Monthly Archives: May 2008

Dreams, Faith and Spirituality, Literature

A Vivid Imagination

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59  bar steady  30.02  1mph WSW dewpoint 42  Beltane, sunny

                Waxing Gibbous Hare Moon 

“The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.” – Sir R. F. Burton

Burton is an interesting guy. He traveled the world and did a translation of the Arabian Nights.  He is, however, not much of a theologian.  His genes must have cascaded down to Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.  They, too, seem to believe that if you betray your ignorance loudly, then others will agree.   All faith traditions are far more subtle, more nuanced that mere projection.  Do they each have their problematics? Absolutely.  Do the problems justify the kind of reductionist argument deployed by religions cultured despisers (to borrow the phrase from Frederick Schleiermacher)? Not at all.

The simplest argument against them is this.  Have you ever seen a love?  Have you ever smelled justice?  Yes, you have seen or smelled their physical manifestations, but have you seen the complex of emotions and judgment that produce them?  No.  Why not?  Because they are constructs of the mental world.  What constitutes the mental world?  Is it just the firing and stimulation of neurons?  Oh, how do you know?  Because the fMRI tells you so?  How does the fMRI tell you its information?  That’s right, through sight. 

I’m with Kant here.  The ding an siche, the thing in itself, is unknown and unknowable due to the mediation of the senses.   Therefore how Dawkins and Harris can claim to reach beyond their sensorium and know a negative is beyond me.  Does the trashing of their fundamental argument make them wrong?  Unfortunately, no.

By the by, if you’ve never read the Arabian Nights, The Thousand and One Nights, then you’ve missed something.  Find a complete edition because the Muslims who wrote it had a vivid imagination.  I mean, really vivid.

     

News of the Strange, Politics

The Things They Do

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65  bar steady 29.95 0mph ESE dewpoint 30 Beltane, sunny

           Waxing Gibbous Hare Moon 

“Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.” – E. B. White

To underline the suspicion note in the EB White quote I gleaned articles from today’s news stories.  The ones who govern us on the basis of that 50% + 1 majority do some strange things.  And so do their spouses.

“Cindy McCain, whose husband has been a critic of the violence in Sudan, sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation.

The sale on Wednesday came after The Associated Press questioned the investments in light of calls by John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, for international financial sanctions against the Sudanese leadership. ”

“…woman accused of booking clients for a high-priced call girl ring pleaded guilty Wednesday to money laundering and promoting prostitution in the federal probe that brought down former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Temeka Rachelle Lewis, who worked as a booking agent for the Emperor’s Club VIP, is the first defendant to admit guilt in the case that led to Spitzer’s resignation.”

“WASHINGTON (AP) – Hold on, NFL. Spygate isn’t over. Not if the “incensed” Pittsburgh Steelers fan in Congress has anything to do with it. Sen. Arlen Specter on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the New England Patriots’ taping of opposing coaches’ signals, possibly similar to the high-profile Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball. “What is necessary is an objective investigation,” Specter said at a news conference in the Capitol. “And this one has not been objective.”

The Pennsylvania Republican was unforgiving of his criticism of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, saying that Goodell has made “ridiculous” assertions that wouldn’t fly “in kindergarten.” The Senator said Goodell was caught in an “apparent conflict of interest” because the NFL doesn’t want the public to lose confidence in the league’s integrity.”

“Can Bob Barr become the next Ron Paul?

Mr. Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia who on Monday announced his candidacy for the Libertarian Party nomination, certainly hopes so. It is a prospect that could give Senator John McCain’s campaign fits, threatening to siphon critical Republican votes away from him in important battleground states.

The situation is purely speculative. But Mr. Barr is keeping close to the script that has had Mr. Paul, a Texas congressman, drawing votes long after Mr. McCain became the presumed Republican presidential nominee.

Mr. Barr is trying to tap into the fervent band of followers who were attracted to Mr. Paul online and donated generously to his campaign by hiring the same Internet firm that ran Mr. Paul’s Web site. And he is hoping to spread his message to those fans, by running online advertisements on their Web sites, proclaiming: “Advance liberty? Learn more about Bob Barr!””

“The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The government’s forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the “pre-flight cocktail,” as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.

