Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Question: Who wants to talk about "psychotic murdering assholes"?

Posted by Mickey Z on 03/01 at 05:48 AM

I failed to find a copy of Mowat, so I’m out. The Rebel is probably in my room somewhere, leaning against the wall chewing a matchstick and looking cool, so I’ll definitely be up for that next month.

Some people had too much fun writing their reviews for this:
http://tinyurl.com/rnchy

Moazzam Begg’s story:
http://tinyurl.com/htqau
http://tinyurl.com/paq4f

Posted by Mew on from work 03/01 at 07:02 AM

What are we going to play with now your (tragically funny) correspondent has taken his ball away? Bless ‘im.

I vaguely remember reading about strife between buddhist sects in early Japan - some obscure doctrinal difference that lead to one of the sects being slaughtered by their fellow karmic sufferers. Religion is a very poor prophlyactic against violence, and thats the ‘weak’ hypothesis.

Posted by Mew on from work 03/01 at 07:20 AM

I couldn´t get Mowat so I´m out too, but am on for Camus whenever - unless my copy has gone to pose beside that of Mew.

About Buddhism, it´s the one which traps those fed up with the more conventional ones, though seeing as they have people idolising the Dalai Lama it is still a cult of the Chosen Ones. I feel all religions are equally dumb so I cut out the middleman between me and infinity.

Mudge, from yestiday: I have a Senegalese electrician friend who might be getting a call soon. This will be my ninth place in Barcelona, I think it´s the universe telling me I shouldn´t be paying for a piece of earth.

Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 03/01 at 07:32 AM

Mornin’ All......About the E-mail on the cover page here, “...the most reprehensible of the obscene Abrahamic religions...”. In my humble opinion, religion should be kept out of the discussion about the present war between the USA and the rest of the world. Does it really matter what religious belief anyone has? Religion is the red herring in the discussion. To insert religion into the argument trivializes the real reasons for USA aggression...capitalism, greed, and the desire for world dominance. It is the Party Line of the Bush administration that religion caused 9/11. 9/11 was Blowback for USA foreign policy. Bin Laden was very clear on that. He gave 3 reasons for any past or future attacks on the USA. 1 The Sanctions, 2 the US bases over there and 3 The uneven support of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He could not have been more clear in his message.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 03/01 at 08:20 AM

Good morning Mickey, Mew, Owen & Rosemarie,

That email is sadly too common to be really entertaining - maybe when this is all past tense.

Religion should never be brought into human conflicts; it is, and then we use it as some sort of shield, or excuse - whichever suits the moment - for our all too human behaviour. We readily find reasons why serving ourselves is the right thing to do and equally find reasons why helping others just isn’t feasible or sensible right now.
It’s tragic that after millenia of evolution we have become victims of our own minds rather than masters of them. There are of course exceptions, and those who at least recognise it and make an attempt to improve; but the cakehole majority seem to still be more concerned with defendind and rationalising their own behaviour than they are in anyone elses.

Dorothy Lamour and the sarong theorems - I love it! But you know you’d need to break into song and then a wandering minstrel playing the yukelele would have to get in there somehow.

I’m finished A Whale for the Killing, Youngfox should be done by Friday - that’s the plan. Too bad so many didn’t manage to get hold of it.

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 09:22 AM

Off topic - Mudge mentioned the passing of Octavia Butler on Friday and a fellow blogger has done a nice piece in remembrance: http://tinyurl.com/hbex6

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 09:25 AM

I started Mowat yesterday and should finish tomorrow, barring threats to my reading time. I thought the due date was the fifth (Sunday), but Friday should work out okay.

I think I have the Rebel buried somewhere in the stacks, so will commence digging after Mowat.

In defense of Buddhism: there’s a big difference between the practice strategy (dhamma/dharma) handed down by the Buddha, and the religion that has since buried it. Religion tends to kill off the best spiritual teachings.

Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO 03/01 at 09:28 AM

Amelopsis #6—terrible news that Octavia Butler has passed. She was just interviewed on Democracy Now a few months ago—I had no idea she was near the end. This is a sad thing, but I appreciate you and Mudge putting the word out.

Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO 03/01 at 09:30 AM

"I don’t hate arabs - they saved math, invented algebra, gave us the zero - but that was all before islam." - Dude who e-mailed MZ

Actually, I think that was post-Mohammed. I could be wrong, I’m a fairly ignorant person, though I have plenty of competition.

That photo of the cacti is strangely troubling. I can’t help but get this feeling that I’m about to get poked by a succulent phallusiea gigantea. No, I’m not on peyote. Why do you ask?

