Future Flash Crash Mystery Theater

I think the future flash crash will be something like this:  at this moment, internet security cannot keep up with the technology; this guarantees there will always be enormous gaps in security. Nobody is going to tell the paying customer that they have to slow down their acquisition of tech, especially in areas, such as finance, where new and faster tech is big money.

It will be tech judo, wherein the attacker uses the defender's own security systems to bring down the defender: counter-attacks will only serve to make the defender's situation worse.

The Future Flash Crash will be an Ironic Vicious Circle: the only way to save one's system is to let down one's defenses.

Turn the other electronic cheek...

But that will never happen. It is a mind-set which is totally alien to us. Oh, such things are all right as long as they are kept under the lock and key of our self-appointed priests and pastors in the jail of Holy Writ, but that's where they should stay.

I seem to recall Star Trek has done a couple of episodes based on this concept, where the more the Enterprise tries to extricate itself, the more stuck it is. And then there's the story of Brer Rabbit and the tar baby...

----

Organized Religion

St. Augustine:  Tolle! Lege!

Religion says "Read !"
Organized religion dictates what you must read.

Religion says "Live !"
Organized religion tells you how you must live.

Religion says "Love !"
Organized religion sets forth extensive rules about whom you may love.

Religion says "Seek !"
Organized religion says you do not have to bother, for they have done it all for you.

--

I Don't Talk No Code 2

My mother and I had held a small family reunion for the Colorado branch last Friday, and on Sunday an East Coast contingent stopped by to scatter ashes of more loved ones with a small ceremony, which they were kind enough to allow us to take part in.
When these things were finished, my mother went across the street to chat with a neighbor whom she had not had a chance to talk with, and I closed up the cottage for the week.

My brother called. He wanted to be taken to the hospital.

Of course, during the get-togethers we had discussed the four funerals of 2013 and the cat's demise in May. On the trip home, we got to wonder if this would be another sad funeral in a year of funerals.

I have gone through these things with my brother, however, and up until now, he had always arisen the next morning in a much better state than that of the previous night of the long knives...

By the time we had gotten home, he had changed his mind. He did not want the hospital.
I went to visit him anyway.
I tried to hook up a new DVD/VCR player, but he had a Trinitron-scale TV on his media center, and I could not get behind it to hook up the cables. So I decided to come back the next day to drill some holes and finish the hook up, and to see how he was feeling.

Monday afternoon he did not answer his phone. Again, we have gone through this type of thing many times before.
So I drive to his place and get out of my car, and I call him on my cell phone: no response. I walk across the street and look up at his windows. Nothing to be seen. I go into the bar across the street, and the barkeep says he hasn't seen him in a long while, which agrees with what my brother said previously about getting into a heated disagreement with the wife of the bar owner and being banned as a result.

So I walk down to another restaurant/bar. I'm walking both sides of the street and holding my phone, calling him every few minutes....

A young lady - no older than 25, I'd say - comes up to me as I finish a call. She asks me the time. I motion her to wait a few moments as the call ends with my brother's voice message, then I check the time. I tell her it's 5:07 PM.
Now I can look up from my phone. She is quite good-looking, tanned and healthy, and has a top on that reveals a good deal of skin. She is smiling. I wait for a quick "Thanks, bub."

But she keeps smiling at me.

Now I grow a bit uneasy. I have a sense of having gone into a parallel universe in which I am fifty years younger...

I tilt my head quizzically. I look at her again.

"It's time for me to feed Sarah", she said.

I was silent for a bit. Quite a bit. My dream of parallel universes was quashed, but the replacement was even more bizarre. Perhaps I was entering dementia.

"I have to go home a feed Sarah now. It's 5 o'clock." She was still smiling in that beautiful smiling way that people have when they are either interested in you or want something from you.

"I think you have the wrong person." I said. I was pretty sure of that fact and no others right then.

She... jiggled a bit. "Sarah's back home. She's in the basement, ya know. I gotta feed her."

I had begun to think that "Sarah" was a happy sobriquet of some warm body part, but when she said this business of being in the basement, it struck me that perhaps Sarah was a dog or a small pet of some sort, and the elixir of meeting new folks was rapidly turning sour.

We looked at each other; she was smiling, I'm sure I was not.

"I think you have the wrong person", I said. "I don't speak to people in code."

I could have said that "I don't talk no code", but that sounds as if I would have been being purposefully menacing, and I really did not want to seem menacing.

She pulled a smile from her quiver and put it into her toothy longbow and shot it to me one last time as she turned to walk away. A young male companion was awaiting her a short way up the street.

"You said it the wrong way !" he said when she walked up to him. She tossed her head in a devil-may-care way.

I stood there a minute.
Then I thought that if I looked as if I was actually selling drugs, some real drug dealers might also see me and mistake me, and then begin to cut up rough.

I left Quay Street.

--

Goodbye, Al

In the world of media, it is now also very clear that Al Jazeera (Arabic) has become a shill for Islamist causes, and is no longer reliable for news uncontaminated by politics. In this they have joined much of the US media.

I am going to have to part with them.

Goodbye, Al !

--

When I Stopped Paying Attention

I began to stop paying attention to the US Media back some time before 1984. I was sitting in a kitchen in Manhassett, New York, watching a TV documentary on John F. Kennedy.

The disclosures about JFK and Marilyn Monroe were, for that time very scandalous, and I was transfixed, wondering which news organization was doing this. I readily came to the conclusion that it could not have been a US news organization.

At the end, this was verified as the BBC logo was displayed.

I started reading La Presse of Montreal and a Lebanese paper, which in memory is As Sabaah, or The Morning Bugle Dispatch. And I never felt I could rely upon US news media too much after that.

Then there was the goose-stepping lock step of the country's march to Iraq, which the media was part of.

Now there is a infamous attack on Edward Snowden being orchestrated by the Washington Post, New York Times, and others. Morons never learn.

--

They Do Not Represent Me

“US authorities do not consider him [Snowden] to be a human rights defender or a whistleblower. He broke the law and he has to be held accountable.”

I'm sorry I voted for any of... las cosas inútiles ... políticos... the politicians ! Useless baggage !
--

Abu Ghraib

I have just been reading about some fellow in Iraq whose life was sort of messed up because he was in Abu Ghraib being watched by perverted guards.

Tough luck, guy, but we consider you to be an acceptable statistic.

I will never forget what I saw my country do in the first decade of the 21st century. Never.
--

I Don't Talk No Code 1

A funny story about me searching for my brother in Port Huron, Michigan.
I'll write it out tomorrow, but I have no time today.\

O, Death. O, Death.
Won't you spare me over 'til another year?

--

The Zimmerman Verdict

First, in my generation we only heard of The Zimmerman Telegram.

Now it is the Zimmerman Verdict.

This morning at the head of a story in Yahoo telling of some looting and obstruction of a highway in southern California, there was a photo of a protestor in holding a sign stating "Being Black Is Not A Crime".

and so it goes, as we once again fall on a slippery slope of justice.

