Laudato Si'

Pope Francis' encyclical was delivered today, and for the first time ever, I am going to read an entire encyclical on the very day it was delivered, and read it as eagerly as a I would read a newspaper on a sensational day.

There is controversy about the pope treading into politics.

That is either nonsense or mendacity or both.

It was right-wingers who sewed together their Frankenstein monster of climate denial from various parts ripped willy-nilly from the body of science.
It is the politicians who have taken science and turned it into politics.
The fact that obscurantist politicians politicize a topic does not mean we cannot discuss it; it does not mean the pope cannot mention it, nor an imam speak about it, nor a rabbi deal with it.

All the truths of the world cannot be removed from the public forum because some political clown decides to politicize it.

Furthermore, it is quite obvious that when an item X becomes politicized, that means that it CANNOT be talked about at all!
"Politically correct" is a notion that applies to left and right, and it removes a topic from serious discussion. It "Twitter-izes" topics into a group of bits which winnow supporters from objectors, but does not allow serious consideration.

(A proof for this statement resides in the infamous trope that "a real conversation about race in the USA is long overdue."
Heard that one for years.
But it was about race, and we all thought we had pretty good race relations, and it was Twitter-ized into stories about good stuff, and Bumper-ized  (turned into bumper stickers)  into pictures of the Confederate flag.

This state of affairs required a whole lot of people being killed recently.)

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La Clé Des Champs

How we miss the restaurant La Clé Des Champs in Québec.
It was as enjoyable as L'Eau De Bouche, which was on the highway to Tremblant.

We would go from Lac Achégan in St-Hippolyte, go towards Ste-Adele, and head to Ste-Agathe, and somehow I would find it.

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How Do We Exist Without Compulsion?

photo: (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)



National Journal
How to Defeat ISIS With Millennial Spirit and Service
Terrorism and other 21st-century challenges require sacrifice shared by all Americans.
By Ron Fournier
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/how-to-defeat-isis-with-millennial-spirit-and-service-20150616

June 16, 2015 I know a better way to fight ISIS. It starts with an idea that should appeal the better angels of both hawks and doves: National service for all 18- to 28-year-olds.

Require virtually every young American—the civic-minded millennial generation—to complete a year of service through programs such as Teach for America, AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, or the U.S. military, and two things will happen:

1. Virtually every American family will become intimately invested in the nation's biggest challenges, including poverty, education, income inequality, and America's place in a world afire.

2. Military recruiting will rise to meet threats posed by ISIS and other terrorist networks, giving more people skin in a very dangerous game.

This may seem like a radical plan until you compare it with two alternatives: the status quo, which clearly isn't working, or a military draft, which might be the boldest and fairest way to wage the long war against Islamic extremists.

[...]

I spoke about the concept with retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and now chairs the Franklin Project, part of the Aspen Institute that is trying to position a year of full-time national service—a service year—as a "cultural expectation, a common opportunity, and a civic rite of passage for every young American." His logic tracks with mine.

First, he's not sure Obama is fully committed to the goal of destroying ISIS.  Note A

Second, if this president or his successor gets serious about ISIS, McChrystal said the effort would require an international coalition and more U.S. troops. "Even if we didn't need a draft" to drum up the required troops, McChrystal said, "I would argue we need a draft, because it forces national commitment."  Note B

He knows a draft isn't in the cards. A national commitment to "service years" would prime the pump of an all-voluntary military, McChrystal said, while uniting the country in sacrifice.

It's not a draft, but it's not nothing.

"A problem in America is we've let the concept of citizenship diminish into a series of gripes," McChrystal told me. "One of the ways we can rebuild that sense of ownership, sense of shared ownership, is through experience, and so I believe that every young person deserves—I don't think this is an onerous thing—deserves the experience of being part of something bigger than themselves."  Note C

Bowing to political realities in risk-averse Washington, the Franklin Project aims to make a service year a social expectation rather than a legal requirement. I would mandate it. So would McChrystal—if he had his way.  Note D

While ISIS and other terrorist groups are having no trouble recruiting suicide bombers, McChrystal said, Americans are struggling to redefine their national identity for the 21st century. "A year of service for young Americans would be a step," he said. "Not a panacea, a step."

I think we should take it.

This is one of the worst thought out articles I have ever read.

That judgement may surprise you, since it appears that the writer agrees with my view of the situation: that the success of IS may have a  psychological side that adds greatly to its success. Mr. Fournier - and his amigo, General McChrystal -  want to inspire a similar psychological fire in the hearts of US citizens to fight against the fire of IS.

The big difference is this: IS relies on supporters who freely flock to their banner;  Fournier, McChrystal et al. want to compel support.
This whole idea of forcing  (Note B)  people to become psychologically inspired is not even worth spit.

Since when is IS the event which defines our lives? IS is the ghastly effluent of the river of lies and treachery of the Iraq War. IS is the karma we are burdened with for an unjust war. We are already spiritually burdened by our guilt, so does it make sense to double, triple, or quadruple down with more and more military effort --- let's be clear" MISGUIDED military effort! because nothing we have since 2001 when we drove the Taliban from Afghanistan has been guided by any strategy other than "Let's get them boots on tha ground!"

Note A  is nothing more than implicit criticism of President Obama, and has no place in this post.

Note C  is absolute crap.  I do not believe in being part of something "bigger" than myself, especially when "bigger" than is defined as a bunch of schlubs drafted into ill-defined organizations.

