The problem is not heated rhetoric; the problem is we ourselves.
The problem is not guns; the problem is our lack of virtue.
I am not interested in the theory of virtue in morality as a strictly philosophical inquiry (mainly because I never parted ways from it - not that I was ever that virtuous), but soon we shall all take an interest in what it means to be virtuous and how one goes about doing it.
On a very simple level, it brings to mind the British Empire and the playing fields of Eton, where teamwork and playing one's part were inculcated in the minds of British boys. It brings to mind a simple complex of behaviors: sports team and their dynamics.
Sports had always been considered important in the US also for similar reasons.
Then I think of all the years of stories about parents being out of control at children's sporting events and the speculation on what these spectacles taught the children. I remember all the years of money grubbing owners and steroid using players and the total present day disrespect for the burden of "role model" by not only sports people, but almost any celebrity in the eye of the media.
What behaviors have we been rewarding and teaching?
Virtue is its own reward.
--
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sorry
I'm very sorry about all this political stuff. Other people do a lot more of it, and - I may say - they do a better job of it. I should stick to other things, like reading Le Figaro and telling you about the guy who "was in the grip" of alcohol and shot up a laundromat.
It is just that certain things are way too over the top and must be spoken about, and if condemnation is needed, those things must be condemned in no uncertain terms. That's why I started this blog: to make sure that my chidlren know what I thought, to make a stand... to let them know there is another view point other than that of the mass media. (At the time, I thought the War in Iraq vastly immoral... still do. I think the karma will spill upon us like the contents of Pandora's box one day soon.)
I think I shall keep the Z over on the right. I always thought that the film had more meaning to me than was apparent way back when I saw it. How much could a film about other people in other places be so deeply insightful into my life? Well, if you wait long enough, I guess everything becomes clear. Everything resounds through time, back and forth.
Yves Montand was the star. My wife and I always liked Yves Montand. If you were to ask us our favorite film, we probably would answer Cesar et Rosalie in which M. Montand starred along with Romy Schneider; absolute favorite and we would say it is the best love story we ever saw. I think it was out during the era of Love Story. There was quite a difference between the two films, beyond the fact that Cesar et Rosalie was a comic love story. I think the director was Claude Sautet. I just checked on Amazon and they have it for sale.
I should get a copy, for surprisingly enough, it is very rare to see it. Most films re-surface through the years on TCM or AMC or on tape or disc or the local artsy theater, but not Cesar et Rosalie. If the chance presents itself, see it.
Speaking of directors, as mentioned, Costa Gavras directed Z. My sister-in-law used to be a nanny in Paris for people who were friends of Costa Gavras; I guess she was a reverse au pair. She took care of a young boy who had one lamb chop for lunch every day, and my sister-in-law went to the butcher's every day to buy one chop. She also went to the baker's and possibly the green grocer's.
I also like The Battle of Algiers very much.
We saw True Grit on Saturday and the John Wayne version was on cable on Sunday. They are pretty much alike, except for the fact that Matt Damon's role is played by Glenn Campbell in the earlier version, and Mr. Campbell is way off the mark in comparison. It was a good film, but I have to see a film at least twice before I can analyze it to death... and I'm not going to see True Grit twice, thank you ( I have to count John Wayne's as a separate film.). If I must choose between drunkards, I preferred Jeff Bridges' drunk in Crazy Heart to his drunk in True Grit.
It was well worth the cost of admission, reduced as it was from the Holiday Season inflated ticket prices.
I know only one thing, however: after True Grit, people will be speaking with fewer contractions like aren't and won't for a spell of time and will most likely assiduously seek other ways of improving their diction.
Is Palin To Blame?
I personally blamed Palin months ago when that map with cross hairs targetting various districts appeared. I did not wait until this happened to blame Palin. Any fool who can live to be my age knows what happens when you do things like she did; it is only a question of how long it will take to come to fruition.
When Palin used shooting language - like "reload" - in political talk, I blamed her then. I thought that the supposed distinction between shooting a bear and shooting an opponent may be lost on the more dim-witted of her listeners. As it turns out, it was.
I learned a long time ago that when you invoke Violence, no one is safe anymore, not even yourself.
Violence is a nasty Vampire that is in our house and killing people, but everyone says that it was not they who invited the vampire in!
--
When Palin used shooting language - like "reload" - in political talk, I blamed her then. I thought that the supposed distinction between shooting a bear and shooting an opponent may be lost on the more dim-witted of her listeners. As it turns out, it was.
I learned a long time ago that when you invoke Violence, no one is safe anymore, not even yourself.
Violence is a nasty Vampire that is in our house and killing people, but everyone says that it was not they who invited the vampire in!
--
Is Political Rhetoric Too Heated?
No.
We are the problem.
We are just too stubbornly ignorant, nasty, and brutish.
See my post before this one on Virtue Theory; it is we, the people, who have allowed ourselves to become barbarous - from road rage to talk radio.
Within intimate community we are loving and caring, yet let the sense of intimacy disappear and let us seem like strangers in a mall, and we become prey to our violent fantasies that by now are behavioral dispositions.
--
We are the problem.
We are just too stubbornly ignorant, nasty, and brutish.
See my post before this one on Virtue Theory; it is we, the people, who have allowed ourselves to become barbarous - from road rage to talk radio.
Within intimate community we are loving and caring, yet let the sense of intimacy disappear and let us seem like strangers in a mall, and we become prey to our violent fantasies that by now are behavioral dispositions.
--
Virtue Theory
Reading about virtue theory in phil, and about E. Anscombe ( I think that's the name....).
Simply, virtue theory says to focus on which virtues to learn and teach rather than which rules to have and to obey.
Why is this so important?
It is extremely important because life is so dynamic and changeable that there is no set of rules which may encompass all the combinations and permutations of a breathing second!
Therefore, when the salami hits the fan, if you have already learned to be virtuous, you will respond immediately with Bravery or Fortitude or Perseverance and Charity.
If you go by the theory of rules, you will still be looking up which rule applies long after the fan-hitting salami is gone the way of all cold cuts.
It is important for us because we are leaving an Age of Theory and Rules and entering an age of Virtue or Lack-of-Virtue when we shall have to respond with haste.
That's why I keep harping on having "good stories" as the substance of our mythic makeup, to have a fund of virtuous tales and role models we may have quickly at hand to meet the things that will come. When time is short, we need to have our "Kobayashi Maru" winning strategy all ready to go.
When the force of events - violent events - leaves no time for reflection, we can only fall back on what we have learned as virtuous behavior.
Simply, virtue theory says to focus on which virtues to learn and teach rather than which rules to have and to obey.
Why is this so important?
It is extremely important because life is so dynamic and changeable that there is no set of rules which may encompass all the combinations and permutations of a breathing second!
Therefore, when the salami hits the fan, if you have already learned to be virtuous, you will respond immediately with Bravery or Fortitude or Perseverance and Charity.
If you go by the theory of rules, you will still be looking up which rule applies long after the fan-hitting salami is gone the way of all cold cuts.
It is important for us because we are leaving an Age of Theory and Rules and entering an age of Virtue or Lack-of-Virtue when we shall have to respond with haste.
That's why I keep harping on having "good stories" as the substance of our mythic makeup, to have a fund of virtuous tales and role models we may have quickly at hand to meet the things that will come. When time is short, we need to have our "Kobayashi Maru" winning strategy all ready to go.
When the force of events - violent events - leaves no time for reflection, we can only fall back on what we have learned as virtuous behavior.
Pot Again
The Tucson shooter is described as a pot-smoking loner. David Frum, in FrumForum, asks whether or nor it was the Reefer Madness that pulled the trigger.
Well, I know the feelings as they float by. All my life I have heard these debates, so I am very, very familiar with how this plays out in the intelligences of us all. Right after I have a post on drugs arguing for a sane policy, some loner high on weed goes crazy, and now we sit wondering if we were wise to have suggested... anything else but the present drug policy... BUT the present policy does not work! That is all there is to it. The present War on Drugs rewards the worst specimens of humanity with outrageous profits and corrupts everyone who comes near it.
I have just finished reading of the French hostages in Mali who were executed by the Aqmi ( Al Qa'ida au Maghreb Islamique : "Al Qiada in the Islamic West of Africa " ). Aqmi derives wealth from the flow of drugs to Europe and the Middle East the article in Le Figaro suggests.
In this same edition, a man in Bayonne-Nord, a man who is described as obviously under the influence of alcohol - Un homme de 63 ans, manifestement sous l'emprise de l'alcool, a ouvert le feu sur cinq personnes dimanche dans une laverie à Bayonne, faisant un mort et deux blessés dont un grave - opened fire on a laundrette, killing one, wounding two, one of whom is in critical condition. One must choose one's poison, so it seems.
I repeat and re-emphasize my call for a sane drug policy.
The lunatics have always been the cat's paws of the oppressors, and they always will be. Just as Hitler used Van der Lubbe to burn the Reichstag, so do the enemies of freedom spread their vile propaganda nets widely, knowing full well that they will catch a few unbalanced ones to do their dirty work.
By the way, the Palin creature has removed the image of rifle scope cross hairs from her Facebook page, but only after millions went there and recorded it for posterity. I am sure she is seeking something of conscience and wisdom to say, but she has not yet found anything.
--
Well, I know the feelings as they float by. All my life I have heard these debates, so I am very, very familiar with how this plays out in the intelligences of us all. Right after I have a post on drugs arguing for a sane policy, some loner high on weed goes crazy, and now we sit wondering if we were wise to have suggested... anything else but the present drug policy... BUT the present policy does not work! That is all there is to it. The present War on Drugs rewards the worst specimens of humanity with outrageous profits and corrupts everyone who comes near it.
