Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 9:39 PM
Subject: jyi # 37A Women Rule The World
jewsyonkersislam# 37A Women Rule The World
jyi # 37A Women Rule The World
The feminine (x), through the collective feminine (all the x-es in women [xx] and men [xy]), rules the world. But the feminine, woman, does so through men. When men are not being men, but -like today- ever-lazier, irresponsible, effeminate and emasculated, you can bet that the collective feminine is at work. Both reacting against such and causing it to worsen -by making women try to become men and making more men and women "become" gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and worse- for its own purposes.. The GLAAD... group (along with ALL men and women, to a greater or lesser degree) can well be termed -in today's politically correct terms- sexual-identity challenged.
Below is a continuation of a sub-series on my blog (jewsyonkersislamiii-tc. blogspot.com)
subtitled : What a Billion Muslims Really ThinK
Further below are comments on today's news and some articles, AS I HAVE EDITED THEM , including some excerpts from my journal, my blog or my musings of more than a few years ago. And a critique of today's news
What a Billion Muslims Really Think ; Russia sinks nuclear sub to put out blaze with "no" radiation leak - such dangerous toys we play with ; World economy is collapsing because of our current feminist-faggot outlook ; SOC.SEC. MEDICARE, MEDICAID, PENSIONS...BROKE. RETIREMENT ? WHO PAYS ? ; We cant trust the feminist and faggot owned and run media for the full and whole truth ;
12-29-11
WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO ? DESTRUCTION - EXTINCTION OF THE HUMAN RACE WITH OUR CURRENT -WORLDWIDE- FEMINIST-FAGGOT WORLDVIEWS, INCLUDING OUR USE OF OIL, GAS, COAL...
New York Times (NYT), A10, A15, B1 "Italy's lower rates ease borrowing costs. but not governing". Civil unrest is already high in Italy, Greece, Spain... Could there be civil war as a result of growing frustration...and the perceived impotence of leaders ? Undoubtedly - and soon. "India's investment in solar power is expanding", as is China's... That is the future today. The US must start dumping the oil, gas, coal..companies -big time- and start investing in solar power. The primary suppliers of oil, gas...in the Middle East must cease producing such. They should produce solar power. Indeed, solar power should produce as much or more wealth for north Africa, Saudi Arabia...as oil does today. This is even more crucial as "oil will stay at $100.00+ a barrel
NYT, A1, A8, Journal News (JN), 13A "Younger women head to school instead of work" ? Ridiculous. Feminist-faggot "education" is destroying the human race. Such is not women's role in life. "Unions sue on behalf of retirees...over a 2% health insurance premium hike". As I see it, such is ridiculous chutzpa. They should be happy to be getting a pension...
LANGUAGE : COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS, GENETICS, ARCHEOLOGY...ALL WORK TOGETHER TO PROVE MANKIND'S COMMON ORIGIN (EVOLUTION) - THERE IS A CONGRUENCE BETWEEN GENETIC AND LINGUISTIC EVOLUTION. NEANDERTHAL MAN WAS IN EUROPE AND SOLO MAN WAS IN ASIA BEFORE "HUMANS" MOVED OUT OF AFRICA. AND HUMANS MATED WITH NEADERTHALS. GENES AS WELL AS LANGUAGE IDENTITY SHOW THE INTERRELATIONS BETWEEN AND AMONG ALL PEOPLES
From Africa we have Chadic (Hausa-Nigeria), Nilotic (Masai-Kenya...), Bantu (Zulu-South Africa, Swahili-widespread)...
From Europe we have Uralic (Finnish-far northern Europe into Siberia...), Hungarian (related to Altaic...and spoken in central Europe..)...
From southern Asia we have Dravidian (Tamil-India, Sri Lanka...), Malayalam (Kerala, India...), Sanskrit...
From the Pacific islands and southeast Asia we have Tagalog, Malay, Hawaiian...
From the Turkish belt (Turkey north and east through central Asia, Mongolia, Manchuria...)we have Altaic (Turkic, Mongolian, Celtic, Tungus, Korean, Japanese, Ainu...) and spoken in central Europe...(Hungarian)...
The Indo-European Family includes Sanskrit (southern Asia), all the European languages including Albanian, Rumanian, Uralic, Tolcharian (western China [Xinjiang...)/central Asia] )...
From the Andes we have Aymara, Quecha...(Bolivia, Peru...)
ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE Language began being "spoken" more than 100,000 years ago yet, as other "animals" than human beings "speak" to each other... As far as we know, written language began about 5000 years ago. "Cognates" are similar sounds found in different languages.
ALL THE WORLD'S LANGUAGES HAVE A COMMON ORIGIN. "Proof" of such is difficult to establish because we consider "proof" to be mathematical and such is not applicable to empirical sciences like linguistics, biology or even physics...
(quantum physics is acausal, non-rational...) The perceived relationship between language and race/ethnicity is somewhat valid, especially in the past.
No languages are "primitive". Once we arose as a species (200,000 to 100,000 years ago), we were probably pretty much ourselves in terms of mental organization
The CLOUD OF UNKNOWING was written about the same time as THE CANTERBURY TALES "God" can be described in positive, Western, terms of all He IS or in negative, Eastern, terms of what He is NOT - how much more than all He is, "Nothing which is all"
MILAN/ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti sought reinforcement for the euro zone's bailout fund and pledged new efforts to boost the economy after a disappointing bond auction on Thursday underlined the threat to the country's shaky public finances. (I AM TOTALLY DISGUSTED BY THE NEWS MEDIA -OWNED AND RUN BY THE FEMINISTS AND FAGGOTS. YESTERDAY I READ REPORTS OF HOW THINGS HAD "IMPROVED" FOR ITALY IN THAT SALE AND TODAY THE REAL TRUTH COMES OUT. WE CAN NO LONGER TRUST THE MEDIA FOR THE REAL TRUTH BECAUSE IT IS OWNED AND RUN BY FEMINISTS AND FAGGOTS AND BOUGHT BY THE OIL, GAS, COAL...COMPANIES WHICH PAY TO GET THE NEWS THEY WANT REPORTED AND SUPPRESS ALL ELSE. THEY MUST BE CRUSHED)
Investors demanded a yield of nearly 7 percent on 10-year paper at the auction of medium- and long-term bonds, down from the record highs seen last month but still unsustainable given the 450 billion euros ($580 billion) that Italy needs to raise through debt issuance in 2012.
SOC.SEC. MEDICARE, MEDICAID, PENSIONS...BROKE
The recent bankruptcy filing from American Airlines parent company AMR (AMR) could become the latest example of what can happen to workers and their pension plans when their employers go bankrupt.
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employees may end up with the short end of the stick -- especially those workers expecting a pension check in retirement.
Who Pays Your Pension?
Over the past decade, several airlines, including United Airlines parent United Continental (UAL), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and US Airways (LCC), have gone bankrupt. All three of the companies decided that they would terminate at least some of their pension plans. By doing so, they were able to shift responsibility for making pension payments to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, leaving the government on the hook for future benefits. (AND "THE GOVERNMENT" IS GOING BROKE TOO)
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Pension Pay Cuts
...................when you consider other possible impacts of bankruptcy -- such as reduced or eliminated retiree health-care benefits -- the impact on worker finances can be huge.
Who's on the Hook? Taxpayers
The PBGC is supposed to be funded entirely from two sources: insurance premiums that employers pay, and the assets of the pension plans that the government entity takes over. But usually, the whole reason the PBGC comes in to manage a pension plan is because it's underfunded -- sometimes severely.
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Moreover, just as the weak economy has hurt businesses, it has also left the PBGC with a severe funding shortfall.............. the PBGC may join the long list of private companies and government-sponsored entities that end up needing a taxpayer bailout.
Protect Yourself
Unfortunately...the most likely outcome is that most pensions will simply become a thing of the past -- and their last recipients may well consider themselves lucky if they get the full benefits they've earned over their careers.
Many people are in a near-panic about the woes that Social Security faces. Accused of being a Ponzi scheme, the program is projected to run out of funds by 2036 -- and if it fails, potential consequences could be disastrous. But the other major government program that retirees rely on for their financial well-being faces an even bigger problem -- one that could come sooner than Social Security's demise and lead to more bankruptcy among retirees.
That program, of course, is Medicare, and the funding situation for the portion of its benefits that retirees receive looks even scarier than Social Security's prospects right now.
Medicare's Running Out of Money, Too
With Social Security spending between $40 billion and $50 billion more than it takes in each year, the government needs to find a solution or else see benefits drop to about three-quarters of their current level after the Social Security Trust Fund is gone.
But look at the same statistics for Medicare, and the numbers are even worse.
Based on current trends, Medicare projects its trust fund will run out of money in 2024 -- 12 years before Social Security is expected to run dry. In fact, the remaining asset balance in the Medicare Trust Fund fell below its recommended minimum level earlier this year. Last year, Medicare spent more than $30 billion more than it brought in from taxes and premiums.
The situation isn't irreversible, but the steps for coming up with a fix are very complicated.
Do the Math
.....................unlike Social Security, Medicare already requires big expenditures from the general federal budget on top of its tax and premium revenue.
What This Means for You
Medicare's challenges make it more important than ever to start thinking about how you can cover your own medical expenses (KEEP MOVING ; PHYSICAL MOTION COMBINED WITH A GOOD DIET IS BETTER THAN ALL MEDICAL CARE, EXCEPT FOR EMERGENCIES).
That protection doesn't come cheap............. can be costlier than some retirees can afford.
But with the cost of health care rising faster than inflation..................
3 financial shocks of 2012 ; mind science
In that strange way he has of lecturing potential voters rather than appealing to them, Newt Gingrich came to the University of Iowa last week to talk about "brain science." He appeared in a medical school auditorium to tell his listeners about a "very big idea" no other leader is "willing to tackle." Warming to the subject, he predicted "a dramatic explosion of new science" that would arise from "a public-private research initiative to map the brain and maximize our understanding of how it works."
In order to set off this explosion, Gingrich explained, we'll need to nurture "50 to 70 Steve Jobses in biology." And those several score of news Jobses will produce, well, new jobs--- "hundreds of thousands of new jobs," thanks to the discovery of new treatments for Alzheimer's, which we would tackle once we'd figured out the brain. This was, therefore, a conservative proposal.
Newt Gingrich told all of this to a packed room of 300 medical students, older caucus-goers, college Republicans, and random undergraduates in the city where I live and work. Before he'd outlined his full brain-research agenda, though, he was ambushed by protesters. And as is the case with many pre-caucus political events in Iowa, the candidate's presence became in that moment merely incidental--a way for the city to talk, or--as the case may be, scream--at itself.
"Mr. Gingrich," a woman seated in the middle of the room shouted just as Gingrich began, "we are here to protest your speech today."
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. The protesters did not want to talk about the future. They wanted to talk about the past--specifically, the mid-90's, when many of them would have been 2,3, or 4 years old.
To judge from the grim testimony contained in the speech they had distributed among themselves just a couple of hours prior, the 90's involved a "callous disregard for the poor," proposals to strip unwed mothers of welfare benefits, and attempts to push down
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Gingrich has "a lot of ideas (HE DOES AND SOME OF THEM ARE VERY GOOD)," and that's part of why she will caucus for him.audience was more than willing to recast the historical as neatly ideological. They did not particularly need Gingrich's enumerated ideas, his four-point plan for a new Apollo Project. They needed, perhaps, the idea of ideas.
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.
3 financial shocks of 2012
There's a case to be made for optimism in 2012. Many bad economic problems are behind us, with the housing bust in its latter stages and consumers working their way out from under a mound of excessive debt. Most big companies are in good shape, and many Americans have learned smarter, more sustainable financial habits.
But a true economic recovery may still be farther away than anybody would prefer. The most obvious time bomb is the financial crisis in Europe, which has depressed the stock markets and sent many investors to the sidelines. The Middle East, after a year of revolution, may be more unsettled than it was a year ago, not less. And U.S. politicians now seem poised to do more harm to the economy than good. As smart investors ponder what 2012 might bring, here are three possible financial shocks they foresee, along with the ramifications:
Europe's "TARP moment." .............. there's a mind-numbing, Groundhog Day regularity to the cycle of crisis, sell-offs, and just-in-time reassurance by European leaders. But this festering problem may finally reach a climax in the first six or even three months of 2012, with a panicky market triggering bolder political action than before.
.................... "Only in the face of a seriously escalating crisis will they step in and announce a big buy of government debt," says Ethan Harris, head of North American economics for Bank of America (WHICH IS COLLAPSING) Merrill Lynch. So it may take a near-catastrophe to provoke the one move that could actually resolve the whole problem.
There will still be more of the familiar dickering as politicians in troubled countries duck and weave on the kind of economic reforms the ECB and other European leaders want to see, such as wage cuts, tax hikes, and the repeal of rules that protect favored businesses. But the time for delay may soon run out. (!!!!!!!!)
One likely trigger that will push the crisis into its endgame is a series of failed auctions of Italian debt, which could occur in February or March, when several important auctions need to be held. The "TARP moment"--which refers to the September 2008 stock-market plunge that persuaded Congress to approve $800 billion for unprecedented bank bailouts--will arrive when European voters and politicians start to believe than an imminent financial meltdown will cause more pain for more people than tough economic reforms. If investors lose faith in Italy, for example, it will push up interest rates on new Italian debt, which in turn will raise concerns about the viability of banks throughout Europe, and undermine the whole European economy. There could also be downgrades of credit ratings of other European countries. Greece may finally default on some of its debt or leave the euro zone. The scary rumors, in other words, might finally come true.
The exact chain of events is hard to predict, but the final moment of brinksmanship will probably involve an unnerving drop in stock values(WHICH IS HAPPENING IN THE US TODAY). The original TARP moment, for instance, brought a one-day drop of nearly 9 percent in the S&P 500 stock index, which was already down 17 percent for the year
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The script may not unfold according to conventional forecasts, of course, which is why it's risky to bank on an orderly solution to the problem. Political (CIVIL UNREST, WORLDWIDE) unrest could lead to a breakup of the euro zone, rather than a repair of it. European banks could end up even more damaged than expected. Or, politicians could find ingenious new ways to delay (and possibly worsen) the culminating event. Whatever happens, the fate of the euro zone will probably be clearer a year from now.
A showdown with Iran. This Mideast theocracy is another perennial worry that tends to fade into the background as more pressing events dominate the news. But Iran's quest for nuclear weapons seems likely to cause some kind of military confrontation sooner or later, and the Council on Foreign Relations counts Iran as a "Tier 1" risk for the United States in 2012. Iran is believed to have enough nuclear material to build four or five bombs. It might be able to build actual weapons, with missiles that can deliver them, by 2015. But for a pre-emptive strike--by the United States or more likely, Israel--to be effective, it would have to come far before Iran actually fields nuclear weapons. A hard-hitting report published by the International Atomic Energy Agency in November portrayed Iran as aggressively pursuing nukes, providing legitimacy for some kind of pre-emptive action. Deeper sanctions are one option, but the case for military strikes seems to be getting stronger.
Complicating the matter are statements by Saudi Arabia hinting that it, too, will seek nuclear weapons if the West doesn't do something decisive to halt Iran's nuclear program. Western strikes against Iran may start to seem preferable to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Since Iran is the world's third-largest crude oil exporter, a military confrontation or even tough sanctions could roil the oil markets more than anything that's happened over the last decade (WE NEED TO STOP USING OIL, GAS, COAL...ENTIRELY, SO SUCH COULD BE QUITE GOOD). During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Iranian revolution combined with the start of the Iran-Iraq war caused oil prices to more than double (GOOD. WE'LL HAVE TO FIND OUT HOW TO USE LESS, HOW TO PRIORITIZE, HOW TO USE SOLAR POWER...). Today, that sort of reaction would send prices well over $150 per barrel, which alone would probably cause a global recession (MAYBE WE NEED SUCH TO SAVE THE HUMAN RACE FROM ITS FEMINIST-FAGGOT INDOLENCE WHICH IS PUSHING THE RACE TO NEAR-TERM EXTINCTION). Without an Iranian confrontation, the outlook for oil prices is generally benign. But it's hard to see how it will stay that way as Iran comes closer to nuclear capability. (FEMINIST-FAGGOT SHORT-TERM NONSENSE)
Congressional ineptitude. The good news is that barring unforeseen developments, the U.S. economy won't depend all that much on political action out of Washington in 2012. The Federal Reserve, which is independent of Congress, may pursue further monetary stimulus measures if growth weakens or unemployment stays high. But by the end of 2012, an unprecedented set of economic decisions will need to be made--by a lame-duck Congress in the aftermath of a turbulent presidential election.
The biggest decision is what to do about the Bush-era tax cuts that are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2012. Sharp spending cuts--which will hurt defense and other programs--are set to begin on Jan. 1, 2013. If Congress does nothing, or can't reach agreement, the tax hikes and spending cuts set to begin in early 2013 would hurt GDP growth and possibly induce another recession. The last-minute nature of any decisions will be harmful as it is, since business leaders (MORONS ; TOO MANY "BUSINESSES" TODAY ARE CONSUMERIST GARBAGE HEAPS NOT WORTH HAVING), wary of so much uncertainty, will delay hiring plans and risky investments until they know what's coming. And in early 2013, America's borrowing limit will need to be increased again, raising the prospect of more self-destructive brinksmanship that makes Americans even more disgusted with their leaders.
The world economy has been forgiving of the United States lately, with investors still flocking to Treasury securities, for example, despite the first-ever downgrade in the U.S. credit rating last summer. But politicians may make the mistake of counting on that largesse for far too long--as their counterparts in Europe have done. Temporary extensions won't work that much longer, either, since the rating agencies have given notice that any unexpected additions to the national debt will probably lead to further downgrades. Ultimately, there will come a crunch point at which politicians in Washington either do their jobs or wreck the economy.
There is, of course, a fourth type of financial shock that could occur in 2012: One that nobody foresees. (GLOBAL WAR...)
MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Russia said it had won the battle with a raging blaze aboard a nuclear submarine on Friday by submerging the stricken vessel at a navy shipyard after hours of dousing the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats.
There was no radiation leak, authorities said.
Television pictures showed a giant plume of smoke above the yard in the Murmansk region of northern Russia as over 100 firemen struggled to douse flames which witnesses said rose 10 metres (30 feet) above the Yekaterinburg submarine.
Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think (PRETTY MUCH WHAT EVERYONE ELSE THINKS : HOW TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE) Synopsis
Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, a new documentary film from Unity Productions Foundation, explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world's first major opinion poll, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization.
Gallup researchers began by asking the questions on every American's mind. Why is there so much anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists and how do Muslims feel about them? What do Muslims like and dislike about the West? What do Muslim women really want?
Crucial policy decisions hang on these questions. They continue to generate passionate disagreements in the public square. Yet for all the heat and controversy, the actual views of the world's Muslims have been conspicuously missing from this debate.
Now, we have the missing answers and statistics, gathered, parsed, and analyzed not by pundits but by professional researchers (HOW MANY AXES DID THEY HAVE TO GRIND ?).
As part of this groundbreaking six-year project, Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents in 35 predominantly Muslim nations, as well as smaller populations in Europe and the USA. The broad extent of the polling has delivered findings for the world's 1.4 billion Muslims with a plus or minus accuracy of 3%
Focused on the issues of Gender Justice (NOT "EQUALITY", BECAUSE MEN AND WOMEN ARE NOT "EQUAL"), Terrorism, and Democracy -the film presents this remarkable data deftly, showing how it challenges the popular notion that Muslims and the West are on a collision course. Like the research, the film highlights a shared relationship that is based on facts - not fear.
Experts featured (A Partial List): Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, John Esposito (ONE OF MY COLLEGE PROFESSORS AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY), University Professor, Georgetown University, RamiKhoury, Editor of the Daily Star (Beirut), and Kenneth Pollack, Director of Research, Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
jyi # 36A Women Rule The World
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 8:30 PM
Subject: jyi # 36A Women Rule The World
jewsyonkersislam# 36A Women Rule The World
jyi # 36A Women Rule The World
The feminine (x), through the collective feminine (all the x-es in women [xx] and men [xy]), rules the world. But the feminine, woman, does so through men. When men are not being men, but -like today- ever-lazier, irresponsible, effeminate and emasculated, you can bet that the collective feminine is at work. Both reacting against such and causing it to worsen -by making women try to become men and making more men and women "become" gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and worse- for its own purposes.. The GLAAD... group (along with ALL men and women, to a greater or lesser degree) can well be termed -in today's politically correct terms- sexual-identity challenged.
Below is a continuation of a sub-series on my blog (jewsyonkersislamiii-tc. blogspot.com)
subtitled : CHINESE....................... ECONOMY...
Further below are comments on today's news and some articles, AS I HAVE EDITED THEM , including some excerpts from my journal, my blog or my musings of more than a few years ago. And a critique of today's news
CHINESE ECONOMY ; China's toxic soup; China-Peru-Latin America ; Environment changes, and life adapts (UNLESS WE'RE ALL DEAD ; BUT THEN A DIFFERENT KIND OF "LIFE" EMERGES) ; Slow‐motion train wrecks take shape in front of us. ; The Euro is falling - and Europe with it ;Global national traumas ; Obama preaches, dictators sneer ; .Millennials are less inclined to take on responsibility and produce quality work (feminist-faggot excess of all kinds ;
12-28-11
THE WEEK BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR'S DAY IS A HOLIDAY WEEK AND LITTLE SUBSTANTIAL HAPPENS -AT LEAST ACCORDING TO SOME. BUT THE ECONOMIC NEWS GETS EVER WORSE EVEN THOUGH THE FEMINISTS AND FAGGOTS TRY TO MAKE THINGS SEEM BETTER THAN THEY ARE.
Journal News (JN), 11A, 6A, New York Times (NYT), B1 "Obama, Clinton" are "most admired" ? What nonsense. A "black" man who is US Pres. thanks to feminist-faggot rot and a woman as Sec. of State for the same corrupting reasons ? Both of them are relics from a dysfunctional past that is only making everything worse today. Mount Vernon's incoming Mayor, Ernie Davis, and its outgoing Mayor, Clinton Young -both of whom I like and have a long, if minor, history of association- appear to be at odds with Comptroller Maureen Walker (who is beautiful, has an MBA and a beautiful Jamaican accent) and Council Pres. Karen Watts (who wont let my speak before the City Council because I am anti-feminist, anti-gay...).
