Tommy Peters' Bicycles

Jar of Hearts • 4

2012-01-31T18:41:00.001+08:00

Ubi Caritas • Celtic Circle

Love Can Build A Bridge • The Judds

One Man's Dream • Yanni

When I Live My Dream • Seu Jorge

The Captors • Scott Henderson

No Frontiers • The Corrs

Jar of Hearts • 3

2012-01-31T08:14:00.001+08:00

What If • Coldplay

No More Walks In The Woods • Eagles

Angie • Stereophonics

Gone • Andy Timmons Band

Fala (African Version) • Tom Diakite

Since I've Been Loving You • Otis Clay

Jar of Hearts • 2

2012-01-29T20:55:00.002+08:00

Levater • Yael Naim

Nocturne • Celtic Circle

Hands • Jewel

The Frozen • Stone Sour

Polka Dots and Moonbeams • Alex Peters

Chai Hong • Fish Leong

Jar of Hearts • 1

2012-01-29T11:19:00.003+08:00

Jar of Hearts • Christina Perri

My Heart Will Go On • DiCaprio, Winslet, Dion

Quequ'un M'a Dit • Carla Bruni

Soldier of Fortune • Alex Peters

No One Would Riot For Less • Bright Eyes

Bother • Stone Sour

Chickenfoot III (Official Videos)

2012-01-25T13:34:00.000+08:00

Three And A Half Letters

Big Foot

Different Devil

Chuck Eddy (in Rolling Stone, September 2011) said:-

Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith have no problem finding a groove on Chickenfoot III, the confusingly titled second album by their Cabo Wabo hobby-turned-globe-trotting-alliance.

They remember when hard rock meant funky stuff with misogynistic machismo on top - see brontosaurus burgers like "Alright, Alright." But the band plods more than pushes, and while the riffs stick, the songs generally don't.

The unemployment report "Three and a Half Letters" and the gas-guzzling road-burner "Big Foot" get by, though: It's hard to hate big-boned butt rock from guys clearly making it because they still love the form.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners. Incidentally, two (2) official videos from the inaugural Chickenfoot are posted below, without permission - Tommy Peters)

Soap On A Rope

Sexy Little Thing

A Case for Judaism • Dennis Prager • ©2008 92Y

2012-01-24T11:10:00.002+08:00

Ken Spiro • 8 hand-picked lectures • II

2012-01-19T14:37:00.002+08:00

Early Second Temple Period

Coming of the Greeks

Maccabean Revolt and Chanuka

Rome

Bar Kochva Revolt and After

Rome and Herod

The Great Revolt

The Origins of Christianity

Another eight (8) inspiring lectures. Originally from New York, Rabbi Spiro’s education includes a degree in Russian Language and Literature, graduate studies at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow, a Masters Degree in History, and rabbinical ordination from Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children where he works as a senior lecturer and researcher for Aish HaTorah, and is a licensed tour guide.

Reposted from SimpleToRemember.com

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners – Tommy Peters)

Ken Spiro • 8 hand-picked lectures • I

2012-01-18T08:26:00.002+08:00

Introduction to History

Patriarchs

Moses and the Exodus

Desert wanderings of Joshua

Judges

The Monarchy: Saul to Solomon

Divided Monarchy: End of First Temple

Babylonian exile and the Purim story

Originally from New York, Rabbi Spiro’s education includes a degree in Russian Language and Literature, graduate studies at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow, a Masters Degree in History, and rabbinical ordination from Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children where he works as a senior lecturer and researcher for Aish HaTorah, and is a licensed tour guide.

Reposted from SimpleToRemember.com

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners – Tommy Peters)

Jewish Impact on the World • Ken Spiro

2012-01-15T12:07:00.002+08:00

Reposted from SimpleToRemember.com

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners – Tommy Peters

Ask Sam Harris Anything • Hours 1 and 2

2012-01-15T11:41:00.002+08:00

Dr. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist and the author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. Harris writing has been published in over 15 languages. He is a Co-Founder and CEO of The Reason Project, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners - Tommy Peters)

Sam Harris • Christianity, a cult of Sacrifice • 2011

2012-01-14T14:32:00.000+08:00

Sam Harris • Christianity, a cult of Sacrifice • 2011

In a polarized world, a Religionist challenges an Atheist - his traditional foe. Point is 1. Catholic William Lane Craig and atheist Sam Harris are friends and accordingly, their supporters take cue. 2. Will there come a stage when a prominent Ayatollah is able to debate a Rushdie, Harris or Kagan without acrimony?

An excerpt from The God Debate II with William Lane Craig debating Sam Harris on moot 'Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural?'

The exchange was hosted by Notre Dame University in 201. The full (audio) version is posted below:-

Excerpt Transcript:-

Nine million children die every year before they reach the age of five. Picture an Asian tsunami of the sort we saw in 2004 that killed a quarter of a million people. One of those, every ten days, killing children only under five. Ok, that’s 20, 24,000 children a day, a thousand an hour, 17 or so a minute. That means before I can get to the end of this sentence, some few children, very likely, will have died in terror and agony. Ok, think of the parents of these children.

Think of the fact that most of these men and women believe in God and are praying at this moment for their children to be spared. And their prayers will not be answered. Ok, but according to Dr. Craig, this is all part of God’s plan. Any God who would allow children by the millions to suffer and die in this way, and their parents to grieve in this way, either can do nothing to help them, or doesn’t care to. He is therefore either impotent or evil.

And worse than that, on Dr. Craig’s view, most of these people - many of these people, certainly will be going to Hell because they’re praying to the wrong God. Just think about that. Ok, through no fault of their own, they were born into the wrong culture, where they got the wrong theology, and they missed the revelation. Ok, there are 1.2 billion people in India at this moment. Most of them are Hindus, most of them therefore are polytheists. Ok, in Dr. Craig’s universe, no matter how good these people are, they are doomed. If you are, if you are praying to the Monkey God Hanuman, you are doomed, ok.