“Unsteady gait. Fell onto tarmac,” says a medical note on the deportation of a 38-year-old woman to Costa Rica in late spring 2005. Another detainee was “dragged down the aisle in handcuffs, semi-comatose,” according to an airline crew member’s written account. Repeatedly, documents describe immigration guards “taking down” a reluctant deportee to be tranquilized before heading to an airport.

In a Chicago holding cell early one evening in February 2006, five guards piled on top of a 49-year-old man who was angry he was going back to Ecuador, according to a nurse’s account in his deportation file. As they pinned him down so the nurse could punch a needle through his coveralls into his right buttock, one officer stood over him menacingly and taunted, “Nighty-night.”

Garden, Great Wheel, Great Work

Rites of Spring

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52  bar rises 29.94  2mph NW  dewpoint 20 Beltane, sunny

                Waxing Gibbous Hare Moon

Nope, this isn’t about naked pagans dancing under a full moon.  Sorry.

Rather, it’s about those things we do.  In spring. 

The Mickman’s guy just left.  “Charlie,” he said, “We came through the winter pretty good.  Just one dead sprinkler.”  He handed me a sandy, wet plastic sprinkler head, smiled and went on his way.

Kate bought her annual supply of, well, annuals.  Alyssum, impatiens and coleus.  She’ll go back for a few more.

We prepared and planted new beds, cleaned old ones.

The furnace last ran in April, but, unlike most years we have not turned on the air conditioning yet.

The dogs spend more and more time outside, just like we do.

The guy who cleans the gutters and does the outside windows will show up after the cottonwoods disperse their seeds.

We moved the snowblower to the back of the garage bay and the riding lawnmower to the front.  These are his and hers machines.  Snowblower–his.  Lawnmower–hers.

We have all of these mechanical/electronic servants.  Instead of a gardener, we have a sprinkler system and a riding mower.   Instead of servants working mechanical fans we have an air conditioner.  Instead of a summer kitchen we have Vent-a-Hoods.  Instead of the post office we have e-mail.  Instead of shopping in real world stores we have Internet retailers.

These are sophisticated technological devices and they replace human labor of the domestic variety with skilled human labor.  The skilled folks make more money because they work in several locations rather than just one.

I find though, that when I work in the garden, I prefer hand tools:  a spade, a spading fork, pruning saw, trowel, rake.  In general  I allow only one mechanical tool into my work on our grounds.  The chainsaw.  It replaces labor I’m not sure I could perform even if I had the time.  On occasion I’ll rent an industrial strength chipper, but only after many hours cutting down trees and brush, then delimbing.  I plan to rent a stump grinder sometime this spring, but that’s a very special purpose piece of equipment.  Otherwise it’s shovel and pick, adz and drawknife.  Small sledge hammer, wire cutters and bolt cutters, Japanese weeding knife, serrated sickle and unserrated sickle.  A tool in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Or something like that.

Dreams, Politics

Have You Ever Had Culloden?

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60  bar steady  29.68  1mph S dewpoint 45 Beltane  overcast

              First Quarter of the Hare Moon

After I read several articles about Obama’s running mate choice, I came away convinced that Bill Richardson won’t be his choice.  The most interesting article I read suggested Wes Clark or Bill Bradley.  The prevailing opinion seems to be that he needs gravitas on foreign affairs in a Vice President.  This disturbs me since the most recent example of a naif at foreign affairs coupled with a strong VP is George Bush and Dick Cheney.  Do we really want a shadow presidency when it comes to conduct of foreign policy? 

The argument for a strong woman makes sense to me, but the candidates didn’t.  I don’t know.  If I had to choose among the folks bandied about so far, I’d go with Bradley, then back to Richardson.

Another planting day here on the homestead.  And a good one, it appears.  Good planting, transplanting days are overcast, low wind and cool.  They put minimum stress on plants being transplanted and conserve moisture.

In a dream last night I traveled to Wales.  It was an island in this version, with an interior river that followed the coast line.  You could rent boats and just let them float along.  I went through several small towns and villages.  They were mixtures of theme park and historical village, like Williamsburg.  At one point I stopped in a village and spent the night in a hotel. It cost $80 and had all natural wood done in a folk culture style.  A young guy took me to my room and said he would be back later with culloden.  What’s that, you wonder?  So do I?  He said it was boiling water with holes in it.  He never brought it so I don’t know what it was.  There were snacks, but you had to pay for them.

