One Man Heart Circle
This is a repost from 2015. It was a simpler time. … It is the first full day back in town, after the 2015 fall gathering. If you have to ask where I was, you don’t need to know. Today, the custom of the morning circle is brought back. This is where anyone, who wants to, can talk about the gathering.
Since this is the return to solitary city life, rather than in an improvised community, this will be a one man morning circle. I’m Luther, and my preferred pronoun is he. Pronouns are not a big deal to me. Since this is a one man circle, a singular pronoun is preferred. The concept of using they, as a non-binary alternative to he/she, is confusing and yucky.
Some things are so much easier in this life. One of the chores I assigned myself was clearing weeds off a stone staircase. One of the tools needed an adjustment. I spent a half hour trying to find a phillips head screwdriver. Just now, I needed a flat head screwdriver to pry open a zipper. I found one in less than a minute. City life has advantages.
I don’t pay much attention to omens. If I did, I may have left after the first day. I put my tent up to a group of people who played canned music on a device. I moved my tent, further down the yurt yard. When I was putting my tarp up, I saw a seven foot non poisonous snake. This reptile made another appearance a couple of mornings later, when I was returning from my morning piss. After that, I looked where I stepped. The sticks always seemed to be moving.
Very few people send postcards from gatherings. If they did this time, they would not say “the weather is beautiful wish you were here.” It rained every day, except for the last day. It drizzled. It thundered. It splattered. It dripped. It took away the sun. The paths turned into mud. Everything got wet. It was horrible. Yes, the rain did force people to stay indoors and talk to each other.
There were some wonderful moments. The Know Talent show was not planned at first, and then a wonderful man agreed to facilitate. I brought some poems. It was the first time I had read in public. I was one of the last people to perform, and was wondering if it would happen at all, or if anyone would be left to watch. Fortunately, I did not have to follow an amazing musical act. The act before me was, literally, falling down drunk. Performance art.
Somehow, things came together. Meals were served, and were usually fabulous. The dishes got washed. The costumes were a sight. You could overlook things like saturday morning. I was making my mandatory visit to the chapel. Someone said, could you hand me some toilet paper. Another voice said, there is none here either, and no box on the top shelf.
Sunday, the sun came out. I took down my tent, and got stung by a yellow jacket. I got a wheel barrow, and almost slipped in the mud. This was the last time I would walk through the yurt yard mud, hopefully for the rest of my life. I loaded the vehicle, and started up the driveway. Someone was walking in the driveway, I lost the momentum, and had to back up and try again. The second time I made it up the hill. The rest of the journey home was uneventful.
So what did I take away from the gathering? There were moments when I looked up to the sky and said thank you g-d for letting me do this. There were moments on a dance floor surrounded by spectacular human beings. There were also moments of being wet, cold, and totally miserable. I will probably want to do it again. Blessed be.
Strategy Of Causing Atrocities
As you may have heard, there is a very nasty conflict between Israel and Gaza. What follows is a few thoughts on this dreadful affair. I possibly do not know what I am talking about. If you like, you can skip over the text, and look at the pictures. These pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
Around 1987, I was working with Steve. He was the son of holocaust survivors, and an ardent supporter of Israel. We were discussing the war between Iran and Iraq. The I-I was a long bloody affair. The United States supported Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein. The United States, with help from Israel, was also selling weapons to Iran. It was a confusing time.
I mentioned to Steve the notion that the US wanted to keep the I-I war going, because it would keep those two countries from fighting Israel. Steve started to get angry. “Yes, and it’s for your benefit. We have to fight terrorism.”
The I-I war continued for a while. In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, partially in a dispute over war debt from the I-I war. Saddam Hussein went from being an American ally to the next Hitler.
Today is October 27, 2023, 35 years after my conversation with Steve. The world is a different place. The last 35 years have been full of wars, and rumors of war. The Internet is a routine part of life. Unfortunately, Steve is not with us. Cancer claimed him in 2001, 9 days after 9-11.
A few days ago, Bob Wright had a conversation with Eli Lake. Mr. Lake is an ardent supporter of Israel. After 69 minutes, Mr. Lake said this: “because the Palestinians continue to think that a strategy of causing atrocities will eventually convince Jews to leave a country.”
Lets focus on this comment. It is unique, in part because it dispenses with the niceties that one normally sees. Most Israel supporters say “Hamas,” when they probably mean “Palestinians” (or Muslims.) Likewise, others say “Israel,” when they mean “Jews.” If you were to put blanks in the statement … “because the ______ continue to think that a strategy of causing atrocities will eventually convince _____ to leave a country” … you could create a statement said by either side. On a certain level, both sides would be telling the truth.
There are reports that Israel created, and supported, Hamas. The idea was to create divisions in among her enemies, in the same way that a bloody war between Iran and Iraq was facilitated 35 years ago. When Hamas is fighting Fatah/PLO, neither side is fighting Israel. Some say this strategy motivated Israel’s involvement in Syria. Thousands of unarmed women and children die as a result.
Mick Jagger
This is a repost from October 2012. It was a simpler time. Barry was about to be re-elected. Facebook was festive. There were problems in the world, but rock and roll was more fun than social justice jihad. … There was a book at the Chamblee Library, Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger. The work is credited to a man named Christopher Anderson, who has a slew of best sellers to his credit. The copyright was issued to “Anderson Productions.”
