Wikileaks and Hitler

Governments around the world are blushing. Or fuming. All these leaks from American diplomats being revealed. Of course governments thrive on privacy. Secrecy. And everyone believes that transparency is important. Could Hitler have survived total transparency when he was attempting to take over the German government? On the other hand, would Roosevelt have survived if Americans had known how much he felt the U.S.A. should have been in the WW2? But on the whole I think we are all better off if everything in government is transparent. And if diplomats are warry of electronic leaks than don’t use electronic devices. Do it the old fashion way. Whisper.

Incestuous Reality

I was reading an article in the New York Times about an author’s new book (forgot her name) who talked about her book being like The Ambassadors by Henry James, in reverse. She talked about how much she read. And appreciated  Henry James. And then I read somewhere else how James spent so much of his time reading other authors.

I am not going to suggest that writers shouldn’t read but this all sounds like incestuous reality. Worlds created reflecting  other world’s created. Fantasies about fantasies. The maze of the ivory tower. Literature as an end in itself.

Writers should not be allowed to get jobs in colleges and universities. Get a job on the assembly line. Or the mall. Or an airport. Thank God for Hemingway.

Don Cherry

Don Cherry, a sports pundit, has decided to back the former police chief of Toronto in his bid to become a provincial member of parliament. This is his right. I mean far right.

Judas

Everytime I see someone who is homeless, I feel like I’m looking back into the past. Usually the history of this particular person. Just like children are a portal into the future, the homeless are a portal back to failure, despair, tragedy of some kind. And that is why they never remind me of Christ figures. They are more like Judas. Some kind of betrayal has occured in their lives.

 

Eric Sevareid

I am approaching the age when one should be wiser, more detached, more analytical. I am reminded of Eric Sevaried’s cool disposition as he analyzed the days events on the CBS News. One could see the terrible violence in 1970s American streets and the streets of Vietnam. And yet Mr. Sevareid spoke calmly. Like that eye in the hurricane. I trusted him. I do not see that wise and cool demeanor amongst any of the news commentators. Fox. Beck. Reilly. They are just part of the fire. They are more inclined to rub salt in the wound then to try and heal it. Reminding me of the used car salesmen I used to see on the local Buffalo news casts. In a time when America is in trouble, many in the news media are more interested in their careers. It has become a society totally immersed in naval gazing. There is an old definition of leadership that goes something like – ‘leadership is keeping your head when everyone around you is losing their’s’. Mr. Obama keeps his head. But no one in America seems to have noticed.

The Artist Ed Kuris Before His Legendary Breakdown In San Paolo, Peru (via Hallidd’s Weblog)

Ed Kuris is an artist who lives in Guelph Ontario Canada. He has never been to Peru but I always think its important to create a mythology around artists and so I added this little bit to Ed's. Google his name if  you want to see his work. It is outstanding. http://www.art-in-guelph.com/Pages/ekuris.html … Read More

via Hallidd's Weblog

the overtaking of a peloton of angels early on a wednesday morning (via pretty green bullet)

I like you sight. very eclectic. Quirky. I’m going to try and come back.

  After seeing my mini-collection, The Stories of Eves, a dear, dear friend of mine asked me to create a special collage for him depicting a cyclist on a cobblestone road. I thought, how can I make a cyclist on a cobblestone road more romantic than a simple r … Read More

via pretty green bullet

Sarah Palin Talks. And Talks. And…

New book out by Sarah Palin. She talks about almost everything. Reminds me of a person you meet at a party. Too much to drink. Talks about anything that comes  up. Has an opinion about almost everything. Makes outrageous statements. Knows little about anything they talk about. I know this person. Too often it was me. But at least I had the sense to be embarassed the next day when I am reminded of my bellicose rants. Ms. Palin never seems to be embarassed.

Can we judge God?

When we go to our final judgement do we get to a rebuttal? Can we make a judgement on God? His activities over the last several eons. An intelligent and loving God would have no choice (in my view) but to listen to us. And would it affect him? Has it not occured to him that he might be guilty of crimes against humanity?… It would make an interesting play. Sounds like something Sartre might have written. But then, he was an atheist.

The Pursuit of the Millenium

Reading N. Cohn’s book, The Pursuit of the Millenium , I was reminded of a couple of ideas that intriqued me and are reflected in the present economic downturn and its affect on people. There are 2 types of culture, one that operates in circular time and one that operates in linear time. The circular time cultures are usually agricultural, and primitive. What is important is the repetition of some golden past. Creativity, originality are either frownded upon or deemed irrelevant. Linear cultures (Judaeo-Christian) believe that there is a golden future. Enterprise, originality, initiative are highly regarded. Television (especially advertising) has brought a linear culture back to its circular routes. People (American culture more than European) have become nostalgic for some mythological past that they believe contained the good life. Every day life had become a repetition of some golden past. (Without slavery, the genocide of the native peoples and other uncomfortable historical events.) It is a past that never existed. And it is a past that is only decades old. The  economic collapse has woken people up from this dream. And abruptly awakened, they are angry. We are headed into a new world. It is unknown. People are frightened.

(‘The end of the millennium has always held the world in fear of earthquakes, plague, and the catastrophic destruction of the world. At the dawn of the 21st millennium the world is still experiencing these anxieties, as seen by the onslaught of fantasies of renewal, doomsday predictions, and New Age prophecies.
This fascinating book explores the millenarianism that flourished in western Europe between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries. Covering the full range of revolutionary and anarchic sects and movements in medieval Europe, Cohn demonstrates how prophecies of a final struggle between the hosts of Christ and Antichrist melded with the rootless poor’s desire to improve their own material conditions, resulting in a flourishing of millenarian fantasies. The only overall study of medieval millenarian movements, The Pursuit of the Millennium offers an excellent interpretation of how, again and again, in situations of anxiety and unrest, traditional beliefs come to serve as vehicles for social aspirations and animosities.’)