The Good Investment
First installment appeared in the afternoon
edition of the daily paper and was written
by Agnes Upchurch on her deathbed
or so it was thought before Miss Upchurch
showed up the very next day at the Post
Office to collect her mail and proceeded
to the newspaper office to receive the balance
of what she was due which amounted to
three dollars and ten cents. She clenched
the money in her left hand that was swaddled
in the left pocket of the coat which
belonged to a dead woman before her
and said to herself, this is for you Edna.
The coat had been sold to the local thrift store
by the dead woman's ungrateful brood of children
who didn't appreciate that it was made
of herring bone tweed with a nice black collar
that could be turned up against the neck
during cold weather. Miss Upchurch
paid fifty cents for her old friend's coat
with the comfort that she
had been right all along and for this
she was paid well enough to purchase
a pound of coffee, loaf of bread
and half a dozen pencils with which to write
the second installment of the series
which she named The Red Herring.
"The right of freedom of speech consists in speaking the truth."
30.1.10
29.1.10
Ron Silliman and Marilyn Crispell
Live in Concert!
This is gonna be great. Although I have gone through some personal life difficulty (quit my damn job again) this past week, I am enthusiastic about this reading. I am hoping to see something quite wonderful, enlightening and mesmerizing. Anything less than that and I'll write to Mr. Silliman personally and request he get my money back from Chax Press who is sponsoring the event which will be at Pima Center for the Arts, Pima Community College West Campus on Saturday January 30, 2010 at 7 p.m..
I still have two tickets to give away but am having some difficulty finding the right recepients.
I wonder, do you think I could SCALP them?
The Sweetest Parking Lots in Town
Should we dye our hair or sharpen
the claws, tend the roots maybe
bring a gift, some kind of wrist watch?
Saw her in the store today
and her friend came up to us
and agreed that things tend
to change over here
but the same old secrets
that aren't even secrets anymore
except that they are spoken
about quietly in places like these
and tell each other,
we are the secrets
but no one tells you before
the ambush and then
it's all out in the open
and saying, didn't you know?
Knew she'd be there
knew alot of things
about the weather
over there, the last blowout.
Don't you just love how
some people don't let you down
by letting you down?
It's really great that way,
you can go on turning up
showing off or filtering,
sleeping with every darn thing
in town at least once.
My hands feel cold
the eyes say look out,
they are over there,
again.
Should we dye our hair or sharpen
the claws, tend the roots maybe
bring a gift, some kind of wrist watch?
Saw her in the store today
and her friend came up to us
and agreed that things tend
to change over here
but the same old secrets
that aren't even secrets anymore
except that they are spoken
about quietly in places like these
and tell each other,
we are the secrets
but no one tells you before
the ambush and then
it's all out in the open
and saying, didn't you know?
Knew she'd be there
knew alot of things
about the weather
over there, the last blowout.
Don't you just love how
some people don't let you down
by letting you down?
It's really great that way,
you can go on turning up
showing off or filtering,
sleeping with every darn thing
in town at least once.
My hands feel cold
the eyes say look out,
they are over there,
again.
23.1.10
The Tree Omen
Falls as if the wind
Took it down
In the night it lay
Dying, taking its last
Breath, wondering
How so many things
Go wrong, the roots
Hurt as they tear
Opening up the ground
Easily, how unbearable
The signs can be
Unwarranted dramatic
Dirty tragic
All those saplings
Between her fists
Under her arms.
Contagion the wind blows
Star weather and genius
Over the lawn
Past the mud ankles
The if and when pulse
Missing pecans dried
Canary cases
The drowning books
Our fixed up years
The ready pollution
Honors those the most.
Falls as if the wind
Took it down
In the night it lay
Dying, taking its last
Breath, wondering
How so many things
Go wrong, the roots
Hurt as they tear
Opening up the ground
Easily, how unbearable
The signs can be
Unwarranted dramatic
Dirty tragic
All those saplings
Between her fists
Under her arms.
Contagion the wind blows
Star weather and genius
Over the lawn
Past the mud ankles
The if and when pulse
Missing pecans dried
Canary cases
The drowning books
Our fixed up years
The ready pollution
Honors those the most.
NY dairy farmer kills 51 cows, commits suicide
COPAKE, N.Y. – State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.
State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police.
State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues.
The Columbia County hamlet of Copake is about 115 miles north of New York City.
Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.
LOS ANGELES – A firefighter splashed into a rain-swollen river Friday to rescue a German shepherd and managed to hang on safely, even after the dog furiously bit his arm and hand.
Joe St. Georges, a 25-year Los Angeles Fire Department veteran, said he received a "real bite in the thumb" but was otherwise feeling fine.
LONDON – A pair of British children who lured two other youngsters to a secluded area and subjected them to a horrifying catalog of near-fatal abuse were sentenced to at least five years in custody Friday.
The attackers, 10 and 11 at the time, were convicted of robbing, beating, and stabbing their victims with sticks and bricks. One child, 10, had a sink thrown onto his head, while his nephew, 9, was forced to eat nettles. The violence included sexual degradation, Justice Brian Keith said during the sentencing.
COPAKE, N.Y. – State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.
State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police.
State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues.
The Columbia County hamlet of Copake is about 115 miles north of New York City.
Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.
LOS ANGELES – A firefighter splashed into a rain-swollen river Friday to rescue a German shepherd and managed to hang on safely, even after the dog furiously bit his arm and hand.
Joe St. Georges, a 25-year Los Angeles Fire Department veteran, said he received a "real bite in the thumb" but was otherwise feeling fine.
LONDON – A pair of British children who lured two other youngsters to a secluded area and subjected them to a horrifying catalog of near-fatal abuse were sentenced to at least five years in custody Friday.
The attackers, 10 and 11 at the time, were convicted of robbing, beating, and stabbing their victims with sticks and bricks. One child, 10, had a sink thrown onto his head, while his nephew, 9, was forced to eat nettles. The violence included sexual degradation, Justice Brian Keith said during the sentencing.
