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29 November 2008

William Blake: The Lamb, The Tyger, The Chimney-Sweeper / from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

Certainly click on the image.

This is sort of a special request, a response to some e-mails that mentioned the recent posts of William Blake's images of Satan, God and Hell. My correspondent is a talented young artist, and has kindly given me permission to blog some of his work. Watch This Space.

William Blake was synesthetic. He did not -- he probably could not -- separate his poems from the illustrations he engraved of and for them. Specifically, he did not want readers to receive his poems in the ordinary typographical way of black alphabetic text on white paper. Though the words were sublime, they were just a small part of what he was trying to communicate to the World. The other part was the magnificent visual imagery and symbology intended to inform the viewer as much as the words, to form a unity of communicating.

These are perhaps his two most famous poems, "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," from his remarkable books

Songs of Innocence
and
Songs of Experience

Shewing the Two Contrary States
of the Human Soul

Blake published "Innocence" in 1789, and published "Experience" in a single volume with "Innocence" in 1794.

I've also tossed in the text alone of his poem "The Chimney-Sweeper."

In his lifetime (1757-1827), Blake was not well known. His poetry was entirely different from the popular English poetry of his day, and his art was just as alien from the popular painting and visual art of England and Europe. In both poetry and art, he was largely self-taught and self-schooled. Although he was apprenticed as a boy, by his own wish, to an engraver, as he matured he invented entirely new techniques of engraving and art.

His achievements did not come to widespread attention until literary and art critics rediscovered and began writing about his work in 1863, long afer Blake had died. Now both the art and the poetry are recognized as profoundly important, lasting and influential achievements.

Some poems that were part of "Songs of Innocence" were originally published when Blake was 15. It took Blake some years to realize that they were more significant than just the first attempts of an adolescent to write poetry. Blake is unique in English poetry in his lifelong vision of the World as seen through a child's mind and sensibilities. To Blake, this is not a vision of the world to mature beyond. It was a profoundly important way of seeing the World that most adults simply dismissed -- without ever really examining the reasons for dismissing the child's vision of the World.

But as Blake grew into adulthood, he began to take an adult's notice of the realities -- the harsh and grim and brutal realities of This World, and its political and social consequences and implications. This is the world of "Songs of Experience."

~ ~ ~


The Lamb

Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed,
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice:
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee

Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee;
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee,
Little Lamb God bless thee.


~ ~ ~

The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies,
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

~ ~ ~

The Chimney-Sweeper

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry ‘Weep! weep! weep! weep!’
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved; so I said,
‘Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your head’s bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.’

And so he was quiet, and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!—
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.

And by came an angel, who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins, and set them all free;
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind:
And the angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his father, and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm:
So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.


27 November 2008

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? D'où venons nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous? Woher kommen wir? Wer sind wir? Wohin gehen

Click image, will get bigger.

Where Do We Come From?

What Are We?

Where Are We Going?
1897–98
Paul Gauguin, French, 1848–1903

Image: 139.1 x 374.6 cm (54 3/4 x 147 1/2 in.)
Framed: 171.5 x 406.4 x 8.9 cm (67 1/2 x 160 x 3 1/2 in.)
Oil on canvas

Inscriptions: Upper left: D'ou Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous; Upper right: P. Gauguin / 1897

Classification: Paintings
Type, sub-type: Allegorical; Landscape; Nude; Oversize - Horizontal
Catalogue: Wildenstein 561

On view in the Sidney and Esther Rabb Gallery (European Art 1870–1900)

In 1891, Gauguin left France for Tahiti, seeking in the South Seas a society that was simpler and more elemental than that of his homeland. In Tahiti, he created paintings that express a highly personal mythology. He considered this work—created in 1897, at a time of great personal crisis—to be his masterpiece and the summation of his ideas. Gauguin's letters suggest that the fresco-like painting should be read from right to left, beginning with the sleeping infant. He describes the various figures as pondering the questions of human existence given in the title; the blue idol represents "the Beyond." The old woman at the far left, "close to death," accepts her fate with resignation.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Tompkins Collection—Arthur Gordon Tompkins Fund, 1936
Accession number: 36.270

Provenance/Ownership History: Please note: The history of ownership is not definitive or comprehensive, as it is under constant review and revision by MFA curators and researchers.

1898, sent by the artist in Tahiti to Georges Daniel de Monfreid (b. 1856 - d. 1929), Paris; consigned by Monfreid and his agent to Ambroise Vollard (b. 1867 - d. 1939), Paris [see note 1]; 1901, sold by Vollard to Gabriel Frizeau (b. 1870 - d. 1938), Bordeaux [see note 2]; probably 1913, sold by Frizeau to the Galérie Barbazanges, Paris; before 1920, sold by Barbazanges to J. B. Stang, Oslo; 1935, probably sold by Stang to Alfred Gold, Berlin and Paris [see note 4]. 1936, Marie Harriman Gallery, New York [see note 5]; 1936, sold by the Harriman Gallery to the MFA for $80,000. (Accession Date: April 16, 1936)

NOTES:
[1] The painting was exhibited at the Galerie Ambroise Vollard, November 17 - December 10, 1898.

[2] On Frizeau's acquisition and sale of the painting, see Claire Frêches-Thory, "Le premier acheteur d'Où venons-nous? Le collectionneur bordelais, Gabriel Frizeau (1870 - 1938) et ses rapports avec Gauguin," in Rencontres Gauguin à Tahiti: actes du colloque 20 et 21 juin 1989 (Papeete, 1989), pp. 48 - 56. The Galérie Barbazanges exhibited the painting in 1914.

[3] The Galérie Barbazanges sought to buy the painting back from Stang in 1920; see Frêches-Thory (as above, n. 2), p. 51.

