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inspiration A wonderful, truly inspiring story.
forebearance Via the Plagiarist archives, a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hast thou named all the birds without a gun;
religion and technology Via Idoefact, this excerpt from Lynn White Jr's collection of essays, Medieval Religion and Technology draws an interesting relationship between theology and technological development in the West, The cumulative effect of the newly available animal, water, and wind power upon the culture of Europe has not been carefully studied. But from the twelth and even from the eleventh century there was a rapid replacement of human by non-human energy wherever great quantitites of power were needed or where the required motion was so simple and monotonous that a man could be replaced by a mechanism. The chief glory of the later Middle Ages was not its cathedrals or its epics or its scholasticism: it was the building for the first time in history of a complex civilization that rested not on the backs of sweating slaves or coolies but primarily on non-human power.
courage is doing the right thing Nothing better illustrates Israel's often unreasonable handling of their relations with the people of Palestine than this letter signed by thirteen reservists of one of Israel's elite commando units - the Sayeret Matkal, reproduced here in full, A related news article on the Washington Post concludes thus, Separately on Sunday, Israeli military activities continued in the West Bank, where a six-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammad Naim Isryda, was shot in the chest and killed while playing near his house in the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus, Palestinian medical officials reported. Israeli military officials said soldiers opened fire on the area after a homemade explosive was thrown at them. Another youngster from the camp, Nur Emran, 13, died from injuries he suffered on Tuesday, when an Israeli soldier shot him in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The soldiers opened fire on youths who were throwing stones, bricks and bottles, a military spokesman said. The spokesman said the military had not received any formal complaint that a youth had been hit.
nurturing the culture of fear There is an undeniably moronic, mind numbing quality about these alert levels, reb, blue, pink, white whatever. Like the boy who cried wolf, this administration has made a habit of capitalizing on this Culture of Fear, which, in the months following the terrorist attacks had some meaning but is now merely pathetic.
wasted intelligence Via the Whiskey Bar, these lessons that Vietnam taught but which seem to have been since, unlearned, From Robert McNamara's memoirs, published in 1995,
good news Finally, there is some good news from Iraq.
bombing for the sheer fun of it, and not for any idealistic reasons, i'm chiming in, this miserable failure is very very unelectable, and, for good measure, stupid.
mortality A poem by William Knox, Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
again More collateral damage? The United States military acknowledged today that six more children have been killed in a bombing raid in operations against suspected Taliban members in eastern Afghanistan. Then there is this rather inane decision to bar France, Germany, Russia even the so far fairly neutral India, from bidding on contracts involving reconstruction and development projects in Iraq. Obviously, none of the disbarred countires are much too happy, A leading German industry group said the Pentagon decision seemed in breach of fair-bidding principles for public works agreed among rich nations. Finally, the country with the world's second largest reserves of oil is buying it at the amazing price of $2.64/gallon on average and sometimes as high as $3.06/gallon. Halliburton is raking in the moolah and the money is coming from the United Nations Oil for Food program, though the American taxpayer starts subsidizing oil imports beginning next year. A spokeswoman for Halliburton, Wendy Hall, defended the company's pricing. "It is expensive to purchase, ship, and deliver fuel into a wartime situation, especially when you are limited by short-duration contracting," she said. She said the company's Kellogg Brown & Root unit, which administers the contract, must work in a "hazardous" and "hostile environment," and that its profit on the contract is small. So what do these mean? Well, for most parts the war and destruction nee construction of Iraq is going as planned.
Collateral Damage The New York Times reports how nine children in an Afghan village were killed while at play when an American air strike went snafu. Besides the children the strikes also claimed the life of a 25 year old who was to be engaged within the week, Two brothers in the village, Sarwar Khan and Hamidullah, lost three children between them, they said. "The Americans are all the time making these mistakes," said Mr. Khan, who lost his two sons, Faizullah, 8, and Obeidullah, 10. "What kind of Al Qaeda are they? Look at their little shoes and hats. Are they terrorists?" Imagine nine American children being killed in an attack on say a toy store, how will the American public react? Is there any way to explain to the parents here that their children were 'collateral damage'? It has been some time since the Taliban was thrown over but such incidents continue to occur, how long will the people of Afghaistan and now Iraq suffer before they can let their children play marbles on the streets without fear of losing them to another American strike against the Al Qaeda?
