12/31/2002 03:40:00 PM
Benny Hinn Takes In $100 million A Year
Benny is the quintessential CEO pastor. his ministry is raising money and expanding his celebrity. what fascinates me most about him is not his capacity to hawk jesus-snake-oil, but the duplicity of the millions who not only hang on his every word, but who wheelbarrow money into his crusades to place in the Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets that pass through the aisles before his healing power is unleashed. there should be management books written about this guy. the machiavelli of television evangelism is a sight to behold. i laughed when i read that he only comes out on stage when "How Great Thou Art" is playing. how telling...
12/31/2002 03:15:00 PM
Economist.com | iN pRAISE oF cLUTTER via bloggedy blog
People spread paper over their desks not because they are too lazy to file it, but because it is a physical representation of what is going on in their heads.
12/31/2002 01:38:00 AM
New Tolkien book discovered (December 30, 2002)
Professor Drout, who reads Anglo-Saxon prose to his two-year-old daughter at bedtime, said: "I was sitting there going through the transcripts when I saw these four bound volumes at the bottom of the box.
"I started looking through, and realised I had found an entire book of material that had never seen the light of day. As I turned the page, there was Tolkien's fingerprint in a smudge of ink."
12/30/2002 08:48:00 PM
while reading Newsweek at a sweet Barnes & Noble just down the street this past Saturday evening my mind was blown by the description of a Wachowski brother's FX invention (could not find the specific article online so you will have to go brick and mortar to read this one). they are calling it "virtual cinematography." basically, as i remember it, they take an object, organic or inanimate and run it through a series of movements that five digital cameras capture. they then feed this footage into a computer that runs these sequences through algorithms that actually create all possible motions of said object not "captured on film."
basically, this means that any scene can be created without the visible traces of a computer-constructed scene. things like this were done before using blue screen, but virtual cinematography is revolutionary in how it can ultimately disintermediate actual character actors in the creation of scenes.
beyond the technical coolness of this capability it also underscores the less than absolute nature of our "common sense" physical evidence standards in the practice of law. as this capacity continues down the inevitable trickle down path that all tech eventually takes it is conceivable that one could be made to look like they carried out crime or were party to some great humanitarian act despite the fact that their carbon based existence had nothing to do with the purported event.
how does this impact evidence guidelines? how does this impact identity and reputation management? how could this help provide compelling deniability to those seeking to eschew actual events they were party to? to what end will this be used by the propoganda machines that already spin reality for political contestants and wealthy public figures?
who knows? i just hope it kicks my butt when i go to see Reloaded in May.
12/30/2002 04:30:00 PM
On September 11, 2002 Verso released three short essay books in response to the events that took place in Manhattan a year earlier. These books are fascinating accounts of a distinctively European reaction to the grand, horrific, symbolic events that took place on that day.
The first and, soon to be, best known of the three books is Jean Baudrillard's, The Spirit of Terrorism. The book itself is an enchantingly small, rectangular package that in form reminds us of the key place architecture held in this drama. The architecture of the global capital embodied in New York, but also the architecture of the Western story. In the slow metamorphosis to and through the ideals of the Socratic West the narrative of inevitable progress has variously waxed and waned through the exuberance and tragedy of humankind's dealings with itself and the existence it has come to speak of.
Baudrillard suggests in the first essay, and namesake, of this book that the events of 9/11 set humanity on the course of the Fourth World War. His fascinating thesis is that World War III took place in the political intrigue and military brinkmanship of the Cold War and that the advent of World War IV on 09/11/01 has humankind thrown headlong into the internal breach within globalization itself--the fissure of the inevitable suicide of any hegemonic world order. WWI saw the demise of European supremacy, WWII the demise of national fascism, WWIII the political end of state communism and WWIV the suicidal tendencies of globalization itself.
"The Fourth World War... haunts every world order, all hegemonic domination--if Islam dominated the world, terrorism would rise against Islam, for it is the world, the globe itself, which resists globalization." (TSoT, 12)
Jean takes us back beyond Good and Evil and suggests that the very notion of Good's triumph over Evil breaks down when taken to the dominating extreme--for only with acts that undermine the very definitive distinction between this pair can Good overcome Evil. The movement of Good and Evil then are in tandem and often times one assumes the character of the other as the balance of power and the historicizing perspective shifts.
"There is," writes Baudrillard, "no remedy to this extreme situation." As a response to it, conventional warfare is a nonstarter, a non-event. It is merely "the continuation of an absence of politics by other means." (34)
The analysis and, sometimes shocking, propositions of this well regarded French writer are something to consider carefully. His wrapping the events of September 11th in the analytical garb of the symbolic, the singular and the suicidal is frightening and enlightening to ponder. The only critique that I will dare level at this time is that the potential despair that one is left in when "no remedy" is one's considered conclusion is not itself a singular event. I realize that this hopelessness is not, necessarily, Baudrillard's per se. That the lack of a solution is the connundrum of all fissured political oligarchies, all inherently disassembling hegemonies. Nevertheless, the interpretive stance that stops at the moment of despair, as this analysis seems prone to, is but one lived credulity among, seemingly, infinite nuanced possibilities.
I would suggest that the very subversion of system by the inner aparatus of system points to something other. Without venturing into the unfortuneate arena of apologetics or the marketing posture of the "god of the gaps" I will suggest that this always already internal subversion, of which the Fourth World War is but one instance, is in fact that which where cannot contain. That haunting presumption of every-where we know through. The very traces of the other kingdom.
The beauty, portability and patronage that buying a book entails should nudge any interested parties to the bookstore to pick this title up. That said, should one desire to read a rough translation it is available here.
12/30/2002 09:51:00 AM
overnight i received two of the dumbest script kiddy email viruses that i have ever seen. everybody wants to be Onel de Guzman.
wannabe anarchist hackers everywhere: create something original and let there be a point to it. your current pursuits suck. one other thing: ESL email social engineering doesn't cut it... you just sound stupid.
that is all.
12/29/2002 10:18:00 AM
Coffee, Tea, or Should We Feel Your Pregnant Wife’s Breasts Before Throwing You in a Cell at the Airport and Then Lying About Why We Put You There?
by Nicholas Monahan
____________
power without honor is tyranny.
the first rule of project mayhem is: you do not talk about project mayhem.
12/29/2002 10:01:00 AM
Best radical life change plan for 2004 if 2003 turns out to suck
Join the French Foreign Leagion?
12/29/2002 12:16:00 AM
Given that Computer Associates now has its own private corporate army it seems a micro-trend in war might be toward publicly traded, sanitized, corporate mercenary armies. That would be interesting, no? The mob has done it on a local crime syndicate level so why not CA in support of a global Western hegemony?
My question is this, "What happens when CA decides that it will become an 'outsource partner' to the Sudanese government or to the despotic regime in Guinea, West Africa?" There are no international norms for the decision making process that a corporate entity should use in screening potential war "clients." Any country without UN or US sanctions against it could be a client of these secret, corporate mercenary armies if they had enough money.
This leads me to say something in the extreme that is both laughable and ominous. It may be that this recent move toward monetizing the practice of war, in line with our somewhat longer practice of doing the same with the commodities of war, is the end of the civilized society we have grown accustomed to.
That is a little extreme, eh Dan? Perhaps, but there is some sparkle of truth in this broad brush analysis is there not? Yes, there have been mercenary armies from the dawn of time, and these armies did loot and pillage and generally act as roving bands of hired thugs. And, yes, there were exceptions among some of the honorable companies of national mercenaries such as the French Foreign Legion. The difference in the cases such as CA/DynCorp is the legitimation of the thuggery. The revenue from this warmongering goes directly into large, well established public companies, and these war-profits contribute to the value of the underlying public security. To me this seems nearly the equivalent of wartime pillaging and money laundering. If you own CA, or if any of the mutual funds you are invest in does, you are now party to the wars CA involves itself with. Think about that. These profits come at the expense of the lives of the world's children, the human rights of the most vulnerable and, potentially, the national sovereignty of the states in whose borders these free market militias "work."
But these consultants are just for peace keeping and protection, Dan! Really? Tell that to the American missionaries whose plane was shot down in South America thanks to Computer Associates' fully owned subsidiary DynCorp. Tell that to the countless child sex slaves that were kept and trafficked by American free market "consultants" in the Balkans. War is bad business and should never be mixed with big business. That is my silly utopian phase of the day.
I say we start the long march toward de-monetizing war. The practice and tools of war need not be the basis upon which any company grows revenue. The free market CANNOT regulate itself. We know this. This is why we have trade law and government commissions. It is time to take a serious look at the war profiteering that is taking place--especially by those nations who so self-righteously presume to pass political and military judgment on regimes they have sold weapons to and supported in the not so distance past.
12/28/2002 02:39:00 PM
For millennia, the distinction between human beings and God was that we're imperfect. In the age of digital machines, increasingly that's the line between being human and being technology. -Joho
12/27/2002 06:40:00 PM
www.gapingvoid.com via sotto
Hugh MacLeod is hilarious and freely syndicated.
from the FAQ:
Why is your stuff always so dark and twisted?
It's because I like to write about people, and people are dark and twisted. If they weren't we wouldn't need art in the first place.
12/27/2002 06:33:00 PM
Foreign Policy | A Modest Proposal by Noam Chomsky via FBM
The modest proposal of an Iranian liberation is indeed insane, but not without merit. It is far more reasonable than the plans actually being implemented...
12/27/2002 04:39:00 PM
the responses to this post have been very interesting.
most have been positive. honestly, i was surprised anyone read the damn thing. i must be the king of run on sentences. give me a dash, semi-colon and the occasional comma splice and i am a happy man. most reaction has centered around these bits regurgitated here in Cliffs Notes fashion for you wise souls who will not subject yourselves to the grammatical perversion of the long-winded original:
...i am all for the eclectic, but not the carnival eclecticism of domesticated ancient spiritual practice packaged for easy dissemination amidst a population averse to anything requiring more than a 15 minute commitment.
...our communities have a dire need to simply live in faith, hope and love as the normal people that we are. the extraordinary is always seeded in the ordinary. the impossible germinates in the banality of the sacred mundane. the hard work of spiritual community is not walking a labyrinth, fasting from animal products for a month or confessing an ancient creed periodically. the actualization of community is in the boring, soiled exchange of large quantities of normal living.
...there was no originary unity of the Christian experience save in love for the one God and love of one's neighbor. beyond this the Christian tradition--even before it was Christian--was inherently diverse.
...those happy souls so excited to find our unity in the Celtic and the catholic, the orthodox and the apostolic need to begin to ask the more difficult questions that pop up when one does not stop the historical archeology of identity with Reformation Europe, Constantinian Rome or the Apostolic reconstruction after the Jerusalem community's cataclysmic demise.... i don't want to hear another thing about the need to return to a more adequately Apostolic, classical or Triune faith... though i realize that for many the ancient in "ancient-future" is defined by the winners, for me, the ancient is the mass of illiterate peasants who held tightly to the thin hope of a Kingdom they could enact even in the midst of total political and religious domination. in large measure it was this viral kingdom of the powerless that was sacrificed for the violent kingdom of the empowered in the centuries following the execution of Yesh'uah and the historically unfolding definition of triumphant Christianity.
...rediscover Jerusalem i say! and with her the altogether foreign (for us Hellenized orthodox types) experience of the various Yeshu'ah following, Kingdom living, Judahist communities that filled her ancient streets. the various flavors of Nicea that pass as a divided church today would have us not dip into the forgotten world of the pre-Christian Jesus community, but we must.
