BIRTHDAY: Ezra Pound

"Utter
originality is,
of course,
out of the question."
~Ezra Pound
Oct. 30, 1885


Ezra Pound, 1939, Oil on Canvas by Wyndham Lewis, Tate Gallery, London.

YOU MAY TRY A HUNDRED THINGS

You may try a hundred things,
but love alone will release you from yourself.
So never flee from love--not even from love in an earthly guise--for it is a preparation for the supreme truth.
Jami

Easter Morning in Wales

A garden inside me, unknown, secret,
neglected for years,
the layers of its soil deep and thick.
Trees in the corners with branching arms
and the tangled briars like broken nets.

Sunrise through the misted orchard,
morning sun turns silver on the pointed twigs.
I have woken from the sleep of ages and I am not sure
if I am really seeing, or dreaming,
or simply astonished
walking toward sunrise
to have stumbled into the garden
where the stone was rolled from the tomb of longing.
David Whyte

Something and Nothing

There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.

- Martin Gardner

SAM HARRIS

Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture, and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most. Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that govern the lives of six billion human beings.
The same statistics also suggest that this girl’s parents believe -- at this very moment -- that an all-powerful and all-loving God is watching over them and their family. Are they right to believe this? Is it good that they believe this?
No.
The entirety of atheism is contained in this response. Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. The obvious must be observed and re-observed and argued for. This is a thankless job. It carries with it an aura of petulance and insensitivity. It is, moreover, a job that the atheist does not want.
It is worth noting that no one ever need identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines. Likewise, “atheism” is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (eighty-seven percent of the population) who claim to “never doubt the existence of God” should be obliged to present evidence for his existence -- and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. Only the atheist appreciates just how uncanny our situation is: most of us believe in a God that is every bit as specious as the gods of Mount Olympus; no person, whatever his or her qualifications, can seek public office in the United States without pretending to be certain that such a God exists; and much of what passes for public policy in our country conforms to religious taboos and superstitions appropriate to a medieval theocracy. Our circumstance is abject, indefensible, and terrifying. It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high.
Consider: the city of New Orleans was recently destroyed by hurricane Katrina. At least a thousand people died, tens of thousands lost all their earthly possessions, and over a million have been displaced. It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Katrina struck believed in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while a hurricane laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Only the atheist has the courage to admit the obvious: these poor people spent their lives in the company of an imaginary friend.
Of course, there had been ample warning that a storm “of biblical proportions” would strike New Orleans, and the human response to the ensuing disaster was tragically inept. But it was inept only by the light of science. Advance warning of Katrina’s path was wrested from mute Nature by meteorological calculations and satellite imagery. God told no one of his plans. Had the residents of New Orleans been content to rely on the beneficence of the Lord, they wouldn’t have known that a killer hurricane was bearing down upon them until they felt the first gusts of wind on their faces. And yet, a poll conducted by The Washington Post found that eighty percent of Katrina’s survivors claim that the event has only strengthened their faith in God.
As hurricane Katrina was devouring New Orleans, nearly a thousand Shiite pilgrims were trampled to death on a bridge in Iraq. There can be no doubt that these pilgrims believed mightily in the God of the Koran. Indeed, their lives were organized around the indisputable fact of his existence: their women walked veiled before him; their men regularly murdered one another over rival interpretations of his word. It would be remarkable if a single survivor of this tragedy lost his faith. More likely, the survivors imagine that they were spared through God’s grace.
Only the atheist recognizes the boundless narcissism and self-deceit of the saved. Only the atheist realizes how morally objectionable it is for survivors of a catastrophe to believe themselves spared by a loving God, while this same God drowned infants in their cribs. Because he refuses to cloak the reality of the world’s suffering in a cloying fantasy of eternal life, the atheist feels in his bones just how precious life is -- and, indeed, how unfortunate it is that millions of human beings suffer the most harrowing abridgements of their happiness for no good reason at all.
Of course, people of faith regularly assure one another that God is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that God is both omniscient and omnipotent? There is no other way, and it is time for sane human beings to own up to this. This is the age-old problem of theodicy, of course, and we should consider it solved. If God exists, either He can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities, or He does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil. Pious readers will now execute the following pirouette: God cannot be judged by merely human standards of morality. But, of course, human standards of morality are precisely what the faithful use to establish God’s goodness in the first place. And any God who could concern himself with something as trivial as gay marriage, or the name by which he is addressed in prayer, is not as inscrutable as all that. If He exists, the God of Abraham is not merely unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man.
There is another possibility, of course, and it is both the most reasonable and least odious: the biblical God is a fiction. As Richard Dawkins has observed, we are all atheists with respect to Zeus and Thor. Only the atheist has realized that the biblical god is no different. Consequently, only the atheist is compassionate enough to take the profundity of the world’s suffering at face value. It is terrible that we all die and lose everything we love; it is doubly terrible that so many human beings suffer needlessly while alive. That so much of this suffering can be directly attributed to religion -- to religious hatreds, religious wars, religious delusions, and religious diversions of scarce resources -- is what makes atheism a moral and intellectual necessity. It is a necessity, however, that places the atheist at the margins of society. The atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbors.