You’ll be tortured in Hell for eternity. Now, is there the slightest evidence for this? No. It just says so in Mark 9, and Matthew 13, and Revelation 14. Ok, perhaps you’ll remember from The Lord of the Rings, it says when the elves die, they go to Valanor, but they can be reborn in Middle Earth. I say that just as a point of comparison.

Ok, so God created the cultural isolation of the Hindus, ok. He engineered the circumstance of their deaths in ignorance of revelation, and then he created the penalty for this ignorance, which is an eternity of conscious torment in fire. Ok, on the other hand, on Dr. Craig’s account, your run-of-the-mill serial killer in America, ok, who spent his life raping and torturing children, need only come to God, come to Jesus, on Death Row, and after a final meal of fried chicken, he’s going to spend an eternity in Heaven after death, ok. One thing should be crystal clear to you: This vision of life has absolutely nothing to do with moral accountability.

Ok, and please notice the double standard that people like Dr. Craig use to exonerate God from all this evil, ok. We’re told that God is loving, and kind, and just, and intrinsically good; but when someone like myself points out the rather obvious and compelling evidence that God is cruel and unjust, because he visits suffering on innocent people, of a scope and scale that would embarrass the most ambitious psychopath, we’re told that God is mysterious, ok. “Who can understand God’s will?” Ok and yet, this is precisely - this “merely human” understanding of God’s will, is precisely what believers use to establish his goodness in the first place. You know, something good happens to a Christian, he feels some bliss while praying, say, or he sees some positive change in his life, and we’re told that God is good. But when children by the tens of thousands are torn from their parents’ arms and drowned, we’re told that God is mysterious, ok. This is how you play tennis without the net.

And I want to suggest to you, that it is not only tiresome when otherwise-intelligent people speak this way, it is morally reprehensible. Ok, this kind of faith, is, is really the perfection of narcissism. “God loves me, dontcha know. He, he cured me of my eczema. He makes me feel so good while singing in church, and, and just when we had given up hope, we found a banker who was willing to reduce my mother’s mortgage.”

Ok, given all the good, all that this God of yours does not accomplish in the lives of others, given, given the, the misery that’s being imposed on some helpless child at this instant, this kind of faith is obscene. Ok, to think in this way is to fail to reason honestly, or to care sufficiently about the suffering of other human beings. And if God is good and loving and just and kind, and he wanted to guide us morally with a book, why give us a book that supports slavery? Why give us a book that admonishes us to kill people for imaginary crimes, like witchcraft. Now, of course, there is a way of not taking these questions to heart, ok. According to Dr. Craig’s Divine Command theory, God is not bound by moral duties; God doesn’t have to be good. Whatever he commands is good, so when he commands that the Israelites to slaughter the Amalekites, that behavior becomes intrinsically good because he commanded it.

Ok, well here we’re being offered - I’m glad he raised the issue of psychopathy - we are being offered a psychopathic and psychotic moral attitude. It’s psychotic because this is completely delusional. There’s no reason to believe that we live in a universe ruled by an invisible monster Yahweh. But it is, it is psychopathic because this is a total detachment from the, from the well-being of human beings. It, this so easily rationalizes the slaughter of children. Ok, just think about the Muslims at this moment who are blowing themselves up, convinced that they are agents of God’s will. There is absolutely nothing that Dr. Craig can say against their behavior, in moral terms, apart from his own faith-based claim that they’re praying to the wrong God. If they had the right God, what they were doing would be good, on Divine Command theory.

Now, I’m obviously not saying that all that Dr. Craig, or all religious people, are psychopaths and psychotics, but this to me is the true horror of religion. It allows perfectly decent and sane people to believe by the billions, what only lunatics could believe on their own.

If you wake up tomorrow morning thinking that saying a few Latin words over your pancakes is gonna turn them into the body of Elvis Presley, ok, you have lost your mind. But if you think more or less the same thing about a cracker and the body of Jesus, you’re just a Catholic.

And, and I’m not the first person to notice that it’s a very strange sort of loving God who would make salvation depend on believing in him on bad evidence. Ok, it’s, I mean, if you lived 2,000 years ago, there was evidence galore, I mean, he was just performing miracles. But apparently, he got tired of being so helpful. And so now, we all inherit this very heavy burden of the doctrine’s implausibility. And, and, and, and the effort to square it with what we now know about the cosmos and what we know about the all-too-human origins of Scripture becomes more and more difficult. Ok, and, and, and it’s not just the generic God that Dr. Craig is recommending; it is God the Father and Jesus the Son. Christianity, on Dr. Craig’s account, is the true moral wealth of the world.

Well, I hate to break it to you, here at Notre Dame, but Christianity is a cult of human sacrifice. Christianity is not a religion that repudiates human sacrifice. It is a religion that celebrates a single human sacrifice as though it were effective. “God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” John 3:16. Okay, the idea is that Jesus suffered the crucifixion so that none need suffer Hell—except those billions in India, and billions like them throughout history. Ok, this is, this is, this is astride, this doctrine is astride a contemptible history of scientific ignorance and religious barbarism. We come from people who used to bury children under the foundations of new buildings as offerings to their imaginary gods.

Ok, just think about that. There, in vast numbers of societies, people would bury children in postholes, people like ourselves, thinking that this would prevent an invisible being from knocking down their buildings. These are the sorts of people who wrote the Bible. Ok, if there is a less moral, moral framework than the one Dr. Craig is proposing, I haven’t heard of it.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners – Tommy Peters)

Sam Harris • The End of Faith • 2005

2012-01-07T11:28:00.000+08:00

Sam Harris • The End of Faith • 2005

Transcript:-

I’m going to talk about belief, specifically the problem of religious belief, because I happen to think that how we deal with belief, how we criticise, or fail to criticise the beliefs of other human beings at this moment has more to do with the maintenance of civilisation than anything else that is in our power to influence. Our world has been balkanised, as Moses just said, by incompatible religious dogmas; we have Christians against Muslims against Jews. The books themselves make incompatible claims. We have this founding notion that God wrote one of our texts; unfortunately we have many such books on hand.