[4] A letter of February 1, 1935 to the dealer Germain Seligmann, held by the Archives of American Art (Seligmann papers, box 426), states that the dealer Alfred Gold said the painting was still the property of Stang ("la grand Gauguin était toujours la proprieté de Stang") and that it would be included in the forthcoming Brussels exhibition. The writer has not been identified. Later that year, Gold lent the painting to the exhibition "L'impressionisme," Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels, June 15 - September 29, 1935, cat. no. 28. Gold purchased other works from the Stang collection, and almost certainly acquired this painting directly from him.

[5] A letter from the supervisor of Museum Education at the MFA (April 21, 1936) states that Marie Harriman acquired the painting in Paris. It was exhibited at her New York gallery, April 22 - May 9, 1936.

24 November 2008

Indonesia's nomination for Worst Idea of the New Millennium

The Associated Press (US newswire)
Monday 24 November 2008

Indonesian AIDS patients
face microchip monitoring


by Niniek Karmini

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Lawmakers in Indonesia's remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips — part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.

Local health workers and AIDS activists called the plan "abhorrent."

"People with AIDS aren't animals; we have to respect their rights," said Tahi Ganyang Butarbutar, a prominent Papuan activist.

But legislator John Manangsang said by implanting small computer chips beneath the skin of "sexually aggressive" patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and ultimately punish those who deliberately infect others with up to six months in jail or a $5,000 fine.

The technical and practical details still need to be hammered out, but if the proposed legislation gets a majority vote as expected, it will be enacted next month, he and others said.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country and has one of Asia's fastest growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections out of 235 million people, fueled mainly by intravenous drug users and prostitution.

But Papua, the country's easternmost and poorest province with a population of about 2 million, has been hardest hit. Its case rate of almost 61 per 100,000 is 15 times the national average, according to internationally funded research, which blames lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases.

"The health situation is extraordinary, so we have to take extraordinary action," said another lawmaker, Weynand Watari, who envisions radio frequency identification tags like those used to track everything from cattle to luggage.

A committee would be created to decide who should be fitted with chips and to monitor patients' behavior, but it remains unclear who would be on it and how they would carry out their work, lawmakers said Monday.

Since the plan was initially proposed, the government has narrowed its scope, saying the chips would only be implanted in those who are "sexually aggressive," but it has not said how it would determine who fits that group. It also was not clear how many people it might include.

Nancy Fee, the UNAIDS country coordinator, said the global body was not aware of any laws or initiatives elsewhere involving HIV/AIDS patients and microchips.

Though she has yet to see a copy of the bill, she said she had "grave concerns" about the effect it would have on human rights and public health.

"No one should be subject to unlawful or unnecessary interference of privacy," Fee said, adding that while other countries have been known to be oppressive in trying to tackle AIDS, such policies don't work.

They make people afraid and push the problem further underground, she said.

Tahi Ganyang, the Papuan activist, said the best way to tackle the epidemic was through increased spending on sexual education and condom use.

Associated Press Writer Irwan Firdaus contributed to this report.

- 30 -

Happy Birthday Spinoza!

sure click image

Happy Birthday Spinoza!


natal chart filched from astrotheme

19 November 2008

1st Day Issue / Postalo Vleeptron / USA Election 2008 Commemorative

Click image for larger.

Hmmm for reasons which will shortly be revealed, I have rejoined the AML / Artistamps list. And someone has announced an Art Call for a USA Election Commemorative (faux) postage stamp.

This is a very big community, and lots of people hated me because my stamps aren't made of tangible paper or snailmailed to the other members of each Art Call. My palette is entirely electronic (MS_Paint, usually), my stamps are intangible, and I zip them all over the world via e-mail.

One of my stamps was a QuickBasic program -- it looked sorta like a stamp, but it wiggled, it was a wiggling wooden Brio clown. If you have a copy, Please Send It Back To Me, Thank You Very Much. It took me about a week to program it. A stamp made of computer programming code was too suspicious and confusing to a lot of the AML members, Hard Feelings ensued (even though I only sent it to members who requested it).

Jeez -- what do they want from me? I'm the Drunk Driver of Visual Art! And I hate hard work and I hate responsibilities and deadlines and obligations.

But I made lots of pals on AML -- real artists! And they liked my stamps! My screwy stamps have been EXHIBITED in Galleries & Museums! If you can't believe that -- well, neither can I, but it's really happened!

The crap (in this case the explanatory text and the color registration pattern) which isn't the actual stamps is called Selvage or Selvedge. It's a term from fabric craft borrowed by philatelists and stamp artists.

Many of the real faux postal / mail artists have 400-pound perforation machines called the Rosback. Others use a hand tool called the Fiskar perforator. Donald Evans hand-perforated his stamps.

I disclaim all responsibility if you print these out, put glue on the back, and try to send snailmail with them. That Is Against The Law. I guess governments consider it a form of counterfeiting.

PRISONER A: What are you in for?

PRISONER B: They busted me for countefeiting postage stamps.

what a mess / Rules for Admission to Hell

Click image for larger

a
Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)
Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca (c. 1855-60)
Oil on canvas, 11 1/2 x 8 3/4 in.

The Hyde Collection and Historic House
Glens Falls, New York USA

b
William Blake
The Circle Of the Lustful, Paolo and Francesca (1826-27)

engraving with drypoint (unfinished) (NGV 50a II)
Restrike, printed in 1968
Gift of Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1968

National Gallery of Victoria [Melbourne, Australia]

c
Alexandre Cabanel
Der Tod von Francesca da Rimini und Paolo Malatesta
Mort de Francesca de Rimini et de Paolo Malatesta (c. 1870)

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

~ ~ ~

Grazie for the Dante lesson!

Francesca's dad Guido I made peace with the Malatesta family, and wanted to cement the alliance by marrying Francesca off to the Malatesta heir Gianciotto. Giancotto was a brave warrior, but also lame and deformed, and dad knew Francesca would never agree.

So dad tricked her with a proxy marriage in which she thought she was marrying Gianciotto's handsome brother Paulo. She found out she was really married to Gianciotto the day after the wedding. il Surpriso!