Facts:

(1) the Florida legislature is guilty of passing ambiguous laws that make good politics, but bad law;

(2) the Prosecution - and, by extension, the Florida Justice system - was not up to the task at hand of prosecuting a case under a political and ambiguous law; such a case required devotion and fire  (note: the "stand your ground law" was not argued in this trial);

(3) young black men are among the groups - Arab-looking men are another - who are the silver screen on which we often run our mental films of stereotypical fear, anger, and threat;

(4) all of us have to learn to curb our instincts to confrontation - from parents at their childrens' Little League games to arguments in the halls of Congress. We must emphasize fighting for what is right, but we must also teach to de-fuse the potential for violence.

For we are a Weaponized Society.
For good or ill, we have embraced weaponry, and the USA will live the duration of its time as a Weapon Society. If guns and the culture they engender are bad, that is our fate now. If guns and their culture are good, lucky us: determine the acceptable level of people being killed by gunfire, then live with it.
We do have to adapt to a weapon society a bit better than we have, however,
We must learn that there is always the potential for a gun shot.
If we ourselves have a gun and are confident that there is a fair fight on Main Street in Tombstone, and that we will out-gun our opponent... well, fine. But if not, someone will be having a memorial on Boot Hill.

Weapon Society... get it right. There is a time to shoot, and there is a time to be humble and walk away before you get shot.

(5) being of any race is not a crime, but rioting usually is. Let us deny giving those who wish us no good more ammunition with which to defame us.

--

The Negev Bedouins

 

Bedouin in the Negev Region

photo: Eliyahu Hershowitz/ Ha'aretz

At the end of June, 2013:
http://www.acri.org.il/en/2013/06/25/begin-plan-vote/

The Knesset plenary today (June 24) voted in favor (43 – 40) of the Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev, known as the “Begin-Prawer Plan” in its first reading. The bill will now proceed to committee.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights reiterate their strong opposition to the plan, which in its current form will only aggravate the alienation and discrimination of Bedouin residents of the unrecognized villages in the Negev.

The Begin-Prawer Plan, as it currently stands, will cause the displacement and forced eviction of dozens of villages and tens of thousands of Bedouin residents, dispossessing them of their property and historical rights to their lands, destroying the social fabric of their communities, and sealing the fate of thousands of families into poverty and unemployment. All of this while the government simultaneously promotes the establishment of new Jewish communities, some of which are even slated to be built on the ruins of Bedouin villages...

Attorney Rawia Aburabia of ACRI: “For years, the Bedouin citizens have lived in villages without basic conditions while around them more and more Jewish communities are built. The government must decide whether to seek a true and just solution that facilitates the inclusion of Bedouin in the Negev as equal citizens or a belligerent plan, that only increases the alienation, hostility and poverty in these communities.”

Urban planner Nili Baruch of Bimkom: “The key to a solution to the issue of the unrecognized villages in the Negev is planning. A plan to formally recognize the unrecognized villages (such as the one initiated by the village residents themselves) will afford them their rights to education, health, adequate infrastructure, and sources of employment. Such a process would not only be the most likely to succeed, but also the most just, coming after years of neglect of the unrecognized villages, most of which have been in existence since before the state of Israel was established.”

And who are the people, the Bedouins, and the ACRI which fights for their rights?

http://www.acri.org.il/en/category/arab-citizens-of-israel/negev-bedouins-and-unrecognized-villages/

The Arab Bedouin minority of the Negev is one of the most discriminated groups within the Arab population and within Israeli society as a whole. More than half of the approximately 160,000 Negev Bedouins reside in unrecognized villages, which the state refuses to provide with a planning structure and place under municipal jurisdiction. The government uses a variety of measures to pressure Bedouins into relocating to government-planned urban centers that disregard their lifestyle and needs. Whole communities have been issued demolition orders; others are forced to continue living in unrecognized villages that are denied basic services and infrastructure, such as electricity and running water.
ACRI seeks to protect the rights of the Negev Bedouin by promoting village recognition as a means of eradicating the constant threat of demolition and relocation, while beginning to improve living conditions and access to state resources. Additionally, ACRI opposes current and new settlement construction on land inhabited by residents of unrecognized villages.

And how do matters stand today, July, 2013?
In Ha'aretz, we read the Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg:
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.535827

...Israel remains the country where our Jewish values are, should and shall be realized. We still hope for and believe in the Israel whose founders, less than three years after the Holocaust, presented to the world the remarkable vision of a country which "will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of religion, race, or gender; will guarantee full freedom of worship, conscience, culture and education" and live and legislate according to "the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Prophets of Israel."...

That is why so many of us care when Israel threatens to pass a law so deeply at odds with its own principles. "So long as Israel claims to be a Jewish state, it must act according to Jewish moral values," commented Gidon Remba, Director of the U.S.-based Campaign for Bedouin-Jewish Justice. "The way a country treats its most disadvantaged citizens defines its moral character, and so too its Jewish character as a bearer of the Jewish moral tradition."

It’s not just that Diaspora Jews are pained by the prospect of watching on their national television Israeli bulldozers flattening villages and forcing thousands of men, women and children from their homes, actions which the Begin-Prawer plan could indeed entail. The matter goes deeper than the damage that would be done to Israel’s international reputation.

It relates to a profound moral instinct that Israel’s safety depends not only on military superiority and the skill and courage of its armed forces, but is connected in some unquantifiable way to its faithfulness to the age-old Jewish values of justice and human dignity.

It connects to those historical experiences of exile and persecution which Jews carry subliminally in their souls. As Theodore Bikel, who played Tevye in countless productions of Fiddler on the Roof, said, "What hurts is the fact that the very people who are telling them [the Bedouin] to “Get out” are the descendents of the people of Anatevka. My people."

--

WFT.... War For Terror

 

As far as I know, no warrants have been issued, nor has anyone called for the arrests of the Syrian "rebels" who have cut out hearts and decapitated priests in Syria.

Syria is a real war, run by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, supported by the USA and Israel and those NATO zombies who allow the fore-mentioned states to do their thinking for them when it comes to this area of the world.

However, it is no war on terrorism.

In fact, it is a war against an authoritarian government, but it is also a war - and may be the first in the 21st century - in support of terrorism.
So we have gone full circle now into a War For Terror !

What an inspired group of civilizations !

--

Discrete Charm Of The Illogical But Lucrative

First, a story on obesity and weight:
http://www.hot-topix.com/tba-dc-articles/#.Ud5u9dgQPnC

According to the University study, drinking diet soda does nothing to help you lose or even control your weight¹. In fact, it does the exact opposite and actually boosts your risk of packing on the pounds by a whopping 41% for every can or bottle you crack open each day.