Posted by Jeremy on from Taiwan 03/01 at 09:36 AM

Not just post-Mohammed, post islamicisation of Persia. No clue if Mr Al Jabr was a muslim, its hardly as if our correspondents point would be validated either way.

That email is sadly too common to be really entertaining - maybe when this is all past tense.

I didn’t find the initial email amusing, but his reply is priceless, it screams ‘snotty college student’.

I admit to never having heard of Octavia Butler, not being particularly keen on science fiction (unless it involves transforming robots); she sounds well worth reading though.

Posted by Mew on from work 03/01 at 10:02 AM

Succulent phallusiea gigantea you say?
http://tinyurl.com/hrndx
(hehehe, is that an example of a ‘tinyurl oracle’?)

Posted by Mew on from work 03/01 at 10:14 AM

HELLOOOOOOOOOOO
Hellooooooooooo
Helloooooo

Where did everyone go??
Mew do you have a fondness for cactii? The Berg Garten in Hannover is magnificent and has some wonderful specimens. Cacti aren’t really my thing, so I can’t rattle off any species but the assortment is outstanding. Great orchid house there too in a naturalised style so they’re bigger and better and more gnarly than you could imagine.

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 12:47 PM

http://tinyurl.com/pzk6b

It’s an a propos but day late mystery link

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 01:03 PM

Hello, everyone.

I saw George McGovern speak last night at Northwestern. The guy is about 80-something and right on the money with just about everything...though for some unknown reason he still thinks that the Democrats eventually going to come around and save us.

Anyway, one of the questions was from a student who asked if the US should still give aid to the Palestinians after they elected Hamas members amongst their leadership. McGovern said yes. The kid said “even if they are terrorists?” McGovern still said yes. I was going to ask the kid if he felt the same about Isreal...I mean they’re terrorists...they kill more Palestinians than the other way around, they ocupy Palestine land, they treat the people like dogs...they even have about 10,000 nuclear weapons (I think that’s the number)...but I didn’t think it would be appropriate.

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 03/01 at 01:07 PM

“Hello Expendables,” he says, arriving fashionably late. What a dazzling collection of comments above. Thanks, all.

And Empress, thanks for the whale link...but its source is Wikipedia. I’ve heard Wiki can’t be trusted.

P.S. JOS: Israel made be terrorists, but they’re the chosen terrorists.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/01 at 01:11 PM

Chosen terrorists indeed. Fully sanctioned etc.

I thought you might take issue with the wiki whale info ...it just happened to be the animal du jour from the link on my site so it made its way here regardless.

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 01:35 PM

I’m just teasing you, Empress…

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/01 at 02:30 PM

But I’d anticipated it!

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 02:39 PM

How do.

Ready for A Whale for the Killing and have my copy of The Rebel all dug out and ready to fly when I have to fly.

Depressed. Not really in the frame of mind for the good discussions going on here. Can’t hold up my end. I’m asking for charity from a local mega-shurch, since their mission is to help anyone and everyone who’s in my homeless, jobless, carless plight, so I feel sorta hypocritical badmouthing the religions of the world just now.

Later!

Posted by Mudge on from Austin 03/01 at 03:02 PM

Another enlightening post with great comments, graphics (LOVE the bouncy guy - wish I had a fraction of his energy at this moment in time) - thanks, Herr Zezima! Really like the ‘Dalai Lama’ sign there - and your reply to that email. And before I forget: ‘The Rebel’ is fine with me.

Here’s what the quite unspeakable Maureen Dowd said down under recently:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1579718.htm
Who in their right mind could compare this woman to Dorothy Parker? Really!

A very good morning/afternoon to Mew, Owen, Rosemarie, Amelopsis, Hawk, Jeremy and JOS (have I forgotten anyone?). It will be a warm Thursday here in Daylesford, Australia: 86F.

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 03/01 at 03:16 PM

Mudge take heart.
At it’s best, organised religion helps people with the concrete elements of life - leave the soul saving to their respective gods.
I hope they are able to come up with some creative solutions that include your doggies. Breaking up a family just shouldn’t be done.
NUtI forces are on your side my friend.

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 03:16 PM

Hi Helga - simultyping again. I too will procure the Rebel from the local library.

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 03:18 PM

Hello everyone!

Hello Mickey!