Paolo and Francesca fell in love, and Gianciotto caught them smooching and murdered them.

I still don't see why they had to spend Eternity in Hell. Dad and Gianciotto in Hell for all Eternity, roasted over flames like marshmallows -- this I get, for sure.

But the Rules for Heaven and Hell are pretty cruel and rigid if people like Francesca and Paolo end up tormented in Hell for Eternity. That sucks, and I'll tell that to any theologian who asks me.

I may be misremembering this, but I seem to recall that Dante locates theologians in the Lowest Circle of Hell.


hair-raising tales

cliquez le fiche pour le plus grande

twolegsnotail said...

"Stop! That way madness lies!"


QuicheQ: What book? Author?
Wednesday, 19 November, 2008

==================================

Dracula
(1897)
by Bram Stoker

Strange that it never struck me
that the very next house might be the Count’s hiding place! Goodness knows that we had enough clues from the conduct of the patient Renfield! The bundle of letters relating to the purchase of the house were with the transcript. Oh, if we had only had them earlier we might have saved poor Lucy! Stop! That way madness lies! Harker has gone back, and is again collecting material. He says that by dinner time they will be able to show a whole connected narrative. He thinks that in the meantime I should see Renfield, as hitherto he has been a sort of index to the coming and going of the Count. I hardly see this yet, but when I get at the dates I suppose I shall. What a good thing that Mrs. Harker put my cylinders into type! We never could have found the dates otherwise.

============

Do I get the quiche?

PizzaQ, one slice plain:

You wouldn't think the guy who wrote "Dracula" lived a life full of happy music and delightful harmonies, night after night, year after year. Where'd all the happy music come from?

===========

Here, wait till a dark, stormy night when you're all alone in the house.

Then check this one out.


17 November 2008

big nasty mess involving Souls trying (or not trying) to get to Heaven

Click image for larger, I hope.

Vleeptron has recently shown you what God looks like and what Satan looks like, courtesy of the English mystic poet and artist William Blake.

Now we got Souls, they look like this as they attempt to wend their way Heavenward. Or that's how Gustave Doré saw them.

You wouldn't think there'd be much friction and controversy over Souls trying to get to Heaven. You die, and then (assuming there is a Heaven, and assuming Souls exist, and assuming yours is Eligible to go to Heaven, rather than to Hell, assuming there is a Hell) your Soul wafts straight to Heaven.

Check out this nasty fistfight over Souls becoming Eligible to be Reunited with other Souls in Heaven.

It could be uglier and nastier, but I can't imagine how. Feelings could be hurt worse, and sensibilities and religious beliefs offended worse. But I can't imagine how.

No wonder people become atheists. Atheists just skip all this stuff.

Well, doctrine shmoctrine. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints used to believe in polygamy. They don't anymore.

They used to believe only Caucasians could be eligible for the LDS priesthood. They changed that, African-descent Mormons are now eligible for the priesthood.


Wonder how this one will straighten itself out. You can see Mormons baptizing dead people (without their consent) by proxy in the PBS documentary "The Mormons."

~ ~ ~
The Associated Press
(newswire USA)
Monday 10 November 2008


Jewish group wants Mormons
to stop proxy baptisms

by Deepti Hajela and Jeffifer Dobner

NEW YORK (AP) -- Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say they are making changes to their massive genealogical database to make it more difficult for names of Holocaust victims to be entered for posthumous baptism by proxy, a rite that has been a common Mormon practice for more than a century.

But Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, said that is not enough. At a news conference in New York City on Monday, he said the church also must "implement a mechanism to undo what you have done."

"Baptism of a Jewish Holocaust victim and then merely removing that name from the database is just not acceptable," said Michel, whose parents died at Auschwitz. He spoke on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against Jews.

"We ask you to respect us and our Judaism just as we respect your religion," Michel said in a statement released ahead of the news conference. "We ask you to leave our 6,000,000 Jews, all victims of the Holocaust, alone, they suffered enough."

Michel said talks with Mormon leaders, held as recently as last week, are over. He said his group will not sue, and that "the only thing left, therefore, is to turn to the court of public opinion."

In 1995, the church agreed not to perform baptisms or other rites for Holocaust victims, except in the very rare instances when they have living descendants who are Mormon.

Church spokesman Mike Otterson said Michel's decision to publicly denounce the church seems like a unilateral termination of the discussion.

"Those steps by Mr. Michel on behalf of the American Gathering were both unnecessary and unfortunate and belie the long and valued mutual respect that we have had in past years," Otterson said in an e-mail.

Posthumous baptism by proxy allows faithful Mormons to have their ancestors baptized into the 178-year-old church, which they believe reunites families in the afterlife.

Using genealogy records, the church also baptizes people who have died from all over the world and from different religions. Mormons stand in as proxies for the person being baptized and immerse themselves in a baptismal pool.

Only the Jews have an agreement with the church limiting who can be baptized, though the agreement covers only Holocaust victims, not all Jewish people. Jews are particularly offended by baptisms of Holocaust victims because they were murdered specifically because of their religion.

Michel suggested that posthumous baptisms of Holocaust victims play into the hands of Holocaust deniers.

"They tell me, that my parents' Jewishness has not been altered but ... 100 years from now, how will they be able to guarantee that my mother and father of blessed memory who lived as Jews and were slaughtered by Hitler for no other reason than they were Jews, will someday not be identified as Mormon victims of the Holocaust?" Michel said Monday.

Under the agreement with the Holocaust group, Mormons could enter the names of only those Holocaust victims to whom they were directly related. The church also agreed to remove the names of Holocaust victims already entered into its massive genealogical database.

Otterson said the church has kept its part of the agreement by removing more than 200,000 names from the genealogical index.

But since 2005, ongoing monitoring of the database by an independent Salt Lake City-based researcher shows both resubmissions and new entries of names of Dutch, Greek, Polish and Italian Jews.

