Threats to Barack Obama's Life

Image via Wikipedia

I am not totally satisfied with him, but he is doing a much better job than Bush 2 and he has had a very tough sitution to deal with.

What I am totally upset about is the continuing maniacal railing against Obama -- as a socialist, a muslim, a community organizer, a demon ("Yes we can" backwards is apparently "Thank you Satan"), and more.

Now, fundamentalists are trolling with the line from the Bible, Psalm 109:9 which reads, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” It also says, "“Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” That sounds to me like a threat on his life.

This drumbeat is like a continuing invitation for some unstable individual to decide that he or she has some holy duty to kill the President of the United States. I am not the only one afraid of this continuing public relations effort. Frank Schaeffer is definitely concerned in this clip, and frankly, I give his concern more weight because he’s a reformed high-ranking fundamentalist figure.

I think that it is very important to speak out against this now in the hope that it will not happen.

My Birthday is the End of the World

Image by shapeshift via Flickr

My birthday is 28 October 1950. In 2011 I will be 61 years old.

From http://www.calleman.com/content/articles/end_of_creationcycles.htm

Why the Creation Cycles do not end
December 21 2012, but October 28, 2011

Over the decades much discussion has focussed on finding the exact correlation between the Mayan Long Count and the Gregorian calendar. Most researchers in the field have now come to agree that the so-called GMT correlation, placing the beginning of the Long Count 4 Ahau 8 Cumku on the Julian day 584 283, August 11, 3114 BC, is correct. This means by consequence that it will end on December 21, 2012 and most students of the calendar of the Maya, such as Jose Arguelles, John Jenkins and Terence McKenna, have endorsed this date as the end of the current cycle.

I do not dispute that the GMT correlation for the Long Count with the Gregorian calendar is the correct one. And clearly, the Long Count is an approximately (within a year or so) correct reflection of the divine process of creation. There are however strong reasons to believe that the Mayan Long Count itself does not exactly reflect the shifting energies of the divine creation cycles that we today are interested in. What in this regard is most compelling is that the exact Long Count beginning date ultimately is calibrated based on the date of solar zenith in Izapa, which occurs on August 12. (Izapa is the ancient Mayan site in southern Mexico where the Long Count was first devised.)

This solar zenith day was since long, long before the Long Count was implemented, considered as the day of the year when “time began” and considered as a holy date in the location of Izapa. There is thus every reason to believe that the solar zenith was the reason the initial day in the Long Count, 4 Ahau 8 Cumku, was set on this day, although obviously the date of solar zenith in Izapa has nothing to do with the real beginning of the corresponding divine creation cycle. (Not to use the solar zenith date as the beginning of the Long Count would have been considered as heresy. We may make the comparison with the date of Christmas, which was taken from old solstice celebrations, and has not been changed, despite the fact that few, if any, believes that Jesus was born then).

That the end date of the Long Count falls on December 21, 2012 is thus just a necessary logical consequence of the beginning date chosen by the Izapans and not something that the Maya had intentionally targeted. The creation cycles described by the Maya, including the tzolkin, are fundamentally of a spiritual, non-astronomical, nature. Thus, any theory that implies that the Mayan Long Count would have been designed to reflect astronomical phenomena, be it the precession of the earth or a solar zenith, is a warning signal that its originator is off the mark. It should be obvious that if the Mayan calendar is a prophetic calendar describing cosmic energy cycles of a universal nature then the particular date at which the sun was in zenith in the particular location of Izapa is totally irrelevant for us who live today and must be considered as nothing but a result of a tradition too strong to be changed.

Another equally compelling reason why December 21, 2012 cannot be the true date of completion of creation is that this day is 4 Ahau in the tzolkin count. Since the Long Count consists of exactly 7200 tzolkin rounds then the true end of creation must fall on a day that is 13 Ahau in the tzolkin count so that the tzolkin rounds even out. If we want to find out what is the real date of ending of the creation cycles we must therefore look for a day around the year 2012, which is 13 Ahau in the tzolkin count. The inscriptions in Palenque, written about a thousand years after the Long Count was devised in Izapa, seem to indicate that the date of relevance is October 28, 2011, which in fact is 13 Ahau in the tzolkin count.

The issue of the exact correlation between the creation cycles and physical time may not have been as critical in the age of the Maya as it is to us, since creation is currently operating at a 400 times higher frequency. A discrepancy of a year or so may have meant less earlier than it does to us who live today. If we make a mistake of 420 days in calibrating the end date of the creation cycles we will be totally out of phase with the rapidly evolving Galactic Creation Cycle where the Yin/Yang dualities in the cosmos are switched off and on every 360 days. These energy changes are what a spiritual calendar should reflect if it is to serve humanity in its current phase of evolution.

It should be said also that those who propose December 21, 2012 as an end date, such as Terence McKenna and John Jenkins, are basing their entire interpretations of the Mayan calendar on this particular date of ending, as if this was what the entire calendar was about. I feel however that what is most important for us to know today is the processes leading up to the completion of creation and the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness. This process is driven forward by the roller-coaster-like Galactic Creation Cycle, and for those seeking to understand this process and its many manifestations an exact calibration of this cycle is imperative. This is now available in calendar form.

Baktun no Duration (Corrected) 1. 3115-2721 BC 2. 2721-2326 3. 2326-1932 4. 1932-1538 5. 1538-1144 6. 1144-749 7. 749-355 8. 355- AD 40 9. AD 40-434 10. 434-829 11. 829-1223 12. 1223-1617 13. 1617-2011 Corrected durations of the Thirteen Heavens baktuns of the Long Count

Burlington Vermont is Way Cool

CNN calling it among the coolest university towns in the USA.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-coolest-college-towns/6?label=americas-coolest-college-towns

Burlington, VT (University of Vermont)

College towns don’t get more scenic than Burlington, where a 7.5-mile bike path on old railroad beds provides wind-riffled views of Lake Champlain. It’s understandable, then, that outdoor activities figure prominently here. Rent a kayak from Umiak to explore bays fringed with pines, or hike Burrow’s Trail to the summit of nearby Camel’s Hump, whose bald-faced 4,083-foot summit offers living-map panoramas.

Local Taste: Dine on local delicacies at the Green Room, which offers locavore favorites like Vermont lamb braised with green peppercorns.

