THE SECOND COMING

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.
    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

    

    Yeats

Attack on Mumbai Chabad

I was going to write something on this act of murder by Muslims against Jews and Hindus, but instead I will just post a picture of the interior of the Chabad House in Mumbai, where six people died for being Jews.    Again.  

Mumbai

Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:33    Mumbai time
The large red sign over the double-width entrance to the Leopold Café, a popular tourist spot, still boasts that the restaurant had been in business “since 1871.” But the steel shutters were pulled down over the entrance on Friday afternoon, sealing the site of one of the first deadly assaults on Wednesday night. The attackers stood at the entrance and raked the diners with heavy fire from assault rifles.

The power of the rounds is still visible from three that missed the diners. They struck the thick concrete pillars on either side of the entrance and penetrated more than an inch deep, leaving red stains.

Through a gap at the top of the shutters, the darkened restaurant can still be seen. Half-eaten meals still sit on tables and napkins lie on tables and chairs, as though the diners had disappeared suddenly into thin air instead of falling before a hail of bullets.

No sign of the fallen remains visible

By KEITH BRADSHER

Keith Bradsher, a Times correspondent, is sending The Lede  updates from his Blackberry as he watches a commando operation taking place at the Nariman House

EKKK IT"S IKE!

It looks like hurricane Ike could, might hit Florida on Tuesday September 9, 2008 at a cat 3 or 4

we will know more by Sunday. Everyone is checking their supplies and gassing up their cars. I am ready, I just need some extra cat food, oreo cookies and beer. I like to drink beer and eat oreo cookies during a hurricane.

HURRICANES!

I am betting on Ike, I think Florida will get hit next week, Sept 10 ?

When hurricanes collide!

The Fujiwhara Effect

The Fujiwhara effect describes the rotation of two storms around each other. It's most common with tropical cyclones such as typhoons or hurricanes, but also occurs in other cases. When Tropical Storm Iris was approaching the Windward Islands on Aug. 23, 1995 and Hurricane Humberto was close behind, they drew close enough together to begin a Fujiwhara dance. The effect is thought to occur when storms get about 900 miles apart. As Humberto chased down Iris, Humberto began to lift northward over Iris while Iris slowed down and turned a bit to the south. Iris became a hurricane just as this "dance" began but both storms were weakened by their passion for each other. As they weakened other forces in the atmosphere broke them apart and sent them on their separate ways. About 8 days later, Iris, now a hurricane with 110 mph winds, was moving northward east of Bermuda. This time Tropical Storm Karen scooted in behind Iris. But Karen was a much weaker storm with winds of only 45 mph. As the storms moved closer the Fujiwhara effect began. But Iris' strength dominated and poor Karen was flung around Iris to the north and Iris absorbed Karen right into its circulation while barely flinching. Storms involved in the Fujiwhara effect are rotating around one another as if they had locked arms and were square dancing. Rather than each storm spinning about the other, they are actually moving about a central point between them, as if both were tied to the same post and each swung around it separately of the other. A good way to picture this is to think of two ice skaters who skate quickly towards each other, nearly on a collision course, grab hands as they are about to pass and spin vigorously around in one big circle with their joined hands at the center. To complete the effect, the entire system - the two storms and the central point between them - must move off in a single direction while the storms continue spinning about each other. The effect is named after Dr. Sakuhei Fujiwhara who was the Chief of the Central Meteorological Bureau in Tokyo, Japan, shortly after the First World War. In 1921 he wrote a paper describing the motions of "vortices" in water. Water vortices are little water whirls that spin around. Whirlpools are water vortices.

Paul Kennedy

Aug. 14, 2008

Column one: Georgia, Israel and the nature of man

Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST

In their statements Wednesday on Russia's invasion of Georgia, both US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice openly acknowledged that Russia is the aggressor in the war and that the US stands by Georgia.
This is all very nice and well. But what does the fact that it took the US a full five days to issue a clear statement against Russian aggression tell us about the US? What does it say about Georgia and, in a larger sense, about the nature of world affairs?
Russia's blitzkrieg in Georgia this week was not simply an act of aggression against a small, weak democracy. It was an assault on vital Western security interests. Since it achieved independence in 1990, Georgia has been the only obstacle in Russia's path to exerting full control over oil supplies from Central Asia to the West. And now, in the aftermath of Russia's conquest of Georgia, that obstacle has been set aside.
Georgia has several oil and gas pipelines that traverse its territory from Azerbaijan to Turkey, the main one being the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Together they transport more than 1 percent of global oil supplies from east to west. In response to the Russian invasion, British Petroleum, which owns the pipelines, announced that it will close them.
This means that Russia has won. In the future that same oil and gas will either be shipped through Russia, or it will be shipped through Georgia under the benevolent control of Russian "peacekeeping" forces permanently stationed in Gori. The West now has no option other than appeasing Russia if it wishes to receive its oil from the Caucasus.  More at JPost.com

Attack on Georgia

This crisis can be solved..  If the western nations allow this travesty by the bully Russia to continue, if it is allowed to dismantle the democratic government of Georgia, we should all hang are heads in shame.