14.1.10
HAITI RELIEF FUNDS
Please remind your friends and family to donate to at least one of the following organizations that are helping the people of Haiti. I have found that it is helpful to remind people who sometimes procrastinate over issues like this. You'd be surprised at how spreading the word can and does make a difference even ten bucks at a time.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/
How you can help:In addition to providing emergency relief, these organizations are providing the following aid to those in need:
Providing Basic Needs:• American Red Cross • CARE • World Vision • UNICEF USA • International Relief Teams • Save the Children • Catholic Relief Services • Samaritan's Purse • American Jewish World Services • Clinton Foundation • Yéle Haiti • World Concern • Mercy Corps • Operation Blessing International • UN Central Emegergency Response Fund (CERF) • Mercy & Sharing
Providing Shelter: • Shelterbox • Habitat for Humanity International
Providing Medical Aid: • Direct Relief International • International Medical Corps • Medical Teams International • Doctors Without Borders • Operation USA • MAP International • The International Committee of the Red Cross • World Health Organization • Americares • Project Medishare
Providing Food: • World Food Programme • The Salvation Army • Compassion International • Food for the Poor
Please remind your friends and family to donate to at least one of the following organizations that are helping the people of Haiti. I have found that it is helpful to remind people who sometimes procrastinate over issues like this. You'd be surprised at how spreading the word can and does make a difference even ten bucks at a time.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/
How you can help:In addition to providing emergency relief, these organizations are providing the following aid to those in need:
Providing Basic Needs:• American Red Cross • CARE • World Vision • UNICEF USA • International Relief Teams • Save the Children • Catholic Relief Services • Samaritan's Purse • American Jewish World Services • Clinton Foundation • Yéle Haiti • World Concern • Mercy Corps • Operation Blessing International • UN Central Emegergency Response Fund (CERF) • Mercy & Sharing
Providing Shelter: • Shelterbox • Habitat for Humanity International
Providing Medical Aid: • Direct Relief International • International Medical Corps • Medical Teams International • Doctors Without Borders • Operation USA • MAP International • The International Committee of the Red Cross • World Health Organization • Americares • Project Medishare
Providing Food: • World Food Programme • The Salvation Army • Compassion International • Food for the Poor
12.1.10
The University of Arizona Center for Middle Eastern Studies presents:
Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, a new documentary film from Unity Productions Foundation, explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world’s first major opinion poll, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization.
Focused on the issues of Gender Justice, Terrorism, and Democracy – the film presents remarkable data deftly, showing how it challenges the popular notion that Muslims and the West are on a collision course. Like the research, the film highlights a shared relationship that is based on facts – not fear.
Experts Featured in the film: Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, John Esposito, University Professor, Georgetown University, Rami Khoury, Editor of the Daily Star (Beirut), and Kenneth Pollack, Director of Research, Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, among others.
Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, a new documentary film from Unity Productions Foundation, explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world’s first major opinion poll, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization.
Focused on the issues of Gender Justice, Terrorism, and Democracy – the film presents remarkable data deftly, showing how it challenges the popular notion that Muslims and the West are on a collision course. Like the research, the film highlights a shared relationship that is based on facts – not fear.
Experts Featured in the film: Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, John Esposito, University Professor, Georgetown University, Rami Khoury, Editor of the Daily Star (Beirut), and Kenneth Pollack, Director of Research, Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, among others.
11.1.10
Saginaw
I have to say, we laughed hard
at the no pants romance stories
after Christmas dinner, the fire
roaring and Dick there with his
wooly layers. We just started
up about the no pants romance
and kept going. Now each of us
calls the other and asks
How'd we get started on that?
I think it was with the bright
idea I had at three in the afternoon
about a week before when I called
up Dick and said, what are you doing
for Christmas dinner and he told me
he'd be washing his socks. I was per-
plexed that a famous poet
would be washing his socks on Christmas
and anyway, delighted because
I wanted to invite my old friend
over for dinner. So that's the story
of the no pants romance
and you'd have to be there
to understand, you'd have to be
one of us or interested
in pants, in socks, in the hard
won loneliness of old poets.
I have to say, we laughed hard
at the no pants romance stories
after Christmas dinner, the fire
roaring and Dick there with his
wooly layers. We just started
up about the no pants romance
and kept going. Now each of us
calls the other and asks
How'd we get started on that?
I think it was with the bright
idea I had at three in the afternoon
about a week before when I called
up Dick and said, what are you doing
for Christmas dinner and he told me
he'd be washing his socks. I was per-
plexed that a famous poet
would be washing his socks on Christmas
and anyway, delighted because
I wanted to invite my old friend
over for dinner. So that's the story
of the no pants romance
and you'd have to be there
to understand, you'd have to be
one of us or interested
in pants, in socks, in the hard
won loneliness of old poets.
7.1.10
Marlene Dietrich - Lili Marleen
by Pigasus_Power
Glory by Nada Gordon
It is advised to find Lili in English because it is equally wunderbar to listen to. My father sang it in German usually. The following hadith apply (not Quran) but have numerous citations in Islamic history alongside Quranic ayat (proofs) from a Sunni website here:
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1786&CATE=142
“If a singer gathers people around him only to entertain them with his voice, then he will not be considered a upright person (a’dil), even though if he does not consume alcohol, as he will be considered the leader of sinners. If however, he only sings to himself in order to eradicate loneliness, then there is nothing wrong in doing so."
“Those who witness no falsehood, and if they pass by futility, they pass by it with honourable avoidance” (The Glorious Quran, Surah al-Furqan, V. 72)....in other words, keeping such things as music in perspective and tasteful...sometimes even motivational.
Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud (Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage” (Sunan al-Bayhaqi).
Which is true and the reason some music is banned/censored/protested even in the United States where freedom rings to cop a phrase from a well known patriotic tune.
The Shariah has possibly been misconstrued and one thing that muslims ought to be told is that the same type of over-policing happened in the Christian culture leading to the monastacism of priests/celebacy and even to the crisis of the church who harbored criminal pedophilic priests in their midst and with their knowledge.
“Unlawful (haram) singing is when the theme of the song consists of unlawful things, such as the description of a particular living person’s beauty and features, the virtues of wine that provoke wine-drinking, the details and particulars of family affairs or those songs that mock and ridicule others."
Lili Marlene is a song about war-time sex and ergo-prostitution which, believe it or not, has some regulatory points in Islam i.e. allowances. Is it then haram? I certainly don't know but I listen to it when I feel lonely or remember the loneliness that war creates among a variety of people, cultures and ideologies. It is also a case of underestimating the genetics of fathering children with the daughters of one's enemies...powerful idea and not mine to go into here except to say that it is a common thread throughout history and particularly, Greek history which is foundational to so many things including Islam itself which had to respond to the status quo of Greek mythology as did Christianity have to...without er...absorbing it via innovation and integration of practice (as the Christians did).
Sunni muslims have created a conundrum for themselves however because a well known hadith from Sahih Buhkari indicates that the prophet listened to singers and watched some young girls dancing...the hadith was narrated by the infamous Aisha whom the Sunnis regard as one of the holiest of women and the Shia regard as a special enemy to Islam itself...perhaps even one whose sole purpose was to separate the wheat (Shia) from the chaff (Sunni). I doubt that the hadith is accurate and instead it is one of those created either deliberately by Aisha herself or by others who followed and noted a good opportunity to spread vicious gossip.
The Sunni justify this exception because if they don't it leads to the discrediting of Buhkari's collection of quotes en toto:
"Firstly, theses young girls were singing without any unlawful musical instruments and secondly, the content of the song was regarding war, thus perfectly lawful. Also, they were not professional singers as the words of the Hadith clearly indicate."
