Extra Information

Civil War relationship to Poker?

2009-11-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

James McManus thinks that is the underlying theme in the massive, highly praised three volume :The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote.

from the Daily Beast

The Civil War, published in three magnificent volumes between 1958 and 1974, is the first work of history to explore how the game’s lore and logic fits into the overall scheme of America’s most definitive conflict. While Wills uses Nixon’s poker-playing as a colonoscope into the bowels of a politician he felt little sympathy for, Foote has great reserves of empathy for the game and its players. His paternal grandfather had lost the family’s considerable fortune playing stud, often while drunk. Perhaps the only upside of the squandered inheritance was that his grandson learned how profoundly the game could affect both the person who played it and the people who depended on him.

Foote’s 2,836-page narrative makes vividly clear how integral poker was to the Northern and Southern war efforts, from the penny-ante games of enlisted men through the do-or-die showdowns of generals—that the feints, bluffs, and aggressive poker mind-set of Grant, Lee, Forrest, and others often determined how critical battles played out. He quotes a friend of “Fighting Joe” Hooker on the gumption of that charismatic Union commander. “He could play the best game of poker I ever saw, until it came to the point where he should go a thousand better, and then he would flunk.” This shortage of intestinal fortitude had enormous military consequences. Having been placed by Lincoln at the head of the Army of the Potomac in 1863, the hard-drinking Hooker gave up alcohol to remain clear-headed as he faced off with Lee—though a belt of good moonshine might have bolstered him when the chips were down at Fredericksburg. On the verge of crushing the rebellion with a single decisive blow, Hooker held 2-to-1 advantages in men and artillery, a commanding position on high ground from which to annihilate Lee’s infantry, with an open path to Richmond after that. But when Lee’s pinned-down veterans suddenly took the initiative, Hooker lost his nerve—“flunked,” as his friend might have put it. When Hooker ordered a retreat instead of a counterattack, his generals refused to believe it. And yet it was true. Even more bizarrely, Hooker then ordered his main force to take a vulnerable position in the Battle of the Wilderness, where he soon suffered a devastating defeat by Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

The consensus among historians now is that Lee, in the words of John Steele Gordon, “played Joseph Hooker like a fiddle, bluffing him into a defensive posture when he had overwhelming superiority.” Not only Hooker, of course. Early in the war, as Lee desperately searched for reinforcements, he bluffed George Meade into thinking the Army of Northern Virginia was at full strength; Meade’s failure to attack him bought Lee invaluable time. When the battles were finally joined, Lee’s knack for misleading, intimidating, and outmaneuvering much larger armies was often enough to carry the day.

James McManus has covered poker for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Magazine, Card Player, ESPN.com, and The New Yorker. Positively Fifth Street, his memoir of finishing fifth in the World Series of Poker championship, was a New York Times bestseller.

George/Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado 19 violently killed for being gay

2009-11-17T16:09:00.001-08:00

On November 14 the body of a gay 19 year old George/Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was found a few miles away from the town in which he was residing in called Caguas in Puerto Rico.

He was found on the site of an isolated road in the city of Cayey, he was partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered, both arms, both legs, and the torso.

Confessed Killer

The Criminal Investigations dept of Guayama is keeping under police custody the 26 year old confessed killer of Jorge Steven Lopez.

Officials indicated how Jose Bermudez the accused explained that he went into the center of town in Caguas and then after making a few attempts to pick up a prostitute allegedly Jorge went to him dressed as a woman, and Jose invited him into his vehicle thinking he picked up a female prostitute.

He said that he did not know that it was really a man and they went to his apartment in Cidra, where Steven allegedly told him to have anal sex with him, which provoked anger in him and caused him to murder him. He also said that Steven tried to stab him, and that he armed himself with a kitchen knife and under a fit of rage he injured him, dismembered him, decapitated him and then later took his remains to Guavate where he was left.

Other allegations of the killer is that in 2003 he was arrested for domestic abuse and that in his youth he was molested and that is why he hates homosexuals. The authorities said that this case has been advanced and successful due to the cooperation of the local GLBT community.

The agent Angel Rodriguez said that he is being interrogated and will be charged with first degree murder. He also indicated that he will submit another request to the federal judge to have this treated as a hate crime.

At the suspects home the police found 2 knives to commit the murder, and that they were then thrown in a septic tank.

in reference to:

"National Gay and Lesbian Task Force condemns dismemberment slaying of gay teen in Puerto Rico News release from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 — The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force condemns the brutal murder of Jorge Steven López, a 19-year-old gay man in Puerto Rico, in a possible hate crime. A suspect has reportedly been arrested. Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director National Gay and Lesbian Task Force “The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force stands in solidarity with the LGBT community in Puerto Rico and sends its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Jorge Steven López. We urge local law enforcement authorities to continue their expedient work on this case. Fortunately, Puerto Rico has a local hate crimes statute, but it is imperative that federal authorities continue to monitor this ongoing investigation and step in if necessary or assist if asked, as allowed by the new federal hate crimes law.” Statement by Pedro Julio Serrano, Task Force Communications Manager Founder, Puerto Rico Para Tod@s “This is a terrible, terrible crime. While we are pleased that law enforcement has acted promptly in making an arrest, it is vital that the hate crimes angle be investigated. This horrendous killing of a young gay man shows no compassion or respect for the dignity of a human life. As someone who grew up in Puerto Rico and has been very active in its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, this is a heart-wrenching moment. Our hearts and sympathies go out to all of Jorge Steven López’s loved ones at this difficult time. Justice must prevail.”"
- Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida (view on Google Sidewiki)

Thought about the health care debate

2009-11-17T15:28:00.001-08:00

With increased knowledge alone- people have become healthier and need less health care. The research on the cancer causing effects of cigarette smoking- caused many to quit to their healths advantage. Untold millions of lives saved and billions of medical dollars saved by research.

Yet many continue to smoke, and if they end up with an expensive cancer, our society will at least help (in most cases) with cost of their treatment.

There needs to be an emphasis in education on the benefits of being healthy- of doing all one can do for themselves. Healthcare can not become a safety net for careless living. There is, I think, a psychological component that the high cost of getting sick currently - that causes many to take better care of themselves.

There also has been a lot of unnecessary cost associated with a medical system that lags behind especially at the patient level that is now being addressed. Patient records should all be digitized, This alone would be a profound amount of data that could be analyzed for predictive trends- and early less expensive and more effective treatments.

Genome Screening

Eventually, everyone should/will have genome screening; As an article in scientific America reports on what one of the wealthiest men in world learned when he had his screening done:

"Google founder Sergey Brin's investment in his wife's genome-screening company has gotten even more personal: the product has revealed he carries a genetic mutation linked to Parkinson's disease.

He adds: "The exact implications of this are not entirely clear. Nonetheless it is clear that I have a markedly higher chance of developing Parkinson's in my lifetime than the average person. In fact, it is somewhere between 20 percent to 80 percent depending on the study and how you measure."

"I feel fortunate to be in this position," he writes, noting that exercise could help protect him from the disease."

There are privacy implications to all of this. Yet the future of healthcare should be towards a concept of wellness rather than towards entitlement.

Inventor Dean Kamen in an interview said:

"Okay, where else do we want to put money in our economy? You know where I'd put a lot of money? Great high-paying jobs for Ph.D.s and professors solving problems, curing diseases, making advanced technologies to give people products to make their life better. [Medical technology is] one of the few industries where the U.S. still exports to the world and we still have leadership."
- Dean Kamen Quotes About Health Care Debate - Interview With Inventor Dean Kamen - Popular Mechanics (view on Google Sidewiki)

need top of the line rechargeable batteries

2009-09-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Charger Kit: PowerEx MH-C9000 WizardOne Charger-Analyzer w/ Four 2700mAh AA Batteries

Product Description
MH-C9000 WizardOne Battery Charger & Analyzer is suitable for the casual consumer users, enthusiast and professionals, WizardOne is capable of charging, conditioning, analyzing, cycling, forming and discharging one to four AA or AAA batteries, all while digitally displaying the battery capacity and voltage. All four slots can be operated independently in different modes and settings. Those seeing the unit for the first time will be struck by its large LCD screen, backlit by ultra-bright white LEDs. Measuring over 3.5 by 1.5, the display is more than three times larger than its closest competition and shows a wealth of information that is easy to read. In addition to the standard charging, conditioning and discharging, the WizardOne charger-analyzer also offers two unusual operations modes. The Break-In mode allows the user to input the capacity of the battery and performs a forming charge designed to properly break-in new batteries. The Cycle mode allows user to charge and discharge batteries consecutively while storing the capacity for up to 15 cycles. There are ten selectable charging and discharging current from 0.2A to 2.0A and 0.1A to 1.0A respectively. The charger also features four independent temperature sensors using Mahas latest temperature rise detection algorithm in addition to the usual peak temperature detection. It also armed with additional patented termination algorithms found in other Maha chargers. The unit can be operated in a basic and advanced mode. In the basic mode, user merely needs to insert the batteries with no further key press. The charger will select the appropriate settings automatically, making it suitable for the casual users. Charger kit includes the MH-C9000 battery charger plus four high-power true 2700mAh PowerEx rechargeable AA batteries & battery case.

Jokes and Accusations against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich

2008-12-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

According to U.S. Attorney David Fitzgerald, Blagojevich is attempting to sell the U.S. senate seat he would be in charge of appointing when Barack Obama becomes president. “It’s a f—ing valuable thing,” he reportedly said. “You just don’t give it away for nothing….I’ve got this thing, and it’s f—ing golden.”

Governor Rod Blagojevich didn't show up for work in Chicago on Wednesday. Just his luck, it was national call-in-sick if you're gay day. He may have to resign as governor of Illinois but he's leading all polls to be the next governor of California.

Blagojevich, presumably having contacted Obama’s staff, seeked “appointment as secretary of health and human services or an ambassadorship, an appointment to a private foundation, a higher paying job for his wife or campaign contributions,” according to Fitzgerald. Local media has suggested that Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff, may have tipped off authorities about Blagojevich’s proposals.

St. Mark's Episcopal in Chicago placed global positioning devices in their Nativity Scene figurines to halt theft. They're easy to track. Last year's Messiah is on his way to Washington and the donkey's been arrested for trying to sell a Senate seat.

At one point, Blagojevich proposed taking a high-paying union job in exchange for Obama getting his choice of Senate replacement, with the union getting benefits from Obama. When the deal fell through, the governor told his wife Patti and their aides, “They’re not willing to give me anything but appreciation. F— them.”

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich didn't show up in the legislature Tuesday for the impeachment hearing against him for selling a Senate seat. It was easy to find him. He had to fly to Mogadishu to accept an honorary doctorate from Somali Pirate University.

Blagojevich considered taking the Senate position in order to avoid impeachment as Governor, as well as set himself up for a 2016 presidential run. ” “If they’re not going to offer anything of any value,” he said, “then I might just take it.”

"Time magazine reports that Governor Blagojevich has an approval rating 4%. That's with a margin of error of 5%. That means he could actually disapprove of himself." --Jay Leno

Blagojevich compared his position in regards to the Senate seat to a sports agent shopping a player around to “the highest bidder.”

ABC News says Rod Blagojevich was a bookie with links to the mob before he was governor. Jesse Jackson Jr. just realized he was snitching on the Chicago mob. In lieu of flowers, his family is requesting that donations be made to his father's slush fund.

The governor discussed starting a “non-profit organization” to hit up rich friends of Obama’s like Warren Buffett for up to $15 million. He would then run the organization when he retired as governor.

"It was a very stupid thing to do. Especially since the last governor of Illinois is currently in prison for exactly the same kind of thing. And not only that, think of it, you're in Chicago, you have Barack Obama's seat for sale, don't you go directly to Oprah? Who would pay more for Barack Obama's seat than her?" --Jimmy Kimmel

He described his “non-profit” fantasy to a union leader representing a Senatorial candidate, who said he’d “run it up the pole.”

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was defended by his Chicago lawyer Thursday. He noted that tapes are inadmissible in an impeachment, and impeachment would taint a criminal trial. Dick Cheney just told his wife that snow or no snow, they're moving to Chicago.

Blagojevich also discussed getting “some money up front, maybe” from a potential Senatorial candidate.

Federal prosecutors have released an affadavit showing recordings of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich allegedly talking about selling Obama's Senate seat.

Blagojevich who said, “I’ve got this thing, and it’s [expletive] golden. And I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing..." was ACTUALLY referring to his personal hairstylist who he stole from Emilio Estevez in "The Breakfast Club."

Blagojevich ran a pay-to-play scheme to receive money from contractors who benefit from his actions as governor.

Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel refused to answer questions Friday about the attempted sale of Obama's Senate seat. He's desperate to get the press on to another subject. He just asked one of his daughters if she'd like to go missing.

Upon learning he was under investigation for fraud and bribery, Blagojevich and his associates worked “feverishly to get as much money from contractors, shaking then down, pay-to-play, before the end of the year,” according to Fitzgerald.

Governor Rod Blagojevich refused to step down from office Monday when Illinois lawmakers began impeachment proceedings. It may take awhile. The legislature is trying to come up with the six hundred thousand dollars he's demanding to resign in disgrace.

When a $1.8 billion tollway project was announced, Blagojevich tried to get beneficiaries of the contract to give $100,000 in contributions.

Governor Blagojevich was at a Christmas play in a Chicago School, and when the three wise men showed up bearing gifts for the newborn Jesus, Governor Blagojevich demanded half the loot. (Leno)

Blagojevich noted about the tollway project, “I could have made a larger announcement but wanted to see how they would perform by the end of the year. If they don’t perform, f— ‘em.”

"Prosecutors said Tuesday there is no evidence that Barack Obama was involved in the Blagojevich scandal. Or, as Fox News reported it, 'Is Barack Obama involved in the Blagojevich scandal?'" --Amy Poehler

The governor allotted $8 million in funds to Children’s Memorial Hospital, believing he would get $50,000 back from the hospital’s CEO. When the money never came, he checked with staff to see if he could pull back the funding.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to declare Governor Rod Blagojevich disabled and unfit for office. That's silly. If crookedness was a disability, Chicago would be known worldwide as the City of Ramps.

A bill involving the diverting of casino funds for horseracing has been held up because Blagojevich has yet to receive $100,000 contributions from those who would benefit.

The Weather Channel reported a huge mass of cold air sweeping into the Midwest on Sunday. The front was setting new records for low wind-chill temperatures. It was so cold in Chicago that Governor Rod Blagojevich was selling heated Senate seats.

After the Chicago Tribune called for his impeachment in editorials, the governor and John Harris, his chief of staff, warned the Tribune Company that they would have to fire certain editors if they wanted to get the sale of Wrigley Field, which they owned, passed. “Fire all those f—ing people. Get them the f— out of there. And get us some editorial support,” he reportedly said.

Inaugural officials predicted four million people will attend the Inauguration ceremony. Every power broker will be there. The Illinois governor will be kept out of town so in the event of a catastrophe, someone will be alive to sell the government.

All together, Blagojevich was looking to acquire about $2.5 million in “contributions” through these illegal shakedowns.

Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell a seat in the Senet to the highest bidder. If Blagojevich is sent to jail - his seat will be sold to the highest bidder. (Connan)

Blagojevich told Harris that he was “financially hurting,” and that he needed this money for “security” and to stay “politically viable.”

Barack Obama cut all ties to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Thursday. He's also disowned Jeremiah Wright and Tony Rezko. Having Chicago as a hometown for an incoming president is like having a brother-in-law with a gambling problem and no car.

Many of his pay-to-play schemes were done with the participation of convicted felons like the infamous Tony Rezko.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday for trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat. His family is so proud. Rod Blagojevich could go down in history as the only Serbian leader whose trial didn't end up at the International Criminal Court.

Fearing that the money in his Friends Of Blagojevich campaign fund would be frozen if arrested, he considered prepaying his criminal attorney, believing the attorney would re-donate the money if his services weren’t required.

Barack Obama victory speech in Chicago - Jazz version

2008-11-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

After campaigning for Obama on Monday and Tuesday in Indiana, which we were told was a crucial state. My friend and I raced back to Chicago's Grant Park to hear Obama's victory speech. Later I would condense it and write a soundtrack, then record it, then create a video:

A 15 year old depressed guy hacks into VP candidate Palins Emails

2008-09-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

The supposed Hacker who got into Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin's Email, and posted it on line:

All signs point to state rep’s son as Palin ‘hacker’

The guy who hacked into would-be VP Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account is none other than the son of a Democratic state representative from Tennessee, posits GatwayPundit. A convincing amount of evidence suggests the “hacker” (perhaps a status he doens’t deserve) is David Kernell, son of Tennessee representative Mike Kernell.

The investigation is centered in Memphis, the Commercial Appeal reported:

An FBI and Secret Service investigation into the hacking, launched Wednesday, now involves agents in Memphis, said C.M. Sturgis, a spokesman for the Memphis FBI branch.