The researcher Helen Radkey, who has done contract work for the Holocaust group, said her research suggests that lists of Holocaust victims obtained from camp and government records are being dumped into the database.

She said she has seen and recorded a sampling of several thousand entries that indicate Mormon religious rites, including baptisms, had been conducted for these Holocaust victims, some as recently as July.

"I've seen a steady procession of Jewish Holocaust names, especially names with camps linked to them, going to the International Genealogical Index," said Radkey, who acknowledges that she has limited access to the records. "There's no possible way of knowing exactly how many names, but it's substantial."

Church officials say a new version of the database — called New Family Search — will fix the problems. In the works for six years, the new database will discourage the submission of large lists of unrelated individuals. It will also separate names intended for temple rites from those submitted purely for genealogical purposes, the church states in a letter sent to Michel on Nov. 6.

"The names of any Holocaust victims we can identify in the database are to be flagged with a special designation — not available for temple ordinances," the letter states.

The church also proposes jump-starting a monitoring committee formed in 2005 to review database entries. The committee has met just once since 2005.

In May, the Vatican ordered Catholic dioceses worldwide to withhold member registries from Mormons so that Catholics could not be baptized.

Associated Press Writer Jennifer Dobner reported from Salt Lake City.

(This version corrects that Radkey is an independent researcher.)

- 30 -

learning to speak Dutch / What is the point? / Kwik, Kwek en Kwak / Donald Evans / Nadorp & Mangiare / Adina Weinand's dingbats

Please click on image.

After he settled in the Netherlands, the artist (trained at Cornell as an architect) Donald Evans taught himself Dutch vocabulary by making stamps -- there are lots more -- of Dutch words.

When I'm in the Netherlands, Dutch people refuse to speak Dutch to me. "What is the point?" they ask. Everybody in Randstad -- the region with the big cities, literally "Edge City" -- speaks English, and they have centuries of very successful experience of conducting Commerce & Romance with people who don't speak Dutch / Nederlands. (English, in Dutch, is Engels.)

itty-bitty PizzaQ, 1 slice plain:

In the movies, who lives with his mom and dad in Edge City?

Dutch is the native language of 22,000,000 people. English is the first language of between 309,000,000 and 400,000,000 people, and including those fluent in English as a second language, 1,800,000,000 speak and understand English.

So what is the point? How will it benefit or profit Dutch speakers if some tourist asshat from Massachusetts acquires a few more words of Dutch? These sidewalk and hotel reception conversations are much more valuable to Dutch speakers when conducted in English/Engels, and I can polish their English nuance and pronunciation.

In a conversation about Spinoza, I mentioned his Day Job as a lens-grinder, and a Dutch person was fascinated with this term. It's what (English-speaking) lens polishers have always called themselves, but "lens polisher" is what written scholarly accounts of Spinoza would call it.

I asked a Dutch storekeeper if she took plastic, and she looked confused and said no. A moment later, after a little huddle with another Dutch woman, she said Yes, they were happy to accept credit cards; she'd never heard them called "plastic," and was grateful for the slang lesson.

My greatest achievement in Dutch was to master the pronunciation of Alstublieft, the Dutch word for "Please." (Thank You = danke wel, dunkee vel.)

Dutch people are also amazed that I know who Kwik, Kwak en Kwek are. (I bought a backpack patch of them for my backpack in an Amsterdam tailor shop, and the lady taught me their local names.)

It is a Big Mistake to try to crank out your high school German and try to substitute it for Dutch words to a Dutch person. If you must find a common communications language, Engels will be received far more graciously and appreciatively. An American woman of my acquaintance got into a little contretemps with a Dutch policeman, and called him by the German word "Polizei." (The Dutch word -- so similar, and a gazillion light-years different -- is Politie.) Things rapidly went south from there. The Dutch people have had recent experiences with German police officers.

Nadorp is one of Evans' imaginary postage-issuing nations, a fantasy reflecting his love of the Netherlands. Another Dutch fantasy nation is the Principality of Lichaam en Geest -- Body and Soul, something he found himself thinking about a lot when he had to have a tricky surgery. The postage stamps of Lichaam en Geest are illustrated with the marine mammals of the waters surrounding the Netherlands.

The other block of stamps is from the Italian-flavored country of Lo Stato di Mangiare -- literally, The State of Eating. Evans loved dirigibles and zeppelins -- rigid airships; blimps have no internal structural skeleton -- and in his re-creation of Planet Earth, Lo Stato di Mangiare was the world's leader and pioneer in great passenger lighter-than-aircraft.

This is the second time I have crept around the dark and unguarded chambers of the Internet, and filched the exquisite dingbats created by Adina Weinand, a student at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. On her blog she writes:

* * *

Whoa! Dingbats

For Graphic Design class. The assignment was to create compositions exploring a few design principles:
1. Balance 2. Texture or Pattern 3. Rhythm 4. Tension

We had to pick a conceptual word to create a visual theme/concept in all the compositions-I chose "fantastical", in order to interrelate form, concept, and composition.

* * *

This is why, when I am appointed Emperor of the Universe, I will issue a Decree or Ukase forbidding anyone from using Words to write about Music or Visual Art, on Pain of Death. Mediocre artists and musicians will be immediately put to Death. Talented artists and musicians will be put to Death two or three times, until they Learn to stop pissing off Emperor Robert I.

Fortunately for Adina Weinand, my appointment as E of the U has been inexplicably delayed. And this is possibly a Good Thing. I first learned about Donald Evans and his marvelous postage stamps and postcards and envelopes in a review of the dreamy coffee-table book "The World of Donald Evans." The review was entirely words, paragraph after paragraph of black text, and contained not a single illustration of Evans' art.

