COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
The incredible privilege of ever having been.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we find it necessary to glorify the cults of death when we are part of the mystery of life? We are the one inch of the universe, that for an instant can verify existence itself. Yet that is still not enough? It is everything.
An al-Qaida linked militant group has claimed responsibility for the killing an American teacher in city of Taiz in Yemen on Sunday. Joel Shrun, 29, was shot dead by a gunman on motorbike, driven by an accomplice.
ReplyDeleteShrun was an English language teacher and deputy director of Swedish Institute, a language school. Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), a militant group which police believe is affiliated to al-Qaida, claimed he was targeted because of his Christian "proselytising".
A text message sent to journalists read: "This operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytising that the west has launched against Muslims." The message called Shrun "one of the biggest American proselytisers". Islamist militants have often accused western aid groups of covert religious missionary work.
The US state department condemned the killing. A spokesman said the US would continue to work with the Yemeni authorities to bring the killers to justice.
A waddle of ignorance.
ReplyDeleteThe recognition of beauty is the recognition of one's self projecting its divinity from itself.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inHi5MNslWY
A twaddle of stupidity.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing more divine than one's self.
The recognition of beauty is the recognition of one's self projecting its divinity from itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inHi5MNslWY
Life is everything you make of it, nothing more or nothing less.
ReplyDeleteThat cowardly scum, the American media victim of the day , little Bobby Bales had money problems...lived over his means and massacred innocent people because he couldn't handle his problems...typical cowardly savage. Please, no damn excuses for this savage...I couldn't care less what his wife has to say, cry me a river. Ironically, the poor people he massacred never had the life of comfort he had...
ReplyDeleteBales will cause the tragedy of more decent young Americans worthy of our praise and concern,alive today as we speak, will soon be dead thanks to the actions of . Traumatized? breakdown? did he let off in daylight at grown Afghan men around him?.. No,this "warrior" crept out at the dead of night and murdered little children..girls..in their beds,no uncontrolled outburst here just a despicable,premeditated act of sheer cowardice. Now he's home where he wanted to be, a luxury that the other young soldiers about to pay for HIS actions will never experience again. God rest their souls and those of his tiny victims.
And the Lord sayeth judge not for the judgement you give is the judgement you get and sprawl thyself upon thy dirt floor and weep in thanksgiving thou hast not been put to the test and faileth as judgement is the Lord's alone.
ReplyDeleteThe incredible privilege of ever having been.
I agree with that. Though when the earthquake comes it may be hard to recall the sentiment.
Much of this modern woe stuff is based on the idea that it's all a big gyp.
You form all these loves and do efforts and such and it's all taken away. That's what some say.
It may not be taken away but if it is is it still worth it?
People feel differently. A prospective answer for me would be yes.
Looking back on it, still yes.
Yet I have friends who would say differently, assuming it's all taken away. Assuming it's not I think most everyone would sooner or later conclude it's all good.
No.
ReplyDeleteSome of us would say no.
About the only point of concurrence would be that it's a serious business.
But then the image of jenny/julia/tilda spontaneously combusting a bush in the desert comes to mind.
And I forget the question.
But I am sure the answer is no.
Ann
ReplyDeleteLook at it this way.
ReplyDeleteIf katerina is right, then we can't debate the ravages of war on the human psyche when the "answer" is much less divine. "Worth" in the human sense must have a different meaning in the "godly" sense. Hopefully.
I am retreating to bed, before things get serious.
ReplyDeleteTaliban leaders are insisting that US Staff Sergeant Robert Bales didn't act alone when he allegedly massacred 16 Afghan civilians as they slept. "We don't think that one American was involved," a Taliban official told CNN, without offering further details. "The foreigners and the puppet regime" in Afghanistan "are blind to the truth of what happened here." But whatever the case, Bales should be "prosecuted in Afghanistan, and according to Islamic law," he added. "The Afghans should prosecute him." The comments followed a move by the Taliban last week to cut off talks with the US because of American officials' "ever-changing position," said a spokesman.
ReplyDeleteWe are the one inch of the universe, that for an instant can verify existence itself.
ReplyDeleteI think the Hindus would say, nothing remarkable about this.
There is never matter without mind.
No mind, never matter.
No matter, never mind.
As the saying goes.
I think they consider that spirit recognizes itself; mind is not spirit; mind and matter come and go, as does the universe(s).
I am now retreated under my bed.
I missed this from 2008:
ReplyDeleteIn the canon of great conspiracy theories, the JFK assassination remains unquestionably king. The enduring national mystery has given rise to some of the most complicated explanations, and the theory offered by a new book is one of the more pleasingly convoluted, reports Vanity Fair in a look at Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination. Though to be fair, it's hard to go wrong with the book's combination of mob bosses with an attack on Cuba.