Some were fairly obvious, while others were a surprise. It bears consideration how things have changed in such a short time.

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6133903/50-things-that-are-being-killed-by-the-internet.html

50 things that are being killed by the internet

By Matthew Moore

Published: 7:00AM BST 04 Sep 2009

The web is changing the way we work, play and think Photo: REUTERS

Tasks that once took days can be completed in seconds, while traditions and skills that emerged over centuries have been made all but redundant.

The internet is no respecter of reputations: innocent people have seen their lives ruined by viral clips distributed on the same World Wide Web used by activists to highlight injustices and bring down oppressive regimes

Below we have compiled - in no particular order - 50 things that are in the process of being killed off by the web, from products and business models to life experiences and habits. We've also thrown in a few things that have suffered the hands of other modern networking gadgets, specifically mobile phones and GPS systems.

Do you agree with our selections? What other examples can you think of? Please post your comments on the bottom of the story – we hope include the best suggestions in a fuller list.

1) The art of polite disagreement
While the inane spats of YouTube commencers may not be representative, the internet has certainly sharpened the tone of debate. The most raucous sections of the blogworld seem incapable of accepting sincerely held differences of opinion; all opponents must have "agendas".

2) Fear that you are the only person unmoved by a celebrity's death
Twitter has become a clearing-house for jokes about dead famous people. Tasteless, but an antidote to the "fans in mourning" mawkishness that otherwise predominates.

3) Listening to an album all the way through
The single is one of the unlikely beneficiaries of the internet – a development which can be looked at in two ways. There's no longer any need to endure eight tracks of filler for a couple of decent tunes, but will "album albums" like Radiohead's Amnesiac get the widespread hearing they deserve?

4) Sarah Palin
Her train wreck interviews with NBC's Katie Couric were watched and re-watched millions of times on the internet, cementing the Republican vice-presidential candidate's reputation as a politician out of her depth. Palin's uncomfortable relationship with the web continues; she has threatened to sue bloggers who republish rumours about the state of her marriage.

5) Punctuality
Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up to the pub on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudenesses of the connected age.

6) Ceefax/Teletext
All sports fans of a certain age can tell you their favourite Ceefax pages (p341 for Test match scores, p312 for football transfer gossip), but the service's clunking graphics and four-paragraph articles have dated badly. ITV announced earlier this year that it was planning to pull Teletext, its version.

7) Adolescent nerves at first porn purchase
The ubiquity of free, hard-core pornography on the web has put an end to one of the most dreaded rights rites of passage for teenage boys – buying dirty magazines. Why tremble in the WHSmiths queue when you can download mountains of filth for free in your bedroom? The trend also threatens the future of "porn in the woods" – the grotty pages of Razzle and Penthouse that scatter the fringes of provincial towns and villages.

8) Telephone directories

9) The myth of cat intelligence
The proudest household pets are now the illiterate butts of caption-based jokes. Icanhasreputashunback?

10) Watches
Scrabbling around in your pocket to dig out a phone may not be as elegant as glancing at a watch, but it saves splashing out on two gadgets.

11) Music stores
In a world where people don't want to pay anything for music, charging them £16.99 for 12 songs in a flimsy plastic case is no business model.

12) Letter writing/pen pals
Email is quicker, cheaper and more convenient; receiving a handwritten letter from a friend has become a rare, even nostalgic, pleasure. As a result, formal valedictions like "Yours faithfully" are being replaced by "Best" and "Thanks".

13) Memory
When almost any fact, no matter how obscure, can be dug up within seconds through Google and Wikipedia, there is less value attached to the "mere" storage and retrieval of knowledge. What becomes important is how you use it – the internet age rewards creativity.

14) Dead time
When was the last time you spent an hour mulling the world out a window, or rereading a favourite book? The internet's draw on our attention is relentless and increasingly difficult to resist.

15) Photo albums and slide shows
Facebook, Flickr and printing sites like Snapfish are how we share our photos. Earlier this year Kodak announced that it was discontinuing its Kodachrome slide film because of lack of demand.

16) Hoaxes and conspiracy theories
The internet is often dismissed as awash with cranks, but it has proved far more potent at debunking conspiracy theories than perpetuating them. The excellent Snopes.com continues to deliver the final, sober, word on urban legends.

17) Watching television together
On-demand television, from the iPlayer in Britain to Hulu in the US, allows relatives and colleagues to watch the same programmes at different times, undermining what had been one of the medium's most attractive cultural appeals – the shared experience. Appointment-to-view television, if it exists at all, seems confined to sport and live reality shows.

18) Authoritative reference works
We still crave reliable information, but generally aren't willing to pay for it.

19) The Innovations catalogue
Preposterous as its household gadgets may have been, the Innovations catalogue was always a diverting read. The magazine ceased printing in 2003, and its web presence is depressingly bland.

20) Order forms in the back pages of books
Amazon's "Customers who bought this item also bought..." service seems the closest web equivalent.

21) Delayed knowledge of sporting results
When was the last time you bought a newspaper to find out who won the match, rather than for comment and analysis? There's no need to fall silent for James Alexander Gordon on the way home from the game when everyone in the car has an iPhone.

22) Enforceable copyright
The record companies, film studios and news agencies are fighting back, but can the floodgates ever be closed?

23) Reading telegrams at weddings
Quoting from a wad of email printouts doesn't have the same magic.

24) Dogging
Websites may have helped spread the word about dogging, but the internet offers a myriad of more convenient ways to organise no-strings sex with strangers. None of these involve spending the evening in lay-by near Aylesbury.

25) Aren't they dead? Aren't they gay?
Wikipedia allows us to confirm or disprove almost any celebrity rumour instantly. Only at festivals with no Wi-Fi signals can the gullible be tricked into believing that David Hasselhoff has passed away.

26) Holiday news ignorance
Glancing at the front pages after landing back at Heathrow used to be a thrilling experience – had anyone died? Was the government still standing? Now it takes a stern soul to resist the temptation to check the headlines at least once while you're away.

27) Knowing telephone numbers off by heart
After typing the digits into your contacts book, you need never look at them again.

28) Respect for doctors and other professionals
The proliferation of health websites has undermined the status of GPs, whose diagnoses are now challenged by patients armed with printouts.

29) The mystery of foreign languages
Sites like Babelfish offer instant, good-enough translations of dozens of languages – but kill their beauty and rhythm.

