I know. I'm as shocked as you are.
A Small Victory is on the case.
Oh, and don't miss this. Have you ever - well, never mind, I won't ask. I'll just confess for myself: Yes, I do admit to occasionally, still, even now, humming the tune to Neil Diamond's "America". OK, now stop laughing and go read ASV. This post is magnificent.
2004-05-17
Taheri: Say No to the UN
"From 1990 to 2003, the U.N. was officially at war against Saddam Hussein; it passed 18 mandatory resolutions on Iraq. But it did nothing to implement any of those resolutions, except through the Oil-for-Food scam in which $4 billion disappeared in corrupt deals that involved senior U.N. officials.
So what is the rationale for putting the U.N. in charge in Iraq, even for a single day?"
This from the latest article by Amir Taheri. Taheri, who recently told us more than we really needed to know about the long history of decapitation, brings us up to speed on the battle between Iraq's people and its would-be occupiers. The skinny: don't let the UN take over. Read the whole article at the link.
So what is the rationale for putting the U.N. in charge in Iraq, even for a single day?"
This from the latest article by Amir Taheri. Taheri, who recently told us more than we really needed to know about the long history of decapitation, brings us up to speed on the battle between Iraq's people and its would-be occupiers. The skinny: don't let the UN take over. Read the whole article at the link.
Shy No More
Recently returned from an idyllic spring vacation in Shiraz, one of the writers at View From Iran notes that "it's fun not to be shy" among the outgoing Iranians. She also describes her encounters with the numerous Western tourists, including a Dutch lad named Joop.
A Day in the Life
Ginmar prefers to avoid explosions. (Really, what's WRONG with her?!)
Also don't miss her latest posts at A View From A Broad.
Also don't miss her latest posts at A View From A Broad.
Hope for Seven Iraqi Amputees
The indispensable Fayrouz brings us news of seven Iraqi men whose hands were amputated by Saddam's regime. Why doesn't their story interest the media?
The L Word: Are you a lberal?
THE L WORD: LIBERALISM IN CRISIS
Are you a liberal?
Do you believe in freedom?
Do you believe in a future where women, gays, and people of all faiths and traditions are free to be who they are without fear?
Do you believe in the beautiful and infinite diversity of humankind, our cultures and our individual lives?
Do you reject the failures of the past, and do you despise the regimes that keep entire nations in chains?
Do you believe that the smiling, clean-cut collaborators share the perpetrators’ guilt?
Do you hold a healthy skepticism for the institutions of “culture”, and do you yet believe that the richness of our lives comes from the wealth of culture, high and low, that is available to us?
Do you chafe at the pretensions of the elite classes, and do you still believe that all people, mighty and humble, may partake of the humanity that makes us divine and the divinity that makes us human?
Do you rebel against the abuse of power, and do you still believe that power may be used wisely and justly?
Do you believe that we can change for the better, that with good will, faith, careful thought, and courage we can build the world we want?
And do you remember that the word “liberal” means a believer in freedom?
Are you a liberal?
Do you believe in freedom?
Do you believe in a future where women, gays, and people of all faiths and traditions are free to be who they are without fear?
Do you believe in the beautiful and infinite diversity of humankind, our cultures and our individual lives?
Do you reject the failures of the past, and do you despise the regimes that keep entire nations in chains?
Do you believe that the smiling, clean-cut collaborators share the perpetrators’ guilt?
Do you hold a healthy skepticism for the institutions of “culture”, and do you yet believe that the richness of our lives comes from the wealth of culture, high and low, that is available to us?
Do you chafe at the pretensions of the elite classes, and do you still believe that all people, mighty and humble, may partake of the humanity that makes us divine and the divinity that makes us human?
Do you rebel against the abuse of power, and do you still believe that power may be used wisely and justly?
Do you believe that we can change for the better, that with good will, faith, careful thought, and courage we can build the world we want?
And do you remember that the word “liberal” means a believer in freedom?
Upcoming Events
As noted below, I'm going to be taking a short break from writing Morning Report. Sifting through the news headlines on a daily basis is more gruelling than you might think. Nevertheless I consider MR an important part of this blog and intend to continue posting it regularly, resuming on Sunday.
