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."

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Why I Host This Blog: "I do it because it's enjoyable. Because it satisfies me."


trish said...

"Withdrawing to introversion and seclusion..."

I made a fine introvert and borderline recluse. I was a parody of a writer. In more ways than one.

It's hard to go back to, because I'm used to writing (or "writing") as part of a conversation. What you're constantly doing is pushing off of other people's thoughts like a swimmer pushes off of the pool wall to begin another lap.

Also known as, um, talking.

"It could be years before your genius is exposed to the world."

Nice.

I do it because it's enjoyable. Because it satisfies me. Because it's really a kind of compulsion and has long been.

Not because I think myself brilliant.

Words are the most wonderful things.

Putting them together just so, in the odd, magical moment, a most wonderful feeling.

At its best, it really is like writing music.

Mon Dec 13, 10:27:00 PM EST

Delete
Blogger trish said...

It's hard to go back to...

Almost as hard as simply sitting alone with one's own thoughts.

But, boy, it's been illuminating.

Mon Dec 13, 10:43

86 comments:

  1. I have always enjoyed Modigliani's astigmatic view of the world.

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  2. "Amedeo Modigliani was the bohemian artist par excellence - his posthumous legend is almost as famous as Van Gogh's. In stylistic terms he was an oddity: contemporary with the Cubists, but not part of their movement, he forms a bridge between the generation of Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art Deco painters of the 1920s.
    "He was born in Livorno in July 1884. Both sides of his family were Sephardic Jews. His father Flaminio was an unsuccessful entrepreneur who had a small money-changing business, and his mother, Eugenia, by far the stronger personality of the two, ran an experimental school. Amedeo, in childhood nicknamed Dedo, was their fourth and youngest child. Thanks largely to Eugenia Modigliani, the atmosphere of the household was always unconventional; in 1898 the eldest son, Emmanuele, then aged twenty-six, was sentenced to six months imprisonment as an anarchist.
    Artchive

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  3. Cat dated some butt-ugly women.

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  4. There, That satisfied Me.

    :)

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  5. I know I'll go to hell for that.


    Or, Catch Hell, anyway.





    de debil made me do it.

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  6. Trish, you should have just continued to park your sorry ass at Belmont.

    But, no, you couldn't do it.



    You recently said it "amuses" you, Blue. The suggestion of cool detachment annoys and unsettles.

    That it "satisfies" you might in fact be worse.




    Modigliani was an asshole and lunatic.

    I like the Northern Renaissance painters and I'm sure there wasn't an asshole or lunatic among the bunch.

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  7. Probably the twin afflictions of asshole or lunatic are necessary for the creative process.

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  8. Where's bob, because I want to inquire about that wink (or possibly remove an eyeball) and have him tell me about the mistakes he's made and the path to his forgiveness.

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  9. "Probably the twin afflictions of asshole or lunatic are necessary for the creative process."

    It's a stereotype, I believe.

    Obviously we find it compelling, at least in western civilization.

    I'd be curious to know how far back it goes.



    There are creative people surrounded by assholes and lunatics for whom the creative process is an escape.

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  10. I forgot to use by emoticon however,

    art develops on the edge of convention. Nothing demonstrated that better than the great BBC 1982 production, The Shock of the New

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  11. The book is excellent and the video series fascinating, a must to the understanding of the creative process.

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  12. The Shock of the New.

    Rings a bell.




    So many bells rung of late.

    Speaking of the creative process: You just could not make this shit up.

    I couldn't, anyway.

    Life is stranger than fiction.

    While my life seems to have become the latter.

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  13. I liked the clip.

    Thanks.




    Good night.

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  14. Why?


    Idaho existentialist answer --

    To keep me in touch with Melody.

    And listen to her good music.

    That's why you were born , Deuce, and that is why you will die.

    Where's bob, because I want to inquire about that wink (or possibly remove an eyeball) and have him tell me about the mistakes he's made and the path to his forgiveness.

    If you want to do that Trish, get my email from the Management.

    I always like to talk.

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  15. And I've made many many mistakes.

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  16. Man, did we have a rainstorm here.

    It poured and poured.