Eid Mubarak! To one and all...
donkey bombs The Washington Post and US army spokespersons are making the most of the donkey element, Troops returned fire, apparently injuring a donkey at the Sheraton and shaking up others. The donkeys were "shaken not stirred," Kimmitt said. "They are alive but one is quite frankly pretty shook up. . . . All indications are that the donkeys will recover."From here.
the turkey bombings A shocking piece of news, what mentality motivates an action as despicable as this? Who has been wronged and to what degree to extract such vengeance? The report in NYT says, The claim of responsibility came in an anonymous phone call to Anatolia. The caller said attacks would continue ``to prevent the oppression against Muslims,'' the agency said. I wonder what oppression is being spoken of here, it's imperative the conspiracy theorists be stopped from targeting soft targets like the synagogue in Turkey and the Arab neighborhood in Riyadh earlier this week. Obviously terrorism is not something that can be fought by waging war with countries that harbor or sympathize with terrorists for they just seem to move their operations elsewhere. What is needed is for national and regional governments to heighten security and, very critically, for those Muslims who belive in Western/American/Jewish conspiracies of taking over the world to wake up to reality and the fact that no justice to crimes committed, perceived or real, lies in blowing up car bombs at synagogue entrances.
today's quote Via AWAD, Youth is the first victim of war - the first fruit of peace. It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him.
a reasonable thought... One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, speak a few reasonable words.
the month of ramzan There is something wonderful about this month of fasting. In my experience it has served to bring me closer to family and friends, there is a warm fuzzy feeling getting up at five in the morning, with all the family, mom trying to keep you from dozing off, sitting on the dastarkhan* with sleepy groggy heads and drooping eyes, and trying to cram in enough to last the day, especially when you are young, skinny and very insecure about yourself. I remember trying to drink six or seven glasses of water before the announcement came booming over the loudspeaker signalling the start of the fast, and of course that still wouldn't quite work, you always feel thirsty. This time however, I'm lonely in San Jose, pulling myself out of the bed in the morning, eating something without really caring and going back to sleep, Ramzan is so much better when you are home. * dastarkhan akin to a tablecloth, but used for serving food on the floor as opposed to on a table
breaking news The Al-Rasheed Hotel in Iraq's capital was subject to some rocket attacks early Sunday morning, Paul Wolfowitz may have been the intended target. CNN reports, BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Numerous rockets have slammed into the Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying, injuring several people, coalition officials have told CNN. Someone's really pissed out there.
fighting for peace Once during Mood I, IIT Bombay's* famed college festival (famed in India that is) I remember reading a graffiti that said 'Fighting for peace is like f*ing for virginity' and smiled. In true Orwellian fashion the Bush administration has repeatedly exhibited this twisted logic, and this latest one is simply astounding in its imbecility. In this October 4 article, the Tri-Valley Herald reports, (via Illruminations) The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.Richly in the tradition of unnecessary wars, this also brings back to mind an article on logging and forest fires. By the administration of a President who wrote this (yes, I just can't let go, will you just read it?) we have these justifications, from here, Responding to the rash of wildfires that have swept the West this summer, President Bush wants to ease restrictions on logging in national forests.Amazingly enough, they have the gall to name it the 'Healthy Forests Initiative'. This is also the administration that modified the Clean Air Act into something dirty and called it the 'Clear Skies Initiative'. George Orwell may not have imagined Newspeak would ever so completely apply to an American administration. * Mood I(ndigo) is the annual college festival of IIT Bombay, one of the world's finest engineering schools, and a shining star of India's otherwise very broken education system
blogthought They have .info, .biz, and .name, is it a little late to ask for .blog? http://u.blog/ hmm, like the sound of that ;)
a bunch of morons Israel is going ahead with its incomprehensible decision to 'take out' Arafat. About Sharon, and quoting him, the New York Times says, Mr. Sharon's pattern, first as a general and then as a politician, has been to set seemingly audacious goals, or to employ seemingly audacious tactics like the use of warplanes against Palestinian targets, and then, over time, to accustom even his sharpest critics to them. If exiling and killing are both out of question then what will they end up doing? Putting him under house arrest? Isn't that practically the situation right now anyway? Meanwhile, Malaysia's premier makes a spectacularly stupid statement, and gets chided, but of course.
