[NYPOST] They used to televise beauty pageants -- maybe they still do, but I'm no longer fifteen, so I don't look for them. But if you take the "beauty" out of "beauty pageant" you're left with something that looks like an all-girl staff meeting or something. I find the idea of being against pretty girls to be entirely too redolent of Puritanism, only without the sense of humor.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
America still has a way to go in its downward humanist spiral.
#6
I remember watching Womens Weightlifting Competition and wondering if the winner should be titled Ms. Alien and the runner-up Ms. Terminator...?
Still, give the pageant a few years, and a few legal challenges, and Miss America Pageant will have 30+ year old (no Ageism!) Transvestites (no sexism!) contestants...
[DAILYWIRE] Having enjoyed my 82nd birthday, I am part of a group of about 50 million Americans who are 65 years of age or older. Those who are 90 or older were in school during the 1930s. My age cohort was in school during the 1940s. Baby boomers approaching their 70s were in school during the 1950s and early '60s.
Try this question to any one of those 50 million Americans who are 65 or older: Do you recall any discussions about the need to hire armed guards to protect students and teachers against school shootings? Do you remember school policemen patrolling the hallways? How many students were shot to death during the time you were in school? For me and those other Americans 65 or older, when we were in school, a conversation about hiring armed guards and having police patrol hallways would have been seen as lunacy. There was no reason.
What's the difference between yesteryear and today? The logic of the argument for those calling for stricter gun control laws, in the wake of recent school shootings, is that something has happened to guns. Guns have behaved more poorly and become evil. Guns themselves are the problem. The job for those of us who are 65 or older is to relay the fact that guns were more available and less controlled in years past, when there was far less mayhem. Something else is the problem.
Guns haven't changed. People have changed. Behavior that is accepted from today's young people was not accepted yesteryear. For those of us who are 65 or older, assaults on teachers were not routine as they are in some cities. For example, in Baltimore, an average of four teachers and staff members were assaulted each school day in 2010, and more than 300 school staff members filed workers' compensation claims in a year because of injuries received through assaults or altercations on the job. In Philadelphia, 690 teachers were assaulted in 2010, and in a five-year period, 4,000 were. In that city's schools, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or victims of other violent crimes. That doesn't even include thousands more who are extorted, threatened, or bullied in a school year." ... and there's more.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2018 00:00 ||
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It was about the 70s that 'Big Father' replaced the need for females to be really selective about who provided them sperm and economic sustainability of any genetic offspring that should appear. Ah, the oppression of that old patriarchal culture had to be destroyed!
#2
Do you remember school policemen patrolling the hallways?
Yeah, I do. Not in the 50's but the NYC schools had armed cops around at some point in the 60's.
That was a symptom of the school malaise that caused my folks to move us from Staten Island to NJ in '57 on the advice of friends that were teachers. The teachers had lost control of the students and were not allowed to try and regain it. Had to do with the "new" theories of education in vogue at the time.
[NATION.PK] The materialistic world and the age of mass consumption has dragged mankind in the race to unlimited desires, to achieve more and more; resulting in a disgraceful life and social misbehaviour. Islam is undoubtedly the only solution to these problems. An opinion piece extolling the virtue of poverty. Except for those countries sitting on lakes of oil, the Islamic world is chock full of virtuous people.
All of you must have observed that everybody around us is running. Everybody is racing. Racing to do what? To get more, to have more, to have the latest, to have everything others have and better. This is more like a rat race; the race behind materialism. If we are to run behind materialism, we must know that it has no end. The most common example I can give you here in this regard is of a smartphone. Most of us always want the latest smartphone, even if the phone we have does pretty good job, but we still want to change it, we want to update it; sometimes even when we cannot afford to have a smartphone. Whatever, we would still want to have it, we would borrow for it, we would buy it on credit – which means we don’t even have the means to own the gadget, but who cares in the race; each one us wants to win. The same applies for other material possessions. This way we all keep on updating, but never get the true essence of happiness. Why? This is because we see what others have and are not grateful for what we are blessed with. Having surplus income means you can move out of your wattle and daub hut into something with indoor plumbing.
