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20031031
Searching for my father
As mentioned in an earlier post... my father, Vinson Taylor, died five years ago.
I was just doing random Google searches, and for the first time I thought to input his name. One of the first search returns led to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration document. The author -- or, at least, the recipient of the emails that were indexed in the .pdf -- was named Taylor Vinson. But the truly interesting thing about this was the fact that the document is cataloged as #41272, the date of my birth.
I added "OH" and then the word "coach" to the queries. Amidst all of the genealogical data were these two links: The first (with his picture at the top) from his induction into the track coaches' hall of fame. The second is the text of a story about his being named a Division I girls basketball coach of the year.
About the first, in '88: I remember being upset with him because my sister and I were told on short notice, or something, that we had to go with him and Grandpa to Columbus for the ceremony. This meant I had to miss my close friend's birthday party... and I pouted the whole night. And there's another one of those knots of regret now, about not appreciating what was happening for him.
I had a few conversations with Daddy during the winter and early spring when his 97-98 team did so well. I lived in Arizona. I don't recall if he told me about the coaching award that year (I knew the team had advanced into the playoffs), or if someone else told me later, or if I found out about it when I saw the clipped picture among several other things after his funeral. No, I think I received the picture in the mail well before he died. That's a good memory, seeing the photo in my mind... even if I then think, "And it was so close to his death."
... I want to continue by mentioning the time of year, and the ascension/prominence of Orion during these autumn nights. I just looked out the window to see that constellation, along with sparkling Sirius, square with the horizon... Sirius near its transit point due south... just as I finished the previous paragraph.
My father died in October. I scattered some of his ashes over the Grand Canyon in November as Orion ascended over the North Rim. I was exultant at the time, standing on a mile-high precipice under a dark-green canopy of stars, remarking to myself at the connection to be made with my little ceremony and the "resurrection of Osiris" in the east. I certainly hadn't planned for the two events to coincide.
But that's a story I've told to very few... and I want to include a couple of images before I go on. So on Saturday...
I'd forgotten how beautifully geeked out this interface was... Scroll down to see images from flare eruptions. The "X17" from Oct. 28 is probably the second- or third-strongest recorded since... records of high-energy eruptions have been kept.
I was in Chicago when the X20 blew off in 2001... and somehow I sensed that the sun was extra-active that day. It might sound weird (or insane, since it means I've regularly gazed at the sun), but it is possible to see, in a don Juan kind of way, when the sun is up to something.
Sent by CC in Chicago
"Timbuktu, Mali, is the legendary city founded as a commercial center in West Africa nine hundred years ago. Dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the ancient manuscripts presented in this exhibition cover every aspect of human endeavor and are indicative of the high level of civilization attained by West Africans during the Middle Ages."
Sent by CC in Chicago
mr damon 04:32
Sent by Steele (former Gulf States Bureau chief)
This obituary was published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on October 2nd, 2003:
Word has been received that Gertrude M. Jones, 81, passed away on August 25, 2003, under the loving care of the nursing aides of Heritage Manor of Mandeville, Louisiana. She was a native of Lebanon, KY. She was a retired Vice President of Georgia International Life Insurance Company of Atlanta, GA. Her husband, Warren K. Jones preceded her. Funeral services were held in Louisville, KY. Memorial gifts may be made to any organization that seeks the removal of President George Bush from office.
News from Sol and beyond
The Space Environment Center issued an alert at 10:37 AM PST, noting high ("extreme") level of geomagnetic activity following the flares of the past two days. Either the atmospheric buffeting is slogging East Coast network lines, or hellafied amounts of people are checking their site right now: I can't get data.
Astronomers detect a "dark galaxy" devoid of stars
3-D rendering of cosmos lends support to a preponderance of "dark energy"
Sent by AH! in Chicago
"Apparently the smoke was so thick in SoCal that you could see the larger sunspots yesterday."