Rick's wedding gift

Nothing Happens in August Except Sports

Execution  by Minjun

White Lady with a Nod to Ginsberg's Howl

By Brian Robbins 

After a long bout, and a touch of sheer madness

I have decided to send David and his psycho, crack smoking, manic depressive  state of mind

back to the wonderful  Delaware for eternity.

the endless dance he takes with that magical mystical lady who holds his hand while launching his only human remains into orbit with every hit he takes is a sight to behold.

then to Quench his thirst with any type of alcohol in mass Quantities is only for the strong heart.

he will now be Launched  back to Delaware by intergalactic stage coach or chicken truck.

maybe a crate with a piss hole out the side

and enough crack to keep him busy during the long haul in the back of a freighter liner heading north.

he is a real fucking nut, more then one of those people who flew over the KooKo's nest, he crashed into a building on the 88th floor and has been hanging on by his shoe lace upside

down for the last 35 years just blowing in the wind. 

he will get nothing in his pocket to spend

and a front stoop on 8th and Washington Street in good old down town Wilmington Delaware

where Crack is being cooked in every other apartment up and down the street.

good luck and happy trail to yaw bro, live long and party on dude...

Brother Bry

This is actually an email my cousin Brian sent to me about sending his brother back to Delaware and I  don't think he has ever read Howl.

More on Ginsberg.  I remember during the book signing  a couple of men walking around the Village Green Book store who appeared very out of place and had that faint aroma of police of some sort. At the time I wondered why anyone would be remotely interested in a dying old poet.  Of course  they also could have been employed for security by the store or Ginsberg.

Every modern lyricist from Dylan to  50 Cent  to the Stooges     should understand the influence that Ginsberg has had on their words.

Links for info on Allen Ginsberg,

Wiki
The Allen Ginsberg Project
List of published work
Howl

I have been scanning old negatives and found some negatives of Allen Ginsberg. I took these photos at a book signing at the Village Green bookstore in Rochester NY in the fall of 1996.  Ginsberg  died April 5,  1997

Great video of Matt dancing all over the world 

Bob Dylan- It's Alright Ma ( I'm Only Bleeding)

Anti-Semitism is so rife  at the BBC it is not longer a legitimate  news organization. The  BBC has demonstrated that when it comes to Israel distortion and lies substitute facts. The BBC can not acknowledge that Brown met Peres in the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, because it can not acknowledge Jerusalem is the capital so it makes something up. In Britain anti-Semitism creates a fantasy world where Tel  Aviv is the capital and Abbas and Hamas  did not celebrate and honor the child killer Kuntar.

From the BBC
Brown in £30m Palestinian pledge

Gordon Brown has announced £30m (38m euros; $60m) of additional financial support for the Palestinian Authority (PA), on a visit to the West bank.

The prime minister also promised further support in training the Palestinian police, after talks with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr Brown met Mr Abbas in Bethlehem after talks in Tel Aviv with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

The trip follows an earlier visit by Mr Brown to Iraq.

The money pledged by the prime minister is part of ongoing financial backing for economic and social development in the territories.

Mr Brown said the assistance would help the "great entrepreneurial flair" of the Palestinian people come alive.

There is an email campaign to the  UN to bring attention to Bob Levinson who disappeared in Iran in March 2007

This is the link   Bob Levinsons' email Campaign 

More in info

Press Statement
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
July 14, 2008

American Citizen Robert Levinson Still Missing in Iran

Christine Levinson, wife of American citizen Robert Levinson, who disappeared while visiting Iran’s Kish Island in March 2007, met today with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns to discuss her husband’s case.

Mr. Levinson, a father of seven with a second grandchild on the way, has now been missing for sixteen months. We still do not have definitive information about his welfare or whereabouts. Mr. Levinson’s wife and son visited Iran in December 2007 in an effort to gather information about his disappearance and to press the Iranian government on his case. While the Iranian authorities guaranteed the security of the family during their journey, they provided few details from their investigation.