Meanwhile, I'm preparing posts on the following topics:
- gay marriage
- Armed Forces Day
- the continuation of my series on Kabbalah
- liberalism and the freedom movement
- Oregon events, including the Spain suspect and the Goldschmidt scandal
- and of course, unfolding events in the Mideast and around the world.
If I can get all of that under control by the end of the week, I may even take a short break from blogging.
Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, I'm preparing posts on the following topics:
- gay marriage
- Armed Forces Day
- the continuation of my series on Kabbalah
- liberalism and the freedom movement
- Oregon events, including the Spain suspect and the Goldschmidt scandal
- and of course, unfolding events in the Mideast and around the world.
If I can get all of that under control by the end of the week, I may even take a short break from blogging.
Stay tuned.
2004-05-16
The Kabbalah
THE KABBALAH – Part 2
When I was in my mid-teens, my mother gave me my first book about Kabbalah. It was “The Book of Letters” by Lawrence Kushner. You have to see this book: it’s bound in natural colored cloth, printed on cream-colored paper; it’s not typeset, but written in the author’s hand in plain and elegant English and Hebrew calligraphy. There is a copy of the book on my lap, next to my computer keyboard, as I write this. I cannot imagine being without this book.
“Alef is the first letter. It has no sound ...” So begins the book, quietly, like the first letter. “Open your mouth and begin to make a sound. STOP! That is Alef.” At once, intuitively, you know where Kushner is taking you. You’re going to go to the beginning, the place before sound, the place before thought. You’re going to learn new words – and not just the words themselves, or even just their meanings, you are going to learn a new way of thinking.
Over the next fifty-five pages (it is a short book) we learn more than 200 Hebrew words: words like echad (one), bayit (house), hinneni (here I am), sefer (book), and tzedek (righteousness). We also learn that “you cannot pronounce the letter Tet until you go out early in the spring morning and see the dew (tal). Only when you secretly confess to yourself that you really do not understand how the tiny droplets of water have come to be, are you permitted to be cleansed in them.”
Growing up in Rabbi Kushner’s New England, I knew well the chill of the dew on bare feet in the morning, at that time in spring when school is not quite over, but you can at least forget about it long enough to watch the shimmer of the early sun on those droplets. And maybe you weren’t happy in school, and maybe your home life wasn’t so good either, but could put it out of your mind when you saw the dew glistening on the blades of grass.
What was I feeling at those moments? I don’t know. I know that at other times, I was feeling “Shevirat ha-Kelim. The discord and confusion which is the beginning of growing. And then trying to get it all back together again.” So life was not meant to be easy: this much was clear. But what could be broken and shattered could also be mended: “Tikkun. Mending. The repair of the universe.” I didn’t understand what it all meant, but I wanted to find out.
Now there’s another book in front of me: big, square, and slick, printed in eye-popping day-glow colors and metallic silver. The title is “The 72 Names of God – Technology for the Soul (TM)” and the dust jacket informs me that the book is a “National Bestseller”. Its author, Yehuda Berg, is “an ordained Rabbi and is internationally-renowned as a leading authority of Kabbalah.”
The Forword informs us that “the 72 Names are a technology for asserting the power of human consciousness over physicality.” The book is quite emphatic about the “technology” aspect, in fact, using the word ten times in the two-page foreword (and four times in the first paragraph alone).
So it is a technology. Well. If it is a technology, then it must be practical, efficient, and reliable. I certainly hope it works better than my AOL dial-up or Windows Millennium Edition.
But if it is a technology, then it must also be inscrutable. Anything technological has already been theorized, understood, studied, researched and developed, and is now in full production, ready for consumer use. Science – or what used to be called “natural philosophy” – belongs to the conjoined realms of understanding and experience. Technology, by definition, does not ask to be understood or even thought about; only used. Did your computer come with a brochure explaining the fine points of silicon doping and photolithography? Neither did mine.
What are the 72 Names? They are combinations of three Hebrew letters each, derived from Exodus 14:19-21 by a simple algorithm (one letter from each verse, in order, reading the middle verse backward). The book promises that by meditating faithfully on the various letter combinations, certain specific effects can be achieved. Of course, there is a stipulation: the Names will not do anything for you unless you commit to “proactive behavior” and renounce “ego games”.
