Truth is more important than partisanship

Half a dozen tries after trying to respond on dailykos.com itself and failing - maybe it doesn't like long comments?
here are some facts about whether the Landrieu amendment was for body armor or not.
See http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/22/11411/2758 for the context.

The Congressional Record, March 20, 2003, shows how Sen. Landrieu wanted the $1 billion allocated.  No body armor.  Mediamatters may have a case with the later Dodd amendment.  But factcheck.org is right on the Landrieu amendment.  Here is specifically what she asked the Senate to vote for; what press releases say doesn't compare to the very specific stuff she told the Senate.


STRATEGIC EQUIPMENT, WEAPONS, AND TECHNOLOGY NEEDS OF THE NATIONAL GUARD AND RESERVE SERVING IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ

Service--System 
Cost 

Air Force Reserve  

WC-130J Radar--Upgrades Reserve Radar to specifications needed by Active forces  
$50,000,000  

F-16 LITENING II AT Upgrade Modification--Provides Reserve Tactical Fighters with same radar upgrades as active forces; reserve fighters flying same missions  
16,200,000  

F-16 LITENING II AT Pod Procurement--Provides Reserve Tactical Fighters with same radar upgrades as active forces; reserve fighters flying same missions  
14,400,000  

A-10 TARGETING PODS--Provides Reserve Tactical Fighters with same radar upgrades as active forces; reserve fighters flying same missions  
48,000,000  

B-52 TARGETING PODS--Provides Reserve B-52s with same radar upgrades as active B-52s; performing same missions  
4,800,000  

TACTICAL RADIOS--Provides radio upgrades for interoperability with active forces  
14,900,000  

Land Mobile Radio Infrastructure  
12,000,000  

Total  
160,300,000  

Navy Reserve:  

VAW-78--EC-2 Squadron--Funding Prohibits decommissioning in FY05 of this currently deployed unit  
10,160,000  

VFA-203--F/A-18 Squadron--Funding prohibits decommissioning in FY04 of this currently deployed unit  
20,110,000  

Littoral Surveillance System--Procures one additional system to upgrade port surveillance by Navy Reserve  
14,500,000  

F/A-18 Advanced Targeting FLIR--Procures radars for 5 squadrons to make compatible with Active Navy  
14,700,000  

P-3 Aircraft Improvement Program (AIP)--Would upgrade 28 of 42 Reserve P-3s to have same capabilities as Actives; AIP allows P-3s to better operate against surface combatants and improve surveillance and targeting  
29,700,000  

P-3 Block Modification Upgrade Program (BMUP)--Brings all Reserve P-3s into compliance with each other, not Actives--gives all Reserve P-3s similar computers and acoustics sensors  
33,000,000  

F/A-18 ECP 560 Precision Guided Munitions Upgrade--Provides 1 Reserve F/A Squadron with precision guided munitions similar to Active F-18.  
33,240,000  

CBR-D Equipment Storage and Logistics--Funds shortfall of 10,000 bio-chem suits for Navy Reservists  
8,000,000  

Total  
163,410,000  

Army Reserve:  

High Frequency Radios (Interoperability for Special Ops Reservists)  
57,138,816  

M-4 Rifles  
1,200,000  

M-16 Rifles  
1,200,000  

Tactical Electrical Power (5-60KW)TQG  
5,404,000  

Tactical Electrical Power (3KW)TQG  
3,000,000  

Truck Tractor Line Haul  
12,420,000  

Improved Ribbon Bridge  
22,400,000  

Truck Cargo PLS 10X10 M1075 (T40999)  
6,936,000  

Trailer PLS 8X20 M1075 (T93761)  
1,320,000  

Spreader Bituminous Module PLS 2500 Gal. (S13546)  
2,080,000  

Mixer Concrete  
1,375,000  

Dump Body Module  
3,496,000  

Engineer Mission Module Water Distributor  
9,630,000  

Airborne/Air Assault Scraper (S30039)  
7,575,000  

Distributor Water Self-Propelled 2500 Gal.  
2,970,000  

Truck Transporter Common Bridge (CBT) (T91308)  
8,360,000  

Truck Dump 20 Ton  
7,215,000  

Generator Smoke Mechanical  
11,667,600  

Tent Expandable Modular (Surgical)  
729,000  

Total  
166,116,416  

Army National Guard:  

Black Hawk Helicopters  
223,200,000  

SINCGARS (Radio Systems)  
34,900,000  

Air National Guard:  

F-16 Targeting Pods  
35,100,000  

A-10 Targeting Pods  
70,200,000  

C-130H2 AN/APN-241 Radar  
24,500,000  

F-15 AIFF/IFF (Data Link Systems)  
31,300,000  

F-15 220E Engine Kits  
98,000,000  

Total  
517,200,000  

Marine Corps Reserve:  

Reserve Training Center Vehicle Maintenance Facility, Mobile, AL  
8,000,000  

Reserve Tank Maintenance Facility, Columbia, South Carolina  
3,800,000  

Reserve Training Center Vehicle Maintenance Facility, Camp Lejeune, NC  
8,100,000  

Uniform and Equipment needs  
13,200,000  

Weapons System Repairs  
7,300,000  

Total  
40,400,000  

Grand total  
1,047,426,416

Advaita and Superstring Theory

I should say a million times, that Advaita is not physics. Especially after the publication of such books as "The Tao of Physics" and the endless Deepak Chopra stuff there is a great danger that what I have to say here will be misunderstood.

Superstring Theory says that everything in the universe and the space-time within which everything in the universe exists is a manifestation of superstrings.

In this sense, string theory is a monistic theory.

The only reason to mention string theory is to remind people that they are familiar with monism, even if they didn't know it.

Advaita is a monistic philosophy. It however takes consciousness to be the root of everything, not strings. In a physical theory like string theory, consciousness is a side-product of sufficiently complex agglomerations of matter, like our brains and accompanying bodies. In Advaita, space, time, matter are side-products of consciousness.

Advaita cannot be a theory of physics, nor be mathematical.

The last thing to mention is that as per Advaita, this insight into the nature of things is available directly to the awareness. It does not require mathematics, or particle colliders to confirm this, as per Advaita, it takes a prepared mind.

A whole system of ethics and an entire culture flow from the (Hindu) accretions around this core idea. However, Hinduism is much more than Advaita and includes denials of the core idea as well.

Note that just as one could have and does have several religions around the transcendent personal god of Judaism/Christianity/Islam, one could have several religions about this absolute monism. The "religious" component of Advaita comes from the specific practices and traditions that it has bound to itself from Hinduism.

So is my current understanding. It is of course, subject to revision, upon greater understanding.

Is Advaita true? Fortunately, it doesn't matter. Yes, I know I have made an extremely provocative statement. The point is that there is no value in belief or non-belief in Advaita, what matters is what you do. Following the golden rule ("do unto others as you would have done unto you") is an excellent starting point, for instance. There are many "derivations" of the golden rule in different cultures. In Advaita, the derivation is that the others **are** you. You have to see this directly, and making a habit of the rule helps, supposedly.

Tirupathi Declaration

According to Swami Dayananda Saraswatiji there are far too many powerful people, even in India, in whose mental landscape there is no place for Hindus, and that unless Hindus act, Hinduism is finished. These forces include the Communists and the current ruling parties in India.

My comment - part of the problem is that secularism in India applies not to Hinduism - the government does not have any right to interfere in minority institutions, but runs and milks the manifold Hindu religious establishments.

Anyway, here is his declaration, and he hopes it catches the spirit of the people like the Quit India, 1942.


TIRUPATHI DECLARATION
July 15, 2006

We Hindus assembled here declare
that we do not support, directly or indirectly,
any group, institution, religion, media,
or political force, which preaches, practices
or works against Hindu Dharma
in this country.

We appeal to all the Hindus
in this country and elsewhere
to subscribe to and support
this declaration,
the Tirupathi Declaration.

We want all the Hindu religious endowments
to be managed by Hindu bodies,
and not by the government.
We want the secular government
to release all religious endowments
from its hold.

Why are we afraid of these morons?

Read this

Falafel vendors in Baghdad - falafel is a dish made of fried chickpeas - have been shot dead ostensibly because there was no falafel in the Prophet Muhammad's time. The ice merchants have been similarly threatened.

One does not wage a "global war on terror" on lunatics; one finds them and confines them in institutions. One brings them before a judge and gets them committed.

Action and Reaction

The Pope was somewhat critical of Islam. Veteran Pakistan watchers expect the Karachi KFC outlet to be torched.
(KFC = Kentucky Fried Chicken).