When you write about Mickie, you have to post a few videos. One of the first to come up is “Waiting on a friend.” This was the first video that PG saw on MTV. One night in early 1982, PG rode his bike to an apartment on Buford Hiway. While he was there, someone said hey watch this, music television. The video was a favorite that first winter of MTV, even though it wasn’t really that good.
Mick Jagger has been a part of many lives the last fifty years. The stones were conceded to be number two to the beatles, but stayed together longer. The era of rock concert as megaevent coincided with the reinvention of the stones, after the demise of Brian Jones. He did after all start the band. Mr. Jones had become too much of a druggie to be relied on, and was fired. The book says that Mr. Jones was drowned, by a construction worker.
Ok, we are three paragraphs in, and we have not discussed Mr. Jagger’s pecker. Most of the book is about this instrument of undetermined size. The book says Mick stuffed a sock in his pants before shows. Mick has screwed thousands of women, and more than a few men. Whether Mick is a top, or a bottom, is left to the imagination.
The phrase “fuck Mick Jagger” is seminal. One night, the B52s were playing at a toilet on Ponce De Leon Avenue called the Big Dipper. The venue was later torn down, the ground decontaminated, and an animal clinic built on it’s site. After the show, one of the girls (either Kate or Cindy, or maybe neither, since this story is possibly probably an urban legend) was hanging out in the parking lot. “Beulah” was running his mouth, as he liked to do, talking about his hero Mick Jagger. Finally, the 52-girl had heard enough. “Fuck Mick Jagger, one day Mick Jagger will come see me me me.”
The book goes into excruciating detail about the stones story. Mick grew up middle class, and was close to his parents. He bit the end of his lip playing basketball, and sounded different. While going to the London School of Economics, he connected with Keith Richard, and found that they both liked Chuck Berry. The Glimmer Twins started to hang out together, and played a few gigs at a nightclub owned by Alexis Korner. (Mr. Korner opened for Humble Pie and Edgar Winter at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium in 1972. He was ignored by the festive crowd.)
At this time, Mick had been introduced to sex by the other boys at his school. The first time with a woman was when Mick was an orderly at Bexley Mental Hospital. A nurse “yanked him into the linen closet where, surrounded by sheets, mops, and bedpans, Mick lost his virginity standing up”.
At some point Brian Jones came into the picture. Mick moved into a flat with Brian and Keith, and lived in picturesque squalor. At some point Mick and Brian bumped gooberheads, which left Mick confused. It is not known whether the lads could afford drugs at this point.
The story goes on and on. There are ugly moments, pretty moments, good songs written, lots of drugs, lots of sex. As Mick said in “Shattered,” “sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex.” A few begin to wonder if he is capable of a one on one relationship, but those opinions don’t count.
One afternoon in 1978, PG was driving a truck in Decatur. He worked for a lady who did sampling projects, which means giving out samples to consumers. The product this time was Playtex Plus deodorant tampons. The truck was the rag wagon. There was an announcement on the last am rock and roll station in Atlanta. The stones were going to play the Fox Theater, and tickets were on sale now. The signal of the am station faded out at this point, with a gospel station preacher blocking out the rock and roll announcement. PG did not hear the location of the ticket sales. It turns out the tickets went on sale at the box office of the Municipal Auditorium, which was two blocks away from the rental facility of the rag wagon. Such is life.
In 1991, PG was walking to work and noticed an army of movie trucks. Mr. Jagger was appearing in a film, “Free Jack.” PG saw a scene filmed from his perch in the Healey Building, and stood behind a chair with the name “Mick Jagger” stenciled on. There were reports of a van rocking in Cabbagetown. On January 12, 1992, Georgia May Ayeesha Jagger was born.
Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger is not a bad book. It is easy to read, and does not skimp on slime. The phrase “cringe inducing” is used several times, which may be the result of a focus group. It is not worth $27.00, or $29.99 Canadian. The publisher is Simon&Schuster. The dalliance between Mr. Jagger and Carly Simon is dutifully noted. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
</Be Kind To Your Enemy
Did Jesus say to “Love your enemy”? Some believe this, and do it. Some claim to believe this, and practice the opposite. There are others who claim to love their enemies, but you have to understand what they mean by it. It can be very confusing. This is a repost.
PG went to a source for documentation. Oh, the blessed conjunction of copy paste with public domain. When PG entered enemy (singular) in the search engine, 100 verses came up. When the request was made plural (enemies), 237 entries popped up. The last mention of enemies is Revelation 11:12 “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.” Loving your enemies does not include bringing them to heaven with you. There is also the star of the show.
Matthew 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
There is scholarly debate about what Jesus did, or did not, say. The words available to modern man have been copied by hand, edited, translated, and interpreted. PG does not know Aramaic from Alabama. Like anyone else, PG can only read and listen, and think for himself.
In a sense it does not matter what Jesus “really” said. The cult of Jesus Worship is going to believe what it wants. More important, it is going to practice what it wants. As far as the difference between what Jesus “really” said, and what his believers say and do…they can explain.
What follows is a humble suggestion. Did the translators and scribes get it wrong? Maybe Jesus did not say to love your enemy. Maybe what Jesus said was to show kindness to everyone. This is a practice thing, rather than a belief thing.
It is not as much fun to be nice to someone, as it is to scream about life after death. Kindness does not need to be justified by a quote from a magic book. You just need to do it.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Migrant Mother
It is perhaps the most famous photograph from the depression. The semi official title is Migrant Mother. The Library of Congress says “Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California.” The exact date is unknown, and was either February or March of 1936. The photographer was Dorothea Lange (pronounced dore-THEE-ah lang). The model was Florence Owens Thompson .
