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See also: What all schoolchildren learn.
Monday July 17 2006
There is hope though. I expected a blizzard of anti-Israel nonsense this morning - and didn't find it. Instead, a recognition that it takes two to tango and this balanced piece: Globe: Rami Khouri, Time to cut in on the Mideast dance of death, (Archive).
Sunday July 16 2006
Of course it is not that simple, you're laffin', I'm laffin' too ... the idiot purveyors of ideology and correctitude will have their way. They got a 'fire-proof floor' as Bob said somewhere about something else. Read it and weep: Globe: Margaret Wente - The new warrior class, (Archive).
Warrior steel, honed to a fine edge by Cornell, no less. Engaged in 'personal decolonization' - I could make a recommendation on the drug-of-choice for that job; Ex-lax? Mind like a leg-hold trap, chromed and polished.
The G8 are over in St. Petersburg talking mostly about global security. What they mean by 'global' is business-as-usual in their backyard and what they mean by 'security' is total control to be accomplished by annihilating force, either physical, economic, or psychological. A-and this guy is a 'warrior', right.
Hamas' leader, Abu Marzook, was interviewed Spiegel: Gabriela Keller, Hamas's Strategy, (Archive), discussion.
"No matter what, the violence will not stop", he says, "The Palestinians have no other choice."
Don't they?
Wednesday July 12 2006
9/11 in New York, 3/11 in Madrid, 7/11 in Mumbai/Bombay. These are just the attacks with obvious date symmetry, the list goes on and on and on. Al Quaeda, al-Aqsa Brigades, Hizbollah, Lashkar-e-Tayiba, this list goes on and on too.
This post is not gonna be real coherent, I'll warn you right now, up front. I was sitting up on Signal Hill this morning, reading about the horror in Mumbai, one story after another when a news-writer, Umarah Jamali, said, "Hindus and Muslims alike joined in helping and rescuing victims." That's when it hit me; and I thought, 'this is going to be hard to maintain even a modicum of coherence.'
Where do they come from these terrorists? But that's not really a mystery is it? Everyone knows where they come from; and it is neither a country nor a culture nor any specific set of circumstances. It is a part of the human possibility. It is in every human heart.
What about Canada's 'group of 17' in Toronto? Canadians! How could they? From the very heartland of suburbia? It's no surprise to me that it could come from Mississauga. Have you ever been there? I have. Mississauga is a wasteland; the very epitome of an urban wasteland. Of course it could come from there.
A while ago I read this and found a clue: Globe, July 7, Rick Salutin, At the ready, but where's the war?, (Archive). He says, "You know it doesn't count as war because the occupying armies talk about an 'exit strategy'. That's a business investment term, not a war term. Wars end with victory, surrender or truce, not an exit strategy."
'War on Terror'? 'Exit Strategy'? Doesn't add up does it?
Well, let's try a few thoughts on.
They're animals! No. They are not animals. This cannot be argued. Not only that but attempts to treat them like animals; Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, 'renditions', abrogation of legal rights, have entirely failed to change anything for the better. The thing that demonstrates most poignantly their humanity is that the use of total annihilating force against them has achieved nothing. The entire army of a nation like Israel chasing one kidnapped soldier around Gaza - it is a joke, a terribly black joke, but a joke.
They're morons! No. They are not stupid. Imagine trying to execute five simultaneous hijackings - imagine it in detail. Imagine trying to get seven explosions to go off in the space of ten minutes. Not only are they obviously intelligent - these operations are not accomplished with any kind of support, like say, the launch of a rocket ship from Kennedy Space Center in Florida - but they are coordinated. This is not a single individual, this is a group. Far from being morins, they're brilliant.
They're crazy! Nope, not crazy neither. If they were really crazy they would be easy to catch.
At the centre of it (it seems to me) they have got ahold of a tiny grain of profound truth - like the tiny spot that was the big-bang a nanosecond before the universe deployed. At a deep level, at a fundamental level they have got something right. The world IS wrong. It is a brutal place full of moment-to-moment injustice and suffering - everywhere. I wish I could say that their response to it (every human being has to deal with this and one way or another every human being does) simply erred from too much testosterone - except that it is not just men. More could be said about this too, later.
Force doesn't work. Satellite technology doesn't work. Tapping cellphones and building huge databases doesn't work. Manipulating the language to daemonize them doesn't work. Nothing that has been 'tried' so far works. I put 'tried' in quotes because these strategies and tactics are not actually try-able. They are complicated failures which really amount to nothing more than feckless denial. There is more to be said about this, but not right now.
Annihilation would only work if it wiped away ever individual on the planet. "The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being and who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" Not the first time I have used this quote from Alexander Solzenitzen.
Killing Saddam Hussein won't work. Killing Osama bin Laden won't work either.
