A New Day

Published November 30, 2023 by Nan Mykel

Deep breath. Tryin’ to do better.

Frustrated that some of the Times’ columns are off limits to non-subscribers. I’ll test the waters for education’s sake:

“In 2024, it’s not the economy. It’s the democracy. It’s the decency. It’s the truth.

I’m not talking about what will influence voters most. I’m talking about what should.”

From Frank Bruni’s opinion column in the New York Times today.

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I’m still trying to find out why George W. Bush signed into law a bill requiring the State Department to monitor global anti-Semitism and rate countries annually on their treatment of Jews, over the US State Department’s opposition, saying it was unnecessary as the department already compiles such information in its annual reports on human rights and religious freedom. True, Bush announced this when he addressed a crowd in the battleground state of Florida, which has the world’s largest Jewish population in the world after Israel and New York, [Rense.com] so maybe it was just to get the Jewish vote. The rapidity with which we backed the current Israeli war made me wonder some more. Was it oil? A friend suggested it was due to guilt, because the U.S. had turned away a boatload of refugees from Hitler times, but I read up on that and that situation was unclear.

I’m not truly superstitious, but I used to buy books in thrift shops in order to open myself to serendipitous unread books. Now my serendipity with books is limited to the overflow book shelves in the public library. My last visit to the library matched me with Diane Ravitch’s 2020 Slaying Goliath (The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools) and Kevin Phillips’ American Theocracy 2006. (I follow Ravitch’s blog but don’t reblog it ’cause I suspect she doesn’t like to be re-blogged. (I love it!).

Re Phillips’ book, it made me wonder if our favoritism could be that “U.S. Protestant theology has now refocused itself on the biblical holy lands as a battlefield is just another of the extraordinary transformations taking place on account of the influence of religion on American politics and war.” Christian Nationalism sprang forth after the book was published, I figure, because it is not listed in his large Index.

Phillips writes that “many in the Christian Right appear to have a larger purpose, perhaps related to preparation for the rapture, the tribulation, and Armageddon. Some 40 percent of Americans…believe that the antichrist is alive and already on the earth.” He refers to Paul Boyer, who dates evangelical preoccupation with the Middle East back half a century, stirred by the creation of Israel in 1948, then by the expansion of Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, all key end times signs. “Islam’s evil role, says Boyer, is an ancient view in Christian eschatology.”

I’ve mentioned my lack of some important education in the past, and this is where I am ignorant, also. I’m not sure how merging Christian Evangelism with the Jewish holy land go together. If I’m missing something obvious, please tell me.

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ASHAMED….

to be an American? I never thought I would be, but how else can I respond to the huge Republican push to re-elect such a man? I have no words for any justification. I won’t think further on it, but there it is.

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QUOTATION

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” —Oscar Wilde via Google

Hornswoggled Again

Published November 29, 2023 by Nan Mykel

Have I finally learned my lesson? What lesson? If it looks pretty and smells nice, don’t believe it?

Sigh. Yesterday I sang praises for Sikhism. Today I learn that Sikh separatism has a bloody history, that Sikhs assassinated Indira Gandhi in 1984 and in 1985 a Sikh terrorist blew up Air India Flight 182 from Montreal to London, killing 129 people. The lesson, I guess: Don’t believe everything you read..including me, I guess.

Hey Look What I Found

Published November 28, 2023 by Nan Mykel

Christian Nationalism vs Sikhism?

Sikhism advocates equality, social justice, service to humanity, and tolerance for other religions. The essential message of Sikhism is spiritual devotion and reverence of God at all times while practicing the ideals of honesty, compassion, humility and generosity in everyday life.

The world’s faithful account for 83% of the global population; the great majority of these fall under twelve classical religions–Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism.<https://www.google.com/search?q=World+religions&sca_

Sikhism is a South Asian religion, and is a philosophy, that originated in the Punjab region of South Asia, around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups and stands at fifth-largest worldwide, with about 25–30 million adherents. Wikipedia

Sikhism – Founded by the Guru Nanak (born 1469), Sikhism believes in a non-anthropomorphic, supreme, eternal, creator God; centering one’s devotion to God is seen as a means of escaping the cycle of rebirth. Sikhs follow the teachings of Nanak and nine subsequent gurus. Their scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib – also known as the Adi Granth – is considered the living Guru, or final authority of Sikh faith and theology. Sikhism emphasizes equality of humankind and disavows caste, class, or gender discrimination. From <https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/religions/>

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“Beginning on some winter night the snow will fall steadily for a thousand years and hush in its falling the spore cities whose seed has flown. The delicate traceries of the frost will slowly dim the glass in observatories and all will be as it has been before the virus wakened. The long trail of Halley’s comet. once more returning will pass like a ghostly matchflame over the unwatched grave of the cities. This has always been their end, whether in the snow or in the sand.” — Loren Eisley

LIFE METAPHOR

Published November 22, 2023 by Nan Mykel

A.I. Oh my. I’ll cry!