    Up in mountains, there is snow, big time.

    Sam, you listening?

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  17. Dali is on exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta...took in the show last Sunday...This show is of the post-surrealist Dali (like one could make such a distinction). Dali "chose" to do Roman Catholic art, and indeed painted the largest such work of the 20th century. Despite this religious focus and its causing his expulsion from the "academy", for his efforts Dali claimed to be a man without "faith", i.e. G-d was intellectually real, but was absent Dali's soul.

    For all that, Dali was a genuinely "good" guy, having a shocking sense of self-deprecating humor, both about himself and the world he inhabited. Oh, and he became fabulously wealthy by being the P.T. Barnum of "artistic" self-promotion.

    All in all, Dali would have been a wonderful interview over the course of a day, with endless bottles of champagne, rhino horns and a film crew on roller skates.

    Carpe Diem!

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. interesting factoid...


    "While the Palestinians and their supporters wail that the settlements are eating up more of the land they claim for their future state, the real figures suggest otherwise. Today, 43 years since Israel gained control of the West Bank, the built-up areas of the settlements constitute less than 1.7% of the total area."

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  20. Theft of 1.7% of the p[roperty is 100% theft, regardless.

    That the Israeli have not stolen much, does not make them less of a thief.

    It is the Administration of the Occupied lands that is the violation of International Norms, that and the extended period of time that they have dismissed civilized standards, in those occupied territories taken by force of arms some 43 years ago.

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  21. If 1.7% of the occupied lands is not so much, the Israeli should have no trouble giving it back, to its' rightful Administrators.

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  22. WiO:

    If those "settlers" are assholes?

    Fine,

    What does that make you?


    It puts me in good company. Why, you yourself called the Prophet Isa(pbuh), son of Maryam, an "asshole".

    Today, 43 years since Israel gained control of the West Bank, the built-up areas of the settlements constitute less than 1.7% of the total area."

    That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Ever play chess? Your queen occupies "only" 1.6% of the total area but she can reach out and touch anyone. US aircraft carriers have only only 15 acres of deck space, which is a far smaller percentage of the ocean's area, but they can strike 80% of the world's population at will.

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  23. desert rat said...
    Theft of 1.7% of the p[roperty is 100% theft, regardless.

    That the Israeli have not stolen much, does not make them less of a thief.


    Our resident Israel basher forgets that Palestine, both East and West Banks were PROMISED by the League of Nations as the National HOMELand for the Jews.

    It's not theft, it's liberated lands.

    To steal own would not have historic and modern rights to the lands.

    The League of Nations (and the law they enacted still holds true)

    Jews have a RIGHT (more so than the arabs) to a homeland on BOTH sides of the Jordan

    To imply that Jews have no rights to LIVE in jerusalem, hebron and other West Bank towns is racist.

    Sorry to burst your anti-semetic bubble herr rat...

    But the west bank was Jewish long before your 1st ancestors crawled out of the caves you used to fuck captured goats in...

    Reality and history suck Herr Rat?

    I'd suggest you go find a hole where you can molest rodents and goats in peace and leave the real history to those that actually know it.

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  24. Foreign Office,
    November 2nd, 1917.

    Dear Lord Rothschild,
    I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
    "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".
    I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

    Yours sincerely
    Arthur James Balfour


    And today?

    The Jews were driven form 649/650th of the middle east by the arabs..

    and the arabs that CHOSE to stay in Israel? Number more than the total number of arabs in all of the Mandate area at the time and are FULL citizens.

    In fact Israel has 2 national languages

    Arabic and Hebrew...

    Israel has upheld it's side of the declaration.

    The arab world?

    Totally rejected it and declared war on the new state and drove(ethnically cleansed) it's land mass of all jews, stealing 60 billion dollars in factories, land and businesses.

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  25. In fact Israel has 2 national languages

    Arabic and Hebrew...


    And before the Zion project, only Arabic was spoken, because Hebrew as a spoken language was extinct from the time the Zealots were crushed in 132 until about World War I. And no wonder, there weren't any Jews in the Holy Land during those two millenia.

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  26. Jews were deprived of their homes throughout Arabia.

    No big deal, I guess.