I've read that hadith and it absolutely does not mention war but actually alludes to something pernicious and evil toward the prophet as do many Sunni hadiths and this is the crux of contention between Shia and Sunni is that the Sunni exhibit no remorse in relating false hadith if it means their side of the story "sticks together" better.
I mention it after viewing Nada Gordon's very interesting multimedia poem on her site today and after having mentioned Lili (again) in one of my own poems. I find it significant that this generation probably has little memory for such things as Marlene and her turncoat ways, her ultimately successful 'late in life' ascent to stardom via pseudo-usurious means i.e. war song. Her music was generally metrical and the lyrics could be read as poems just as well as they took off with music.
Black Market is one of my favorite tunes.....incredibly profound especially if one has had the luxury of reading In Praise of Older Women (as Lanny called it, 'Fleeing Hungry' riddled with Feeling Hungary).
Illusions is also a beautiful war time poem....quite romantic.
See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have is great war buff stuff and she says, "tell them my crime" which for those who have any knowledge of Marlene's refusal to serve the purposes of Hitler's Germany is staunch evidence about which side she was on and she knew it, communicated it in a widely known song as a type of war taunt.
A few samples from Amazon here.
2.1.10
The Boys Between Us
-Kiai o ka lewa (Guardians of the Upper Realms)
Would that this poem might submit
the wondrous headline there,
the problematic endings
and beginnings where
things go round and round
but who would believe
the announcement of sharp
air in the lungs below zero
tonight in North Dakota
and how that made my heart
begin to bleed and rejoice
as you drew your breath in
and stood up to walk
to where you are right now,
so far away from the past two
weeks, the first furlough
and this unorthodox,
sentimentally muslim Christmas.
I put that tree up for you
to make it seem more
like the movies and feel
more like a dream,
the real logistics
of history, ours and theirs.
There is fury in my heart
for you son
with whom no blankets
were sent, no glass tears
delivered and your friend
shows up to this house
a few hours after you left,
this house that feels like those first
few moments after a funeral.
He tried to hide
behind the pencil thin
brown-like-a-foreigner body
girlfriend of his, standing
at the door ringing the bell
thinking he could surprise me,
but I knew he'd come.
They all belong to me son,
your friends, their lives
and their deaths.
Her little promise ring
was too big for her finger,
this great big love
you kids know so much about
running between them,
his head shaved and skateboard
literate bandana (paisley)
wrapped as he always did it
back when he fainted
and slumped to the floor
like some people do
when they see their own
blood. I asked him
what was next
and the new infantry
is all he understands
with the skate park fading,
his first pack of smokes
you bought him when
you turned eighteen,
that's Dustin for you,
he doesn't look too bad
without all that hair
and his neck is thick, muscular,
like yours and everyone else's,
you can tell what he's been thinking.
I'm glad I watched
All's Quiet but not really,
not when a dead boy's guitar
is slung over a handle in
your old room
and Mary's brother's coat is
tucked into your duffle
alongside your orders.
Her parent's honored you,
don't forget that,
John's been dead for five years now
but his coat, son. That
is their son's coat, the son
that they lost when he
careened his brand new car
into a rocky crag on his way
back from Rocky Point
just after he'd made pilot.
Not sure if they hoped
to curse or bless you buddy.
And Jeremy shot himself
just last year and we all know
it was drugs that got him,
same war, different strategy
in the disingenuous battle
for a person's soul and then, their body.
Your voice shook when you volunteered
a eulogy up at St. Pat's,
seventeen years old is too
young to offer such a speech
but you did great that day,
the whole parish sobbed
and we aren't even Catholic.
Neither of them perished
from an IED
neither of them is buried
where they died
but they are still gone
and as gone as you are right
now, that first call home
is the hardest because the story
keeps on going.
It is nightfall on New Year's Day
and I play Jeremy's guitar
to the tune
bury me son, t'abreneh in'sha'allah,
please bury me with your heart on fire,
just don't bury what I've said.
I'm just a woman you know
but I've seen war from
several of its infinite angles
and I want to tell you
it looks different from every
one so far but I know
the last look we take
might be the one
that lasts the longest.
The war, son, is in man's bones,
it troubles the arteries
and fills the heart with steam,
purples this mind with agony
and drags our legs
like a grizzly bear on a rampage
whether we go or not
we drink the elixir of Free Will.
It takes girls and makes
them women, adultresses and widows,
draws lines around our eyes
and mouths, leaves boys
without mothers, fathers,
sisters and cousins - it places
us in perspective, drives
certain people to drink
and others to flee,
or like Dustin's girl
she signs up too damn it
because times haven't changed
and my own mother
peeled and placed bandages
at Bethesda Naval hospital in 1943
because times were tough then too.
If you'd have asked her
it was her culminating factor,
the one that drew and colored
the rest of her life, some
sort of redemption and reminder
when my dad got liquored up
and sang Lili Marlene. Everyone
looks good in uniform mister,
just not all of the time.
They sat there on my couch
this afternoon, he took
his bandana off and twisted it
over and over and over,
his mom told me he's afraid
of both things: killing and killing.
We all are.
We made polite conversation
for three whole hours,
he leaves tomorrow,
to "Misery" as they say
and its cold there too
but by May he'll be
shipping out and we know where,
just don't know if or how or who.
I knocked him on the head
with my knuckles
as he left, the same way
I did the day he passed out
and I tried to wake him up
as I washed his little cut
a couple of years back
when all we cared about
was whether or not
I had enough stew
to feed them all, your friends,
all your precious friends
who to me were
chosen especially for you
and more precious than gold.
For old time's sake I rapped
him on his hard head, for you
and him and Jeremy and John,
for my father and my brother,
for my mother and my uncle,
for the citizens of the earth
and those that have died
or who are dying today
and those being born,
for the rabbit I ran over outside
Benson on the way up
to send you on your way,
you and your Mary snuggling
in the back seat and crying,
for Mary, poor Mary and your sisters,
for your father who has delegated
to me more than I am capable
of delivering,
and for the havelina I shot last
night on New Year's Eve with
the beebee gun I finally bought
you after all those years
I denied you one, and that impervious
beast looked at me as if to say
bug off and then sauntered away.
For our enemies and our friends.
For your cousin who thinks
the Marines will do for him
what my brother never could.
Yes, war puts us all into perspective
and it never stops and never will my little boy.
Strife is justice said Heraclitus
and I have to agree
but it depends on which side you are
and if you know you're on it.
Would that this poem might submit
the wondrous headline there,
the problematic endings
and beginnings where
things go round and round
but who would believe
the announcement of sharp
air in the lungs below zero
tonight in North Dakota
and how that made my heart
begin to bleed and rejoice
as you drew your breath in
and stood up to walk
to where you are right now,
so far away from the past two
weeks, the first furlough
and this unorthodox,
sentimentally muslim Christmas.
I put that tree up for you
to make it seem more
like the movies and feel
more like a dream,
the real logistics
of history, ours and theirs.
