|
???As the first way out there was religion, which is implanted into every child by way of the traditional education-machine. Thus I came ??? though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents ??? to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true.
The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment-an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections.
It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the ???merely personal,??? from an existence dominated by wishes, hopes, and primitive feelings. Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation, and I soon noticed that many a man whom I had learned to esteem and to admire had found inner freedom and security in its pursuit.
The mental grasp of this extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities presented itself to my mind, half consciously, half unconsciously, as a supreme goal. Similarly motivated men of the present and of the past, as well as the insights they had achieved, were the friends who could not be lost. The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it.???
Albert Einstein, Autobiographical Notes, Chicago, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 1979, pp 3-5.
Israelites, a Semitic people, apparently of nomadic origin, whose emergence in the Levant is identified with a shift of settlement at the start if the Iron Age (c. 1200 bc), when a new pattern of small villages dispersed in upland regions replaced the urban life of the Bronze Age. Explanations for this process range from the nomadic invasion thesis (derived from Biblical accounts in Exodus) to settlement of indigenous populations of nomads and brigands, to social revolution by the urban lower classes at the end of the Bronze Age. The Israelites' conquest of areas occupied by the Canaanites brought them into an ultimately successful conflict with the Philistines. The major building works carried out under the united kingdom belong to the reign of Solomon. The northern kingdom of Israel (see Samaria) was conquered by the Assyrians in the late 8th century BC, while the southern kingdom of Judah was reduced by the Babylonians in the early 6th century BC. See also Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, a city in the Judaean hills, Israel, which has been occupied for thousands of years and which has been excavated virtually continuously since the 1860s. Comparatively little remains of ancient Jerusalem, chiefly because of the repeated destructions suffered by the city (e.g. that of Titus in 70 AD) and later Byzantine and Islamic overbuilding. The first major construction at Jerusalem seems to have been the stone fortifications of the late Bronze Age. Jerusalem was captured by the Israelites under Davin in c.996 BC and extended to the north by Solomon, who built a temple and palace in an area later overbuilt by the Herodian temple platform, and by Hezekiah, whose water tunnel is still visible. Jerusalem was patronised by the Byzantine emperors beause of its Christian associations and by Islamic caliphs as a holy city. Most of the walls to be seen at Jerusalem are the work of Suleiman the Magnificent (1538-41 AD) on top of Herodian and Roman foundations, while the octagonal 'Dome of the Rock' (685-692 AD) is the most striking of the Islamic buildings in Jerusalem.
Canaanites, an ethnic group identified with the sophisticated urban civilisation of the Levant during the Bronze Age (see Hazor, Jericho, Lachish, Beit Mersim). The Canaanites were dislodged from much of their territory by the Israelites and Philistines, but much of their culture persisted among the Phoenicians.
Phoenicians, a Semitic people, the cultural heirs of the Canaanites, who flourished as traders from their ports of Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre during the 1st millennium BC. They are credited with the founding of Carthage and the invention of the alphabet.
Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples whose occupation of southern Palestine marks the beginning of the Iron Age in that region. The five chief cities of the Philistines (the 'Pentapolis') were Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gaza, Gath, and Ekron.
(All from my archaeology encyclopedia.)
According to Admiral William D. Leahy, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Truman's Chief of Staff: "The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons... In being the first to use it [the atomic bomb], we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages."
"Japan was at that very moment seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'... It wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing." (General Dwight David Eisenhower Commander in Chief of Allied Forces in Europe).
"It would be a mistake to suppose that the fate of Japan was settled by the atomic bomb. Her defeat was certain before the first bomb fell." (UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill.)
"Certainly prior to 31 December 1945... Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated." (US Strategic Bombing Survey, 1946.)
"General Curtis LeMay: 'The war would have been over in two weeks without the Russians entering and without the atomic bomb.'
Field Marshal Montgomery ( Commander of all UK Forces in Europe) wrote in his History of Warfare: It was unnecessary to drop the two atom bombs on Japan in August 1945, and I cannot think it was right to do so .... the dropping of the bombs was a major political blunder and is a prime example of the declining standards of the conduct of modern war.
Truman's Chief of Staff, Admiral Leahy, wrote: It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons ... In being the first to use it, we adopted an ethical standard common to the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in this fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.