    Assyrians, predating Christ, are being eliminated as we write from Iraq, thanks to our unholy war for Shi'ism.

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  27. Karzai says he’d ‘choose the Taliban’ over US

    Afghan President Hamid Karzai says would side with the Taliban if he had to do it all over again.

    In late October, Gen. David H. Petraeus, US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and other top officials were trying to convince Karzai to back down on an order banning all foreign private security contractors from Afghanistan. The Afghan president decided he had heard enough, according to a new report in The Washington Post.

    "If I had to choose sides today, I'd choose the Taliban," Karzai seethed.

    The "main enemies" of Afghanistan are the Taliban, the United States and the international community, according to Karzai.

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  28. Have not checked out replies to my Rufus whine yet.

    Consider this:

    Who, but an enemy of freedom, would argue that citizens should give MORE of their earnings to the immoral whores that constitute "our" federal government?

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  29. The issue of Palestine can be settled simply..

    The arabs must seek peace and compromise.

    Jordan is the east bank of "palestine" and must be incorporated into a settlement.

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  30. External debt, per capita, selected countries:

    Ireland $515,671

    United Kingdom $147,060

    France $80,209

    Spain $52,588

    Greece $49,525

    Portugal $47,632

    United States $43,758
    --
    Of these, only the US has greater per capita income than external debt.

    Ireland, clearly, is headed for default.

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  31. Our resident female Israel basher states this lie:

    And before the Zion project, only Arabic was spoken, because Hebrew as a spoken language was extinct from the time the Zealots were crushed in 132 until about World War I. And no wonder, there weren't any Jews in the Holy Land during those two millenia.



    There were NO Jews? From 132 Ce til the late 1800's?

    Wow can you lie or what...

    Do you just make this shit up as you go or do you read it from a "jew haters handbook"?

    Ms T, you are sounding dumber and dumber as the days go by...

    Might suggest you post less and read more...

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  32. I wonder what the true figure is for the state of Californification?

    Rufus says he's heard it all before.

    Time will tell.

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  33. In the 12th century, Safed was a fortified city in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem known as Saphet.[3] The Knights Hospitaller built a castle there. In 1266, the Mamluk sultan Baybars wiped out the Christian Templar population and turned it into a Muslim town called Safad or Safat. Samuel ben Samson who visited the town in the 13th-century mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there.[9] According to al-Dimashqi (who died in Safed in 1327), writing around 1300, Baybars after levelling the old fortress, built a "round tower and called it Kullah...The tower is built in three stories. It is provided with provisions, and halls, and magazines. Under the place is a cistern for rain-water, sufficient to supply the garrison of the fortress from year´s end to year´s end.[10] According to Abu al-Fida, Safed "was a town of medium size. It has a very strongly built castle, which dominates the Lake of Tabariyyah. There are underground watercourses, which bring drinking-water up to the castle-gate...Its suburbs cover three hills... Since the place was conquered by Al Malik Adh Dhahir from the Franks, it has been made the central station for the troops who guard all the coast-towns of that district."[11]

    Safed rose to fame in the 16th century as a center of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.[12] A Hebrew printing press was established in Safed in 1577 by Eliezer Ashkenazi and his son, Isaac of Prague.[7] It was the first press in Palestine and the whole of the Ottoman Empire.[13]



    Seraya: the Ottoman fortress
    After the expulsion of the Islamic rule from Spain during the reconquista which ended by 1492, many prominent rabbis found their way to Safed, among them the Kabbalists Isaac Luria and Moshe Kordovero; Joseph Caro, the author of the Shulchan Aruch and Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, composer of the Sabbath hymn Lecha Dodi. The influx of Sephardi Jews made Safed a global center for Jewish learning and a regional center for trade throughout 15th and 16th centuries.[12] The Kurdish quarter was established in the Middle Ages and continued through to the 19th century.[14]

    Under the Ottomans, Safed was part of the vilayet of Sidon. The orthodox Sunni courts arbitrated over cases in 'Akbara, Ein al-Zeitun and as far away as Mejdel Islim.[14] In 1553-4, the population consisted of 1,121 Muslim households, 222 Muslim bachelors, 54 Muslim religious leaders, 716 Jewish households, 56 Jewish bachelors, and 9 disabled persons.[15] In around 1625, Quaresmius spoke of the town being inhabited "chiefly by Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and for whose sustenance contributions were made by the Jews in other parts of the world." [16]

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  34. Ms T is getting her talking points from Queers For Palestine...