There is fury in my heart
for you son
with whom no blankets
were sent, no glass tears
delivered and your friend
shows up to this house
a few hours after you left,
this house that feels like those first
few moments after a funeral.
He tried to hide
behind the pencil thin
brown-like-a-foreigner body
girlfriend of his, standing
at the door ringing the bell
thinking he could surprise me,
but I knew he'd come.
They all belong to me son,
your friends, their lives
and their deaths.
Her little promise ring
was too big for her finger,
this great big love
you kids know so much about
running between them,
his head shaved and skateboard
literate bandana (paisley)
wrapped as he always did it
back when he fainted
and slumped to the floor
like some people do
when they see their own
blood. I asked him
what was next
and the new infantry
is all he understands
with the skate park fading,
his first pack of smokes
you bought him when
you turned eighteen,
that's Dustin for you,
he doesn't look too bad
without all that hair
and his neck is thick, muscular,
like yours and everyone else's,
you can tell what he's been thinking.
I'm glad I watched
All's Quiet but not really,
not when a dead boy's guitar
is slung over a handle in
your old room
and Mary's brother's coat is
tucked into your duffle
alongside your orders.
Her parent's honored you,
don't forget that,
John's been dead for five years now
but his coat, son. That
is their son's coat, the son
that they lost when he
careened his brand new car
into a rocky crag on his way
back from Rocky Point
just after he'd made pilot.
Not sure if they hoped
to curse or bless you buddy.
And Jeremy shot himself
just last year and we all know
it was drugs that got him,
same war, different strategy
in the disingenuous battle
for a person's soul and then, their body.
Your voice shook when you volunteered
a eulogy up at St. Pat's,
seventeen years old is too
young to offer such a speech
but you did great that day,
the whole parish sobbed
and we aren't even Catholic.
Neither of them perished
from an IED
neither of them is buried
where they died
but they are still gone
and as gone as you are right
now, that first call home
is the hardest because the story
keeps on going.
It is nightfall on New Year's Day
and I play Jeremy's guitar
to the tune
bury me son, t'abreneh in'sha'allah,
please bury me with your heart on fire,
just don't bury what I've said.
I'm just a woman you know
but I've seen war from
several of its infinite angles
and I want to tell you
it looks different from every
one so far but I know
the last look we take
might be the one
that lasts the longest.
The war, son, is in man's bones,
it troubles the arteries
and fills the heart with steam,
purples this mind with agony
and drags our legs
like a grizzly bear on a rampage
whether we go or not
we drink the elixir of Free Will.
It takes girls and makes
them women, adultresses and widows,
draws lines around our eyes
and mouths, leaves boys
without mothers, fathers,
sisters and cousins - it places
us in perspective, drives
certain people to drink
and others to flee,
or like Dustin's girl
she signs up too damn it
because times haven't changed
and my own mother
peeled and placed bandages
at Bethesda Naval hospital in 1943
because times were tough then too.
If you'd have asked her
it was her culminating factor,
the one that drew and colored
the rest of her life, some
sort of redemption and reminder
when my dad got liquored up
and sang Lili Marlene. Everyone
looks good in uniform mister,
just not all of the time.
They sat there on my couch
this afternoon, he took
his bandana off and twisted it
over and over and over,
his mom told me he's afraid
of both things: killing and killing.
We all are.
We made polite conversation
for three whole hours,
he leaves tomorrow,
to "Misery" as they say
and its cold there too
but by May he'll be
shipping out and we know where,
just don't know if or how or who.
I knocked him on the head
with my knuckles
as he left, the same way
I did the day he passed out
and I tried to wake him up
as I washed his little cut
a couple of years back
when all we cared about
was whether or not
I had enough stew
to feed them all, your friends,
all your precious friends
who to me were
chosen especially for you
and more precious than gold.
For old time's sake I rapped
him on his hard head, for you
and him and Jeremy and John,
for my father and my brother,
for my mother and my uncle,
for the citizens of the earth
and those that have died
or who are dying today
and those being born,
for the rabbit I ran over outside
Benson on the way up
to send you on your way,
you and your Mary snuggling
in the back seat and crying,
for Mary, poor Mary and your sisters,
for your father who has delegated
to me more than I am capable
of delivering,
and for the havelina I shot last
night on New Year's Eve with
the beebee gun I finally bought
you after all those years
I denied you one, and that impervious
beast looked at me as if to say
bug off and then sauntered away.
For our enemies and our friends.
For your cousin who thinks
the Marines will do for him
what my brother never could.
Yes, war puts us all into perspective
and it never stops and never will my little boy.
Strife is justice said Heraclitus
and I have to agree
but it depends on which side you are
and if you know you're on it.
30.12.09
"Once in a blue moon" = every 19 years. And whaddya know, that crazy number 19 appears again and is associated with celestial events i.e. objective/empirical world events. Nineteen of course, is the common denominator number in the Quran. How amazing. We already know that the metonic cycle is 19 years plus/minus a smidge...but this is a new one for me i.e. that it has coordinates besides those that can be seen through a telescope.
Allahu ahkbar, Allah is Great.
"A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average, an extra full moon in a month — a blue moon — occurs every 2.5 years. The last time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091230/ap_on_sc/us_sci_blue_moon
Allahu ahkbar, Allah is Great.
"A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average, an extra full moon in a month — a blue moon — occurs every 2.5 years. The last time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091230/ap_on_sc/us_sci_blue_moon
11.12.09
The Noble Experiment
..or the charming, darling quite alarming Moon Shine (the sparkly word that sparkles and dazzles almost as much as Chappaquiddick does). What in tarnation* do I mean?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/miami/peopleevents/pande06.html
""If anyone wants to go to hell in a hurry," a distressed minister told the "New York Times" in 1925, "there are greased banks aplenty in Miami." During Prohibition, Miami Beach joined many American cities in openly flouting the 18th Amendment. "
The symposium** continues at Ron Silliman's house as to the social tragedy of the legend of the artist drunkard. It is an interesting discussion wherever one encounters it and one encounters it almost everyday and not just amongst artists and writers. I've little doubt that airline pilot lounges and teacher's lounges and sheesh even Catholic parishes (where wine is elevated not only to a sacramental element of the ritual but to the level of being the actual blood of GOD) are just chock full of the party line.
The workplace in America.
I work with a variety of people in a relatively large institution (for a small town). My boss drinks, her administrative assistant drinks and her star pupil (for now) drinks...all heavily. The finance lady drinks also and all four of them pepper their speech each and every day with splendid talk about getting TO a drink once they get home and sometimes it even veers into getting absolutely GASSED. (I also work with a few people who drink occassionally and one who never drinks at all and an older woman who never did and a nurse whose son is a chronic and suicidal.) It is amazing to me that the level of this problem in this country is so underwhelmingly underestimated when in fact I am certain that I am not unusual in my experience. If anything, I probably work in a LOW INCIDENCE population when it comes to this thing popularly referred to as "addiction". That is probably because we work at a HEALTH INSTITUTION where in fact we are all supposed to be...er..healthy.