funny noises Have you heard of this yet? via Simon. Will someone please tell dear Dubya that a weblog is not really meant to be 'official' and if it is his, he's supposed to be writing it? After Bush's attempts at poetry though, I'm not too keen on reading anything else he barfs out. This is is a good idea but the execution is terrible, when you think about it, a weblog, if handled with some expertise, could be an excellent platform of informal discussion for a President. From first impressions however, the BushBlog (shblogmmmfffff) is just another calendar of events from the Bush camp. On a side note, is Howard Dean headed toward being the first 'Bloggers' President'? Considering the leverage his campaign's gained through weblogs, he's definitely contributed a new chapter to essential strategy on running a presidential campaign.
bad joke Something i've been meaning to crack forever now, Q: What movie is least likely to be Gray Davis' favorite?
how not to write a poem When I read this over at shock and awe, I thought it was a joke, until I came across this article on CNN. Bush actually studied at Yale, he must have learned something there right? Who tries to rhyme 'barrier' with 'carrier' and calls his wife 'lump in the bed'? He even uses 'Roses are red, Violets are blue' which brings the image of little girls in pink frocks playing and singing in squeaky voices on a Sunday afternoon. Sigh!
gang wars Mark Anderson of the American Sentimentalist is back with another great essay, this time on the obvious disparity between what the US preaches and practices as far as weapons (of mass destruction or otherwise) are concerned. He begins with this analogy, Imagine, if you will, that you lived in a neighborhood that was controlled by an organized gang. Pretend this gang, in an effort to make sure that its territory was secure, had banned all non-sanctioned Of course it could be argued that the US is merely engaging in commerce, wealth creation for its people, and is not responsible for what countries do when they buy arms from American companies, or it could be argued that these weapons purchases are necessary for deterrence, to maintain peace The fact of the matter, however, is that these are dishonest justifications that ignore the real consequences of such arms sales, these very weapons have time and again been trained against Americans themselves, in one way or another, throughout most of the past half century. If, for the sake of argument, we accept that the onus of how these weapons are used lies on the countries buying them then it becomes very easy to justify the legalization of, say drugs, for we are the government is then ignoring its duty to do what is in the interests of the populace.
the beach bum diaries I've changed my life ambition to beach bum, yeah, I would like to spend the rest of my life combing the beaches of San Diego -- what a fantastic city! Two days, five beaches, breathtaking vistas, white sand and total bliss, I'm shifting to SD at the first available opportunity. Meanwhile, you've probably already heard of this, Billmon's been discussing it for three days now, sounds like trouble. If you haven't noticed already, in response to Von's comment, ublog will now sport caps!
doing the right thing.. ... and interpretations thereof. what exactly is the right thing? the anti-defamation league derides the members of the un general assembly, and especially the european union for not being able to "muster the courage to do the right thing". a resolution calling on israel to abstain from its avowed action against yasser arafat passed 133 to 4, with the nays coming from israel (but of course), the united states (ahem, but of course), micronesia and the marshall islands. apparently the whole world is wrong except israel, the us and m&m, just like the time they wanted the iraq war. i don't even understand this new found obsession with yasser arafat, can anyone honestly claim removing him, be that assassination or expulsion, will solve or even begin the process of solving the israel-palestine issue? will it heal the situation in any manner? the problem, of course, is far more deep rooted, the solution does not lie in getting rid of an almost spent symbol, rather it does in the streets of palestine and israel. the israelis are wasting their time on arafat, and making no progress toward peace, they are helping worsen a situation that has been way out of hand for years now, these actions will in no way deter another generation of palestinians from pursuing a messed up sense of martyrdom, rather it is likely to drive them toward more violence. dave barry takes a hilarious potshot at the california recall tar pit. via winterspeak.
illruminating via the always illruminating, illruminations, this story from israel, an excerpt, What was it that drew me back salam pax has talked about the raid on his house in baghdad, riverbendblog/baghdad burning a lady iraqi blogger talks about them too, this is evidence of the americans' continued blotching of their task in post-war iraq, excerpts, Yes, we know all about the ‘raids’. I wish I had statistics on the raids. The ‘loyalists and terrorists’ must include Mohammed Al-Kubeisi of Jihad Quarter in Baghdad who was 11. He went outside on the second floor balcony of his house to see what the commotion was all about in their garden. The commotion was an American raid. Mohammed was shot on the spot. I remember another little terrorist who was killed four days ago in Baquba, a province north-east of Baghdad. This terrorist was 10… no one knows why or how he was shot by one of the troops while they were raiding his family’s house. They found no weapons, they found no Ba’athists, they found no WMD. I hope America feels safer now. the riverbendblog is an excellent perspective on the american occupation and life in baghdad these days, perhaps not as famous as salam, but incisive nevertheless, pay it a visit.