This means if you drink two cans a day, your risk shoots up 82%. Drink 3 cans and your risk skyrockets to 123%. Consume just four small 12 oz cans and you just increased the risk of expanding your waistline by an incredible 164%!
To put these percentages in perspective, researches discovered those who drank two or more cans of diet soda per day ended up increasing their waist circumference five times more than those people who didn't drink diet soda²...

The article ends with:

That's the bad news. The good news is drinking diet soda doesn't have to be the be-all, end-all sentence to weight gain. By simply replacing one can of diet soda with healthier drinks like water, green tea, seltzer water or coffee you can drastically cut the odds of you getting a bigger belly.

However, if you're not ready to put the breaks on your diet soda habit just yet… fitness celebrity and author of the book 4 Minute Abs™ Jake Hunter recommends a very simple way to speed up your metabolism, so the diet drinks you consume don't go straight to your waistline.

For free information about this simple yet highly effective metabolic 'trick' that is currently being used by Hollywood celebrities and tens of thousands of people across the country, visit Jake Hunter's website by clicking here for a quick 7 minute video featuring this very unusual technique.

The article refers to a study which has a link in the notes, in small print, and is not linked in the body of the article.
In that study, one finds:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda-gain-more-weight

 June 13, 2005 -- People who drink diet soft drinks don't lose weight. In fact, they gain weight, a new study shows.
The findings come from eight years of data collected by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego...

Fowler is quick to note that a study of this kind does not prove that diet soda causes obesity. More likely, she says, it shows that something linked to diet soda drinking is also linked to obesity.
"One possible part of the explanation is that people who see they are beginning to gain weight may be more likely to switch from regular to diet soda," Fowler suggests. "But despite their switching, their weight may continue to grow for other reasons. So diet soft-drink use is a marker for overweight and obesity."
Why? Nutrition expert Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, puts it in a nutshell.
"You have to look at what's on your plate, not just what's in your glass," Bonci tells WebMD...

and

There is actually a way that diet drinks could contribute to weight gain, Fowler suggests...

That may be just what happens when we offer our bodies the sweet taste of diet drinks, but give them no calories. Fowler points to a recent study in which feeding artificial sweeteners to rat pups made them crave more calories than animals fed real sugar.

"If you offer your body something that tastes like a lot of calories, but it isn't there, your body is alerted to the possibility that there is something there and it will search for the calories promised but not delivered," Fowler says.

Perhaps, Bonci says, our bodies are smarter than we think.
"People think they can just fool the body. But maybe the body isn't fooled," she says. "If you are not giving your body those calories you promised it, maybe your body will retaliate by wanting more calories. Some soft drink studies do suggest that diet drinks stimulate appetite."

I wondered greatly at the possible reason that the first article did not highlight the original study. It became obvious soon enough.

We use the same procedure in debates over religion and morality, where we cherry-pick our authoritative quotes and references to scriptures.

--

Pot For Tots

TRENTON, N.J. - Vivian Wilson, who is 2 years old, could use some pot. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie isn't sure she should get it.

Christie, a Republican often mentioned as a 2016 presidential contender, is considering whether to sign a law easing access to medical marijuana for toddlers and teenagers. It would put New Jersey among the dozen states that make it easier for youngsters to be treated with the drug.

While New Jersey is one of at least 18 states to authorize medical marijuana use, its rules make it almost impossible for Vivian's mother, Meghan Wilson, 34, of Scotch Plains, to get the type of cannabis medicine that may help her daughter's epilepsy.

"It's beyond frustrating," Wilson, a consultant who runs clinical trials for drugmakers, said by telephone. Vivian gets seizures from a form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome, she said. In Colorado and California, where it's easier to treat youngsters with pot, afflicted children have improved after receiving cannabis, and some are almost symptom-free, she said.

Democrats who lead the New Jersey legislature have put Christie, a former federal prosecutor, on the spot by sending him the bill easing access to cannabis for children as young as Vivian. It largely aligns the rules for minors and adults.

What I am missing here is a discussion of the cause of Dravet syndrome.

It is - or should be, by now - common knowledge that Pot, or Cannabis, produces cannabinoids, which are chemicals that affect the brain.
Among the various types of cannabinoids, there are phytocannabinoids, produced in growing plants, and endocannabinoids, produced naturally in the bodies of humans and some animals.

So...  is Dravet syndrome caused by a malfunctioning of the human endocannabinoid system?
If it were, then the use of phytocannabinoids - Pot ! - to remedy it is a rather obvious conclusion that even the rudimentary logic of our governmental bodies could make.
--

Lac Megantic Photo

--

Why Does Math Describe The World? Reality As ASL

Why did Peter Higgs describe the Higgs field and particle so well that he predicted it years before it was discovered?

The world is code: math, logics, languages, grammars, syntaxes, and semantics... only they exist in a non-linguistic and non-symbolic form.

They approach linguistics as Sign Language, if one goes beyond the grammar, syntax, semantics, and logic and then also apprehends the physicality of the movements of the body of the Signer.
And apprehend not merely by sight, but by aesthetic, by touch, thereby expanding the realm of one's understanding.

--

The Price Of Gasoline

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, we have less stock of Gasoline of All Grades in the week ending 07/08/2013 than we did in the week ending 06/03/2013.

Yet the price of gasoline now is approximately $1 per gallon less than it was one month ago here in Michigan.

One of the reasons adduced for the high price back then was problems in various Ohio refineries, which reduced the gasoline inventory.

--

Elections and Democracy

Mere elections are not democracy.

There has to be a commitment to government of the people, by the people, and for the people for there to be a democracy.
Then the people vote.

It is not democracy to implement changes by fiat. It is not democracy to impose a constitution not supported by the people.
Hopefully, Egypt will leave this bad episode behind.
--

Corntime

From Bob Lang: Corntime

--

Lac Megantic Train Wreck

After the explosion of the Lac Megantic train, some people have expressed the opinion that such a disaster shows that pipelines are a safer way to transport oil, and, therefore, the Keystone XL should be allowed to be built.

That is illogical.

What the disaster demonstrates is :

(1) as the complexity of oil production increases, so also does the size and cost of accidents, and

(2) the probability of accidents happening may be correctly estimated beforehand, but the Expected Value of the cost of such accidents - the probability of a given accident times the  cost of such an accident - is usually vastly underestimated, and

(3) environmental impact statements are formalities, not science.
(The British Petroleum Deep Horizon event shows that the probability and cost of such a disaster cannot be properly dealt with, for even given a low probability, the cost is so high that the future expected value would still be astronomical. Therefore, such events obviously are ignored in the planning stage, or - and this is regularly done - the cost of human lives is grossly undervalued.)

It is interesting to look back on things, such as the Alaska pipeline, when these things occur, and seeing that in review, whether the expected costs to the environment were a good predictor of the eventual accidents which did occur.

--
photo: Reuters

Egypt and The Military

In time, the inheritors of the new Egyptian revolution will have to take on the matter of the military, which seems to be playing a role in Egypt rarely seen before.