In contrast, I smoke. Although it is very harmful to one's health, smoking is not associated with as many characteristics which could be called matters of one's missing ethical piece i.e. extramarital sex is never a result of smoking too many cigarettes but drinking tee many martoonis definitely can and does land people in the wrong bed at night sometimes. Therefore, smoking can never lead to syphillis, HIV or unwanted/unplanned pregnancy which I think is a real selling point even if my lungs probably are as black as tar. I have the stats to prove it because I collect stats for a living. Ninety percent of all those whom I test for HIV and STD admit to having sex while intoxicated. Of course that may mean with their spouse but that would take a bit more time to come up with how many people that I test who are actually married which is not that many as most people are only getting tested between partners or when they suspect infidelity or have been unfaithful plus those who choose to have sex before they get married to someone (most of our teens).
I'm not justifying it but making a comparison between one "habit" or "choice misbehavior" and another.
Coffee...I drink way too much coffee also. Hasn't really done me wrong but my teeth are probably not as white as they should be and my breasts are probably more likely to develop tumors. As well, coffee has never landed me or anyone I know in the hooskow even though I am absolutely certain that some car accidents are directly related to either spilling a cup of joe or dropping a fag in the wrong place.
I bite my nails. I'm actually a binge biter and can get down to my nubbins in a matter of minutes but only on occassion.
What I find truly fascinating about America is the campaign that has been waged and won against cigarette smoking. This society is successful in transitioning from one of encouraging and advocating the use of tobacco to one that is not only intolerant of it but is working on OUTLAWING it. Just like intoxicants were outlawed in early Islamic society when it eventually became a punishable offense (some say).
If it works for tobacco (even if it hasn't worked for me proving that the law isn't always on my side) why hasn't it been tried with alcohol?
Oh...I forgot...it has. It ended up in class/gang warfare and is now known nostalgically in movies and history books as THE PROHIBITION DAYS.
It literally has it's own word and is glamourized in movies ya see? (that's my best Cagney impersonation).
..or the charming, darling quite alarming Moon Shine (the sparkly word that sparkles and dazzles almost as much as Chappaquiddick does). What in tarnation* do I mean?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/miami/peopleevents/pande06.html
""If anyone wants to go to hell in a hurry," a distressed minister told the "New York Times" in 1925, "there are greased banks aplenty in Miami." During Prohibition, Miami Beach joined many American cities in openly flouting the 18th Amendment. "
Sumptuary Law from Wiki:
"The first written Greek law code (Locrian code), by Zaleucus in the seventh century BC, stipulated that "no free woman should be allowed any more than one maid to follow her, unless she was drunk: nor was to stir out of the city by night, wear jewels of gold about her, or go in an embroidered robe, unless she was a professed and public prostitute; that, bravos excepted, no man was to wear a gold ring, nor be seen in one of those effeminate robes woven in the city of Miletus." (Quoted from Montaigne, see below.) It also banned the drinking of undiluted wine except for medical purposes."
The symposium** continues at Ron Silliman's house as to the social tragedy of the legend of the artist drunkard. It is an interesting discussion wherever one encounters it and one encounters it almost everyday and not just amongst artists and writers. I've little doubt that airline pilot lounges and teacher's lounges and sheesh even Catholic parishes (where wine is elevated not only to a sacramental element of the ritual but to the level of being the actual blood of GOD) are just chock full of the party line.
The workplace in America.
I work with a variety of people in a relatively large institution (for a small town). My boss drinks, her administrative assistant drinks and her star pupil (for now) drinks...all heavily. The finance lady drinks also and all four of them pepper their speech each and every day with splendid talk about getting TO a drink once they get home and sometimes it even veers into getting absolutely GASSED. (I also work with a few people who drink occassionally and one who never drinks at all and an older woman who never did and a nurse whose son is a chronic and suicidal.) It is amazing to me that the level of this problem in this country is so underwhelmingly underestimated when in fact I am certain that I am not unusual in my experience. If anything, I probably work in a LOW INCIDENCE population when it comes to this thing popularly referred to as "addiction". That is probably because we work at a HEALTH INSTITUTION where in fact we are all supposed to be...er..healthy.
In contrast, I smoke. Although it is very harmful to one's health, smoking is not associated with as many characteristics which could be called matters of one's missing ethical piece i.e. extramarital sex is never a result of smoking too many cigarettes but drinking tee many martoonis definitely can and does land people in the wrong bed at night sometimes. Therefore, smoking can never lead to syphillis, HIV or unwanted/unplanned pregnancy which I think is a real selling point even if my lungs probably are as black as tar. I have the stats to prove it because I collect stats for a living. Ninety percent of all those whom I test for HIV and STD admit to having sex while intoxicated. Of course that may mean with their spouse but that would take a bit more time to come up with how many people that I test who are actually married which is not that many as most people are only getting tested between partners or when they suspect infidelity or have been unfaithful plus those who choose to have sex before they get married to someone (most of our teens).
I'm not justifying it but making a comparison between one "habit" or "choice misbehavior" and another.
Coffee...I drink way too much coffee also. Hasn't really done me wrong but my teeth are probably not as white as they should be and my breasts are probably more likely to develop tumors. As well, coffee has never landed me or anyone I know in the hooskow even though I am absolutely certain that some car accidents are directly related to either spilling a cup of joe or dropping a fag in the wrong place.
I bite my nails. I'm actually a binge biter and can get down to my nubbins in a matter of minutes but only on occassion.
What I find truly fascinating about America is the campaign that has been waged and won against cigarette smoking. This society is successful in transitioning from one of encouraging and advocating the use of tobacco to one that is not only intolerant of it but is working on OUTLAWING it. Just like intoxicants were outlawed in early Islamic society when it eventually became a punishable offense (some say).
If it works for tobacco (even if it hasn't worked for me proving that the law isn't always on my side) why hasn't it been tried with alcohol?
Oh...I forgot...it has. It ended up in class/gang warfare and is now known nostalgically in movies and history books as THE PROHIBITION DAYS.
It literally has it's own word and is glamourized in movies ya see? (that's my best Cagney impersonation).
And let's not forget that one Moonshiner in particular created a political dynasty that exists to this day and in fact, got one of his son's elected to be the Head Counsel for the country and whose name we all know by heart.
JFK...not to mention all the hardship that family has had to endure and let's just not go there because by now it ought to be pretty much lodged in our archetypical and mythological natural history as a nation.
*The word tarnation is rooted in the word ETERNAL and is a colloquial term my mother used all the damn time and one of my favorite words which I used to think had something to do with negroes.