Well and good: the 72 Names of God help them who help themselves. But these little tricks – being proactive and dealing with that nuisance called the ego – does the book offer us any practical advice regarding these things? Is it not astonishing that whole shelves of self-help books, even entire religions, have been devoted to these tasks, yet Berg offers us not so much as a handful of pointers for keeping the mind and body still during meditation, or winning friends and influencing people?
And conversely: once we’ve got will and ego under control, what will the 72 Names do for us that mere meditation, prayer, study, and action alone will not? On this point, too, the book is resolutely silent.
But let me stop nitpicking over the book; now I want to visit Yossi Kein Halevi’s article on Yehuda Berg and his Kabbalah Centre.
(End of Part 2)
When I was in my mid-teens, my mother gave me my first book about Kabbalah. It was “The Book of Letters” by Lawrence Kushner. You have to see this book: it’s bound in natural colored cloth, printed on cream-colored paper; it’s not typeset, but written in the author’s hand in plain and elegant English and Hebrew calligraphy. There is a copy of the book on my lap, next to my computer keyboard, as I write this. I cannot imagine being without this book.
“Alef is the first letter. It has no sound ...” So begins the book, quietly, like the first letter. “Open your mouth and begin to make a sound. STOP! That is Alef.” At once, intuitively, you know where Kushner is taking you. You’re going to go to the beginning, the place before sound, the place before thought. You’re going to learn new words – and not just the words themselves, or even just their meanings, you are going to learn a new way of thinking.
Over the next fifty-five pages (it is a short book) we learn more than 200 Hebrew words: words like echad (one), bayit (house), hinneni (here I am), sefer (book), and tzedek (righteousness). We also learn that “you cannot pronounce the letter Tet until you go out early in the spring morning and see the dew (tal). Only when you secretly confess to yourself that you really do not understand how the tiny droplets of water have come to be, are you permitted to be cleansed in them.”
Growing up in Rabbi Kushner’s New England, I knew well the chill of the dew on bare feet in the morning, at that time in spring when school is not quite over, but you can at least forget about it long enough to watch the shimmer of the early sun on those droplets. And maybe you weren’t happy in school, and maybe your home life wasn’t so good either, but could put it out of your mind when you saw the dew glistening on the blades of grass.
What was I feeling at those moments? I don’t know. I know that at other times, I was feeling “Shevirat ha-Kelim. The discord and confusion which is the beginning of growing. And then trying to get it all back together again.” So life was not meant to be easy: this much was clear. But what could be broken and shattered could also be mended: “Tikkun. Mending. The repair of the universe.” I didn’t understand what it all meant, but I wanted to find out.
Now there’s another book in front of me: big, square, and slick, printed in eye-popping day-glow colors and metallic silver. The title is “The 72 Names of God – Technology for the Soul (TM)” and the dust jacket informs me that the book is a “National Bestseller”. Its author, Yehuda Berg, is “an ordained Rabbi and is internationally-renowned as a leading authority of Kabbalah.”
The Forword informs us that “the 72 Names are a technology for asserting the power of human consciousness over physicality.” The book is quite emphatic about the “technology” aspect, in fact, using the word ten times in the two-page foreword (and four times in the first paragraph alone).
So it is a technology. Well. If it is a technology, then it must be practical, efficient, and reliable. I certainly hope it works better than my AOL dial-up or Windows Millennium Edition.
But if it is a technology, then it must also be inscrutable. Anything technological has already been theorized, understood, studied, researched and developed, and is now in full production, ready for consumer use. Science – or what used to be called “natural philosophy” – belongs to the conjoined realms of understanding and experience. Technology, by definition, does not ask to be understood or even thought about; only used. Did your computer come with a brochure explaining the fine points of silicon doping and photolithography? Neither did mine.