12/27/2002 03:03:00 PM
Sotto points us to PersianBlog.
Iran is an intellectual superpower going through the birth pains of this idiosyncratic thing called "Islamic Democracy." I am excited at the prospects of Iran taking a more central role in regional peacemaking and cultural creation. It is interesting to watch Khatami inserting himself into the Pakistan-India cold war. The caliber of Iranian cinematic story telling, despite some of the rather arcane Revolutionary restrictions on expression that remain in effect, is difficult to match.
An overwhelming number of under-40 Iranians are beginning to shape their nation in a way that the ignorant pronouncements and sanctions of Western (no, really just American) political lackeys never could. The explosive mix of this highly educated, articulate, politically engaged, and now intimately connected generation with the traditionalist, empowered elite will be fascinating to watch in the coming years. Blogs will likely play a very tangible role in the networking that fans the flame of grassroots change.
12/27/2002 03:41:00 AM
someone once asked Gandhi if he was ambitious. he answered, "i hope not."
i have surrendered most of my ambition. tonight i wonder if i've given too much. holding on to passion in the surrender of ambition is the example Gandhi left us, and is perhaps the hardest thing from his life to emulate in our time.
12/27/2002 01:26:00 AM
Rooting Out Evil
expanding the search for weapons of mass destruction
Rooting Out Evil is sending a weapons inspection team to the
United States to inspect the chemical, biological, and nuclear
weapons produced and concealed by the Bush regime.
We have selected the US as our first priority based on criteria provided by the Bush administration. According to those criteria, the most dangerous states are those run by leaders who:
1) have massive stockpiles of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons;
2) ignore due process at the United Nations;
3) refuse to sign and honour international treaties; and
4) have come to power through illegitimate means.
The current US administration fulfills all these criteria. And so, again following Bush’s guidelines, Rooting Out Evil is demanding that his administration allow immediate and unfettered access to international weapons inspectors to search out their caches of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.
thanks to dwavehed for the link.
12/26/2002 04:50:00 PM
Top Arab TV network to hit US market
another perspective. i hope that they can stay independent. media conglomerates are more oppressive than technology monopolies and two-party governments combined.
12/26/2002 10:16:00 AM
CLEAR CHANNEL ENTERTAINMENT PURCHASES CHRISTMAS AND HANUKKAH
A Clear Channel press release stated that "the world will now be able to enjoy consistently high-quality service during the Fifteen Days of Chrismukah"
12/25/2002 08:31:00 PM
i am typing this on my new Axim. it is pretty cool to have a PPC again--especially with wifi. this is the ultimate bathroom computer. i love Dell's Switcher app. it is a very simple addition to the PPC experience, but one that seems so natural that it should be part of the OS. thanks again, BigT.
12/25/2002 08:14:00 PM
more detail on corporate mercenary armies, government drug money, bioweapons and much more from the US Government's favorite war outsourcing partner Dyncorp.
via brutalgas
12/25/2002 05:03:00 PM
message at the bottom of an atm receipt:
SHOPPING IS NOT CREATING
YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU OWN
12/25/2002 03:26:00 PM
the life of an individual-in-community is forever torn between the security of anonymity and the oxygen of life together; the specter of isolation and the obnoxious trampling of one's well-ordered self.
the walk of a community is never the same season to season or group to group.
the hopes of a community find form in the garb of that which is locally plausible in giving voice to that which is globally primal: the protected child, the inviolable companion, the space for open potential and the community of embracing grace.
12/25/2002 03:04:00 PM
here dan goes, "wrapping things up in nice neat packages that imply the world..."
what we require today is a vast multiplicity of voices--not as a well orchestrated choir, but rather in the mass chaos that frightens and angers the musical partisan who deems the open creativity of sound less pleasing than the particular movements they have grown fond of. this chaos of voice demands the ivory tower dwelling metanarrarator descend into the particular song. only song can narrarrate the meta with the difference that makes a difference.
to sing with one's own voice opens the soul. the refusal to remain a mere aficionado of the distant huddled masses or the 10,000 foot credulity critic in isolation forces one from the still mountain solitude and heady ivory tower heights down into the bustling village lane and warm hovel home. it is here that the one accustomed to thin air and quiet reflection must find her voice anew and sing a song long forgotten. this song is drawn from the spatial memory that is more rhythm than word. her heart is moved by the auto-confession that could not be smothered under the pillow of all that has been. like a phoenix rising from the ash she now knows the second naïveté, the creator, the singer of songs whose number join the billions in the divine chaos whose measure is yet impenetrable and whose mystery invites to dance.
some encounter the chaos and cannot find their voice anew. they slink back and become the most vile of creatures. trying to be what they once were and can never be again these beat the drums of war in a vain effort to drown out the noise they can never now part with. these are the ones who find not song in their own village, but a divine right to dominance. these are the ones who do not love their neighbors--far less their enemies! no, these traffic in manipulation, these preach a gospel of fear, these will not be satisfied until the chaos that now grips their soul is destroyed and the world with it! all those refusing to sing their song, or at the least to harmonize with it, are cut off and momentarily the fiction of self-righteous order is taken to be a divine blessing of the monotone.
sing on! find your voice anew. there is more than we have yet known.
12/25/2002 02:21:00 PM
Substance Over Image
When our country appears to be on the verge of war, stepping out of line is always hazardous. All kinds of specious accusations fly. Whether you travel to Baghdad or hold an anti-war sign on main street back home, some people will accuse you of serving the propaganda interests of the foreign foe. But the only way to prevent your actions from being misconstrued is to do nothing. The only way to avoid the danger of having your words distorted is to keep your mouth shut.
12/25/2002 03:59:00 AM
hangin' 'round downtown by myself
and I had too much caffeine
-mpg
Jesus did not desire to make everyone his disciple. Jesus was a friend and master to but a few women and men who themselves, like him, became friend and master to but a few. Jesus was a story teller, religious activist and social healer who shared himself in ever receding circles of influence.
Zaccheus was not his disciple though the encounter they shared was spectacularly real.
the Roman Centurion was not his disciple though the faith exemplified by this violent man of Rome was not only commended, but a pivotal teaching moment taken up by Jesus.
the promiscuous Samaritan woman was no disciple of Jesus though the honor he pays her with his attention, acceptance and instruction would never be forgotten.
the drunk partiers at the wedding party in Canaa were not numbered among Jesus followers, neither was Nicodemus, nor the vast majority of those who came into contact with this man and his disciples. the point of Jesus and his band was not conversion! the point was the kingdom's announcement, enactment and subversion.
not everyone is called to be a disciple. though everyone is called to teshuvah and emunah... more later.
neither party conversion nor inch deep discipleship were the spiritual way of the man called Yesh'uah. perhaps, we should begin to think of the way of Jesus as open community and closed discipleship... more later. maybe.
12/23/2002 11:52:00 AM
The Animatrix DVD release date is June '03--one month after Reloaded and five months before Revolution. what gives me hope with regard to the Matrix franchise (compared to the Lucas blasphemy that has been perversely foisted on Star War's fans of late) is the overwhelming focus the Wachowski brothers bring to the story. if they can honor the mythology of the Matrix with a story worthy of the thousands of FX in these films this saga will stay firmly ensconced in the pantheon of cinematic powers and will cast many of our dominate metaphors for years to come.
12/22/2002 01:30:00 PM
There seems always to remain a diversity of opinion over whether there should be a diversity of opinion.
12/21/2002 10:03:00 PM
the way that the brain is wired is constantly changing in response to new realities. this is called plasticity. this capacity to invent/uninvent the circuitry of our existence is the basis for our shifting identity over time. the very process of change makes us who we are. just reading this has fired a tiny change in the connections that form you. plasticity is the you that others think of in reference to you. think of the old woman in the nursing home without the plasticity she once had. she is remembered in the vibrancy of her plasticity not in the catatonic moments of plasticity’s demise. though loved in these moments as the sacred remains of what once was this sad, quiet ending lived in memories as-if they were the present underscores the centrality of plasticity for identity. the slow downward spiral in plasticity is the slow creep toward nonexistence for any organism.
12/21/2002 09:40:00 PM
US blocks cheap drugs agreement...
special interest money trumps international consensus
here is one utopian idea: we pass some legislation that says that for every dollar in US taxpayer money spent on F-16's for Israel, spare parts for Turkey or stinger missiles for whatever breakout faction the CIA decides to support this week the US Government is required to spend $2 on cheap drug subsidies, de-mining and ecological renewal.
i know, i know, this is not even on the radar in our present political milieu.
the world system works these things out. the natural alternative to posturing ourselves with interdependence in global decision making and with benevolence amidst our wealth is for the world, out of the vacuum of our dereliction, to posture itself in what we call piracy and terror.
we bring it upon ourselves, friends. it is time for we the people to stop supporting a way of governance that privileges greed and death.
12/20/2002 09:32:00 PM
Spy1d had some near death experiences and the opportunity to practice his counter-terrorist driving this week.
it's all good until you die.
<dan wants to be cool too>
i was certified in counter-terrorist driving in '95.
</dan is done being cool>
12/20/2002 08:24:00 PM
the runaway mystic shares a prayer in her "currently" file:
I once asked a Jesuit priest what was the best short prayer he knew.
He said, 'Fuck it,' as in, 'Fuck it; it's in God's hands.'
- Sir Anthony Hopkins
fuck it is the euro-american version of inshallah.
12/20/2002 01:06:00 PM
BBC NEWS | Mass arrests of Muslims in LA
when will the US authorities stop creating enemies of friends?
12/19/2002 11:15:00 PM
current video:
alice.in.chains::i.stay.away
on an amazing DVD from an excellent band
12/19/2002 08:05:00 PM
it is fiscal 2003 for the USGovt and it is the first year in the last four that the US has not had a surplus. the Govt is spending far more than it is taxing us for.
what does this mean?? well, for starters it means that last month we the people spent $19.6 BILLION on interest payments. what i want to know is who gets this money and why the hell are we spending $20B a month on interest?
the biggest spending categories for November were:
- Social Security, $44 billion
- Medicare and Medicaid, $42.4 billion
- Military, $31.3 billion
- Interest on debt, $19.6 billion
12/19/2002 07:41:00 PM
current mp3:
boysetsfire::handful.of.redemption.[live]
(this album is so frickin' good)
12/19/2002 05:31:00 PM
though without the bonds of community this freedom is the world's tyranny.
when the ideal is one among many the shadow of the actual is cast across the very identity of that posited beyond the real,
though without the recurring spectre of the idealized impossible the actual is the community's spiraling demise.
when the interconnections of community and the whispers of what is not are no more,
the end is at hand.
12/19/2002 03:15:00 PM
AOL Patents IM
maybe the USoA should patent FreedomTM and demand all nations who have their own FreedomTM-like government pay royalties or get the shit kicked out of them. oh, that's right, we already do that. silly me.
12/19/2002 03:10:00 PM
Seeking Ways to Skip Sleep
this could be interesting at times, though profoundly overwhelming in large doses.
12/19/2002 01:44:00 PM
JOHO on metadata:
Metadata allows for imperfection.
Imperfection hastens time.
Haste leaves little time to erect defenses.
Therefore, metadata lets us be who we are.