“All I can say is that a matter was referred to us from the Anchorage, Alaska, office. An investigation at this time is being coordinated out of FBI headquarters in the Department of Justice,” Sturgis said.

rubicon10@yahoo.com was the account of an unnamed college student, according to this Wired story. Wired identified the student as the son of a Democratic state representative in Tennessee. The father offered a non-denial denial.
A person who identified himself as the student’s father, when reached at home, said he could not talk about the matter and would have no comment. The father, in a second call with Threat Level late Thursday afternoon, said that neither he nor his son has been contacted by any law enforcement authorities. A local Tennessee paper had erroneously reported that his son had been contacted by authorities, he told Threat Level.
Rep. Kernell offered an even-less convincing denial late yesterday afternoon in a story in the Knoxville News Sentinel:
Asked whether he or his son, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, had been contacted by authorities investigating the break-in of Palin’s account, he responded:
“Me, no.”
As far as his 20-year-old son, David, he said: “I can’t say. That doesn’t mean he has or hasn’t (been contacted by investigators).”
Kernell, D-Memphis, cited the father-son relationship.

This article in the Tennessean adds little, with Kernell conceding that the Internet is talking about his son.
Free Republic notes that rubicon changed Palin’s password to “popcorn.” Popcorn. Kernell.
“The Alaksa division of the FBI has contacted the Memphis division and an investigation is under way,” WREG-TV reports. Kernell also acknowledged that people are talking about his son but denied he had been contacted by the FBI.
But if people are talking about David Kernell as the same person as rubicon10@yahoo.com and rubicon admitted that he he did it on 4chan, then the circumstantial evidence that David Kernell hacked Palin’s account is pretty straight-forward, isn’t it?
Skirts, Not Pantsuits, a pro-Palin blog, asserts that this blog is linked to rubicon10@yahoo.com. I’m not sure how they established that. Indeed the entire site could be a prank. However, it does include this information, the dates line up and the depression wouldn’t be unheard of:
My name is David Kernell I am 15 a white cacasian male i live in memphis, TN. My favorite and only hobby is chess, more like an obsession. I am not afraid to say that i have acute depression and have been institutionalized twice, one at th age of 9 in Texas and one this past year. I have been strugleing with this for my entire life and have finally come to the conclusion that being stoic in most of life’s issues is of the untmost importance.

Still, the Memphis Commercial Appeal established the chess connection, which lends credence to the blog’s legitimacy:

David Kernell excelled at chess while at Germantown High School and won the 2004 Tennessee Open Scholastic Chess Championship. Internet searches show someone uses the handle rubico on chess Web sites.

Boo fuckin hoo

2008-09-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

The following is the hyper text of the essay:

essay1 :: Gigi asks "What does `Boo Fuckin Hoo' mean?"

Gigi my neighbor, a collage student who gets me to write her papers for her, knocks and enters my apartment, opens my fridge, and calls: "Want one?"

She enters the room with two beers. I was mid sentence, writing in my Blog about Iraq2 and the real meaning of the phrase Bush Doctrine3. She drops a note: "What does Boo Fuckin Hoo mean?"

Three years ago, Gigi knocked on my door an introduced herself. She invited herself in, lit a joint, and casually went through my belongings. I had been unpacking and listening repeatedly to Cat Stevens Tea for the Tiller-man , speculating on meanings. She offered me her joint just as Stevens sang the lyric "Wine for the women who made the rain come"5 - and I asked if she would like some wine. Laughing, we ended on my sofa. At some point she told me she had herpes.6 Later she told me that she just said that so I wouldn't come on to her. Instead, somehow, she became my little sister in need of saving, and I became her big brother willing to do anything for her.

Now she explained finding the essay add7 in the artist section of Craigslist.
"Well, " I said, "depending on context,⁸ `boo Fucking hoo', is just a more explicit `boo hoo', a phrase used sarcastically when a person shows too much self pity."9

"Yeah, " Gigi responded, "how's is my paper coming along?"`We' were finishing a paper that argues that the ending of Don Quixote should be changed.`10 We' worked out an argument beginning with reference to a fictional essay11 about a 20th century writer who re-authors Don Quixote. "The text of ..are verbally identical, but the second is almost infinitely richer because Menard's work must be considered in light of world events since 1602."

There was also the historic precedent of Shakespeare's play King Lear, that had an adjustment to it's final scene. It was altered from a scene of absolute despair to a scene of possible redemption and rebirth. Hope is reintroduced into the ending of that play.12

`We' conclude: In light of world events, terrorism, wars, economic uncertainty, disillusioned youth, Don Quixote's ending should be changed.Quixote should be presented as having no regrets for going after his impossible dreams.13

"I need to spell check." I answered.

Then I mused: "It could also be a phrase of endearment. 14"

Gigi lights up as I explain. "The word `'boo', as slang, can mean your lover, as in `my boo'. So " Boo Fucking `who'? ", could be a rhetorical question- `Who are you making love to?' Much the same as male asking the woman he is `with'- `Whose your daddy?¹⁵the goal is to have the other recognize your presence." "How do you come up with all this shit?" Gigi asked giggling in her pot fog. " Can you turn it into a 500 word essay?16

500 word
by Paul Grant (follower of Basho)17
The short piece stands on it's own for what it is. If one wanted to find additional meaning, a hypertexed version of this essay can be found at

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
^Notes:

^{"Words themselves contain no meaning, they only trigger meaning."}
^{Paul Williams in das Energie.}

There going to make a movie about the things things that they find crawling in my brain.
Counting Crows

^{1. Essay = ".. means no more than a humble effort to instruct or amuse. "

why take your time to do anything? There is a sense of willpower, a leaning foreword with an idea.}

^{"The taste and morals of the nation have been more generally improved by these excellent, though short and detached, compositions, than by long, regular, elaborate systems. They were addressed to the heart and imagination, and fitted for the haunts of men engaged in the employments of common life; while scientific treatises of ethics were calculated only for the exercise of scholastic disputation ; and their influence on the conduct of life, if they ever possessed any, was circumscribed within harrow limits."} ^{Moral and Literary By Vicesimus Knox Published by Printed for J. Richardson and Co., 1821}

^{Each word, if paused upon, bring back memories, interconnect with other ideas. But who cares about the things crawling around in my brain. "You never know." Gigi tells me.}

^{2. my Blog about Iraq = Iraq War News & History:: News, documents, videos and commentary on the news about the War in Iraq.}^{An actual Blog Ive been working on for years, trying to somehow figure it all out. Its really depressing. For awhile I thought about making a book of biographies of all the dead soldiers in the order they were reported dead by the military. I would look on-line for local obituaries and condense them into one page. After thirty fout I realized how inpossible the task was, and that was almost 2,000 soldiers ago.}^{I am for the US leaving Iraq in a rapid-secret deployment. Maybe have them reappear after a week in Afghanistan or Bosnia, or even Texas to help out. If or when the situation in Iraq turns very bad - pop back in. I am against war and totally for diplomacy, but a war policy is needed.

Go back to the Collin Powell Doctrine of exceeding force quickly in and out. Give up the concept of occupying.}

^{At : http://bringthemhome2.blogspot.com/}

^{3. the real meaning of the phrase Bush Doctrine -}what I was writing when I was interrupted:

^{In an interview with Charles Gibson, Republican Vice Presidential hopeful Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was asked if she agreed with the Bush Doctrine.}

To which she responded: "In what respect, Charlie?"

To which she was informed: "... that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense."

Was Gibson's description right in his definition of the Bush Doctrine?

I compared it to what `pundits' said it meant to the reality, including the first writer to use the phrase. Then after a lengthy article I concluded:

The Sad Truth

The sad truth is that the Bush Presidency has left the United States trillions of dollars in debt, in two ongoing wars with a military bogged down and needing significant influx of money and soldiers, with a country in economic trouble, a budget debt of 50 Billion, a very low standing in world opinion, and a much less stable middle East then when his term began.

Bush has had his accomplishments - giving tax breaks to the rich and allowing oil companies to reap record profits as gas prices have almost doubled. He has brought a corporation called Haliburton back from financial problems, and has moved towards the use of private military firms such as Blackwater who are above the law, secret prisons around the world, promoted the use of torture and decrease of civil rights not just of non- Americans, but of US citizens.

4. Tea for the Tillerman / Cat Stevens

Tea for the Tillerman, which became a top-10 Billboard hit and within 6 months of its release, sold over 500,000 copies, reaching Gold record status in the United States and in Britain, combining Stevens' new folk style with accessible lyrics that spoke of everyday situations and problems, mixed with the beginning of spiritual imagery that would remain in his music from thereon. As Stevens sought for the answers to life, inner peace, truth, and World Peace, an audience starved for the same answers followed.

Major events steered Cat Steven's Spiritual development

Tuberculosis

Stevens was living a fast-moving pop-star life and in early 1968 at the age of 19, he became very ill with tuberculosis, and a collapsed lung. During several months in the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst and a year of convalescence, Stevens began to question aspects of his life, and took up meditation, read about other religions and became a vegetarian. During his recovery, he his newly found concern over what might happen to him if he should die arose for the first time. Later, in several interviews he has made reference to the same focus: "Ever since I remember I was searching for the meaning to life." During that time, as part of his spiritual awakening and questioning, he wrote as many as 40 songs, which were much more introspective than his previous work. Many of those songs were to appear on his albums in years to come.

"I caught tuberculosis and suddenly I've got this medieval disease, you know — middle of modern society, and I'm sort of in hospital. And all of the spotlights are switched off. And now I say: 'Well, hey, where is the light?' And that's what got me going, if you like, looking for a different kind of light." That near-death experience sparked a creative explosion. While recuperating he wrote more than 40 songs, including many from the albums that would guarantee his place in music history. He was destined for stardom, or so it seemed. But in 1975 while swimming off the coast of Malibu, Calif., another brush with death revealed his true destiny.

Swimming experience

"I decided to go for a swim. Of course nobody told me that that wasn't a good time to go swimming," Islam said. "So there I was, you know, out there, and I'm thinking, 'Ah, great, hmm, OK, let's go back now.' And then I ... tried to swim back to shore. And suddenly I felt 'I can't do this' — the tide was going the other way. I wasn't getting any closer.

"Suddenly I was petrified. I thought: 'This might be it.' I said: 'God, if you save me, I'll work for you.' It was without hesitation that I knew that, instinctively, there was a power that could help me. And then a little wave, you know, came behind me — a little wave, it wasn't very big. But it was that miraculous moment when suddenly the tide was going in my favor. I had my energy, I could swim back. I was on land. I was alive. Wow, what next?"

After that Islam tried to find a religion that fit. He experimented with Buddhism, Tao, numerology and even astrology. But when his brother gave him a copy of the Koran, the man who had been shopping for answers finally found them.

"I was looking for something that would resonate — the meaning of life at whatever angle you looked at it," he said.

At the time, he was still performing and was hugely popular. He realized he couldn't balance his religion and his career.

"Yeah, when it came to trying to balance you know, this knowledge, this discovery, with my lifestyle, you know, I've been singing about trying to find who I am," Islam said. "Now I've found out, do I have to keep singing? I mean, that was the question."

The answer came in November 1979 at London's Wembley stadium when he walked onstage as Cat Stevens and walked off as Yusuf Islam.

He wouldn't touch a guitar again for more than 20 years.

Yusuf Islam Reflects On His Return Artist Once Known As Cat Stevens Talks About New Album
(CBS) This story originally aired on Dec. 3, 2006 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/30/sunday/main2221286.shtml?source=search_story

5 Meaning of: `women who made the rain come'

An action or lack thereof which makes others cry. as in :"Georgetown made it rain for NC this weekend"

19th definition for Make it rain in the Urban Dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?page=3&term=make+it+rain
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^{6. Herpes}

^{Learn the signs and symptoms.}

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^{7. Craiglist Add - this is the add that I was to answer:}

Reply to: comm-839658710@craigslist.org ^[?]
Date: 2008-09-13, 5:29PM CDT

The Spirit of Boo Fuckin Hoo
Those three little words mean such different things to different people. We welcome your creative interpretation.

WWW.POORLUCKYME.COM is sponsoring an essay contest via WWW.BOOFUCKINHOO.COM (NO "G"!!)

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Please reply to this ad. Essays should be under 500 words, cut and paste into your email. Essays over 500 words must be particularly awesome and entertaining for our staff to read. No attachments please. Include a title. Please indicate if you would like to remain anonymous. Entries will be posted throughout the month. Comments are welcomed and will be taken into consideration. Each month one essay will be chosen and awarded a prize of $50. Winners will be notified via email. Thanks for playing!

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it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 839658710

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8. depending on context.}

^{Word Sense means:}

^{..word sense is one of the meanings of a word. For example a dictionary may have over 50 different meanings of the word play[1], each of these having a different meaning based on the context of the word usage in a sentence. Computers ... must use a process called word sense disambiguation to find the correct meaning of a word.}

^{(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_sense)}

^{Word sense disambiguation occurs in humans, as in computer language, the more ambiguous the word the more varied the receivers `sense of meaning'.

word sense disambiguation (WSD) is the problem of determining which "sense" (meaning) of a word is activated by the use of the word in a particular context, a process which appears to be largely unconscious in people.

Ambiguous language is `fuzzy language'; where words meaning are not fixed, where meaning is approximate rather than precise.}^{back to the top

9. Self Pity:

Since I will argue that the most likely definition of the phrase is in response to self pity. As I mentioned in the note on context, how the phrase is delivered has significant impact on it value. The speakers personal perception of what `self pity'; is, sets the underlying context of how the speaker delivers the phrase. For example, a common definition is:}

^{Self-pity is a psychological state of mind of an individual in perceived adverse situations who has not accepted the situation and does not have the confidence nor ability to cope with it. It is characterized by a person's belief that he or she is the victim of events and is therefore deserving of condolence.}
^{Self-pity is generally regarded as a negative emotion in that it does not generally help deal with adverse situations. However, in a social context it may result in either the offering of sympathy or advice. Self-pity may be considered normal, and in certain circumstances healthy, so long as it is transitory and leads to either acceptance or a determination to change the situation.}

^{Additionally, self-pity can be remarkably self-sustaining particularly in conjunction with depression or other conditions. For example: a child at school feels badly because they see others as more social or outgoing. If the child does not take action by attempting to get to know others despite potential negative consequences (such as rejection) then they may continue to feel alone, and their feelings of self-pity will be sustained.}

^{Self-pity is a way of paying attention to oneself, albeit negatively; it is a means self-soothing or self-nurturing ("I hurt so much"). Social-Learning theorists purport that self-pity is a method for gaining attention, probably as a child, where an individual received attention, support, and nurturing while being sick or hurt. The child then grows up having learned to give attention to oneself (or ask for attention from others) while in real or dramatized distress to receive the same payoff.}

^{Thus, another form of self- sustainment can be sympathy offered by others: "oh, you poor thing." This is particularly true of individuals who exhibit sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies and rely on the sympathy offered by others as a means to manipulate."}

^{"Self-Pity" is also the title of a short poem by D. H. Lawrence.

