their concerns actually mattered! Really. That is something the USA does not have. Amtrak has to beg like Lazarus at the Dives' Table of Congress, Amtrak is told to go fly a kite and generate a profit. ...Just like the highway system......!!!!!!!

Real capitalism.

Highways get lots of pork. Calculate how much the federal and local governments throw at the highway system. Real US of A capitalism has give-aways for everyone, except the poor and the trains. It is part of the illusory dream of the Suburban Flight: cheap highways, cheap oil, and no people of color!

Warren Buffett And The Future

Did you ever wonder why Warren Buffett was eulogized for doing things the old fashioned way; finding good quality investments and sticking to them? He was lionized because he was a rare bird, indeed. The 21st century and the 20th fin de siecle were the time of Creative Finance: new schemes, new scams, new dodges. Sub primes come to mind. It has all fallen apart. In the future, we shall pray to Saint Warren to resist temptation to run a scam-it's in our blood!-just as we shall pray to St. Leibowitz to save us from another nuclear war.

Why I Despise Mitt Romney's Advisors

Mr. Romney's farewell address will not go down in history as a fondly remembered summary of the wisdom of a popular leader distilled over years of civic service.

It was just more cranky and ratty 2007 Republican Conservatism.

His father, George Romney, was a fine man. He was a straight talker whose straight talk destroyed his run for the presidency. I am sure Mitt remembers.
I am also sure Mitt cannot be as witless as he appears. No, he will not repeat his dad's mistake, so he has advisors and speech writers who will make sure he toes the line of the 21st Century Republican Cranky and Ratty Conservative Movement, aided and abetted by the likes of radio talk show hosts.  

The threat to our culture comes from within. In the 1960s, there were welfare programs that created a culture of poverty in our country. Now, some people think we won that battle when we reformed welfare.

Apparently there was no poverty before the 1960s. Or, if there had been poverty, the Poor were so degraded in spirit and diminshed in abilities that-thank god!-they had not the wit to create a "culture"...probably had something to do with the amount of lead they had ingested as toddlers.  

They [Liberals] fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever.

I seem to have misunderstood who received the Republican tax cuts. Enough. Mr. Romney, when you resurface -as assuredly you will-try for an incarnation as a person with his own mind and his own personality. As geeky as it is, you are a likeable person when you do not hang around with the 21st century cranks.

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Intelligent(?) Design

Just a note: I started this writing business with a post on how I consider the Theory Of Intelligent Design, prominently espoused by such minds as George W. Bush and various School Boards from intellectual Slobbovia, to be Idolatrous Polytheism. I have not changed my opinion. I consider ID to be part of the balanced meal within the lunch box of the Anti-Christ: the un-biblical Rapture, the extra-biblical Dispensationalism, and the pretentious Intelligent Design. Hmmmm....? I only count 3 horsemen in the above. Where is the 4th?

The Classics To The Rescue

Once again, in the last reel of a cosmological cliff-hanger, Pythagoras is called upon to save our universe. I have previously remarked on the fact that Pythagoras' Holkos, the fifth element which contained all other elements; i.e., the container of the universe, was a 12 sided figure or dodecahedron or soccer ball. http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2007/11/in-tempore-rerum-novarum.html http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2007/02/football-of-pythagoras.html It will come as no surprise, then, that the Pythagorean-call has gone out again for Pyhagoras to help Gotham City: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/The_Poincare_Dodecahedral_Space_Model_Gains_Support_To_Explain_The_Shape_Of_Space_999.html The Poincare Dodecahedral Space Model Gains Support To Explain The Shape Of Space by Staff Writers Paris, France (SPX) Feb 13, 2008 The last fifteen years have shown considerable growth in attempt to determine the global shape of the universe, i.e. not only the curvature of space but also its topology. ...Motivated by indications that the Universe may have positive curvature, and calculating large-angle vibrational harmonics to simulate the power spectrum, some authors of the present study had already argued in October 2003 that the multiply-connected Poincare dodecahedral space (PDS) topology was favoured by the WMAP data relative to an infinite, simply connected flat space.

The Intelligent Design Groupies Take Over The Money Supply!