We were gifted somehow

As caretakers of life

On Earth. Toss a penny.

Save or destroy was

The question–what would

We do with all our power:

Make or shake or desecrate.

We lost control and as the

nasty pus of greed triumphed

Now steaming toward 2050

What will be will be. Nan

SAY WHAT?!

Published November 20, 2023 by Nan Mykel

Since I’ve given up trying to attract more followers and am writing mainly for me, I may be posting info that’s passe to you, but that I enjoy. As for followers, some of the problem is being ignorant of what works technically and how, as well as being a shy introverted survivor. (There! Did any of my pity party work?) Anyone who has ever stopped by, thanks.

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FOR ME:

The Union Army of 2,100,000 soldiers was nearly twice the size of the Confederate Army of 1,064,000.
It was the deadliest war in American history. There were around 210,000 soldiers killed in action and 625,000 total dead.
Thirty percent of all Southern white males between the ages of 18 and 40 died in the war.
Around 9 million people lived in the Southern states at the time of the Civil War.
- Around 3.4m were slaves.
Sixty six percent of the deaths in the war were due to disease

It’s never too late to learn something.

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CONFLICTING STORIES

Lake City Ammo Plant Cancels All Commercial Contracts – Update

Staple Defense October 14, 2023 ***MAJOR UPDATE*** 10/31/23: Lake City Ammo Plant has confirmed that they are NOT canceling commercial contracts, and they are not changing their commercial distribution policies. I’m unsure where things stand now. At one time President Biden was quoted as saying he was going to close the commercial contract, but then there was a mighty roar from the Republicans. I’m unsure where things stand now. The site owned by the U.S. Army has manufactured hundreds of millions of rounds for the commercial market every year since at least 2011

A NY Times photo of six dead children on a Hamas hospital morgue floor this week made me think about the commercial Lake City Ammo Plant owned by the US Army whose ammunition for AK-15s has been used in a number of mass shootings in the US. The Defense Department’s arrangement with the commercial ammo producer is intended to save taxpayers money, at the same time keeping it ready for speedy military use in case of a conflict. One mass murderer is reported to have said that “the rounds made at Lake City were the best barrier penetration ammo I can get.” (The plant owned by the Army has manufactured hundreds of millions of rounds for the commercial market since at least 2011. Apparently the ammo shells carry a marker of origin.

So, the way our world has constructed itself, due to our drives for competition and power and resultant need for defense, children are and still will be among the necessary but regretful victims of mankind’s way of doing things. And the picture of the U.S. aiding one country and also having to aid its victims is putrid and plain crazy, but real. I’m not clear what power Israel has to receive so much U.S. allegiance, but apparently that’s another thing that I don’t know or understand. (I’m still baffled by Bush’s signing the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act, commiting the government to keep a record of ant-Semitic acts throughout the world, and also a record of responses to those acts. This task had essentially already been covered for all nations, and was an add-on. I may have mentioned this before, but am still curious what debt Bush felt motivated by, if there was one. Why?)

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If I have any blog reputation at all it may be for my double-talk about the exceedingly wealthy. For example when I read a column (or story) in the NY Times today about the luxuries and private clubs enjoyed by the excessively wealthy, there was a little negativity in my heart. Any suggestions as to how to accept negative (in my opinion) behaviors? Or how to usefully respond to photos of dead children in Hamas/Israel?

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I searched for a quotation today but only found the following:

Did your toes ever ache

with a-wanting to kick

but no one’s there but you”

Burma Shave

WHO’S POLITICALLY CORRECT ANYWAY?

Published November 14, 2023 by Nan Mykel

Some conservative commentators in the West argue that “political correctness” and multiculturalism are part of a conspiracy with the ultimate goal of undermining Judeo-Christian values. This theory, which holds that political correctness originates from the critical theory of the Frankfurt School as part of a conspiracy that its proponents call “Cultural Marxism”.^[75]^[76] The theory originated with Michael Minnicino’s 1992 essay “New Dark Age: Frankfurt School and ‘Political Correctness'”, published in a Lyndon LaRouche movement journal.^[77] In 2001, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan wrote in The Death of the West that “political correctness is cultural Marxism”, and that “its trademark is intolerance”.^[78

WHAT?!