The poem was prominently cited by Viggo Mortensen's character in the film G.I. Jane (a a 1997 action movie that tells the fictional story of the first woman to undergo training in U.S. Navy Special Warfare Group.}⁾

^{David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930)} ^Self-Pity ^{1

I never saw a wild thing} ^{2 sorry for itself.}
^{3 A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough}
^{4 without ever having felt sorry for itself.}

^{Online text copyright © 2008, Ian Lancashire for the Department of English, University of Toronto.} ^{Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.} ^{http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1250.html}

^{This poem states that animals don't feel sorry for themselves, an some believe that Lawrence is suggesting that this is a trait that humans should adopt. But being human the simplicity of simplre acceptence is not possible (for that matter how does Lawrence know that animals feel no self pity? Lawrence may have been excusing himself from self pity having been troubled from early youth with respiratory disease). Self pity becomes a manifestation of previous emotional and/or physical disruptions of the stable self. As one psychologist put it:}^{---> Self Righteous Rage}

^{"Another component of self-pity has been addressed by Horowitz (1981) Which he calls "self Righteous Rage". Etiologically this is felt to result from an impaired development of self-concept. Investigation of the family dynamics in theses cases often reveals an empathetic dissonance in which defects of parental narcissism precludes the consistent empathic resonance that is needed by the child. A capricious shifting of concerns occurs. The child is buffeted by inconsistent behavior on the part of the parents resulting in precarious feeling of self worth. Parental action towards the child cannot be logically attributed to the child's behavior, rather it appears to be more related to parental states of mind. The child is left in a confused state in which he feel alternatively to be victimized and `victemizer'."} ^{The self pitying response is initiated within a narcissistic vulnerable individual following a failure of empathy with someone functioning as a needed self-object under certain specific conditions. When these conditions are met the response of self-pity is an urgent attempt to counteract feelings of alienation and disintegration accompanying a severe narcissistic wound and a need to recover self-object connectedness.} ^{Tolpin and Kohut (1980) have described a type of depression that results from chronic states of depletion of the self. They have labeled this "depletion depression" and have characterized it as an endopsychic state of emptiness, depletion, and helplessness.} ^{In theses individuals, a continuum seems to exist from transitory states of self pity to more severe and disruptive chronic depressive syndromes in which depletion becomes more all pervasive. In the latter case it seems that an unconscious `pact' has been entered into between the individual and his self object in which his self object is expected to share in the grief. When this does not occur, further depression and/or defenses against it. Theses defenses may take the form of..disruptive acting out.."} ^{(Pages 182-83)The Self Pity Response: A reconsideration by Samuel L. Wilson in Progress in Self Psychology: Vol 1By Arnold Goldberg Contributor Arnold Goldberg} ^{Published by Routledge ISBN 0881632147, 9780881632149}

^{Psychologisthave even addressed the perception of an other's self pity responses ( as in "boo Fucking hoo', used sarcastically when a person shows too much self pity).}

^{"Some speech acts may be designed to snap a sufferer out of an attitude which is perceived to be immoral. Perhaps they are complaining a great deal about a minor} ^{misfortune, which displays disrespect for those who are worse off. Perhaps their self-centred attitude comes at the expense of someone nearby who is worse off.} ^{Pity and self-pity are viewed as being intrinsically wrong moral attitudes.} ^{‘Look on the bright side’ might in some cases be a way of telling a person to abandon their self-pity. Many people believe the sick are morally required to suffer gracefully,} ^{and perhaps this has its basis in the medical harms of self-pity or in the effects of ungraceful suffering on empathic listeners. Self-indulgent complaining from a person} ^{who has suffered a minor misfortune might indeed cause more suffering in onlookers than the medical misfortune causes in the sufferer Some speech acts may be designed to snap a sufferer out of an attitude which is perceived to be immoral. Perhaps they are complaining a great deal about a minor misfortune, which displays disrespect for those who are worse off. Perhaps their self-centred attitude comes at the expense of someone nearby who is worse off. Pity and self-pity are viewed as being intrinsically wrong moral attitudes.} ^{Attempts to improve a person’s mood or disposition can therefore be medically and emotionally beneficent in their intent. However, not everyone will react positively} ^{or predictably to a given attempt to influence their mood, and thus the attempt will frequently fail to be beneficial. For example, it seems that males respond worse than} ^{females either to advice on how to cope with troubles, or to being told ‘not to worry’.} ^{"It is unclear whether we can predictably help someone to attain a more positive mood or disposition just by finding an appropriate thing to say."} ^{> What should we say? Julian Savulescu, Bennett Foddy, John Rogers; Journal of Medical Ethics 2006;32:7-12; doi:10.1136/jme.2005.012781} ^{Copyright © 2006 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Institute of Medical Ethics. http://jme.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/1/7} ^{Furthermore, a self pitying individual my be predisposed to the mental condition that causes self pity, by unseen physical conditions:} ^{Hippocrates (460-377B.C.) suggested that madness came from the effect of various forms of bile. From that time to the present, physicians have continued to be fascinated by the effects of physical dysfunction on mental activity. After the demonstration by H. Noguchi of Treponema pallidum in the brain of patients with central nervous system syphilis, there could be little question that physical conditions could be the basis of major mental problems. Since that time, many psychiatric conditions have been found to have an organic etiology .}

^{Self pitying individuals may not be in conscious control of their `self pitting behavior'. Telling them to stop feeling sorry for themselves (or suggesting it, ussing a saterical phrase is as effective as telling them to defy gravity.}

^{"The psychoanalytic studies of Freud, Jung, Adler, and Rank have demonstrated the presence of unconscious motivation for behavior . Clinical investigation into the reasons}
^{for unconscious emotional conflicts has repeatedly led to the conclusion that interpersonal relationships play a major role in the development of personality . Relationships with}
^{parents have been found to be of particular importance in the development of basic attitudes . Harry Stack Sullivan (1892-1949) utilized astute and accurate clinical observa-}
^{tions to focus intensively on the importance of the inter-personal relationships . His emphasis on communication processes in interpersonal behavior laid the groundwork}
^{for the present strong emphasis on environment and in-terpersonal relationships as etiologic factors in many emotional disorders.}

^{The emotional state of the patient is primarily the result of an interaction between his or her internal and external environment. If the internal environment is altered by phys-}
^{cal disease s... mental illness can occur. Similarly, a patient overwhelmed by emotional stress may experience derangement in the organization of his or her thinking. Such patients have no demonstrable nervous system lesions that would account for the neurotic or psychotic behavior. Disruptions in interpersonal relationships are frequently the precipitating events for neurotic and psychotic behavior. Consequently, most modern thinking sees mental illness as an interaction between an internal emotional substrate different for each individual and environmental stresses.}
^{Interpersonal Relationships byJohn B. Griffin JR. in Clinical Methods : The History, Physical and Laboratory Examinations' ; Author: H. Kenneth Walker, W. Dallas Hall, J. Willis Hurst (Editor) Published by Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd: July 1990 Edition: 3rd ISBN: 040990077X}

^{So when one is unfortunate to be on the end of anothers self pity lament, the lamenting person has some perception that you would care. And as the Wilson article above states: "..in which his self object (You the listner) is expected to share in the grief. When this does not occur, further depression and/or defenses against it. Theses defenses may take the form of..disruptive acting out..}^"^{Therefore, in contex, use of this phrase as a response to another's self pity would be counter productive. However, self use, can be productive in that recognizes a disruption in balance, and the unpleasantness without letting the situation overwhelm, as in: "I got fired from work today. Boo fucking hoo. I guess I'll have to go looking for a job tomorrow."}

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10. the ending of Don Quiote should be changed

^{As the following description describes, the story ends on an unhappy note.}

^{"Although the first half of the novel is almost completely farcical, the second half is serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. Don Quixote's imaginings are made the butt of outrageously cruel practical jokes. Even Sancho is unintentionally forced to deceive him at one point; trapped into finding Dulcinea, Sancho brings back three peasant girls and tells Quixote that they are Dulcinea and her ladies-in-waiting. When Don Quixote only sees three peasant girls, Sancho pretends that Quixote suffers from a cruel spell which does not permit him to see the truth. Sancho eventually gets his imaginary island governorship and unexpectedly proves to be wise and practical; though this, too, ends in disaster. The novel ends with Don Quixote's complete disillusionment, with his melancholic return to sanity and renunciation of chivalry, and finally, his death."}

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote}

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^{11. reference to a fictional essay:}

^{Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges (24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) (who I considewr one of the great thinkers of the 20th century) was an Argentine writer whose work included short stories, essays, poetry, literary criticism, and translations.}

^{Borges wrote "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" (1939) , an essay about a (fictional) 20th century writer who re-authors Don Quixote.}

^{"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" is written in the form of a review or literary critical piece about (the non-existent) Pierre Menard. It begins with a brief introduction and a listing of all of Menard's work.}

^{Borges's "review" describes this 20th century French writer who has made an effort to go further than mere "translation" of Don Quixote, but to immerse himself so thoroughly as to be able to actually "re-create" it, line for line, in the original 17th Century Spanish. Thus, Pierre Menard is often used to raise questions and discussion about the nature of accurate translation.}

^{Borges's work is indeed literary criticism, but through the medium of fantasy, irony, and humor. Borges's narrator/reviewer considers Menard's fragmentary Quixote (which is line-for-line identical to the original) to be much richer than Cervantes's "original" work, because Menard's work must be considered in light of world events since 1602, and thus is richer in allusion.}

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote}

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12. King Lear, had an adjustment to it's final scene}

{Aide: new statue in Chicago, a new king in town, and his name is King Lear. He is seen ruling over Pioneer Court in downtown Chicago.

J. Seward Johnson created this 20-something-foot tall statue with this interesting pose with it turning away from something. The placement in the court makes him look like he's turning away from the sun and the buildings across the river. The nicely matching architecture in this shot is the London Insurance Building and Mather Tower . Photo by Matt Maldre}

^{There were two versions of the play. The first had a sadder ending, the second version's concluding lines as Dr Carson explains:}

^{"The final lines of the play in the Quarto are given to Albany, which is appropriate in terms of his seniority within the social structure to the play. However, in the Folio these lines are given to Edgar, the only person on stage who has not engaged in the battle between the generations until the very last scene. Edgar is presented in the Folio as the leader of the new generation and the representative of a gentler form or leadership.} ^{Edgar (F) The weight of this sad time we must obey,} ^{Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.} ^{The oldest have borne most; we that are young} ^{Shall never see so much, nor live so long. [300]} ^{;[Exeunt with a dead march]} ^{Edgar ending the play introduces hope of a new beginning with a different set of values in place. As Richard Eyre, who directed the play at the National Theatre in 1997, says ‘there is something wonderful about this terribly simple advice being given to you by a man who has had to grow up in the most violent way. Edgar, a sort of mild, bookish man, becomes a warrior, then sees this holocaust, and the advice he gives you is, open your heart, speak what you feel’. "}

^{Expert views: The Quarto of King Lear - representing the early stage history of the play
Dr Christie Carson, Royal Holloway University of London http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/lear.html}

^{Yes ! This was our same goal, the goal of generations preceding us, to reinterpret the written words for our own purpose, and when necessary, for the good of society, to re-write the text.}

^{{An aside- How much easier would it be to just replace the word `nigger' from Huckleberry Finn, then to ban the from Public libraries and/or to remove it from school curriculum?}}

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What are the impossible dreams of Don Quiote? Some believe it was tha attainment of his imagined Dulcina. Here we have an aged man obviously facing his own mortality, what could he want? Western society with it's penchant for Freud based thinking, might jump to the "facing Death the man wants sex" conclusion.

But on multiple readings, I think it is a larger question of a search for meaning to his life that lead him to the ideal of `to be in service to others' as was a knight errant. And that in his mind, to fullfill his role, he would need certain `tokens' of identification, such as an unattainable love. ^{13. going after his impossible dreams}

^{{An aside As politicians continue to use the `impossibility' of their coming to a point in their lives where the highest offices of society are breaths away- we return to the potent rags to riches story telling that was popular just after the depression. Anyone can do anything. (As in the popular movie Ratatouille - "anyone can cook" , or in the Saturday Night Live 2008 show opener where a characterized Hillary Clinton on stage with Republican Vice Presidential hopeful Governor Sarah Palin, says in horror : I guess anyone can become President.}}

"Dulcinea, as a comic version of the courtly lover's unattainable lady —what Terpening calls “an anti-donna angelicata” (4)—, exists in distant splendor only in Don Quijote's overheated imagination. She exists, because it is necessary for a knight to have a lady (according to Hegel, “the necessity of a concept is the principal thing; and the process of its production as a result is its proof and deduction” [Philosophy of Right, Introduction 2, p. 9]). Yet Don Quijote finally gets around to giving her a name only after he has decided upon names for himself and for his horse: “no le faltaba otra cosa sino buscar una dama de quien enamorarse” (I 40)

^{When asked by the Duchess to describe Dulcinea, he admits that she may well be an imaginary creation: “‘Dios sabe si hay Dulcinea o no en el mundo, o si es fantástica, o no es fantástica” (II 809). "}

^{The search for meaning and the American dream are not nesicarrilly alike.

As Jerome Bruner defines the great emerging theme}:

^{“the narrative should construct two simultaneous landscapes. One of these is the landscape of action in which the constituents are the arguments of action: agent, intention or objective, situation, instrument, something that corresponds to a 'grammar of history'. The other is the landscape of the conscience: that which those committed to action know, think, or feel, or don't know, don't think, and don't feel. These two landscapes are essential and distinct".}

^{There is a chasm between knowing what you are doing and what you want (American dream). What you are doing, becomes the habitual patterns that your life becomes as consequences of choices predispose an individuals use of time.} ^{In the United States we were able to see retiring generations not yet ready for retirement needing to find an alternative to the preoccupations of their time in the past.Meaning becomes associated with time expenditure, which is actually wrong.

Victor Frankles book Man's search for Meaning, and his start in logotherepy resulted from talking with people facing end of their life in a Nazi prison camp, their reality/ meaning, compared with introspection to their dreams and hopes. Those with the strongest dreams and hopes survived, despite their condition/reality of the moment.}

^{here we have it summarized:}

"The trajectory herein summarized, that has as its object gradual evolution from a simple accumulation of data toward the superlative level of the conquest of meaning represents the three-fold maturity of the human condition involving movement from the simple to the complex, the quantitative to the qualitative, and the individual to the community.

These three steps follow timings and rites that each culture presents in its own way. With due regard for the diversity of cultures and plurality of configurations of identity, these traditions are invariably the result of learning journeys marked by progressive growth in the vision and ultimate sense with which human beings discover and re-interpret their singular relation with any form of transcendence,"Ferry analyzes how the definition of a "life of personal conquests" has changed through history, from the times of the search for a "good life",and lists the respective measurements. Ferry, L. (2002). Qu’est-ce qu’une vie réussie, Paris: Bernard Grasset.

Individual maturity is required, though the maturating of the working class is not top of the agenda for the ruling elite.

And the individuals drift from self compensation to concern for the community is not a common national notion as much as the American Dream is considered `getting your rightful piece of the pie'.
Why did Obma after graduating from an ivy league school give up a good law firm position to become a `community organizer?^{Or why did Pat Tullman give up a 30 million dollar contract to join the military. Are they on a differnt page from us?}^{The highest concern for the populace is their place in the economic ladder:}

^{"The possibility that their children will move down the economic ladder, in class position if not income, is one of the great anxieties that assault the vast middle class, even at its highest reaches. Mobility is a great thing, but it often comes at someone else's expense. As some rise in rank, others must fall. To some extent, the American dream is inherently an impossible dream because it cannot fulfill people's expectations of both opportunity and peace of mind.

Everyone knows that economic inequality has increased in recent decades. The richest 10 to 20 percent of Americans have gotten richer faster than the rest. But the people at the top are not all the same people or even the children of the same people. This vindicates one version of the American dream.

There is opportunity. People do move up—in both total income and class rank. Economic success is not static.

Iandeed, the high degree of intergenerational economic mobility is (a) Pew's (study) most interesting finding. What happens at the bottom of the income scale also happens at the top. About 60 percent of children born of the richest fifth of parents do not themselves end up among the richest fifth; about 23 percent drop into the next-to-highest group and 9 percent fall to the bottom.

Everyone knows that economic inequality has increased in recent decades. The richest 10 to 20 percent of Americans have gotten richer faster than the rest. But the people at the top are not all the same people or even the children of the same people. This vindicates one version of the American dream. There is opportunity. People do move up—in both total income and class rank. Economic success is not static.

Indeed, the high degree of intergenerational economic mobility is (a) Pew's (study) most interesting finding. What happens at the bottom of the income scale also happens at the top. About 60 percent of children born of the richest fifth of parents do not themselves end up among the richest fifth; about 23 percent drop into the next-to-highest group and 9 percent fall to the bottom. Parents influence their children's destiny but do not determine it.}

^{JUDGMENT CALLS
Robert J. Samuelson
The (Impossible) American Dream}

^{Economic reality was the cause of Don Quiote disillusionment. Dulcinea, by her circumstances was reduced from the ideal, into a woman willing to exchange her skirt for a loan of money. Leading one to suspect that in her desperation, Dulcina was willing to sell herself. Of course he did not want to be involved with an excahge of money for sex. Worse though, he did nt even have the money she needed, wich if he had, he would have happily given to her, Economics had turned them both into something the other could not respect.}

^{^{14. Terms of endearment

`A word or an act (as a caress) expressing affection'}}

^{^{A term of endearment is a word or phrase used to address and/or describe a person or animal for which the speaker feels love or affection. Terms of endearment are used for a variety of reasons, such as parents addressing their children and lovers addressing each other.

Such words may not, in their original use, bear any resemblance in meaning to the meaning attached when used as a term of endearment, for example calling a spouse "pumpkin". Some words are clearly derived from each other, such as "sweetheart" and "sweetie", while others bear no etymological resemblance, such as "baby" and "cutie". The first evidence of the current connotation for terms of endearment varies. "Baby" is first used in 1839 and "sugar" only appears as recently as 1930.(http://www.etymonline.com/)}}

^{^{Most terms of endearment are concrete nouns that have favorable associations, either with a sweet taste or the nature of the relationship. Sometimes, abstract nouns are used, such as "sweetness", implying that the object of the speaker's affection is not only sweet, but embodies sweetness itself.}}

^{^{Use of terms of endearment can reveal little or nothing about the true quality of the relationship in question.}}

^{^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_of_endearment}}

^{^{Terms of endearment can also be A hypocoristic, hypocorism or hypochorisma (from Greekhypokorizesthai, "to use child-talk"{ Oxford English Dictionary, online edition: "hypocorism"^1])}}

^{^{Often in terms of endearment words are used in a diminutive manner. Diminutive is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment. It is the opposite of an augmentative. While many languages apply the grammatical diminutive to nouns, a few also use it for adjectives and even other parts of speech.Diminutives are often used for affection (see nickname and hypocoristic). In many languages the meaning of diminution can be translated "tiny" or "wee" and diminutives are used frequently when speaking to small children; adult people sometimes use diminutives when they express extreme tenderness and intimacy by behaving and talking like children.Boo, and hoo, in the phrase `Boo Fuckin Hoo' could easily be interpreted in this manner.}}

^{^{15.Whose your daddy?}}

Who's your daddy?" is a slang expression that takes the form of a rhetorical question.

