What are the chances that several strains of Escherichia coli (a favorite bacteria used in genetic engineering) could reassemble themselves taking the worst and most dangerous parts of their particular DNA to make a super deadly bacteria?
This one that is killing Germans has 93% of the DNA of a deadly Central African strain, which is amped up with DNA bits of several other distinct e. coli, then it has a dash of salmonella thrown in for fun. It has several bits to give resistance to antibiotics and it's dead bits become more lethal if it is somehow killed in its unfortunate host.
"The evolutionary process … of this very strange hybrid strain may be a very interesting scientific story," Yang wrote in his e-mail.-from ScienceInsider story linked above
It appears that this stuff was sprayed on produce deliberately. What murderous genii are at work in this world! A weird genetic chimera like this just doesn't become so widespread all by itself so quickly.
The source most likely is a government or a very well funded (read corporate) private laboratory. This weaponized bacteria is the product of very sophisticated genetic processing, with implementation worthy of a Bond villain. Some flunky terrorist group or a forlorn nutty professor may be blamed for it eventually. But that story will be bullshit.
Spiegel On Line tells us that this chimera also contains markers for The Plague.
How can anyone believe this is a "natural" event.
On Tuesday, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Karch had discovered that the O104:H4 bacteria responsible for the current outbreak is a so-called chimera that contains genetic materia from various E. coli bacteria. It also contains DNA sequences from plague bacteria, which makes it particularly pathogenic. There is no risk, however, that it could cause a form of plague, Karch emphasized in remarks to the newspaper. Pravda has speculated that this form of e. coli has the ability to travel up the roots and into the flesh of the vegetable. If this is true then we are about to experience a huge culling of the herd.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Harold Camping, the latest in a long line of men in suits (previously robes and togas) wielding Bibles telling us the end is nigh. They have been doing this for 2000 years. By the look of things, the end is nigh for Harold. He just can't bear the thought that the World will happily continue without him.
Friday Morning EDT/
Friday Evening Japan Time
End of the World Update
"But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." Mark 13:32
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." - Mathew 6:6
"How many times has the end of the world been predicted? The same number of times, the prediction has proved false." - Hugh Downs
"Such things have often happened and still happen, and how can these be signs of the end of the world?" -Julian, Emperor of Rome 361-363
Judgement Day is tomorrow according to Harold Camping and his Family Radio Worldwide conglomerate. I notice his home page still has two buttons that allow contributors to make secure donations.
I actually have been listening to the station this morning and Harold was taking calls. A distraught gentleman asked him if Judgement Day here in America could come on May 20 if it is May 21 somewhere else in the world.
Hal's short answer was yes.
My guess is that Hal will explain the absence of Judgement Day with the argument that his warnings created so much prayer that God's mercy was invoked and we were spared.
As I write Family Radio is playing lots of sacred music which invokes the god Morpheus.
I suppose Hal is taking a break for prayer or counting his money.
But listen!
Hark! Is it a trumpet?
No.
Here is an important announcement.
Family Radio is still begging its listeners for money.
I enter into a closet and recite my prayer:
Please God take away from this planet and heal all of those sad and crazy people who can never be happy in your wonderful creation.
"Christians are like a council of frogs in a marsh or a synod of worms on a dung-hill croaking and squeaking 'for our sakes was the world created.'"-Julian, Emperor of Rome 361-363
"He is a born again christian. The trouble is, he suffered brain damage during rebirth." -Lenny Bruce
This gray gloomy spring has made many cranky in the Northeast. I might welcome the end of the world if the cloud and rains and mist do not soon dissipate.
Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review,
Twain was mistakenly attributing the quote to Disraeli instead of the more generally accepted Leonard Henry Courtney, Baron Courtney of Penwith (1832–1918)
The Catholic Church is blaming the sixties for the sudden rash of pedophile priests that has flourished under its protection for the past several centuries.
In a nutshell, the study blames the liberality of the sixties for the influx of hippie pervert priest bad apples into the Holy Mother Church. They present charts showing peaks indicating the hippie priests of the sixties were the culprits. But 23.4% of the accused priests were ordained in the 50's, while 27.3% were ordained in the 60's. This is not a huge difference in a smallish sample cobbled together years later.
The Bishops' numbers also look a little skewed because their chart of "Decade of Ordination of Diocesan Priests Later Accused of Sexual Abuse of Minors" shows a total of 2,832 priests charged with abuse through 2002. That number seems to represent gross under reporting which contradicts an earlier 2004 John Jay Reportwhich recorded 4,392 priests accused of engaging in sexual abuse of a minor between 1950 and 2002 alone.
I would propose, in contrast to the Church's conclusions, that the new openness of the sixties enabled many victims to finally come to terms with the fact that the priests who raped them were criminals. The freedom of the sixties gave them the courage to overcome the fear and shame conditioning of the Church to report the holy fiends and go public. This was not possible previously when the the Church could intimidate the victim, when police and government authorities seemed to think it was more necessary to protect the Church from the consequences of its own profound corruption than to enforce the law.
I suspect this study will be used as another justification for Pope Benedict to jettison the reforms of Vatican II. "The sixties" is often code for Vatican II in the lexicon of the reactionaries now running the Catholic Church.
This long study also reminds us that other religions and the Boy Scouts also have had their problems so why don't you just shut up about this already?
The Church is in the habit of playing the blame game for their pedophile predilection. Last year Giacomo Babini, 81, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, blamed, you guessed it, the Zionists for the Pope getting so criticized for his minions' love of prepubescent lads. He believed a “Zionist attack” was behind the criticism of the church, considering how “powerful and refined” the criticism was.
Sure, only the Jews could be crafty enough to make the Church look bad.
“They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers.” -Giacomo Babini
After taking heat he backed away from his statements saying: "Statements I have never made about our Jewish brothers have been attributed to me."
Giacomo was quoted by the Catholic Pontifex website which stood by the quotes, claiming recordings of the interview.
The default setting of Europe and the Church is to hate Jews.
