Happy New Year: 2009

Sign seen at my local bank.

The ideograph-fellow appears to be hoofing it out of 2008!

Dante Anansazi's Tree

I have an olive tree in a terra cotta pot, where lives a winter spider named Dante Anansazi. Here he lives, plotting world domination and spinning his webs of intrigue...a sort of Dr. Mabuse die Spinne instead of der Spione. Some of his stories are at http://peace-weaving.blogspot.com

Comparative Sociology Of Ghettoes

Unit 1: Warsaw and Gaza

Monuments:

Tanks:

The Soldiers:

The Burning:

The Children:

St. Jerome: Right-Wing And Left-Wing

"If anyone stray even a little from the straight and narrow way, it is a small matter whether he wander to the right hand or to the left. The great matter is that he hath lost the way." Liber I Commentary, The Anglican Breviary

What's A Palestinian Worth?

Paying attention only to the dead, not the quick...or not-so-quick anymore, the Hamas rockets killed 1 person in the past week, whereas the IDF has killed about 315 up to tea time this afternoon. This gives us a ratio of 315 to 1, or 315: 1. It answers the question: what's a Palestinian worth? It is good to know that we Americans, who cannot run our own country in such a way as to secure the lives and welfare of our own citizens, are putting our great minds and souls behind this effort.

Heavy Holidays

It is not the food that we have planned for ourselves and bought for ourselves and eaten for our own sustenance that puts the pounds on during the holidays. Rather , it is the excess food that we find ourselves compelled to eat, because those for whom we bought it have seen fit not to eat.
Why is it that when you invite friends over for a get-together, friends you know perfectly well eat like wild boars and drink like fish, suddenly show up and have apparently joined Weight-Watchers as well as having become tea-totallers, showing an abstemious nature even beyond that of the Womens' Christian Temperance Union? I mean, exactly what am I to do with all that bloody beer they did not drink? Since I do not drink, it will be there until next Xmas. And the rum! I bought the smallest pequenino-piglet bottle of rum there is, something so small it was fit for a miniature doll house built on the theme of Little Nell, or The Drunkard's Folly; a Dickensian dollhouse like those Xmas village houses. I do not have a shot glass or jigger to measure careful drams of painful exactitude, and thus I promote a cavalier, swashbuckling approach to pouring drinks with large noggins filled to the brim!

The one confirmed Rum-and-Coke-meister was even joined by one or two other people, of whom I had never heard a propensity to drink rums and cokes, but there they were. Good. They barely put a dent in that blasted bottle! No! I looked at it when the party was winding down, and it was no more than a quarter down, even though I know there had been a constant parade to the bar area and back. It was like the goblet from which Thor drank at the giant's feast; a goblet which, unknown to Thor, was connected to the great Ocean, and try as he might, Thor could barely drain the cup.
And then the food. They ate like trenchermen and trencherwomen, but there were yet a few wheels of cheese and a jeroboam or two of rare wines, and enough of the Widow Clicquot to start a major nunnery. I am putting a dent in the cheese. She-who-must-be-obeyed suggests that I befriend a drinker or two for the winter. I warned her about this. I mean, do you actually want to be forced to purchase another refrigerator, since the one you already have is quite filled with beer, wine, and other toxic holiday fare.

At this point, I am almost ready to invite my family and relatives over just to sop things up! The only thing I truly miss is the egg nog. I use it mostly as a carrier or delivery system for nutmeg, an herb to which I am addicted. Nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon...and ginger: ginger fresh, ginger candied, ginger dried, chunks or cut thin as a gothic rose window. We used to make egg nog from the ground up back in the days before the salmonella-in-the-eggs craze. It was thickened with egg whites beaten and whipped cream of the heavy cream type, the heavy cream that could almost stand to attention before the stroke of the whisk. Heavy Holidays to one and all!

The Brothers A In The Sun

My nephews have been found, and not in Brazil as expected. The e-ticket debris was a red herring to throw me off the trail. New Year's Greetings from San Diego !! signed: Austin, Aloysius, Ayden...and someone named Linda (!?)

Judith Apter Klinghoffer And Montag, Medical Detective

I came across a blog of Judith Apter Klinghoffer in the site of History News Network. I saw this: The Maccabees Dared Yes, they dared say no to a powerful Syrian tyrant. They got rid of the idols and rededicated the temple in Jerusalem in those days at this time. Bellow[sic] you can see the Israeli army promising to chase away the darkness .

Israel Strikes Gaza

Die Tzionistische Medina has struck Gaza. 250 are reported killed. This far exceeds Israeli killed or injured in the time leading up to these strikes. Of course, the Kadima and the Likud and their allies do not consider Arab lives worth as much as Israeli lives. Am I mistaken? I make judgements based on actions, not on the sweet words of tyrants trying to hide their bloody hands.

Bush Winter Across The World

Chrysler Headquarters December 28, 2008 1030 Zulu time Michigan The temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The wind is gusting up to 30 mph or more. Power lines are exploding in the distance, and the sky fills with blue to light green as they go up.

Pro-Choice Or Pro-Life?

I have stayed away from such topics before. Now I cannot. In the world of pro-life, the woman is a chattel and a slave to the procreation policies of society. In the world of pro-choice, the unborn child is a slave and a thing denied any vestige of human dignity. I say: take your pick and fight it out! As usual in present American society, we are fighting to see who can be more degraded and debased, and who can inflict more pain and suffering on innocents. You would think that having inflicted the present pain on ourselves, we would begin to wake up and see what we have wrought. In the world of The Greatest Generation and their offspring, The Boomers, every situation is zero-sum: either someone dies, or someone is radically marginalized; there is no creative solution wherein all win.