NYT, A1, A4, JN, 14A Women are ALWAYS at the center of any and every society, including Somalia. In addition, all women (like men) are somewhat jealous. But some are excessively so thanks to feminist-faggot shallowness, selfishness, rot , filth...and excess.
An Israeli blue eyed girl (and therefor a cousin of mine) is "at the center of tension over extremism" - outrage against feminist-faggot rot and nonsense pushed to an unwise extreme. Children should not be assaulted such as reported here (women are another matter, however). The feminist-faggot bullshit of a "liberal, secular society" should be attacked, though. These men have nothing better to do ? Perhaps because of the human race's current lack of adequate common goals ? The "news media", owned and run by feminists and faggots, always push liberal excess and rot with the result that "women are poorly treated in Western (modern) society... ... objectified". As for the "religious prohibition against men hearing women's (singing) voices", I am somewhat uneasy at such. My mother, a soprano, went to Julliard School of Music, sang on the radio...had 9 children and sang in the church choir every Sunday. A "court in Egypt said that rights of women were violated" by doctors giving these protesting women "virginity tests" to "humiliate" them. Do two wrongs ever make a right, I wonder ?
MY JOURNAL/BLOG Book reviews...
BASIC PROBLEMS OF ETHNOPSYCHIATRY Evolution is physical (individual) aa well as socio-cultural (socio-biology, evolutionary psychology). So each of us human beings evolves and society (collective feminine) as a whole does as well. A shaman (even an involuntary one such as a Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI] survivor like me) is exposed early in life to stress situations (TBI...) that are not only numerically frequent but culturally typical...Incidents and stresses resulting from such experiences are recognized and reformulated in cultural terms..."Scapegoating" is a common practice worldwide, whether valid or not...There are culturally standardized type conflicts and type solutions fo a shaman...What is the difference between shamans and priests ? ("new" language vs. "old" language)...A shaman's "symptoms" are his "performances"...(one should do the least amount of harm and the greatest amount of good)...The acquisition of shamanic "power" can be a restitutional process (adaptive, to survive and thrive)..."Supernatural powers" are not "normal" (and a confusing burden) but "powers" nonetheless...Shamanism is about "structuring defenses against the chaotic world", the 'eternal' present...We humans have a need for charismatic (shamanistic-like) leadership...In stress situations, culture itself provides defenses and directives on the "proper" misuse of cultural materials...(as well as) patterns of "acceptable" misconduct (if you are going to do it "wrong", then make sure you do it "right")...A shaman is "socially useful" as well as "anti-social" - there are culturally "proper" ways of being "crazy"
As long as you are "crazy" according to society's roles, you are not socially deviant and are accepted..."Inappropriate" behavior -if culturally recognized- is accepted..Shamanistic "behavior" is very similar to epileptic seizures...Repetitive/cyclical physical motion is an antidote...Culture (language, part of the collective feminine) is primarily a standardized system of defenses/ responses...There are biological, psychological and cultural ways of organizing behavior (responses)...According to psychiatry, we are normal, immature, neurotic and psychotic...Defense mechanisms are culturally established reaction patterns (formations)...Most people prefer not to think. They prefer to remember what they already know...The charismatic man also has a feminine side...Culture is a patterned way of experiencing (and responding to) oneself and the rest of the world...Without the human mind (limited human consciousness), there would be no culture (language) and without culture there would be no human mind (language).
Obama preaches, dictators sneer ; .Millennials are less inclined to take on responsibility and produce quality work (feminist-faggot excess of all kinds ;
.Millennials are less inclined to take on responsibility and produce quality work compared with their non-GenY co-workers.
Ever feel like your boss has a habit of giving you disapproving looks or keeping you from the company's most important accounts?
Your workplace paranoia might be grounded in some truth, at least according to a recent survey of employers across the country
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Nearly 70 percent of survey respondents think Millennials are lazy and uninterested in their jobs (FEMINIST-FAGGOT EXCESS HAS DESTROYED ALL ADEQUATE COMMON GOALS). What's more, 55 percent of Millennials agree...We were raised to chase our dreams, eschew the age-old climb up the corporate ladder, live with an independent streak and rely on finely-tuned tech skills to fix problems 100 times faster than our parents. (BUT WE HAVE NO ADEQUATE AND SUFFICIENT COMMON GOALS)
................at our best, we are experts in today's need-it-now culture. (QUICK-FIX NONSENSE)
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Each generation has its own unique style, and the Millennial tool kit is indispensable in today's business climate (IN TRUTH, WITHOUT ADEQUATE COMMON GOALS, IT IS AN ANCHOR AROUND OUR NECKS, ONLY DRAGGING US DOWN...technical mastery is one thing, and attitude (ADEQUATE INTER-GENERATIONAL GOALS) another....................
The Region: Obama preaches, dictators sneer
(BECAUSE OBAMA AND THE OTHER FEMINIST-FAGGOT CIVIL-RIGHTS CRETAN DEMOCRATS ARE A DISASTER HAPPENING TODAY)
By BARRY RUBIN
12/25/2011 21:45
Obama rejects US’s leadership role; Foreign leaders can only react with astonishment and – if they are hostile – laughter.
I don’t think one could come up with a more teachable moment regarding international affairs – and including Middle East politics – than a little incident that just happened between US President Barack Obama and Venezuela. (THE US, DROWNING IN FEMINIST-FAGGOT ROT, ELECTED A FIRST-RATE EXAMPLE OF THAT DEGENERATION IN OBAMA)
First, the facts: Obama gave an interview to a Venezuelan newspaper in which he articulated some of his administration’s most basic themes. “Venezuela is a proud, sovereign nation,” said the president, adding that “the United States has no intention of intervening in Venezuela’s foreign relations; however, I think the government’s ties with Iran and Cuba have not benefited the interests of Venezuela and its people. (OBAMA IS A TOTAL IDIOT, A HUGE JOKE)
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Obama has rejected America’s leadership role. He feels that the United States has been too much of a bully historically, so he doesn’t stress what US interests require but politely asks other – hostile – countries to behave differently. He tells them that to do so is in their interest because their current behavior doesn’t benefit them.
Foreign leaders can only react with astonishment and – if they are hostile – laughter. If they are pro-American they react with horror.
THIS APPROACH is a clear sign of weakness and fear(OBAMA TO A "T" ; CIVIL RIGHTS TO EXCESS, GIMME, GIMME, GIMME). It practically puts a “kick me” sign on Washington’s back.
Furthermore, telling someone else what their “true” interests is no less patronizing than telling them what your own interests are and demanding that they be respected. When you ask an aggressive dictator “pretty please,” you are asking for some spit in the face.
That’s just what Obama’s gotten received from Venezuela, Iran, and others. Take the response from Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez: “Obama, mind you own business, man. Focus on governing your country, which has become a disaster (AND I AGREE WITH CHAVEZ HERE)"..
Now you’re going looking for votes by attacking Venezuela....
“Obama, you’re a phony (HE AND ALL THE FEMINIST-FAGGOTS ARE SUCH AND SO).... Go and ask the black community in your country what you are to them: the biggest frustration in I don’t know how many years. Go and ask the many people in Africa who may have believed in you because of the color of your skin, because your father was from Africa. You’re a descendent of Africa, but you are the shame of all those people (AND OF THE USA).”
.....................
And each time Obama ignores these insults, ignores the violations of US interests, ignores the threats and attacks on US allies.
.........................
But there’s something else going on here that shows his ignorance and signals his ineffectiveness. America’s enemies know perfectly well where their interests lie. Of course, the Venezuelan regime benefits by building alliances with fellow radicals and anti-Americans. Iran’s regime benefits in many ways by seeking nuclear weapons.
It’s the same in Turkey, where the regime benefits by forming alliances with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and other fellow revolutionary Islamists. Palestinian Authority rulers benefit by not negotiating or compromising with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood benefits by seeking to seize state power and transform their states into Islamist ones. And so on.
Obama thinks that he can persuade radicals to be moderate. Thirty years ago, President Jimmy Carter also thought the US government could persuade the new Islamist regime in Iran to be moderate. In the 1990s President Bill Clinton thought a spell in power would turn Yasser Arafat into a moderate. It was just a matter of these revolutionaries seeing where their true interests were.
More recently, Vice President Joe Biden (A FOOLISH AND CHILDISH BUFFOON) said US policy in Afghanistan was to “try to get the Taliban to move in the direction to see to it that they, through reconciliation, commit not to be engaged with al- Qaida or any other organization that they would harbor to do damage to us and our allies....” (DOUBLE-TALK, TRIPLE-TALK...WHAT AN ASS)
Recently, a Third World diplomat whose democratic country has faced threats from radical regimes asked me why people fail to understand that the Muslim Brotherhood is a radical group. All I could answer was that people simply do not understand the role of ideology.
Part of this handicap is cultural; part due to ideological blindness on Obama’s own part. Yet the Obama administration is also ensuring it won’t learn by covering its eyes and ears, pretending that a revolutionary Islamist ideology doesn’t even exist.
Perhaps the most incredible aspect of all this is the numerous attempts by the Obama administration and its apologists –including Jews – to pretend that its policy is really good for Israel. Over and over again such people and their writings always ignore the regional strategic aspect of the damage that it is doing.
So what if the US government gives Israel military aid, which mostly consists of maintaining old programs? The Obama administration is building up the threat Israel faces to unprecedented levels. “I love Israel” statements don’t solve this huge strategic problem.
The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and a featured columnist at Pajamas Media. His new book, Israel: An Introduction, will be published by Yale University Press in January.
Friday, October 28, 2011
VIEW: Global national trauma — I —Tammy Swofford
It has been a decade of national trauma for many countries. But the events of the last few months have opened the door to the travails of the next decade. It will be a decade of counter-political tensions (AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION)
Two years ago my analysis addressed what I perceived to be rapidly evolving emancipation and self-determination movements across the Muslim-majority regions. I noted the need for stability operations and interventions across volatile societal rims (BUT WHO CAN PAY FOR SUCH). The year is winding down. It is time for a journalistic gamble. Let me place a bit of predictive analysis on the page. Let me review a decade and then forecast the challenges for the next 10 years (THE WAY WE ARE GOING WE MAY NOT SURVIVE INTO NEXT YEAR).
The years from 2001-2011 will be remembered as a decade of global trauma..............
Iran had a spat of large scale protests in 2009 after charges of vote-rigging by the government...............
Tunisia provided the opening act for 2011. ..............
Egypt had its days of acute national angst.
Western media outlets have headlined the news coming out of Libya with the use of the word “era”. Either it is the end of an era or the beginning of a new era. ........................
During the transitional phase embers of national trauma remain. The media will continue to give a round of applause and the occasional ‘hoorah’. But nations are made up of families. Families return home from their civil strife. They note the member who is missing from the family tree. A father, son, or perhaps even a child, has succumbed to the waves of violence that eroded the national psyche (PART OF THE COLLECTIVE FEMININE). Agricultural production and distribution have been interrupted. Infrastructure (what little there might have been) is degraded. Buildings have crumbled, roads have been blasted and medical resources decimated. Welcome to the ‘Arab Spring’.
It has been a decade of national trauma for many countries. But the events of the last few months have opened the door to the travails of the next decade. It will be a decade of counter-political tensions. On the national scale.............Governments and corporations will line up to conduct business as usual. But instability will create a growth industry for high-paid ‘reconnaissance’ consultants adept at political forecasting capabilities (AND ALL WILL BE WRONG).
Unresolved national trauma revitalises poor political practice. A grand game of shuffleboard is still ongoing in many of the nations that have passed through the Arab Spring. But freedom from oppression is not freedom from want. Freedom that provides opportunity looks quite different from freedom that is accompanied by hunger and unemployment. Many of the collaborators of freedom will be drawn to leadership promising rapid improvement of conditions. They will assign their loyalties on a regional, not national scale.(WELL PUT)
The counter-tension will be regional low intensity and chronic conflict inspired by micro models adapted from the Arab Spring. The decade (THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING WE MAY NOT SURVIVE 'TIL NEXT YEAR) will be one of additional misery, deepening poverty, and increased lawlessness for nations that do not evolve to societal homeostasis. The door is cracked for a new breed of national dictators.
The stable powers must work diligently to effectively landscape the foreign policy of the future. This requires (dare I say the words?) integrity and principled morality. (IT REQUIRES ADEQUATE COMMON GOALS FOR THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE)
The writer is a freelance columnist. She can be reached at tammyswof@msn.com
slow‐motion train wrecks take shape in front of us. ; The Euro is falling - and Europe with it ;
NEW YORK/LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Retailers saw a steady flow of last-minute shoppers on Saturday, the day before Christmas, putting a moderate cap on a pre-holiday season that started with a bang and has since waned.
Industry watchers are forecasting a stronger holiday shopping season than expected, fueled by deep discounts at the start of the season, unusually warm and dry weather, a late Hanukkah, and an extra shopping day.................................... but neither shoppers nor retailers seemed overwhelmed.
........................
Friday was the busiest shopping day of the season (AND I AM TOTALLY DISGUSTED BY FEMINIST-FAGGOT, ROT, FILTH SHALLOWNESS, PERVERSITY...OF AMERICAN AND WORLDWIDE CULTURE TODAY), according to a survey of stores done by mall operator Taubman Centers Inc.
Sales at surveyed stores were trending up at a mid-single-digit rate for the week, on average, Taubman said, though luxury goods stores were trending up at high-single to double-digit rates.
Saturday caps a key week in the retail calendar that saw a handful of major U.S. store chains staying open around the clock to cater to consumers' late-night shopping craves, from Toys R Us Inc to Macy's Inc (SHALLOW, STUPID CONSUMERIST NONSENSE), a decision hailed by shoppers and industry watchers alike.
..............................
All retailers offer discounts to draw shoppers as part of their holiday strategy. But unplanned markdowns, as a result of poor sales, is what hurts profit margins.
....................................
Some retailers' tactics included..............(FALSE REPORTS THAT PEOPLE ARE BUYING, SUCH AS BELOW...)
"There are still a lot of issues out there, including uncertainty in the economy," Swamy said. "But for whatever reason it didn't dampen people's holiday spirit.
There will be winners and losers in the event of the Euro failing. We are not there yet and may never get there. But if it does really happen...........
"EXISTENTIAL CRISIS: EVEN THE GENERALS ARE WARNING THE ECONOMY COULD TAKE US DOWN WE NEED TO BE ‘BE BLOODY, BOLD, AND RESOLUTE - NHJ December security memo ’'
" 'This “most terrifying and boring”. The European economic crisis just gets worse. It is agonising watching this greatest of slow‐motion train wrecks take shape in front of us.
environment changes, and life adapts (UNLESS WE'RE ALL DEAD ; BUT THEN A DIFFERENT KIND OF "LIFE" EMERGES)
We are the products of our environment — and that goes for egrets and elephants as much as human beings. The history of all life on this planet has been one of change and adaptation. The environment changes, and life adapts. That’s evolution in a nutshell.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that as the planet’s climate has changed through the geologic past — and it’s changed severely, from the hot and humid earth of the Triassic period to the ice ages that ended just 20,000 years ago — life has changed along with it. In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a group of researchers plot out just how the changing climate has impacted mammalian evolution in North America over the past 65 million years. They find that there have been six distinct waves of species diversity, and that the driving force of those waves has likely been climate change.
Here’s Brown University evolutionary biologist Christine Janis — a co-author on the paper with a group of Spanish researchers — on how changes in the climate beat out other factors like migration:
Although we’ve always known in a general way that mammals respond to climatic change over time, there has been controversy as to whether this can be demonstrated in a quantitative fashion. We show that the rise and fall of these faunas is indeed correlated with climatic change — the rise or fall of global paleotemperatures — and also influenced by other more local perturbations such as immigration events.
Of those six “waves” that Janis and her colleagues identify, four show statistically significant correlations with major changes in temperature, while the other two show a weaker correlation, most likely because those patterns corresponded to times when mammals from other continents invaded North America. Even today, invasive species are a leading cause of species extinction and ecosystem change — keeping in mind the fact that humans are, in a sense, an invasive species. But the PNAS study shows how relatively rapid changes in the planet’s temperature led to changes in ecosystems — woodland vegetation shifting to grasslands, for example — which in turn led to evolutionary changes in species themselves. Life adapts.
Of course, as the climate changes today — much more quickly than it has in the past — the question again is how life will adapt to a warmer world. Though the PNAS study doesn’t make any projections, other research has — and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. It’s difficult to get a firm idea of how wildlife (AND HUMAN BEINGS) might adapt — or not — to rapid climate change, which makes it hard to project actual numbers of extinctions in a warmer world. The PNAS study shows that temperature change in the past has led to changes in species diversity; when it comes to man-made global warming though, we’re embarking on an unplanned experiment without a control group.
The good news — of sorts — is that the earth has experienced massive climate change and massive species die-off through its 4.5 billion-year history, and every time, life eventually bounces back. Climate change — even drastic climate change — isn’t new for the planet. But something else is: us. The earth has never seen a species as numerous or as demanding as the modern Homo sapiens, spread to every corner of the world, using up resources and transforming the planet through agriculture, mining and deforestation. Science looks to the past to try to understand the future, but nothing like us has ever happened to the earth before.
China-Peru-Latin America
The new Peruvian government of President Ollanta Humala is accelerating programs begun by previous administrations to broaden and deepen ties with Beijing (THE LARGEST CHINESE IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY IN SOUTH AMERICA IS IN PERU) and make the Andean nation a key gateway between Asia and Latin America.
This drive, constructed on strong links between Peru and China that go back more than 150 years, reached a major milestone in the third quarter of this year when China overtook the United States as Peru's main trading partner.
Superficially, the story of China's interest in Peru looks very much like its efforts to corner reserves of natural resources elsewhere in the world, especially Africa.
China's investments in Peru, upwards of $10 billion, are almost all in mining operations and over 80 per cent of Peru's exports to China are four products: copper, iron, lead and fish meal.
But behind these numbers a much deeper relationship is growing that both the Lima and Beijing governments see as Peru becoming a major access point and base for Chinese business and investment in Latin America.
That wish has taken concrete form on several fronts.
Last month Peru hosted in Lima the fifth annual China-Latin America Business Summit which saw about 400 Chinese business people and government officials meet with about 600 Latin American counterparts.
And a year ago the opening of the Bio-ceanico Sur highway linked Peru's Pacific Ocean port of Ilo with the towns and cities of Brazil's central Amazon region.
The intention, as the highway's name says, is to create a transportation corridor between the Pacific and Brazil's Atlantic coast.
An indication of the importance of this and other Peruvian transport links to Pacific ports is that in the first 10 months of this year the country's exports rose by 31 per cent over the same period last year.
At the same time, imports rose by 28 per cent.
In both cases the main trade was with China, which demonstrates China's vision of Peru as a highway for the distribution of Chinese manufactured goods to the growing middle class in Latin America's towns and cities.
It was during Peru's 400 years as part of the Spanish Empire that it first became a key link in Madrid's trans-Pacific chain of trade with China.
The ending of slavery in Peru in the 1840s led to a flood of indentured labour from China, mostly from southern Guangdong province (HONG KONG AREA).
There was another mass immigration from China to Peru at the end of the 19th century as people fled the social upheaval and insecurity caused by the collapse of the Qing (MANCHU) Dynasty.
It is now reckoned that about one million of Peru's 30 million people are of Chinese descent.
From this bedrock Peru has plunged into fashioning itself into a China-friendly doorway into Latin America.
Its universities and colleges have introduced Chinese language and business programs, and there are now six Confucius Institutes - Beijing's major cultural expeditionary forces - in Peru, the most in any one country in Latin America.
Beijing also sees Peru as an important partner in China's expanding network of security alliances.
Two weeks before the China-Latin America trade summit, another visitor from Beijing was Gen. Guo Boxiong, the vicechairman of China's Central Military Commission.
Guo, accompanied by an entourage of about a dozen senior army, navy and air force officers, signed two military cooperation agreements with his Peruvian counterparts.
These agreements covering the transfer of training and other equipment, build on a well-established military-to-military relationship.
Peru was one of the first Latin American countries to buy Chinese military hardware and several Peruvian officers attend Chinese military academies every year.
jmanthorpe@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun (AND THERE IS A HUGE CHINESE IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY IN VANCOUVER, CANADA)
Greater China
Dec 14, 2011
China's toxic soup
By Kent Ewing
HONG KONG - When residents of this city - now a special administrative region of China - complain about rising levels of air pollution that sometimes shroud its world-famous skyline (WHICH I'VE SEEN MANY TIMES ON TRIPS TO CHINA...) in a murky pall of gray, they can cheer themselves with the thought: At least I don't live in Beijing - the national capital.
This month, so far, has been particularly reassuring. Though Hong Kong's pollution index has been high enough to warrant health warnings for those who suffer from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases (AND WHO DOESN'T AFTER LIVING THERE FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME), its residents have seen nothing like the vile muck that can be found in skies to the north.
Chinese officials were finally able to breathe a relatively clean sigh of relief last week when a fortuitous cold front swept through Beijing, lifting the embarrassing blanket of toxic (!!!) smog that had
Dilbert
mute
been choking the country's capital for four consecutive days.
Air pollution levels were bad enough to cause the cancellation of nearly 700 flights in and out of the city and to send its population of 20 million on an unprecedented buying spree that turned surgical masks into a new fashion industry.
At one point, the rooftop pollution monitor at the US Embassy in Beijing jumped from a reading of "very unhealthy" to "beyond index". When a city enters the fearsome realm of "beyond", its citizens become unnerved and angry. (AND DYING)
So that cold front, bone-chilling though it may be, brought welcome relief to the people and to the government - both municipal and central - that does its best to hide the country's dire pollution problem, which is especially acute in Beijing, in the hope that its burgeoning middle class will be happy enough with China's tremendous economic gains to accept the environmental and health consequences that go along with such breakneck growth.
But this cold front, too, will pass - and then, as anyone who has spent extended time in Beijing knows, the city's skies will once again fill with a soupy poison that is clearly a health threat to the people who live and work there. In the end, what is your newfound wealth worth when the city in which you earned it is killing you? (TOUCHE')
Why is it that, even according to official data, the rate of lung cancer in Beijing has risen by nearly 60% since 2000 as the number of smokers has decreased? Shanghai is worse, by the way - with a 73% jump in lung cancer during that time - and the story is similar in other major Chinese cities.