What are the 72 Names? They are combinations of three Hebrew letters each, derived from Exodus 14:19-21 by a simple algorithm (one letter from each verse, in order, reading the middle verse backward). The book promises that by meditating faithfully on the various letter combinations, certain specific effects can be achieved. Of course, there is a stipulation: the Names will not do anything for you unless you commit to “proactive behavior” and renounce “ego games”.
Well and good: the 72 Names of God help them who help themselves. But these little tricks – being proactive and dealing with that nuisance called the ego – does the book offer us any practical advice regarding these things? Is it not astonishing that whole shelves of self-help books, even entire religions, have been devoted to these tasks, yet Berg offers us not so much as a handful of pointers for keeping the mind and body still during meditation, or winning friends and influencing people?
And conversely: once we’ve got will and ego under control, what will the 72 Names do for us that mere meditation, prayer, study, and action alone will not? On this point, too, the book is resolutely silent.
But let me stop nitpicking over the book; now I want to visit Yossi Kein Halevi’s article on Yehuda Berg and his Kabbalah Centre.
(End of Part 2)
The Kabbalah
THE KABBALAH – Part 1
You remember how it was when you were a small child? How everything was new and full of wonder? Even if you had a hard childhood, your mind would open from time to time, everything around you would fall away, and you felt yourself joined with something higher. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t tell me you don’t remember.
Even as a young adult, when you were first exploring new books and music, love and sex, you had the nagging feeling that there was something behind it all, some kind of secret – not quite like the secret codes you played with as a child, but still a way of changing and hiding a deeper message. And maybe you tried to find clues to this message in your Scriptures, or in science, or in art and literature, and you felt you almost had it, but it still eluded you.
And there were bills to pay, kids to raise, endless meetings and interviews and hasty late-night dinners in front of the television before you dropped off to sleep exhausted. You found the answers that worked for you, and they worked well enough, and you stopped asking the questions, not because you didn’t care anymore, but just because you had other things to do.
So here you are. Maybe now you’re at what they call middle age (whatever that means) and you start counting your birthdays in terms of how many down, how many to go. You wonder what comes next. In those private moments you’ve never spoken of to anyone, you wonder why you bother at all. You’re tired – tired of everything, all the time. You catch yourself thinking that if something happened to you, and you didn’t have to do this anymore, perhaps it wouldn’t be an altogether bad thing. An early retirement, you could say ... and then the alarm clock rings, and it’s time to do it all again.
What brought us here, and why? We’ve looked for answers to these questions in books, you and I, and we know that none of the answers we’ve found have been satisfactory. What we need is not for someone to hand us a diagram with our place clearly marked in the Master Plan (although let’s admit it, that would be nice, woudn’t it?) – what we really need is to learn a new way of thinking. Or maybe it’s an old way of thinking. Or maybe it’s a way of not-thinking.
Or maybe ...
(End of Part 1)
You remember how it was when you were a small child? How everything was new and full of wonder? Even if you had a hard childhood, your mind would open from time to time, everything around you would fall away, and you felt yourself joined with something higher. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t tell me you don’t remember.
Even as a young adult, when you were first exploring new books and music, love and sex, you had the nagging feeling that there was something behind it all, some kind of secret – not quite like the secret codes you played with as a child, but still a way of changing and hiding a deeper message. And maybe you tried to find clues to this message in your Scriptures, or in science, or in art and literature, and you felt you almost had it, but it still eluded you.
And there were bills to pay, kids to raise, endless meetings and interviews and hasty late-night dinners in front of the television before you dropped off to sleep exhausted. You found the answers that worked for you, and they worked well enough, and you stopped asking the questions, not because you didn’t care anymore, but just because you had other things to do.
So here you are. Maybe now you’re at what they call middle age (whatever that means) and you start counting your birthdays in terms of how many down, how many to go. You wonder what comes next. In those private moments you’ve never spoken of to anyone, you wonder why you bother at all. You’re tired – tired of everything, all the time. You catch yourself thinking that if something happened to you, and you didn’t have to do this anymore, perhaps it wouldn’t be an altogether bad thing. An early retirement, you could say ... and then the alarm clock rings, and it’s time to do it all again.