Sent by AH! in Chicago
mr damon 03:00
Sent by my correspondent in Spain
"El Paradiso is an ancient Andalucian cortijo in a magical hidden valley, just 40 kilometres north of Malaga. We farm the land organically cultivating a self-sufficient, ecologically sustainable lifestyle. Our vision at El Paradiso is: 'To create and hold a haven where all life is nourished and held sacred.'"
20031029
Autumn leaves
autumn leaves 04.1
autumn leaves 04.2
autumn leaves 04.3
Stormy weather in space
I see that radio transmission blackout levels are severe -- "code orange." I figured that would happen today when I saw auroral activity appear so calm last night.
And here's the cause... More info at SpaceWeather
20031028
20031027
Seeing sunspots from the street
At some point Friday evening, I checked the space weather for the first time in a while. I saw that there had been strong storm conditions since early in the morning. This was the result of a coronal mass ejection late on Thursday?
In an instant, I figured that this was what had brought on my 12-hour-plus headache, although it could have just as easily been the moon entering new phase, or the fact that I spent the two hours before I went to bed finishing Pornstar in an odd position, with inadequate light, while the Woodstock documentary was playing in the background.
[I wonder how I ended up with a headache, with all of that conflicting stimulus.]
On Saturday morning I reassembled the scope, which had been propped up (in two pieces) behind the door. I had to readhere the viewing prism, wind tape around the hood over the objective lens, and unearth one of the mounting screws. And I still needed to replace the screws for the piece that the mount connected to. But I packed it all up and headed toward The Ave, which I thought would be a good place (on a fine day) to conduct some public outreach.
Ah, to live in the Age of the Sniper... when people look three times at someone carrying a long black, rifle-ish thing down the street in midday: Once to see what it is, a second time to make sure it really isn't a rifle, and a third perhaps to wonder "Why is he carrying a telescope at 1 in the afternoon?"
I found the screws I needed (and had a copy key made; didn't mention that the previous night's headache subsided just before I found myself without house keys). I finished tightening things up in front of the Pelican, and then made my way over I-5. A gentleman asked what I was going to look at when I reached the other side of the overpass. I told him about the latest news, how I'd taken a quick glance with eclipse shades that morning, and then decided to set up the 'scope for people to peer through.
I handed him one of the mangled eclipse shades that I've been carting around since '99 or 2000. He peeped the two big groups, and then in response to a question, I dropped some welterweight science on him.
We parted ways at Roosevelt. I bought my second York Peppermint Patty^ of the day (the first was eaten at Durn Good Grocery), mailed off some documentss, and then set up shop just up from the Hells Cargo ATM on the corner. It was about a quarter after 2.
I hadn't even put the eyepiece in when someone (the inevitable wiseguy) came up wanting to know if I was looking at comets or coeds. Who still says "coed," anyway?
I told him about the sunspots, and this got the attention of three students who were walking by (a "coed" among them). This other guy was still making corny jokes and this almost made the other trio walk off, but I just ignored it and offered everyone a look. The seeing (hopefully the only technical term I'll use) was alright; with pronounced but intermittent heat ripples. It was good for midafternoon with the sun so relatively low to the horizon. The larger group had five major spots in a U shape. The other group was more of a jumble. There was a third, smaller object just coming over the limb.
(see Johannes' pic from 24 Oct here -- http://panther-observatory.com/sun.htm#31)
Somehow, the sight of the phenomena quieted the wise guy down... until he saw a woman with a dog a few feet away, and that provided him an entry point for more jokes. I stood by, asking passers by "Care to see some some sunspots?" I'll always be amused (bemused) by the people who say no. I think it has to do in part with the obvious safety concern*; a magnified projection of the sun's light can burn through the retina in a second. That's it! You're blind.
But of course I had a Type 2+ aluminized mylar filter from Thousand Oaks Optical snugly fitted over the objective, so no worries. To those who were tentative, or who asked, I'd explain that the filter blocked out 99.99% of the visible light (which is the truth) and that it was perfectly safe. This got one dad to turn back around and take a look with his daughter and her friend. Two middle-age couples thought it was so funny when one of the women scolded me: "You'll go blind if you look at the sun!"