This is an excerpt from An Atheist Manifesto, to be published at www.truthdig.com in December

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Bertrand Russell

One Taste, The Journals of Ken Wilber

"So Who Are You?"

The witnessing of awareness can persist through waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The Witness is fully available in any state, including your own present state of awareness right now. So I'm going to talk you into this state, or try to, using what are known in Buddhism as "pointing out instructions." I am not going to try to get you into a different state of consciousness, or an altered state of consciousness, or a non-ordinary state. I am going to simply point out something that is already occurring in your own present, ordinary, natural state.

So let's start by just being aware of the world around us. Look out there at the sky, and just relax your mind; let your mind and the sky mingle. Notice the clouds floating by. Notice that this takes no effort on your part. Your present awareness, in which these clouds are floating, is very simple, very easy, effortless, spontaneous. You simply notice that there is an effortless awareness of the clouds. The same is true of those trees, and those birds, and those rocks. You simply and effortlessly witness them. Look now at the sensations in your own body. You can be aware of whatever bodily feelings are present-perhaps pressure where you are sitting, perhaps warmth in your tummy, maybe tightness in your neck. But even if these feelings are tight and tense, you can easily be aware of them. These feelings arise in your present awareness, and that awareness is very simple, easy, effortless, spontaneous. You simply and effortlessly witness them.

Continue here...

THOSE LATINOS SURE KNOW HOW TO CELEBRATE ! !

The question of what cloud nine must be like for Chicago’s Manager Ozzie Guillen, in this element of surprise caught on camera after the World Series win against the Houston Astros Wednesday night in this spontaneous celebratory kiss must have been answered. Surely either Geralso Rivera or (more likely) Shep Smith had something to do with the jury-rigging of this photo op, ya think?
Thanks to Fox News...

Moslem Messianic Madness

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FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Messianic madness
of nuclear Osama
Heavenly signs, bin Laden's Mahdi complex raise current threat of 'American Hiroshima'

Signs in the heavens and a popular notion in the Islamic world that Osama bin Laden is the "Mahdi," a long-awaited messianic deliverer, increase this month's risk of mega-terror attacks on the U.S. – including raising the threat of al-Qaida's nuclear "American Hiroshima" plan, says an author and expert in a report released today to WND.

Paul L. Williams, author of "The Al Qaeda Connection" and a former FBI consultant, warns in a report that first appeared in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin terror attacks on the U.S. before Nov. 2 would have special spiritual significance.

"Islamic clerics point out that the signs in the heavens are propitious for such an event," writes Williams. "This year, Muslims will experience solar and lunar eclipses during the holy month. These great heavenly signs, according to Islamic visionary Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Sahib, foretell the coming of the "Mahdi," the mighty warrior of the Apocalypse, who will defeat the army of Yajuj wa-Majuj ("the infidel unbelievers"), led by the Dabbah or "the Beast." He will lead the Muslims to great victory and bring forth the Day of Islam, when all of creation falls before the throne of Allah."

Millions of Muslims worldwide already regard bin Laden as the "Mahdi," say Williams and other analysts of Islam.

"Islamic tradition says that the Mahdi will be a descendant of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima," writes Williams. "He will have a distinctive forehead, a prominent nose, and a black mole on his face. He will arise from Arabia and will be called from a cave by Allah to serve as the savior of all true believers."
Continue here...

THINGS ARE MORE LIKE THEY ARE NOW THAN THEY HAVE EVER BEEN.

Gerald Ford

THE CAR THAT MAKES ITS OWN FUEL

(Now, quickly get this concept to the Chinese, get it massproduced, drench the world market with it at around 15 thousand dollars and China will rule the world.)

A unique system that can produce Hydrogen inside a car using common metals such as Magnesium and Aluminum was developed by an Israeli company. The system solves all of the obstacles associated with the manufacturing, transporting and storing of hydrogen to be used in cars. When it becomes commercial in a few years time, the system will be incorporated into cars that will cost about the same as existing conventional cars to run, and will be completely emission free. (Or is this a cruel hoax)
Read on...

Also, from the same company. Hydrogen from the Sun.