12/19/2002 11:22:00 AM
Brandywine Forum 2003 - Religious Freedom: The Missing Dimension of Security
Since the Enlightenment, the West has divided state from religion in the name of good governance. The result has been admirable, but the casualty has been holistic analysis. We have forgotten that much of the non-Western world, to a large extent, views religion and state together. This year's forum will explore the hypothesis that states that do not foster respect for religious freedom are vulnerable to a number of significant security threats... This forum seeks to develop a new security culture that promotes peaceable societies through the understanding that formerly "disparate" issues such as individual freedom of belief and international security are actually mutually dependent.
12/19/2002 10:39:00 AM
funny thing the word, lead.
a lead is a first among equals who shows the way,
a lead is a lode of gold ore in an old riverbed,
a lead is a channel of open water created by a break in a mass of ice,
a lead is a conductor electrically connecting one circuit to another...
lead is a malleable metallic element used in containers for corrosives, bullets, radiation shielding, paints...
atomic number 82
atomic weight 207.2
melting point 327.5°C
boiling point 1,744°C
specific gravity 11.35
valence 2, 4
12/19/2002 12:12:00 AM
Golublog writes on the genre of the blog entry in his post:
Blogs are Farmers on Diving Boards:
...blogs are about good writing...
the blog as genre is unique because of its size: longer than the utterance of a spoken conversation, definitely longer than the brief lines of IM, but also shorter than an article or chapter. Blogs are punchy. They're somewhat akin to very short conference papers: you have enough time to get in, make your point, and get out again - but not enough for much more than that. Blogs are all topic sentences and no supporting evidence, god bless 'em. This flare-up-and-fade-away aspect of them is what makes them so great and inspires such thought. This, in fact, is my answer to the question: How best to blog my academic career? The blog is a place to put all your unsubstantiated hunches, since it's too compact a format to allow for substantialization anyway. A blog is a place for thoughts that are one blog long.
12/18/2002 11:52:00 PM
i have not posted in a while. i have written some things, though not per my usual clip. life is wearier than usual. work is non-existent and i find myself a bit more critical than is my custom over the past collection of days. this reared its head a bit in some ranting i did below after reading a book that has been making the blog rounds of late. this ranting became a rather poorly constructed book review. it is harsh at points, but i am following my no-edit blog rule and putting it out. take it for what it is worth.
i am tired. i have been up for two days. it doesn't feel like Christmas around here this year. maybe it is the sunny and 70's forcast. maybe it is the not-so-subtle depression that rests as dew on the soul of the man who walks with lead feet as he flaps his arms in a vain attempt to fly.
You ever wonder when you gotta stop living up here, and start living down here?
-Rabbit
12/18/2002 04:00:00 AM
just in from the 12:01am showing of the Two Towers;
an exceptional cinematic story--though deviating from the book much more than the first. Al-haqq dressed up as Gandalf the Grey and wowed the audience by standing, arms raised, staff in hand to conjure the film we had been waiting three hours for. as fate would have it the projectionist inadvertantly played into this show of wizardry by rolling the film just seconds after Al-haqq's arms went up.
i look forward to the extended DVD version of this chapter in Tolkien's saga.
12/17/2002 03:03:00 PM
From McDonalds to The Last Supper
"In the U.S., it has just gotten to the point where they can't add any more stores because the (fast-food) market is so saturated. Now it's a matter of how they make the hurdle from saturation to cost controls."
-Morningstar analyst Carl Sibilski on McDonald's future
"In many areas of the U.S., it is has just gotten to the point where you can't add any more Churches because the market is so saturated. Now it's a matter of how they make the hurdle from saturation to service. The only innovation the Church has to offer is the naked prophet and his towel in a world of dirty feet."
-'Blinked ripping off Carl Sibilski
12/17/2002 02:58:00 PM
ABCNEWS.com : McDonald's Posts First Loss in 47 Years
i don't care what the professional pundits say: the economy is NOT on a rebound.
12/16/2002 07:44:00 PM
from a thread on the carriage blog.
Question:
what if we only had one of the gospels? How much different would our live be if only one account of the Jesus story survived?
example: If all we had was Mark, would we celebrate Christmas the way we do today?
- Summer
My response:
good thought, sum.
if mark were all we had there would be no virgin birth, no Word made Flesh, no "For God So Loved The World..," etc etc etc...
if this were the case, i think Xmas would be very different--if it were celebrated at all. it is very unlikely that the first Jamesian communities celebrated anything akin to Xmas. they had none of, what we term, the "canonical gospels." at best, they had gospels we no longer possess for reasons of historical accident, theological subjugation or simple non-transferal from oral to written form.
on this subject it is interesting to note that the Pauline churches, from the evidence we have, show no sign of having a virgin birth/advent tradition.
good question to ponder.
12/16/2002 07:27:00 PM
Daniel Miller's Integration.Research project has a new site and some excellent ideas.
12/16/2002 06:20:00 PM
ArabNews: US plans covert propaganda operations in friendly countries
this is absurd. why would the USG sponsor ill-contrived campaigns of political propaganda when there are opportunities to support legitimate, grass roots expressions of art, religion and political speech through the already organized and funded channels of USAID, the State Department's network of Cultural Attaches and American Centers and various UN and NGO organizations?
even floating this trial balloon speaks of the poorly conceived plans of a bureaucracy that quantifies solutions strictly in dollar amounts and presupposes cultural change comes about best by monitoring and coercion.
12/16/2002 09:18:00 AM
as satisfying as my one-sentence-and-three-fragment book review is in a hurried email it seems to lack the same panache when thrown out into the cold, harsh blogsphere. for a blog disseminated review to work i need more self-effacing clap-trap about this-or-that sandwiching a nicety-nice collection of sentences about how revolutionary the book's thoughts are. then i should drop a name or two and insert myself into some narrative that coolly shows my pivotal place amidst this crew of happy up-and-comers. after that i should put a link to Webber's book on Amazon with my little code in the URL so i can get my cut. then i should shoot Webber a belabored, nonchalant email mentioning how much i like his book and subtly insert a plug, in an, "oh, by the way," sort of way, for the ass-kissing review i've written in that smarmy "please say you like me, please, please, please" way that only a religious i-wanna-be-important subtext can muster.
naaaw. that has already been done. i'll stick to my stream of consciousness:
___________
The Younger Evangelicals
i really don't consider myself an evangelical. my background is too mongrel. i have seen too much. don't get me wrong: i like evangelicals, well, some of them. maybe. anyway, as i was saying... too mongrel, yes, far too much diversity in my memetic blood to be content noshing on rewarmed evangelical pabulum that is the sum and substance of the "Christian Culture" that the prayer-in-school ilk want to see America return to. boy, i am really going now. it's funny how creatively offensive one can become when discussing something that is close enough for one to potentially identify with, but so far afield in terms of what one wants to be identified with that one has to actively begin engaging in the precise art of broad brush ideological side-swiping. ok, enough mid-review self-talk.
yes indeed, the younger evangelicals are something to behold. at their best i find myself oddly attracted to them. they have hope and are less apathetic than many. those are good things. i applaud this. my main critiques of Webber's perspective (although he tries to communicate his perspective in the voice of others... ostensibly those virile younger evans) are some of the same challenges i have in embracing the Post-Liberal and Radical Orthodoxy streams of thinking that are hip in some circles: there is an odd tone of extractionary (cool word, eh?) cultural insulation and harmonizing classicist foundationalism.
Cultural Insulation
when counter culture is defined as setting up Christian versions of Disneyland, TNN, Harper-Collins and Island/Def Jam the irony of the situation elicits a vomit-like response in the younger evangelicals i know--should they care enough to stop laughing. it is out of this context of irony that many, perhaps the majority, of younger evans have grown. while still engaged in both Disneyland and her religious knock-offs these folks really want to be something else--and rightly so, i would say. but what exactly? the thoughtful younger evangelical tries their damnedest to live authentically, but when one's most authentic spiritual heritage is TBN, Willow Creek and Heritage USA what is a young evan to do?
Webber suggests that the younger evangelical in this situation has begun to rediscover beliefs and practices of "classical Christianity." bravo. well and good. yes-siree-bob. one question though, who determines what classical Christianity actually is? the inability to clarify this with precision has sent many of these younger evangelicals, and the startup churches that want to cater to them, into the a la carte spiritual boutique business. the ancient-spiritual-practice-of-the-week has become as trendy in some circles as the worship fads of the mega and wanna-be-mega churches of the younger evangelical's parents--although, perhaps, with less centralized production and marketing, though with no less of an emphasis on consumption and eventually discarding through disuse.
discarding as an outcome is the natural termination point for any practice that is not an authentically owned piece of a community's identity. the a la carte model is, by its very nature, postured with a propensity for a consumption/discarding lifecycle. i am all for the eclectic, but not the carnival eclecticism of domesticated ancient spiritual practice packaged for easy dissemination amidst a population averse to anything requiring more than a 15 minute commitment.
despite my disrespect for a shallow eclecticism that is more spiritual fashion than spiritual pilgrimage, i really like the historical focus that the younger evangelicals are supposedly pursuing. i think that the more we encounter the genealogy of the various trajectories of our spiritual traditions the more adequately equipped we are to walk with an ever increasing humility and love in the face of our own contingency. this is the thing though: in all of our ancient reflection and historical appropriation how do we move our experiences of these traditions, *that are not ours*, to a place of authentic lived-identity and not merely prescriptive or convenient cycles of consumption? how do our experiences of the historical other become transformatively integrated into our identities rather than making up some subset of an overall collection of disconnected experiences? if the ancient is to be honored the communities engaging the tradition must move their encounter with them beyond the fascination one has at the site of an odd dish at the all-you-can-eat buffet.
some approach this need for ancient authenticity by demanding the construction of a "Christian Culture" or, its less structuralist cousin, an entering into the world of "the" tradition as normative reality. when i read of thinkers advocating these positions i cringe. this seems to be what Webber thinks many of the younger evangelicals are pursuing--though my experience is otherwise. the challenge i find insurmountable when it comes to my reading of these advocates for "Christian Culture" is that when one presumes a discrete unit of culture labeled "Christian" one is inevitably sanctifying a particular interpretive appropriation, awash in the inescapable genealogically-gifted perspective of one's dwelling moment, of some specific past period's way. this project, so aptly identified in the ruminations of the Cambridge ilk that is Radical Orthodoxy, works to build an overarching Christian structure that one can then dwell within and, for some, then claim to have overcome nihilism and contingency.
this new-Augustinian constructivism is problematic only when one claims to have done something more than what has been accomplished. privileging a particular cultural construction is one thing. doing so and labeling it an encompassing "Christian Culture" is an altogether different thing. an effort to repress difference by claiming orthodox privilege and hiding the traces of diversity that whisper from the furthest reaches of the Jesus traditions is required when one is postured to christen a culture.
our communities can learn neato things by engaging the traditions of others. we should encourage this practice. more acutely, though, our communities have a dire need to simply live in faith, hope and love as the normal people that we are. the extraordinary is always seeded in the ordinary. the impossible germinates in the banality of the sacred mundane. the hard work of spiritual community is not walking a labyrinth, fasting from animal products for a month or confessing an ancient creed periodically. the actualization of community is in the boring, soiled exchange of large quantities of normal living. normal living is the laboratory of the spiritual.
all of that to say, yeah, cool, those with a fetish for ancient practices or those who enjoy A&E religion will fall in love with this new emphasis on the ancient. nonetheless, this posture of rediscovery and, to some degree, appropriation is not a silver bullet. this move to "Classical Christianity" is no less contrived than the traditional Christianity of our grandparents or the pragmatic Christianity of our parents. perhaps, oh please god, an authentic experience to some involved, but certainly no less contrived.
