Allele - Greatest Weaknesses of Modern Authors

Allele - Greatest Weaknesses of Modern Authors





I'm gonna list what I consider to be the Greatest Weaknesses of Modern Authors, their writings, worldviews, methods of working, work produced, etc.

Discuss if you like.



1. Little or No Real World Experience: Too many modern authors, writers, screenwriters (not to mention artists of all kinds) have little or no real world experience. They go to school to learn how to write, they spend their lives obsessing over writing, they spend most all of their free time writing or learning to write. Yet they never lived and have nothing to write about except what is spawned within their own imaginations. They spend all of their time creating fictional worlds because they have nothing to say about and have made no observations on the real world. How could they? They've never spent any time living in it. Writing about what they see in their own heads is the only accomplishment they've ever had or tried to have.

2. Overspecialization: They write only Fiction, or only Non-Fiction. They cannot and do not cross over convincingly, because they are either afraid to do so or let other people tell them they cannot.

3. Overgenrelization: They become a genre writer. Which means that for the most part they become a standardized and serialized hack writer or a closet book entertainer.

4. No Word Hoard: The modern writer has no word hoard. No vocabulary other than that of his genre. He has no poetry and no word-soul. He's like reading a White Paper on computer graphics. So he is not truly literate. Not that that ever bothers him. Lack of poetry is considered gritty, urban, hip, modern, sophisticated. He's as vital as a disco ball at a cotillion. And half as fancy.

5. All Idea, No Story: The modern writer is filled with the most incredibly clever ideas and schemes, about nothing of any importance at all.

6. Worldview: The modern author has a worldview derived entirely from his own very limited real world experience, or derived entirely from his own imagination. Which all too often is little more than an academically recycled imagination. Full of sound and fury, signifying bluffing.

7. Methodologies: The modern author believes the best way to write is to sit in a room all day and stare at a computer screen or at a mirror and navel gaze. It would never once occur to him to get out in the world and watch how it operates and how people actually live. He thinks his job is to sit in a little room and stink it up. And God knows that's also about the size and smell of what he produces.

8. Art is as Art Does: The modern author thinks of himself as a modern Artist. Why anyone would want to do this is beyond me but it tells a lot about why they write what they do. And what they write about. And why they write so badly.

9. Manhood is Dead: Being a writer used to mean you first were a man who had some experience with being a man and so you had something to say about being a man. You can pretty much forget about that now. It's gonna be awhile before manhood becomes a common attribute among writers again.

10. Ignorance is Bliss: Just ask most modern authors. Compare what little they know of the world to how much they're willing to write about how little they know. You'll get the idea pretty quick.

11. The Psychopop Imperative: If there's a deep pop psychology imperative then some modern writer is gonna find a way to carefully explore the idea. Of course if there were such a thing as a deep pop psychological imperative it might be worth the effort.

12. The Deconstructive Myth: With the right technique the modern author can explain everything. Even the unexplainable. Just ask him. He'll tell ya, and then he'll write 15 books in a series explaining how he figured it all out. "In his head." This is also called the "Fictional Conceit" or the "Theory as Fact" motif. A dedicated Fanbase will eat this one up. Just ask em sometime.

Labyrinth - Burying the Past

Labyrinth - Burying the Past


My old man came through his cancer surgery ship-shape and Bristol fashion. Apparently they got it all and it was small and contained.
Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes.



My grandmother died about two weeks ago. Last of my grandparents and the last of the great grandparents for my kids as well.
I haven't felt that way about a death in a long time. She was ninety and had a helluvah life, outlived my grandpa by 15 years. But at the end she had Alzheimer's and her day was over. Eventually she became shriveled and helpless, like a baby.

When she was younger she always feared death for some reason but about three or four years ago she told me she was ready and prepared and looking forward to it. I knew then she was ready but still it took awhile.

I got to say goodbye and stayed with her till near the end. I went into the nursing home and sat holding her hand for about four hours. Until she began to turn cold in preparation. I made extensive observations and notes of what was happening to her, something I do with anyone I am around who is dying or ill. Her feet went numb and cold first then it gradually proceeded up her legs and then to her torso and hands.

I took my crucifix and since we had the whole morning together with no-one else around, except an occasional nurse, I gave her Last Rites myself and prayed for her and blessed her. I let her hold my crucifix while I did but she was only partially conscious.

Finally everyone else arrived (the other family members) and I went to get something to eat. When I got back she was in steep decline and stopped breathing for about 15 seconds or so. My family was convinced she was dead. I checked for a pulse and couldn't feel one (her blood pressure was already low enough to pass for dead). They all kissed her and started to walk out of the room. But apparently her heart had yet to stop. When she had the death rattle and expelled her lungs her breathing caught again. She lived about another six hours after that but her eyes were already glassy and she never regained any real consciousness.

I had a hard time not laughing when she fooled everyone with her last fake death. She had fooled the family so many times before, at least ten or twelve times I remember over the years. Things that should have killed her she always seemed to bounce back from. But not this time. This time she was finally worn out and exhausted.

I cleared the room out and got to say a final goodbye and then went home. She was a helluvah old Irish dame.