Egypt will deal will The Military

The USA deals with a crushing Military-Industrial-Intel Complex.

Which stands the better chance of success?
--

Hooray for Egypt !

  ! أنا مصري

Egypt has discarded the Islamist dictatorship-want-to-be and I rejoice in their freedom.

Many deep thinkers have condemned this flouting of democratic processes. I say whatever is best for Egypt is OK for Egypt, and that's where the matter ends.

In the Renaissance, Florence was was effectively ruled by Lorenzo the Magnificent, but he was careful to maintain the Republic's institutions, such as the Signoria. Lorenzo ruled by knowing what the people needed and by not imagining himself to be greater than the people of Florence.
It was not democracy, but it gave us a brief period of greatness such as the world rarely sees.

I consider the phrases "democratic processes" and "human rights" to be in large part scams devised during the Cold War to aid in our fight against Communism, Socialism, and pretty much everything we disagreed with in the political realm.
Our government is a representative democracy, not a direct democracy, such as actually existed in many places at different times. It is a form which the Founding Fathers thought best and most attainable for the new country of the 13 colonies, and it worked well, but there is no proof that it would work for all peoples at all times.
George Washington and the Founding Fathers did not urge us to send armies all over the globe to spread the gospel of representative democracy, and why such things should have become a large part of our foreign policy indicates that the original motivation was not freedom, but compulsion, as is so much of our policy regarding the world.

We certainly had no problem ignoring free elections in Palestine when Hamas was elected.

We do what we think is in our interests. So do the Egyptians.

Today, I am an Egyptian !

--

Macaroons

She-who-must-be-obeyed received some sample macaroons for a shower she is organizing for late summer. I was called upon to taste test.

I hate being negative when it comes to cookies.

I said, "Mmm. Nice...

She looked at me. "Nice...?"

" Well,... you could trust me to guard those- say in a vault at Cyberdyne Systems... right next to the Terminator hand thingie - and not worry about losing any. There'd be as many in the morning as there were when you locked up at night."

She pondered, then took a bite. "That bad, eh?"

"Not bad. Middling. Mediocre. Remembrance of Things Lost would never have been written with those."

She was thoughtful. "Those were madeleines...", leaving me to wonder what Proust may have written had he chowed down on macaroons instead.

I could not be trusted with Dare Lemon cookies or with Oreo chocolate filled cookies. I have been known to inhale six or more at a time.

--

National Rights Association: The NRA

After thinking about it, our Fourth Amendment Rights desperately needs an NRA to fight for our personal rights under the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

If Mr. Wayne La Pierre is available to lead it, send him over.

-- 

Religion and Science July 1 2013

Science has one path to many, many hypotheses.
(Some would add that the limitless hypotheses lead to one truth, although that has not yet been demonstrated.)

Religion has an infinity of paths which lead to one truth.

--

Islam's Crisis

It is clearly shown in Egypt.

...Egypt’s president, Muhammad Morsi, looked on in silence this month at a rally for Syria as Salafists blasted Shias as “rejectionists” and “filth”. For months, Salafist parties in the Cairo slum where the four Shias were murdered had plastered walls with posters warning of lurking Shia “enemies”.

Internal strife leading to murderous civil war, Muslims sometimes appear to hate each other more than any external enemies.

We are watching the potential death of more than one civilization today.

--

Egypt

It was a surprise.
Official Washington was surprised by the size of the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood.
It's time for a John Kerry droning speech. Perhaps a President Obama talk with low key insights. Maybe John McCain should say something intelligent for a change.

There were even larger demonstrators in Tahrir Square and elsewhere across the nation. For Western diplomats in Cairo and in Western capitals, especially Washington, it was a surprise to see millions of demonstrators demanding a premature end to the four-year term of Morsi, the Muslim Brother who made it "from prison to palace."

A surprise...
It was a surprise when we woke up in May-June 2003 and discovered the Baghdad Museum was being looted:  There were no Iraqi Police! The  Coalition Provisional Council under Paul Bremer had sacked them all!

Then Iraq devolved into chaos...
Surprise.

Then the Taliban returned after we neglected Afghanistan for 5 or 6 years...
Surprise.

The people of Egypt know we backed Mubarak for years, then we caved to the Islamist Brotherhood. They know our colors now. We shall not surprise them anymore.

--
photo: Ahram Online

China

I have been reading about Japan's boom of the 1980's and its bust thereafter.
Back in the 80's, everyone wanted their kids to learn Japanese language and Japanese culture. Nowadays, no one learns Japanese any more, and it is Chinese that has taken over the elementary schools.

And of course there is talk of "Tiger Moms" and how the Chinese raise their children (apparently under the illusion that everyone in China raises their children the exact same way), and no one particularly cares how the Japanese moms are holding up.

Well, I sincerely hope that China avoids the bust of their myriad bubbles, such as made Japan moribund and almost destroyed us... would have destroyed us, if the taxpayers had not freely gifted trillions to well deserving banks.

So, I hope all goes well. Clear up the Tibet thing, and also that Xinjiang matter, share the island beaches with Japan and everyone will be happy.
Whatever happens, do not get into those situations we know so well where after a time of woes, you find you have to start trying to "win the hearts and minds" of peoples. Learn from the mistakes of others.

--

Mini-Reviews: The Lone Ranger

"Mini" because they are based on viewing a trailer for a film.

Saw a trailer for The Lone Ranger yestermorn. It's overall feel was bad. Since the director and the writers were the guys who did Pirates Of The Caribbean, #1 through #4 , it probably explains why it seemed to be making such an effort to be funny.

Johnny Depp does not resemble a Native American in looks nor sound. When one thinks of Russell Means in The Last Of The Mohicans... well, it becomes clear that this film is a sophomoric joke-fest (Yes: "joke-fest". Stupid expressions for stupid movies.)

Of course, viewing the entire film may lead to a different experience...

--

Visionary and Religious Experiences of a Rather Dim Nature

Trib Local: Buffalo Grove:
http://www.triblocal.com/buffalo-grove/2011/10/12/man-believes-he-is-in-heaven-after-finding-a-free-beer-truck/


Man believes he is in heaven after finding a free beer truck
By Michelle Stoffel
TribLocal reporter
Oct. 12, 2011 at 11:39 a.m.

What does heaven look like? To a 46-year-old Deerfield man, it looks like a free beer truck.

The man apparently stumbled across a refrigerated beer trailer Tuesday used by the Schwaben Verein German heritage club and Grove Banquets in Buffalo Grove.

The trailer houses kegs connected to taps on the outside. Realizing he had nearly unlimited access cold beer, the man grabbed a nearby pitcher and began drinking.

At noon, staff at the banquet hall found him and called police. When police showed up, they found the man extremely intoxicated and called an ambulance, Buffalo Grove Deputy Chief Steve Husak said.