Ms. Lange was born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn May 26, 1895 in Hoboken, N.J. When she was seven she had polio, and when she was twelve her father left. Both events affected her deeply. (Lange is her mother’s maiden name, chosen for use after the father left.) She became a photographer, and had a successful studio in San Francisco. By 1936 she was with her second husband, her sons were in boarding school, and she went to work for the Farm Security Administration.
The Farm Security Administration hired a number of photographers to document the lives of Americans between 1934 and 1944. (During part of this time, it was connected to the Office of War Information, and the Resettlement Administration.) Since they were working for the government, the photographers were not entitled to copyright protection. The majority of these pictures are in the public domain, including the famous pictures of Florence Thompson.
This feature started with a google search for the correct way to pronounce Dorothea Lange. (Readers of this blog have seen the fondness for Library of Congress historic pictures. Ms. Lange is one of their stars.) This search led to a teacher’s guide from Yale University. This guide is about Dorothea Lange and the Migrant Mother. It tells the story as well as PG could. Bless his pea picking heart.
The day that Dorothea Lange photographed what would become her most famous photograph, Migrant Mother, has been retold by Lange in numerous sources. She was on her way home from a trip documenting the living and working conditions of the migrants to California. She followed their schedules, getting up at sunup and working until sundown, which made for long, sixteen-hour days. She was tired, and she was ready to see her family.
With about seven hours of driving left ahead of her, she passed a homemade sign that said Pea Pickers’ Camp. She knew that a late frost had ruined the pea crop, and was concerned about the people who might be at the camp. It nagged at her to turn around, to go back and visit the camp, another opportunity to document. About 15 minutes (20 miles) later, Lange did turn around.
Right away she saw the woman who would be the subject of Migrant Mother. Some sources say she took 5 shots, but she really took 6; in any case each shot focuses in on the woman a little more, and the final shot is the one that would become the “timeless and universal symbol of suffering in the face of adversity “ (The Library of Congress only has five of the shots.)
Early the morning after she got home, instead of spending time with her family Lange rushed to develop the photographs and submit them to the FSA and The San Francisco News. She thought that these photographs could help bring attention to the plight of these American migrant farmers. She was right; the story was printed in newspapers around the country, and the federal government immediately sent 20,000 pounds of food…. (The Thompson family had left for Watsonville by the time the food arrived)
The Dust Bowl refugees were of European descent, and were migrating to California because they were displaced from their farmland by drought. Florence Owens Thompson, though from Oklahoma, was a full-blooded Native American, and her family had been displaced from tribal lands by the U.S. government. (By 1930, Native Americans had lost more than 80% of their lands this way).
The day Lange photographed Thompson, she and her family were driving towards Watsonville, hoping to pick lettuce in the Pajaro Valley. The timing chain on their car broke just outside Nipomo, and so they pulled into the pea -pickers camp to fix it. While fixing the chain, the radiator was punctured; Thompson’s two boys (and likely her male companion) (Wikipedia says it was husband Jim Hill) brought the radiator into town to be fixed. While they were gone, Lange arrived…
The choices Lange made in terms of shooting the scene are very telling in light of our discussion about documentary photography. Most strikingly, the woman’s teenaged daughter is purposefully excluded from the photograph. She appears in the first two photographs of the series, but Lange thought that including her would cause the viewer to speculate about how old the mother was when she began having children (Curtis p. 55). At the time, the ideal family contained no more than three children; this woman’s family of seven could have detracted from the matter at hand, and maybe caused people to feel less sympathetic towards her (Curtis p. 52).
In the third shot, all you see is the mother nursing her youngest child. Migrant Mother is often referred to as Migrant Madonna… Lange thought that her subject looked too anxious and uncomfortable with the camera, as Lange seemed to have triggered in her what she called “that self-protective thing” (Curtis p. 57). So, despite being uncomfortable with how unpredictable children were to photograph, to calm the mother she added one of the children back into the frame for the fourth shot. She had the child rest her chin on her mother’s shoulder, which, though somewhat unnatural, served the purpose of anchoring the child still. She was also asked to remove her hat, which would have obscured her facial features. This resulted in a good photograph. Lange “thought she could do better.”
The fifth shot was the same, but from a different angle, which illuminates an empty pie tin, heavily symbolic of the hunger the family was facing. It also highlighted a warm and loving relationship between mother and child, as the child is leaning lovingly on the mother’s shoulder, which is comforting to the child.
For the sixth and final shot, (the one which became famous) Lange brought another child in, but she had both children face away from the camera, so that her shot would not be jeopardized by their unpredictability, and they would serve as a loving frame for the mother. Lange asked the mother to bring her right hand up to her face, and that resulted in exactly what Lange wanted and knew was there (Curtis p. 65). It softened her anxiety about the camera into a mother’s concern for the welfare of her family. The mother was worried about letting her sleeping child slip, so in the original sixth shot you could see her thumb grasped around the pole for support. In her excitement Lange did not see it. She eventually altered the original photonegative because she “did not want a small detail to mar the accomplishment (of overcoming her subject’s defensiveness) (Curtis p. 67).”
In this feature, the second image from the session is missing. The pictures in this feature are as follows. 1- The famous picture, cropped. 2- The first shot from the session. 3- A detail from the first shot. 4- The Migrant Madonna. 5- Child on the shoulder. 6- Child on the shoulder #2. 7. The full length famous picture. 8- A portrait of Dorothea Lange. 9- Another photograph by Ms. Lange, taken on the California-Arizona border in the summer of 1936. 10- The information from the famous picture. 11- The famous picture with the thumb included.