the nincompoop confessions i've just found out i'm grossly incompetent, stupid and have been spectacularly ill equipped to recognize how unbelievbaly low on the intellectual scale i've stood in the twenty three years of my life. this article i ran into recently talks about how how easy it is for stupid people to think they are smart for the rather simple reason that they are not smart enough to realize they are stupid, which is a paradox, but anyway. so well, the time i locked myself out of the car, with the engine running, was not a sign of absent minded forgetfulness, it was, horror of horros, clear and simple evidence that i AM STUPID. and the reason i don't have a job yet is that recruiters and hiring managers knew all along what i'm only just starting to realize, my years in school, college and university have been an absolute drain, not only on my father's hard earned money and my teachers' well worn patience but also on my worthless brain that has resisted all efforts to develop the metacognitive ability to recognize my own limitations. apparently the reason i don't get a thousand hits a day is not because people don't have the intellectual acumen to understand my very literal and absorbing posts but that my posts are neither very literal, nor absorbing, in fact, i've begun to suspect, i'm the classic, much feared and loathed, bore. i've obviously over estimated my sense of humor for it is often that i say something hilarious and people start looking at each other uncomfortably, searching for a cue perhaps to laugh or whine. or kick me out of the room. it is further evidence of my stupidity that after reading this fairly revealing bit of research, and realizing what an incompetent nincompoop i am, instead of hanging my head in shame and shutting up forever, i'm making another abortive attempt at humor. sigh! some people never learn...
praying drunk Our Father who art in heaven, I am drunk.
faith and truth an interesting look at the motivations for faith, the pursuit of truth and the struggle to come to terms with both, by seyed rezavi of monkeyx, It is said that faith cannot exist without doubt and therefore certainty is the opposite of faith for in certainty one believes that all the answers are known, whereas faith requires serious doubts and uncertainties to allow the adoption of ideas despite the sincerest and most profound doubts. Faith without doubt is bigotry.the entire post is here.
accidental(?) deaths via salon, rasheed sahib, a new yorker and a soldier with the 4th Infantry Division died on the 18th of may when he was shot in the chest, not by an iraqi insurgent, but by a negligent chappie in his own division as the other fellow cleaned his weapon. agreed, accidents happen, the american soldier in iraq is not exactly having the time of his life and shit happens but to this extent? from an article in a regional tv station's website, Since the war began in March, 145 troops have died in hostile combat circumstances. Those include ambushes, sniper attacks and bombings. are the soldiers in iraq improperly/insufficiently trained? is the number of accidental deaths nothing to be alarmed about? is this just another twist on 'collateral damage'? i'm sure the administration has its own spin on these incidents, what i'd like is someone who's been through such hell and knows what it's like to tell me how alarmed we should be. as of now, i'm very alarmed.