I have just finished reading of the French hostages in Mali who were executed by the Aqmi ( Al Qa'ida au Maghreb Islamique : "Al Qiada in the Islamic West of Africa " ). Aqmi derives wealth from the flow of drugs to Europe and the Middle East the article in Le Figaro suggests.
In this same edition, a man in Bayonne-Nord, a man who is described as obviously under the influence of alcohol - Un homme de 63 ans, manifestement sous l'emprise de l'alcool, a ouvert le feu sur cinq personnes dimanche dans une laverie à Bayonne, faisant un mort et deux blessés dont un grave - opened fire on a laundrette, killing one, wounding two, one of whom is in critical condition. One must choose one's poison, so it seems.
I repeat and re-emphasize my call for a sane drug policy.
The lunatics have always been the cat's paws of the oppressors, and they always will be. Just as Hitler used Van der Lubbe to burn the Reichstag, so do the enemies of freedom spread their vile propaganda nets widely, knowing full well that they will catch a few unbalanced ones to do their dirty work.
By the way, the Palin creature has removed the image of rifle scope cross hairs from her Facebook page, but only after millions went there and recorded it for posterity. I am sure she is seeking something of conscience and wisdom to say, but she has not yet found anything.
--
Monday
Ζει
pronounced " zey "
" she lives "
The film Z by Costa Gavras may not be familiar with many of you, mainly because film is considered commodity entertainment : last night's news mentioned film by saying True Grit won the weekend box office sweepsstakes!
Z dealt with the rule of the generals in Greece, a period of cruel repression and lack of freedom. The generals came to power on the back of right-wing terrorism against the progressive elements of Greek society. Yves Montand played a Progressive politician who was mortally wounded by a blow to the head. After his death, his supporters used the letter " Z " to be the emblem for their cause, the " Z " is pronounced "zey" which was the exact same sound as the form of the verb "zei - he lives ".
--
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Z
Z
after the film by Costa Gavras and the book by Vassilikos, " Z " stands for Ζει,
( pronounced "zay" )
meaning here " She lives! "
--
Domestic Insurrection's Timeline
US Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex) PowerPoint Display
http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timeline
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has a chart:
On June 26, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court embraced the National Rifle Association's contention that the Second Amendment provides individuals with the right to take violent action against our government should it become "tyrannical." The following timeline catalogues incidents of insurrectionist violence (or the promotion of such violence) that have occurred since that decision was issued:
Interesting read.
Time Goes On...
As time goes on, I do a little research on gunshot wounds to the head. The word now is that doctors are "optimisitc", which sums it up: they are looking at the bright 5% side. They are not confident or cautious; they are hoping for the best.
Now there may be a Martyr who was demonized by the Right and shown in Palin literature as being a choice target.
There is no one to pull us back anymore, unless it be the President, the Leader of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House. If they do not raise up to the challenge, we shall go down the roads of martyrs, and join in the civil bloodletting of other unhappy nations.
The Speaker has told us of duty and the responsibility to continue on the normal business of the country. That is fine, and no one can argue. But we can point out that Albert Sidney Johnson and William Tecumseh Sherman did not want to make a military career of civil war; that was not business as usual as they envisaged it. But when the call came, they answered and did their best in situations much beyond what would have been their lot in more peaceful times.
All elected officials: if you will not lead, then turn aside lest you impede other men of goodwill, and thus provide an open road for those who hate.
Now there may be a Martyr who was demonized by the Right and shown in Palin literature as being a choice target.
There is no one to pull us back anymore, unless it be the President, the Leader of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House. If they do not raise up to the challenge, we shall go down the roads of martyrs, and join in the civil bloodletting of other unhappy nations.
The Speaker has told us of duty and the responsibility to continue on the normal business of the country. That is fine, and no one can argue. But we can point out that Albert Sidney Johnson and William Tecumseh Sherman did not want to make a military career of civil war; that was not business as usual as they envisaged it. But when the call came, they answered and did their best in situations much beyond what would have been their lot in more peaceful times.
All elected officials: if you will not lead, then turn aside lest you impede other men of goodwill, and thus provide an open road for those who hate.
The Good Samaritans
The Samaritans still exist; they are one of those minorities that make up the threatened diversity of the Middle East. Check it out at BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12069728
That's Not Supposed to Happen
Proponents of free and easy guns long argued that when every good citizen is packing, they will bring an end to random shootings. I distinctly remember the argument after Virginia Tech: armed students and professors would have shot the gun man down!
Life does not quite work out the way dopes think it will.
Life does not quite work out the way dopes think it will.
Price of Gas
Gas is up. I was talking to a first mate on an American Steamship vessel and driving him around at 4:00 in the morning to customs, and he saw the prices posted, and said they had been around $2.70 when he was last ashore.
Gas prices maxed last time in the good year of 2008.
Algerians are rioting over food prices which have doubled in the past two months. Food prices are up world wide. Last time they were this high? 2007 - 2008, our favorite years.
There is so much easy money for speculators that, once again, prices are being bid up.
At some point, we really do have to get serious, but we are not ready yet. Once we take the second bounce off rock bottom, we'll get serious.
Gas prices maxed last time in the good year of 2008.
Algerians are rioting over food prices which have doubled in the past two months. Food prices are up world wide. Last time they were this high? 2007 - 2008, our favorite years.
There is so much easy money for speculators that, once again, prices are being bid up.
At some point, we really do have to get serious, but we are not ready yet. Once we take the second bounce off rock bottom, we'll get serious.
Wake Up Call !?
Once again I hear the expression "Wake Up Call for the Country!"
I have heard it all my life.
How deeply asleep are we?
I have heard it all my life.
How deeply asleep are we?
The Shooting of a Congresswoman
When I heard about the shooting, the question in my mind was "What are the gun laws in Arizona?" The recent relaxing of gun laws has resulted in people carrying guns everywhere. I believe I mentioned that here in nearby Royal Oak, Michigan last summer the city council felt it necessary to allow guns to be openly carried during the annual Art Fair !
Gun owners said it was for their self-defense, no doubt having been to other numerous small city art fairs where hostages were taken by mime terrorists!
Even then, any sane person knew that this was a trend that was going to bite us. Sane people are hard to come by in public affairs, however.
Arizona Gun Laws
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/17/arizona-gun-law-concealed_n_541445.html
Arizona Gun Law: Concealed Weapons Allowed Without Permit Under New Law
PAUL DAVENPORT and JONATHAN J. COOPER| 04/16/10 07:39 PM
PHOENIX — Favoring the constitutional right to bear arms over others' concerns about gun safety, Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill making Arizona the third state allowing people to carry a concealed weapon without requiring a permit.
The measure takes effect 90 days after the current legislative session ends, which likely puts the effective date in July or August.
"I believe this legislation not only protects the Second Amendment rights of Arizona citizens, but restores those rights as well," Brewer, a Republican, said in a statement.
Alaska and Vermont now do not require permits to carry concealed weapons.
Rhetoric using Imagery of Guns and Gun Violence
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
(CNN) – As of Saturday, Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' name appeared on a website titled "take back the 20" as part of a list originally issued by Sarah Palin of vulnerable House Democrats. A map on the site showed crosshairs over the contested Democratic districts.Palin first posted the list in March 2010, naming 20 House members who voted for health care reform and represented districts that Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona won in the 2008 presidential election.
It does not take the chickens very long to come home to roost.
Since we are zooming along in our handbasket to hell, is there room for the rest of us?
--
eBooks
I was reading about Google's eBooks.
Then, Friday, we had a power outage. The temperature was in the upper 20's and the wind was mild, so there would not be a rapid loss of heat in the house, as there would have been if it had been a windy day, for we live upon a prominent hill, and the wind bangs the shutters when the fugitive breezes blow.
The G____s, the Indian family down at the end of the street, have a new baby, born the 23rd of December, so I walked by there. The wife's father was outside and we chatted about when the Edison company expected the power to be back on. The lady at the Edison hot line had asked me whether I was running on generator when I had called. I wished I had had a generator. Water lines freeze when it gets too cold and the wind whips up the hill.
We would have hot water; the water heater did not require electricity. Even if the pilot light went out, there was no electric ignition, rather a primitive yet simple and dependable process of lighting a long, thin stick and inserting it into the access door.
The heat was gas, too, but the furnace blower was electric.
As time went on, the extent of the outage was seen to cover a larger territory, and 1,000 to 5,000 homes and businesses were affected. The traffic lights were out,which was good news, for it indicated that this would be considered a serious matter, and take a high priority in the order of repairs, even though there was no reason to think that there would be wide spread problems: there had been no ice storm, the snow was negligible; in fact, the winter was taking on the pattern of the winters of recent memory - cold and snow in December and not too much to speak of here while out East and West and South blizzards went through with annoying punctuality.
Power was out from 11:25 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The appliances, which had all flatlined at 11:25, now hummed and those with time displays told us "PF" - power failure - and waited for our attentions to set them back on their courses of duodecimal tolling of the hours.
Of course, we had AT&T Uverse and that base was dead, so there was no telephone other than the cell phone, and there was no cell phone re-charge unless one had a car charger for the phone. I did not like the feel of that. I wished now that I had a generator - even though I would not easily be able to control the exhaust from it, and did not desire to die of carbon monoxide poisoning - and I wished I had a car cell phone charger.
My computer had four hours of battery life, and I set it for maximum power savings. However, I found that my Verizon WiFi card did not find a connection. This was very surprising, and I had to assume that somehow Verizon had also been affected locally.