30) Geographical knowledge
With GPS systems spreading from cars to smartphones, knowing the way from A to B is a less prized skill. Just ask the London taxi drivers who spent years learning The Knowledge but are now undercut by minicabs.

31) Privacy
We may attack governments for the spread of surveillance culture, but users of social media websites make more information about themselves available than Big Brother could ever hoped to obtain by covert means.

32) Chuck Norris's reputation
The absurdly heroic boasts on Chuck Norris Facts may be affectionate, but will anyone take him seriously again?

33) Pencil cricket
An old-fashioned schoolboy diversion swept away by the Stick Cricket behemoth

34) Mainstream media
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News in the US have already folded, and the UK's Observer may follow. Free news and the migration of advertising to the web threaten the basic business models of almost all media organisations.

35) Concentration
What with tabbing between Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and Google News, it's a wonder anyone gets their work done. A disturbing trend captured by the wonderful XKCD webcomic.

36) Mr Alifi's dignity Mr Tombe's dignity
Twenty years ago, if you were a Sudanese man who was forced to marry a goat after having sex with it, you'd take solace that news of your shame would be unlikely to spread beyond the neighbouring villages. Unfortunately for Mr Alifi, his indiscretion came in the digital age – and became one of the first viral news stories.
As pointed out in the comments, Mr Alifi was just the goat's owner. It was another man, Mr Tombe, who actually did the deed. Apologies and thanks to readers for drawing attention to the error. (#51 Unchallenged journalistic inaccuracy?)

37) Personal reinvention
How can you forge a new identity at university when your Facebook is plastered with photos of the "old" you?

38) Viktor Yanukovych
The Orange Revolution in Ukraine was organised by a cabal of students and young activists who exploited the power of the web to mobilise resistance against the old regime, and sweep Viktor Yushchenko to power.

39) The insurance ring-round
Their adverts may grate, but insurance comparison websites have killed one of the most tedious annual chores

40) Undiscovered artists
Posting paintings to deviantART and Flickr – or poems to writebuzz – could not be easier. So now the garret-dwellers have no excuses.

41) The usefulness of reference pages at the front of diaries
If anyone still digs out their diaries to check what time zone Lisbon is in, or how many litres there are to a gallon, we don't know them.

42) The nervous thrill of the reunion
You've spent the past five years tracking their weight-gain on Facebook, so meeting up with your first love doesn't pack the emotional punch it once did.

43) Solitaire
The original computer timewaster has been superseded by the more alluring temptations of the web. Ditto Minesweeper.

44) Trust in Nigerian businessmen and princes
Some gift horses should have their mouths very closely inspected.

45) Prostitute calling cards/ kerb crawling
Sex can be marketed more cheaply, safely and efficiently on the web than the street corner.

46) Staggered product/film releases
Companies are becoming increasingly draconian in their anti-piracy measure, but are finally beginning to appreciate that forcing British consumers to wait six months to hand over their money is not a smart business plan.

47) Footnotes
Made superfluous by the link, although Wikipedia is fighting a brave rearguard action.

48) Grand National trips to the bookmaker
Having a little flutter is much more fun when you don't have to wade though a shop of drunks and ne'er-do-wells

49) Fanzines
Blogs and fansites offer greater freedom and community interaction than paper fanzines, and can be read by many more people.

50) Your lunchbreak
Did you leave your desk today? Or snaffle a sandwich while sending a few personal emails and checking the price of a week in Istanbul?

The Top Ten Hidden Satan Message Songs

Image via Wikipedia

Great job by funkyjelly.com in putting this together.

From http://funkjelly.com/2009/07/16/the-10-most-satanic-hidden-messages-in-songs/

Oh, my sweet Satan! We have come to bow at your feet and drink of your unholy red drank from your tippy toes of hell.

That’s not a pick up line, that’s what we transcribed when we played David Archuleta’s latest single backwards. Don’t believe us? Check it out for yourselves!

Ever since the kids started listening to that damned devil rock, Satan has been making his way into their hearts and minds. Subliminally, through backmasking. Everyone knows about Led Zeppelin, but there may be some you don’t know about in the 10 Most Satanic Hidden Messages in Songs.

10. Lady Gaga
We’re pretty sure Gaga actually makes more sense, backwards.

9. Buddy Holly
That wasn’t no plane crash that took Buddy Holly. It was just the devil collecting his payment.

8. Weird Al
What goes good with Cheese Whiz… in HELL?

7. Soulja Boy
We knew Soulja Boy wrote really wack lyrics, but who knew he was on his emo walk with Satan?

6. Bloodhound Gang
Thank evilness for Chef Boyardee!

5. Barney
Yeah, is anyone actually surprised, here?

4. Led Zeppelin
It’s always the songs about Heaven that turn out the most Satanic, backwards.

3. Jonas Brothers
Wait, what happens when they put on their magical underwear backwards?

2. Chicago
Little Nicky is the most underappreciated movie of Adam Sandler’s career, and this is our favorite scene.

1. Jay-Z
Forget about Jay-Z selling his soul to Satan. When did churches start getting Macbook Pros? Time to start holding back on the collection plate.

If you liked this, be sure to check out the Most Awkward Songs to Sing in Church, and the Creepiest Album Covers of All Time.

News for Today

Image via Wikipedia

Taking some time to cruise through the information architecture of planet Earth today.

• 60 years after inventing the electric toothbrush, the guy who changed brushing your teeth turns his attention to inventing a newer and better sex toy: [2]
• Clove cigarettes to be banned in the US at the end of September: [4]
• 50 things that are being killed by the Internet: [12]
• This Web site is not endorsed by Google: [22]

From http://www.modemac.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Bulldada_Newsblog_RSS

Health Care & Teddy

I have been a strong supporter if national health care coverage since 1970, when I did a lot of research about it and determined that the current system is bankrupt. We spend twice as much as the UK and yet millions of people are without protection. The rich are fine, those with good jobs are fine, and the poor have medicaid (which at least protects them) but people in the lower middle class are left out. The National Medical Association estimates that 50,000 people in America die each year because they did not seek needed care because of lack of coverage (such as early diagnosis and prevention).

Teddy Kennedy died this morning. For all of his weaknesses and things he did that I did not like, he and I were always on the same side with this issue. Someday, I hope that everyone can get the care that saved his son's life.

