Friday, August 31, 2012

Hero who wants to shed light on drone wars rebuffed by Apple






Drone App Rejected From Apple App Store For Being Objectionable And Crude (via redOrbit)

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In their best attempts to keep the App Store a simple place free from malware and offensive and pornographic material, Apple sometimes makes decisions which tend to complicate the entire matter. For instance, there once lived an app in the App…

Thursday, August 16, 2012

We Create the Capacity


See It For The First Time

By plucking her petals, you do not
gather the beauty of the flower.

Clouds come floating into my life,
no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add colour to my sunset sky.

Death is not extinguishing the light;
it is only putting out the lamp
because the dawn has come.

Do not say, ‘It is morning,’
and dismiss it with a name of yesterday.
See it for the first time
as a newborn child that has no name.

Don’t limit a child to your own learning,
for he was born in another time.

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil
is no freedom for the tree.

Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.

Every difficulty slurred over
will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.

Everything comes to us that belongs to us
if we create the capacity to receive it.

Faith is the bird that feels the light
when the dawn is still dark.

From the solemn gloom of the temple
children run out to sit in the dust,
God watches them play and forgets the priest.

I have become my own version of an optimist.
If I can’t make it through one door,
I’ll go through another door - or I’ll make a door.
Something terrific will come
no matter how dark the present.

—Rabindranath Tagore



Monday, August 13, 2012

Painting Light on the Walls of Life


I'm up late tonight, celebrating a Happy 65th Independence Day of Pakistan with friends online so far away. I'm not only celebrating this historical memory yet I'm seeing history in the making and LIGHT for the journey ahead via a book offered as gift at this time -- a nonfiction thriller:

If you want to download and read this book, simply go here

What I understand of this little masterpiece -- based on Allama Iqbal's teachings and vision for the future of his nation -- is that there is plenty of light for those with the eyes of heart and soul to SEE.

So, I was reminded of this little excerpt I read in a poetry journal at the library:

' “All I wanted to do was paint sunlight on the side of a house,” said Edward Hopper (or words to that effect), and there have been legions of poets and filmmakers obsessed with light. I would side with the irrational visionary romantic who says light came first, and darkness but a fleeting shadow to be swept away with more light. (“More light!” cried the great poet, dying.) Poets and painters are the natural bearers of it, and all I ever wanted to do was paint light on the walls of life.' Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I took this one striking quote -- perhaps a bit out of Ferlinghetti's original context yet to me it suits exactly what I am trying to say tonight.

The way I interpret the last line for this day in Pakistan is that Allama Iqbal and his interpreter for our time, Khurram Ali Shafique, wanted to (and are still succeeding in) painting LIGHT on the walls of LIFE -- the life of Pakistan as well as the walls beyond the nation they hold most dear.

"We have pledged ourselves to love One.
We are the conscience hidden in God's heart,
We are the heirs of Moses and Aaron.
Sun and Moon are still bright with our radiance,
Lightning-flashes still lurk in our cloud.
Our essence is the mirror of the Divine essence..."

(Just before the invocation of 'The Secrets of the Self'
by Allama Iqbal.)

Photo Credit:
31d47164cf062c60a7c5e167efffb1dc.jpg
nowpublic.com 240 × 182 - sunrise in karachi :) by far0ck on

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Oregon USA Oldtimer says: NO MORE CRUSADES!



Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Clyde List Editorial: The Middle East

NEW YEARS RESOLUTION FOR AMERICA: NO MORE CRUSADES!

"This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile." --George W. Bush in 2001

"President Bush's use of the word 'crusade' was most unfortunate" --Soheib Bensheikh, Grand Mufti of the mosque in Marseille, France.

To this very day, moslems freak when they hear a Western leader say the word 'crusade.' When my German ancestors watched the First Crusade romp through their barley fields in 1099, they felt no different. The First Crusade was basically a motley procession of people on foot-- not only soldiers, but also country people, women and kids. It was obvious to anyone that these crusaders "...had altogether lost their wits."

But Germany's reluctance to (ta-da!)"Join the Crusade" did not last long. They soon helped lead the procession. I can just see an 11th Century Collin Powell (i.e. Peter the Hermit) going to a 11th Century united nations with the kind of evidence that was considered incontrovertible back then. It was reported that ...a woman after two years gestation finally gave birth to a boy who was able to talk; and that a child with a double set of limbs, another with two heads, and some lambs with two heads were also born; and that colts came into the world with great teeth, which we ordinarily call horses' teeth and which nature only grants to three-year old horses.... through these and similar signs the whole creation seemed to offer its services to the Creator. --Medieval Source Book

Oh! There you go! Even a glued to the party line semi-amusing milk-toast like Rush Limbaugh would agree. Case closed! Middle East, here we come. Grab your hat and staff and off the deep end we go!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...
Did they think they were going to find the Holy Grail in Germany???
10:38 AM

