Excuse the Expressions -- "Science" and "Religion"

There is no excuse for refusing to honor Science and Religion, and their exceptionalist and universal roles in the life of any creature.  Those creatures inhabiting the higher forms of Consciousness are expressing a longing for Truth and Faith, complimentary and opposed indices.

We are given only Scientific Truth and Religious Faith.  We are not permitted "Scientific Faith"; we cannot give credence to "Religious Truth".

Consciousness is a vector.  On this arrow we know we move to and from.  Take our comfort in this Truth. Have Faith, as this is what we have.

"Per Scientiam ad Justitiam" ("through science to justice").

Do not forget.  The Nazi also confiscated the wealth of and attempted to destroy "homosexuals".  Without evidence, and slapping the face of science, the Nazi targeted largely unarmed creative and productive people, and seized their property.  The thugs funded their rise to power by stealing from hard-working but defenseless and law-abiding people.

Ironically, not only was Hitler part Jewish, but most of his cadre was remarkably repressed and sexually frustrated.  Hitler never married and his mistress was sexually unsatisfied.  Goering was an infamous cross-dresser and spent hours putting on his lipstick, foundation, and blush.  Himmler surrounded himself with homosexuals and was notoriously uncomfortable around healthy people with "normal" relationships.  The Nazi did persecute the gay population, but the fictional puffery of the Nazi is a pink swastika.

The brilliant scientist, Magnus Hirschfeld, was both gay and Jewish.  His career of scientific and empirical study was destroyed by the Nazi. Hans P. Soetaert & Donald W. McLeod, "Un Lion en hiver: Les Derniers jours de Magnus Hirschfeld à Nice (1934-1935)" in Gérard Koskovich (ed.).

Ironically, another "school" of thought developed in Germany which was offended by science and particularly by the "feminine" side of men.

The other faction was organized by Adolf Brand, publisher of the first homosexual magazine, Der Eigene (The Special). Brand, Benedict Friedlander and Wilhelm Janzen formed the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen (The Community of the Special) in 1902. What divided these groups was their concepts of masculinity. Ulrichs' theory embraced a feminine identity. His, and later Hirschfeld's, followers literally believed they were women trapped in men's bodies.

The followers of Brand, however, were deeply insulted by Ulrichs' theory. They perceived themselves not merely as masculine, but as a breed of men superior in masculine qualities even to heterosexuals. The Community of the Special (CS) asserted that male homosexuality was the foundation of all nation-states and that male homosexuals represented an elite strata of human society. The CS fashioned itself as a modern incarnation of the warrior cults of ancient Greece. Modeling themselves after the military heroes of Sparta, Thebes and Crete, the members of the CS were ultra-masculine, male-supremacist and pederastic (devoted to man/boy sex). Brand said in Der Eigene that he wanted men who "thirst for a revival of Greek times and Hellenic standards of beauty after centuries of Christian barbarism." 

One of the keys to understanding both the rise of Nazism and the later persecution of some homosexuals by the Nazis is found in this early history of the German "gay rights" movement. For it was the CS which created and shaped what would become the Nazi persona, and it was the loathing which these "Butches" held for effeminate homosexuals ("Femmes") which led to the internment of some of the latter in slave labor camps in the Third Reich

The point is that not only were the controlling Nazis driven by a sexuality they did not understand, but they were themselves perverted by their own unwillingness or inability to BE who they were.  How different the world could have been, had they been able to be gay.

The Middle - the class position on prosperity

Why is there ONLY ONE "class" whose growth is helpful for everyone?  The truth is, the Middle Class is the only class the everyone should cultivate and care about. The rich and the poor we have with us, whether or not we want them or try to grow them.  In terms of peace and prosperity, only one class makes any difference. But exactly why is this so?


Our economy relies on strong consumers. 


The poor are unable to buy, and rich rarely do -- they have everything they really need, and the rest they have the power to take without buying.  Today, wealthy people put their wealth into off-shore accounts and engage in socially useless speculation and non-productive investments.  For example, nothing is produced and the infrastructure of society is not enhanced by a "credit default swap" or a debenture or any "creative financial product".  The rich and the poor are socially useless burdens, bless their hearts. 