If Chinese urbanites look long and hard enough, however, somewhere in that noxious cloud above and around them they may see at least a metaphorical silver lining: Pollution is now so bad in the capital that its people - distrustful of bureaucratic pledges to clean it up, not to mention the preposterously low official pollution readings that simply do not tally with the atmospheric gunk they see with their own eyes - are taking matters into their own hands. And they are starting to make a difference.
When government readings - based on an outdated monitoring system that counts only suspended particles between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in diameter - cannot be trusted, Beijingers turn to the US Embassy, whose up-to-date equipment counts particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5). These baneful jots and specks, experts agree, comprise most of the city's air pollution and are far more likely to cause damage to the lungs that can lead to cancer and serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Beyond the gross inaccuracies of Beijing's monitoring system, city officials also choose to present a misleading average of pollution over the past 24 hours, whereas the more precise US Embassy readings are current and broadcast hourly via Twitter. These tweets have been a source of tension between embassy officials and Beijing bureaucrats, but many of the city's netizens have come to rely on them as they plan their schedules for days, and even weeks, when the air they breathe may be harmful to their health.
While Twitter is blocked in mainland China, wily Beijingers use virtual private networks to circumvent the censors, and there is also a mobile phone app that accesses the embassy feed. And, once the bad news leaks out, it is quickly posted on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, for anyone with a computer or a smartphone to see and share.
Thus, on December 4, many residents were able to compare the embassy reading of 522 on the US Environmental Protection Agency's 500-point scale (and so "beyond index") with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection's assessment of air pollution as "light" that day. The bureau also described the city's yellow haze, which reduced visibility to less than 500 meters, as innocuous fog, not deadly smog.
Such discrepancies hardly inspire confidence in local officials - who, by the way, do possess and employ state-of-the-art PM2.5 monitoring equipment. Beijing has 27 monitoring stations capable of measuring PM2.5 levels, but officials choose to keep their readings to themselves.
Perhaps they learned a lesson from the eastern city of Nanjing, which was quickly castigated last month by central authorities after publishing PM2.5 readings online.
To be fair, it should be noted that the central government's Ministry of Environmental Protection has announced plans to set new pollution standards based on PM2.5 readings, but not until 2016, and some cities - for example, Shanghai, China's financial capital - have pledged to adopt the new standards sooner than that.
Let's also remember that the US only started measuring PM2.5 a decade ago and did not begin enforcing limits on small-particle emissions until 2006.
China's 30-year economic boom has left many of its cities with pollution levels similar to those witnessed in Los Angeles and London 40 to 50 years ago. Beijing may not even be the worst case - but, because of its special status as the nation's capital and cultural center, it is the most prominent and embarrassing.
Even the rich, powerful and well connected are fed up. One of the city's biggest property developers, Pan Shiyi, used his Weibo microblog, which has seven million followers, to launch a poll last month on whether Beijing should adopt stricter pollution standards. The results were predictable: 91% of the 42,118 followers who voted for wanting to see better standards put in place this year.
Since city officials have no plans to do this, however, some residents are literally taking matters into their own hands. Thanks to a local environmental group called Green Beagle - founded by journalist Feng Yongfeng - ordinary Beijingers are recording PM2.5 pollution levels using the group's hand-held, locally made monitoring device.
Green Beagle volunteers measure pollution on the street, in offices, in supermarkets and in their own homes - and then post their readings on Green Beagle's website.
At this point, Green Beagle possesses only one monitoring device, which it lends out for up to a week at a time to a growing contingent of volunteers. Despite the group's meager resources, its postings, also woefully at odds with official readings, are adding to the pressure on authorities to act.
That was clear last week when state-run media - which generally used to live in the same state of denial as municipal officials in Beijing - joined the campaign for cleaner air.
Last Thursday, China Daily ran a story in which a Beijing-based expert on the environment made an unambiguous call for a tougher air-quality regime.
"Including PM2.5 readings is essential in figuring out the country's haze problems," said Ma Jun, director of the Public and Environmental Affairs Institute, "and it reflects the growing influence of public opinion regarding air quality."
And this from an editorial in the usually see-no-evil Global Times: "Our pollution has become severe. It is time for us to shift our focus from development to protection."
So far, however, local officials in Beijing are making no promises, even though - as the city was setting the stage to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games - they took action that proved convincingly that pollution levels could be dramatically reduced. Blue skies prevailed while the games were on; once they ended, it was back to business as usual.
Embarrassingly, this has left the US Embassy as the pollution authority in China's capital city.
Kent Ewing is a Hong Kong-based teacher and writer. He can be reached at kewing56@gmail.com Follow him on Twitter: @KentEwing1
(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
CHINESE ECONOMY
The End of the Chinese Dream
As China's economy continues to trend downward, Beijing's elites are sparking a new, palpable frustration in the general population.
BY CHRISTINA LARSON | DECEMBER 21, 2011
BEIJING – In June, a Chinese friend of mine who grew up in the northern industrial city of Shenyang and recently graduated from university moved to Beijing to follow his dream -- working for a media company. He has a full-time job, but the entry-level pay isn't great and it's tough to make ends meet. When we had lunch recently, he brought up his housing situation, which he described as "not ideal." He was living in a three-bedroom apartment split by seven people, near the Fourth Ring Road -- the outer orbit of the city. Five of his roommates were young women who went to work each night at 11 p.m. and returned around 4 a.m. "They say they are working the overnight shift at Tesco," the British retailer, but he was dubious. One night he saw them entering a KTV Club wearing lots of makeup and "skirts much shorter than my boxers" and, tellingly, proceeding through the employee entrance. "So they are prostitutes," he concluded. "I feel a little uncomfortable."
But when he tallied his monthly expenses and considered his lack of special connections, or guanxi, in the city, either to help boost his paycheck or to find more comfortable but not more expensive housing, he figured he'd stick out the grim living situation. "I have come here to be a journalist -- it is my goal, and I do not want to go back now. But it seems like it's harder than it used to be."
When I asked how his colleagues and former classmates were getting along, he thought about it for a moment and then replied that some were basically in the same lot as him, "but many of my friends have parents in Beijing, and they can save money to live with them. If your family is already established here, it helps a lot." After a moment, he added: "And some of them have rich parents who have already bought them their own apartments -- and cars."
Despite China's astonishing economic growth, it has gotten harder for people like my friend to get by in the big city. His is not a particularly lucrative profession. Like many in Beijing, he cannot count on his annual pay to keep pace with China's official rates of inflation -- which many economists suspect are lowballed anyway. (The consumer-price-index inflation rate is considered so sensitive that the State Council approves it before it is released publicly.) Even so, every month this year consumer-price-index inflation has exceeded the official average monthly target of 4 percent. Last month state media hailed it as good news that it was, officially, just 4.2 percent.
Anyone in Beijing can point to examples of friends who see rents hiked 10 percent or more in one year. The prices at restaurants keep going up, even as portions are getting noticeably smaller. Throw in the loss of intangibles that money can't buy -- like air quality and food safety -- and you begin to understand the grumbling among some of Beijing's non-wealthy folks that their standard of living seems to be diminishing, even as the national GDP surges ahead at a heady 9 percent.
Could it possibly be true that a swath of people in China's big cities is downwardly mobile, if one compared wages with living expenses? I asked Patrick Chovanec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing. Alas, he told me, it's difficult to find much clarification in China's famously fudgeable official statistics. (For instance, the official unemployment rate only includes individuals with urban hukous, or permanent residency permits -- which excludes the most economically vulnerable.) Still, he noted: "If you perceive that you're losing buying power -- or have rising but unmet expectations -- that's when people get upset.… And this country, for a country growing at over 9 percent, is in a foul mood."
Indeed, there is a palpable sense of frustration in Beijing, especially compared with the last time I lived here in 2008. You can see it on the dour faces on the metro, hear it in raspy voices at dinner conversations, and especially sense it in the new gruffness of taxi drivers, who no longer think ferrying people around town for 10 yuan, about $1.60, is such a good deal for them (their base fare hasn't been raised). Still, it's hard to rage against abstractions. It's a lot easier to fume at obnoxious people.
No wonder, then, that in 2011 the Chinese media and Sina Weibo (China's version of Twitter) buzzed nearly every month with salacious reports of China's Paris Hilton-types -- the sons and daughters of the wealthy and political elite, dangling opulent accessories and impoverished judgment -- behaving badly in BMWs and Audis and typically expecting to get away with it, to boot.
CHINESE ECONOMY
WASHINGTON, DC – China had an advanced and prosperous civilization for millennia until the eighteenth century, but then degenerated into a very poor country for 150 years. Now it has resurged to become the world’s most dynamic economy since launching its transition to a market economy in 1979. What drove these fateful changes?
In my recent book Demystifying the Chinese Economy, I argue that, for any country at any time, the foundation for sustained growth is technological innovation. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, craftsmen and farmers were the main source of innovation. With the largest population in the world, China was a leader in technological innovation and economic development throughout most of its history because it had a large pool of craftsmen and farmers.
The Industrial Revolution accelerated the pace of Western progress by replacing experience-based technological innovation with controlled experiments conducted by scientists and engineers in laboratories. This paradigm shift marked the coming of modern economic growth, and contributed to the global economy’s “Great Divergence.”
China failed to undergo a similar shift, owing primarily to its civil-service examination system, which emphasized the memorization of Confucian classics and provided little incentive for elites to learn mathematics and science.
The Great Divergence had a silver lining: developing countries could use technology transfers from advanced countries to achieve a faster rate of economic growth than the countries that were at the industrial vanguard. But China failed to exploit this benefit of backwardness until the transition from a command economy began in earnest.
In the wake of the communist takeover in 1949, Mao Zedong and other political leaders hoped to reverse China’s backwardness quickly, adopting a big push to build advanced capital-intensive industries. This strategy enabled China to test nuclear bombs in the 1960’s and launch satellites in the 1970’s.
But China was still a poor, agrarian economy; it held no comparative advantage in capital-intensive industries. Firms in those industries were not viable in an open, competitive market. Their survival required government protection, subsidies, and administrative directives. These measures helped China establish modern, advanced industries, but resources were misallocated and incentives distorted. Economic performance was poor. Haste made waste.
When China’s market transition started in 1979, Deng Xiaoping adopted a pragmatic, dual-track approach, rather than the “Washington Consensus” formula of rapid privatization and trade liberalization. On the one hand, the government continued to provide transitory protection to firms in priority sectors; on the other, it liberalized the entry of private enterprises and foreign direct investment into the labor-intensive sectors that were consistent with China’s comparative advantage but were repressed in the past.
This approach enabled China to achieve stability and dynamic growth simultaneously. Indeed, the benefits of backwardness have been breathtaking: 9.9% average annual GDP growth and 16.3% annual trade growth over the past 32 years – a stellar achievement that holds valuable lessons for other developing countries. Now China is the world’s largest exporter and its second largest economy, and more than 600 million people were pulled out of poverty.
Yet China’s success has not come without cost. Income disparities have widened, owing in part to the continuation of distortionary policies in various sectors, including the domination of China’s four large state-owned banks, the near-zero royalty on mining, and monopolies in major industries, including telecommunications, power, and financial services. Because such distortions (a legacy of the dual-track transition) result in income disparities, they ultimately repress domestic consumption and contribute to China’s trade imbalance. Those imbalances will remain until China completes its market transition.
I am confident (AND I AM NOT - FOR MANY, MANY REASONS, SOME NOTED HERE) that, notwithstanding the headwinds blowing from the eurozone crisis and the slump in demand worldwide, China can continue its dynamic growth. In 2008, China’s per capita income stood at 21% of the US level (measured in purchasing power parity), and was similar to Japan’s per capita income in 1951, South Korea’s in 1977, and Taiwan’s in 1975. Annual GDP growth averaged 9.2% in Japan from 1951 to 1971, 7.6% in South Korea from 1977 to 1997, and 8.3% in Taiwan from 1975 to 1995. Given the similarities between these economies’ experience and China’s post-1979 development strategy, it is likely that China can maintain 8% growth in the coming two decades.
Some may think that the performance of a country as unique as China, with more than 1.3 billion people, cannot be replicated. I disagree. Every developing country can have similar opportunities to sustain rapid growth for several decades and reduce poverty dramatically if it exploits the benefits of backwardness, imports technology from advanced countries, and upgrades its industries. Simply put, there is no substitute for understanding comparative advantage.
Subject: jyi # 36A Women Rule The World
jewsyonkersislam# 36A Women Rule The World
jyi # 36A Women Rule The World
The feminine (x), through the collective feminine (all the x-es in women [xx] and men [xy]), rules the world. But the feminine, woman, does so through men. When men are not being men, but -like today- ever-lazier, irresponsible, effeminate and emasculated, you can bet that the collective feminine is at work. Both reacting against such and causing it to worsen -by making women try to become men and making more men and women "become" gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and worse- for its own purposes.. The GLAAD... group (along with ALL men and women, to a greater or lesser degree) can well be termed -in today's politically correct terms- sexual-identity challenged.
Below is a continuation of a sub-series on my blog (jewsyonkersislamiii-tc. blogspot.com)
subtitled : CHINESE....................... ECONOMY...
Further below are comments on today's news and some articles, AS I HAVE EDITED THEM , including some excerpts from my journal, my blog or my musings of more than a few years ago. And a critique of today's news
CHINESE ECONOMY ; China's toxic soup; China-Peru-Latin America ; Environment changes, and life adapts (UNLESS WE'RE ALL DEAD ; BUT THEN A DIFFERENT KIND OF "LIFE" EMERGES) ; Slow‐motion train wrecks take shape in front of us. ; The Euro is falling - and Europe with it ;Global national traumas ; Obama preaches, dictators sneer ; .Millennials are less inclined to take on responsibility and produce quality work (feminist-faggot excess of all kinds ;
12-28-11
THE WEEK BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR'S DAY IS A HOLIDAY WEEK AND LITTLE SUBSTANTIAL HAPPENS -AT LEAST ACCORDING TO SOME. BUT THE ECONOMIC NEWS GETS EVER WORSE EVEN THOUGH THE FEMINISTS AND FAGGOTS TRY TO MAKE THINGS SEEM BETTER THAN THEY ARE.
Journal News (JN), 11A, 6A, New York Times (NYT), B1 "Obama, Clinton" are "most admired" ? What nonsense. A "black" man who is US Pres. thanks to feminist-faggot rot and a woman as Sec. of State for the same corrupting reasons ? Both of them are relics from a dysfunctional past that is only making everything worse today. Mount Vernon's incoming Mayor, Ernie Davis, and its outgoing Mayor, Clinton Young -both of whom I like and have a long, if minor, history of association- appear to be at odds with Comptroller Maureen Walker (who is beautiful, has an MBA and a beautiful Jamaican accent) and Council Pres. Karen Watts (who wont let my speak before the City Council because I am anti-feminist, anti-gay...).
NYT, A1, A4, JN, 14A Women are ALWAYS at the center of any and every society, including Somalia. In addition, all women (like men) are somewhat jealous. But some are excessively so thanks to feminist-faggot shallowness, selfishness, rot , filth...and excess.
An Israeli blue eyed girl (and therefor a cousin of mine) is "at the center of tension over extremism" - outrage against feminist-faggot rot and nonsense pushed to an unwise extreme. Children should not be assaulted such as reported here (women are another matter, however). The feminist-faggot bullshit of a "liberal, secular society" should be attacked, though. These men have nothing better to do ? Perhaps because of the human race's current lack of adequate common goals ? The "news media", owned and run by feminists and faggots, always push liberal excess and rot with the result that "women are poorly treated in Western (modern) society... ... objectified". As for the "religious prohibition against men hearing women's (singing) voices", I am somewhat uneasy at such. My mother, a soprano, went to Julliard School of Music, sang on the radio...had 9 children and sang in the church choir every Sunday. A "court in Egypt said that rights of women were violated" by doctors giving these protesting women "virginity tests" to "humiliate" them. Do two wrongs ever make a right, I wonder ?
MY JOURNAL/BLOG Book reviews...
BASIC PROBLEMS OF ETHNOPSYCHIATRY Evolution is physical (individual) aa well as socio-cultural (socio-biology, evolutionary psychology). So each of us human beings evolves and society (collective feminine) as a whole does as well. A shaman (even an involuntary one such as a Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI] survivor like me) is exposed early in life to stress situations (TBI...) that are not only numerically frequent but culturally typical...Incidents and stresses resulting from such experiences are recognized and reformulated in cultural terms..."Scapegoating" is a common practice worldwide, whether valid or not...There are culturally standardized type conflicts and type solutions fo a shaman...What is the difference between shamans and priests ? ("new" language vs. "old" language)...A shaman's "symptoms" are his "performances"...(one should do the least amount of harm and the greatest amount of good)...The acquisition of shamanic "power" can be a restitutional process (adaptive, to survive and thrive)..."Supernatural powers" are not "normal" (and a confusing burden) but "powers" nonetheless...Shamanism is about "structuring defenses against the chaotic world", the 'eternal' present...We humans have a need for charismatic (shamanistic-like) leadership...In stress situations, culture itself provides defenses and directives on the "proper" misuse of cultural materials...(as well as) patterns of "acceptable" misconduct (if you are going to do it "wrong", then make sure you do it "right")...A shaman is "socially useful" as well as "anti-social" - there are culturally "proper" ways of being "crazy"
As long as you are "crazy" according to society's roles, you are not socially deviant and are accepted..."Inappropriate" behavior -if culturally recognized- is accepted..Shamanistic "behavior" is very similar to epileptic seizures...Repetitive/cyclical physical motion is an antidote...Culture (language, part of the collective feminine) is primarily a standardized system of defenses/ responses...There are biological, psychological and cultural ways of organizing behavior (responses)...According to psychiatry, we are normal, immature, neurotic and psychotic...Defense mechanisms are culturally established reaction patterns (formations)...Most people prefer not to think. They prefer to remember what they already know...The charismatic man also has a feminine side...Culture is a patterned way of experiencing (and responding to) oneself and the rest of the world...Without the human mind (limited human consciousness), there would be no culture (language) and without culture there would be no human mind (language).
Obama preaches, dictators sneer ; .Millennials are less inclined to take on responsibility and produce quality work (feminist-faggot excess of all kinds ;
.Millennials are less inclined to take on responsibility and produce quality work compared with their non-GenY co-workers.
Ever feel like your boss has a habit of giving you disapproving looks or keeping you from the company's most important accounts?
Your workplace paranoia might be grounded in some truth, at least according to a recent survey of employers across the country
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Nearly 70 percent of survey respondents think Millennials are lazy and uninterested in their jobs (FEMINIST-FAGGOT EXCESS HAS DESTROYED ALL ADEQUATE COMMON GOALS). What's more, 55 percent of Millennials agree...We were raised to chase our dreams, eschew the age-old climb up the corporate ladder, live with an independent streak and rely on finely-tuned tech skills to fix problems 100 times faster than our parents. (BUT WE HAVE NO ADEQUATE AND SUFFICIENT COMMON GOALS)
................at our best, we are experts in today's need-it-now culture. (QUICK-FIX NONSENSE)
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Each generation has its own unique style, and the Millennial tool kit is indispensable in today's business climate (IN TRUTH, WITHOUT ADEQUATE COMMON GOALS, IT IS AN ANCHOR AROUND OUR NECKS, ONLY DRAGGING US DOWN...technical mastery is one thing, and attitude (ADEQUATE INTER-GENERATIONAL GOALS) another....................
The Region: Obama preaches, dictators sneer
(BECAUSE OBAMA AND THE OTHER FEMINIST-FAGGOT CIVIL-RIGHTS CRETAN DEMOCRATS ARE A DISASTER HAPPENING TODAY)
By BARRY RUBIN
12/25/2011 21:45
Obama rejects US’s leadership role; Foreign leaders can only react with astonishment and – if they are hostile – laughter.
I don’t think one could come up with a more teachable moment regarding international affairs – and including Middle East politics – than a little incident that just happened between US President Barack Obama and Venezuela. (THE US, DROWNING IN FEMINIST-FAGGOT ROT, ELECTED A FIRST-RATE EXAMPLE OF THAT DEGENERATION IN OBAMA)
First, the facts: Obama gave an interview to a Venezuelan newspaper in which he articulated some of his administration’s most basic themes. “Venezuela is a proud, sovereign nation,” said the president, adding that “the United States has no intention of intervening in Venezuela’s foreign relations; however, I think the government’s ties with Iran and Cuba have not benefited the interests of Venezuela and its people. (OBAMA IS A TOTAL IDIOT, A HUGE JOKE)
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Obama has rejected America’s leadership role. He feels that the United States has been too much of a bully historically, so he doesn’t stress what US interests require but politely asks other – hostile – countries to behave differently. He tells them that to do so is in their interest because their current behavior doesn’t benefit them.
Foreign leaders can only react with astonishment and – if they are hostile – laughter. If they are pro-American they react with horror.
THIS APPROACH is a clear sign of weakness and fear(OBAMA TO A "T" ; CIVIL RIGHTS TO EXCESS, GIMME, GIMME, GIMME). It practically puts a “kick me” sign on Washington’s back.
Furthermore, telling someone else what their “true” interests is no less patronizing than telling them what your own interests are and demanding that they be respected. When you ask an aggressive dictator “pretty please,” you are asking for some spit in the face.
That’s just what Obama’s gotten received from Venezuela, Iran, and others. Take the response from Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez: “Obama, mind you own business, man. Focus on governing your country, which has become a disaster (AND I AGREE WITH CHAVEZ HERE)"..
Now you’re going looking for votes by attacking Venezuela....
“Obama, you’re a phony (HE AND ALL THE FEMINIST-FAGGOTS ARE SUCH AND SO).... Go and ask the black community in your country what you are to them: the biggest frustration in I don’t know how many years. Go and ask the many people in Africa who may have believed in you because of the color of your skin, because your father was from Africa. You’re a descendent of Africa, but you are the shame of all those people (AND OF THE USA).”
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And each time Obama ignores these insults, ignores the violations of US interests, ignores the threats and attacks on US allies.