    I just hope all the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexuals and Transgender's of the world that hate Israel get to live under Islamic law...

    I can hardly wait...

    You go GIRL... Bash Israel!!!

    Stupid nit...

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  35. "Assyrians, predating Christ, are being eliminated as we write from Iraq, thanks to our unholy war for Shi'ism."

    As are the few remaining Christians, of course.

    Jews but a distant memory from long ago.

    PBUH

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  36. Hebrew as a spoken language was brought back to life with the rebirth of the modern state of Israel

    Hebrew as a classical language used in reading and writing about the Torah (as well as aramaic) never stopped.

    To claim: "because Hebrew as a spoken language was extinct from the time the Zealots were crushed in 132 until about World War I" shows the writers ignorance about actually Jewish history.

    I query the hostility by this writer of EVERYTHING that stems from Jews, Israel and Zionism

    Her hatred is clear as her black heart....

    I wonder....

    What makes these haters tick????

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  37. As the evidence exemplifies, doug, the US is not at war with Islam, no, not at all.

    The US is allied with Islam.
    In Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Pakistan, as well, but to a lessor degree.

    The vast transfer of wealth, from US to Islam continues. The oil flows to US and China, the cash flows, too...

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  38. The chart above shows the annual shares of real world GDP for four geographical regions
    (European Union 15, Asia/Oceania, Latin America and the combined share of Africa and the Middle East) compared to the U.S. share of world GDP between 1969 and 2009 (data here). What might be surprising is that the U.S. share of world GDP has been relatively constant for the last 40 years, and is actually slightly higher in 2009 (26.7%) that it was in 1975 (26.3%). It's also interesting that the EU15's share of world GDP has declined from about 36% of world output in 1969 to only 27% in 2009. Further, despite having a large share of the world's oil reserves, the Middle East's share of global output has increased from only 2.23% in 1969 to 3.16% in 2009 (graph shows Middle East combined with Africa).

    Bottom Line: World GDP (real) doubled between 1969 and 1990, and has increased by another 60% since then, so that world output in 2009 is more than three times greater than in 1969. We might mistakenly assume that the significant economic growth over the last 40 years in China, India and Brazil has somehow come "at the expense of economic growth in the U.S." (based on the "fixed pie fallacy") but the data suggest otherwise. Because of advances in technology, innovation, and significant improvements in U.S. productivity, America's share of total world output has remained remarkably constant at a little more than 25%, despite the significant increases in output around the world, especially in Asia.

    Update: The chart above represents about 91% of the world economy and does not include Canada and the European countries not included in the EU-15.


    CARPE DIEM

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  39. WiO says:

    "Hebrew as a spoken language was brought back to life with the rebirth of the modern state of Israel"

    Then he says:

    To claim: "because Hebrew as a spoken language was extinct from the time the Zealots were crushed in 132 until about World War I" shows the writers ignorance about actually Jewish history.

    I realize I'm dealing with a moron, but when a spoken language is brought back to life, that means it was extinct, no?

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  40. A better visualization of the global GDP.

    The US has been holding its own.

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  41. Like in Jurassic Park, baby.

    Brought back, from extinction.


    Dr. Alan Grant is a specialist, in that field of conversation.

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  42. "The US is allied with Islam.
    In Iraq and Afghanistan.
    "

    Ingraham was bemoaning the silence of the Obama administration in the face of the final elimination of Christians from Iraq.

    As though she was unaware of the silence of the W administration wrt the early days of this ethnic cleansing brought to Iraq by way of W's war.

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  43. 6,775,235,741 whirled population

    307,006,550 US population

    4.5% of the whirled population w/ 25% of the global economy.

    For the past 40 some years.

    Despite the partisan swings experienced during that time.

    Some would argue with success, though.