She was at least as much mother to me as my natural mother. And in many ways we had much more in common.
She was down to earth, witty, funny, laughed like a little schoolgirl at my jokes, she was easy to tease and I liked tickling her and scaring her. She was humble, occasionally a stubborn ass, fair, and a very good woman. I hated like hell to lose her. But she was ready for something a lot better. And she deserved it.

I'm gonna miss her though. A lot.
God bless you woman.
Remember me in your prayers, cause I'll sure remember you.

Pesharim - Will There Be Giants in Heaven?

Pesharim - Will There Be Giants in Heaven?


While cutting the grass today and thinking about animals, intelligence and soul a whole other set of questions began to circulate through my mind stimulated by some previous musings.

Will there be giants in heaven?

How will capabilities be expressed in heaven?
What will be the range of variance in heaven of various capabilities, skills, talents, and abilities and how will these variations be expressed? What will be both the nature and degree of variation in heaven?

What will be the nature of the similarities and differences between let us say a human spirit and an angelic spirit? What about other types of beings, e.g. non-human spirits? What will be the degree of variation between entic life in heaven? How will various beings and entities interact with one another? Is there a spiritual analogue to the human physical genetic code and if so how will one spiritually evolve over eternity?

What will be the relationship between capability and appearance (if any)? For instance will spiritual giants appear as giants is size, mass, energy, etc? Is spiritual nature in any way reflected in appearance or perception of appearance?

Is it possible over time for a soulless creature to develop a soul? Is it possible to help a soulless creature or a creature with a latent soul express that soul? If so are we obligated to assist in such endeavors or are we responsible only for our own soul or only for other human souls? Is interfering with the psychic (by this I mean soul) development of another creature or being “playing God” and something with which we should not be involved or is it an obligation we owe others?

What is the work of the soul? What types of work will we be involved or engaged with in heaven?

Invisible Hand - Parallel Intelligence

Invisible Hand - Parallel Intelligence





Now for something completely different. I’ve been working on a few things lately and thinking about a few things. This is one of them. I’ll return to the others later.

While sitting at a church service on Sunday, the pastor with going over a sermon derived from the book of Hebrews. The passages from which he read described both Old Testament priestly practices, and were comparing those practices to the ideals of Christ as High Priest. Implicit in the passages from which the sermon was derived were discussions of animal sacrifice.

Since I have for a very long time been working on experiments to increase the intelligence of my animal pets, and since recently I have been working on a series of books which would fictionally detail animals that are of parallel intelligence to human beings, I was very interested in those passages and what they implied.

It is my intention, to engage in experiments on animals, which will eventually produce animals that are comparable in intelligence to human beings (in most respects), but remain animals in all other respects. That is they would not be possessed of human intelligence, but would be possessed of an intelligence comparable to, or parallel to, human intelligence. Yet in all other respects, such and mannerisms, instincts, views of the world, sensory capabilities, physical appearance, genotype, etc. would remain animals. The ideal test subjects of course would be domesticated animals with a long history of interaction with humans, such as dogs. (Eventually I also hope to help develop technology which will allow basic communications between these types of animals and humans.)


And after reading several passages from the Torah in Hebrew it has occurred to me that it is entirely possible that some animals may possess souls (even if in latent form) similar to (not identical to but similar to) that of the human soul. So I was listening to the sermon or Sunday and it suddenly struck me that if they became conscious enough to perceive themselves in a manner parallel to the way in which humans perceive themselves then how might such an animal develop a view of their own soul? A self-reflective view. (Or would they?)

I got this idea from carefully rereading those passages in the book of Hebrews which detail animal sacrifice. I began to consider how what an animal such as a dog might view the subject of animal sacrifice. Would for instance a dog of sufficient intelligence and consciousness even consider himself a dog? Would he consider himself an animal? Or would he consider himself merely an individual and not really in terms of species? (After all species is a human categorization.) How would he view the entire historical subject of animal sacrifice, especially after gaining some consciousness of what it implied? How would he view human beings? Would he consider himself a type of human being yet merely different in appearance because he lives among human beings and interacts with them constantly? (I am sure my dogs consider themselves in some way human beings or equivalent in most ways to other members of my family.) Would he consider other dogs to be dogs or would he consider them to be a form of human being? How would he draw the lines of division and similarity between members of different species and between different individuals? I cannot imagine they would automatically draw the same conclusions humans have (I don’t even automatically draw the same classification assumptions of the standard formulations) of species, genus, family, and so forth.

Could he grasp the concept that his unique and parallel intelligence to his human compatriots makes him unusual or would he assume that all other dogs are like him? If he could grasp the difference between his own consciousness and that of “normal dogs” then how would he view the distinctions between himself and other, more normal dogs? Would he even make a distinction based upon intelligence and different rates of consciousness and intellect? Would he consider himself more like other dogs that are more like himself in appearance, physical nature and sensory capabilities or more like a human in whom he shares more mental similarities?

Would such a dog (of parallel intelligence) produce offspring like himself or offspring more akin to more normal dogs? How would the development of parallel intelligence change his genotype? Would it, or would it just change expressed variation?

How would the development of an animal or different types of animals who possess parallel intelligence change the way in which we interact with such animals? Would it change our methods of interaction? Should it do so?

What kind of art and literature (through the use of technology of course) would such creatures produce? Would they produce unique cultural, spiritual, and religious ideas? Would they have any interest in science? How would they view technology? Why would they think or be this way? Would they even bother with concepts like religion, science, and art? If they didn’t what would this say about us (humans). If they did and their productions and conclusions were either similar or very different then what would that say about us?