What is he winning?

From TomDispatch:

"Five years later, according to Emily Gosden and David Randall of the British newspaper, the Independent, the Bush administration's Global War on Terror has resulted in, at a minimum, 20 times the deaths of 9/11; at a maximum, 60 times. It has "directly killed a minimum of 62,006 people, created 4.5 million refugees and cost the US more than the sum needed to pay off the debts of every poor nation on earth. If estimates of other, unquantified, deaths -- of insurgents, the Iraq military during the 2003 invasion, those not recorded individually by Western media, and those dying from wounds -- are included, then the toll could reach as high as 180,000."

Al Biruni and the Bhagavad Gita

There is a theory in certain quarters that the Bhagavad Gita was mostly forgotten in India until the British recovered it in the eighteenth century. In this regard, the early 11th century testimony of Al Biruni, a courtier of Mahmud of Ghazni, may be of interest.

The sources are the E.C. Sachau translation of Alberuni's Tarikh-ul-Hind and a modern book:

Alberuni's India
Translated by E.C. Sachau
ISBN 393 00568 2

The Living Gita : The complete Bhagavad Gita and commentary.
Sri Swami Satchidananda
ISBN 0-8050-1400-4


Some preliminaries from the Sachau translation of Alberuni :

(page 14) :

"The following passage is taken from the book Gita, a part of the book Bharata, from the conversation between Vasudeva and Arjuna :-- ...."

(page 64) : [discussing Indian literature ]

"Besides they have a book which they hold in such veneration that they firmly assert that everything which occurs in other books is found also in this book, but not all which occurs in this book is found in other books. It is called Bharata, and composed by Vyasa the son of Parasara at the time of the great war between the children of Pandu and those of Kuru. ....."


"Vyasa asked Brahman to procure him somebody who might write for him the Bharata from his dictation. Now he intrusted with this task his son Vinayaka, who is represented as an idol with an elephant's head, and made it obligatory on him never to cease from writing. At the same time Vyasa made it obligatory on him to write only that which he understood. Therefore Vyasa, in the course of his dication, dictated such sentences as compelled the writer to ponder over them, and thereby Vyasa gained time for resting awhile."

(pages 200-203 give a brief outline of the story of the epic that we have today. )

************************************

The following is all that I could find in Alberuni's Indica that refers to the Gita, then I give the chapter:verse number of what I think are the verses referred to by Alberuni; the translation of the verse is from Swami Satchidananda.

Page 14 :

The following passage is taken from the book Gita, a part of the book Bharata, from the conversation between Vasudeva and Arjuna :--


"I am the universe, without a beginning by being born, or without and end by dying. I do not aim by whatever I do at any recompense. I do not specially belong to one class of beings to the exclusion of others, as if I were the friend of one and the enemy of others. I have given to each one in my creation what is sufficient for him in all functions. Therefore whoever knows me in this capacity, and tries to become similar to me by keeping desire apart from his action, his fetters will be loosened, and he will easily be saved and freed."

From the Swami Satchidananda translation of the Bhagavadgita :

{"I am the universe..." is scattered across the Bhagavad Gita. For example : }

4:6
The truth is that I am eternal; I am not born, I never
die and I am the Lord of everything....

7:7
Apart from me, there is nothing whatsoever. The entire
creation is strung out on me like a necklace of precious
gems.

11:7
Look at my body, Arjuna. You will see the entire universe
there -- all that moves and all that [seems to be] unmoving,
as well as anything else you wish to see. And all are part
of the same, which is me.

{"I do not specially ...." }

9:29
I am the same toward all beings. Before me, no one is
hateful and no one is more or less cherished. However,
those who lovingly worship me will realize that they are
actually part of me.

4:14
I am unaffected by all actions, nor do I desire any results.
Whoever experiences this quality in me is also free.

{"I have given to each one in my creation .... : I have no satisfactory match. }

This passage reminds one of the definition of philosophy as the striving to become as much as possible similar to God.


Further, Vasudeva speaks in the same book :--


"It is desire which causes most men to take refuge with God for their wants. But if you examine their case closely, you will find that they are very far from having an accurate knowledge of him; for God is not apparent to everyone, so that he might perceive him with his senses. Therefore they do not know him. Some of them do not pass beyond what their senses perceive; some pass beyond this, but stop at the knowledge of the laws of nature, without learning that above them is one who did not give birth nor was born, the essence of whose being has not been comprehended by the knowledge of anyone, while his knowledge comprehends everything."

7:16
Good people worship me, Arjuna, for four basic reasons :
to be relieved of suffering, to understand life, to rise
from poverty to wealth, and just because they are wise
already.

9:11
Foolish people don't look beyond physical appearance. Thus
they overlook my true nature which is Lord of everything.

7:13
Most people fail to look beyond the three qualities of my
prakriti. People see only these changing qualities and
don't see me, the transcendent One. In the midst of all
that changes, I am what doesn't change.

7:25
Not everyone can see me as I truly am, because I veil my-
self in maya. Thus deluded, the world does not recognize
me as the one who was never born and never changes.

7:26
Arjuna, I know all about every creature in the past ,present
and even future. Yet no one knows all about me.

10:3
Among all people, whoever recognizes me as the unborn and
beginningless lord of everything, knows the truth and frees
himself from wrongdoing.

Page 19 :


Regarding the whole creation, they think that it is a unity, as has already been declared, because Vasudeva speaks in the book called Gita " " To speak accurately, we must say that all things are divine; for Vishnu made himself the earth that the living beings should rest thereupon; he made himself fire and wind in order to make them grow; and he made himself the heart of every single being. He presented them with recollection and knowledge and the two opposite qualities, as is mentioned in the Veda."

{While the divinity inherent in all things is one of the themes of the Gita, this kind of specific statement I do not find. The "two opposite qualities" is in better shape :}

9:8
By animating my prakriti, I repeatedly create the infinite
varieties of all beings which are subject to the rule of my
nature.

7:27
People are deluded by attraction and aversion, which spawn
all the pairs of opposites. These dualities, Arjuna, subject
all to maya at birth.

2:45
The Vedas discuss the three gunas, Arjuna, transcend the
three gunas and you will be free of the pairs of opposites --
ever-balanced, free of wanting ......

Page 25 :


Vasudeva speaks to Arjuna instigating him to the battle, whilst they stand between the two lines : "If you believe in predestination, you must know that neither they nor we are mortal and do not go away without a return, for the souls are immortal and unchangeable. They migrate through the bodies, while man changes from childhood into youth, into manhood and infirm age, the end of which is the death of the body. Thereafter the soul proceeds on its return."

2.12
There never was a time when I did not exist, nor
you, nor any of these ruling princes. And neither
will there ever come a time when we cease to be.

2.13
That which is embodied experiences the body's childhood,
youth, and old age, and also in time acquires another body.
This does not disturb one whose mind is calm.

Further he says : "How can a man think of death and being killed who knows that the soul is eternal, not having been born and not perishing; that the soul is something stable and constant; that no sword can cut it, no fire burn it, no water extinguish it, and no wind wither it ? The soul migrates from its body, after it has become old, into another, a different one, as the body, when its dress has become old, is clad in another. What then is your sorrow about a soul which does not perish ? If it were perishable, it would be more becoming that you should not sorrow about a thing which may be dispensed with, which does not exist, and which does not return into existence. But if you look more to your body than to your soul, and are in anxiety about its perishing, you must know that all that which is born dies and all that which dies returns into another existence. However, both life and death are not your concern. They are in the hands of God, from whom all things come and to whom they return."

2.21
Whoever truly knows the Self -- indestructible, eternal,
birthless and changeless -- in what way would such a person
kill, Arjuna ? Who would be killed ?

2.23
Weapons do not affect the Self; fire does not burn
it, water does not wet it, and wind does not dry it.

2.24
The Self cannot be pierced or cut; it cannot be
burned, moistened or dried. It is endless, all-
pervading, stable, immovable and everlasting.

2.22
Just like casting off worn-out clothing and putting
on new ones, that which is embodied casts off worn-
out bodies and enters others that are new.

2.26
Even if you imagined Atman (the Self) continually
taking birth and dying -- even then, mighty Arjuna,
there is no reason to grieve.

2.27
Whatever is born will undoubtedly die; whatever is
dead certainly will be born. You should not mourn
what is inevitable.

2.28
Arjuna, beings originally are all unmanifested. At
midstate they're manifested; and unmanifested again
at the end. What is the point of lamenting ?

