Winning the War Within

When Henry rallied troops for one last standEvoking honor calling God to heelWho really won I think the dead fat manWhose only wish was one more merry mealIn what does loss or victory consistWhy victory is life devoid of liesDefeat the denouement no lie can twistNo matter how hard anybody triesThe borders of the Bard's mind now we reachBeyond he and the Carpenter walk freePast where old creeds lie spent on Dover BeachI think I hear them singing let them beAnd in this odd convergence I beginTo win the war that always was within
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Just the start of a take down of our broken political media

Why Political Coverage is Broken » Pressthink: "Things are out of alignment. Journalists are identifying with the wrong people. Therefore the kind of work they are doing is not as useful as we need it to be." Cap tip Digby



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Beyond Pattern Language: Nooks, crannys, spots, room, my room, home, base

Beyond Pattern Language: Nooks, crannys, spots, room, my room, home, base: "All these are words for what we will call the next generation of construction for the cyber-city. "

I am risking being laughed out of the realm of discourse by submitting graphics that are not even of amateur level. But I am determined to do what I can to convey what I mean at my new Beyond Pattern Language blog.

We should declare war on guns not drugs

ATF Director Reassigned; U.S. Attorney Out Amid 'Fast And Furious' Uproar | FoxNews.com: "Operation Fast and Furious, a program designed to track illegal gun sales, turned into an embarrassing scandal after weapons linked to it were found at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent's murder last year. Thousands of guns ended up in the hands of Mexican cartel members. "


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Long hot near-lethal summer around Vladivostok

Russia: Shark Attacks in Vladivostok · Global Voices: "Jellyfish activity is not the only thing that has shocked the people of this area this season. Sharks are regular guests in the Japanese Sea, but their visits have never before been marked by attacks on people."

Here's still more sins we can lay at the door of our global warming generators. It's not funny really.



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Perry AKA Bush 3 adds to his anti-gay creds

FreakOutNation » Republican Texas Gov Rick Perry Signs NOM’s Anti-Gay Pledge: " Texas Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry signed a pledge vowing to support a Constitutional amendment declaring marriage to be a union of one man and one woman, the group sponsoring the pledge said on Friday. Previously, Perry has made it clear he believes it’s up to individual States to decide."

Go Mr. Bush 3. When such a person says go back to the Constitution it means to rewrite it.



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Tar Sands arrests will hardly make a dent in the big oil juggernaut's progress

NASA Scientist, Religious Leaders Arrested in Tar Sands Protest: "WASHINGTON, DC, August 29, 2011 (ENS) - NASA climatologist Dr. James Hansen was arrested today in front of the White House where he was demonstrating in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that would bring thick crude oil from Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. Dr. Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and is a climate research scientist at the Earth Institute, Columbia University."

It doesn't make any difference

We do not heed truth

The oil truth is a dismal future for the planet

While the rich reap short term gains and the rest suffer loss

And the proof is the power and prevalance of the advertising

We are natural gas

Darned right you are

A thermogenetic essuflation

Leading us straight into the jaws of hell

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None of these education solutions will work

What's Your Single Best Idea For Reforming K-12 Education? - Yahoo! News: "But while plenty of wealthy businesspeople agree the education system needs their support, there is little consensus on what to do. Some people like the Waltons are big supporters of charter schools, which now represent 5% of all public schools, up from 2% a decade ago. Others like Michael Milken and Bill Gates think hiring and training better teachers is the best solution."

Create a cyber city that is secure and pleasant to be in

Car free

With diversity and room for work and commerce

Entertainment and play

Turn everything into kiosks operated by one or two persons

Make curiosity the reason why education works

Make the student seek it out by offering

Choice and freedom to move in one's own way

In short a society must function to make education possible

Ours functions as a product of our advertising corporate melange

A society that functions propery will promote community

Community can hardly exist in a sprawl culture

Therefore education fails not merely because kids can't read

But because the ones who can are indoctrinated

By advertising to idolatry of consumption

That is a lethal value

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With support like Obama has no wonder his figures are lousy

Democrats Seek 'Boldness' in Obama Jobs Speech | Common Dreams: "The latest Gallup poll shows Obama's job approval rating has slumped to a new low of 38 percent, while his disapproval rating has inched up to a new high of 55 percent."

Does anyone not believe that the tepid and ambivalent and often downright cowardly and disloyal support of President Obama's so-called constituency accounts for his poor ratings. If his critics had read and absorbed his stated objectives and analyzed the opposition they would not be so quick to misread him as he tries to do solo what they will not help him do by taking his part. It is a dismal showing by Democrats. It deserves only scorn.

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Nice try but third parties split with the loser

Huntsman, best candidate for a third party - CNN.com: "But wow -- a former governor who oversaw the biggest tax cut in his state's history, maintained a surplus in the budget, speaks fluent Chinese and is a talented enough musician to play on stage with REO Speedwagon is deemed "out of his league." But Rick Perry, the dude who got a "D" in economics and brags about creating more minimum wage jobs, many without benefits, than any other governor is not?"