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But there’s something else going on here that shows his ignorance and signals his ineffectiveness. America’s enemies know perfectly well where their interests lie. Of course, the Venezuelan regime benefits by building alliances with fellow radicals and anti-Americans. Iran’s regime benefits in many ways by seeking nuclear weapons.
It’s the same in Turkey, where the regime benefits by forming alliances with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and other fellow revolutionary Islamists. Palestinian Authority rulers benefit by not negotiating or compromising with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood benefits by seeking to seize state power and transform their states into Islamist ones. And so on.
Obama thinks that he can persuade radicals to be moderate. Thirty years ago, President Jimmy Carter also thought the US government could persuade the new Islamist regime in Iran to be moderate. In the 1990s President Bill Clinton thought a spell in power would turn Yasser Arafat into a moderate. It was just a matter of these revolutionaries seeing where their true interests were.
More recently, Vice President Joe Biden (A FOOLISH AND CHILDISH BUFFOON) said US policy in Afghanistan was to “try to get the Taliban to move in the direction to see to it that they, through reconciliation, commit not to be engaged with al- Qaida or any other organization that they would harbor to do damage to us and our allies....” (DOUBLE-TALK, TRIPLE-TALK...WHAT AN ASS)
Recently, a Third World diplomat whose democratic country has faced threats from radical regimes asked me why people fail to understand that the Muslim Brotherhood is a radical group. All I could answer was that people simply do not understand the role of ideology.
Part of this handicap is cultural; part due to ideological blindness on Obama’s own part. Yet the Obama administration is also ensuring it won’t learn by covering its eyes and ears, pretending that a revolutionary Islamist ideology doesn’t even exist.
Perhaps the most incredible aspect of all this is the numerous attempts by the Obama administration and its apologists –including Jews – to pretend that its policy is really good for Israel. Over and over again such people and their writings always ignore the regional strategic aspect of the damage that it is doing.
So what if the US government gives Israel military aid, which mostly consists of maintaining old programs? The Obama administration is building up the threat Israel faces to unprecedented levels. “I love Israel” statements don’t solve this huge strategic problem.
The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and a featured columnist at Pajamas Media. His new book, Israel: An Introduction, will be published by Yale University Press in January.
Friday, October 28, 2011
VIEW: Global national trauma — I —Tammy Swofford
It has been a decade of national trauma for many countries. But the events of the last few months have opened the door to the travails of the next decade. It will be a decade of counter-political tensions (AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION)
Two years ago my analysis addressed what I perceived to be rapidly evolving emancipation and self-determination movements across the Muslim-majority regions. I noted the need for stability operations and interventions across volatile societal rims (BUT WHO CAN PAY FOR SUCH). The year is winding down. It is time for a journalistic gamble. Let me place a bit of predictive analysis on the page. Let me review a decade and then forecast the challenges for the next 10 years (THE WAY WE ARE GOING WE MAY NOT SURVIVE INTO NEXT YEAR).
The years from 2001-2011 will be remembered as a decade of global trauma..............
Iran had a spat of large scale protests in 2009 after charges of vote-rigging by the government...............
Tunisia provided the opening act for 2011. ..............
Egypt had its days of acute national angst.
Western media outlets have headlined the news coming out of Libya with the use of the word “era”. Either it is the end of an era or the beginning of a new era. ........................
During the transitional phase embers of national trauma remain. The media will continue to give a round of applause and the occasional ‘hoorah’. But nations are made up of families. Families return home from their civil strife. They note the member who is missing from the family tree. A father, son, or perhaps even a child, has succumbed to the waves of violence that eroded the national psyche (PART OF THE COLLECTIVE FEMININE). Agricultural production and distribution have been interrupted. Infrastructure (what little there might have been) is degraded. Buildings have crumbled, roads have been blasted and medical resources decimated. Welcome to the ‘Arab Spring’.
It has been a decade of national trauma for many countries. But the events of the last few months have opened the door to the travails of the next decade. It will be a decade of counter-political tensions. On the national scale.............Governments and corporations will line up to conduct business as usual. But instability will create a growth industry for high-paid ‘reconnaissance’ consultants adept at political forecasting capabilities (AND ALL WILL BE WRONG).
Unresolved national trauma revitalises poor political practice. A grand game of shuffleboard is still ongoing in many of the nations that have passed through the Arab Spring. But freedom from oppression is not freedom from want. Freedom that provides opportunity looks quite different from freedom that is accompanied by hunger and unemployment. Many of the collaborators of freedom will be drawn to leadership promising rapid improvement of conditions. They will assign their loyalties on a regional, not national scale.(WELL PUT)
The counter-tension will be regional low intensity and chronic conflict inspired by micro models adapted from the Arab Spring. The decade (THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING WE MAY NOT SURVIVE 'TIL NEXT YEAR) will be one of additional misery, deepening poverty, and increased lawlessness for nations that do not evolve to societal homeostasis. The door is cracked for a new breed of national dictators.
The stable powers must work diligently to effectively landscape the foreign policy of the future. This requires (dare I say the words?) integrity and principled morality. (IT REQUIRES ADEQUATE COMMON GOALS FOR THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE)
The writer is a freelance columnist. She can be reached at tammyswof@msn.com
slow‐motion train wrecks take shape in front of us. ; The Euro is falling - and Europe with it ;
NEW YORK/LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Retailers saw a steady flow of last-minute shoppers on Saturday, the day before Christmas, putting a moderate cap on a pre-holiday season that started with a bang and has since waned.
Industry watchers are forecasting a stronger holiday shopping season than expected, fueled by deep discounts at the start of the season, unusually warm and dry weather, a late Hanukkah, and an extra shopping day.................................... but neither shoppers nor retailers seemed overwhelmed.
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Friday was the busiest shopping day of the season (AND I AM TOTALLY DISGUSTED BY FEMINIST-FAGGOT, ROT, FILTH SHALLOWNESS, PERVERSITY...OF AMERICAN AND WORLDWIDE CULTURE TODAY), according to a survey of stores done by mall operator Taubman Centers Inc.
Sales at surveyed stores were trending up at a mid-single-digit rate for the week, on average, Taubman said, though luxury goods stores were trending up at high-single to double-digit rates.
Saturday caps a key week in the retail calendar that saw a handful of major U.S. store chains staying open around the clock to cater to consumers' late-night shopping craves, from Toys R Us Inc to Macy's Inc (SHALLOW, STUPID CONSUMERIST NONSENSE), a decision hailed by shoppers and industry watchers alike.
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All retailers offer discounts to draw shoppers as part of their holiday strategy. But unplanned markdowns, as a result of poor sales, is what hurts profit margins.
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Some retailers' tactics included..............(FALSE REPORTS THAT PEOPLE ARE BUYING, SUCH AS BELOW...)
"There are still a lot of issues out there, including uncertainty in the economy," Swamy said. "But for whatever reason it didn't dampen people's holiday spirit.
There will be winners and losers in the event of the Euro failing. We are not there yet and may never get there. But if it does really happen...........
"EXISTENTIAL CRISIS: EVEN THE GENERALS ARE WARNING THE ECONOMY COULD TAKE US DOWN WE NEED TO BE ‘BE BLOODY, BOLD, AND RESOLUTE - NHJ December security memo ’'
" 'This “most terrifying and boring”. The European economic crisis just gets worse. It is agonising watching this greatest of slow‐motion train wrecks take shape in front of us.
environment changes, and life adapts (UNLESS WE'RE ALL DEAD ; BUT THEN A DIFFERENT KIND OF "LIFE" EMERGES)
We are the products of our environment — and that goes for egrets and elephants as much as human beings. The history of all life on this planet has been one of change and adaptation. The environment changes, and life adapts. That’s evolution in a nutshell.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that as the planet’s climate has changed through the geologic past — and it’s changed severely, from the hot and humid earth of the Triassic period to the ice ages that ended just 20,000 years ago — life has changed along with it. In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a group of researchers plot out just how the changing climate has impacted mammalian evolution in North America over the past 65 million years. They find that there have been six distinct waves of species diversity, and that the driving force of those waves has likely been climate change.
Here’s Brown University evolutionary biologist Christine Janis — a co-author on the paper with a group of Spanish researchers — on how changes in the climate beat out other factors like migration:
Although we’ve always known in a general way that mammals respond to climatic change over time, there has been controversy as to whether this can be demonstrated in a quantitative fashion. We show that the rise and fall of these faunas is indeed correlated with climatic change — the rise or fall of global paleotemperatures — and also influenced by other more local perturbations such as immigration events.
Of those six “waves” that Janis and her colleagues identify, four show statistically significant correlations with major changes in temperature, while the other two show a weaker correlation, most likely because those patterns corresponded to times when mammals from other continents invaded North America. Even today, invasive species are a leading cause of species extinction and ecosystem change — keeping in mind the fact that humans are, in a sense, an invasive species. But the PNAS study shows how relatively rapid changes in the planet’s temperature led to changes in ecosystems — woodland vegetation shifting to grasslands, for example — which in turn led to evolutionary changes in species themselves. Life adapts.
Of course, as the climate changes today — much more quickly than it has in the past — the question again is how life will adapt to a warmer world. Though the PNAS study doesn’t make any projections, other research has — and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. It’s difficult to get a firm idea of how wildlife (AND HUMAN BEINGS) might adapt — or not — to rapid climate change, which makes it hard to project actual numbers of extinctions in a warmer world. The PNAS study shows that temperature change in the past has led to changes in species diversity; when it comes to man-made global warming though, we’re embarking on an unplanned experiment without a control group.
The good news — of sorts — is that the earth has experienced massive climate change and massive species die-off through its 4.5 billion-year history, and every time, life eventually bounces back. Climate change — even drastic climate change — isn’t new for the planet. But something else is: us. The earth has never seen a species as numerous or as demanding as the modern Homo sapiens, spread to every corner of the world, using up resources and transforming the planet through agriculture, mining and deforestation. Science looks to the past to try to understand the future, but nothing like us has ever happened to the earth before.
China-Peru-Latin America
The new Peruvian government of President Ollanta Humala is accelerating programs begun by previous administrations to broaden and deepen ties with Beijing (THE LARGEST CHINESE IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY IN SOUTH AMERICA IS IN PERU) and make the Andean nation a key gateway between Asia and Latin America.
This drive, constructed on strong links between Peru and China that go back more than 150 years, reached a major milestone in the third quarter of this year when China overtook the United States as Peru's main trading partner.
Superficially, the story of China's interest in Peru looks very much like its efforts to corner reserves of natural resources elsewhere in the world, especially Africa.
China's investments in Peru, upwards of $10 billion, are almost all in mining operations and over 80 per cent of Peru's exports to China are four products: copper, iron, lead and fish meal.
But behind these numbers a much deeper relationship is growing that both the Lima and Beijing governments see as Peru becoming a major access point and base for Chinese business and investment in Latin America.
That wish has taken concrete form on several fronts.
Last month Peru hosted in Lima the fifth annual China-Latin America Business Summit which saw about 400 Chinese business people and government officials meet with about 600 Latin American counterparts.
And a year ago the opening of the Bio-ceanico Sur highway linked Peru's Pacific Ocean port of Ilo with the towns and cities of Brazil's central Amazon region.
The intention, as the highway's name says, is to create a transportation corridor between the Pacific and Brazil's Atlantic coast.
An indication of the importance of this and other Peruvian transport links to Pacific ports is that in the first 10 months of this year the country's exports rose by 31 per cent over the same period last year.
At the same time, imports rose by 28 per cent.
In both cases the main trade was with China, which demonstrates China's vision of Peru as a highway for the distribution of Chinese manufactured goods to the growing middle class in Latin America's towns and cities.
It was during Peru's 400 years as part of the Spanish Empire that it first became a key link in Madrid's trans-Pacific chain of trade with China.
The ending of slavery in Peru in the 1840s led to a flood of indentured labour from China, mostly from southern Guangdong province (HONG KONG AREA).
There was another mass immigration from China to Peru at the end of the 19th century as people fled the social upheaval and insecurity caused by the collapse of the Qing (MANCHU) Dynasty.
It is now reckoned that about one million of Peru's 30 million people are of Chinese descent.
From this bedrock Peru has plunged into fashioning itself into a China-friendly doorway into Latin America.
Its universities and colleges have introduced Chinese language and business programs, and there are now six Confucius Institutes - Beijing's major cultural expeditionary forces - in Peru, the most in any one country in Latin America.
Beijing also sees Peru as an important partner in China's expanding network of security alliances.
Two weeks before the China-Latin America trade summit, another visitor from Beijing was Gen. Guo Boxiong, the vicechairman of China's Central Military Commission.
Guo, accompanied by an entourage of about a dozen senior army, navy and air force officers, signed two military cooperation agreements with his Peruvian counterparts.
These agreements covering the transfer of training and other equipment, build on a well-established military-to-military relationship.
Peru was one of the first Latin American countries to buy Chinese military hardware and several Peruvian officers attend Chinese military academies every year.
jmanthorpe@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun (AND THERE IS A HUGE CHINESE IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY IN VANCOUVER, CANADA)
Greater China
Dec 14, 2011
China's toxic soup
By Kent Ewing
HONG KONG - When residents of this city - now a special administrative region of China - complain about rising levels of air pollution that sometimes shroud its world-famous skyline (WHICH I'VE SEEN MANY TIMES ON TRIPS TO CHINA...) in a murky pall of gray, they can cheer themselves with the thought: At least I don't live in Beijing - the national capital.
This month, so far, has been particularly reassuring. Though Hong Kong's pollution index has been high enough to warrant health warnings for those who suffer from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases (AND WHO DOESN'T AFTER LIVING THERE FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME), its residents have seen nothing like the vile muck that can be found in skies to the north.
Chinese officials were finally able to breathe a relatively clean sigh of relief last week when a fortuitous cold front swept through Beijing, lifting the embarrassing blanket of toxic (!!!) smog that had
Dilbert
mute
been choking the country's capital for four consecutive days.
Air pollution levels were bad enough to cause the cancellation of nearly 700 flights in and out of the city and to send its population of 20 million on an unprecedented buying spree that turned surgical masks into a new fashion industry.
At one point, the rooftop pollution monitor at the US Embassy in Beijing jumped from a reading of "very unhealthy" to "beyond index". When a city enters the fearsome realm of "beyond", its citizens become unnerved and angry. (AND DYING)
So that cold front, bone-chilling though it may be, brought welcome relief to the people and to the government - both municipal and central - that does its best to hide the country's dire pollution problem, which is especially acute in Beijing, in the hope that its burgeoning middle class will be happy enough with China's tremendous economic gains to accept the environmental and health consequences that go along with such breakneck growth.
But this cold front, too, will pass - and then, as anyone who has spent extended time in Beijing knows, the city's skies will once again fill with a soupy poison that is clearly a health threat to the people who live and work there. In the end, what is your newfound wealth worth when the city in which you earned it is killing you? (TOUCHE')
Why is it that, even according to official data, the rate of lung cancer in Beijing has risen by nearly 60% since 2000 as the number of smokers has decreased? Shanghai is worse, by the way - with a 73% jump in lung cancer during that time - and the story is similar in other major Chinese cities.
If Chinese urbanites look long and hard enough, however, somewhere in that noxious cloud above and around them they may see at least a metaphorical silver lining: Pollution is now so bad in the capital that its people - distrustful of bureaucratic pledges to clean it up, not to mention the preposterously low official pollution readings that simply do not tally with the atmospheric gunk they see with their own eyes - are taking matters into their own hands. And they are starting to make a difference.
When government readings - based on an outdated monitoring system that counts only suspended particles between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in diameter - cannot be trusted, Beijingers turn to the US Embassy, whose up-to-date equipment counts particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5). These baneful jots and specks, experts agree, comprise most of the city's air pollution and are far more likely to cause damage to the lungs that can lead to cancer and serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Beyond the gross inaccuracies of Beijing's monitoring system, city officials also choose to present a misleading average of pollution over the past 24 hours, whereas the more precise US Embassy readings are current and broadcast hourly via Twitter. These tweets have been a source of tension between embassy officials and Beijing bureaucrats, but many of the city's netizens have come to rely on them as they plan their schedules for days, and even weeks, when the air they breathe may be harmful to their health.
While Twitter is blocked in mainland China, wily Beijingers use virtual private networks to circumvent the censors, and there is also a mobile phone app that accesses the embassy feed. And, once the bad news leaks out, it is quickly posted on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, for anyone with a computer or a smartphone to see and share.
Thus, on December 4, many residents were able to compare the embassy reading of 522 on the US Environmental Protection Agency's 500-point scale (and so "beyond index") with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection's assessment of air pollution as "light" that day. The bureau also described the city's yellow haze, which reduced visibility to less than 500 meters, as innocuous fog, not deadly smog.
Such discrepancies hardly inspire confidence in local officials - who, by the way, do possess and employ state-of-the-art PM2.5 monitoring equipment. Beijing has 27 monitoring stations capable of measuring PM2.5 levels, but officials choose to keep their readings to themselves.
Perhaps they learned a lesson from the eastern city of Nanjing, which was quickly castigated last month by central authorities after publishing PM2.5 readings online.
To be fair, it should be noted that the central government's Ministry of Environmental Protection has announced plans to set new pollution standards based on PM2.5 readings, but not until 2016, and some cities - for example, Shanghai, China's financial capital - have pledged to adopt the new standards sooner than that.
Let's also remember that the US only started measuring PM2.5 a decade ago and did not begin enforcing limits on small-particle emissions until 2006.
China's 30-year economic boom has left many of its cities with pollution levels similar to those witnessed in Los Angeles and London 40 to 50 years ago. Beijing may not even be the worst case - but, because of its special status as the nation's capital and cultural center, it is the most prominent and embarrassing.
Even the rich, powerful and well connected are fed up. One of the city's biggest property developers, Pan Shiyi, used his Weibo microblog, which has seven million followers, to launch a poll last month on whether Beijing should adopt stricter pollution standards. The results were predictable: 91% of the 42,118 followers who voted for wanting to see better standards put in place this year.
Since city officials have no plans to do this, however, some residents are literally taking matters into their own hands. Thanks to a local environmental group called Green Beagle - founded by journalist Feng Yongfeng - ordinary Beijingers are recording PM2.5 pollution levels using the group's hand-held, locally made monitoring device.
Green Beagle volunteers measure pollution on the street, in offices, in supermarkets and in their own homes - and then post their readings on Green Beagle's website.
At this point, Green Beagle possesses only one monitoring device, which it lends out for up to a week at a time to a growing contingent of volunteers. Despite the group's meager resources, its postings, also woefully at odds with official readings, are adding to the pressure on authorities to act.
That was clear last week when state-run media - which generally used to live in the same state of denial as municipal officials in Beijing - joined the campaign for cleaner air.
Last Thursday, China Daily ran a story in which a Beijing-based expert on the environment made an unambiguous call for a tougher air-quality regime.
"Including PM2.5 readings is essential in figuring out the country's haze problems," said Ma Jun, director of the Public and Environmental Affairs Institute, "and it reflects the growing influence of public opinion regarding air quality."
And this from an editorial in the usually see-no-evil Global Times: "Our pollution has become severe. It is time for us to shift our focus from development to protection."
So far, however, local officials in Beijing are making no promises, even though - as the city was setting the stage to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games - they took action that proved convincingly that pollution levels could be dramatically reduced. Blue skies prevailed while the games were on; once they ended, it was back to business as usual.
Embarrassingly, this has left the US Embassy as the pollution authority in China's capital city.
Kent Ewing is a Hong Kong-based teacher and writer. He can be reached at kewing56@gmail.com Follow him on Twitter: @KentEwing1
(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
CHINESE ECONOMY
The End of the Chinese Dream
As China's economy continues to trend downward, Beijing's elites are sparking a new, palpable frustration in the general population.
BY CHRISTINA LARSON | DECEMBER 21, 2011
BEIJING – In June, a Chinese friend of mine who grew up in the northern industrial city of Shenyang and recently graduated from university moved to Beijing to follow his dream -- working for a media company. He has a full-time job, but the entry-level pay isn't great and it's tough to make ends meet. When we had lunch recently, he brought up his housing situation, which he described as "not ideal." He was living in a three-bedroom apartment split by seven people, near the Fourth Ring Road -- the outer orbit of the city. Five of his roommates were young women who went to work each night at 11 p.m. and returned around 4 a.m. "They say they are working the overnight shift at Tesco," the British retailer, but he was dubious. One night he saw them entering a KTV Club wearing lots of makeup and "skirts much shorter than my boxers" and, tellingly, proceeding through the employee entrance. "So they are prostitutes," he concluded. "I feel a little uncomfortable."
But when he tallied his monthly expenses and considered his lack of special connections, or guanxi, in the city, either to help boost his paycheck or to find more comfortable but not more expensive housing, he figured he'd stick out the grim living situation. "I have come here to be a journalist -- it is my goal, and I do not want to go back now. But it seems like it's harder than it used to be."
When I asked how his colleagues and former classmates were getting along, he thought about it for a moment and then replied that some were basically in the same lot as him, "but many of my friends have parents in Beijing, and they can save money to live with them. If your family is already established here, it helps a lot." After a moment, he added: "And some of them have rich parents who have already bought them their own apartments -- and cars."
Despite China's astonishing economic growth, it has gotten harder for people like my friend to get by in the big city. His is not a particularly lucrative profession. Like many in Beijing, he cannot count on his annual pay to keep pace with China's official rates of inflation -- which many economists suspect are lowballed anyway. (The consumer-price-index inflation rate is considered so sensitive that the State Council approves it before it is released publicly.) Even so, every month this year consumer-price-index inflation has exceeded the official average monthly target of 4 percent. Last month state media hailed it as good news that it was, officially, just 4.2 percent.
Anyone in Beijing can point to examples of friends who see rents hiked 10 percent or more in one year. The prices at restaurants keep going up, even as portions are getting noticeably smaller. Throw in the loss of intangibles that money can't buy -- like air quality and food safety -- and you begin to understand the grumbling among some of Beijing's non-wealthy folks that their standard of living seems to be diminishing, even as the national GDP surges ahead at a heady 9 percent.
Could it possibly be true that a swath of people in China's big cities is downwardly mobile, if one compared wages with living expenses? I asked Patrick Chovanec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing. Alas, he told me, it's difficult to find much clarification in China's famously fudgeable official statistics. (For instance, the official unemployment rate only includes individuals with urban hukous, or permanent residency permits -- which excludes the most economically vulnerable.) Still, he noted: "If you perceive that you're losing buying power -- or have rising but unmet expectations -- that's when people get upset.… And this country, for a country growing at over 9 percent, is in a foul mood."