Professor Mac's Contextual Comedy

The sainted Bernie Mac was speaking on his TV show about teen-aged girls, and he thought they should be seen and not heard, and - if seen - might best be covered by a burqa ( or, more correctly, a burqu' ). "The Taliban had it right....", he said. I found it funny...and still do, because in all my experience of the word "Taliban", I had never experienced it in this context.

Vita Nova: A New Life

Steal away, let's steal away; there's no reason left to stay. For me and you, let's start anew; and, darling, steal away.

The American Economy And Hydrogen Fuel Cells

I spoke briefly with a young man who is working with an energy company. He informs me that the energy industry is rapidly backing away from Hydrogen Fuel Cells, since oil is becoming so cheap. That is the kiss of death. The Hydrogen Fuel Cell would create a revolution similar to that of the compute by offering a clean and renewable source of energy on a massive scale. By abandoning HFC, we abandon the future. We shall be like Rome: the water stills flows in the aqueducts, but we are already dead and the barbarians are at the gates. I do have faith that Obama will encourage Hydrogen.

My Point Of View

I am beginning to understand how my point of view differs from that of many people. Christmas has come and gone, and not once have I set foot in a church for services. I am rather rabid in my avoidance of the holy precincts. Usually we attempt to attend Pastor Eberhard's German language service in Advent at the Lutheran church, but we did not this year. Instead, I tolled the beads of a rosary, having issued an invite to one and all within earshot to join. Well, do not send to ask who with me the beads do toll... Their names were Nemo, Personne, and No Man. I tolled alone. Some years ago I studied for an important placement exam. I was studying hard and for long hours. I was worried about the exam and my future and my family. One night something happened; perhaps I fell asleep, perhaps not. A holy presence walked forward and told me that I had no need to fear, for I would literally ace the exam. Short version: I woke up relieved from all fear, and went on to ace said exam, something to the tune of 99.9th percentile. The point of this is that over the years I forgot this happened. Then my wife reminded a few years ago. (...and there have been other events along the way...)

I did not stop and obsess about "speaking to God" or seeing angels. I kept on going. No holy presence said "Here I am. Stop here and worship forever!!". Some presence - it may have been an image of Jesus, actually - talked to me about an exam and said I'd ace it. That's all there is to that.

I spend time praying each and every day. From a childish and pubertal obsession with God-the-Father or God-the-Avenger or God-who-loves-America-above-all-nations or all that other nonsense and gibberish beaten into our young heads, I have come to a place where I feel quite comfortable with the Holy. This is not to say I am overly familiar and satisfied with the divine. The weather of God changes dramatically, and one must always strive to be on the qui vive theologically, so to speak. Now I have said here that I do not hold with the notion of talking to God, for this could very well lead to a fine madness on my part. I still hold this to be true and valid. If I had to describe Prayer now, I would be forced to use a metaphor of Stephen King's and say that Prayer is a Shining. Not a Shining quite like in his novel, but a wordless quiescence or turbulence, being at peace or wrestling, a warmth and cold, a great moving and a million years of solitude............. I have struggled to understand God and myself every day of my life. That is how my point of view differs. It is not better than someone else's, but it allows me to say: you must be student every day! And herein I guess is my problem with churches. Whenever I have walked with God, I never found a place of absolute stasis: God always continued walking to and fro throughout the universe, not stopping in one spot and one spot alone to bask in the fevered "hosannas" of a singular people at one idiosyncratic time. God never stops. If you like to think God defines, He never stops defining Himself nor the Universe. God is changing all the time in my consciousness, because my consciousness is so limited, it requires an infinite time to experience God. So I feel this ongoing tumult as change. Whether God Himself changes or not is up to Himself. So...the best way to describe Prayer may be to go walk-about with the Holy. See if you can keep up for a bit. Send me a post card.

The Sun Gets Ready To Return...

pix: romanlily http://www.flickr.com/photos/romanlily/3127921409/

Christmas & New Year

The Ford Escort of 2008 drives away. Soon the snow will stop. And rise the sun, begin the day! Amen. Merry Christmas Day.

The story of the picture:

All men and women are separate from each other, and thus form individual units of consciousness.

Unions are an attempt to create physical oneness.

Religion and our concept of God are our effort to create a symbolic oneness.

From the many, comes the One; from the One, comes the many.

In the times of tempest, when the many are blown apart by the storm, the oneness of God and Faith hold us together.

This is the story in the picture: there is a coldness and a departure...just before the sun arrives.

Xmas

I built a Christmas village, wherein all mankind of goodwill could live and dwell together. It cost a lot, but it was worth it. Mostly people came who had lost their houses to the periodic and cyclical destruction of people inherent in our present way of life. This is my house in the village. Merry Christmas from Montag