Before being sent to Northwest Community Hospital, he told police he didn’t think he had done anything wrong. He thought he had died and gone to heaven – a free beer truck, Husak said.

The man was not charged with public intoxication, nor did the Schwaben club press charges for theft.

 --

The IRS, Civil Rights, And The Right Wing 2006

Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5502785
Evangelical: Religious Right Has Distorted the Faith

by Linda Wertheimer
June 23, 2006 2:20 PM

... Let's remember...that the Religious Right did not come together in response to the Roe [Roe vs Wade on abortion] decision. No, Weyrich insisted, what got us going as a political movement was the attempt on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially discriminatory policies.

Bob Jones University was one target of a broader attempt by the federal government to enforce the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Several agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, had sought to penalize schools for failure to abide by antisegregation provisions. A court case in 1972, Green v. Connally, produced a ruling that any institution that practiced segregation was not, by definition, a charitable institution and, therefore, no longer qualified for tax-exempt standing.

The IRS sought to revoke the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University in 1975 because the school's regulations forbade interracial dating; African Americans, in fact, had been denied admission altogether until 1971, and it took another four years before unmarried African Americans were allowed to enroll. The university filed suit to retain its tax-exempt status, although that suit would not reach the Supreme Court until 1983 (at which time, the Reagan administration argued in favor of Bob Jones University)...

Then, if you doubt the segregationist attitudes imputed to some Southern "Christians" :
 http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2008/11/it-truly-does-old-atheists-heart-good_22.html

 The inset is from a message the founder of Bob Jones University delivered on April 17, 1960 in response to Brown vs. the Board of Education and its impact on the desegregation of all white colleges and universities. Plus, the fact that, like many whites in the south in the 1940’s, Bob Jones Sr. was a member of the Ku-Klux Klan.

When Dr. Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, the BJU student body cheered in chapel and Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. said he would not fly the university’s flag at half staff to honor this communist agitator.

The following paragraphs were taken form a 32 page booklet sold in the University’s book store in 1972 (when I was a student there) to support the Biblical bases for the University's stand on Biblical racial segregation, a point so strongly believed he even base the inspiration of the Bible on it:

“Now, we folks at Bob Jones University believe that whatever the Bible says is so; and we believe it says certain fundamental things that all Bible-believing Christians accept; but when the Bible speaks clearly about any subject, that settles it. Men do not always agree, because some are dumb-some people are spiritually dumb; but when the Bible is clear, there is not any reason why everybody should not accept it.” (page 1)

“Now, what is the matter? There is an effort today to disturb the established order. Wait a minute. Listen, I am talking straight to you. White folks and colored forks, you listen to me. You cannot run over God’s plan and God’s established order without having trouble. God never meant to have one race. It was not His purpose at all. God has a purpose for each race. God Almighty may have overruled and permitted the slaves to come over to America so that the colored people could be the great missionaries to the Africans. They could have been. The white people in America would have helped pay their way over there. By the hundreds and hundreds they could have gone back to Africa and got the Africans converted after the slavery days were over.” (page 10)

“I want you folks to listen-you white and you colored folks. Do not let these Satanic propagandist fool you. This agitation is not of God. It is of the devil. Do not let people slander God Almighty. God made it plain. God meant for Christian people to treat each other right. … Yes, Paul said, ‘God…hath made of one blood all nations of men…’ All men, to whatever race they may belong, have immortal souls; but all men have mortal bodies, and God fixed the boundaries of the races of the world. Let me repeat that it is no accident that most of the Chinese live in China. It is not an accident that most Japanese live in Japan; and the Africans should have been left in Africa, and the Gospel should have been taken to them as God command His people to do.” (page 13 - 14)

“If we would just listen to the Word of God and not try to overthrow God’s established order, we would not have any trouble. God never meant for America to be a melting pot to rub out the lines between the nations. That was not God’s purpose for this nation. When someone goes to overthrowing His established order and goes around preaching pious sermons about it, that makes me sick - for a man to stand up and preach pious sermons in this country and talk about rubbing out the line between the races - I say it makes me sick.

The trouble today is a Satanic agitation striking back at God’s established order. That is what is making trouble for us.” (page 15)

“Now, you colored people listen to me. If you had not been bought over here and if your grandparents in slavery days had not heard that great preaching, you might not even be a Christian, You might be over there in the jungles of Africa today, unsaved. But you are here in America where you have your own schools and your own churches and your own liberties and your own rights, with certain restrictions that God Almighty put about you - restrictions that are in line with the Word of God.” (page 22)

Born in Sin... Come on in!
Join the Party!

--

Thoughts on Religion

Religion is superior to politics.

However, Institutionalized Religion is a servant to politics.

--

The Brotherhood's New Jahaliya

I have to take back everything good I ever said about the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

I never said they were very sharp, though.

In my thrill of seeing a new Egypt, I forgot that the Brotherhood was a backward-looking group, looking to reclaim splendors of the past...

They tend to overshoot Egypt's past splendors and end their backwards time travel in a new period of Jahaliya stupidity, where the institution of religion itself has become the New Idolatry.

--

The Surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King

From  garry's subposthaven:
http://sub.garrytan.com/martin-luther-king-jr-was-wiretapped-and-sent-an-anonymous-letter-from-j-edgar-hoover-encouraging-him-to-kill-himself


[President John F. Kennedy]admitted later he asked the FBI to make an intensive investigation of Martin Luther King. And that on October 10th, 1963, he personally authorized the FBI to begin wiretapping King's phones. The Kennedys were most certainly not alone in these attitudes toward Dr. King in the 1960s, much of the security apparatus of the cold war American state was obsessed with the idea that the civil rights movement was infiltrated by communists, and working to tear down U.S. society from the inside. And no single person captured the fear and paranoia of the security apparatus more than Dr. Martin Luther King.

So faced with what they perceived as a threat, the security state did what all security states do when faced with a perceived threat. They surveilled Dr. King around the clock. They stalked his every move, broke into and bugged his office. They bugged his hotel rooms and they tapped into his phones. The FBI and Jay Edgar Hoover were obsessed with ruining Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

In 1964, after Hoover called King the most "notorious liar in the country" in a press conference, a package was sent to King in the mail, a package the House select committee ultimately traced back to the FBI. Inside this package, one of the most remarkable artifacts in American history was an anonymous letter addressed to Martin Luther King and a copy of an electronic surveillance tape apparently to lend credence to threats of exposure of derogatory personal information made in the letter. We don't know to this day for sure what was on that tape. The heavy speculation throughout the years it was of personal and sexual nature recorded by a device planted in Dr. King's hotel room. 

The letter that came with the tape read in part, "you know you are complete fraud and a great liability to all of us negroes. The American public will know you for what you are, an evil abnormal beast. King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation." The committee considered it highly likely that Director Hoover had before the fact knowledge of the action. 

So that's a letter encouraging Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to kill himself, sent to King from the FBI. This happened in American history.