Islam teaches us to be happy with what we have. You don't need running water to be happy, but it helps, especially around bath time.
Look at what you have, concentrate on it and thank the Allah Almighty for what He has given you and for where He has placed you. There's no need to improve your position in life, regardless of your potential.
This is the contentment of the heart that is required by a believer. We need to know that yes, if we can afford it comfortably then we can go for it and perhaps we are allowed to have. What we do need to understand is that we need to tailor make our lives according to our budgets. Without effort, your budget will never change, and in fact will shrink at the first strain.
We need to make sure that we buy that which we can afford and are not a burden on our finances. Some people spend all their lives merely on credit cards and acquire expensive possessions in their households, just by swiping a card and adding to the credit day by day. They did not bother to pay attention as one day they will lose their job and then how they will be able to repay all the accumulated credit? Thus, Islam teaches us to avoid living on credit and live your life according to your means. It's easy to abuse credit. Lots of people have discovered that the hard way -- especially when we're young. Probably most of us have. On the other hand, there's no improvement to our lot in life without risk. You borrow with the expectation of not only repaying but making a profit on it.
Yes, we should aim right at the skies. There is no harm in that, but do not pretend like you are living on a cloud when you have not yet moved above the ground because that will probably bring you crashing to the ground. This is why the race of materialism never stops. The more we run the faster it (the game) runs, so we continue running behind it and there is not end in sight. Harness the urge for materialism from the very beginning and you will live a relaxed life. If you're aiming for the skies without effort, without risk, you end up squatting by the door to your hut contemplating the clouds.
Look around. Majority of the poor people sleep very well and on the other hand most of the rich cannot sleep without having a sleeping pill. Doesn't sound like this guy's ever been poor. Majority of the poor have trouble sleeping because they're wondering how they're gonna feed the kids.
How ironic? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Maybe it's just that the poverty-stricken can't afford luxuries like sleeping pills?
The reason is, sometimes the more we get, the more we want. This leads to anxiety and other related health problems. See Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs. Once your belly's full, you want clothes on your back and a place to keep the rain off. Once you've got that, a young man's fancy turns to love. Once you've found love, you want to feed the kids. Once the kids are fed, you want to buy them a puppy...
On the contrary, there are people who are very wealthy and they use their wealth in the right direction. They do not allow their wealth to develop into a negative way their character and conduct. Unless you inherit it, you have to work to afford wealth. It won't just come to you.
Islam is not in contradiction of growth of materialism - things and activities of physical requirements - but it endorses that one must see his worldly basics as primary. After accomplishment of good and excellent lifestyle, one must pursue for spirituality and spiritual development in order to submit to the commands of the Creator. So... After your period of striving and hard work, you should squat at the door of your condo and contemplate the clouds?
Nonetheless, the matter of the fact is that we are favoring and occupied by our materialistic and worldly desires. We are missing our ethical and a moral standard prearranged by Allah Almighty and are running a race without knowing where we are heading and where is the finish-line. I think most of us try to keep body and soul together and feed the kids. Then we have to provide for the time when we're too old to do the work required to keep body and soul together.
Only in the remembrance of Allah are hearts comforted (Quran: 13: 28). Comfort here implies peace of mind that stems only from the remembrance of Allah, and not merely temporary solace. Existing only at the materialistic level is like descending into animalism. Materialism is, in other words, a form of shallowness. A real person is the one who discovers the secrets of spirituality. Materialism is also progress. Wanting a better life is no sin. Running water, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, all sorts of new fangled contraptions have become universal in this country (not in Pakistan) since 1950. They don't come from the remembrance of Allah, but by using the potential God gave us to the fullest degree possible.