Hence, the great and unique economic contribution of the middle -- they have some money, and individually they do not have much power.  The only real power they have is as consumers.

The more money consumers have, the more goods and services they buy.  As their transactions increase, the need for sensible long-term infrastructure becomes clear.  The need for roads, utilities, information, and even health care and schools, becomes obvious and self-fulfilling.  Rising prosperity creates expectations and hopes, and as families are raised, the infrastructure takes shape which cultivates more prosperity.

The Middle class is the only class that cares about infrastructure.  No one else needs hospitals and schools -- the poor need food and water, without which they would die before they could use health care and books. The rich of course, have their own medical care, and it is a historical fact that very few rich people have any personal interest in education or learning.  The rich rarely educate themselves, much less provide information of any real use to anyone else.

The poor people are the first to celebrate their long-sought extinction. We cannot have "too few" who are living hand to mouth, or exposed to the exigencies of nature and trouble.  The rich cling to their existence, and devote themselves to the extinction of the Middle Class, as if threatened by its mere existence.  The rich classes thrill to the abundance of the poor.  The rich appear to be uplifted by masses willing to serve them for pittances or for their forebearances -- for the privilege of not being beaten, or actively oppressed.

The Middle class stands alone, offering accessibility to the poor, and recovery from the rich, for the usurpations of both.

Poem, of something rising

Oyez! All Beloved who gather here
Listen
    is how the dream began
You striding across the Campo
down by the school-yard
And I opening
    the heavy doors of a dark prism

Oyez!  Beloved, it appeared, as if
    the wood horses stopped in their grazing among the trees
being wheeled aside and light fell deep in the knell
to wolf and bear witness, as war burst out
of the belly up to the Bar.

I saw you as if a fragrance of my youth
    had been spilt and splintered
upon the gold and scarlet song of a sunset.

I rode hard and wet upon the galloping emu of my hopes and found you feathers
and all perched and dry high among the rafters of birds winging back and forth
between the mud and the sky

Love comes in a dream to the bridging of us
    to the meet of our desire
where you are this Appaloosa of my eye,
this reigning rein pulling an erasure across
my spotted memory of women who came and went,
    and now is a tower together.

In my dream you were a moon beam
    stuffed with personality like a congress making sausages,
a tube of round light being squeezed together from pig’s lips
and a turkey gobbling a language
    and I dreamt I woke baffled
    in the batter of something
        Rising 

What would Children do?

Is anyone else deeply troubled by the absence of a credible Biblical preacher today?  Is there ONE that has not been sucked into the political obsession over abortion (never mentioned by Christ) and homosexuality?

Jesus said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3)

Children read Harry Potter books.  They can be cruel and petty, but most kids are very sensitive about the many children who are unwanted and not cared for by anyone.  And most kids are not at all perturbed by gay parents or diversity in the playground. Most kids think life is wonderful, magical....

And in large numbers, most children seem to have read 7 large books about magicians and spells.  Apparently this is how children are.  This, not the hatemongering of the Churches, should be the theology to provide the spine for Christians, if any of them are left today.

It is my observation that most of the followers of the teachings of Christ are extinct, and have been so for centuries.  The real believers in the teaching of Christ were called Manicheaens by the followers of Helena, the mother of Constantine who had her own take on the Pauline message.  Between the Helenists and the Islamicists, the true Christians were annihilated -- they were everyone's favorite heretic because they were prosperous and would turn the other cheek when assaulted.

The point is, there are many wonderful children on the path to salvation, but NONE of the hatemongers obsessed with condemnation and purification are among them.  Islamicists and Fundamentalist "Christians" are remarkably similar doctrines.  They want to purify everybody but themselves.  This is opposite what children are all about.  Children are closer to "natural" concerns, and the idea of purity does not even occur to them. 

Health Care Reform - with a Public Option (Psst we already have one)

It is fascinating to see how predators seize upon public subsidies and pass burdens onto tax payers while claiming their right to do "business" and make enormous profits in the name of "capitalism".  First of all, the medical insurance industry as we observe it today is not part of "free enterprise", it is simply a means of carving an escalating profit out of sick, ill and helpless people while passing the burden back to tax payers. Who ultimately pays for MediCare, MediCal, and all the poor who go to the Emergency Rooms for treatment?