"Not if I have a filter on," is what I said as they went cackling up the block. Whatever I said next got one guy to stop. He took a look while his buddy heckled him for being "Isaac Newton," and then he thanked me and went off to (presumably) make a date with some beers.
Who else? There was the gentleman from the north of England, maybe Scotland, who walked up and asked if I was looking at coronal mass ejections. Without missing a beat, I said no, not without a hydrogen-alpha filter... and as he bent down to look into the eyepiece, he casually handed over the black textbook in his hand: "Moons and Planets." Ah yes...
He asked if I knew about the MUF... "No, I'm not familiar with that..." The Maximum Usable Frequency, he explained, is an effect that coincides with the excitation of particles in the ionosphere. Shortwave signals bounce off the ionosphere back to earth. When this atmosperic layer is energized by solar currents, SW signals can be strengthened. I could pick up French and Slavic broadcasts in New Mexico back in '99.
The geomagnetic storm that hit Friday morning gave the ionosphere more energy, but apparently not enough to get good, remote broadcast reception, this man explained. He then mentioned being in Munich on 11 Aug 99, sleeping on the floor of the railway station with a thousand other people who wanted to see the total solar eclipse. Unfortunately, totality blocked by clouds for those critical few minutes... pretty much the same thing that happened where I was, in a cornfield in France.
Ah, but still; I cherish these random intersections with eclipse chasers...
Anyhow, I probably interacted with and enabled 20 people? 30? The last (before the LaRouche campaigner who I listened to for half an hour**, while the sun descended behind the Safeco building) was a middle-aged woman who was so excited to get a look. Right now, I can't remember... oh, no, it was the analogy that she made about what a sunspot is -- the question many people asked. I typically call them vents from which prominences and CMEs have erupted. Their relatively cooler temperature after this discharge makes them appear dark (for some reason) on the solar surface. This last woman posited that instead of being a vent for outpouring/emission, perhaps they're fissures that are stretching over/coalescing to reintegrate the surface. I was fascinated by that idea, and I mentioned the stretched and striated appearance of sunspots in high-magnification photos.
And so the sun had descended, I'd been approached again about coming to a LaRouche meeting, and I felt chilled and hungry. The older gentleman who'd been on the corner the whole time with a picket sign that read "Iraq will never accept a tolerance of democracy"(?) and "Bush's Imminent WMD Lies" was getting into protracted shouting matches with people on their way back from the Husky game. The streetside star party was over, and it was time for chai.
^ When I bought a third at 12:30 a.m., after several hours of computer work, I realized that they had been the only food I'd had all day.
* One very amusing interaction had been with a guy who walked up with a bright beaming smile, asking if it was safe to look. He kidded me: "I mean, I'd figure it was cool, but who knows, maybe you're the cruelest guy in the world, blinding a few people for fun." I doubled over laughing. "You know, maybe you're the Devil, takin' a few hours to mess with people; "Sure it's safe... I'm just on Earth for a little bit, so check it out."
** The LaRouche thing has been developing since last summer. That's a story for another time.
The last couple of people who've talked to me have been really sincere (in contrast to the guys who were completely condescending; "what're you afraid of? are you just gonna be a sheep like the rest of these people?"); and what they say about the underpinnings of a return to classical humanism sounds like a good approach. But there's this reaction I have to hearing them all say "LaRouche says this" and "He says that," and the idea that a logical, economic, intellectual approach is going to be the thing to set things straight... and I'm standing there thinking about cosmic serpents and molecular consciousness.
Still, the way they're talking, a reality not unlike the one Octavia Butler created in Parable of the Sower is imminent... and I see basic and dangerous truth between the two.
Oh, one other sungazer suggested that I check out what he was reading: Modern Jihad by Loretta Napoleoni.
20031024
SUBJECT: Global War on Terrorism
"It boggles my mind how a memo to four people ends up on the front page of a newspaper."