Of course if the GOP nominee had a chance of winning, that would be a massively good reason for running Huntsman as a third party candidate.



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So why might American Christians be less content than American Muslims?

Survey: Muslim-Americans happier with conditions in US than broader public - CSMonitor.com:

American Christians are confused about the future. The most certain and vocal of them tend to espouse values antithetical to those of Jesus: intolerance, refusal to extend a helping hand to the least and an apparent willingness to throw stones. Declining mainline religion is silent now. American Muslims seem happy with a robust, regular practice. Or not. I suspect fundamentalism is the greatest burden religious folk must bear, more prevalent among Christians than their Islamic brothers and sisters. I suspect that the tragicomedy of the coming electoral season will loosen a substantial number of fundamentalists from their shaky moorings.

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A nice precis of where we are

Alan Krueger Appointed Economic Advisers Chair: Don’t Expect a Miracle - The Daily Beast: "The failure of the stimulus to deliver what was promised is one of the great liabilities of the Obama administration and one that is already haunting the 2012 election. Health care and deficits are the other, but the lack of employment growth trumps both. Krueger, as a labor economist, is presumably poised to do something about that"



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This is the first time I've been interested in Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs’s Dad Regrets Adoption - The Daily Beast: "Steve Jobs’s biological father, Abdulfattah John Jandali, told the New York Post last week that he’s never met his son. "I'd be lying if I said it doesn't sadden me to have not been part of my son's incredible journey," Jandali said. Now the vice president of a casino in Reno."

I had no idea of all this. I would have guessed a whole different ethos.

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In Syria it's pray and perish

Syrian protesters 'killed' after Eid prayers - Middle East - Al Jazeera English: "Syrian security forces have shot dead at least seven protesters on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, activists say. Protests erupted in many towns and cities on Tuesday morning, after Muslims performed morning prayers marking the end of Ramadan."

Assad is going down.

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It may boil down to a refusal to speak anonymously

WikiLeaks Leaves Names of Diplomatic Sources in Cables - NYTimes.com:

This entire story does not reveal a scintilla of what is in the cables. It is entirely taken up with suggesting that Wikileaks has been careless with its redactions. I find myself wondering whether anyone in their right mind should reveal anything to an official source unless they agree to be and perhaps insist that they be identified. The reverse of careful anonymity is intentional visibility.



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Could we speak of Neolibs?

Could we speak of neolibsAnd democratic neo fibsShhh this is a secret warTo win what we are fighting for
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Fighting small wars with a barely detectable footprint

From a Daily Beast Email: "The U.S. military has played a far larger role in Libya than it has acknowledged, spending at least $1 billion and quietly implementing a "covert intervention" strategy that the Obama administration hopes will let America fight small wars with a barely detectable footprint. The Daily Beast's John Barry details America's unadvertised contributions, including a dozen warships, CIA spies in Tripoli, and more than 5,300 air missions."

It is hard to fault this. But it really raises the exceptionalism issue to the fore. A Niebuhrian conundrum.

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Black women like Aibelene were the backbone of the Movement in the South

Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- "The Help" the Movie: "Black women like Aibelene were the backbone of the Movement in the South. They, and not we, were the real heroines, walking to work in Montgomery and sharing their government "commodities" with us at the Freedom Houses and showing up in the heat and fear to sing the songs at the church meetings. They were there when we got there and there when we left. Their spirit was the spirit of the Movement. Like Mae Bertha Carter of the biography Silver Rights, they taught their kids to love, not hate, because it feels better to love."

'via Blog this'

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Some light under the tunnel for community

Grounds of Validity of the Laws of Logic: "There is a psychological theory that man cannot act without a view to his own pleasure. This theory is based on a falsely assumed subjectivism. Upon our principles of the objectivity of knowledge, it could not be based; and if they are correct, it is reduced to an absurdity. It seems to me that the usual opinion of the selfishness of man is based in large measure upon this false theory. I do not think that the facts bear out the usual opinion. The immense self-sacrifices which the most wilful men often make, show that wilfulness is a very different thing from selfishness. The care that men have for what is to happen after they are dead, cannot be selfish. And finally and chiefly, the constant use of the word "we" -- as when we speak of our possessions on the Pacific -- our destiny as a republic -- in cases in which no personal interests at all are involved, show conclusively that men do not make their personal interests their only ones, and therefore may, at least, subordinate them to the interests of the community."

C. S. Peirce against the tide. And assisting me in my contention that there are ontological values which we can and do freely will. Among them non-idolatry, helpfulness, democracy and tolerance.

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The President is not going to vacate Afghanistan

Deadliest month yet for U.S. in Afghanistan - CBS News: "KABUL, Afghanistan - Sixty-six U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month, making August the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly decade-long war."

But this sad statistic must give him pause. The advice on which he proceeded remains flawed. And when we are long gone the problems of that country will remain. Meanwhile we appear to be going tribal right here in the USA.