Indeed, there is a palpable sense of frustration in Beijing, especially compared with the last time I lived here in 2008. You can see it on the dour faces on the metro, hear it in raspy voices at dinner conversations, and especially sense it in the new gruffness of taxi drivers, who no longer think ferrying people around town for 10 yuan, about $1.60, is such a good deal for them (their base fare hasn't been raised). Still, it's hard to rage against abstractions. It's a lot easier to fume at obnoxious people.
No wonder, then, that in 2011 the Chinese media and Sina Weibo (China's version of Twitter) buzzed nearly every month with salacious reports of China's Paris Hilton-types -- the sons and daughters of the wealthy and political elite, dangling opulent accessories and impoverished judgment -- behaving badly in BMWs and Audis and typically expecting to get away with it, to boot.
CHINESE ECONOMY
WASHINGTON, DC – China had an advanced and prosperous civilization for millennia until the eighteenth century, but then degenerated into a very poor country for 150 years. Now it has resurged to become the world’s most dynamic economy since launching its transition to a market economy in 1979. What drove these fateful changes?
In my recent book Demystifying the Chinese Economy, I argue that, for any country at any time, the foundation for sustained growth is technological innovation. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, craftsmen and farmers were the main source of innovation. With the largest population in the world, China was a leader in technological innovation and economic development throughout most of its history because it had a large pool of craftsmen and farmers.
The Industrial Revolution accelerated the pace of Western progress by replacing experience-based technological innovation with controlled experiments conducted by scientists and engineers in laboratories. This paradigm shift marked the coming of modern economic growth, and contributed to the global economy’s “Great Divergence.”
China failed to undergo a similar shift, owing primarily to its civil-service examination system, which emphasized the memorization of Confucian classics and provided little incentive for elites to learn mathematics and science.
The Great Divergence had a silver lining: developing countries could use technology transfers from advanced countries to achieve a faster rate of economic growth than the countries that were at the industrial vanguard. But China failed to exploit this benefit of backwardness until the transition from a command economy began in earnest.
In the wake of the communist takeover in 1949, Mao Zedong and other political leaders hoped to reverse China’s backwardness quickly, adopting a big push to build advanced capital-intensive industries. This strategy enabled China to test nuclear bombs in the 1960’s and launch satellites in the 1970’s.
But China was still a poor, agrarian economy; it held no comparative advantage in capital-intensive industries. Firms in those industries were not viable in an open, competitive market. Their survival required government protection, subsidies, and administrative directives. These measures helped China establish modern, advanced industries, but resources were misallocated and incentives distorted. Economic performance was poor. Haste made waste.
When China’s market transition started in 1979, Deng Xiaoping adopted a pragmatic, dual-track approach, rather than the “Washington Consensus” formula of rapid privatization and trade liberalization. On the one hand, the government continued to provide transitory protection to firms in priority sectors; on the other, it liberalized the entry of private enterprises and foreign direct investment into the labor-intensive sectors that were consistent with China’s comparative advantage but were repressed in the past.
This approach enabled China to achieve stability and dynamic growth simultaneously. Indeed, the benefits of backwardness have been breathtaking: 9.9% average annual GDP growth and 16.3% annual trade growth over the past 32 years – a stellar achievement that holds valuable lessons for other developing countries. Now China is the world’s largest exporter and its second largest economy, and more than 600 million people were pulled out of poverty.
Yet China’s success has not come without cost. Income disparities have widened, owing in part to the continuation of distortionary policies in various sectors, including the domination of China’s four large state-owned banks, the near-zero royalty on mining, and monopolies in major industries, including telecommunications, power, and financial services. Because such distortions (a legacy of the dual-track transition) result in income disparities, they ultimately repress domestic consumption and contribute to China’s trade imbalance. Those imbalances will remain until China completes its market transition.
I am confident (AND I AM NOT - FOR MANY, MANY REASONS, SOME NOTED HERE) that, notwithstanding the headwinds blowing from the eurozone crisis and the slump in demand worldwide, China can continue its dynamic growth. In 2008, China’s per capita income stood at 21% of the US level (measured in purchasing power parity), and was similar to Japan’s per capita income in 1951, South Korea’s in 1977, and Taiwan’s in 1975. Annual GDP growth averaged 9.2% in Japan from 1951 to 1971, 7.6% in South Korea from 1977 to 1997, and 8.3% in Taiwan from 1975 to 1995. Given the similarities between these economies’ experience and China’s post-1979 development strategy, it is likely that China can maintain 8% growth in the coming two decades.
Some may think that the performance of a country as unique as China, with more than 1.3 billion people, cannot be replicated. I disagree. Every developing country can have similar opportunities to sustain rapid growth for several decades and reduce poverty dramatically if it exploits the benefits of backwardness, imports technology from advanced countries, and upgrades its industries. Simply put, there is no substitute for understanding comparative advantage.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
jyi # 35A Women Rule The World
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2011 8:21 PM
Subject: jyi # 35A Women Rule The World
jewsyonkersislam# 35A Women Rule The World
jyi # 35A Women Rule The World
The feminine (x), through the collective feminine (all the x-es in women [xx] and men [xy]), rules the world. But the feminine, woman, does so through men. When men are not being men, but -like today- ever-lazier, irresponsible, effeminate and emasculated, you can bet that the collective feminine is at work. Both reacting against such and causing it to worsen -by making women try to become men and making more men and women "become" gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and worse- for its own purposes.. The GLAAD... group (along with ALL men and women, to a greater or lesser degree) can well be termed -in today's politically correct terms- sexual-identity challenged.
Below is a continuation of a sub-series on my blog (jewsyonkersislamiii-tc. blogspot.com)
subtitled : Left - feminist-faggot bullshit/TBI
Further below are comments on today's news and some articles, AS I HAVE EDITED THEM , including some excerpts from my journal, my blog or my musings of more than a few years ago. And a critique of today's news
Left is feminist-faggot bullshit ; race war, federal-homosexual cover-up; Prejudice ; Consumer confidence rises ? Rubbish ;
12-27-11
THE US AND WORLD ECONOMY IS A DISASTER. OIL, GAS, COAL...IS KILLING US ALL, BOTH BY GLOBAL WARMING AND BY INDIVIDUAL LUNG, HEART.... DISEASE, CANCERS, GENETIC DAMAGE IN THE LIVING AND THE AS YET UNBORN... MOREOVER, ALMOST NONE OF OUR CURRENT CONSUMERIST BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY IS WORTHWHILE, ALL BEING ABOUT SHALLOW, SELFISH CONSUMERIST EXCESS. WE HAVE BEEN LED TO BELIEVE THAT WE NEED SO MUCH THAT WE ACTUALLY DON'T -INCLUDING MUCH MEDICAL "CARE"- BY FEMINIST-FAGGOT EXCESS THAT IT IS A JOKE. MOREOVER, WHO SHOULD GET CARE, WHO SHOULD GET THE MOST EXPENSIVE TYPES OF CARE...? SHOULD IT BE RATIONED ?
New York Times (NYT), A? "Fiscal crisis takes toll on Greeks" where people cant afford any medical care. In White Plains, N.Y. some cops are suing so they dont have to pay 15% of their medical insurance costs, including one retired cop whose care probably costs millions. Everybody wants what they expected and expect. But when we cant afford it.......
NYT, A5 French breast implants are causing cancer, worldwide. But why do women need breast implants ? Feminist-faggot shallowness, selfishness, emptiness... incompetence...
NYT, A1, A19, Journal News (JN), 14A "Survey" of economy by economists ? OK, unless...? Ridiculous. At least half of our leaders in Washington (Senators and Representatives who have been around a while) are millionaires, many of whom weren't before they came to Washington. Why and how is that so ? Because they've been bought and paid for by special interests of all kinds, such as the oil, gas, coal...Pharmaceutical and medical...industries - and the feminists and faggots. Our "professional class of lawyers, teachers, journalists..." is mostly clueless and useless. "Today's economy is not a job machine". In truth, what sort of "jobs" do any good today. They are mostly feminist-faggot, social welfare, legal, medical, hospitality...nonsense, Special interests, education, health care, poverty programs -on all of which millions are spent every day- do little but enrich doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists (all feminist-faggots). In addition, because of feminist-faggot rot, perversion... our loss of morality gets more profound every day (40% of children are born out of wedlock). We must crush and smash feminist-faggot rot completely.
MY JOURNAL/BLOG Book reviews...
LONERGAN AND SPIRITUALITY/...INTEGRATION And other tidbits such as my lawsuit against Yonkers Mayor Spallone, N.Y.A.D., 1st. Dept, Federal Judge Sand... for $100 billion, filed in Westchester Supreme Court (docket # 3139/91) on 2-28-91, a few hours before the N.Y.A.D., 1st. Dept Disciplinary Committee threw me out of the legal profession. I was told by everyone that I "could not take on the establishment" alone (including my father, the CIA, FBI, DIA...), but I never had to do so. All I had to do was to continue on the course that I was -had and have always been- following, accepting defeat, embarrassment, shame, prison......
"We can trace the outer breakdown of the social order to the same breakdown in the personal order", all because of feminist-faggot filth, rot... What is a human being ? A self-constructed, limited, human conscious mind in a brain in a body. How do we pay attention ? Biologically, aesthetically, practically, mystically, dramatically, intellectually... "Group biases (are almost) impervious to healing (or change)...(because of) the tension between inter-subjective feelings (collective feminine) and practical intelligence (the collective masculine)". "Faith (language) is not only in the realm of common sense but also in the realm of theory", dreams, imagination... "Good stories span the chasm between 'divine' mystery and human reckoning". The "structure of (limited human) consciousness has creative norms (words/language) for finding what is intelligible, realistic and worthwhile...Power can be thought of as the ability to achieve aims...Authenticity makes power legitimate".
ELEMENTS OF SUFISM Outer practices can result in "inner awakening". An outer code of conduct can reveal the "inner reality of existence...the awakening of human consciousness...an experiential awakening into infinite realities as they unfold in their own way within each heart (the 'eternal' present)...The Sufi way is the prophetic path" (the 'eternal' present)
Consumer confidence perks up, house prices sag
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Improving labor market conditions lifted U.S. consumer confidence to an eight month high in December, but persistently weak house prices remain an obstacle to faster economic growth. The sharp rise in sentiment reported by the Conference Board on Tuesday offered hope for a pick-up in consumer spending after an anemic performance in November (NONSENSE. WHOEVER TOOK THESE POLLS RIGGED THEM TO GET THE ANSWERS THEY SOUGHT ; SEE JUST BELOW, SEARS)
Sears closing more stores as holiday sales slide
race war, federal-homosexual cover-up
Prejudice Comes from a Basic Human Need and Way of Thinking, New Research Suggests
(TO DEFINE OURSELVES WE NEED "NOT-I"S TO FORM OUR IDENTITIES)
ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2011) — Where does prejudice come from? Not from ideology, say the authors of a new paper. Instead, prejudice stems from a deeper psychological need, associated with a particular way of thinking. People who aren't comfortable with ambiguity and want to make quick and firm decisions are also prone to making generalizations about others.
In a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Arne Roets and Alain Van Hiel of Ghent University in Belgium look at what psychological scientists have learned about prejudice since the 1954 publication of an influential book, The Nature of Prejudice by Gordon Allport.
People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity. "Of course, everyone has to make decisions, but some people really hate uncertainty and therefore quickly rely on the most obvious information, often the first information they come across, to reduce it" Roets says. That's also why they favor authorities and social norms which make it easier to make decisions. Then, once they've made up their mind, they stick to it. "If you provide information that contradicts their decision, they just ignore it." (TOO MUCH JUSTIFICATION OF "TOLERANCE" -AS OF FEMINISTS, FAGGOTS...- IS DISASTROUS FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL)
Roets argues that this way of thinking is linked to people's need to categorize the world, often unconsciously. "When we meet someone, we immediately see that person as being male or female, young or old, black or white, without really being aware of this categorization," he says. "Social categories are useful to reduce complexity, but the problem is that we also assign some properties to these categories. This can lead to prejudice and stereotyping."
People who need to make quick judgments will judge a new person based on what they already believe about their category. "The easiest and fastest way to judge is to say, for example, ok, this person is a black man. If you just use your ideas about what black men are generally like, that's an easy way to have an opinion of that person," Roets says. "You say, 'he's part of this group, so he's probably like this.'"
It's virtually impossible to change the basic way that people think. Now for the good news: It's possible to actually also use this way of thinking to reduce people's prejudice. If people who need quick answers meet people from other groups and like them personally, they are likely to use this positive experience to form their views of the whole group. "This is very much about salient positive information taking away the aversion, anxiety, and fear of the unknown," Roets says.
Roets's conclusions suggest that the fundamental source of prejudice is not ideology, but rather a basic human need and way of thinking. "It really makes us think differently about how people become prejudiced or why people are prejudiced," Roets says. "To reduce prejudice, we first have to acknowledge that it often satisfies some basic need to have quick answers and stable knowledge people rely on to make sense of the world." (EXTREMELY WELL PUT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A direct-mail solicitation for Ron Paul's political and investment newsletters (I OPPOSE RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT, YET...) two decades ago warned of a "coming race war in our big cities" and of a "federal-homosexual cover-up" (NOT WRONG AT ALL) to play down the impact of AIDS. (WHICH THE FAGGOTS PUSH, PUSH, PUSH)
.....................
contained racist, anti-homosexual and anti-Israel rants.
Reports of the newsletters' contents have Paul's campaign scrambling to deny that he wrote the inflammatory articles.
Among other things, the articles called the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a "world-class philanderer (FROM WHAT I'VE READ, HE WAS)," .............and said that AIDS sufferers "enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick (THEY DO)."
.................................
there was a government conspiracy to cover up the impact of AIDS...(OF COURSE THERE WAS SOME OF THAT)
............................ a "plot for world government, world money and world central banking."
Left is feminist-faggot bullshit
BOOK REVIEW
Angels and inquisitors
A Point in Time by David Horowitz
Reviewed by David Goldman
....................
This paradox came to mind reading David Horowitz's new book, A Point In Time. For a quarter of a century, Horowitz has told unpleasant truths about the political left where he spent the first
half of his career before turning conservative some 30 years ago. Horowitz surpasses himself in this new essay, though, by telling unpleasant truths about the human condition. What begins as a personal meditation on mortality on the model of Marcus Aurelius shifts into a rough-and-tumble confrontation with faith.
Horowitz has been wrestling with human adversaries all his life, and now, like Jacob, he has wrestled with angels. Jacob bested the divine being (Esau's guardian angel, in rabbinic commentary) but got a dislocated hip for his trouble. Horowitz does not quite pin the matter down, but he does give Fyodor Dostoevsky's guardian angel a black eye.
This undertaking took courage, for the Russian novelist's "Grand Inquisitor" parable is a favorite of good people who agree with Horowitz on most of the practical issues. Dostoevsky's discursion at the end of The Brothers Karamazov is everywhere cited as an exemplary defense of faith against materialism, by reduction ad absurdum. (I count more than 100 references over the years to this parable in articles published in the religious monthly First Things.) The Inquisitor famously denounces the returning Christ for refusing Satan's dare to make bread from stones, admonishing him that the religion of bread - communism - will displace the religion of eternal life. (WE ALL DIE, SOONER OR LATER, AND WE CAN KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE 'ETERNAL' PRESENT ALTHOUGH WOMEN HAVE SOME SENSE OF IT AND EPILEPTICS ARE CONTINUALLY AWARE OF IT)
It is easy to attack the fallacies of one's enemies, but much harder to take on one's friends. Dostoevsky is a hero of faith to many good people; Horowitz exposes the great writer's faith as inadequate, even twisted. The author of The Brothers Karamazov gave lip service to life after death, but poured his passion into an earthly paradise. Although Dostoevsky exposed the horror behind the socialist utopia, he conjured another earthly dystopia. As Horowitz writes:
Dostoevsky had written in his notebooks: "I want the full kingdom of Christ." He had then crossed out the words "I want" and put in their place: "I believe in the full kingdom of Christ." And then: "I believe that this kingdom will be accomplished, and it will be with us in Russia." Other nations lived only for themselves but Russia was different, he believed; it was a nation that lived for Christ. "Now that the time has come," Russia would take the lead in establishing the kingdom of God, "becoming the servant of all for the sake of universal reconciliation ... [and] ,,, the ultimate unifying of humanity." (NONSENSE, WE NEED TO BE AND BECOME CONTENT -AND AWARE THAT WE ARE CONTENT- FIRST)
Dostoevsky, Horowitz concludes, "had become his own Inquisitor incarnate," a nominal Christian who eschews the Kingdom of Heaven for earthly rewards. It turns out that the writer did not find the prospect of contemplating the Godhead through eternity especially satisfying, and preferred to bring heaven down to Earth.
It is even worse than that, for Dostoevsky's apocalyptic vision required a Satanic enemy, which turned out be the Jews, as usual. Horowitz writes:
Every quest for a redemption in this life faces a necessary enemy in the opponents of its promised future. So it was with Dostoevsky's quest for a universal harmony in Christ, whose path was blocked by a people who were by nature insular and self-centered, as Dostoevsky viewed them - Jews. "The Yid and is bank are now reigning over everything," he confided to his notebooks, "over Europe, education, civilization, socialism." The Jew "will use [his bank] to uproot Christianity and destroy civilization."
Like every would-be redeemer, Dostoevsky viewed the apocalypse as imminent: "The Jews' ... reign is drawing nigh! Coming soon is the complete triumph of ideas before which feelings of love for humanity, the longing for truth, Christian feelings ... must give way."
The communist movement to which Horowitz's parents adhered until the 1956 Nikita Khrushchev revelation of Joseph Stalin's crimes, he observes, was Gnostic: it espoused a knowledge which if wielded by an elite, the proletarian vanguard, would solve all the problems of the world. Dostoevsky, I might add, abhorred Gnosticism in its Marxist guise, but clung ferociously to another form of idolatry, the worship of one's nation.
Men who have no faith in the Absolute Other, the God of the Bible, will worship themselves - either their brains, in the form of Gnosticism, or their bones, through tribalism. The tenacity of the Soviet empire derived from a devilish combination of both: the Marxist claim to universal salvation wedded to Russian nationalism. (AN EPILEPTIC, EVEN A MINOR ONE, SUCH AS ONE WITH TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY [TLE] OR ONE WHO IS A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY [TBI] SURVIVOR LIKE MYSELF WHO HAS A VARIANT OF SUCH knows/realizes...HOW LIMITED WE HUMANS REALLY ARE AND THAT ALL SUCH HUMAN SPECULATIONS...ARE EMPTY)
To go straight to the intellectual core of Horowitz's book attenuates its full impact. He embeds a sophisticated theological argument in a personal memoir, of family, homes, horses and dogs, in such a way that the matter of morality looms up as an existential question, rather than as an intellectual construct. It is affecting prose; Horowitz is trying to show us, rather than merely tell us, the presentiment. He leaves the reader hanging with the terrible question: What are our lives, and what are they worth?
Now that Russian communism is dead and Russian nationalism is dying, the Russians as a people have no answer to the existential question. When people do not know why they should live, they do not bring children into the world. Russia is dying of disappointment: at a constant fertility rate, Russia's population will fall from 142 million today to only 66 million at the end of the century. (THEY, LIKE THE REST OF THE MODERN -FEMINIST-FAGGOT- WORLD, HAVE NO ADEQUATE COMMON GOALS(
What Horowitz says of Dostoevsky applies to all of the European nations. The leaders of France and Spain, the principle antagonists in the horrible Thirty Years War of 1618-1648, each believed with solemn fervor that their nation was chosen by God for his works, such that any act in furtherance of raison d'etat, no matter how abominable, was sacred ipso facto.
And Germany (where the news always arrives late) discovered its sacred mission to propagate its culture in 1914, and fell victim afterwards to the hideous delusion of its racial superiority. The terrible thing is that Dostoevsky was a typical European. Not just Russia, but all of Europe is dying of disappointment. So are many Muslim nations, notably Iran and Turkey, as I recount in my book How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam Is Dying, Too).
As Horowitz observes, Jews appear less concerned with Christians with the particulars of the afterlife. Some elaboration of this would have been welcome. Eternal life and the resurrection of the dead are fundaments of Judaism, but we strive to bringing eternity into our daily lives than envision the particulars of the World to Come.
Other peoples do the same thing, whether they admit it or not. From the Jews, Franz Rosenzweig remarked, the nations of the world first heard of eternal life, but they sought to be eternal in their own Gentile skins, and tried to appropriate the Jewish concept of election to their own tribe. Adolf Hitler's "master race" perverts the concept of chosen people (as does Dostoevsky's notion of Russia as the "unique God-bearing nation"). This had catastrophic results.
America's founders also envisioned a new chosen people in a new promised land - Lincoln's "almost-chosen people", and (as Eric Nelson reports in his 2010 book The Hebrew Republic) drew extensively on post-biblical rabbinic sources as well as the Hebrew Scriptures. What distinguishes America from the failed nations of Europe is the absence of ethnicity: because we are founded on a proposition rather than a race, language or common history, America is immune to the tribal idolatry that ruined Europe.
There are some things we cannot think about without projecting our own limitations (OUR LIMITED HUMAN CONSCIOUS MINDS). That is true of the vision of an eternity in static contemplation, as well as the displacement of messianic hopes onto a supposed earthly paradise. We cannot imagine a conversation with God (BECAUSE OUR MIND -THAT WHICH IS ALL WE THINK WE ARE, ALTHOUGH EPILEPTICS...KNOW DIFFERENTLY IN THE PRESENT MOMENT- ARE LIMITED BY THE LIMITED CONSCIOUSNESS THAT IS ALL WE CAN COMPREHEND BY OURSELVES).
We cannot imagine eternity without reference to our own (LIMITED) perception of time, any more than we can imagine time at the moment of the Big Bang. And we cannot build a paradise on earth without magnifying our own imperfections, as Dostoevsky's example illustrates. We cannot live in the World to Come because we do not know what it is like. And if we try to force fallible humans to live in an earthly paradise, ultimately we shall have to kill them all for their failings.