We once again urge Tehran to share any and all information the Iranian authorities have uncovered about the Levinson case, and we ask anyone else who may have information about the case to contact us or the Levinson family.

2008/576

Released on July 14, 2008

 

I just read an article on Slate by Ron Rosenbaum titled " The Israel Lobby and the Second Holocast Debate"  from Sept. 19, 2007 which discusses the book by Mearsheimer and Walt and the psychologically  impact of the continued call for the destruction of Israel by its neighbors. An concept which Rosenbaum argues that in the book they fail to  acknowledge the historical memory of another time and place where others were calling for the destruction of Jews.

 

an excerpt  from from this article  

And—here's the crux—it does not seem to occur to Mearsheimer and Walt that American Jews might be fearful not for themselves, but for their imperiled brethren in Israel. It apparently requires too much of a leap for them to make that connection. And that is what the moral imagination is about: the ability to make connections to the souls of other people, to imagine what it might be like for a people who had lost 6 million to be faced with daily threats to their existence—the threat of a second Holocaust—in the place where they sought refuge. Otherwise, without a moral imagination, one construes the Israel lobby as merely about power and self-aggrandizement.

It seems to me there are many Jews and Israelis who have the moral imagination to be distressed by the plight of the Palestinians. However, Mearsheimer and Walt neglect the fact that Israeli Jews and American supporters of Israel might be motivated by historical memory. By the way the world stood by and allowed the slaughter of 6 million Jews by Hitler. And by the way the current climate of demonizing Israel, and delegitimizing it by means of a double standard, sets the stage for the world to stand by once again, with a "well they sort of deserved it" shrug, when a second Holocaust looms 

Lebanon which at one time had the reputation of being civilized, Beirut was once called the the Paris of the MidEast,  has become degraded  by an ideology so vile that it gave a state welcome to a man who bashed in a child head with a rifle butt. Can you but wonder that to many it feels like 1936, when people make excuses and explanation for acts of brutality... 

We even have an Olympics  this year. 

Different people, different places, different rhetoric, but same motivation and once against the question is will Jews be caught in the crossfire? 

Heroes

Einat, Danny and Yael Haran

Today Israel is releasing Samir Kunter to Lebanon where he will be hailed a hero, given parades and receive an official state welcome by Prime Minister Faud Saniora and President Gen. Michel Suleiman of Lebanon. And what heroic act did Kunter do to deserve the adoration of his country?

Kuntar along with four other 'militants' (the word the Guardian used) sailed from Lebanon to the coast at Nahariya on a rubber dinghy and then attacked an apartment block.

They broke into a flat and dragged out a man, Danny Haran, and his four-year-old daughter Einat.  Kuntar shot Danny Haran in the back and then bludgeoned four old Einat to death with the butt of his rifle. Haran's wife, Smadar, hid in their bedroom with their second daughter, Yael, who was two, but as she tried to silence the child's cries, she accidentally smothered Yael.

 This is Lebanon's idea of a hero, a man who beats a four year old girl to death with the butt of his rifle. For anybody with any confusion about right and wrong and good and evil in the mideast  you should consider this story.

It is Smadar Haran who is the true hero, who rose above her own personal pain of having lost her family to not oppose this release.  I am unsure if I could have done this 'thing' and I am unsure if it was right but I am proud of having a relationship to a people who value each other so much that they would take this action on the slim chance that young men who were stolen just might be returned alive. 

The Lebanese government has declared Wednesday, July,16, 2008, a national holiday to celebrate the liberation of Sami Kuntar from the jails of the Israelis. 

From an article by Rabbi Shraga Simmons,  Heroes on the Borders

Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, the revered Klausenberger Rebbe, was savagely beaten by a Nazi with crushing, deadly blows. As the rabbi was sprawled on the ground, bleeding from his head, the Nazi thrust his jackboot into the rabbi's chest and mockingly sneered: "So tell me, how does it now feel to be a Jew?"

Rabbi Halberstam looked up calmly and said, "I'd much rather be a Jew on the receiving end of this torture, than to be a German administering it."

The Mighty Quinn

Tom Waits The House Where Nobody Lives

Sigd festival

The Ethiopian Sigd (סיגד in Hebrew) festival falls on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, and is a festival unique to the Beta Israel community. The holiday symbolizes the acceptance of the Torah. Some see it as a commemoration of the revelation at Mount Sinai however the Kessim have also maintained a tradition of the holiday arising some time in the 15th Century CE as a result of the persecution of Christian Amhara kings.

Sigd Festival Video

In Jerusalem

I am trying to teach Watson to swim in a burlap bag but he keeps on running away, here kitty, kitty