2012 Repost Notes This was on a list of posts that could be repeated. Of course, there are usually improvements to be made. Youtube was searched, and some videos were found. One of them mispronounces Dorothea. A search for the correct pronunciation of that first name was how this post got started in 2010.
Looking at the pictures reveals a glitch in the famous picture. If you look in the part of her hair, you will see a gray stripe. This is a bit of damage to the negative, and is common to old photographs. Ordinarily, PG would paste over a spot like that, but this is a sacred photograph.
The files of the LOC were consulted, and a 115mg original was downloaded. The grey stripe was still in the part, which is where it will stay. The original has the thumb, which was taken out of the famous prints. It is included in this post, along with the information typed into the side.
A look at some of the other pictures taken that day show a grey spot in the part. Maybe it wasn’t a photo glitch. Raising seven children can give any woman a few gray hairs.
Another question is about Florence Thompson, the “Migrant Mother”. It was noted that she was a Native American. PG has decided that the expression “Native American” is the invention of European Import Americans, and is only marginally less offensive than Indian. There are hundreds of tribes in the Americas. A person is a member of a tribal nation. What tribe was Florence Thompson?
Mr. Google points us to this answer. “Thompson, a “full-blooded” Cherokee, was born Florence Leona Christie on September 1, 1903, on the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Her father, Jackson Christie, was an ex-convict who had abandoned the family before her birth. Her mother, Mary Jane Cobb, married Charles Akman, a Choctaw, in 1905, with whom she raised Thompson near Tahlequah OK”
At the start of World War II, Dorothea Lange went to a Japanese internment camp, . The experience nearly destroyed her. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Civilian Victims In War
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@benryanwriter The term BIPOC had a moment, but now the @APA is arguing it is insensitive.
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ong ~ ong ~ not the occupation ~ manhattan project ~ einstein quote
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einstein quote ~ inclusive language guide ~ apa ~ gaza ~ channel 4
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gaza ~ darkhorse ~ @efenigson ~ golden ratio ~ caravaggio.
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bandcamp ~ norm finkelstein ~ brookhaven festival ~ utbaph ~ Koyaanisqatsi
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gaza ~ 911 ~ gaza ~ muzak ~ fbi
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sunday bloody sunday ~ java ~ L5p ~ repost. ~ quark ~ repost
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repost. ~ sex pot ~ sex pot ~ combat forum ~ channel4
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adl ~ conspiracy theory kit ~ goodreads ~ rand ~ academia ~ repost
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fbi ~ fbi ~ fbi ~ luke the drifter ~ luke the drifter ~ human shields
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Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde ~ this is the chamblee54 monday morning digest for this week. ~ is it cultural abomination or vulgar unsightly appropriation ~ use the plus sign with control shift as a backspace ~ mansplaining The Urban Dictionary has entries for both mansplain and womansplain. Neither entry is complimentary. This is a repost. Many of the links no longer work. The pictures are more entertaining. ~ at one point in their evolution, both the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground were known as the Warlocks. ~ at home in Berlin in April 1929, Albert Einstein received an urgent telegram from Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein of New York: “Do you believe in God? … ” His reply: “Ich glaube an Spinozas Gott der sich in gesetzlicher Harmonie des Seienden offenbart, nicht an Gott der Sich mit Schicksalen und Handlungen der Menschen abgibt.” – Einstein received an telegram. His reply: “Do you believe in God? ” “Ich glaube an Spinozas Gott der sich in gesetzlicher Harmonie des Seienden offenbart, nicht an Gott der Sich mit Schicksalen und Handlungen der Menschen abgibt.” @QuoteResearch ~ the story is rather disturbing. (Spoiler to follow) Aoife is being sexually harassed at school, and files a complaint. The boy who gets metooed is the son of a laundry owner. … ~ This is a repost from 2020. It was a simpler time. … ~ this is a repost from 2020. It was a simpler time. … PG took his brother GP to early voting. Georgia/Dekalb county sent PG an absentee ballot in the mail, which he did not ask for. ~ what follows are selections from The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce. Many things could be said about Mr. Bierce. TDD began as a newspaper column, and was later published as The Cynic’s Word Book. … ~ terpsichorean diarrhea ~ I never meant to say conservatives are generally stupid, I meant to say stupid people are generally conservative ~ “What I stated was, that the Conservative party was, by the law of its constitution, necessarily the stupidest party. Now, I do not retract this assertion; but I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. I believe that to be so obvious and undeniable a fact that I hardly think any hon. Gentleman will question it. …” *In a Parliamentary debate with the Conservative MP, John Pakington (May 31, 1866). Hansard, vol 183, col 1592]. Pakington was referring to Footnote 3 to Chapter 7 of Mill’s “Considerations on Representative Government”: “The Conservatives, as being by the law of their existence the stupidest party” * Misquoted as “I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.” in “Life of John Stuart Mill” (1889) by W. L. Courtney, p. 147. *This seems to have become paraphrased as “Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.” which was a variant published in Quotations for Our Time (1978), edited by Laurence J. Peter. ~ it is not scary to preach to strangers, but it usually creates ill will for jesus – this is what the third commandment is about … using sacred names without trust – this is for adults … i will leave it to your conscience about doing this to trick or treating children ~ Insider admits Israel attack was false flag to start holy war and usher in one world government ~ @iyad_elbaghdadi Good afternoon (or morning, or evening). I went dark yesterday, really dark. But I managed to sleep and I have some clarity about the