My Phone is a Mosquito Repellant

Image via Wikipedia

Last Spring I got an iphone and I have been very happy with it. It is multifunctional and easy to use. I love the way it grabs trusted wifi networks and uses those whenever it can to save me money. Not sure that it saves me money overall but I love it still.

The offerings at the app store have been interesting but not shocking. At least, until now.

There is an app that, when you turn it on, emits a sound that you cannot hear, but that mosquitos can hear, and they hate it. I had my doubts but I plunked down $.99 and bought it. I took it out on the porch and watched the sun go down. This is the time when the pesky bloodsuckers will find you and do their grisly work. I sat there for 45 minutes in prime mosquito time (I got some bites the previous night) and got not a single bite nor did I see a single mosquito.

Here is what the website says:

http://www.apptism.com/apps/mosquito-repellent

"Definitely the best Mosquito Repellent app out there!"

Mosquito Repellent brings the most user-friendly and beautiful app to repel mosquitos flying around.

It allows you to choose from 5 different sound frequencies to frighten away mosquitos.

Features include:
- You can keep it working when you lock your device
- Choose from 5 different sound frequencies
- Choose a special sound that combines different frequencies to hurt most mosquitos around

The 21st Century surely is a strange time, and it will get stranger. As Captain Jack says, "The 21st Century is when it all changes."

Skyfish are Everywhere!

From http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/26-10-2006/85214-skyfish-0

Invisible poisonous skyfish fly at 300 km/h all around us

26.10.2006 Source:

Recently many reports appeared talking about the weird creatures, the so-called skyfish. It remains unclear whether the animals are fish, birds or worms.

	Mysterious creatures are caught on film everywhere

The mysterious beings have long worm-like bodies with wide projections on their sides (like those of fish). The trouble is, they don’t live in water – they live in the air.

No one has come up with a decent name for the animals as of yet. Some suggestions include “flying sticks,” “solar entities,” and “skyfish.”

The first time skyfish was photographed ten years ago by a film director Jose Escamilla. He originally thought that it was a UFO but then he realized that it was some living thing moving at a very high speed.

He began studying them and realized that the animals invade the space everywhere. Besides he discovered that the creatures began reproducing at a much faster rate as a result of the global warming.

Without a specimen in hand to examine, it's impossible to determine whether or not skyfish are living organisms, but it's Escamilla's best guess that they are.

Skyfish have only been captured on film and videotape. No one knows what they are, where they come from, but there are already specialized people – the catchers of skyfish, who mainly live in Japan.

They say that their hobby is not very safe: the animals are terribly poisonous during the fall season. In Japan the skyfish are extremely fast and fly at 300 km/h.

Analysis of film and video of skyfish from around the world indicate that they might range in size from just a few inches to perhaps over a hundred feet in length! How could something that large be unknown? That’s the essence of the mystery.

Source: agencies

Translated by Natalia Vysotskaya
Pravda.ru

Rabbit Obsessed Woman WIll Not Stop

From http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rabbitobsessed-woman-sent-back-to-jail-1729987.html

Rabbit-obsessed woman sent back to jail

Associated Press

Friday, 3 July 2009

An Oregon woman obsessed with bunnies has been ordered back behind bars after police found her in a hotel room with more than a dozen rabbits.

Washington County Circuit Judge Gayle Nachtigal ruled yesterday that 47-year-old Miriam Sakewitz violated her probation by having the rabbits. The judge sentenced the woman to 90 days in the county jail.

Police arrested Sakewitz on 16 June after she called a maintenance worker to her room in the Portland suburb of Tigard to fix a broken television set. The worker saw and smelled the rabbits, some of them hopping free.

The woman's legal problems began in 2006 when police found more than 150 rabbits in her home and dozens more bunny bodies in freezers. She was arrested on accusations of animal neglect. After pleading no contest, she was placed on five years' probation, with one condition being that she stay away from rabbits.

Tigard Police spokesman Jim Wolf said Washington County animal control officers removed eight adult rabbits, five young ones and a dead one from the hotel room in the latest incident.

Washington County probation officer Bob Severe said Sakewitz had undergone a court-ordered mental evaluation but that no treatment was recommended.

Five Weeks in Mexico 2009

As many of you know I try to vacation at my home in Baja California as often as I can. I usually go in May as soon as school is out and there are times when I also go in December. For those of you who are interested my Baja Blog is at http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/mex/Blog/Blog.html and has a lot more detail.

This May's trip was super fantastic. There are a number of reasons for this:

• The stay was longer than usual, as I got there very early in May and stayed until 8 June. This was a great five weeks.
• The weather was awesome. Usually as the May-June stay gets longer the weather gets hotter and there are times when I have left a few days early for this reason. There can be some very warm days and then it can cool off a little but. But, this time there were two warm nights early on and then the rest of the stay was very cool, with weather in the high 80's most days. It was very, very nice.
• I had lots of time to just relax. I quite often will bring a major writing project with me and work on them for an hour or two a day. Several of my recent books have been written there. This time, I had no such big project, so I was able to really do whatever I wanted all day long.
• The books I took with me were paricularly excellent this time. They also seemed popular with my friends, with Bob taking two and Cliff taking one after I finished them. I really enjoy being able to sit on the porch, often in the sun, and read a great book. The ones I especially liked were reviewed here on this website.
• The new truck is excellent. I got a great deal, it really fits my needs and it is really nice to be able to haul things so easily. I am also glad to have made a good relationship with Victor Gomez through the purchase.
• There were very few people around. We were often the only people (or so it seemed) there. There were a number of days in which we saw no other human being.
• Bojana escaped injury this year. Last year she got stung by a ray in the bay and it healed very slowly. This time, she did not even get a hint of sunburn.
• The last week was the best as I had finally totally become mellow and could really enjoy myself.
• I have a small electric generator that I turn on to charge ipods, laptops and my XM satellite radio. In five weeks I used six gallons of gas. Wow.
• I ate well AND lost weight. Nice combination.
• I was very sad to leave. I could have easily stayed on for quite a while longer. I think I will be able to spend a lot of my future retirement time there when I finally do retire.

So, it was a great trip. I am extremely tan, relaxed and recharged for my next year.