Tom Englehardt unboggles that mystery
October 16, 2003
TO: Gen. Dick Myers
Paul Wolfowitz
Gen. Pete Pace
Doug Feith
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: Global War on Terrorism
The questions I posed to combatant commanders this week were: Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror? Is DoD changing fast enough to deal with the new 21st century security environment? Can a big institution change fast enough? Is the USG changing fast enough?
DoD has been organized, trained and equipped to fight big armies, navies and air forces. It is not possible to change DoD fast enough to successfully fight the global war on terror; an alternative might be to try to fashion a new institution, either within DoD or elsewhere � one that seamlessly focuses the capabilities of several departments and agencies on this key problem.
With respect to global terrorism, the record since Septermber 11th seems to be:
We are having mixed results with Al Qaida, although we have put considerable pressure on them � nonetheless, a great many remain at large.
USG has made reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis.
USG has made somewhat slower progress tracking down the Taliban � Omar, Hekmatyar, etc.
With respect to the Ansar Al-Islam, we are just getting started.
Have we fashioned the right mix of rewards, amnesty, protection and confidence in the US?
Does DoD need to think through new ways to organize, train, equip and focus to deal with the global war on terror?
Are the changes we have and are making too modest and incremental? My impression is that we have not yet made truly bold moves, although we have have made many sensible, logical moves in the right direction, but are they enough?
Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?
Does the US need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists? The US is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' costs of millions.
Do we need a new organization?
How do we stop those who are financing the radical madrassa schools?
Is our current situation such that "the harder we work, the behinder we get"?
It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog.
Does CIA need a new finding?
Should we create a private foundation to entice radical madradssas to a more moderate course?
What else should we be considering?
Please be prepared to discuss this at our meeting on Saturday or Monday.
Thanks.
Arbus, atomic tests, Twinsburg OH
I flipped through two* amazing/jarring books at Bailey/Coy on Broadway last night. The first was a massive collection of Diane Arbus' work, Revelations. At the time, I thought it was the best historical treatment of a photographer's work that I'd ever seen.
After that, I picked up 100 Suns by Michael Light. I didn't know it was by him until I flipped back toward the front. The contents are photos of the above-ground atomic bomb tests from 1945-1963. I thought about the power and shock that would be conveyed in the images through enlargement -- thinking here of what it was like to see the Apollo orbit and landing photos that Light selected for "Full Moon" at the Hayden/Rose Planetarium in New York).
I checked the URL from the book, and read that the photos are on show at the Hosfelt Gallery, 430 Clementina in San Francisco, until Nov. 26. The show just opened this past Saturday. Mr. Damon wanted to go back to the Bay anyway...
* There was a third that I went through pretty quickly: Twins by Mary Ellen Mark.
20031022
Once you've been to the mall, you've been to them all
I carted around the section of the NYTimes that featured this story yesterday. I kept wondering, "And this is good?*"
In particular: "India is now the world's fastest growing telecom market, with more than one million new mobile phone subscriptions sold each month. Indians are buying about 10,000 motorcycles a day. Banks are now making $15 billion a year in home loans, with the lowest interest rates in decades helping to spur the spending, building and borrowing. Credit and debit cards are slowly gaining.
"The potential for even more market growth is enormous, a fact recognized by multinationals and Indian companies alike. In 2001, according to census figures, only 31.6 percent of India's 192 million households had a television, and only 2.5 percent a car, jeep or van. (*"This is bad?")"
Do we need a consumer class larger than the whole U.S. population gobbling up resources like us?
20031021
REALITY CHECK...
EXPLORING THE CONTOURS OF MIND & CONSCIOUSNESS
THROUGH MAGICO-SPIRITUAL TECHNIQUES
This paper concludes that all minds are landscapes to be traversed and explored by a multiplicity of techniques and approaches � literally that an archaeology of mind is available to us and that an ecology of consciousness can be evolved from these recorded experiences and related research. In a broader sense, the farther reaches of the conscious and unconscious mind are being increasingly scientifically and experimentally explored through a variety of psycho deconstructive and integrative techniques � from the shamanistic �manufacturing of reality� by deconstructing boundaries of sense-making reality, to the reality and consciousness-making of artificial intelligence, studies into animal and plant sentience, and psychonautic explorations into other �dimensions� of reality and consciousness constructs.
the ayahuasca/serpent meme
... Just a few minutes ago I saw this link on magpie.