What brought us here, and why? We’ve looked for answers to these questions in books, you and I, and we know that none of the answers we’ve found have been satisfactory. What we need is not for someone to hand us a diagram with our place clearly marked in the Master Plan (although let’s admit it, that would be nice, woudn’t it?) – what we really need is to learn a new way of thinking. Or maybe it’s an old way of thinking. Or maybe it’s a way of not-thinking.
Or maybe ...
(End of Part 1)
Best of Blogdad: Iraqis Address the Peace Movement (Part 2)
In this post in Iraq the Model, Mohammed describes his reaction to the protest in London, where a statue of President Bush was pulled down in imitation of the April 9 event in Baghdad, where a statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled:
-What was I supposed to feel when I see a statue representing Mr. Bush being pulled to the ground in London?
I hesitated whether to write about it or not, but I found myself compelled to do so as I couldn't tolerate to keep all the frustration inside.
-I was shocked I didn't find the slightest similarity the protestors wanted to exhibit and it never occurred to me that I would see such a naïve and absurd action, and where? In London!.
-We here are waiting for all possible help from these people to offer us what broadens our horizon and helps us reach the bright side of life as they helped us in freeing our country from the tyranny, and scenes like these make me doubt the value of such help, I mean what were they trying to prove?
-The real, living and historical event that took place in Baghdad
on the 9th of April that announced not only the downfall of the ugliest dictatorship in modern history but also the beginning of a new era of freedom was a totally a genuine and spontaneous reaction that came right out of the hearts and souls of crowds that have been brutally restrained for decades, and trying to simulate this through a previously organized and timed action was something the least I could say about is pathetic and disgusting . ...
Read the whole post at the link.
-What was I supposed to feel when I see a statue representing Mr. Bush being pulled to the ground in London?
I hesitated whether to write about it or not, but I found myself compelled to do so as I couldn't tolerate to keep all the frustration inside.
-I was shocked I didn't find the slightest similarity the protestors wanted to exhibit and it never occurred to me that I would see such a naïve and absurd action, and where? In London!.
-We here are waiting for all possible help from these people to offer us what broadens our horizon and helps us reach the bright side of life as they helped us in freeing our country from the tyranny, and scenes like these make me doubt the value of such help, I mean what were they trying to prove?
-The real, living and historical event that took place in Baghdad
on the 9th of April that announced not only the downfall of the ugliest dictatorship in modern history but also the beginning of a new era of freedom was a totally a genuine and spontaneous reaction that came right out of the hearts and souls of crowds that have been brutally restrained for decades, and trying to simulate this through a previously organized and timed action was something the least I could say about is pathetic and disgusting . ...
Read the whole post at the link.
Best of Blogdad: Blood for Oil?
"No Blood for Oil!"
That was the popular slogan of the "peace" movement, as you'll recall. Here Omar responds to that notion:
... There had been a perspective that is widely spread among Arabs and the anti war, even some Iraqis, that America came to Iraq to steal the oil and other natural resources from Iraq (I don't know if anyone supports this idea in the USA) and I’ve got sick of seeing this ridiculous idea written on the walls in Baghdad or on signs held by the supposed peace activists or even being spoken in interviews on al-jazeera or other Arab media by those who pretend that they care for the interests of the Iraqi people.
I wonder how their brilliant, clear thinking got to that nonnegotiable conclusion!!?
Well I found that the answer is so simple, that even a blind man can see...heh.
I have read some statistics about the economy of the USA and I found that the (GDP) of America is something around (11,000 billion) dollars, while that of Iraq is about (18 billion) dollars (regarding the current rate of oil export), which means that the (GDP) of USA = 611 times the (GDP) of Iraq.
Another interesting result is that America can make that (18) billions in only 14 hours!.
Everyone knows that the American forces need about (4 billion) dollars/month for their supplies, operations and reconstruction work.
I find it so naive for someone to think that the USA is spending 4 billions a month to "steal" 1,5 billions.
The USA has already spent (or assigned) over 200 billion dollars, which requires the Americans to wait for over 10 years to get their money back.
What a great investment!!!
And that's only in the case that America is "stealing" all the oil or money of Iraq, while as a matter of fact, all the money that oil yields is spent to provide food, medications and of course to pay salaries to the Iraqis.The war was never for oil itself, the aims of the war were freeing the Iraqi people, destroying Saddam's WMD's, fighting international terrorism and the spread of freedom and democracy in the M.E.