In the morning I woke up and went down for breakfast.  A waiter pointed out the menu to me.  It was a traditional meal, but I didn’t recognize any of the dishes.

At several points I said, “Yes, my family’s from here.”  It felt good to be home. 

The only dark spot was that I had forgotten to pack my tooth brush and tooth paste.  Kate had them, back on the mainland at a conference.  I figured I could buy some, but I hadn’t seen a drugstore.  Didn’t solve that problem before I woke up.

Garden, Writing

Novels In Vitro

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48  bar rises 29.83  1mph NW dewpoint 38  Beltane

            First Quarter of the Hare Moon

Once again the papers and books pile up while I focus on the task du jour, getting the garden planted, cleaned up, preened, weeded and planned.

Significant news on the hydroponic front.  The heirloom tomato plant I’ve kept inside has flowers.  That means tomatoes sometime in the near future.  Most of the early work with the hydroponics has come to fruition, literally.  I eat a salad from it at least every other day and the tomato plant flourishes.  Three tomato plants, four cucumbers, six basil and four morning glories have gone outdoors. 

Phase II starts soon.  Phase II will see cherry tomatoes, peppers and eggplant first as seedlings, but then as plants to continue growing indoors.  If this works well, we might expand the hydroponics to include flowers and more plant starting for outdoors.  We’ll see.

I have two or three novels in various stages of development.   Two of them, one about werewolves and the other about witches and magicians, both set in Minnesota have promise, but I’d have to get back to work on them full time.  Again, I don’t seem to do it.  Thinking about this because there are so many bad werewolf movies and books out there.  I did, though, mention Sharp Teeth here, I believe.  This one’s a keeper.  Done in blank verse.

Garden, Politics

Country Gentleman with Corn Rows

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61 bar steady 29.69 0mph WSW dewpoint 47 Beltane cloudy, cool

              First Quarter of the Hare Moon

“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.” – George Bernard Shaw

Love it, or leave it the bumper stickers used to say.  I bleed red, white and blue.  These colors don’t run.  WWJD?  George Bush and Dick Cheney keeping the world safe for democracy.  Shaw is a genuine prophet, witty and ascerbic.  We don’t have his equal today, at least none that I know.

The Country Gentleman corn fit neatly into three rows, three feet apart, running east and west.  All the little onions are now in a bed by themselves, tucked in for the growing season.  The garlic looks great.  It’s a strange crop.  Sow it in the fall, reap in mid-summer.  We have peppers, tomatoes, onions, corn and beans planted.  A perfect garden for mexican cuisine.  We also have some beets and  carrots. 

I like these day where we work in the garden in the morning, then it rains in the afternoon.  Perfect.

Garden

The Gardening Curve

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64  bar steep fall  29.75  2mph W dewpoint 37 Beltane Sunny

               First Quarter of the Hare Moon

Painted brush-b-gone on the stump of a honeysuckle.  I foolishly planted it where it blocked two beds from the sun.  It will not return now, as it has in the past, a Lazarus plant that would not stay dead.  Planted Guatemalan Blue and Table Queen squash along the fenceline. 

Tomorrow onions go in and I’ll get started on moving daylilies yet again, though I believe this time their movement is final.  I’m taking them out of the garden environment and putting them along fences and at places where I need a friendly plant barrier to invasive wild species. I’ve discovered, at last, the proper place in our landscape for these hardy specimens.

I’m a Celt and a Teuton.  I inherited the Teutonic love of scholarship and the Celtic imagination.  I also inherited a Celtic skin.  Being outside for very long leaves me a little woozy.  I also take a couple of medications that create photosensitivity.  Another reason to work in the garden in the early morning, a couple of hours at a whack. 

We are ahead of the gardening curve for the most part.  A little late on some vegetables, a little early on others.  May is a busy month with clean up and  planting, bed preparation.  I’m lucky Kate’s got a week off now and can help.  She’s a sturdy, stay at it gal.