"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia. This pathology is one that touches all categories of people, and priests to a lesser degree in percentage terms. The behaviour of the priests in this case, the negative behaviour, is very serious, is scandalous."-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, April 2010
"We decree and order that from now on, AND FOR ALL TIME, Christians shall not eat or drink with Jews; nor admit them to feasts, nor cohabit with them, nor bathe with them. Christians shall not allow Jews to hold civil honors over Christians, or to exercise public office in the State. Jews cannot be merchants, Tax Collectors, or agents in the buying and selling of the produce and goods of Christians, nor their Procurators, Computers or Lawyers in matrimonial matters, nor Obstetricians; nor can they have association or partnership with Christians. No Christian can leave or bequeath anything in his last Will and testament to Jews or their congregations. Jews are prohibited from erecting new synogogues. They are obliged to pay annually a tenth part of their goods and holdings. Against them Christians can testify, but the testimony of Jews against Christians in no case is of any value. All and every single Jew, of whatever sex and age, must everywhere wear the distinct dress and known marks by which they can be evidently distinguished from Christians. They cannot live among Christians, but in a certain street, separated and segregated from Christians, and outside which they cannot under any pretext have houses"
-Pope Eugenius IV, A.D. 1442, Bull. Rom. Pont., V.67
In the Fukushima prefect we learn again that many livestock are being left to starve. Some farmers are making the heroic journey to evacuated areas to feed and water their stock, but it is difficult to determine if they can even market the meat.
Shingo Ito of AFP writes:
Katsurao, 25 kilometres (16 miles) northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, is among the communities newly designated as no-go zones, meaning no one will be allowed in from as early as late May.
More than 10,000 cows -- prized for their marbled beef and rich milk -- have already been left behind in the scramble to escape Fukushima prefecture, many of them locked in sheds where they starved to death, farmers have said.
As the no-go zone spreads, ever more farmers are being forced to make agonising decisions over whether to move their livestock to safe areas and incur huge costs, slaughter their animals or -- perhaps the most unacceptable option -- leave them to their fate.
Accurate information about radiation levels remains are rare as a dragon's tooth.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Charles Darwin, 1881, photograph by Herbert Rose Barraud
Wednesday Morning EDT/ Wednesday Evening Japan Time Hell in a Handbasket Update
Presented with the assistance of Charles Darwin, 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882 He was a thoughtful, intelligent and conflicted man. He was not an ogre out to disestablish God. He sought truth as he found it in the study of Nature. If you find an error in his work, And there are many, That doesn't mean you have proved that the Bible is inerrant. To sum up, I believe that species come to be tolerably well-defined objects, and do not at any one period present an inextricable chaos of varying and intermediate links: firstly, because new varieties are very slowly formed, for variation is a very slow process, and natural selection can do nothing until favourable variations chance to occur, and until a place in the natural polity of the country can be better filled by some modification of some one or more of its inhabitants. And such new places will depend on slow changes of climate, or on the occasional immigration of new inhabitants, and, probably, in a still more important degree, on some of the old inhabitants becoming slowly modified, with the new forms thus produced and the old ones acting and reacting on each other. So that, in any one region and at any one time, we ought only to see a few species presenting slight modifications of structure in some degree permanent; and this assuredly we do see. - On The Origin Of Species
The Wall Street Journal has a summing up of the first day of the events at Fukushima Daiichi and tells us what readers of this blog already know. The cascading disaster at the nuclear plants was much worse than presented by the authorities and their failures of action and their lack of truthfulness were numerous.
Some highlights:
-It was thought they were unneeded so there were no filters on the vent pipes to remove nuclear materials when high pressure radioactive gas filled the reactor buildings. This delayed venting to allow time for evacuation and ultimately caused explosions.
-The emergency cooling system at the melted down reactor one didn't operate properly, probably because of a combination of human error and battery failure after the loss of electrical power.
-The emergency response center fifteen miles from the plant lost power and all (satellite, cell, landline) telephone communication. The emergency power plant failed.
-Authorities mistakenly thought reactor 2 was the problem when it was reactor 1 all along. This mistake allowed the meltdown of reactor 1 to occur.
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic. -Autobiography
The nuclear industry in the UK through the good graces and soothing words of nuclear chief inspector, Mike Weightman, has convinced the government that what happened in Japan could never happen there according to the Guardian UK.
"The extreme natural events that preceded the accident at Fukushima – the magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent huge tsunami – are not credible in the UK.
"We are 1,000 miles from the nearest fault line and we have safeguards in place that protect against even very remote hazards.
"Our operating and proposed future reactor designs and technology are different from the type at the Fukushima plant.
As has been made clear, this is the same fallacious reasoning presented in the US to justify the continuation of the nuclear program. Each nuclear disaster is different. That is what is so dangerous about this kind of energy generation. It requires complicated and expensive systems that can fail in myriad ways, each of which a public relations flack could justifiably say: "That failure, well, it can't happen here."
In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. -Letter to John Fordyce, May 7 1879
The New York Times says today that Fukushima Daiichi had recently installed the same new more powerful and modern GE venting systems which American plants claimed would prevent the problems which occurred in Japan. These systems failed to react properly when workers finally tried to use them in Japan. The nuclear industry can't get prevarication (lies) out of their system.
[In conversation with the atheist Edward Aveling, 1881] Why should you be so aggressive? Is anything gained by trying to force these new ideas upon the mass of mankind? -from Edward Aveling, The religious views of Charles Darwin, 1883
The Christian Science Monitor reports that the corrupt Japanese government is now requesting their corrupt banks to assist the corrupt TEPCO by granting them loans which they probably never will repay without assistance extorted from the people by the corrupt government.
This means the people of Japan, through taxes, will be subsidizing a failed and criminal capitalist company which does not deserve to exist any longer.
"The accident occurred on March 11. Accidents like this are factored into loans made prior to that. Naturally, I expect financial institutions to be asked for cooperation in light of Tokyo Electric's new financial standing," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a regular news conference.
My theology is a simple muddle: I cannot look at the Universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent Design. - Letter to Joseph Hooker, July 12 1870
It is really funny that an establishment news outlet like NBC, which predictably mocks all conspiracy theories, is giving a little credence to the notion that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was set up. From The Wall Street Journal:
NBC touted the conspiracy theories surrounding the case as the news broke. On Monday's Today, Lauer talked to Newsweek's Paris bureau chief Christopher Dickey, and gave credibility to the bizarre claims: "Talk to me about the more conspiratorial aspect of this....there are some people speculating that this was more than just a chance encounter. That, in fact, Strauss-Kahn was set up. And some have even speculated...that Nicolas Sarkozy could have been behind something like this. Take me through it." "Dickey went after Sarkozy: "He's seen as an absolutely ruthless, no-holds-barred politician. Some people even compare him to the gangster actor Joe Pesci, just in his manner. That's one of the reasons the French don't like him. They don't like his style." He then explained: "So the minute his main political rival falls into this bizarre situation, horrible situation, in New York and is accused of crimes and is taken on a perp walk, many people sort of automatically assume Sarkozy must have had something to do with this."