This brought to mind a series of experiments I have been conducting for some time regarding intelligence and dietary modification(s) with my own dogs. Several people have remarked to me how extremely intelligent my dogs appear to be. And one of the methods (One, I use many others of course) I've used in trying to shape their intelligence is dietary modification. They take basically the same metaergogenic aids, vitamins, and nutrients and so forth that I take to augment both my physical and mental performance. They also eat an extremely wide variety of foods compared with most dogs. They eat dry dog food which is heavily laced with vitamins and nutrients, they drink the same metaergogenic waters and liquids I take, they eat canned dog food, they eat table scraps, they eat vegetables mixed with meats, they eat tuna and a lot of other kinds of fish, they eat eggs, take milk, drink coffee, beer, milk shakes, chocolate covered peanuts, peanut butter, potatoes, biscuits, breads, gravy, and consume several other types of foods. (By the way recent study has led me to discover the fact that bears and dogs are related. I can see many similarities between certain dogs, my Great Bernard for instance, who even looks a great deal like a bear in the head and face and in body size, and some bears. I’d like one day to get a bear, take it out West to Montana or someplace like that, raise it basically in isolation except for being around me and my dogs, and see if I could modify it’s behavior and intelligence in the same way I have with my dogs. I’ve always instinctively intuited a close connection between bear behavior and introverted human behavior.)


I cannot draw a direct correlation between their (my dogs) dietary habits and their seeming intelligence however I can say this as far as their being adaptable - they are adaptable both in what they're willing to consume and in most other respects such as behavior, training and flexibility of experience. (I consider adaptability to be one of the keys and cornerstones to the development of higher grade intelligence. The more adaptable to change the more flexible the mind, the more flexible the mind the more curious and the more a creature is able to look at problems differently and devise more unique and efficient solutions to problems. Intelligence is not entirely a matter of problem solving, but problem solving is a big part of higher level capabilities regarding intelligence.) I do not want though to get into an involved tangential discussion of these matters because I can go on and on about the subject. But it has struck me as being of real importance the correlation between diet and intelligence and capabilities in animals and in people generally.

Humours of Idleness - Filmworks

Humours of Idleness - Filmworks

I'm looking forward to the film Black Dahlia, assuming of course upon how far the editors go to “Hollywood up” the case. If the film remains true to the case files, then I'm really looking forward to this project.

And, if the same holds true for the film Hollywoodland, then I'm going to be looking forward to that film as well.

The Glair - Nolo Communicado

The Glair - Nolo Communicado


(Sent to me by a friend.)

That was a very interesting read and I appreciated you sending it.
I recently re-read the Faith of George W. Bush and it provided a lot of insight on how Bush communicates, and fails to communicate, and some of the probable reasons. Such as his likely dyslexia. I recommend the book.


Article


August 24, 2006, 8:03 p.m.

Mr. Bush’s Communication Problem
It’s not him; it’s what he’s supposed to be communicating.

By Victor Davis Hanson

Just when former supporters of the Iraq invasion and the wider so-called war against terror are proclaiming doom and gloom, other commentators conclude that we have already defeated the jihadists! Nostalgia even abounds about returning to the 1990s, when the United States occasionally swatted bothersome terrorists with cruise missiles and indictments. This unbalance in the media reflects — or has helped cause — a public unhappiness over Iraq that has brought the president’s poll ratings to less than 40-percent approval. Yet again, for all the efforts of the Left to demonize Mr. Bush as either incompetent or diabolical — or both — the American people hardly think we have lost — or won — the war, much less that the threat posed by Iraq, or the necessity of fighting Islamists abroad, was trumped up in Crawford, Texas. The Germans (no supporters of the United States in Iraq) and the British recently were a bomb or two away from catastrophe. The jihadists won’t stop after such failure, nor can they be appeased by Spanish-style concessions. One successful strike will make those who proclaim that we aren’t any longer really in a war appear unhinged.

Only a reincarnated Chamberlain or Daladier could think that there is no Islamist commonality between the recent hostage-taking of Western telejournalists on the West Bank, Iranian threats to extinguish Israel and end the American presence in the Gulf, terrorist attacks on soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, plans of killing thousands in Britain and Germany, or plots to blow up American airliners in London — as if Japanese fascists, Italian fascists, and German fascists could not have made war in unison against the liberal democracies given their differing agendas and sects, and lack of coordination.And even when the Islamists do not succeed, their threats and rhetoric cripple the West: when Mr. Ahmadinejihad rants about wiping Israel off the face of the map or sending gunboats into the Gulf, he garners a few billion extra in annual petrodollars due to the frenzy of oil speculators. A few foiled terrorists in London still managed to force millions of people into humiliating searches of their carry-on luggage, and cost the West untold millions in lost flights, delays, and inconvenience.In fact, the current strategy of having removed the two most odious dictatorships — the Taliban and Saddam Hussein’s — and fostering democracies in their places remains the only sensible course.