Horowitz is still wrestling. He informs us that he is not a believer. Where God is concerned, Horowitz is a tough customer. He does not want easy comfort or cheap grace. But his religious sensibility is so keen that people of faith will find his book of use - not offensive, but disturbing in a productive way. And that is what makes him such a perceptive writer on mortality.
A Point in Time by David Horowitz. Regnery Publishing (August 29, 2011). ISBN-10: 159698290X. Price US$24.95, 128 pages.
David P Goldman aka Spengler has two new books out. How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is Dying, Too) was published by Regnery Press in September 2011. A volume of his essays on culture, religion and economics, It's Not the End of the World - It's Just the End of You, also appeared this autumn, from Van Praag Press.
Subject: jyi # 35A Women Rule The World
jewsyonkersislam# 35A Women Rule The World
jyi # 35A Women Rule The World
The feminine (x), through the collective feminine (all the x-es in women [xx] and men [xy]), rules the world. But the feminine, woman, does so through men. When men are not being men, but -like today- ever-lazier, irresponsible, effeminate and emasculated, you can bet that the collective feminine is at work. Both reacting against such and causing it to worsen -by making women try to become men and making more men and women "become" gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and worse- for its own purposes.. The GLAAD... group (along with ALL men and women, to a greater or lesser degree) can well be termed -in today's politically correct terms- sexual-identity challenged.
Below is a continuation of a sub-series on my blog (jewsyonkersislamiii-tc. blogspot.com)
subtitled : Left - feminist-faggot bullshit/TBI
Further below are comments on today's news and some articles, AS I HAVE EDITED THEM , including some excerpts from my journal, my blog or my musings of more than a few years ago. And a critique of today's news
Left is feminist-faggot bullshit ; race war, federal-homosexual cover-up; Prejudice ; Consumer confidence rises ? Rubbish ;
12-27-11
THE US AND WORLD ECONOMY IS A DISASTER. OIL, GAS, COAL...IS KILLING US ALL, BOTH BY GLOBAL WARMING AND BY INDIVIDUAL LUNG, HEART.... DISEASE, CANCERS, GENETIC DAMAGE IN THE LIVING AND THE AS YET UNBORN... MOREOVER, ALMOST NONE OF OUR CURRENT CONSUMERIST BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY IS WORTHWHILE, ALL BEING ABOUT SHALLOW, SELFISH CONSUMERIST EXCESS. WE HAVE BEEN LED TO BELIEVE THAT WE NEED SO MUCH THAT WE ACTUALLY DON'T -INCLUDING MUCH MEDICAL "CARE"- BY FEMINIST-FAGGOT EXCESS THAT IT IS A JOKE. MOREOVER, WHO SHOULD GET CARE, WHO SHOULD GET THE MOST EXPENSIVE TYPES OF CARE...? SHOULD IT BE RATIONED ?
New York Times (NYT), A? "Fiscal crisis takes toll on Greeks" where people cant afford any medical care. In White Plains, N.Y. some cops are suing so they dont have to pay 15% of their medical insurance costs, including one retired cop whose care probably costs millions. Everybody wants what they expected and expect. But when we cant afford it.......
NYT, A5 French breast implants are causing cancer, worldwide. But why do women need breast implants ? Feminist-faggot shallowness, selfishness, emptiness... incompetence...
NYT, A1, A19, Journal News (JN), 14A "Survey" of economy by economists ? OK, unless...? Ridiculous. At least half of our leaders in Washington (Senators and Representatives who have been around a while) are millionaires, many of whom weren't before they came to Washington. Why and how is that so ? Because they've been bought and paid for by special interests of all kinds, such as the oil, gas, coal...Pharmaceutical and medical...industries - and the feminists and faggots. Our "professional class of lawyers, teachers, journalists..." is mostly clueless and useless. "Today's economy is not a job machine". In truth, what sort of "jobs" do any good today. They are mostly feminist-faggot, social welfare, legal, medical, hospitality...nonsense, Special interests, education, health care, poverty programs -on all of which millions are spent every day- do little but enrich doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists (all feminist-faggots). In addition, because of feminist-faggot rot, perversion... our loss of morality gets more profound every day (40% of children are born out of wedlock). We must crush and smash feminist-faggot rot completely.
MY JOURNAL/BLOG Book reviews...
LONERGAN AND SPIRITUALITY/...INTEGRATION And other tidbits such as my lawsuit against Yonkers Mayor Spallone, N.Y.A.D., 1st. Dept, Federal Judge Sand... for $100 billion, filed in Westchester Supreme Court (docket # 3139/91) on 2-28-91, a few hours before the N.Y.A.D., 1st. Dept Disciplinary Committee threw me out of the legal profession. I was told by everyone that I "could not take on the establishment" alone (including my father, the CIA, FBI, DIA...), but I never had to do so. All I had to do was to continue on the course that I was -had and have always been- following, accepting defeat, embarrassment, shame, prison......
"We can trace the outer breakdown of the social order to the same breakdown in the personal order", all because of feminist-faggot filth, rot... What is a human being ? A self-constructed, limited, human conscious mind in a brain in a body. How do we pay attention ? Biologically, aesthetically, practically, mystically, dramatically, intellectually... "Group biases (are almost) impervious to healing (or change)...(because of) the tension between inter-subjective feelings (collective feminine) and practical intelligence (the collective masculine)". "Faith (language) is not only in the realm of common sense but also in the realm of theory", dreams, imagination... "Good stories span the chasm between 'divine' mystery and human reckoning". The "structure of (limited human) consciousness has creative norms (words/language) for finding what is intelligible, realistic and worthwhile...Power can be thought of as the ability to achieve aims...Authenticity makes power legitimate".
ELEMENTS OF SUFISM Outer practices can result in "inner awakening". An outer code of conduct can reveal the "inner reality of existence...the awakening of human consciousness...an experiential awakening into infinite realities as they unfold in their own way within each heart (the 'eternal' present)...The Sufi way is the prophetic path" (the 'eternal' present)
Consumer confidence perks up, house prices sag
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Improving labor market conditions lifted U.S. consumer confidence to an eight month high in December, but persistently weak house prices remain an obstacle to faster economic growth. The sharp rise in sentiment reported by the Conference Board on Tuesday offered hope for a pick-up in consumer spending after an anemic performance in November (NONSENSE. WHOEVER TOOK THESE POLLS RIGGED THEM TO GET THE ANSWERS THEY SOUGHT ; SEE JUST BELOW, SEARS)
Sears closing more stores as holiday sales slide
race war, federal-homosexual cover-up
Prejudice Comes from a Basic Human Need and Way of Thinking, New Research Suggests
(TO DEFINE OURSELVES WE NEED "NOT-I"S TO FORM OUR IDENTITIES)
ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2011) — Where does prejudice come from? Not from ideology, say the authors of a new paper. Instead, prejudice stems from a deeper psychological need, associated with a particular way of thinking. People who aren't comfortable with ambiguity and want to make quick and firm decisions are also prone to making generalizations about others.
In a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Arne Roets and Alain Van Hiel of Ghent University in Belgium look at what psychological scientists have learned about prejudice since the 1954 publication of an influential book, The Nature of Prejudice by Gordon Allport.
People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity. "Of course, everyone has to make decisions, but some people really hate uncertainty and therefore quickly rely on the most obvious information, often the first information they come across, to reduce it" Roets says. That's also why they favor authorities and social norms which make it easier to make decisions. Then, once they've made up their mind, they stick to it. "If you provide information that contradicts their decision, they just ignore it." (TOO MUCH JUSTIFICATION OF "TOLERANCE" -AS OF FEMINISTS, FAGGOTS...- IS DISASTROUS FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL)
Roets argues that this way of thinking is linked to people's need to categorize the world, often unconsciously. "When we meet someone, we immediately see that person as being male or female, young or old, black or white, without really being aware of this categorization," he says. "Social categories are useful to reduce complexity, but the problem is that we also assign some properties to these categories. This can lead to prejudice and stereotyping."
People who need to make quick judgments will judge a new person based on what they already believe about their category. "The easiest and fastest way to judge is to say, for example, ok, this person is a black man. If you just use your ideas about what black men are generally like, that's an easy way to have an opinion of that person," Roets says. "You say, 'he's part of this group, so he's probably like this.'"
It's virtually impossible to change the basic way that people think. Now for the good news: It's possible to actually also use this way of thinking to reduce people's prejudice. If people who need quick answers meet people from other groups and like them personally, they are likely to use this positive experience to form their views of the whole group. "This is very much about salient positive information taking away the aversion, anxiety, and fear of the unknown," Roets says.
Roets's conclusions suggest that the fundamental source of prejudice is not ideology, but rather a basic human need and way of thinking. "It really makes us think differently about how people become prejudiced or why people are prejudiced," Roets says. "To reduce prejudice, we first have to acknowledge that it often satisfies some basic need to have quick answers and stable knowledge people rely on to make sense of the world." (EXTREMELY WELL PUT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A direct-mail solicitation for Ron Paul's political and investment newsletters (I OPPOSE RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT, YET...) two decades ago warned of a "coming race war in our big cities" and of a "federal-homosexual cover-up" (NOT WRONG AT ALL) to play down the impact of AIDS. (WHICH THE FAGGOTS PUSH, PUSH, PUSH)
.....................
contained racist, anti-homosexual and anti-Israel rants.
Reports of the newsletters' contents have Paul's campaign scrambling to deny that he wrote the inflammatory articles.
Among other things, the articles called the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a "world-class philanderer (FROM WHAT I'VE READ, HE WAS)," .............and said that AIDS sufferers "enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick (THEY DO)."
.................................
there was a government conspiracy to cover up the impact of AIDS...(OF COURSE THERE WAS SOME OF THAT)
............................ a "plot for world government, world money and world central banking."
Left is feminist-faggot bullshit
BOOK REVIEW
Angels and inquisitors
A Point in Time by David Horowitz
Reviewed by David Goldman
....................
This paradox came to mind reading David Horowitz's new book, A Point In Time. For a quarter of a century, Horowitz has told unpleasant truths about the political left where he spent the first
half of his career before turning conservative some 30 years ago. Horowitz surpasses himself in this new essay, though, by telling unpleasant truths about the human condition. What begins as a personal meditation on mortality on the model of Marcus Aurelius shifts into a rough-and-tumble confrontation with faith.
Horowitz has been wrestling with human adversaries all his life, and now, like Jacob, he has wrestled with angels. Jacob bested the divine being (Esau's guardian angel, in rabbinic commentary) but got a dislocated hip for his trouble. Horowitz does not quite pin the matter down, but he does give Fyodor Dostoevsky's guardian angel a black eye.
This undertaking took courage, for the Russian novelist's "Grand Inquisitor" parable is a favorite of good people who agree with Horowitz on most of the practical issues. Dostoevsky's discursion at the end of The Brothers Karamazov is everywhere cited as an exemplary defense of faith against materialism, by reduction ad absurdum. (I count more than 100 references over the years to this parable in articles published in the religious monthly First Things.) The Inquisitor famously denounces the returning Christ for refusing Satan's dare to make bread from stones, admonishing him that the religion of bread - communism - will displace the religion of eternal life. (WE ALL DIE, SOONER OR LATER, AND WE CAN KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE 'ETERNAL' PRESENT ALTHOUGH WOMEN HAVE SOME SENSE OF IT AND EPILEPTICS ARE CONTINUALLY AWARE OF IT)
It is easy to attack the fallacies of one's enemies, but much harder to take on one's friends. Dostoevsky is a hero of faith to many good people; Horowitz exposes the great writer's faith as inadequate, even twisted. The author of The Brothers Karamazov gave lip service to life after death, but poured his passion into an earthly paradise. Although Dostoevsky exposed the horror behind the socialist utopia, he conjured another earthly dystopia. As Horowitz writes:
Dostoevsky had written in his notebooks: "I want the full kingdom of Christ." He had then crossed out the words "I want" and put in their place: "I believe in the full kingdom of Christ." And then: "I believe that this kingdom will be accomplished, and it will be with us in Russia." Other nations lived only for themselves but Russia was different, he believed; it was a nation that lived for Christ. "Now that the time has come," Russia would take the lead in establishing the kingdom of God, "becoming the servant of all for the sake of universal reconciliation ... [and] ,,, the ultimate unifying of humanity." (NONSENSE, WE NEED TO BE AND BECOME CONTENT -AND AWARE THAT WE ARE CONTENT- FIRST)
Dostoevsky, Horowitz concludes, "had become his own Inquisitor incarnate," a nominal Christian who eschews the Kingdom of Heaven for earthly rewards. It turns out that the writer did not find the prospect of contemplating the Godhead through eternity especially satisfying, and preferred to bring heaven down to Earth.
It is even worse than that, for Dostoevsky's apocalyptic vision required a Satanic enemy, which turned out be the Jews, as usual. Horowitz writes:
Every quest for a redemption in this life faces a necessary enemy in the opponents of its promised future. So it was with Dostoevsky's quest for a universal harmony in Christ, whose path was blocked by a people who were by nature insular and self-centered, as Dostoevsky viewed them - Jews. "The Yid and is bank are now reigning over everything," he confided to his notebooks, "over Europe, education, civilization, socialism." The Jew "will use [his bank] to uproot Christianity and destroy civilization."
Like every would-be redeemer, Dostoevsky viewed the apocalypse as imminent: "The Jews' ... reign is drawing nigh! Coming soon is the complete triumph of ideas before which feelings of love for humanity, the longing for truth, Christian feelings ... must give way."
The communist movement to which Horowitz's parents adhered until the 1956 Nikita Khrushchev revelation of Joseph Stalin's crimes, he observes, was Gnostic: it espoused a knowledge which if wielded by an elite, the proletarian vanguard, would solve all the problems of the world. Dostoevsky, I might add, abhorred Gnosticism in its Marxist guise, but clung ferociously to another form of idolatry, the worship of one's nation.
Men who have no faith in the Absolute Other, the God of the Bible, will worship themselves - either their brains, in the form of Gnosticism, or their bones, through tribalism. The tenacity of the Soviet empire derived from a devilish combination of both: the Marxist claim to universal salvation wedded to Russian nationalism. (AN EPILEPTIC, EVEN A MINOR ONE, SUCH AS ONE WITH TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY [TLE] OR ONE WHO IS A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY [TBI] SURVIVOR LIKE MYSELF WHO HAS A VARIANT OF SUCH knows/realizes...HOW LIMITED WE HUMANS REALLY ARE AND THAT ALL SUCH HUMAN SPECULATIONS...ARE EMPTY)
To go straight to the intellectual core of Horowitz's book attenuates its full impact. He embeds a sophisticated theological argument in a personal memoir, of family, homes, horses and dogs, in such a way that the matter of morality looms up as an existential question, rather than as an intellectual construct. It is affecting prose; Horowitz is trying to show us, rather than merely tell us, the presentiment. He leaves the reader hanging with the terrible question: What are our lives, and what are they worth?
Now that Russian communism is dead and Russian nationalism is dying, the Russians as a people have no answer to the existential question. When people do not know why they should live, they do not bring children into the world. Russia is dying of disappointment: at a constant fertility rate, Russia's population will fall from 142 million today to only 66 million at the end of the century. (THEY, LIKE THE REST OF THE MODERN -FEMINIST-FAGGOT- WORLD, HAVE NO ADEQUATE COMMON GOALS(
What Horowitz says of Dostoevsky applies to all of the European nations. The leaders of France and Spain, the principle antagonists in the horrible Thirty Years War of 1618-1648, each believed with solemn fervor that their nation was chosen by God for his works, such that any act in furtherance of raison d'etat, no matter how abominable, was sacred ipso facto.
And Germany (where the news always arrives late) discovered its sacred mission to propagate its culture in 1914, and fell victim afterwards to the hideous delusion of its racial superiority. The terrible thing is that Dostoevsky was a typical European. Not just Russia, but all of Europe is dying of disappointment. So are many Muslim nations, notably Iran and Turkey, as I recount in my book How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam Is Dying, Too).
As Horowitz observes, Jews appear less concerned with Christians with the particulars of the afterlife. Some elaboration of this would have been welcome. Eternal life and the resurrection of the dead are fundaments of Judaism, but we strive to bringing eternity into our daily lives than envision the particulars of the World to Come.
Other peoples do the same thing, whether they admit it or not. From the Jews, Franz Rosenzweig remarked, the nations of the world first heard of eternal life, but they sought to be eternal in their own Gentile skins, and tried to appropriate the Jewish concept of election to their own tribe. Adolf Hitler's "master race" perverts the concept of chosen people (as does Dostoevsky's notion of Russia as the "unique God-bearing nation"). This had catastrophic results.
America's founders also envisioned a new chosen people in a new promised land - Lincoln's "almost-chosen people", and (as Eric Nelson reports in his 2010 book The Hebrew Republic) drew extensively on post-biblical rabbinic sources as well as the Hebrew Scriptures. What distinguishes America from the failed nations of Europe is the absence of ethnicity: because we are founded on a proposition rather than a race, language or common history, America is immune to the tribal idolatry that ruined Europe.
There are some things we cannot think about without projecting our own limitations (OUR LIMITED HUMAN CONSCIOUS MINDS). That is true of the vision of an eternity in static contemplation, as well as the displacement of messianic hopes onto a supposed earthly paradise. We cannot imagine a conversation with God (BECAUSE OUR MIND -THAT WHICH IS ALL WE THINK WE ARE, ALTHOUGH EPILEPTICS...KNOW DIFFERENTLY IN THE PRESENT MOMENT- ARE LIMITED BY THE LIMITED CONSCIOUSNESS THAT IS ALL WE CAN COMPREHEND BY OURSELVES).
We cannot imagine eternity without reference to our own (LIMITED) perception of time, any more than we can imagine time at the moment of the Big Bang. And we cannot build a paradise on earth without magnifying our own imperfections, as Dostoevsky's example illustrates. We cannot live in the World to Come because we do not know what it is like. And if we try to force fallible humans to live in an earthly paradise, ultimately we shall have to kill them all for their failings.
Horowitz is still wrestling. He informs us that he is not a believer. Where God is concerned, Horowitz is a tough customer. He does not want easy comfort or cheap grace. But his religious sensibility is so keen that people of faith will find his book of use - not offensive, but disturbing in a productive way. And that is what makes him such a perceptive writer on mortality.
A Point in Time by David Horowitz. Regnery Publishing (August 29, 2011). ISBN-10: 159698290X. Price US$24.95, 128 pages.
David P Goldman aka Spengler has two new books out. How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is Dying, Too) was published by Regnery Press in September 2011. A volume of his essays on culture, religion and economics, It's Not the End of the World - It's Just the End of You, also appeared this autumn, from Van Praag Press.
Monday, December 26, 2011
jyi # 34A Women Rule The World
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 1:40 PM
Subject: jyi # 34A Women Rule The World
jewsyonkersislam# 34A Women Rule The World
jyi # 34A Women Rule The World
The feminine (x), through the collective feminine (all the x-es in women [xx] and men [xy]), rules the world. But the feminine, woman, does so through men. When men are not being men, but -like today- ever-lazier, irresponsible, effeminate and emasculated, you can bet that the collective feminine is at work. Both reacting against such and causing it to worsen -by making women try to become men and making more men and women "become" gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and worse- for its own purposes.. The GLAAD... group (along with ALL men and women, to a greater or lesser degree) can well be termed -in today's politically correct terms- sexual-identity challenged.
Below is a continuation of a sub-series on my blog (jewsyonkersislamiii-tc. blogspot.com)
subtitled : gender, especially Jewish
Further below are comments on today's news and some articles, AS I HAVE EDITED THEM , including some excerpts from my journal, my blog or my musings of more than a few years ago. And a critique of today's news
12-26-11
HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE WORLD, THE MINDS OF EVERYONE IN THE WORLD ? YOU DONT BECAUSE YOU CANT. BUT THE WORLD CAN DO THAT, THE PLANET EARTH AND THE COLLECTIVE FEMININE WORKING TOGETHER - AS THEY ARE TODAY. WE NEED TOTAL WAR ON THE USE OF OIL, GAS, COAL..., DESPITE THE PAIN IT WILL IMPOSE ON US ALL.
New York Times (NYT), A1, A4 American firms buy European assets at very reasonable prices because Europe is collapsing. However, America is right behind Europe in "collapsing", so... The Chinese village revolt is a "Harbinger" of the collapse of China. And Russia's political unrest is the same there.
NYT, A27, Journal News (JN), 7A "Springtime for toxics" as Republican politicians come out supporting pollution, cancer, lung and heart disease, genetic damage in the living and in the as yet unborn, global warming...and the imminent extinction of the human race. "Learn from Pennsylvania's fracking experience" ? The whole article was bought and paid for by the oil, gas, coal...industry and can not be believed a bit.
MY JOURNAL/BLOG Book reviews
MASTERING THE ART OF WAR (SUN TZU'S MASTERPIECE) as well as my 9-25-90 Address to the Yonkers City Council)
"Skilled Warriors are subtle". See my published poem "Subtly", just below. "Warriors take advantage of the structure and momentum in a situation...Not doing does everything (not unlike Lao Tzu or the I Ching...)...The theme of order...(of) the balanced middle course" is crucial. "Adaptation" is also essential. "Without detachment, there is no way to clarify the will, without serenity, there is no way to get far... A sage has no consistent mind - the people are his mind...In military strategy, one follows the timing of opportunities...First organize yourself, then others...Though effective, appear ineffective...Strength and weakness are matters of perception...Induce others to make formations (structures...to oppose you) while you remain formless...Use the force of momentum to defeat your opponents...Those who face the unprepared with preparation are victorious...Through injury (loss, defeat, humiliation...) trouble can be resolved...Provoke (your opponents)...waiting in ambush for them to respond...It is up to you not to fight".
PROCESS OF INTENSIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY As I see it, all psychotherapists, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists... are do-nothing worthwhile idiots. "Integrative...supportive...transference...counter-transference...after-care". More money for do-nothing productive morons and know-it-alls.
SACRED ART OF DYING Also my 3-13-90 Address to the Yonkers City Council
Attitudes towards death : Hindu, Buddhist, Tibetan, Chinese, Mesopotamian and Egyptian, Greek, Hebraic, Christian, Islamic... "Dying before death (is in all religions...) : Experience of Rebirth (is also in all religions...)"