But I ran out and bought the book, and boy am I happy about that.


but maybe everything that dies someday comes back / put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty


Atlantic City

by Bruce Springsteen

well they blew up the chicken man
in philly last night

and they blew up his house too
down on the boardwalk
they're ready for a fight

gonna see what them racket boys can do

now there's trouble busting in
from out of state

and the d.a. can't get no relief
gonna be a rumble on the promenade
and the gambling commissioner's
hanging on
by the skin of his teeth

everything dies baby
that's a fact

but maybe everything that dies
someday comes back

put your makeup on
fix your hair up pretty

and meet me tonight in Atlantic City

well i got me a job
and i put my money away

but i got the kind of debts
that no honest man can pay

so i drew out what i had
from the central trust

and i bought us two tickets
on that coast city bus


everything dies baby
that's a fact

but maybe everything that dies
someday comes back

put your makeup on
fix your hair up pretty

and meet me tonight in Atlantic City

now our luck may have died
and our love may be cold
but with you forever i'll stay
we're goin out
where the sands turn into gold

put on your stockings baby
cause the night's getting cold

everything dies baby
that's a fact

but maybe everything that dies
someday comes back

put your makeup on
fix your hair up pretty

and meet me tonight in Atlantic City

now i been looking for a job
but it's so hard to find

down here it's just winners and losers
don't get caught
on the wrong side of that line

i'm tired of comin out on the losin end
well i talked to a man last night
gonna do a little favor for him

well everything dies
baby that's a fact

but maybe everything that dies
someday comes back

put your makeup on
fix your hair up pretty

and meet me tonight in Atlantic City
oh meet me tonight in Atlantic City
oh meet me tonight in Atlantic City

15 November 2008

bob sends TAKK!! card for his new wool cap + gloves + mittens + headband (not shown) from iceland/island

Oh yes absolutely click!

They came today, in a little cardboard box that was waiting for me inside the screen door! They came from Iceland! To replace my beloved Keflavik Airport cap and gloves, which did not survive last winter.

And just in time for the first snowfall on Vleeptron! Note that on Vleeptron, all snowflakes are exactly alike. (Glaciologists on Vleeptron, Hoon and Yobbo refer to it as the Model D, I don't know why, maybe my nephew Ice Cube knows, I think he is in Chile ahora. If he would ever speak, he is Vleeptron's Man-On-The-Glacier about all snow and ice stuff. Also he probably knows the latest about the impending destruction of all mainland Sudamerica by the swimming pregnant Castore [the great-great-great-great-grandaughter of original Canadian immigrant beavers] from Patagonia.)

I thought I had a problem with always wanting to go North, ever farther North. Ice Cube just wants to get to anybody's 90° of Latitude, Arctic, Antarctic, he seems to have no preference, Sud ou Norde, penguins or puffins, it's all good. He goes where it snows. If there's ice, that's nice. He calls vulcanologists and seismologists in the next cubicles the "shake n bake people."

The north coast of Iceland hangs at 66° North. The Arctic Circle circles the Earth at 66° 33′ 39″ or 66.56083° North. That must be very close, maybe if you climb a mountain on a clear day (in a season that features day) you can see the Arctic Circle. Certainly a bunch of friendly Icelander fishing people could take you out there with the GPS so you could look over the side and see the Arctic Circle. "There it is! You see it? Look there, where I point!"


He had bought a large map representing the sea,
Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A map they could all understand.

"What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators,
Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?"
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
"They are merely conventional signs!

"Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
But we've got our brave Captain to thank:"
(So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best --
A perfect and absolute blank!

-- "The Hunting of the Snark"

Fit the Second: THE BELLMAN'S SPEECH


Actually the Arctic Circle never touches the mainland, but does cut through a tiny island called Grímsey. If anyone has ever been to Grímsey or knows anything about it, please Leave A Comment.

Oh listen, there is hot news about the solar system in the nearby Dwingeloo-2 Galaxy of which Vleeptron, Yobbo, Hoon and Mollyringwald have until now been the only known planets.

The Very Strange Array near Thud has discovered a new planet!

Apparently this oblate spheroid has a very aberrant (or perverted) orbit, which keeps it hidden behind Mollyringwald 99.89923 percent of the time, during which you can't see it from Hoon or Yobbo or Vleeptron.

I mentioned that my buddy Axelrod, the 467th Vleeptron Astronomer Royal, let me name Planet Mollyringwald once when I was hanging in C.V. for a couple of weeks. He said they needed to give a name to the Dark, Shrouded, Mysterious (and possibly All-Female) planet, so I named it Mollyringwald.

Well, the Zeta Beam is working again, I'm in my spacetimeshare holiday condo near the Shoe Mirrors UnderWay station, and Axelrod has left me a voicemail that they need another planet name.

This is a no-brainer: The new planet will henceforth be known as Planet BjörkGuðmundsdóttir.

Björk Björk Björk Björk Björk Björk Björk Björk for short.

But anyway the buzz is the researchers at the Very Strange Array near Thud have not only discovered this new oblate spheroid, and crudely imaged the dingus in radar wavelengths, but have received an Intercept from this bowling ball!

It looks not-random so far! Strongly believed to be Not Noise, but real Signal! No clue what it says, perhaps we will seek ye Assistance of ye Publicke to decrypt this mysterious string of binary pulses. Watch This Space for further encryption news from BjörkGuðmundsdóttir.

I love these woolen things from Iceland! You can go clickety click and SHAZAM! 8 or 10 days later (I opted for the Bargain Shipping Rate, I think it came to Boston on a fishing boat laden with cod) your cap and mittens and gloves and headband, of gorgeous Icelandic wool, from a gorgeous Icelandic sheep, will be in a little box with Icelandic postal runes inside the screen door!

The name of the company that made them is VARMA of Iceland. There's a catalog for their stuff HERE. (It's all in Icelandic, so they must really be in Iceland, or maybe Winnipeg.) But there's also a sort of Virtual Shopping Mall for all sorts of Iceland tchatchki HERE, you can shop till you drop in Iceland while you're Somewhere Else.