This post was written in answer to the question: "What happens when you assume there is a fairly idiotic government which sees it proper to appoint people well versed in Intelligent Design Theory to oversee the Space program and to appoint professorial hacks with no real world experience to the Federal Reserve?" The Federal Reserve system was created on or about 1913 and immediately went on to create the Boom Times of the Roaring Twenties. This was followed by a minor correction called the Great Depression. It also created the Boom and Bubble times of the 1990's and 2000's. No problem there. During this time, President Clinton oversaw the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which prevented banks from profiteering in securities markets. Leading up to the time of this idiocy, President Reagan had overseen the bizarre economy which lowered taxes and borrowed money for government spending, all because "deficits don't matter."! Sometime around this era, Banks were allowed to become subject to Hypertrophy, growing beyond all bounds, instituting nation-wide systems...all to ensure that if a banking crisis occurs in the future, it will be the Mother of All Banking Crises! In the present situation, there are trillions of $ of losses of present and future losses which must be absorbed into the financial system. Since Wall Street, The Federal Reserve, and the Value of The Dollar have all become as corrupted as the "talking heads" on cable tv; since they have become willing stooges of politicians who are venal, ignorant, and corrupt, it is reasonable to assume that a minor correction is coming. By the way, the 1920's gave rise to the Great Era of Crime: Capone, Torrio, Weiss, Dillinger, et alii. Bonnie & Clyde robbed banks. In 2007, the FBI reports that bank robberies increased 40% in fiscal year 2007. The FBI solved 75% of bank robberies in 2003. In fiscsal year 2007, it solved 50%. Welcome to Paradise.

Cicero Addresses The Catilinarians

Catilinarian 1: Ann Coulter

Quem ad finem te iactabis?

A Vote For Hillary

I do indeed like Barack Obama. However, if I vote Democratic, I wish to vote for Clinton. I want someone who will continue the fight against the Right Wing alliance of Wealth and Intolerance and War Unending. This alliance would probably tear anyone else apart, ripping into them like the junk yards dogs they are underneath their expensive appearances. Make no mistake that this Right Wing Conspiracy is 1984. The reaction to John McCain is ample evidence of their desire to hold a purge or to send the Brown Shirts out in a pogrom. Nolunt Sarcire, Volunt Perdere.

The Four Branches Of Government

Referring back to Mr. Bush and The Federal Reserve http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2008/02/wise-minds-prevail.html wherein it was stated that Mr. Bush urged Mr. Bernanke to cut rates. When, exactly, did the stock markets in New York become the fourth branch of government? When did the mission of the Federal Reserve become propping up Dow Jones Futures? What I see happening is people who should be abandoning ship are being cajoled into staying on board the mini-Titanic and they will be left, as the saying goes, holding the bag, while those who talked them into staying have already jumped into a lifeboat. Of course, in the future, the markets will go up again, and that bag someone is left holding will turn from a sow's ear to a silk purse again...after a time of lost opportunity.

Blogs And Such: Renesys Blog

I have been changing things. My favorite Tech Blog sums it up: I admire the Net for the way in which it allows ordinary people (and a few extraordinary people) to produce content and to directly deliver that content to an audience. "Disintermediation" was what we used to call that--a long word for "cutting out the middle man". Blogs can certainly do that. But they also have a tendency to be self-centered, myopic and frequently boring.

renesys blog http://www.renesys.com/blog/2005/12/welcome.shtml#more

Republican vs. Conservative

The CPAC has been under way. A Conservative is a person who know that Mankind is imperfect and likely to remain so. The striving for perfection is to be an ongoing and never-ending progress...like Pilgrim, His Progress! This progress requires constant meditation and soul-searching and sinning and being shriven for one's sins. Republicans believe they do not make mistakes.......

Wise Minds Prevail

I have no fear for the Economy since people who have demonstrated great sagacity and ability have taken it under their wing. It shall be a success like everything else. http://theswoop.net/sys/homepage_feature.php?feature_id=568&color=0 Washington’s World – January 28th - February 3rd, 2008 Economic issues are, as we anticipated, now firmly in control of Washington’s policy agenda. White House officials have told us that President Bush intervened forcibly to convince an initially reluctant Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates. “There were some telephone calls from the White House to the Fed in which some very crude language was used.” It has always been my experience that the use of forceful, sometimes crude, language has had a miraculous effect, the Sermon on the Mount notwithstanding.