Comments and Bush Winter

Bush Winter Today is Monday, the 22nd. The cold and snow have quite bowled me over, as Lord Marchmain used to say. Back in October, I said that the winter of 2008-2009 will be the Bush Winter. It is not that I blame him directly for the winter, but it is a fact that as Bush leaves office, we are being deluged by the Ironies of Circumstance that follow in his wake: we wage a war in such an outrageous fashion that only total arrogance allows us to justify to ourselves the illegality of the procedure.......and it blows up in our faces! we strut about as recently as 2 years ago, and pompously declaim that History is no more! History is but a footnote to the American Empire! - long may it reign!......and no ones sees the enormous banana peel Economic downturn on the sidewalk just in front of us! ........the list goes on and on, but I'm sure you get the picture. Therefore, since Bush famously has questioned Global Climate Change, has appointed political hacks to posts in science agencies who have sabotaged research into the causes of climate change, and generally said Nix! to the international community trying to do something.......it only stands to reason that this winter is going to be a doozy! We have already run out of places to put the snow...and winter is 24 hours old. Comments As I mentioned, I have some comments from some very kind people. I am quite bowled over, as Lord Marchmain used to say. I shall take a look at them Tuesday. Today is Monday and I have to go to my parents 65 miles north of here and help them get ready for their Xmas bash. This is usually accomplished by writing notes for my mother to remind her that (1) the stove is probably set on high...again!, and (2) you probably have forgotten about that sauce pan you popped on the high burner. Did I tell you the story of when I was cleaning their kitchen ceiling and discovered shreds of what appeared to be beef jerky in the recessed lighting? It was beef. It was all about a pressure cooker that was left unattended. Anyway, I shall let the comments go, because I do not have time to answer, and nice things from nice people create sort of a fire storm of emotion in my breast, sort of like a maelstrom of pleasure and longing, and I'd rather not waste it on a 65 mile drive through the snow; one runs the risk of mixing the feeling of joy and the feeling of being-pissed-off-at-driving, and that really makes no sense. My nephews said they could not devise a way to look at the comments. They are as cunning as foxes, and only switch to the innocence of lambs when it suits their purposes. [Sniff..( wipes away a tear)] I guess they take after me.

Getting Started

I am just getting started now, having been on vacation, as it were, shovelling snow and dealing with being unemployed and arguing with fellow board members of the homeowners association of a semi-failed housing community. Sometimes we feel as if we are all poster kids for Disaster America, but it passes. I shall be getting to my comments. In my absence, 3 comments have accumulated, which number is a bloody tsunami for me. Most of my old school chums that read the blog apparently have taken vows of silence, only giving voice to a few syllables when they stumbled into choir of an early morning in Xmastide, and sing "Ierusalem Gaude!" My first order of business is to set the tone. Notice I have removed the picture of the ancien regime rejoicing in the removal of habeas corpus that used to grace the right sidebar, along with a quote from Cromwell. No more about that bunch. After all, the torture was for our well being and welfare. And I say, if a little torture may make the US of A a safer place, we are certainly worth it. I was reading the NY Times Book Review from last week about the number of slaughters of the innocents committed in Vietnam; many, many, many, not just a few "bad cookies" or "rotten apples" having a My Lai bash, but an absolute flood of abuse. Oh, well. It is not for us to judge, nor condemn, for we have no conception of Right and Wrong. I mean, if present day American society had the merest glimmer of the meaning of Right and Wrong, would we be where we are today? Economically? Spiritually? Department of Defensively? There will probably be no official inquiries of a serious nature into war crimes under the new administration, and this is probably due to an effort to soothe the political emotions of the nation. That's fine. However, there will never be accountability for anything anymore, because the USA does not have the stomach for facing its moral corruption: it does not know Right from Wrong, Good from Evil. The only evil that exists today is some focus of obsession; for the right wing, it appears to be abortion; for the left wing, it used to be Bush. How convenient to wrap up evil into such a small package - a mere bagatelle! - and be done with it. In Bloomberg today, we read: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDjmuEpDoctc&refer=us Saving Capitalism No Sure Thing as Statism Undermines Economy By Simon Kennedy, Matthew Benjamin and Rich Miller "... Even Bush, who ran for the U.S. presidency espousing smaller government, agrees. He told a CNN interviewer last week he has “abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” The contradiction of abandoning free market principles to save the free market is grotesque. Yet, it will not dawn on the political and opinion leaders that this is not some bizarre exception that is the proof of the rule of free markets...it is something far different. We cannot see even that which is in front of our faces, for we are so enslaved to the idols of the past that we cannot be free. We live a sham life by following rules we never question and filling roles that were written for other people of other times. Each person must find God. Each person must create their own philosophy. Each person must go on their own quest for a vision, and when they have achieved that vision, they must not abdicate their responsibility to interpret it and speak of it to the hands of some authority figure who has written a best-selling book about it. It's like me and music; I must create the mix of music that penetrates my being. I use a lot of scraps and rags from music types, because I am musically illiterate. But my music, no matter how poor and tattered, is mine. Within the past 6 years I suddenly developed a love for Opera. In the season of 2006-2007 I saw The Barber of Seville live from the Met and cried at the end of Act I. I have not been enslaved to one type of music, nor to someone else's dictates about what I should like. So also do not let people say that you do not have the theology, or the philosophy, or the logic, or the writing skills to create and delineate and define your worldview. They are lying when they tell you that. They wish to keep you enslaved and dependent on them. If you see God, there is no bloody rule that says you have to talk about it at all, much less talk about it in a way that I or someone else approves. It's like me and music; I don't quite keep silent, but I hum the most awful doggerel and sing disjointed snips of hymns in a hideously cracked voice, yet it is all good. This is what I shall write about.