The Washington Posthas posted a discussion with establishment conspiracy experts, the so very cautious and reasonable debunkers, Ilan Shrira and George Johnson on the DSK affair and other myths today. An example:
RE: DSK AND CONSPIRACY THEORY
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."
Q: Was FDR, whose quotation this is, a conspiracy theorist? And, in light of the Bay of Tonkin, the US-condoned attack on the spy ship USS Liberty by Israel in the '67 war, Project Northwoods, MK-Ultra, Iran-Contra, the creation of the Federal Reserve (from Jekyll Island to its Christmas Eve 1913 Senate vote and Wilson's later lament, "I've ruined my country!" ), and a host of other thoroughly documented conspiracy facts, many quite horrific, why do you present this Q&A session regarding the DSK affair--about which surely FDR would have had some private words to share--as an opportunity to use a social psychologist and a slayer of conspiracy strawmen to further paint those who agree with our 32nd president as abberants?
May 17, 2011 1:13 PM
A.GEORGE JOHNSON :
I don't know the FDR quote, but I doubt that he meant that everything, down to the finest detail, is planned -- that nothing happens accidentally. (Some conspiracy theorists have actually called that view "accident theory.") And of course there are real conspiracies -- just not the overarching, almost supernatural ones that some people are so eager to invent and believe.
– May 17, 2011 1:43 PM
A.ILAN SHRIRA :
Can we really say that FDR was a conspiracy theorist just from this quote? Imagine if George W. Bush had said the same thing--Would you still interpret it as conspiracy-minded?
But you bring up a good point. That there have been conspiracies uncovered in US history (things that almost anyone would agree constitutes a conspiracy--something like the Tuskegee experiment). But just because they have happened in the past, this doesn't not necessarily lend credibility to conspiracy theorizing on any given issue.
– May 17, 2011 1:43 PM
The establishment would want us to take seriously the possibility that a rich privileged man like DSK could be the victim of a conspiracy with a Ghanaian maid at the center while we are expected to accept that John F. Kennedy, or his brother, or Martin Luther King, or George Wallace, or Malcolm X could never have been victims of conspiracies of the rich and privileged who give orders to governments.
There can be no doubt that the difference between the mind of the lowest man and that of the highest animal is immense. An anthropomorphous ape, if he could take a dispassionate view of his own case, would admit that though he could form an artful plan to plunder a garden--though he could use stones for fighting or for breaking open nuts, yet that the thought of fashioning a stone into a tool was quite beyond his scope. Still less, as he would admit, could he follow out a train of metaphysical reasoning, or solve a mathematical problem, or reflect on God, or admire a grand natural scene. Some apes, however, would probably declare that they could and did admire the beauty of the coloured skin and fur of their partners in marriage. They would admit, that though they could make other apes understand by cries some of their perceptions and simpler wants, the notion of expressing definite ideas by definite sounds had never crossed their minds. They might insist that they were ready to aid their fellow-apes of the same troop in many ways, to risk their lives for them, and to take charge of their orphans; but they would be forced to acknowledge that disinterested love for all living creatures, the most noble attribute of man, was quite beyond their comprehension. - The Descent of Man
The Pharyngula blog posts today on the subject "Evolution is a Jewish Conspiracy" in which PZ Myers tells us that Karl Marx did not dedicate Das Kapital to Charles Darwin as many creationists believe. He outlines some of the attempts by creationists to prove their point by linking evolution, Darwin, Communists, Karl Marx and Jews. [The guilt by association fallacy.]
With savages, for instance, the Australians, the women are the constant cause of war both between members of the same tribe and between distinct tribes. So no doubt it was in ancient times; "nam fuit ante Helenam mulier teterrima belli causa." [ Darwin has cleaned up the original of Horace: Nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus taeterrima belli causa. which can be translated roughly as: For even before Helen's time many a hideous cunt was the cause of war. -JB] With some of the North American Indians, thecontest is reduced to a system. That excellent observer, Hearne (22. 'AJourney from Prince of Wales Fort,' 8vo. ed. Dublin, 1796, p. 104. Sir J.Lubbock ('Origin of Civilisation,' 1870, p. 69) gives other and similarcases in North America. For the Guanas of South America see Azara,'Voyages,' etc. tom. ii. p. 94.), says:--"It has ever been the custom amongthese people for the men to wrestle for any woman to whom they areattached; and, of course, the strongest party always carries off the prize.A weak man, unless he be a good hunter, and well-beloved, is seldompermitted to keep a wife that a stronger man thinks worth his notice. Thiscustom prevails throughout all the tribes, and causes a great spirit ofemulation among their youth, who are upon all occasions, from theirchildhood, trying their strength and skill in wrestling." With the Guanasof South America, Azara states that the men rarely marry till twenty yearsold or more, as before that age they cannot conquer their rivals. - The Descent of Man
Monday, May 16, 2011
Dominique Strauss-Kahn with his American born wife Anne Sinclair, a TV journalist in France, Bob Edme AP photo
Monday Morning EDT/ Monday Evening Japan Time Feet of Clay Update Scandal! Scandal at the IMF!
"There is nothing safe about sex. There never will be."- Norman Mailer
"The dirty little secret is that both houses of Congress are irrelevant.... America's domestic policy is now being run by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, and America's foreign policy is now being run by the International Monetary Fund [IMF]. ...when the president decides to go to war, he no longer needs a declaration of war from Congress."- Robert Reich, 1999
IMF may mean insane mad .. oh, you get it. It is interesting to note managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn's problem in New York. In case you hadn't noticed by now, he is accused of sexual assault on a female house staffer in his suite at the luxury hotel Sofitel New York in Times Square. He was arrested yesterday in first class on his plane at John F. Kennedy Airport. He must have been in a hurry since he left his cell phone and personal effects in his room. He is accused of forcing the woman to provide oral sex apparently thinking it was part of the hotel services. [Vous m'apportez des serviettes fraîches et sucer ma bite. Vous faites cela, bien sûr, il est nécessaire. N'avez-vous pas?]
DSK was denied bail today by Judge Melissa Jackson who deemed him a flight risk.
The New York City Police Department denied that DSK's behavior was protected by diplomatic immunity. The IMF has been awarded diplomatic immunity for its agents only for actions taken during the performance of their duties. But demanding a blow job from a Argentine Ghanaian maid may be an excellent metaphor for official IMF activities.
In the Huffington Post we are given details from a recent interview:
Business Insider has uncovered an interview Strauss-Kahn gave to the French publication Liberation in which the IMF's chief cites "the money, women, and my Jewishness" as the three challenges to his potential bid for France's presidency.