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Beyond Pattern Language: The best way to understand the current economic crisis is to see that it is not economic

Beyond Pattern Language: The best way to understand the current economic crisis is to see that it is not economic: "I wrote this as "Our Crisis is Not Economic and It's Beyond 'Green" for Huffington Post in March 2008, and it continues to make sense sense right now. I have left the text unchanged"

Foundational.

Messianism has hampered very progress Jesus sought to bring about on earth

BEYOND CREED - Stephen Rose : IUniverse: "In Beyond Creed he shows how messianism has hampered very progress Jesus sought to bring about on earth."

C'est ca.
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This may be my last 9/11 reference (Magazine Cover)

9/11: One Day, Ten Years — BagNews: "This is also a nice, if inferential rebuttal, by the way, to all the magazine and newspaper covers proclaiming how bin Laden “lost” when he was killed a few months back. If he really “lost,”though, wouldn’t the smoke have cleared out by now?"

In a sense much of this this might have come without Bin Laden and without 9/11. And without the tragic and criminal Bush response The context of all this is the ethic blending (Toynbee volkerwanderung) I have been referencing all morning. That and the incredible degree of revealed polarization between the mega-wealthy and the rest of humankind.

Well before 9/11, I surmised that we would all end up with bar codes on our toes. That was jocular me talking. The folk who write Patriot Acts are not jocular, believe me. 9/11 can be seen as the totalitarian wannabe's best friend.

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My Associated Content Digs

Stephen C. Rose's Contributor Profile - Yahoo! Contributor Network - contributor.yahoo.com:

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The darker side of prescience

The Querent - The Morning News: "Crowley, it should be said, was, in pictures, a beautiful man when he was young, a bisexual opium-using crush-magnet, feral, fey, and floppy-haired. At the time, these kinds of men were always getting me in trouble."

A roundhouse look at the predictive arts. Prescience is best based on some attempt at logic. For example. Rick Perry > Bush 3 > Vote for Obama.

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More pictures from a Sudan war crimes theatre

Sudan: Possible war crimes in Southern Kordofan | Amnesty International: "Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have collected evidence indicating that the Sudanese Armed Forces may have committed war crimes in Southern Kordofan, the organizations said today. "

In Sudan the use of the word "may" is a polite evasion. Sudan is Impunity Central.

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Speaking of Jaws of Hell Try Harold Simmons on for Size

Meet the Shady Dallas Mega-Billionaire Industrialist Pouring Money into Rick Perry's Coffers | | AlterNet:

For those with strong stomachs.


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Deadly States Jaws of Hell

5 Deadliest states of the USA - Holy Kaw!:

"1. Texas - Rattlesnake

By both population and landmass, Texas is the second largest state in the USA. And it is because of this immense size of 261,797 square miles (696,200 km2), and wide-ranging terrain that this particular territory has grown an infamous reputation as the toughest, wildest and most dangerous of all 50 states - whether that’s because of cowboys or rattlesnakes remains uncertain."

I would say it's because of people like the late Malcolm Wallace and their high-placed cronies and any politicians tied to the wealthiest clique.


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The Democratic revolution will respect achievement period

How the Surveillance State Protects the Interests Of the Ultra-Rich - Digg: "alternet.org — As a global protest movement rises and spreads within the US, expect surveillance tactics honed in the "war on terror" to be used in the defense of wealth. "

Wealth in itself is complex but in sum

Most of it is the fruit of things undone

Wherefore mere fairness rules the day

Make wealth the game that all can play

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Abba's Way: 69 On Prudence

Abba's Way: 69 On Prudence:

"We live suspended between heights and depths.
Our hearts are double-minded, they go blind.
We would ascend to heaven, ah, but then,
Our prudence tells us to descend again."

Entire text of "On Prudence" is at the link above.

Some hard talk about the Bible and sin

Union with Abba - Abba's Way - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com: "The place in the Bible to gain an inkling of what Abba's way looks like is the words and deeds of Jesus. It is he more than anyone else in Scripture who opens windows on Abba and on what life in Abba's realm is."

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Commercial break

Abba's Way - Stephen C. Rose : IUniverse:

Maybe all commercials should be opt-in. A recondite way of doing business.

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Ethnic blending is where its at - realized eschatology

3quarksdaily: Moving Beyond the “Melting Pot”: "As national complexions grow more variegated, one-time majorities are becoming minorities. Migration is literally the face of globalization—and as both advance around the world, we will have to re-think citizenship just as our attitudes towards sovereignty are evolving."

The link above points to a most salient topic. Realized eschatology suggests a move from a mythological notion of heaven for the chosen few to a worldly (secular) reversal of the divisions (Babel) that was once explained by blaming diversity on the deity. Today's ethnic blending is not in conflict with the higher values found in religious teachings. Democracy. Tolerance, Helpfulness. Non-idolatry. But it wreaks havoc with those who do nut choose to live by these values. Happily blending suggests that ethnics are not unmeltable.

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