{I'm not happy with the last three lines. Perhaps they are a paraphrasing of :}

11:32
The blessed Lord said : I am all-powerful time, destroyer
of the worlds and now I have come to devour this world.
Whether you fight or not, all the warriors of the opposing
army gathered here will surely die.

Page 26 :


In the further course of conversation Arjuna speaks to Vasudeva : "How did you dare thus to fight Brahman, Brahman who was before the world was and before man was, whilst you are living among us as a being whose birth and age are known ?"

{I'm confused by the above. "Fight Brahman" is almost certainly a mistranslation.}

4:4
Arjuna asked : You were born long after Vivasvat. How
is it possible that you taught this in the beginning?

Thereupon Vasudeva answered : "Eternity (pre-existence) is common to both us and to him. How often have we lived together, when I knew the times of our life and death, whilst they were concealed from you ! When I desire to appear in order to do some good, I array myself in a body, since one cannot be with man except in a human shape."

4:5
Lord Krishna said : You and I have taken many births,
Arjuna. I know them all but you do not.

4:6
The truth is that I am eternal; I am not born, I never
die and I am the Lord of everything. Still, by control-
ling the elements of my nature (my prakriti), I appear
to take births by my power of illusion (maya).

4:7
When righteousness is lost and wickedness prevails, I
appear on earth in bodily form.

4:8
Age after age I take birth to protect the good, destroy
the wicked and establish virtue.

Vasudeva says : " He who hopes for salvation and strives to free himself from this world, but whose heart is not obedient to his wish, will be rewarded for his action in the worlds of those who receive a good reward; but he does not attain his last object on account of his deficiency, therefore he will return to this world, and will be found worthy of entering a new shape of a kind of beings whose special occupation is devotion. Divine inspiration helps him to raise himself in this new shape by degrees to that which he already wished for in the first shape. His heart begins to comply with his wish; he is more and more purified in different shapes, until he at last obtains salvation in an uninterrupted series of new births."

6:37
Arjuna asked : Krishna, what happens to someone who has
sincere belief, but cannot yet control the mind, or someone
who falls away from these practices before achieving per-
fection through yoga ?

6:40
Then the blessed Lord said : Do not worry, Arjuna. There
is no destruction -- either in this world or in the next --
for anyone who has embarked on the yogic path. O my son,
know for certain that anyone who does good never comes to
a bad end.

6:41
Whoever embarks on the yogic path -- and leaves his body
before reaching his highest goal -- attains the heavenly
state of the virtuous. He stays there a very long time
and then takes birth again in this world in a home of the
pure and prosperous in order to continue his quest.

6:42
Or he is reborn into a family of wise yogis. Such a birth
in this world is rare indeed.

6:43
In this environment, Arjuna, he soon recalls the knowledge
gained in previous births, and strives for realization even
more earnestly than before.

6:45
By earnest and persistent effort -- even over many lifetimes --
a yogi becomes completely purified of all selfish desire and reaches
the supreme goal of life.

Further, Vasudeva says : "If the soul is free from matter, it is knowing; but as long as it is clad in matter, the soul is not-knowing, on account of the turbid nature of matter. It thinks that it is an agent, and that the actions of the world are prepared for its sake. Therefore it clings to them, and it is stamped with the impressions of the senses. When, then, the soul leaves the body, the traces of the impressions of the senses remain in it, and are not completely eradicated, as it longs for the world of the sense and returns towards it. And since it in these stages undergoes changes entirely opposed to each other, it is thereby subject to the influences of the three primary forces. What, therefore, can the soul do, its wing being cut, if it is not sufficiently trained and prepared?"

{I am not very satisfied with the following : }

3:27
The qualities of nature (calmness, restlessness, inertia)
do all that is done. But because the mind is clouded by
ego, a person thinks : I am the doer.

3:29
Those still deluded by nature's qualities become attached
to nature's functions. But the one of perfect understanding
should not disturb the mind of someone who does not know
better.

9:21
....Though they may have been meticulous in religious
observances, if they still want something, they are caught
in the endless chain of personal desires, and thus must
continue to take birth after death.

Vasudeva says : "The best of men is the perfectly wise one, for he loves God and God loves him. How many times has he died and been born again ! During his whole life he perseveringly seeks for perfection till he obtains it."

7:19
After many life times, a person grows wise and takes
refuge in me and nothing else. Then he realizes that
I am all that is. Such a great soul is rare indeed.

Page 35 : [ a discussion of moksha and the paths leading to it ] :


In the book Gita we read : "Man is created for the purpose of knowing; and because knowing is always the same, man has been gifted with the same organs. If man were created for the purpose of acting, his organs would be different, as actions are different in consequence of the difference of the three primary forces. However, bodily nature is bent upon acting on account of its essential opposition to knowing. Besides, it wishes to invest action with pleasures which in reality are pains. But knowledge is such as to leave this nature behind itself prostrated on the earth like an opponent, and removes all darkness from the soul as an eclipse or clouds are removed from the sun."

{This is a complete mystery to me. }

Now we return and continue our quotation from the book Gita.


"Likewise the other organs of the senses serve for acquiring knowledge. The knowing person rejoices in turning them to and fro on the field of knowledge, so that they are his spies. The apprehension of the senses is different according to time. The sense which serve the heart perceive only that which is present. The heart reflects over that which is present and remembers also the past. The nature takes hold of the present, claims it for itself in the past, and prepares to wrestle with it in the future. The reason understands the nature of a thing, no regard being had of time or date, since past and future are the same for it. Its nearest helper are reflection and nature; the most distant are the five senses. When the senses bring before reflection some particular object of knowledge, reflection cleans it from the errors of the functions of the senses, and hands it over to reason. Thereupon reason makes universal what was before particular, and communicates it to the soul. Thus the soul comes to know it."

{ Where is this from ? }

Page 36 :


In the book Gita we read : " How is a man to obtain liberation who disperses his heart and does not concentrate it alone upon God, who does not exclusively direct his action towards him ? But if a man turns away his cogitation from all other things and concentrates it upon the One, the light of his heart will be steady like the light of a lamp filled with clean oil, standing in a corner where no wind makes it flicker, and he will be occupied in such a degree as not to perceive anything that gives pain, like heat or cold, knowing that everything besides the One, the Truth, is a vain phantom."

6:18
When you have your mind well trained so that it
rests solely in Atman, without wanting anything,
then you are established in Yoga.

6:20
The well-trained mind of a yogi, concentrating on
the Self, is as steady as a flame in a windless
place.

6:22
Once you are established in this (reality), there's
absolutely nothing else to achieve, nor will any-
thing ever shake you again -- not even the worst
possible affliction.

6:23
Yoga is a means to disconnect your identification with
that which experiences pain.

In the same book we read : "Pain and pleasure have no effect on the real world, just as the continuous flow of the streams to the ocean does not affect its water. How could anybody ascend this mountain pass save him who has conquered cupidity and wrath and rendered them inert ?"

{While the ideas are Gita-like, the specific similes of the streams entering the ocean, and the mountain-pass I miss. The stream-ocean analogy that I found is :}

2:70
Someone with personal desires will not experience true
peace. But when all desires merge, like different rivers
flowing into the vast, deep ocean, then peace is easily
realized.

Page 37 :


The book Gita says : "All that which is the object of a man's continuous meditating and bearing in mind is stamped upon him, so that he even unconsciously is guided by it. Since, now, the time of death is the time of remembering what we love, the soul on leaving the body is united with that object which we love, and is changed into it."

8:5
If you are thinking of me at the time of physical
death, you will leave your body and come directly
to me, there is no doubt about it.

8:6
A person goes to whatever he is thinking of at the
time of physical death, Arjuna, because his mind
established that direction.

However, the reader must not believe that it is only the union of the soul with any forms of life that perish and return into existence that is perfect liberation, for the same book, Gita, says : "He who knows when dying that God is everything, and that from him everything proceeds, is liberated, though his degree be lower than that of the saints."

{The idea again is one of the themes of the Gita, but the specific language? Also see 8:5, 8:6 above. }

The same book says : "Seek deliverance from this world by abstaining from any connection with its follies, by having sincere intentions in all actions and when making offerings by fire to God, without any desire for reward and recompense; further by keeping aloof from mankind."

{This is generic Gita. }

Page 38 :


The book Gita says : "He who mortifies his lust does not go beyond the necessary wants; and he who is content with that which is sufficient for the sustaining of life will not be ashamed nor be despised."