Classicist Foundationalism
my main critique of The Younger Evangelicals, as crassly communicated (but is this not all rather crass?) in my one-sentence-and-three-fragment book review, centered on the attempts by Webber, and some of his younger evans i guess, to overcome nihilism through a return to a self-justified classicism. i commend the general posture of this position as it is finding voice in various local ecclesiologies and ecumenisms, nevertheless, i personally have a real problem with the phrase "Classical Christianity" because of the presumption of an originary, theo-retical/logical unity in the tradition that the current incarnations of spiritual community around Jesus are simply the contemporary vessels of.
a classicist position is a foundationalist position. classicist foundationalism is a bulldozing force of homogenization that works from an historical and theological hermeneutic of harmony. the harmonizing of the various traditions of what has come to be called the Christian faith is not a new thing. we have been actively engaged in it since the days of the Diatessaron and before. what is insulting, beyond the obvious violence inherent in a sweeping metahermeneutic of harmony, is when its proponents, at times, begin their awkward little ideological ditties that pat their circle of ideologs on the back for overcoming nihilism with a new flavor of christian rationalism deemed the avenue for capturing the otherwise illusory True truth! yes, the standard (and valid in the extreme) interpretation-in-community mantra is thrown in there for good measure, but True truth is nonetheless presumed, claimed, packaged and sold.
there was no originary unity of the Christian experience save in love for the one God and love of one's neighbor. beyond this the Christian tradition--even before it was Christian--was inherently diverse. networks of spiritual relationships that embody this originary diversity is what i take to be the sum of the "reformation" that is taking place in our day. the propensity to entrench the way of the Kingdom in some particular community's/ies ancient Christian credulities in a vain effort to claim a theoretical meta-unity of the various churches historical and living. it is to posit a new foundationalism that rests on nothing more than a particular traditional trajectory (that is unabashedly an exclusively Latin-Hellenistic project) of evolved thought and practice whose primary historical privilege is that of having won (in every sense) the right to create and preserve the tradition.
this classicist foundationalism has simply idealized the orthodoxy and orthopraxy of some particular series of points in the ever unfolding genealogy of the Jesus traditions giving these points an air of the pristine that implies, and often states outright, a privileged connection to a more original knowledge and experience of the faith. i see this positioning, so happily forwarded by the various flavors of Christian restoration in our day, incapable of living up to anything approaching a claim at origin without a substantial encounter with the marginalized voices and communities that were subjugated politically, militarily, historically and theologically in the ascent of what we today call orthodox (small "o") Christianity.
those happy souls so excited to find our unity in the Celtic and the catholic, the orthodox and the apostolic need to begin to ask the more difficult questions that pop up when one does not stop the historical archeology of identity with Reformation Europe, Constantinian Rome or the Apostolic reconstruction after the Jerusalem community's cataclysmic demise. for example:
- how does the gospel of the Kingdom of God relate to the various gospels and theological projects of non-semitic Christian thought (predominately post-destruction of the Temple/Jerusalem)?
- how does seeing Paul as a minority voice among the Jesus communities whose very legitimacy was called into question by elements in the movements led by Peter, John, James and Jesus' other brothers in Jerusalem and throughout Eretz Israel effect our reading of Paul and James' letters and the Acts?
- how can the tensions created by the internal diversity of the various cannonical writings we have help to foster a more open and humble view of gathering, believing and serving?
- how does one account for the might-makes-right approach to the question of what should be deemed orthodox theology?
- in what ways did the need to deal with the end of the Second Temple period play into the rise of new cultural pretexts, new gospel texts, and shifting structural and theological contexts out of which the Jesus story was framed in the ascendancy of post-135AD/CE Latin-Hellenistic Christianity? or slightly restated, how did the Temple and Jerusalem's demise impact the community identity, structure and message among those who sought after God in the way of Jesus?
- in what way did the marginalization of all that was Jewish that followed the reframing of the faith in terms of Athens and Rome, the canonization actions and the creedal wars that took place over a 200+ year span directly go against the very cultural, religious, political and social identity of Yesh'uah?
the plague of classicist foundationalism in our day is fueled by the confluence of a "god-ordained continuity" view of history that says, in short, what wins is "god's will" and a functionally ahistorical approach to theology driven by a presuppositional commitment to the political/theological machinations of past church hierarchy in the minting of creeds that, in effect, would have marginalized the very Jesus they deified. this new-ancient foundationalism must not be the elixir that steals the defining imagination of our transitional period in church history.
i don't want to hear another thing about the need to return to a more adequately Apostolic, classical or Triune faith until some of these younger evangelicals, and the boomer-pragmatists who are making significant coin writing about them, begin a more engaging journey in the way of Jesus and those in the diverse communities who lived and died like him before the ascendancy of Christianity. why? because though i realize that for many the ancient in "ancient-future" is defined by the winners, for me, the ancient is the mass of illiterate peasants who held tightly to the thin hope of a Kingdom they could enact even in the midst of total political and religious domination. in large measure it was this viral kingdom of the powerless that was sacrificed for the violent kingdom of the empowered in the centuries following the execution of Yesh'uah and the historically unfolding definition of triumphant Christianity.
rediscover Jerusalem i say! and with her the altogether foreign (for us Hellenized orthodox types) experience of the various Yeshu'ah following, Kingdom living, Judahist communities that filled her ancient streets. the various flavors of Nicea that pass as a divided church today would have us not dip into the forgotten world of the pre-Christian Jesus community, but we must.
ok, i will stop now. in case some are wondering, i really am not a mean heretic with a chip on my shoulder. i'm nice enough—until you offend my silly little periphery dwelling theological sensibilities, at which point i tend to talk a bit too fast using words that are a bit too ponderous in a diatribe that is a bit too long. so there you have it. my three bits for the day. maybe i should just hide this little ditty away on my hard drive someplace. i'll think about it.
Closing Thoughts
spiritual community is a gift to others—most directly our planet and the human societies that inhabit it—which, in its loving, ugly, messy, beautiful, offensive, hopeful, awe-inspiring, disgusting way is about the embodiment of the divine: the work of reconciliation, agreement-forming, enemy-loving, beauty-creating, needy-providing, child-loving, community-engaging and self-sacrificing that is the very soul of our form of sentient life.
for all of those who have winced more than once in reading this: attaboy, you made it to the end. know that there is no intentional offense leveled at Webber in this, rather uncouth, stream of words that stay only slightly on topic. really, this is less a specific book review and more an opportunity for me to rant about some loosely related ideas that charge me up a little when i encounter them. i am happy Webber is writing. i think that his key audience is made up of my parents, grandparents and their friends and that is cool.
i wish i were still up in Chicago. i'd drop by Northern, kidnap Webber and take him over to a little place called Firkin that my compatriot, the illustrious executive-hacker, Sherpa introduced me to. we'd have a couple stout beers and debate just how important Nicene theology really is. until i can blog about that excellent exchange here is the promised link to Robert's book on Amazon. no, i don't get a cut.
peace.
12/16/2002 08:52:00 AM
so, everyone has been acting like this book is the shit. i like some of Webber's quotes. this is what lead to my reading his book last night. here is my one-sentence-and-three-fragment book review that i wrote in a stream of consciousness email to d.hopkins this morning:
overall the book has some charts that are interesting, but it is a modernist trying to say that he has overcome postmodernism by returning to a classicist position. ok. whatever. use your illusion.
12/14/2002 05:26:00 PM
Daily Times - UNSC is inherently tyrannical
If there is a characteristic which unites all human societies, past or present, it is surely an inordinate fondness for violence. Those who can force others to submit to their demands will do so until they meet a greater force.
...The paradox of governance is that a state which is sufficiently powerful to protect the weak against the strong is also sufficiently powerful to crush the weak.... Indeed, the ultimate restraint upon the violence of the state is the violence of its citizens, who might seek to overthrow it if it abuses its powers. The great innovation introduced by democracy is that it permits us to remove the monopolists of violence by non-violent means. The great problem with democracy is that it permits us to replace them only with another set of monopolists.
...The UN Security Council, which is the body charged with the enforcement of international law, is inherently tyrannical. It is tyrannical because, while it asserts a global monopoly of violence, we cannot peacefully remove and replace it. The veto powers possessed by its permanent members are a constitutional guarantee against reform: no change can be made without the consent of those whom we would seek to change. No one, at the international level, guards the guards.
...As America’s economic mismanagement reduces its global dominance, we could demand a security council which permits a better balance of power between nations. Tackling the permanent members’ constitutional veto is trickier; requiring, perhaps, a sustained revolt by many of their citizens. But these solutions must be sought, for without them there can be no just war, and no just peace.
12/13/2002 10:18:00 PM
Wired 11.01: The First Cloning Superpower
China is pouring money into stem-cell factories and organ farms.
...(this) laboratory is one of three I visited in China where researchers are investigating interspecies clones. And I can also say that this experiment would be illicit if not completely illegal in the United States and most of the developed world. But in China it's all legal, every bit of it...
12/13/2002 08:20:00 PM
i found myself listening to an exegesis of Dead Poet's Society this afternoon--a very serious exegesis; life and death.
Sar, Ayesh and i were watching, Young Indiana Jones chapter 18 this evening. a tribe on an island somewhere in the vicinity of Java had stories of ghosts that demanded that the tribe's young engage in mock battle until one child died. this was an action that the tribe engaged in to gain favor with the ghosts that had influence over disease, crop production and human fertility. the warrior ideal of the tribe and the stories that helped them deal with their life anxieties came together to form a social system that from our couch seemed barbaric to the two young ladies in the room. we discussed how this tribe was living out expectations and boundaries that came from the stories that they were living within.
the world of the Dead Poets was inhabited by literary ghosts. the world of the island natives was inhabited by oratory ghosts. the specters of oration and its manuscript form have given birth to the visual ghosts that inhabit my world and that of my children. we all live by the models we employ in the flow of the stories we tell--and more and more, as evidenced by Indy and Mr. Keating, those stories are mediated by film. our cannon of metaphor and hero, once the provenance of the epic poem or the Sunday sermon, is now, in many respects, the shared text of cinema. this is not the death of the speaker nor the closing of the book, rather it is the hyper convergence of oral narrative and written form.
everything changes when the definition of literacy changes.
12/13/2002 08:15:00 PM
Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution
via sotto
12/13/2002 09:07:00 AM
gravatt is planning a Boston trip to see CPM and the new Derrida film. he asked about a Derrida reading list. here are my suggestions for someone wanting a semi-approachable way into the Derrida corpus:
short book: On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness
essay: “Force of Law: The Mystical Foundation of Authority”
available in On Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice
and it appears as essay number five in Acts of Religion
essay: "Differánce"
available in Deconstruction in Context
the best book about Derrida that i have yet read:
The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida by John Caputo
12/13/2002 06:54:00 AM
Pocket PC shatters $200 price barrier
i remember when Michael Dell said that he would not get into the PPC market until he could over-deliver and under-price his competitors. Four years later he has done it. the $199 Axim is a full-powered PPC 2002 PDA. add a keyboard and wifi and you have a pretty cool computer on the cheap. the usefulness of a PPC is still up for debate, but for some reason they have always fascinated me.