Montag: December 21 2008 Wherein I Heal My Inner Fezziwig

December 19 My nephews seemed to have taken off for warmer climes. When I returned to the old Blogstead, I found the fire out, the dishes piled unwashed in the sink, and the beds unmade. The front door was unlocked. The remnants of a meal were on the dining room table, like The Rodents' Buffet. I opened the refrigerator and it looked like French Guiana: the tropical part, a lush spread of tropical forest floor tendrils strung between titbits. The thought struck me, "Dreamcatcher!", as if they were Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, and Tim Olyphant: Beaver, Jonesy, and Pete, and they had fled from an alien presence, but they had left paper scraps strewn about with copies of ticket purchases and e-ticket info indicating that Brazil was their target. They were staying at the Pousada O Casarao. They were soaking up the sun. Since I had just trod through 11" of snow, I collapsed in a heap in a chair and uttered a benignant curse and a malignant blessing. Then I cleaned the place up. December 20 The Met put on Thais today, so my daughter and I went around to see it. Renee Fleming, whom I call Peggy Fleming, and Thomas Hampsen were the leads, and it was wonderful. Placido Domingo seemed to be hanging around the seamy edges of the proscenium curtain, muttering commentary in a form of English that needed sub-titles much more than did the French libretto of Massenet's opera. After 3 1/2 hours were subsumed under the heading "Dolce Far Niente", it was time to get to the Christmas party being held at my local auto mechanic's. My mechanic hails from Iraq. The food was Middle-Eastern and was "latheeth jiddan !" There is something about free food. I think it is: No pay and no tip makes the best seasoning! I shall have to work it out in Latin, and say it frequently. Anyway, the food was piled higher than Ali Baba's treasure...the stuff he confiscated from the 40 thieves, you know. And speaking of Ali Baba, what book of the season does his name appear in? Anyone? Anyone? Buehler? Sorry. The 1000 and 1 Nights is not a book of the season. A Christmassy book is what I require. O.K. It is A Christmas Carol; you know, the Ebeneezer Scrooge one. I am certain you recall the 3 spirits, although you may call them ghosts. You may even recall old Marley and his chains, Tiny Tim, and a bit of porridge, but you probably do not recall Ali Baba in such a snowy and Anglo setting. Flashback: Scrooge as boy away at school and left there for the Xmastide holidays, looks dreamily through a frost laden window and dreams of the characters about whom he has read: Ali Baba and other rascals. There. Now, just the merest mention of Scrooge whets my memory for things past. And my situation at a Christmas party where at least 1/2 the people are Muslim and the rest are Christian leads that whetted memory to walk the paths of not just the memorable, but the Memorious Fantastic! The stage is set for memory of the Christmas parties I gave for employees from the far past. Indeed! Fezziwig throws a party in the 21st century! Old Fezziwig ( one of my alter egos, if I have not mentioned this before), red in face and jowl, sitting at a tall desk - a scrivener's desk - and wearing a Welsh wig! I - as Fezziwig - look at the clock, which stands at almost 7:00. I adjust my capacious waistcoat - and I still have a waistcoat, although it is no longer capacious; capacity seems to have gone out of style! - and call out, "Yo, there, Muhammed! Ali! Paolo! Put up the shutters, and let us prepare for the party!" I walked to the middle of the garage and began to move hoists and tools. "Clear away, lads! Make room for the dancing!" Muhammed looked at me questioningly. "The Imam says that there should be no dancing, Mr. Fezziwig." I don't miss a beat. "The Imam is correct; there should be no dancing on the holy days! But today is not Christmas. And there is always dancing before Christmas. Swing to it, Muhammed!' Muhammed smiled a smile as broad as broad could be, wider than the Street called Broad, as he hustled equipment to the wall. I forget a lot. About this time, Natalie McMaster, or some other volupt fiddler, would break into "Sir Roger de Coverley", and we would bow, cork-screw, and thread-the-needle to a fare-thee-well. I think my Inner Fezziwig is one of my more likeable aspects.

December 9 2008: Aloysius: The Deadly Efficiency Of Markets

From the OF, that is, the Old F...ah, Fellow this morning:



http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JL09Dj02.html

Benedict XVI is magnificently right
By Spengler

...If moral rot has taken hold of a society, the market mechanism will take it to hell faster and more efficiently than any of the alternatives.

There is an even greater flaw in the theory of the free market, perhaps, and that is in the assertion that the market can form adequate expectations about the future profitability of firms and make proper judgments about allocation of capital. How do we explain away the misallocation of capital to Internet stocks during the late 1990s and to homes in the United States (and elsewhere) during the ensuing years?

The world simply is too uncertain for the market to look more than a year or two over the horizon. Technological and social change occurs in unexpected and dramatic ways, frustrating the best guesses of the cleverest entrepreneurs, not to mention the stodgy decisions of central planners. The market cannot form accurate long-term expectations; at best it can imagine future outcomes. The quality of its imagination in this case depends on cultural factors that transcend economic judgment...

The Pope's essay is at:
http://www.acton.org/publications/occasionalpapers/publicat_occasionalpapers_ratzinger.php?view=print

Monday December 8: Austin

Abwartend Montag

Waiting for Monday

En Attendant Lundi

December 7 2008: Aloysius

My uncle called me to say that the world had been on a Blade Runner trajectory that had been accelerating every year; a Juggernaut to the dark and dystopic future where the rich were few and pampered, and the great mass of the populace hustled on the streets of cities where neon lights created a chiaroscuro of the black of despair and the white of the atrophy of all passion spent.

It was The Jeffersons with teeth, where we roamed the streets or were swept into tidal currents of the automobiles which clogged the streets, while the rich inhabited their

"...deluxe apartment(s) in the sky-y-y-yiii !!"

or

"...deluxe digs in Dubai-i-i-iii !!!"

Up until today, our history has been a film of jump cuts and isolated shots of the individual actors, creating anxiety, like Godard's A Bout de Souffle where everyone is alone, alienated, and isolate.
Our economic theories were designed to keep us weak and prey for the predatory, our religious beliefs were designed to keep us unquestioning and ignorant, our sexual mores were designed to keep our lusts just short of any possible satiation or fulfillment.

Whew.
A lot for a Sunday morning.
I wish my uncle a bit more comfortable afternoon and evening.

December 6 2008 Ayden

Hello.
The task of writing falls to me today.