If in materialism there is a joy of laughter, in spirituality there is greater and lasting pleasure. If materialism is to live a life of limitations, spirituality is to live in boundless freedom. ... while squatting at the entrance of your wattle and daub hut. I'll pass.
So a pro-entropy religion? But isn't total entropy ==
DEATH? So a pro-death religion?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2018 00:00 ||
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I had a post on facebook today about the political left and right loving entropy too. Just like this mullah seems to.
Here:
Regarding the upcomming North Korea - US summit in Singapore, I have been reading opinions from all over the planet. Yesterday I spent a lot of time reading Asian and South East Asian opinions. Over night I considered it a lot in context with US and EU editorials. I reached this well informed opinion and I hope my words don't upset some of you too much.
None of them have a FUCKING CLUE and they are just spouting BS from their stream of consciousness!
This is due to an incrementalism world view vs paradigm breakers world view. Most politicians and journalist are incrementalist and don't have a clue how to deal with new paradigms. Therefore, from that world view they are just against them. Socialism is in a sense no paradigm breaking permitted so the Left is totally against changes. The right is "don't rock the boat" so they are against new paradigms too.
Entrepreneurs exist by creating new paradigms. That's why politicians of all stripes hate them. But without them we are doomed to entropy as tweaking a steady state at most slows the descent into entropy.
Sadly, as an engineer, I am quite aware that entropy is a bad state to be in. Think dead battery, in a car with no gas, on an empty plain with no wrecker service, no traffic and no gas cans or stations.
#2
re Korea - I wandered twitter links and places like asia times etc.. I was going to do a post with links in Rantburg but it got to cluttered and a cut/paste mess so I deleted it all. The Russian twitter links got quite interesting. I don't think it matters as they are all blind men trying to fathom an elephant.
BTW a core concept seems to be that a train link will go from Pusan all the way to China's New Silk Road and Russia's Trans-Siberian RR. All will be aiding NKor to develop with both South Korea and North Korea using this RR.
All other results drift into the author's fantasies. Nobody knows if the result will be positive. Also most don't seem to want it to succeed. That, in small part, because they will need to rethink their respective world views. And, they don't want to rethink their world views as it's painful for them.
Nobody seems to clue into Pakistan and Iran losing a deniable nuclear and missile testing ground.
If it has that positive result then the feet are cut out from under Iran's nuke program. That leaves the EU's moaning on a lost treaty just moaning...
If Trump is able to end the Korean War, then the incrementalists and their fellow politicians are going to need to switch to being paradigm breakers instead of incrementalists. Their world view will tank. When politicians worldviews tank they usually do too so expect major pushback from the do-nothings.
Trump is an entrepreneur hense a paradigm breaker..
So of course incrementalists will naturally hate him.
As the above article makes clear Islamists will hate him for the same reasons as socialists/democrats do.
#3
As to Iran's nuke testing.. losing NKor they could only test in Iran or Pakistan.
I suspect if another a/n bomb blows up in Pakistan all sorts of red lines of various countries and groups are crossed leading to lots of a/n bombs exploding all over Pakistan.
If they blow one up in an Iran test site I expect Saudi Arabia and Israel will have a quick joint expedition to Iran...
So if the N-Kor problem is solved its game over in the current environment for a TESTED Iranian bomb.
[Al Jazeera] On January 28, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was elected to head the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... 's (AU) 31st session that is due to start in January 2019. This was a massive diplomatic coup for a leader that human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... groups hold responsible for the deaths of at least 817 peaceful protesters in Cairo in a single day five years ago.
If everything goes according to plan and Sisi indeed succeeds Rwanda's President Paul Kagame as AU president, for one year he will serve as the chairperson of an organization that claims to work towards modernising governments, accelerating economic growth, reducing poverty and improving access to healthcare and social services throughout Africa.
While African leaders' decision to hand over the presidency of the AU's 31st session to a controversial figure like Sisi (whose ousting of Egypt's first democratically elected president in 2013 prompted the organization to suspend Egypt's membership for nearly a year) is undoubtedly problematic, it is not at all surprising for anyone who is familiar with the organization's history of protecting and even promoting Africa's strongmen.
