12/18/11

Alvin Ailey has a Robert Battle Look


Just back from my annual pilgrimage to see the great dance company
Founded by the great Alvin Ailey
It was a cultural awakening and I think Alvin would have been happy
Instead of looking back at a time of suffering and overcoming
This was present with a bit of future
Global seeming
Today's suffering ant today's overcoming
The high point was when the audience and the dancers literally merged on stage
Robert Battle and the company he now directs 
Be praised.

Global Online Privacy

Cops Mess Up Big Time at OWS (Keep Your Mitts off Judges)

Police Slam Supreme Court Judge Against a Wall at #OWS – FreakOutNation: "New York Supreme Court Judge Karen Smith (ret) as reported here is the newest notable American whose presence at Occupy Wall Street’s demonstration resulted in police force.

To sooth the sensitivities of the people/entities opposing this new movement which is still in its genesis stage can simply deem her as a ‘dirty hippie.’

Smith expressed concern over the mistreatment of a protester which resulted in the police pushing her into a wall."

'via Blog this'

In fact cops should not interfere period.


Global Online Privacy

Boehner's Right Two Months Sucks




The Senate cannot govern
Its head is up its ass
I could write two lines more
But I think I'll let it pass

Global Online Privacy

From Charles Sanders Peirce, "Evolutionary Love"

Charles Peirce, "Evolutionary Love", at ARISBE: THE PEIRCE GATEWAY: "Undoubtedly the external circumstance, which more than all others at first inclined men to accept Christianity in its loveliness and tenderness, was the fearful extent to which society was broken up into units by the unmitigated greed and hard-heartedness into which the Romans had seduced the world. And yet it was that very same fact, more than any other external circumstance, that fostered that bitterness against the wicked world of which the primitive gospel of Mark contains not a single trace."

'via Blog this'

Charles Sanders Peirce on A Definition of Logic


From C.S. Peirce, 'Chronological Edition', CE 1, pp. 169-170. Charles Sanders Peirce, "Harvard Lectures 'On the Logic of Science'", (1865),'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 1, 1857-1866', Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1982.


"Some reasons having now been given for adopting the unpsychological conception of the science, let us now seek to make this conception sufficiently distinct to serve for a definition of logic. For this purpose we must bring our 'logos' from the abstract to the concrete, from the absolute to the dependent. There is no science of absolutes. The metaphysical logos is no more to us than the metaphysical soul or the metaphysical matter. To the absolute Idea or Logos, the dependent or relative 'word' corresponds. The word 'horse', is thought of as being a word though it be unwritten, unsaid, and unthought. It is true, it must be considered as having been thought; but it need not have been thought by the same mind which regards it as being a word. I can think of a word in Feejee, though I can attach no definite articulation to it, and do not guess what it would be like. Such a word, abstract but not absolute, is no more than the genus of  all symbols having the same meaning. We can also think of the higher genus which contains words of all meanings. A first approximation to a definition, then, will be that logic is the science of representations in general, whether
mental or material. This definition coincides with Locke's. It is however too wide for logic does not treat of all kinds of representations. The resemblance of a portrait to its object, for example, is not logical truth. It is necessary, therefore, to divide the genus representation according to the different ways in which it may accord with its object.

"The first and simplest kind of truth is the resemblance of a copy. It may be roughly stated to consist in a sameness of predicates. Leibniz would say that carried to its highest point, it would destroy itself by becoming identity. Whether that is true or not, all known resemblance has a limit. Hence, resemblance is always partial truth. On the other hand, no two things are so different as to resemble each other in no particular. Such a case is supposed in the proverb that Dreams go by contraries, -- an absurd notion, since concretes have no contraries. A false copy is one which claims to resemble an object which it does not resemble. But this never fully occurs, for two reasons; in the first place, the falsehood does not lie in the copy itself but in the 'claim' which is made for it, in the 'superscription' for instance; in the second place, as there must be 'some' resemblance between the copy and its object, this falsehood cannot be entire. Hence, there is no absolute truth or falsehood of copies. Now logical representations have absolute truth and falsehood as we know 'à posteriori' from the law of excluded middle. Hence, logic does not treat of copies.

"The second kind of truth, is the denotation of a sign, according to a previous convention. A child's name, for example, by a convention made at baptism, denotes that person. Signs may be plural but they cannot have genuine generality because each of the objects to which they refer must have been fixed upon by convention. It is true that we may agree that a certain sign shall denote a certain individual conception, an individual act of an individual mind, and that conception may stand for all conceptions resembling it; but in this case, the generality belongs to the 'conception' and not to the sign. Signs, therefore, in this narrow sense are not treated of in logic, because logic deals only with general terms.