My uncle seems to think himself a latter-day Abraham - or Abram - and speaks of an odyssey to some other land. He thinks that it is a pity that Mars is not being terra-formed and capable of sustaining a population.
He often thought that it would be a good deal for the Palestinians to trade their ancestral homes on Earth for large regions of Mars; this being a deal that Netanyahu et alii would jump at and the hideous American Bush-type, evangelical mentality would rejoice over.
Of course, in the fullness of time, Mars would become a paradise, and the USA and its loyal allies might have to renege on some promises made to Palestinians...but that was all just a sci-fi story plot.

He looked at the photos and paintings of his relatives and ancestors, then came to the conclusion that he was responsible for the welfare of the future generations. He wants to be part of the future, not tied to a dead cadaver (as he puts it ) of the past and its obsessions!

The best I came make out is that he does not consider our present problems a divine retribution; rather a self-imposed debasement brought about by our insistence on creating Ironies for our enemies to laugh at. Virtue is not susceptible to ironic reversal, only Arrogance is, only Greed is. Virtue may well be its own reward, for all he knows.

The actual people who work, they will save the country.
The actual industries which employ them, they will save the country.

He writes:

"It is almost Spring;
I can see a haziness of promising warmth
rising from the pastures out back.
It is the time of reflection and rebirth:
a short remembrance, then a plunge
into life again!... a mirror and a slap."

and

"Things to do:
Watch Cable TV muted, and watched the mad men and women yell and grimace and cavort, flailing their hands, frowning mightily, sermonizing pastorally; all of them satisfied with themselves, secure in their wisdom, even in the most dire calamity, that their knowledge is wealth and power.
What does it mean?"

December 2 2008: Austin

My brothers and myself write a good deal like each other, and all of us three resemble our uncle, although we certainly are "clearer" than he. His tendency to "chiaroscuro" in his blog is a weakness, but also a strength. Having said this, I will let it lay there, and say that our uncle did indeed tutor the trio: myself, Ayden, and Aloysius, in writing, with especial emphasis on H.W.Fowler's Modern English Usage, and Lord Chesterfield's Letters His Son. We also studied Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Grammar for a starting point in the history of the language. He also thought it important to have some acquaintance with Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and French, Spanish, and a Slavic tongue. He is quite mad, in a great-uncle-ish, warm way. --------------------------- NOTE: There are some comments left in the Comment Box. Hang on a while, since none of we 3 know how to handle them at present.

Last Day Of November 2008

by Aloysius

I was never too interested in Philosophy or Theology.
My uncle says that Jesus died due to God's desire to experience Death, and understand it in a human way. From this, He is able to properly transcend the realm of Death and create life everlasting.

He quoted:

http://danieljohnclark.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/arminians-and-an-atonement/
Black Beans and Chips
Arminians and Atonement
May 28, 2007

...there is a universal aspect to Arminian understanding of atonement in that the death of Christ set aside the guilt of original sin. However, the death of Christ provided possible salvation for all, but this is conditional on a person accepting it through repentance and faith.

He said that if there is guilt from original sin, from a non-personal past history which affects us, then the same thing applies to the future: a future guilt non-personal which we shall bear...even if we have passed on!
Since this is nonsense, he denies original sin as action, yet accepts it as a Symbolic structure, and thus it does have symbolic life, and thus, may influence all of creation, past, present, and future.
It is part of the Spirit, yet not part of the Material world.
He seems to consider the spirit and matter to be co-terminal: matter processes spirit and hence preceeds it logically;
spirit is the reason for matter's existence, and hence preceeds it logically, also.
Since Matter is that which processes Symbols, actions in the present may destroy the symbol of original sin, whether Christ dies to do so or not.

I do not pretend to understand this.
I only loyally copy what he tells me.

The Grapes Of Consumerism

My uncle says that the crowds of consumers that trampled a Wal-Mart worker are a sign that consumerism is still burning bright in the hearts of Americans.
The Market sets the price high enough to drive the less wealthy insane with consumer longing. Then goods are allocated efficiently by large, blood-thirsty riots.

I sense sarcasm.
Austin

The Brothers A

November 29 2008: Aloysius

Hi. I am Aloysius, Montag's nephew, and the last of the three to speak. My name is pronounced Ah-LOY-shus, as if I were an Irish immigrant, as he would say.

My uncle tells us that human beings are not defined by their rationality, rather we are defined by our passions.
We come into life, we live life, and we exit life in a passion and rage of life; the Passion of Christ reflects our lives of passion, the Jihad of the Prophet is a mirror of our battles, the passage to Nirvana of the Lord Buddha follows our weary footsteps from despond to enlightenment.

Therefore, he says, anything that promotes love and understanding and well being is good, and hate and discord and suffering are decisively evil.

The suffering of 1 man or 1 woman or 1 child is reason enough for God's entire creation to be outraged.
Therefore, he says, an economy which cycles between surfeit and starvation cannot be good in God's eyes.
The "faith" in the autistic infallibility of self interest working in free markets is a faith built on sand. In our day, it has become very evident.

So he tells us today.
I record what he said. I am Aloysius, and the name may be derived from "loyalty".

November 29 2008 I Am A Mumbaikar

From Ayden:

http://pakistaniat.com/2008/11/28/mumbaikar-mumbai-terror-pakistani-view/

I am a Mumbaikar: In Prayer and in Solidarity
Adil Najam

I, too, am a Mumbaikar today.

...in prayer and in solidarity, I stand today with Mumbaikars everywhere. In shock at what has happened. In fear of what might happen yet. In anger at those who would be so calculated in their inhuman massacre. In sympathy with those whose pain so hurts my own heart but whose tears I cannot touch, whose wounds I cannot heal, and whose grief I cannot relieve...

The Brothers A & Santa's Bail Out

My name is Austin. I am one of the brothers A, or les freres A, as my uncle refers to us; myself, my brother Ayden, and my brother Aloysius ( pronounced A-loy-shus ). I am one of his nephews, one of the gang of three, which manner of speaking was the fashion of his times.