Far from winning this war for the future of the Middle East, Syria, and Iran are increasingly isolated, desperate to thwart democratization that surrounds their borders in Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon, and facing world sanctions for their roguery. For all its messiness, the promotion of democratic reform infuriates the Islamists and paid-off Arab journalists and intellectual toadies alike, and ultimately works in our favor. But right now the real problem has been the necessity of reversing the order of traditional postwar democratization. The old calculus was first the proverbial horse of defeating and vanquishing utterly the enemy; then the cart of showing magnanimity in rebuilding the country of a contrite loser. Only in that order would the Americans be willing to give millions to the former supporters of once murderous Nazis, Italian fascists, or imperial Japanese who had killed and maimed their sons.In the Middle East, we reversed the sequence, on the idealistic — and I think correct — premise that the Afghan and Iraqi people were captive to their dictators, and that we wished to avoid an all-encompassing conflict along the lines of World War II. In other words, we trusted that the Taliban and Saddam Hussein explained the recent savagery of the Afghans and Iraqis, rather than the innate savagery of the Afghans and Iraqis themselves explaining the creation of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. The result of this confidence, despite the carnage of war, was that democracy was ushered in, the rogues were to be kept out, and peace was supposed to follow from a grateful, liberated people.

But why should it, when the hard hand of American war was not first completely felt — nor the jihadists utterly vanquished and discredited and any who supported them? Unless there is some element of fear, or at least the suggestion of consequences to come for recalcitrance, why should an Iraqi cease his easy support of Hezbollah, his anti-Semitism, or his cheap support for Islamist terrorists around the block? It would be as if we expected to end slavery outright in the Confederacy around 1862, or rid Germany of Nazis around 1943, or persuade the Japanese fascists to vote in 1944 — before such ideologies have been utterly defeated and the steep price for those who tolerated them paid in full.So what Mr. Bush is faced with is this nearly impossible paradox of half war/half peace: at a time when most are getting fed up with abhorrent Middle Eastern jihadists who blow up, hijack, and behead in the name of their religion, he is attempting to convince the same American public and the Western world at large to spend their blood and treasure to help Muslim Afghans, Iraqis, and now Lebanese, who heretofore — whether out of shared anti-Americanism or psychological satisfaction in seeing the overdog take a hit — have not been much eager to separate themselves from the rhetoric of radical Islam. In any case, the administration’s problem is not really its (sound) strategy, nor its increasingly improved implementation that we see in Baghdad, but simply an American public that so far understandably cannot easily differentiate millions of brave Iraqis and Afghans, who risk their lives daily to hunt terrorists and ensure reform, from the Islamists of the Muslim Street who broadcast their primordial hatred for Israel and the United States incessantly. Remember the surreal Middle East: we freed Shiites from Saddam; so Shiite Iran in response tries to destroy Shiite democrats in Iraq, who, being constantly attacked by terrorists and militias, in turn sympathize with anti-democratic Hezbollah terrorists and militias in Lebanon. And at one point last month, the Lebanese, between slurs against America, were expecting the United States to send it cash, retrieve expatriates immediately, restrain Israel, do something about Hezbollah, and praise Lebanese critics — and all at once.So how can one expect Americans to witness the barbarism of the jihadists, the creepy rhetoric of the imams and mullahs, the triangulation of Arab governments, and the puerility of the Muslim Street, pause, take a deep breath, and sigh, “Ah, they are frustrated because they are unfree and poor, and so in error blame us for their own autocracies’ failures. Therefore, we must be generous in our sacrifices to allow them the same opportunities for freedom that we enjoy.” That contemplation and forbearance are both too complex and too much to ask of a post-September 11 public, and so end up as a piñata for political opportunists on both sides to smack to shreds.On the Right the politicking works out with cynicism and disgust: “These ungrateful and hateful people aren’t worth the life of another American soldier or American dollar.” Yet the Bush idealism wins no points from the Left either. Both for partisan purposes, and due to the wages of multiculturalism that oppose any Western effort to bring to the other the good life that they themselves so eagerly embrace, Leftists still harp about no blood for oil and assorted conspiracies in lieu of legitimate analysis and criticism.What, then, is needed — aside from crushing the jihadists and securing Afghanistan and Iraq — is more articulation and explanation. The word “liberal” — as in promoting liberal values abroad, and reminding the world of the traditions of liberal tolerance — needs to be employed more often. Some tough language is also helpful on occasion: any time the free democracies of Iraq or Afghanistan wish to vote to send American troops home, of course we will comply. Likewise, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon are under no compulsion to accept hated American aid or military help. And just as the American public needs reminding that millions of Middle Easterners are currently fighting jihadist terror in Afghanistan and Iraq — we wish we could say the same about our “allies” in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — so too the Iraqi and Afghan governments should convey to the American people that their support is appreciated, and its continuance deemed vital.How odd that the president must explain the pathologies of the Middle East to such a degree as to warn Americans of our mortal danger, but not to the point of excess so that we feel that there is no hope for such people. He must somehow suggest that jihadism could not imperil us were it not for the “moderates” who tolerate and appease it — while this is the very same group that we feel duty-bound to offer an alternative other than theocracy or dictatorship. And he must offer a postwar plan of reconstruction to the citizens of the Middle East at a time when many of them do not feel that their romantic jihadists have ever really been defeated at all.Even the eloquence of a Lincoln or Churchill would find all that difficult.—

Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the author, most recently, of A War Like No Other. How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.

