=jr5d16a JOURNAL, STARTING 16 DEC '05 Succeeds =jr5d14b.txt ================================================================ Re: IHT 16 Dec '05 (Knowlton) Reportedly, McCain has agreed to modify the language of his anti_torture resolution to incorporate a provision of the USA Uniform Code of Military Justice which accepts as a defense "that the interrogator was following a lawful order." Well, we hung Eichman for that. Though as someone pointed out, he could not gave reached his position but simply following orders. The Israel military code, in contrast, rquires any soldier to refuse to obey a 'blatantly illegal order'. That was applied to Rabin's order that soldiers break an arm or leg of arrested Palestinian demonstrators. Stone_throwers no doubt, not us peacniks walking around in a little ellipse with our pasteboard signs. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Edmund White, a professional fairy writer, in IHT 16 Dec '05: "IN my pursite of lightnes,s I sometimes feel like a spider onekey swiging thrug the trees in a world that is more and more deforested,' he writets. ' If I look hard I can still find moments of frivolity, of silvery silliness, of merry complcitiy, even of pure cross_eyed joy. Till now I usually can spot the nex branch, but sitimes its quite a stretch." ------------------------------------------------------------------ A new adult medical soap opera, 'Gray's Anatomy'. Julienne Gray, who gave up a career in modelling to become a doctor ... ---------------------------------------------------------------- Can't see why anyone buys gold. It's got no intrinsic value. Safer to stick with tulips. And sooner or later its bound to become uncool. Too exploitative of miners and of the environment. Safer to invest in fur coats from endangered species. At least animals don't dream of going to Princeton. Especially when they're extinct. ------------------------------------------------------------------- New item: The top half of a astatue of Heraklese is at the Boston of Museum of Fine Arts. The bottom half is still in Turkey which its wants it back since Boston has no balls. (Newsweek, 12 Dec '05 ) ----------------------------------------------------------------- It's a bit surprising that Blair has never been taken to task for that Mad Sheep, or whatever it was, disaster. A nation's livestock was slaughtered, its countryside turned into a ghastly charnel land worse than Tolkien's apocalyptic fantasies,, and its tourist industry temporarily ruined, not in response to an actual health threat, but merely to maintain England's ability to export meat. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Friday 16 Dec '05 -- big national ski competition here tomorrow, and it's raining -- temperature about 4 degrees above zero -- just about the first day above zero all month -- George Bushie Global Warming Special -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ from WLT by Garrison Keeler (p215): "A man must be the same person to everybody; you can't swing with the breeze. The way to win trust is to listen and to let people know that you do listen. The way to do that is -- espond exacctly to what people actually say, not to be smar and make wisecrakcs. Not to show off with big wodss. Never be sarcastic. ... avoid profanit and smutt talk; it hcpeanes your company and it kills trust. e cheerful. Smile if possible." ------------------------------------------------------------------- "When did it happen Last night. How do you feel now. All right." (The 16_year_old girls from New York were singing that to each other, at the AFSC workcamp in Matewan, West Virginia, in 1956) " ... after dark we^re goosing statues in the dark; if Sherman's horse can take it why can't you. "When the train is at the station we encourage constipation .... Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is in the station ... " to the tune of 'Homoresque' from my mother's adolescence, in Manhattan encouraging each other to accept a sexuality not yet quite attractive "Do not rouse love up until it please" (Song of Songs) USA Consumerism, with women the ultimate commodity. Young women, that is, of course. Even Throwaway Girls. "Who wants yesterday's paper / who wants yesterday's girl" (Rolling Stones, albeit striking a BadBoy pose. And then turning the tables upon themselves with 'Ruby Tuesday0 -- "Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday / who could hang a name on you / when you change with every new day ... /) ----------------------------------------------------------------- At this stage I no longer take life for granted, not see it as infinite. Suddenly it seems to have been much shorter