I have been recruited to fill in the blanks, during his self-imposed exile. He will be writing, but only for himself. I do not write for myself, and I am not a writer, but I guess I can take up the slack here and there.



So, here goes:







During the congressional testimonies on whether Santa Industries should receive a government bail-out, a congressman asked whether Santa had flown to Washington by regular commercial airline.







Of course, he flew in by his usual method: a luxurious North Pole Cutter Deluxe with 12-deer power; inefficient and uneconomic, but, as Santa said,



" ...uneconomic, but......Iconic !"


Congress will take up his application for $ 20 billion after the Xmas holidays.

Ater Xmas...EST et NON EST

I shall be incommunicado until after Xmas....at least. I shall still write my bleeding poem per week for peace, only I shall amend the prayer to incorporate "well being" also. We have a simulacrum of peace, now, only because the USA is to prostrate too launch a strike against Iran. I fear that the powers that be that listen to my poetic prayers for peace gave me what I desired, but I did not specify that the well-being of mankind should not be infringed in this quest for peace. I hate to think that peace is only achievable if we are too exhausted to lift our weaponry. Anyhow, I need time to think. Reading today in re Citi group: Robert Reich http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2008/11/citibank-scores.html Citigroup Scores If you had any doubt at all about the primacy of Wall Street over Main Street; the utter lack of transparency behind the biggest government giveaway in history to financial executives, and their shareholders, directors, and creditors; and the intimate connections the lie between Administrations -- both Republican and Democratic -- and the heavyweights on Wall Street, your doubts should be laid to rest. Today it was decided the government will guarantee more than $300 billion of troubled mortgages and other assets of Citigroup under a federal plan to stabilize the lender after its stock fell 60 percent last week. The company will also will get a $20 billion cash infusion from the Treasury Department, adding to the $25 billion the bank received last month under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. This is not a particularly good deal for American taxpayers, but it is a marvelous deal for Citi. In return for all the cash and guarantees they are giving away, taxpayers will get only $27 billion of preferred shares paying an 8 percent dividend. No other strings are attached. The senior executives of Citi, including those who have served at the highest levels in the US government, have done their jobs exceedingly well. The American public, including the media, have not the slightest clue what just happened. Meanwhile, more than a million workers in the automobile industry, along with six million mortgagees, and a millions of Americans who depend on small businesses and retailers for paychecks, are getting nothing at all. I must plan the future. I mean, even an old bird like me must now plan his future. This country has become a bear-trap, a punji pit, a cage for the unwary. Blah,blah,blah...I love America...blah, blah, blah. O.K. Now you have to look out for yourself. I am Ausonius, Decimius Ausonius - grammarian, rhetorician, soldier, poet, and confidant of emperors - and I stand in Gallia. I am at my place in Burdigala, and I feel the cold wind of Fall blowing from Alemania upon my leathery cheek.

I am writing a poem: It Is and It Is Not...the very title portrays my frame of mind, the quandary in which I find myself. For the present is so fallen, that no one reads what I write. I write for the future ages, thousands of years hence, when new continents churn the seas, and the clangorous conflicts of nations have given way to brotherhood. I am alone, even though there is activity just behind me, as the table is set for the mid-day meal. The people hovering about it appear as ghosts; the meat is a caricature, the wine dispirited, and the sweet desserts taste like the after-life of Egyptian burial chambers. I am alone.

May Capitalism Lead Us To The Stars?

Capitalism as it is historically defined in the United States of America is not the economic system which will enable mankind to establish its presence in Space.

 American Capitalism is too prone to recurring cycles of destruction. Whether this is due to the theory itself, or the impossible nature of the American businessman is not clear, but it seems to be a bit of both. Today as we watch the resurrection of Citi group after its near death experience, we wonder at the wisdom which created such a system, wherein such monstrous institutions are allowed to roam the land, only to create chaos when they possess no homeostasis to regulate their vital processes.
Some economists and thinkers have lauded the "creative destruction" of American Capitalism. However, as an economic system gets larger and more complex, the recurring destructive cycles become more and more destructive: as the highs get higher, the lows become lower, thereby creating an Event Horizon of economy, a dark hole from which nothing will emerge.

It is obvious from the past year that the down and destructive part of the cycle is prey to panic and fear in a short time frame more so than the up part of the cycle is prone to exuberance: exuberance is spread over years; panic destroys in the blink of an eye...before the "rational" mind can encompass what is occurring.

Do not misunderstand; I love America. And for those who believe that America is the land of opportunity, I fully agree. However, I shall add that as you come to America to make your way in this land of opportunity, your children will enter into one of the cycles of destruction. Be aware of it. Every parent should teach their children what to expect in this economic system. We should try to understand that we cannot always lay up our wealth where rust corrupts, moth consumes, and the financial system spreads cancer. Such an Economy cannot build the structure required for the emigration of mankind into Space. The movement into Space requires investment over years and years.

This may only be effectively accomplished by a system which is not recurrently self-destructive. If we step into Space with a large footprint, a severe crash of the economy when it occurs will wreak havoc on a gargantuan level. The process of going back to square one, or square five, or whatever it is, will eventually be discerned as being too expensive, and resources will turn inwards to salvage what remains of the Earth-bound populations. Neither American Capitalism nor American Democracy, love them as we do, as they are understood in the present day of 2008, will lead mankind into the future.

When the Frame of Mind arrives that will do so, it will be accompanied a revolution in religious feeling among the large part of the peoples of Earth, for only Religion possesses the dynamic which may change large groups of human beings from inward and selfish looking tribes and nations into higher level communities, capable of controlling the Form of the Present and Future, as well as the lessons of the Past.