The same book says : "If man is not without wants as regards the demands of human nature, if he wants nourishment to appease thereby the heat of hunger and exhaustion, sleep in order to meet the injurious influences of fatiguing motions and a couch to rest upon, let the latter be clean and smooth, everywhere equally high above the ground and sufficiently large that he may stretch his body upon it. Let him have a place of temperate climate, not hurtful by cold nor by heat, and where he is safe from the approach of reptiles. All this helps him to sharpen the function of his heart, that he may without any interruption concentrate his cogitation on the unity. For all things besides the necessities of life in the way of eating and clothing are pleasures of a kind which in reality, are disguised pains. To acquiesce in them is impossible, and would end in the gravest inconvenience. There is pleasure only to him who kills the two intolerable enemies, lust and wrath, already during his life and not when he dies, who derives his rest and bliss from within, not from without; and who, in the final result, is able altogether to dispense with his senses."

{I'm not happy with this either. I think here Alberuni or his translator reveals his limitations. I think what was meant is the following : }

6:11
To practice meditation, fix up a clean meditation place
with your seat neither too high nor too low. Insulate the
seat with a grass mat, then a deer skin and over those a
clean cloth.

6:12
Then sit and calm the mind the senses by concentrating on one
thing; thus you practice Yoga for self-purification.

6:16
It is impossible to practice Yoga effectively if
you eat or sleep either too much or too little.

6:17
But if you are moderate in eating, playing, sleeping, staying
awake, and avoiding extremes in everything you do, you will
see that these yoga practices eliminate all your pain and
suffering.

{The last lines are generic Gita ideas. }

5:23
While still in a human body, if you can stand fast amid
the forces of desire and anger, then surely you are a yogi
destined for happiness.

5:24
The yogi who discovers happiness and joy within is also
illumined solely from within. That yogi becomes one with
God and marvels in the ecstasy of God.

Vasudeva spoke to Arjuna: "If you want the absolute good, take care of the nine doors of thy body and know what is going in and out through them. Constrain thy heart from dispersing its thoughts by thinking of the upper membrane of the child's brain which is first soft, and then is closed and becomes strong, so that it would seem that there were no more need of it. Do not take perception of the senses for anything but the nature immanent in their organs, and therefore beware of following it."

{Here again, Alberuni or his translator reveals his limitations. Almost certainly what is meant by "thinking of the upper membrane of the child's brain" is the chakra at the top of the head. Verses dealing with the nine gates are : }

5:13
By mentally renouncing the fruits of his action, the yogi's mind
becomes disciplined. Thus, he knows himself to be Atman, happily
abiding in the city of nine gates (the body). He knows he is not
the doer who acts or causes to act.

8:12
This is the effective yoga technique :At the time of leaving the
body, mentally withdraw attention from the gates of the body into
the heart area, and from there direct the prana into the head.

14:11
When the light of wisdom shines through all the gates of the body
this is a sign that sattva is dominant.

{The last line about sense perceptions may be : }

3:28
Arjuna, one may intuit the relationship between nature's qualities
(gunas) and action (karma). Whoever does so knows that nature, as
the senses, merely abides with nature, as the sense objects. He
identifies with neither, and thus does not become entangled.

The book Gita says : "Men err in what is ordered and what is forbidden. They do not know how to distinguish between good and evil in actions. Therefore, giving up acting altogether and keeping aloof from it, this is *the* action."

4:16
Even the sages are sometimes confused about action and inaction ...

4:17
Distinguish between right action, wrong action and inaction. The
way of karma is nearly impossible to understand.

The same book says : "The purity of knowledge is high above the purity of all other things, for by knowledge ignorance is rooted out and certainity is gained in exchange for doubt, which is a means of torture, for there is no rest for him who doubts."

{Any ideas about the above ?}

4:40
Because of ignorance, some people have no sincere
belief and are constantly skeptical; they are
ruined. A mind like that is unhappy in the present
and the future.

The author of the book Gita distributes the duties of worship among the body, the voice, and the heart.


What the body has to do is fasting, prayer, the fulfillment of the law, service towards the angels and the sages among the Brahmans, keeping clean the body, keeping aloof from killing under all circumstances, and never looking at another man's wife and other property.

17:14
These are the physical disciplines (tapas) : serving
God, the twice-born, spiritual teachers, and the wise;
staying pure, virtuous, continent and practicing non-
injury (ahimsa).

What the voice has to do is the reciting of the holy texts, praising God, always to speak the truth, to address people mildly, to guide them and to order them to do good.

17:15
These are the disciplines of speech : speaking truthfully,
pleasantly and kindly with words that do not excite others
and reading scripture (svadhyaya).

What the heart has to do is to have straight, honest intentions, to avoid haughtiness, always to be patient, to keep your senses under control, and to have a cheerful mind.

17:16
These are the mental discipilines : tranquility, gentleness,
goodheartedness, silence, self-control and purity of thought.

Page 42:


...Arjuna asks, "What is Brahman like in the world ?" Whereupon Vasudeva answers "Imagine him like an Asvattha tree."


This is a huge precious tree, well known among them [Hindus] standing upside down, the roots being above, the branches below. If it has ample nourishment, it becomes quite enormous; the branches spread far, cling to the soil and creep into it. Roots and branches above and below resemble each other to a degree that it is difficult to say which is which.

{Alberuni here describes the banyan tree, the vata or nyagrodha; but the Gita talks of the Asvattha, or pipul tree (as do the Upanishads ).}

"Brahman is the upper roots of this tree, its trunk is the Veda, its branches are the different doctrines and schools, its leaves are the different modes of interpretation; its nourishment comes from the three forces; the tree becomes strong and compact through the senses. The intelligent being has no other keen desire but that of felling this tree, i.e., abstaining from this world and its vanities. When he has succeeded in felling it, he wishes to settle in the place where it has grown, a place in which there is no returning in a further state of metempsychosis. When he obtains this, he leaves behind himself all the pains of heat and cold, and coming from the light of sun and moon and common fires, he attains to the divine lights."

15:1
The blessed Lord said : The wise speak of an eternal Asvattha tree
(sacred fig) with its roots above and its branches here in this world.
Its leaves are the Vedas (holy scriptures). Whoever understands this
tree knows the most sacred wisdom.

15:2
Nourished by the gunas, its branches spread above and below. It buds
forth all the sense objects, and its roots reach down to this world,
binding people to one action after another.

15:3
The true nature of this tree -- its form, origin, end and even pre-
sence -- is not perceived at the level of worldly awareness. Just
cut down this deep-rooted Asvattha tree with the sharp sword of non-
attachment.

15:4
There is a place from which none ever returns. That is the goal. Seek
it by vowing : I take refuge in the original Purusha, who is the lord
and source of all, the Absolute, from which streams forth the eternal
energy.

15:5
Fortunate are those seekers who are no longer deluded (by that tree)
and thus are liberated from pride. Because they have conquered personal
attachment, they ever abide in their true identity, which is the Self.
No longer disturbed by personal desires, which have completely abated,
or the pairs of opposites, such as pleasure and pain, they attain that
eternal goal.

15:6
THAT is beyond the light of the sun, the moon or fire. That is where
I am. When you reach this goal, you will never again fall back to a
feeling of separateness.

Page 50:


Arjuna asked about the nature of the four castes and what must be their moral qualities, whereupon Vasudeva answered :

18:41
Indeed, Arjuna, the qualities in one's own nature determine
the appropriate role and duties for each person -- whether
scholar or priest (brahmin), leader or warrior (kshatriya);
tradesperson (vaisya), or laborer (sudra).

"The Brahmana must have an ample intellect, a quiet heart, truthful speech, much patience; he must be master of his senses, a lover of justice, of evident purity, always directed upon worship, entirely bent upon religion."

18:42
By nature the priest or teacher (brahmin) is inclined
toward serenity, self-control, self-discipline, purity
and forgiveness, as well as virtuous behavior, learning,
Self-realization and faith in the eternal.

"The Kshatriya must fill the hearts with terror, must be brave and high-minded, must have ready speech and a liberal hand, not minding dangers, only intent upon carrying the great tasks of his calling to a happy ending."

18:43
The leader or warrior (kshatriya) is naturally inclined
to courage, vigor, firmness of mind, resourcefulness,
generosity, leadership and the resolve not to flee,
but to persevere in the midst of battle.

"The Vaisya is to occupy himself with agriculture, with the acquisition of cattle, and with trade."

"The Sudra is to endeavour to render services and attention to each of the preceding classes, in order to make himself liked by them."