Al Ahli hospital massacre that I want to share with you. I’ll only tweet this rambling thread today and then log off. Please read and share. – @iyad_elbaghdadi For 10 days we’ve been hearing openly genocidal statements fully supported and sometimes even endorsed by Western leaders, leaders who are supposed to stand up for “democracy”, “human rights”, etc. But not only for 10 days. This has been our entire lives. This has been 75 years. – @iyad_elbaghdadi It’s important to understand that we were primed to expect bloody massacres. For 10 days there’s been a long list of genocidal statements, clearly saying that everyone is a target, there are no civilian vs combatant distinction, hospitals aren’t safe, and vengeance will be severe – @iyad_elbaghdadi All of this was in our psyche *before* the news broke. That’s why when the frantic news came (I got it by whatsapp first) we were already primed to believe it. Because we were long expecting a bloodbath and every single second was a worse nightmare, wishing the worst won’t happen – @iyad_elbaghdadi This explains the virality of the news. What actually happened? There are lots of threads offering educated & uneducated guesses both ways and I’ll ignore all of them. There are few journalists on the ground. And we know there won’t be an independent investigation anytime soon. – @iyad_elbaghdadi But we’re past the point where the facts matter. Listen to Jordan’s FM explain why. Most Arabs & Muslims already formed an opinion based on a long history of Israeli brutality, disregard for human life, public lies, disinformation, and Western support. ~ apology to People of Color for APA’s Role in Promoting, Perpetuating, and Failing to Challenge Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Human Hierarchy in U.S. – Resolution adopted by the APA Council of Representatives on October 29, 2021 ~ Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curions children before the great mystery into which we were born. ~ “people like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live. What I mean is we never cease to stand like curious children before the great Mystery into which we were born.” – Albert Einstein in a letter to Otto Julius Birger, September 29, 1942. ~ this is a remarkable video. I cannot find a youtube link, so if you have a twitter account you can go there. Apparently, some Arabs are not happy with Hamas.@hxhassan I haven’t seen such relentless interrogation of Palestinian leadership before, esp. in Arabic. On Saudi Arabia’s main TV channel, Hamas leader is clearly startled by the intensity of the questions & responses to his answers. Crucial points in next tweets ~ Luther Mckinnon @chamblee54 @coldxman I had to turn this one off. John’s reaction to the brewing Gaza genocide is to talk about social media. ~ I turned it off at 50 minutes. I heard “Hamas” many times. I do not recall hearing “Palestinian” To be fair, I heard it after the hospital bombing ~ @Yascha_Mounk Actually astonishing that, because of the extremism of the Republican Party and the depth of dysfunction in Congress, America currently does not have ambassadors in Israel, Lebanon or Egypt. ~ Hamas Leader Abroad Khaled Mashal Rejects Accusations Of Transgressions Against Civilians On October 7 Attack: We Have Nothing To Apologize For; Hamas Only Fights Soldiers, But Sometimes There Are Civilian Victims In War; Hizbullah, Arab Countries Should Do More To Help Us ~ Expanded Homicide Data Table 6 ~ 1 -“the Palestinian narrative is denying the holocaust” This is where I quit reading. ~ 2 – I agree that it’s not accurate. I wrote this long post in a very shaken state of mind, as one can be in a state of war. It’s clear that you were checking every word I wrote, so I still invite you to read all of them and try to get my message as a whole. I think both narratives are misusing the holocaust. But perhaps you should read about Palestinian authority’s president, Abbas’s book “the other face”, and his interpretation of the holocaust, which does resonate with the works of authors which are denying it. I’m not referring to analogies being made between the holocaust and the nakba. Even though I see an essential difference between the two, both are great tragedies that defined the rest of history for the peoples that suffered them. I am referring to concepts like a cooperation between Nazis and Zionists that initiated the holocaust, that are a main message in Abbas’s book. So even if saying “the Palestinian narrative is denying the holocaust” isn’t accurate, it does play an important role in the narrative as it’s expressed by Palestinian leaders. ~ 3 – I was writing a reply to your reply, and facebook told me that the post had been taken down. I am going to send this by private message. I could write for hours about this, and only confuse and depress all parties involved. Truth be told, I did go back to your original post. I can see how the comment that “triggered” me could have several meanings. It is tough to make sense of this clusterfuck. So much of our information is not true. I also have a life outside of this … for which I am intently grateful … and should go back to. …Thank you for your thoughtful answer. It is a very complicated situation. I feel a great deal of despair when I try to go through the massive amount of rhetoric, talking points, misinformation, malinformation, etc. etc. So much of what I have seen and heard so far is lies. I feel as though my opinion does not matter, so why torture myself with trying to understand this. I feel the US government has a great deal of the blame. Our unquestioning support of Israel is very harmful, similar to the way a … at this point facebook showed a screen … Post Has Been Removed The post or object that you were commenting has been removed by its owner and can no longer be commented on. ~ 4 – Thanks for your reply. I wanted to edit the post, as I realized you are right about the way I phrased my thoughts on Palestinian narrative. I got a message from FB that the post is now pending approval by group admin. But my main message is that both narratives, as they’re being expressed in the media and in educational programs, belittle or avoid the other side’s suffering and connection to the same land. I’m thankful for this conversation because I feel that this war naturally widens the gaps in communication. I’ve experienced quite some negative energy from faeries because of being an Israeli, and it’s hard for me to except that people that are anti-nationalists treat me and my faerie community in a nationalist way… basically all faeries in Israel are fighting against right wing governments all the time… And it’s frustrating to