advice talk is cheap. yap is what we do. coz its easy, and free, and some people actually read what we write! since i'm in a particularly deep trough of my creativity and giving advice is a great way to cover your own flaws, here's an earful for those starting up or making over, use movable type and host your blog on some cheap web hosting service, if u r a cheapo unemployed loser like me you can stick to blogger, it is easy and thankfully customizable unlike xanga which i found suffocating after a while use colors that are easy on the eyes, both for the background and the font, slightly different shades of the same color for the font and background is a really bad idea. my personal preference is a white background or some pastel color (like yaz's) with a dark font use verdana or georgia. please. keep the font at a comfy 10pt or 12pt, anything smaller is too hard to read, and especially scary when the post is long, larger fonts make even small posts look too lengthy and suggest frivolity music? sooooo 90s, be it a weblog, a personal home page or a commercial site, a song clip when your page loads is an incredibly bad idea, it is jarring, irritating and completely unnecessary see to it that your blog is 'usable', ie it is easy to navigate, comfortable to look at and loads fairly quickly. check if possible that it displays correctly in atleast three to four browsers, perhaps ie 4.x-6.x, netscape, mozilla and safari i always add 'target=_blank' to my hrefs coz it allows people to continue reading a post while opening a link in another window. there are ways to give the reader the choice to open hyperlinks in the same or another window, but i just don't see why you'd want to go away from all the interesting stuff i post on ublog |smirk| provide a link introducing yourself, your blog, the intended audience and the purpose of your blog. this is absolutely necessary, i almost never go back to a weblog which does not tell me anything about the author. even if you wish to remain anonymous, provide a rough background so that people atleast know what's going on preferably, provide a section for feedback and comments for individual posts, this encourages reader participation and brings people back get a counter, it helps you know what degree of readership you have, who links to you and what keyword searches throw up your weblog in google searches. this can be amusing (someone came to ublog searching for something akin to 'jewish underwear during world war two') and gratifying, it keeps you motivated keep your blogroll under control, don't add a weblog if you liked one post, a good rule is to only have those weblogs that you read regularly, say once a week atleast beware of trolls! get involved, spend time on other weblogs, submit your url to bloglists like globeofblogs, weblogs.com and blogwise (links on the left) what you write depends on the theme of your blog, you might be sharing life secrets or ranting about bush's foreign policy, just remember that if you'd like greater readership you'll have to give your post thought and research for it to make an impact on your readers blogging offers the terrific opportunity to defend your thoughts and beliefs and to correct wrong impressions. i'm a muslim for example, and i've seen some really silly attacks on islam by those with a negative/flawed image of islam and i've used ublog to present our side of the story and to disabuse wrong impressions never leave a comment for the sake of leaving a comment, say something when you have something to say, keep quiet if you don't. when there is something you feel strongly about say it but without being rude or offensive. in large forums it is easy to see your voice get lost in the din, a solution to that is post something on your own weblog with a link to the post you feel merits discussion don't steal, when you quote, provide a reference don't ask for money for your web hosting/blogging expenses, it is simply not polite. if you get a zillion hits a day like dailykos and tacitus, or if you provide really readable content like the sentimentalist or joelonsoftware, in other words if you have been instrumental in creating a community there is no harm in asking for the members of your community to support your efforts. a website that gets twenty to thirty or even a hundred hits a day can in no fairness ask for money, that's crude do a grammar and spelcheck don't do as i do, do as i say ;) i'll keep this list going so if you have anything to add/edit/delete to/from it, let me know.
drunk as drunk Drunk as drunk on turpentine have i mentioned before how totally in awe of pablo neruda i am? his peotry is like the rhythm in my head that i cannot draw on paper, like happiness, only better. these days i'm leaving the writing and thinking to the fantastic blogs on the left (no pun. actually, yeah pun!), i'm concentrating rather, on listening :)
cuba My eldest sister arrived home that morningi find the concept of confession rather strange, the idea that a supposed sin can be committed and then repented for by reciting a holy verse an arbitrarily decided number of times is odd at the very least. most major religions however, proscribe the practice in one form or another, perhaps in an attempt to console the sinner or maybe to load him with so much of recitation that he thinks twice before brushing against a woman again.
a new voice a dervish's dua is the latest addition to the blogroll, and andrew sullivan has been deleted, i find his posts either too shrill or too boring. in the six months that i've been blogging, i've occassionally come across some brilliant writers, people with such clarity of thought and expression it makes me want to crawl under a carpet and stop blogging for good. ideofact, the american sentimentalist, tacitus, al-muhajabah, winterspeak, billmon, maryam, excellent writers all, thank you very much.
solaris solaris is one of the most spectacular movies i've seen in recent times, frame after luscious frame of breathtaking visuals, sustained suspense and a paper thin yet engaging story line. the treatment of death and after life, our visual and mental perceptions and the degree of credibility that we assign our faculties has been masterfully translated to the big screen by soderbergh from stainslaw's book of the same name. the movie also has a wonderful poem on death by welsh poet, dylan thomas, and death shall have no dominion, which goes like this, And death shall have no dominion.
the spirit wooed
a pot of tea You make it in your mess-tin by the brazier's rosy gleam; bob, i hear ya!