I asked the most intelligent medical doctor in the country, Doctor Sam Metz, what he observed can be done. Here is his practical, necessary, and cost-effective plan:

You asked this question of the right person or the wrong person, depending on your political bent and time available for an answer. Attached are essays that appeared in the Oregonian and in Anesthesiology News, and a PowerPoint presentation to be given next month. I will condense everything you need to know about health care reform into three questions, with three answers each. Once these points are understood, much else will make sense.

1. Why does this country need health care reform?

            Americans pay twice as much per capita as the average industrialized country.

            Our public health results (maternal mortality, infant mortality, life expectancy, lives lost to preventable conditions) are among the worst of industrialized countries.

            We are the only industrialized country in which non-wealthy citizens lose their homes or lives if they have insufficient money to pay for needed health care.

2. What must legislation achieve to be considered health care reform?

            It must provide universal access to primary care regardless of health, wealth, or employment.

            It must lower health care costs for everyone, not just the government, the wealthy, or the insurable.

            Our national public health must improve.

3. How do all other industrialized countries provide universal health care at lower cost with better results?

            All citizens are in a single risk pool with the same set of benefits.

            There are no impediments to primary care.

            Financing of health care is done by not-for-profit agencies. Profit can be made providing health care, but not financing health care.

If a country follows all these rules (as most every other industrialized country does), universal health care can be achieved at lower cost with better results then we have now. If the country follows all these rules and uses a single not-for-profit financing agency rather than multiple financing agencies, this is called “Single payer health care.”

I favor single payer financing of health care.

However, changing how we finance health care is only the start. The next step is revising which health care providers we pay how much for what services under what conditions for which patients. The incentive for salaried physicians is to undertreat. The incentive for fee-for-service physicians is to overtreat. Under capitated payments, the provider takes the risk if a condition is more expensive to treat than expected. Under salaried or fee-for service payments, the financing agency takes the risk.

That should be fun.

If you still have questions, I am full of answers.

Thanks for asking.

Sam

Family Values and Neo-conservatives - the Idiot's Guide to Hypocrisy

The so-called Red State Reagan Conservatives associated with Tea Parties and Mega-Churches are not factually aligned with their rhetoric. Examples:

1. DIVORCE. If you live in a red state, you're 27 percent more likely to get divorced than if you live in a blue state. (Source: National Vital Statistics Report, 2003).

2. HOMOSEXUALITY. All of the politicians who have been "outed" as gays in the US Congress were all neo-conservatives. The preachers who were caught with gay prostitutes were neo-conservatives preaching against homosexuality. Neo-conservatives are much more likely than liberals to be secretly gay.

3. FAMILY VALUES. There is no indication that "conservative" parents are raising better children. Many parents have children whose values contradict the values of the parents.

History – Mesopotamia and Persia, preserved by Jews and European Archeology.

The Empires of Mesopotamia and Persia, which lasted for 3 thousand years, came to an end when a 22 year old Macedonian crossed the Aegean with a small army and proceeded to defeat Darius III. Syncretic Hellenic influences remained long after Alexander’s short life. However, the scribal tradition of three millenia was almost immediately lost in the near and middle east. The indigenous people forgot how to read and write cuneiform texts, and the unity of the people collapsed.

Not until the rise of Judaic Islam did the region once again unite. Unfortunately, Islam completed the annihilation of whatever remained of the intellectual heritage of civilization. The wisdom of Sumer, Assyria, Babylonia, the Hittites, and the Medes and Persians was burned and buried.

Fortuitously, the Hebrews (diaspora during the Babylonian epoch) and Greeks (during their brief Asiatic rule) managed to preserve some of the accumulated wisdom of the ancient civilizations. Indeed, the authenticity of the Jewish and Helenist accounts has been corroborated by the archeological discoveries made by Europeans since the 19th century. The digging has often been dangerous and always over the objections of the Islamic schools. The scholars living under the veils of Islam have been silenced for a thousand years.

The interesting point is that without Jews and Westerners, the Mullahs and Ayatollahs would have almost no information about the greatness of their own people. Islam systematically erased history in order to make it appear that “Islam” was some kind of improvement over the “primitive Arabs” and “fire worshiping pagans” of Persia. The fact is, those pre-Islamic Arabs and Persians built beautiful buildings and gardens, composed music, and wrote literature reflecting the highest sensibilities and soulfulness.