How about this myth:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/southafrica/story/0,13262,1065018,00.html

I know you quoted a few times Gandhi on your site, but I’d like to hear what you think about this article (maybe you read it before)

Best regards!
Hope

Posted by Hope on from Denmark 03/01 at 03:36 PM

Hope from Denmark...what a pleasant surprise. I will comment on your Gandhi link in a minute. First let me say hello to Helga and also assure Mudge that, in my eyes, there’s nothing wrong with him seeking help from a church. Organized religion is not a monolith and, as the Empress explained, there are many (e.g. my Mom) who identify strongly with a particular religion yet are willing to help everyone regardless of affiliation (or lack thereof). Good luck, Mudge. We’re rooting for you.

Hope: Very interesting article. I had not heard those charges leveled at Gandhi and I do not know if the quotes attributed to him are accurate. If they are, I’d chalk it up as further proof that there’s nothing productive about romanticizing our fellow humans. There is much we can learn from Gandhi in terms of non-violent struggle. Now, perhaps, we can also learn from his atttiude toward Blacks. I do take solace in the last line of the article: “Later he got more enlightened.” We all learn and evolve at different rates. I just wish more of us were headed in the same direction.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/01 at 04:06 PM

Hi again, Mickey and hi for the first time (today), Hope from Denmark. I lived in Kiel, Germany, for almost 22 years - it is a mere 100kms from the Danish border.

Re the situation in Iraq: Robert Fisk was interviewed on our ABC last night - will post the URL of the transcript here as soon as it becomes available

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 03/01 at 04:44 PM

Thanks for making me laugh, Owen:
‘I feel all religions are equally dumb so I cut out the middleman between me and infinity.’
Too right you are!
Ah Barcelona ..

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 03/01 at 04:46 PM

Oh, and thanks for saying it all here, Rosemarie:
‘9/11 was Blowback for USA foreign policy.’
Have you ever read ‘Blowback’ and/or ‘The Sorrows of Empire’ by Chalmers Johnson? Johnson is one of the most eloquent critics of American militarism and writes well to boot IMHO.

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 03/01 at 04:49 PM

Ohmigod! I have forgotten someone - MUDGE! Now you have one more reason to be curmudgeonly, Mudge. Please accept my apologies - and I hope your situtation improves soon. I am feeling slightly depressed at the moment but after reading what trouble you are in I feel more ashamed than depressed.

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 03/01 at 05:06 PM

Well Mickey, every human beings has some skeletons in his closet.

# Helga, ich begrüße dich ganz herzlich aus Dänemark

Best regards!

Hope

Posted by Hope on from 03/01 at 05:10 PM

Yes, Helga about “Blowback”. I think that it was published BEFORE 9/11, predicted 9/11, and then ignored by the 9/11 Commission, which proves how much denial the USA is in.

Mudge, there was some good religious news making top news story tonight. Many Catholic bishops are openly stating that they are prepared to go to jail in defiance of the law requiring them to turn in undocumented people from other countries.

Hope, I read the Gandhi article. I don’t know what to say about it but maybe he realized the error of his ways eventually. One reason that I am so passionately anti-war now is because I used to be in the military and so now am trying to make amends.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 03/01 at 07:14 PM

Hope, wonderful to see you posting again! Come more often, you are missed when you’re not here.

Helga #28, no offense taken, and no need to compare miseries. We’re each in different places, and not overly happy ones...but we should BOTH be ashamed when we contemplate being unhappy in light of the way people “live” in Darfur, to take one example. We’re human, so we’re limited in our perceptions. You’re all aces with me, Helga, because you’re such a pleasure to have around.

MZ #24: Thanks for the pepper-upper. Religion might help me out, spiritual belief always has. I don’t think logical positivism is organized enough to make that kinda difference....

Empress dear (#21): A big NUtI thanks for your beautiful encouragement. I need all the goodness I can get from everywhere I can get it, and it means most when it comes from someone I have a high regard for (eg, you).

RMJ #4: “Does it really matter what religious belief anyone has? Religion is the red herring in the discussion. To insert religion into the argument trivializes the real reasons for USA aggression...capitalism, greed, and the desire for world dominance.”
>wild, tumultuous applause<

Concise and accurate and elegant. Thank you.

JOS #14: I like McGovern’s way of thinking. Help is help is help, sorta like the mega-church I’m asking for help. Older’n dirt, he is, but smarts undimmed.

Posted by Mudge on from Austin 03/01 at 07:16 PM

Interesting article today on religion: Onward Christian Organizers.

Mickey that correspondence you received was so idiotic in the first place that I’m guessing you had some extra free time and some reserves of good humor to warrant a response and a mention here. It is so tiring the way nuanced perspectives will be instantly reduced to black/white because you/me/we find ourselves defending positions that are secondary or tertiary to the issue at hand. Maybe I’ll elaborate some other time. It’s getting late.