18:44
The tradesperson (vaisya) is naturally inclined toward
farming, dairying, and other business trades. And working
people by nature are inclined toward service.

"If each member of these castes adheres to his customs and usages, he will obtain the happiness he wishes for, supposing that he is not negligent in the worship of God, not forgetting to remember him in his important avocations. But if anybody wants to quit the work and duties of his caste and adopt those of another caste, even if it would bring a certain honor to the latter, it is a sin, because it is a transgression of the rule."

18:45
Anyone can attain perfection by devoting himself to the
work that comes most naturally. I will explain how.

18:46
When you do the work that by your nature is your calling,
you are worshipping the creator of all beings who is
omnipresent, and thus you attain perfection.

18:47
It is better to do your own dharma imperfectly than to
excel at another's dharma. Whoever accepts the duties
of his nature is free from sin.

3:35
It is better to do your own dharma even imperfectly, than
someone else's dharma perfectly. Even better to die in
your dharma than in another's, which brings great fear.

Further, Vasudeva speaks, inspiring him with courage to fight the enemy :

"Dost thou not know, O man with the long arm, that thou art a Kshatriya; that thy race has been created brave, to rush boldly to the charge, to care little for the vicissitudes of time, never to give way whenever their soul has a foreboding of coming misfortune ? for only thereby is the reward to be obtained. If he conquers, he obtains power and good fortune. if he perishes, he obtains paradise and bliss. Besides, thou showest weakness in the presence of the enemy, and seemest melancholy at the prospect of killing this host; but it will be infinitely worse if thy name will spread as that of a timid cowardly man, that thy reputation among the heroes and the experienced warriors will be gone, that thou wilt be out of their sight, and thy name no longer remembered among them. I do not know a worse punishment than such a state. Death is better than to expose thyself to the consequences of ignominy.
If, therefore, God has ordered thee to fight, if he has deigned to confer upon thy caste the task of fighting and has created thee for it, carry out his order and perform his will with a determination which is free from any desire, so that thy action will be exclusively devoted to him."

2:31
Furthermore, looking at your own duty, you
will see no reason to waver. For certainly
there is nothing higher for a Kshatriya than
a righteous war.

2:32
Happy indeed are the Kshatriyas, Arjuna,
called to fight in such a battle that comes
of itself -- like an open gate to heaven.

2:37
If you are killed, you will gain heaven.
If you are victorious, you will enjoy the
earth. Therefore, rise up, Arjuna, resolved
to fight !

2:33
But if you don't fight when its your duty
to do so, you lose your honor and incur sin.

2:34
People will continually recall your shame.
And for one who has been honored, dishonor is
worse than death.

2:35
The great charioteers will suppose you withdrew
from battle out of fear. Those who thought so
highly of you will take you lightly.

2:36
And your enemies will deride your strengths and
slander you. What could be more painful ?

2:38
Seeing the same in pleasure and pain, gain and
loss, victory and defeat, in battle -- just for
the sake of the battle -- then you will be
sinless.

3:30
Dedicate all your actions to me. (Then) your
mind will rest in the Self (Atman), free of
the wishing and selfishness fever, and you
can engage in battle.

.... This view [that liberation is common to all castes and to the whole human race, if their intention of obtaining it is perfect ] is also based on the fact that Vasudeva was a descendant of a Sudra family and also on the following saying of his, which he addressed to Arjuna : "God distributes recompense without injustice and without partiality. He reckons the good as bad if people in doing good forget him; he reckons the bad as good if people in doing bad remember him and do not forget him, whether those people be Vaisya, or Sudra or women. How much more this will be the case when they are Brahmana or Kshatriya."

9:29
I am the same toward all beings. Before me, no one
is hateful, and no one is more or less cherished.
However, those who lovingly worship me will realize
that they are actually part of me and that I live in
them.

9:32
No matter your birth, race, sex or caste -- even if
you are scorned by others -- if you take refuge in me,
then certainly you will attain the Supreme Goal.

Page 59 : [about idols]


Therefore the book Gita says : "Many people try to approach me in their aspirations through something which is different from me; they try to insinuate themselves into my favor by giving alms, praise and prayer to something besides me. I, however, confirm and help them in all these doings of theirs, and make them attain the object of their wishes, because I am able to dispense with them."


In the same book Vasudeva speaks to Arjuna : "Do you not see that most of those who wish for something address themselves in offering and worshipping to the several classes of spiritual beings, and to the sun, moon and other celestial bodies ? If now God does not disappoint their hopes, though he in no way stands in need of their worship, if he even gives them more than they asked for, and if he gives them their wishes in such a way as though they were receiving them from that to which they had addressed their prayers -- viz. the idol -- they will proceed to worship those whom they address, because they have not learned to know him, while he, by admitting this kind of intermediation, carries their affairs to the desired end. But that which is obtained by desires and intermediation is not lasting, since it is only as much as is deserved for any particular merit. Only that is lasting which is obtained from God alone, when people are disgusted with old age, death and birth (and desire to be delivered therefrom by Moksha)."

7:20
Others still allow personal desires to lead astray
their good judgement. [Thus] they follow their
lower nature and worship lesser gods for their
blessings.

7:21
A devotee may select any name or form as
the object of his worship. But if he has
sincere belief (shraddha), I make his faith
strong and steady.

7:22
Then when he worships with steady faith the
form he has chosen, he gets what he wants.
But actually, I am the one fulfilling his
desires.

7:23
However, those of limited understanding
obtain limited satisfaction. Those who
worship the devas go to the devas; my
devotees come to me.

7:24
Because their understanding is still shallow,
many still believe that I, the unmanifested
one, am limited to one particular manifestation.
They have not yet seen my true nature which is
unchanging and supreme.

Page 271 : [about caste inequities]


...All these things originate in the difference of classes or castes, one set of people treating the others as fools. This apart, all men are equal to each other, as Vasudeva says regarding him who seeks salvation : "In the judgement of the intelligent man, the Brahman and the Candala are equal, the friend and the foe, the faithful and the deceitful, nay even the serpent and the weasel. If to the eyes of intelligence all things are equal, to ignorance they appear as separated and different."

{The ones close to this are : }

6:9
A person stands supreme who has equal regard for
friends, companions, enemies, neutral arbiters,
hateful people, relatives, saints and sinners.


5:18
Those who have realized the Self see that same Self
equally in a humble scholar, a cow, a dog or a dog-eater.

Vasudeva speaks to Arjuna : "If the civilization of the world is that which is intended, and if the direction of it cannot proceed without our fighting for the purpose of suppressing evil, it is the duty of us who are the intelligent to act and to fight, not in order to bring to an end that which is deficient within us, but because it is necessary for the purpose of healing what is ill and banishing destructive elements. Then the ignorant imitate us in acting, as the children imitate their elders, without their knowing the real aim and purpose of actions. For their nature has an aversion to intellectual methods, and they use force only in order to act in accordance with the influences of lust and passion on their senses. In all this, the intelligent and educated man is directly the contrary of them."

{ Another puzzle here. The only verses that come anywhere close are : }

3:21
Whatever a great person does is followed by others who set
their standard by his or her example.

3:22
Arjuna, there's nothing in the three worlds that I ought to
do, nor anything for me to achieve that I have not already
achieved -- yet I continue doing things.

3:23
If I ever stop doing my continuous work, Arjuna, everyone would
follow my example in every way.

3:24
If I stop doing, the worlds would perish; I would confuse all
the species and cause the destruction of all creatures.

3:25
The unenlightened do things with attachment (wanting some results
for themselves). An enlightened person does things with the same
zeal, Arjuna, but without attachment, and thus guides others on
the path of selfless action (Karma Yoga).

Page 283 : [about cremation]


The belief of the Hindus on this head was confirmed by the words of Vasudeva, which he spoke regarding him who is liberated from the fetters (of bodily existence). "His death takes place during uttarayana (i.e., the northern revolution of the sun from the winter solstice to the summer solstice),
during the white half of the month, between lighted lamps, i.e., between conjunction and opposition (new moon and full moon), in the seasons of winter and spring."

8:24
If a yogi who knows reality leaves his
body during the six months of the northern
passage of the sun, which is the path of
light, fire, day, and the bright two weeks
of the moon, he goes directly to Brahman
(absolute oneness).

___

The Republic ripostes

Reproduced in full from http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0831-31.htm


Feeling Morally, Intellectually Confused?
by Keith Olbermann


The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.

Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.

Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis—and the sober contemplation—of every American.