It is no wonder that the Arabs and Persians today are being taught by their religious oligarchs to hate the Jews and the West. Through the scholarship of Jews and Greeks, corroborated recently by European archeologists, the lost heritage of the ancient civilization is preserved. This pre-Islamic heritage contradicts most of the Quran. The spirituality of Mazda/ Zoroastrian teachings is not primitive paganism, but is superior in grace to the current crude hate-mongering of the Ayatollahs and Mullahs.

The ironic point is that the Jews preserved the wisdom of the Persians, which the Persians themselves have now lost in the devotions of their current version of "religion". Using the semitic alphabet on papyrus and parchment scrolls, the Jews kept remembering what the Persians themselves have now forgotten.

In their turn, the Arabs also now forget their history. Ironically, they forget that they are Jews. All Arabs, today, remain Jews both genetically and culturally. Their dialects, diet, sex laws, theocracy, angel-prophet-mediated monotheism, and their us/them community orientation, are identical. Of course, conversely, all Jews also remain Arabs. Nevertheless it is Islam which drives a unilateral wedge of predation between the tribes: Portions of the Quran which appear for the first time almost a century after the death of Mohammad expressly exhort the pillage and slaughter of Jews and Christians.

Islam is a syncretic belief system, cobbled together over several centuries after the death of Mohammad. The primary sources are Aramaic Christian teachings and Hebraic traditions. As Jews, the Arabs had been making the pilgrimage to the covered cubic Kaba in Mecca for centuries before Mohammad. As Christians, the Arabs taught children in schools, and acquired the skills required for building beautiful mosques. Those schools and skills, as well as the importance of humble prostration in daily prayers, are Manichaean contributions which Islam rewarded with annihilation. Now Islam credits the long-dead Mohammad for everything great the people have done. The credit is sadly misplaced.

The Bush-Cheney-Rove Legacy - the gift that keeps giving.

To the credit of Great Wealth, we are on the eve of a "close" mid-term election. We are also witnessing the end of representative republican democracy (a poor means of conducting government, but which is superior to all alternative forms).

Unprecedented amounts of money (during a depression!) are pouring into this mid-term election. Because of a Supreme Court appointment by the previous administration, by one Judge's vote, we now have a system which permits corporations, and unidentified "persons", to electioneer. We have no idea who is funding the political ads, and MOST of them are factually misleading.

This de-regulation and privatization of public elections will live in infamy along other Bush era catastrophes:

(1) Appointing inexperienced and "political" judges.

(2) Tax cuts to the Super Rich - with ZERO economic benefit for anyone else.  The fact that the rich are richer while the middle class has collapsed, is the single achievement of the neo-Conservative take-over.

(3) Changing the laws so that "investment bankers" could destroy banking system. Glass-Steagal Act passed in the 1930's prevented banks from taking savings and putting money into investments with risk. The "new" (actually resurrected 1920's products) mortgage-backed securities, negative default swaps, and fraudulent investment "products" (literally toxic), destroyed the financial system.

(4) Oct 2008 tax payer bail-out for Wall Street -- unprecedented transfer of the risks to the public, providing yet another splurge of billion-dollar commissions to the bankers who had destroyed their institutions.

(5) Selling WMD to Iraq, then ignoring the UN inspection and attacking Iraq without a plan, leaving us with an un-winnable war, and the spectacle of rising religious intolerance and mass migration of refugees.

(6) Ignoring bin Laden in Afghanistan - repeatedly, and in spite of his large family, known relationships, and his control of a network of
(7) Ignoring terrorism until after 9/11,
(8) Ignoring deterioration of infrastructure with results such as the Katrina disaster,
(9) denying Global warming,
(10) destroying the civil justice system,
(11) making our schools the most expensive and least effective among nations,
(12) making our health care the most expensive and least effective among nations.
(13) starting with an income surplus, creating the biggest debt in history.