I had turned everything off that I knew had been on. I had drawn the drapes over all the windows to conserve heat. I was standing in the kitchen when I saw a glow from the bedroom, and I wondered at it. A humming to my left indicated the Frigidaire had been CPRed back to life and that glow was the small light on the bedroom dresser. I was relieved, for we had gone through an ice storm many, many years ago, and we had no fireplace anymore to sleep in front of. I no longer had to concern myself with turning off the water lines by midnight if the elecricity had not come on, nor would the G______s have to find lodging at one of the hotels nearby.
If I had had an eLibrary, it would have gone down. I wondered what was best: redundance in the electrical supply by having a large enough generator on stand-by all the time, or whether to have real books and newspapers which, in their robustness, would allow me to read. I had read some of the "real" Sunday NY Times as I was standing in the kitchen. Similarly, with my access to Microsoft Word denied me, I had turned to pencils and paper pads to write on.
I think a wise society would make provision for both systems, the electronic media and the print media, to continue to endure side by side. If not, everything will be outsourced and we will not have any paper necessaries when the plug gets pulled.
The question is and remains: how good is our infrastructure (particularly energy grids!) and how serious are we in maintaining it?
Even more questions come to mind, as we think of people who lightly describe our capitalistic system as "creative destruction", meaning new technologies breed new economic facts while the old ways fall out. Yet there is obviously more to it than that. If diesel locomotives had been prone to infrequent but disastrous outages, the Baldwin Steam Locomotive Company might yet have been in business today in some form.
The complexity of our lives is never easily summed up, for it is not static; it is dynamic, and it is fearsomely changing all the time. The challenge that faces us is a good and great challenge that calls for intelligence and wisdom.
--
Then, Friday, we had a power outage. The temperature was in the upper 20's and the wind was mild, so there would not be a rapid loss of heat in the house, as there would have been if it had been a windy day, for we live upon a prominent hill, and the wind bangs the shutters when the fugitive breezes blow.
The G____s, the Indian family down at the end of the street, have a new baby, born the 23rd of December, so I walked by there. The wife's father was outside and we chatted about when the Edison company expected the power to be back on. The lady at the Edison hot line had asked me whether I was running on generator when I had called. I wished I had had a generator. Water lines freeze when it gets too cold and the wind whips up the hill.
We would have hot water; the water heater did not require electricity. Even if the pilot light went out, there was no electric ignition, rather a primitive yet simple and dependable process of lighting a long, thin stick and inserting it into the access door.
The heat was gas, too, but the furnace blower was electric.
As time went on, the extent of the outage was seen to cover a larger territory, and 1,000 to 5,000 homes and businesses were affected. The traffic lights were out,which was good news, for it indicated that this would be considered a serious matter, and take a high priority in the order of repairs, even though there was no reason to think that there would be wide spread problems: there had been no ice storm, the snow was negligible; in fact, the winter was taking on the pattern of the winters of recent memory - cold and snow in December and not too much to speak of here while out East and West and South blizzards went through with annoying punctuality.
Power was out from 11:25 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The appliances, which had all flatlined at 11:25, now hummed and those with time displays told us "PF" - power failure - and waited for our attentions to set them back on their courses of duodecimal tolling of the hours.
Of course, we had AT&T Uverse and that base was dead, so there was no telephone other than the cell phone, and there was no cell phone re-charge unless one had a car charger for the phone. I did not like the feel of that. I wished now that I had a generator - even though I would not easily be able to control the exhaust from it, and did not desire to die of carbon monoxide poisoning - and I wished I had a car cell phone charger.
My computer had four hours of battery life, and I set it for maximum power savings. However, I found that my Verizon WiFi card did not find a connection. This was very surprising, and I had to assume that somehow Verizon had also been affected locally.
I had turned everything off that I knew had been on. I had drawn the drapes over all the windows to conserve heat. I was standing in the kitchen when I saw a glow from the bedroom, and I wondered at it. A humming to my left indicated the Frigidaire had been CPRed back to life and that glow was the small light on the bedroom dresser. I was relieved, for we had gone through an ice storm many, many years ago, and we had no fireplace anymore to sleep in front of. I no longer had to concern myself with turning off the water lines by midnight if the elecricity had not come on, nor would the G______s have to find lodging at one of the hotels nearby.
If I had had an eLibrary, it would have gone down. I wondered what was best: redundance in the electrical supply by having a large enough generator on stand-by all the time, or whether to have real books and newspapers which, in their robustness, would allow me to read. I had read some of the "real" Sunday NY Times as I was standing in the kitchen. Similarly, with my access to Microsoft Word denied me, I had turned to pencils and paper pads to write on.
I think a wise society would make provision for both systems, the electronic media and the print media, to continue to endure side by side. If not, everything will be outsourced and we will not have any paper necessaries when the plug gets pulled.
The question is and remains: how good is our infrastructure (particularly energy grids!) and how serious are we in maintaining it?
Even more questions come to mind, as we think of people who lightly describe our capitalistic system as "creative destruction", meaning new technologies breed new economic facts while the old ways fall out. Yet there is obviously more to it than that. If diesel locomotives had been prone to infrequent but disastrous outages, the Baldwin Steam Locomotive Company might yet have been in business today in some form.
The complexity of our lives is never easily summed up, for it is not static; it is dynamic, and it is fearsomely changing all the time. The challenge that faces us is a good and great challenge that calls for intelligence and wisdom.
--
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Anne Rice
City of R'lyeh
I have never been able to read Anne Rice. I actually cannot read her writing: it has nothing to do with what she is writing about, but it is the very techniques of her writing that I can not handle. I have tried three times with no luck, and there is nothing I could do to improve my case, so I let the books close after going through no more than six pages. (I have the same problem with a few other writers.)
Strange.
I can, however, easily read about Anne Rice, which I having been doing this cold afternoon:
Rice rediscovered James Frazer's The Golden Bough through Joseph Campbell's application of Frazer and Jung to myth... She had Lestat similarly recover the vampire's origins in the pre-Christian vegetation gods and Goddess worship; her vampires essentially perform a Druidic-Egyptian fertility ritual.
Interesting article; tells me nothing at all. Sweeps the veils of arcana before my eyes, but discovers to me not a whit of the old vampire actually. Every veil the Salome-vampire strips off is replaced by two new ones!
I think I read all of Joseph Campbell on Myth, and he bemoaned our lack of myth. If I'm not mistaking, his idea of myth was the writing of James Joyce. He would never have considered vampire stories as modern myths.
Modern myths, note! Not ancient myths, not stories about pre-Christian vegetation gods and the Mother Goddess. They had their day, and they are gone. We may have glimpses of them now and then, but just as slender twigs: the branches, trunk, and the roots are long gone. The notion that modern horrors find their beginning in the ardent faith of antiquity is just more of the same old nonsense of people who have no imagination themselves.
We have our myths of vampires and zombies, and their genesis is in uncontrollable desire. Unfortunately, their motivation is death. If you do not believe me, go see a horror flick. Uncontrollable desires have really been in the news recently: wars, speculation, bubbles, fundamentalist terrors... all in the news. We have our own gods, thank you. We have no need of the old gods of R'lyeh to explain our myths.
link to later posts:
http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2011/02/anne-rice-psychology-of-vampires.html
A Temporal Distortion
Just like the Enterprise under Captain Jean-Luc Picard, we are perilously close - 20,000 kilometers - to a temporal distortion. The distortion lay in the death of newspapers and the ensuing extinction of film critics. There are some independents on the Internet - thank heavens - but soon the only film critics will be working for large commercial interests: the measure of success will continue to be $ on the weekends and effectively all serious and artistic discussion will be put into Cryogenic suspension until some years in the future when every penny will have been squeezed from a film, and a real evaluation will be possible, as it will no longer harm someone's bottom line.
Of course, such things happened before, but not with such complete thoroughness as is possible now by control of electronic media.
A temporal distortion putting off serious discussion until the future...
Interesting.
Somewhat like the universe before Wikileaks, where knowledge in depth was put off for years until papers were unsealed. Just like the universe now, where government policy has been and continues to be the flavor of the month: 2009 was "Stimulus Cinnamon Spice" year, 2010 was "Rocky Road (for Obama)" year, and 2011 will be "Balance the Budget Berry"! Enjoy your temporal loops as we repeat even deja vu.
I have said that Democracy is a fine system by which large numbers of intelligent beings process information, and it very well may be the best such system. However, if the system lets itself be tied into repeating its mistakes over and over again, it has defeated its purpose.
Of course, such things happened before, but not with such complete thoroughness as is possible now by control of electronic media.
A temporal distortion putting off serious discussion until the future...
Interesting.
Somewhat like the universe before Wikileaks, where knowledge in depth was put off for years until papers were unsealed. Just like the universe now, where government policy has been and continues to be the flavor of the month: 2009 was "Stimulus Cinnamon Spice" year, 2010 was "Rocky Road (for Obama)" year, and 2011 will be "Balance the Budget Berry"! Enjoy your temporal loops as we repeat even deja vu.
I have said that Democracy is a fine system by which large numbers of intelligent beings process information, and it very well may be the best such system. However, if the system lets itself be tied into repeating its mistakes over and over again, it has defeated its purpose.
The New Economy
The Decline
Ever since the 1990's, people have been talking about the new service economy where we would no longer produce things - that would be left for laborers in foreign lands - but would provide more and more valuable services to the world in return for their manufactures.
It came to pass: now manufactures are done overseas. Many of our people are in low-paying service jobs.
The Illusion
Ben & Jerry's - and all producers of foods - constantly maintain prices by providing smaller and smaller containers of their products. Ben & Jerry's ice cream is now in slightly smaller containers, so the buyer gets less for the same mount of money.