be judged by your governments actions, especially when you’re scared for your life and grieving friends AND the many innocent lives taken in Gaza by Israeli attacks. I believe it’s possible to fight for Palestinian freedom without justifying Hamas’s attack (not saying you did, but some other queer people do) ~ 5 – I am reminded of a conversation I had in the eighties. A man had an Israeli bf. I started saying all of the complaints du jour about Israel. Basicly that they are a warmonger state, and that they treat Palestinians like shit. Remember, this was before the Palestinian Authority, when Israel unapologetically occupied the west bank and gaza. My friend agreed with every point I made. I don’t think the conversation ever concluded, except for one of us to get more food. Nobody was angered by the discussion. I saw this person recently, at a GSV conference. (GSV is a spin-off of the radical faeries. I say that GSV is the faeries with indoor plumbing. … Talk about history is like quicksand. In all of the denunciations of Hamas, nobody seems to say why they gained control of Gaza. During the period between 1967 and quasi-independence, Israel did not prepare the Gaza residents for the chore of governing themselves. It should surprise nobody that when there was an election … for a people totally not familiar with democratic government … and the choice was between Hamas, and Fatah … much reviled in the west bank, and connected to the PLO … that the people chose Hamas. Also remember that Israel created Hamas, to serve as an opposition to the PLO. I could go on ad infinitum. I have a lot of thoughts, which I may collect and post on my blog i will keep you posted ~ 6 – I’m aware of the fact that Israeli leadership created Hamas… after the murder of PM Rabin, Nethaniahu did all he could to kill any hope for a peace agreement. As in many other countries Israel became more and more right-wing over the years, I believe the majority of people gave up on the idea of peace (that was never given a real chance). Regarding supporting building a democratic government in Gaza, you know as I do how complicated it is- any formal intervention by global and especially Israeli factors will be seen as looking down on the Palestinians. And we already know the effects of “behind the curtain” interventions. But at this moment I think that only global intervention can help, although it’s hard to trust it as well. This conflict is such a good deal for the weapon industry… It’s so fucking complicated and frustrating. ~ 7 I had a conversation with ___ in a private chat. I think it is best to keep it between the two of us. Everybody feels the need to express their wonderful opinions regarding this situation. Few of these opinions will help. I would prefer to talk less, and listen more ~ This monolog includes pictures from The Library of Congress ~ selah
The Cynic’s Word Book E – G
What follows are selections from The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce. Many things could be said about Mr. Bierce. TDD began as a newspaper column, and was later published as The Cynic’s Word Book. TDD is a dictionary, going from A to Z. Today’s selection covers E – G. More selections are available. A – D Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
EAT, v.i. To perform successively (and successfully)
the functions of mastication, humectation, and deglutition.
ECONOMY, n.
Purchasing barrel of whiskey that you do not need for price of cow that you cannot afford.
EDIBLE, adj. Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad,
a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.
EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.
ELOQUENCE, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be.
It includes the gift of making any color appear white.
EMOTION, n. A prostrating disease caused by a determination of the heart to the head.
It is sometimes accompanied by a copious discharge of hydrated chloride of sodium from the eyes.
EPICURE, n. An opponent of Epicurus, an abstemious philosopher who, holding that pleasure should be the chief aim of man, wasted no time in gratification from the senses.
EPITAPH, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death
have a retroactive effect. Following is a touching example:
Here lie the bones of Parson Platt, Wise, pious, humble and all that,
Who showed us life as all should live it; Let that be said—and God forgive it!
ERUDITION, n. Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.
ETHNOLOGY, n. The science that treats of the various tribes of Man,
as robbers, thieves, swindlers, dunces, lunatics, idiots and ethnologists.
EULOGY, n. Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power,
or the consideration to be dead.
EVANGELIST, n. A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors.
EXCOMMUNICATION, n.
This “excommunication” is a word In speech ecclesiastical oft heard,
And means the damning, with bell, book and candle,
Some sinner whose opinions are a scandal—
A rite permitting Satan to enslave him Forever, and forbidding Christ to save him.
EXHORT, v.t. In religious affairs, to put the conscience of another upon the spit
and roast it to a nut-brown discomfort.
EXISTENCE, n.
A transient, horrible, fantastic dream, Wherein is nothing yet all things do seem:
From which we’re wakened by a friendly nudge Of our bedfellow Death, and cry:”O fudge!”
FASHION, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.
FEAST, n. A festival. A religious celebration usually signalized by gluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy person distinguished for abstemiousness.
FIDDLE, n. An instrument to tickle human ears by friction of a horse’s tail on entrails of a cat.
FLOP, v. Suddenly to change one’s opinions and go over to another party.
The most notable flop on record was that of Saul of Tarsus,
who has been severely criticised as a turn-coat by some of our partisan journals.
FORK, n. An instrument used chiefly for the purpose of putting dead animals into the mouth. Formerly the knife was employed for this purpose, and by many worthy persons is still thought to have many advantages over the other tool, which, however, they do not altogether reject, but use to assist in charging the knife. The immunity of these persons from swift and awful death is one of the most striking proofs of God’s mercy to those that hate Him.
FRIENDLESS, adj. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune.
Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.
FUNERAL, n.
A pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead by enriching the undertaker,
and strengthen our grief by an expenditure that deepens our groans and doubles our tears.