12/13/2002 06:51:00 AM
The Register
Rational's proposed sale to IBM (and Microsoft's potential counter bid) and MS's ruminations about a Borland bid will take two well regarded companies and immediately emasculate their defining value: independence. can no company stay independent? is the new final corporate lifecycle step acquisition by one of the world creators in the industry?
independence makes the revenue growth that public companies are now expected to have each quarter difficult when a techinal organization hits certain phases of the enterprise lifecycle. this may be part of the drive to merge. another piece of motivation is the obvious payday a merger guarantees for the C-level execs and original investors.
time will tell if independence in the tech world is viable. it certainly frightens me to think that it might not be. what happens when IBM has revenue that exceeds the GDP of most EU countries? how are relationships of power recalibrated when MS has embassies in all UN nations and is a regular at Davos? driving revenue is as oppressive a governing force as imperial expansionism. the age of corporate governance is already upon us and i don't like what i see.
12/12/2002 11:04:00 PM
sotto.org: December 12, 2002 Archives
Sotto likes his Mac.
i want the Amiga that will boot to CP/M.
btw, you can get the C-128 CP/M v3.0 code dated May 28th, 1987 here.
12/12/2002 07:57:00 AM
since i am not elon musk, heck not even andrew sullivan, and given that i am a single parent of two, i am about to go kiss The Man's butt. so, does any benevolent patron want to change the world before i sign my life away?
thought not. just checking. perhaps next time. alrighty then.
is the half or full windsor in vogue these days?
12/11/2002 09:37:00 PM
House of Mercy
Miller mentioned HOM on seven this week. i am impressed with the well written site and general tenor of this community. i wish i lived closer to St. Paul. well, actually, no, not really. i wish we all lived closer to Madrid or Marrakesh.
12/11/2002 09:07:00 PM
when i think of the phrase ancient-future i do not think of what others do, i guess.
one explanation of ancient-future that i read tonight centered around appropriating what one likes from "the Liturgical, the Reformed, the Evangelical, the Contemporary." to me, ancient-future is not about period eclecticism; choosing fun bits and pieces of past culture's spiritual forms and combining them in an institutional potluck of "cool."
to me...
ancient-future is the impossible meeting of a village hovel and open road spirituality among a predominately illiterate, disenfranchised eastern peasantry and the urban, organizational spirituality of a hyper-literate, privileged western elite.
ancient-future is a Way that goes back long before Nicea and demands a selling and giving, a cost accounting, a death, a rebirth, a following.
ancient-future is the way one goes about the what that we call the kingdom that is within.
but that's just me. i could be wrong. maybe it's all about "convergence" or (gag) being "adequately triune."
12/11/2002 05:23:00 PM
‘Smoking gun’ in church crisis?
if these documents can be taken at face value it seems that the Roman Catholic Church has less problem with adult-child sex then with scandal. how else do you explain THE POPE telling Catholic leadership to actively shield sexual predators by reassigning them to new areas if any scrutiny was paid to their molestation and penetration of children under their ministerial care???
the hubris of the Catholic leadership that is coming to light out of this scandal in Boston is astonishing. there is no justification for what has taken place. there is no statistical rationalization that says there are bad apples in every basket. there is no excuse. this mob-run organization has no moral authority when the children of its faithful are sodomized by "christ" and abused at the hands of his legal attack dogs when a call for justice is made.
bankruptcy is too good for the oppressors in this circumstance. let's do something with real Catholic precedent and get medieval on these assholes. we haven't burned anyone at the stake for a long time. hey, why not go one better and tie the proverbial milestone around a few necks and feed them to the fish at the bottom of Boston harbor? yes, that will have to wait.
in the eyes of America there is now only one functioning Roman Catholic commandment: cause no scandal.
12/11/2002 12:17:00 PM
Ayesha drew me a picture earlier in the week that i have sitting prominently on my desk. it is a picture of a girl with a big smile, shoulder length hair and a heart the size of her upper torso on her chest. she looks like she is waving. in the background are a number of hills with 11 crosses on them. at the top of the picture is a beautiful dark navy blue sky.
Ayesh ran up to me when she completed it and said, "Daddy, this is a Christmas picture for you!" i said, "Really, tell me about it." she enthusiastically said, "That girl is happy and there are, uh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 people dieing on crosses for Christmas." "REALLY?" i said with a slight grin. "Wow."
she knows the Christmas story. she knows the Easter story. she knows that they are different stories. i am beginning to think that the corporate, militarized nativity ilk fucked with her head.
12/11/2002 12:01:00 PM
getting over what one could be to actually be something is perhaps the greatest single challenge in our day of options, reinvention and open possibility. being something is limiting. limitation is in the very nature of choice. we don't like limitations--making the choosing, rather than the doing, the challenge. our attempts at endless deferral are ultimately in vain. the impossibility of being everything one could be demands the decision regarding what one should be.
chose and let the challenge be in doing.
12/11/2002 06:45:00 AM
Anti-war protesters rally across U.S.
The group United for Peace counted more than 120 planned vigils, acts of civil disobedience and marches in 37 states from Alaska to Florida. Protests were being organized by fax and over the Internet by anarchists and Communists, evangelicals and Quakers.
...About half of the 200 protesters demonstrating outside the U.S. mission to the United Nations in New York were arrested for disorderly conduct, including clergy members. Across the country in Sacramento, Calif., nine were taken into custody for blocking the entrance to a federal courthouse.
“It’s my first time ever,” said Maria Cornejo, 41, a mother of four from Dixon, Calif. “That’s how important this is.”
12/11/2002 06:33:00 AM
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports
US seizes North Korean ship said to be taking missiles to Yemen
Iraq is 10% of the problem N. Korea is...
but we're going to engage in diplomacy with Pyongyang and military heavy handedness with Baghdad, hmm.
12/10/2002 10:11:00 PM
The Data Lounge via Darren
Researchers from the Barna survey asked respondents how they felt about evangelicals, born-again Christians, ministers, and other groups of people in society. According to the survey, evangelicals came in tenth out of eleven, narrowly beating out prostitutes....
Affirming results from other studies, the Barna survey also found the more highly educated non-evangelicals are, the less likely they are to have a positive view of fundamentalist Christians.
12/10/2002 01:59:00 PM
"god is found..." is an odd phrase.
i have often heard the religious immediately wax pseudo-philosophic after such words were uttered; for some reason having to remind us that god has never been lost. how cute. this interesting refrain, this felt need to speak for god, bewilders me. it places the speaker in a position of analysis rather than pilgrimage. it sanitizes the utter bloodiness of the finding entailed in the colloquialism.
the-finding-of-god is neither a childhood initiation nor the adult mirrors of these fundamentally shaping childhood events. our species cycles through known vocabularies, metaphors and social forms in the moments of geography, affiliation and expectation given. from the violence of birth, spawned in the mid-coital bliss of love, to the violence of non-existence, that overtakes the life that never finds a convenient time to end, the finding-of-god unfolds. just as one never possesses the life given and taken without ascent so that which enables all that is and is not is never found. in all our finding we never exhaust the inevitable unfolding and enfolding of the silent, vowel-less markings that signify that-without-significance by which all that can be signified is. G-d.
so in signification we press on in our small caravans. the throng hoping one day to arrive; even ready to do battle to quicken the mythical arrival of what has never been. among them a few with calloused heel, fixed brow and quiet heart walk in the very mystery the hoping seek to find. living, the-finding-of-god is, as that which is sought is not. the caravan travels and trades; laughs, wars and births and in this bazaar of the human those living the-finding-of-god become the very juxtaposition of the signified and that-without-significance.
"god is found..." let the oddity stand.
12/10/2002 11:03:00 AM
to exist between worlds:
these are the ones who, in their very being, create the space for peace;
who, on the stage of global politics, stave off conflict;
who, in the dark recesses of their own soul know both the inevitable and unnecessary machinations of war.
i am a stranger not just to my countrymen,
but to the world.
to exist between worlds...
12/10/2002 10:21:00 AM
Wrestling with Islam by David Warren
via Andrew Sullivan
David Warren gave a speech at Toronto's St. Michael's College at the end of November, 2002. David grew up in Lahore, Pakistan; as did i. his moving accounts of this "easy-going and splendidly unorganized" city are an engaging biographical entrée into his deliberations on our current global political situation.
despite our common Lahori heritage, i am fundamentally at odds with his political and religious perspectives.
1. David says that, "there is not now in Islam, and there has never been, any concept resembling the Christian notion of the separation of Church and State."
the separation doctrine is a very recent phase in the evolution of the Western practice of politics. the presumption that the separation of Church and State is morally, politically or in any other way an a priori superior approach to state formation and governance is rather myopic and self-serving to those in the West with a current predisposition toward the separation tradition.
there are and will always be other ways of political praxis. look at Iran. Iran is one of the best examples of a functioning, self-critiquing Islamic democracy currently in existence. under this evolving system the Jewish, Zoroastrian and Christian population of Iran have been protected. yes, there are substantial internal demands for reform and these add to the shape of the Islamic Democracy project currently evolving in Iran.
there are no perfect forms of government. even Western governments based in a strong separation doctrine are guilty of the structural oppression, utopian imperialism and domestic heavy-handedness that religiously based governments are often accused of.
2. David's blunt statement that, "the Judaeo-Christian tradition runs almost the opposite way from Islam," and his ensuing discussion of the movement toward a Judaeo-Christian escape from tribalism and the neo-tribalism of Islam is so fantastically unaware of Christian history before the Latin-Hellenistic reappropriation of the Judahist Yesh'uah and the Roman/Orthodox Nicean theologically correct movement that an adequate response requires nearly as many words as his entire speech.
3. Justice or truth? Christ proclaims that there can be no justice in this world -- only in heaven. Every single one of Christ's parables hinges not on justice but on truth, and at the center of the Christian revelation is this uncanny statement, "That you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free."
David sets up what seems to be an either/or between justice and truth and Islam and Christianity respectively, but this is a setup with no conceptual basis. how can one generalize so broadly and still have anything to say? justice and truth are both key themes in all the Abrahamic traditions. trying to pit them against each other in terms of the preeminence of one over the other from tradition to tradition is meaningless. not even within particular traditions is this exercise fruitful. you can find groups within Islam that are mysticism focused, truth focused, justice focused, spirit focused (yes, i have met them), but all of these groups value all of these things.
4. Pragmatist vs. Metaphysician -- is that a critique or a complement?
5. For now we come to the real crux, the real contest between civilizations; one which I fear is unavoidable, and must lead over the coming years to terrible violence between East and West, between what is left of Western Christendom and what is left of Islamdom, after the ravaging both of us have taken in the modern, or I would say, post-modern world.
this pessimism, this doom mentality, runs strong among some Christians and it is baffling to me.
6.- 8. i got too tired to write any more on these last three points.
David says, But I will leave it here with the bald statement, that in their central teachings on the social questions of "how to live and what to do", Judaism and Christianity go this way, and Islam goes that. They are not "three of a kind" but rather, "two of one kind and one of another".
David's desire to link up Judaism and Christianity while marginalizing Islam is misguided. if two had to be banded together to the exclusion of the third (which i do not believe is necessary) those two would be Judaism and Islam.
i wanted to write more about this, but it is beginning to bore me so i will stop.
on a related note, Bush visited the Islamic Center of D.C. again today to deliver a speech. i must commend his consistent attempt to keep this from becoming a war of religions or civilizations; as many pundits have already declared it to be.