REFLECTIONS AND MAXIMS OF SPINOZA "Justice, Madness, Teaching, Women...Both sexes live in harmony (when men rule the world and women rule [stabilize] their men)...(It is against the natural order that) men should be ruled by women"
Below is one of my first published poems, Subtly. It was published in 1986 (?) and I had been working on this goal (how to change the world) since many years before then. My blog, jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot,com, has more on this and many other issues.
SUBTLY
To change a system that has worked so well - so long and so well
Is easy not at all nor fixed with ease the greatest there is
That you are branded the greatest of fools is nothing, so long
as you're happy and well, so long as you're given to live in
this life we live in
What must be fixed is no little thing, for band-aid approaches
avail us no more
And yet, this thing needing to be fixed ? Morality and standards
are needed once more, for we no more bumps on a log can be
And people must grasp, in themselves or not at all, that the
fixing in them must be. Subtly is this done, or not at all
Subtly
gender, especially Jewish
TO BEGIN WITH, I VISCERALLY ABHOR FEMINISM, HOMOSEXUALITY, BISEXUALITY, TRANS-SEXUALITY... ALL FOR DIFFERENT YET COMMON REASONS. ALL ARE WRONG...
Jewish Ideas Daily: Orthosexuality
By ELLI FISCHER
12/25/2011 22:13
In contemporary society, shifts within the Jewish community toward greater openness go unnoticed. (AND MUST BE CRUSHED IN THEIR EXCESS)
The Talmud tells a story about one Rabbi Kahana who hid under the bed of his master, Rabbi Abba (better known as Rav), as the latter was having sex with his wife. Kahana, shocked at the type of frivolous language used by his mentor, commented that Rav was behaving ravenously. Rav exclaimed, “Kahana, you’re here? Get out! It’s not proper!” Kahana replied, “It is Torah – and study it I must.”
(TORAH STUDY IS PROPER, BUT NEITHER WOMEN NOR SEXUAL INTERCOURSE ARE. WOMEN ARE "A NATION APART", TO BE CARED FOR AND GUIDED BY MEN BEING REAL MEN)
It is not easy to discern who gets the last word in this jarring little aggadah (indeed, it appears in several places in the Babylonian Talmud – sometimes with and sometimes without Kahana’s ultimate proclamation). There is a clear tension between propriety and modesty on one hand, and the religious requirement to understand sexuality on the other.
The balance between (ETHICS) these two values has varied from community to community and era to era, and there have certainly been Jewish communities far more prudish than the Talmud’s. Yet in contemporary society, characterized by unprecedented sexual casualness (FEMINIST-FAGGOT FILTH, ROT, EXCESS, PERVERSITY...), shifts within the Jewish community toward greater openness go unnoticed.
Public perception has tended to relate to several controversies that recently erupted within the American Modern Orthodox community – one relating to an Orthodox college student’s article about a one-night stand and another pertaining to an Orthodox-style homosexual commitment ceremony in Washington, DC – as evidence of cloistering and repression within this community. In truth, however, there has been a subtle but dramatic shift toward greater openness about sexuality in the Modern Orthodox world over the past decade or so. (GREATER "OPENNESS" TO LEAD TO NECESSARY AND WIDESPREAD THROTTLING OF FEMINISM, HOMOSEXUALITY, BISEXUALITY, TRANS-SEXUALITY... ALL FOR DIFFERENT YET COMMON REASONS : ALL ARE WRONG...IN TODAY'S GROSS EXCESS)
That the community has shifted toward greater openness while upholding communal modesty norms is strongly attested to by the recent publication of The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy by Jennie Rosenfeld and David S. Ribner. This booklet speaks directly to the experience of young Orthodox couples and the attitudes about sex that they have absorbed during their formative years.
The authors’ thorough knowledge of the Orthodox community and their work experience equips them to walk couples entering a sexual relationship with little or no experience and constrained by a complex set of rules and mores through their first, often awkward sexual encounters. It answers many questions that these young couples have about sex (but are, naturally, afraid to ask). Pasted into the book’s back cover is an envelope that contains several detailed sketches of male and female anatomy as well as some basic positions for intercourse.
THE UNPRECEDENTED inclusion of sexually graphic material in an Orthodox publication, coupled with its somewhat symbolic placement in a sealed envelope, represents a recalibration of the stated tensions between reticence about sex and the need to properly educate about it – to study the Torah of sex.
This guide did not appear out of nowhere. In 2005, two Orthodox educators developed a comprehensive sex education curriculum for Orthodox elementary and high schools. With the Assistance of Tzelem, a Yeshiva University-sponsored project co-founded by Rosenfeld, the curriculum has been implemented in a number of schools.
Additionally, Tzelem and JOFA (the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance) have offered training for “hatan and kallah teachers” (men and women, often rabbis and wives of rabbis, who instruct Orthodox couples who are engaged to be married about the Jewish laws governing marital relations) in counseling geared not only toward helping Orthodox couples develop a healthy sex life but also toward recognizing and seeking professional treatment for sexual dysfunction.
Though there is still plenty of room to grow, such initiatives have already contributed greatly to the education of a young generation that is frank and well-informed about sex, but has learned about it in an unabashedly religious context.
Not long ago, sexual abuse and predation were not generally viewed as a significant threat and thus barely discussed within the Orthodox community. The Jewish Week’s June 2000 publication of “Stolen Innocence,” an exposé of the sexual predations of charismatic rabbi and educator Baruch Lanner, brought these issues into the spotlight. (SUPERB ; MUCH LIKE THOSE WHO ARE DEVIANT ISLAMIC SUFIS OR PEDOPHILE...PRIESTS)
The article implicated some of Modern Orthodoxy’s flagship institutions, most notably the Orthodox Union, in (to say the least) failing to properly address and report Lanner’s crimes. As a result of the article and subsequent investigations, institutional taboos against addressing these issues are much weaker than they were, if they have not evaporated altogether.
In the summer of 2005, a prominent Orthodox rabbi and educator made news when he resigned his position, came out as gay, and provisionally abandoned Orthodoxy. At the time, my ex-Orthodox gay havruta (study partner) noted that he didn’t know of anybody who grew up Orthodox, came out as gay, and remained within the Orthodox community. ("GAYNESS" IS WRONG)
Although it had been five years since the release of Trembling before God – a documentary film about Orthodox homosexuals that, for many, offered the first inkling that such individuals existed within the community – being openly gay was still perceived to be completely irreconcilable with being part of an Orthodox community. (PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE BUT FEMINISM, HOMOSEXUALITY, BISEXUALITY, TRANS-SEXUALITY... ALL FOR DIFFERENT YET COMMON REASONS - ARE WRONG...)
YET ALREADY then there were signs of a shift. This educator’s students (STUDENTS ARE JUST THAT - THEY DO NOT HAVE THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM OF EXPERIENCE) reportedly were most troubled not by the fact that their teacher was gay, but that coming out as gay necessarily meant leaving Orthodoxy; they did not see the two as being completely irreconcilable.
And indeed, the past few years have witnessed the Orthodox community engaging with homosexuals and homosexuality to an unprecedented degree. In late 2009, Yeshiva University hosted a very well-attended panel discussion with rabbinic faculty and four gay alumni of YU, entitled “Being Gay in the Orthodox World.”
A few months later, a group of Orthodox rabbis drafted a “Statement of Principles on the Place of Jews with a Homosexual Orientation in Our Community” that, after reaffirming halachic strictures on samesex relations, outlines how homosexuals can and should be accepted as full participants in synagogues and schools. It has thus far been signed by hundreds of rabbis, teachers, and community leaders – all Orthodox.
To be sure, each of these events generated opposition that feared that such statements would send the wrong message (AND THEY DO DO SO) – namely, that open discussion in public crosses the line from sensitivity to tacit approval (AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IT DOES). Nevertheless, the trend is toward greater awareness and acceptance of gays within the Orthodox community, and an ever-larger number of “open” homosexuals consider themselves part of that community.(ONE DOES NOT BECOME A NON-HUMAN BEING - BUT HOMOSEXUALITY...MUST BE CRUSHED)
This final point was virtually absent from all public discussion of a recent same-sex wedding ceremony held in Washington, DC. Though not an Orthodox ceremony, it looked enough like an Orthodox wedding that the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America was moved to clarify that “same-sex unions are against both the letter and the spirit of Jewish law (OF REALITY AS A WHOLE),” even while recognizing “the acute and painful challenges faced by homosexual Jews in their quest to remain connected and faithful to God and tradition.”
Lost in this controversy was the fact that this couple wished to solemnize their marriage with an Orthodox-style ceremony in the first place. Not long ago, it would have been virtually unthinkable for a homosexual who had grown up in an Orthodox community to model a same-sex marriage ceremony on an Orthodox wedding.
What happened during the past decade or so that precipitated this shift toward greater openness about sexuality among the Orthodox? After all, change does not come easily to inherently conservative societies. It is possible that the effects of the sexual revolution of the 1960s (WHICH MUST BE NEAR-TOTALLY REVERSED TODAY) have finally, a generation later, begun to filter into the Orthodox community. This may also explain a different but related phenomenon that has developed within ultra- Orthodox communities in America and Israel: as the West has become ever more sexually permissive (WRONG, WRONG, WRONG), these communities have responded by demanding ever greater separation between the sexes.
But it was the emergence of the Internet in the 1990s that eventually brought issues of sexuality into the open. The anonymity afforded by the first generation of Internet chat rooms, bulletin boards, and listservs gave individuals who had felt completely alone - victims of sexual abuse(TRUE), couples experiencing sexual dysfunction(TRUE), homosexuals(WRONG) – a platform to express their feelings, ask questions and find kindred spirits. It was only a matter of time before their voices joined together, and the broader community realized that the Torah of sex was being neglected. (IT MUST THROTTLE HOMOSEXUAL NONSENSE COMPLETELY)
It is understandable that the broader society would find the Orthodox community overly prudish and behind the times (one wonders if the myth about Orthodox Jews having sex through a hole in the bed sheet persists). After all, the article about the one-night stand that caused Yeshiva’s Beacon to lose university funding pales in comparison with, for example, the Duke PowerPoint scandal. The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy is not exactly the “Bava Kama Sutra” – it is certainly a far cry from the graphically explicit Joy of Sex.
And yet, articles that admonish “Shh! Don't Talk about Sex at Yeshiva University” miss a crucial point.
Sex was never a taboo subject in the Orthodox community and it is currently being discussed frankly and openly. And just as in Rabbi Kahana’s justification for his presence in his master’s bedroom, the immodesty of talking about sex publicly is justified by the educational merits of the discussion: “It is Torah – so learn it we must.” (YOU WILL NEVER LEARN ABOUT WOMEN -OR GOD- FOR WE ARE NOT "GOD")
Women-only movie sparks debate, understanding
By ROBIN GARBOSE
12/25/2011 22:38
When presented with an opportunity, religious (NOT NECESSARILY RIGHT) and secular (MORE WRONG THAN NOT) Jews have the ability to talk – and to listen to one another.
As an Orthodox woman – hassidic, even – it has been hard for me to watch the news and developments from Israel in recent weeks.
On one hand, Jewish law and traditions of female modesty are very important to me. Although I did not grow up in an observant family, I came to embrace the value of personal modesty as an adult. Especially in Southern California (DISGUSTING FEMINIST-FAGGOT ROT, EXCESS, PERVERSITY...), where the popular culture glamorizes and profits from immodesty, I have found tzniut (the laws of modesty) to be a refreshing, counterculture expression of honoring female dignity. I resent the fact my eight-year-old son has to be assaulted in the street by sexually explicit, in-your-face billboards (AND I TOTALLY AGREE). Why must we have these images imposed upon us? Because somebody is making money, a lot of money. (FEMINISTS AND FAGGOTS, THAT IS WHO)
On the other hand, Orthodox communities abroad successfully maintain appropriate, halachic standards of modesty without segregated buses, burkas and banishing women from public life, as have made headlines here, despite what’s going on around them. In Los Angeles, haredim (ultra- Orthodox) peacefully co-exist with each other as well as everyone else. Women manage to be both modest and attractive. Accomplishment is encouraged.
But here in Israel, extremists seem to rule the day. Fringe groups on the Left viciously attack haredi values, while fringe groups on the Right have imposed ever-more extreme measures in the guise of piety. It is a volatile and polarized climate. (JEWS ARE SPECIAL AND ADMIRABLE PEOPLE, THEY OCCUPY THE FARTHEST FRINGES OF ALL MOVEMENTS....AND ARE SOME OF THE MOST BRILLIANT -AND BRILLIANTLY WRONG- PEOPLE IN THE WORLD)
In the context of these issues, it is significant that the Jerusalem Cinematheque, a bastion of secular Israeli culture, agreed to include my film, The Heart That Sings, in the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival. For the first time the festival featured a film made exclusively for women, with a request for men not to attend, in keeping with its mission “to explore Jewish religious practice and promote crosscultural understanding.”
The premier of the film and the discussion session that followed showed clearly that, while deep cultural divisions do indeed plague Israeli society, secular and Orthodox Israelis, especially women (IT IS ALWAYS THE WOMEN -ALL WOMEN OF EVERY RACE, RELIGION...- WHO PROVIDE THE STABILITY THAT KEEPS THE HUMAN RACE GOING), can still find a common language and the ability to discuss these issues in a fruitful, productive manner.
THE POWER of art (ARTISTS PRECEDE PHILOSOPHERS), especially the cinema, is that it can break through barriers and melt divisiveness by means of story and character, image or song (WOMEN ARE THE PAST AND THE FUTURE IN THE PRESENT, CYLICAL, CONFUSED AND CONFUSING EVEN TO THEMSELVES, AS THEY WILL ADMIT, YET ESSENTIAL). Instead of the Cinematheque screenings turning into a battleground for clashing ideologies as I had feared – the film is a musical that stars mostly Orthodox actresses who by heritage and choice do not sing or dance in the presence of men – it served as a catalyst for discussion and interaction, a forum for uplifted encounters and transformational exchanges of ideas.
Though we asked men not to attend in deference to the wishes of the performers, we have not and will not stop anyone from seeing the film. Indeed, some men did attend the opening. One man approached me after and in a quiet, halting voice said, “I want you to know, I am very touched. I have religious family and I am going to call them to come see the film.”
I thanked him, and, though I believe he violated the spirit of halacha (the actual law prohibiting a man from hearing a woman sing pertains to live performance) by watching the movie so I couldn’t condone his presence, it was clear to me that God wanted him to have this experience. (WHAT IS "RIGHT" AND "WRONG" IS NOT ALWAYS EASY TO DETERMINE)
Another woman, who looked to be secular, argued that the film should have been shown in a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) venue, but said it certainly did not belong at the Cinematheque. I told her that I understood the philosophical challenges our special request posed, but I strongly disagreed with her position. This festival, more than any other in the world, was where we most belonged. By engaging in cross-cultural dialogue about modesty, the movie has served to open up channels of communication. It would also be like saying all Jews get to participate in the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival except for Orthodox Jewish women.
For secular women and men in the audience, the discussion session helped them understand that kol isha – the halachic ban on a man hearing a woman sing – is a mainstream Orthodox position. It is not a fringe position.
Furthermore, in my view the film’s charm derives precisely from the fact that the actresses knew they were not performing for men and were therefore artistically free to express themselves. (TOUCHE')
Nor is this view limited to my haredi world view: At a recent Brooklyn showing, a popular feminist-lesbian blogger, Ariel Federow, who is not Orthodox, attended “undercover” with a long black skirt and stockings, and covered-up knees, elbows and collarbones – and had a surprisingly powerful night at the movies.
“I kept thinking how awesome it is to see women making their own art... not just because there were no men, but because women actually talked about themselves and each other caringly, and all got to be real characters... I liked that it was a film about girls learning and growing and not a film about girls worrying about boys,” she wrote.
I am certainly not suggesting that all culture and art should be gender segregated, but I am definitely saying that cultural gatherings for women by women are inherently worthwhile and exciting. Our Biblical tradition teaches that the Jewish People and all humanity were not annihilated following the sin of the Golden Calf in the merit of the faithful women who did not participate in the event.
Today, women may be making headlines for being banished from society, but this negativity will soon be turned around. By shining the spotlight on observant women and telling the truth about our very public role, though cloaked in modesty, we will finally emerge as we again lead our people into a more civilized and harmonious future.
Gender insanity
By JPOST EDITORIAL
12/25/2011 22:51
Discrimination and violence against women – purportedly motivated by religious sensibilities – have spiraled out of control. (NOT NECESSARILY SO)
Discrimination and violence against women – purportedly motivated by religious sensibilities – have spiraled out of control.
In recent weeks, we have been witness to women attacked for refusing to move to the back of the bus to uphold a policy of gender segregation; women forced out of a venue where elections in a Jerusalem neighborhood were being held; women denied the right to come on stage to receive an official Health Ministry prize for research into the relationship between Halacha and medicine; women banned from a Jerusalem ad campaign to encourage organ donations; and women prevented from serving in key IDF positions due to the opposition of a growing, increasingly vocal group of religious male soldiers and officers (WITH WHOM I AGREE). And this list is by no means exhaustive.
These incidents have generated a debate over what has been euphemistically referred to as the “banishing” of women from the public sphere. But chauvinism, discrimination or downright violence would more accurately describe this behavior. (I DISAGREE WITH THE AUTHOR)
On Saturday night, a young haredi man was arrested on suspicion of spitting at a woman helping girls onto a school bus at a religious-Zionist elementary school in Beit Shemesh.
The recent spate of incidents is so severe that it brought the issue of gender discrimination ("GENDER DISCRIMINATION" ? THE SEXES ARE NOT "EQUAL", SO "DISCRIMINATION" IS ESSENTIAL) to the center of public discourse. Significantly, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who opened Sunday’s cabinet meeting by denouncing discrimination against women (BIBI IS A LOONEY BIRD HERE), has called on haredi legislators to speak out publicly against the phenomenon and ask their spiritual leaders to do so as well.
In recent years, a rapidly growing ultra-Orthodox community has adopted more extremist positions, especially with regard to questions of female modesty, known as tzniut in Hebrew. Women’s physical proximity, no matter how perfunctory, has been transformed by radical haredi men into an insurmountable hurdle.
The inner dynamics of the ultra-Orthodox community allow these men to leverage their influence. Moderation is viewed with disdain as a weakness. The result has been an unrivaled push for the radical revamping of the public domain. (NOR IS SUCH WRONG)
Much has changed since Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895- 1986), the most important halachic authority in America, permitted men to commute to work on subways and buses because “unavoidable and unintentional physical contact is devoid of sexual connotations.”
Today, in contrast, where the zealots have a say, women simply do not exist. You can search in vain for a female presence in the ultra-Orthodox press. Pictures of women are taboo, even when the subject is an infant. If there is a doubt regarding the gender of a baby – say in a diaper ad – sidelocks or a kippa are added. Female names are even abbreviated. (EXCESS OCCURS ON ALL SIDES)
This hyper-puritanical world view is, furthermore, being accommodated outside strictly ultra-Orthodox circles. As The Jerusalem Post’s health reporter Judy Siegel reports in today’s paper, at least two state-funded health funds – Clalit and Meuhedet – have published special brochures in deference to ultra-Orthodox sensitivities.
Neither “breast” nor “cancer” is mentioned in these brochures. Instead, code words are used. And even the most innocent photos of women or young girls are vigilantly removed. Faced with the prospect that segments of the ultra-Orthodox community would refuse to read these “sexy” brochures – and thus endanger women’s lives by failing to detect breast cancer early – the heads of the health funds apparently felt compelled to make these modifications.(NOR ARE THEY WRONG)
Similarly, public bus companies, apparently motivated by economic considerations, have allowed haredi activists to enforce gender segregation. By caving in to these unreasonable (???) demands, the bus companies and health funds are giving them legitimacy. And the inevitable side effect is a feeling of entitlement and self-righteousness that emboldens some particularly extreme haredi men to aggressively confront women – whether on the bus, in the streets of Beit Shemesh or elsewhere.
According to a recently released CBS report, by the year 2059, haredim – who currently make up 10 percent of the population – will grow by 580% and represent a third of Israelis. As it grows, the need for haredim to integrate into mainstream Israeli society and transform themselves from a parochial enclave to a full-fledged partner in the flourishing of a healthy Jewish state will grow as well.
What is desperately needed today in the ultra-Orthodox community is the sort of reasonable, pragmatic spiritual leadership personified by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein that would enable such integration. Otherwise, coexistence will inevitably...
Subject: jyi # 34A Women Rule The World
jewsyonkersislam# 34A Women Rule The World
jyi # 34A Women Rule The World
The feminine (x), through the collective feminine (all the x-es in women [xx] and men [xy]), rules the world. But the feminine, woman, does so through men. When men are not being men, but -like today- ever-lazier, irresponsible, effeminate and emasculated, you can bet that the collective feminine is at work. Both reacting against such and causing it to worsen -by making women try to become men and making more men and women "become" gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and worse- for its own purposes.. The GLAAD... group (along with ALL men and women, to a greater or lesser degree) can well be termed -in today's politically correct terms- sexual-identity challenged.
Below is a continuation of a sub-series on my blog (jewsyonkersislamiii-tc. blogspot.com)
subtitled : gender, especially Jewish
Further below are comments on today's news and some articles, AS I HAVE EDITED THEM , including some excerpts from my journal, my blog or my musings of more than a few years ago. And a critique of today's news
12-26-11
HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE WORLD, THE MINDS OF EVERYONE IN THE WORLD ? YOU DONT BECAUSE YOU CANT. BUT THE WORLD CAN DO THAT, THE PLANET EARTH AND THE COLLECTIVE FEMININE WORKING TOGETHER - AS THEY ARE TODAY. WE NEED TOTAL WAR ON THE USE OF OIL, GAS, COAL..., DESPITE THE PAIN IT WILL IMPOSE ON US ALL.
New York Times (NYT), A1, A4 American firms buy European assets at very reasonable prices because Europe is collapsing. However, America is right behind Europe in "collapsing", so... The Chinese village revolt is a "Harbinger" of the collapse of China. And Russia's political unrest is the same there.