that cowboy from texas with every american soldier that falls victim to iraqi guerilla resistance, with every bomb that rips apart the americans' attempt at rebuilding iraq, with every dollar spent and asked for in keeping this occupation going, president bush's image as a reckless cowboy gather greater credibility. from his boast of 'bring them on' to his historic rhetoric of 'they are either with us or against us' this president has demonstrated an appalling lack of statesmanship, an unforgivably short sighted view of things. an article in the washingtonpost says, The planned request -- which congressional budget analysts said will be nearly double what Congress expected -- reflects the deepening cost of the five-month-old U.S. occupation and serves as an acknowledgement by the administration that it vastly underestimated the cost of restoring order in Iraq and rebuilding the country's infrastructure.what remains to be seen is how far bush is ready to continue with his flawed policies before he starts finding solutions to problems he's so ineptly created. as a side question, how safe is it for america to continue nuclear/bioweapons research in the face of such trigger happy, war mongering short sighted leadership?
eccentricity Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.
the bombay bombings the audacious bombings in the city of my birth make it all the more obvious how the militant and so called islamic terrorists are seeking out soft targets to make their point. bombay has been subjected to a series of blasts over the past six months and this latest one represents a clear failure of indian intelligence to detect and prevent such attacks. with the ayodhya hearings in progress this is a particularly sensitive time in india, actions like this one can easily spark the fairly volatile sentiments of the hindus as well as the muslims. sectarian violence has plagued my country for a long time and i've personally witnessed its ugly face following the demolition of the babri masjid in 92. with the wounds of what happened in gujrat last year still fresh and hurting it is necessary leaders from both communities tread very very carefully. the law enforcement agencies too better pull up their socks and nip the phenomenon of terrorism under the guise of jihad and islamic justice in the bud, before any more lives are lost and bombs detonated. it is easy for extremists on both sides to claim they have the support of the majority, that claim is not only wrong, it is rather dangerous for it is the tool used to whip up mob frenzy, the precursor to murderous riots. the students' islamic movement of inda, lashkar-e-toiba and jaish-e-mohammad have been named as possible suspects behind the blasts, i'm hoping they are ruthlessly pursued and brought to justice before they get a chance to further disrupt the everyday lives of mumbaikars and indians.
when everything goes wrong two suicide bombings, two major virus outbreaks, the entire east coast hit by a power outage, everything seems to have gone wrong in the past two weeks. the militants in palestine have amply demonstrated their reluctance to accept a peaceful solution to the quagmire that is the israel-palestine problem. the latest suicide bombing kicks the first attempt in months at real peace right in the shin and makes the poor bargaining position of the palestine authorities all the more worse. islamic jehad and hamas obviously are not fighting for a palestinian homeland, they are fighting for the sake of fighting. meanwhile the fiasco that is the american occupation of iraq keeps getting worse everyday, there haven't been too many steps taken by the occupying forces in guiding baghdad toward what has been promised as an 'ideal democracy'.
so big ...a pain in the ass. i've been beseiged, my mailbox has been bombarded with over a hundred mails today carrying the sobig virus, it's exasperating. apparently, i'm not the only one.
point and shoot? mazen dana, a reuters cameraman was shot dead by american troops near a prison in western baghdad reports cnn. the soldiers apparently thought they were being aimed at by an RPG, which sounds a little paranoid to me. the very manner a camera is wielded is different from the way an RPG will be handled, but the troops in baghdad are either too trigger happy these days or they feel so loathed by the iraqis they shoot first and ask questions later.
gay bishops gene robinson, openly gay, was recently appointed bishop by the episcopal church, as was the gay but celibate dr. jeffrey john. my limited understanding tells me the judaistic religions not only disapprove, they explicitly prohibit homosexuality, so these decisions came as a mild surprise to me. apparently the paragraphs in the bible which strongly condemn same sex relationships seem to have alternative interpretations that somehow profess that homosexuality is not really a sin, consider for example, this excerpt, Leviticus 18 ...from the essay entitled homosexuality and the bible, by loren l. johns, an enlightening read. the arguments in the 'for homosexuality' column however seem weak and forced. equating the rejection of homosexuality by the church with the justifications of slavery uptil the nineteenth century seems a bit of a stretch to me. an islamic view of homosexuality is offered here. the insistence of the gay community to pray to and believe in the same god whose scriptures so explicitly denounce their chosen sexual preferences comes across like a desperate attempt to reconcile two very different lifestyles. in keeping with the spirit of separating the church and the state, there seems to be nothing fundamentally wrong with legalizing same sex unions so as to extend tax and social security benefits to same sex couples as are granted to heterosexual couples, the call however, for the church to also sanctify such unions, seems rather unreasonable and unnecessary.