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence -- indeed, the loyalty -- of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants -- our employees -- with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as “his” troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.

It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile it is right and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.

In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeld’s speechwriter was adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis. For in their time, there was another government faced with true peril—with a growing evil—powerful and remorseless.

That government, like Mr. Rumsfeld’s, had a monopoly on all the facts. It, too, had the “secret information.” It alone had the true picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in terms like Mr. Rumsfeld’s -- questioning their intellect and their morality.

That government was England’s, in the 1930’s.

It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone England.

It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all treaties and accords.

It knew that the hard evidence it received, which contradicted its own policies, its own conclusions — its own omniscience -- needed to be dismissed.

The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth.

Most relevant of all — it “knew” that its staunchest critics needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile, at best morally or intellectually confused.

That critic’s name was Winston Churchill.

Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.

History — and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England — have taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty — and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

Thus, did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy.

Excepting the fact, that he has the battery plugged in backwards.

His government, absolute -- and exclusive -- in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis.

It is the modern version of the government of Neville Chamberlain.

But back to today’s Omniscient ones.

That, about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely.

And, as such, all voices count -- not just his.

Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience — about Osama Bin Laden’s plans five years ago, about Saddam Hussein’s weapons four years ago, about Hurricane Katrina’s impact one year ago — we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their “omniscience” as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to the entire “Fog of Fear” which continues to envelop this nation, he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies have — inadvertently or intentionally — profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.

And yet he can stand up, in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emporer’s New Clothes?

In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused the United States of America?

The confusion we -- as its citizens— must now address, is stark and forbidding.

But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note -- with hope in your heart — that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light, and we can, too.

The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a “new type of fascism.”

As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that -- though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.

This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute, I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow.

But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could I come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed: “confused” or “immoral.”

Thus, forgive me, for reading Murrow, in full:

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” he said, in 1954. “We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”

And so good night, and good luck.



Comments? Email KOlbermann@msnbc.comWatch “Countdown” each weeknight at 8 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV

The Two Nation Theory

From here

Caption: QUETTA, PAKISTAN - AUGUST 29: Anti-Pakistan Rioters step on a portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the father of Pakistan during a violent demonstration August 29, 2006 in Quetta, Pakistan. More than a thousand angry Baloch took to the streets following a prayer service for slain tribal leader Nawab Bugti, who died in a clash with Pakistani army troops over the weekend. The mob torched buildings and cars and looted stores before police scattered them with tear gas and warning shots. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)



There is not much to editorialize here. Jinnah's creation supposedly was to provide safeguards to Muslims, which however, Pakistan itself (even in Jinnah's lifetime) did not extend to its own people (e.g., the West wing to the East wing which is now Bangladesh) and its own minorities.

Added later:
I think this picture from the Dawn archives along with the picture above speak quite eloquently of the tragedy (The young Akbar Bugti shaking hands with Jinnah.)

Housing bubble ready to pop?

To see another "hockey stick" curve - this one signalling a dangerous exuberance in the housing market, and not global warming, go here.

We are in for some extremely, ahem, interesting times.

The Waning Days of the Republic? -9

I have to take this all in small doses, or suffer a apoplexy.

"History may ultimately hold Bush in the greatest contempt for expanding the powers of the presidency beyond the limits laid down by the U.S. Constitution. "

The Waning Days of the Republic? -8

"Previous presidents have regularly invoked the Almighty. McKinley is supposed to have fallen to his knees, seeking divine guidance about whether to take control of the Philippines in 1898, although the story may be apocryphal. But no president before Bush has allowed the press to disclose, through a close friend, his startling belief that he was ordained by God to lead the country. The White House's sectarian positions -- over stem-cell research, the teaching of pseudoscientific "intelligent design," global population control, the Terri Schiavo spectacle and more -- have led some to conclude that Bush has promoted the transformation of the GOP into what former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips calls "the first religious party in U.S. history."

The Waning Days of the Republic? -7

From the Rolling Stone article referenced in part 6:

"According to the Treasury Department, the forty-two presidents who held office between 1789 and 2000 borrowed a combined total of $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions. But between 2001 and 2005 alone, the Bush White House borrowed $1.05 trillion, more than all of the previous presidencies combined. Having inherited the largest federal surplus in American history in 2001, he has turned it into the largest deficit ever -- with an even higher deficit, $423 billion, forecast for fiscal year 2006. Yet Bush -- sounding much like Herbert Hoover in 1930 predicting that "prosperity is just around the corner" -- insists that he will cut federal deficits in half by 2009, and that the best way to guarantee this would be to make permanent his tax cuts, which helped cause the deficit in the first place!"

The Waning Days of the Republic? -6

Via Desi: the Rolling Stone article on the worst president ever. (no cookie for guessing who).

Quote: "Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties -- Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and now Bush -- have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures -- an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance."

The Waning Days of the Republic? -5

In today's NYT, Thomas Frank comments on the philosophy of presidential chief domestic policy adviser, Karl Zinmeister, former editor of the American Enterprise Institute's flagship magazine.He notes that even though Zinmeister has written the idea "that the United States has separate classes is dubious", Z. spends pages after pages going after the "elites". The "elites" it turns out, are not the leaders of rightwing think tanks, corporate lobbies and bosses of corporations, they are uniformly liberals - "educated elites", "East Coast elites", "professor/lawyer/journalist/activist elites".

Frank writes:

"Then why has Zinsmeister expended so much ink assailing elites and their works? Enter the magic concept of the market, the source of corporate power and all else that is sacred. The working of the free market “is democracy,” Zinsmeister writes, “with pluralities of economic actors exerting votes.” Democracy itself, however, if it takes the form of a regulatory state, “is monarchism. It lets the handful at court boss the masses.”

Swallow this, and all the rest of it starts to make sense: how liberals are elites even when they aren’t, how the sweatshop economy of the Mariana Islands is the will of a humble people looking to be free from a domineering central government (an argument Zinsmeister’s magazine made in 1997), and how a well-subsized think-tank editor can advise the victims of economic dislocation to stop whining."

---

The idea of "commonwealth" is going down with the Republic.

The Waning Days of the Republic? -4

From the NYTimes:

....the Army Corps of Engineers held a meeting in Mr. Bensman’s neighborhood to talk about helping those fish swim around the locks and dams it has constructed on the Mississippi River over the years. There was a PowerPoint presentation on various options. One — clearly not the Corps’s favorite — was to eliminate a dam in East Alton. To illustrate that idea, the presentation included a picture of a dam being dynamited.

Mr. Bensman rose later to support removing the dam. Big mistake.

A local paper reported that Mr. Bensman told the Corps he “would like to see the dam blown up.”

A Corps security officer read the report. He decided that Mr. Bensman was threatening a public facility. He notified the G-men.

An F.B.I. agent then contacted Mr. Bensman, who was surprised to learn that federal investigators believed a terrorist might announce his plans at a public hearing of the Army Corps of Engineers.

When the agent said he wanted to visit his home, it occurred to Mr. Bensman that he needed a lawyer. At that point, Mr. Bensman said, the agent threatened to “put you down as not cooperating.”....

Behavior of Concern

B. Raman is a retired Indian Intelligence official. Here is something from his web-site that I hope a lot of people read.
Here!

"There have been many instances of such behaviour of  concern by the Western security agencies arising from their tendency to over-dramatise threat perceptions and to over-react."

The Waning Days of the Republic? -3

From Bill on dailykos.com, excerpts:-

October 28-November 10, 2002:

Bush's comments about Saddam Hussein, each from a different speech:

"This is a person who has had contacts with al Qaeda."
"He's got connections with al Qaeda."
"This is a guy who has had connections with these shadowy terrorist networks."
"We know he's got ties with al Qaeda."
"We know that he's had connections with al Qaeda."
"He's had connections with shadowy terrorist networks like al Qaeda."
"We know that he has had contacts with terrorist networks like al Qaeda."
"This is a man who has had contacts with al Qaeda."
"This is a man who has had al Qaeda connections."
"He's had contacts with al Qaeda."
"This is a man who has got connections with al Qaeda."

March 19, 2003:

U.S. President George W. Bush sent Congress a formal justification for invading Iraq Wednesday, citing the attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

August 21, 2006:

Q What did Iraq have to do with that?

THE PRESIDENT: What did Iraq have to do with what?

Q The attack on the World Trade Center?

THE PRESIDENT: Nothing!!  [...]  Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq.

------

I think Bill Clinton, with his parsing of the mean of "is", was less demeaning to the Presidency and to the country.