Note D  is interesting, in that it shows the role of force and compulsion in the minds of those who believe that persuasion is a dish best served like a force-fed meal in Guantanamo.

What does Mr. Fournier make of the history of the USA before the introduction of the compulsory draft temporarily in the Civil War, World War I, and the third incarnation from 1940 to 1973 during World War II and the Cold War?

How did the USA function without compulsion?

It had a dream.

It had a psychological and a spiritual reality that it now lacks, and this lack is very much in evidence in the insipid imaginations of Mr. Fournier and General McChrystal.

 Unconscripted Citizen Soldiers Fighting for Ideals

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The Art Of Magical Thinking

reprint

On April 30, I wrote in response to something the President (George W. Bush) said:  

The President has stated that there is no magic wand which he might wave to force back the price of fuel. Unfortunately, he is mistaken. 

He seems to have forgotten that he himself established the existence of such a magic wand. When did this President abandon the ways of magical thinking? He used to think magically. What else could you call his actions: talking to some sort of deity about launching a war, looking into the souls of Russians? Pure magic. 

The old magical wand he used to believe in was: Invade a Middle Eastern country and oil will be cheap! 
The War will pay for itself and supply will be assured for the future.

Now we must add Perry Como's take on invading foreign countries: (To the tune of Catch A Falling Star.)

 

Invade a foreign country, put it in your pocket, Never let it get away!  
Invade a foreign country, put it in your pocket, Save it for a rainy day!  
For times may change and gas become expensive, it can come and go;  
And if you try to make it more regressive, you'll have a pocket full of petrol!


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A Google Earth Moment: Virginia

Williamsburg Colonial National Historic Parkway, Southern entrance to tunnel under the town.

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A Google Moment: Wedding In Chicago

These places are referenced in my preceding post
 http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2015/06/what-difference-3-days-make.html

James G. Blaine School on North Southport Avenue. I kept thinking of James A. Garfield instead, and humming tunes about Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion. All I need was a shillelagh to clobber blokes with!

The Music Box Theater about 100 feet up on the left.

Saint Alphonsus Church; it had stained glass windows all imported from Bavaria and was quite a goodly and beautiful pile.

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What A Difference 3 Days Make !

This is Monday night just after the Blackhawks clinched the Stanley Cup. Thank goodness I had cleared out of Chicago by then. This is almost exactly where I had been Friday night before at a cozy wedding rehearsal dinner at Pasta Al Gusto on North Southport Avenue, just south of Grace Street.

I parked at the pay lot next to James G. Blaine School, just north of the Music Box Theater. I hhad originally planned to park on the side streets, but the proximity to Wrigley Field requires a parking permit on all the side streets, which were pretty full anyway.
I originally pulled into a spot 3 short blocks from Wrigley Field, but the local gendarmes were on the qui vive - alert to spot nappers like myself.

Congratulations to my nephew A on his marriage!
(Not one of the 3 A nephews, but yet another A... a fourth nephew whose name starts with "A". All those "A"s and nary an Omega! We do have a goddaughter whose child is Zorianna, however. A to Z, eh?)
Congratulations to the Blackhawks! 

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A Google Earth Moment: Chimayo

El Santuario de Chimayo en Nueva Mexico


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Inflation Of Geniuses

Raw Story
Cash-strapped Michigan school system uses 1980s home computer to control heating for entire district
David Edwards 15 Jun 2015 at 16:40 ET
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/cash-strapped-michigan-school-system-uses-1980s-home-computer-to-control-heating-for-entire-district/

Officials in one Michigan school system are hoping that a 30-year-old home computer that controls heating and air conditioning for all 19 of their schools will finally be upgraded if residents decide to pass a $175 million bond proposal.

Grand Rapids Public Schools Maintenance Supervisor Tim Hopkins told WOOD-TV that the district used the money from an energy bond in the 1980s to purchase a Commodore Amiga, which has been tasked with controlling the heat and air conditioners ever since. The computer it replaced was “about the size of a refrigerator,” he said.

“The system controls the start/stop of boilers, the start/stop of fans, pumps, [it] monitors space temperatures, and so on,” the maintenance supervisor noted.

Hopkins explained that the computer operated on a 1200-baud modem, and it sometimes interfered with the walkie-talkies used by his maintenance workers.

“Because they share the same frequency as our maintenance communications radios and operations maintenance radios — it depends on what we’re doing — yes, they do interfere,” he pointed out, adding that “we have to clear the radio and get everyone off of it for up to 15 minutes” when that happens.

The district said that it has not been able to afford the $1.5 to 2 million cost of a new system. But the computer is system is on the list if a $175 million bond proposal passes in November.

“There’s a lot of projects, a lot of needs in the district, so there’s other priorities we have to put in place ahead of this,” Hopkins said. “This system is still running.”

Apparently it cost $2 million to replace a computer with the abilities of a 1980 Commodore Amiga.

Who was the utter genius who set up this system? Has the Corporate-Military-Industrial-Lobbyist complex kidnapped him? Why is the most fascinating part of this story ignored?

Fortunately, we can find information:

Technology Blog
http://www.tech-blog.org/engineering-news/cluster1263414/
A 1980's Computer Controls This School District's Heating System

Have you ever wondered what kind of system helps to regulate the temperature in your school? Do you imagine that it will be some kind of hi-tech fancy supercomputer? Perhaps that might be true for some school districts, but over at Grand Rapids, it seems that 19 of the Grand Rapids Public Schools are controlled by a computer made in the 1980s .Yes, you read that right, despite living in 2015, the GRPS has a bunch of schools whose heating and air-conditioning are regulated by a 1980s Commodore Amiga computer.