This prevailing marketing approach underscores the fact that costs are constantly increasing, while wages are not keeping pace: if wages kept pace, we could afford more expensive ice cream. Since we cannot afford it, the ice cream container has to be modified.
This creates the illusion that things have not deteriorated for us.
The Blame
Most of our leaders have bought into this charade: do not allow the people to become aware that their lives have deteriorated to such an extent.
There was no economic imperative that demanded the change we spoke of in the 1990's: it was a conscious choice by people in position to make decisions. Certainly, they did not have the necessary imagination to see that their choices had some ghastly outcomes, but that's what happens when people of limited intellect run things.
Things could have been done differently, but we allowed the market to dictate to us what our future would be.
Let me tell you one thing: the complexity of the Free Market has only one entity it is interested in, and that is the continuity of itself. Extremely complex creations are not dead and inert, they live. However, they have no sense of morality.
We could have chosen which route to take. Look at China; it maintains a measure of human independence of the Machine of Free Marketry even as a communistic state! So the dictatorship is more free than we! That is one fine paradox.
There are no guarantees of the good intentions of complexities such as Markets. They are as benign or malign as the peoples involved in them. Recalling the history of 2008, we have absolutely no reason to be optimistic... yet.
Ever since the 1990's, people have been talking about the new service economy where we would no longer produce things - that would be left for laborers in foreign lands - but would provide more and more valuable services to the world in return for their manufactures.
It came to pass: now manufactures are done overseas. Many of our people are in low-paying service jobs.
The Illusion
Ben & Jerry's - and all producers of foods - constantly maintain prices by providing smaller and smaller containers of their products. Ben & Jerry's ice cream is now in slightly smaller containers, so the buyer gets less for the same mount of money.
This prevailing marketing approach underscores the fact that costs are constantly increasing, while wages are not keeping pace: if wages kept pace, we could afford more expensive ice cream. Since we cannot afford it, the ice cream container has to be modified.
This creates the illusion that things have not deteriorated for us.
The Blame
Most of our leaders have bought into this charade: do not allow the people to become aware that their lives have deteriorated to such an extent.
There was no economic imperative that demanded the change we spoke of in the 1990's: it was a conscious choice by people in position to make decisions. Certainly, they did not have the necessary imagination to see that their choices had some ghastly outcomes, but that's what happens when people of limited intellect run things.
Things could have been done differently, but we allowed the market to dictate to us what our future would be.
Let me tell you one thing: the complexity of the Free Market has only one entity it is interested in, and that is the continuity of itself. Extremely complex creations are not dead and inert, they live. However, they have no sense of morality.
We could have chosen which route to take. Look at China; it maintains a measure of human independence of the Machine of Free Marketry even as a communistic state! So the dictatorship is more free than we! That is one fine paradox.
There are no guarantees of the good intentions of complexities such as Markets. They are as benign or malign as the peoples involved in them. Recalling the history of 2008, we have absolutely no reason to be optimistic... yet.
The Habit of Cost Over-Runs
How much bang do we get for our infrastructure buck?
Assume, for example, we go back one hundred years or more and look at how much structures cost: the Temple of Music in Buffalo, NY cost $85,000 in 1901 US dollars, and this is equivalent to $1,500,000 in 2008 US dollars. (The Temple was built for the Pan-American Exspo, and it was where President McKinley was shot.)
Now this comparison obviously involves more than monetary adjustments, for we cannot build such a structure for $1,500,000 any more. So we must include cost over-runs. Such a building would cost us $3,000,000 - for whatever reasons costs do go over.
In other words, Society itself has changed, and we must not only look at the value of money at different times, but we must also take into account that some ages just generally inflate the costs of doing things... they get lazy and fat by doing it: easy money and easy times and lax discipline lead to generally inflated costs.
We have been lax for over 30 years, and I doubt that we can kick the habit cold turkey.
Assume, for example, we go back one hundred years or more and look at how much structures cost: the Temple of Music in Buffalo, NY cost $85,000 in 1901 US dollars, and this is equivalent to $1,500,000 in 2008 US dollars. (The Temple was built for the Pan-American Exspo, and it was where President McKinley was shot.)
Now this comparison obviously involves more than monetary adjustments, for we cannot build such a structure for $1,500,000 any more. So we must include cost over-runs. Such a building would cost us $3,000,000 - for whatever reasons costs do go over.
In other words, Society itself has changed, and we must not only look at the value of money at different times, but we must also take into account that some ages just generally inflate the costs of doing things... they get lazy and fat by doing it: easy money and easy times and lax discipline lead to generally inflated costs.
We have been lax for over 30 years, and I doubt that we can kick the habit cold turkey.
Friday, January 07, 2011
Merry Christmas!! (just a little delayed...)
Merry Christmas to Coptic and Orthodox Christians everywhere!
Merry Little Christmas, Epiphany, and Theophany!
Let us return to the Twelve Days festival, instead of the week between
Christmas and New Year! Let us restore the Octave of eight day feasts to the calendar! Let us never forget the light of the season.Let us remember in our prayers and in our actions those who are persecuted, the poor and hungry, and the sick.
--
The Uses of Poppies
Minoan Goddess wearing Diadem of Poppies
The Uses of Poppies; The Need for a Human and Sane Drug Policy
I was wondering about the ancient use of poppies, and particularly spending time gazing at the Poppy Goddess - or, more correctly, the Goddess crowned with poppies - from ancient Crete.
It strikes me that God created the universe as it is, with joy and suffering. Suffering always seems to be on the score-card... the game is not an eternal series of runs... love and joy will sooner or later strike out... and the other side comes up.
Continuing on, when there is suffering, the Creator provided ways of reducing the pain by providing analgesic substances for mankind to use. If, indeed, the World is a place of Joy and Suffering, and Joy is closer to God's intention than is suffering, then the proof of creation lay within our joys and within the amelioration of our sufferings, and these things are inherent in the very structure of the World and our being.
Furthermore, the things that reduce pain - the analgesics (Greek an - not plus algia - pain) or narcotics very often possess the ability to induce trances and non-normal states of reality. This intimate connection between the States of Rapture and the States of Relief is not an accident! To me it seems a fingerprint of the creator on the world: the world is not perfect from our viewpoint, because the complexity of our intelligence contains within it the seeds of our pains; this connection between Rapture and Relief is proof of ongoing intent to amend a complex Universe not quite perfect!
This must come as a shock to people who believe in timeless perfection. I trust it is not a surprise to them to learn that Cannabinoids - variants on the molecules of cannabis: marijuana - are produced by the human body itself.
Where are we today?
We condemn all such substances, even those produced by our own bodies. For the ill and suffering to get marijuana, there is a maze of regulations and the DEA. We allow only those which are most alien to the simple ways of nature. Our approach to almost every problem is a sea of regulations, a large bureaucracy, a small army of armed enforcers, and demands for our complete and absolute compliance.
Yet cannabinoids are produced inside our bodies.
Do we hate ourselves?
Perhaps that is why we abuse these substances... our own self-hatred. The high sounding illusions of the War on Drugs is a bitter joke to the world. As Mexico witnesses its bloodbath of Suppliers, We - the Demanders, the Users - sit and watch the tragedy on our doorstep and calculate ways to forbid poor immigrants entry (drug lords always have a way in). Is our concern for a sane drug policy in this country carried on at the same fever pitch as our effort to deny the right to speak Spanish? or to deny the right to ethnic classes in school? By addressing our own problem realistically, we automatically solve Mexico's in this area!
Why are we so intent on pursuing the paths of oppression to allow full and real-time suffering to all who fall under our power? So far we have relied on faith that what we are doing is right; it is a faith of genocide.
--
A much better meditation on the topic is at
http://cariferraro.com/2009/06/11/poppy-goddess/#comment-482
It is reasonable, whereas I issue jeremiads against the modern age. Nobody likes that.
--
Steve Zissou and the Life Interior: 3
Steve is just under the wheel house, to the right - or starboard.
He is wearing the standard blue uniform and red knit toque hat of Société Zissou.
--
--
Holy Name Society
Various religions have various names assigned to the Holy: the perfect, the unchanging, the limitless, and so on.
I fancy that God is the Unboring. It is the essence of the Holy not to be boring.
The eternally fascinating and enchanting spirit of the Holy illuminates the Deep.
(The Holy Name Society is a confraternity of RC laity devoted to good works.)
--
I fancy that God is the Unboring. It is the essence of the Holy not to be boring.
The eternally fascinating and enchanting spirit of the Holy illuminates the Deep.
(The Holy Name Society is a confraternity of RC laity devoted to good works.)
--
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Montag's Sense of Snow 2
In my first post yester about hiking in the snow ( I don't use yesterday anymore... too long ) I wished to write that, having had experience as parents of childrens' illness, an image of separation of child from parents during our hike was not the first that we, the parents, had ever imagined.
However, I wrote that it was the first such, and I proof read it twice, and it was seen as correct. But this morning it was obvious. When I wrote it down the first time, there was much more emotion and the emotional part of my being prevented me from setting down such a logos! Such a word, such a thought!
We must always be so careful of what we script. Later that day... yester, it was... my sister-in-law called to let us know she had to begin chemo and radiation next week.
And did I write it down correctly? I wish I had not.
--
Essays
I hate essays. Everyone writes essays; they amass all their arguments and all their rationale all the way back to Plato and beyond. If there was ever a real need for Occam's Razor, truly this is it: to cut through the verbiage.