food for thought at what point does inspiration turn to plagiarism? to what extent can an artist use material from an external source to express himself? i hadn't heard of wallace stegner or of mary hallock foote until i read this article in the los angeles times magazine back in march, it was foote's striking prose that made me want to go and get hold of the first book by her i could lay my hands on. stegner, for all his stellar reputation and numerous literary accolades still emerges from the story as someone who far too liberally used the material of a less well known but at least equally talented writer to pen one of his most famous novels. from the los angeles times article, consider this comparison, "And then Helena dawned on my nineteenth year like a rose pink winter sunrise, in the bare halls of Cooper, sweet and cold after her walk up from the ferry. Staten Island was her home; a subsidiary aunt had taken me in that winter who lived on Long Island and I crossed by an uptown ferry and walked down." more recently was the david bowie story which made the wall street journal front page, here's a related article, and an excerpt, In Dylan's song "Floater" from his 2001 album, "Love and Theft," the rock legend sings, "My old man, he's like some feudal lord, got more lives than a cat." Another lyric includes, "I'm not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound" and then, "Sometimes somebody wants you to give something up, and tears or not, it's too much to ask." both stegner and bowie have of course a sufficiently large body of work not to be labeled as plagiarists, indeed, if they used material to create a work of art that reached a larger audience and was much appreciated, they, in a way, did a service to the original work. it is often not possible for an artist to keep track of all the different material he's inspired by but in both of these cases the 'inspired works' involved a sufficient degree of similarity to the original work as to deserve to be acknowledged appropriately.
more tacitus bashing okay i'm getting into overdrive here but tacitus' is one of the better, saner right centric blogs out there and he talks real sensible most of the time, most, not all the time and it is generally difficult to make a point on the comments section there often because there are already good debates in progress and my small voice gets lost in the noise. the magdalene sisters, an indie movie about strict catholic disciplinarians, sexual repression and appalling hypocrisy in what a wsj review calls "Magdalene Asylums-comination reformatories and commercial laundries, run by the Catholic Church, where inmates are forced to work under appalling conditions" is hitting the theatres in a limited release this week. on 16 july, tacitus posted this, Take, for example, the fate of little 9-year old Sanariya at the hands of her own family, and ask yourself how it makes you feel about the culture that produced such fine kin. For my part, my powers of tolerance just went down.a review of the magdalene sisters on sfgate says, among other things, That's the story underneath the story in "The Magdalene Sisters." Through the film, we encounter a culture, circa 1965, that reviles women and is intent on controlling their power by controlling their sexuality. It's a study in dysfunction: The lewd and sexually violent young men, the brutal, unforgiving fathers and the middle-aged women, mothers and nuns, who act as the system's henchwomen, are all children of the same lie -- that women and their bodies are inherently evil.and from a review in the wall street journal, It should be noted that Catholic groups have denounced "The Magdalene Sisters" on the grounds that similar conditions prevailed during the same era at Protestant-run institutions as well"The point of this article, of course, is not to decry the irish or any other cultural/ethnic/religious group, rather it is to remind tacitus and those who agreed with his synthesis that you cannot judge a people or their culture by the most egregious actions of their worst representatives, you marvel at their greatest accomplishments and empathize with their shortcomings for you undoubtedly have your share, you enrich them and yourself with a healthy interaction and you leave the judging to those who will only sit in front of their tv sets and make decisions based on jingoistic news bulletins.
