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Jesus is coming back. Get ready.
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Greeting from the exile at home
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EF: The Montr?al Massacre
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Twenty years stolen . . .
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Climategate
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To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin.
Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621)
The monk gave a cordial wave with his head, as much as to say, 'No doubt there is misery enough in every corner of the world, as well as within our convent.' 'But we distinguish;' said I, laying my hand upon the sleeve of his tunic, 'we distinguish, my good father, betwixt those who wish only to eat the bread of their own labour and those who eat the bread of other people's, and have no other plan in life but to get through it in sloth and ignorance, for the love of God!'
Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool:
but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
--Proverbs 28:26
'reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired '
-- Jonathan Swift 'Letter to a Young Clergyman'
Some days I feel like my shadow's casting me
Some days the sun don't shine
Sometimes I wonder what tomorrow's gonna bring
When I think about my dirty life and times
Warren Zevon, 'Dirty Life and Times'
It is always very fashionable to assume that there are lost arts and lost sciences, and there are always these people who make a cult of primitivism and who make all sorts of ridiculous claims for the prehistoric civilizations on earth.
Isaac Asimov, The Stars, Like Dust, Chapter 4
In order for peace to come to our world, do not all nations need to discover that they are bonded together by a common destiny? By virtue of our belonging to the family of nations, we are called to be concerned about others.
from Becoming Human, the 1998 Massey Lecture by Jean Vanier
What would happen to us if we could truly sympathize with others, feel with them, suffer for them? The fact that human anguish, fear, and suffering melt away with the death of the individual, that nothing remains of the ascents, the declines, the orgasms, and the agonies, is a praiseworthy gift of evolution, which made us like the animals. If from every unfortunate, from every victim, there remained even a single atom of his feelings, if thus grew the inheritance of the generations, if even a spark could pass from man to man, the world would be full of raw, bowel-torn howling.
Stanislaw Lem
the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
Voltaire, 1767
' . . . If
there are no good reasons for living,
then I believe there are none
for dying either.'
from McAlmon's Chinese Opera by Stephen Scobie
'In imitation of Genesis, I shall begin "in the beginning" -- a dangerously close relative of "once upon a time," as every conscientious theologian knows . . .'
Trevanian, The Summer of Katya
The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts:
Those with brains, but no religion,
And those with religion, but no brains.
Muslim philosopher Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri (d. 1057)
The man who is always worrying about whether or not his soul would be damned generally has a soul that isn't worth a damn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The concept that the devil was a fallen angel, distant from the mercy of the heavenly father and condemned to live in darkness -- who at the same time had the power to do away with all of divine creation -- was never very clear to her. If he had such power, why didn't he use it? And if to do it he needed for men to open their hearts to him, then he wasn't as powerful as they said. What kind of a demon was he? On the other hand, was the true god so dimwitted that he had created a power capable of destroying him? And was he so weak that each moment he risked that his children would forget him and give in to sin. No, she could not at all understand the Spaniards' ideas of good and evil.
Malinalli in Laura Esquivel's Malinche
I want you to lie down in the past
and wait for me there.
from 'Settling in Under the Roof of Possibility'
by Anne Compton
What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
And loses itself in the sunset.
Crowfoot
“If women ruled the world we would still be living in grass huts” Camille Paglia
"Maybe. But at least then everyone would have a hut." Anhaga
We in the West treat government itself as a consumers' good; they have to treat it as a producers' good, a capital investment. And, like all capital investments it cannot be controlled directly, but at most only indirectly and at one long remove, by consumer choices.
C.B. MacPherson, 'The Real World of Democracy'
My Home and Native Land.
'It could be said that science is boring, or even that science wants to be boring, in that it wants to be beyond all dispute. It wants to understand the phenomena of the world in ways that everyone can agree on and share; it wants to make assertions from a position that is not any particular subject's position, assertions that if tested for accuracy by any sentient being would cause that being to agree with the assertion. Complete agreement; the world put under description -- stated that way, it begins to sound interesting.'
Kim Stanley Robinson, Forty Signs of Rain, p. 98.
Anhaga's Guide to Canada
Anhaga's links
The Canadian Researchers' Club
With Glowing Hearts . . ..