However, I am aware that perhaps this is a result of my incredible antiquity, having been a sort of Wandering Jew or Flying Dutchman, or even a Xerxes the Homeless Guy - condemned to eternal dumpster diving for having given Esther a hard time.
I certainly do not know everything, but it all seems familiar, very familiar.
There is little of value that can be learned within the limited scope of the essay, except the point the writer wishes to make. Einstein - if physics is your topic - cannot be restricted to the Planck scale of the essay. Same thing with Foucault ( With whom I had dinner 35 years ago... it was chicken. He made a joke about poulet which means "chicken" but also refers to sex trade workers. Nowadays I would frown mightily at such louche behavior.)
Leave the learned baggage with the TSA that pats down your spirit, and jump freely into the friendly skies of Opinion!
However, I am aware that perhaps this is a result of my incredible antiquity, having been a sort of Wandering Jew or Flying Dutchman, or even a Xerxes the Homeless Guy - condemned to eternal dumpster diving for having given Esther a hard time.
I certainly do not know everything, but it all seems familiar, very familiar.
There is little of value that can be learned within the limited scope of the essay, except the point the writer wishes to make. Einstein - if physics is your topic - cannot be restricted to the Planck scale of the essay. Same thing with Foucault ( With whom I had dinner 35 years ago... it was chicken. He made a joke about poulet which means "chicken" but also refers to sex trade workers. Nowadays I would frown mightily at such louche behavior.)
Leave the learned baggage with the TSA that pats down your spirit, and jump freely into the friendly skies of Opinion!
Parables
The purpose of parables is the same as the use of koan; that is, to jar one out of usual ways of thinking. I doubt very much that Jesus' intention was merely to better illustrate a point He wanted to make; He wanted to change how his auditors viewed reality. He wanted to punch them out of their complacency.
Both function as a meta-language to let us stand outside the everyday world. It is a hard place to get to.
--
Both function as a meta-language to let us stand outside the everyday world. It is a hard place to get to.
--
Parliament of Mind
I sense light within a room; a photocell senses light in the same room. I am aware of doing this and the photocell is not aware. Some say, then, the difference is consciousness, a phenomenon which no one can fully explain.
Awareness is not an extra mental faculty. I am not actually aware of the light in the room unless I enter a dark room, stumble around for a bit, bark my shins against chairs, then finally find the light switch.
Entering a lit room from another illuminated place, I am not so aware at all.
I need a reason to reflect on my actions.
Ask me a question, I'll spin you an answer.
Ask the photocell a measurement, it will give you what it has, no more.
My awareness lies within the richness of my experience, for I am not solely restricted to measuring the candle power of the light available: I can also stumble, curse, swear, imagine myself kicking you for getting me in a darkened room and searching for a light switch.
Awareness is the layering of existence. Awareness is symbol built upon symbol upon symbol. Awareness is hierarchy that is flexible and transparent.
If I wished to make an aware photocell, I would have to be able to put up with a photocell that would politic with me! It would palaver and cajole and threaten. When I asked for the level of light, it would launch into an oration about the moral meaning of Light versus Dark.
Awareness is a Congress or Parliament of Mind.
Awareness is not an extra mental faculty. I am not actually aware of the light in the room unless I enter a dark room, stumble around for a bit, bark my shins against chairs, then finally find the light switch.
Entering a lit room from another illuminated place, I am not so aware at all.
I need a reason to reflect on my actions.
Ask me a question, I'll spin you an answer.
Ask the photocell a measurement, it will give you what it has, no more.
My awareness lies within the richness of my experience, for I am not solely restricted to measuring the candle power of the light available: I can also stumble, curse, swear, imagine myself kicking you for getting me in a darkened room and searching for a light switch.
Awareness is the layering of existence. Awareness is symbol built upon symbol upon symbol. Awareness is hierarchy that is flexible and transparent.
If I wished to make an aware photocell, I would have to be able to put up with a photocell that would politic with me! It would palaver and cajole and threaten. When I asked for the level of light, it would launch into an oration about the moral meaning of Light versus Dark.
Awareness is a Congress or Parliament of Mind.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Montag's Sense of Snow
Two years ago we were walking with our daughter on this Paint Creek trail in the snow. It was snowing enough to obstruct the view, and visibility was about a quarter mile. I had a "petite claudication" (... oh, well, a limp... I had a sore tendon or something. It sounds better in French.) and our daughter soon outpaced us and disappeared far ahead within the curtain of snow.
At times like that, I wonder if I shall ever see her again, or whether the excision by snow - the editing out of someone - is a permanent change. There was a history of illness, so to us, the parents struggling through the snow way behind the young one, such an unpleasant image was not the first one that ever occurred to us.
Soon she returned, a free snow bird winging her way back.
When she passed us again, she snorted in amiable disgust at our lack of vigorous speed.
It made us quite happy.
--
pix: attacksquirrel5 http://www.flickr.com/photos/30692081@N04/
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Pakistan, Blasphemy Laws, and Governor Taseer
It is blasphemy to kill someone for their speech or their beliefs.
Taking refuge in your anger or your fervid faith will not save you from The Day.
He who usurps the role of God and tries to force events according to his own will has not surrendered himself to the will of God.
--
Taking refuge in your anger or your fervid faith will not save you from The Day.
He who usurps the role of God and tries to force events according to his own will has not surrendered himself to the will of God.
--
The Difference Between Now and History
Excerpt from a history text:
Not so in the Now. We have to live through it in slow-motion... or regular time, actually, not the accelerated time of History. Like cinema's 24 frames per second, we now live 365 days per year, no matter what. Reading the history text, we have no idea of the suffering involved.
What is important is that the country as a whole came through it in what seemed to historians to be one piece. The dead bury their dead and life goes on. One whole fabric: the cloth has actually changed, but it is still one whole fabric and we can see that no matter who suffered, the greater good was somehow attained through fate.
It is a different viewpoint from those who suffer.
What we have on cable and radio and all news and opinion sources is a concerted effort to speak historically: to speak in abstract, general terms about the downside of poverty and despair, but keep your eyes on the (theoretical) recovery. No one speaks for the living, those who live every day. How little we delve into the lives of those being foreclosed on: the vomiting at 3:00 A.M. from worry and despair!
The only speaking is abstract, done for long term Trust Funds, Corporations enduring over time, Politicians who hold old beliefs and old powers, People who are unkind to new forms of thinking. These are the historical thinkers who skim over the pain and sum things up the way they wish, who, being for the moment safe from pain, project themselves into a timeless, vague and neat universe where they are always top dog and they do not wrong and everything will work out in the end... in that far away end where trust funds wax fat still....
Do we look at each individual every day, or do we look at conglomerates of interests over time? When things are going wrong, do we look at the poor and sick, or do we focus on MarketWatch 24/7 and guess at historical trends?
Only those who survive have the right to think historically.
Only the survivors write the history.
Think about it.
--
The next recession confirmed occurred in the years between 1807 and 1814, and was called the Depression of 1807. This depression was primarily caused by the Embargo Act of 1807, signed into effect by then President Thomas Jefferson. This act destroyed a good part of the shipping related industries, and it was fought hard by the Federalists, who allowed smuggling to take effect in New England as a result of the Act.Everything moves along very fast in History: you fall, skin your shin, and by the time you blink, why it's been kissed by Mom and it's all better.
Not so in the Now. We have to live through it in slow-motion... or regular time, actually, not the accelerated time of History. Like cinema's 24 frames per second, we now live 365 days per year, no matter what. Reading the history text, we have no idea of the suffering involved.
What is important is that the country as a whole came through it in what seemed to historians to be one piece. The dead bury their dead and life goes on. One whole fabric: the cloth has actually changed, but it is still one whole fabric and we can see that no matter who suffered, the greater good was somehow attained through fate.
It is a different viewpoint from those who suffer.
What we have on cable and radio and all news and opinion sources is a concerted effort to speak historically: to speak in abstract, general terms about the downside of poverty and despair, but keep your eyes on the (theoretical) recovery. No one speaks for the living, those who live every day. How little we delve into the lives of those being foreclosed on: the vomiting at 3:00 A.M. from worry and despair!
The only speaking is abstract, done for long term Trust Funds, Corporations enduring over time, Politicians who hold old beliefs and old powers, People who are unkind to new forms of thinking. These are the historical thinkers who skim over the pain and sum things up the way they wish, who, being for the moment safe from pain, project themselves into a timeless, vague and neat universe where they are always top dog and they do not wrong and everything will work out in the end... in that far away end where trust funds wax fat still....
Do we look at each individual every day, or do we look at conglomerates of interests over time? When things are going wrong, do we look at the poor and sick, or do we focus on MarketWatch 24/7 and guess at historical trends?
Only those who survive have the right to think historically.
Only the survivors write the history.
Think about it.
--
Symbol & Sign 8: Lights of Christmas
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Darkness - whatever its nature - was over the surface of the deep or abyss. Did Darkness pre-exist the heavens and the earth? What of the Deep, whose surface is covered by the Darkness? What was the nature of the Deep? And how intimate is the relationship between Dark and Deep?
Regardless how we answer these questions, we are still at pre-history: there is yet no day nor night, there is no continuity nor discontinuity, there is no grow nor decay, no warming with the sun and no growing cold with the sunset.
Then God said Let there be Light. Light and Dark were separated, and there was an evening and a morning and there was the first day.
Light did not dispel Dark. They had to be separated by God. Light on it own does not dispel the dark; it requires active involvement of intelligence. This forms a symbiosis between intelligence and light that has creative power.