Use of the phrase implies a boastful claim of physical or sexual dominance over the intended listener's mother, implying that sex with the mother resulted in the listener's existence and that the speaker ofthe phrase is therefore the "daddy.

^{^{back to the top}}

^{^{16. can you turn it into a 500 word essay?}}

^{^{A quick look at the sponsoring site showed that (first of the ) others were not attempting to define the phrase-----, as both GiGi an I thought the challenge. When I began this attempt at writing this short essay, I was finishing my post on the Bush doctrine, and had in mind the paper on rewriting the end of Don Quixote to make it more uplifting.As my first definition of the phrase `boo fucking hoo' brought to mind and connected to the whole argument for changing the end of Don Quixote was a negative reaction to Don Quixote self pity at the end of the play:}}

^{^{"The mercies, niece," said Don Quixote, "are those that God has this moment shown me, and with him, as I said, my sins are no impediment to them. My reason is now free and clear, rid of the dark shadows of ignorance that my unhappy constant study of those detestable books of chivalry cast over it.

Now I see through their absurdities and deceptions, and it only grieves me that this destruction of my illusions has come so late that it leaves me no time to make some amends by reading other books that might be a light to my soul.}}
Niece, I feel myself at the point of death, and I would fain meet it in such a way as to show that my life has not been so ill that I should leave behind me the name of a madman; for though I have been one, I would not that the fact should be made plainer at my death. Call in to me, my dear, my good friends the curate, the bachelor Samson Carrasco, and Master Nicholas the barber, for I wish to confess and make my will." But his niece was saved the trouble by the entrance of the three.

^{^{The instant Don Quixote saw them he exclaimed, "Good news for you, good sirs, that I am no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but Alonso Quixano, whose way of life won for him the name of Good. Now am I the enemy of Amadis of Gaul and of the whole countless troop of his descendants; odious to me now are all the profane stories of knight-errantry; now I perceive my folly, and the peril into which reading them brought me; now, by God's mercy schooled into my right senses, I loathe them."

The argument of the paper was to change the end so that the `mad mans' `impossible dreams' when realized as being made of `false intelligence' brings one to a point of not only self pity, but shame. (The kind of shame the Bush Administration should be feeling.) Then I came to the profound realization that the real Bush Doctrine was re-writing history, so as to make it uplifting: Mission accomplished, there is no civil war in Iraq, we are winning, outing a CIA agent is really no big thing, the economy is in great shape... and on and on.}}

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17. Paul Grant (follower of Basho)}}^{^{I found when Googling a great number of Paul Grants. (I am actually the third in my family). While trying to find a way to single myself out without going to the extream, Sting or Madonna, or even as subtle a change as Allan Stewart Konigsberg who changed his name to Woody Allen.

I decided to add a `tag' to my name:` follower of Basho'. I was re-reading Narrow Road to a Far Province. I was drinking red wine alone. And I thought : That's It . Narrow Road to a Far Province -actually was a way in itself. be on the path, and don't stray from the path, and know the path will be uneasy. Seems simple typed out like this, but at the moment it occurred to me that it starts with an if we set out on a path. Most people don't even have a path in mind.

This interrelates to the Don Quite references. He chooses to be Don Quite, he creates him. But then, as i suppose later in this piece, Quite goes off the path. In this case, into a cave. Some see the cave as being within the earth, and that the earth represents reality and truth, so within the cave would be the inside of truth, representing un-reality and untruth. And when tossed between possible realities, at the end of the play, we argued in the paper, he ended up on the wrong side.

Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉? 1644 – 28 November 1694) Wikipedia writes " .. today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku. His poetry is internationally renowned." My personal affection is for his work in haibun, a mixture of haiku and prose as in Journal of a eather-eaten Skeleton and most especially Narrow Road to a Far Province. I liked the fact that Basho was a chosen name, an art name: ( An art-name (号 gō?) is a pseudonym, or penname, used by a Japanese artist, which they sometimes change. In some cases, artists adopted different gō at different stages of their career, usually to mark significant changes in their life.) His first was Sōbō (宗房?), his second was Tōsei. and his third and final one was Basho, the name of a type of banana tree that one of his students planted outside his hut where he had chosen to live outside of the society in which he once lived.

I also like the fact that he was born into a Samurai family and in his youth worked in a kitchen. During my high school and early collage years i carried with me at all time "Way of the Warrior", the code of conduct and a way of the samurai life. During collage I was involved in slam poetry in Chicago. Later I would become a chef. Now as an artist and writter it seemed a fitting `tag'. For these reasons and more I chose to put the tag of `follower of Basho' after my name, when possible.}}

Believe it or not:: GOP seeks to contest voters from foreclosed homes

2008-09-13T03:53:00.000-07:00

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”

The article cited, in the Michigan Messenger, says a full sixty per cent of sub-prime loans in Michigan went to African American families and that thus they bear a far higher rate of foreclosures. Legal experts think the GOP hasn’t got a real case (especially in Michigan where the law allows voters to vote from their last known address) but that doesn’t take away from the breathtaking nastiness of even thinking about such a move.

J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm [said,] “I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.”

And then there’s the massive conflict of interest:

The Macomb GOP’s plans are another indication of how John McCain’s campaign stands to benefit from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in the state. McCain’s regional headquarters are housed in the office building of foreclosure specialists Trott & Trott. The firm’s founder, David A. Trott, has raised between $100,000 and $250,000 for the Republican nominee.

GOP officials elsewhere in Michigan, as well as Ohio, have said they are looking to challenge voter registration based on foreclosure lists - which points to an orchestrated attempt by the McCain campaign to steal the votes of victims of the credit crunch, especially black American victims. This while banks are offered corporate-socialist bailout after bailout and John McCain the 5 Million Dollar Man suggests that common people should miss a holiday or get an extra job to ensure they keep up their payments on a sub-prime loan.

“Welcome to today’s Republican Party - FU, you whiners!” (John McCain approved this message)

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Extra Information about Republican VP hopeful Sarah Palin

2008-08-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

* She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
* Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
* She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
* Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
* She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
* She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
* How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-10270391-i5b_hFx&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-10270391-i5b_hFx&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-10270391-i5b_hFx&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-10270391-i5b_hFx&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-10270391-i5b_hFx&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-10270391-i5b_hFx&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-10270391-i5b_hFx&t=7

7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-10270391-i5b_hFx&t=8

Sex with Picnic Table part of a Trend?

2008-04-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

The incident is the latest in a spate of bizarre sex crimes involving inanimate objects.

Sex with Picnic Table

ref http://people.monstersandcritics.com/bizarre/news/article_1397513.php/Ohio_man_arrested_had_sex_with_picnic_table

An Ohio man was charged with four counts of public indecency after he admitted to having sex with his patio picnic table.

Authorities in Huron County, Ohio say 40-year-old Art Price Junior confessed to repeatedly having sex with the table between January and March of this year.

NBC affiliate KALB in Alexandria, Louisiana report that Police in Bellevue, Ohio were tipped off after someone anonymously taped one of the incidents then gave the recording to police.( Now it comes out that the tipster reportedly provided 3 DVDs to the police, showing the table-desecration as it happened.

Admits Guilt

Price fully admitted to police that he had sex with the picnic table both inside and outside his home.

He was freed on a $20,000 bond.

Charges dropped

As the story is still being reported on the internet,(including a photo of the man) Huron County drops the Felony indecency charges against man accused of lewd behavior with picnic table. However other charges may be filed, Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler said.

Art Price, Jr., 40, was arrested March 20 after officials at a school near his home complained that he was engaging in lewd behavior with a picnic table on the deck - and submitted video evidence. He was charged with four felony counts of public indecency. But Mr. Leffler said the evidence didn't support felony charges, and his office would re-examine the case.

Some comments on the story included:

1.How do you have sex with a picnic table ?

2. I don't think this against the law in San Francisco.

3.He stuck his pee pee in the hole where the umbrella goes.
That's the only logical way. But...there is nothing on the other side.
or inside. It's a hole in a table. How can you possibly have a good time like that?

4. If he stuck his junk in the umbrella hole, maybe his dog was waiting on the other side. Otherwise it's like the previous comment, there's nothing on the other side. With a dog, he would get a lick without seeing it, then use his imagination... Aauuaaggg! This is whack!

The story in some publications linked to a story from last year where a man was arrested for having Sex with a bicycle.

Sex with a bicycles

Robert Stewart has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle.

Stewart was discovered in his room by two cleaners at the Aberley House Hostel in Ayr, south west Scotland, in October last year.

Admits Guilt

Mr Stewart admitted to sexual breach of the peace in Ayr Sheriff Court, where depute fiscal Gail Davidson described how he had been found by the hostel workers.

She said: "They knocked on the door several times and there was no reply.

"They used a master key to unlock the door and they then observed the accused wearing only a white T-shirt, naked from the waist down.

"The accused was holding the bike and moving his hips back and forth as if to simulate sex."

Both witnesses, who were extremely shocked, notified the hotel manager, who in turn alerted the police.

Mr Stewart was placed on the sex offenders’ register.

More sex with bicycles

That story links to an unnamed man in Sweeden who was arrested for sexually satisfying himself on the seats of women’s bicycles. (Ref: http://www.thelocal.se/10178/20080229/ and http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2008/03/an-overwhelming.html)

The 36-year-old man was charged for sexual molestation and damages after police found traces of his semen on the saddle of a woman's bike, according to the Östersunds-Posten newspaper.

The man was first reported in the spring of 2006 when police found sperm during an investigation involving a slashed bicycle tire.

The breakthrough in the case came after a woman reported seeing the man carry away her bicycle and then start rubbing up against it.

The man was arrested last July and taken into custody.

Sex with a bicycles

The 36-year-old man has confessed to the crimes, explaining that he felt an overwhelming calm wash over him when he approached women’s bicycles and smelled the handlebars.

These reports brought attention to another story of being discovered in the act of bizarre sex involving inanimate objects.

Sex with Vacuum cleaner (Ref:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article868092.ece)

A Polish worker was caught in the act with a vacuum cleaner.The building contractor claimed he was cleaning his underpants with Henry Hoover when he was found naked and on his knees in a hospital's staff canteen.

A stunned security guard stumbled onto the man in the middle of a compromising act with the cleaner, which has a large smiley face painted on its front and a hose protruding from its "nose".

According to the Sun, the contractor was supposed to be locking up the building site near the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital where his firm is refurbishing administration offices.

The security guard, suitably horrified, told the man to "clean himself and the hoover" before asking him to leave and informing his bosses.

His excuse

When later questioned by his employers, the man said he was vacuuming his underpants, which was "a common practice in Poland". He has since been fired.

The man's employers, HG Construction, told The Sun: "That behaviour is not acceptable, though it gave a few people a laugh".

Henry Hoover is described on a cleaning website as "famous for its looks, but under its fascia lies a powerful, reliable vacuum cleaner ready to go time and time again."

Another admits to Vacuum Sex

Comic Russell Brand, 32, has also admitted to a session with a vacuum when he was 14.

He said: “I saw Henry sat there, he was looking at me. Now whenever I hear that name, I have a guilty little smile.”

Links to Man Arrested For 'Having Sex With Lamp-Post'
Saturday, March 15 2008 (ref: http://spankwagon.net/index.php?topic=wtf)

A 32-year-old man has been arrested in Wiltshire for allegedly simulating a sex act with a lamp-post.

A police spokesman said officers were called to a road in the town of Westbury on February 16 after they received a report of a man acting indecently outside a block of flats "occupied by several young women".

When they arrived they arrested him on suspicion of outraging public decency. The man was released on bail, but following an investigation into the incident and several interviews with witnesses - including children - he was recalled for questioning. He has since been re-released pending further inquiries.

The Wiltshire police spokesman said: "We are awaiting a decision as to whether there should be a prosecution".

Which links us to two stories about Sex with the Pavement

In 1993, Karl Watkins, an electrician, was jailed for having sex with pavements in Redditch, Worcs.

Another who had sex with the Pavement was Steven Marshall. Marshall a TEENAGER who tried to have sex with the PAVEMENT in a busy street claimed yesterday it was a drunken prank — and escaped being put on the sex offenders’ list.

Motorists looked on in shock as Steven Marshall, 18, hauled down his trousers and started to simulate sex on the floor.

Marshall — drinking while taking pills for arthritis — also carried out a vile sex act in front of a horrified female taxi driver in Galashiels, Selkirkshire.

He admitted a charge of public indecency at Selkirk Sheriff Court and got 12 months probation.

Sheriff Drummond commented: “This was bizarre. Anyone who lies on the road in the daylight, is significantly intoxicated and is partially undressed has a problem.”

But Marshall will NOT be put on the sex offenders’ register after Sheriff Drummond accepted the June offence “was not primarily sexually motivated”.

This linked to a story about Sex with automobiles:(Ref: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1127072wong1.html)

Canadian man sanctioned for lewd public acts with cars

A Canadian man with a bizarre sexual fetish involving classic cars was sentenced last week for several acts of public indecency.

Sandy Wong, 45, was arrested three separate times earlier this year for masturbating on the hoods of autos, including a Mini Cooper and a $50,000 BMW sedan, which was on display at an auto show.

sexually aroused by a certain type of car

During an interview with a court-appointed psychiatrist, Wong explained that he is sexually aroused "by a certain type of car...like a '67 Camaro, '55 Chevy Bel Air." He added that he was particularly attracted to a vehicle's "roof top...it's curved like a woman's body, the sex appeal, it felt good."

car owners should not purchase such enticing vehicles

In his report to the Edmonton Provincial Court, an excerpt of which you'll find below, Dr. Curtis Woods noted that Wong "irrationally opined" that car owners should not purchase such enticing vehicles since they tempt him to "pleasure myself."

cognitive defects with a under functioning thyroid gland

According to cops, Wong mounted the Mini Cooper outside an Edmonton pizza place and proceeded to "tuck, rub and bounce his naked genitalia" on the car's hood. Woods noted that Wong has been described as mentally challenged and attributed his "cognitive defects" to being born with a under functioning thyroid gland.

Admits Guilt

As first reported by the Edmonton Journal, Wong pleaded guilty to an assortment of charges and was sentenced last Friday to two years probation and 90 days in jail (which he had previously served). Wong, whose rap sheet dates back to 1989, also acknowledged a sexual preoccupation with women's feet and motorcycles.

Sex with a Fence?

Daniel French, 24, made "sexual motions" towards metal railings in Leicester Square Gardens after being challenged by police in the early hours of Sunday morning, Westminster Magistrates' Court was told.

"He said words to the effect of: 'I'm going to have sex with that fence'," said Philip Lemoine, prosecuting.

Leicester Square is a hub for drunken revelers at weekends

"The gardens were locked and police asked French to leave. He was drunk and there were some sexual motions - drunken silliness - to the railings."

Mr Lemoine added: "French said he had a relative who was a solicitor and would teach the police a lesson."

French, of Verity Way, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, admitted being drunk and disorderly after a night out in the West End, but angrily denied making romantic overtures towards the fence.

Claims cops provoked

"That's not right at all about the fence. I was surrounded by three big police officers. I felt I was being bullied and wanted to go home. They were pushing me against the fence and trying to provoke me," he told magistrates on Monday.

"The suggestion that I was trying to do something sexual to the railings is disgusting."

French was sentenced to serve the time he had already spent in custody since his arrest - meaning he was allowed to walk free from court.

Fetishism

The term "fetishism" was coined in the late 1800s. It originates from the Portuguese word feitico, which means "obsessive fascination".

There is a degree of fetishistic arousal in most normal individuals who find particular bodily features attractive.

However, fetishistic arousal is generally considered a problem when it interferes with normal sexual or social functioning and where sexual arousal is impossible without the fetish object.

Fetishism is characterized as a disorder when there is a pathological assignment of sexual fixation, fantasies or behaviors toward an inanimate object.

Inanimate object fetishes can be categorized into two types: form fetishes and media fetishes. In a form fetish, the object and its shape are important, such as high-heeled shoes. In a media fetish, the material of the object is important, such as silk or leather.

Mostly male

Male fetishists may be unable to get erections without the presence of the objects. Nearly all fetishists are male, though some women also exhibit fetishism.

Causes

The cause of fetishistic behavior as a pattern of sexual gratification cannot be explained easily.