KEN WILBER ON EVOLUTIONARY ENLIGHTENMENT

...The waking state comes and goes, but the Witness is ever-present. The dreaming state comes and goes, but the Witness is ever-present. The deep sleep state comes and goes, but the Witness is ever-present. Extraordinary and remarkable states of consciousness can be reached and practiced and attained in the gross, subtle, and causal realms. But the Witness cannot be attained, because it is ever-present. The Witness cannot be practiced, because it is ever-present. The Witness cannot be reached, because it is ever-present. As Sri Ramana Maharshi often said, "There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is not here and now but that it has yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self;you are already That." Or the great Zen Master Huang Po, " That there is no reaching enlightenment is not idle talk, it is the truth. Hard is the meaning of this saying!" You can no more reach enlightenment or attain the Self than you can attain your feet or acquire your lungs.

Notice: the clouds float by in your awareness, thoughts float by in your mind, feelings arise in the body, and you are the Witness of all of those. The Witness is already fully functioning, fully present, fully awake. The enlightened Self is one hundred percent present in your very perception of this page. Enlightened Spirit is that which is reading these words right now: how much closer can you possibly get? Why go out and start looking for the Looker? The great search for enlightenment is not just a waste of time; it is a colossal impossibility because the enlightened Self is ever-present, as the Witness of this and every moment...
More here...

HALARIOUS CARTOON

So why am I weeping?

HOW TO BECOME REPUBLICAN!!

See for yourself.

NEW POLITICAL BLOG

Well worth a bookmark.

THE PLANK here...

And don't miss "What is the Plank", clever stuff this.

MOSCOW FEDERATION TOWER

Moscow Federation Tower to be the tallest building in Europe.
On the 9th of February of this year, the construction of Federation Tower began in Moscow and projected to be completed in 2007. The 500 million dollar building was designed by German architect Peter Schwegar of Schweger Assoziierte Architekten and by Russian transplanted in Germany, Sergei Tchoban of NPS Tchoban Voss.
The building will rise to a height of 440 meters including the antenna, and will be the tallest in Europe. More here...

NEW ADDITION TO SEPTEMBERS' "TALKING HEADS"

On September 22 I published a blog on a group of single, bright and upcoming male TV news types or pundit/authors and called it Talking Heads, read it here.
However, there was a fellow named Jake Tapper, 36ish, who should have been included as a member of that group, but alas was left out pending the grand launching of his much touted (in some circles, hint, wink, nudge) new blog, DownAndDirty, for some reason having it's opening several months later than announced. It's happened, DownAndDirty had it's first post around the first of this month, (October).
Jake appears at Amazon with Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency.
Also word out he's engaged to be married.
Several videos out, One Here....

BUSH AS GOD

From only the Best Political Cartoon Blog in the Universe

Interesting woman, Harriet Miers. She was a Democrat, found God and then became a
Republican. Which is kinda Backwards. Usually in Washington, you become a Republican, get indicted, go to jail and then find God. ~Jay Leno

CHINA DISCOVERS BOY BANDS

A MUST SEE...

Do Watch.

TOM DELAY AND HIS BOOKING

After the press around Delays non-mug shot, PhotoShop was going to be busy, More here...

THE FLASH MIND READER

I cain't figure out how this works.

Click here...

If anyone can explain, please email.

COHEN AND EVOLUTIONARY ENLIGHTENMENT

The ground of being is empty of everything. It is an objectless, spaceless, timeless, thoughtless void. But everything that exists has come from this no-place, including you and me. This empty ground that we all emerged from is the womb of the entire universe. When something came from nothing fourteen billion years ago, the nothing didn't disappear. That unborn, unmanifest dimension is the ever-present ground out of which everything is constantly arising.

The experience of meditation enables you to know this empty ground within your own self. Even in the midst of the chaotic movement of thought and feeling, you can discover a current of stillness that is the echo of the ground of being. And there is a great mystery in that current—a miraculous, enlightening depth that seems to answer all questions and relieve all doubts.

Traditionally, enlightenment has been defined as this profound awakening to the ground of being—an awakening in which the seeker finds liberation through transcending the world of time and space. But in the new enlightenment, which is redefined in an evolutionary context, the discovery of this primordial ground is not an end in itself. It becomes the essential foundation from which the individual is freed to participate wholeheartedly in the evolutionary process. What arises out of that ground is an impulse to evolve, an impulse that is not separate from the explosion in motion that emerged from nothing when the universe was born. I call this the Authentic Self, and the goal of Evolutionary Enlightenment is to liberate this creative principle in human consciousness so that it can transform us and the world around us.

Tony Cohen web site...