Now, before I launch into my heresy, I want to say upfront that I am going to offend a few people in this room. I know you are very likely a secular bunch; I come from a country to your south that is fast growing as blinkered by religious lunacy as the wilds of Afghanistan, but still I think some people in this room will be offended by what I say. I want to say upfront that my intention really is not to offend anyone, I’m not being deliberately provocative, I am simply worried. I am going to worry out loud for the next 20 minutes, because I see no reason for us to expect to survive our religious differences indefinitely.

It seems to me transparently obvious that the marriage of 21st century technology, forget about nuclear weapons and biological weapons; even the computational technology we heard about this morning, the fact that a few short years from now, you’ll be able to sit in a cave in Afghanistan, and with your $1000 laptop you’ll essentially have a supercomputer that can kick off its genetic algorithms, its malicious code, to the rest of society. This alone makes this balkanisation of our world, the separate moral identities, the fact that we are not identified just merely as being human beings, but we are Muslims and Jews – it makes it untenable.

So, briefly, what is a belief? What does it mean to believe something to be true? Well, clearly, beliefs are representations of the world, but they are more than that. The difference between a belief and a hope, say, I can hope that I have won the lottery, that is a representation of the world, it is a representation of a possible state of the world, but believing I have won the lottery is the only thing that actually opens the floodgates of emotion and behaviour ... to behaviour and emotion that is appropriate to actually having won the lottery, then you go an that lunatic shopping-spree and offend all of your friends. What makes the difference is believing that your thought, certain propositions held in your mind actually map on to reality.

Now, if you think this is an abstraction, just imagine the transformation on your physiology at this moment, in your neurology and in your psychology, if you came to believe that your child had been taken hostage. First you have to have a child, that child has to be in some appropriately war-torn place, but given the requisite conditions, you get a phone call, mere language, a mere sentence spoken into your ear; should you grant it credence, would completely transform your life, all the panic that would precipitate out of that experience, would be born of believing a certain representation of the world. So, this is why beliefs really are machinery for guiding our behaviour and emotion through time.

We don’t yet understand this at the level of the brain, I’m trying to understand this through functio-neural imaging, but at the level of our conversation with ourselves, at the level of thought, it is pretty clear we are talking about linguistic representations of the world.

So what do people believe? Well, where I come from, the US, 22% of the population claims to be certain, literally certain, that Jesus is going to come down out of the clouds and save the day sometime in the next 50 years. Certain. Another 22% think he probably will come back in the next 50 years. This is 44% of the electorate. These people not only elect our congressmen and presidents, they get elected as congressmen and presidents.

This should be terrifying to all of us. This belief obviously does not exist in isolation; it is not an accident that 44% of Americans also want Creationism taught in the schools, and evolution no longer taught. Actually 62% of Americans want Creationism taught in the schools, but 44% want it taught exclusively. We are building a civilisation of ignorance. 44% of Americans also believe that the creator of the universe literally promised the land of Israel to the Jews, in his role as an omniscient real-estate broker.

It is clear that this belief has geo-political consequences, this is not… these beliefs don’t exist merely on Sundays, when we get together to talk about God and the Bible. Take another belief that seemingly would have very minor consequences. Consider the Catholic belief that condom use is sinful. Ok, now this is obviously, from my point of view, obviously, a total falsification of morality, I mean one thing that religious dogma does is it separates questions of morality from questions of real suffering: human suffering, animal suffering. Here we have no discernable suffering at all, and yet we are told it’s a moral proposition that condom use is ethically problematic. What are the possible consequences here? Well, we have millions of people, every year, dying of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and you have quite literally Catholic ministers preaching the sinfulness of condom use, in villages where the only information about condom use is the representation of the ministry.

It seems to me that the time for respecting religious beliefs of this sort is long past. You take another effect of religious dogmatism in my own country: we have college-educated politicians resisting stem-cell research, certainly impeding its progress, not funding it, putting up one road-block after another, probably one of the most promising lines of research in biology to generate medical therapies, is being impeded by this mediaeval notion that the soul enters the zygote at the moment of conception and therefore blastocysts in a petri dish – literally undifferentiated clumps of cells – have to be given the same kind of moral concern, have the same interests, have the same – no-one even talks about suffering, but presumably we are worried about their experience at some level – and that the interests of these cells trump the interests of eight-year-old girls with diabetes or 40-year-old men with parkinson’s.

Ok, the conversation never gets had, the moral arguments never even have to be made at a political level, because it is fundamentally taboo to criticise someone’s religious beliefs. Faith is really a conversation-stopper.

Now, in response to these sorts of problems, many of us, many well-intentioned people, have come to think that the appropriate accommodation with modernity is to develop what’s called “religious moderation”, generally. You can have your God, you can talk about him in some – or her – in some unspecified way, it’s considered unseemly to be too sure about what happens after death and about the moral structure to this universe, but let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater, religious moderation is the way to go, and really the soul of religious moderation is this political correctness where everyone should be free to believe whatever he wants about God, there is just no harm, no foul, beliefs are private.