Some theorists believe that fetishism develops from early childhood experiences, in which an object was associated with a particularly powerful form of sexual arousal or gratification. Other learning theorists focus on later childhood and adolescence and the conditioning associated with masturbation activity. Studies show that fetishists have poorly develop social skills, are isolated in their lives and have a diminished capacity for establishing intimacy.

Profile

Behavioral learning models suggest that a child who is the victim or observer of inappropriate sexual behaviors learns to imitate and is later reinforced for the behavior. Compensation models suggest that these individuals are deprived of normal social sexual contacts and thus seek gratification through less socially acceptable means. In the far more common cases, involving males, the patterns suggest that causes stem from doubts about ones own masculinity, potency, and a fear of rejection and humiliation. By his fetishistic practices and the mastery over an inanimate object, the individual apparently safeguards himself and also compensates for some of his feelings of inadequacy.

Treatment

Almost always the treatment must be long-term if it is to be effective. Treatment approaches have included traditional psychoanalysis, hypnosis, cognitive and behavior therapy as well as pharmacotherapy. Some prescription medicines help to decrease the compulsive thinking associated with the paraphilias. This allows concentration on counseling without as strong a distraction from the paraphiliac urges.

Increasingly, the evidence suggests that combining drug therapy with cognitive behavior therapy can be effective, although research on the outcome of these therapies has been incomplete and often appear not to have been successful.

Drugs

More recently, a class of drugs called antiandrogens that drastically lower testosterone levels temporarily have been used in conjunction with these forms of treatment. The drug lowers the sex drive in males and reduces the frequency of sexually arousing mental imagery. Increasingly, the evidence suggests that combining drug therapy with cognitive behavior therapy can be effective.

The level of sex drive is not consistently related to the behavior of paraphiliacs and that high levels of circulating testosterone do not predispose a male to paraphilias. That said, hormones such as medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera) and cyproterone acetate help decrease the level of circulating testosterone thus reducing sex drive and aggression and resulting in reduction of frequency of erections, sexual fantasies and initiations of sexual behaviors including masturbation and intercourse.

Hormones are typically used in tandem with behavioral and cognitive treatments. Antidepressants such as fluoxetine (Prozac) have also successfully decreased the sex drive but have not effectively targeted sexual fantasies.

Assisted aversive conditioning

Research suggests that cognitive-behavioral models are effective in treating paraphiliacs: Aversive conditioning involves using negative stimuli to reduce or eliminate a behavior. Covert sensitization entails the patient relaxing, visualizing scenes of deviant behavior followed by a negative event such as getting his penis stuck in the zipper of his pants.

Assisted aversive conditioning is similar to covert sensitization except the negative event is made real most likely in the form of a foul odor pumped in the air by the therapist. The goal is for the patient to associate the deviant behavior with the foul odor and take measures to avoid the odor by avoiding said behavior.

Thought stopping

Thought stopping is another technique used to control fetishism. The therapist first determines the patient's other types of other attractions and fantasies. The therapist asks the patient to think about the fetish fantasy; once the fantasy is conjured, the therapist yells, "Stop!" At this point the patient immediately switches to the earlier agreed upon fantasies. This process is repeated several times in the presence of the therapist.

Sources: * National Institutes of Health* National Library of Medicine
* Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
* PsychNet-UK

For further reading (humorous)

There is a web site http://www.unclemelon.com/consumer_inanimate.html

where Uncle Melon and his staff examined 12 inanimate objects for their potential use as sexual partners. The evaluation included ease and pleasure of use, availability, orgasm efficiency and post-ejac clean-up.

Art censored at High School leads to Litigation

2008-04-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

Tomah High School Student's Artwork Censored

A Tomah High School student was punished by his teacher because he had the audacity to include an image deemed objectionable in a drawing he made as an assignment for an art class.

His drawing included a cross.

(also reported on Fox news here)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A Tomah High School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his art teacher censored his drawing because it featured a cross and a biblical reference.

The lawsuit alleges other students were allowed to draw "demonic" images and asks a judge to declare a class policy prohibiting religion in art unconstitutional.

"We hear so much today about tolerance," said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy group representing the student. "But where is the tolerance for religious beliefs? The whole purpose of art is to reflect your own personal experience. To tell a student his religious beliefs can legally be censored sends the wrong message."

...According to the lawsuit, the student's art teacher asked his class in February to draw landscapes. The student, a senior identified in the lawsuit by the initials A.P., added a cross and the words "John 3:16 A sign of love" in his drawing.

His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.

Millin showed the student a policy for the class that prohibited any violence, blood, sexual connotations or religious beliefs in artwork. The lawsuit claims Millin told the boy he had signed away his constitutional rights when he signed the policy at the beginning of the semester.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The suggestion that a public institution can ask you to sign away your constitutional rights is very questionable.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment applied to public schools, and that administrators would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any specific regulation of speech in the classroom. (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District- see below)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The boy tore the policy up in front of Millin, who kicked him out of class. Later that day, assistant principal Cale Jackson told the boy his religious expression infringed on other students' rights.

Jackson told the boy, his stepfather and his pastor at a meeting a week later that religious expression could be legally censored in class assignments. Millin stated at the meeting the cross in the drawing also infringed on other students' rights.

The boy received two detentions for tearing up the policy. Jackson referred questions about the lawsuit to Gaarder.

Sometime after that meeting, the boy's metals teacher rejected his idea to build a chain-mail cross, telling him it was religious and could offend someone, the lawsuit claims. The boy decided in March to shelve plans to make a pin with the words "pray" and "praise" on it because he was afraid he'd get a zero for a grade.

The lawsuit also alleges school officials allow other religious items and artwork to be displayed on campus.

A Buddha and Hindu figurines are on display in a social studies classroom, the lawsuit claims, adding the teacher passionately teaches Hindu principles to students.

In addition, a replica of Michaelangelo's "The Creation of Man" is displayed at the school's entrance, a picture of a six-limbed Hindu deity is in the school's hallway and a drawing of a robed sorcerer hangs on a hallway bulletin board.

Drawings of Medusa, the Grim Reaper with a scythe and a being with a horned head and protruding tongue hang in the art room and demonic masks are displayed in the metals room, the lawsuit alleges. (Side note: Medusa is the guardian of terrifying places, either the nocturnal borders of the world or the Underworld. She reappears in this role in Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, IX, 55-7) and Milton's Paradise Lost (II, 611). Guarding the doorway to the world of the dead, she prevents the living from entering.)

A.P. suffered unequal treatment because of his religion even though student expression is protected by the First Amendment, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Friday.

Comments:

A.P. was out of line when he ripped up the policy in front of art teacher Julie Millin, even if she may have taunted him by claiming he had signed away his constitutional rights. In any case, that was not the proper way for A.P. to handle the dispute.

At least from the information provided in this article, my criticism of A.P. pretty much ends there.

It sounds like Millin and assistant principal Cale Jackson weren't willing to give an inch. This notion that the cross infringed on other students' rights is absolutely ridiculous.

Why would they care about A.P.'s drawing? Are they so fragile that they can't handle viewing a landscape that includes a cross?

Of course not.

I think it's ludicrous to claim that the image of a cross in any way infringed on other students' rights.

Does anyone really think that a student's drawing of something that benign in art class would be treading on the rights of others?

That's nuts.

Art is about creativity and personal expression. While I can understand the school's prohibition of violent, bloody images, I can't understand getting bent out of shape over a cross, or a Star of David, or symbols of other religions.

If as the lawsuit claims religious items and artwork are displayed at the school, then the school's reaction to A.P.'s drawing seems far too heavy-handed and terribly inconsistent.

It appears to be very selective religious censorship. Moreover, there's a problem with a school policy that equates graphic depictions of violence with religious symbols in artwork.

With such a rigid policy on religious symbols it would be nearly impossible for students to tour an art museum.

According to Tomah High School's Course Description Booklet:

The main goal of the Art Department is to provide a variety of visual experiences for the student to relate art to his/her own experiences and culture.

If that's the main goal of the Art Department, then Millin is failing as a teacher. She's actively preventing A.P. from relating his artistic expression to his "own experiences and culture."

I wonder how Millin would have reacted if A.P. drew inspiration for his project from Piss Christ, Andres Serrano's photograph of a crucifix submerged in his own urine. (see bottom of post for more on this)

In that case, would she have defended A.P.'s right to express himself and relate his art to his own experiences and culture?

http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2008/04/tomah-high-school-students-artwork.html
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Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District,

393 U.S. 503 (1969) was a United States Supreme Court case that resulted in a decision defining the constitutional rights of students in U.S. public schools. The Tinker test is still used by courts today to determine whether a school's disciplinary actions violate students' First Amendment rights

In December 1965, Des Moines, Iowa residents John Tinker (15 years old) and Mary Beth Tinker (13 years old) and their friend Christopher Eckhardt (16 years old) decided to wear black armbands to their schools (high school for John and Christopher, junior high for Mary Beth) in protest of the Vietnam War. The school board apparently heard rumor of this and chose to pass a policy banning the wearing of armbands to school. Violating students would be suspended and allowed to return to school after agreeing to comply with the policy. Mary Beth Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt chose to violate this policy, and the next day John Tinker also did so. All were suspended from school until after January 1, 1966, when their protest had been scheduled to end.

The case

A suit was not filed until after the Iowa Civil Liberties Union approached their family, and the ICLU agreed to help the family with the lawsuit. Their parents, in turn, filed suit in U.S. District Court, which upheld the decision of the Des Moines school board. A tie vote in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit meant that the U.S. District Court's decision continued to stand, and forced the Tinkers and Eckhardts to appeal to the Supreme Court directly. The case was argued before the court on November 12, 1968. School board was not challenged.

The decision

The court's 7 to 2 decision was handed down on February 24, 1969. It held that the First Amendment applied to public schools, and that administrators would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any specific regulation of speech in the classroom. Justice Abe Fortas wrote the majority opinion, holding that the speech regulation at issue in Tinker was "based upon an urgent wish to avoid the controversy which might result from the expression, even by the silent symbol of armbands, of opposition to this Nation's part in the conflagration in Vietnam," and, finding that the actions of the Tinkers in wearing armbands did not cause disruption, held that their activity represented constitutionally protected symbolic speech.

Justices Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan II dissented.

Black, who had long believed that disruptive "symbolic speech" was not constitutionally protected, wrote "While I have always believed that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments neither the State nor the Federal Government has any authority to regulate or censor the content of speech, I have never believed that any person has a right to give speeches or engage in demonstrations where he pleases and when he pleases." Black argued that the Tinkers' behavior was indeed disruptive and declared, "I repeat that if the time has come when pupils of state-supported schools, kindergartens, grammar schools, or high schools, can defy and flout orders of school officials to keep their minds on their own schoolwork, it is the beginning of a new revolutionary era of permissiveness in this country fostered by the judiciary."

Harlan dissented on the grounds that he "[found] nothing in this record which impugns the good faith of respondents in promulgating the armband regulation."

Subsequent jurisprudence

Tinker remains a viable and frequently-cited Court precedent, though subsequent Court decisions have determined limitations on the scope of student free speech rights. In Bethel School District v. Fraser, a 1986 case, the Supreme Court held that a high school student's sexual innuendo–laden speech during a student assembly was not constitutionally protected. Fraser qualified Tinker in making an exception for "indecent" speech. Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, where the court ruled that schools have the right to regulate, for legitimate educational reasons, the content of non-forum, school-sponsored newspapers, also limits Tinker's application. The Court in Hazelwood clarified that both Fraser and Hazelwood were decided under the doctrine of Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators Association. Such a distinction keeps undisturbed the Material Disruption doctrine of Tinker, while deciding certain student free speech cases under the Nonpublic kkkkkkForum doctrine of Perry. In Morse v. Frederick, the Court held that schools may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school-sponsored event, even those events occurring off school grounds, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use

from Wikepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_v._Des_Moines_Independent_Community_School_District.

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For some reason the `tag' John 3:16, brings to my mind a person once known as the `Rainbow man."

Millions of Americans have seen Rollen Frederick Stewart, a.k.a. "Rainbow Man", who achieved notoriety during the late 70's by appearing in the crowd at thousands of televised sporting events wearing his trademark rainbow-colored afro wig. Later -- after he became a born-again Christian - - he added a sign reading "John 3:16". Over the years, grabbing the attention of the media became an obsession for Stewart. He abandoned his home and marriage to roam the country living out of his car, studying TV Guide each week in a never-ending quest to stay televised...with tragic consequences. (This, above, from Amazon description of a documentary about him)

Rollen Frederick Stewart's problems started during his childhood in Spokane, Washington. His parents were alcoholics. His father died when Rollen was seven. His mother was killed in a house fire when he was 15. That same year his sister was strangled by her boyfriend. A shy kid, Rollen got into drag racing in high school, married his first love, and opened a speed shop. But his wife soon left him. Crushed, he sold the shop and moved to a mountain ranch where he became a marijuana farmer, tried to grow the world's longest mustache, and watched a lot of TV.

In 1976, looking for a way to make his mark, Rollen conceived the idea of becoming famous by constantly popping up in the background of televised sporting events. Wearing a multicolored Afro wig (hence the nickname "Rainbow Man"), he'd carry a battery-powered TV to keep track of the cameras, wait for his moment, then jump into the frame, grinning and giving the thumbs-up. Rollen figured he'd be able to parlay his underground (OK, background) celebrity into a few lucrative TV gigs and retire rich. But except for one Budweiser commercial, it didn't happen.

Feeling depressed after the 1980 Super Bowl, he began watching a preacher on the TV in his hotel room and found Jesus. He began showing up at TV events wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "Jesus Saves"-type slogans and various Bible citations, most frequently John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," etc.). Later accompanied by his wife, a fellow Christian he married in the mid-80s, he spent all his time traveling to sports events around the country, lived in his car, and subsisted on savings and donations. He guesses he was seen at more than a thousand events all told.

This brings us to the late 80s. By now Rollen had gotten his 15 minutes of fame and was the target of increasing harassment by TV and stadium officials. His wife left him, saying he had choked her because she held up a sign in the wrong location. His car was totaled by a drunk driver, his money ran out, and he wound up homeless in LA. Increasingly convinced that the end was near, Rollen decided to create a radically different media character. He set off a string of bombs in a church, a Christian bookstore, a newspaper office, and several other locations. Meanwhile he sent out apocalyptic letters that included a hit list of preachers, signing the letters "the Antichrist." Rollen says he wanted to call attention to the Christian message, and while this may seem like a sick way to go about it, it wasn't much weirder than waving signs in the end zone at football games. In any case, no one was hurt in the bombings, which mostly involved stink bombs.

On September 22, 1992, believing the Rapture was only six days away and having prepared himself by watching TV for 18 hours a day, Stewart began his last "presentation." Posing as a contractor, he picked up two day laborers in downtown LA, then drove to an airport hotel. Taking the men up to a room, he unexpectedly walked in on a chambermaid. In the confusion that followed he drew a gun, the two men escaped, and the maid locked herself in the bathroom. The police surrounded the joint, and Rollen demanded a three-hour press conference, hoping to make his last national splash. He didn't get it. After a nine-hour siege the cops threw in a concussion grenade, kicked down the door, and dragged him away.

About to be given three life sentences for kidnapping, Rollen threw a tantrum in the courtroom and now blames everything on a society that's "bigoted toward Jesus Christ." A cop who negotiated with him by phone during the hotel standoff had a better take on it: "With all due respect, maybe you look at a little bit too much TV." For info on the Rainbow Man documentary, write Sam Green, 2437 Peralta St., suite C, Oakland, CA 9460
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a971107.html
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Andres Serrano (born August 15, 1950) is an American photographer who has become most notorious through his photos of corpses, as well as his controversial work "Piss Christ", a red-tinged photograph of a crucifix submerged in a glass container of what was purported to be the artist's own urine.

In Melbourne at the time of the controversy Serrano said:

"I started that work as an attempt to reduce and simplify a lot of the ideas and images that I had been doing up until that time. I didn't do it to be provocative, I did it because damn, the colours would look good, you know. [clapping and cheering] I mean, sometimes I just feel like what I do has the simplest answers, but they're not good enough. People want more of a story and I try to give them a story, but sometimes I have to say: look, you're reading too much into this."
(http://www.artsandopinion.com/2004_v3_n4/pisschrist-2.htm)

IOWA CAUCUS results and Past winners

2008-01-04T07:32:00.000-08:00

Obama and Huckabee win.

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee won their respective Iowa Caucuses last night with margins that are bad news for Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards but possibly good news for John McCain.

In the final results, Mr. Obama was favored by 38% of Iowans who turned out at Democratic caucuses around the state, followed by Mr. Edwards, with 30%, and Ms. Clinton, 29%. Of the second-tier Democratic candidates, only Bill Richardson garnered as much as 2%, and Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd bowed out of the race without immediately endorsing any of their rivals. Among Republicans, with 96% of precincts reporting, Mr. Huckabee won 34%, Mr. Romney 25%, Fred Thompson 13% and Mr. McCain 13%. Ron Paul won 10%, and Rudy Giuliani, who hadn't actively campaigned in Iowa, won 3%

he Iowa caucus is an electoral event in which residents of the U.S. state of Iowa elect delegates to the county convention to which their precinct belongs in a caucus. There are 99 counties in Iowa and thus 99 conventions. These county conventions then select delegates for both Iowa's Congressional District Convention and the State Convention, which eventually choose the delegates for the presidential nominating conventions (the national conventions).