Published just weeks ago, Strauss-Kahn's own words provide an intriguing twist on the developments of the past few days.
When pressed to elaborate, Strauss-Kahn offered the following explanation: "Yes, I love women, so what? ... For years we talk about giant pictures of orgies, but I've never seen anything out ... Let's show them!"
He imagined a scenario in which a woman is paid off to play the role of a victim of a purported assault: "A woman that he would have raped in a parking lot and to whom half a million or a million euros would be promised to make up such a story."
DSK actually seems to foresee the pickle he now is in and proactively refutes it!
Today the IMF temporarily replaced DSK with first deputy managing director John Lipsky. Lipsky is a former U.S. Treasury manager and a former banker at JP Morgan. He was probably the one making the calls at the IMF whilst Dominique was out doing his randy gamboling.
The supposed socialist Strauss-Kahn was previously noted in this blog back in April for his arrogant dismissal of the possibility that the IMF could ever take human rights issues into consideration when making loans to countries that may not have as enlightened leadership as La Belle France.
The International Labor Group's concerns were communicated to the IMF and rejected by Strauss-Kahn as follows:
"I don't believe I'm going to turn the IMF into an institution with a lot of expertise on this question," he told an audience at the Brookings Institution. "I don't see these topics becoming defined targets for IMF programs,"
-Dominique Strauss-Kahn, April 2011
The New York Times reports that Strauss-Kahn's presidential election campaign in France may be in trouble.
Earlier this month French socialists were enraged when DSK was photographed getting into a Porsche.
I admit the possibility that this is a set up. Even Mr. Strauss-Kahn could not be this stupid; could he?
And the fact that he is a Jew is causing the extreme right wing (read neo-Nazis) extreme agita.
I do believe Americans tend to over-react to normal sexual peccadilloes. But forced oral sex on a housekeeper is generating outrage even in France. Dominique must have some enemies as head of the IMF. Indeed, he richly deserves his enemies. And more stories about his insatiability are now surfacing.
But wait. Here is the NYPD's official complaint against Mr. Strauss-Kahn. It is not pretty reading.
The Business Insider today gives us the story of his affair with Piroska Nagy, Senior Adviser to the Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The affair began when she was an economist at the IMF. Piroska was married to former Argentine central bank President, Mario Blejer at the time. Mario was furious. The marriage ended. Dominique stated when the incident became public at the time: "It was an incident in my private life and at no time did I abuse my position as the fund's managing director."
The story also lists other missteps by DSK:
-- An unnamed actress who said Strauss acted 'like a gorilla' after inviting her back to a Paris flat.
-- Tristane Banon, a French journalist, who Strauss allegedly tried to rape, or at least sexually assault.
Quotes from Dominique Strauss-Kahn
"In Spain you have a lot of rigidities, the labour market doesn't work for numerous reasons, and I think the labour unions, the government, business everybody understands this and knows what should be done...Even in good times you have a lot of people unemployed and also a lot of people on short term or transitority contracts. All these are matters which show the labor market does not work...[The labour market] has to be greater effective, .. the way people are hired, or sometime are fired, are to be done the way it is done in remainder of Europe, no greater no less." - in Spain, May 2010
"Greek citizens shouldn't fear the IMF; we are there to try to help them." -message to the Greeks, April 24, 2010
"the money, women, and my Jewishness"- DSK's reply to the question about the three greatest challenges to his bid for the French Presidency in Liberation, a French periodical
«Oui, j’aime les femmes, et alors ?»
Saturday, May 14, 2011
John Keel, March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009
Saturday Morning EDT/
Saturday Evening Japan Time
The Universe is Crumbling All Around Us Update
Presented with the illuminating comments of the great Fortean, John Keel
Fort was not against the astronomers. He was amused by them. But the other sciences are just as amusing. Archaeologists have been busy burying more things than they dig up... ignoring everything that doesn't fit into their theories. For example, they tell us that North America was uninhabited by anyone except Indians before the Europeans arrived. They overlook all the stone towers and structures found all over this continent (including miles of paved roads) when the Pilgrims arrived. Fort cataloged all kinds of metal objects from swords and axes to coins that have been found and dated as pre-Columbian. Somebody was mining ore and coal in this country, and pumping oil in Pennsylvania before Columbus set sail. Rather than tussle with the problem of identifying those mysterious North Americans, the archaeologists have chosen to ignore these artifacts. - Disneyland of the Gods
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia has been enlisted by what remains of the SETI program to search for radio emissions coming from 86 "Earth-like planets" identified by NASA's Kepler telescope reports the Sidney Morning Herald. The chances of success are remote. I suspect the time window during which intelligent life uses radio waves for communication is a short one. I suspect the chance that intelligent life is on any of those planets is slim. I suspect that the chance that there is intelligent life on one of those planets in the short time period radio waves may be used for communication which are now reaching Earth is vanishingly small. The game is fixed.
It is almost as if scientists want to say:
"See! Nothing going on out there!"
Andrew Siemion, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley was quoted in the story:
"Our search employs the largest fully steerable radio telescope on the planet, and the most sensitive radio telescope in the world capable of undertaking a SETI search of this kind,'' Siemion said.
''We will be looking at a much wider range of frequencies and signal types than has ever been possible before,'' he added, describing the instrumentation as ''at the very cutting edge of radio astronomy technology''.
This is like saying they are using cutting edge technology to detect horses and buggies on these planets.
Kenneth Arnold, the private pilot whose sighting on June 24, 1947, set off the first modern flying saucer scare, quietly investigated UFOs in depth for years, and then in 1955 he, too, issued public statements expressing his belief that the objects were actually some form of living energy and were not necessarily marvelous spaceships. -Why UFOs? Operation Trojan Horse, 1970
Annie Jacobsen in her new book, Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base, has come up with a new explanation of Roswell. It was a Soviet plot to cause fear and panic in the USA. Josef Stalin, with the assistance of Dr. Mengele, supplying mutant children to pose as aliens, arranged the crash. Nice one Annie. Disinformation is alive and well.
History prefers fantasy to fact. Legend endures while truth coughs up blood which dries and fades. We prefer to teach our children that Christopher Columbus was a hero and have buried his glaring faults. We choose to pass on the nonsense that the Great Chicago Fire of October 8, 1871 was ignited when Mrs. O'Leary's discontented cow kicked over a lantern, and we forget that that fire was actually caused by a gigantic still-unexplained fireball which swept low across the skies of several states, destroying dozens of communities and creating a kind of death and havoc which would not be seen again until the great fire raids of World War II.- Why UFOs? Operation Trojan Horse, 1970
Benjamin Radford's "Bad Science" column mocks the belief in djinns and black magic in Iran and the rest of the Muslim world. Mr. Radford predictably takes this stance since he is a man who believes in Nothing, not that there is anything wrong with that.