GALLOWS, n. Whether on the gallows high Or where blood flows the reddest,
The noblest place for man to die— Is where he died the deadest.
GENTEEL, adj. Refined, after the fashion of a gent.
Observe with care, my son, the distinction I reveal: A gentleman is gentle and a gent genteel.
Heed not the definitions your “Unabridged” presents, For dictionary makers are generally gents.
GHOUL, n. A demon addicted to the reprehensible habit of devouring the dead. The existence of ghouls has been disputed by that class of controversialists who are more concerned to deprive the world of comforting beliefs than to give it anything good in their place.
GLUTTON, n. A person who escapes the evils of moderation by committing dyspepsia.
GOUT, n. A physician’s name for the rheumatism of a rich patient.
GRAVE, n. A place in which the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student.
GUILLOTINE, n. A machine which makes a Frenchman shrug his shoulders with good reason.
Early Voting
This is a repost from 2020. It was a simpler time. … PG took his brother GP to early voting. Georgia/Dekalb county sent PG an absentee ballot in the mail, which he did not ask for. He considered trying to cancel it, but decided that was too much work. The AB was mailed in last week. It is a great relief to ignore the political noise, with a clear conscience.
Early voting is conducted at a gym, on Will Ross Court in Chamblee. WRC is the type of industrial side street you would never notice. By coincidence, PG used to go there. A company printed labels there. PG used to raid their dumpster, to get stickers for his pictures. Eventually, the label company got an enclosed dumpster, and PG had to go elsewhere.
A few years later, a duplex neighbor worked at the label company. Bob was a short guy, who always held a lit cigarette. Bob has a series of roommates, most of whom had been in prison. Bo, Bob’s bf, was one. One time I noticed that Bo was missing. Bob said that he was “out of town.”
Bob and Bo were always nice to PG. Eventually, they got evicted. The landlord said that they did not fight the eviction, but just said ok, and moved.
Dozens of yard signs marked the roads to the voting place. The label company building company now houses ZYCI. “CNC Machining with Urgency for the Aerospace, Defense, Robotic and Commercial Industries.” The building is painted bright colors.
The plan was to drop GP off at the front door, and go find a parking spot. There was an empty spot behind him. When you go early voting, and there are lots of empty parking spots, that is a good sign. There had been horror stories about the first day of early voting. PG questioned the wisdom of having much publicized early voting, without the capacity for election day. Perhaps the way early voting is conducted should be re-thought.
At 1:05, PG decided to record the time. He had been parked for about 10 minutes. At 1:06, GP walked up to the vehicle. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Rainbows
Lately, I have been walking to the gym. It is about 1.4 miles one way. I go there, do my workout, and walk home. One consequence is not riding the stationary bike, and listening to podcasts. When it is a good story, this can be transformative. It is an magical escape from one place, into another.
Today, I chose to listen to a story while walking home. The story was Rainbows, by @JosephONeillx. It was one of the good ones. By the time I went through the railroad underpass off Peachtree Road, my pace had grown even more glacial than normal. I did not want to miss a single detail. It did help that I was off the busy main road, whose loud traffic drowned out the action.
Listening to a story, as opposed to reading it, is a different path for the information. The author’s voice telling the tale is a more intimate connection that reading dead tree text. In this story, the reading author is a man. I assumed the lead character, Clodagh, was also male. When a Aoife, the daughter, appeared, and a husband named Ian, I just thought this was just the trendy New Yorker. It wasn’t until much later in the story, that it dawned on me that Clodagh might be female. The gender is never confirmed one way, or the other.
The story is rather disturbing. (Spoiler to follow) Aoife is being sexually harassed at school, and files a complaint. The boy who gets metooed is the son of a laundry owner. Clodagh Nolastname is a VIP customer. (This all happens in New York. Clodagh is not poor.) The Chinese laundry lady tells Clodagh to take her business elsewhere. Clodagh is mortified that it was not handled family-to-family, but through the authorities.
I continue to walk through a glorious October afternoon. The election is in two weeks, and we will see what becomes of the anti-christ POTUS. The story ends when I get into the house, and I listen to the credits. Theme music is by North American Plastics, which somehow sounds as New Yorkeresque as not knowing whether mom is a man, or a woman. This is a repost.
Einstein, Facebook, God
“I love this … When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the recurring question that students asked him most was: Do you believe in God? And he always answered: I believe in the God of Spinoza. Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.
(Spinoza) : God would say: Stop praying. What I want you to do …” Today’s commodity wisdom goes on for 687 words. The bs detecter was buzzing. It was time to consult with Mr. Google.
“At home in Berlin in April 1929, Albert Einstein received an urgent telegram from Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein of New York: “Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid 50 words.” Boston Archbishop William Henry Cardinal O’Connell had derided Einstein’s famous relativity theories as “befogged speculation” conjuring “the ghastly apparition of Atheism.” An alarmed Goldstein sought to douse these rhetorical flames with reassurance from the great man himself.
“Einstein wired back “I believe in Spinoza’s God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.” (“Ich glaube an Spinozas Gott der sich in gesetzlicher Harmonie des Seienden offenbart, nicht an Gott der Sich mit Schicksalen und Handlungen der Menschen abgibt.”) The rabbi might have saved himself a little money; in the end, Einstein’s reply in the original German used only 25 words.”