The patches of light and dark in film create powerful symbols. They are not just artifacts, for artifacts do not inspire the souls of those even yet unborn, whereas symbols have just that very power. A film may be unseen content in a vault somewhere and lay as an extinction of life, but let it be uncovered, let the projector light shine through it, and let it be viewed by an audience, and the symbol rises phoenix-like once again: an artifact becomes symbol and a potential psycho-pomp, a guide to realms of the mind and spirit not thought of before.
Light creates symbolic structures.
Christmas trees are not just artifacts, like lampposts; they create a light-filled area, a halo which we flock to and respond to emotionally, a halo of comfort, goodwill, and peace. The Light of Christmas has something mere light does not, it has a moral dimension which is always focused on the Good.
The lights of miniature Christmas villages on display create a reality which in our immediate physical perception is static and unmoving, but once the patches of color, light, and dark start moving through the body to the brain, once our inborn codes come into play – codes which conform the flow of information to and from the seat of intellect – these inert shows begin to seethe with life, and the geese hung in the Poulterer’s shop begin to squawk and hiss, the pewter horses attached to carriages trot and cottony steam rises from their hot bodies. In each house, there is a holy Christmas feast, from the rich to the poor: the goose is cooked, the pudding hurrahed, and wishes are made on wishbones.
If we were to leave the Christmas village up all year long, the inhabitants would not debase to racism, nor war, nor political squabbling, for they are symbolic creatures of the light! And it is our light and the external light which illuminates this peaceable kingdom.
You see now what we are capable of.
--
Soviet Art and an Over-Active Imagination
The poster says "To Defend... USSR" and was done in the time of The Great Fatherland War, which we call World War II on this side of the pond.
When I first saw this poster as a child ( I had a very Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist childhood: orphaned early on, I was adopted by a Soviet Jewish family. The novel Hard Times comes to mind.) I thought the aeroplanes - actually they are outlines of World War I bi-planes - were some sort of electronic communication gizmos that were working to co-ordinate an army of giant robot soldiers; the bayonets of the soldiers' rifles that were sticking up behind their helmets I interpreted as aerials which received the controlling radio transmissions from the white electro-gizmos. I was all very Yevgeny Zamiatin in those days, and used to read scienti-fiction by the glow of the nightlight.
Easy to see why the Nyemets (German) army was stopped in its tracks at Moscow with these suckers patrolling the Kremlin walls! (I thought the inclined shadow area where "CCCP" or "USSR" is painted was the Kremlin... maybe it is. I thought the shadows between the feet of the robotic soldiers were heads of the leaders viewing the square on May Day.)
Insta-Google
I for one am sick of the Google instant fill in for search items. It is constantly guessing wrong and I end up looking at totally ridiculous things, and having to re-do it all. Today I wished to write "disable" and I got as far as "d", at which time Goggle decided I wanted to say "delete", inserted it, and allowed me to type on in this manner - me blythely pecking at the keys while the Google room with a million monkeys seated at computer monitors edited and otherwise overrode what I wanted to say.
Better than coffee in the morning to wake you up.
Oh, and the Blogger Help is pathetic.
Better than coffee in the morning to wake you up.
Oh, and the Blogger Help is pathetic.
What Constitutes an Attack on Christianity?
I had a post previously about such things:
http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2010/12/another-fox-attack-on-christianity.html
wherein the famous fatuous Tucker Carlson of FOX spoke of his religion, saying
I believe the Pope did warn us, but we told him to mind his own scandals and let us see to our own perfidy: On Beyond Perilous... the churches they went to, the roads that they rambled, just to have their body parts scrambled!
Enough! Instant Karma is boiling on the back burner, and what will be, will be. We have bigger fish and Tucker Carlson to fry!
O.K. "I'm Christian. I've made mistakes. I believe in second chances."
I like the way Christianity has become the Second Chance Way in FOX ideology: everyone gets two strikes. However, this seems to set us up for "Three strikes... yer out!". I have to question a religious belief that seems modeled on baseball, or a conservative approach to penology and penal systems.
Actually, I always had the impression that forgiveness was forever. The teachings of Jesus always struck me as containing within them an infinite Get out of Jail... card with the addition of ...Free if you paid your debt to society and to your family and to yourself! God's forgiveness was infinite and co-extensive with His being! Pretty radical for the modern day or antiquity.
Briefly, Jesus' teaching was the Death of Depression and the End of Suicide of the Forlorn, for no matter what the offence, there was forgiveness. We could only be killed when we could not forgive ourselves. This business of the second chance is a dangerous perversion, because there exists a symbolic context "three strikes and out" which seems to already control how the idea is used.
Now the notion of capital punishment for dog-fighting has been addressed, and the notion that Christianity in the 21st century could use a little brushing-up and refurbishment by emulating Saudi Arabia is a notion whose time has possibly come to be discussed.
For a long time I have considered Mr. Carlson a non-entity seeking meaning, and he unfortunately runs true to form, as he cannot help but give the impression that all his religious set-up of the first part of his quote is nothing but a petard upon which to hoist the President.
And as the old saying goes, he ends up hoist on his own petard.
( Hoist by one's own petard means to be blown up by one's own explosive device. Petard is a word from Middle French which seems unusually appropriate for Carlson and FOX. Jospeh Pujol, known on the stage as Petomane, was an entertainer, just like Carlson and FOX. I am beginning to sound a lot like M. Rabelais all of a sudden... if you want to know what these words mean, I believe Wiki will have them.)
http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2010/12/another-fox-attack-on-christianity.html
wherein the famous fatuous Tucker Carlson of FOX spoke of his religion, saying
“I’m Christian. I’ve made mistakes. I believe fervently in second chances. Michael Vick killed dogs in a heartless and cruel way. I think, firstly, he should have been executed for that. The idea the president of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs is beyond the pale.”Let us first be clear that we are speaking of such a pronouncement when we say "attack" . We are not talking about the status of Middle Eastern Christians which has become perilous indeed. In fact, since Shock and Awe the lives of Christians in that part of the world has taken on a distinct aura of Dr. Seuss and it seems a fitting title to their history might be: On Beyond Perilous!
I believe the Pope did warn us, but we told him to mind his own scandals and let us see to our own perfidy: On Beyond Perilous... the churches they went to, the roads that they rambled, just to have their body parts scrambled!
Enough! Instant Karma is boiling on the back burner, and what will be, will be. We have bigger fish and Tucker Carlson to fry!
O.K. "I'm Christian. I've made mistakes. I believe in second chances."
I like the way Christianity has become the Second Chance Way in FOX ideology: everyone gets two strikes. However, this seems to set us up for "Three strikes... yer out!". I have to question a religious belief that seems modeled on baseball, or a conservative approach to penology and penal systems.
Actually, I always had the impression that forgiveness was forever. The teachings of Jesus always struck me as containing within them an infinite Get out of Jail... card with the addition of ...Free if you paid your debt to society and to your family and to yourself! God's forgiveness was infinite and co-extensive with His being! Pretty radical for the modern day or antiquity.
Briefly, Jesus' teaching was the Death of Depression and the End of Suicide of the Forlorn, for no matter what the offence, there was forgiveness. We could only be killed when we could not forgive ourselves. This business of the second chance is a dangerous perversion, because there exists a symbolic context "three strikes and out" which seems to already control how the idea is used.
Now the notion of capital punishment for dog-fighting has been addressed, and the notion that Christianity in the 21st century could use a little brushing-up and refurbishment by emulating Saudi Arabia is a notion whose time has possibly come to be discussed.
For a long time I have considered Mr. Carlson a non-entity seeking meaning, and he unfortunately runs true to form, as he cannot help but give the impression that all his religious set-up of the first part of his quote is nothing but a petard upon which to hoist the President.
And as the old saying goes, he ends up hoist on his own petard.
( Hoist by one's own petard means to be blown up by one's own explosive device. Petard is a word from Middle French which seems unusually appropriate for Carlson and FOX. Jospeh Pujol, known on the stage as Petomane, was an entertainer, just like Carlson and FOX. I am beginning to sound a lot like M. Rabelais all of a sudden... if you want to know what these words mean, I believe Wiki will have them.)
Sunday, January 02, 2011
وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Culture
The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: When they write about Arab culture in the Western ...: "I mean, you really have to know no Arabic, and you really have not know nothing about Arab culture in translation, and you really have to ha..."
Click on the first sentence link and continue, then, on to acquaint yourself with the poetry of Adonis... wouldn't hurt to take an Arabic class or two, but that's one of your New Year's resolutions.
Beautiful poetry and very much political I should say, being right in the middle of the passions which inform our days and nights. There are things you may not like to read, so be forewarned, and if exposing your sensibilities to things that disagree with you is not your cup of tea, consider that there is a PG 40 on the poetry: parental guidance for everyone under 40 years of age.
The article refers to an interview in the NY Times, and we subscribe to the NY Times Sunday edition and we have found that their reviewers leave a lot to be desired. Some of the reviews are so sophomoric with vague reference to iconic names that really do not have much to do with the work of art under discussion that it is almost an embarrassment to read them.
I studied Arabic and Hebrew, but I spent more time reading Isaac Singer in Yiddish, which I learned somewhat reading the Forverts! newspaper.I still read Zakaria Tamir in Arabic, and find him very much empathetic.
One thing you will discover learning language is that reality tends to take a few side-steps and turn-abouts as you get into a different way of doing that thing we call "intelligence". Words are intelligent communication and poetry raises language to the high level of cinema which is intelligent imagery in communication, or to the level of musical communication on a high level, and all of these will affect the very basis of your existence as an intelligent being..... so be forewarned.
Click on the first sentence link and continue, then, on to acquaint yourself with the poetry of Adonis... wouldn't hurt to take an Arabic class or two, but that's one of your New Year's resolutions.