It has come to my attention at times that my online name is meaningless to some. In the interest of providing virtually no clarification I provide this link. It has also come to my attention at times, much to my sadness, that I have gained something of a reputation for being anti-American. In the interest of providing some clarification I provide this link (Would anyone like to join me in praising the real United States of America?) to a thread I started sometime ago. It is sad that criticism of an administration's policies is seen as some sort of hatred for the country that administration is governing. I'm sorry that I've given the wrong impression to some. I'm not sorry that I've taken issue with actions and policies which I see as dangerous to all of us.
Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head. G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
The United States appear to be destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.
Sim�n Bol�var (1783–1830), Selected Writings, vol. II, p. 732.
"The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
The Treaty of Tripoli, signed on June 10, 1797, by President John Adams.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." George W. Bush, August 5, 2004
The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying 'This is mine,' and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, and from how many horrors and misfortunes might not one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: 'Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.'
Rousseau, The Origins of Inequality
"This man is a criminal. This man is a murderer and doesn't deserve any respect. I don't forgive Reagan, and I hope he is going to hell." Zenaida Velasquez Rodriguez
'Nations have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. Only permanent interests.'
Lord Palmerston, (1784-1865)
"The mind bears the same relationship to the brain and the nerves as urine does to the kidneys."
Karl Vogt (1817 - 1895)
'What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, "I bet that my Redeemer liveth."'
Samuel Butler
'Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all.'
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Man was created by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 B.C., at nine of the clock in the morning.
John Lightfoot (1602-1675)
The difference between the genius of the British constitution, which protects and governs North America, and that of the mercantile company which oppresses and domineers in the East Indies, cannot, perhaps, be better illustrated than by the different state of those countries.
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged.
Adam Smith
The Wealth of Nations
Book I, Chapter 8
Therefore, on applying my mind to politics, I have resolved to demonstrate by a certain and undoubted course of argument, or to deduce from the very condition
of human nature, not what is new and unheard of, but only such things as agree best with practice. And that I might investigate the subject-matter of this science with
the same freedom of spirit as we generally use in mathematics, I have laboured carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate, but to understand human actions; and to
this end I have looked upon passions, such as love, hatred, anger, envy, ambition, pity, and the other perturbations of the mind, not in the light of vices of human
nature, but as properties, just as pertinent to it, as are heat, cold, storm, thunder, and the like to the nature of the atmosphere, which phenomena, though
inconvenient, are yet necessary, and have fixed causes, by means of which we endeavour to understand their nature, and the mind has just as much pleasure in
viewing them aright, as in knowing such things as flatter the senses.
Baruch Spinoza, A Political Treatise
'Religion isn't the opiate of the masses: it's a pair of pointy sticks all ready for the putting out of eyes.' Slapjack
The Old English and Icelandic passages that used to be here have been removed. They caused my Personal Space to be hidden because they violated the House Rules about foreign languages.
An Old English bit from
Beowulf
an Icelandic bit that can be found herefrom:
�j��sagnasafni� Rau�skinna(this is a book title)
Fortunately recollecting the peroration of a speech, on the purifying influences of American democracy and their destined spread over the world, made by a certain eloquent senator (for whose vote in the Senate a Railway Company, to which my two brothers belonged, had just paid 20,000 dollars) I wound up by repeating its glowing predictions of the magnificent future that smiled upon mankind -- when the flag of freedom should float over an entire continent, and two hundred millions of intelligent citizens, accustomed from infancy to the daily use of revolvers, should apply to a cowering universe the doctrine of the Patriot Monroe.
Lord Lytton, The Coming Race, 1871.
The government will support and encourage the various cultures and ethnic groups that give structure and vitality to our society. They will be encouraged to share their cultural expression and values with other Canadians and so contribute to a richer life for us all.
Pierre Elliot Trudeau
"True journalism is scrutiny of government and its policies" Al-Jazeerah
Here's a site that might be of interest to some: Iraq Body Count. And here's another one. This one is about Afghanistan.
Chai. Good.
"If the coup fails, it's a catastrophe. If it doesn't fail, it's still a catastrophe."
Sid'Ahmed Ould Ali
If you are writting entries, you might want to download GuidePost
Life is a glorious cycle of song,
a medley of extemporanea,
and love is a thing that can never go wrong,
and I am Marie of Rumania.
Dorothy Parker
How long is history for you, Unknown Visitor?