“Einstein often saved ink by referring this way—a sort of philisophical shorthand—to Benedict (Baruch) de Spinoza, the 17th-century philosopher and scientist excommunicated from Amsterdam’s Sephardic Jewish community for his beliefs. … Spinoza did in fact “remain alone” for most of his life. Raised in an Amsterdam enclave of Marranos—Jews converted under the inquisitions of Spain and Portugal who had returned to Hebrew tradition in the Netherlands—Spinoza was considered a stellar pupil by his rabbis. When he began questioning the idea of a biblical God, however, they expelled him from the sect. Rather than convert to Christianity, he defied convention by living without organized religion. He never married and supported his life of scientific and philosophical inquiry through solitary work in a “high-tech” industry of his day, lens grinding.”
The key word in the question, “do you believe in God”, is believe. Whether you say G0d, Allah, Nature, or Football, there seems to be a consensus that something exists. Is belief the best way to approach this issue? What are the middle three letters of believe?
FWIW, Dr. Einstein pondered the God question from time to time. While video of Dr. Einstein does exist, there is little way of knowing whether students asked him about God, at every lecture.
The facebook wisdom-fest does not offer a source, for Spinoza’s ideas about Mary’s babydaddy. PG is not a Spinoza scholar, and quit reading the facebook post after a few sentences. He did look at a wikipedia page, and a document from Stanford University. A search was done for the phrase “God would say: Stop praying.” The terms “stop” and “pray” do not appear in either source.
God is in the details. Instead of “do you believe in God”, the question could be “do you believe in a facebook meme?” Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
The Velvet Warlocks
PG was listening to disgraceland episode#64, about the grateful dead. He was at a stopping point with multi tasking, and decided to look something up. The show mentioned the first show by the warlocks, later known as the grateful dead. This was 50 years before “dead name” was a dirty word.
“On May 5, 1965 ‘The Warlocks’ … played their first show, at Magoo’s Pizza Parlor in Menlo Park, California.” This was the day before PG turned 11. Lyndon Johnson was settling in for his elected term as President. The Braves were playing their lame duck season in Milwaukee. Combat troops had been in Vietnam for a little over two months. This was the start of the escalation. “By the end of 1965, more than 184,000 American troops were in Vietnam.”
At 27:44, dg-gd dropped an item that could not be ignored. The warlocks had to find a new name. Someone else was called the warlocks, and there were complications. It seems as though the warlocks … a pretty obvious name … was also an early name of the velvet underground. Other early vu names included the primitives and the falling spikes.
“When they (vu) finally did come across a name which stuck, it was thanks to a contemporary paperback novel about the secret sexual underworld of the 1960s that Tony Conrad, a friend of John Cale, happened across and showed to the group. The novel, written by Michael Leigh, remains in print most likely thanks to the band which appropriated its title.”… “Had Lou Reed and John Cale not seen a copy of this book in a New York City gutter (fittingly) and decided to use its name for their group, this little volume would have been justly forgotten. Written in a style which titilates while decrying the scene it describes, it’s a piece of blue-nosed junk.”
The rest of the show rolled on. Jerry stuck his finger in a dictionary at random, and found grateful dead. It was the name of a story. The band played at the acid tests, which mostly went well, until they did not. Pigpen drank rotgut to excess, until it killed him.
PG was editing pictures out of a folder labeled pa41. The images were shot by John Vachon,in June 1941. The last picture, while the 27 club end of Pigpen played over the speakers, was Women washing clothes in utility building at FSA (Farm Security Administration) trailer camp. Erie, Pennsylvania. Another picture, from January 1941, is Pinochle game in Czecho-Slovak Dramatic Club. Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Both pictures are included in this feature. This is a repost from 2020.
Mansplain
There was a link on facebook to a rather wonky article, Mansplaining 101: How to Discuss Politics and Feminism Without Acting Like a Jackass. The concept is that men sometimes do not show women adequate respect when talking to them. The Urban Dictionary has entries for both mansplain and womansplain. Neither entry is complimentary. This is a repost. Many of the links no longer work. The pictures are more entertaining.
The policymic feature is a few months old, and apparently was the scene of a lively comment debate. Unfortunately, Some people flagged a bunch of the comments. Little is left. This is the top comment: “Feminism doesn’t need to make room for men, men need to make room for feminist ideas in their spaces.” In one sentence you managed to discredit your entire argument. Who wants to argue with someone who thinks any opinion from the opposite sex isn’t worthwhile? “
When you google mansplain you are referred to a tumblr, Academic Men Explain Things to Me. This is supposed to be an authority on mansplaining. As this post is written, the top three posts are a boss who mispronounces a name, a grandfather who tells girls how to shave their legs, and an eavesdropping customer who tells a woman how to get to sleep better. This is not especially helpful.
Blank splaining seems to be a versatile label. It seems to be a way of attacking the messenger, instead of dealing with the content of the comment. It is true that the tone of comments can be troublesome. People often come across as condescending, especially when they are. It just seems to this observer that little is gained by putting a label, like mansplaining, on this phenomenon.
PG has been in many discussions where he was spoken down to. Jesus worshipers are notorious for not respecting people who don’t agree with their ideas about religion. There is also the possibility that people use this attitude of superiority as a weapon to cover up uncertainties about their position. Human beings are funny animals. We are not always the fair, logical creatures we think we are.
Another label to be put in front of splaining is white. The urban dictionary says this about whitesplain: “The act of a caucasian person explaining to audiences of color the true nature of racism; a caucasian person explaining sociopolitical events and/or history to audiences of color as though they are ignorant children.” Contrast this to the word on blacksplain: “Explaining things pertaining to African American history and culture, to someone who is racist or racially ignorant.” The white person is always wrong in this scenario. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
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