Legacy has Louisiana don Carlos Marcello taking JFK out in retribution for Bobby Kennedy's crackdown on organized crime. A super-secret CIA plan to remove Fidel Castro from office was supposed to go down a week after JFK's Dallas trip, according to Legacy's authors, and Marcello bet he could get away with the hit because J Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson would rather sweep the assassination under the rug than reveal the planned Cuban plot.
Man Cave
ReplyDeleteIt could be Rush Limbaugh's toughest challenge yet: civility. Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is about to launch a radio program challenging Limbaugh, going head-to-head from noon to 3 pm, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Mike Huckabee Show will be on 140 stations to start, many fewer than Limbaugh's 600. But with Limbaugh having lost more than 140 sponsors because of his most recent controversies, the time could be right for a new kind of conservative message "More conversation, less confrontation" is the Huckabee show slogan.
ReplyDeleteNothing like confrontation to confirm consciousness. What's a little life without unpleasantness? No fun at all.
O well, what the hell.
ReplyDeleteConsider spirit as being the Mahdi. Occluded. Deep down in some well somewhere. May he come. Like spirit in the myths. Enlightening. From without. Or, up out of a well. There is water down there. Life giving water Deep down there in the spiritual dark, fructifying. Means a lot in a desert. But we are not talking about something can actually be physically sipped with a straw.
Surprise, surprise.
Like the Prince coming to wake Sleeping Beauty,unable to wake herself.
Maya/mind occludes the life giving spirit Prevents it from recognizing itself.
Read this way, even the muzzie tale makes some sense. Of course, they don't read it that way, as a rule.
They'd rather take your head from your body, or nuke Israel, than give up the usual way of seeing things. The occluded way, blankly.
Eyeless starers.
Reading? In fact, many can't read at all, not even a book, specially the women.
Spirit comes unasked for, as at least two American poets have said. But finally.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview on Sunday that he opposes a controversial bill moving through the Arizona legislature that would let employers restrict health insurance coverage of contraception to only those cases when a woman can prove a need for it because of a medical reason, such as endometriosis or an ovarian cyst.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP-sponsored bill, which would put some women in the uncomfortable position of having to explain to their boss why they use birth control, already passed in the state House of Representatives and was endorsed by a Senate committee last week. McCain said, however, it has little chance of becoming law.
Freedom of religion.
If it were true that we now know how to break the cycle of poverty, poverty would be declining. But poverty is growing in the United States; child poverty is more than 20 percent and rising. Among the world's advanced nations, we are number one in child poverty. It's facile to blame schools and teachers, but more realistic to recognize that poverty is a reflection of economic conditions. Schools cannot create jobs, provide homes for the homeless, or change the economy.
ReplyDeleteA man is talking on the phone to a friend who lives in northern Montana, just near the Canadian border. The friend says that, since early that morning, the snow has been nearly waist-high and is still falling. The temperature is dropping way below zero, he says, and the north wind is increasing to near gale force. His wife has done nothing but look through the kitchen window and just stare. He says that if it gets much worse, he may have to let her in.
ReplyDeleteHelpful Hints:
ReplyDeleteGuided Imagery Technique to Release Repressed Anger
Close your eyes and imagine the person that you are angry at standing before you. This person may have died long ago it might be a boss, a parent, someone who pissed you off. Tell them in your mind how angry and upset you are. If you need to act it out, then act it out- imaginatively! If you were so angry you could have kicked and spit on them, then in your imagination, kick and spit on them! Play it out. Now is your chance to vent the pent up energy from your subconscious mind! Don't hold back. The more vivid you imagine this with honest feelings, the more effective it will be.
I'm also told having a man cave is helpful.
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you." The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.
ReplyDeleteGiving it up:
ReplyDeleteWhen people download a film from Netflix to a flatscreen, or turn on web radio, they could be alerting unwanted watchers to exactly what they are doing and where they are.
Spies will no longer have to plant bugs in your home - the rise of 'connected' gadgets controlled by apps will mean that people 'bug' their own homes, says CIA director David Petraeus.
The CIA claims it will be able to 'read' these devices via the internet - and perhaps even via radio waves from outside the home.
Saving ObamaCare:
ReplyDeleteDespite all the attention on Roberts and Scalia, many think Kennedy is the most important conservative for the government to convince. Over the past five terms, he has been in the majority in more than 80 percent of the court’s 5 to 4 decisions, more than any other justice.
Chemerinsky jokes that if he were allowed to stretch the rules in offering a brief to the court on the case, “I would put Justice Kennedy’s photo on the cover.”
Shapiro, too, believes that it is essential for the government to get Kennedy on its side. “Atmospherically, I can’t see that if Kennedy votes to strike it down,” he said, that either Roberts or Scalia would come to the rescue.