The Iowa caucus is noteworthy for the amount of media attention it receives during U.S. presidential election years: Since 1972, the Iowa caucus has been the first major electoral event of the nominating process for President of the United States. Although only about one percent of the nation's delegates are chosen by the Iowa state convention, the initial caucus has served as an early indication of which candidates for President might win the nomination of their political party at that party's national convention.

The 2008 Iowa caucus took place January 3.

IOWA CAUCUS Past winners

Democrats

* January 3, 2008 - Barack Obama (38%), John Edwards (30%), Hillary Clinton (29%), Bill Richardson (2%), Joe Biden (1%), Chris Dodd 0%, and Dennis Kucinich 0%
* January 19, 2004 - John Kerry (38%), John Edwards (32%), Howard Dean (18%), Dick Gephardt (11%), and Dennis Kucinich (1%)
* January 24, 2000 - Al Gore (63%) and Bill Bradley (37%)
* February 12, 1996 - Bill Clinton (unopposed)
* February 10, 1992 - Tom Harkin (76%), "Uncommitted" (12%), Paul Tsongas (4%), Bill Clinton (3%), Bob Kerrey (2%), and Jerry Brown (2%)
* February 8, 1988 - Dick Gephardt (31%), Paul Simon (27%), Michael Dukakis (22%), and Bruce Babbitt (6%)
* February 20, 1984 - Walter Mondale (49%), Gary Hart (17%), George McGovern (10%), Alan Cranston (7%), John Glenn (4%), Reubin Askew (3%), and Jesse Jackson (2%)
* January 21, 1980 - Jimmy Carter (59%) and Ted Kennedy (31%)
* January 19, 1976 - "Uncommitted" (37%), Jimmy Carter (28%) Birch Bayh (13%), Fred R. Harris (10%), Morris Udall (6%), Sargent Shriver (3%), and Henry M. Jackson (1%)
* January 24, 1972 - "Uncommitted" (36%), Edmund Muskie (36%), George McGovern (23%), Hubert Humphrey (2%), Eugene McCarthy (1%), Shirley Chisholm (1%), and Henry M. Jackson (1%)[9]

Republicans

* 2008- Mike Huckabee (34%), Mitt Romney (25%), Fred Thompson (13%), John McCain (13%), Ron Paul (10%), Rudy Giuliani (4%), and Duncan Hunter (1%) *95% of precincts reporting [1]
* 2004- George W. Bush (unopposed)
* 2000- George W. Bush (41%), Steve Forbes (30%), Alan Keyes (14%), Gary Bauer (9%), John McCain (5%), and Orrin Hatch (1%)
* 1996- Bob Dole (26%), Pat Buchanan (23%), Lamar Alexander (18%), Steve Forbes (10%), Phil Gramm (9%), Alan Keyes (7%), Richard Lugar (4%), and Morry Taylor (1%)
* 1992- George H. W. Bush (unopposed)
* 1988- Bob Dole (37%), Pat Robertson (25%), George H. W. Bush (19%), Jack Kemp (11%), and Pete DuPont (7%)
* 1984- Ronald Reagan (unopposed)
* 1980- George H. W. Bush (32%), Ronald Reagan (30%), Howard Baker (15%), John Connally (9%), Phil Crane (7%), John B. Anderson (4%), and Bob Dole (2%)
* 1976- Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan

Controversy

There is a debate over the effectiveness and usefulness of caucuses in Iowa. One criticism is that the caucuses, especially the Democratic caucus, are a step backwards from the right to a secret ballot. Democratic caucus participants (though not Republicans, whose caucuses vote by secret ballot) must publicly state their opinion and vote, leading to natural problems such as peer pressure from fellow neighbors and embarrassment over who his/her real pick might be. Another criticism involves the sheer amount of participants' time these events consume. The Iowa caucus lasts two hours, preventing people who must work, who are sick, or must take care of their children from casting their vote. Absentee voting is also barred, so soldiers who come from Iowa, but must serve in the military lose their vote. The final criticism is the complexity of the rules in terms of how one's vote counts, as it is not a simple popular vote. Each precinct's vote may be weighed differently due to its past voting record. Ties can be solved by picking a name out of a hat or a simple coin toss, leading to anger over the true democratic nature of these caucuses. [2] Additionally, the representation of the caucus has been questioned due to traditionally low turnout.[3] Others question the permanent feature of having caucuses in certain states, while perpetually ignoring the rest of the country.

Reality, what matters and the Matrix

2008-01-03T20:55:00.000-08:00

This is an essay by Iakovos Vasiliou: Associate Professor of Philosophy, City University of New York, Graduate Center, Brooklyn College, who is one of the speakers in the film Return to the Source - Philosophy and the Matrix (Film shown here on my blog Lectures I have learned from.

The Matrix is, at its core, a film with a moral plot. We, the viewers, like the heroes, are in on a secret: The reality that forms the lives of millions of human beings is not real. The world that seems real to most people is in fact a computer-generated simulation, but almost no one knows it. In reality human beings are floating in liquid in machine pods, with tubes connected to them in a grotesque post-apocalyptic world where the sun is blotted out. To the average person, of course, it seems to be the ordinary world of 1999. Although some details of the history remain untold, it is an essential part of The Matrix that we are provided with a specific account of how all of this happened. There was a battle between human beings and machines whose cognitive capacity had surpassed their own. In a desperate attempt to win, human beings blocked out the sun's light in order to deprive the machines of their power source. Despite this extreme tactic, the humans lost, were enslaved, and are now farmed to supply energy sources for the machines. The machines induce the appearance of ordinary 1999 life in the human beings with a computer generated "virtual community" for the purpose of keeping them docile and asleep so that they and their offspring can be used like living batteries. While humans seem to walk around in an ordinary life, their minds are radically deceived and their bodies are exploited. The heroes are thus depicted as fighting a noble battle for the liberation of the human species.1

I have so far drawn out two aspects of the "moral background" of the film: enslavement and deception. We should also note the perspective we have on the Matrix as viewers of The Matrix. We have what is sometimes called a "God's eye" perspective: we can see both the Matrix reality and "real" reality. We are let in on the truth about the situation, and we are not supposed to question, for example, whether the battle between Morpheus and his friends and the Agents is itself being conducted in another "meta-matrix", or whether the view of the human pods we see might only be some sort of dream image or illusion. As viewers of the Matrix, we are in on the truth and we can see for ourselves that human beings are both enslaved and deceived. Given the outlined history, we are meant to understand the situation of the humans as a terrible and unfair one.

1. How Does the Matrix Differ from Reality?

Excluding, for the moment, the heroes – Morpheus, Trinity, eventually Neo, and the rest of their crew – and the machines, no one in the Matrix shares our God's eye perspective. In everyday life as well, as far as we know, reality is simply there. When we watch the film, we identify with the heroes in part because we are repulsed by the idea that human beings are enslaved and deceived.2 It is easy to find these two elements at work in The Matrix in part because we think of enslavement and deception as things that are done to some people by others; one group of people enslaves another, or one person or group deceives others. In the film it is the machines who are the agents of slavery and deception and almost all of the humans are victims. But how does the Matrix, and the situation of the ordinary people within it differ from reality and the people within it (i.e., us)?

Let's begin with enslavement. We are forced to do many things in ordinary reality: we must eat, drink, sleep, on penalty of death. Also, no matter what we do, we shall eventually, within a fairly predictable time frame, die; we cannot stay alive forever, or even for a couple of hundred years. We can't travel back and forth in time; can't fly to other planets by flapping our arms. The list could go on and on, and I have simply offered limits we are subject to in virtue of the laws of nature. In other words, compared with some easily imaginable possibilities, we are severely constrained, in a type of bondage, though ordinarily most of us don't think of it as such. Writers, artists, philosophers, and theologians over the centuries have of course been keenly aware of these limitations, examined many forms of human bondage, and offered various types of suggestions as to how to free ourselves. Human beings have longed to "break out" of this reality, to transcend the imposed limitations on their physical being. Moreover, we should be clear that these limitations are imposed on us. We simply find ourselves in this condition, with these rules: we all die within approximately 100 years. It has nothing to do with our voluntary choice, our wishes, or our judgements about what ought to be the case.

Who has done this to us? Answering this question is important to some degree because we typically use the term "enslavement" to refer to something done by one agent to some others. In the case of the constraints I outlined above it may be harder, initially, to find anyone on whom to pin the blame. But of course human beings have offered answers to this question: one is God; another, the laws of nature. Religious thinkers have struggled with questions about why we should not be angry at God for constraining us in the ways he does: why do people die, why can't we go back in time, travel to other planets, etc.? Others conclude that God is not constraining us, but simply the laws of nature. At least at first this thought might be a bit more palatable insofar as we think of the laws of nature as impersonal features of reality; no one made them that way (if God did, then we get angry at him again). They do not mean to constrain us and there is no mind or intelligent force actively doing anything to us.3 Either way, however, our actual situation is one of involuntary constraint, much akin to the humans' situation in the Matrix, except that it is not at the hands of machines against whom we lost a war, but at the hands of God or "nature".

The second aspect of the moral background of The Matrix is deception. Human beings are being actively deceived by the Matrix into believing things about reality that are not true. Deception offends many people, except perhaps for committed subjectivists, since many people believe that they want to know, or at least have the right to know, the truth, even if it is terrible. For one person, or a group of people, purposefully to keep others in the dark about some truth is to diminish the respect and authority of those people; it is to act patronizingly and paternalistically. In such situations, a few people decide which truths others can handle, and which they can't. Although this happens routinely – consider the relationship between those who govern and those who are governed – many people bristle at this idea and want the scope of such filtering of the truth to be severely limited.

We might think, however, not about the deception of some people by others (just as we did not look at the enslavement of some people by others), but the deception of humanity in general. In Homer's Iliad and Odyssey the gods are depicted throughout as capriciously deceiving human beings, compelling them knowingly and unknowingly to do specific things, and generally interfering quite frequently in human affairs. The humans in Homer certainly seem to be caught in a matrix of sorts, with gods and goddesses operating on a plane of reality that is not accessible to them (unless the gods want it to be) but that nevertheless often affects matters in the humans' ordinary reality. As human beings began to understand that the Earth rotated around the Sun, and not vice versa, Descartes certainly worried about the extent to which God had had a hand in deceiving all of humanity for tens of thousands of years up to that point. He devotes a significant portion of the Meditations4 to worrying about how an all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful God could have allowed (and whether indeed he was complicit in) people's radical deception about the relative motions of the planet they live on, and other truths that turn out to be radically different from how things seem to be.

So in our ordinary situation, without any cruel machines doing anything to us, we realize that there are nevertheless many things we cannot do, and we know that we humans have been radically deceived by natural phenomena (or by the gods, or by God) about things in the past, and that it only stands to reason that we may be radically mistaken about our explanations of things now. I say people's "radical deception", despite the fact that, as with being enslaved, being deceived also seems to require an agent – someone to do the deceiving. We should note, however, that we talk of being deceived or fooled by mirrors, or by the light, or by angles. Natural phenomena are often described as contributing to our misunderstanding of them for a reason. Even though human beings were mistaken for millennia about the fact that the Earth moves relative to the Sun, and not the other way round, it is hard to describe our error as simply having "made a mistake", as though humanity forgot to carry the two in some addition calculation. Surely part of the reason that it took humans so long to understand the motions of the Earth is that the appearances themselves are deceptive: it certainly looks as though the Sun is moving across the sky.5 We can see the very development of philosophy, art, religion, science, and technology as all stemming from a drive to "free humanity" from such deception and enslavement, as part of a struggle to achieve the position of a Morpheus or a Neo.6 We develop planes to break the bonds of gravity that keep us physically on the surface of the Earth; we develop complex experiments and gadgets designed to discover the truth about things independently of how they may appear.

My first point, then, is that if we could get hold of the being responsible for setting up the reality we're actually in, then we could perhaps "free" ourselves, finally knowing the full truth about things, and being able to manipulate reality. If God is responsible, we would need to plead with him successfully, or to fight him and win; if it's the mathematical formulae (computer programs?) underlying "the laws of nature," we would need to learn how to write and rewrite them. We would then all be Neos.7 We might note too, at this big-picture level, a difference between the Homeric gods and the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic God. In Homer's world the gods were frequently literally in battle with humans who were greatly outmatched, although not entirely impotent – much like the humans that, before Neo, fought with the "Agents". With the God of the major contemporary religions, he is, by definition, all-good. From this perspective, we should not fight God, for he set things up the way he did for a wise and benevolent reason; rather, we need to learn to accept the position he has put us in (this "mortal coil", our reality, our matrix) and, then, if we act certain ways, or do certain things, he will free us from this reality after we "die" (i.e. not go out of existence, but end our stay in this reality) and show us the truth in heaven.

I hope this necessarily brief discussion enables us to see the importance of both the God's eye perspective and the moral background of the film for effecting a difference between the situation depicted in The Matrix and our ordinary condition. As viewers of the film we are in a special position: we can see both inside and outside of the Matrix. We can see that it is not a benevolent God who has set up this 1999 reality, replete with constraints and deceptive appearances, pain and toil, for some wonderful, miraculous purpose. Nor is the reality of most people in the Matrix the result of impersonal laws of nature. Instead, machines who use human beings as batteries are responsible for what counts as reality for most people. The Matrix then supplies us the viewers with a definitive answer about who is responsible for what most human beings take to be reality.8

2. A Benevolently Generated Matrix

Now The Matrix could be significantly altered, without changing anything in the Matrix. Imagine that the real world is a post-apocalyptic hell, just as in the film, but, unlike in the film, suppose that the cause of the world's being in such a state is not some battle with machines that wanted to enslave us, but the emission of so many greenhouse gases with our three-lane-wide SUVs that we completely obliterated the ozone layer and thereby rendered the planet uninhabitable by us or by the plants and animals that we rely on for our survival. Suppose further that sometime in the future, in order to save the human race, scientists set up an enormous self-sustaining machine, just as in the film (minus the scary "Sentinels"), designed to keep the human species alive and reproducing for the 100,000 years it will take for whatever weeds are left on the planet to fix our atmosphere and make the planet once again habitable in a normal way. The machine operates simply on solar power (since, on this scenario, the sun is now stronger than ever, frying almost everything else on the planet), so that human beings are not needed as "batteries".9 While humans are stuck in this state, the scientists create the Matrix for them to "live" their lives in instead of being conscious of floating in a vat for the length of their life, which would clearly be a most horrific torture. Once the power of the sun is diminished to a habitable degree (because of the repaired atmosphere) the machine would "wake" us humans, and we could go back to living on the planet.

The ordinary person in this scenario is in the same condition as an ordinary person in the film, except that instead of the Matrix being the diabolical result of evil machines who exploit the human race, it is the result of benevolent human beings trying to keep the human race alive in as good condition as possible under the terrible circumstances. Of course it would seem no different to the person in the Matrix. We, the viewers, however, would have quite a different response to The Matrix. There would be no enemy to fight, no injustice to rectify (the pushers of SUVs being long dead). If there were a Morpheus in this situation, how would we think of him? If Morpheus and his friends had left the Matrix, and figured out that they could, with extreme difficulty, survive in the devastated world (eating disgusting porridge, etc.), should they go about "freeing" everyone, even if it would take another 10,000 years for the Earth to return to its present state of habitability?

As Chris Grau discusses in his introductory essay (section "C"), the Matrix is importantly different from Robert Nozick's "experience machine".10 Grau points out that we retain free will in the Matrix. The "world" in the Matrix will respond to our free choices, just as the ordinary world does now. Another difference that I think is quite significant is that in the Matrix, unlike in the experience machine, I am really interacting with other human minds. There is a community of human beings. With the experience machine, it is all about my experience, which is the private content of my own consciousness. It is imaginable that I am alone in the universe, floating in a vat set up by a god who has since committed suicide. In sceptical problems that stem from the Evil Genius hypothesis in Descartes' first Meditation, there is a threat of solipsism and the dread of feeling that one might be alone in the universe.11 In the Matrix, however, when two people meet there are really two consciousnesses there that are each experiencing "the same things" from their respective positions. Everyone is hooked up to one and the same Matrix; there are not unique matrices generated for each individual. Of course people aren't really shaking hands – their hands are in vats – but it seems to each of their consciousnesses, not just to one consciousness, that they are shaking hands. This feature of the Matrix is also a respect in which life in the Matrix is critically unlike a dream, despite the fact that the humans are described as "dreaming".12 Regardless of the amount of conscious control one has or lacks in a dream, a dream is private to one's own consciousness. It is part of the grammar of "dream", as Wittgenstein might say, that only I can have my dream.13

Now this seems to me to be of enormous significance in thinking about the Matrix. If two people fall in love in the Matrix, in what sense would their love not be real? It would not be as if a person merely dreamt that he had fallen in love with someone; for in a dream that person is not really there at all, just like in Nozick's experience machine. It is true that in the Matrix they would not really be giving each other flowers, or really holding hands. They would, however, both be experiencing the same things together. They would know each other as persons, who display their characters in how they react to all of the – in one sense – "unreal" situations of the Matrix. Moreover, people in the Matrix really suffer and experience pain, and when they die in the Matrix, they die in the "real world" too. The fact that one and the same Matrix is inhabited by millions of minds means that millions of people are really interacting, even if the physical universe in which they are interacting is radically different from how it appears.