Beautiful poetry and very much political I should say, being right in the middle of the passions which inform our days and nights. There are things you may not like to read, so be forewarned, and if exposing your sensibilities to things that disagree with you is not your cup of tea, consider that there is a PG 40 on the poetry: parental guidance for everyone under 40 years of age.
The article refers to an interview in the NY Times, and we subscribe to the NY Times Sunday edition and we have found that their reviewers leave a lot to be desired. Some of the reviews are so sophomoric with vague reference to iconic names that really do not have much to do with the work of art under discussion that it is almost an embarrassment to read them.
I studied Arabic and Hebrew, but I spent more time reading Isaac Singer in Yiddish, which I learned somewhat reading the Forverts! newspaper.I still read Zakaria Tamir in Arabic, and find him very much empathetic.
One thing you will discover learning language is that reality tends to take a few side-steps and turn-abouts as you get into a different way of doing that thing we call "intelligence". Words are intelligent communication and poetry raises language to the high level of cinema which is intelligent imagery in communication, or to the level of musical communication on a high level, and all of these will affect the very basis of your existence as an intelligent being..... so be forewarned.
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Seamstress
http://motherjones.com/photoessays/2008/03/aryan-outfitters-11
A Ms. Ruth ( not our Ruth !) blessing a newly tailored KKK outfit.Read the story at Mother Jones above.
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Granny Gets Tazed
Baysage has a post on what citizens of Oklahoma have said famously and infamously through the past year.
http://whatpowderfingersaid.blogspot.com/
Thursday December 30, 2010
They Said It
one of which is:
"Don't Taze my granny!” — Lonnie Tinsley in a lawsuit recounting what he told an El Reno police officer before the officer used a Taser to subdue his 86-year-old grandmother, Lona Varner.
This is my favorite of all. It is perfect for a country-western song:
"Granny got tazed until she flatlined... messin' with the law one Christmas night!"
and so on. (Best sung to "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".)
I am starting to use the word "taze" myself in contexts like: he tazed a sizzling line-drive over third base, or to speak of mind-tazing perplexities.
I sort of use it to give the F*** word a rest, and everyone around me seems to be much relieved. When I let loose with a withering "Grammutha Tazer!", no one seems all that upset anymore.
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Arizona Madness
Follow up on the Arizona Education Bill which takes effect today, part of which reads:
Also outlawed are courses designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group and those that advocate ethnic solidarity rather than treat students as individuals.
source: Christian Science Monitor
Rabbi, get your yeshiva students off the streets!
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Also outlawed are courses designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group and those that advocate ethnic solidarity rather than treat students as individuals.
source: Christian Science Monitor
Rabbi, get your yeshiva students off the streets!
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Friday, December 31, 2010
Solidarity
In The Christian Science Monitor:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/1231/Ethnic-studies-classes-illegal-in-Arizona-public-schools-as-of-Jan.-1
Tucson, Ariz.This is a complex situation. I am interested in how often that the characteristics we celebrate in the peoples oppressed by our perceived enemies are condemned when they show up within our own populace. In both cases, solidarity undermines... something. Politics can destroy good... as well as create it.
A controversial Arizona law targeting ethnic studies in public schools will take effect come midnight
Like the state’s tough immigration law – which a federal judge put mostly on hold last summer – the new measure that Gov. Jan Brewer signed in May has sparked protests and legal action, as well as concerns about the future of education.
The law bans classes that promote the overthrow of the United States government and resentment toward a race or class of people. Also outlawed are courses designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group and those that advocate ethnic solidarity rather than treat students as individuals.
We Poles are still proud of Lech Walesa.
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Year of Love
does the heart know its own color?
does it know it beats?
does the desert eagle know its young?
or offer its neck as their ransom?
does the lion know its mate?
or feel the fire of her faith?
does my smallness know its magnitude
in the eyes of my beloved?
does it know it beats?
does the desert eagle know its young?
or offer its neck as their ransom?
does the lion know its mate?
or feel the fire of her faith?
does my smallness know its magnitude
in the eyes of my beloved?
painting: Ismail Fattah
The Prisons and Workhouses
Piranesi did a series of drawings entitled I Carceri, The Prisons."Our assumptions always become a prison to our possibilities..."
Our assumptions and our belief systems, as we foppishly call them. Belief systems, indeed!
The quote continues, "...,and the mid-nineteenth century's assumptions about the role of women in society turned the world of intelligent, thoughtful women everywhere into a grim, dank dungeon from which they yearned most desperately to escape."
Bram Djikstra, Idols of Perversity, Oxford University Press, 1986, New York.
How many people today are in prison? How many whose lives are lived in a grim, dank dungeon? How many desperately yearn to escape?
We are imprisoned just as the soul of Jacob Marley was, doomed to drag the chains of our assumptions, belief systems, and world views to our graves.
Contrary to the opinion of many people, we are not best served by striving to create coherent "belief systems", for any coherence we achieve is on the surface; we do not go deeply into the realms of the soul.
Faith is better.
Faith is tougher.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Flash Mobs!!
I wuz in the middle of a flash mob! It was great! Unfortunately, they did not sing Christmas carols or other songs for the season. A young lady put down her bread - I was in a food mall at the time - and sang "I have a structured settlement, but I need cash now!" and the rest joined in sort of a La Bohème where the principals are just a bit discomfited by the Great Impoverishment - or this Great Recession - and need a little green advanced, and without the unhappy end of La Bohème at all... everybody racing around spending money they don't have and it was just like the old days. God bless us everyone.
Jersey Shore
From his website:
Paul Bonelli was born and raised in northern New Jersey, and now resides in the state's shore region. He studied art at the College of William and Mary, Montclair State University, and most recently at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, where he earned an MFA in printmaking in 1995.
http://paulbonelli.com/index.html
I included his woodcut for St. Laurence, martyr, who was burned to death under the Roman Empire. The Introit of the Mass for his feast day begins "O, holy, roasted..."
It gives one a feel of the artist.
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The Gift of Nepotism
Humbled and exhausted, we try to form up our ranks after the Christmas season. People have actually gone to airports and gone somewhere on an airplane, not spending endless nights sleeping on cots in the airport. Hereabouts in Michigan yesterday was Airport Day, or, more realistically, Remember-To-Wear-Clean-Underwear-Day!!
Yes, we have come full circle from the days when our mothers told us to be righteous in our choice of briefs on the far off chance we may be in an automobile accident and be taken to the hospital and the ER personnel may have to remove our outer clothing to swab our wounds, discovering to their dismay - and it takes a lot to dismay urban ER personnel!- that we wore our underwear on bi-diurnal cycle: changing every other day.
Nowadays there is a very good chance that the TSA will touch and view your undergarments... while they are still on your person! Had our mothers only known what a baneful breed their monitory cautions would grow into one day.
60% of the flights leaving DTW were on time, 30% were late, and 10% were really, really late. I was not flying myself, thank heavens ( May God turn away such plagues!), but the numbers game did not instill much enthusiasm. I had noticed that etymologically this was the very same "really, really" that George Bush had used to justify the Iraq War, saying Saddam Hussein was a "really, really" bad actor. I had a sense that someone was about to steal one trillion dollars from me, as well as wiretapping my phone and forcing me to wear clean underwear with a relentless intent.
As is the case in the popular mind, what goes around, comes around. This is a philosophy which stands us well and is perennially verified by all of us, having been based on the Farmers' Almanac's observations of a whirly-gig or weather vane back in the day when maiden aunts still believed soon-to-be-General George McClellan to be quite a catch for their as yet unmarried wards.
As some airplanes took away, others landed and brought gifts. As I stood on the tarmac and noted these things in a desultory way - thinking that this may have been a cognitive state similar to that of St. Joseph who noted a lot of things in the first couple years of his marriage and kept them under his yarmulke - it dawned on me that this was the type of logic that gave rise to the Cargo Cults during World War II: on Polynesian islands certain inhabitants prayed for the airplanes to come back down from the heavens bearing gifts (war supplies, weapons, and Hershey's bars) and angels (US air men). They even used driftwood to build crude idols resembling the remnants of balsa-wood gliders I used to play with. I know this. I saw it all in the film Mondo Cane back in the 60's.
This airplane brought the gift of Nepotism; nepotism being derived from Latin nepos, meaning nephew... all three of them - Ayden, Austin, and Aloysius (pronounced a-LOY-shus for all you who are not Sons of Hibernia). Once again they had flown in on Lucky Airlines. All this lines' craft had a picture of a winking card sharp - one hand holding a royal flush, the other on a glitzy lady's anatomy - painted on the vertical stabilizer and rudder. I had to admire it all since they had just come out of bankruptcy, and I had expected that Lucky Airlines might have changed their logo to "The Busted Flush" or something along those lines, along with a suitable icon on the fuselage. But they had come out of bankruptcy better than ever, and were a real success story of the period of the "Financial Unpleasantness".Ah, I thought: good things come in threes, shortly followed by three on a match is bad luck. This got me into the suitable mood of feckless befuddlement which people have come to expect of me and are mightily disappointed if, perchance, I show up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed: they say afterwards that there was something wrong with old Montag, didn't seem himself... wasn't properly spaced-out; displayed unsettling signs of being-with-it, and so on.
We embraced with avuncular joy - on my part - and nepotistical joy on theirs. (By the way, nepotistical is the only word that rhymes with nepotistical. It is unique that way. Look it up in a rhyming dictionary if you don't believe me; it is considered mono-rhythmistical, as they foppishly put it.)
We bundled into the venerable VW - which I now refer to as The Hindenburg, referencing the General, not the Dirigible - and prepared to run the gauntlet of the various devices in parking lots, airports, and toll roads which suck currency and specie from one's pockets.