"The dropping of the first atomic bomb was also an act of pure terrorism. It fulfilled no military purpose of any kind. Belatedly it has been disclosed that seven months before it was dropped, in January 1945, President Roosevelt received via General MacArthur's headquarters an offer by the Japanese Government to surrender on terms virtually identical to those accepted by the United States after the dropping of the bomb: in July 1945, as we now know, Roosevelt's successor, President Truman, discussed with Stalin at Bebelsberg the Japanese offer to surrender....The Japanese people were to be enlisted as human guinea-pigs for a scientific experiment."
- F.J.P Veale, Advance To Barbarism: The Development Of Total Warfare From Serajevo To Hiroshima (California: Institute for Historical Review, 1979), pp.352-53.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-John Stewart Mill.
"The true gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self- control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe."
- John Walter Wayland.
Today is what the USA calls Independece Day. A celebration of freedom from Britain. During the USA revolution, over 4,000 Americans died in battle. During the USA's invasion of Iraq, over 4,000 Iraqi civilians died. Liberty. Yay.
Remember the movie called "The Skulls"? It was crappy, not very good. Yet it was actually based on a real society. The Skull & Bones Society is a members-only-access fraternity house based at Yale University. You can walk by, see it, it's plainly visible. For generations, the wealthy and powerful have passed through there, forging bonds and associations which they carry into the world of business and politics after university. The USA's President Bush, is, of course, a member.
Please research the matter if you do not believe me. Many sites are conspiracy nut sites, but the stories are based on reality. Research the matter for yourself before you decide what you believe.
A Google search.
A good many of Bush's Cabinet are former oil, energy, and mining people. CEOs, board members, et cetera. Dick Cheney was one as well, from Halliburton, which now has control of Iraq's oil.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/americas/1138009.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/americas/1081349.stm
http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/cabinet.asp
Money talks.
Earlier this year I went for some psych tests. You see, I am unable to write properly. I write in big, messy, block letters, all capitals. I thought I was dyslexic, so went for tests at Deakin University. Here are some of the bits and pieces:
--------------------
Tests Administered:
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale ??? Third Edition
Neale Analysis of Reading ??? Third Edition
Woodcock Reading Mastery Test ??? Revised
British Spelling Test Series ??? Level 5
Results from Cognitive Assessment
Adam???s cognitive ability was assessed with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale ??? Third Edition (see Appendix A). His Full Scale IQ score was on the 97th percentile which places his performance within the Superior ??? Very Superior range of scores . This means that over the entire test Adam???s score was equal to or greater than 97% of same age peers. There are however, significant variations in scores across the four Index???s that combine to make the Full Scale IQ score.
The Index scores had percentile rankings as follows; Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI = 99.7), Perceptual Organisation Index (POI = 88), Working Memory Index (WMI = 77), and Processing Speed Index (PSI = 47). The most dramatic variation between Index scores are between the VCI and both the WMI and the PSI. This indicates that Adam???s verbal ability (vocabulary, general knowledge, and abstract verbal reasoning) are substantially stronger than his ability to hold information in short term memory and manipulate it, and his ability to process visual information (numbers/symbols). The size of variation observed in Adam???s profile is observed in 2.0% and 0.8% of the population respectively. These differences are observed due to Adam???s Very Superior Verbal Comprehension.
During the administration of the WAIS ??? III, the following was noted:
??? On the Picture Completion tasks errors were made on fine details, yet he managed to answer correctly the more difficult interpretative items.
??? His reproduction of the symbols on the Coding task were a little untidy.
??? He worked very systematically and accurately in the Block Design tasks seeing the whole design and breaking it into the grid to solve each successfully.
??? Two of the four errors made on the Arithmetic tasks were slight and his responses were quick. This suggests his accuracy may be improved should he take more time to check the accuracy of his calculations.
??? Errors on the Picture Arrangement subtest were also observed when answers were given quickly.
Results from Achievement Assessment
Receptive Language
Reading
A sample of Adam???s reading was taken with the Neale analysis of Reading ??? Third Edition (see Appendix A). It was noted that Adam read fluently, accurately, and comprehended well what was read.
Results from the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test ??? Revised (see Appendix A) indicate Adam???s Word Identification (orthographic knowledge), Word Attack (phonetic awareness), Word Comprehension (knowledge of word meanings), and Passage Comprehension (knowledge of syntax to aid comprehension) are all within a High Average to Superior range of ability. Three out of four errors made on the Word Attack subtest were due to pronouncing a silent letter (p, k, g).