Good Old Jerry

I do not intend to have a home health provider.
My daughter turned to me the other day...I was giving her a hard time about something, I suppose...and said that I had better not act thus and so in that undefined future time when she has some sort of hideous custody of me and I need some care provider. All in jest... I said, no. That's not the way it will be. As they, "they" being the jackals of youth, stand about in the corridor, discussing which cuckoo's nest of an institution or home to put me in, I shall be laying plans.

As they go before the judge to testify to my diminished mental capacity, I shall stand and smile and nod my head like a good old Jerry ( from "geriatrics"). As I go to my home for one last time, I shall dump the documents from the banks I have already emptied out into a club bag, take a few books and some clothes, get a limo and beat it to the airport to make my connection for the Islands. If some young relative stumbles in on me, the money I spent on martial arts for the elderly will have been a good investment. Shall they arrest me for battery? And why should I care, since they have conspired to deprive me of my life? Nope. A few "Manchurian Candidate" kicks through the wood paneling and breaking tables, and I am into the taxi and making my way to Margaritaville.

And they will say... we thought he was such a good Jerry...he was a Jerry that knew his place...it was funny the way he shuffled around in his slippers...but, and here we agree with Nurse Ratchett, the only good Jerry is an institutionalized Jerry. Use the knowledge of Stem Cell research to give life to those who are at a point where they see that they are not immortal and do not wish to live in this social prison anymore. Let them set their sails to the wind and escape to the Islands for a blaze of glory.

Great God, let us be free!

The Holy Snowy

We had received 7 inches of snow, so it was time to get up and clean the cars, clean the walks, clean the driveways. We have a snow removal service here, but their schedule seems arbitrary, so I never know when they will arrive. If they have arrived on the scene, their presence is punctuated with disappearances, and if there is a strict regimen of activities- such as drives first, sidewalks second, blow snow on the front doors third-I am unaware of it. Usually with a small snowing, they show up at 3:00 A.M. with dull, noise-making plows and grind the new asphalt laid down last fall.

After being awakened early, I usually take a nap at the time of afternoon they show up with the internal combustion snow blowers. The scene is intensely odd to me. The beauty of the snow filled landscape is so, so evanescent here. One must hurry to view it and to take pictures, because a little crew with a big noise - a snow eating Langolier outfit!-is coming over the horizon and is going to whack it and hack it as if it were an Amazonian rain forest.
It is Michigan so a lot of the snow removal workers are wearing University of Michigan winter garb, not because they support the football team, but because there are no jobs other than Snow Blow and Grass Mow and have not been in quite a while. I saw some Michigan State stuff, some Wayne State, and some Oakland U.

I was shovelling with God. It was His snow, so to speak, so it was only right He should lend a hand. We were talking about the book "The Secret". I said that I thought things such as "vision walls" related to notions such as "karma" and "reincarnation". He said it was not clear up front, but he supposed I could make a case for it. I asked, then, just how many ways there were of interpreting reality. He said an infinity of them...as many as there were individuals thinking about interpreting reality. So I asked whether the underlying reality was One or Many, or are the many interpretations about One Reality or Many different Realities.

He said that shovelling snow was a good deal of work, and He would appreciate it if I could restrict myself to things like, "Cold enough for ya?" . At the risk of portraying God in coveralls instead of regal raiment, I shall say that God is a bit more like the French worker priests who were right down in the trenches with people every day, rather than like some mediaeval cleric's vision of the High Holy Over Our Heads, so far away that the Virgin Mary be needed to intercede for us.

God works hard and is a bit like Mother Teresa, right down in the cancer and the bedpans and the colonoscopies. When I speak of God, I do not get glassy eyed nor start speaking in tongues. I always wanted to. I mean, I thought it would be cool to go rigid and comatose and take a flight to seventh heaven...but I never could. God was always hard at work. He would look over and shake his head.