Coming Soon

Coming Soon:

Death and the Modern Man
The Web 3.0
The Web 4.0


I haven't had much time to contribute lately due to both work and personal matters.
I'll be contributing more soon.

The other day I was kicked in the same spot on my left rear side (to my lower ribcage) which was recently broken.
I really felt it. I was very painful. It has slowed my full recovery.
However the pain was more a sensation of extreme tightness and a dull ache that a sharp, acute pain.

If I can work out the kinks in myself then I hope to be throwing discus this weekend.
I really miss throwing.

The Glair - A Glimmer of Hope

The Glair - A Glimmer of Hope

It's good to see Modern Art returning to the really big, important issues. You
can't get this level of talent on HBO gang

.


In the art world, this is really big

Guinness confirms world’s largest single-artist painting in Sweden David Aberg / APThis undated aerial file photo shows a painting in Angelholm, Sweden, that has been verified by Guinness World Records to be the world's largest painting done by a lone artist, more than twice as big as the previous record holder.

David Aberg painted the image, which covers some 8,000 square meters (86,000 square feet). View related photos

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - It may not be the world's greatest artwork, but David Aberg's 86,000-square-foot painting is definitely the biggest.The Swedish artist said Friday that he spent 2 1/2 years and 100 tons of paint to complete his work, "Mother Earth," inside an aircraft hangar in Angelholm, southern Sweden.Guinness World Records in London confirmed it was the world's largest painting done by a lone artist, more than twice as big as the previous record holder.Story continues below ↓

Aberg's painting depicts a woman holding a peace sign."The idea was to do something for peace," Aberg said. "This is a peace painting that symbolizes the world with the woman as its symbol."He completed the painting at the end of June, and Guinness approved the record last week.The previous record, according to Guinness, was a 41,400-square-foot painting by Canadian artist Eric Waugh. "Hero," was unveiled in 2000 at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.

Marxed - Paydirt

Marxed - Paydirt


Paydirt.

I got this from another blog. Unfortunately I can't remember which one.

Marxed - Would You?

Marxed - Would You?


Would you date a modern day liberal chick just to get laid?

Is that the only reason you'd date her?

Now I've been out of dating circles for what, ten to twelve years or so, maybe longer. And dating is certainly a lot different today than it was then. But a friend of mine recently asked me this question and I had no real answer for him.

He wants to date. He's thinking about it. But he wants safe politics too.

Should he just go for it and wear a brain condom?

Is the danger of psychological leakage too great?

Could he contract AIDS? (Acquired Idiotic Democrat Syndrome)

What about STDs? (Stupidly Transmitted Democrats)

What do you talk about if you take a modern liberal home to meet the folks? Conserving feces? 16th century agriculture? Rearming Hizbollah? Socializing Security? France? Canada? Pop Stars?

If you date a modern liberal does that mean that you automatically have to start paying to feed the herd of hippies who graze around the chick you're seeing?

Should you bathe before dating a modern liberal or just do as they do in Rome?

Is dating a modern liberal considered a prelude to Gay Marriage?

Do you have to try and hide how smart you are around modern liberals or will they just never notice anyway?

Heck if I know...

Humours - Mediprayer

Humours - Mediprayer


Back when I was a teenager I used to collect quotes from famous men and women. I'd run across some quote that struck me as particularly relevant or impressive and either type it out (long before the personal computer) or write it out by hand in calligraphic script and hang it upon my bedroom wall. I became kind of famous for this with my friends because my bedroom had hanging from the walls, ceilings, doors, bookshelves, stereo case and bed a multitude of quotes and artifacts from my personal expeditions and vadding (long before I really understood what vadding was) adventures and relics handed down to me from others. Quotes, my father's first slide rule, a couple of my swords, pocket watches, machine and laboratory parts, pictures taken from my early vads, travel receipt stubs, personal mementoes, architectural tools, electronic components, my spotting scope, my telescope, geological samples, hawk and owl feathers, animal fangs, snake skins, reed boats I had built myself, plastic models, my CB radio, my scanners, etc.

But the quotes were what I was most famous for among many of my friends and those who visited. Often people told me, "I like coming here and reading the quotes you have in your room."

Over time I began biographical studies of the people who had made those quotes and soon it had struck me that I wanted to emulate some of the personal attributes of these various people. That it would be good to be like them in some sense, or as regards particular attributes they possessed. So in my late teenage years I began to write a book of personal meditational tools and prayers to use in order to master certain attributes and gain new capabilities. Not all of my prayers and meditations were geared to improving some personal capability of course, but some were. Anyway eventually these mediational and prayer experiments became Operation Chay. I've always found this type of prayer to be extremely beneficial because it is part prayer, but because it is geared towards a specific end, or set of ends, also particularly useful as a meditational tool. As a matter of fact over time I developed a set of part payer/part meditation/contemplation similar to that kind of exercise practiced in the Philokalia that I call Mediprayer or Contemprayer. In any case this is one of those prayer exercises I undertake for my morning set of prayers.