than I ever thought, when it seemed to stretch endlessly into the future. I find myself astaounded at the complexity and contingency of the human body. And if but one little thing goes awry, no matter how healthy, and how increasingly young one is, except of course in body ... So I try to write up whatever I have to say, and post it to Internet as quick as I can. As I have noted in an organ_donor card with the Massachusetts Dept of Motor Vehicles, when I renewed my USA Massachusetts Driver's license in Watertown, Mass. in 1986, I would like all usuable organs to be donoated, albeit only for translplant, not for 'science'. And I would not like my life sustained by artifical means. I said that in a poem back about 1976. ----------------------------------------------------------------- For mysterious reasons, the German_speakers deem 'piss' vulgar, and 'pinkel' an acceptable euphemism. Perhaps the former is done against a post_fence, and the latter possible only with a watcer_filled__ indoor_toilet__bowl for resonance -- sort of a minature home tympani, for those who can afford it. Behind an old house at Zenith, someone, doubtless an anatomically_challenged__person (ie, a female, as Freud recognized) had posted a sign, 'No Toilette -- Go Up [ to pee in the potties ] -- to which for many years I wanted to add a German translation -- 'Es is keine Pissenplatz jetz' ---------------------------------------------------------------- It is a human right to "bear arms" "against a sea of troubles". -- to be allowed to fight back against the ineveitable contigencies that may "knock you off" (R. Shlomo) your "high horse" -- microbes in particular, not to mention the errant drunk driver, and the odd socio_economically__challenged terrorist. Against the last_mentioned, the use of an assualt_rifle my occasionally be helpful, and deemed overall a good deed. However, in general, the right to bear firearms is no more useful than shooting a rifle into the waves in an attempt to deter a tsusammi. So in short, the NRA is based on a bad metaphor. Notes: "Defend your right to bear arms." (NRA) "Defend your right to arm bears." (counter_cultural bumper sticker) "take arms against a sea of trouble" (Hamlet) "knock you off" (R. Shlomo Carlebach) "knock him off his high horse" (a jousting metaphor, whence England slang) Cf. "Give an Irishman a horse and he'll vote Tory." (said of William Buckley) ---------------------------------------------------------- It seems to me now less an anomaly that people die, than a mircacle that one has lived. Though it seemed very much the opposite when my parents each died. And for that matter, when R. Shlomo did. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Faggot Actor who won the race for California governor, claimed that Williams failed to meet the first precondition of 'redemption', which was apology. But Williams never confessed to the murders. Now if one has done a sin, the precondition of redemption is confession, followed by apology -- or more precisely, begging pardon of those one has injured; and offerint to make whatever restitution one can. But if one has not done a sin, one can not confesss. So that Austrian Ugly begged the question. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Finished WLT. Doesn't get any better, nor any worse. Smarmy jokes to the end, so bad they're funny. Plot falls quickly apart at the end. Concludes with a completely out_of_tone and pointless Epilogue. Maybe it was a veiled biography, but too beiled to see who it was supposed to have been about. ---------------------------------------------------------------- It is amazing how many useful things one can find at cut_rate prices, or for free. Last year in Chur I bought an excellent pair of 6_inch workshoes for about CHF 70 , perfect except that the top grommet is exceptionally small, so one can rarely thread a shoelace through it. And this year at hunting season a found a pair of SF 325 8_inch soft leather insulated workboots wiht the top 6 pairs of latchets those quickie half_lathces. The boots were muddy but back in their original box by some frustrated or guilt_strickened hunter. I hope soon to learn how to lace them up in a way that the laces don't slip off and trip me. Also in Chur last year in the bargain bin I bought a few pairs of long_johns, with the fly so ingeniously and chastely constructed that even Theseus could not find his way through it in realtime. I also got a bright_red goose_neck lamp that wasn't needed -- I prefer it to flourescent light -- once when I was flipped out I concluded that flourescent light makes you crazy -- all that rapid alternation of direction no doubt -- and also, a spectrum of light not hitherto seen on this planet -- Eliahu Gal_Or would agree, I think -- he used to sell full_spectrumn lights, to replace the usual incandescent ones -- I don't think they have a natural substitute for flourescent light, let alone those ghastly mercury_vapour lights -- and even worse, the dirty_yellow_orange sodium_vapour lights -- when I was at New Buffalo there was one outside Celso's, 2 miles away, and I almost moved out because of it -- it mocks the astrologic constellations -- so anyhow, that bright_red lamp is so ingeniously designed, for maximum flexibility, that it pinches your hand whenever you pick it up -- I darned near lost a finger when Vanzetti handed it to me -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- I have slogged my way through 'The Complete [ it should be 'Compleat', meaning 'perfect', from Izak Walton, 'The Compleat Angler', England 1800's or 1700's ] Idiot's Guide to 'The Talmud', written by Rabbi Aaron Perry, It is apparently in the Ohm Sameyach -- Aish HaTorah line -- hip but baal tchuva frumie. My notes are: Informative but of limited value and appeal because based on literatistic (apologetics_ist) orthodody (Ohr Sameyah / Aish Hatorah= If you assuem taht all and only truth is contained in the Torah -- explicitly in the Chumash, implicitly as made explicit in the Talmud and all subsequent reabbinic opinions-- then you need a lot of apologetics. To which I added: Such a chore to sort out the sublime -- well, the useful stuff -- from the ridiculous. The Talm8ud is a hodge_podge enccylopedia of rabbinic folk_wisdom. A baat tuchuva is a pietistic reatcitonary literalist, who flees from his sins into the dogmatic assumptin tht everyting that's written in our scripures -- 'Old Testament', Midrash, and Talmud - - is the word of G_d , transmitted by inspiiration, with 0% 'noise'. And "there's the rub" (Hamlet). One can say that the Chumash is inspired from G_d -- shucks, even poor old Sokrates knew inspiration, from a daemon or two, anyhow -- but the question is, how much was 'lost in transmission' -- to take a term from Bell Labs in the early days of information theory, in the 1950's -- how much 'noise' has distorted the trasmission. For transmission, howeever pure and heavenly its source -- and of course a lot of 'inspiration' is merely from the astral plane, and there's both harmless, playful genie's there, and also professional trouble_makers -- all the demons of the lower astral plane, ready to gulp you up if you try to play with the fun_folks on the upper astral plane, fly around a bit in astral projecdtion, and then loose just a bit of alititude or speed -- -- must be transmission through some 'channnel' or 'medium' or 'vessel' -- and whatever it is, of necessity it ain't entirely pure -- I mean, there is no electric wire that don't have some ohms in it -- and so the 'Message' does get at least a bit muddied up before it reaches you -- Shager, speaking of being a poet/writer, said, 'honesties turned to bile by the necessity of translation' -- not a perfect turn of phrase, but not bad for an 18_year_old freshman. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Now here's a few typically vicious English songs: "Ring around the roses a pocket full of Moses' ashes, ashes we all fall down." That's from the Black Plague; it was sung in my childhood , 400 years later, as a children's game_song. I always heard 'ashes' as 'Ah, shit' "Oh, a hunting we will go a hunting we will go We'll catch a little fox and put it in a [ but I think, 'her'] box and then we'll let it ['her'] go. And when we're up we're up and when we're down we're down and when we're only half_way up we're neither up nor down." (Also sung as 'Oh, the noble Duke of York / he had ten thousand men / he marched them up to the top of the hill /and he marched them down again / And when they're up they're up / etc. ) We sung that in a nice progressive primary school. Cf. the USA expression, "Don't go off half_cocked" It seems to be a song of artistocrats out on a fox_hunting spree, enlivened by raping a few village maidens. The movie 'Tom Jones' depicts that very well. "Bah_bah Black Sheep, have you any wool Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. One for my Master, and one for his Dame and one for the little man who lives down the lane." That is taken as a nursury jingle nowadays, but I think it is a hidden occult song. First of all, the singer is pretending to be a sheep. Second, he addresses the 'black sheep' -- the one who has gone over into the wrong side of road. "The dark side of the road" as the say in USA folk songs. Third, he is asking the sheep, who