"SHAMANS OF THE AMAZON, is a personal account of filmmaker Dean Jefferys, returning to the Amazon with his partner and one-year-old daughter. They journey deep into the heart of the Ecuadorian rainforest to meet two Amazon shamans to learn about and experience the ancient hallucinogenic ayahuasca ritual.
Featuring: Terence Mc Kenna, Rick Strassman, Yatra De Silvera Babosa, Enrique and Raphael, Shamans from Ecuador and Pablo Amaringo from Peru."
20031020
Carnival Strippers
"From 1972 to 1975, Susan Meiselas spent her summers photographing and interviewing women who performed striptease for small town carnivals in New England, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. As she followed the girl shows from town to town, she portrayed the dancers on stage and off, photographing their public performances as well as their private lives. She also taped interviews with the dancers, their boyfriends, the show managers, and paying customers. Meiselas' frank description of the lives of these women brought a hidden world to public attention. Produced during the early years of the women's movement, Carnival Strippers reflects the struggle for identity and self-esteem that characterized a complex era of change."
20031019
"What's wrong with a little color in your family tree?"
Practical multiculturalism with the children, identity, ethnicity, that naughty classification of race, labels, culture (and cultural bias), and impromptu comparisons about how toes and fingers change tone have come up in conversation all this week. So while I searched for "black hands holding white baby" on Google, I clicked onto this:
The Ideal Breed by Curt Darius Williams
"The terms 'white' and 'brown' define fluid boundaries, which many of us cross. There are light-skinned Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans, as well as dark Europeans. An "interracial" person is exotic and desirable, but a threat if you can't categorize them. So, we are coerced to choose sides.
Any of the "white"-looking people could be "brown," and not mixing out. They may not be aware of the privileges of their skin, and of how, like my friend, they seem to be running back to "the winning side." How like me, their molasses-, honey- and hazelnut-skinned mates seem to choose to ignore that we are in vogue, and are shocked when our skin becomes an issue between us. Of how our children will look something like the fashion magazine's computer model, how she encourages us. How our unborn will be absorbed into the "New American Ideal," and made into white people of color."
My intent here is not to be confrontational or disturbing -- to brashly "go there" -- in presenting this text/topic. I'm actually interested to know what any or all of you think of the labels White, Black, Race... and whether more accurate classifications ought to be tied to ethnicity or culture... and how this works (or is distorted) when one adds "-American" (or -Canadian, sorry).
And when can dependence on titles and classifications just be dropped?
I found myself explaining and defending the use of African-American last night. I thought this was odd later on, since just a couple of months ago I told people that I don't often use it myself... particularly/politically because of a dissociation with American...
I've been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to capsulize my reasoning for that, and I have to settle for "Ask me later" or "Nationalism is so 19th (numerological 1) century." I also want to refer to a recent essay about Af-Am-ism that Michele Rose sent to me that I don't have saved; and Ruben Carter's interview in The Sun.
But now I have to go.
Ahhh, this whole ethnicity thing isn't just playing out in my head... it's cropping up with other folks too. Thank you, Blogdex.
Boy finds two-headed snake
KY boy found a two-headed snake this month, which elicited yet another eyebrow-popping response from me as the symbol for such a creature appears often in The Cosmic Serpent.
In that same context, perhaps you'll understand why I associated this image with a snake's eye.
20031018
"I am in complete control of the situation"
"Concerned about the appearance of disarray and feuding within his administration, as well as growing resistance to his policies in Iraq, President Bush -- living up to his recent declaration that he is in charge -- told his top officials to 'stop the leaks' to the media, or else.
News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately."