JayCee said...
No. Like most people visiting Germany, they were just passing through. (That's not true. Haha. Just kidding.) Please go to the source for further information:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ekkehard-aur1.html
4:20 PM

Lilly Morgen said...
There are people in Sherwood town that have been against this unlikely "Crusade" from the beginning. Every Wednesday evening there has been a vigil down at the Sherwood Library. People stare at the motley crew and their signs and candles, but they don't stop and join in. I'm afraid that there has been only one lonely real crusader and his name is George Bush. What he is really after is the Holy Dollar!!!!
6:02 PM

JayCee said...
Hats off to you, those few of you who have the wisdom to look into the future and see the past: A world Robin Hood fought against.
5:02 PM

Clyde said...
I see this essay was picked up by a web site in France. I wonder why the topic would be of any interest to them.
10:11 PM

Lilly Morgen said...
I will have to say that we should resolve not to go into any wars nor should we be backing them.
1:45 PM

Clyde List said...
I'm reading a book about America's Civil War. How innocently it all started out! "Yeah. Sure. War is ugly." the thinking went, "But this won't be that kind of war. We'll fire a few shots at one another and everyone will get a good laugh out of it and we'll go home. Let the South have their own country if they want. After all, we're all brothers and sisters of the same religion and color of skin. We don't really hate each other. Do we?"
10:55 AM

JayCee said...
Oh yes! July 16, 1861! Mark it on your calendar. We're all going to war! I almost have to laugh, it's so comical. This "War" will take place just 22 miles south of Washington, D.C. It will be a great family weekend, and it should only last an hour or so. We'll have a picnic. Hundreds of excited spectators in horse-drawn carriages will be there! Our brave boys will dispatch that nasty upstart Confederacy once and for all.

--This posting is based on
http://military.discovery.com/history/civil-war/bull-run/bull-run.html
11:40 AM

JayCee said...
Strangely, this posting is rated high on the internet. If you google "more crusades" or "no more crusades" it comes up right away. And yet it receives very few comments.
11:43 AM

Anonymous said...
If you type Crusdaes and Middle East you get this:

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/09/opinion/oe-simes9
2:34 PM

Monday, August 6, 2012

ADDITION: NO to US, NATO or Israeli Intervention



No to Humanitarian Imperialism in Iran & Syria

Proponents of war lied about Iraq. They claimed a humanitarian purpose long after the WMD claim fell apart.

In the end, they devastated Iraq and caused untold suffering.

Proponents of war lied about Afghanistan and continue to kill and destabilize there to this day in the name of humanitarianism and women's rights.

They ignore the right not to be bombed.

They lied about Libya, a nation now facing catastrophe following "humanitarian" bombing.

They're lying about Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, fueling hatred with drone wars, endangering us all.

The lies about Syria and Iran are flowing freely. But neither the motivation nor the likely result of the warmongering is humanitarian.

=====

Please add your name to this petition, which we will deliver to Congress and the President:

We say No to U.S. or NATO warfare in Syria -- and No to U.S. or Israeli attacks on Iran. Intervention will cause human suffering, make reform more difficult, and quite possibly escalate into regional or global conflict. We reject this latest push for "humanitarian" imperialism.

here

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Romney lets the world know his ignorance of Israel/Palestine!


AP Photo

Romney Visits Culturally “Superior” Israel; Totally Ignores the Occupation
01Aug12

by James M. Wall (WALLWRITINGS OpEd)

Mitt Romney traveled to Jerusalem earlier this week. He was not there on a fact-finding mission. He was raising money for his presidential campaign.
He was also cultivating American voters who live in Israel, while stroking his pro-Israel voters back home with pictures like this one (right) of the candidate praying at the Western Wall.

The only attention the Palestinians received came in a back-handed slap delivered by Romney when he spoke to a luncheon sponsored by his wealthy U.S. backer, casino owner Sheldon Adelson.

Romney told 40 wealthy donors at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel that Israel has a far superior GDP per capita than “the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority”.
Displaying a total ignorance of the prison-like occupation under which the Palestinian people must struggle, Romney explained that the ”dramatically stark difference in economic vitality” was due to Israel’s superior culture.

Grossly misstating the 2009 GDF figures available on the United Nations website, Romney said:
As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars [actually $27,060], and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 [actually $1,367] per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality.”
Romney did not cross over into what he called ”the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority”. He did not see for himself the so-called “security wall”. Instead like the average American tourist traveling under Israeli guides all he appeared to know about the region came from books he or his staff had read.

That reading prompted Romney to say that “some economic histories have theorized that ‘culture makes all the difference.’”

Zooming in on the financial backers he spoke to at the King David Hotel, Romney added:
And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things [including] an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.” He said similar disparity exists between neighboring countries, like Mexico and the United States.