To top things off, it seems that the code written for the system was actually written by a high school student when the computer was installed in the 1980s.Thankfully that student still lives in the area so should any issue arise with the system, they can easily get in touch with him. More amazing is the fact that prior to the use of the Commodore Amiga, the school used a computer that was the size of a refrigerator so even though it hardly seems like it today, it was a significant upgrade...

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Chickens Coming Home To Roost

Just as Republican governors who cut taxes with the same fervor that Krazy Kaplan sells fireworks on the Illinois-Indiana state line have awakened from the tax bombardment to find that the state coffers are empty, so also we are finding out that letting everyone openly carry a gun is dangerous to life and limb.

Raw Story
Iowa open-carry nut gunned down mall worker who filed sexual harassment complaints against him
Tom Boggioni 14 Jun 2015 at 16:04 ET 
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/iowa-open-carry-nut-gunned-down-mall-worker-who-filed-sexual-harassment-complaints-against-him/

An Iowa mall cop — with a Facebook account loaded with open-carry and right-wing memes and photos of multiple weapons — is under arrest for shooting and killing a fellow mall worker because she filed sexual harassment complaints against him.

According to The Gazette, Alex Kozak was taken into custody after shooting 20-year-old Andrea Farrington three times in the back while she was at work at the Iowa Children’s Museum in the Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville, Iowa.

Police say that the 22-year-old Kozak left the mall and went to his home and retrieved a 9mm Glock handgun before retuning and shooting Farrington late Friday night..

KCJJ reports that a cousin of Farrington’s said that Kozak had been harassing the victim for at least six weeks and that she had complained to his superiors about unwanted advances he had made toward her. A later report stated that Kozak was fired from his job before the shooting took place.

“They both worked at the Coral Ridge Mall and knew each other through the Coral Ridge Mall,” Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said. Kozak had worked at the mall since 2014.

After shooting Farrington, Kozak fled the mall in his car but was later pulled over without incident.

Kozak — who is currently being held on $10 million bail — is married to Kellie Kozak, who recently posted pictures on her Facebook page of a visit to Costco where her husband can be seen carrying a sidearm. According to his father-in-law, Kozak didn’t always carry a weapon, saying, “If circumstances were that it’d be best not to have a weapon present, he didn’t have a problem with that.”

Did anyone doubt that this would happen?
Madmen passing laws to govern those with ungovernable impulses leads to disaster.
All the fairy tales of the reign of peace brought about by good and uprighteous citizens carrying guns everywhere and shooting down malefactors, crooks, and criminals at every turn are fevered creations of long nights and too much beer.

No law-abiding and pistol-packing good citizen stepped forward and shot Mr. Kozak, did they?
It is all the dreams of madmen and the stuff of Greek tragedies... a perverse and changed Oedipus Rex already having been played out at Christmas time, 2014, when the 2 year old Oedipus shot and killed poor Jocasta

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ABlow To The Head

" I am A Medical Doctor, and I Play One on TV "

Ol' Doc Ablow

TPM
Fox Doc Uses Rachel Dolezal Case To Mock Transgender People (VIDEO)
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/keith-ablow-rachel-dolezal-transgender

Psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow, the biggest race hustler on Fox News, used the case of a civil rights leader in Washington State accused of pretending to be black as an opportunity on Monday to mock transgender people. Note A

The member of Fox's "Medical A-Team" was asked during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" to “get inside the mindset” of Dolezal, the president of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Last week, Dolezal became the subject of national debate when her parents accused her of pretending to be black and saying she was actually white.

“I’ve been saying for a long time we could find ourselves at this moment,” Ablow said on Monday morning. “I’m not judging folks who put forward a transgender position — Caitlyn Jenner and the rest. But, I did note that when you decide that a genetic reality is not reality, if this woman believes to her core that her identity is that of a black woman, one could argue, not me, but one could argue that she should be accepted according to her quote ‘racial identity.’”

“We could be coming to a time — strangely, some might say — where what people say they are is what you have to accept them as,” Ablow continued.

Host Elizabeth Hasselbeck brought up a recent comparison made by MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry.

During the "Melissa Harris-Perry" show on Saturday, Harris-Perry asked whether it was possible for Dolezal to be “trans-black,” relating the situation to cis-gender and trans-gender individuals. Note B

Ablow said people’s self-concept could end up being very important. Note C

“I think we’re heading down an untested path where people’s self-concept, or what they say it is, is going to dictate … the way that we have to behave toward them,” Ablow said. “If I believe in my soul that I’m a 65 year old — I happen to be 53 — if I believe I’m 65, I say it to my doctor, I feel it in my core, can I apply for Medicare?” Note D

Note A
I do not know what a "race hustler " is, and I do not necessarily agree that the good doctor is such.
He asks a legitimate question and puts forward some poorly thought out possibilities, but that's what one does in a brain-storming session: just throw any thought out there.

Note B
My favorite part of the post: cis-gender and trans-gender.
I will make a bet that the meaning of "cis-gender"  is a real stumper for 99% of the readers and viewers.