is a manipulateable innocent -- the more manipulateable since he has strayed, however unintentionally -- to give up that which is most essential to him -- his fleece. For winters are cold and weet in England, wihtout his fleece he may freeze to death. Amd finally, there is that very sinister, hidden figure of 'the little man who lives down the lane" -------- "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after." That is still sung, or was in my childhood, as a children's song. In England, a couple found in adultery -- or maybe it was merely fornication -- were yoked together and driven up a hill to a cliff, where they were pushed off. Except for Rome, and a bit of excess by Count Vlad of Transylvania, one would be hard_pressed to find a nation more cruel than Merrie Olde England. It was precisely in reaction to that that the USA Constitution forbade "cruel and unusual punishment". I suppose when witchcraft went underground in England, they hid their teachings in childrens' jingles. The black witches anyhow. I suppose the white witches would never exploit children, even to transmit healing lore, in those pious days when even that could get a female tortured, hung, and/or burned alive. ------------------------------------------------------------------- She had been a dancer at an English nighclub called the Londonderry Aire. ------------------------------------------------------------------ It does seem that the real market for cellphones has exhausted itself, and they are now trying desperately to peddle surplus fluff. ------------------------------------------------------------------ IHT 24 Nov '05 -- an artilce on meditation and hypnosis. Meditation is said to compensate for lack of sleep. Cf. PVK -- "Sometimes you have not only to meditate quick, but to sleep quick." That's not quite the same of course -- PVK is speaking of an aspect of nidra yoga -- of disciplining onseself, or inducing , a more restful sleep -- and we do that in the (optional) pryer before falling asleep. Apparently even "shuckling" in davening helps. Which of course is something one does without consciously trying to. Nitric oxide is said to be a relaxant. Surprising that it's not been made available to consumers. Said to "relax the smooth muscles in arteries, and aid blood flow". ---------------------------------------------------------------- Notes on proverbs: "the exception that proves the rule" ^7654õ1234ans, indicates the bnoundary of applicability of it does NOT mean -- 'proves' in a Euclidean sense -- for in deductive systems, validity is lost by even one exception. And in an empirical system, an exception tends to disconfirm a rule -- or rather, an hypothesis. "Oh 'the grass is always greener in the other fellow's yard' Though it's just thte same old crab_grass, yet to you it looks like chard" (sa) "it's an ill wind that blows no good" "it's an ill wind that nobody blows good" -- said of the oboe, or possibly the English horn "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" "the spirit is wailing but the flesh is woke." (sa) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucifer Reconsiders: "and the posture is simply ridiculous" One must conceed that they've played a rather odd deal with a surprising incidence of grace -- a few of them anyhow. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Bushies show the mind_set of a gambler, in their lust to break any available rules of human rights and civil liberties, for the sake of an insatiable imagined 'security' . It is the mind_set of 'what_if': 'What IF this prisoner knows the secret of a terrorist plot, and would reveal it under torture. What IF a wiretap of this citizen, if we could only do it within the next hour, would reveal the key terrorist Foinancier. And again, the quest for perfect security is psychopathologic. Curiously, its academic analogue in epistemology, is fallibilism. Life, lovers, and even our most revered teachers (Siddur, closing remembrance -- remember what happened to Miriam) may fail us. One must carry on anyhow. That is the real meaning of Kierkegaard's 'leap of faith' -- it is an everyday thing, it is the precondition of earthly, contingent, existence -- not something extraordinary that happens only to supermen, and only once -- Kierkeggard makes much to much of Abraham -- or rather, Abraham would have made the leap of faith had he said, 'I'm sorry, but this simply does not make sense -- are you sure you were not looking for Abie the Caananite -- I think you are not the voice of Heaven, but only the voice of that last piece of lamp I ate last night, after Sarah said, you've really had more than enough. So I think I'll stay