It seems several close advisors of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been denounced and arrested by mullahs for consorting with djinns and resorting to black magic according to the Guardian UK:
Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits). Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds".
The arrests come amid a growing rift between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei which has prompted several MPs to call for the president to be impeached.
It is easy to disparage seemingly irrational beliefs in unseen things that have persisted for thousands of years. It is even easier to revile the works of religious fanatics. The word djinn itself means in Arabic, beings or things concealed or covered in darkness. So one can always attribute bad luck, sickness and disaster to the djinn.
I am not prepared to comment on the reality of the djinn. But I do find it interesting that the President of Iran, who has been demonized by the West is now indirectly accused of consorting with demons by the religious establishment of his country.
In Mexico there are stories of the ikals, tiny black men endowed with the powerof flight who live in caves and kidnap humans. In India the giant bird known asthe Garuda is an important part of the mythology. The gods Vishnu and Krishnatraveled around the heavens on the back of a great Garuda. North AmericanIndians have extensive legends about the Thunderbird, a huge bird said to carryoff children and old people. It was accompanied by loud noises, hums, buzzesand, apparently, rumbles from the infrasonic and ultrasonic levels. Known asPiasa to the Indians of the Dakotas, it was supposed to have terrifying red eyesand a long tail. - Mothman Prophecies, 1975
Bites in the form of four large holes were discovered on the victims' bodies, being in the closed cages at the time of the accident.
In addition, young people, who rested in the countryside, announced that they had seen strange creature of about 1.5 meters high, moving nearby on hind limbs. According to them, the animal resemble an ostrich but with hooves, dog-like head, jaw with large teeth, gray hair, hanging in tufts, and eyes gleaming red in the dark.
Residents of Mkaomoto village in Malindi district woke up to find a goat had given birth to a kid with human features. The goat's kid has a bald head, eyes, mouth and nose similar to a human. Superstitious villagers have started talk it could be a ghost. Hundreds of residents rushed to the home of Joseph Baya at 7am to see strange creature after word spread.
With millions of people barrelling along our highways each day, it is not unexpected that Driving
Unknowns (DUNKs) are becoming more and more common. The UFO literature is now filled with
reports of the strange things that happen to people in automobiles. A majority of our monster and
tall, hairy humanoid reports come from solitary motorists, usually those driving alone along country roads late at night. In the average account, the car passes around a bend in the road and suddenly happens upon a landed UFO or a monster shuffling across like a chicken seeking the other side. Many of the classic episodes in the UFO annals began in this way. Add to this the growing number of stories of witnesses who innocently stopped to aid what appeared to be a fellow motorist in distress, only to be suddenly attacked by Men In Black types who grimly warn them to keep quiet about something they saw previously. It is easy to conclude that driving can really be hazardous to your health.- Disneyland of the Gods
Oh yes, let us look at the situation in Japan. TEPCO proclaimed that a worker who collapsed and died at Fukushima Daiichi today was not poisoned by radiation. It was stated that the worker who was in his 60's probably died of a heart attack. Another source cited exhaustion. Well, it looks like they really don't know what caused the death. But they can announce that it wasn't radiation. That's exactly been the problem with TEPCO from the beginning. They are blowing wishful thinking out their asses and calling it information.
It is now established through photographic analysis that there was a meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi much more severe than previously admitted by TEPCO.
TEPCO has begun construction of a "sarcophagus" to contain radiation at plant 1. This is the plant that definitely experienced a meltdown that created a hole in the pressure vessel which allowed an enormous amount of radiation to escape. Giant polyester sheets will be used to cover the shut down and wrecked nuclear plants at Fukushima Daiichi to contain radiation still spewing from the site according to the Wall Street Journal. Inaccurate information from gauges in plant 1 from the beginning of the catastrophe has resulted in bad information about the seriousness of the meltdown there according to Asahi.com: TEPCO officials admitted on May 12 that a "meltdown" had occurred in the No. 1 reactor. Fuel rods had melted, and the molten fuel accumulated and caused small cracks at the bottom of the reactor pressure container, they said.
Until now, TEPCO officials only said that fuel rods were partially damaged and compiled a work schedule in April for restoring a stable cooling system based on that assumption.
Members of the Board of Directors of TEPCO can expect further pay cuts said Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda. More justified pay cuts of fat cats have never been imposed. But more painful sanctions are necessary as punishment for such a failure of corporate authority.
"The U.S. government is being taken over by the space people!" This rumor spread throughout the country in 1967, an updated version of the old devil theory. Actually it got its start in 1941 when James V. Forrestal, the brilliant secretary of defense in the Truman cabinet, went bananas and raced through the corridors of the Pentagon screaming, "We're being invaded and we can't stop them!" He was convinced that his phones were being tapped and some enormous conspiracy was underway. Soon after he was placed in a hospital he leaped out a window to his death. While the press blamed his paranoia on the tensions of the cold war, the UFO enthusiasts knew better. Air force Intelligence had compiled a Top Secret Estimate of the Situation following their UFO investigations in 1947-48. Their conclusion, according to the late Capt. Edward Ruppelt, was that flying saucers were extraterrestrial. Forrestal, so the story went, was one of the few to read that report before Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg ordered all copies destroyed, and it blew his mind. - Mothman Prophecies, 1975
Monday, May 09, 2011
Monday Morning EDT/ Monday Evening Japan Time The Whole World Is Going To Hell And It Is Our Fault Update
With the Kind Assistance of Thomas Paine Revolutionary Pamphleteer A Complicated, Difficult Man Who Hated All Engines of Human Oppression
February 9, 1737 [O.S. January 29, 1736] - June 8, 1809
The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed. [The Theological Works of Thomas Paine]
Vivian Norris at the Huffington Post has also noticed the lack of information on the true state of affairs at Fukushima Daiichi.
From her post today:
There is something extremely disturbing going on and having lived through the media blackout in France back in April and early May 1986 [Chernobyl Time for you kids out there], and speaking to doctors who are deeply concerned by the dramatic increase in cancers appearing at very young ages, it is obvious that information is being held back. We are still told not to eat mushrooms and truffles from parts of Europe, not wild boar and reindeer from Germany and Finland 25 years later.
Vivian recommends (also cited and recommended on this blog) http://www.fairewinds.com/updates for honest information on the situation from nuclear experts such as Arne Gundersen. She further details stonewalling by officials in Japan.
