Elegy for Mary Rose, aged two hours
Poor girl, peregrine of all worlds now,
The black wind drove you through our world
So quickly, you found with us no shelter
From the storm that darkened all your day.
Migrant broken on the autumn gale,
You did not stay to watch the bloody birth,
Nor heard the tires of the black saloon.
She was so young, who will teach her
What the dead should do?
She went through our lighted rooms so fast,
I had no chance to tell her
I know no more than she does.
II
Beauty’s flame and beauty’s light
Flower in a summer night
Never they but always we
Carefully, guardedly
Hoard the riot, cage the gem,
Desperately clutching them.
The smallest part is all we see
Of beauty’s prodigality.
Beauty’s children go in haste;
Who are you to call it waste?
Without your glances runs the rose
Circling in its own repose.
She will not show what made her be
Woman’s generosity.
She’s member now of that tall nation
That do not need my admiration.
Jan 29, 2012
Jan 23, 2012
Jan 16, 2012
EndoftheYearoftheHare
Not the Year of the Rabbit, squire.There are some big differences. See the Hodja and the Hare.
Well, we’re only a week from the official end of the Year of the Hare, which began on February 14, 2011. The Year of the Dragon starts on January 23, 2012.
For those interested in looking back, the Hare has lived up to its promise of vast changes at great speed, demonstrating the characteristic Power, Beauty, Danger predicted for it, if you think back to February.
For those interested in looking forward, here is Philip Giraldi, an ex CIA analyst, on the coming war with Iran, if current hostilities are carried through.
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2012/01/11/what-war-with-iran-might-look-like/
Meanwhile, ‘A December news release from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control warned of the dangers of Campylobacter jejuni bacteria infections on a sheep ranch, but apparently only among workers who used an old-style (19th century) method of castrating the animals. CDC strongly urged that workers stop biting off the sheep's genitals and instead use modern tools. [Wall Street Journal, 12-8-2011]’
Well, we’re only a week from the official end of the Year of the Hare, which began on February 14, 2011. The Year of the Dragon starts on January 23, 2012.
For those interested in looking back, the Hare has lived up to its promise of vast changes at great speed, demonstrating the characteristic Power, Beauty, Danger predicted for it, if you think back to February.
For those interested in looking forward, here is Philip Giraldi, an ex CIA analyst, on the coming war with Iran, if current hostilities are carried through.
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2012/01/11/what-war-with-iran-might-look-like/
Meanwhile, ‘A December news release from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control warned of the dangers of Campylobacter jejuni bacteria infections on a sheep ranch, but apparently only among workers who used an old-style (19th century) method of castrating the animals. CDC strongly urged that workers stop biting off the sheep's genitals and instead use modern tools. [Wall Street Journal, 12-8-2011]’
Dec 27, 2011
NewYearResolutions
Lao Tzu (6th century B.C.): “The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished...The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be...”
“The Sage says: ‘I take no action, yet the people transform themselves, I favor quiescence and the people right themselves, I take no action and the people enrich themselves...’”
Chuang Tzu (369-286 B.C.): “I would rather roam and idle about in a muddy ditch, at my own amusement, than to be put under the restraints that the ruler would impose. I would never take any official service, and thereby I will [be free] to satisfy my own purposes.”
“There has been such thing as letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind [with success].” The world “does simply not need governing; in fact, it should not be governed.”
Pao Ching-yen (4th century A.D.): “Where knights and hosts could not be assembled, there was no warfare afield...Ideas of using power for advantage had not yet burgeoned. Disaster and disorder did not occur...People munched their food and disported themselves; they were carefree and contented.”
Ssu-ma Ch’ien (145-90 B.C.): “Each man has only to be left to utilize his own abilities and exert his strength to obtain what he wishes...When each person works away at his own occupation and delights in his own business, then like water flowing downward, goods will naturally flow ceaseless day and night without being summoned, and the people will produce commodities without having been asked.”
“The Sage says: ‘I take no action, yet the people transform themselves, I favor quiescence and the people right themselves, I take no action and the people enrich themselves...’”
Chuang Tzu (369-286 B.C.): “I would rather roam and idle about in a muddy ditch, at my own amusement, than to be put under the restraints that the ruler would impose. I would never take any official service, and thereby I will [be free] to satisfy my own purposes.”
“There has been such thing as letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind [with success].” The world “does simply not need governing; in fact, it should not be governed.”
Pao Ching-yen (4th century A.D.): “Where knights and hosts could not be assembled, there was no warfare afield...Ideas of using power for advantage had not yet burgeoned. Disaster and disorder did not occur...People munched their food and disported themselves; they were carefree and contented.”
Ssu-ma Ch’ien (145-90 B.C.): “Each man has only to be left to utilize his own abilities and exert his strength to obtain what he wishes...When each person works away at his own occupation and delights in his own business, then like water flowing downward, goods will naturally flow ceaseless day and night without being summoned, and the people will produce commodities without having been asked.”