(14) Creating a hostility to independent journalists: Is it coincidence that in the Bush decade, journalists were increasingly singled out and killed by organized crime?  This global rise of tyranny reached its apex in 2009, with the murder of 76 journalists killed in connection with their jobs. Organized crime and right-wing militias became the biggest threats. After Obama took over, the murder rate plummeted. In 2010, the death toll was down 25% to 57.  Reporters without Borders, annual report from Paris.


(15) destroying the military - exhausting the Forces, and crippling the National Guard concept by pulling the citizen-soldiers out of their civilian employment for year-long war duty tours.

(16) privatizing the military and support services - Halliburton black no-bid "contracts" which guarantee huge profits to short-term fortunes while soldiers facing more risks have less to gain.

(17) Indifference to infrastructure - what utilities were not "sold" with corrupt discounts to private enterprises which promptly raised rates, were left languishing without maintenance and repair. Bridges, dams, highways, parks, water and power are all collapsing and deteriorating.
 
For the past couple years, many people have been working on this large hole which the Bush-Cheney-Rove Enron Halliburton cabal placed us into. 

Jerusalem - the Manichaean City

Jerusalem was the largest fortified city in the world during the Republic. However, a within a few decades after the Empire, and in the face of an intense Zionist revolt against the Empire, Rome razed the city. To punish the Zionists, the Roman Emperor decreed that the land would not be called Judah, but "Palestine".

The Roman general, Pompey, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem in 70 a.d., and sold many Jews into slavery, spreading them throughout the world. Josephus claims that hundreds of thousands of Jews were hunted down. There were driven out of Jerusalem. Unlike many other tribes on the losing side, however, the Jews maintained the integrity of their community after forced expulsion, because they had a written language and a "Biblical" reference. They set up trade routes and communities throughout Europe offered protection to them to encourage trade. The fact that the Jews did not spend time and treasure on arms and military training, but devoted themselves to trade and prosperity, was noticed by a Persian holy man. We will mention Mani again.

Prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, but after the first Zionist objection to the authoritarian rules of the Empire (another great story), Jesus Christ began preaching an extraordinary message of Peace. He urged the Zionists to "turn the other cheek". This was not exactly an unheard of technique for any oppressed people. Many wives faced with a bullying husband will survive by being passive and take revenge by raising sons who hate their father. Perhaps Jesus understood the analogy to Rome, which was at its peak of power. It is certain that Zionism was defeated by Roman arms, but by alienating a large literate network, Rome itself became ungovernable. Rome was never again able to franchise the Middle East.

After the destruction of the Walls of Jerusalem, the message of Jesus was taught by Greek-Ptolomaic missionaries traveling throughout the world. The teachings reached Persia. Approximately 200 a.d. a prophet began writing and preaching the Christian message to Zoroastrian congregations. This Prophet, Mani, wrote many books, and he was described as a man to be emulated. He synthesized Buddhist and Zoroastrian teachings with the message of Jesus Christ appended to Judaism. "Manichaeian" became the most dominant religion of its day over a broad region from India to Europe for hundreds of years.

One of the main seats of Manichaean learning was Jerusalem. Unlike the Christians of the day who had abandoned it for Rome and Constantinople, the Manichaeans focused on the importance of Jerusalem to their beliefs. They revered Jesus Christ as holy, and the land where he was born, lived and taught, as important. Unlike the Christians of the day, the Manichaeans continued to believe in the Message of the Messiah, including the response of "turning the other cheek" to persecution.

As the Christians became ascendant (literate Greeks living for the hereafter were hired by Roman lords for their trustworthiness in a time of increasing corruption), they militantly wiped out the Manichaeans in Europe and systematically destroyed their literature -- the many books written by Mani and his followers. The "Catholics" of Rome and the "Orthodox" of Byzantium began fighting each other, but found resistance. Killing Manichaeans, however, was less dangerous, so in the hunt for heretics, the other great Christian sects systematically wiped out the numerically superior Manichaeans, and filled their respective coffers with the rich booty of the Manichaean civilization. This increased the chaos under the disastrous reign of Emperor Phocas.

In Jerusalem (known as Aolia Capitolina by all but the Jews and their Manichaean allies of the day), the Christians built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the place of Crucifixion where a Manichaean temple had been built. One of the main reasons for the Council of Nicea in 326 a.d., held in Constantinople, was to rebut the Manichaean "heresy" which did not exclude Jews.