Highly recommended.
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistant that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel. [Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]
MIT's The Physics arXiv Blog tells us today that chain reactions continued despite shutdowns at Fukushima Daiichi in a self explanatory post titled "Chain Reactions Reignited At Fukushima After Tsunami, Says New Study Radioactive byproducts indicate that nuclear chain reactions must have been burning at the damaged nuclear reactors long after the disaster unfolded"
Today, Tetsuo Matsui at the University of Tokyo, says the limited data from Fukushima indicates that nuclear chain reactions must have reignited at Fuksuhima up to 12 days after the accident.
Matsui says the evidence comes from measurements of the ratio of cesium-137 and iodine-131 at several points around the facility and in the seawater nearby. He has calculated what the starting ratio must have been by assuming the reactors had been operating for between 7 and 12 months.
He says the ratios from drains at reactors 1 and 3 at Fukushima are consistent with the nuclear reactions having terminated at the time of the earthquake.
However, the data from the drain near reactor 2 and from the cooling pond at reactor 4, where spent fuel rods are stored, indicate that the reactions must have been burning much later.
"The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety." - Common Sense, January 10, 1776
Over and over in what my active imagination appears to be almost a conspiratorial enterprise we are being reassured by the local press in the United States with similar phraseology like this example drawn from Pantagraph.com of Bloomington, Illinois.
A nuclear radiation incident similar to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan is unlikely to happen at the Clinton nuclear plant, say Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials.
"All nuclear power plants are designed to handle the most severe, natural phenomenons such as earthquakes, flooding, tornadoes and things of that nature," said NRC public affairs spokesman Prema Chandrathil at a recent open house in Clinton. "But we will continue to evaluate such incidents as they had in Japan and see how they relate to our plants and make any changes if necessary."
No my friends, the Clinton plant will have its own inimitable and unique problems as happens in every nuclear disaster. And its nuclear problems will be cited as not being possible anywhere else. Each nuclear plant in the United States is telling us that an accident such as happened at Fukushima Daiichi is unlikely.
But do they say that any accident is unlikely?
No.
"It is of the utmost danger to society to make it (religion) a party in political disputes." - Common Sense, January 10, 1776
Read the story of Angelo "Doogie" Golatt, a minister who specialized in working with developmentally disabled youths and allegedly abused them sexually wherever he went. Religion is the perfect mask for evil.
"Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?" - The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776
It's so bloody heart warming to see that the Wheeling Intelligencer is still banging the war drums to destroy people who are simply defending their own land against foreign incursion as they have done for thousands of years. There are enemies everywhere. And we shall keep making them as long as we send American soldiers half way around the world to kill tribesman on their own turf.
"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." - The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776
The 14th Dalai Lama spoke at the University of Minnesota last night.
"Compassion is the key factor for good health. ... It is not money or materialistic concerns, it is compassion and also education," he said. "If you do bad things for people, you get negative consequences. But if you do good things for people, you get good consequences."
"Use this for your own well-being," he urged.
In recognition of Mother's Day, the Dalai Lama lauded mothers for providing the affection and warmth people need to develop a compassionate society.
"My mother (was) so kind to me when I was young — I was the youngest of the children — that she really spoiled me," he said with a laugh. With the influence of his mother, he felt "deep inside, I am much calmer."
Tom's Death Mask
Thomas Paine died reviled and abandoned by both those in whom he had once generated conservative hatred and those in whom he inspired the spirit of revolution.
"Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred – his virtues denounced as vices – his services forgotten – his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend – the friend of the whole world – with all their hearts. On the 8th of June, 1809, death came – Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead – on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head – and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude – constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine." -Robert G. Ingersoll
"Don't fuck with me, fellas. This cowgirl has been to the rodeo before."
Superb photographs of Fukushima Daiichi can be found here. At the Cryptome website where you can find photographs and documents of all kinds on the nuclear industry in this world. The first link brings you inside Fukushima Daiichi 1 for the first time since the earthquake.
"I love playing bitches. There's a lot of bitch in every woman - a lot in every man." CNN reports Prime Minister Kan wants to shut down the Hamaoka nuclear plant with three reactors in Omaezaki until earthquake and tsunami protections can be built. Authorities are very concerned about the high risk of earthquake at the site. Perhaps the concern would have been more appropriate when plans for construction were brought before authorities.
"The primary reason for this request is in the interest of the safety and security of the people of Japan," Kan said. "We came to this conclusion because of the grave impact on Japan's people that could be incurred as a result of a serious accident at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant."
"During 'Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?', I knitted a scarf from Hollywood to Malibu."
It is now, as reported in Discovery Magazine, believed that the early African hominid Paranthropus boisei used his huge flat dentition to eat grasses rather than nuts as previously believed. Scientists cleverly pulverized the enamel of twenty two of the primates who lived 1.4 to 1.9 million years ago to determine carbon signatures of the foods consumed. The various carbon isotopes matched up with a grass and sedge diet rather than the nut diet. It sounds like an evolutionary dead end to me. Primates competing with grazing animals for grass sounds like a losing proposition. Primates had no chance until they picked up weapons and fed on the grazers, which is a much more efficient way to get nutrition from grass. Oxygen isotopes in the samples revealed the climate was “semi-arid savannah with woodlands along rivers or lakes.”
"I was born in front of a camera and really don't know anything else."
Fans of CSI will be interested in this article about forensic anthropologist Doctor Bill Bass. Bill has run a "body farm" since 1971 for the University of Tennessee where dozens of corpses of different sexes and age are scattered in various states of decay under different circumstances, such as bagged and buried or left in the open air. It is a sort of pilgrimage site for the Gil Grissoms of the world. From the article:
Law enforcement is asking two questions when bring you a body. First is: who is it? And second is: how long have they been there?" said Bass.
The corpses are placed in all sorts of positions and conditions to duplicate crimes. They're buried in mud, locked in trunks, submerged in water. They're even hanging from trees.
"Because you think about how people dispose of bodies. You wrap 'em. Wrap'em in plastic or you have trash cans," said Rebecca Taylor, assistant coordinator of the Body Farm........
"I cannot abide the odor in the body farm," said Carol Bass. "It takes you three days to get it out of your nose, it really does. I don't care what anybody says."
Highly recommended. And what Carol says about the smell of a corpse is absolutely spot on. When I was a young man living in Dorchester there was a horrendous smell coming from under a porch I had to pass on the way to the Savin Hill Station. The next day it was said that they pulled out the decomposed body of a Whitey Bulger associate.
"I, Joan Crawford, I believe in the dollar. Everything I earn, I spend."
