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Tag Archives: American

FTAC – Briefly On American Secular Governance

11 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, A Little Wisdom, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Religion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

America, American, extremism, middle east conflict, political manipulation, religion, secular governance, separation of church and state, terrorism, United States

The Constitution emphasizes equality for all beneath the law and forbids the establishment of a relationship between the state and any church, mosque, synagogue, or other symbol of faith. ALL are free here to practice their faith — in private and at private expense — in a civil and lawful manner.

The United States is a Christian-majority state, but it is not a Christian state by law or even exclusively so within the spirit of its laws. It’s true inheritance may be characterized as “Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian”. To the extent that Islam has borrowed from Judaism and recognized Christianity and in the better aspects of the Qur’an, say those emphasizing freedom of religion (“There is no compulsion”) and integrity (Muhammad’s emphasis speaking the truth), we’re good as a secular humanist society.


If one were to take the coldest view of the political science attending “Allahu Akbar Terrorism”, it would be to note that each attack has naturally promoted traditional patriotic nationalist and religious responses.  “Damned Arabs, damned Muzzies” shouts a part of the public and off it goes to Brexit in one state and resurgent white bread Christianity in another.

The truth about that comfortable extremism — often our own! — may be anchored elsewhere.

Last week, BackChannels noted the data-in-press for Bashar al-Assad’s incubation of ISIS in Syria.

In light of or coinciding with Moscow’s KGB resurrection, BackChannels has promoted note of Soviet Era Russia’s long dalliance with terrorism and the engagement of the same in the agitation and propaganda dimension known as “Active Measures”.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Al-Monitor, “The Meshaal-Lavrov meeting shows Russia’s interest in the Palestinian cause and comes as a continuation of the periodic meetings held by Hamas with regional and international parties. However, there were no discussions in the meeting regarding the possibility of Russia playing the role of a mediator to reactivate the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, although Lavrov and Meshaal have stressed its importance in general.”

Amer, Adnan Abu.  “Is Russia Hamas’ bridge to global diplomacy?”  Cynthia Milan, Translator.  Al-Monitor, August 24, 2015.

And from whence derived the “Middle East Conflict”?

Have a look at BackChannel’s October 2016 note on “Palestinian KGB”.

This blog also may be searched for “Russia, anti-Semitism” for further enrichment — but as much may return this note to the wisdom of secular governance and its producing for all of its constituents equality under the law and zero, zilch, nada, never ever compulsion to either choose an “official religion” nor feel intimidated in the classroom or anywhere else as regards having by way of choice or legacy a different minority path.

–33–

FTAC – Trump’s Choice and Moscow

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, North America, United States of America

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

21st Century Neo-Feudalism, American, Donald J. Trump, foreign affairs, op-ed, opinion, politics, President Elect, United States of America, USA

1. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-making-inquiry-ex-trump-campaign-manager-s-foreign-ties-n675881 – 11/1/2016.

2. http://uawire.org/news/media-manafort-s-deputy-was-linked-to-russian-intelligence – 9/8/2016.

3. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/08/meet-the-man-who-is-spinning-for-donald-trump-in-russia.html – 8/22/2016.

Alex Jones? “Active Measures” – confusion, disinformation, information warfare, manipulation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures

Track the themes – 1, 2, and 3 – and have your say as I’ve had mine.

Intervening and other variables:

— President Elect Trump may be getting the education through briefings that he seems not to have had when standing before the public as Candidate Trump.

–President Elect Trump has not “stepped off” as President in either action or words.

IF in his foreign affairs he gives NATO full support and continues blocking neo-imperial Moscow at Crimea and continues the struggle with Syria, good, but if he caves to his authoritarian narcissism in the manner of Erdogan and Orban, we may never recover our meaning or stature — and Moscow will happily continue spreading its absolutism and the chaos and destruction it pushes ahead of itself.


Not only America but the free world — EU, NATO, the “democratic open societies of the west” and other democratic societies worldwide — have worries with President Elect Trump.

Those who have suffered beyond imagination in Syria in relation to Bashar al-Assad’s shaping of that war into “Assad vs The Terrorists” exist today inside a purgatory special to totalitarian Hell, a place between Assad’s sadism matched by Moscow’s own and its military presence, and, sigh, “The Terrorists”, whom Assad helped developed (go ahead and click and look over the points and references made the earlier BackChannels post).

Ukraine, which “leaned west” in its revolt against Viktor  Yanukovych and his manner of little black book keeping, works with a different problem, i.e., Moscow’s occupation of Crimea, but it has the same worry: what does America mean today?  What does and what will “Washington” represent in the spectrum of politics between “political absolutism” — autocracy, fascism, kleptocracy, totalitarianism — and a responsible and responsive democratic governance possessed of integrity?

Reference

BackChannels.  “How Assad Helped Develop ISIL”.  November 12, 2016.

BackChannels.  “Syria — “Assad vs The Terrorists”: How ISIS Defends Assad.”  October 2, 2015.

Dilanian, Robert Windrem, William M. Arkin, and Tom Winter.  “FBI making Inquiry Into Ex-Trump Campaign Manager’s Foreign Ties.”  NBC News, November 1, 2016.