I'm sorry - I said this was likely to be incoherent. But ...
What about listening to them? What about talking to them? Eh? Save tens and hundreds of billions of dollars to boot.
Recently in Canada, on the prairies of Saskatchewan, near a place called Spiritwood (I've been through it), Curtis Alfred Dagenais is arguing with his sister. The Mounties show up - two women and a man. Dagenais runs away. The Mounties chase him for many miles. When they catch up he shoots two of them and flees into the bush. How does one man, however resourceful, get the drop on three Mounties? Later on they arrest his father for 'obstruction'. They haven't got him yet and when they do they will probably kill him.
Then we have another press conference by the United Church - this is the counterforce? I have a suspicion about what went wrong in Spiritwood. A-and I am afraid that if I was on the spot they might arrest me for 'obstruction' too, for saying it. Looks to me like the Mounties bungled it - blew it out of all proportion. They just didn't know how to deal with a bummer. There was some moment, an instant, in which they judged this guy, with some hint of correctitude, and he picked up on it and wouldn't back down. Maybe the guy dies for it - not that unlike Ian Bush.
I'm not finished with this ... but if anybody reads this far I wish you would make a comment ... it has got me strung-out a bit ...
Press: (Archive)
Globe, July 17, Doug Saunders, India's voice proves feeble for war-on-terror rallying cry.
Globe, July 15, Doug Saunders, Mumbai diamond sellers fearful.
Globe, July 15, Doug Saunders, Deliverance in Mumbai.
Spiegel, July 14, Hasnain Kazim, Mumbai Returns to Normal amid Fears, discussion.
Tags: 9/11, 3/11, 7/11, Mumbai, Bombay, Terrorism, Canada, Mississauga, Spiritwood, Dagenais, Correctitude, Taiaiake.
See also: What all schoolchildren learn.
Monday July 17 2006
There is hope though. I expected a blizzard of anti-Israel nonsense this morning - and didn't find it. Instead, a recognition that it takes two to tango and this balanced piece: Globe: Rami Khouri, Time to cut in on the Mideast dance of death, (Archive).
Sunday July 16 2006
Of course it is not that simple, you're laffin', I'm laffin' too ... the idiot purveyors of ideology and correctitude will have their way. They got a 'fire-proof floor' as Bob said somewhere about something else. Read it and weep: Globe: Margaret Wente - The new warrior class, (Archive).Warrior steel, honed to a fine edge by Cornell, no less. Engaged in 'personal decolonization' - I could make a recommendation on the drug-of-choice for that job; Ex-lax? Mind like a leg-hold trap, chromed and polished.
The G8 are over in St. Petersburg talking mostly about global security. What they mean by 'global' is business-as-usual in their backyard and what they mean by 'security' is total control to be accomplished by annihilating force, either physical, economic, or psychological. A-and this guy is a 'warrior', right.
Hamas' leader, Abu Marzook, was interviewed Spiegel: Gabriela Keller, Hamas's Strategy, (Archive), discussion.
"No matter what, the violence will not stop", he says, "The Palestinians have no other choice."
Don't they?
Wednesday July 12 2006
9/11 in New York, 3/11 in Madrid, 7/11 in Mumbai/Bombay. These are just the attacks with obvious date symmetry, the list goes on and on and on. Al Quaeda, al-Aqsa Brigades, Hizbollah, Lashkar-e-Tayiba, this list goes on and on too.
This post is not gonna be real coherent, I'll warn you right now, up front. I was sitting up on Signal Hill this morning, reading about the horror in Mumbai, one story after another when a news-writer, Umarah Jamali, said, "Hindus and Muslims alike joined in helping and rescuing victims." That's when it hit me; and I thought, 'this is going to be hard to maintain even a modicum of coherence.'Where do they come from these terrorists? But that's not really a mystery is it? Everyone knows where they come from; and it is neither a country nor a culture nor any specific set of circumstances. It is a part of the human possibility. It is in every human heart.
What about Canada's 'group of 17' in Toronto? Canadians! How could they? From the very heartland of suburbia? It's no surprise to me that it could come from Mississauga. Have you ever been there? I have. Mississauga is a wasteland; the very epitome of an urban wasteland. Of course it could come from there.
A while ago I read this and found a clue: Globe, July 7, Rick Salutin, At the ready, but where's the war?, (Archive). He says, "You know it doesn't count as war because the occupying armies talk about an 'exit strategy'. That's a business investment term, not a war term. Wars end with victory, surrender or truce, not an exit strategy."
'War on Terror'? 'Exit Strategy'? Doesn't add up does it?
Well, let's try a few thoughts on.