BOOK REVIEW: Honor: A History, by James Bowman (2006: Encounter: New York)

BOOK REVIEW: Honor: A History, by James Bowman (2006: Encounter: New York)

As a professional debate coach I try to understand that the process of disagreement can be productive and I can learn from those I disagree with. This book was an opportunity for me to reinforce this idea.

I am very interested in “social history,” where you take one concept, idea or institution and follow it through a number of centuries and/or societies. I have always enjoyed the work of Philippe Aries (In the Hour of Our Death, Centuries of Childhood) as well as simple examples like salt (Salt: a history) and hygiene (The Dirt on Clean). This book claims to be a history of the concept of honor. I had assumed that it would cover more than just the west, but it did not.

The author’s main concept is that the idea of “honor” has seriously declined in the culture of the west. He goes through the period from the Middle Ages until the present, and monitors the reasons why honor has been eroded. The list was fairly compelling, including the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the individual, the way war has lost its glamour and glory, the emancipation of women, and a variety of other factors. His documentation of this process was very interesting, informative and entertaining. I found myself cheering at almost every step as honor declined, especially about the change in the way war is viewed and the decline in the need to defend the “honor” (willful subjugation) of women.

Now, as we are in a post-honor society, we find ourselves confronting very strong pro-honor societies (Islam is his example) and we will not be able to deal successfully with the challenge without a workable concept of honor. Therefore, we need to reconstruct and regain honor.

Huh? His analysis convinced me that the decline of honor has produced many benefits. Contrasting the silly ways in which honor is written about in the myth of King Arthur (where Lancelot feels he is true to his king if he defeats anyone who accuses him of sleeping with the queen in combat, even though he is guilty) to the way in which combat is seen by soldiers surviving the first world war is clearly many steps in the right direction. The question for me is, why would we want to go back?

Going back to the old days is very much what he proposes. He argues that what we need to do is to regain an appreciation of the role of the warrior, reinforce a spirit of aristocracy and social stratification, destroy the cult of celebrity and step back from the unqualified emancipation of women so that they can regain a status of submission and chastity.

This is the section that really needs elaboration, and yet he saves it for the last few pages of the book. He proves so compellingly that modern war is evil and dehumanizing, why would we want to try and glorify it? He talks about the evils of Islamic honor killings and veil compulsion, and yet he wants women to return to the background as cherished vessels of chastity and controlled reproduction.

One of the major reasons why this entire effort of reconstructing honor seems of little worth is his analysis that the west’s confrontation with Islam will result in a triumph of the west, while another is that he freely admits that the changes that need to come to regain honor will never come about. If we don’t need it and can’t do it, why yearn for it so passionately? He is very critical of various “utopian” approaches to social organization, yet he posits a similar solution to his honor quandary.

I found his use of different forms of media to be useful in illustrating his points, especially about the decline of honor, but he gets a bit selective at times. I understand that the works of Spencer were important in their time and that the Arthurian legend was important in the case of honor, but as we get closer to the present I find these media examples less compelling. He seems to be more self-serving in his choices as we get closer to the present. I was particularly disturbed by his use of a 1968 movie called “If…” in which school children gun down their schoolmates and teachers.

His analysis of the way in which western societies have evolved seemed to come back again and again to the concept of “power” being all important. I would have expected a discussion of Michel Foucault’s work but it was not to be found and is not cited in the bibliography.

This book was interesting and well worth reading, but its conclusions were fairly vexing. I think he might have been better off to just stick with the social history and pass on the social recommendations. As a side note, I see that the book is dedicated to his father (who served in the military) and to his son (who serves in Iraq). This may explain why he feels that we must regain honor, perhaps because he has not experienced the “glory” or fighting for honor. He makes quite a point about those who did not get to fight feeling left behind and feeling like they “missed out” but he did not apply this concept to himself. He does note that his father and son can do more about honor than he does, which is only to write about it.

A post-honor society as described by the author seems just fine to me.

BOOK REVIEW: Cicero: the life and times of Rome’s greatest politician, by Anthony Everitt

BOOK REVIEW: Cicero: the life and times of Rome’s greatest politician, by Anthony Everitt (2001: Random House, New York)

I enjoyed this book or a number of reasons. While I knew of Cicero I did not have a very organized knowledge, and so it is good to read a biography. I am familiar with some of his works and theories about rhetoric and related subjects, but I did not know about the person Cicero. Finally, as a debate coach and a teacher of rhetoric I am also professionally interested. From all I can tell this is a balanced, well-researched and engaging history of an amazing life.

The source material provides considerable perspective here. One huge feature is the bulk of the letters that Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus, telling him the story of his life as he went along. His perspective of course, biased it, but it allowed one to get a real flavor for the person and how he thought. A wide variety of other materials are used, such as letters, plays, poems, ancient books as well as more modern sources. The research done by the author was excellent and displayed nicely.

As a debate coach it was interesting to read that most higher education at the time would be in rhetoric and public speaking (p. 30). An individual teacher (“rhetor”) would be engaged for this purpose, and such individuals had quite high standing in the community. It was also interesting to read about the way in which proceedings in the law courts were handled (pp. 32-33) in that they almost exactly outlined a debate the way that we would stage one today, especially a public debate. It is in both these fields that Cicero got a very fast start.

In the last days of the Roman republic public speaking skill was the key to success. It always helped to have some impressive military victories (Pompey) and it didn’t hurt to have lots and lots of money (Crassus), but ultimately to make things happen in the center of power public speaking skills, both in the senate and in the broader public assembly) were essential. Since Cicero did not have much military skill (shown during his governorship of Cilicia) and was always running a little low on money, his public speaking skills were hat he had plenty of and was able to deploy them. He practiced in the courts and made a name for himself, and then began rising through the ranks of various offices and duties. Often he was cursed for his speaking abilities, but more often he was sought as an ally because of them.

This book has indicated to me that I need to review some of his more common texts (Oratore and Inventio) but also that I should read some that I have not experienced (such as Good and Evil and the Nature of the State). He was a clever and highly strategic communicator, and I probably could learn some “old” tricks.

Cicero could tell a story and repackage a situation as well as anyone, but his supreme skill was the crushing put-down. During a discussion of some issue in response to another speaker he might insert jabs into that person’s past, the preferences for his dalliances, to whom he owed money as well as a reference to any number of mistakes that person had made. Cicero seemed to remember them all and deploy them with subtle glee. The audiences loved it, and often remain engaged with his discourse because one of these critical gems might be added ay any time.