Consider as well writing a novel, a poem, or a philosophy paper. Or consider painting or dancing, making music or a movie. Would any of these activities be affected by the fact that what I took to be material objects were objects that were computer generated? And if not, in the benevolently generated Matrix I hypothesized we would seem clearly better off as a species, developing artistically, intellectually, loving each other within the Matrix rather than fighting for survival and barely succeeding outside of it. If my aim in life was to write some extraordinary philosophy or a ground-breaking novel, surely I could do that far better within the Matrix than outside of it where a person must battle simply for his or her survival. After all, where does my novel or my philosophy paper exist for much of its genesis and storage? In a computer of course. If I wrote a novel in the Matrix, and you read it, and so did 10,000 other minds, and I then win the Pulitzer Prize for it, in what sense would it be unreal or even diminished in value? This differs again from the experience machine. In the experience machine, I might have programmed it so that it would seem to me that I had written a brilliant novel and that people had appreciated it. In fact, however, no one would have read my novel and I would have simply programmed myself with memories of having written it, although I never really did. In the Matrix, however, I am not given false memories, and I do really interact with other minds. Physics as we know it would be false (not of course the physics of the Matrix, which scientists would study and which would progress as does ordinary science; see below). But art and human relationships would not be affected. I am trying to show that while we are attached to reality, we are not attached to the physical per se, where that refers to what we think of as the underlying causes of the smells, tastes, feels, sights, and sounds around us: they could be molecules, they could be computer chips, they could be the whims of Homeric gods. Indeed, very few human beings have much understanding of contemporary physics and what it maintains things "really" are.14 Nozick's experience machine may have shown us that we have an attachment to the real, an attachment to the truth that we are really doing things, really accomplishing things, and not just seeming to, but we should not for that reason think we are necessarily attached to a certain picture of the physical or metaphysical constitution of things.

I would like return to the question of the sense in which the reality of the Matrix is different from the real world. I think that there is an important difference between being deceived about the reality of an object and being deceived about the real underlying physical or metaphysical cause of something. Avoiding deception and error about the latter is the concern of physics (and metaphysics). That we might be wrong, indeed radically wrong, about the physics/biology of an elephant is quite different from hallucinating that there is an elephant in front of you, or dreaming of an elephant, or experiencing an elephant in Nozick's machine. In the latter three cases, one is deceived about the reality of an object, about whether there is an elephant there at all. I am not saying that the actual physics or metaphysics of a thing will not determine whether it is there; if something is really the underlying cause of something else, of course it must determine its existence. I do claim, however, that given the reality of a thing, knowing its true physical/metaphysical explanation neither augments nor diminishes its value or its reality.15 To discover that, contrary to what you had believed, elephants evolved from single-celled sea creatures and are mostly water, and that water consists of molecules, and that molecules consist of atoms, and that there is a certain interrelationship between matter and energy – that is all part of science's attempt to understand the truth about physical reality. None of these conclusions impugns the elephant's reality or the value it has in the world. What substances at bottom are is a question for science or, perhaps, metaphysics. The moral background of the film is quite relevant here. If the fact that we are in the Matrix is simply a matter of our being incorrect about or ignorant of what the real physics of things is, then the Matrix is quite close to our ordinary situation, although our position as viewers of The Matrix is not like that at all. Since we have a "God's eye" perspective, we are able to know what is really the cause of things and what is not.

In the benevolent Matrix that I envisaged, however, you could learn Matrix-physics and Matrix-history just as we now learn ordinary physics and ordinary history. At a certain age in school you might be taught that your body is really floating in a vat, and then perhaps you could put on goggles and see the world outside of the Matrix, like looking at an x-ray or at your blood under a microscope. Brought up with such a physics and biology, it would seem natural – about as exciting (and unexciting) as being told that your solid unmoving table is made of incredibly small incredibly fast moving parts, or that all of your physical characteristics are determined by a certain code in your DNA, or where babies come from – despite the fact that such truths are hardly obvious, and conflict radically with the way things appear. Just consider any of the conclusions of contemporary physics or quantum mechanics. History too might continue as normal, divided into BM (before Matrix) and AM (after Matrix) dates. After all in the "real" world, outside of the Matrix, nothing would be happening of interest except to scientists. It would be like the contemporary study of bottom of the ocean, or of the moon. Aside from its causal influence on the physical state of the planet, what goes on down there or up there has no part to play in human history. All of human history would occur within the Matrix.

By hypothesizing a benevolent rather than a malevolent cause of the Matrix, we can see how much of what I am calling the "moral background" of The Matrix influences what we think of it. Deprived of that moral background, a benevolently generated Matrix can show us that our attachment is not to the physical constitution and cause of things, but also not simply to experience. Our attachment is to things that have value. Let me explain.

Take the example, discussed in the film, of the pleasure of eating. Imagine that science develops a pill which supplies the perfect amount of nutrition for a human being each day. Humans no longer need to eat at all in the ordinary way. In fact they are, as far as their health is concerned, far worse off if they try to rely on their taste to supply them with the appropriate nutrition (see current statistics on fast food consumption and obesity). They can simply take the pill and get nutrition far superior to what they would if left to their own taste to determine what and how much to eat. Let's suppose too that science has found a way to simulate food with a computer, so that they have created a "food-matrix". My real nutrition would come from the pill, but I could still go out for a "simulated" steak and it would seem just as though I were really eating a steak, including the sensation of getting full, although in fact I would be eating nothing and getting no nutritional harm or benefit from the experience at all. It is hard to imagine such a perfect pill and such perfect computer-simulated food; such a pill is no simple vitamin, and a tofu-burger is no simulated steak. But if we suppose that there are such things, I think human beings would readily give up eating real steak. What those who value eating steak value is not the eating of real cow flesh (in fact, putting it that way inclines one to become a vegetarian), but the experience of eating. If eating the computer steak really were, as we are assuming, absolutely indistinguishable from eating a real steak, no one would care whether they were eating a "real" steak – that is, one that was obtained from a slaughtered cow.

At this level the discussion is again about what the underlying causes of phenomenal qualities are: whether the causes of the taste, smell, etc. of the steak are cow molecules or computer chips or the hand of God. This is, as it were, a matter of science or metaphysics – not of concern to the consumer as a consumer. Now for all physical objects, I contend, it is of no value to us if their underlying constitution is ordinary atoms, or computer generated simulation. My favorite pen still writes the same way, my favorite shirt still feels the same way. If these things are not "real" in the sense that their underlying constitution is radically other than I had believed, that makes no difference to the value that these things have in our lives. It does, of course, make a difference to the truth of the physics or metaphysics I learn. But none of this implies that I was being deceived about the reality of the object – that the object I valued was or is not there in the sense that matters to the non-scientist.16 In a scene discussed by Grau, Cypher claims his knowledge that the steak is "unreal" – that is, computer generated – does not diminish his enjoyment. Cypher then looks forward to the point when he expects his memory to be wiped clean, and when he will no longer remember that the Matrix is the Matrix. But it seems to me to be unclear why Cypher needs to forget anything about his steak being unreal in order to fully enjoy it – as he himself seems to understand – nor does he need to forget that he is in the Matrix in order to make his life pleasant and satisfying within it. What he desperately needs to forget in order to have a comfortable and satisfying life is the memory of his immoral and cowardly betrayal of his friends and of the rest of those outside of the Matrix who are engaged in the fight for human liberation. But this is an issue, once again, not arising from the Matrix itself, but from the "moral background" of the film.

Having a radically different underlying constitution is very different from saying that things are not real, in the sense of being a mere illusion, as in a dream or a hallucination. Consider again the case of our human interactions. If a person I am friends with is not, after all, a person, then I think there is a clear sense in which the friendship is not real, just as in Nozick's experience machine or in a dream that I was friends with Tom Waits. I would then seem to have a relationship to someone, but in reality not have one. What matters is whether I am really interacting with another free mind. I certainly won't try to say what it is to have a mind, or what it is for that mind to be "free", but whatever it is, I am claiming that its value is not importantly tied to any theory in physics or metaphysics. Whatever the cause and explanation is of the existence of a free mind, it is the having of one and the ability to interact with other ones that matters. If the underlying constitution of Tom Waits is computer chips, instead of blood and guts, what difference does that make? This is not a question about his reality – whether he is really there or not –, it is a question about his physical or metaphysical constitution. If he has a mind, whatever that is, and he has free will, whatever that is, what do I care what physical parts he is – or is not – made of?17 Indeed, I earnestly hope in the actual world never to see any of those parts or have direct contact with them at all.

3. The Matrix on the Matrix

I shall conclude by claiming that The Matrix itself provides evidence that, barring enslavement and deception, we would prefer life within the Matrix. I have so far considered how we would feel about the reality of a benevolently generated Matrix. But in The Matrix, the cause of the Matrix is explicitly not benevolent. Human beings are enslaved and exploited by scary-looking machines. The Matrix is a story about a few human beings fighting to save the rest of humanity. That is how the movie generates excitement, the thrill for the viewer as he or she hopes that the heroes can defeat the enemy. Of course, the film expects one to root for the humans. But I think there is some duplicity at work in the way The Matrix exploits the Matrix. Neo is the savior of humanity, and a large amount of the pleasure that the viewer gets from the film consists of watching Neo and his friends learn to manipulate the Matrix. Key to Neo's eventual success is his training. In his training he learns that the Matrix, as a computer-generated group dream, can be manipulated by a human being. The idea, I guess, is that if one could bring oneself to believe deeply enough that, despite appearances, things are not real, then one could manipulate the reality of the Matrix. The thrill that Neo feels, and that we feel watching him, is that as he gains this control he is able to do things that are, apparently, superhuman – move faster than bullets, hang onto helicopters, fly, etc. We ought to note here, though, that Neo's greatness, his being the One, is only the case because the Matrix exists. Outside of the Matrix, Neo is just a smart computer geek. He can't really fly, or really dodge bullets (nor, apparently, does he dress in full-length black leather coats, though I guess he could). We, as viewers, would not get any pleasure from The Matrix if it were not for the Matrix. If there were no Matrix, everyone would be eating terrible porridge in a sunless world and simply fighting for survival, which would make for a bad world and a bad movie. The premise of the movie is that there is a moral duty to destroy the Matrix, and "free" the humans. But all of the satisfaction that the viewer gets, and that the characters get in terms of their own sense of purpose and of being special, is derived from the Matrix. It's not just Cypher's steak that is owed to the Matrix, it is Morpheus's breaking the handcuffs, Trinity's gravity-defying leaps, and Neo's bullet dodging. If my argument is right, then, the irony of The Matrix is that the heroes spend all of their time liberating human beings from the Matrix although afterwards they would have good reason to go back in, assuming the conditions on Earth are still so terrible. This is because there's nothing wrong with the Matrix per se; indeed, I've argued that our reality might just as well be the Matrix. What we want, now as always, one way or another, is to have control over it ourselves. What we would do with such power is a question, I suppose, for psychologists; but, looking at what people have done so far, I at any rate hope we remain enslaved and deceived by something for a long time to come.18

Iakovos Vasiliou

Footnotes

1. Another topic raised by the film, which I will not discuss beyond this note, would be to assess the moral background of the plot. Are the humans clearly in the right? After all, it was they who blotted out the sun in an attempt to exterminate the machines. Particularly in light of the machines' claim that they are simply the next evolutionary step, we ought to think about whether there is some objectionable "speciesism" at work in the humans' assessment of the situation. For my purposes I'll assume the humans are morally justified in the fight for liberation, which, I might add, is certainly a defensible position. For even if machines are the next evolutionary step, and some human beings are guilty of having acted wrongly towards them, that would hardly justify the involuntary enslavement of the entire human race in perpetuity. Moreover, the existence of a "more advanced" species than our own (however that is to be determined) surely should not deprive us of our human rights.

2. And in part because we too would like to control reality; see below.

3. The Stoics thought of the natural world, of the universe as a whole, as itself a rational creature with an overall goal or purpose.

4. Although this theme is present throughout, see especially Meditations I and IV.

5. The idea that reality is tricky and tries to hide its nature from us is very old, even without, as in Homer's case, any gods acting as agents of deception. For example, the Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus (c.540-c.480 BC) writes (fr. 53) "an unapparent connection is stronger than an apparent one" and (fr. 123) "nature/the real constitution [of things] (phusis) loves to hide itself."

6. Morpheus and company are an interesting amalgam of technological sophistication and religious symbolism.

7. Or, more precisely, those of us who accomplished this.

8. Of course for Morpheus and his crew, and for the machines if they were sufficiently reflective, the same questions could be raised about what makes the reality outside of the Matrix the way it is – who is responsible for that? And then we can imagine them responding in the sorts of ways I have described, pinning the blame on God, the laws of nature, etc.

9. This detail is meant simply to avoid the possibility of unease over the issue of whether human beings are being used as batteries, voluntarily or not.

10. I shall assume that my reader has read that essay, where Grau clearly explains Nozick's example. (The essay can be found here.)

11. See Grau, "Dream Skepticism". The threat of solipsism seems to me to be the same in the Matrix or in the ordinary world; and that is not my concern here. I am simply taking the truth of the "God's eye" perspective offered the viewer of the film for granted. The Matrix tells us and shows us that we are all hooked up to the same Matrix.

12. I think that perhaps Colin McGinn's essay too quickly assimilates the Matrix to dreaming, and Neo's control over it to "lucid" dreaming. Although McGinn may be right that the Matrix must be dealing with "images" rather than "percepts", there are important disanalogies between Matrix-experience and dream-experience. First, in a dream, there is only your own mind involved. The Matrix must be, at a minimum, a group dream. I am arguing above that the fact that one mind is really interacting with other minds is critical to assessing the value of the Matrix reality. This complicates the apparently clear idea of controlling one's dream, since it is not simply one mind at work that can "alter" the images one is conscious of. I am not sure of the coherence of the hypothesis here. For example, when the young boy bends the spoon, Neo "sees" this. So the boy's control of his environment is perceivable both by the boy's mind and by Neo's. So he must be changing something that is, "in reality", in Neo's mind – namely, Neo's image of the spoon. But what if Neo straightens the spoon at the same time the boy bends it? Whose lucid dream will win out, and be perceived by the other minds? The one with the stronger will? Second, the "images" that are in your mind in the Matrix can, and regularly do, really kill people; that is, kill their bodies outside of the Matrix. Except in some bad horror movies, dream images cannot really kill you, or make you bleed. The difficulty of understanding how something which is a mere "image" is supposed to have this sort of effect seems therefore to cause some problems for calling the state of ordinary people in the Matrix "dreaming". See also next note.

13. We could certainly, if we wish, call the experience of the Matrix "a dream", as the movie does. But we should remember that Neo, while in the Matrix and before he has met Morpheus, has a dream while he is "asleep". So we need some distinction between that sort of "dream" and Neo's "waking" "group-dream" within the Matrix.

14. This sentence implies that contemporary physics represents humans' best understanding of the true nature of reality, which is certainly a contentious claim.

15. The question of whether I know something is in fact real or an illusion remains as legitimate or illegitimate as always. As throughout this essay, I am simply bypassing any sceptical questions, since it is part of my argument that being in the Matrix does not affect them.

16. All human being might be considered "scientists" insofar as we are curious about and have a conception of what the reality of things are: what causes them, how they come into being, how they are destroyed, etc. But we are also interested in other people, objects, and activities because of their inherent value, a value they retain regardless of the correct explanation of their reality.

17. Given a true account of what it is to have a mind, I would surely care if what appeared to be a person did not fulfill those criteria, for then he would not be a person after all. For example, if someone somehow showed that a machine could not have a "free mind", then I would care whether my friend was a machine or not, but only secondarily, given that ex hypothesi as a machine he would not have a free mind. My point is only that it is "having a free mind" or "being a person" that is the source of value, not the correct theory about what makes someone a person. I am claiming that ignorance of or deception about the right physical or metaphysical account of mind does not thereby cast doubt on the value of having a mind. Scepticism about other minds – the questions of whether there really are other minds and how we could tell whether there are – is not addressed at all by what I am saying. I am taking for granted the truth of what the film tells us: there are other minds. The problem of other minds, like solipsism mentioned above, is equally a problem in or out of the Matrix.