Back in Boston, Romney was asked about such comments. He told ABC News: “You know, I tend to tell people what I actually believe.”

Future polls will have to reveal how much damage among U.S. voters Romney’s amazing display of ignorance about the history and politics of this region, has done to his political standing.
One thing is certain, however. The immediate response to Romney’s fund raising speech at the King David Hotel has been overwhelming negative, except among the candidate’s extremist U.S. and Israeli backers.

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told the Associated Press:
It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation.

It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people. He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.

Palestinian-American business leader Sam Bahour wrote a Religious News Service column, which also ran in the Washington Post:

Mitt Romney made history on Monday. In a single speech from Jerusalem, he proved beyond a reasonable doubt that to qualify to be a U.S. presidential candidate one needs precious little understanding of history, economics, or reality. Romney has just enough to be dangerous.
With no sense of the impediments Palestinians labor under, Romney compared Israel’s economic success to that of its Palestinian neighbors and claimed the discrepancy was due to “cultural” differences and the “hand of providence.” Such blatantly racist and bigoted references to the conflicting parties are only occasionally rivaled by Israel’s most right-wing politicians.

Television host Cenk Uygur wrote for the Huffington Post site:
Mitt Romney recently said in Israel that Palestinians don’t have as high a GDP per capita as Israelis do because their culture is not as good as Jewish culture. That is both deeply racist and deeply stupid.

American academic blogger Juan Cole wrote on his blog, Informed Comment:
Mitt Romney, a privileged white man worth a quarter of a billion dollars who has sheltered his money from taxes in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, and who never misses a square meal, stooped to a new obscene low in blaming the victim on Monday by slamming the Palestinians for not being richer. Palestinian politician Saeb Erekat characterized Romney’s remarks as “racist,” but even that was charitable. Evil, is more like it.

UK Guardian’s Rachel Shabi described Romney’s whirlwind three-country tour as “an insult-the-world tour, during which he’s constantly trying to outdo his previous personal best.”

How else to explain the Republican presidential candidate’s horribly offensive comments about Palestinians during his recent trip to Jerusalem, so soon after the clunking insults levelled at his British hosts in London last week?

Over a £16,000-a-plate campaign fundraiser breakfast with Jewish donors in Jerusalem, Romney aired his deep thoughts on “the dramatic, stark difference in economic vitality” between the Palestinian and Israeli economies. These thoughts were obtained by reading books, he prefixed, before surmising that Israeli accomplishments were down to “at least culture and a few other things” – oh, and also, “the hand of providence”.

Even the New York Times knew that it dare not remain silent in the face of Romney’s outrageous display of ignorance. In its editorial page, the Times wrote:
Mr. Romney did American interests no favors when he praised Israeli economic growth while ignoring the challenges Palestinians face living under Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza. He showed troubling ignorance by understating the income disparity between Israel and those areas. Israel, in 2009, had a per capita gross domestic product of roughly $29,800, while, in 2008, the West Bank and Gaza had a per capita gross domestic product of $2,900, according to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Times columnist Tom Friedman took note of the politics of the trip:
The question is this: Since the whole trip was not about learning anything but about how to satisfy the political whims of the right-wing, super pro-Bibi Netanyahu, American Jewish casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, why didn’t they just do the whole thing in Las Vegas? I mean, it was all about money anyway — how much Romney would abase himself by saying whatever the Israeli right wanted to hear and how big a jackpot of donations Adelson would shower on the Romney campaign in return.

After Romney returned to Boston, he wrote a column for the conservative magazine National Review, not yielding an inch on his belief in Israel’s “superior culture”,
During my recent trip to Israel, I had suggested that the choices a society makes about its culture play a role in creating prosperity, and that the significant disparity between Israeli and Palestinian living standards was powerfully influenced by it. In some quarters, that comment became the subject of controversy.

But what exactly accounts for prosperity if not culture? In the case of the United States, it is a particular kind of culture that has made us the greatest economic power in the history of the earth. Many significant features come to mind: our work ethic, our appreciation for education, our willingness to take risks, our commitment to honor and oath, our family orientation, our devotion to a purpose greater than ourselves, our patriotism.

But one feature of our culture that propels the American economy stands out above all others: freedom. The American economy is fueled by freedom. Free people and their free enterprises are what drive our economic vitality.”

Somewhere in one of Ray Bradbury’s short stories, a young boy stops on the sidewalk, looking up at the top of the town hall. He is troubled because he realizes he is seeing the town clock for the first time. He thinks to himself, “If I haven’t seen the clock before, what else have I missed?”

It is a scary thought that our next president could be Mitt Romney, who traveled to Israel and ignored the obscene wall Israel has built to guarantee that the Palestinian people will have none of the freedoms he claims to espouse.

If Romney failed to grasp the obscenity of Israel’s “security wall”, what else has he missed?

Wallwritings by James M. Wall Mass
wallwritings.me