The dogs love gardening.  They come out where we’re working, flop down on the grass and watch.  When that gets too tough, they go to sleep.

Family, Garden

Hidden Gardens

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60  bar falls 29.93 3mph S dewpoint 33  Beltane sunny and windy

                  First Quarter of the Hare Moon

The new bed for corn has a bag of composted manure mixed into the soil.  Debarked elm trunks went around three sides to bolster rotting logs from the creation of this bed 10 or so years ago.  The only plants remaining are a few stray Siberian Iris.  I like them and I don’t think the corn will mind having them there. 

Kate and I went into the woods and settled on a place to put the playhouse for the grandkids.  It will face the firepit, midden heap park that I’m currently constructing.  I’ll have to clear buckthorn.  A few smaller oaks need to come out anyhow for thinning.  After that we’ll level the site and begin putting the structure together.  We plan to add a small deck and a fence.   I’ll plant a shade garden and native understory shrubs around it to blend it into the woods.  Kate also wants to string lights in the trees, a magical spot.

Black landscape cloth now covers a large arc of ground underneath the three oaks that stand beside the near garden shed.  The idea is to kill off the nettles underneath, which will prepare the way for a hosta, fern, and other shade lovers garden there.  It’s not too visible, but I like the idea of hidden, pocket gardens around the landscape.

All this outdoor work wears me out.  Off to a nap, then perhaps some more work outside.

Friends, Travel, Woolly Mammoths

The Quiet American

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53  bar falls 29.88 4mph NE dewpoint 33 Beltane   sunny

               First Quarter of the Hare Moon

         odebangkok400.jpg

                                  The Quiet American

Here’s my buddy, Mark Odegard in Thailand.  I can’t tell if this is the palace grounds or not, but I do remember just this sign.  It made me stop and think, too.  He’s just finishing up a safe sex exhibit for UNESCO and says he has come to love Thailand. 

Southeast Asia has a fascinating pull.  Mark and Mary succumbed to it years ago and have spent much of their adult lives there.  I’ve visited only once, but the memories are fresh and pull me back.  Part of the allure, of course, is the unfamiliar.  Southeast Asia as a place has figured little in American thought and history with the notable exception of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.  In those instances subjugation, not understanding was our goal, so the cultures and the people there remained opaque.

Another part of the attraction is the sense of confidence in their culture that these small countries have.  Thailand has not been conquered since the Angkor days of Khmer invasions.  Cambodia, though pummeled and ruined by first the U.S., then the Khmer Rouge, has a sweet, ancient flavor that overcomes even those dismal moments.  Singapore is a confident, bustling country, Asia lite as my sister says.  Malaysia has an old culture, too, layered over now with Islam, but still retaining a rotating monarchy and other traditional customs.  Burma remains largely the old days when the flying fishes went to play in far off Mandalay.  It retains a more traditional cast because the ruling junta has placed an umbrella over the country, blocking out the light and keeping the people subservient.  Indonesia has a huge population and much diversity with its many islands, but its Indonesian reality seems strong to me.

It is also cheap, easy for Americans to navigate financially and in that regard much more appealing than the Euro dominated Europe.

Since I travel often to become a stranger, an outsider, a foreigner, Southeast Asia fulfilled my need at each stop, but each time in a different way:  food, ruins, people, cities, colors, art. 

Someday I will return

Art and Culture, Cinema and Television

Deerslayer

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56  bar steady 29.85  9mph N dewpoint 31  Beltane  sunny

               First Quarter of the Hare Moon

3 hours at the museum today answering questions, instigating conversations about Chinese bronzes.  It was a fun time with children and adults, variously interested.  I set out at the beginning, before people started showing up, to learn the vessel shapes.  I looked at the shape, memorized the name and then scanned the collection for examples.  I kept that up until I’d been through all the vessel shapes.  While doing it, it struck me that it would be useful to put these shapes and their names into SuperMemo.  A perfect fit.

I did go through the Supermemo cycle this morning while waiting for the steamroom to heat up.  It will take awhile to become facile with it, but once I do, it will become an important part of my learning environment.

Finished Last of the Mohicans.  I love costume dramas, especially early American and this one hits the bullseye on all fronts.  It has stimulated me to order the whole Deerslayer series, five novels.