"Cis" and "trans" are Latin, and just as "trans" means "across, on the other side of" - such as Transalpine Gaul indicated the area across the Alps where there were Celts - so likewise does "cis" mean "on this side" - and Cisalpine Gaul referred to the Celts living on the Rome-side of the Alps.

Having gotten used to transgender meaning to cross over the gender divide, we now come upon cisgender to mean the stay-at-home-bodies who feel quite all right in the present sich (situation). I do not really see why we need cis-gender or cisgender. One could say something like "blokes who were born male" and "dolls who were born frails".
Whatever.
"Trans" and "cis" imply that there is a middle point, a division, one side of which is "trans" and the other is "cis" depending on one's point of view. However, there is no such middle point in gender.

It's just dummies trying to sound William F. Buckley, Jr.  The use of "cis" is a bloviation and an attempt by dimwitted cable TV newsy types to act as if they had gone to an "Ivory League" college.

Note C
This is quite an appalling way of trying to say something.
People's self-concept is important. I think even doctors not as brainiac as Ablow (a fitting name) would assert that a good self-concept is probably important for a good psychological balance.

Note D
"I feel it in my core..."?
I do believe that Congress can handle that problem. Congress could - if they so wanted - pass laws dealing with trans and cis (I was going to say "trannies and cissies" but there are a whole number of issues with that bit of nonsense.)
This reductio ad absurdum only makes Ablow Appear Absurd

Rational Fundamentalism

All fundamentalist religious traditions are attempts at creating a religion devoid of feeling and emotion, and establishing "rational" religion, no matter how odd and "irrational" such a venture may seem to others.

This tendency shares in the psychology of judicial "originalist" in the USA, who seek the meaning of the Constitution in what they consider to be the views and interpretations of the Founding Fathers.

Although these movements may attack speculative philosophies and theologies of their "liberal" opponents, in reality they are based on philosophy, on words, the "logos", the "kalam", the web of meaning and language. They find an original basis expressed in some linguistic form - usually a scripture or ancient document of law - and then they come to the crux of the matter, which is asserting (1) that the document is always true, and (2) that the interpretation of the document by "right-minded" individuals is always true and incorrigible.

To express these views and to persuade others of the justice of their cause, they write and orate and argue; they spin a new web of philosophy, logic, and often invective.
These movements must be viewed in time, for they make no sense if they lack sufficient time between the era of the original document or scripture and the present. There must exist a certain amount of time to allow differing opinions to form, and it is these opinions and those who support them that the fundamentalists fight.

In other words, Fundamentalism is a historical development, and an attempt to re-create the past, which process necessarily involves imagining what the past was actually like: creating a virtual reality of the past and placing it within the present.
This is a complex rational process which seeks to provide a logical basis for religion or law, and in the case of religion, it rejects the foundations of feeling and emotion which underlie man's approach to the Holy, turning rather to credos and formulae of a limited and restricted nature.

A limiting and restricting philosophy is still speculative, and as such fundamentalism is that which ignores the mysterium and the tremendum of the untamed universe, a universe which seems to dance freely like unruly Bacchantes when seen through the glasses of mysteries, powers, feelings, and emotions.

We have forgot the history of the American Revivalist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. These religious phenomena were often looked down on by European scholars, for the Revivalist exuberance was anarchic in its overflowing emotion.
The American Revivals - which have faded from our jaded souls - were a dance for joy in the wilderness!
If Church and State had not been separated by the Founding Fathers, it is very likely that certain States may have used force against the Revivals, as in Europe and other countries new ideas of religion were not allowed to grow too big or were wiped out.

We live in the Era of Doubt, and we seek that which is totally Other, but we haven't a clue, so our doubt grows and grows.
Fundamentalism seeks to banish Doubt by killing enthusiasm, restricting amazement, and destroying wonder.

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Brains The Size Of Walnuts

CNN
'Jurassic World' rampages to global box office record
By Frank Pallotta
http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/14/media/jurassic-world-opening-box-office/index.html

... the Universal film brought in an estimated $511.8 million around the world, making it the highest-grossing global opening ever.

That total beat the $483.2 million that "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" made worldwide in 2011.

"Jurassic World" also made an estimated $204.5 million in the U.S. over the weekend.
That would put the dinosaur thriller behind only the $207.4 million U.S. total of "The Avengers" in 2012.

Final reports on weekend sales will be released on Monday.

That's not all.

"Jurassic World" also pulled in $44.1 million at giant screen IMAX theaters worldwide, beating the $28.8 million that "Iron Man 3" made in 2013. 

The U.S. audience for "Jurassic World" was split pretty evenly between male (52%) and female (48%) moviegoers, and 61% were over age 25, according to studio data.

When did we start reporting this nonsense?
Instead of film reviews by film reviewers, we have this crap.

If I wish to go see the film, all I need to know is that many people enjoyed it. I do not need to know what they paid. Furthermore, I need even less the boring trivia of the relative standing of blockbuster cinema. This article was in the "Money" section of CNN, which is the exact section one always goes to in order to find out what movie to go see.
The data is only of interest to investors. The important ones already know all this blather.

However, I actually do need that data about the gender split in the moviegoing audience; that is rather important. Say, for example, if the female figure comes in at around 60%, and the exit polls report that 95% of the males in the audience says that their significant female other put pressure on them to go to see the film, that sets off a "chick flick" alert and is statistically significant.