I don't need a scarf, because my Mom knitted me the official BBC Doctor Who (Tom Baker) Scarf, it's 6 feet (1.8288 meters) long and the most lurid thing anybody ever put around his or her neck. One of my nephews, Kwik, Kwek or Kwak, saw my Mom knitting it, and he knew who Doctor Who was, and he jumped down and up and put on some kind of hissie fit and held his breath until he turned blue, so she knitted him a scarf too, only taking his size into account, this one was 3 feet (0.9144 meters) long. I still have mine, I don't know if he still has his. I donated to the PBS station and got the official BBC knitting pattern as a bonus, and my Mom said it was the most fun knitting project she'd ever done. (She may have been lying so as not to make me feel bad about putting her through some freaky and interminable fabric-craft torment.)

Winters are fucking brutal on Vleeptron. Spiritually brutal. You need Iceland wool cap and gloves and mittens, and a Doctor Who scarf, to make a Happy Fun Winter Party out of the season of Bleakness, Darkness, Heavy Drinking, and a pretty damn good and lengthy Impersonation of Widespread Permanent Death.

Also there is Genuine Vleeptron Maple Syrup, the very best maple syrup in the entire Local Group, and Hot Cocoa from Yobbo, the best damn cocoa there is. Yobbo is still a little backwards in Chocolate Science. They can't make chocolate into a solid. They only know how to manufacture chocolate as Liquid or Gas, but they are damn good at making chocolate Gas and Liquid bonbons.

Anybody who dies on Vleeptron this winter because their car got trapped in a blizzard or fell down a moulin into a glacier because they were navigating by using a goddam GPS machine, they were trusting their lives to some robot lady announcing TURN RIGHT NOW TURN LEFT NOW such persons deserved not to reach childbearing years.

On the Dakar Rally (for the first time it's gonna move from the Bad Neighborhood of Africa to the somewhat calmer Argentina and Chile) or in the Kalahari or schlepping between research stations near McMurdo Sound, this might be the last thing you ever hear, scroll down and play the Sound Sample.

My new pre-owned 4WD -- the International Space Station of personal vehicles, you got to take a community college course to back it out the driveway -- has no GPS. I bought a Road Atlas and stuck it in the passenger door. And I can read. And think. And reason. And I don't need batteries (well, okay, I need one lousy Energizer AAA) and neither does the Road Atlas.

The best thing about every trip I take is I get to buy wonderful new local maps. The closer you get, the better the maps get.

If you are travelling to some Freaky Very Cold Place, you might also wait until you get there to buy a winter coat. Stores in Philadelphia or Padua have no clue how to keep you warm and dry and cozy and convenient on Grímsey. But Njal's Winter Nasty Weather Gear Boutique in Reykjavik, they will do you up right, Njal's your uncle. Also Long Winter Underwear, really Advanced Stuff. 90° Latitude borealis or australis, and you are having a Party In Your Pants.


14 November 2008

subtext urtext frame meaning ambivalence better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

Nothing to see here. Click on This Video.

I don't know quite what to make of This Video. I've watched it 19 times and I still don't know what to make of it. I'll just have to watch it one more time, maybe I'll reach some kind of conclusion or know how to categorize it. If you come to a conclusion please Leave A Comment. Or just Leave A Comment.

carte postal pour Lenny + Spike / PizzaQ [Part 3] / Pretty Girl cuts the ribbon

click, probably prettier

patzdosuiza said...

Oh Chino Ponies. First I thought they were part of the hint.....but then again they are not

You ever heard of that bridge in Italy that would connect tha main land with Sicily ? Dream project by the Berlusconi govt, but was scrapped due to cost. Now that was a BIG bridge....

How about Lisboa ? Despictableteacher is still hanging round here, she should know this one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama_Bridge

Toll fare is 2 quid. Not bad for that length...

Friday, 14 November, 2008

==============

NO MORE HINTS!

don't you have a tv? a euro-tv? this bridge has been smashed in your eyeballs 3711 times in the last 9 years. with a Pretty Girl cutting a ribbon. doesn't your pub have a hi-def whomp-ass screen?

NO MORE HINTS!

PizzaQ! Been here? Done that? [Part 2] * now with a HINT!!! and PRETTY PONIES!!!

sure click, no promises

2 Comments:

Anonymous patthebrückenbauer said ...

Now Vleeptron made me look at bridges a lot.

I am opting for this one, it is in your part of the world and I could almost bet you have passed that bridge at least once: cost for a bike and a ute would be 12.50

http://www.baybridge.com/index.php

Friday, 14 November, 2008

Blogger Vleeptron Dude said ...

Ah, beautiful! The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel! A few hours drive east from my old teenage stomping grounds, and I've had the thrill of going across/through it maybe twice.

I might have driven it more, it truly is even more beautiful than it looks like in a photo, but it has two little problems.


The weather is real nasty there -- storms coming in from the Atlantic -- and every few years a huge ship or barge smashes into a foundation of the bridge and renders the whole thing Kaput for the next few months. Or the next few years.

BRIDGE/TUNNEL CLOSED
FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS

DETOUR TO
ALTERNATE ROUTE -->

The other trouble with the CBBT is that it connects a pretty busy zone of coastal Virginia cities with an area of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware which has Nothing -- seashore wilderness, summer beach resorts, the DelMarVa Peninsula, most famous for its herd of wild ponies on Assateague/Chincoteague Islands. [See top image.]

But very few all-year-round people.
So after they built this engineering marvel, very few people used it, very few of the pricey tolls were collected. The toll-takers got a lot of sleep in the toll booths.

So they soon stopped fixing the bridge accidents quickly, they couldn't afford it.

It was America's first "Bridge To Nowhere."


And now the Bad News: Wrong Bridge. No Pizza.

Okay, so here's a HINT. The Vleeptron Ministry of Linear Unit Conversion (VMLUC) will re-write the PizzaQ:
=========

What is its name? Where is it? (I need the "where" sorta within 16.09344 kilometers -- you got to get me close enough so there'd be roadsigns for it.)