--

We, the sheep, like to say that if we have nothing to hide, we should not care if the government invades our privacy to keep us safe.
Remember this; remember what governments are like.

--

We Need An NRA For Our Privacy

The Fourth Amendment states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

"Shall not be violated..."

If the US government wishes to spy on its allies in the EU, fine. That's just the way Washington wins "hearts and minds".

But it shall not violate the constitution further.

And I thought we did not need guns to protect ourselves from the government...

--

The Shape Of Flash Crash To Come

A Flash Crash need not take the form of a financial flash crash.

--

Washington's Failure

The dilemma in Washington now is for the Obama administration to find a middle path in dealing with the political crisis in Egypt. It has been refraining from pushing the Muslim Brotherhood or the Egyptian presidency from making real concessions to the opposition, and at the same time it has abandoned earlier conditions for its support for the new government, especially regarding human rights and the rule of law...

This is from Al Ahram Weekly, and it chronicles Washington's ineffective policies on Egypt; these policies are a good example of the absurd policies to the entire Middle East.

What does Washington do well?

Washington can send troops, collect emails, and create a electronic surveillance dictatorship, but it fails miserably at just helping human beings...

If you doubt me, remember than when tornadoes tore through Joplin, Missouri two years ago, Rep. Eric Cantor wanted to hold off disaster aid until cuts elsewhere could be found to offset them.
Disaster aid is basic helping other human beings, and many of the minds in Washington wanted to hold up that aid. Well, Joplin would still be waiting, and this does not even take into consideration Hurricane Sandy.
Basic kindness and helping the sick and hurt takes a back seat to arguments of Power and Money.

Both sides have been corrupted thoroughly. They are not our representatives anymore, not Congress, not the Administration. Everything is Power and Money, Gold and Oil. There is no basic human kindliness that exists in the Byzantine framework called Washington D.C.
Politics, Money, and Power.

Whenever politicians want to mix religion and politics and cry about culture wars, they haul out the Ten Commandments...
Not once do they invoke the Sermon on the Mount; not once are the Meek to be Blessed!
They do not believe it.
They do believe Commandments. That is something those in Power understand.
But they do not understand those who hunger and thirst for justice sake.

Our Washington D.C. is the Dismal Future In Waiting...

--

Egypt Discovers

Egyptians have known that Prayer is better than Sleep, and they seem now to have discovered that electricity, jobs, gasoline, and basic services are better than politico-religious ideology:

Ahram Online:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/1/75341/Egypt/Live-updates--Millions-pour-onto-Egypts-streets-fo.aspx
Millions pour onto Egypt's streets for anti-Morsi protests; 1 killed in Beni Suef

“Mubarak repressed us, but at least he gave us services; at least he didn’t cut the electricity, water and petrol like now.”...

“Nothing has changed; my salary didn’t increase. My wife is pregnant, how will I provide for my baby?” added Nabil...


Crowds are chanting: “national unity against the Muslim Brotherhood” and “you who rule in the name of religion, where is justice and where is religion?”...

 “Abdel-Nasser has said it before, the Muslim Brotherhood are not to be trusted,” a famous chant referring to former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser...

Islam is facing two crises: the place of religion in the modern world, and the disastrous fratricidal war between Shi'a and Sunni.

There are no guarantees,   رفاقي

--

Prescience and Prophecy

Prophecy is not a statement of future facts, whereas Prescience is.

There are a lot of people who go around saying bad things are going to happen rather soon, and it is all due to whatever behavior they disapprove of. Donald Trump says that everyone will lose their money, NewsMax habitually has disaster in their view, morals are declining and the day of reckoning is at hand...

Well, since we are all prone to death and decay, some day of reckoning is always at hand.
To be precise, bad things are always happening, so it takes no particular brains to be on the gloomy side.

It is a trivial statement to prophesy doom.
Many of the Prophets themselves got it a bit wrong, and things did not work out according to their exact words.

Prescience is a different matter. It depends upon Intuition, and that depends upon losing the predispositions inherent in the structure of the overweening Ego.

--

Golden Calves

 

The Genius of Electronic Surveillance

--

God The Businessman

My mother liked Mitt Romney because he was such a successful businessman.

That logic only goes a short way, however.

Were God a businessman, the Universe would still not yet be created...

The Return On Investment would not be right, the turn around would not be fast enough, and the whole project would just be too, too speculative.
Better to have a committee as the Divine Designer and let them take some collective responsibility...

When we write our tithing checks, we are treating God like some divine Creditor or Holy vendor already, aren't we? 10% due 10th mo. prox.
The deal is He gives us life and blessings... and some bad stuff... and we give him praise and 10% tithing. A solid quid pro quo, if there ever was one.

That's probably why we changed "Forgive us our debts..." to "Forgive us our trespasses..."

The check is in the mail.

--

Middle East Nuclear Spiral?

There is a possibility of losing control of matters, particularly in the Middle East. To lose control of nuclear technology is like being a member of the serving staff standing outside the oaken dining room door of Destruction Abbey, waiting to carry in the salmon in aspic just as the Duke of Hell is twiddling with the detonator.

Good article:
Al Ahram Online
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/74582/World/Region/Preventing-a-nuclear-spiral-in-the-Middle-East.aspx


Hans Blix is there.
I consider him to be a stormy petrel of the first order, since he reminds me of Mr. Bush's Iraq adventure; he reminds me frighteningly of our ability to deceive ourselves in a large-scale disaster:

Addressing an audience of 800 international nuclear technology experts, Blix also touched on the question of the alleged possession of nuclear weapons by the regime of Saddam Hussein, used to justify the US war on Iraq.
Iraq did not even have a nuclear programme to begin with, he said. The IAEA inspection teams that went to Iraq did not produce a trace of evidence of the existence of nuclear weaponry or material.

... In interview with CNN, after a nine-year silence, he said that Washington was bent on invading Iraq, regardless of the existence or non-existence of nuclear weapons. After 11 September, the Bush regime was determined to steer the affairs of the Arab world, beginning by creating a model for democratic transformation in Iraq. The plan backfired drastically...

I know you'll wonder why I keep harping on old news... Karma, kid. It's Karma.
We are all ancient mariners with our albatross necklaces of guilt...

--

Ecology and Ali ibn Abi Talib

I meditated yesterday on the Nahj al Balaagha  ( نهج البلاغة ‎ )  and it reminded me of a very appropriate sermon on our "strategy" of living on the earth:

This world is a place for which destruction is ordained and for its inhabitants departure from here is destined.

It is sweet and green. It hastens towards its seeker and attaches to the heart of the viewer.

So depart from here with the best of provision available with you and do not ask herein more than what is enough and do not demand from it more than subsistence.

 I find it interesting, and I think of it both as a military metaphor and just good advice to be ready to leave, and do not ask for too much, and be satisfied with enough to maintain life.

These are concepts rather alien to us.