"...and it was supposed to be shipped out over the next couple of days, and it wasn't because of what happened. Then they decided that I had to rewrite 50% of the book, and take out all the criticism of Bush or tone it down or, you know, just -- I couldn't have chapters like -- there's a chapter called "Kill Whitey," and you have to take that out, because, as they explained to me, �Whitey is no longer the problem."
And I said, listen, �Whitey is always the problem. That chapter's staying in.�
20031017
...and not enough on more useful pursuits."
Ah, yes. Well, I tried to keep this short.
In a dream I saw myself in bed, in our old home, and I had the sense/expectation of a snake nearby. A snake form either appeared or I projected it (alternating between being above me, and then behind me, as I lay on my old bed). We were having a conversation, or it was speaking to me, and there was a ditty going through my mind about "you might not want the snake to bite, but once it bites it's alright." And at some point, the serpent bit me twice in the back and the legs. My dreamself sort of jumped at this, but I wasn't in pain or too afraid.
Then I remember some strangeness with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, who were being chased by spaceschip helicopters. I had the vantage of being behind Arnold's as it dove and veered above a crystal blue sea... and then I was holding it (say the size of cake pan) and steering myself in orbit around the Earth. I directed myself to the nighttime side of the planet to take in the view of the stars and nebulae. I looked back toward the Earth and made out the lights of metropoli in SE Asia and Japan, and then the scene shifted...
... and I was being given more information (or narration) about the last Ice Age, and how it was caused by extraterrestial beings who were based in (or initiated this change from) present-day Egypt. There was a graphical interface at this point, and a number line that either indicated the year this began, or the depth to which the lands were covered by glaciers. At a point, I heard a collective dirge: "ANGER! ANGER!"*
Some of the creatures of that era (?) (like giant coelacanths; bizarre, large (meters-long) amphibious creatures) were penned up in highly technological, transparent cells during this freeze and I saw the creatures that stood guard over them: octopus-like sentries that stood upright.
There was more, about when they emerged from these cells in what were then lush, sunlit jungles, but it's spotty now and I want to get to what I connected this with when I awoke.
One of the things that I thought of was the creation stories of the Dogon in southern Mali -- they link their ancestors/origin to beings called the Nommo, an amphibious species that visited Earth and imparted astronomical and philosophical knowledge. I thought to check a page (http://www.crystalinks.com/dogon.html) that I'd archived sometime ago and had never read all the way; I'd just browsed through some of the picture captions. So my eyebrows jumped when I read:
"The cult of Lebe, the Earth God, is primarily concerned with the agricultural cycle and its chief priest is called a Hogon.
According to Dogon beliefs, the god Lebe visits the hogons every night in the form of a serpent and licks their skins in order to purify them and infuse them with life force. The hogons are responsible for guarding the purity of the soil and therefore officiate at many agricultural ceremonies."
Further along:
"According to Dogon mythology, Nommo was the first living being created by Amma, the sky god and creator of the universe.
He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. [This is a metaphor for our original 12-strand DNA. Our present physical DNA contains 2 strands which hold the genetic codes for our physical evolvement] :-o
The Dogon say that their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommo. The Dogon elder, Ogotemelli, describes them variously as having the upper part as a man and the lower portion as snake; or as having a ram's head with serpent body."
I haven't read from The Cosmic Serpent in a week, but because I've gotten through Narby's correlations between DNA and its narrative and symbolist presence in Amazonian + Australasian creation myths... yowza! What's more, in relation to the specific (and pre-scientific) knowledge the Dogon had about the Sirius star system:
"The Dogons have described perfectly the DNA pattern made by this elliptical orbit created by the two stars as they rotate make around each other. They believe Sirius to be the axis of the universe, and from it all matter and all souls are produced in a great spiral motion."
And just now, at the end of this page, I'm seeing all this information about amphibious gods, the Pyramids, forgotten feminine deities and principles... and it's like: I knew this was a potent dream when I woke up; so much so that I was reluctant to write this down.