A Last Hurrah

An article in the NY Times says that Bush should resign, rather than hanging around,destroying things for 2 more months. Just wanted to mention, I believe I spoke about there being a finite probability of the economy being so bad that Bush would resign back in January, 2008. I forget the probability. But I have been asking for his resignation on the right sidebar - in the words of Oliver Cromwell - for most of the year. Blowing my own horn, as usual.

A Thought On A New Mania

The film "Twilight" is the new madness. That is all well and good. ...And teenage girls have been going ga-ga and crazy over stuff ever since the Beatles, the Salem Witch trials, and all the way back to running maenad naked through the woods of Athens. That is well and good, for it apparently is a prerequisite for the female of the species before she enters into a more "sedate" (?) role of mother. What has changed, and I think for ill, is the iconic focus of the frenzy; now it is Vampires. People who allow their naked and sensual and passionate souls to embrace the avatars of evil will not like the consequences... ...human beings and icons, myths, and symbols grow like oaks: from the small and simple acorn there is a long and complex route to the many branching tree. AND even though the DNA within the acorn contains the directions for the chemical development of the oak tree, it does NOT continue the directives for the eventual Form that the oak tree takes. That is something else. Something else not yet discovered by science. Ask them, they will tell you. I thought I should mention this before I boogie...

Favorite Fowl

I could not say good-bye without putting up a picture of my favorite Rooster: le Coq St. Hubert, the mascot and logo of the fast food chicken business St. Hubert in Canada.

You may have to be Canadian to properly appreciate him in his world setting, so look to it! You may have to be Quebecois, aussi, alors...

This second example I include because it is the very Coq Hubertien which I used to see from the hill between Saint Sauveur and St. Hippolyte. We would descend from Chemin de la Montagne ( a continuation of Chemin de Mont-Rolland) by way of Boulevard des Monts, drive through Mont Rolland, cross the river that runs parallel to the Autoroute des Laurentides, get on highway 117, and come into Ste.-Adele-en-Haut, the first sight to greet us being:

At this time, we would be staying with my brother -in-law, Billy. God bless Billy! The world has gone downhill ever since he left......

.......I myself yearn for the St Hubert des Bienvenues.

Morning News

This is the type of post Henry Jacubowski likes. He says that it requires no thought.

He also says that my other posts require no thought, either, but they go under the disguise of depth and subtlety.

I find it hard to disagree with him.

I have some thinking and serious writing to do, so that I may clarify in my own mind what the heck I am talking about.

It is all sort of new. I mean, a lot of this stuff has only come about in 2008. All that mish-mosh about past, present, and future only got off the bus about 2 months ago.

Mr. Irony was a pilgrim little seen before.

...work to be done.

Full Stop

I think I shall be silent for a while. I am going to think about things, meditate, and find my way in a totally new world. My God is intimately involved in life. I do not go so far as to consider the present illness to be a judgement of God, although many theological "wits" have so considered other disasters - the 9/11 comes to mind. As I said before, I cannot believe that I know the mind of God. As soon as I make that step, I become an idolator of myself. I absolutely refuse to do that, and thus join the ranks of 99% of the rest of the believers of the present day. I do not believe, nor believe in. I expect. I expect because it is my habit. Habit! Something habitual, done before, over and over and over... I am also becoming a Platonist! The divide between Spirit and Matter has returned, and I see our everyday world of Matter as sort of a support system for the Symbolic realms of the Past and the Future. The World of Matter is the Present, and that is where the Consciousnesses made of Matter, e.g. human beings, work and rework the symbols of past, present, and future. The Spirit realm is that of Symbols. Irony was the cause of this. Irony used to be a type in Literature; it was a style, a form, a twist and a turn... But it may also be judgement. The quicker the judgement, the sharper the Irony. Irony shapes the world. If you are corrupted, Irony will reverse you into your just deserts. If you are pompous, Irony will bring you down a peg. The mighty are brought down, and the lowly are raised... And in no place do I see a coming together of the opposites, a coincidentia oppositorum according to Jung. I do believe this to have been the most unGodly age of mankind, for even the devout are arrogant and puffed up. There's going to be a lot of chaff to blow in the wind, before the harvest feast.

Fundamentalists Lose Big One

The Fundamentalism of Democracy as expounded by the obscurantist Bush Administration has essentially given up in Iraq. The radical and ignorant belief in words and platitudes that were only dimly understood by the backwards Bushites, was never substantial enough to endure.

Road Map

Congress and the White House make a road map for...just about anything, Peace, Prosperity, Bail-outs, etc.

A Round Of Joes

Which is to say, a group of Joes. If more than 2 Joes come together, they formed a round of Joes, as in "Another round here, sweetness!" while pointing to your table with the index finger, rotating it in a circle, thus indicating a "round".

Joe the Plumber has a book.

I shall buy it. I shall put it on my bookshelves, right between The Federalist and John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Representative Government.

There will be a lot of Schadengelachter ( shadow laughter ), I can assure you. At least, I hope we may still laugh.

I Wish I Were At...

Fairs and Tourneys of the Imagination

Declaration Of Independence

Thomas Jefferson

If you wish Government to act, first you must suffer...and make it a great deal of suffering, too, otherwise they still may just go on vacation. We no longer have a government of the people. This Union, this Government, no longer promotes our general welfare; it is iniquitous to our well being. It takes our money in taxes, and returns to us nothing, except that which was already ours in diminished portion. A President whose every act has been an act of repression, illegality, and moral offence now refuses to act. A Congress made up of just enough cowards from his same party refuses to act. The Acts of King George and the British Parliament were in good part acts of Economic Oppression: We are impoverished by the taxes drained to support almost 800 military bases around the globe; We are cruelly taxed to support illegal war; We are expected to shoulder the burden of military ventures which start as victories, then with the continued presence of troops in foreign lands, slide into disaster after years of occupation; We support oppressive governments around the world; We are taxed to create a climate of constant war and nuclear adventurism; Our needs most pressing: the ownership of homes, the health of our families, the viability of our communities, is ignored. When the Government refuses to act, or cannot act, then it is time for the people to create a community more perfect for their needs, for their lives, for their liberties, and for their pusuits of happiness.