Four years? Forty? Four Hundred? How many generations have put you where you are? Well known Canadians Bacon A Reason for a Maple-Leaf Smiley ". . . We all like to congregate," he went on, "at boundary conditions."
"Really?" said Arthur.
"Where land meets water. Where earth meets air. Where body meets mind. Where space meets time. We like to be on one side, and look at the other."
Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless
a bit in Old English from:
The Wanderer, lines 79b-87 and 106-110
"First of all, I would like to make one thing perfectly clear. I never explain anything."
Mary Poppins
Is there someone nearby who is in a very different situation because of those very same generations?
Does it matter to you?
"I suppose Epsilons don't really mind being Epsilons," she said aloud.
Brave New World
"My dear fellow," Jaques replied, "remember this, and you too, young man, listen to what I say, for it's the century's profession of faith: With Montaigne and maybe Rabelais it was What Do I Know? In the nineteenth century it was What Does it Matter to Me? And nowadays we say: How Much Does It Earn? Well, the day a war earns as much as an industrial investment, then there'll be wars."
. . .
"Well, my friend, an army that fights for a financial motive will no longer be composed of soldiers, but of looters and thieves!"
Jules Verne, Paris in the Twentieth Century (1863), pp. 84-85.
"Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike . . . . We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward."
Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Give me a line to fling at fame,
that deals not with the woes of man . . .
Sarah Binks, Up From the Magma, and Back Again, Canto I, The Great Ice Age
Does anyone have any slight sense of deep time?
Some things to consider: Canada believes in the United Nations: Our Prime Minister Gets a Standing Ovation for Committing Troops to Peace. Find out about forged (American) disclosures to the UN Security Council at CNN
If you've ever worn a toque, come join us here: Should Chief Gordon Lightfoot reinstate the Saskatchewan Rhinoceros hunt? Find out about CAMELS at CAMELS Find out about Real International Weapons Inspections at
Rootingoutevil.org find out that cows can be male: cows The following links are here for my reference. If you want to use them, Unknown Visitor, fine, I don't care: I'm fed up. The original point of the guide Front Page Archive coming up AggGag don't panic guideML GuideML Clinic Kristina and Titania's User Page Spice Rev. Alji's colour page Ask the H2G2 Community Editorial Feedback Yokel's entry on Binge Alcoholism's Effect on the Family
And a project I had something to do with once:
Project (United States of) America
And, an entry I really like:
Pok-Ta-Pok
5795
With absolute respect to all of them:
Holocaust , sb. [ n. F, holocauste (12th c.) ad. late L. holocaustum, n. Gr. holokauston neut. of holokaoustos (by-form of holokaistos), f. holo-s whole + kaustos burnt.]
1. A sacrifice wholey consumed by fire; a whole burnt offering.
[examples dating from 1250 omitted]
2. transf. and fig. a. A complete sacrifice or offering. b. A sacrifice on a large scale.
[examples dating from 1497 omitted]
c. Complete consumption by fire, or that which is so consumed; complete destruction, esp. of a large number of persons; a great slaughter or massacre.
[examples dating from 1671 omitted]
Oxford English Dictionary, June 1982
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| Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button. Twenty years stolen . . .
Yesterday
Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz
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A2225639
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the diversity of my neighborhood
5 Days Ago
my city's poet laureate: http://canadasworld.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/1735/
my MLA: http://www.rachelnotley.ca/RachelNotley/
my former MLA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Pannu
my province's Lieutenant Governor: http://www.lieutenantgovernor.ab.ca/
my MP: http://www.edmontonstrathcona.ca/
my former MP: http://www.rahimjaffer.com/
my country's Governor General: http://www.gg.ca/index.aspx?lan=eng
I'm feeling okay with multiculturalism and inclusivity. It's working quite nicely, thank you very much.
Well, this is an interesting bit of Christology . . .
Last Week
Please don't ask how I ended up finding this.
At the link there is a carefully[ ] argued case made by a Muslim person that if Christianity were to be internally consistent, the Crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans would more appropriately [ ] be the gang rape of Jessica by a bunch of Jews.
Fortunately, the author is clumsy and wrong on so many points that the whole thing is simply [very uncomfortably] risible.