OUR CONSUMPTION AND WASTE IS MIND BLOWING

Side by side photos of an average family's household possessions, one family from California, and the other family from Bhutan taken from an amazing book, Material World, by Peter Menzel.

Here an excerpt from Amazons' review:

In honor of the United Nations-sponsored International Year of the Family in 1994, award-winning photojournalist Peter Menzel brought together 16 of the world's leading photographers to create a visual portrait of life in 30 nations. Material World tackles its wide subject by zooming in, allowing one household to represent an entire nation. Photographers spent one week living with a "statistically average" family in each country, learning about their work, their attitudes toward their possessions, and their hopes for the future. Then a "big picture" shot of the family was taken outside the dwelling, surrounded by all their (many or few) material goods.

Also an optimistic take from a blog about US garbage problem called Garbage Land, which gives great advice on what we can all do.

BEST DAMN INTERESTING SITE ON THE WEB

Interestingly enough, named the Damn Interesting site, it more than lives up to it's name.

BROADBAND TO BLANKET THE EARTH

LONDON -- Telecom giant Inmarsat is weeks away from launching the second in a series of two super-satellites -- designed to be among the most powerful commercial communications spacecraft in orbit -- that will beam broadband data and voice services to almost any location on the planet.

The I-4 satellites will serve as switchboards in the sky for Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network, or BGAN, service, scheduled for rollout in 2006. Instead of cruising for a Starbucks, BGAN subscribers can hit the road with a portable terminal as small as their laptop computer and surf the web -- or connect with the office LAN -- at broadband speeds of up to 492 Kbps.

"The network will cover 88 percent of the globe's landmass," said Chris McLaughlin, vice president of corporate communications for Inmarsat in London.

More here...

DANCE WHITE BOY DANCE

Hard to describe
Here...

Andrew Cohen: CREATING THE FUTURE

The spiritual challenge of our time, put very simply, is the demand to literally create the future ourselves. The structures of consciousness that lie in front of us don't yet exist and it's up to us as individuals, together, to actually create those new structures. It's a deadly serious matter. Creating the future at the leading edge is dependent upon each one of us waking up, transforming, and developing as individuals, and making whatever effort is necessary to transcend our attachment to the endless fears and desires of the ego, or separate self-sense.

Traditionally, the spiritual seeker would aspire to become enlightened, which means to transcend ego, in order to escape from the suffering of this world and abide in the timeless ground of being. But enlightenment itself is evolving. I don't think that what the world needs now is more people resting in the timeless ground of being. I think we have to resist the temptation to get lost in timelessness and begin to embrace the overwhelming urgency of the evolutionary crisis we're in—which is a crisis of consciousness, a crisis of understanding, a crisis of development. Many of us can intellectually appreciate our predicament, but that's not enough. We have to bridge the gap between our capacity to cognitively appreciate the problem and our willingness to actually become the solution as ourselves, as truly enlightened human beings.

Andrew Cohen

TRANSPARENT ALUMINUM

"The substance itself is light years ahead of glass," he said, adding that it offers "higher performance and lighter weight."

Traditional transparent armor is thick layers of bonded glass. The new armor combines the transparent ALONtm piece as a strike plate, a middle section of glass and a polymer backing. Each layer is visibly thinner than the traditional layers.

ALONtm is virtually scratch resistant, offers substantial impact resistance, and provides better durability and protection against armor piercing threats, at roughly half the weight and half the thickness of traditional glass transparent armor, said the lieutenant.

Read on...

THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM

A great many internal and external portants (political and social upheaval, moral and religious unease) have caused us all to feel, more or less confusedly, that something tremendous is a presant talking place in the world. But what is it?
~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

When I do not know who I am, I am bereft.

~Tony Parsons
As It Is

LIFESAVING ARCHITECTURAL RETHINK

The horrors of the Pakistan-Kashmir October 8 earthquake continues to unfold and the destruction of human life and property is indescribable. As of today the estimated deaths are over 41,000, and that number continues to rise, tens of thousands of severely injured unable to receive medical care, and the homeless count is well over 2 million with winter’s bad weather moving in.
This area of the world sits on major fault lines and has in the past been the scene of earthquake devastation which begins to beg the question, why is it not possible for engineers and architects in this the 21st century to create designs for earthquake proof housing for these people living in these tremor areas worldwide.
Housing which could built from inexpensive materials available in the area and with simple plans easily followed. Why couldn’t this be a prime objective for say the UN, or, even the USA, desperately needing goodwill as we do since the Iraq debacle.
Several articles today are focusing on the lack of tents for these people, and Wired Magazine mentioned an “origami” tent specifically geared for disaster relief which is being shown at, of all places, MOMA.