home this weekend.' Wittgenstein's criteria are always sufficient -- for predication of states_of_affairs -- but never determinative -- of facts. (And that does seem to be the first key I have noticed to the continuity from Tractatus to PI. ) That is, we predicate states_of_affairs, and act on the basis of that predication, and sometimes we are wrong. But that does not mean we were wrong to have acted. (This is expressed in law, in criteria for acquitting someone of a charge of negligece.) If you demand absolute security, or certainty, you end up with absolute insecurity -- a pathologic state -- or uncertainty. So 'On Certainty' was a good name, and a good topic, for some of W.'s post_PI work. For Wittgenstein 'certainty' is like Kant's Ding_an_Sich -- it's the chimera that we have to stop chasing. 'Certainty' does not exist, but Wittgensgein's insight, following Kant -- by whom he must have been influenced, as an educated German -- is that this is merely a logical, a 'grammatic' point, an aspect of our necessarily conceptualized -- or for Wittgenstin -- I want to say, closer to Aristotle -- liinguistic_ized -- 'forms of life'. It says nothing new about the world. So Hume's anguish was childish ('Oh G_D, why did you damn me to be a philosopher', he is said to have said, or written.) 'My reasons will end. And then I will act, without reasons.' (W., PI) That too is merely a logical point. It is merely to say, reasons are never entirely -- or maybe it is to say, are not necessarily - - determinative of actions. I want to say: This is where Wittgenstein makes logical room for existentialism. That is -- if we want to say, everything necessarily has a cause - - Kant seems to have said that, in making ccausality, if I recall, one of the categories of his Transcendental Dialectic -- but those categories haven't worn very well, one is always a bit embarassed at having to read which ones Kant chose -- -- then we find that, in general anyhow, reeasons are not determnative of action -- and so if we can't adduce a reason for the cause, we have to bring in a sort of pseudo_entity, the 'existential' parameter -- though that is unreal as the old postulation of an 'ether' -- postualted only because we had already said there were waves, and there has to be something for waves to be waves in, so we said, we will assume that something exists and call it 'the ether'. Or rather like the notion of 'force'. A hits B, and B moves, and we need a causal agent, so we say, a 'force' exists, and that's the causal agent. [ I'm not sure on this point. ] ----------------------------------------------------------------- I'd rather die at peace with my body, and not again insult my system with artificial foods. No, nor set again on animals either. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Dylan: "If you cannot tell good news then don't say nothing." Of course that is intended as Christian triumphalist trivia, but it's a useful statement anyhow. Eg as a criterion for throwing letters in the wastebacked ananswered ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Christians are qutie right -- we did kill Christ. Aborted him, rather. Or better contra_cepted him. And it is our intransigence that prevents his Second Coming. (They don't quite admit that the First Coming was rather a dud, so it won't be complete until he comes back and this time does establish the Messianic Kingdom, just as we expected of a Messiah. Even the JW's know that. What we did was simply to demonstrate by the viability of our faith -- or you might say, of our religious necessarily conceptualized was of life -- that he did not need to exist. that is, that he has no necessarily existence. Now a human who has no necessary existence, can still exist, as hoi polloi demonstrate. (I woke up from a deep sleep one night and for a moment or so could not remember what I was doing on earth. And of course if I have no purpose, what reason nor right do I have to stay here. But then I realled, oh yes, I am working on archiving PVK material -- and also trying to demonstrate that it iis doable and so should be done. A minor, arbitrary task, but it does give me a toehold on this cliff_face.) And a god who has no necessary existence, does not exist. He is dead, or rather unborn. We demonstrated that the possibility of 'salvation' -- that is, of eternal life -- does not require a personified intermediary. Now Jesus was a nice guy, and said all sorts of nice and useful things, and just about everybody would like him, but that has essentially nothing to do with the Christ. I mean, the Christians must say somewhere, Joe Schmoe could have been the Christ -- it did not have