I also like this business of having every sentence stand alone in a separate paragraph. That really makes it easier for the modern reader, who is often befuddled by that old-timey way of jumbling everything germane to a point one wishes to make into a paragraph. I mean, that whole esoteric clap-trap of connecting thoughts and ideas is a bit otiose and redundant, or

otiose;

redundant.

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The Security State Closes In

AP)Two convicted murders who used power tools to cut their way out of a prison near the Canadian border could be nearby or “in Mexico by now,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday

I am sure the convicts feel the noose tightening as the authorities have narrowed the search down to an area the size of the Continental United States, although it sounds as if we could include the entire Western Hemisphere. Governor Cuomo's guess is hardly subject to many constraints.

When our rights to privacy and to live in a surveillance free world are outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy and be free of surveillance.

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Phony Culture

Russian citizens are joining IS. So are the citizens of other countries.

Russia Beyond The Headlines
Why are ordinary Russians joining the ranks of Islamic State?
June 11, 2015 Oleg Yegorov, special to RBTH 
http://rbth.com/society/2015/06/11/why_are_ordinary_russians_joining_the_ranks_of_islamic_state_46863.html

Like many European countries, Russia is encountering a new threat: Its citizens are being recruited by terrorists and are traveling to the Middle East to join radical Islamist groups such as Islamic State (ISIS). Russian experts believe that various factors are involved, including a misguided approach by law-enforcement agencies and a lack of opportunities for the young.

[...]

The majority of Russian citizens that join the ranks of the extremists are people from the country’s Muslim republics but sometimes they are ethnic Russians. This is not a new phenomenon: There have been cases in which Russians fought on the side of Wahhabists even before the appearance of ISIS.

For example, Said Buryatsky, one of the ideological leaders of the Caucasian terrorist underground at the end of the 2000s, was a Russian whose real name was Alexander Tikhomirov. Buryatsky was eliminated in 2010.

And even as far back as the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan during the early 1980s there were documented cases of ethnic Russians converting to Islam and going over to the side of the Mujahideen to fight against their former comrades-in-arms.


The lure of extremism

As Georgy Mirsky, an expert on the Arab world and Doctor of Historical Sciences, pointed out to RBTH, Russia is far from the only country whose young citizens are traveling to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS.

"In the last month 1,733 people alone left France to join ISIS, and statistically, one fifth of them did not come from Muslim families but were recruited,” said Mirsky, who pointed out that 30 percent of the women joining ISIS were “still not Muslim until recently.”

[...]

The world is dominated by Phony Culture, which is addictions and obsessions spread out like unconnected beads fallen from a rosary, yet still thinly held together by an overlay of scraps and pieces of meaningful life-bits.

There is no Story holding things together.

I use the symbol  σ   the small Greek letter sigma to denote "story".

People need a   σ   to hold things together.
When the time comes that the pressure and suffering on families and individuals is intense, things begin to break down. This is seen clearly in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.
It was noticed that the soldiers in World War I most susceptible to PTSD were those who felt they had no control over the situations they found themselves in. For example, balloon observers were subject to PTSD - essentially being sitting ducks - whereas pilots were not; pilots had "control" of their airplanes and the action of flying, no matter how dangerous the territory in which they found themselves.

 σ is how people maintain control over their lives. They have a story in which they are characters and thus have meaning.

Upon receiving sensations, the brain works at predicting what will come next.
The brain does not merely process sensation, but it tries to fit it into a structure that is meaningful enough that it may predict what is going to happen next, thus providing us with  appropriate route of action to follow.

There is a Bayesian Probability here, as the brain predicts based on existing probabilities, then modifies those probabilities based on the most recent outcomes of our actions.

This Bayesian process forms the basis for  σ , the story of our lives.

When things fall apart, and the center cannot hold, that is the time when our story falls apart and we find ourselves totally naked in the universe.
We find ourselves facing that which is totally The Other, so much "Other" that there is no way we can attempt to interact based upon prior experience.

Then we lose control.
Then we fall apart, too.

Unless,... unless we have a great  σ in place that we may invoke to hold things together.
This story may be faith, honor, loyalty, love, but its function is to maintain the Self.

In the midst of phony and trivial culture, people seek war.
They seek war to face the greatest threat, and thereby to destroy the meaningless story of culture which they despise.

They have a new story.

When faced with killing others and being killed oneself in war, they will find that the old self goes mute and begins to fall away, leaving them open to PTSD-like states.
However, they short-circuit the suffering of the loss of control over their environment by substituting their new story, the new  σ which will guide their new lives.

Thus, we see that ideology seeks war in order that the old ideology be killed off, thus providing a clean space to construct the new ideology.

Natural Selection and survival of the fittest... the ideas which face death in order to survive death.


Therefore, we have a glimpse how difficult it will be in the struggle against IS.
The nations opposed to IS will be forced to become meaningful and relevant and fulfilling, and that is a tall order.

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Powwows

There are many, many gatherings of the First Nations across the USA and Canada, but around here the big Powwow is the one on Walpole Island.It takes place early in the year, and this year it was held on May 16 and 17.

Walpole, or Bkejwanong, has never been set up as a reserve or legislated into being nor set by treaty. It is considered an "unceded" territory, which consists of 6 islands in the St. Clair River delta.