They're animals! No. They are not animals. This cannot be argued. Not only that but attempts to treat them like animals; Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, 'renditions', abrogation of legal rights, have entirely failed to change anything for the better. The thing that demonstrates most poignantly their humanity is that the use of total annihilating force against them has achieved nothing. The entire army of a nation like Israel chasing one kidnapped soldier around Gaza - it is a joke, a terribly black joke, but a joke.
They're morons! No. They are not stupid. Imagine trying to execute five simultaneous hijackings - imagine it in detail. Imagine trying to get seven explosions to go off in the space of ten minutes. Not only are they obviously intelligent - these operations are not accomplished with any kind of support, like say, the launch of a rocket ship from Kennedy Space Center in Florida - but they are coordinated. This is not a single individual, this is a group. Far from being morins, they're brilliant.
They're crazy! Nope, not crazy neither. If they were really crazy they would be easy to catch.
At the centre of it (it seems to me) they have got ahold of a tiny grain of profound truth - like the tiny spot that was the big-bang a nanosecond before the universe deployed. At a deep level, at a fundamental level they have got something right. The world IS wrong. It is a brutal place full of moment-to-moment injustice and suffering - everywhere. I wish I could say that their response to it (every human being has to deal with this and one way or another every human being does) simply erred from too much testosterone - except that it is not just men. More could be said about this too, later.
Force doesn't work. Satellite technology doesn't work. Tapping cellphones and building huge databases doesn't work. Manipulating the language to daemonize them doesn't work. Nothing that has been 'tried' so far works. I put 'tried' in quotes because these strategies and tactics are not actually try-able. They are complicated failures which really amount to nothing more than feckless denial. There is more to be said about this, but not right now.
Annihilation would only work if it wiped away ever individual on the planet. "The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being and who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" Not the first time I have used this quote from Alexander Solzenitzen.
Killing Saddam Hussein won't work. Killing Osama bin Laden won't work either.
I'm sorry - I said this was likely to be incoherent. But ...
What about listening to them? What about talking to them? Eh? Save tens and hundreds of billions of dollars to boot.
Recently in Canada, on the prairies of Saskatchewan, near a place called Spiritwood (I've been through it), Curtis Alfred Dagenais is arguing with his sister. The Mounties show up - two women and a man. Dagenais runs away. The Mounties chase him for many miles. When they catch up he shoots two of them and flees into the bush. How does one man, however resourceful, get the drop on three Mounties? Later on they arrest his father for 'obstruction'. They haven't got him yet and when they do they will probably kill him.
Then we have another press conference by the United Church - this is the counterforce? I have a suspicion about what went wrong in Spiritwood. A-and I am afraid that if I was on the spot they might arrest me for 'obstruction' too, for saying it. Looks to me like the Mounties bungled it - blew it out of all proportion. They just didn't know how to deal with a bummer. There was some moment, an instant, in which they judged this guy, with some hint of correctitude, and he picked up on it and wouldn't back down. Maybe the guy dies for it - not that unlike Ian Bush.I'm not finished with this ... but if anybody reads this far I wish you would make a comment ... it has got me strung-out a bit ...
Press: (Archive)
Globe, July 17, Doug Saunders, India's voice proves feeble for war-on-terror rallying cry.
Globe, July 15, Doug Saunders, Mumbai diamond sellers fearful.
Globe, July 15, Doug Saunders, Deliverance in Mumbai.
Spiegel, July 14, Hasnain Kazim, Mumbai Returns to Normal amid Fears, discussion.
Tags: 9/11, 3/11, 7/11, Mumbai, Bombay, Terrorism, Canada, Mississauga, Spiritwood, Dagenais, Correctitude, Taiaiake.
the photo in my blog, is my little island, my paradise. it is called madeira and its a portuguese island near the canary islands. you should visit its is beautiful.
madeira only has rocky beaches, but porto santo the smallest island has a beautiful beach.
we have a lot of emigration nowadays, from all parts of the world, maybe also from mauritania.
You are repeating the sane words of Gush Shalom, http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_gush_sha_060713_from_israel_3a_stop_th.htm which is oddly enough the increasingly unpopular doctrine of all major religions. If it weren't for Gush Shalom and sometimes Ha'aretz, I would have given up on Israel already as an unsustainable delusion.
After thousands of years of failure, people are still convinced that if they only figure out who is evil in their hearts and kill just the right number, then goodness will win. They are certain that all their predecessors failed because they killed too many or too few or misdiagnosed the evil, and they believe that they now have the right formula. It's like a gambling addiction, failing to realize that the game is rigged against you no matter what strategy you use.
Demonizing is a little better, I used to think. Sticks and stones and all that. But when you see what demonizing leads to, whether in the U.S. or on both sides of the Middle East, it's as though billions of minds become clouded and believe that there is a small group of evil people who can easily be eradicated, and allow it to be tried. It's Screwtape in the age of the internet: a small erosion of a large number of souls can me more effective than a more concentrated perversion of a few.