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  44. Ms t, our resident Jew hating lesbian states: I realize I'm dealing with a moron, but when a spoken language is brought back to life, that means it was extinct, no?


    Hebrew was NEVER extinct as Latin was extinct.

    Jews read it, spoke it and used it daily in prayers and in discussions about Torah.

    To use as the National Language was different

    But you knew that, you're just being a simplistic twit...

    and your previous statements prove you are a itching to bash Israel, jews or zionism no matter what lies you have to tell...

    so once again, go ahead and make up some new trash...

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  45. My daughter is a big lover of Dali - that, and horses now.

    I like the horses better, to be honest about it.

    They at least can be useful once in a while. :)

    Also Dali pushed older people over in the street.

    I don't like that.

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  46. That was really well said, Allen, about Dali -- made me laugh -- which I haven't done for a day or two.

    Thanks.

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  47. Let's all chip in a hundred bucks of Holiday Cheer and buy an airline ticket for Miss T to Teheran.

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  48. rat said,

    That the Israeli have not stolen much, does not make them less of a thief.



    It is good that you understand this concept. That means that you also understand that a half-truth makes you no less a liar.

    We are making progress.

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  49. selah said,

    because Hebrew as a spoken language was extinct from the time the Zealots were crushed in 132 until about World War I.


    Proof, please.

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  50. Allen asked for proof.

    "The revival of the Hebrew language in Israel is the only example of a language which has become a language with new first language speakers after it became extinct in everyday use for an extended period, being used only as a liturgical language."

    * Hinton, Leanne; & Hale, Ken (eds.). 2001. The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. San Diego: Academic Press.
    --

    Latin is nothing more than a liturgical language now, and that only for Tridentine Mass or powwows in the Vatican between bishops. But if I followed WiO's logic, I would say the Roman Empure still had a claim on Italy.

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  51. If you want to do that Trish, get my email from the Management.

    I always like to talk.

    - bob

    Thanks for the offer, big guy.

    One of the reasons I left the Bar for, what was it?, a couple of months was that I knew no explanations would be forthcoming.

    Then I simply watched the Bar unfolding in my life.

    Or something like that.

    By turns sublime, surreal, and positively, inescapably sinister.

    Who NEEDS a smoky, dimly lit cabaret peopled by costumed misfits and shot through with an atmosphere of decadent...release?

    I think I might have passed that scene miles ago, on the moving sidewalk, in a moment of inattention.




    Whatever Melody whispered in your ear, bob, must have been a doozy.

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  52. And a certain sameness is what I'm watching here.

    An increasing sameness. A gathering sameness.

    But this is the least surprising thing of all.

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  53. Hebrew began to die out as a spoken tongue among the Jews after they were defeated by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Well before the time of Jesus it had been replaced by Aramaic as the Jewish vernacular, although it was preserved as the language of the Jewish religion. From A.D. 70, when the dispersion of the Jews from Palestine began, until modern times, Hebrew has remained the Jewish language of religion, learning, and literature. During this 2,000-year period, Hebrew has always been spoken to some extent.
    ___Encyclopedia Judaica

    The literature of Hebrew covers a period of about3,000 yeạrs, from the earliest documents of the Bible down to modern times. In so long a period the language has naturally undergone many changes.
    ___Short History of Hebrew (Rabin)


    Hebrew is one of the world oldest languages and it’s one of the few languages that kept its composure and structure for the most part, since it is written and spoken today almost the same way as it was more than 2,000 years ago.
    ___Internet Polyglot



    History of Hebrew language in Spain (10th-13th centuries)
    JEHUDA HALEVI.
    Graetz.–III, II.
    J. Jacobs.–Jehuda Halevi, Poet and Pilgrim (Jewish Ideals, New York, 1896, p. 103).
    Lady Magnus.–Jewish Portraits (Boston, 1889), p. 1.
    TRANSLATIONS OF HIS POETRY by Emma Lazarus and Mrs. Lucas
    (op. cit.): Editions of the Prayer-Book; also J.Q.R.,
    X, pp. 117, 626; VII, p. 464; Treasurers of Oxford (London,
    1850); I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, chs. 7, 9
    and 10.
    HIS PHILOSOPHY: Specimen of the Cusari, translated by A.
    Neubauer (Miscellany of the Society of Hebrew Literature,
    Vol. I). John Owen.–J.Q.R., III, p. 199.
    Charizi.
    Graetz.–III, p. 559 [577]
    Karpeles.–-Jewish Literature and other Essays, p. 210 seq. M. Sachs.–Hebrew Review, Vol. I.