Dec 19, 2011
Dec 12, 2011
Newsoftheobvious
President Obama’s revelation that he has asked Iran nicely to hand back the super secret US drone is an embarrassing climb down, but we are not dealing with sane people. The attack on the sleeping Pakistani soldiers was meant to soften up the Pakistanis, and it had predictably the opposite effect. The civilian government is holding the hand of the military, who have ordered all aircraft penetrating their borders to be shot down. The chances that Pakistan would renege on China, its main support, with whom it has a border, to switch allegiance to the crumbling US were always zero. But we are not dealing with sane people here.
That the drone program had a self replicating worm affecting it is fairly old news, (See http://wahyusamputra.blogspot.com/2011/11/roughbeast.html comment posted at Hallowe’en) and that’s without counting the fifty or so countries working on their own drone programs, by theft, gift, or imitation; Pakistan is merely the first to install a drone station on one of its naval vessels. That the worm is, as feared, capable of allowing the drone itself to be controlled by others than those sending it is the new news that has now been illustrated beyond argument.
It does blow a large and visible hole in the attempts to box in Iran, however. Any day now the news will leak out to the US press that the Pathans (Pashtuns) are the largest tribal group on earth, artificially obstructed from any presence in the military, half of whom live in Pakistan, and half in Afghanistan. The border between them, the Durand line, drawn by a nineteenth century British administrator, which runs through the infamous Khyber Pass and some of the toughest terrain on the planet, has never been of the slightest interest to them; they have always ignored it.
That the drone program had a self replicating worm affecting it is fairly old news, (See http://wahyusamputra.blogspot.com/2011/11/roughbeast.html comment posted at Hallowe’en) and that’s without counting the fifty or so countries working on their own drone programs, by theft, gift, or imitation; Pakistan is merely the first to install a drone station on one of its naval vessels. That the worm is, as feared, capable of allowing the drone itself to be controlled by others than those sending it is the new news that has now been illustrated beyond argument.
It does blow a large and visible hole in the attempts to box in Iran, however. Any day now the news will leak out to the US press that the Pathans (Pashtuns) are the largest tribal group on earth, artificially obstructed from any presence in the military, half of whom live in Pakistan, and half in Afghanistan. The border between them, the Durand line, drawn by a nineteenth century British administrator, which runs through the infamous Khyber Pass and some of the toughest terrain on the planet, has never been of the slightest interest to them; they have always ignored it.
Dec 4, 2011
Thetrap
A very neat formula:
There are world wide around three billion adults ready and willing to work, but, owing for example to mechanization of agriculture, only about 1.2 billion jobs that really need to be done.
What do we do about the missing 1.8 billion we don't really have work for?
Resources available, food, housing and such are adequate to provide for the entire world population. Are those who work willing to let those who don't, live for free?
No. Not on my dime! There's the real problem, at least the first half of the real problem.
In theory of course, if you're content with what you do, why insist on being able to control others? If you're not, get out and do something else.
(Voltaire put it rather neatly "The comfort of the rich demands an ample supply of the poor.")
The second half of the problem is commercial and financial. Who is going to buy the mountains of goods and services the corporations hold in their inventories?
(Debt is a form of currency, and the 1.8 billion can be, and often are, forced into selling their children, their bodies, and their internal organs, but this only buys time, pushing the problem into the future, while the rich enjoy the comforts Voltaire describes. Militarized oppression can hold them down, but the debt slaves still have no money to buy the inventories.)
Just saying.
There are world wide around three billion adults ready and willing to work, but, owing for example to mechanization of agriculture, only about 1.2 billion jobs that really need to be done.
What do we do about the missing 1.8 billion we don't really have work for?
Resources available, food, housing and such are adequate to provide for the entire world population. Are those who work willing to let those who don't, live for free?
No. Not on my dime! There's the real problem, at least the first half of the real problem.
In theory of course, if you're content with what you do, why insist on being able to control others? If you're not, get out and do something else.
(Voltaire put it rather neatly "The comfort of the rich demands an ample supply of the poor.")
The second half of the problem is commercial and financial. Who is going to buy the mountains of goods and services the corporations hold in their inventories?
(Debt is a form of currency, and the 1.8 billion can be, and often are, forced into selling their children, their bodies, and their internal organs, but this only buys time, pushing the problem into the future, while the rich enjoy the comforts Voltaire describes. Militarized oppression can hold them down, but the debt slaves still have no money to buy the inventories.)
Just saying.
Nov 27, 2011
Alone
You have limited time; I'll keep it short:
Have you noticed you're now not the only one (mostly) living in a single person household, not in your social life, but without significant other?