Let me tell you, for a moment, why I think this is a dead end. First of all, religious moderation gives cover to religious fundamentalism, because we cannot criticise religious extremism, religious literalism, because it is politically taboo, it’s considered uncivil, and this is really enforced by religious moderates. Religious fundamentalists, they’ll criticise every faith but their own; you know, the religious fundamentalism in my country will say Islam is an evil religion. Religious moderates balk at that. And so now we can’t. George Bush can call a press conference and announce to the world that he is going to appoint common-sense judges – this is a quote: “I’m going to appoint common-sense judges who realise that our rights are derived from God.” Now, just imagine…it seems to me the next sensible question by any journalist in the room would be “Mr. President, how is that any different from appointing common-sense judges that realise that our rights are derived from Poseidon?” It’s not like someone in the third century actually figured out that the biblical God exists, but Poseidon doesn’t. You know, this is not data that we have. Ok, this obviously would be the last question that journalist would ever ask! Ok, we can’t call a spade a spade, because it is …because of this taboo around criticising religion, and I would argue that religious moderates are really the greatest offenders here, the greatest force propping up this taboo.

Another problem with religious moderation is it’s actually intellectually bankrupt. When you… just consider for a moment this notion that you should respect other people’s beliefs. Where else in our discourse do we encounter this? I mean, when was the last time anyone in this room was admonished to respect another person’s beliefs about history, or biology, or physics? We do not respect people’s beliefs; we evaluate their reasons. If my reasons are good enough for believing what I believe, you will helplessly believe what I believe. I will give you my reasons and reasons are contagious. That is what it is to be a rational human being. Respecting another person’s beliefs never enters into it, and … just appreciate for a moment how easy this is to see when we change the subject from “God” to some mundane, grandiose claim… this is actually an example from my book; if I told you that I believe there was a diamond buried in my back yard, that’s the size of a refrigerator, it might occur to you to ask me why. If, in response, I gave the kind of answers you hear from religious moderates, answers that describe the good effects of this …of believing as I do, so I say things like “Well, this belief actually gives my life a lot of meaning”, or “I wouldn’t want to live in a universe where there wasn’t a diamond buried in my back yard, that’s the size of a refrigerator!” It’s pretty clear that responses of this sort are deeply inadequate. They are worse than that; they are the responses of a lunatic or an idiot. By responding in that way, I would have disqualified myself for any position of responsibility in a first-world society. Except you change the subject to religion, to the moral demands of an invisible superintelligence, to what happens after death, and all bets are off, then you can say anything you want!

Another problem with the religious moderation is that it’s not only intellectually bankrupt; it is theologically bankrupt, because the fundamentalists have actually read the books, and they are right about them. These books are every bit as intolerant, every bit as divisive as the Osama bin Ladens of the world, or the Jerry Fallwells of the world suggest, and I am not necessarily equating the two of them in moral terms, but there is …once we dignify the claim that the Bible or the Koran, conspicuously, is a book… is a communication that is fundamentally different from any other book, be it the plays of Shakespeare or the Iliad, [that] these books are not literature, [that] they are the best books we have in moral terms, once we dignify those claims we are really hostage to their contents. I mean… the creator of the universe *does* hate homosexuals; if you read the Bible, at the very least homosexual men, gay sex, is an abomination, it is spelled out in Leviticus, it is … this edict is ramified in Romans, it’s not … many Christians imagine that the New Testament fundamentally repudiates all the barbarism that’s found in the Old Testament, in books like Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and second Samuel and Exodus; that’s not true. You can take Jesus in half his moods and get some really beautiful, ethical precepts like the golden rule, but Jesus also said things like, in Luke 19, ‘anyone who doesn’t want me to reign over him: bring him before me and slay him before me!’ OK, I guarantee you that the inquisitors of the middle ages who were burning heretics alive for five solid centuries, they had read the whole New Testament, they had read the sermon on the mount, they found some way to square their behaviour with the ministry of Jesus.

It’s not an accident that the great lights of the church, people like St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine, people who are still taught to every freshman in every Great Book seminar in, certainly in my country; in Aquinas’ case, he thought heretics should be killed outright; in Augustine’s case, he thought they should be tortured. Augustine’s argument for the use of torture actually laid the foundations for the inquisition.

Ok, we look back on these events and we think – oh, people being burnt alive, scholars being tortured to the point of madness for speculating about the nature of the stars – we look back from our perch in the 21st century and we think, ok these societies were just unhinged, I mean, these were lunatics! It’s not true, this was totally reasonable behaviour, given what was believed. Heresy … just think about it, if there is something you neighbour can say to your child that is so spiritually wayward that it could put your child’s future in jeopardy for eternity, ok, that is much worse than the child molester living next door, we’re talking about an eternity of suffering because your child has learned to call God by the right name, or think there is no God. The stakes really are enormously high.

Another problem with moderation, incidentally, is moderates, and certainly secularists, tend to be blinded by their own moderation, it’s very difficult for moderates to actually believe that people believe this stuff. It’s difficult for a moderate, when you see them on the news broadcasts, you see the jihadist, looking into the video camera, saying things like “We love death more than the infidel loves life”, and then he blows himself up; religious moderates, not fundamentalists, religious moderates tend to think “No, well, that really wasn’t why he blew himself up, it doesn’t have anything to do with religion, this is economics, it’s lack of educational opportunities.” I don’t know how many more engineers and architects have to hit the wall at 400 miles an hour for us to realise this is not simply a matter of education. The truth of our circumstance is quite a bit more sinister than that, it is actually possible to be so well educated that you can build a nuclear bomb and still believe that you are going to get the 72 virgins. That’s how balkanised our discourse is, and that’s how easily partitioned the human mind is. I can tell you, there is no place in the curriculum of becoming a scientist where they tell you, you know, this is bullshit, do you stop believing it.

So to wrap up, I see my time has dwindled mercilessly, um, I just want to say that whatever is true, spiritually and ethically about our circumstances, there are… no doubt there are spiritual truths, there are spiritual experiences human beings can have, and there are ethical truths; whatever is true about that has to transcend culture, it has to transcend our cultural differences, there is a reason why we don’t talk about Christian physics and Muslim mathematics, because these truths actually… an experiment run here and in Baghdad actually works both places if it is teasing out something fundamental about the nature of the universe. That is true ethically, that is true spiritually, and the only thing that guarantees that our human conversation is open-ended is a willingness for us to have our beliefs about reality updated and revised by conversation. Because when the stakes are high we have the choice between conversation and violence, both at the level of individuals and at the level of societies, so my pitch to you is, really, that the end game for civilisation is not political correctness and tolerating all manner of absurdity, it is reason and reasonableness and an openness to evidence.