Dark Matter

We have new "visual evidence" of dark matter in the universe.

Sean at CosmicVariance.com has a very good article about this exciting development.

Read it!

Mercenaries and the rule of law

Mercenaries hired by the US in Iraq operate outside the law. They are not governed by US law, US military law and they are immune to Iraqi law (this was granted by the Coalition Provisional Authority). Therefore, when four "security contractors" were killed and hung from a bridge in Fallujah, I had no sympathy for them. Those who operate outside the law are fair game for anyone, in my opinion. After all, these guys can shoot anyone for any reason and get away with it.

Here is more on that utter lack of accountability (Paul Krugman in today's NYT) :

"To whom are such contractors accountable? Last week a judge threw out a jury's $10 million verdict against Custer Battles, a private contract that was hired, among other things, to provide security at Baghdad's airport. Custer Battles has become a symbol of the mix of cronyism, corruption and sheer amateurishness that doomed the Iraq adventure - and the judge didn't challenge the jury's finding that the company engaged in blatant fraud.

But he ruled that the civil fraud suit agains the company lacked a legal basis, because as far as he could tell, the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, wasn't "an instrumentality of the US government". It wasn't created by an act of Congress; it wasn't a branch of the State Department or of any other established agency."

A little knock here, a scratch there, a sledgehammer elsewhere, thus does this Administration demolish the Republic.

The Waning Days of the Republic? -2

Hidden from the non-paying in TimesSelect there is an article by Thomas Frank 'What is K Street's Project?'

K Street is where the lobbying business has its offices.

These three sentences will give you a sense of the article

From all its complex machinations emerges a discernible political project best described by Joseph Goulden in “The Superlawers” back in 1972, when the lobbying business was so many acorns beside today’s forest of towering oaks. The “Washington lawyers,” Goulden wrote, had over the years “directed a counterrevolution unique in world economic history. Their mission was not to destroy the New Deal, and its successor reform acts, but to conquer them, and to leave their structures intact so they could be transformed into instruments for the amassing of monopolistic corporate power.” (Goulden, by the way, is no radical: he is a former director at the very conservative press watchdog Accuracy in Media.)

The Waning Days of the Republic?

From talkingpointsmemo:

Number of reporters contributing to Friday's front page New York Times story on the JonBenet Ramsey case: 13

Number of reporters contributing to Friday's front page New York Times story on the federal court ruling that the NSA warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional: 2

King George

from tpmmuckraker.com - a judge ruled that the warrantless wiretaps by the government are illegal, and pointed out:

"The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself.

We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So all "inherent power" must derive from that Constitution."

Three cheers for Judge Anna Diggs Taylor!!!!

Life as a dhimmi-5

As Gerard put it on bharat-rakshak:

Meanwhile, in the Islamic Emirate of England, Wales, Held Scotland and English-Administered-Ireland, the dhimmis accept sharia...

He was referring to this news-item:

Quote:
Passport photograph of girl's bare shoulders rejected 'as it may offend'
By Paul Stokes

A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders.

Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country.
End quote.

The offending photograph :

The War against Terrorism

For some, the main tactics against against terrorism are investigation and intelligence work. But post-9/11 that is supposed to be wrong-headed. We need a pro-active, pre-emptive approach, i.e., invade other countries. So we invaded Iraq. Of course, we do not know what terror plots never got off the ground because of the invasion of Iraq. But one can ask the following questions:

The invasion of which country or countries would have possibly thwarted

1. The attacks of Sept 11, 2001?
2. The Bali bombings of October 12, 2002?
3. The Mumbai bombings of August 25, 2003?
4. The Istanbul bombings of November 15 and 20, 2003?
5. The Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004?
6. The Al Khobar massacres of May 29, 2004?
7. The London bombings of July 7, 2005?
8. The Mumbai bombings of July 11, 2006?
9. The plot to blow up planes with liquid explosives just uncovered by the British?

On Bush

From a comment on this Turcopolier thread:

I think the difficulty with Mr. Bush's policies lies in disbelief. It is just so hard to believe that anyone sitting in the Oval Office with the full resources of the federal government at his disposal can be so utterly and absolutely mistaken about virtually everything. Thus, there must be another explanation.

Then I look at his other policy initiatives and actions. Pick any initiative or action and somehow incompetence, arrogance, or both creeps in--Social Security Reform, Department of Homeland Security, 911 Commissions, Intelligence Reform, Katrina recovery, Iran, Immigration Reform, CAFTA, budget deficits, domestic spying, torture, rendition, internment, etc. He is either single-mindedly destroying the U.S., or he is in over his head. William of Occam forces me to accept the latter assessment because of the scale of his mistakes. Simply, I cannot believe he wants to destroy the nation. So, what exactly is Mr. Bush doing?

They attack us because they hate our freedoms

This post was prompted by a thread on dailykos.com.

President Bush is sometimes derided for his statement that bin Laden & co attacked the US because "they hate our freedoms".
It is worth reading bin Laden's Letter to America in this regard.

Osama bin Laden states very simply that "we attack you because you continue to attack us. Since Americans vote for the government, pay the taxes and enlist in the armed forces, the American people cannot be considered innocent, and can be attacked".

However, Osama bin Laden answers "What do we want from you, and what are we calling you to do?" and the answer is unambiguously against our freedoms. Abjuring these freedoms (listed below) is one of seven conditions, for which
"If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the Islamic Nation."

So, one must conclude that the President is not wrong, but he isn't addressing the full story either. This is a problem on both the Right and the Left in American politics.

It is saddening to tell you that you are the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind:

(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?

(ii) You are the nation that permits Usury, which has been forbidden by all the religions. Yet you build your economy and investments on Usury. As a result of this, in all its different forms and guises, the Jews have taken control of your economy, through which they have then taken control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life making you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense; precisely what Benjamin Franklin warned you against.

(iii) You are a nation that permits the production, trading and usage of intoxicants. You also permit drugs, and only forbid the trade of them, even though your nation is the largest consumer of them.

(iv) You are a nation that permits acts of immorality, and you consider them to be pillars of personal freedom. You have continued to sink down this abyss from level to level until incest has spread amongst you, in the face of which neither your sense of honour nor your laws object.

Who can forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official Oval office? After that you did not even bring him to account, other than that he 'made a mistake', after which everything passed with no punishment. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go down in history and remembered by nations?

(v) You are a nation that permits gambling in its all forms. The companies practice this as well, resulting in the investments becoming active and the criminals becoming rich.

(vi) You are a nation that exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools calling upon customers to purchase them. You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You then rant that you support the liberation of women.

(vii) You are a nation that practices the trade of sex in all its forms, directly and indirectly. Giant corporations and establishments are established on this, under the name of art, entertainment, tourism and freedom, and other deceptive names you attribute to it.

History repeats itself

"One of the definitions of madness is the repetition countless times of the same action, always expecting a different result."

Quoted in a Charles Grass essay on how the events of 1968, 1973, 1978 and 1982 are repeating in 2006.

Targetting civilians

From the words of Olmert, it would appear that displacing the population of South Lebanon was an Israel war goal. He certainly counts this as a success. Then it is hard to argue that Israel did not deliberately target civilians to bring about this result.

Olmert:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745279.html


Quote:

Israel's offensive in Lebanon has "entirely destroyed" the infrastructure of the Hezbollah guerilla group, Olmert said Wednesday.

"I think Hezbollah has been disarmed by the military operation of Israel to a large degree," he said.

"The infrastructure of Hezbollah has been entirely destroyed. More than 700... command positions of Hezbollah were entirely wiped out by the Israeli army. All the population which is the power base of the Hezbollah in Lebanon was displaced," he said.

Total War

For some reason, this news-item got under my skin (reproduced in full).

Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocents

The Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that "according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as 'innocents' of the enemy."

All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said. (Efrat Weiss)
(07.30.06, 17:37)

Yesha — is a Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (West Bank and Gaza Strip) = the occupied territories.

Among other things, it seems to validate the notion of "collective guilt", it leads down a slippery slope to genocide. It echoes bin Laden, who in 1998, formed the International Islamic Front (for Jehad against the US and Israel), and declared war on the US - according to bin Laden, the people in the World Trade Center on 9/11 were legitimate targets. To them, we are the enemy, and killing any of us is right as per this law. It means either that one (stupidly) believes that God is on one's side and that anything one does is therefore good (and thereby the asymmetry is introduced); or else in the symmetrical case, it means might is right; if we kill them, we are right and if they prevail, they are right. This is the morality of the medieval duel.