Robert Spencer Says It Is Time To Leave Afghanistan
ReplyDeleteI wish I could find what Hugh Fitzgerald is saying, thinking, writing on this question these days. He seemed to me to have a quite level headed realistic outlook, historical too, and made it quite clear who the enemy is, was, will be. Always suggesting ways to weaken islam and islamic states.
Some program I was listening to tonight the guy made it quite clear why the Pakistanis are so interested in Afghanistan. They see it as a strategic depth in their confrontation with India. That if India should attack them they need a fall back position. Whether this makes any sense or not if Paki cities are radioactive one can at least understand their feelings.
The CIA claims it will be able to 'read' these devices via the internet - and perhaps even via radio waves from outside the home.
ReplyDeleteI prefer a copper mesh for my helmet, it blocks the CIA mind control rays as completely as a foil Faraday Cage while allowing my scalp the breathe.
When people download a film from Netflix to a flatscreen, or turn on web radio, they could be alerting unwanted watchers to exactly what they are doing and where they are.
ReplyDeleteThe ultimate protection is to live such a boring life that not even the NSA will give a shit.
:)
ReplyDeleteI don't know. That picture of Petraeus was pretty serious.
I don't like the entire subject - privacy/liberty encroachments in the terrorist age - but just the thought of a bunch of buzz cut analysts "assessing" my digital footprint makes me go all out Swinton-esque.
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you." The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.
ReplyDeleteFor by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. --- The actual gospel.
But with Limbaugh having lost more than 140 sponsors because of his most recent controversies, the time could be right for a new kind of conservative message "More conversation, less confrontation" is the Huckabee show slogan.
ReplyDeleteAnd just in case Rush still doesn't get the point, Huck will be based out of Tulsa, which is "A Slut" backwards.
In addition to Ash, I'm worried about Kate
ReplyDeleteCan't the leisure class properly care for itself either in Canada or England any longer?
"Worth" in the human sense must have a different meaning in the "godly" sense. Hopefully.
ReplyDeleteUnless gods are human figments, in which case it's all the human sense.
Within Christianity, there are differing conceptions of grace. In particular, Catholics and Protestants use the word in substantially different ways. It has been described as "the watershed that divides Catholicism from Protestantism, Calvinism from Arminianism, modern liberalism from conservatism".[10] Catholic doctrine teaches that God uses the sacraments to facilitate the reception of His grace.[11] Protestants generally do not hold that view.[12] In other words, even without the sacraments, divine grace has been imparted by God to humanity.
ReplyDeleteWhy are we here?
ReplyDeleteSave this one for later.
ReplyDeleteSeriously.
Brent Budowski:
ReplyDeleteNot content to oppose efforts to promote pay equity for women, Republicans are battling against stronger efforts to protect battered women. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney, escalating his unsuccessful pandering to the right, has set his sights against Planned Parenthood. I assume the plan is for the GOP to seek votes from those who cheat women on salary and beat women physically. Bad plan. Republicans, like Ron Paul, will have to accept personal responsibility for their actions.
Republicans will claim they are all for women, but this is about ideology. Fair enough. So bet it. Let the debate begin. Actions and ideology have real consequences. The consequences for women under Republicans are severe, which is why women are voting for Democrats in huge numbers.
I recently called the gender gap intergalactic. Time for a stronger term. I am working to invent one. Republicans can say what they want in their conservative salons of hardline ideology, but the women of America suffer the consequences and will not stand for it.
Fuck the women of America
ReplyDeleteI mean the forever whining ones.
They own most of the property.
They have most of the votes.
They are the majority in the universities these days.
Fuck them, I'm tired of hearing about it.
At least, I don't have to hear this bullshit at home.
My wife and daughter are both intelligent, and know how damn good they have it.
You're not going to hear them whining about the repressed women of America.
They got brains.
Judd Gregg in the "no" column:
ReplyDeleteIt is not in the United States’s interest to join in or pursue military action in the Middle East if it once again involves the costs in both blood and dollars of nation-building. Future military action there must be based on the premise that our goal is to destroy a designated threat and not rebuild a nation.
The Netanyahu government knows it can now proceed with military action and that the American political leadership and therefore our military capability will be there to support it. As a result of this being a presidential election year, he is the dog and we are the tail.
We will just have to hope that if Israel does decide it must strike Iran to protect itself that it will do so in a manner that does not leave us in a position where we feel compelled to stay behind and rebuild a nation. This is a cost we cannot afford and should not have to bear again.
I recently called the gender gap intergalactic. Time for a stronger term. I am working to invent one.
ReplyDeleteHow 'bout -
Take the fight
For woman's right
To faraway Antares
And I'll be the first to go!
annianon
Fuck the women of America
I mean the forever whining ones.
They own most of the property.