Expressive Language
Spelling
Adam???s spelling ability was assessed with the British Spelling Test Series ??? Level 5 (see Appendix A). His score was on the 86th percentile placing it with a High Average range. Three errors were made when writing with capitals, 6 were made when writing in lower case letters.
Written Expression
In ten minutes Adam wrote half a page about the poor quality of water on campus. Vocabulary was extensive, no spelling errors noted, and only one grammatical error observed.
Results from Additional Assessments
On a visual perception questionnaire Adam reported some difficulties when reading. Reading a passage with tinted overlays did not improve his reading accuracy or fluency.
Discrepancy Analysis
Adam???s receptive and expressive language skills fall within the High Average to superior range of ability. This is consistent with his Full Scale IQ score. His literacy skills are however one to two standard deviations below his Verbal Comprehension Index score suggesting Adams written language skills lag behind his verbal language ability. This is likely to result in frustration when attempting to express his thoughts in print. Considering Adam???s entire cognitive profile, it is considered that rather than having a deficit in a cognitive process (resulting in literacy difficulties), he has a giftedness in Verbal Comprehension skills that feel compromised when required to work with print.
Conclusions
Adam is a young man with considerable cognitive ability particularly with regards to his verbal ability (the public face of intelligence). He participated willingly in the assessment although at times it was noted that eye contact was lacking. His schooling was consistent and there are no reported incidents that would compromise his learning ability. Adam???s literacy ability is well above average and consistent with his Full Scale IQ, although substantially lower than his Verbal Comprehension Index score. It is considered that Adam???s reported difficulties are a result of his visual processing of numbers and symbols not being able to match the speed of processing of verbal language that Adam can manage.
--------------------
Scaramouche is the main character from a story by Rafael Sabatini. As the author describes him: "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was
mad." Andrea-Louis Moreau (Scaramouche) is a man who unfortunately is able to see the falsity, corruption, and general crapulence of the world into which he was, without his consent, born. He is a man of noble ideals yet is unable to find anything in the world worthy of the application of any noble behaviour. The story is referred to as "a romance", but keep in mind the word "romance" does not mean what many today think it means, particularly at the time of this story's creation. For those curious about the book, it is available online in many places. Just search for Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini.
One of my other favourite stories, for those itnerested, is the story of Don Quixote; it is published under several names, most commonly, I find, "The Man Of La Mancha". Don Quixote is a man who sees himself as a knight of ages past, and sees the world as his quest, regardless of the realities of his situation. He walks his path of chivalry devoutly, refusing to bend. He does, in the end break. Yet he is an admirable figure, one who does not stray from what he believes is right. Below are the lyrics to two songs from the play, songs which I like very much.
-------------------
"Man of LaMancha (I Am I, Don Quixote)"
I shall impersonate ... a man.
Come, enter into my imagination, and see him:
Boney, hollow faced, eyes that burn with the fire of inner vision.
He conceives the strangest project ever imagined ...
To become a knight errant
And sally forth into the world, righting all wrongs!
Hear me now, oh thou bleak and unbearable world
Thou art base and debauched as can be!
And a knight with his valors all bravely unfurled
Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee!
I am I, Don Quixote,
The Lord of LaMancha,
My destiny calls, and I go!
And the wild winds of fortune
Shall carry me onward ... To wither so ever they blow ...
Wither so ever they blow ...
Onward to glory I go!
I'm Sancho, yes, I'm Sancho
I'll follow my master till the end ...
I'll tell all the world, proudly,
I'm his squire ... I'm his friend.
Hear me heathens, and wizards, and servants of sin:
All your dastardly doings are past!
For a holy endeavor is now to begin
And virtue shall triumph at last!
I am I, Don Quixote,
The Lord of LaMancha,
My destiny calls, and I go!
And the wild winds of fortune
Shall carry me onward ... To wither so ever they blow ...
Wither so ever they blow ...
Onward to glory I go!
---------------
"The Impossible Dream (The Quest)"
To dream ... the impossible dream ...
To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...
To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...
To run ... where the brave dare not go ...
To right ... the unrightable wrong ...
To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...
To try ... when your arms are too weary ...
To reach ... the unreachable star ...
This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...
And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm,
when I'm laid to my rest ...
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach ... the unreachable star ...
|
Search This Site
Syndicate this blog site
Powered by BlogEasy
Free Blog Hosting
|