Oh, and I have searched but been unable to score a copy of the Farley Mowat book. I will happily read on in bewilderment as the rest of you comment about whales. Or something.

Posted by Keir on from The Hague 03/01 at 07:21 PM

A message from a friend of mine who’s a breast cancer survivor:

A favor to ask, it only takes a minute.... * Please tell ten friends
to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting
enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating
at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes
less than a minute to go to their site and click on “donating a
mammogram” for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn’t cost you a
thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits
to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising. Here’s the web
site! Pass it al! on! g to people you know.
<http://www.thebreastcancersite.com> AGAIN , PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS
TO TELL 10 TODAY

Posted by Mudge on from Austin 03/01 at 07:22 PM

Well, the ache in my head has lasted all day so I won’t be at the computer screen to further aggravate it tonight. (clicked twice, Mudge and the link will be shared in the morn)

I wish everyone a good evening, and a better tomorrow.

Guten Abend zum jeden Expendable.

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 03/01 at 07:34 PM

Hello everyone. Mudge, more info about that breast cancer site: Unlike the way things are explained in the e-mail, one click does not magically provide a mammogram to a needy woman — it takes 45,000 clicks, not just one. Averaging 58,000 clicks a day, The Breast Cancer Site provides funding for approximately 1.3 mammograms a day. Visitors are also not prohibited from clicking more than once; they just can’t do so more than once a day.

Keir: It doesn’t feel like I had “some extra free time and some reserves of good humor,” but you could be right. I’m not 100% sure why I posted it here except that, as a blogger, I like to offer such tidbits about my life. As for me responding to that person, to be honest: I try to respond to most e-mails I get. I never succeed, but I try.

Finally, re: Mowat. It’s a shame so many were unable to find the book. We’ve been jokingly calling it “the whale book” but it’s as much a whale book as Silent Spring is a “big spray book.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/01 at 07:34 PM

G’night, Empress (simultyping). Feel better...and thanks for noticing the sarong/theorem thingy.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/01 at 07:41 PM

Night, Empress, and flights of angels rub your temples while you sleep.

Oh crud...did I not post the link to the publisher of the Mowat’s current edition?

http://www.stackpolebooks.com/

Posted by Mudge on from Austin 03/01 at 07:54 PM

Heh-heh...Mudge said “stackpole.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/01 at 07:57 PM

Hello Everyone

Mickey: I admire you for at least trying to respond to most e-mails that you get. As others have pointed out here today that email is sadly too common to be really entertaining as the Party Line of the Bush administration is that religion caused 9/11.

What is REALLY disturbing about the exchange is the correspondent’s response.
Monbiot comes to mind as he sez: “Tell people something they know already, and they will thank you for it. Tell them something new, and they will hate you for it.”

Captcha word (I’ve always wanted to do this)

HOPE

Also, I couldn’t get the whale book but I am more than looking forward to the discussion about the Camus book.

Posted by Fiona on from San Diego 03/01 at 08:28 PM

Thanks, Fiona. Great to have you here as a regular Expendable. And I’d say this is a bingo: “Tell people something they know already, and they will thank you for it. Tell them something new, and they will hate you for it.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/01 at 08:39 PM

Signing of…

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/01 at 09:57 PM

Fiona #39: The Monbiot quote is the gospel truth. It’s the way people have been since the beginning of time. Isn’t that the worst imaginable thing to say?

MZ #38: Yeah, I said “Stackpole.” I sure as hell woulda named my publishing company something else. Like “Slobber...” oh uhhh never mind!
#35: Okay, imperfect though it is, it’s a whole lot better than nothin’, hmm?

Where’s CatLady? Haven’t seen him all day. I’m feeling better, weirdly enough...nothing’s changed, just something about telling a complete stranger my troubles and breaking into tears was, well, cathartic I guess.

Keir #32: I get the ZNet logo and not the article...five tries. Wonder what’s up?

Posted by Mudge on from Austin 03/01 at 10:15 PM

Onward Christian Organizers.

Sorry, must of left out part of the url last night. This is an interesting (and unexpected) article in the religion category, hope the link works this time.

Mickey, I didn’t mean to come off as snide or something. I meant to say kudos to you for taking the time. But I do find those kinds of responses irritating and in your position probably wouldn’t be as generous with my time.

Enjoy Thursday all!

Posted by Keir on from The Hague 03/02 at 02:54 AM