The book also serves as a useful insight into others who were on the political battlefield with, against and perhaps with again Cicero. Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, Caitilina, Marius, Sulla, Hortensius, Cato, Mark Anthony, Octavian and even Cleopatra were thrown into the mix and revealing points about them were made, often in Cicero’s own words. I especially apreciated the insight into Pompey and Caesar.

The life of Cicero is also a good timeline for the collapse of the old Roman republic. He was always it champion, and worked to bring people together for his dream of a republic within which many groups could participate. He valued the balance of powers, the veto system and the changing of offices hat tried to keep it a government of people and not of any one man. Ultimately, this struggle was lost to Caesar, Octavian and the tide of history as a vast empire called for a more efficient and centralized authority.

Two stories:

Caesar and Cato are debating in the senate about whether to give the death penalty or banishment to some who have conspired against the senate. Caesar is merciful, Cato wants them dead. Cato accuses Caesar of being in league with them. When a letter is delivered to Caesar during the debate Cato claims that this is a letter of instruction from the conspirators. Without looking at the letter, Caesar hands it to a senator next to him, who reads it aloud. It turns out to be a love letter to Caesar, and the audience explodes in laughter as the writer is named at the signing, and turns out to be Cato’s sister.

Cicero is fleeing Italy after having been put on the condemned list by Octavian (who not long before had asked Cicero to be his co-consul for the year). When you are on that list, the state will pay you if you kill or capture that person, and the state takes all their property (quite a “death tax”). Having been apprehended by some bounty-hunting soldiers, Cicero is proud as ever. Cicero stepped out of his litter, saying, “I am stopping here. Come here, soldier. There is nothing proper about what you are doing, but at least make sure you cut off my head properly.” The soldier faltered, and Cicero made a jibe about whether he was his first such killing, and then the soldier slit his throat.

I really enjoyed this book and would commend it highly.

RATING: 4.75 stars out of 5

BOOK REVIEW: CHURCHILL‘S FOLLY: How Winston Churchill created modern Iraq, by Christopher Catherwood

CHURCHILL‘S FOLLY: How Winston Churchill created modern Iraq, by Christopher Catherwood

Great Britain and a few bit players met in Cairo in 1922 and carved up the southwest Asia. The ramifications of this event are still being felt today. This is a well-researched exploration of the subject, but it is a bit too narrow in its focus. The database covered (mostly Winston’s own correspondence and cables) is a bit narrow, and the attempt to integrate the perspectives of other sources is valiant but insufficient. Still, this is a fascinating read and the information gained from the, again, overused resources is quite good.

The book provides a non-lionized portrait of the man. He is not so much a dynamic world figure as he is an ambitious politician and a penny-pincher who simply wanted to get a job done (get Britain out of paying for this region) and not do the best job for the future. He is entertaining, though, as his individualistic streak does play havoc with people from time to time.

There are a lot of parallels to the 2003-05 period that the author makes but does not overemphasize. The conflicting motives of being where you are not wanted, minimizing damage to reputation and forces, and having to answer for the use of resources back home characterize this period for Britain as well as 2003-05 for the USA in Iraq.

Oil did not seem to be as important a factor. While it was mentioned a few times and Churchill was himself aware of the need for oil resources for naval superiority, it did not loom large in his decision calculus.

I enjoyed the relish that the author demonstrated when debunking the version of events from T. E. Lawrence’s Pillars of Wisdom, and he was specific about which “Lawrence of Arabia” myths to pop. As a boy who had been much moved by that movie it gave me some chuckles of regret.

The author does show some restraint when generalizing from this historical event to the present. As it was being released in 2006 events were still to unfold.

I had some problems with this book but that was mainly because I wanted to know more. However, I was very satisfied by what I learned and would commend it highly.

RATING: 4.5 STARS

Book Review: The Fatal Shore: the epic of Australia’s founding, by Robert Hughes

The Fatal Shore: the epic of Australia’s founding, by Robert Hughes (1986: Random House, New York).

This comprehensive history of the settlement of Australia as a penal colony is a fascinating read that I shall never forget. I am sure that I will be telling stories from it for the rest of my life.

The book has a unique voice, not just the voice of the author, which is done well, but also the voices of so many different people who are part of the story. Passages from letters, personal accounts, pleas for mercy, legal complaints, poems and even popular sons are used to help you hear he voices of those who are part of the drama. The author is also clear to indicate when there is silence or untruth in the tales these voices tell, as often documents did not exist (prisoners could be lashed for only having a piece of paper) and often people were asking for favors and obviously embellishing the truth. The result is not a cacophony, but a rich state of play in which many soloists come forward to provide their side of things.

The book is extremely comprehensive. It starts from the background in Britain, looks at the causes of crime and poverty, talks about the justice and law enforcement systems, discusses the lack of prison space for a spiraling crime problem, and then deals with the decision to send these people (this “criminal class”) to the other end of the world, probably never to come back. The picture painted of late 18th Century England was not a particularly good one, and one could come to understand that many of those sent to Australia in bondage ended up being better off.

Issues of gender, sex and identity were handled well in the book. The situation of women in England, the conditions and adventures of women on the long trip over, the rapacious environment they faced on arrival, the issues of separation between conjugal couples caused by transportation and the badge of “whore” and “prostitute” along with the casual nature of lower class marriages were also covered quite well. On the arrival of the first boat prisoners were finally unloaded and there were no quarters, so a flurry of spontaneous sexual activity took place that fist night, and Hughes notes that Australia’s sexual history got quite a first start that evening. Issues of homosexuality (both voluntary and imposed) along with the upper class horror at any thought of homosexuality were covered quite well. Many would use the existence of homosexuality among the convicts to justify more brutal treatment of them, even if it was no higher than the general population. The Irish were a group of prisoners that were even more victimized than the rest. They were discriminated against by the system and often by the other prisoners. Their religious needs were neglected but they tended to stick together and rarely informed on one another.