**Symposia often were held for specific occasions. For example the most famous symposium of all, the one immortalised by Plato, was being hosted by the poet Agathon on the occasion of his first victory at the theater contest of the 416 BC Dionysia, but was upstaged by the unexpected entrance of the toast of the town, the young Alcibiades dropping in almost totally drunk and almost totally naked, having just left another symposium.
Nothing like the blind and perhaps naked and also drunk leading the same.
10.12.09
The Hypocrisy of Sobriety
-Certainly, you will understand it after some time. (Qur'an, 38:88)
I was thrilled to see Ron Silliman taking on the issue of chemical use/abuse in the art world. By all means, go there and read his plea to those in his orbit...it takes guts sometimes to stand up to those who would and will, obliterate a person for opting to stand up and clearly acknowledge the problem of chemical use/abuse in a typically chemical friendly group of artists and friends.
"Why are the relapse rates so low? (the author obviously meant to say "high" relapse rates)
You have probably heard some of the statistics for how many people stay sober, or for how many people stay clean after leaving treatment. These statistics are shockingly low, and can really be quite depressing to those who are interested in sending a friend or a loved one to treatment.
One reason that relapse rates are so bad is that the pool of possible recovering addicts is so large, and many of them are being “forced” into the statistics. In other words, many of the people who go to treatment centers do so in order to avoid a jail term, and they have no intention of staying clean and sober when they get out of rehab. This type of rehab visit is extremely common, and probably makes up a fairly large percentage of all the people in treatment. Therefore, the statistics are skewed a bit because there are so many people who do not truly want to get clean."
As the world takes new paths and learns more about Islam and the reason so many people adhere to the so-called strict regimen known as submission, it will certainly be interesting to see what research will be produced in countries like Iran who also have their share of chemical abuse problems and associated disorders of the human condition like sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and poverty/malnutrition.
Here is a relatively well written article that describes the overhaul that the prophet Mohamed successfully conducted in the early Islamic society when he eliminated chemical use from the list of what society ought to consider "normal" and "tolerable".*
The Islamic Plan To Combat Alcoholism
It is well known that alcoholism was wide spread all over the Arab Peninsula. The acceptance of the people for alcohol use was at its acme. Literature especially poetry reflects this fact. The deleterious effects of alcoholism was manifested on the social life conducting the tribes to continuous conflicts and wars
The main approach to the problem by Islam, was to adopt gradation in forbidding alcoholism. This was carried out side by side with improving the social conditions of the people. Faith played a major part in these two approaches. The time estimated from the beginning of the campaign to its end was about 15 years. The personality of the leader, "The Prophet" was revolutionary affecting this change. The model he gave, as 1st step was the true example adopted by him and all his near followers and so they were respected and their pieces of advice were accepted, absorbed, well learned and maintained denoting absolute response:
"THE PROPHET GAVE TRUE EXAMPLE TO BE FOLLOWED" (S.33: V.21)
The 2nd step was disseminating knowledge about the evils of alcohol that it is deleterious and detrimental:
THE BELIEVERS ENQUIRE ABOUT SPIRITS AND GAMBLING. INFORM THEM THAT THEY HAVE THEIR EVILS AND USES FOR PEOPLE BUT THEIR EVILS OUTWEIGH THEIR USES. (S2: V.219).
Thus drawing the attention to the deleterious effects of using spirits and gambling.
The 3rd step was rather decisive, it says blankly.
YOU BELIEVERS DO NOT APPROACH PRAYING WHILE YOU ARE UNDER THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL. (S.4: V.43)
Thus minimizing the abuse during most of the day, as the five prayers extend from dawn time until nightfall. The 4th step came when the people had matured enough to accept it through the penetrating model, the persuading orientation and the partial legislation. It was related that one of believers namely "Omar Ebn El Khtab" said in a meeting in the mosque "Oh Allah give us a decisive say about alcohol". At this time of real faith and maturation the last step was declared by the verse saying:
YOU BELIEVERS, SPIRITS, GAMBLING. IDOLS AND FORTUNE TELLING ARE ALL EVILS WHICH YOU SHOULD ABANDON THAT YOU MAY PROSPER. (S.5: V.90)
These vita steady steps treating the social and the spiritual side were the two pillars upon which the plan of combat rested.
History states that since the last verse the majority of the abusers abstained and the people lived without alcohol and did not drink or touch or sell or buy or sit with abusers or even carry it. This picture is unique in history and is a witness of the success of the campaign. From the above stated example we can deduce the items of the Islamic approach.
1. The model of the leader.
2. The dissemination of information about the evils of abuse.
3. Legislative steps were gradual hand in hand with these approaches and the change was to the better of the social life of the people.
4. The law of prohibition and imposing punishment for abusers came last.
Secondly, here is an important paper from WHO which outlines the approach of the Iranian government whose HIV epidemic is quite different from the HIV epidemics elsewhere in the world which, according to a 2005 study was found to be characterized by over 60% of all HIV infections in the Republic of Iran attributable directly to IV drug abuse.
http://www.emro.who.int/asd/pdf/hiv_review_iran.pdf
I think people would be surprised to notice that the Iranian plan is pragmatic and not at all the "fire and brimstone" approach that they might have suspected due to their social bias against "Islam" that has been exploited and manipulated by so many media and government alliances in the name of power and money.
*I am obligated to note that the first article presented by a muslim physician in the field is obviously a Sunni standpoint and most likely attributes something falsely to one of the leaders that the Sunni sect habitually inserts into the "doctrine" without actual evidence of same. Omar ibn Khatab was most likely not the speaker in that instance and in fact, one of the first three Caliphs to stand at the helm of Islam and was responsible for appointing a heavy drinker to the pulpit who literally fell from the pulpit during a famous episode that had been prophesied by the prophet during his lifetime.
May Allah be pleased with the Prophets, Imams, Companions and Believers and have mercy on those who found reason to lie about so many vastly important details.
-Certainly, you will understand it after some time. (Qur'an, 38:88)
I was thrilled to see Ron Silliman taking on the issue of chemical use/abuse in the art world. By all means, go there and read his plea to those in his orbit...it takes guts sometimes to stand up to those who would and will, obliterate a person for opting to stand up and clearly acknowledge the problem of chemical use/abuse in a typically chemical friendly group of artists and friends.
http://www.spiritualriver.com/drug-addiction/
"Why are the relapse rates so low? (the author obviously meant to say "high" relapse rates)
You have probably heard some of the statistics for how many people stay sober, or for how many people stay clean after leaving treatment. These statistics are shockingly low, and can really be quite depressing to those who are interested in sending a friend or a loved one to treatment.
One reason that relapse rates are so bad is that the pool of possible recovering addicts is so large, and many of them are being “forced” into the statistics. In other words, many of the people who go to treatment centers do so in order to avoid a jail term, and they have no intention of staying clean and sober when they get out of rehab. This type of rehab visit is extremely common, and probably makes up a fairly large percentage of all the people in treatment. Therefore, the statistics are skewed a bit because there are so many people who do not truly want to get clean."