13 November 2008

next year's news today

You see things as they are and ask, "Why?" I dream things as they never were and ask, "Why not?"

-- George Bernard Shaw,
"Back to Methuselah" (1921)

PizzaQ! Been here? Done that?

Click for larger.

One of the Pope's ancient titles is Pontifex Maximus -- Greatest Bridgebuilder.

6 slices with garlic, shallots and shitaki mushrooms ...

What is its name? Where is it? (I need the "where" sorta within 10 miles -- you got to get me close enough so there'd be roadsigns for it.)

Extra Credit: What's the one-way toll for a motorcycle and a passenger car?

12 November 2008

Thanks for serving

Click image for larger.

----- Original Message -----
Sent: 11/11/2008 1:21:18 PM
Subject: [GeigerCounterEnthusiasts] re: Veterans Day / Remembrance Day / Armistice Day

A very fine Veterans Day and,
for those folks who served as Allies in the 20th and 21st Century's wars, a very fine Remembrance Day. bcer_eh calls it Armistice Day, and that's why it happens on 11.11 ... the 1918 Armistice on the European Western Front was signed on 11 November at 5 a.m. and both sides agreed to silence the guns 6 hours later -- on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

I had a trivial visit to the Emergency Room a couple of months ago. I was a little woozy while the clerk interrogated me, and when she asked if I was a veteran, I grunted yes. Then she said, "Thank you for your service."

I burst into a loud spasm of laughter.

When I got a grip I apologized and explained that, in 37 years, that was the first time anybody'd ever said that to me, and I was a little unprepared for it.

My war was not known for effusive national gratitude to its vets.

These modern public expressions of Thanks -- well, I acknowledge them as appropriate and sincere and certainly well-meaning.

But they're also Free and Easy. As, during these two ferocious US wars, they become our new national etiquette, they obligate my non-vet neighbors to do nothing.

I note that one candidate for US president just voted against a beefed-up educationally generous GI bill, apparently for what he felt were bona fide national security reasons. Scholarships for vets that were too generous, he explained, worked against our current need for troop strength retention -- soldiers would be tempted to become civilians again to go back to school.

Oddly enough, the candidate who was (very loudly) the war veteran and hero voted against the vets' assistance bill.

So if I want something from my civilian neighbors more than a Thank-You Card on Veterans Day, what do I want?

Also today received an e-mail announcing that my town's winter homeless shelter has reopened. My town has a small VA/DVA hospital, which was founded at the end of World War II specifically to treat combat-related neurological and psychiatric disorders.

So most nights at the church-alliance shelter, it's indistinguishable from an Old Vets Reunion. Vietnam vets were the cliche when we first opened our doors. But then Desert Storm guys started wandering in, every bit as shell-shocked and shaken as the Vietnam-era guys.

And this winter, to add to the tradition ...

So if you feel like Santa Claus and I'm sitting in your lap, here's what I'd like for Christmas beyond a patriotic Thank-You.

1. Stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible, and bring my neighbors' sons and daughters in uniform home safe and speedily.

2. If you perceive your governments, federal, state, local, are doing less than they possibly could to heal our troops and military veterans, to provide them the finest medical care, and to successfully re-integrate them into our communities, pick up the phone, write e-mails, scream bloody murder, use harsh language -- whatever works. Make a loud jerk of yourself, just like I'm doing here.

3. Volunteer at my homeless shelter. Cook some food and break bread with our guests over supper.

I promise there'll be lots of vets there. And I promise your being there and chatting with them will mean a great deal to them.

Where is it? Well, do the best you can to find it. If you end up volunteering at the wrong homeless shelter, it's all good, as the teens say.

Without these necessary things, "Thank You For Serving" is a bit hollow, like the Welcome Home Military Band and Parade, it's the Chump Change of national gratitude -- cheap and temporary.

Throughout history, after all wars, vets are easy to forget and ignore. In "Tommy," Kipling notes that we treat soldiers and vets like dirt until there's a national crisis that scares everybody to death -- and requires a new batch of soldiers. We tend to love vets and soldiers and marines and sailors and airmen/airwomen most when we're scared out of our wits.

I'd dress up in my old uniform today, but I left it at my mom's apartment, and my nephews made a Halloween costume out of it. But everybody buy a poppy from a vet today.

And sincerely -- thanks for serving.

Bob

=====================

Tommy

by Rudyard Kipling

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:

O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;

While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

another brawl between monks at Tomb of Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem


The Associated Press
(USA wireservice)
pickup in Haaretz ("The Land")
(daily English-language newspaper, Israel)

Monday
10 November 2008
12 Cheshvan 5769
Israel Time: 17:21 (EST+7)


Once again, monks
come to blows at
Church of Holy Sepulcher


by The Associated Press

Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity's holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus' tomb.

The clash broke out between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

It began as Armenian clergymen marched in an annual procession commemorating the 4th-century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus. It ended with the arrival of dozens of riot policemen who separated the sides, seizing a bearded Armenian monk in a red-and-pink robe and a black-clad Greek Orthodox monk with a bloody gash on his forehead. Both men were taken away in handcuffs.

Six Christian sects divide control of the ancient church. They regularly fight over turf and influence, and Israeli police are occasionally forced to intervene.

The feud revolves around a demand by the Greek Orthodox to post a monk inside the Edicule - the ancient structure built on what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus - during the Armenian procession. The Armenians refused, and when they tried to march the Greek Orthodox monks blocked their way.

"We were keeping resistance so that the procession could not pass through ... and establish a right that they don't have," said a young Greek Orthodox monk with a cut next to his left eye. The monk, who gave his name as Serafim, said he sustained the wound when an Armenian punched him from behind and broke his glasses.

Father Pakrat of the Armenian Patriarchate said the Greek demand was against the status quo arrangement and against the internal arrangement of the Holy Sepulcher. He said the Greeks attacked first.