They had been some time at their Aunt Sophronia's in England, and had welcomed me with a number of endearing sobriquets. In the space of five minutes, I was quickly and seriatim referred to as "old puddingstone", "old stub", "you-old-soak", and "great Booley"!
I did not recognize any of these, but I was not deceived, either. I knew my nephews, and if they were to refer to me as "The Boss", they would not mean it in the sense of "patron" or "chief" or Springsteen; they would mean "boss" in the sense of a massive protuberance, such as are often on the intersecting wooden ribs of a church roof whereon medieval artisans sculpted grotesques and gargoyles.
We drove home to Linden Lea - as the goodwife calls it - to be met by an designedly artful display of joyful barking and slavish fawning put on by Cymbalta and Zoloft who well remembered Xmas three ships, three gifts, and three the kings... or three nephews bringing treats for the canine palate.
They will be here for a while. I shall issue an update.
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Another FOX Attack on Christianity?
It seems that Tucker Carlson disagrees with forgiving Michael Vick for dog-fighting. It further seems Mr. Obama has expressed approval of Mr. Vick's rehabilitation and re-entry into pro football, but Mr. Carlson cannot.
My big question is whether this is yet another attack on Christianity by FOX, which has already launched its Mormon attack via Glenn Beck, who is well known for his attacks on Christian churches for their concerns for social welfare. The Christian denominations base their concerns on the fact that Jesus speaks of the blessedness of the poor in the Sermon on the Mount.
However, that sermon is not in the Book of Mormon, suggesting that Beck's criticism was not so much political as it is a religious attack.
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Correction: The Book of Mormon does contain a form of the Sermon on the Mount in 3 Nephi. The basis for the attacks on religious concern for social welfare seems to be due to the misplaced zealotry of a new cathecumen, Mr. Beck, rather than some insidious plot by Joseph Smith.
I always had a soft spot in my heart for Joseph Smith, having lived near Mack Avenue in Detroit and points north and east, a road named after the merchant and politician Stephen Mack who was Smith's uncle, brother of Lucy Mack Smith, the mother of the latter-day prophet Joseph Smith.
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“I’m Christian. I’ve made mistakes. I believe fervently in second chances. Michael Vick killed dogs in a heartless and cruel way. I think, firstly, he should have been executed for that. The idea the president of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs is beyond the pale.”I have to interpret this as meaning that Mr. Carlson identifies himself as a Christian, but he only talks the talk and does not come close to walking the walk. Either that or his idea of Jesus seems to be more like the sainted Bill O"Reilly.
My big question is whether this is yet another attack on Christianity by FOX, which has already launched its Mormon attack via Glenn Beck, who is well known for his attacks on Christian churches for their concerns for social welfare. The Christian denominations base their concerns on the fact that Jesus speaks of the blessedness of the poor in the Sermon on the Mount.
However, that sermon is not in the Book of Mormon, suggesting that Beck's criticism was not so much political as it is a religious attack.
--
Correction: The Book of Mormon does contain a form of the Sermon on the Mount in 3 Nephi. The basis for the attacks on religious concern for social welfare seems to be due to the misplaced zealotry of a new cathecumen, Mr. Beck, rather than some insidious plot by Joseph Smith.
I always had a soft spot in my heart for Joseph Smith, having lived near Mack Avenue in Detroit and points north and east, a road named after the merchant and politician Stephen Mack who was Smith's uncle, brother of Lucy Mack Smith, the mother of the latter-day prophet Joseph Smith.
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Tuesday, December 28, 2010
What Have We Become?
East coast blizzard disrupts travel and shopping!?
I mean, lives are at stake during these weather events, and we think the news in in the shopping?
Personally, I do not wish to have any further analysis of how "these few days" make or break a retailer's profit for the year. I'm neither going to buy more nor less. I don't care about it. I care about whether the small businessmen and women make a living, but I do not wish to hear anymore of the incredible in-depth analysis of the Christmas sales season: crunch time... make or break for most retail... in the red until Xmas...
And why is there stock market crap on the cable 24/7? Does any one believe that that nonsense is for our benefit? I'd rather watch the poker tournaments. In fact, I am going to sit right back and watch a coupla of them 32 football bowl games that are on between now and January 2. That's right, 32.
I mean, lives are at stake during these weather events, and we think the news in in the shopping?
Personally, I do not wish to have any further analysis of how "these few days" make or break a retailer's profit for the year. I'm neither going to buy more nor less. I don't care about it. I care about whether the small businessmen and women make a living, but I do not wish to hear anymore of the incredible in-depth analysis of the Christmas sales season: crunch time... make or break for most retail... in the red until Xmas...
And why is there stock market crap on the cable 24/7? Does any one believe that that nonsense is for our benefit? I'd rather watch the poker tournaments. In fact, I am going to sit right back and watch a coupla of them 32 football bowl games that are on between now and January 2. That's right, 32.
Symbol & Sign 7: The Powers That Be
Roger Cohen
New York Times today on the Opinion Page:
The Captive Arab Mind
by Roger Cohen
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/opinion/21iht-edcohen21.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage?src=ISMR_AP_LI_LST_FB
... I know it appears that the United States was behind the invasion [of Iraq ]... But consider the facts: The invasion of Iraq has weakened the United States, Iran’s old enemy, and so it can only be — quod erat demonstrandum — that Tehran was the devious mastermind.This mocking “analysis” is often deployed deadpan by my colleague, Robert Worth, the New York Times correspondent in Beirut… he uses this “theory” to express his frustration with the epidemic of cui bono thinking in the region.… What we are dealing with here is the paltry harvest of captive minds. Such minds resort to conspiracy theory because it is the ultimate refuge of the powerless. If you cannot change your own life, it must be that some greater force controls the world.
Conspiracy Theory in this instance is analogous to Intelligent Design Theory: a conjuration of the super-brainy or the supernatural to render understandable the complexity we see about us.
A conspiracy theory is a mental construct; it is what I call a symbolic structure. According to the way we speak about the world and ambiguity and conspiracies, it is a normal thing to retreat into such fabrications. Indeed, our understanding of other religions, ancient or otherwise, is mostly a belief that the devotees could not possibly believe with the same intensity that we believe; when confronted with churning seas and blowing winds, they said "Here lay higher powers! We'll call them or it Poseidon or Neptune!"
Of course, we then say "Poseidon" is strictly symbolic in the weakest sense; i.e., he doesn't really exist; he's merely a "symbol"; he "stands for" churning seas and blowing winds and wives of sailors waiting on the shores. We forget that symbolic structures such as "anti-communism" were the political faith of a couple of generations of Americans; "symbolic" here in the strong sense, the symbols that may move mountains... or build nuclear arsenals that could have destroyed the world a number of times.
It is an acceptable practice to assign causality to Powers, and it is an acceptable practice for us to critique other peoples' assignments of such causalities. We are doing it all the time: creating symbolic structures, talking about them, and ordering our lives around them.
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Monday, December 27, 2010
Symbol & Sign 6: The Wrath of Money
Money moves mountains.
From The New York Times Sunday Opinion Section December 26, 2010 in an article by Frank Rich Who Killed the Disneyland Dream? :
Derivative instruments do not have the solidity of an ingot of gold dropped on your foot, yet they will make you wince just as hard, weep tears just as real.
We have a naive understanding of the world, separating things into "hard facts" and "dreamy rationalizations". The things to which we cannot point, things that cannot block the sun, things that have no mass may yet do us irreparable harm.. or benefit. We must understand the worlds of which we assist in the creation; we can no longer take everything for granted.
From The New York Times Sunday Opinion Section December 26, 2010 in an article by Frank Rich Who Killed the Disneyland Dream? :
...In 2010, our system incentivizes high-stakes gambling - " this business of securitizing things that didn't even exist in the first place," as Calvin Trillin memorably wrote last year - rather than the rebooting and rebuilding of America.
Derivative instruments do not have the solidity of an ingot of gold dropped on your foot, yet they will make you wince just as hard, weep tears just as real.
We have a naive understanding of the world, separating things into "hard facts" and "dreamy rationalizations". The things to which we cannot point, things that cannot block the sun, things that have no mass may yet do us irreparable harm.. or benefit. We must understand the worlds of which we assist in the creation; we can no longer take everything for granted.
Budget
Word is that the real test comes on the 2012 budget, not the upcoming spending legislation. They're already putting it off. They will never do anything that will benefit the country until enough people are suffering due to circumstances that will be beyond anyone's control.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
China Deals With Important Stuff
http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/China_bars_English_words_in_all_publications_999.html
China bars English words in all publications
by Staff Writers Beijing (AFP) Dec 22, 2010
These efforts can end up a lot of different ways, ranging from literary revivals to absolutely horrendous ethnic cleansing and removal of not just foreign influence, but foreign entities themselves - and if they do not wish to go, they will be rendered no longer.... visible or viable.
I would not wish to be a Uighur Muslim in Hsiankiang for the next few years... especially if I also spoke English!
To be pure is not to be perfect.
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China bars English words in all publications
 |
Chinese newspapers, books and websites will no longer be allowed to use English words and phrases, the country's publishing body has announced, saying the "purity" of the Chinese language is in peril.
These efforts can end up a lot of different ways, ranging from literary revivals to absolutely horrendous ethnic cleansing and removal of not just foreign influence, but foreign entities themselves - and if they do not wish to go, they will be rendered no longer.... visible or viable.
I would not wish to be a Uighur Muslim in Hsiankiang for the next few years... especially if I also spoke English!
To be pure is not to be perfect.
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