Thank you very much.

Afterword: Dr. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist and the author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. Harris writing has been published in over 15 languages. He is a Co-Founder and CEO of The Reason Project, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners - Tommy Peters)

JIMI HENDRIX • The Uncut Story • ©2004 Passport Intl. Productions

2012-01-02T17:29:00.001+08:00

Jimi Hendrix • The Uncut Story 1942-1961 • Part... by 1tommypeters1

Jimi Hendrix • The Uncut Story 1961-1967 • Part... by 1tommypeters1

Jimi Hendrix • The Uncut Story 1967-1970 • Part... by 1tommypeters1

With blessings of Jimi's biological family and many of his closest friends, Passport Intl. Productions brings the life of Jimi Hendrix to light as never before. From his upbringing in Seattle to his final days in London, JIMI HENDRIX: THE UNCUT STORY goes beyond all previously released documentaries to explore the complete life-story behind the legendary artist.

Episode 1: 1942-1961 - The first part of this three-episode series takes us through Jimi's life in Seattle, Washington where he spent two-thirds of his twenty-seven years. Through the recollection of his closest friends and family, we enter into the inner world of Jimi's childhood upbringing. This is where we come to know the people and events that would shape his love for music and define the extraordinary man he would become.

Episode 2: 1961 - 1967 - After Jimi's stint in the army, we join him as a sideman on the Chitlin' Circuit playing behind some of the greatest names in R&B. After following Jimi to New York, we head off to the UK where Jimi Hendrix became the toast of swinging London virtually overnight. Hear directly from the British rock stars and scenesters who witnessed Jimi's musical coup d'état firsthand. Then follow the Jimi Hendrix Experience on their way to becoming the hottest rock trio on the world stage.

Episode 3: 1967 - 1970 - Part three highlights the culmination of Jimi's musical career. It was the peak of the counter-culture era and the world was changing at an incredible pace. Jimi's music and lifestyle were no exception. Here is where we follow Jimi to the height of his creative powers, both in the studio and on the road - only to watch it all come crashing down upon him. Through exclusive interviews, we get the facts behind Jimi's demise and examine the events surrounding his controversial death. But more than that we come to know the spiritual message behind Jimi's work and celebrate the final stage of his life in music.

Words - Steve Vosburgh, Director.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners – Tommy Peters)

JIMI HENDRIX • Sep 11 1970 • Final Interview

2012-01-02T16:40:00.000+08:00

JIMI HENDRIX • Sep 11 1970 • Final Interview

Profoundly carefree, ethnically neutral. An amazing piece sensitive Hendrix gave England seven days before his brutal death in the hands of his manager, Mike Jeffries, as quoted by Animals road manager Tappy Wright in his book, Rock Roadie.

Conspiracy aside, Hendrix experienced multiple lives in a short span and foresaw the fusion of classical symphony, blues-rock and cocktail lounge-jazz parlayed in contemporary music. As much as he influenced music, he manipulated contemporary speaking as well by splitting infinitives and infusing the commonly used verbal tics 'you know' and 'like' as a parenthesis to qualify 'in a way' or 'so to speak'.

It is musical artistry when a sensitive and apolitical axeman extracts several 'dive bombs' from a Stratocaster while 'fornicating' the instrument on stage and then before setting fire to it, uncynically, telling the fledging Black Panther to 'go kiss the sky' and 'get some gas' - classic Hendrix' euphemisms for 'get a life'.

Words - Tommy Peters

OPEN • Jon Anderson • a Grim appraisal

2012-01-02T08:59:00.002+08:00

Prologue: The Fox and the Lion

• So, when the fox saw the lion for the very first time … he trembled in fear, darted into the woods and hid himself, “Oh dear, this is too intimidating, he said in a terrible fluster,“this is much too disquieting!”

• The next day, however, he cautiously came hither but nestled himself in a tuft of grass at a safe distance and watched the movements of this very regal creature. Feeling pleased with the security of distance and locale he said, “Think I might be able to make it … but just barely.”

• Third time's a triumph and the fox is in close proximity with the magnificent beast. In the grip of euphoria you tend to pass the time of day with it. You saturate your mind with it. Analyze it. Break it down. It dissects you ... or, you dissect it with the fervour of an obsession: "I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl."

Security Tuft

The musician who is inclined towards a Brian-Wilson syndrome is in danger of fading into oblivion from competitive nerve issues from the sheer musicality of Jon Anderson’s OPEN.

At timeline 0:00 one could easily mistake the little ‘ping’ sound for a triangle but given the mind-set OPEN is fashioned upon, you can safely put it down to a temple cymbal. At the chime, the unconscious as if under hypnosis, serves up a memory that isn’t even recorded nor tucked away in the recall compatibility of the frontal lobe. Simultaneously taken up by the suspense of the trill in the violin section, stabbed only intermittently by the pizzicato of the cellos. Oboes follow suit unveiling picturesque moors and meadows. One of the longest meanderings in a suspended root since the intro to a Rogers-Hammerstein soundtrack.

To the accomplished musician, receptors which activate specific circuits into accessing the untapped 80% of brain cells seem to get fully fired up. The promise of something brilliant unfolding?

But to the musician with psychological issues one of three options are at disposal;

• Engage the harmless, "Oh, I'm jealous … !" and stay your ground in that circumference.

• Step into purgatory with the Brian-Wilson manic depressive dilemma and deal with your demons the next 18 years.

• Personification of the left hand path into King Nebuchadnezzar’s boanthropy.