They have most of the votes.
They are the majority in the universities these days.
Fuck them, I'm tired of hearing about it.
At least, I don't have to hear this bullshit at home.
My wife and daughter are both intelligent, and know how damn good they have it.
You're not going to hear them whining about the repressed women of America.
They got brains.
Well at least it got you out from under the bed. Kind of cramped down there in that small space no?
ReplyDeleteObama's Sneaky Treaties:
ReplyDeletePresident Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are entering negotiations over — or seeking ratification of — five treaties that could radically limit our national sovereignty and the reach of our democratic institutions. Particularly scary is that the treaties, once signed and ratified, have the same status as constitutional law and cannot be altered or eclipsed by Congress or state legislatures. And their provisions must be enforced by U.S. courts.
International Criminal Court — Clinton has reversed George W. Bush’s policy and entered into negotiations over U.S. participation in the court. Specifically, the leftists who are sponsoring the court wish to create a new crime of “aggression,” which is essentially going to war without the approval of the United Nations. If we submit to the court’s jurisdiction, our presidents and Cabinet officials could be prosecuted criminally for going to war without U.N. approval. This would, of course, give Russia and China a veto over our military actions. Clinton says she will stop our military’s hands from being tied, but we all must realize that once we accept the International Criminal Court, we go down a slippery slope. The court could even prosecute Americans who have been cleared by our own judicial system.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Republicans play Onward Christian Soldiers. Nero fiddling with burning bushes.
Should have put in bold:
ReplyDeleteIf we submit to the court’s jurisdiction, our presidents and Cabinet officials could be prosecuted criminally for going to war without U.N. approval. This would, of course, give Russia and China a veto over our military actions.
At least we still have freedom of religion. Now that we all understand exactly what the subject is.
Bad news for advocates of decentralizing power back to the states:
ReplyDeleteMichigan, North Dakota, South Carolina, Maine, Virginia, Wyoming, South Dakota and Georgia received failing grades in the State Integrity Investigation – an analysis of all 50 state governments conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International.
With not a single state getting an A grade, just five states earned a B: New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, California and Nebraska; while 19 states received Cs and 18 earned Ds.
Smart Woman Online:
ReplyDeleteThe Art of Celebrating Christmas
Successfully Seasoning for 70 Years
The Season for Salads
Love your Skin for Life
'Stern' Men Just Misses
What's it all about, Alfie?
ReplyDeleteThis is a lttle prayer dedicated to the separation of church and state. I guess if they are going to force those kids to pray in schools they might as well have a nice prayer like this: Our Father who art in heaven, and to the republic for which it stands, thy kingdom come, one nation indivisible as in heaven, give us this day as we forgive those who so proudly we hail. Crown thy good into temptation but deliver us from the twilight's last gleaming. Amen and Awomen.
ReplyDeleteI'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
George Carlin
Wouldn’t it be great to hear Obama tell AIPAC to fuck-off. He is working on his brackets and doesn’t need them anyway.
ReplyDeleteToo bad Carlin never did a skit on AIPAC.
ReplyDeleteThat’s entertainment.
ReplyDeleteDeuce said...
ReplyDeleteThe incredible privilege of ever having been.
Why do we find it necessary to glorify the cults of death when we are part of the mystery of life?
We are the one inch of the universe, that for an instant can verify existence itself.
Yet that is still not enough?
It is everything.
---
I hate what I know of Protestant Funerals.
Dry ass, fire and brimstone, BULLSHIT. (imho)
I have been to a total of about 4 in my lifetime.
I regretted missing only one funeral, which our son attended, that of a friend, 19 the son of his scoutleader.
Dad is "Catholic" "Democrat,"
but son's description of the funeral, with it's many realistic, and sometimes humorous eulogies (including our offspring, of course) left me wishing I had attended it.
In High School we always bemoaned the apparent fact that Catholic get togethers included more alcohol and fun.
---
At a later date, I shall comment on the most absurd funeral I have attended, and contrast that with the incredible services for my wife, attended by literally hundreds of her friends and admirers, with eulogies and rituals that I will carry with me always.
Making something so hard to accept a little bit more real in my contorted mind.
I hope.
What happened to the EB? Did it get sold and relocated to lala land? Cheeez.
ReplyDeletethe incredible services for my wife, attended by literally hundreds of her friends and admirers, with eulogies and rituals that I will carry with me always.
ReplyDeleteMaking something so hard to accept a little bit more real in my contorted mind.
I hope.
That sounds good Doug, I know the people here are all thinking of you and hoping right along with you. Hang in there.
Got invaded by oppressed women, Gag, looking for refuge.
ReplyDeleteAllahu Akbar!
Thanks, Bob.
ReplyDeleteShe knew you loved her Doug. All there is to know.
ReplyDelete