As the world takes new paths and learns more about Islam and the reason so many people adhere to the so-called strict regimen known as submission, it will certainly be interesting to see what research will be produced in countries like Iran who also have their share of chemical abuse problems and associated disorders of the human condition like sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and poverty/malnutrition.
Here is a relatively well written article that describes the overhaul that the prophet Mohamed successfully conducted in the early Islamic society when he eliminated chemical use from the list of what society ought to consider "normal" and "tolerable".*
The Islamic Plan To Combat Alcoholism
It is well known that alcoholism was wide spread all over the Arab Peninsula. The acceptance of the people for alcohol use was at its acme. Literature especially poetry reflects this fact. The deleterious effects of alcoholism was manifested on the social life conducting the tribes to continuous conflicts and wars
The main approach to the problem by Islam, was to adopt gradation in forbidding alcoholism. This was carried out side by side with improving the social conditions of the people. Faith played a major part in these two approaches. The time estimated from the beginning of the campaign to its end was about 15 years. The personality of the leader, "The Prophet" was revolutionary affecting this change. The model he gave, as 1st step was the true example adopted by him and all his near followers and so they were respected and their pieces of advice were accepted, absorbed, well learned and maintained denoting absolute response:
"THE PROPHET GAVE TRUE EXAMPLE TO BE FOLLOWED" (S.33: V.21)
The 2nd step was disseminating knowledge about the evils of alcohol that it is deleterious and detrimental:
THE BELIEVERS ENQUIRE ABOUT SPIRITS AND GAMBLING. INFORM THEM THAT THEY HAVE THEIR EVILS AND USES FOR PEOPLE BUT THEIR EVILS OUTWEIGH THEIR USES. (S2: V.219).
Thus drawing the attention to the deleterious effects of using spirits and gambling.
The 3rd step was rather decisive, it says blankly.
YOU BELIEVERS DO NOT APPROACH PRAYING WHILE YOU ARE UNDER THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL. (S.4: V.43)
Thus minimizing the abuse during most of the day, as the five prayers extend from dawn time until nightfall. The 4th step came when the people had matured enough to accept it through the penetrating model, the persuading orientation and the partial legislation. It was related that one of believers namely "Omar Ebn El Khtab" said in a meeting in the mosque "Oh Allah give us a decisive say about alcohol". At this time of real faith and maturation the last step was declared by the verse saying:
YOU BELIEVERS, SPIRITS, GAMBLING. IDOLS AND FORTUNE TELLING ARE ALL EVILS WHICH YOU SHOULD ABANDON THAT YOU MAY PROSPER. (S.5: V.90)
These vita steady steps treating the social and the spiritual side were the two pillars upon which the plan of combat rested.
History states that since the last verse the majority of the abusers abstained and the people lived without alcohol and did not drink or touch or sell or buy or sit with abusers or even carry it. This picture is unique in history and is a witness of the success of the campaign. From the above stated example we can deduce the items of the Islamic approach.
1. The model of the leader.
2. The dissemination of information about the evils of abuse.
3. Legislative steps were gradual hand in hand with these approaches and the change was to the better of the social life of the people.
4. The law of prohibition and imposing punishment for abusers came last.
Secondly, here is an important paper from WHO which outlines the approach of the Iranian government whose HIV epidemic is quite different from the HIV epidemics elsewhere in the world which, according to a 2005 study was found to be characterized by over 60% of all HIV infections in the Republic of Iran attributable directly to IV drug abuse.
http://www.emro.who.int/asd/pdf/hiv_review_iran.pdf
I think people would be surprised to notice that the Iranian plan is pragmatic and not at all the "fire and brimstone" approach that they might have suspected due to their social bias against "Islam" that has been exploited and manipulated by so many media and government alliances in the name of power and money.
*I am obligated to note that the first article presented by a muslim physician in the field is obviously a Sunni standpoint and most likely attributes something falsely to one of the leaders that the Sunni sect habitually inserts into the "doctrine" without actual evidence of same. Omar ibn Khatab was most likely not the speaker in that instance and in fact, one of the first three Caliphs to stand at the helm of Islam and was responsible for appointing a heavy drinker to the pulpit who literally fell from the pulpit during a famous episode that had been prophesied by the prophet during his lifetime.
May Allah be pleased with the Prophets, Imams, Companions and Believers and have mercy on those who found reason to lie about so many vastly important details.
9.12.09
Iran Gets Approval to remove Israeli land mines from South Lebanon
South Lebanon no longer hides the fact that it is part of the Iranian Empire. It's simply amazing to me to live in a time when one empire is falling and another is rising. Not many people in history get to do that because empires tend to last for at least a thousand years if not more. Sometimes, old empires return as is the case with the Persian Empire albeit with a few changes. This time around, it's a Shia Muslim Empire. In the book below "The Devil We Know", I couldn't help but notice the curiosity and intellectual courage of the author who in no way is to be considered "pro Islam", who states quite aptly that the new Iranian Empire appears to have an attitude of frank "manifest destiny". I have to chuckle a bit when non believers notice something and still assume that even though the proof is right there and out in the open, there must be some catch, some missing piece or even, a case of Messianic Mistaken Identity going on in the minds of the leaders of Iran proper. He got it right even if he cannot possibly accept it for himself. Iran possesses true manifest destiny and we Shia know that. The nation of Shia who really don't have as much allegiance to "countries" as they do to a philosophy and a select group of people (the Twelve Imams).
While in South Lebanon and with this profound book in the forefront of my thoughts, I visited a park that was built by Iran in a little town just above Bint Jubail which is known as Maroon. I searched on the internet to see if I could find a news story about this amazing little park but could find nothing....so I have to write my own.
Bint Jubail is a moderately large city by Southern Lebanese standards where most villages are relatively small and dispersed throughout the area with less than one or two kilometers between towns. Bint Jubail used to be the center of trade for South Lebanon until it was occupied by Israel for way longer than I care to remember. During the 2006 Israeli invasion of sovereign and then liberated South Lebanon, Bint Jubail became a key factor in the defeat of the world's fourth largest military power by a small group of civilian resistance fighters. It was as Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah promised it would be, the Israeli Graveyard. The defeat of Israel in Bint Jubail is and will be considered by future historians as the turning point in the destiny of many nations throughout the world if not all of them.
Maroon is a tiny village that sits above Bint Jubail in the valley below and to the southeast, a northern Israeli town. It is not only beautiful but incredibly strategic in the military sense of the word. This is where Iran has constructed a modern, solar powered picnic ground that truly is the finest park I've ever seen. On weekends it is nearly impossible to get a spot (no fees are charged) unless you show up at the crack of dawn.