Archbishop Aristarchos, the chief secretary of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate, said his monks had not initiated the violence. "I'm sorry that these events happened in front of the Holy Sepulcher, which is the most holy religious monument of Christianity," he said.

After the brawl, the church was crowded with Israeli police holding assault rifles and equipped with riot gear, standing beside Golgotha, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, and the long smooth stone marking the place where tradition holds his body was laid out.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were forced to intervene after fighting was reported. They arrested two monks, one from each side, he said.

The feud is only one of a bewildering array of rivalries among churchmen in the Holy Sepulcher.

The Israeli government has long wanted to build a fire exit in the church, which regularly fills with thousands of pilgrims and has only one main door, but the plan is on hold because the sects cannot agree where the exit will be built. In another example, a ladder placed on a ledge over the entrance sometime in the 19th century has remained there ever since because of a dispute over who has the authority to take it down. More recently, a spat between Ethiopian and Coptic Christians is delaying badly needed renovations to a rooftop monastery that engineers say could collapse.

Control of the ancient church is divided between six Christian sects. They regularly fight over turf and influence, and Israeli police are occasionally forced to intervene.

The fight is part of a growing rivalry over religious rights at the church.

On Palm Sunday earlier this year, dozens of Greek and Armenian priests and worshippers exchanged blows at the very site and pummeled police with palm fronds when they tried to break up the brawl.

- 30 -

49 Comments:

1. Unworthy fight 14:33 | HS 09/11/08

2. Muslins and Christians, different faces of the same coin. 15:48 | JP 09/11/08

3. christian love 15:53 | jojo 09/11/08

4. unfortunate 15:59 | potobac 09/11/08

5. JP 16:27 | Chaval 09/11/08

6. fighting monks 16:29 | yehuda 09/11/08

7. #5-Chaval - let me see if I understand you right 16:43 | Arie 09/11/08

8. JP: Muslims, Christias, Jews: All the same 16:45 | Giy 09/11/08

9. ashamed to be..... 17:12 | STEVEN 09/11/08

10. eye witness 17:55 | someone 09/11/08

11. #1 Unworthy fight 18:05 | Shoshannah 09/11/08

12. #2 JP 18:38 | Lou Medel 09/11/08

13. EVIDENCE THAT JESUS WAS NO MESSIAH 19:20 | Barry S. Roffman 09/11/08

14. Tisk, Tisk, Tisk... Where is their Christian Love ?? 19:23 | Jew 09/11/08

15. And the difference is? 19:43 | Arie 09/11/08

16. @hs 19:49 | jerrym 09/11/08

17. #JP 19:59 | jerrym 09/11/08

18. Monks in black? Ninja monks! 20:49 | Yacov 09/11/08

19. Yacov in Chicago 21:07 | Palestinian Brit 09/11/08

20. Anyone see the Falasha in the IDF drag away the Armenian Monk? 21:15 | UsedToPostHere 09/11/08

21. re: JP 21:18 | UsedToPostHere 09/11/08

22. JESUSALEN 21:45 | cristian 09/11/08

23. eye witness 22:02 | Benjamina 09/11/08

24. Disgraceful! 22:08 | Maureen Ann 09/11/08

25. Watching the footage on BBC 22:26 | TOMY 09/11/08

26. Someone pass the popcorn 22:51 | Arie 09/11/08

27. #11. Nonsense Shoshanna 23:00 | HS 09/11/08

28. These Christians Really Need a Better Way to Solve This 23:03 | David Rybarczyk 09/11/08

29. Get your facts right 23:09 | Noone 09/11/08

30. who said My Kingdom is NOT of this world? 23:26 | jose 09/11/08

31. Message to all those involved in the fight 23:29 | Peter Williams 09/11/08

32. this is what happens when you don`t have a job 00:16 | don 10/11/08

33. monk beatings 00:48 | andrew 10/11/08

34. Thoughful 00:54 | Humbert 10/11/08

35. to #8 Giy, Hey smart guy 01:14 | JP 10/11/08

36. Job Application 01:15 | Al 10/11/08

37. so they finally see that "showing the other cheek doesn`t work 01:50 | Joey 10/11/08

38. There was - is - a good reason 02:01 | Mark Lincoln 10/11/08

39. Who comes first 02:50 | Tamree 10/11/08

40. What do the Scriptures say? 02:59 | John DeVito 10/11/08

41. These people are not Bible believers 03:02 | Gary M. 10/11/08

42. Disgraceful behaviour in such a holy place 03:26 | Free Gilad Shalit 10/11/08

43. Re: EVIDENCE THAT JESUS WAS NO MESSIAH 03:38 | Dean Heistand 10/11/08

44. Fights at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 04:19 | Linda 10/11/08

45. to JP #5 09:51 | El_Justiciero 10/11/08

46. Jesus was not only the Messiah but is a Fable/Myth 14:54 | JP 10/11/08

47. Jesus was not only the Messiah but is a Fable/Myth 14:55 | JP 10/11/08

48. Security 15:51 | Adam 10/11/08

49. To HS 17:14 | Volonok 10/11/08


Read & React

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Responses: 24

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12:12 Livni, after Quartet meet: I'm not repeating mistakes of Camp David

09:32 Report: U.S. secretly attacked dozens of Mideast targets since 2004

08:02 Auschwitz expert: Blueprints found in Berlin not of death camp

07:23 Jerusalem of filth: Capital ranks last in livability among Israel's largest cities

14:04 Amira Hass / Powerless in Gaza, residents rely on the tunnels

07:13 Labor figureheads to support Meretz in upcoming elections

02:12 Belgian far right leader: I am one of Israel's staunchest defenders

10:24 Merrill Lynch: Israel less vulnerable to economic crisis than U.S. and Europe

12:41 Iran: Fundamental U.S. policy change unlikely under Obama

13:21 Living the Vision / 'I knew my life's goal was to try and make Israel find peace'


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