Then the Mohammedans joined the fray. In approximately 570 a.d. Mohammed was born in Mecca. He never set foot out of Arabia and never indicated his intention to start a new religion. Like other Arab chieftains, he was a warrior, law-maker and judge, but unlike all others, he united the Arab tribes, and separated them from the Jews and Manichaeans. According to the contemporary accounts, Mohammad the tribal raider regarded Jews and Christians/Manichaeans as prey, for which he thanked Allah.

After the death of Mohammad in 632 a.d., without any successor to rule the newly-unified Arabia, the unity fractured. Arab historians refer to this period of years as the "Wars of Apostacy". The Persians and Turks in their contest with Rome and each other, saw opportunity. The Turks made a deal with the Meccan warlords (Sunni), and the Iranians made a deal with the Medina warlords (Shia). This remains the unresolvable schism in Islam.

By 638 c.e. the Turkic/Arab Caliphate rapidly expanded and by force of arms supplemented by Jewish troops from Arabia, seized Jerusalem from the Manichaeans. Curiously, Persian forces then occupied Jerusalem, slaughtering its largely Manichaean-Christian occupants and burning the city. Islam became a unifying "religion", although as the conquering armies advanced, no government or unified civic structure was created. Even the Ottomans (Turks) never established unified control, for example, over Spain, Africa, or Persia, even though Islam became required of all the inhabitants.

Manichaean temples in the East were converted into mosques, just as they had been converted into Churches in the West. The Manichaeans became everyone's favorite "infidel" or "heretic", because their persecution created no risk of revenge. Manichaeans were builders of wonderful buildings and their many innovations were usurped. After Christianity dug into Europe, and after Islam dug into the East, the innovations and spirituality of life rapidly ceased. When the pillagers had nothing left to pillage, life went back to daily survival around decentralized "feudal" estates -- with little lords conducting ceaseless feuds in the name of the one Lord, "no God but God".

In 691 c.e., six decades after the death of Mohammad, the Islamic Umayyad Caliph completed the Dome of the Rock. The Manichaean-Christian Church already on the site was destroyed, down to the foundations. The beauty of this inspired structure has not been surpassed to this day. Of Byzantine craftsmanship, it stands asymetrically upon a platform built in Herodian times (1st century c.e.) as the second Jewish Temple, and may have been the site of the first Temple. The Dome surrounds a large native stone supported by two sets of colonnades and an octagonal exterior wall. The central colonnade made of four piers and twelve columns supports a rounded drum that transitions into the two-layered dome, which is more than 20m in diameter. Light enters from grilled windows pierced in the drum and glitters on golden be-jeweled mosaics within.

The purpose of this structure is disputed. It may or may not be a "mosque", but prior to its construction there was no mosque in Jerusalem that Mohammad could have visited on a "Night Journey" carried on the back of a very fast and winged' horse. No contemporary texts, even on the walls, mention such an event until several decades later. Manichaean texts referring idiosyncratically to Jesus are translated into Arabic and quoted on the interior walls.

What is not disputed is that the Dome transects all of monotheism's divisions, is one of the most beautiful structures in the world, and is forbidden for "infidels" to enter. Archeologists are not permitted to excavate any portion in any manner.

It is true that by approximately 900 a.d., the Manichaeans were exterminated. Thousands of libraries with millions of books had been destroyed. The great Manichaean civilization of Central Asia, running along the Silk Route, with some of the most beautiful cities in the world, was completely and systematically destroyed by Islam's armies. We find remnants of learning and arts and science in remote caves as unarguable proof of what was destroyed.

In Europe, some of the temples were saved by "converting" them into Jewish houses of worship. A Manichaean foundation is under many Churches and even Jewish temples in communities which had few Jews. The Jews, for their part, never persecuted the Manichaeans, but aided in hiding them. To some extent, Manichaean influences can be found in the Rabbinic traditions and in the astounding patience the Jews demonstrated in the face of pogroms in Eastern Europe. The divergent Ashkenazi/ Sephardic traditions can be explained by Manichaean influences. Many Turkic Manichaean believers who were not Semitic adopted "Jewish" traditions and became Jews to avoid the persecution by and between Christians. Interestingly, a Persian Jewish/Arab alliance (non-Islamic) captured Jerusalem in 614 c.e. (The Jews and Arabs occupied Arabia for 600 years celebrating the same holidays, prayer five times a day, and the same dietary laws. Most of the inhabitants were either Jews, or followers of Mani or other sect of "monotheists").