Meanwhile, politicians are resuming meeting about the "budget crisis" and all are just so ready to work together to resolve it. From a PBS talking head show yesterday:
REP. JOHN BOEHNER [Majority Leader Of the United States Congress, in a clip] R-Ohio: When it comes to increasing the debt limit and the need to have reductions in spending nothing is off the table except raising taxes.
LORI MONTGOMERY [The Washington Post] : I don't think they are. I think what they're saying is, we recognize that Democrats have pledged to protect these programs. We believe that these are the largest drivers of future deficits -- and they're absolutely right about that -- however, we also recognize that we need to reach an agreement to pass this debt ceiling pretty quickly. Therefore, instead of arguing forever about health care and taxes, like we always do, why don't we start looking for some common ground and start from there?
LORI MONTGOMERY: That's an excellent question, and I wish I could answer it fully.
They say that they're still plowing ahead. Sen. Tom Coburn, who is a member of the gang of six, had to suddenly go home because of a family emergency. So they aren't meeting right now. But they say they're going to return to the table when they get back next week.
And I think the problem they're facing at this point is, you know, these are three very conservative Republicans who desperately believe in this goal. But the package that they're looking at would involve a tax reform proposal that raises additional revenue but it leaves to the committees to decide how that will happen. And I think they're having a very difficult time signing off on something where they can't control the particulars.
Republicans think they can balance the budget without raising taxes. No one ever mentions the defense budget. Medicare and Social Security are always on the table for these people. They are hallucinating that they even have a chance to balance their imaginary dollars. The central bank (Federal Reserve) will not let them. Debt is too profitable.
"Nobody can imitate me. You can always see impersonations of Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. But not me. Because I've always drawn on myself only."
"Recently I heard a 'wise guy' story that I had a party at my home for twenty-five men. It's an interesting story, but I don't know twenty-five men I'd want to invite to a party."
"The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'"- Bette Davis
This card is attributed to the letter Peh, which means a mouth; it refers to the planet Mars. In its simplest interpretation it refers to the manifestation of cosmic energy in its grossest form. The picture shows the destruction of existing material by fire.....
At the bottom part of the card, therefore, is shown the destruction of the old-established Aeon by lightning, flames, engines of war. In the right-hand corner are the jaws of Dis, belching flame at the root of the structure. Falling from the tower are broken figures of the garrison. It will be noticed that they have lost their human shape.
They have become mere geometrical expressions......
The dominating feature of this card is the Eye of Horus. This is also the Eye of Shiva, on the opening of which, according to the legend of this cult, the Universe is destroyed.
-The Master Therion (Aleister Crowley) the Book of Thoth, XVI. THE TOWER [OR:WAR]
Thursday Morning EDT/
Thursday Evening Japan Time
A Corrupted and Disintegrating World Update
Punctuated by the Words Of Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz,
June 1, 1780 – November 16, 1831
A Philosopher of War
"War is the province of chance. In no other sphere of human activity must such a margin be left for this intruder. It increases the uncertainty of every circumstance and deranges the course of events."
Workers entered Plant 1 at Fukushima Daiichi today for the first time since it exploded on March 12.
They are limited to forty minute shifts due to the extremely high levels of radiation in the blasted plant.
They are attempting to install six special filtering units to remove radioactive dust from the air which will allow workers to spend more time in the plant to install critical cooling equipment to pump in water with the aim to avoid further meltdown or explosive reactions by forcing a cold shutdown on the glowing melted pile of nuclear material in the gut of the plant.
Good luck lads. You couldn't pay me enough. The Los Angeles Times also reports on this story today and also drops a few tidbits on radiation in the area:
Even as work to stabilize the reactors continued, officials announced new findings of radioactive contamination. Tepco said Tuesday that it found high amounts of radioactive isotopes along the sea floor less than 2 miles off Japan's northeastern coast. The company said that cesium-134, cesium-137 and iodine-121 turned up in tests performed April 129 in two places at a depth of 65 feet to 100 feet.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu, right, bows to a Nihonmatsu villager to apologize [again] for the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. (Associated Press / May 4, 2011)
I wonder if he is getting a sore back yet.
"We continue to monitor radioactivity levels in fish and other sea organisms."
-Taisuke Tomikawa, TEPCO flack
Yes, keep monitoring, but what are you doing with the information, Taisuke?
And what can you possibly do about it?
"Only great and general battles can produce great results"
The Wall Street Journal tells us that TEPCO is finally bringing in fresh bento meals to the belabored workers at Fukushima Daiichi. They had been subsisting on pouched-packed food, bread and noodles. Bunks are also being brought in to the nearby Fukushima Daini nuclear plant's gym. They had been using sleeping bags on mats on the floor. By mid May they will have showers.
Goshi Hosono, a senior aide to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, said that nearly two months after the onset of the crisis, the time had come to take better care of workers. He and Tepco officials were speaking at a news conference.
"I hope this will allow workers to refresh themselves and devote themselves to the hard task in hand," said Mr. Hosono, who is representing the premier at a joint disaster headquarters with Tepco.
"Until now, we haven't paid enough attention to conditions for workers, as we have focused squarely on containing the accident," he said. "It has also been hard for Tepco to improve conditions for its own workers, given the hardships faced by evacuees forced out of their own homes."
"If the enemy is to be coerced, you must put him in a situation that is even more unpleasant than the sacrifice you call on him to make. The hardships of the situation must not be merely transient - at least not in appearance. Otherwise, the enemy would not give in, but would wait for things to improve."
Reuters reports that the problems in Japan have not prevented taxpayer assisted and indemnified new construction of nuclear facilities in the United States. New projects in South Carolina and Georgia are expected to begin soon without delay. These will be new reactors at existing facilities. Westinghouse which is mostly owned by Toshiba is the provider.
"If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles."
The last know World War One combat veteran, Claude Choules, who served in the Royal Navy, died at the age of 110. He witnessed the surrender of the German imperial fleet at the Firth of Forth, in Scotland. Link at CNN.
"It is clear that war is not a mere act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political activity by other means"
Jonathan Jones in the Guardian UK gives a strange take on the quest to restore looted Nazi art treasures to rightful owners. He claims that paintings like the Klimt Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I returned to the Bloch-Bauer family from Vienna in 2006 after a long legal battle, belongs in the museum that essentially looted it from the Bloch-Bauer estate after the Nazis absorbed Austria. Jones claims it would have acted as a kind of monument to the lost Jewish culture of the city. Antisemitism takes many contorted forms these days.
At any rate, if you or your family had art stolen by Nazis there is an inventory online at the Commission for Looted Art in Europe.