--

An Adventure In Art (31)

 

Morning Light in Liberty Village

C.A. Jeffrey

Postcards From The Hammer

http://cajeffrey.blogspot.com/

--

Sinbad Running Upon Asphalt Rivers

An Asphalt River of a Sinbad Runner

نهج البلاغة ‎

Finally, after two years of troubles: problems with the knee ligaments, then problems with the ankle tendons, I have reached a point where I have no particularly unusual pain during and after running. And this is a real mitvah, I think, a real blessing.

Given my advanced age, I have to be focused while running; I cannot blithely "pick 'em up and put 'em down" willy-nilly, like a young kid. I have to preserve the tendons and ligaments for another few years. I have been more or less doing this for more than 50 years, so I would miss the sweaty treat of the morning wind and the peppery smell of pollens and the asphalt river upon which we Sinbad runners sail...

I meditate while running. I have to keep it along the lines of the jogging endeavor, so as not to lose sight of what I am doing. When I forget I am running, I wobble, waiver, and disaster awaits.

Today I meditated on a sermon from the Nahj al Balaagha  ( in Arabic above left)  of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son in law of the Prophet. This is a sermon that, for me, is very appropriate and often the object of attention. These words were delivered to large groups and often in a military setting, so keep that in mind if some of the expressions seem to sound odd, such as "Your last ones are being awaited...", which makes a good deal of sense if we think of the rear guard of an army - or, in my case, the stragglers in a running race who lag behind.

Your goal - reward or punishment - is before you.

Behind your back is the hour of resurrection which is driving you on.

Stay light and overtake (the forward ones). Your last ones are being awaited by the first ones (who have preceded).

--

Ricin Syndrome

When Elvis impersonators and soap opera actresses obsess about producing the poison ricin from castor beans and sending envelopes full of it to government officials.

No one cares that I got an e-mail with ricin in it...

--

Things To Never Say When Leaving A Public Lavatory

From the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22998915

An Israeli Jew has been shot dead near Jerusalem's Western Wall after a guard mistook him for a Palestinian militant, police say.

Gunfire was heard on Friday morning at the wall - one of Judaism's holiest sites where hundreds of worshippers were attending prayers at the time.

Police say the guard shot the man after hearing him shout "Allahu Akbar".
The area, which is patrolled by armed guards, closed to visitors for about an hour but has now reopened.
The incident took place at about 07:40 local time (04:40 GMT) as the man emerged from a public toilet at the wall compound.

A police spokesman said the guard drew his weapon and fired a number of shots at the man after hearing him shout "Allahu Akbar" (God is great, in Arabic).

The man had his hands in his pockets at the time he was approached by the guard, the spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said.

 I guess that counts as profiling:  A guy with hands in pockets shouting "God is great!"
He was emerging from a public toilet, the story says. That in itself is an important detail, I guess. I do not think I shall ever understand those crazy Palestinians... and those mad people who shoot them...

--

The Mist

The Mist at Jones Beach, NY

--

Winds of Jurassic Park

GM wheat  (genetically modified wheat) was found growing wild in Oregon last month. This is some years after test fields had been removed.

Anybody who had seen Jurassic Park knew that the probability of the same GM wheat popping up somewhere nearby was greater by quite a bit than the probability that the GM wheat was strictly under control, and it would never occur in that area again - unless somebody planted it deliberately.
Nature abhors a vacuum and stretches itself out to fill in all the voids in the genetic landscape.

The wind blows free...

--

The House of Treasure

From Mosaic:
http://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2013/06/fossilized-judaism/

Perhaps the most important book on the Jewish bookshelf is the Shulhan Aruch. Composed by Rabbi Yosef Karo in 1563, the Shulhan Aruch is the code of Jewish law and Judaism’s most authoritative book. It sets down precisely what the law is in the myriad of circumstances in which a Jew can find himself. I remember as a boy, my rabbi told me that if a Jew could take one book with him to a desert island, it should be this one...

I remember a line from a Dean Koontz novel:

"Did you find Jesus in jail?"

and it referred to the frequent experience of being withdrawn from society, incarcerated, and finding religion and redemption.

However, in our Society, we do not merely "find Jesus" or merely find a religious point of view; we also find an entire corpus of catechism, sacred writings, canon laws, and theologies.

When we go on our solitary questing, when we find a point of inspiration, we expect to find a treasure house filled to the brim with gold, diamonds, and rubies.

The quest is, then, over and done with; who wants more than the treasure house teeming with riches?

But the quest is not over. When we seek the Holy, what we should find is a House of Treasure, mostly empty as yet, but which is filled with the potential to be the receptacle of the gold of our good actions.
The House of Treasure is the possibility to be Good, overwhelmingly Good, and to write the novel cathechism of our age.

--

Friendship and Love

'L'Amitié est l'Amour sans ailes.' wrote Charlotte Smith once. 

"Friendship is Love without wings"

But she knew that sometimes those wings had talons, so it is not always clear where Mrs. Smith stood on these matters of the heart.

--

Time Travel

Back in the days when I was Top Dog Roadie for the concert of shows called The Tour - and I think I have written about this: it dealt with religious apparitions, rather like Fatima in its day - I learned a good deal about the world and the flesh. This is a story about the world; the world of physics to be exact.

Most venues required an entire build-up of facilities, from high-tech sound equip to the banal matter of porta-potties. We had contacted local vendors months ahead, and as the hands of time tore off the pages of the calendar, our contacts increased, and we spelled out in excruciating detail our needs: we were an infinite paint-by-numbers-project that had a ravenous appetite, and would their "palette" suffice our needs?
We left nothing to chance.
Actually, we left randomness to chance. We were not aware of that at the time.

As a result, I was not ready for Hessel, Michigan.

Each year, Hessel has a classic boat festival, and it goes back to the time of when the witch king of Angmar was still a jolly good fellow (...and so say all of us!).
Hessel is located in the UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan, and it is a small village, and it is not at all the usual venue one might assume desirable for our "concerts", but we "answered to a higher power", and Hessel was one of the places listed on all those t-shirts...

We were there the week after the boat show.

Long story short, during the first evening I get a call from Security that there had been a "skirmish" out yonder by the porta-potties. Details were sketchy, and I thought it best to leave the A/C comfort of my Southern Comfort trailer and wander over to check things out.

We had ordered 15 potty units. We had received 15 units, and we had placed them more or less in a row under the oak trees on the northeast corner of the property. When I arrived in my The Tour Golf Cart © , I could pretty well see what the problem was; there were only 7 potties under the trees. Some of those were tilted at precarious angles.

Eight units had been stolen.
Except Security told me they had been around the area, and if a truck had come and lifted off eight potties, someone would have seen it. No, the potties had vanished. So... like, who wants - or needs - eight porta-potties, laden with their unique chemistry?
Was there a new drug manufactured from the potty chemicals and uric acid and what-all-else is in a porta-potty?