Perhaps the last "Manichaean influence", and one of the most remarkable, is the Crusade of 1094. "Out of the blue" from a Christian perspective, a de-centralized and feudal Europe suddenly lit up with the idea of re-capturing Jerusalem. Rome and Constantinople were the only cities deemed worthy of their attention for an entire millenium, but suddenly the liberation of Jerusalem was widely accepted as an important goal. It was the discovery of remaining Manichaean texts in Europe, preserved by Jews, which were quoted from prior to the consignment of the books to flames by Catholic Priests. The holiness of Jerusalem was revivified for these Christians and they hurled themselves into a haphazard Crusade to liberate Jerusalem.

In 1099, the Christian Crusaders fought their way across the Levant and recaptured Jerusalem. The significance here is that the First Crusade was not an aggressive invasion of another country. Rather, it was an attempt to recover a City which had been invaded by a foreign power. The Islamic armies were invaders.

...[In 1187, the brilliant re-taking of Jerusalem by Saladin and the Kurds; Christian Crusaders briefly re-take it back twice. Then 1250 the Muslim Caliph dismantles the walls, and the population dramatically declines; finally in 1538, Seleiman the Magnifent [sic] restores some of the mosques in Jerusalem.]

It us true that all of Arabia and the Levant was ruled by the Ottomans until the end of World War I. Since the turn of the century, after the trial of Dreyfus, Herzl began his effort to find a homeland for the Jews. The Zionists' effort is delayed by the War, for which Jews were also blamed. Zionists begin fleeing from Europe to destinations all over the world, and many go to Jerusalem. Arabs also begin migrating to Jerusalem where new jobs were being created.

In 1917, the British fight the Ottoman Empire, liberate the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia. Jerusalem is captured and for the first time in its history, it is not sacked. The British do not kill all of its inhabitants.

The only significant Arab tribe to rebel against the Ottomans were the Saudis, who were then attacked by the other tribes and the Turks. Ibn Saud led his tribe to victory with the aid of the British.

In 1948, the State of Israel was established. The Jews agree not to make Jerusalem their capital city. The Israelis make a new city -- Tel Aviv.

In 1967, Israel captures the Old city and reunifies the City. Israel now occupies land which had been given to Jordan and Egypt.

Islamic Demographics

The Veil of Islam has descended over 57 countries. All of them are locked into medieval feuding intensified by the obsession with "purity" which is the gift of Islam. Since women are 2d class citizens, children are effectively raised in a seraglio -- a wife, even if only one wife, is regarded as a concubine since there is always a potential for another wife arriving at the whim of the man. Thus, all the sons are sons of "wives" who are really concubines. Thus, the leadership is always deprived of having legitimacy -- the absence of a Queen/wife.

What the multiple concubines do provide, of course they MUST provide, is babies. By reducing the "choices" for a woman, she is then free to devote herself to reproduction. The bomb of the womb is set, where copulation lights the fertile fuse.

Louisiana Purchase - the impact on the Continent

My British wife is visiting Louisiana...

The United State purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 from Napoleon. This transaction rewarded the post-Revolutionary French Government as if it was the successor to the Ancien Regime which had in fact stolen it from the Creek Confederacy, and other Mississippi delta tribes. The funds given to Napoleon, who was a brutal tyrant, enabled him to launch an invasion across Europe to the gates of Moscow. Had Napoleon given more thought to the weather calendar, he would have attacked in the other direction, against Britain.

Intercontinental - beyond international and getting to global

We have become intercontinental. There are no nations, no races of men. There are no tribes. As for families, they have not existed since Religion took the oxygen, the power, away from parents.

When Louis XIV answered the inquiry of the physiocrat with the irreducible, "l'etat, c'est moi", he revealed naked truth. The "Government" is abstract and to be understood must be filled by a person, who in turn is a symbol. A person who used Government as a means to power.