Somehow, nestling in a cozy tuft of grass instead of chewing it seems the better bet in easing the musician into the OPEN realm.

As opposed to not engaging the repeat-all button in Fly From Here, the harsh but delectable mistress in OPEN demands a no-holds-barred demeanor, “Push to play me again."

New Beginning

Anderson may appear to have pulled a paradigm shift in regard to his former band’s direction in Fly From Here. In truth, it is they who have taken the leap, alas, where we are now required to circumnavigate their puréed persons. Jon is YES. YES is Jon ... and Billy James nails it with, "Jon's YES!"

Let's try removing Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, shall we?

And all the wise men would still not know how it feels ...

With acute respiratory failure at hand … and complete rest for a period of six months ordered by the doctor, Jon Anderson was compelled to be cocooned.

“When I got really ill in 2008, we were gonna go on tour, but then I got very sick and nearly died a couple o’ times … … … they didn’t keep in touch which was pretty sad in many ways y’know, you tend to think, well … … … I thought we were all friends, but … y’know … we were sort of partners that’s what we were … … … so they got somebody to sing like me … and look a little bit like me … when I was thirty … which is what they wanted to do … what’cha gonna do, you can’t do much about it.”

Despite their unscrupulous behaviour towards him, you could tell by Anderson's mannerism: pauses in sentences and preoccupation that followed and devoid of acrimonious remarks, he still sorely misses his brothers in YES.

Being in a chrysalis state for that duration, his time for transformation was inevitable … a new beginning.

OPEN gushes forth like a living thing. Not the natural-selection-I'll-be-a-monkey's-uncle-over-time-type living thing ... but living water. We witness the return of the three-winged seraph. The consistency of its flutter resonates once again.

In Flight

OPEN fans out farther than any of YES' works, past, present (or future? ... talk to me Jon)

Stefan Podell's imagination falls nothing short of brilliant! One is instantly transported to the adventurous flights on board the Moorglade Mover.

For a little over a minute at the start of OPEN Stefan steers the craft through clouds and mists of a suspended root with poor visibility. At timeline 1:10 they clear up on a major note and a burst of a rhythm of cellos form a bass line of notes reminiscent to the root of the Indian raga scales utilized by George Harrison in the first ever raga-rock number “Within You Without You” (Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely hearts Club Band, circa 1967)

Upward stroke of a sitar-like glissando is sprinkled, twice, before a counterpoint of horns begin a melody line rooted in the same family.

Cellos, cymbal crashes, horns, reeds and strings then dive into respite, 2:06 … shades of exoticism …

Just 2 minutes into the journey and we already have a peek into the influences that Jon Anderson and Stefan Podell have drawn from. Glissando runs across harp and piano and with cymbals rising to a crescendo the seraphim breaks at 2:28 into the all too familiar helium laced three-part harmony which are all Anderson’s of course, “Forever taken to the place of understanding … “

Janee Anderson was credited for the ‘angel voices’ in this album. The second verse showcases her haunting and angelic counterpoint vocals, with Jon singing in unison, almost simulating a delay effect … Remember first to know you’re spoken forever …

4:00 nylon guts and wind chimes …

4:06 temple gong is banged, craft picks up altitude and the sun is calling …

The similar arrangement of the a cappella section in The Beatles’ Good Day Sunshineseem to be employed in the repeat of this verse, 4:44 … Sun is calling … sun it sings you … sun it shines … [Jon Anderson giving tribute to The Beatles]

As if in Ranyart's seat with yoke firmly in hand Stefan pitches and rolls four movements across a classical music firmament. At times, analogous to the occasional turbulence caused by air pockets lodged like landmines across the skies of Tallowcross en route to thePromised Land.

OPEN brims with cinematic motifs inherent in overtures and intermissions of musicals and biblical epics of yore.

7:16 Anderson arranges a delightful vocal ping pong in … reach … fast … tall … song … talking out … clear sound. Background vocals which ricochet in harmony simulate the delay effect. These are one of the many facets which make up the gem in Jon Anderson’s OPEN.

From 8:01 − 8:12, Stefan himself seems to sweep you across soundscapes of the Gardens of Geda with a 'wicked' edge-of-the-seat bass line toggling between drag, lift and stall in accordance to Anderson's vocal and counterpoint interventions.

Hybrid

The triple time frenetic burst of the lead guitar solo, timeline 8:29 - 8:38, could be mistaken for a Steve Howe lick given the tone of guitar and its juxtaposition against Anderson's helium textures. Oddly, it is also reminiscent of Trevor Rabin’s technique.

While Howe's fingering are inclined to hammer-ons & pull-offs to get him from one destination of the fretboard to another (Gates Of Delirium) Rabin moves with engineered precision, accuracy and speed of the up/down movement of his customized plectrum, sounding even the 'cut' and 'bite' on each note and string, regardless of duration from one point to another (Shoot High, Aim Low)

Consciously or otherwise, Anderson has orchestrated the lick to resonate with a pleasant hybrid of the Howe tone and the Rabin velocity ... which is in fact, all that of 18 year old only, Zach Page.

A serious contender for Steve Howe?

Time will tell if Page is going to be put on his mettle over the next 30 years for a body of work of progressive rock compositions, innovative riffs and trail blazing licks.

The only disappointment in the electric guitar in OPEN is in the inconsistency of its volume. Not a fault of Page but the mixing engineer. The eight measure frenetic guitar run at 8:29 is buried in the mix whereas the repeat of the lick at 9:31 jumps out considerably, seeming to suggest the human fallibility of a manually operated fader than an automated one.

Eye of the Hurricane

Timeline 10:44 and we come to the eye of the hurricane. Stab of the keys are taken up by the trill of violins at the start of this journey. Creeping in again as they lay the base for that singular viola, 11:11, to mark the sadness of deception within the eye.