Security directed my attention to a couple small groups of agitated folks. It turns out they had witnessed the whole thing: while their pals and buds were using the porta-potties, everything disappeared in a flash of light. Now their friends were not here.
They wanted to know if this was, like, part of the show, and I assured them it was not. Just then, John Constable, the local sheriff drove up with all lights flashing. As an aside, I always refer to the local cops by nicknames based on the names of English painters. It helps keep me focused. The NYPD was run by a nice guy named Gainsborough, as I recall.

After stories had been taken, I went back to the office, the sheriff following me, and once there I put in a emergency call to Benny's Porta Johns, from whom we had rented these units. Benny had a 24-hour hot line, which was his home phone, and the missus answered on the 10th ring: it was almost 11:00 PM and she sounded as if she were hot, indeed, about being disturbed at that time of night.

I eventually got Benny on the phone.

There was about 10 minutes of fuzzy-wuzzy, sleep-befuddled slapstick we had to wade through to begin our conversation, but he eventually began to get up to speed.

"Oh... I see." he said.
"Good..." I said.
"Porta-Potties..." he said with emphasis.
"Indeed." I said.

There was a pause, a hiatus that extended out through a series of saxophone-like coughs.

He was back. "I thought you said you wanted Portal-Potties...", he said with emphasis.
"What the heck?!" I said with emphasis.

Short story long, it turns out that the potties shipped to us were time portals - future and past... sorta like Star Gate and The Time Machine and what have you - and they were definitely not standard issue porta-potty. Not by a long chalk. Portal-Potties... simple as that.

The sheriff took a while to come around to the new view of the sitch (situation), since he was not as used to the types of other-natural events that came around all the time in my line of Roadie work.
He wanted to know why - exactly! exactly, why! -  terlets (toilets) or potties should be time travel devices, or more important, why should a time machine be made in the shape of a potty?

He had a good point.

I mean, why would anyone want to travel in time while their pants were down? Pants open or down? It would give one a bad rep in whatever time one traveled to, unless, of course, it was one of those rare times when such things were the style, but those eras were few and far between.

Summing it up, John Constable (Yes, he told me. Yes. My Mother named me after the painter.) was not easily persuaded, since, as he put it, he was born at night, but not the immediately previous spell between dark and dawn.

I gave him some coffee, and then started on the computer.
I motioned him over as I Googled "sudden appearances toilets..." and amazingly we found references to events of people floating into a shocked and appalled view while seemingly taking care of "business".
We looked for a historical event we were familiar with, finally finding something in the travels of Lewis and Clark in the area known as the Badlands... something about a mad shaman pelting the explorers with what appeared to a later and wiser age to be blue colored urinal cakes.

John Constable called Benny back.  "Get down here! We gotta get them folks back!... I see... I see... Yes! Yes! Isee... Yeah we gotta do it now, Benny!"
He hung up the phone.
"Can he do it?" I asked.
"Hmm...?" John Constable said.
"Get them back?" I asked.
"Yeah. I think so."
John was silent for a second, mulling over something he had trouble putting into words.
"Benny said he thinks he can do it. Said the portal-potties flush both ways."
I nodded approvingly.

It had been a long day, and it was not over. I wondered about the past... and the future, too! I was sure we'd get a handle (no pseudo-pun by association intended) on it; the evil of the past and future days are sufficient thereto, and need none of our help.

--

The Weapons Trade

The international trade in weapons, whether it takes the form of an outright sale or whether it is disguised as some form of military aid, is as destructive and as immoral as the opium trade of the past, with which Britain paid for her imperial adventures in India.

We are deeply involved in the Capitalism of Violence, Wars, and Weaponry; we justify our involvement by saying that everyone is doing it, even our enemies, and we therefore must take part in a Mutually Assured Weaponry, in order to safeguard the precious ideals of our country.

--

The Limits Of Reason

MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction, is a strategic concept that came into being with the atomic bomb. The only way to control nuclear arms is all sides having enough weaponry to destroy everyone else many times over. It is a rational concept.

Yet, even given that MAD is a concept of strategy arrived at by strict application of rationality, it is still insane, is it not?

Furthermore, did not Adolf Eichmann administer the Holocaust in a most rational manner, with extensive planning and record keeping?

Reason has its limits.

--

Syria And The Future

I have to meditate on our involvement in Syria. I have found it most disturbing.

More wealth and money is spent on establishing ongoing spots of discord, and the goals are nebulous. I do not think that the objectives of our leadership would stand up under the light of day. Ask them, President Obama and Senator McCain: "What are your goals?"

Human rights?
By what imperative do we go around forcing our view of rights down peoples' throats? Did George Washington counsel us to do so?
No, I fear our purported interest in other peoples' freedoms is nothing more than a desire to subject them to our views of freedom, and to control them with our system of "Freedom under Surveillance".

But these are all political statements.

Now I seek the spiritual. The answer is there, staring us in the face, but we can't recognize it yet.

I have to meditate on it now, because I have a very distinct unsettling feeling that we are entering a the End-Game of the Chess Game with Death we have been playing for a century or more.

--

Freeport High School, Illinois

I have come into possession of a silver water pitcher awarded to my great-grandparents, David and Sophronia Parsons, from the students of the Freeport, Illinois, High School in 1867.

I suppose it was due to their being outstanding teachers. My grandmother was a teacher, also, before she married... played ladies basketball at Ypsilanti Normal School, too.

David and Sophronia were the parents of William T. Parsons, who married Anna Owen from New York, and they two were the parents of my grandmother, Myra. William T. also had two sisters, Lorena and Lulubell.

What was the mascot for the Fighting Freeport Illini ?

--
photo:  Robert Bike,   http://www.robertbike.com/

--

Syria

The decision to send military aid to the rebels will come back to haunt us.

--

Democracy vs. Surveillance 1

1.0
Democracy and Surveillance are at odds.

1.1
Democracy seeks to have a society with fulfilled and integral individuals.

1.2
Surveillance society practices alienation.

1.3
In the present situation, the Surveillance hierarchy seeks to alienate an Individual from that Individual's Communication; i.e., to make the Expression of the individual mind a commodity which is open to scrutiny at any time.

1.4
In its essence, Surveillance creates a prison of the Inquisition, similar to Poe's The Pit and The Pendulum, wherein it is not the individual's body that is imprisoned and subject to torturous scrutiny, but the expressions and communications of the individual which are imprisoned and subject to inquisition.

1.5
Since one can never be sure whether one is under surveillance, it is safest to always "toe the line".


(Note to section 1
For most of history, human society's creativity has been bipolar, incorporating creative impulses in pairs: a thesis and its antithesis.

In this time of history, we see the unparalleled growth of Surveillance, which works to create a docility based on the possibility of always being under observation, and we see the growth of its antithesis, which is a great burst of creative individuality often fed by a desire to separate the creative artist from the drabness of docile sameness.)