Yet Government has existed in certain times and places. Now that the US Government has collapsed, now that the California Government has been reduced, we are left feeling insecure. How we long for the security.

The l'etat, c'est trahison / betrayed

Theodore Parker and his monumental manifesto. Influences.

One of the invocations of Justice with impressive allure is the assertion that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." This phrase keeps cropping up. The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. frequently used it, crediting the Unitarian minister, Theodore Parker:

"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe: the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards Justice."

Parker fought those who sought to justify slavery and oppression from Biblical, or any other, authority. In 1841 he wrote the greatest of the Transcendentalist manifestos, compounding the republicanism of the authors of American Constitution with the liberalism of the true Church. Parker defined democracy, for the first time, as:

"...Government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people."

President Lincoln adopted this phrase in his pithy elimination of the "all", perhaps as a concession to the political reality.

How the Republicans plan to govern: The Same Way

From John Kerry: Yesterday, the Republicans released their "Pledge" of how they'd govern, and Republican Leader John Boehner let the truth slip out:

"We are not going to be any different than what we've been."

They are the gift that just wants to keep giving -- OUR money.

What remains, at the end of a life spent meaning well?

To my friend Quyen, who reminds me of Franklin in France, flirting and writing bagatelle's to the ladies as he negotiated the long-range brass naval canon with which the French battered Cornwallis in Yorktown to its surrender. Franklin visited the estate of the great insect philosopher, Claude-Henri Watelet, in the company of his frequent and vivacious companion, Madame Brillon de Jouy. She was, Quyen, one of the hotties among the educated women of Paris.

Franklin concludes an essay, "The Ephemera", in the voice of one of these insects that only lives for a few hours each day:

"To me, after all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures now remain, but the reflection of a long life spent in meaning well, the sensible conversation of a few good lady ephemerae, and now and then a kind smile and a tune from the ever amiable Brillante."

Victims of Corporate Fraud - a Compensation Fund

In 2002, after the Halliburton no-bid profiteering in Iraq and the Enron bankruptcy revealed the depths of the Cheney-Lay-Skilling predatory mind-set of CEOs willing to pillage their own companies, AB 55 added a new Section to the California Corporation Code. Section 1502.1 establised the Victims of Corporate Fraud Compensation Fund (VCFCF) in the State Treasury administered by the Secretary of State.

The purpose of the Fund is to provide restitution to the victims of corporate fraud. Once a fraud judgment is obtained, if collection efforts are fruitless, victims can turn to the Fund. Apparently, however, since 2002, no victim has recovered.

Survey - Does the State Bar protect consumers?

To my astonishment, the State Bar prosecutors' office takes the position that it has no obligation to prosecute the attorneys who have enabled the investment bankers to take down this entire country. I have repeatedly given names to the Prosecutor -- and pointed to Enron and Madoff, as well as other high level white collar predators, all of whom have law firms assisting them.

While few individuals can respond or even protect themselves from large-scale piracy, the State Bar has the power and resources to help. Yet, the State Bar does nothing about the trillion-dollar predation going on in this country. The State Bar is supposed to protect consumers from attorneys who violate the rules and cause harm. Yet not one attorney who ENABLED and IS ENABLING the ongoing financial predation in the country has been disciplined!

Consumers have never been surveyed to respond about whether they feel protected, after this onslaught of high-level white collar predation:

Click here to take survey

What is the effect of Love?

Love is something
that fills. I am bulging.

It means union can be taken
seriously, even when expressed
improbably
speechlessly
in the yearnings of skin and
braided bone.

Love reaches down the throat and
seizes the heart, grabs, and
pulls hard.

I am inside out.

Blues for a friend - red-eyed loneliness {chord}

Blues among friends - {singing - or weeping}

I got the red-eyed yellow-lit green-zone blues
I’m not awake and I just can’t sleep.
Got the red-eyed yellow-lit green-zone blues
and I can’t get out ‘cause I’m in so deep.

Side by side like a pair of dice
we roll across the green-zone blues
My number’s up but I’m not done yet
tell the bottle we’re paying our dues.

Tumble me now, tumble me then,
Blues gonna get me so tumble me again.
Side by side another cornering roll
hope you know you got a friend.