18. I am grateful to Chris Grau and Bill Vasiliou for comments on and discussion about an earlier version of this essay.

-----

____
Iakovos Vasiliou
EDUCATION

1987-93, University of Pittsburgh; Ph.D. in Philosophy, August 1993.

1983-7, Cornell University; B.A. in Philosophy and Classics, 1987;
Magna Cum Laude; With Distinction in All Subjects.
PRIMARY PUBLICATIONS

Books:

- Aiming at Virtue in Plato, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

Articles:

"Virtue and Argument in Aristotle's Ethics" forthcoming in S. Tenenbaum
(ed.), New Trends in Philosophy: Moral Psychology (Rodopi).

- "Reality, What Matters, and The Matrix" in C. Grau (ed.), Philosophers
Explore the Matrix (Oxford University Press, 2005), 98-114.

- "Disputing Socratic Principles: Character and Argument in the
'Polus Episode' of the Gorgias" in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 84.3 (2002), 245-272.

- "Socrates' Reverse Irony", The Classical Quarterly 52.1 (2002), 220-30.

- "Wittgenstein, Religious Belief, and On Certainty" in R. Arrington and
M. Addis (eds.), Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion (Routledge,
2001), 29-50.

- "Conditional Irony in the Socratic Dialogues", The Classical Quarterly
49.2 (Dec, 1999),
456-472.

- "Socratic Principles, Socratic Knowledge", Philosophical Inquiry 21
(1999), 43-60.

- "Perception, Knowledge, and the Sceptic in Aristotle", Oxford Studies
in Ancient Philosophy 14 (1996), 83-131.

- "The Role of Good Upbringing in Aristotle's Ethics", Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research 56 (1996), 771-797.

Comments:

- "Commentary on Marcelo Boeri's 'Socrates, Aristotle, and the
Stoics on the Apparent And Real Good'" forthcoming in Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy.

Reviews:

- Review of Gabriel Richardson Lear's Happy Lives and the Highest Good forthcoming in Journal of Philosophy.

- Review of Anthony Long's Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to
Life forthcoming in The Philosophical Review.

- Review of Gareth Matthews' Socratic Perplexity and the Nature of
Philosophy in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 00.08.12, 9 Aug 2000.

- Review of Stephen Everson's Aristotle on Perception in
The Philosophical Review 108 (1999), 282-285.

- Review of Julia Annas' The Morality of Happiness in Archiv für
Geschichte der Philosophie 79 (1997), 97-100.

- Review of Sarah Broadie's Ethics With Aristotle in The European Legacy
I.7 (1996), 2125-2127.

WORK IN PROGRESS

- "Habituation and the Tripartite Soul in Plato"
- "Motivations, Acting from the Motive of Duty, and the Supremacy of Virtue"
- "Euthyphro's Fanatical Reasoning" (with Jonathan Adler)
- "Dualism in Plato's Phaedo"
- "Erotic Frustration in Plato's Symposium"

RECENT PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS

Apr 2005 "Comments on Jonathan Lear's 'Socratic Method and Psychoanalysis'", Plato
And the Divided Self, University of Toronto.

Oct 2004 "Socratic Deliberation", Historical Studies Seminar Series, University of Toronto at Mississauga.

May 2004 "Aiming at Virtue in the Apology and Crito", Classics
Colloquium Series, The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Apr 2004 "Aiming at Virtue in the Republic", Philosophy Colloquium
Series, Franklin and Marshall College.

Mar 2004 "Aiming at Virtue", Philosophy Colloquium Series, The
Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Sep 2003 Commentator on Marcelo Boeri's "Socrates, Aristotle, and the
Stoics on the Apparent And Real Good" at the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, Boston College.

Nov 2002 Speaker on Plato's Symposium for the Literature Humanities
Faculty Meeting, Columbia University, New York.

Oct 2002 "Socrates' Decisions in the Here and Now"; State University
of New York, Albany.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

- Secretary, New York Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy (2003-)
- Book Review Editor, Philosophical Inquiry (2003-)
- Director of Graduate Studies (2000-2001), Georgia State University.
- Article Referee for: American Journal of Philology, American
Philosophical Quarterly, Ancient Philosophy,Classical World, Journal of the History of Philosophy, and Phoenix.

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS

2002-3 PSC-CUNY Research Award
2002-3 Wolfe Institute Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities, Brooklyn
College
1998 Research Initiation Grant, Georgia State University
1993 Cornell University Society of the Humanities Mellon Postdoctoral
Fellowship

Ridley Scott -a look into the life of the director.

2007-11-25T14:25:00.000-08:00

These are some of the highlights from a wonderful interview in the The Guardian Wednesday November 7, 2007- and Wikepedia.

Ridley Scott didn't start making films until he was 40,

His new film American Gangster is released on the eve of his 70th birthday

"I'd rather not make too much of it," Ridley Scott says. "It's a youth-orientated business and I seem to be kicking butt more now than I ever was. I'll probably do three films now in 20 months, which is shocking. That's why I don't really want to ( talk about the milestone. Milestones don't really mean anything to me anyway."

He has just completed American Gangster, ; he is currently shooting Body of Lies in Morocco "with Leo [DiCaprio] and Russell [Crowe]; and he is planning Nottingham, a revisionist take on the Robin Hood story to be shot next year, with Crowe (who is becoming a Scott fixture) starring as the sheriff, upholding the law against a dubious bandit hiding out in the woods.

When he arrived in Hollywood to shoot Blade Runner in 1982, after making The Duellists and Alien in Britain, he was edgy and uncertain, he says, as well as ultra-competitive. The Blade Runner shoot was testy - the American crew gave the Limey newcomer a hard time, the studio panicked when the film previewed badly, and Scott allowed them to impose a disastrous voiceover.

It has taken him a quarter of a century to get back to his original conception of Blade Runner - a "final cut" is being released on DVD this month to mark the film's 25th anniversary.

Thelma and Louise

But he had learned an important lesson which he applied when the less-than-uproarious ending of Thelma and Louise - his heroines plunge to their death in the Grand Canyon - came up for discussion. "Laddy [studio boss Alan Ladd junior] said, 'Can you think of another ending?'" says Scott. "I said, 'No, can you?' He said, 'No.' I said, 'Fine.' He said, 'But they drive off the cliff.' I said, 'Do you like it?' He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'So what are you mucking about for?' He said, 'That car goes down, the hat comes off, it's really depressing.' I said, 'Tell you what, we'll freeze it.'"

On American Gangster, the true-life story of the 70s Harlem drug baron Frank Lucas and the cop who nails him and at the same time cleans up New York's corrupt police department, there was again an issue with the ending. Preview audiences loved the film, but questionnaires showed they would have loved it even more if the ending had been more redemptive - there was an implication in the original that Lucas would offend again. Scott allowed a tweak - the ending is now more neutral - but only, he says, because the test scores "rang a bell" in his head and alerted him to a doubt he already had. On the DVD, he says, the original ending will be included in the extras, so the audience can trace the evolution of the thought.

(This, was one of my criticisms of the movie. The following paragraph reads to me of a sellout rather than a true artist:)

Film can aspire to be art - Scott would make that claim for Blade Runner - but, equally, art must show awareness of its audience. "When a conductor stands in front of an orchestra, that's also entertainment," he says. Film critic David Thomson calls him a "crowd-pleaser", but Scott wants to be more than that. "The warhorses who are really running the Hollywood studios know what is good," he says, "but they also know that they have a bottom line, and they have to address the bottom line. They will, though, occasionally let someone like me go out and do [serious films], so I try to keep my head above water and keep the standard up. I mean it. That's serious. It's very important to me."

He has said he will carry on making films until he drops dead, and he tells me he can never go to sleep until he has watched a film. "

(Here is another odd observation:)

Scott is strangely inarticulate - or, rather, the articulacy comes and goes. He proceeds not through rounded sentences, but via shafts of verbal light.

He is a realiser of other people's words and worlds, moving effortlessly between genres. What other director could have made Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Hannibal and Matchstick Men?

Scott also paints,

- he studied graphic design at West Hartlepool College of Art and then the Royal College of Art before joining the BBC as a set designer. "I knew I wanted to be a director when I was about eight," he says, "but I didn't know how on earth I'd get there. Where did they come from? Did they land from Mars? I figured that by getting to be an art director I was halfway along the route, and once I became one I was staring at the reality of these insecure, four-packs-a-day, jugs-of-water-and-beer guys called 'director'. Not all of them were very good, but one or two of them were brilliant."

..Scott says he shot himself in the foot at an interview for a director's job on BBC2 by admitting he knew nothing about Shakespeare.

ADVERTISING
Commercials

* Bike Round for Hovis (1973)
* Chanel... Share the fantasy. for Chanel (1979)
* 1984 for Apple Computers (1984)
* The Choice of a New Generation for Pepsi (1986) (Starred Don Johnson and Glenn Frey)

.. he switched to advertising - "commercials were my film school" - building Ridley Scott Associates into a global player and marrying Hovis to Dvorak with award-winning results.

"1984" Apple Macintosh commercial

In 1984, Apple Computer launched the Macintosh. Its debut was announced by a single broadcast of the now famous $1.5 million commercial, based on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and directed by Ridley Scott (due to his work on Blade Runner). The commercial was broadcast during the 1984 Super Bowl XVIII. Steve Jobs' intention with the ad was to equate Big Brother with the IBM PC and a nameless female action hero, portrayed by Anya Major, with the Macintosh.

The commercial is frequently voted top in surveys of influential marketing campaigns. For example, Advertising Age named it the 1980s "Commercial of the Decade", and in 1999 the US TV Guide selected it as number one in their list of "50 Greatest Commercials of All Time".

The film resurfaced in the late 1990s when Apple made a QuickTime version of the commercial available for download from the Internet. It appeared numerous times on television commercial compilation specials, as well as on Nick-at-Nite during its "Retromercial" breaks. The making and presentation of this famous commercial formed the visual bookends for the docudrama Pirates of Silicon Valley. (Wikepedia)

Failures

He still trumpets his first film, The Duellists - "I knew it was a good film. It was criticised for being too pretty, but I didn't really give a shit" - and his second, Alien, was a monster hit that propelled him into the arms of Hollywood. There have been ups and downs since, but he's never gone away. "Life's a river," he says. "It has its bends and overflows; it comes back and shrinks. If you enjoy doing what you're doing, you've just got to keep doing it."

The downs have included several critical and/or commercial failures. Legend, starring Tom Cruise, proved an epic disaster in 1985, but as with Blade Runner, Scott has breathed DVD-inspired life into it by issuing a director's cut and releasing a version with the original score, which had been junked when it tested badly. "People said Legend didn't work," he says, "but I think it does work. I think it's kind of beautiful and spectacular. I just made it 25 years too soon. Now all these films which go under the banner of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter [are like Legend]. I've gone away from that and I thought, 'Damn, I should have made that now.'"

Scott hit another rough patch after the success in 1991 of Thelma and Louise, which won him one of his three best-director Oscar nominations. His other three movies in that decade - 1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall and GI Jane - all under-performed. Some suggested that he was on the slide, but the monumental success in 2000 of Gladiator, which won the Oscar for best picture, changed his fortunes, restored the confidence of the studios, and made possible the startling film-a-year run he has enjoyed during this decade.

Gladiator also established his fruitful relationship with Crowe, though the pair got a mauling last year when they essayed the romantic comedy A Good Year. "We had some fun on A Good Year, and even though we got beaten up for it, I still think it's a good movie and I think Russell was excellent in it," says Scott. "He's one of the best, and we seem to know exactly what to do without much exchange now. The waltz is over. The waltz was on Gladiator. We've got the measure of each other now."

FAMILY LIFE

Personally, too, the river has not always flowed smoothly for Scott, with two marriages ending in divorce. He had two sons with his first wife and a daughter with his second; all three of his children - Jake, Luke and Jordan - are directors.

He is now married to the Costa Rican actress Giannina Facio, who played Mrs Maximus in Gladiator. She doesn't crop up in our conversation, but his younger brother Tony does, on several occasions. Tony, who is six years younger than Ridley, followed his big brother into commercials and then to Hollywood, breaking through with Top Gun in 1986. Tony is "still flying", according to Ridley, who is part admiring, part protective. It is an interesting relationship: highly competitive - "I'm kept on my toes because of Tony, and I know I'm competition for him. He's thinking, 'Holy shit, Ridley's doing another film in March'" - but also very close. They are partners in the film production company Scott Free, and Ridley has in the past described his brother as his first and best critic.

Trademarks

Although Scott is often known for his painterly directorial style, other trademarks include:

* Storyboarding his films extensively. These illustrations are often referred to as "Ridleygrams".

* Strong female characters.[14][15]

* Military and officer classes as characters reflecting his father's career, such as in G.I. Jane and Black Hawk Down.

* Extensive use of the two camera "V" set-up, allowing actors to perform more fluidly.

* Casts Giannina Facio, his partner in life, in all his movies since White Squall.

* Gets involved personally in the casting and prefers a more streamlined approach (just him and the casting director).

* Likes to work with actors who have a strong theatre background and/or drama school graduates.

* An admirer of Stanley Kubrick from early in his development. For his entry for the BBC traineeship Scott remade Paths of Glory as a short film.

* Like Stanley Kubrick, Scott is known for repeating the takes by the double digits. This was more evident on Blade Runner: the crew nicknamed the movie "Blood Runner" because of this.

* Often makes notable use of classical music (the Hovis advertisements, Someone to Watch Over Me). Worked intermittently on the project of a film adaptation of the opera Tristan und Isolde beginning in 1976.

* Extensive use of fans and fanlike objects (in Blade Runner and Black Rain). Fans are also used in Hannibal, but for the purposes of symbolism.

* Extensive use of smoke (in Alien, Blade Runner and Black Rain), for visual aesthetic purposes: Scott sometimes takes hours to set up one scene.

* Consistency in his choice of composers, using Jerry Goldsmith (Alien and Legend), Vangelis (Blade Runner and 1492: Conquest of Paradise) or Hans Zimmer (Black Rain, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down and Matchstick Men). Scott has also twice used songs by Sting during the film credits ("Valparaiso" for White Squall and "Someone to Watch Over Me" for the movie of the same title).

* He is usually considered the "father" of the director's cut. Scott was one of the first to use the description for the 1992 re-release of Blade Runner (other such films existed, but were either small fan-oriented versions that carried the name "Special Edition" or were forcefully edited by the studio). The positive result of the Blade Runner DC has encouraged Scott to re-cut several of his movies that were flops at the time of their release (such as Legend and Kingdom of Heaven) with the same positive results. Today the practice is commonplace within the movie industry.

* In some of his movies there is a strong conflict between father and son that usually ends with the latter killing the former intentionally (Blade Runner, Gladiator) or accidentally (Black Hawk Down), or witnessing the event (Kingdom of Heaven). The Lord of Darkness in Legend also mentions his "father" on a few occasions. As part of the conflict between father and son there are some repetitive scenes: in Gladiator, the son hugs the father seemingly as an expression of love but this embrace turns into the suffocation and death of the father. There is a similar sequence in Blade Runner.

* In Gladiator, Blade Runner and Kingdom of Heaven, a son gets to know his father when he is grown up. Other common elements are that the mother is not seen, and that the son or father is seen performing his last actions. For example, Roy Batty is dying when he saves Deckard, Maximus dies after killing Commodus and Godfrey of Ibelin kills some enemies after he has been mortally wounded by an arrow. In addition, the hero is saved from death before attaining his greatest deeds: Deckard is saved by Rachel, Maximus is saved by a slave and Balian is saved by a Muslim enemy. Similar situations can be seen in Tony Scott's Man on Fire.

Released films

* B&W | 30mins | Drama Cast: Tony Scott ::Ridley Scott was still in his early 20s when he began making this, his very first short. The film tells the tale of a schoolboy enjoying a day’s truancy in the North Shields and includes his then teenage brother Tony Scott in the starring role.

Opening in Ridley’s own childhood bedroom the film follows a bicycle journey through a seaside town, where we visit a desolate beach and an empty funfair, whilst all the time listening to the boy’s thoughts, which range from fish shops to wax treatments for women with hairy legs. Boy and Bicycle (1965) Almost inpossible to find.

* The Duellists (1977)

* Alien (1979)

* Blade Runner (1982)

* Legend (1985)

* Someone to Watch Over Me (1987)

* Black Rain (1989)

* Thelma & Louise (1991)

* 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

* White Squall (1996)

* G.I. Jane (1997)

* Gladiator (2000)

* Hannibal (2001)

* Black Hawk Down (2001)

* Matchstick Men (2003)

* Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

* All the Invisible Children, a.k.a. Take 7 (short Jonathan, with Jordan Scott) (2006)

* A Good Year (2006)

* American Gangster (2007)
The Guardian post can be found here:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2206463,00.html

2007-06-04T16:52:00.000-07:00

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