to be a guy who was darned near a saint -- I mean, the Roman Catholics wrote the rule_book for sainthood around Jesus of Natzereth, even if he did make a number of mistakes. Jesus is not the Christ because he is sinless, though that's a bit of a help. The Christ exists as an exemplification of Divine Grace to mankind, who are inevitably sinners. (That is original sin, but it is existentially nor Form_ally (in Plato's sense- no doubt this doctrine came in with the neo_Platonists, those goofballs) , much less chronlogically, original. ) And this was already in Judaism before they made a god of Jesus -- the Psalms, 'ki l_Olam Chesed_o'. And it is interated, no doubt just to oppose the coversion of Jews to Christianity, in Pirke haAvot (I know, it is called Pirke Avot, but haAvot is the correct grammar.) 'All Israel have a place in the world_to_come'. If you like, I can say: Christinaity is the ultimate 'guru syndrome' against which PVK inveights -- that he weighs in againt. So ironically, PVK was more Jewish than Christian, for all that his attunement was not to Judaism, and was in large part, but not determinatively -- there I think he would some sort of ultimate secularist -- a modern Taoist one might say -- to Christianity. And indeed, he used to say, if Jesus were to return, he would not be a Christian. Well, these are rather shadowed thoughts for Christmas Eve. ------------------------------------------------------------------- No U.S. President has been more internationallly -- or more precisely, in Western Europe -- hated -- or more precisely, held in contempt -- than George Bush Jr. I read a few months ago, in one of those feature articles in one of the mainstrean U.S. Newsjournals -- IHT, TIME, or Newsweek, that's all I read for news except the JP -- that Bush Jr. wants to be hated -- I suppose, more precisely, that he wants to be hated by Western Europe, which presumably he associates with the USA__Eastcoast__Establishment that must have put him down when he was a gauche and not very intelligent Texas brat at Yale and Harvard -- or maybe first in prep school -- That would explain not merely his basic pose -- "I'm country, not country_club" -- but his blatant contempt for the most essential aspects of current political fashion -- his initial repudiation of the Kyoto accord seems to be what set his image rushing down the wrong track, and remains the most inexcusable thing , to European cultural consciousness, that he has done. Making a mess of Iraq, and even trashing what was left of Afghanistan can be excused with a context of neo_imperialist realpolitik, but a sentimental fondness for ecology is the one bit of decency left to modern consciousness, and as Amnesty International so shrewdly perceived in founding its Urgent Action Network, even the greatest villain yearns to be deemed a gentleman -- indeed, that is why so many of them claw and butcher their way to power -- so they can put off the blood_stained fatigues, put on a nice tailored suit, and drink a glass of white wine with the swells -- Well, we must hope if not pray that Georgie Bush is satisfied now, and that the few 'adults' in his administration can hold him in check -- for he seems to be far more emotionally retarded, perverse and petty than is yet generally acknowleged in the Establishment media -- and maybe the first U.S. President whose fundamental drive, is not to be deemed a great statesman ("his legacy") but to be spanked. --------------------------------------------------------------- Maybe more than anything else, what I fear is being confined in a small space where I cannot but be clumsy. And that is what I must now contend with, living and working in this increasingly cluttered shack -- if only because, being poor, or so I say, I throw nothing out. Well, PVK says, We are tested in that on which we least want to be tested. And of course, all that means is: give a balloon a cap[sule] of LSD, and as its consciousness expands, it will be stressed and risk a break at its weakest point. Fortunately, my confinement now is merely physical, not physiological -- that is my greatest fear, I can't imagine how Hayatt, confined to a wheelchair now with -- is it Multiple Sclerosis or Cerebral Palsy, I don't know the difference, but as she said, her mind remains strong, and her spirit too -- though one must not romanticize others, for that is to deny acknowlegement of sharing their weaknesses -- has the -- courage - - to transcend it -- And thank heaven, my confinement is voluntary , not involuntary. I can barely imagine how, by the grace of heaven, I survived that month in a makeshift prison -- no doubt illegal -- on Rodos, where