Putting the "IS" in ISIS

I just wanted to bookmark this site which critiques the Atlantic article about What Isis Really Wants.

Interpretation. Every useful insight Wood has about end-times prophecy or the Caliphate is compatible with the more common scholarly view that ISIS’s version of Islam is one interpretation among many. One writer who strikes that balance well is Hussein Ibish. As he said in an interview:

Neither is ISIS authentically Islamic, nor is it in any meaningful sense not Islamic. It is a bizarre interpretation of Islam yoked to a political agenda which is very modern. If we just stop fretting about the relationship of ISIS to the religious base of its ideology and accept that it’s a bunch of extremists who come out of a tradition that they manipulate to justify their crimes and their ambitions, it’s not so complicated.

http://weeklysift.com/2015/02/23/the-islamic-state-separating-insight-from-stereotype/

Personal Bookmark

My Personal Bookmark of another thing to remember


 "In my schoolboy days I had no aversion to slavery. I was not aware that there was anything wrong about it. No one arraigned it in my hearing; the local papers said nothing against it; the local pulpit taught us that God approved it, that it was a holy thing, and that the doubter need only look in the Bible if he wished to settle his mind — and then the texts were read aloud to us to make the matter sure; if the slaves themselves had an aversion to slavery they were wise and said nothing."

 "There was, however, one small incident of my boyhood days which touched this matter, and it must have meant a good deal to me or it would not have stayed in my memory, clear and sharp, vivid and shadowless, all these slow-drifting years. We had a little slave boy whom we had hired from some one, there in Hannibal. He was from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and had been brought away from his family and his friends, half way across the American continent, and sold. He was a cheery spirit, innocent and gentle, and the noisiest creature that ever was, perhaps. All day long he was singing, whistling, yelling, whooping, laughing — it was maddening, devastating, unendurable. At last, one day, I lost all my temper, and went raging to my mother, and said Sandy had been singing for an hour without a single break, and I couldn’t stand it, and wouldn’t she please shut him up. The tears came into her eyes, and her lip trembled, and she said something like this— “Poor thing, when he sings, it shows that he is not remembering, and that comforts me; but when he is still, I am afraid he is thinking, and I cannot bear it. He will never see his mother again; if he can sing, I must not hinder it, but be thankful for it. If you were older, you would understand me; then that friendless child’s noise would make you glad.” It was a simple speech, and made up of small words, but it went home, and Sandy’s noise was not a trouble to me any more. She never used large words, but she had a natural gift for making small ones do effective work. She lived to reach the neighborhood of ninety years, and was capable with her tongue to the last — especially when a meanness or an injustice roused her spirit."
-The Autobiography of Mark Twain

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/24/mark-twain-on-slavery-empathy-compassion/

Explaining the Un-explainable

I just had to note this...I don't understand the science of it but somehow it makes sense to me. He is writing how Einstein's realization on the nature of relativity explained the previously UN-explainable orbit of Mercury (who knew? Not me.)

In other words, in that November hour one hundred years ago when Mercury dropped out of his math, he alone of all humankind knew the universe was not what it had seemed for centuries. That’s the reason his moorings snapped, however briefly. As he later wrote, to do such work, one feels “akin to…the religious worshipper or the lover; the daily effort does not originate from a deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart.”

http://gizmodo.com/how-ta-nehisi-coates-inspired-a-book-about-the-hunt-for-1739812368

I Had A Dream!!

I had a dream like night. Somebody was doing some Kotekaishi on me.

It has been way over a year since I last practiced Aikido.

Thought of the Day: Stop NOW!

(A painting from 1979 - the last time I really tried)

OK, next weekend I am taking a 3 day class on Plein Air painting. I have not really applied myself to painting since just after high school over 35 years ago. So what am I thinking here? I know my talents are not going to be suddenly recognized and rewarded by national or local acclaim. I will likely produce nothing anybody but myself might enjoy. What is the end game? What's the point?