12/10/2002 09:29:00 AM
Lott apologizes for Thurmond comment
"All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."
-Strom Thurmond, during 1948 presidential bid
"I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
-Trent Lott, at a party honoring Thurmond in 2002
"A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past."
-Trent Lott, in a written statement days after above comment in 2002
so, Lott, having joined the hallowed ranks of Falwell and Robertson in public rhetorical idiocy is seeking to repent of his momentary semantic return to the glory days of openly WASP, confederate, segregationist political banter by saying that his words were misunderstood, misconstrued or otherwise taken to imply a position that is no longer politically expedient. my question to goodoldboy is, "how can these words of yours imply anything other than a pro-segregationist stance?"
his response to this backlash is typical political-speak. Lott takes no blame save for poor word choice and he actually implies that his hearers are to blame--that it is only the "impression" of some who heard his words that is the problem in this situation. this is so typically Washington, across both major parties, that i ask myself why i am offended by it to such a degree that i am again writing about it.
from what i know of this situation it seems that goodoldboy is left with only a few legitimate positions to take.
- he says that he had a few too many neat Scotches and in his, uh, "enthusiasm," misspoke by emphasizing something of deadmanwalking's political past that was not appropriate.
- he says that he is a buffoon and really did not know what deadmanwalking stood for back in those happy white-man days of 1948
- he says that he stands behind his comments and is a proud segregationist
one last thought on this. Jesse Jackson's call for Lott to step down because he is, "an unrepentant Confederate who cannot speak for all Americans," is simple political ignorance. the USoA is a REPUBLIC. representatives are elected by constituencies to speak for them *not* for all Americans. Lott should not step down because he can't represent all Americans--that is a non-republican (general sense) political position. rather, he should step down because the old codger has outlived his political usefulness. Mississippi, and the USoA, needs leaders who will admit to saying something stupid when they do so. during the next election cycle it is Mississippi who must decide who will represent the heritage and views of that historic state.
12/10/2002 08:33:00 AM
Daiju visited the master Baso in China. Baso asked: "What do you seek?"
"Enlightenment," replied Daiju.
"You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside?" Baso asked.
Daiju inquired: "Where is my treasure house?"
Baso answered: "What you are asking is your treasure house."
12/09/2002 08:26:00 PM
When our identity is in danger,
we feel certain that we have a mandate for war.
The old image must be recovered at any cost.
-Marshall McLuhan, War and Peace in the Global Village
12/09/2002 11:40:00 AM
Golublog
check out Golublog's Infinity Engine post (no perma link yet). this is an epic story of culture shock, civil unrest and the healing power of video games. i can testify to having similar experiences holed up in a basement on the Afghanistan border with Pakistan playing Civ.
12/09/2002 11:31:00 AM
via jim.brannen: I still don’t believe in formulas or Desire Machines
dude, i want w. david o. taylor's job... teaching a class on world religions and mucking around with art. damn, that's heaven. mucking is such a cool verb. i want to muck around with whatever i do.
12/09/2002 05:13:00 AM
Senator Lott: Segregationist or Idiot? (washingtonpost.com)
diabolical or just plain stupid? who cares. throw the idiot out. how can we continually reelect such a patent political rogue? this smile-and-ride-your-incumbency-into-multiple-decade-electoral-wins politician needs to be sent home. give him a lifetime pension, secret service and a congressional lapel pin. let him write his memoirs. just don't give him any say in how the country is run. of course, if this is what Lott's constituents want in a Rep so be it. people have their right to representation, but there must be better options out there...
12/09/2002 04:54:00 AM
CNN.com - 'Burning Bush' comment draws prison term
37 months in prison for a bad pun?
12/08/2002 09:58:00 PM
2600 NEWS:
PHOTOGRAPHER ARRESTED FOR TAKING PICTURES OF VICE PRESIDENT'S HOTEL
read this article.
if this man is credible the police state formally known as the USoA is clearly in full swing.
when you read about this horrifically unconstitutional situation, made possible by the repressive laws passed as the "USA-Patriot Act" by our spineless elected Representatives soon after 9/11, in tandem with the repression of free speech, association and travel that this government has openly carried out it is difficult to maintain that we are currently a Republic worthy of the liberty given to us by our revolutionary fathers and mothers.
now combine this insanity with the unbelievable revelations that we have a functioning secret court system and a soon to be over-funded Homeland Security Spy-On-Americans Agency and one is left with the distinct impression that we will either, one, never again regain liberty as we knew if prior to 9/11 or, two, spend the next few generations trying to undo the constitutional havoc unleashed by the two major parties in little more than a year.
i am shocked and sickened at the prospect of either of these options. i guess there is a third option. we could sit back and pretend we are safe and happily not consider the price of this false security.
12/08/2002 02:49:00 PM
the only way to clean your office is with a shot of Sauza gold in half a can of Monster singing along
to Tenacious D.
12/08/2002 12:08:00 PM
speaking of The Offspring, they are one of the bands on a new Ramones cover album coming out in a couple months. the other bands are Metallica, U2, Greenday, Rob Zombie, Kiss, Marilyn Manson and Eddie Vedder. 12/08/2002 11:55:00 AM
current mp3:
the.offspring::conspiracy.of.one
so, i went to a musical today. at a church. sar and ayesh were in it. they did great. nonetheless, i walked away dumbfounded at the theme. it was a Christmas musical... with a military theme. "what the hell?" i thought to myself. how does that not seem totally skewed to other people??? "am i really the only adult here that this seems wack to?" i thought to myself. anyway, after 25 minutes of as many battle songs and children in fatigues that they could cram into the service the odd juxtaposition of Jesus-in-the-manger and children singing about marching, crushing and winning came to a close.
i am very happy that my kids get to act and sing... they love it. yet, it becomes so laborious when one has to constantly unpack the oddity of the religious situation that is so often experienced at these christian corporations hosting events such as this. it is even harder when one has to do so at an elementary school level without coming off as overly negative. there is nothing sadder than a pre-teen cynic. i don't want to encourage that, nor do i intend to allow situations, such as the militarization of the nativity, to pass without a clear contrarian voice.
happy sunday.
happy sunday.
march 2, 3, 4.
12/08/2002 08:43:00 AM
the new seven is out.
this month is on alt.w. d.miller made a great point that no American wrote anything for this issues. it was good to have his voice of experience weigh in on it. honestly, while i really love the encounter, spectacle, involvement and eccletheatre of alt.w there is much about the "centres" approach that i have never enjoyed. it always felt like kindergarden to me. otherwise, i have enjoyed the bit of alt.w i have experienced. i wish i was at Vaux for the God is found in the shit eucharist bomb gathering. throwing chalices of wine always gets my attention.
12/07/2002 10:20:00 PM
AlterNet: What Would Mohammed Do?
I think that at the bottom of it, the distinction is between the public world and the private world. And the huge difference between the West and orthodox Islam is that orthodox Islam says "private is private, and you in the West have lost your way. You don't know what's private anymore, you use your daughters' bodies to sell cars, and this is not a good thing." And a lot of feminists would agree with them.
12/07/2002 09:23:00 PM
Pastoral Poverty: The Seeds of Decline
... unlike the cities' troubles, which generated a national debate about causes and solutions, the rural collapse has been largely silent, perhaps because it happened so slowly.... Towns of 10,000 and 25,000 people are now the most likely places to experience a bank robbery. Drug-related homicides fell by 50 percent in urban areas, but they tripled over the last decade in the countryside.
crime is not just a city thing. rural America is not the ideal. crime is a movement of despair; an embodiment of hopeless selfishness. crime, rural or urban, is best addressed with hope and hope is an outcome of community. the accountabillity of hope cannot be bought and thus governments really are at a loss for what to do because fiscal solutions are all that bureaucracy really knows how to carry out. proactively fighting crime is the work of the artist, the mother, the rabbi and the friend.
12/07/2002 06:52:00 PM
what if freedom is as important as tradition;
passion as important as precision?
what if to follow your heart requires
forged letters and long bicycle rides;
duty bound dinners and frightening phone calls;
sneaking out and secret names?
what if the measure of a life is faithfulness,
to dreams, to friends, to life,
even when it demands our jobs, our pride, our all?
what if poetry really is to woo women?
what if life really is like, Dead Poet's Society?
12/06/2002 12:08:00 PM
Jordon Cooper's Weblog -
Now with standard passenger side airbags
i won a Coopie! i won a Coopie!
thanks to El, Agent Glory & Agent Camille, pez, Hansen's Energy, surah Fatiha, evolution, mom and dad, Spy1d and Balletflamingos.
without you i am not.
Eid Mubarak
12/05/2002 08:55:00 PM
The Poetry of Programming
The idea behind the MFA in software is that if we want to get good at writing software, we have to practice it, we have to have a critical literature, and we have to have a critical context.
- Richard Gabriel, Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems
12/05/2002 07:25:00 PM
thank God i read Wendy Cooper's blog tonight otherwise i might have missed the chance to sign up for a Rapture Letter. now, i can be sure to get an email reminder that i need to be saved when everyone who has been born againnah is taken away to heaven. wooh, i have one less thing to worry about now. thanks Wendy.
12/05/2002 01:26:00 PM
Salon.com | The day Henry Kissinger cried
This is our true Machiavelli, a statesman famous for conducting foreign policy with a twist of treachery and deceit. From the clandestine bombing of Cambodia to supporting Pinochet's bloody military coup in Chile, Kissinger is a man who has many secrets of his own to hide. Talk about a conflict of interest! How can Kissinger, at age 79, a lifelong member of the national security establishment, a presidential advisor who wiretapped his own colleagues to prevent leaks, suddenly become a truly independent investigator of the CIA, FBI and the White House? Who would ever believe him?...
In Paris last year the French police arrived at his Ritz Hotel suite to serve Kissinger with a summons to appear in court to answer questions about French citizens who disappeared during the U.S.-backed coup in Chile. Kissinger immediately fled the country....
Fifty-eight thousand Americans died in the Vietnam War -- nearly 21,000 of them during Kissinger's watch. More than 600,000 Vietnamese soldiers were killed during the Nixon-Kissinger years. No one is certain how many civilians died.
And yet Kissinger had just told me that none of these deaths were necessary, from a geopolitical point of view.
He is an old man now and he shows no signs of remorse. And he has never displayed a willingness to challenge the foreign policy establishment that continues to consult and flatter him.
Kissinger promises a "full accounting" of the circumstances leading to the Sept. 11 tragedy and vows, "We will go where the facts lead us." But I don't know why anyone would believe him. Kissinger's specialty is the coverup.
12/05/2002 10:38:00 AM
when the currents of human thought mate with the technical capacity of human invention the child can be barbarism or beauty. this is the power and opportunity of human thinking. never is it just an idea! never is it merely philosophy! never, never, never! begone American disdain for thoughts well formed; for conversation amongst enemies. without new values we will be the demise of our civilization or, god forbid, our planet both technologically and memetically. let the revaluation begin.
12/05/2002 09:59:00 AM
come one, come all!
Emily, my esteemed sister, is a memeber of the Elite Dance Company who is presenting a performance this Friday and Saturday entitled, Soul Peel. The performance is free, but please mention that you are there to see Emily--it helps her in some way.