there was not even room enough to lie down at night, only to scrunch into a small position. I must say that the Islamic prisoners were most compassionate to me, even knowing, as I'm sure they did, that I was Jewish and Israeli. And on my first night there, one of the guards, or I suppose the whole jail administration there, did try to have me beaten up and killed by an immensely powerful retarded prisoner called George, who had been filled with some violently anti_Jewish or anti_Israeli ideas. The Islamic prisoners shielded me, he had very little perception, and they told him I was Australian, not Israeli. And after that night he was returned to a locked cell. One could sometimes hear him banging on it, demanding to be let out to use the toilet. Well, enough of that now. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The anger of the winter wind. "How are you doing Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe. How are you doing Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe. 'I don't mind the weather so the wind don't blow. How d'ya like the ladies Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe How d'ya like the ladies Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe 'I don't mind the weather so the wind don't blow." That's a Jews_harp ditty -- I read somewhere, 'Jews_harp' is a corruption of 'Jaw's_harp', which is precisely what it is -- a bit of metal placed in the mouth, and twanged -- used as a primitive musical instrument in the Appalchians in the 1900's -- Well, that's Chanukah time for you -- not merely the dark of the moon, and cold, but also the wind. Time to do a minimal tidy_up, and light the fiarst light of Chanukah before midnight. It having been Christmas today, and that being enough for me to get through with a minimum of grace, all alone up here except for the beam of light when Nico's wife stopped by to take her baby sledding -- so at the end of the day I just fell asleep, but finally woke up and rememberd. Thank heaven for filter coffee. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Of course the fundamental question for religion is: how can a woman pray, since she mensturates. That is tameh. That is also in Jules and Jim -- Jules says, 'What can they say to G_d' -- and then his wife 'une femme fatale fatale' -- seduces his best friend, and kills them both, and Jules goes on living his simple, good life. And also that is my line: "He who pays less heed to the Torah of women than to the Torah of men will in the end inherit gehinnon. And that is also PVK's story of HIK -- that when the children misbehaved, he would impose punishments on them, but they were very gentle punishments, like -- 'run around the yard three times'. And that is also in Judaism -- a priest who has a nocturnal emission is 'unclean unto the even[ing, ie the time when light and dark are even] -- and then is to bathe, re_enter the Temple, eat the sacred food, and carry on with his reponsiblities. For we do feel guilt and shame, and must expiate it -- usually a shower will do to expiate the latter, though a set of clean clothes help -- but more important, we must do a quick expiation and carry on with our obligations -- and joyously, too. In the concluding prayers of Shabat, it is said, your sins are forgiven you, go into the week pure enough to do what you should, and with a good heart too. ----------------------------------------------------------------- If I am an expatriate, it is not from the USA, but from Israel. I have not rejected the government of the USA, I never gave a damn for it. Certainly not since I came of age during the witchhunt. I once thought, if there were ever a conflict between the USA and Israel, I would be torn between the two. But I no longer think so. I'm sitting on Corfu during Sukot, doing my best to pretend that the grape_arbour on the Terrace of the Pension where I'm staying is my Sukkah. A Brit who had trashed his motorbike that day is making provacative remarks about 'Yanks'. It doesn't touch me. I barely recognize that he supposes it applies to me. But if he had said something about Jews, that would have struck me. I still love the land of the USA, and much of the old culture of its people -- not this contemporary trash, but the sort of thing Pete Seager loved and sung of. I am intentionally away from Israel for now -- mostly because it's too darned hot in summer, and I missed winter. And of course I find it much easier to be productive faced with the challenge and stimulus of cold weather. Of course I am disheartened by post_Zionism -- though I think that is merely one of those degenerate affectations of the soi_pensant elite -- as the English