But then again why do anything since for the most part all of our lives and life histories, while interesting, are completely transitory, ephemeral?...all record of it will ultimately evaporate sooner than we would wish (who was that daverush/zeppomanx guy anyway?).

I was pondering this on the drive home today and the notion struck me that the “reason” you do anything is not for the product or effect, but for THAT MOMENT when you actually DO something.

The moment you look at the tree and apply paint to the canvas
.

The moment you look across at somebody and listen then talk with them
.

The moment you practice Aikido and give in to the movement and go for koshinage
.

Think of Van Gogh. Never acknowledged at the time. What good did it do him then that his painting now cost millions? At the time he was painting, all he was doing was giving in to the moment and applying the paint.

So that is what I am thinking, screw the product...live in the moment and look at the hill and apply the paint.

.   .   .   .   .   

I suppose a critique of my idea above may be that my example contradicts the point of the post. First off, I am positive I am no Van Gogh, AND my point is for Vincent he could not know of his posthumous fame and acclaim. Posterity and myself may adore and praise his paintings now but it could have gone another way and his works might have been lost to art history.

 .    .    .    .    .

This way of thought runs counter to our current celebrity culture where being famous and rich IS the point or at least the justly deserved reward of doing stuff

It makes you think! (or does it?)

The Internet threatens final confirmation of Adorno and Horkheimer’s dictum that the culture industry allows the “freedom to choose what is always the same.”

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/15/naysayers


 I may be turning into a grumpy old man, but sometimes I think all the cool gadgets (I admit I like gadgets) are ultimately not that special.

For instance, the more recent hype about the new iPhone. I mean I know it is more modern, has more stuff...but in a fundamental way it is still like my old Blackberry. Or even an older cell phone.

In fact the whole mobile gadget universe is from a human behavior level the same, in that the whole point is to make you NOT look around at the world you are actually living in. Instead, head bowed as in prayer, look not to the left or right or within yourself. But peer through this portable looking glass.

A twist on the Socratic dictum is "Distract Thyself"

. . . . . . . . . .

Oh for the days we it was cool to be able to quote from Freudian Marxists. 

The End Is Nigh, maybe

In case you didn't know, the world is supposed to end, or there will be a total economic collapse in two weeks.

There is a religious rumor and also a claim that there is a two mile comet that will collide with earth on the 23,

Anyway here is a site that has skeptically collected a list of different apocalyptic scenarios.


https://skeptoid.com/blog/2015/09/01/the-september-23rd-apocalypse/

From that blog we have...

Let’s start with what’s being predicted for September 23, 2015 – and for September 2015 in general. According to various conspiracy, prophecy, and prepping websites, the following things will happen on the date itself:

• Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

• President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Pope Francis at the White House. Of note is that Francis is the 266th Pope, September 23 is the 266th day of the year, and the average length of human gestation is 266 days.

• The Autumnal Equinox.

• The First day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, also known as “the Feast of the Sacrifice.”

If you add in days either just before or just after 9/23/15, you also get a number of apocalyptic events:

• A range of dates that Comet 67P is scheduled to make an extremely close passage of Earth, September 15-28.

• The September restart of the CERN Large Hadron Collider will open a portal to another dimension.

• The end of Jade Helm 15 on September 15.

• The September 25th launch of a new UN initiative, Agenda 2030, which signals the end stage of Agenda 21 implementation.

• The date of the last of the “Four Blood Moons” heralding the End Times, on September 28.

• The approximate date of predicted economic collapse.

• The end of a Shemitah year in the Jewish Calendar, the last year of the seven year agricultural cycle, that traditionally brings with it great tribulation.

All of these events have been prophesied to form a combination that will bring on the End Times. What are the sources of these predictions?

• The obvious confluence of the three major world religions on September 23.

• Biblical prophecy, specifically the “Four Blood Moons” prophecy.

• The End Times prophecy of Sir Isaac Newton.

• A dire warning from French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who claimed on May 13, 2014 that we have “500 days to avoid climate chaos.” 500 days after May 13, 2014 is September 24, 2015.

• Prophetic dreams and visions by people attuned to such things.