If you search on Walpole Island, one of the very first photos presented is

which is on a blog Native American Bode'wadmi  Pokagon Times
(http://pokagon.blogspot.com/2010/01/walpole-island-chief-joseph.html)
in an article about Walpole and Chief Joseph Gilbert, shown below, right:

A look at Walpole from space in Google Earth shows that this is not a photo of Walpole Island. The island in the photo does resemble something in Georgian Bay, perhaps, but Walpole is large and not rocky, being built up by sediment deposited by the river as it enters Lake St. Clair:

The USA, Harsens Island, is on the left, and the large yellow place marker near the top marks the Chenal Écarté, known locally as the Sny Carty, a moderate river or creek which separates Walpole from Ontario.
The green line from top to left bottom is the international boundary, USA and Canada, while the green line top to bottom right is the boundary between Bkejwanong and mainland Ontario.


If we go to Wallaceburg, Ontario for lunch, we go from Algonac to Walpole on the ferry:

which docks on the northern part of the island.

There is a Canada Customs to the left and just out of the range of the following photo. A couple of years ago we landed, the customs agent was sitting in a wooden chair slightly pushed back with his feet up on a barrel. Straight ahead of us, there was a yellow dog slowly walking in the noonday heat.

I immediately thought of Atticus Finch and the sheriff, Hec, and the dogs of the summer's dog days.

--

Van Helsing's Dark Matters

Centaurus A

There is a study of globular clusters that provides another nice stake for Dr. Van Helsing to use on the vampire theory of Dark Matter.
(Interestingly enough, the expression "dark matter" is an anagram of "drakula-tamer", which itself is an ancient Bulgarian phrase for a "Slayer" of vampires.

eso1519 — Science Release
The Dark Side of Star Clusters
VLT discovers new kind of globular star cluster
13 May 2015
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1519/

[...]

The elliptical galaxy Centaurus A (also known as NGC 5128) is the closest giant galaxy to the Milky Way and is suspected to harbour as many as 2000 globular clusters. Many of these globulars are brighter and more massive than the 150 or so orbiting the Milky Way.

[...]

But for some of the globulars something strange showed up: they were many times more massive than they looked. And even more strangely, the more massive these unusual clusters were, the greater the fraction of their material was dark. Something in these clusters was dark, hidden and massive. But what?

There were several possibilities. Perhaps the dark clusters contain black holes, or other dark stellar remnants in their cores? This may be a factor that explains some of the hidden mass, but the team concludes that it cannot be the whole story. What about dark matter? Globular clusters are normally considered to be almost devoid of this mysterious substance, but perhaps, for some unknown reason, some clusters have retained significant dark matter clumps in their cores. This would explain the observations but does not fit into conventional theory...

(underlined emphasis mine)

Take that, arrogant and obscure cosmology !

 Peter Vincent, Dark Matter Killer

--

Sleep Well, Reason, For We Patrol The Streets!

photo: Reuters



The rebranding of the Nusra Front
What are we to believe about Syrian opposition groups?
05 Jun 2015 14:53 GMT
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/06/rebranding-nusra-front-isil-syria-qaeda-150605062901260.html

...as long ago as 2012, a secret report by Pentagon officials acknowledged that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) was one of the "major forces driving the insurgency in Syria".

Today, the Nusra Front, an offshoot of AQI which announced its presence in Syria at the start of 2012 and took responsibility for a succession of suicide bombings in 2011, is at the vanguard of rebel-led clashes with both pro-Assad security forces and the fanatics of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Rebranding Nusra

Having been officially designated as a "foreign terrorist organisation" by the US state department back in December 2012, due to it being "an alias for al-Qaeda in Iraq", in recent months there have been several reports suggesting the Nusra Front is trying to "rebrand" and present itself to the Syrian people, not to mention pro-opposition outside powers such as the US, as a more moderate, "purely Syrian force not linked to al-Qaeda".

Should we take this rebranding exercise seriously?

Some analysts do seem to believe the Nusra Front could be a useful partner in the struggle against both Assad and ISIL.

"The West currently sees the Nusra Front as a threat," wrote Carnegie's Lina Khatib in March.

"But Nusra's pragmatism and ongoing evolution mean that it could become an ally in the fight against [ISIL]."

Syrian journalist Ahmad Zaidan, Al Jazeera Arabic's Pakistan bureau chief, believes "the international community must respond to the realities on the ground" and "the verdict on Nusra is not out yet".

Plenty of human rights groups and counterterrorism experts, however, disagree.

Consider the evidence amassed by Human Rights Watch, in a lengthy report on Syria earlier this year.

The Nusra Front, concluded HRW, was "responsible for systematic and widespread violations including targeting civilians, kidnappings, and executions"...

I believe that these situations are such that they fit the definition of chaos: at no time may anything be predicted with any probability.

Nix, the moon of Pluto, is in an orbit around Pluto and its main moon, Charon, and the physics is so complex that if one were to live upon the surface of Nix, one would never know when the sun would rise, ever.
Similarly in wars of many participants of many different beliefs and motives and goals. There is randomicity, and we never know upon which group the sun will rise tomorrow. We never know which group will behead whom, or which group will stone which adultresses, or who will shoot Shias or Sunnis, Yezidis or Christians.
We never know what foul beast slouches towards the cities of the Middle East to be born.

There is no analysis. There is only self-mockery.

... The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

--

Luke 2:41-48

 The Boy Jesus in the Temple

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.  
44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”



**

I wonder with whom the boy Jesus stayed the three days he was in Jerusalem.

I wonder what he and the teachers discussed.