aristorcracy, ape_ing the degenerate French no doubt, affected effeminacy, as if to say -- we are so rich that we don't even have to fuck -- "our servants can do that for us". ("And as for living, our servants can do that for us." -- I don't know who is supposed to have said that, but it has become a contemporary commonplace characterization of the English aristocracy.) -- but I have no rejected Israel, only feltt that it no longer necessrily has first call on my support, since it has rejected its own raison d'etre -- though of course imagining that only as a tactical retreat, and not necessarily a permanent one. Gaza is the one area that was never part of Biblical Israel -- or rather, was not for most of biblical history. It was always Philistine. But to withdraw from even the smallest piece of Judea_Samaria is problematic. Hell, it's not problematic, there's no problem, it can't be done. That is the historic and cultural biblical heartland of Israel. (26 Dec '05 , 12:35 A.M. -- 25 Kislev -- first light of Chanuakh ) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Trying again to slog my way through Jean Auel, The Shelters of Stone. All those Cro_magnon as Lascaux, chatting as if they were at a Sauteurne_and_Bfie party near Palo Alto. Could have done with a good editor. The series peaked with 'The Clan of the Cave Bear', a sympathetic revocation of a pre_verbal Neanderthal culture. 'Valley of the Wild Horses' was sweet, but not very deep. And 'The Mamouth Hunters was nice enough, with its travelogue back up the Danube. But this one gets a bit dull. I mean, how many times do we need to read that Ayala gets up and pisses into a wicker basket. And then discovers the bow_and_arrow, fire_making from stone, and the clitoris. Feminist role_models are a bit passe, it's all celebrity__home_made__porno nowadays. ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN: Beating the drum against Intelligent Design, the IHT -- which evolved by random -- I mean, you should see all the early editions that never got shipped out to the newsboys -- writes: (IHT editorial 23 Dec '05): "Jones decision was a striking repudiation of intelligent design, given that Dover's policy was minimally intrusive on classroom teahcing. Amdinistrtors merely read a breif disclaimer at the begining of a class asserting that evolutin was a theory, not a fact; that here wer gaps in the evidence of revolution; and that intelligent design provided an alternative explanation and could be further explored by consulting a book in the school's library. Yet even that minimal statement amoutned to an endorsement of religion, the judge concluided, because it caused students to doubt the theory of evolutin without scinetific justificaiton and presented them with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific thory." (IHT Editorial 23 Dec '05) Yeah, mazaltov. Fry me a fricassee. The editorial states a bit earlier: "The intelligent design movmeent holds that life fomrs are too complex to have ben formed by natural processes and must have been fahioned by a higher intelligence, which is never officially identified but which most adherents believe to be G_d. But injecting intelligent deisgninto the sience curriculum, the uudge ruled, the board was unconsitutionally endorising a religous viewpoint that advances 'a partiuclar version of Christianity'." Well, both Judaism and Islam tend to endorse the notion of 'intelligent design'. The editorial continues: "The case was most notable for its searching inquiry into whether intelligent desing could be consideree science. The anser, after a six_week tril that inlcuded hours of expert testimony, was a rounding no." Well, say no more. And close the door to the echo chamber on your way home. I mean, this is the sort of pop__pseudo_intellectual nonsense that The New Yorker used to serve up for canapes. The editorial continues: "The judge found that intelligent design violated the centuries_old gorund rules of sciencce by invoking supernatural caustion and by making assertions that cannot be tested or proved wrong. moreover, intlligent design has not gained accpetance in the scientific community, as not been supported by perr_reviewed research, and has not generated a research and testing probam of its own." I think there's almost enough material in the previous paragraph fora year_long TV comedy series, but let that fart pass. OK, Comrade Lyshenko, the editorial concludes: "The religious thrust behidn Dove's policy wass unmistakeable. the board members who pushed the policy thrugh had repeatedly expressed religious reaons for opposing evolution, though they tried to dissembel during the trial.