Matins


Prayer of Emulation and Anticipation


God, Endow Me with the:


Wisdom of Socrates and Solomon
Genius of Da Vinci and Tesla
The Artistic Skills of Michelangelo and Rembrandt
Compassion of Saint Francis and Merton
Memory of Matteo Ricci and Simonides
Brilliance of Saint Loyola and Aquinas
Imagination of Einstein and Tolkien
Leadership of Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt
Spirit of Moses and Washington
Prophetic Understanding of Elijah and Daniel
Mental Prowess of Mills and Descartes
Polymathics of Erasmus, Aristotle, Alberuni, and Leibniz
Strength of Samson and Saxon
Endurance of Pele and Ali
Athletic Skills of Jenner and Thorpe
Talents of Pythagoras and Rousseau
Insight of Archimedes, Newton, and Galileo
Psychae of Swedenbourg and Goethe
Aggression of Hannibal and Patton
Ambition of Peter and Heraclius
Patience of Saint Patrick and Lao Tzu
Wealth of Gates and Getty
Prosperity of Welch and Buffett
Creativity of Fuller and Lobkowitz
Inventiveness of Edison and Shakespeare
Understanding of Bacon, Kepler and Copernicus
Pragmatism of Boone and Franklin
Musical and Compositional Skill of Bach and Mozart
Operatic Skill of Wagner and Verdi
Poetic Talents of Homer, Milton, Dante and Keats
Virtue of Nicolas and John Paul
Detective Skills of Douglas and Lee
Mathematical Skills of Von Neumann and Turing
Writing Skills of Hemingway and Hugo
Architectural Skills of Brunelleschi and Wright
Medical Skills of Hippocrates, Paracelsus, Galen and Salk
Psychological Insights of James, Jung and Campbell

Labyrinth - My Recovery

Labyrinth - My Recovery

As some of you may or may not know I cracked a rib (or had it cracked for me I should say) about four and a half weeks ago.

I didn't go to the doc other than for the X-ray in which he told me I had a little internal bleeding etc., but I did use the downtime as an opportunity to develop my own rehab program. Which I've been following as best I can work and other things not interfering. I've also been meaning to keep a sort of rehabilitation logue but haven't really made any formalized entries because of work and other things. But I want to make a couple of entries for the sake of future comparison and so that one day if necessary I can improve my rehab program.


August 14, 2006 - I have alternated a lot between hot and cold treatments, as well as light strain and resistance, and a lot of massage to the muscle tissue surrounding the injury.


Today I was able to do the following:

I hiked three laps around the yard which when laid out flat is about 3/4 to 4/5 of a mile.
I was able to run about half a mile, though it was a light jog. In boots but with no pack.
I was able to run one set of wind sprints. Lightly and without bending all the way to the ground on the touch.
I was able to do a couple of light sets of jumping jacks (about 30 each) and a set of lunges.
I was able to do 10 push-ups on the diving board but had to stop at that because of the strain and I have no interest in reinjuring myself.
I was able to finish cleaning the old house so that we can get new occupants and was able to haul a couple of loads of trash.
I composed a piece of music on the computer without feeling much strain from leaning forward.
Yesterday I sat in those temporary hard chairs at church (while the place is being expanded) for both services and although my lower back hurt my chest was okay.

I was able to do all of those things without any real pain though I did stop once on my hike due to some pain in my side at the area of the injury. It passed quickly though. I feel some tightness and a little strain as I type this but no aching and chronic pain like before.


By the end of the week I hope to be back to all normal work without noticing any pain. Or much anyway. I don't expect the pain to make me have to knock off early in any case.
I think I will be able to do some light plyometrics (which I miss doing as they are some of my favorite exercises), be lifting light weights, hiking with light pack (maybe), stretching and Hatha Yoga, maybe riding my Mountain Bike (once I repair her) and possibly hitting the baseball. I don't expect I'll be throwing the discuss for another two to three weeks cause of what it could do to me.

In another month or so I expect to be back to my normal physical training routine and hopefully not feeling any injury pain.
I've also been going to bed about 10 or 11 in the evening instead of 3 or 4 in the morning (unless I have surveillance or some kinda case to work) and waking up at 6. The extra rest has really made me feel much better and sped my recovery, especially in the last week or so.


So I feel pretty good at the way things are going right now in my recovery.
I'm cooled down now from my workout so I'm gonna go take a cold shower.

See ya later.

The Glair - Asian Terrorists in Plot to Blow Up Jet Airliners

The Glair - Asian Terrorists in Plot to Blow Up Jet Airliners

John William George reporting for the BCC

Filed: 7:57 AM
Thursday, August 10, 2006

This morning, in a dramatic series of arrests, British authorities announced the apprehension of a set of what are being described as allegedly major figures in an ongoing international terrorist plot.

The plot, which was well coordinated and supposedly close to being executed, would have involved the simultaneous and multiple detonation of chemical explosives aboard several commercial and passenger jets flying from England to America. The plot could have potentially involved far more aircraft than were involved in the 911 and Bojinka plots.

British authorities announced that as many as 30 to 50 individuals may eventually be arrested and described the plotters as Asian in origin. Asian terrorists are generally described by British officials as anyone whose background may be Asian, such as Hindoo, Sikh, Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, Australian Aborigines, Mongolians, Burmese, Japanese, Israeli or those from the area of the Java Sea. Unless proven conclusively and by overwhelming weight of evidence one is not to assume that the term Asian terrorist is to be in any way construed as being equivalent to the term "Muslim" or "Islamic Terrorist."

Please stay tuned to this news source for the latest and most accruate reporting on these incredible events.