But it certainly makes one marvel at the contortions capable in a religious mind.
http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/arch...-jesus-or-the-holy-rape-of-jessica/
Yes. It really is titled 'Crucifixion of Jesus or The Holy Rape of Jessica?'
But now that I think of it, it reminds me of the post-Modern, deconstructionist, theory-over-loaded drivel most inaccurately labeled as 'literary criticism' I had to read far too often when I was an undergraduate.
Could it be a joke?
Different ways of 'knowing' (again)
2 Weeks Ago
Yesterday I listened to a bit of Karen Armstrong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Armstrong talking on CBC's 'Tapestry' http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/ and I think I'm finally getting a handle on what this sort of person means when they talk about 'ways of knowing' other than by means of reason. They mean 'knowing' in the sense of, for example, 'knowing how to drive' or 'knowing how to juggle': religious 'knowing' is about 'doing' religion until you 'know how to do' religion.
Now, to me, if one is having a rigorous discussion, knowing how to juggle is not the same as knowing the mathematics of the motion of a sphere following a ballistic trajectory, nor is it the same as knowing the functioning of the neurons and muscles involved. 'knowing' how to juggle is not 'knowledge': it is training, conditioning, habit. And 'knowing' how to juggle does impart communicable insight into gravity, neurology, mathematics or anything else. From personal experience, however, I 'know' that *rational analysis* of juggling can, however, provide such communicable insights which can be a help when a friend wants to train themselves to juggle.
Religious 'knowledge' of the type Ms. Armstrong discussed on the radio yesterday seemed to be of a similar sort -- I must say that Ms. Armstrong's concept of religion seems to be far narrower than that of most religious practitioners, consisting simply of being nice to everyone all the time -- her idea of gaining 'knowledge' of this religious sort is explicitly incommunicable, being the product exclusively of experience or what I would call 'training'. Religious 'knowledge' is something for which there are no shortcuts -- you just have to do it until you come to 'knowledge' and all you can tell others about the path to this 'knowledge' is 'do what I did and if you don't get there you're not doing it right.'
I don't really have too much of a problem with this sort of religious thinking, except that I would not call the result 'knowledge'. I do, however, think that this sort of thinking is very, very far from the huge mass of religious thinking that has been produced over the millennia. Religion and religious persons have spent most of their time espousing descriptions of the world and the way it works, of human behavior, of history, cosmology, biology, physics, etc. Religion has certainly regularly said 'be nice to each other', which is Ms. Armstrong's fundamental devotion, but religion has certainly been concerned about far, far more than just the Golden Rule. Frankly, I don't agree that real, useful, workable, repeatable and communicable knowledge of most of the subjects that religion has concerned itself with can be derived from simply 'doing religion'.
One doesn't come to an real understanding of gravity by simply taking a few days to devotedly practice juggling. An understanding of gravity comes from rigorous and repeated experiment and analysis. One doesn't learn how to build an automobile by passing one's driving test, or by winning the Paris-Dakar rally.
Certainly, the only way to learn to juggle or to drive is to practice it. Once one 'knows' how to juggle, there's not a lot of practical use, but it's fun. Once one 'knows' how to drive, there are lots of practical things the skill can do. I'm not sure, however, that the limited religious 'knowledge' that Armstrong speaks (acting compassionately always) is anything other than a very good habit to try to have or that it is a habit that is necessarily or in any way exclusively religious.
Underlying what she was saying I couldn't help but sense the ugly bigotry the religious so often show toward the non-religious: 'if you aren't religious *in precisely the way I mean* then you can't be moral and, if you are moral, then you are actually secretly religious *in precisely the way I mean*'
It makes me a little sad.
On first looking into Jane Grigson's 'Good Things'
Oct 10, 2009
I've only gotten through the two page introduction thus far, but Grigson is speaking to me very clearly across the years:
'When one thinks of the civilization implied in the development of peaches from the wild fruit, or of apricots, grapes, pears, plums, when one thinks of those millions of gardeners from ancient China right across Asia and the Middle East to Rome then across the Alps north to France, Holland and England of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, how can we so crassly, so brutishly, reduce the exquisite results of their labour to cans full of syrup and cardboard-wrapped blocks of ice?'
and as I continue to deal with the wonderful and tasty produce of my small plot while the snow swirls outside, I reply to her:
'Indeed! Yes!'
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