The Iranian flag flies and is clearly visible to those in Israel who spend their days most likely in a state of incredulous angst at what is happening to a strip of land they thought they could steal and occupy as they did to the whole of Palestine. I've little doubt they know or at least suspect that the end of the story is quite near. I also feel a sense of sympathy for them because if I had been a party to the war crimes of Israel, I guess I'd be more than a bit fretful.
Ironically however, I don't think they ought to be so afraid. It isn't going to end the way they think and I am certain no one is going to be exterminated or driven into the sea. Not at all.
South Lebanon no longer hides the fact that it is part of the Iranian Empire. It's simply amazing to me to live in a time when one empire is falling and another is rising. Not many people in history get to do that because empires tend to last for at least a thousand years if not more. Sometimes, old empires return as is the case with the Persian Empire albeit with a few changes. This time around, it's a Shia Muslim Empire. In the book below "The Devil We Know", I couldn't help but notice the curiosity and intellectual courage of the author who in no way is to be considered "pro Islam", who states quite aptly that the new Iranian Empire appears to have an attitude of frank "manifest destiny". I have to chuckle a bit when non believers notice something and still assume that even though the proof is right there and out in the open, there must be some catch, some missing piece or even, a case of Messianic Mistaken Identity going on in the minds of the leaders of Iran proper. He got it right even if he cannot possibly accept it for himself. Iran possesses true manifest destiny and we Shia know that. The nation of Shia who really don't have as much allegiance to "countries" as they do to a philosophy and a select group of people (the Twelve Imams).
While in South Lebanon and with this profound book in the forefront of my thoughts, I visited a park that was built by Iran in a little town just above Bint Jubail which is known as Maroon. I searched on the internet to see if I could find a news story about this amazing little park but could find nothing....so I have to write my own.
Bint Jubail is a moderately large city by Southern Lebanese standards where most villages are relatively small and dispersed throughout the area with less than one or two kilometers between towns. Bint Jubail used to be the center of trade for South Lebanon until it was occupied by Israel for way longer than I care to remember. During the 2006 Israeli invasion of sovereign and then liberated South Lebanon, Bint Jubail became a key factor in the defeat of the world's fourth largest military power by a small group of civilian resistance fighters. It was as Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah promised it would be, the Israeli Graveyard. The defeat of Israel in Bint Jubail is and will be considered by future historians as the turning point in the destiny of many nations throughout the world if not all of them.
Maroon is a tiny village that sits above Bint Jubail in the valley below and to the southeast, a northern Israeli town. It is not only beautiful but incredibly strategic in the military sense of the word. This is where Iran has constructed a modern, solar powered picnic ground that truly is the finest park I've ever seen. On weekends it is nearly impossible to get a spot (no fees are charged) unless you show up at the crack of dawn.
The Iranian flag flies and is clearly visible to those in Israel who spend their days most likely in a state of incredulous angst at what is happening to a strip of land they thought they could steal and occupy as they did to the whole of Palestine. I've little doubt they know or at least suspect that the end of the story is quite near. I also feel a sense of sympathy for them because if I had been a party to the war crimes of Israel, I guess I'd be more than a bit fretful.
Ironically however, I don't think they ought to be so afraid. It isn't going to end the way they think and I am certain no one is going to be exterminated or driven into the sea. Not at all.
8.12.09
Back from two weeks in the Levant just in time for a (hopefully) nice big snow storm and two weeks of the wholly joyful look that I always take this time of year at the world and the Christians and non Christians and just about everyone else who all go a little beserk with gadgets and outdoor lights. It's a precious time of year to just about everyone on the planet and the way I got to Islam was through Jesus (may Allah be pleased with him) so I guess it all makes some type of odd sense for the Christmas season to remain a very special one to me as a muslim.
I read an absolutely stunning book while I was down in South Lebanon. Couldn't put it down. Quite literally the best book thus far written about the trouble with Iran and the US.
I highly recommend this to everyone and have to say...you don't have to like political history books to get into this one...truly. Very straight forward and hits the high points of this cautionary tale in a style that is well paced and not that over your head type of political gibberish.
To get a taste of The Devil We Know/Dealing With The New Iranian Superpower go here:
7.11.09
DISEASE and WISDOM
"One of the companions of Imam fell ill. Imam Ali called upon him and thus advised him: "Be thankful to Allah. He has made this illness a thing to atone your sins because a disease in itself has nothing to bring reward to anyone, it merely expiates one's sins and so far as reward is concerned, one has to earn it with his good words and good deeds. The Almighty Lord grants Paradise to his creatures on account of their piety and noble thoughts". "
"The sin which makes you sad and repentant is more liked by Allah than the good deed which turns you arrogant."
-Ali ibn Abi Taleb, Lion of Allah, Commander of the Faithful. May Allah be pleased with him and his heirs.
"One of the companions of Imam fell ill. Imam Ali called upon him and thus advised him: "Be thankful to Allah. He has made this illness a thing to atone your sins because a disease in itself has nothing to bring reward to anyone, it merely expiates one's sins and so far as reward is concerned, one has to earn it with his good words and good deeds. The Almighty Lord grants Paradise to his creatures on account of their piety and noble thoughts". "
"The sin which makes you sad and repentant is more liked by Allah than the good deed which turns you arrogant."
-Ali ibn Abi Taleb, Lion of Allah, Commander of the Faithful. May Allah be pleased with him and his heirs.
5.11.09
How Herpes Simplex Virus creates the Perfect Storm for HIV infection
The entire article here:
http://www.fhcrc.org/about/pubs/center_news/online/2009/08/Corey_herpes_study.html
The entire article here:
http://www.fhcrc.org/about/pubs/center_news/online/2009/08/Corey_herpes_study.html
4.11.09
Catholic Relief Services Attacks HIV/AIDS
Herpes....most of us have some type. HIV + Herpes = a three to five fold increase in rate of HIV transmission. TB...remember the Alamo! TB used to be not only stigmatized but incurable. Will HIV follow the same path and pattern as TB?
I certainly think so. No...I know so. It is obvious. Unlike TB however, HIV isn't spread through casual contact or any type of ordinary just "minding my business" type of way like the way TB is spread. This, we know for certain.
And because of the prevalence of Herpes I and II (eighty percent of people have oral Herpes, twenty percent have genital and oral herpes can manifest as genital outbreaks) in the general population....the perfect storm is brewing.
Herpes....most of us have some type. HIV + Herpes = a three to five fold increase in rate of HIV transmission. TB...remember the Alamo! TB used to be not only stigmatized but incurable. Will HIV follow the same path and pattern as TB?
I certainly think so. No...I know so. It is obvious. Unlike TB however, HIV isn't spread through casual contact or any type of ordinary just "minding my business" type of way like the way TB is spread. This, we know for certain.
And because of the prevalence of Herpes I and II (eighty percent of people have oral Herpes, twenty percent have genital and oral herpes can manifest as genital outbreaks) in the general population....the perfect storm is brewing.
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