Mak, Tim and Katie Zavadski.  “Meet the Man Who is Spinning for Donald Trump in Russia.”  The Daily Beast, September 8, 2016.

UA Wire.  “Media: Manafort’s deputy was linked to Russian intelligence.”  August 22, 2016.

–33–

Two Songs – Persian – American

27 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by commart in Iran, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

American, folk music, Iran, Persia, political, politics, United States

Iran – mohamad noori – YouTube

_____

OH SHENANDOAH – (Across the Wide Missouri) A Cappella Version – YouTube

______

A little extra . . . .

America The Beautiful – YouTube

# # #

FTAC – On Civilized Firearm Ownership in Pakistan

28 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

American, crime, firearms ownership, Pakistan, Pakistani, personal defense, USA

L., in our so-far cooperative, democratic, open society (let’s all memorize the phrase), Americans may purchase just about any firearm they wish — and then some.

Note that I said “just about” because efforts by gun-control advocates may (or have) imposed some limits on high-magazine automatic firearms, a move that immediately spurred sales of the AR-15 class of weapons and related munitions.

___

Peterson inquired about the tank on the lawn. “It’s an M1A1, from World War II,” Clancy said, gazing over at it. “My wife gave it to me for Christmas.”

“Geez,” Peterson said, “how much does a tank cost?”

“I don’t know,” Clancy replied with a slight smile. “Do you ask your wife what your Christmas presents cost?”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-ticks-tom-clancy-off/2013/10/02/66a20b38-2b7b-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html

___

The American landscape is dotted with militia and sporting gun clubs and their ranges, and that includes private Muslim compounds as well as the enclaves of good ol’ Christian boys. In principle, what is legal and allowed for one group must apply equally to all, and that’s what we do. It takes the commission of a crime for the government, any level, to get into the business of a person or organization, gun owner or gun club.

___

Where there are brakes involving the private ownership of firearms, the laws focus on behavior (required registration, training certification, etc.) rather than ownership.

___

Finally, for the Facebook short-form of writing, lol, small home defense to corporate security involves a lot more than the mere possession of a weapon. As we have a reliable police force, outbound emergency communications count a great deal in any incident; as most American violence of interest involves domestic and personal issues (and alcohol), the paths to battery and murder may get far along and out of reach of both a weapon or telephone device; as regards break-ins, the fearful-with-guns often make mistakes involving their perception of intrusion and fatal accidents involving loved ones take place.

Perhaps the underlying threats in a peaceful land are largely psychological — and so are the comforts of owning some hardware.

In Pakistan, you are perhaps out on the edge of a wild frontier, but even so, what are the crimes that would be forestalled by the robed man of the house descending a staircase with a revolver? Would it not be better to call the police and retire to a safe room?

______

It may be a fair test of American democracy and the values of the people that, overall, we are armed to the teeth and haven’t even one mainline domestic issue sufficient to launch even one general internecine low-intensity conflict.  Instead, from time to time, organizations on the political fringe arm up, go “off the hook”, commit a crime or several — assassinations, bank robberies, bombings, etc. — bringing on a thorough reaming by the FBI and the invitation to sit in an electric chair or look forward to “three hots and a cot” for life.

_____

▶ Light Engineering In Darra Adam Khel, Pakistan amazig) – YouTube – Posted 8/24/2013.

Watch out Beretta, Remington, and Ruger — Darra Adam Khel‘s been getting practice on knock-offs for years.

______

From Russia with good humor —

▶ Ultimate Glock Torture Test – YouTube – Post4ed 1/13/2012.

______

What ticks Tom Clancy off? – The Washington Post – 10/2/2013.

How Glock Became America’s Favorite Legal Handgun – ABC News – 3/22/2013.

AR-15 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

# # #

FTAC – A Pox on the Extremes of Both Houses

09 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

America, American, Democratic, Jewish, politics, Republican, voting

This, which was inspired within correspondence this morning, may be more revealing than I like, and yet should even one Democratic or Republican stalwart read it, it might do a little something (I believe in the pebble in the pond, the outbound ripples and the reflection of their energy off the surfaces they encounter).

Beneath the surface of the two-party systems, Americans may pick up on the necessity of building a new, more centered political machine. This last election became not only obscenely polarized but silly in its inability to distinguish between true issues and trivia. I hate to say it, but I think Obama got in on women’s rights, which I support, liberal morality, which I support, and a politics of inclusion, which I support, and such have been the hallmarks of the Democratic Party. These idiots drifting off to Hezbollalaland and running up their numbers to as much as 50 percent of that party essentially block me from supporting the party.

As investments support my sorry ass, I have also got my feet planted in the other camp!

My wallet tells me it’s really a Republican.

And then Jewish identity, character, and ethics tell me neither of these parties are working for me. Or representing me. The Democrats least of all; the Republicans not much.

  • Compassion
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  • Humility
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____________

Caution: The possession of anti-Semitic / anti-Zionist thought may be the measure of the owner's own enslavement to criminal and medieval absolute power.
___________

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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