NYT, A27, Journal News (JN), 7A "Springtime for toxics" as Republican politicians come out supporting pollution, cancer, lung and heart disease, genetic damage in the living and in the as yet unborn, global warming...and the imminent extinction of the human race. "Learn from Pennsylvania's fracking experience" ? The whole article was bought and paid for by the oil, gas, coal...industry and can not be believed a bit.
MY JOURNAL/BLOG Book reviews
MASTERING THE ART OF WAR (SUN TZU'S MASTERPIECE) as well as my 9-25-90 Address to the Yonkers City Council)
"Skilled Warriors are subtle". See my published poem "Subtly", just below. "Warriors take advantage of the structure and momentum in a situation...Not doing does everything (not unlike Lao Tzu or the I Ching...)...The theme of order...(of) the balanced middle course" is crucial. "Adaptation" is also essential. "Without detachment, there is no way to clarify the will, without serenity, there is no way to get far... A sage has no consistent mind - the people are his mind...In military strategy, one follows the timing of opportunities...First organize yourself, then others...Though effective, appear ineffective...Strength and weakness are matters of perception...Induce others to make formations (structures...to oppose you) while you remain formless...Use the force of momentum to defeat your opponents...Those who face the unprepared with preparation are victorious...Through injury (loss, defeat, humiliation...) trouble can be resolved...Provoke (your opponents)...waiting in ambush for them to respond...It is up to you not to fight".
PROCESS OF INTENSIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY As I see it, all psychotherapists, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists... are do-nothing worthwhile idiots. "Integrative...supportive...transference...counter-transference...after-care". More money for do-nothing productive morons and know-it-alls.
SACRED ART OF DYING Also my 3-13-90 Address to the Yonkers City Council
Attitudes towards death : Hindu, Buddhist, Tibetan, Chinese, Mesopotamian and Egyptian, Greek, Hebraic, Christian, Islamic... "Dying before death (is in all religions...) : Experience of Rebirth (is also in all religions...)"
REFLECTIONS AND MAXIMS OF SPINOZA "Justice, Madness, Teaching, Women...Both sexes live in harmony (when men rule the world and women rule [stabilize] their men)...(It is against the natural order that) men should be ruled by women"
Below is one of my first published poems, Subtly. It was published in 1986 (?) and I had been working on this goal (how to change the world) since many years before then. My blog, jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot,com, has more on this and many other issues.
SUBTLY
To change a system that has worked so well - so long and so well
Is easy not at all nor fixed with ease the greatest there is
That you are branded the greatest of fools is nothing, so long
as you're happy and well, so long as you're given to live in
this life we live in
What must be fixed is no little thing, for band-aid approaches
avail us no more
And yet, this thing needing to be fixed ? Morality and standards
are needed once more, for we no more bumps on a log can be
And people must grasp, in themselves or not at all, that the
fixing in them must be. Subtly is this done, or not at all
Subtly
gender, especially Jewish
TO BEGIN WITH, I VISCERALLY ABHOR FEMINISM, HOMOSEXUALITY, BISEXUALITY, TRANS-SEXUALITY... ALL FOR DIFFERENT YET COMMON REASONS. ALL ARE WRONG...
Jewish Ideas Daily: Orthosexuality
By ELLI FISCHER
12/25/2011 22:13
In contemporary society, shifts within the Jewish community toward greater openness go unnoticed. (AND MUST BE CRUSHED IN THEIR EXCESS)
The Talmud tells a story about one Rabbi Kahana who hid under the bed of his master, Rabbi Abba (better known as Rav), as the latter was having sex with his wife. Kahana, shocked at the type of frivolous language used by his mentor, commented that Rav was behaving ravenously. Rav exclaimed, “Kahana, you’re here? Get out! It’s not proper!” Kahana replied, “It is Torah – and study it I must.”
(TORAH STUDY IS PROPER, BUT NEITHER WOMEN NOR SEXUAL INTERCOURSE ARE. WOMEN ARE "A NATION APART", TO BE CARED FOR AND GUIDED BY MEN BEING REAL MEN)
It is not easy to discern who gets the last word in this jarring little aggadah (indeed, it appears in several places in the Babylonian Talmud – sometimes with and sometimes without Kahana’s ultimate proclamation). There is a clear tension between propriety and modesty on one hand, and the religious requirement to understand sexuality on the other.
The balance between (ETHICS) these two values has varied from community to community and era to era, and there have certainly been Jewish communities far more prudish than the Talmud’s. Yet in contemporary society, characterized by unprecedented sexual casualness (FEMINIST-FAGGOT FILTH, ROT, EXCESS, PERVERSITY...), shifts within the Jewish community toward greater openness go unnoticed.
Public perception has tended to relate to several controversies that recently erupted within the American Modern Orthodox community – one relating to an Orthodox college student’s article about a one-night stand and another pertaining to an Orthodox-style homosexual commitment ceremony in Washington, DC – as evidence of cloistering and repression within this community. In truth, however, there has been a subtle but dramatic shift toward greater openness about sexuality in the Modern Orthodox world over the past decade or so. (GREATER "OPENNESS" TO LEAD TO NECESSARY AND WIDESPREAD THROTTLING OF FEMINISM, HOMOSEXUALITY, BISEXUALITY, TRANS-SEXUALITY... ALL FOR DIFFERENT YET COMMON REASONS : ALL ARE WRONG...IN TODAY'S GROSS EXCESS)
That the community has shifted toward greater openness while upholding communal modesty norms is strongly attested to by the recent publication of The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy by Jennie Rosenfeld and David S. Ribner. This booklet speaks directly to the experience of young Orthodox couples and the attitudes about sex that they have absorbed during their formative years.
The authors’ thorough knowledge of the Orthodox community and their work experience equips them to walk couples entering a sexual relationship with little or no experience and constrained by a complex set of rules and mores through their first, often awkward sexual encounters. It answers many questions that these young couples have about sex (but are, naturally, afraid to ask). Pasted into the book’s back cover is an envelope that contains several detailed sketches of male and female anatomy as well as some basic positions for intercourse.
THE UNPRECEDENTED inclusion of sexually graphic material in an Orthodox publication, coupled with its somewhat symbolic placement in a sealed envelope, represents a recalibration of the stated tensions between reticence about sex and the need to properly educate about it – to study the Torah of sex.
This guide did not appear out of nowhere. In 2005, two Orthodox educators developed a comprehensive sex education curriculum for Orthodox elementary and high schools. With the Assistance of Tzelem, a Yeshiva University-sponsored project co-founded by Rosenfeld, the curriculum has been implemented in a number of schools.
Additionally, Tzelem and JOFA (the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance) have offered training for “hatan and kallah teachers” (men and women, often rabbis and wives of rabbis, who instruct Orthodox couples who are engaged to be married about the Jewish laws governing marital relations) in counseling geared not only toward helping Orthodox couples develop a healthy sex life but also toward recognizing and seeking professional treatment for sexual dysfunction.
Though there is still plenty of room to grow, such initiatives have already contributed greatly to the education of a young generation that is frank and well-informed about sex, but has learned about it in an unabashedly religious context.
Not long ago, sexual abuse and predation were not generally viewed as a significant threat and thus barely discussed within the Orthodox community. The Jewish Week’s June 2000 publication of “Stolen Innocence,” an exposé of the sexual predations of charismatic rabbi and educator Baruch Lanner, brought these issues into the spotlight. (SUPERB ; MUCH LIKE THOSE WHO ARE DEVIANT ISLAMIC SUFIS OR PEDOPHILE...PRIESTS)
The article implicated some of Modern Orthodoxy’s flagship institutions, most notably the Orthodox Union, in (to say the least) failing to properly address and report Lanner’s crimes. As a result of the article and subsequent investigations, institutional taboos against addressing these issues are much weaker than they were, if they have not evaporated altogether.
In the summer of 2005, a prominent Orthodox rabbi and educator made news when he resigned his position, came out as gay, and provisionally abandoned Orthodoxy. At the time, my ex-Orthodox gay havruta (study partner) noted that he didn’t know of anybody who grew up Orthodox, came out as gay, and remained within the Orthodox community. ("GAYNESS" IS WRONG)
Although it had been five years since the release of Trembling before God – a documentary film about Orthodox homosexuals that, for many, offered the first inkling that such individuals existed within the community – being openly gay was still perceived to be completely irreconcilable with being part of an Orthodox community. (PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE BUT FEMINISM, HOMOSEXUALITY, BISEXUALITY, TRANS-SEXUALITY... ALL FOR DIFFERENT YET COMMON REASONS - ARE WRONG...)
YET ALREADY then there were signs of a shift. This educator’s students (STUDENTS ARE JUST THAT - THEY DO NOT HAVE THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM OF EXPERIENCE) reportedly were most troubled not by the fact that their teacher was gay, but that coming out as gay necessarily meant leaving Orthodoxy; they did not see the two as being completely irreconcilable.
And indeed, the past few years have witnessed the Orthodox community engaging with homosexuals and homosexuality to an unprecedented degree. In late 2009, Yeshiva University hosted a very well-attended panel discussion with rabbinic faculty and four gay alumni of YU, entitled “Being Gay in the Orthodox World.”
A few months later, a group of Orthodox rabbis drafted a “Statement of Principles on the Place of Jews with a Homosexual Orientation in Our Community” that, after reaffirming halachic strictures on samesex relations, outlines how homosexuals can and should be accepted as full participants in synagogues and schools. It has thus far been signed by hundreds of rabbis, teachers, and community leaders – all Orthodox.
To be sure, each of these events generated opposition that feared that such statements would send the wrong message (AND THEY DO DO SO) – namely, that open discussion in public crosses the line from sensitivity to tacit approval (AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IT DOES). Nevertheless, the trend is toward greater awareness and acceptance of gays within the Orthodox community, and an ever-larger number of “open” homosexuals consider themselves part of that community.(ONE DOES NOT BECOME A NON-HUMAN BEING - BUT HOMOSEXUALITY...MUST BE CRUSHED)
This final point was virtually absent from all public discussion of a recent same-sex wedding ceremony held in Washington, DC. Though not an Orthodox ceremony, it looked enough like an Orthodox wedding that the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America was moved to clarify that “same-sex unions are against both the letter and the spirit of Jewish law (OF REALITY AS A WHOLE),” even while recognizing “the acute and painful challenges faced by homosexual Jews in their quest to remain connected and faithful to God and tradition.”
Lost in this controversy was the fact that this couple wished to solemnize their marriage with an Orthodox-style ceremony in the first place. Not long ago, it would have been virtually unthinkable for a homosexual who had grown up in an Orthodox community to model a same-sex marriage ceremony on an Orthodox wedding.
What happened during the past decade or so that precipitated this shift toward greater openness about sexuality among the Orthodox? After all, change does not come easily to inherently conservative societies. It is possible that the effects of the sexual revolution of the 1960s (WHICH MUST BE NEAR-TOTALLY REVERSED TODAY) have finally, a generation later, begun to filter into the Orthodox community. This may also explain a different but related phenomenon that has developed within ultra- Orthodox communities in America and Israel: as the West has become ever more sexually permissive (WRONG, WRONG, WRONG), these communities have responded by demanding ever greater separation between the sexes.
But it was the emergence of the Internet in the 1990s that eventually brought issues of sexuality into the open. The anonymity afforded by the first generation of Internet chat rooms, bulletin boards, and listservs gave individuals who had felt completely alone - victims of sexual abuse(TRUE), couples experiencing sexual dysfunction(TRUE), homosexuals(WRONG) – a platform to express their feelings, ask questions and find kindred spirits. It was only a matter of time before their voices joined together, and the broader community realized that the Torah of sex was being neglected. (IT MUST THROTTLE HOMOSEXUAL NONSENSE COMPLETELY)
It is understandable that the broader society would find the Orthodox community overly prudish and behind the times (one wonders if the myth about Orthodox Jews having sex through a hole in the bed sheet persists). After all, the article about the one-night stand that caused Yeshiva’s Beacon to lose university funding pales in comparison with, for example, the Duke PowerPoint scandal. The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy is not exactly the “Bava Kama Sutra” – it is certainly a far cry from the graphically explicit Joy of Sex.
And yet, articles that admonish “Shh! Don't Talk about Sex at Yeshiva University” miss a crucial point.
Sex was never a taboo subject in the Orthodox community and it is currently being discussed frankly and openly. And just as in Rabbi Kahana’s justification for his presence in his master’s bedroom, the immodesty of talking about sex publicly is justified by the educational merits of the discussion: “It is Torah – so learn it we must.” (YOU WILL NEVER LEARN ABOUT WOMEN -OR GOD- FOR WE ARE NOT "GOD")
Women-only movie sparks debate, understanding
By ROBIN GARBOSE
12/25/2011 22:38
When presented with an opportunity, religious (NOT NECESSARILY RIGHT) and secular (MORE WRONG THAN NOT) Jews have the ability to talk – and to listen to one another.
As an Orthodox woman – hassidic, even – it has been hard for me to watch the news and developments from Israel in recent weeks.
On one hand, Jewish law and traditions of female modesty are very important to me. Although I did not grow up in an observant family, I came to embrace the value of personal modesty as an adult. Especially in Southern California (DISGUSTING FEMINIST-FAGGOT ROT, EXCESS, PERVERSITY...), where the popular culture glamorizes and profits from immodesty, I have found tzniut (the laws of modesty) to be a refreshing, counterculture expression of honoring female dignity. I resent the fact my eight-year-old son has to be assaulted in the street by sexually explicit, in-your-face billboards (AND I TOTALLY AGREE). Why must we have these images imposed upon us? Because somebody is making money, a lot of money. (FEMINISTS AND FAGGOTS, THAT IS WHO)
On the other hand, Orthodox communities abroad successfully maintain appropriate, halachic standards of modesty without segregated buses, burkas and banishing women from public life, as have made headlines here, despite what’s going on around them. In Los Angeles, haredim (ultra- Orthodox) peacefully co-exist with each other as well as everyone else. Women manage to be both modest and attractive. Accomplishment is encouraged.
But here in Israel, extremists seem to rule the day. Fringe groups on the Left viciously attack haredi values, while fringe groups on the Right have imposed ever-more extreme measures in the guise of piety. It is a volatile and polarized climate. (JEWS ARE SPECIAL AND ADMIRABLE PEOPLE, THEY OCCUPY THE FARTHEST FRINGES OF ALL MOVEMENTS....AND ARE SOME OF THE MOST BRILLIANT -AND BRILLIANTLY WRONG- PEOPLE IN THE WORLD)
In the context of these issues, it is significant that the Jerusalem Cinematheque, a bastion of secular Israeli culture, agreed to include my film, The Heart That Sings, in the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival. For the first time the festival featured a film made exclusively for women, with a request for men not to attend, in keeping with its mission “to explore Jewish religious practice and promote crosscultural understanding.”
The premier of the film and the discussion session that followed showed clearly that, while deep cultural divisions do indeed plague Israeli society, secular and Orthodox Israelis, especially women (IT IS ALWAYS THE WOMEN -ALL WOMEN OF EVERY RACE, RELIGION...- WHO PROVIDE THE STABILITY THAT KEEPS THE HUMAN RACE GOING), can still find a common language and the ability to discuss these issues in a fruitful, productive manner.
THE POWER of art (ARTISTS PRECEDE PHILOSOPHERS), especially the cinema, is that it can break through barriers and melt divisiveness by means of story and character, image or song (WOMEN ARE THE PAST AND THE FUTURE IN THE PRESENT, CYLICAL, CONFUSED AND CONFUSING EVEN TO THEMSELVES, AS THEY WILL ADMIT, YET ESSENTIAL). Instead of the Cinematheque screenings turning into a battleground for clashing ideologies as I had feared – the film is a musical that stars mostly Orthodox actresses who by heritage and choice do not sing or dance in the presence of men – it served as a catalyst for discussion and interaction, a forum for uplifted encounters and transformational exchanges of ideas.
Though we asked men not to attend in deference to the wishes of the performers, we have not and will not stop anyone from seeing the film. Indeed, some men did attend the opening. One man approached me after and in a quiet, halting voice said, “I want you to know, I am very touched. I have religious family and I am going to call them to come see the film.”
I thanked him, and, though I believe he violated the spirit of halacha (the actual law prohibiting a man from hearing a woman sing pertains to live performance) by watching the movie so I couldn’t condone his presence, it was clear to me that God wanted him to have this experience. (WHAT IS "RIGHT" AND "WRONG" IS NOT ALWAYS EASY TO DETERMINE)
Another woman, who looked to be secular, argued that the film should have been shown in a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) venue, but said it certainly did not belong at the Cinematheque. I told her that I understood the philosophical challenges our special request posed, but I strongly disagreed with her position. This festival, more than any other in the world, was where we most belonged. By engaging in cross-cultural dialogue about modesty, the movie has served to open up channels of communication. It would also be like saying all Jews get to participate in the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival except for Orthodox Jewish women.
For secular women and men in the audience, the discussion session helped them understand that kol isha – the halachic ban on a man hearing a woman sing – is a mainstream Orthodox position. It is not a fringe position.
Furthermore, in my view the film’s charm derives precisely from the fact that the actresses knew they were not performing for men and were therefore artistically free to express themselves. (TOUCHE')
Nor is this view limited to my haredi world view: At a recent Brooklyn showing, a popular feminist-lesbian blogger, Ariel Federow, who is not Orthodox, attended “undercover” with a long black skirt and stockings, and covered-up knees, elbows and collarbones – and had a surprisingly powerful night at the movies.
“I kept thinking how awesome it is to see women making their own art... not just because there were no men, but because women actually talked about themselves and each other caringly, and all got to be real characters... I liked that it was a film about girls learning and growing and not a film about girls worrying about boys,” she wrote.
I am certainly not suggesting that all culture and art should be gender segregated, but I am definitely saying that cultural gatherings for women by women are inherently worthwhile and exciting. Our Biblical tradition teaches that the Jewish People and all humanity were not annihilated following the sin of the Golden Calf in the merit of the faithful women who did not participate in the event.
Today, women may be making headlines for being banished from society, but this negativity will soon be turned around. By shining the spotlight on observant women and telling the truth about our very public role, though cloaked in modesty, we will finally emerge as we again lead our people into a more civilized and harmonious future.
Gender insanity
By JPOST EDITORIAL
12/25/2011 22:51
Discrimination and violence against women – purportedly motivated by religious sensibilities – have spiraled out of control. (NOT NECESSARILY SO)
Discrimination and violence against women – purportedly motivated by religious sensibilities – have spiraled out of control.
In recent weeks, we have been witness to women attacked for refusing to move to the back of the bus to uphold a policy of gender segregation; women forced out of a venue where elections in a Jerusalem neighborhood were being held; women denied the right to come on stage to receive an official Health Ministry prize for research into the relationship between Halacha and medicine; women banned from a Jerusalem ad campaign to encourage organ donations; and women prevented from serving in key IDF positions due to the opposition of a growing, increasingly vocal group of religious male soldiers and officers (WITH WHOM I AGREE). And this list is by no means exhaustive.
These incidents have generated a debate over what has been euphemistically referred to as the “banishing” of women from the public sphere. But chauvinism, discrimination or downright violence would more accurately describe this behavior. (I DISAGREE WITH THE AUTHOR)
On Saturday night, a young haredi man was arrested on suspicion of spitting at a woman helping girls onto a school bus at a religious-Zionist elementary school in Beit Shemesh.
The recent spate of incidents is so severe that it brought the issue of gender discrimination ("GENDER DISCRIMINATION" ? THE SEXES ARE NOT "EQUAL", SO "DISCRIMINATION" IS ESSENTIAL) to the center of public discourse. Significantly, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who opened Sunday’s cabinet meeting by denouncing discrimination against women (BIBI IS A LOONEY BIRD HERE), has called on haredi legislators to speak out publicly against the phenomenon and ask their spiritual leaders to do so as well.
In recent years, a rapidly growing ultra-Orthodox community has adopted more extremist positions, especially with regard to questions of female modesty, known as tzniut in Hebrew. Women’s physical proximity, no matter how perfunctory, has been transformed by radical haredi men into an insurmountable hurdle.
The inner dynamics of the ultra-Orthodox community allow these men to leverage their influence. Moderation is viewed with disdain as a weakness. The result has been an unrivaled push for the radical revamping of the public domain. (NOR IS SUCH WRONG)
Much has changed since Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895- 1986), the most important halachic authority in America, permitted men to commute to work on subways and buses because “unavoidable and unintentional physical contact is devoid of sexual connotations.”
Today, in contrast, where the zealots have a say, women simply do not exist. You can search in vain for a female presence in the ultra-Orthodox press. Pictures of women are taboo, even when the subject is an infant. If there is a doubt regarding the gender of a baby – say in a diaper ad – sidelocks or a kippa are added. Female names are even abbreviated. (EXCESS OCCURS ON ALL SIDES)
This hyper-puritanical world view is, furthermore, being accommodated outside strictly ultra-Orthodox circles. As The Jerusalem Post’s health reporter Judy Siegel reports in today’s paper, at least two state-funded health funds – Clalit and Meuhedet – have published special brochures in deference to ultra-Orthodox sensitivities.
Neither “breast” nor “cancer” is mentioned in these brochures. Instead, code words are used. And even the most innocent photos of women or young girls are vigilantly removed. Faced with the prospect that segments of the ultra-Orthodox community would refuse to read these “sexy” brochures – and thus endanger women’s lives by failing to detect breast cancer early – the heads of the health funds apparently felt compelled to make these modifications.(NOR ARE THEY WRONG)
Similarly, public bus companies, apparently motivated by economic considerations, have allowed haredi activists to enforce gender segregation. By caving in to these unreasonable (???) demands, the bus companies and health funds are giving them legitimacy. And the inevitable side effect is a feeling of entitlement and self-righteousness that emboldens some particularly extreme haredi men to aggressively confront women – whether on the bus, in the streets of Beit Shemesh or elsewhere.
According to a recently released CBS report, by the year 2059, haredim – who currently make up 10 percent of the population – will grow by 580% and represent a third of Israelis. As it grows, the need for haredim to integrate into mainstream Israeli society and transform themselves from a parochial enclave to a full-fledged partner in the flourishing of a healthy Jewish state will grow as well.
What is desperately needed today in the ultra-Orthodox community is the sort of reasonable, pragmatic spiritual leadership personified by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein that would enable such integration. Otherwise, coexistence will inevitably...
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