I took it at face value and if anything, thought it was a way kind people preferred to use so as not to offend disabled people, for instance. When I read a list of 100 PC terms on Google I noticed some of them were funny [“dead–Terminally unavailable”; bald–follically challenged; homeless–residentially flexible; clumsy–uniquely coordinated; boring–differently interesting; short–vertically challenged; prison cell–custody suite), but but some of them were okay, and that I would never use any of most. Have I been had? Is that whole list a joke?

So I returned to Google and found an apparently real definition: Politically correct language (known as PC language) consists of polite words and phrases that are used to replace potentially derogatory or insulting language, so that we can talk about something negative or controversial without causing offence. Aug 1, 2020. That’s probably enough for now. Seems like maybe the conservatives started it, then the liberals took it as a good idea. Now, as seen in the 100 list on Google, they may be all mixed up. I certainly intend to say “deforestation” rather than “forest management!” and “to lie” rather than “to misspeak” or “be economical with the truth.”!

If we back up a little to see the big picture: has the “right” usurpred PC and exaggerated it now, claiming not to want to make children depressed by exposing them to the “Truth?” And Ohio threatening to cut off funds to any of its sites of higher learning if they tolerate protests or exclusive (as in trans) support groups? I’m at a point of being willing to hurt folks’ feelings in search of a better tomorrow. Running from reality makes us crazy and dupes.

WHEN I HAVE A FANTASY OF…

Published November 11, 2023 by Nan Mykel

A HEALTHY, PEACEFUL WORLD….I tend to run into an imaginary scenario that seems so real it raises goosebumps:

Everyone has disposed of their nuclear arms and has arrived at a peaceful live-and-let-live leaderless world until one pops up with glee and announces he is the winner, leader-tyrant of Earth….

I was reminded of this fantasy which I had already scrubbed clean when I came across “Xivilisation,” an article in the April 29th 2023 issue of the Economist:

China’s leader, Mr. Xi Jinpin, recently proposed that “civilizations can live in harmony.” In other words, the Economist observes, “the West should learn to live with Chinese communism. It may be based on Marxism, a Western theory, but it is also the fruit of China’s ancient culture.” Under the Global Development Initiative (GDI) in 2021 Mr. Xi pledged at least $4bn towards helping poorer countries with everything from public health to cutting carbon emissions. Sounds pretty good? Then in 2022 he proposed the Global Security Initiative (GSI), calling for a “common, comprehensive. co-operative and sustainable approach to building international security.”

Mr. Xi suggested the latter two months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the Economist reported, “the GSI was announced at a virtual dialogue, organized by China’s communist party, of leaders of about 500 political organizations from more than 150 countries. Upon President Biden’s co-hosted second Summit for Democracy days later, China was not invited. Xi was quoted as saying “The practice of stoking division and confrontation in the name of democracy is in itself a violation of the spirit of democracy.” (He’s got us there.)

“Countries need to keep an open mind in appreciating the perceptions of values by different civilizations,” he said, “and refrain from imposing their own values by different civilizations and refrain from imposing their own values or models on others and from stoking ideological confrontation.”

In 2022 a think-tank in Sweden reported that the share of the world’s population living in autocracies has risen from 45% in 2012 to 72% last year. But wait…

I remember something about Tianenmen Square! Considered a watershed event, reaction to the protests set limits on political expression in China that have lasted up to the present day.^[28] The events remain one of the most sensitive and most widely censored topics in China. According to Wikipedia, censorship in the People’s Republic of China is mandated by its ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is one of the strictest censorship regimes in the world.^[1] The government censors content for mainly political reasons, such as curtailing political opposition, and censoring events unfavorable to the CCP, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, pro-democracy movements in China, the Uyghur genocide, human rights in Tibet, Falun Gong, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Xi Jinping became the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (de facto paramount leader) in 2012, censorship has been “significantly stepped up”.^[2]

The government has censorship over all media capable of reaching a wide audience. This includes television, print media, radio, film, theater, text messaging, instant messaging, video games, literature, and the i nternet. The Chinese government asserts that it has the legal right to control the Internet’s content within their territory and that their censorship rules do not infringe on their citizens’ right to free speech.^[3]

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TODAY’S ELDERS

I was surprised to read today, in the same issue of the Nation, that some folks over fifty have been connecting on the internet just like some of us did in the past, when younger. One difference however, is that when there is a connection, at least one of them pays money. Didn’t that use to be the job of a Madam?