The author resisted the obvious temptation to talk about how the Australian “character” was influenced by the entire experience. Instead, he talked about how the artifacts of the system (like bushrangers) influenced the national character instead. He clearly does not belong to the genetic inheritance theory of crime (as did most contemporaries of this period) and showed very conclusively that a bunch of convicts became one of the most law-abiding societies in the world in fairly short order after many were set free and they started giving birth to new generations. There was some discussion of the need to stick together with your “mates” but I think that often comes out of any number of harsh frontier experiences. One of the points he does successfully make is that much of this era has been rubbed out and forgotten by Australians themselves, anxious to wash away the “convict stain.”

There is a string sense of “otherness” that he depicts, not so much from his perspective as the perspective of those who first came there. The countryside looked quite nice, but the soils were fairly unforgiving, the plants were often unfriendly and the animal life was a bit hard to understand. Huge quantities of whales and seals were slaughtered for fur and oil, and now most of those are gone from those regions. The enormity of the landscape was also an issue that stunned the settlers, and I think is still having an effect today.

No group was seen as “other” as much as the original population, the aborigines. Besides the obvious lack of technology that created a divide between the original people of Australia and the convicts and wardens that arrived, the major divide seemed to be over the issue of property. England at the time was all about property – it gave you status, class and privileges. The aboriginal peoples (there were many different groups and many different languages) had no sense of property and lived a nomadic wandering existence. This the arriving people could not understand, and the aborigines were treated as troublesome wildlife even though the official legal doctrine was that they had rights and should be respected. In places like Van Dieman’s Land (now Tasmania) they were hunted down and exterminated in island-wide campaigns. Their story is, probably, the most tragic in this book.

If you do not like to read about suffering, then you should avoid this book. The conditions, punishments and procedures were cruel and excessive. Those controlling the convicts were quite often both sadistic and creative. This is especially true of the smaller “ultra punishment” colonies that were established for truly evil offenders and reoffenders. One of these, Norfolk Island, was a good 1000 miles from the mainland and served he purpose of scaring everyone who might be sent there. The descriptions of the floggings were especially horrible, but it seems as if no good history of this era could avoid those. The stories of the commandants of these ultra-prisons were also covered quite completely.

There are, of course, heroes. They take many forms: brave settlers who suffered to build a new life, prisoners who resisted sadism with courage, government figures who tried hard to reform a rotten system, newspaper writers who brought a free press to a new continent, aborigines who remained proud and independent, and many, many more. Hughes does a good job of telling their stories along with those of the cruel, heartless and predatory.

The book is large, small type and over 600 pages. Obviously, I have left much out of my review, but there is a lot more there. It is neither light reading nor textual drudgery, but a very engaging work of history that fascinated me.

I very much enjoyed this book. It will give me campfire stories and conversation sprinklers for years to come. I am not sure I can say that I better understand my friends from Australia, but I can say that I have a far better understanding of where they came from.

FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
*****

BOOK REVIEW: Khartoum: the ultimate imperial adventure, by Michael Asher, 2005 (Penguin History: London).

BOOK REVIEW: Khartoum: the ultimate imperial adventure, by Michael Asher, 2005 (Penguin History: London).

This is a historical period that has long interested me. It covers the time between 1880-1898 in the Sudan. I remember that as a young boy fascinated by maps I had been curious at the designation of the “Anglo-Egyptian Sudan” on the map. It was huge and the Nile flowed right through it. I wondered how it had been both British and Egyptian. As a college student of Asian civilizations I had done a large research project on the Taiping rebellion in China in the 19th Century, and there found mention of a charismatic leader Charles Gordon who had helped end the conflict and seemed to be a principled and righteous British officer who often went against his orders and always did what he thought was right and usually acted to reduce the suffering of the people he was dealing with. There was a mention there that he had died defending Khartoum in the Sudan. My interest was raised, and when I saw a trashy paperback in a bookstore I bought it, and quickly read Gordon of Khartoum. It was quite a fanciful retelling of the story of how Gordon was governor-general of the Sudan when it was ruled by the Turks-Egyptians-British, how he had worked to end the slave trade and eventually was reappointed elsewhere. He was brought back to Khartoum to “rescue” the country from an Islamic fundamentalist leader, the Mahdi (“expected one”) who would purify Islam, or so the legend went. Gordon had died defending the city because the relief column sent to rescue him arrived about 18 hours too late. I knew it was largely history romanticized, but I enjoyed it. I certainly was not as aware as I am now, so the story of a righteous Christian imperialist dying defending his beloved people appealed to me. Later I saw the movie of the same name staring Charlton Heston, which I instantly sensed was entertaining but a load of tripe.

As I was browsing the bookstore shelves buying books for my trip to Mexico (a very serious undertaking) I saw this volume, inspected it, and bought it, hoping that I would now have a more historically accurate picture of the events.

As usual, I began by finding out more about the author. Some background information usually helps me ascertain my feelings about the text. He had been a British military officer in the SAS and then had become an author, achieving much success in many different types of writing. He also was fascinated by this region of the world and had won awards for desert exploration in the Sudan from the Royal Geographic Society. He lived in Sudan for ten years and spoke fluent Arabic. He now lives in Kenya with his Arabist wife and two children.

This txt is, in fact, a very detailed retelling of the entire story, from the original massacre of the Anglo-Egyptian force under Hicks in 1883 by the Mahdi to the fall of Khartoum to the Mahdi including Gordon’s death to the eventual capture of Khartoum by Kitchener in 1899. There are several interesting points about the text that are worth remembering.

First, it seems somewhat balanced. A European will always tell such a story from a European perspective, but he did try to balance the story. He was very critical of the British officer corps for its lack of military competence, its reward of “chumminess” over skill, the purchase of commissions and its indifference and hostility to those who were part of the British Empire. His indictment of many officers was specific and cutting. These elements were interesting to me as they showed the arrogance of the British forces in specific detail with stories of specific officers and how they behaved. He showed remarkable respect for the Sudanese people, their various cultures and their tremendous survival skills. He talks a lot about how the Beja, specifically, had been defeating invading armies since the time of the Pharaohs and had always been successful. He specifically praises the skills and cleverness of the Haddendowa leaders Osman Digna, a survivor who outlived it all. His salute to the Sudanese as fighters also seems sincere, whether for the courage of those fighting for the Mahdi and for the steadiness and reliability of the Sudanese and Egyptians who fought with the British. His strongest indictment comes of the Turco-Egyptian ruling class both in Sudan and Egypt as corrupt, cowardly and self-centered. He seems to agree with Gordon, that they were the roots of the problem there and that the people had good reason to rise up against them. Asher’s reliance on British sources is to be expected, but he also seems to have used many Arabic sources as well as oral histories in telling the story.