Friday, December 6
8 pm
Saturday, December 7
2 pm
@ the Southeast Campus Roberson Theatre
2100 Southeast Parkway
Arlington, TX 76018
12/05/2002 08:07:00 AM
gk chesterton said...
the great fool is he in whom we cannot tell which is the conscious and which is the unconscious humor; we laugh with him and we laugh at him at the same time. an obvious instance is that of ordinary and happy marriage. a man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of everlasting joke. each has discovered that the other is a fool, but a great fool. this largeness, this gorgeousness of folly is the thing which we all find about those with whom we are in intimate contact; and it is the one enduing basis of affection and even of respect. via gravatt
12/04/2002 11:12:00 PM
Eyeballing Total Information Awareness
so, say that you wanted to call Poindexter at his home in Rockville, MD. you could just call to chat about this little Total Information Awareness thingee or maybe ask him how life as a felon is. if the urge did strike you the number for John M. Poindexter and his wife Linda is 301-424-6613. you know, if you ever pop into town maybe they would even let you visit them at 10 Barrington Fare, Rockville, MD 20850. that is all.
12/04/2002 11:03:00 PM
Spy1d has started a new band: Brutal Gas.
they will be playing all the hot spots in Kabul.
12/04/2002 05:04:00 PM
WANTED
Old school Patron to support the theological arts.
Work to center on religion and the identity politics of conflict... along with Italian cuisine, punk rawk, spirituality after contingency and a heroic biography of the great benefactor who funds said work.
Send proposals to renaissancereloaded.
12/04/2002 11:59:00 AM
i keep popping into interesting Orthodox people this week...
TheOoze - What will your church be doing a thousand years from now?
i like this author's long view. though, i do not particularly like the static nature of what he deems the appropriate response to the long view. i agree with him that dancing and music, coffee and candles are not what make for lasting identity across generations. i think that we need to hear the critique that says we need more study.
nevertheless, i was compelled to verbally respond as i read this article. when that happens it is time to blog. so, here are some excerpts and comments:
My church, I can predict with some confidence, will be doing more or less the same thing a thousand years in the future as today, or a thousand years ago. (Allowing for changes in language.) It offers a way out of the false choice between stale routine on one hand, and gimmickery on the other. It presents the gospel in all its fullness.
the same thing, eh. and that is a good thing?
if the options are stale routine and gimmickery we need more choices. how about the sacred emerging out of the normal living of real, simple people?
We interpret the Bible in light of church tradition, not like the enthusiasts who draw out of it whatever idea--balanced or not--may leap out at them. (Footwashing, speaking in tongues, polygamy, fascination with the antichrist..you name it.) By "tradition," I mean that we give full consideration to the writings of the fathers and saints of Christian history, and to the ascetics of all ages who have chosen the desert over the world.
it is good that the traditions are carried by your church, but who is marginalized in your selection of tradition through which you go about your interpretation? there are substantial, undefended, presuppositions that go into making statements such as "the fathers and saints of Christian history" -- which fathers, whose saints?
another issue is the general cadence of your argument. there is this palpable sense that you think that your experience and use of the traditions somehow brings you to a privileged place of interpretation when you approach the text (which itself is simply part of the traditions)--perhaps even that you can carry out a living objectivity. every time i encounter someone who is stridently Orthodox (generally only adult converts) they come off in this manner.
We have a system of authority which is both hierarchical enough, and decentralized enough, to prevent the tradition from being hijacked by ideologies of the moment...
perhaps, but is this insular posture a good thing? you are propagating someone's ideology, someone's culture... even if it is not your own. this seems rather odd to me. why would you settle into an amalgam of spiritual practices whose genesis, efficacy and communicability are some other people's ancient credulities? is that what walking in the way of Jesus means?
Once I, too, wrestled with whether to remain within Episcopalianism, and try to salvage it from within. Your situation requires courage--like a woman who chooses to stay with an unreliable husband. (Unreliable, because you can't know what your tradition will develop into.)
this condescension does not make your argument any more compelling. beyond what comes off as a rather insulting analogy, the oddity here, in my view, is that you make the sterility of a never changing set of cultural perspectives and practices something to be lauded. only two things come to my mind when i think of unchanging institutions: A&E special and sess pool.
Whatever church is, it should at least speak to all times and to all places.
oh, is that all?
May Christ unite our hearts, and have mercy upon us.
may our unity be in love and may mercy be our common gift.
peace.
12/04/2002 10:19:00 AM
there is a girl who lives in the condos across the way. daily at 10:12am she walks the length of the circa 1970 multi-family building to get into her white Honda Prelude.
12/04/2002 08:36:00 AM
{there are a bunch of essays in my head on spiritual community within the bazaar model. i think that they will be way too long to put on this blog as one entity (if this enthusiasm for the topic continues to flow). i will figure out a way to break it all up.}
bazaar spirituality: co-developed spiritual community
p2p communities with open source identities
i hate cheesy titles. i have become the king of cheese.
An Introduction
peer-to-peer (P2P) is a philosophy of networking that eschews centralization. the walkie-talkies you got for your 8th birthday are P2P. the cell phone you currently use is not. your walkies work as long as the 9-volt is good and you are within range. your cell works if the battery is good, you are in range AND if the centralized network that connects you to the person you are calling is up and able to recognize you—and charge you.
in next-wave last month John O'Keefe wrote about using the P2P model in the existing church. i would like to take a step back and write a few words on what is often overlooked in religious deliberation on the subject of P2P, that is, what is presupposed by P2P, in an effort to continue to mine the possibilities of this model in spiritual organization.
Self Organization Requires Convergence
P2P comes into existence only through the convergence of various substrates of code that allow for the protocol to be. the client operating systems, standardized networking protocols and peer-to-peer client applications create the eco-system that we call P2P. as in the world of technology, P2P as a social model for spiritual interaction requires various substrates of cultural, organizational and leadership presuppositions and artifacts. one does not simply put on P2P. P2P is not a marketing plan. rather, it is a way of being that comes into existence through the determination to enact the preconditions for the emergence of a P2P reality.
the best known P2P applications, at this moment, are those that run on the Gnutella protocol--Kazaa, Morpheus, Peercast and others. Gnutella was a rogue project of Nullsoft, the company Justin Frankel and Tom Pepper sold to AOL in June, 1999. AOL shut the project down within hours of its first public announcement in March, 2000. this was to no avail though as the beta code had already been released on the Internet, albeit not for long, and this kept the Gnutella project alive. today Gnutella is the basis for most P2P networking taking place on this planet.
Gnutella and the other various collections of code that enable P2P are created with various tools, by diverse teams, spanning the globe within many different models of development—some open and some closed. nevertheless, the spirit of open access and free sharing that is the philosophical underpinning of a P2P exchange fits most naturally with the Open Source model of development—which is the heritage of the Gnutella protocol.
projects that fall within the Open Source Initiative family of licenses are developed using base technologies and tools that are transparent, open to reappropriation and redistribution. there is a general consensus about the ethos that enables the project process model for an Open Source endeavor. Eric Raymond writes about this in his classic essay, that became the title for his book, The Cathedral & The Bazaar.
Open Source is all about the bazaar. this is the canonical analogy used in contrasting development in a strong, closed license software firm and the community development done under strong, open license projects. traditional approaches architect vast building projects from the top down that result in closed systems of mass patronage to professional institutions. bazaar approaches provide a plausible promise by a project leader who is able to gather a community that results in an open system of co-development on a mutual project.
Preconditions for the Bazaar Style
what is the point of using an Open Source bazaar style in patterns of spiritual gathering? it is the same point in spiritual community as it is in software. the point is a movement away from the Cathedral building that has become our custom, with all that this entails, and a return to the viral network of spiritual relationships that are supple, loosely coupled and identified locally. that this implies that the Cathedral building posture is ponderous, tightly coupled and fixated on the trappings of meta-identity should not go unrecognized. the point of this is summed up in four words: a community of co-developers. this is the bazaar way. this is what enables P2P.
{to be continued}
::Another Bio Opportunity::
Dan likes energy drinks. no matter what people say, caffeine, not alcohol, is the last legal drug. ok, maybe caffeine is the last legal upper and alcohol is the last legal downer. maybe it really does not matter. so, yes, Dan has a particular fascination with Hansen's new Monster Energy and his old favorite Sobe Adrenaline. if anyone can tell Dan why these drinks are not good for his body he wants you to write him. Taurine--what is that? Dan writes regularly at TheyBlinked.com and likes to talk to people about politics, technology and spirituality. Dan really needs to do something for money. Offers that make Dan laugh and then grow silent with fascination are being entertained 24/7.
mindshare without marketshare
homesteading as response to predatory postures of dominance
with an afterward on the noosphere from LeRoy to Raymond by way of de Chardin
{not yet for general consumption}
12/03/2002 09:55:00 PM
BBC NEWS | Adult Siamese twins plead for separation
this fascinates me to no end. the possibility of two seperate identities biologically linked such that in some ways their brains are comingled yet their personalities are intensely distinct. it must be a profound experience to live 28 years with someone in a shared body. their ability to each graduate with law degrees and live somewhat normal lives is stunning.
12/03/2002 09:07:00 PM
More priest sex abuse allegations
i have not really kept up with this. the coverups are astonishing in their repeat nature over protracted periods of time. reading this tonight causes me to simply shake my head and say, "What the hell?"
12/03/2002 04:36:00 PM
feedback from the gathering post:
but, Dan, what about the sacraments?
what about the sacraments?
i would suggest that life is sacramental; not specific institutionally mediated reified symbolisms. what we have come to call sacraments are simply the *normal life* of past generations extracted, frozen and then mediated by those who have commoditized the symbol. it is time to consciously reengage life as the unconsciously sacramental. sacraments are the mundane invested with significance by the touch of a community of hope.
that should anger my Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends. sorry guys, being Certified Sacrament Vendors no longer cuts it. it's over. there is going to be a class action suit against you that will make the Tobacco cases in the USoA seem like child's play. even if those bringing the action lose, your hierarchical sacramental posture is simply wrong headed. at least from the place i stand. help me understand why it is not. peace.
12/03/2002 04:21:00 PM
700 Klutz By William Saletan
Let’s review Robertson’s comments.
1) To win the war, Bush needs to avoid saying Islam is rotten.
2) Islam is rotten.
3) I’m Bush’s best friend.
4) I’m not against Muslims; I just want them to stop being Muslims.
5) The only people trying to make this a Muslim-Christian thing are those rotten Muslims.
6) I want everyone watching this TV show to know that this issue is no big deal.
Guess which religion needs damage control now.
this man is a buffoon. he seeks to speak with authority without the experience to do so.
a simple request that goes out to Falwell, Robertson, Graham Jr. and the rest of the Christian Right that is unable to crack a book on the history of Islam or, gasp, be in serious, protracted community with Muslims: SHUT UP! You have nothing to say. You are making a fool of your faith and your nation.
12/03/2002 04:00:00 PM
get your war on
When a tree falls in the forest and it's the Fourth Amendment, does it make a sound?
12/03/2002 01:01:00 PM
current mp3:
boysetsfire::after.the.eulogy.(live)
contented to strive for new worthless slogans
12/03/2002 12:44:00 PM
a comment posted on Fatblueman
i had no desire to pick on catholics! my favorite theologian in my good little evangelical college was Hans Kung. HK is a good case in point of the interpretive control coming from the Vatican. HK, who was a strong voice during Vatican II, was declared a non-Catholic theologian a generation later because of his interpretive stances.
i agree with you, Richard, in large measure the HRCC has opened up to a more diverse set of interpretations while the historically orphaned, modern Protestant-oriented entrepreneurial churches have, in many ways, gone the opposite direction.
peace my friends.