"Where judgment begins, there art begins."
Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Note the Eye in the Pyramid motif in her dress.
Our meandering and aimless and impossible to win war in Afghanistan will reach its tenth anniversary on October 7, 2011. It continues without a goal, without strategy, and without meaning.
"War belongs not to the province of Arts and Sciences, but to the province of social life. It is a conflict of great interests, which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others. It would be better, instead of comparing it with any Art, to liken it to business competition, which is also a conflict of human interests and activities; and it is still more like State policy, which, again, can be looked upon as a kind of business competition on a great scale."
Monday, May 02, 2011
José Benlliure y Gil, 1858-1937
La Barca De Caronte
With the reported death of the enigmatic Osama Bin Laden there have been expressions of hope for the Muslim World. But we must temper our hope for the inevitable change that must come to Islam. Only change coming from within will be real. And that change will proceed slowly. Reform can never be imposed from without on the cultures of the Middle East. As ancient as that part of the world is, Islam is yet the little brother of the world's important religions. Islam is an immature self-consciouse hothead, like an adolescent who refuses to admit any error or misdeed. The natural progression of any religion is towards flexibility and tolerance.
The stiff-necked religion is ultimately inimical to the spirit of man and will be rejected if it is not altered.
Humans eventually tire of the old and obvious yet effective trickery the masters of oppressive cultures use when they emotionally proclaim:
"You may be miserable but you are so lucky to be favored of [Place name of appropriate god here.] And you are so much better than [Place names of other people, religion, race here.] Now do as we order you to do."
Muslims are about fourteen centuries into their religion. That is around the time Christianity began to reform. And, Judaism began to get flexible (of necessity) about a millenia and a half in. Islam as a religion and a culture will reform and get away from the strict norms and rules that hold back its people (and need I say it, their women especially). Perhaps a religion needs to get to the point where it stops taking itself so seriously in the sense that it needs to be on a mission to force the world to conform to the message. Would a true religion need to force itself on people? If a religion is not freely chosen how successful can it be? To paraphrase a certain guy: By their fruit you will recognize them. Ultimately men are swayed by results, not claims of future reward for donning a metaphysical straight jacket that induces unhappiness and neurosis.
Be careful what you wish for in the Middle East, in the Islamic countries. It is prudent to temper one's enthusiasm here. A popular democratic government in that part of the world will tend to support some policies that will appear very strange to us in the West. However, it is important to understand that changes which may appear backwards and retrogressive could actually lead to liberalization. Martin Luther was a reformer of Christianity yet he was actually very conservative, turned on the peasants who first supported him, and despised Jews above all others. However, his notion that any man may interpret the Bible for himself sounded the first the death knell of the oppressive Catholic Church and opened the way for liberal Christians. Islam is at the beginning of a very long process. Christianity has shown that for all the progress it has made from its bloody repressive past, there are still many flaws in its major institutions. Change never evades friction and never travels in a straight upward motion.
The religion to fear is the next important religion to be born. Babies are beautiful, full of hope and trouble.
As in the United States where there are no good guys running things or wanting to run things, so in Libya there are no good guys on either side of their battle because there are no perfect men walking around today. When we see rebels sending a representative to the World Bank before they have won their rebellion, something is wrong. We should let the natural process take its course. But men with certain evil interests are already forcing that process to their own wills.
It's probably best not to speculate too much about these matters when you don't have all the information at hand. The theme of one of my favorite books, Voltaire's Candide, is that a certain road to unhappiness is travelled when one is absolutely sure he has all the absolute answers on a meta-scale:
"Cunégonde grows uglier and more disagreeable every day. Cacambo works in the garden of the small farm. He hates the work and curses his fate. Pangloss is unhappy because he has no chance of becoming an important figure in a German university. Martin is patient because he imagines that in any other situation he would be equally unhappy. They all debate philosophy while the misery of the world continues. Pangloss still maintains that everything is for the best but no longer truly believes it. Paquette and Giroflée arrive at the farm, having squandered the money Candide gave them. They are still unhappy, and Paquette is still a prostitute. The group consults a famous dervish (Muslim holy man) about questions of good and evil. The dervish rebukes them for caring about such questions and shuts the door in their faces. Later, the group stops at a roadside farm. The farmer kindly invites them to a pleasant dinner. He only has a small farm, but he and his family work hard on it and live a tolerable existence. Candide finds the farmer’s life appealing. He, Cunégonde, and his friends decide to follow it, and everyone is satisfied by hard work in the garden. Pangloss suggests to Candide once again that this is the best of possible worlds. Candide responds, “That is very well put . . . but we must cultivate our garden.”"
Death Carrying A Child, Stefano della Bella, 1645-1651
Born in Quincy, MA, John Bonanno dwells on nine acres of gardens & woodland in Hiram, Maine. John retired November 30, 2010 after a career as a mailman in Portland, Maine. He attended the University of Massachusetts in Boston, graduating with a degree in anthropology and a scholarly interest in the tradition of human sacrifice. He drove a taxi in Boston. He served in the United States Navy for four and a half years, first enlisting and then being commissioned after attending officer's candidate school. He has also worked in sales, as a cook, and in radio. This autodidact artist was first shown at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland Maine. He founded the Unaffiliated Thelemite Association UTA, now in a period of silence. He is devoting more time to his art since his retirement.
Click paintings and photographs for expanded view. Paintings and photographs reproduced and described on this blog which are credited to John Bonanno are the intellectual property of John Bonanno. All paintings by John Bonanno are indeed available for sale unless described as "SOLD". See all posts displaying my art by clicking Label on this blog:"My Art". All sincere inquirers (provocateurs will be ignored) are invited to contact the artist: johnnyb93@gmail.com
I welcome comments but I will thoroughly vet all comments. I am not much interested in irrelevant comments that criticize third parties or comments that indulge in needless ad hominem attacks, or in gossip-mongering. I abhor fallacious arguments. I eschew meta-discussion as a waste of time. But I especially welcome corrections in matters of fact. I am reluctant to publish comments that reflect poorly on the judgement, the intelligence, or the character of the submitter. I will be much more likely to publish comments that address the topics of the posts or my own style and opinions. I have no problem with critical comments that meet the above criteria. I am also much more likely to publish comments by posters who provide me a means to contact them. Here, I am your editor. It's probably for your own good.
Note:It is my blog and I may trump, alter, ignore or modify my own rules for my own purposes.
That's just the way it is.
If you are dissatisfied with these policies please feel free to create your own forum in this wonderful world in order to promote your own agenda. You can do it.
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