    Judah Halevi died in Jerusalem.
    Bibliography
    TRANSLATIONS OF SPANISH-HEBREW POEMS:
    Emma Lazarus.–Poems (Boston, 1889).
    Mrs. H. Lucas.–The Jewish Year (New York, 1898), and in
    Editions of the Prayer-Books. See also (Abrahams) J.Q.R.,
    XI, p. 64.
    Ibn Gebirol.
    Graetz.–III, 9.
    D. Rosin.–The Ethics of Solomon Ibn Gebirol, 7. J.Q.R., III, p. 159.
    Moses Ibn Ezra.
    Graetz.–III, p. 319 [326].
    ABRAHAM IBN EZRA.
    Graetz.–III, p. 366 [375].
    Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on Isaiah (tr. by M. Friedländer, 1873).
    M. Friedländer.–Essays on Ibn Ezra (London, 1877). See also
    Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England,
    Vol. II, p. 47, and J. Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England,
    p. 29 seq.
    KIMCHI FAMILY.
    Graetz.–III, p. 392 [404].
    Spanish-Jewish Exegesis and Poetry.
    Steinschneider.–Jewish Literature, pp. 141, 146-179.


    I could go on with page after page of Jewish scholars, teachers, rabbis, etc. of Spain, who used Hebrew in every form of literature for well over 1,000 years. But I won’t.
    I could also give examples of the development of Ladino and Yiddish from Hebrew. But I won’t.

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  54. .

    .

    There should be a question mark after your last comment Ash.


    :)


    .

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  55. Some people have a knack for observing sameness. Others have called it a sense of meaninglessness (Frankl).

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  56. "but you've changed"

    I have. Or I'm in the process of.

    In the process of is more like it.

    I had a dream about this recently. I wasn't in it.



    I want to mention: Just before I went to bed last night it occurred to me how pleasantly ironic it is that writers, engaged in what amounts to the most intense work of communication, do tend to introversion and seclusion.

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  57. And by sameness I really meant an increasing lack of differentiation among the patrons.

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  58. allen said...
    Some people have a knack for observing sameness. Others have called it a sense of meaninglessness (Frankl).

    Tue Dec 14, 12:24:00 PM EST

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  59. (The terrible notion of) meaningless and I have established a glancing acquaintance.

    At the same time, everything has taken on new meaning.

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  60. Terrifying and soul-crushing is more like it.

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  61. Mel didn't whisper anything into Bob's ear.

    Whatever it is that he wants you to think or anyone here for that matter gives him the upper hand. You can come to your own conclusions but I've learned over these past months that it is not me that's the fool but everyone that falls for his foolishness.

    i made a simple request the other day and again he turned it around. I don't want to be manipulated into every one of his comments. Things were nice the last couple of months and for whatever reason he needs to go back to it.

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  62. trish,

    In looking at eulogies to the life of Richard Holbrooke, the business of the terrifying, soul-crushing sense of meaningless came to mind.

    Granted, Mr. Holbrooke and I would have disagreed on any number of topical issues; however, his last words convey the soul of a man with a sense of purpose (meaning).

    In this vast wasteland of spiritual emptiness we call modernity, Holbrooke was the rare and enviable man.

    Some years ago, I lost what I thought the most significant thing in my life. Yesterday, I learned that I may lose even more. Despite these terrifying, soul-crushing spectors, I hold to the words of a wise and good man, given me, "The soul is all good. The rest is noise."

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  63. "The soul is all good. The rest is noise."

    With this I agree.

    By the terrifying and soul-crushing possibility of meaninglessness, what I meant is the possibility or idea that there is no soul. That there is no union or origin or seat of self and spiritual meaning.

    It's one thing to be alone.

    It's another to be alone and soulless or inhabiting a fundamentally soulless world.