I sign my:

The Big 3 Auto Bailout

Yahoo News During the House hearing Wednesday, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., asked the three auto chiefs seated at the witness table before him to raise their hands if they had come to Washington on commercial airliners. No hands went up. Then he asked if any planned to sell their corporate jets. Again, no hands went up. Sherman and Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., told the auto executives they were having a hard time justifying to their constituents bailing out companies whose chiefs fly around in expensive private jets. Ackerman said there was "a delicious irony in seeing private jets flying into Washington D.C. and people coming off them with tin cups in their hands." All very funny. The Great Depression did not start overnight. There was a period of time over which the nation unwound. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 immediately rallied, then went into an up-down series we are seeing today also. The people in charge are jokers and fools, and they do not know what to tell their constituents. They cannot tell them that the USA made a decision 50 years or so ago to emphasize automobile transportation, letting railroads wither. Like it or not, the Auto Industry was, and in many respects still is, the Manufacturing paradigm of the USA. The fools that run the Industry and other Industry and the Government allowed more than 60% of manufacturing be relocated overseas. Now is the time to correct it. The White House fears it. The White House fears to do anything. They always did evil, anyway. The Nation is unwinding. Our retirements and that of our parents will be lost.

Our children will work as temps, often in deserted commercial real estate.

Our grandchildren will drive to deserted shopping malls to work in spaces rented from failed stores, empty Penney's, abandoned Sears, millions of empty square feet of space to cramp them into.

They will buy their lunches in convenience stores.

They will nap in the heat of the summer in their cars, essentially living most the day in their old cars made overseas. This nation is dying. It is an archipelago of islands of poverty and despair, the paranoid archipelago.... ...kept together with ghost ships steaming between the langolier gaps of what is left of our lives.

Tell your constituents to face the storm, or face the fire storm. Take your choice.

As time goes on, more and more the skeletal carts of our beliefs fall silent, returning to the emptiness which gave them birth......

From the Grip of Despair... O, Lord, Deliver us!

Do We Learn From History?

A friend, visceral, sent me a link. I use the term "friend" a bit loosely, for I am speaking of a chap that makes me attempt to think at 5:00 A.M. No matter how one slices it, it is no jocose matter to stoke the mental boiler at that hour. That's how accidents happen, railroad accidents as well as mental accidents: premature stoking of the boiler. I mean, the old Great Northern jumps the tracks, would you want to be around? Anyway, the link is: http://thisisby.us/index.php/content/history_has_taught_us_nothing and is the article: History has Taught Us Nothing we were put on earth to destroy each other by abaciscus You will have to read the article, for I am not in the habit of synopsizing at 5:00 A.M. If you wish that someone give you summaries in the A.M., hire a valet or gentleman's gentleman or a personal secretary. The only people who learn from History are the evil. Evil people have learned to compel and force others. Evil people have learned to control the mythic symbols of memory, to compel obedience in the present, and to shape the mythic structures of the potential future. We have not so learned. When we are confronted by school boys taking rifles to school and shooting their mates, we are aghast, wonder what remedies to apply, then shrug and say, "I dunno." ( I don't know). We are aghast, because it is so evil and so new. The evil have thus created a new future, which now becomes the Present, and nowadays we have many such shootings: the new age has thus been defined. I look and see a great chain of Memory: guns and violence in film, books, and everyday life; I see violence and vengeance celebrated; I see scenarios of the lone yet good individual who goes up against a society evil in its rule over him; I see rogue justice and wanton violence portrayed as saving our way of life. Thus has the new age been defined. Symbols are Spirit...they never go away! No one thing renders a man evil. The fact that I played "cowboys and Indians" does not mean that I shall be violent in the future... ...but it does create a web of imagery... It creates the background for growth, the sets, the staging, and it does so over long years, not short term. As we live our lives beset by everything from Capital punishment to "cowboys and Indians" to Abortion, our dialogue of death become ever and ever extensive, and we spin out a web like a Wolfram process that leads...we do not know where. If we believe History has taught us nothing, we have created the scenario for Armageddon. Read the above article as if it were a documentary, a collage of vile images flashing before us. The script reads, "History Has Taught Us Nothing, a documentary, running time 20 minutes..." and it employs what? It employs images: Pol Pot, Nazism, Eichmann...words and images and sub-plots all woven together to create the script. CREATE your own script. Build your own scenario. Take control of the Past, the Present, and the Future. How? The Founding Fathers did so. They said "...we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal..." They learned from the Past, defined and created symbols in the Present, and determined the Future up until the present day. It takes a whole Village to teach Myths: the narratives, the stories. Stories are memories, told in the present, and have the power to affect the future. Past, Present, Future...all tied together with symbols. The Present is the short, brief time we have available to work on symbols; the Present is the forge of the symbolic web we weave. Therefore, the Present must know full well what its business is and what it should be doing. Simply put, where are the Mother Theresas in the article? There are none. The writer's sense of despair is a direct result of his imagery: no redeeming image of holiness to grace the page. Without images of Redemption, our story will be the story of destruction. Reach out and choose a Saint or Sidi or Arhat to study for today. Let that be your first step. Laugh if you will. I promise I won't laugh when you can't do it.

Ships of the Paranoid Archipelago