Tinker of piano and flutes in harmony are taken up by a familiar meandering cello from within you … and without you. Leaving a trail of incriminating clues to conclude that eventhe string players are freaks of a psychedelic nature?

Cello then segues into a somber alternate tuned classical guitar, still very much in the calm before the second wind.
This juncture of the musical journey may come across as the favourite part to most listeners simply because, after 10 minutes of a steady pound, be it from an orchestra or a thrash metal outfit, without realizing it, the human auditory mechanism although incredibly tolerant of different levels of abuse, will cause a temporary threshold shift known as Ear Fatigue.

When the quietness of peace in the light of a stormy journey is laced with the intimacy of a meditative eight chord cyclic run of a somber classical guitar and the close proximity of Jon Anderson’s voice, it is reason enough to feel why.

But its effect is only psychological, while opinion, subjective.

Seven ascending notes on a harp and a plucked G sus and Anderson's voice climbs with the beautiful string accompaniment of Alexandra Cutler-Fetkewic, Jon Fink and Susan Lerner.

Make me … to make me … to know … to remember that …

Make me … to make me … to know … to remember that …
15:51 and we’re out of the eye and the sun, it shines …

Formulaic or Organic?

The compositional technique of Stefan Podell, may have been formulaic but inferences drawn point in the direction of an organic one that could have been influenced, nudged and steered by the very mood and emotion of each unplugged section of OPEN on Anderson’s demo tape ... or, directed by Anderson himself.

And perhaps, at times, going the other way ...

[Stefan, furiously scribbles pending ideas, fragments of music and orchestral hooks to make up miniature symphonies set by the various tones of Anderson’s description.

He then comes up with additional musical phrases of melody lines which fires Jon up causing his bronchioles to close. Hyperventilating in and out of the mask for the nebulizer, adrenalin kicks, alveolia allows oxygen and Anderson sings the words as they begin to form and settle snugly into the notations of Stefan’s new tune …

“REACH … FAST … TALL … SONG …

TALKING OUT … CLEAR SOUND …

Stefan, whilst in the fervour of jotting down the newly spun words, Anderson lifts the mask again and like a cherub breaks out the counterpoint vocals,

“OVER THE STORIES OF TIME …

OVER THE STORIES OF TIME …“

Stefan, fumbles as he discovers he’s out of ink, “You go too fast … you go too fast!”

He puts the separate miniature symphonies together like a mosaic … eventually accomplishing four seamless movements of 21 minutes]

Unlike Paul McCartney’s Ocean’s Kingdom, a 56-minute-four-movement classical piece divided in four parts by 12 second pauses, Anderson and Podell keep the four movements in OPEN segued seamlessly without a pause. Concise and urgent as in the Single/EP-release context.

Fire and Ice

Whilst YES2011 are now relegated to YES wannabes, Anderson, fully aware of the diehards' demands of that 10.0 model, has met with them in OPEN.

The accolades showered upon Stefan Podell's 21 minute opus could have been attributed to the members of YES as well. They would, in a sense, be basking in its glory ... but more's the pity two camps were created unbeknownst to Anderson whilst he was in the toilet. Last wiggle, "Cor blimey!" dick in the wind, "I’m given the boot?”

The musicality of Anderson's OPEN in the light of the letdown by his fellow band mates would need all the fire it can muster to be on par with the edge that is inherent in all of YES' works. That primal ingredient to beckon the curious attention-deficit onlooker who knows nothing of YES nor Anderson for that matter.

“Some of this, and all of that’s the only way to skin the cat.” said Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

And the only way to fire up an orchestral piece in a non-compositional-all-beckoning manner is to turn up the heat of the drums. But in keeping with the conservative trend of ‘orchestral piece’ the conductor, inadvertently played down the parts of the drums musically and mix-wise. As heard/felt in every other similar work where drum parts are written for.

Even kick parts are missing, or buried which could have further accentuated and consolidated the sawed strokes of the cellos, 1:09 - The deft brush work of Junca or Scott seem snowed under while essential signatures which are an integral part of urgencies portrayed in Stefan’s ‘wicked’ bass line, 8:09 − 8:11 aren’t even written in.

Perhaps the missing piece of the puzzle in the Anderson-Podell context is the explosive thunder in the Sean Beeson factor …

Alternatively, replacing a considerable amount of Zach Miller’s piano parts with distorted, harmonized guitar could have induced the badly needed spice. Even the classical guitar parts from 15:51 sprinkled all over “Sun it Sings” seem a little overkill when it could have sounded better with Brian-May runs á la Death On Two Legs.

Which is why Trevor Rabin was the perfect villain in the Jon Anderson narrative. Trevor and Co [i.e., with Rick Wakeman, of course] together were the formidable alloy which made Jon whole.

But the fat ones became Buggles … the thin one, got buggered.

When the equipoise of the weighing scales were tipped, the balance of the ferocity of the band and frailty of Anderson - the forging with fire and ice - underwent a severe stress corrosion cracking. YES, who lay shrouded in the mystery of steel are now unveiled with their alloy in zero ductility and malleability.

Water dripping, falling ... freezing ... melting. Refreeze!

Over time ... the icicle grows again. But without the fire of its forging partner ... let us not kid ourselves.

OPEN is a beautiful and charming piece full of the coolness of Jon. The melding of his harmony bursts and the orchestral stabs are like icicles on a tree. Turning up the heat in this opus would have given the good guy his necessary nemesis.

And God knows He gives us the devil for clarity of reason.

Job 1:7-12 …

The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.''

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Is this even an album review?

Revolt?

The musical sparkle in climatic endings of good-over-evil epics is the general atmosphere here, 15:51. Bursting with all the musical grandeur in the D major mind-set one is conditioned with the musical terrain of that route and that route only.

But a mood shift with a switch to the B major refrain at 17:00 puzzles the listener.