I wonder where he gained his knowledge.  Verse 40 says that he was filled with wisdom, and that the grace of God was upon him, but this does not mean that he was thereby well trained to discussion of the Torah in the temple with men who have spent their entire lives studying.

It is easy to just assume that God just poured knowledge into Jesus, but that strikes me as a lazy approach to the story. Plus the fact that "pouring knowledge into" is a terrible concept for describing a complex process.

Jesus studied with his mother, Mary or Miriam.
She was gratia plena, full of grace, too...  κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία !

When I saw my icon of her today, I said:

صباح الخير،

أم كل التعلم

which I guess would be, "Good morning, mother of all learning."

And I stared briefly, then went to write this.

--

1984 After All... Where Is The Islamic Union ???

I was reading about the destruction of archaeological remains in Mosul as done by the inimitable IS.

I read about the destruction of the Shrine of Jarjis  (St. George of Syria Palestine) and the demolition of the tombs of Mar Benham and Mart Sarah, places which were esteemed by Muslims, Yezidis, and Christians of many different sects. The destructions by IS are cosmopolitan in their terror.

The Shrine of Mar Benham and Mart Sarah Recently

The Shrine of Mar Benham and Mart Sarah 1920s

Side View Showing Connecting Gallery Between the Two Tombs

Syriac Catholic Monks at the Neighboring Monastery 1920s

After ISIS

all pictures:
https://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/what-weve-lost-mar-behnam-monastery/


It strikes me that IS is not merely obeying some obscurantist sectarian form of Islam, and devoting themselves to the destruction of graves and shrine lest the faithful pray to human beings and statues, but there is a more rational and cunning goal.
This goal is based on George Orwell's observation in 1984 that whoever controls the Past will control the Present and the Future.
The History of the Middle East is being tortured into a After IS ( A.I.) chronology.

What we see in the Middle East is the long-term workings out of Oligarchical Collectivism, wherein War Is Peace.
We may read about Orwell's 1984, its protagonist, Winston, and its theory of Oligarchical Collectivism:

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_and_Practice_of_Oligarchical_Collectivism

[...]

Before reading the first chapter, Winston reads the third chapter War is Peace, which explains that slogan-title's meaning, by reviewing how the global super-states were established: The United States merged with the British Empire and Latin America to form Oceania; the USSR absorbed continental Europe to form Eurasia; and Eastasia emerged "after a decade of confused fighting", with China's annexation of Japan, Korea and parts of Mongolia and Tibet. In various alliances, they have warred for twenty-five years. Yet the perpetual war is militarily nonsensical, because "it is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference", since each is a totalitarian state.[10]

Scientific advance is held carefully in check, as the Party does not want to allow for any unaccounted abundance of goods, which could conceivably raise the quality of life beyond bare subsistence for the Proles. The only technological advances permitted are in mind control and genocide, the twin goals of each of the superstates. Once mind control is perfected, the superstates are free to destroy their counterparts in a theoretical single, decisive strike that precludes retaliation. Technological advancement, even in war, can be counterproductive to the goals of the Party; none of the superstates are a true threat to each other, as they all must exist in a state of permanent limited war to survive. By harnessing the hysteria of war and demand for self-sacrifice, each of the nations declare war not on each other but on their own populace, who are kept ignorant, on the brink of starvation, and overworked.

Permanent limited war also allows for the Party to divert attention away from domestic concerns and their failures. Instead of promises of an "easy, safe life", Slater writes that Orwell believed that the populace requires heroic nationalism. Thus, war becomes a psychological tool to establish a kind of ironic "peace", a stasis where progress is impossible and nothing ever changes, except for the possibility of eventual global conquest...

In this we observe:

Paragraph 1
This geopolitical schema exists already in nascent form, with NATO taking the part of Oceania, China leading the Shanghai Cooperation Alliance, and although the USSR is gone, Russia is currently heading up a Eurasian Economic Union (EEU),

The Moscow Times
May 25, 2015

The Russian government said Monday that it has approved a draft agreement for a free trade zone between Vietnam and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) as Moscow seeks to boost ties with Asia amid worsening relations with the West over the Ukraine crisis...

 Paragraph 2
This part of the scheme is being worked out in the various geopolitical blocs.
Technology supplies us with affordable toys, while it also develops and supplies us with new drugs against cancers and disease which are unaffordable.

Similarly in warfare, the nation of Israel often plays the cat's paw for NATO in the Middle East, yet just as the tail ought not to wag the dog, so the paw does not rule the cat; hence, players like Iran must not be marginalized too greatly, lest there be no balance of power and the state of permanent war falls into a "Peace Trap", with unforeseeable results.

Paragraph 3
This act is being played out in the US Congress, where we see hawks calling for more direct involvement "on the ground". The objectives seem to be the defeat of IS, even though I have seen no analysis that convincingly conclude that such a defeat is the inevitable outcome of  "boots on the ground".
It is the same in Russia and in China.
There are no goals, there is no long-term plan, such as might in time lead to a an era of peace and prosperity. Rather there is nothing except shouting and calls to arms, advance and retreat, a vast trenchwork spread across the Middle East where the gods of discord will work out their dark plans in their own good time.


Jarjis or St. George was also associated closely - if not exactly - with Al Khidr, who was The Green, the holy one associated with growth and fertile lands... with olive trees, such as settlers destroy in their war with Palestinian farmers on the West Bank.