End Story

© JWG. 2006

The Glair Marxed - Dems Dat Got Dumped

The Glair Marxed - Dems Dat Got Dumped

Big Name Democrats Lose in Primaries

By Jason Wilson Garret for Foxx News

Last updated: 12:22 PM
Tuesday, August 7, 2006


Last night, in a stunning Democratic primary election Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was defeated by her opponent and former county councilman Hank Johnson. McKinney explained her astounding defeat of nearly twenty percentage points in the following way. “It’s a hard road to have to drive when you’re pregnant and behind the wheel of a thirteen wheeler smoking pot and being hassled by ‘the Man.’ The man don’t care ‘bout yu. The man just don’t care.”

She went on to say, shaking her head and occasionally breaking into impromptu personally altered versions of old Negro spirituals, “Electronic voting machines are a dangermint to our democracy. Electronic voting machines don’t care ‘bout yu. They just don’t care. It’s a hard road to hav’ta drive when you’re pregnant and stoned and trying to vote on one a dem machines. Electronics is da white devil’s work people, what do my peeps know ‘bout white devil stuff? I couldn’t do it and I was edumacated in public. In public y’all!! Do yu know what I’m sayin sistahs?! Rise up and say, ‘No More! I ain’t voting electronical no mo! No mo I says! No mo!’”

“And let me just say dis here ‘bout da media. Da media don’t care ‘bout yu! Uh-uh, no, no mo media! Media’s dun what put me here and now! Dat ain’t right, no mam, dat ain’t right! And my opponent! Dat Negro has a job! What kinda black man has a job? Damn, this thang has conspiracy written all over it, all over it! I’m calling for an investigation and declaring voter fraud. No way my constituents would vote for a black man wit a job! They ain’t sell-outs!”

Asked by a female reporter if she felt she could have done anything differently that might have affected the election more positively in her favor Ms. McKinney shook her fist at the sky and shot back, “Woman, is yu crazy? See, dis is why nobody likes a white woman folks. Everybody dun knowed dis ain’t none a my fault! It’s a Kabul between da media, electronic voting machines taking over our lives like in Terminator, an uppity Negro Uncle Tom, and Da Man! It always come down to da Man! Yu think anybody cares about me? Well, do ya? No way, but I tell ya this anyways, ‘I am somebody! I am SOMEBODY!!’”

In related news anti-war candidate Ned Lamont defeated Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman for the top Democratic candidate spot in that state. Lamont promised, if elected, to immediately abandon the War in Iraq, declare an immediate cease-fire in the War on Terrorism, pretend it’s the 1960’s all over again, and if necessary to secede from the Union. Lamont is supported by a consortium of powerful Democratic Party interests such as MoveOn.Org, the Pink-Pink Brigade, America is What’s wrong with the World, the New International College Campus Hippy Squad, Californians for Castro, Wrap-it-Up, and the Al Gore-ELF Coalition for Change.

End Story.

© JWG 2006

The Glair - Jews on the Rampage

The Glair - Jews on the Rampage and French on the World Stage

by Jacques Wausau Gallocks for Rooters News Service

Last updated: 9:57 AM
Monday, August 7, 2006


It was reported today that a joint US-French effort to broker a resolution providing for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed to southern Lebanon may fall apart over renewed US-European tensions.

At the heart of the latest round of allied conflicts has been the French reluctance to lead a multinational peacekeeping force into southern Lebanon until a cease-fire has been arranged between Israel and Lebanon. This despite the fact that Lebanon has yet to fire a shot in Israel’s direction due to the fact that their castrated military force is generally reserved for post-holiday trash collection duties and are sometimes used as stand-in street corner vendors during the summer tourist season.

“We can accept the possibility for a peacekeeping operation in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese refuse a cease fire, but not when hostilities are still going on between the brave Hizbollah patriots and those dirty little Jew-creatures,” said the French representative to the UN. “Our own Hizbollah representatives in Paris tell us that it is unacceptable to try and place French troops into southern Lebanon when Hizbollah has yet to eradicate Israel and so we must give them time to accomplish their mission. Plus we are not thrilled with the prospect of Muslims rioting throughout France if we act prematurely. The US is crazy to suggest such an idea. They do not understand the delicacy of geopolitical concerns or know how much we have to pay police overtime to suppress our own population. Plus the insurance losses are astronomical!”

Asked what the French troops would do if they were theoretically deployed to Lebanon and came under enemy fire, a French diplomat responded, “We would do what we had to do, surrender immediately to the Jews. But it would certainly be a black day throughout France. However we could still snatch vindictiveness from the jaws of surrender by simply once again helping to accelerate the Iranian nuclear program.” As proof of the French resolve to achieve real peace in our times a Reuters photographer was able to snap a shot of the French press corp. sniggering their approval of the comment but the shot had to be retracted when it was discovered that related shots had been doctored to reveal a caricature of a rat faced Jewish demon being beaten by French photographers. The actual shot was of a French riot control officer being overwhelmed and mauled by young Arabs burning cars and dressed as Hamas suicide bombers. Reuters was unavailable for comment, but the French consulate immediately apologized to the French people for the forgeries being discovered.