If Yesha is correctly stating Jewish law, then Jewish law is obscene.

I do not know the Islamic rules of war, Bernard Lewis gives the following sayings to the Prophet Muhammad
("Islam - from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople"):

"Go in the name of God and in God and in the religion of the Prophet of God! Do not kill the very old, the infant, the child, or the woman. Bring all the booty, holding back no part of it. Maintain order and do good, for God loves those who do good."

A slight improvement over the Jewish law, though one must note that in practice, Christians and Muslims mostly didn't observe these rules.

But there is no reason to debate old religious law. All nations are signatories to various international conventions that make it a crime to target civilians, and this would take precedence over all religious law. The religious types belong in a museum, along with the dinosaurs.

Jinnah and Azad on the two-nation theory

Read Jinnah and Azad.

Azad :

As is well known, Mr Jinnah's Pakistan scheme is based on his two nation theory. His thesis is that India contains many nationalities based on religious differences. Of them the two major nations, the Hindus and Muslims, must as separate nations have separate states. When Dr Edward Thompson once pointed out to Mr Jinnah that Hindus and Muslims live side by side in thousands of Indian towns, villages and hamlets, Mr Jinnah replied that this in no way affected their separate nationality. Two nations according to Mr Jinnah confront one another in every hamlet, village and town, and he, therefore, desires that they should be separated into two states.


Jinnah :

As for the Muslim, it was a duty imposed on him by Islam not to merge his identity and individuality in any alien society. Throughout the ages Hindus had remained Hindus and Muslims had remained Muslims, and they had not merged their entities - that was the basis for Pakistan. In a gathering of European and American officials he was asked as to who was the author of Pakistan. Mr Jinnah's reply was 'Every Mussalman.'

First they came for...

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller


The modern version would be somewhat different.

First the Iraqi civilians were killed in military operations. > 39,000.
I did not speak out because we were spreading democracy, and we thought Saddam had WMD, and the Iraqis should have overthrown Saddam and these were necessary sacrifices for freedom.

Then the Lebanese civilians were killed in military operations.
I did not speak out because the Lebanese should have disarmed the Hezbollah themselves, and solved world hunger besides. They should have crossed bombed out bridges and driven on bombed out roads to some unknown succour somewhere; they had ample warning. By staying back they became an existential threat to Israel.

Israeli civilians were killed in military operations.
I did not speak out because I did not speak out for the Lebanese either.

The next chapter is yet to be written.

Which world?

If you look at Cosmic Variance or CVJ's new blog, Asymptotia, you wouldn't know that a couple of wars are on. In contrast, there is SusanG's lament about a loss of innocence on dailykos.com.

Which world do we live in? Is it the idyllic world biking to the farmers' market for fresh veggies? Or is it the dangerous world, where one has to learn about a lot of things fast, and constantly, in a mostly futile effort, raise one's voice against lunacy, where one cannot afford to be ignorant about anything?

... in all cases above, I'd begun my acquaintance because of headlines and horrors and a screaming, driving voice in my head: There's something wrong! There's something very, very wrong! Learn about it! Fast!

The jumble of panicked facts I feel I've had to jam into my brain to qualify as a reasonably informed citizen makes my skull feel swollen, as though I've had to take a crash correspondence course - sometimes several at once - at the same time I'm in a sprint for my mental life.

Exit Strategy for Iraq

If American troops pack up and leave Iraq tomorrow, it will be perceived that they lost. They should come home, their presence in Iraq is not going to make anything better. However, they will remain there forever if we have to keep worrying about the perception of retreat.

There is another way to bring them home. No one should have any doubts of the ability of the American military to kick Syrian or Iranian butt; the problem (in case such a war took place) would be the occupation and stabilizing of the area, which the example of Iraq shows, is a very significant problem. So while withdrawal from Iraq and coming directly home would be seen as a failure, coming home via Teheran and Damascus, would not (even if there were no soldiers left in Baghdad any more.) Bush's big mistake was letting the army get bogged down in Iraq, he forgot the old tactic of the constant glorious advance.

One should read the NYT headline "U.S., at Rome Meeting, Resists Call for Halt to Mideast Combat" in that light. The war must go on.

Wolcott's The Damned

Read it!

Lebanon's Agony

I never ever thought that I'd one day have agreement with Pat Buchanan, who reportedly said:

Let it be said: Israel has a right to defend herself, a right to counterattack against Hezbollah and Hamas, a right to clean out bases from which Katyusha or Qassam rockets are being fired, and a right to occupy land from which attacks are mounted on her people.

"But what Israel is doing is imposing deliberate suffering on civilians, collective punishment on innocent people, to force them to do something they are powerless to do: disarm the gunmen among them. Such a policy violates international law and comports neither with our values nor our interests. It is un-American and un-Christian.

New Theory of Mumbai Blasts

On Geo TV, Ikram "Paagal" Sehgal opined that India blew up 200 of its own citizens in Mumbai trains, so that it could raise the issue of terrorist-state Pakistan in the G8 conference. Only, thanks to Hamas and Hezbollah, India was upstaged by the Middle East, and India's nefarious designs were thwarted.

Well, I suppose at least India remains socialist enough to blow up first-class railway carriages for this great national cause.

Blogspot being blocked in India?

It appears that blogspot.com is being blocked by some ISPs in India.

It is not clear why. It is not clear if this is a fallout of the Mumbai blasts.

Latest news on this available here:
http://www.withinandwithout.com/?p=854

The Mumbai Blasts

India does not have the option of blithely invading another country like Israel or the US; nor, if it could, would it be a very productive policy. The war against the sponsors of terrorism has to be a covert one; I hope that India is preparing to wage a covert war.

The world's problem is to be manage the terminal decline of an ideology that will not go quietly into the night. I do not rule out Islam producing something like puritan Christianity or some other productive ideology. But Islamdom is in the grip of a nihilistic ideology that can produce nothing. The main problem is to keep that sinking ship from drowning the rest of us as well. Apart from being a prime source of terrorism, the Islamic world is saved from irrelevance only by two facts. One is of chance, that they sit atop massive oil reserves in a world that has a petroleum-based economy. The second is one of negligence and foolishness of the great powers, in that an Islamic country has nuclear weapons.

Indians have a phobia about Islam, because of the last many hundred years of history. The key thing to remember is that military power rests on a basis of economic power. In the medieval world, the economic power of Islamdom rested on its control of trade routes. In that world, control of production meant control of the serfs. This too, Islamdom had. India could never reach equilibrium with the Muslim invaders, because of the great external power of Islamdom that would constantly reinvade. Once the Europeans had broken the Islamic monopoly on trade, by opening up sea routes, the decline of Islamdom as then constituted was almost inevitable.

Today, economic and military power rest on the mastery of technology, and in innovation; and the current ideology of Islam utterly stifles and deadens these in its societies. As I wrote above, without the petroleum and the bomb, people would be paying less attention to them than they do to sub-Saharan Africa. If the world can manage a transition to a post-petroleum economy, a transition also forced upon us for ecological reasons, then only one reason Islamdom would have any relevance is its ability to produce nuclear terror.

Yes, it will be a great tragedy if Islamists overrun Europe. However, in the long run, it will not change any balance of power, because Islamists cannot run Europe at its current level of sophistication. They will be even less successful than the Soviets. There will be great human misery, but it will not be the end of the world.

Finally, the world makes a big mistake in taking India-Pakistan issues as some local problem, and making equal-equal between the two sides. To me it is fairly clear that there is simple thread from the ideology behind the formation of Pakistan to 9/11 and beyond. It need not have happened that way, of course, e.g., if the superpowers had not made Afghanistan into a battleground of the Cold War, and in the process, overlooked Pakistani nuclear development. But instead of holding Pakistan together, the world should be engaged in dismantling it and limiting the power of its constituent parts. The bailing out of the Pakistani economy and rearming Pakistan as the American administration intends to do - the matter is currently in Congress - will hasten rather than delay or cancel the day of a JDAM (Jihadi Detonated Atomic Munition).

A Railways Fact

The Railways are supposed to be one of the good things the colonial British bequeathed on (undivided) India.

Sixty years later Pakistan has 900 freight cars operating, to be upgraded to 1000.

On the 150th anniversary of the first railway service in India, the Indian Railways had 222417 freight cars in operation.

Conditions for Credit

Sign seen at Koshy Electricals, Thiruvananthapuram:

Credit accepted only for those above 80 and accompanied by both parents.

This is their original way of saying - No Credit Cards Accepted.