"The third kind of truth or accordance of a representation with its object, is that which inheres in the very nature of the representation whether that nature be original or acquired. Such a representation I name a 'symbol'.

Cap tip Jon

Wheels within wheels deeper down where the oil is

Boehner Blasts Obama On Keystone XL, Despite White House Acceptance Of Deal: "Obama had vowed to veto any bill that required the Keystone XL pipeline to be approved; Sperling noted Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" program that the deal only requires Obama to make a decision on the pipeline's permit within 60 days -- not to actually implement the pipeline."

'via Blog this'

Tweedle what?


Global Online Privacy

This century's the tipping point

Beyond Creed: Jesus outlines a universal strategy:

'via Blog this'

This century's the tipping point
Of moral evolution
When we will either get the point
Or face our devolution

Full Original Text of Beyond Creed

Spreading the incendiary word

Bible translation not an easy mission (OneNewsNow.com): "“One of things that's not told and can't really be told behind those stories is that in those very same locations, Bible translation is taking place and God's Word is getting into the local languages for the first time,” says Smith. “These are changing times and windows of opportunities for God's Word to impact these communities and nations in ways that they haven't in the past.”"

'via Blog this'

All depends on how you understand it.

Global Online Privacy

Tom Waits is holding on (Video)


Tom Waits is holding on
Better advice than you can find in ego-bolstering literature


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There is no victory in this, only profound failure

Extension of Payroll Tax Cut Passes Senate - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — Capping a year of last-minute, half-loaf legislation, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to extend a payroll tax cut for only two months, with the chamber’s leaders and the White House proclaiming victory, even as they punted into the new year the issue of how to further extend the tax cut and unemployment benefits."

'via Blog this'

Whenever the GOP pushes us around it is profound failure. It can only be altered at the ballot box. Penitence for 2010. A decent majority so we do not have to eat crow daily because the GOP functions with impunity and Democrats call it victory. Read that as anger.

Global Online Privacy

Bruce Cockburn Tokyo with Slides Video



My favorite Bruce song.

Global Online Privacy

If Coulter Likes Romney, I'm for Gingrich

Ann Coulter’s Change of Heart about Mitt Romney - Fox News: "Conservative author Ann Coulter stands behind her change of heart over Mitt Romney.

At one time, Coulter, known for her brash take on politics, thought that Romney could not win in an election versus President Barack Obama. But now the firebrand politico insists the former Massachusetts governor is the most conservative GOP candidate-- with the best chance of beating Obama next fall."

'via Blog this'

They're clearly afraid Gingrich might be bipartisan and beyond their control. They would rather manipulate Mitt.


Global Online Privacy

Gender disorder is normal, the government Manning case is what is abnormal

Bradley Manning Defense Reveals Alter Ego Named ‘Breanna Manning’ - ABC News:

'via Blog this'

We all have gender issues if we are honest. Big deal. It comes with the territory. What is really a disorder is what we have been through the last decade courtesy of Bush and Cheney and the proof is in the wreckage of our soldiers not to mention their needless deaths. The Manning case is sick, but it isn't Bradley who is ill. It is our fevered government and that will not change until the President wakes up and pardons Bradley.


Global Online Privacy

Manning Case Should Reduce Government Position to Absurdity

Private has 1st appearance in Wikileaks case - Nation - The Boston Globe: "The lawyer, David Coombs, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Almanza, the investigating officer who works as a Justice Department prosecutor in civilian life, was preventing the defense from calling witnesses to show little harm was done by the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents provided to WikiLeaks.

“All this stuff has been leaked,’’ Coombs said. “A year and a half later, where’s the danger? Where’s the harm?’’"

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

How Much Is That Kindle in The Window?



Yep I am gadgeted for real
A Kindle Fire came yesterday
And now my thumb prints are all over its pristine surface
I did manage to wireless enable and register
It is now Steve's Kindle2
But it will be a work of some skill to master it
I tried reading my Herodotus and lost my place 
But it did enable me to get my books from my initial Kindle
I feel like one of those NYT reviewers inundated with gadgets
The Fire is clearly a work in progress
In about a year it will probably function so a reasonably intuitive soul 
will not besmirch it with thumbprints

Global Online Privacy

RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press