    A living hell, where even tears serve no purpose.

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  64. That was rather disorganized and confusing but I'm speaking entirely off the cuff and anything better requires a great deal more care.

    And a nap.




    Hahahaha.

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  65. Of this, I am quite certain: The soul speaks, and the soul is spoken to.

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  66. The soul is a kind of dialogue. Or the mechanism for it.

    Between oneself and God, or God only knows what.

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  67. Mel on Bob: You can come to your own conclusions but I've learned over these past months that it is not me that's the fool but everyone that falls for his foolishness.

    I'm sorry it has come to this, MLD. I think Bob has a woman problem, I just got here about three years earlier than you.

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  68. Allen: Some years ago, I lost what I thought the most significant thing in my life. Yesterday, I learned that I may lose even more. Despite these terrifying, soul-crushing spectors, I hold to the words of a wise and good man, given me, "The soul is all good. The rest is noise."

    Ecclesiastes 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

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  69. trish,

    With respect, to the contrary, you have said a great deal worth saying.

    I do not presume to have a universal answer to the dilemma of a god inhabiting the body of an ape. There are some things that work for me; but not every day and not in every way. Some days I fly on angels' wings; on others, I am the serpent's seed, eating dust as I slither from pillar to post.

    When in doubt I turn to the first chapter of Genesis. There I find a genius, who anticipated Einstein by thousands of years. I also find there a caring G-d, willing to share this knowledge and patient enough to occasionally fill in the blanks over the millennia. Like Rambam, I accept a G-d without gender, form, or any human attribute whatsoever - although "He" :-) speaks in the language of men.

    For these I strive:
    Thirteen

    Enough

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  70. WiO:To imply that Jews have no rights to LIVE in jerusalem, hebron and other West Bank towns is racist.

    You have the disease of liberals, that you call whatever you don't like "racist".

    It's not about race.

    The orange is Israel. The purple is Palestine. Jerusalem is an international city because it is holy to Christians and Muslims too.
    Everything else is "occupution". Don't like it? Tough.

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  71. Selah,

    If I ever come to believe that our worth is no more than that of a dog, I will reach into the nightstand, cock the pistol therein and take the express train out of Dodge.

    You and I have a purpose in being, despite its sometimes being buried deep, out of sight. That "task" can only be performed by each, his own. There has never been another like you and there never will. Like one of the myriad stars, you are unique, you are known, and you are needed to make history complete.

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  72. Allen: For these I strive:
    Thirteen


    Here's the Thirteen I strive for:

    http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/thirteen-house.jpg

    As in Doctor Thirteen.

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  73. Selah,

    Re: Thirteen

    I confess cultural ignorance. Is the young woman someone with whom I should be familiar?

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  74. Washington — Sen. Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.) tells NRO that a standalone ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal has enough votes to pass.

    “We now have more than 60,” he says in an interview. With the House moving to proceed on such a measure today, Lieberman says the cause has “momentum.” He points out that behind the scenes, the bill has support from a handful of Republicans.


    I will note the Republicans who vote to keep the status quo, and I won't support their bid in 2012 if they decide to run against Obama. I guess I'm funny that way.

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  75. Slither a little less, why doncha?

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  76. "I think Bob has a woman problem..."



    : )

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  77. grrr

    nobody understands me


    but you put up the best music, Melody

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  78. You just said that Selah cause I wanted to send you to Teheran.

    You don't have any idea what real love is.

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  79. i made a simple request the other day and again he turned it around.


    I very honestly don't know what you are talking about there.

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  80. You wrote, "Fuck you both."

    I wrote, "Excuse me?"

    You wrote, "hell, Melody, if you can't figure that out, you are no big city girl.

    I'm simple barn yard jealous, is all, like usual."

    I wrote, "I would appreciate it if you kept the jealousy behind the screen instead of in black and white. If you follow that one simple rule no one will feel uncomfortable and all will be well. Especially with words like that."


    And then in the next post you continually to use my name inappropriately. I don't want to feel uncomfortable when I come here. I'm sure the other guests don't want to hear it either. If you didn't act like an ass maybe I would have put up your song.

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