Meanwhile in Lebanon itself it was reported that Israel had massacred 60 innocent civilians in a small Lebanese village in the south, a report that was disputed by the UN who claimed that upwards of 600 had been killed in the Israeli bombing attack. The Israelis claimed to have telephoned everyone in the area three days prior to the attack and to have publicly pleaded with everyone in the area to evacuate but to no avail, somewhere between 60 and 600 corpses were still shipped to the area from northern Lebanon immediately following the end of the attack. International Human Rights Organizations on the ground then inflated the figures to over 6000 until it was discovered by forensic examination that all but one of the victims had been dead for over six months prior to the outbreak of hostilities. A Lebanese doctor said that the one true victim of the massacre had actually died from a heart attack when the air raid siren had sounded on the Israeli side of the border. Still both Hizbollah and the Arab league claimed it was a real massacre and that it was yet more proof of uncontrolled Israeli aggression and blood lust. “It doesn’t matter if only one person was actually killed,” said a Hizbollah spokesman. “It was the intent to massacre that was the real issue. You do know don’t you that Jews cook little Arab children in pots to make their godless bread and they mix monkey blood with human blood in their sacrifices. We’ve every right to lie when Jews do stuff like that.”

In a related development the Democratic Party in the United States has expressed deep interest in using Hizbollah propaganda techniques and casualty inflation figures to assist turnout in the November elections. “We’re pretty sure we can do the same thing in America that Hizbollah is doing in Lebanon so that this time we can actually win an election and defeat those damned, stinking, cheating Republicans,” said Howard Dean. “The Republicans are nothing more than the Jews of America.” To which the French ambassador voiced his immediate assent.

End Story.

© JWG. 2006

Marxed - Grave New World

Marxed - Grave New World


Grave New World
Last Updated: November 10, 2006

by John Wolly Gostaurd
For Missively Speaking





The Royal Society (RS) announced yesterday that we may all know a lot less about a lot more than we ever thought we did as human beings.

A total of 1.5 million pages and 250,000 trillion articles will be available electronically to technologists, scientists, video and computer game enthusiasts, programmers, internet fanatics, and others who have learned everything they know from machines.

A new joint study by the Royal Society in Halifax, the California Polytechnical Institute, and the University of Pittsburgh in New Brunswick has found that people who have been publicly educated using high technology are likely to be twice as not as they are smart. This backs up several soon to be conducted prior studies which disclose disturbing trends in relational statistical models of projected non-intelligence on the part of those who consider themselves otherwise. This new study, using a brand new computer model just created should be able to conclusively demonstrate that a computer model is exactly that. The evidence is indeed compelling because even if the computer model were somehow wrong, an incredible assumption, then the whole project would still be on computer and therefore would of course be self-correcting. That's the way computers work.

In a related envelopment a meticulous search of other studies, often going back several decades, has finally found them. "This could be the breakthrough we've been looking for," said Rob Zomzie, a graduate student in the field. "It's the kind of thing that could either prove, or disprove, what I'm saying right now."

"Lots of people put their hope and trust in technology thinking that technology and science will solve all of their problems despite all evidence to the constipated. The real truth of the matter is that technology won't solve all of our problems, it will merely tell us everything we don't already not know. For instance if human beings don't know something then we can just look it up on the computer or on an information collage, like the internet. Then the internet or the machine can tell us what we don't already not know. It's a totally self-retained and analogical system of misunderstanding the way we haven't yet learned to learn and the things we don't yet know but our technology and science does. Our science and technology is already way ahead of what we as human beings know, and I think people like it that way. Why it works that way is still a mystery but we're pretty sure that one day technology will tell us and then we won't have to wonder about it anymore," said Jessica Drake, University of Columbia's Chair of Ballet and Modern Dance. "See, I'm as smart as anyone else and that's what I do. Technology has levitated the playing field making everyone equated to other people. That's been the dream of prehistoric man for the last hundred years and what every fallopian society has ever worked for. And now I have it. We all have it. And so does everyone else of us too."

But can this momentus of technology and science be indefinitely ejaculated into the future? This is a question that can only be answered by repast generations and the future high priests of science and technology. One thing though is certain, it's a modern Grave New World of practically limitless improbabilities as long as we all remember that just because we don't know something doesn't mean somebody else doesn't not know the same thing we don't. Because collectively we all know more about what we already do than anyone individually knows about what he alone doesn't know about what he does. So when technology is used to properly pool that kind of knowledge base it can have surmising consequences. Get ready to be surmised.

The future is finally hear for everyone to see.

The Glair - The Ways of the World

The Glair - The Ways of the World

Observing current events in Cuba, China and the Middle East has re-stimulated questions on which I have worked and pondered a long time. So I'm going to present them here for you the reader to see what, if any, answers you might suggest.


Is it better and/or more effective to crush a tyranny by infiltration and investment, or by boycott and blockade?

What are some of the benefits and liabilities of both approaches?

Is the method situationally dependent or do certain universal factors make one approach more likely to succeed than the other approach?

How would you best approach an attempt at the destruction or overthrow of a corrupt and autocratic regime by infiltration?
How would you best approach an attempt at the destruction or overthrow of a corrupt and autocratic regime by isolation?

Should both approaches be employed, either sequentially or simultaneously? If so, why, and how?
Is there a third option or another approach which I have overlooked?

Can the same kind of approach(es) be effective when employed against ideologies (instead of regimes or governments), such as religious, political, scientific, national, psychological, sociological and cultural fanaticism?
If so, how?