12/02/2002 06:47:00 PM
I'm very intelligent.
If you're gonna give me hope, you gotta do better than you are doing.
If you can't be at least mildly interesting, then shut the hell up!
I mean, I'm drowning here, and you're describing the water!
-Melvin Udall, as good as it gets
12/02/2002 05:14:00 PM
on gathering
i wrote some thoughts on new leaders some time back. now how about some stream of consciousness rambling on structure?
first, a preface. everything is contrived. there is nothing outside of contrivance. the challenge is not the avoidance of contrivance so much as it is the clarification of what values and expectations drive contrivance. all structural theories (*and that is all we have--there is no blueprint*) key off of our assumptions about the individual and society. for example, the way of spiritual communities in feudal Europe was altogether different from the sixth century Taoist-Christian monasteries in China or the first century disciples of Thomas in India or the sixteenth century Reformed communities in Switzerland or the post-industrial communities in our day.
the standard, somewhat interesting, response that i generally receive when i talk about an inability to find an originary model that is "uncontrived" or, with a different word, but no less pretentious, "original" is: But, Dan, what about the model in Acts?? that is a good question. the challenge is that there is no "the" model in the Acts of the Apostles, but even if we accept for the sake of argument that there is only one model shown forth in Acts getting to a bedrock blueprint of "the original church" is still impossible because the models outside of Acts that we see in Q, the Common Sayings Source, the Synoptics, John, the fragments of Hegesippus' Church History, the Didache and other early traditions speak to a plurality of "models." that said, the very idea of an institutional model is somewhat ridiculous when it comes to the gathering of those who are in the Way because the gathering was just that... it was a coming together that, in and of itself, was not really the point. the point was what took place in the lives of those gathered when they were together and when they were apart (cf: the rhythm of spiritual creativity). the stories of gathering in Acts are useful, but neither perfect nor exhaustive. gathering is not a brittle attempt at doing the act of gathering "right." gathering, as we are speaking of it here, is the living unfolding of a communal enactment of the divine in the way of Jesus. gathering is a modality of the kingdom.
consider this...
Paradosis
you walk in and take a seat in one of the chairs in the circle. this feels more like going to the planetarium on a 4th grade field trip than it does what has passed as spiritual community in the not so distant past. without any sense for who is "leading" the room grows dark and film is projected on all four walls. the cinematic montage weaves loosely joined pieces into a momentary, symbiant whole. the sound slowly dissipates to a slight soundtrack as the lights come up a tad and someone walks to the center asking for a response to what has just been experienced together. what ensues is 45 minutes of dialogue around the questions that are raised by the film, and though many knowledgeable people stake claims to positions to help define some of the spectrum of response no expert brings closure to the conversation. the wider dialogue shifts to smaller interactions as simple food is shared and the night continues as the community slowly moves out to other venues.
Ecclesia
you delicately place the wrapped canvas in the back of your Volkswagen as your thoughts drift over the experiences you have had this week. the drive to your friend’s apartment is slowed by the six o'clock suburban retreat, but all-in-all is uneventful for a Thursday evening. you, rather inelegantly, ring the doorbell with the index finger knuckle of your right hand that is clutching the large canvas and a platic Target bag of French bread. in a moment the door swings inward and you are greeted by the 8 year old son of your childhood friend. he helps you with the bread as you navigate the canvas into the living room. twelve or thirteen of your friends are there, some sipping crisp Chianti others helping to set the dining table that has been moved into the larger living room for the evening. the space is warm and the smell of basil and oregano betray the propensity for Italian that you and your friend have shared since college. she is by day a marketing communications manager, and, by night, the house chef of this midtown two bedroom brownstone apartment. everyone cheers as the chef brings in the steaming pasta and the group, with a natural unspoken precision, surrounds the table with laughter, story, song and thankfulness. everyone has brought something of their lives-at-this-moment to share. as you settle into your first tortellini and your second Chianti the canvas so delicately carried through the urban pilgrimage to this indescript apartment has part in what it is to be a community of the spirit.
Réclamer
~one day~ the rain that has begun to fall on this otherwise temperate November afternoon makes the ink on the huge banner being jostled about as we move across the bridge slowly run. the forty or fifty people in boots and rain coats have set out to the large University theatre. the president is about to speak on the "just war" that he is seeking support for from the political pundits, social elite and industry heads who, in his mind, make up the nation he leads. our small community finds its voice as the overlooked periphery on this wet morning, but it is our voice and we will not stand down.
~one people~ sometimes the hardest part of racial reconciliation is proximity. at least that is the case in our town. the lines can be seen in the clubs we attend, the churches we frequent, the part of town we return to after working together all day. the day-to-day interaction between us is better than a generation ago, but still there is a palpable lack that needs to be addressed. but how? how do we do it? we have decided to do it by proximity rather than forced interaction. over time the relationships grow. the most profound change will probably take place in our children's generation who are growing up in a school system and neighborhoods that make homogeneity the oddly uncomfortable environment when it is experienced on visits to grandma's church or the suburban library that is the only location for that book we need.
"Daddy, why is everyone here the same?"
"Tradition." i answer, "It is just how people have chosen to live right now. We have chosen differently."
~one life~ jon was shot by the police. statistically a gun shot wound to the chest was the way he was supposed to go. he was twenty and black after all. he was a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering at RCC. he also was a drug dealer. he would often buy heroine for a street friend who was in the last stages of life. he had tried numerous times to transition this friend from street life, but it was all he knew and he wanted to die at home. jon made the mistake of running from a cop one night while he was visiting his friend. if you did not grow up in his neighborhood i doubt you understand his impulse to flee. they say he pulled a weapon on them and that is why they shot him. he did not. there was no weapon. he died living out the love that would not leave his friend with, "be warm and well fed."
...some narrative fragments that begin to speak of shifting values in the spiritual bazaar.
-the parabolic/narrative seeding of conversation
-the open table fellowship of people-in-community
-the socially conscious, activated and engaged
more on emerging community values in these speaking notes (pdf, 230k).
12/02/2002 03:20:00 PM
Halley's Comment
the spirit of independence that girlism exudes is what i want for my girls.
the odd selfish manipulation that seems part of Halley's definition is far less endearing.
**edit**
AKMA has an interesting response to girlism.
**edit**
12/02/2002 03:08:00 PM
Some of us have great stories; pretty stories that take place at lakes, with boats, and friends, and noodle salad. Just... no one in this car. But a lot of people! That's their story. Good times, noodle salad.
-Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), as good as it gets
12/02/2002 11:54:00 AM
a toast to Hamid Karsai
this is what a dead statesman looks like before he dies.
courage, fatigue, hope and despair intermingle in the eyes.
we are all given our chance to, action-by-action, impact the world.
here is to those thrust into authority whose very lives become the testing ground for a nation's future.
God bless Afghanistan.
12/02/2002 11:48:00 AM
Parallel Legal System
...the administration, with approval of the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, could order a clandestine search of a U.S. citizen's home and, based on the information gathered, secretly declare the citizen an enemy combatant, to be held indefinitely at a U.S. military base.
why bother working through the traditions of our Liberty--the Constitution, the Judiciary and Congressional oversight? the Executive branch can just declare victory and incarcerate like mad... that'll get those terrorists.
i am thinking emigration to someplace out of the way... Hunza? Nuristan?
joke. no, leaving is not a good option at this point. we have to embody the protest in our communities. at some point we are going to have to lipo this government largess and it is not going to be quick or painless. we cannot allow liberty to die under the weight of false security.
12/02/2002 11:35:00 AM
there is a, generally, unspoken presumption among most Christians that there was one, original, unified Church. this was a central declaration among many of the fathers and mothers of the various Christianities that came to dominate and then truncate the traditions down to the tradition. the Roman and Orthodox Churches did this during the creedal periods in the mid-300s AD/CE, then continued on the path of narrating an exclusive originary Church (of which they were the living arbiters) in their separate ways soon after Nicea, but only formally after Cardinal Humbert and Patriarch Cerularius mutually excommunicated each other in 1054 historically solidifying the East/West schism in the dominate Latin-Hellenistic trajectory of theology and practice that began after the destruction of the Temple/Jerusalem in 70/135 CE. WOW, that is a big hairy sentence!! 459 characters... i checked.
the Protestant Churches made this same declaration from the 1500s in an effort to return to the ancient Church and became little more than a theological appendage to the Roman Christian experience. the Restoration, Latter Day Saint, Pentecostal and other “primitive church” movements later became theological appendages to the Protestant Christian experience--each movement making some claim at being closer to the origin.
no one holds monopoly over origin.
the only privilege with regard to origin is in practice and in perspective.
practice: we know that we have come to know him if we walk like Jesus did -I.John.2
take up your cross and follow me. that was the only way to get close to Jesus while he tromped around Eretz Israel with his rag-tag band of lunatic revolutionaries whose very blood became the inspiration for some of the greatest moments of human solidarity, mercy and non-violent resistance in our history. privilege with regard to the traditions of the way of Jesus is found in the bodily postures of becoming less, of losing yourself, of being last.
perspective: what we do with what we know
in practice, there is no origin. we have what we know and we do what we can with what we know. that is all the origin we will ever have.
we know today much that our ancient fathers and mothers did not. we also lack much that from the toil of faithful existence these spiritual ancestors can teach us--if we have some mediated access to the story of their existence. so we stand amidst the obligation of responsibility with regard to what we know, who we are and when we dwell and the experience of those who have gone before us upon whose shoulders we literally stand, consciously or unconsciously.
we must hold both our time and our traditions with honor and authenticity.
i need to fill out both of these ideas more at some point.
some musings on impact in the last 200 years that i need to preserve:
->information revolution
->miniaturization revolution
->atomic and then quantum revolutions
->archeological revelations - Didache, Nag Hamadi Library, Dead Sea Scrolls
->philosophic revolutions - phenomenology, pragmatism, post-structuralism
->political evolutions - socialism, democracy, modern military autocracy
->globalization and it’s economic, ideological and social effects
->literary shifts - novel, silent/talkie film, radio, TV, hypertext
12/02/2002 11:28:00 AM
Guardian Unlimited | 'If you hate the west, emigrate to a Muslim country' -Hamza Yusuf
"We Muslims have lost theologically sound understanding of our teaching," he says. "We are living through a reformation, but without any theologians to guide us through it. Islam has been hijacked by a discourse of anger and the rhetoric of rage. We have lost our bearings because we have lost our theology."
12/02/2002 05:55:00 AM
on the occasion of yesterday's World AIDS Day it is important to remember the global HIV situation:
There are 42 million HIV-positive people worldwide,
75 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
(UNAIDS)
12/02/2002 05:50:00 AM
Guardian Unlimited | Amnesty: Iraq 'torture' dossier was manipulated
Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan said: “This selective attention to human rights is nothing but a cold and calculated manipulation of the work of human rights activists.
“Let us not forget that these same governments turned a blind eye to Amnesty International’s reports of widespread human rights violations in Iraq before the Gulf War.
“They remained silent when thousands of unarmed Kurdish civilians were killed in Halabja in 1988.” via Ireland Online
and if this is anything but a pretext for war why not assemble the copious human rights data on China? on Saudi Arabia? on the USoA?
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