Did I mention that my father told me that we are descended from the Fula people, who also inhabited southern Mali? And that of all the images I could've used, I pulled up one of the coelacanth fractals to add to an ecorpse this morning?
"You might not want the snake to bite, but once it bites it's alright."
* This reminded me of the line I've uttered in my mind since I was a child: "Hell is a cold place." In the six-realm Buddhist cosmology, there are six aspects to the hell realm: three fiery, three frozen. Beings manifest in them as a result of anger.
20031016
"Did I mention that Iraq has no nukes?"
"Buried in the October 2 congressional testimony of David Kay were two bombshells: all the Iraq Survey Group evidence collected to date indicates that there were not any active programs to develop or produce chemical or nuclear weapons.
In the middle of a paragraph halfway through his testimony, Kay presents what should have been his lead finding: "Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections." Similarly, three paragraphs into Kay's description of Saddam's intention to develop nuclear weapons, he says: "to date we have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material."
It is understandable that Mr. Kay did not wish to highlight these findings. They are not mentioned in his concluding points, nor in his opening summary. They directly refute the two main charges of administration officials before the war as well as the claim that UN inspections were not working."
20031015
...reports John Pilger, �civilians and mostly conscript Iraqi soldiers, as well as British and American troops�. Even allowing for exaggeration, this is a disgusting outcome. This bloodbath does not seem to tweak the conscience of Howard, Blair or Bush, because in the long run, Iraq will be better off without Saddam Hussein. Fifty thousand is a heavy cost. Its collective impact on friends & relatives of the victims is creating a weapon of mass psychological destruction, more lethal by the minute..."
20031011
Limited infinity times two
"The cosmos is 'shaped like a football.' More precisely, we may inhabit a dodecahedral cosmos. It is, according to the scientists, the best way to account for the latest satellite observations."
---
"Perplexing observations beamed back by a NASA spacecraft are fuelling debates about a mystery of biblical proportions -- is our universe infinite? Scientists have announced tantalising hints that the Universe is actually relatively small, with a hall-of-mirrors illusion tricking us into thinking that space stretches on forever."
20031010
Enter The Doctor
"This country has been having a nationwide nervous breakdown since 9/11. A nation of people suddenly broke, the market economy goes to shit, and they're threatened on every side by an unknown, sinister enemy. But I don't think fear is a very effective way of dealing with things -- of responding to reality. Fear is just another word for ignorance."
From the mouths of the vaunted leaders
"No link between Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein"
Bush, 18 Sept 2003
Rumsfeld, 17 Sept 2003
Bush + Blair, 31 Jan 2003
"And ain't none of them WMDs around neither"
Powell + Rice, 23 Feb 2001
20031007
It is 11 minutes after midnight on Oct. 7.
Last night, I had a long and purposefully meandering conversation with a prophet who has emerald-flecked eyes. In the course of reflection about our fathers and mothers; statements of function, intention and motivation in creativity; and the usual talk of death, depression, child-rearing, transdimensional awareness and New Mexico -- all the things that people bring up over spiced vegetables and chai -- I became aware of one thing (among others).
I was reminded of what my friend Barbie told me in the winter: "We relive our parents' mistakes and often don't even realize it (a poor recollection of her statement, actually)." As I talked about the events around my father's death -- five years ago this past Saturday -- I had a sense of myself as the mirror, the echo, of the self-confinement, self-deprecation, and protective or defensive self-interest that prevented him, perhaps, from knowing all the ways to love and accept himself, and how to show love to and accept it from the (many, many) people with whom he was connected... particularly those with whom he might have most sought its transmission. A fundamental sense/fear of being Unlovable or Unloved, perhaps... a sentiment that my friend Mary (after Pema Chodron) has classified as the one behind so many actions and attitudes in our daily affairs.
The sentence before the last took an hour to finish -- my mind became crowded with sad and smiling memories -- and I might spend another 40 months unraveling its truth from my heart.
It's now 2:22.
20031004
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"Don't tread on me, either."
HST 1937-2005
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