One day He was running the front end loader and I was tossing garbage into the bucket so we could take it back to the dumpster. He seemed to sense I was thinking about the isolation and grandeur of being God. He called me over and motioned for me to climb up to the cab of the loader. It was a big one, like a quarry machine that could fit two or three Kias into the bucket. "There's two things you got to remember about Heaven and Holy Visions and Holy Rapture," He said. "...just like there's two levers you got to remember for running this loader." He pointer to two levers, pronouncing the word with a long "E" so it came out "leavers" instead of the alternate pronunciation "levvers". "This is Lever A..." I nodded. "...and this one, the most important, is Lever B!" So I had to "Leave 'er Be."

The paradigm for holiness has slipped from Padre Pio to Mother Teresa. But even though the picture we have of holiness might be a hard-working nun rather than a stigmatic priest, I sense we are closer to the intention of Jesus when He said that we go forth and baptize in His name. Notice that He did not say that we stay behind within a cell and practice mortifications and allow our minds to become possessed of an inflated infatuation we call the Holy. He said to go forth. Do stuff. Change the World.

The Tax Cuts For The Rich

The cuts were based on a theory that the rich would invest capital productively and this would create wealth which would trickle down to the other members of society. This theory was espoused by Ronald Reagan and may well have been valid in his time. First, the "trickle down" is a trickle, not a flow. The unfortunate simile one thinks of is "molasses in January". Second, there was always a sort of unstated assumption that the money would be invested in wealth producing activities in the United States. With the advent of globalization under Bush I and Clinton I, this assumption was proven less and less true. Even if the money is invested in US companies, the jobs go overseas and the profits accrue solely to the shareholders, who, by the by, are the wealthy class. The wealth stays where it started, with the wealthy, or it goes abroad, and peoples of foreign climes stand at the spigot to catch the "trickle" which is left over. It reminds me of the Colorado River which exhausts itself in the desert and no longer flows mightily to the sea.

Super Bowl And Super Tuesday

I did not watch the Super Bowl, although I was hoping that NY would win. I think the Patriots' problem was that there were too many people around for them to steal signals or do something else against the rules of Football. What a tough break! Now we are in the early hours of Super Tuesday. It will be particular hell today. I was listening to some total nonsense which I called Hellraiser Five. It was Rush Limbaugh as Pinhead and Ann Coulter as some vile, female Cenobite trashing John McCain. For the life of me, it made me flash on Night on Bald Mountain in Fantasia, filled with devilish imps and infernal threats. If McCain wins, will Rush and Ann and their fellow Cenobites come forth from the Cube and drag...someone off to Hell?

Ann Coulter Evades The Stake...Again!

While reading Andrew Sullivan, I was referred to a video of Ann Coulter doing the despicable execrate dis on poor old John McCain. I swear she looks like a young Christopher Lee in an early Dracula film from Hammer Studios and an old Christopher Lee as Saruman. Or just as he was in Earthbound in the series Space: 1999! The resemblance is uncanny.

Note To Scientists:...

PLEASE try to be a bit more careful when it comes to this whole business of Paradigm Shifting!

Try to think things through before you throw the old paradigm into the dumpster, the dust bin, or the universal tip. Maybe we should keep the old paradigm around on retainer or something. Perhaps we could sort of treat the Old Paradigm like a soldier returning from the Iraq War and let him fester a while in sub-standard health care facilities - an Old Paradigms' Home - until such time as we move them on to Arlington.

This is all due to Dark Matter.
We see: Dr. Pamela Gray in  
Star Stryder  
http://www.starstryder.com/2008/01/30/dark-energy-is-real/  

"... If astronomers can’t convince random physicists (who will admit they haven’t read any of the findings in the past couple years) that Dark Energy is real, how can we convince the general population. Admittedly, dark energy is something that we can’t see, can’t taste, can’t touch, can’t measure directly, and can’t even precisely mathematically describe. This makes it somewhat hard to sell as real (although it doesn’t appear to have been to hard a sell for the boogie monster, tooth fairy, and snow yeti). So, this raises the question, how can we know Dark Energy exists?"

All I can say is that if you had not so thoroughly destroyed the concept of the Aether ( or ether - an all encompassing medium in which all the universe floats ) this would not be so difficult. The aether was not the exact same concept, but when you reach the point where Dark Matter, whose existence we cannot directly demonstrate, is calculated to compose 75% to 95% the mass of the universe, it's beginning to look like a duck and sound like a duck...and affect the photon like a duck. Or merganser. Or turkey buzzards.

O.K. I know I've said it before.

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