The AU boasts leaders within its ranks who have profoundly patriarchal and conservative values, questionable legitimacy and blood-spattered pasts. In many ways, the 55-member organization is a fine example to how a collective determination to establish and maintain democratic principles can go terribly wrong.
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner to the AU, was established on May 25, 1963 in Æthiopia's capital Addis Ababa to safeguard African interests - especially in respect of lingering colonialism.
The OAU was disbanded and replaced by the more inclusive AU in 2002. Since its conception, the organization adopted a number of important new documents establishing norms at continental level, including the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the continental body has struggled to act upon the noble vision for democratic change envisioned in this charter.
In the last decade, the AU has proved to be highly efficient in publishing decisions, declarations and blurbs, but it has repeatedly failed to take constructive disciplinary action against tyrannical administrations.
Today, the scarcity of viable, all-inclusive multiparty democracies, especially in central and North Africa, suggest the organization has failed to achieve most of its goals and instead transformed into an exclusive club of brutish despots who exhibit weak, corrupt, undistinguished and divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... leadership.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Never understood an entire people who couldn't figure out the wheel.
[Ay-Peee] Tears and whining follow
For Iran, the so-called "Axis of Evil" has boiled down to a party of one, as President Donald Trump prepares for direct talks with North Korea.
With Saddam Hussein overthrown and Kim Jong Un now preparing for a planned meeting in Singapore with Trump, Iran remains the last renegade among former President George W. Bush's grouping of nations opposed to the U.S.
For those in Tehran, whether hard-liners, reformists or people simply trying to get by in Iran's worsening economy, it's head-spinning, especially after seeing Trump pull America out of the nuclear deal with world powers.
"I am buying my insulin shots at double the price only because of Trump's decision," fumed Najmeh Songhori, a 35-year-old diabetic mother of two standing in front of a pharmacy in central Tehran. "Meanwhile he is trying to reach a deal with North Korea. Who is going to trust him?" Sucks to be you, Najmeh. Ever thought of overthrowing your despotic Mullahs?
It wasn't supposed to be like this. Excited crowds flooded the streets after the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with world powers, including the U.S. under President Barack Obama.
The deal saw Iran agree to limit uranium enrichment in its nuclear program, which the West feared could be used to build a nuclear weapon. For Iran, which long has maintained its atomic program was for peaceful purposes, the deal took the shackles of sanctions off its economy and opened up its oil sales abroad. and allowed them to cheat on Missiles and fissiles
No one believed it would bring massive change to Iran, which remains a Shiite theocracy overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But many hoped it would encourage further negotiations and normalize Iran's relationships with the wider world.
Then came Trump, who campaigned pledging to tear up the nuclear deal. Once elected, he included Iran in his travel bans, blocking Iranians from traveling to the U.S., home to a large Iranian community.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2018 08:21 ||
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#1
When Xi Jinping visited the US in 2017, the US military dropped a MOAB on the Taliban in Afghanistan.
This move was widely seen as a not so subtle message to North Korea and China.
I wonder if something will happen in or to Iran during the Trump-Kim talks.
#2
...One should watch to see if planes suddenly start leaving the Islamic Republic for Best Korea, and not return. If POTUS can pull off a complete stop of NORK aid for the mullahs in return for a couple of tangible goodies, the Iranians will be in deep hummus.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/10/2018 11:00 Comments ||
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#3
I wonder if something will happen in or to Iran during the Trump-Kim talks.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAILYWIRE] Having enjoyed my 82nd birthday, I am part of a group of about 50 million Americans who are 65 years of age or older. Those who are 90 or older were in school during the 1930s. My age cohort was in school during the 1940s. Baby boomers approaching their 70s were in school during the 1950s and early '60s.
[Ay-Peee] 