The single person household has been the fastest increasing type over the last few decades. In many countries (Japan, Germany, Russia) they are not even reaching replacement level, with enough new births to keep the population stable. (These are by far the leaders in the world, not the followers.) China achieves the same result, of the single child family and the generation of the 'little emperors,' by decree.
Two can live as cheaply as one was always a dubious proposition, especially when likely to become three.
Does that mean the disappearance of the nuclear family? Not at all, but the strains on them are more severe; they can not control the demands made on them, which will increase over time. In cases where the resources remain stagnant, where the offspring fail to provide new resources, they may collapse.
A mystical shift to less reproduction? I think so. (Why mystical? We know all about the mechanics of reproduction, and we know nothing else.)
More mobile, in better fighting trim, richer, better equipped, well networked.
Increasingly clearly those able to give help, not those in need of help.
Just a thought.
Have you noticed you're now not the only one (mostly) living in a single person household, not in your social life, but without significant other?
The single person household has been the fastest increasing type over the last few decades. In many countries (Japan, Germany, Russia) they are not even reaching replacement level, with enough new births to keep the population stable. (These are by far the leaders in the world, not the followers.) China achieves the same result, of the single child family and the generation of the 'little emperors,' by decree.
Two can live as cheaply as one was always a dubious proposition, especially when likely to become three.
Does that mean the disappearance of the nuclear family? Not at all, but the strains on them are more severe; they can not control the demands made on them, which will increase over time. In cases where the resources remain stagnant, where the offspring fail to provide new resources, they may collapse.
A mystical shift to less reproduction? I think so. (Why mystical? We know all about the mechanics of reproduction, and we know nothing else.)
More mobile, in better fighting trim, richer, better equipped, well networked.
Increasingly clearly those able to give help, not those in need of help.
Just a thought.
Nov 14, 2011
Roughbeast
Three quarters of the way thru the Chinese Year of the Hare, that began on February 14, 2011. Amazed yet at how fast the world has changed in a mere nine months? A powerful kick in those hind legs, too.
“What rough beast, its hour come at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?” said W.B. Yeats
“…the centre cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
“What rough beast, its hour come at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?” said W.B. Yeats
“…the centre cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
Oct 25, 2011
Thecolonel
On Thursday, October 17, 2011, Colonel Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi, leader of the largest tribe in Libya, was found by the Benghazi rebels in his home town of Sirte.
The colonel climbed out of his car and waved to the rebels, saying “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.” The rebels, however, shot the colonel, first in the legs to disable him, and then sodomized the dead or dying man with a large stick before killing him together with his son Mutassim. The colonel’s last words are reported to have been, “What did I ever do to you? Don’t you know what you’re doing is wrong? Don’t you know the difference between right and wrong?”
These events took place after an eight month assault on the desert nation of some five million people by the combined military forces of the USA, the UK, France, and Italy.
Colonel Qadhafi had ruled Libya for over forty years. He had given its entire population a standard of living rated the best in Africa by the UN, and which neither the USA, in its two hundred and thirty five year history, nor any other developed western nation, had ever been able to equal.
The colonel’s corpse was publicly exhibited in a freezer in a supermarket until Monday, October 24, 2011 before being buried in a secret desert location at dawn on Tuesday, October 25, 2011 to avoid its becoming a shrine, a likely eventuality if the location is ever discovered.
Saif Al-Islam Qadhafi, the colonel’s son, is said to be approaching the borders of Niger, with Touaregs to guide him through and look after him.
Howdy Doody and his cronies can be left to worry about twenty thousand missile launchers, each capable of taking down an airliner, and no back yard without its own tank.
The colonel climbed out of his car and waved to the rebels, saying “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.” The rebels, however, shot the colonel, first in the legs to disable him, and then sodomized the dead or dying man with a large stick before killing him together with his son Mutassim. The colonel’s last words are reported to have been, “What did I ever do to you? Don’t you know what you’re doing is wrong? Don’t you know the difference between right and wrong?”
These events took place after an eight month assault on the desert nation of some five million people by the combined military forces of the USA, the UK, France, and Italy.
Colonel Qadhafi had ruled Libya for over forty years. He had given its entire population a standard of living rated the best in Africa by the UN, and which neither the USA, in its two hundred and thirty five year history, nor any other developed western nation, had ever been able to equal.
The colonel’s corpse was publicly exhibited in a freezer in a supermarket until Monday, October 24, 2011 before being buried in a secret desert location at dawn on Tuesday, October 25, 2011 to avoid its becoming a shrine, a likely eventuality if the location is ever discovered.
Saif Al-Islam Qadhafi, the colonel’s son, is said to be approaching the borders of Niger, with Touaregs to guide him through and look after him.
Howdy Doody and his cronies can be left to worry about twenty thousand missile launchers, each capable of taking down an airliner, and no back yard without its own tank.
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