Second, he saw the conflict as not exclusively religious. The Mahdi provided a charismatic figure around which to rally, and while many did so for religious reasons, there were also many practical reasons to support this regime given the corruption and mismanagement of the Turco-Egyptian government. Many of the ethic groups had not rallied to the Mahdi, but when the existing government collapsed and Gordon was killed, they naturally rallied to the winning side. Likewise, when the Mahdi died soon after the fall of Khartoum, the Islamist state introduced by his successor was a bit too harsh for them and fractures began to develop along ethnic lines.

Third, the descriptions of the battles themselves are detailed and horrifying. I wish I had read this as a boy, and it might have cured me of some of the lingering military romanticism that it took me another ten years to eliminate. His descriptions of steel-on-steel battles (quite often the British steel failed) and the movements of troops were also gripping. The fact that many battles were over quickly but seemed like an eternity was fleshed out by substantial detail and comments written later by soldiers who survived. His strongest salute was to the individual soldiers who showed courage and determination in the face of tremendous adversity, both with the opponents and with the elements.

Fourth, water was often the key. Running around the desert with large military forces requires water, and it was often pivotal. British forces that came upon a watering hole defended by forces of he Mahdi had no choice but to attack, as did the Mahdi’s successor near the end of the conflict. The railroads that were built solved some of this problem, but even they had to carry huge amounts of water to power the steam engines, and at one point half of the train was carrying water for itself. One interesting story is how a surveyor and water diviner brought in by the British actually found two new water supplies that were critical in assisting them cross a route no native would think could be used.

Fifth, the book does a good job of setting the stage for the modern phase of Islamic fundamentalism without becoming too preachy. This was one of the first truly Islamic states established, and was the only colony to win independence by force of arms in Africa. The agenda of the Mahdi and his regime very much set the stage for future Sudanese politics and the rise of Bashir in 1989. Osama bin-Laden spent years in Sudan soaking up the teachings of the Mahdi and his modern followers. It also documented the severe ethnic divides in the country that are being played out today in the crisis in Darfur. I liked the way he made his point but let the reader draw his or her own conclusions.

It was a very good read and I would commend it to all persons of a serious bent. Now that I have some additional solid information about the period I am perhaps ready to engage my colleague at the University of Vermont Darius Jonathan, who is from Sudan, as well as my friend Hassan Suleiman who I met in Qatar, also a Sudanese. Then I might really start learning.

Follow Me In Mexico

At

http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/mex/Blog/Blog.html

I Score a Vehicle for Mexico

It seems very dependable and it is what I want. Scott Sempsrott introduced me to a mechanic named Victor Gomez who had a truck that I might be interested in. I was very interested.

It runs well and I liked the feel as I took it for a spin. Features include:

• It has good storage space so I can take things down with me.
• It has good clearance, necessary for down in Mexico.
• The vehicle has a face connected to it. Victor is a mechanic and Scott verifies that his work is good, so now I can contact him if there is a problem and he can do any work on it I might need in the future.
• The price was right and I could afford it.
• It has the extra equipment I want, like a cassette player (better than a CD player for hooking up an ipod) and an air conditioner.
• It probably has 80,000 miles left in it, and I will need about 1200 a year for the foreseeable future.

So, tomorrow morning Victor will come and pick me up at my hotel, I will go to his place, load the truck up and then head for Mexico.

This is the part of the trip I have been dreading. I am not the best person to buy vehicles, being mechanically ignorant, and I am not good at bargaining. But, I think I survived this stage and feel good about it.

Panic, Hype and Warnings Aside, I Go to Mexico

Soon I will be in the water in front of my house again!

I have been planning this trip to my home in Baja California for a long time, in fact for a full year since I was last there. It is my scheduled vacation and healing time, and it will be five weeks.

Then this damn flu thing complicated everything. The media is full of hype, people are in a panic and policymakers are playing it up so that if it does get bad they won't look bad.

So, I am sitting here in JFK airport's terminal five typing this out. I am on my way. Here are my thoughts for those who are worried (hi Lori):

• I am going to Baja California, not Mexico City, and where I am going there are no people. It is many, many hundreds of miles from Mexico City.
• Information today indicats that the transmission rate is far less than expected.
• Those getting it outside of Mexico have had very mild versions and have healed.
• 13,000 people died of the normal flu in the USA so far in 2009 anyway.
• I will take precautions, avoiding crowds and lots of handwashing.
• My doctor told me I need a vacation badly and that with precautions I should be okay.

Hours before I left the University of Vermont cancelled all trips to Mexico on official business. Luckily, this is private.

Time to go get on my plane to San Diego. Then I am buying a used car and driving it 300 miles to my house. I will report from there.

Mexico Reading List

I went book shopping today to flesh out my reading list for my upcoming visit to Mexico. I love sitting on the porch in the sun and reading between swims. Here is what I have.

SERIOUS...

Michael Asher, Khartoum: the ultimate imperial adventure
British imperialism and Gordon’s doomed campaign in 1880-1890’s.

Christopher Catherwood, Churchill’s Folly: How Winston Churchill created modern Iraq

John Julius Norwich, A History of Venice

Robert Hughes, The Fatal Shore: The epic of Australia’s founding

Anthony Everett, Cicero: the life and times of Rome’s greatest politician

Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity
A study of the personal, informal and vernacular in human civilization

James Bowman, Honor: A history
Social history of the role of the concept of “honor” at different times and in different civilizations

John Haywood, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings
Lots of fun here.

NOT SO SERIOUS...

I bought a bunch of new Doctor Who science fiction books. They mix in well with the kind of heavy stuff I have above.

Mark Michalowski, Shing Darkness (Doctor and Donna)

Mark Morris, Forever Autumn (Doctor and Martha)

Dale Smith, The Many Hands (Doctor and Martha)

Dan Abnett, The Story of Martha (Doctor and Martha)

Simon Guerrier, The Pirate Loop (Doctor and Martha)

Mike Tucker, The Nightmare of Black Island (Doctor and Rose)

There are some others I am also scraping up from previous months. I may even try to finish History of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Sunday, April 26, 2009