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better… Sydney J. Harris https://calendar.com/blog/

Map of the World

Published November 10, 2023 by Nan Mykel

WHY NOT?

We’re all part of the Tree of Life, and share the same world: Earth. And all are headed toward 2050, whatever that will bring. Isn’t the world big enough for everyone to have their own space, especially with population numbers shrinking everywhere? More than thirty-five years yet to share on our dying green planet? Would that we can finally live without competition.

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As Death Toll in Gaza Surpasses 10,000, the House Censures Rashida Tlaib.

“Why do the cries of Palestinian children sound differently to you?” by Inae OH <https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/rashida-tlaib-censure/>

(Did they censure free speech on the House Floor?)_

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WTF!

It’s no secret that fossil fuels are still going strong, but a new United Nations-backed report paints an alarming picture of how dramatically coal, oil and gas production is expected to grow in the coming years.

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WHAT IS ZIONISM? — Education for Myself

The first Zionist congress was organized. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a large number of Jews immigrated to first Ottoman and later Mandatory Palestine, and at the same time, diplomatic attempts were made to gain worldwide recognition and support. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionism has continued primarily to advocate on behalf of Israel and to address threats to its continued existence and security.

Zionism has never been a uniform movement. Its leaders, parties, and ideologies frequently diverged from one another. Compromises and concessions were made in order to achieve a shared cultural and political objective as a result of the growing antisemitism and yearning to return to the “ancestral” country. A variety of types of Zionism have emerged, including political Zionism, liberal Zionism, labor Zionism, revisionist Zionism, cultural Zionism, and religious Zionism. Advocates of Zionism view it as a national liberation movement for the repatriation of an indigenous people (which were subject to persecution and share a national identity through national consciousness), to the homeland of their ancestors as noted in ancient history.[20][21][22] Critics of Zionism view it as a colonialist,[23] racist,[24] or exceptionalist ideology or movement. From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism>

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A Cautionary Thought

A person who is trying to eat money is always hungry. <https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1501668.Alan_W_Watts?page=6>

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Reblog of a Poem

Published November 7, 2023 by Nan Mykel

PRAYER

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my Trump to keep.

Shower him with earned acclaim

Free him from a past of shame

Fill him with a mother’s pride

Make him warm and snug inside

Help him honor and love his wife

Renewing vows he made for life

Protect him from the NRA

Maybe even help him pray

Gentle his heart to help the poor,

Bringing peace and what’s more

Give him respect for law and order;

Melt with tears the southern border

Help his word be strong and true

Loving those of every hue

Moms and babies need each other

Help him find his inner mother

Let Mr. Mueller be his friend

And let the both of them defend

All the hopes and aspirations

Of a just United Nations.

Nan 7/18/19

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Ohio has voted to make the right to an abortion protected by the State Constitution.

SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH

Published November 6, 2023 by Nan Mykel

What Skeptics & Atheists Say

Skeptics believe religion to be a coping mechanism for human beings – a mechanism of self-comfort and a way to make themselves feel like their life has a higher purpose. While they aren’t necessarily anti-religious, they’re skeptical of one religion being valued over another. Not only do skeptics question the authority of religion, they doubt many of the claims people make regarding the religious practices they follow.

Atheists view religion as an evolutionary adaptation that’s made people vulnerable to whatever belief system they choose. They insist that religious practices are without reason and unsupported by scientific fact. Because atheists reject the existence of God or any form of a higher power, they claim that most religions are based on superstition. Some even believe religiosity is man’s attempt to make sense of why humans exist in the first place. From <https://real-life.carefreechurch.com/answers/why-different-religions/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAuqKqBhDxARIsAFZELmLPBiDJWP20LwR6r4kTLk_Ntc2vR_LZcjgS9e4zXT0sutLRUyA5rKYaAtLSEALw_wcB>

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WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DIFFERENT RELIGIONS?

Aye, that’s a good question. I’m thinking on it and will let you know if I ever decide.

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I LIKED BEING A CHRISTIAN BECAUSE

being a Christian melded with my grandmother’s values…Christian Nationalists do not. Also, I didn’t know about the Crusades.

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TEENY MENTION OF POLITICS: The states in which polls favor Trump are:

Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

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ONE OF THE SILLIEST RED HERRINGS of Ohio Issue One proponents voted on tomorrow is that the word woman is not mentioned. (Someone might think it pertains to pregnant men?) Oh no!

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Playing a violin is, after all, only scraping a cat’s entrails with horsehair.”

― Alan Wilson Watts, What Is Tao? From <https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1501668.Alan_W_Watts?page=6>

OOF!