Some Iraqis say that Iraq is a wealthy country and that America came here to steal our fortune, and I ask them what f***ing fortune? Saddam has driven Iraq bankrupt and even worse, Iraq is now drowning in debts.
Iraq is a (potentially rich) country, that's true. Iraq was once rich, but right now it's a poor country, and in order to make Iraq a rich country once again we need researches, experience, investments and years of hard work. This can not be done by the Iraqis alone, we need help, and we're getting that help.
Saddam wasted most of our fortune on his intelligence and security agencies and his plans to get WMD's and the rest was transferred to the secret accounts of his and his family.
However I find that there is one good side effect of the war that is related to the oil, oil is needed continuously all over the world, and the oil supplies should be maintained to every country, no crazy tyrant like Saddam should be controlling one of the largest reserves of oil in the world, imagine the mess if Saddam, Gaddafy and the mullahs of Iran decided to cease the production of oil, as some Arab countries did in 1973 when Saddam held the slogan (oil is a weapon in the battle).
Anyway I think that -even this side effect- was not in the interest of the USA alone.
Oil, like water; is essential to everyone, and no one should hold it off from the others.
That was the popular slogan of the "peace" movement, as you'll recall. Here Omar responds to that notion:
... There had been a perspective that is widely spread among Arabs and the anti war, even some Iraqis, that America came to Iraq to steal the oil and other natural resources from Iraq (I don't know if anyone supports this idea in the USA) and I’ve got sick of seeing this ridiculous idea written on the walls in Baghdad or on signs held by the supposed peace activists or even being spoken in interviews on al-jazeera or other Arab media by those who pretend that they care for the interests of the Iraqi people.
I wonder how their brilliant, clear thinking got to that nonnegotiable conclusion!!?
Well I found that the answer is so simple, that even a blind man can see...heh.
I have read some statistics about the economy of the USA and I found that the (GDP) of America is something around (11,000 billion) dollars, while that of Iraq is about (18 billion) dollars (regarding the current rate of oil export), which means that the (GDP) of USA = 611 times the (GDP) of Iraq.
Another interesting result is that America can make that (18) billions in only 14 hours!.
Everyone knows that the American forces need about (4 billion) dollars/month for their supplies, operations and reconstruction work.
I find it so naive for someone to think that the USA is spending 4 billions a month to "steal" 1,5 billions.
The USA has already spent (or assigned) over 200 billion dollars, which requires the Americans to wait for over 10 years to get their money back.
What a great investment!!!
And that's only in the case that America is "stealing" all the oil or money of Iraq, while as a matter of fact, all the money that oil yields is spent to provide food, medications and of course to pay salaries to the Iraqis.The war was never for oil itself, the aims of the war were freeing the Iraqi people, destroying Saddam's WMD's, fighting international terrorism and the spread of freedom and democracy in the M.E.
Some Iraqis say that Iraq is a wealthy country and that America came here to steal our fortune, and I ask them what f***ing fortune? Saddam has driven Iraq bankrupt and even worse, Iraq is now drowning in debts.
Iraq is a (potentially rich) country, that's true. Iraq was once rich, but right now it's a poor country, and in order to make Iraq a rich country once again we need researches, experience, investments and years of hard work. This can not be done by the Iraqis alone, we need help, and we're getting that help.
Saddam wasted most of our fortune on his intelligence and security agencies and his plans to get WMD's and the rest was transferred to the secret accounts of his and his family.
However I find that there is one good side effect of the war that is related to the oil, oil is needed continuously all over the world, and the oil supplies should be maintained to every country, no crazy tyrant like Saddam should be controlling one of the largest reserves of oil in the world, imagine the mess if Saddam, Gaddafy and the mullahs of Iran decided to cease the production of oil, as some Arab countries did in 1973 when Saddam held the slogan (oil is a weapon in the battle).
Anyway I think that -even this side effect- was not in the interest of the USA alone.
Oil, like water; is essential to everyone, and no one should hold it off from the others.
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