of paradise and houris there has been some talk of how the quran is being (mis)interpreted by certain scholars who remain anonymous because of the obvious dangers such professions impose upon the individual. here's my two cents, the quran can uniquely claim to be virtually unmodified from the time it was revealed, at least that is the belief held by the world's muslim population, the bible has no such distinction, in fact, as tacitus says, [...]Indeed, the West and Christianity did march on but with only a vestige what the actual religion preached, with modifications and changes a consistent element throughout, thus, Christianity has evolved into a widely disparate group of congregations, there is one for each subset of beliefs. A case in point is the recent controversy of gay priests being ordained. From what little I know of Christianity, homosexuality is explicitly disallowed, rather it is a fairly big sin in the eyes of God. Tacitus and fellow proponents will probably explain this away as adaptation, my question is what good is adaptation if the very character of faith is forever changed? Again in Tacitus' words, Islam is now facing the same music as Christianity did in the 19th century, which is true, however, Islam has, till now atleast proven to be rather reluctant to adapt, it is not facing the music very well in western eyes. One fact most muslims pride themselves on is the solid belief that the quran is as today as the day it was revealed. The recent controversy is about interpretation, which to me as a muslim is entirely irrelevant. I've been given a book with certain text, I can choose to believe one interpretation or another, for neither set of scholars can claim with absolute certainity that their interpretation is perfect. Luxenberg claims the quran has been through one level of translation, aramaic to arabic, and that one translation brought about such drastic changes in its meaning, what then must have happened to the text of the bible which has gone through a far greater number of translations before it came to be widely distributed in english? A muslim will simply tell you that the Quran is the word of God and it is He who will keep it consistent through time, ravages of translations and human interpretation notwithstanding. Going off on a tangent here, a question for those muslim readers with better knowledge and understanding, why is it that what is illegal in this life is offered as reward in the hereafter? i'm alluding, of course to the promise of houris or virgins in paradise. Also, why should the men be promised such rewards and women nothing comparable? answers anyone?
ah... choice! three reasons i'm using firebird to browse the web, i) type ahead find, lets u jump through hyperlinks without using the mouse, highlighting the link text as you type it, u gotta use it to believe how fantastic this feature is ii) tabbed browsing, instead of ten different windows you can have everything tabbed in one window iii) it is fast and offers everything that IE does plus more so what are u waiting for? go check it out.
wmd not found haha, this is real funny. i'm not sure if u've noticed but tacitus seems to have gotten less objective and more invective. first there was the attack on islamic and/or iraqi culture citing the case of a little girl who'd been raped and then subjected to physical abuse from her own sick family members, latest is his diatribe about how islam is one of the "few movements, peoples, or ideologies that have in the course of history sought to destroy Western Civilization as such". it's funny how newspapers twist the truth, the headlines convey something and the actual article says something entirely different. two cases in point, the first was an article in the san jose mercury news last week that spoke about a tape that had surfaced in baghdad, with saddam hussein allegedly urging a "holy war". the actual article did not mention anything about a holy war as such, saddam hussein urged the iraqis to "wage a jihad against the americans". "jihad" in this context was not related to religion at all, rather it was an exhortation for the iraqis to fight the people who'd toppled hussein. the second article that caught my attention was in the wall street journal, the headline said something akin to "iraqi scientists talk about attempt to create biological weapons", the article was actually about a failed attempt to use ricin, back in 1991 and the methods used even then were so crude the whole thing was scrapped before it even got off the ground. my point is, why do respected newspapers sensationalize the headline at the cost of credibility?
in the beginning the following is an excerpt from a remarkable commentary entitled, In the Beginning Was the Command Line, an essay by sf writer Neal Stephenson on the evolution of operating systems, the companies that make them and associated paranoia. But this excerpt is not about software at all, it is an interesting view of how things are and why they are that way,
The entire essay is rather long but definitely worth your time, especially if you have more that a cursory association with computing and software.
getting ripped off in san jose this was a revelation to me, bananas at albertsons - 79c/lb, bananas, same quality and brand at an indian grocery store, same city - 19c/lb. what kind of a business model is that? the highway robbery kind? why does usps allow fedex to have its dropboxes right outside the usps post offices and on their own property? anyone's gotten an explanation?
switching cities from india to the us and then from los angeles to san jose, from graduated and unemployed to graduated and interning, from family to friends to no one. it has been one rocking week for me. in the space of five days i'd set foot in three different countries and four different cities, phew! i'm tired. san jose has a sucky transit system, that is my first impression atleast. the worst thing is there is nothing like the trip planner at the LA met transit authority's mta.net. u can call up and find routes it seems but the wait on the phone is a little above my tolerance level. you'd think with all the tech muscle this area has someone would put a trip planner online here, hmm, i can smell an opportunity..... my bro's bit the bait. in other news, i spent one hour at the light rail station the other day, the first train i couldn't get into coz i'd been waiting to see if trains were still runnig at that hour before i splurged on a ticket (when u r earning peanuts u need to watch every dime ;)), the second one i left coz in my telephonic conversations i mixed up which direction i was supposed to go, it was the third train that i finally hopped onto.
quote the definition of beauty is easy; it is what leads to desperation --valery |
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