St. George and the Dragon

picture: https://thominpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/st-george-the-patron-saint-of-palestine/

In this icon, the dragon clutches an olive tree, fighting against fertile growth.

The name George is Greek, Georgius, which means farmer, or a man of the land who makes a living by growing things in fertile soil.

Will the Middle East remain the battleground of cultures?

Or will it establish it own union that encourages life, such as symbolized by Jarjis-St.George-Al Kidr instead of death, as symbolized by the wasteland of the ruins of shrines and mummified tears and weeping?

أوه، الإسلام

سوف تكون دائما مجال الحرب؟

--

Signs In The Heavens

ISS

I have long been wary of the ISS (International Space Station).
In the watches of the night as I poured over ancient volumes of the Kufic calligraphy of the early Abbasid era:

I was struck by the resemblance between the ISS solar panels and the antique script.
Notice how the panels turn towards the rising sun, the East, to orient themselves in their orbital qiblah !

Now it has become clear, as today a new alliance has been anounced between ISIS and ISS !
What terrors await us now?

--

Snoop

It took me a while to accept the music of Snoop Dog. As I've said, I fell in with Rap music on Jones Beach, New York in the summer of 1984, then fell in love with it by the end of the afternoon, and went back to Detroit to find some tapes - CDs not having been invented - and had a grand total of 12 or fourteen total tapes to choose from at the music store at Eastland Mall, which was right next to the High School I had attended 20 years prev. and the Mall is still there, although the HS has moved.

It took a while for me to accept Snoop, but I did.

I saw mention of an article about Snoop, a science project, and the Jenner.

Given the age we live in, even though there was the expression "science project", I knew that it could not be about Edward Jenner, the father of immunology and the discoverer of the smallpox vaccine. Although Snoop may have talked about Edward Jenner, it would not have been covered by the media, unless it were part of some mass media medical procedure... possibly a push against the anti-vaccine crowd, I mused.

So I read the article. It was not about vaccines, but it dealt with medicine:


Snoop Dogg Posts Picture Calling Caitlyn Jenner "Science Project," Mocks Her Big Reveal
Us Weekly
8 hours ago
https://celebrity.yahoo.com/news/snoop-dogg-posts-picture-calling-caitlyn-jenner-science-011500381-us-weekly.html

Why, Snoop, why? Following Caitlyn Jenner’s big reveal earlier this week, rapper Snoop Dogg made some controversial comments on his Instagram account.

On Wednesday, June 3, the rapper, 43, posted a photo of fellow musician Akon, writing, “Shout out to Akon! He is about to supply 600 million africans with solar power. Im really upset that this isn’t major news but that science project bruce jenner is #Society.”

He captioned the photo, “News flash. @akon tune in to ggn for some real news.”

This comes after celebrities and fans alike have widely praised Jenner (formerly Bruce Jenner) for her courage and bravery in posing for the Vanity Fair July 2015 cover.

Jenner, 65, has already broken records, reaching 1 million Twitter followers in just four hours, and will be accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY in July.

It is very obvious that Snoop is criticizing the media and society for their valuations; we can go on for hours about one celebrity topic and barely make mention of important philanthropic events.

Snoop is critical not only by what he says, but by what he does not say, which is, he does not join in the general choral group. Rather, he ignores it.

In social media, ignoring that which has already been anointed a true "phenomenon" is a apostasy or a heresy... but somehow I do not think you will see Snoop rushing to Twitter to explain what he meant and apologize for any hurt feelings.

He will glory in his Meme-crime... his gangstafeel.

--

Cait's New Series

I saw a sneak preview of a promo of a promo for a midnight showing of something for Caitlynn Jenner's new series.
Very Bejamin Button. When I first saw him 4 years or so ago, I did not know who he was, and I assumed he was a decidedly antique and quaint maiden aunt.  Then I was informed it was Bruce Jenner, and I was quite convinced even back then that he was undergoing a rite of passage into spinsterhood.
Now he is younger and hot. Time slips backwards, like Benny Button.

I enjoy the obsession we so easily slip into.

I am not going to express any opinion. I actually can keep quiet, and refuse to be obsessed. Life goes on without my saying anything at all about it.


--

Descent Into Madness

 Aleppo

US accuses Assad of backing Islamic State's Aleppo advance

US Embassy in Damascus says Syrian military 'not only avoiding ISIS lines, but actively seeking to bolster their position.

Reuters
Published: 06.02.15, 17:29 / Israel News

The United States has accused the Syrian military loyal to President Bashar Assad of carrying out air strikes to help Islamic State fighters advance around the northern city of Aleppo, messages posted on the US Embassy in Syria's official Twitter feed said.

Islamic State fighters pushed back rival insurgents north of Aleppo on Sunday near the Turkish border, threatening their supply route to the city, fighters and a group monitoring the war said.

Fighters from Levant Front, a northern alliance which includes Western-backed rebels and Islamist fighters, said they were worried Islamic State was heading for the Bab al-Salam crossing between Aleppo and the Turkish province of Kilis...

The Assad Regime is working with IS?
Why?
Has there been an agreement between Assad and IS to partition Syria, leaving Assad with a power base in the western part of Syria and IS ruling in the eastern part and in what portions of Iraq and Turkey it may conquer?

Or is no one on top of the situation still?

--

God's Kodak Brownie Camera

--
pix:  Michal Karcz
https://500px.com/photo/7703713/the-only-known-photograph-of-god-by-karezoid-michal-karcz-?from=user