Mystery clears up as one recognizes the clues that Stefan had already left in its overture. It’s as if he had had the D major route written in as decoy for farther down the journey in an attempt to throw his assailants off the scent.

Writing a trill for electric guitar as segue into the B major refrain Stefan creates the tension required in the directional change. There is an urgency whereby even the tempo of the orchestra is speeded up! It was either intentional on Stefan’s part [to speed it up] … or, an adrenalin rush which caused the upswing of his conducting baton to fly a little more furiously. Orchestra takes its cue.

Grim’s choice is the latter.

Can one blame Stefan? This is his moment to rock out. Listen to the pulse of the cellos. A driving and dramatic series of sawed notes. Needless to say, no ominous chords were interjected, laced or otherwise to indicate the reappearance of his assailants … not yet at least.

Instead we have an angelic Mardi Gras of vocal throbs, counterpoint melodies, horn urgencies, crash of orchestral cymbals and the furious brush strokes now transformed into stick stabs increasing the bubble of the boil as we are led by Qoquaq to the threshold of the Promised Land ... [We just, might be able to pick out Billy James’ background vocals from this point on, 19:42]

"KNOWING THAT IN TRUTH OUR FREEDOM SINGS ... [know that ... know that]"

Circuits are fully activated by this 21-minute-four-movement epic adventure and the progger feels an unadulterated NZT-48's rush of blood to the head: cerebral yet primal.

After what sounded like ‘Sunhillow exploding into millions of teardrops’ the celebration ends as if sucked into a vortex. Followed immediately, by a slightly ominous grating sound, in reverse-tape, 20:32 ... twice …

Shift in the shadows? Movement on the grassy knoll?

Temple cymbal chimes once again, as if to quell all rumors of a revolt,

“It’s nothing … probably the wind.”

OPEN Trilogy

All is not lost for the fire element in OPEN. For one can always be in full anticipation of it in the concluding chapters of this opus taking into consideration that this is the Single/EP.

Two more tracks of 20 minutes each and we’ll have the OPEN Trilogy grazing over a full album. In a manner of speaking OPEN should evolve into ‘Return to Olias’. [The sequel to Anderson’s ‘Olias of Sunhillow’ circa, 1976].

• If the current four-movement OPEN is labeled The Exodus, where Qoquaq, the leader who unites the four tribes of Sunhillow, completes the exodus ...

• ... it would make sense to move the narrative along to the next 20 minute piece, Promised Land and The Angelic Revolt, where a pandoraic element is unleashed ... [more dramatic orchestration and fiery drums]

• ... to eventually conclude with the final, New Heaven, New Earth, New Beginning … all of which, hypothetically speaking, that is.

The Audience is Listening

The bar has been raised. OPEN reaches farther and deeper than all of the 47 minutes of Buggles' attempts in Fly From Here. One can only imagine the horizons Jon Anderson would reach out for, or take us to in its conclusion.

Over the last 40 years Anderson has worn out the rabbits’ path sending us down to depths of fantasy and hurtling us out through firmaments of mystery. He has led us in dance to the rhythm of joy and fear. Now he flies us through open doors of love and freedom. Going by what Anderson has given us through the YES years and his solo projects, nothing less of this 21 minute opus is expected from its concluding journey. The audience is listening.

Epilogue and the Bum Note

Cases of people going over the deep end with competitive nerve issues are real. As in Brian Wilson’s case at the release of The Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, circa 1967, which very sadly, sent him into depression for the next 18 years from the sheer overwhelming, compositional and engineering breakthrough of John Lennon and Paul McCartney and to a large extent, George Harrison for his then one of a kind exotic raga-rock, “Within You, Without You”.

And just as King Nebuchadnezzar’s psychological disorder in believing himself to be a bovine, returned to the throne after 7 years of his grass eating escapades, so did Brian Wilson after 18 years of depression, to the stage (Live Aid, 1985)

The orchestration alone in Jon Anderson’s OPEN can be intimidating to the members of the new Buggles for it took the collaboration of all five of them to come up with the insipid Fly From Here … and yet, only one Anderson envisioned the 21 minute opus.

Save for the flat mix of the drums, the absence of distortion guitar and the flautist’s bum D note* at 17:21 ... [Yes, you ‘eard! A bum note! Hannibal would have had that flautist for dinner!] ... it is quite the perfect triumph!

*Interfering, overlapping, extra syllable of a note … help me out here, Billy, you're the Berklee College grad :-))

Afterword: Grim's appraisal of OPEN is an extended 'corollary' of the earlier appraised Fly From Here.

[Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners]

Exchange Stabilization Fund, explained • Eric deCarbonnel

2011-12-21T09:15:00.001+08:00

Exchange Stabilization Fund (Parts 1 to 4) •... by 1tommypeters1

Exchange Stabilization Fund (Part 5) • Eric... by 1tommypeters1

Bullet points summarized by The Daily Bell

• The Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) was created (without oversight) by Congress in the 1930s to ensure support of the Dollar. It has done a lousy job of what it was supposed to do, as the Dollar has lost almost all its value.

• The ESF was put in the hands of the head of the US Treasury and the US Treasurer has absolute power to do what he wants with the fund.

• As a result, the ESF has acted as a giant slush fund that has funded the growth of the American Empire over the past century against the will of both Congress and many bankers in private industry.

• The ESF effectively runs the US Federal Reserve and tells the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Fed) what to do. It does this because it is responsible for stabilizing the dollar and implementing policies that are in the national interest.

• The ESF leaves few traces of its activities as Congress mandated that it must conduct its affairs without oversight. Thus, dissembling is part of its mandate and its bureaucracy lies as a matter of policy.

• The ESF was responsible for Project Mockingbird, apparently ongoing still today, and places many of America's top journalists under the control of the CIA. The publishing industry with a special emphasis on books about politics and American foreign policy is an especially large part of this false flag operation. Books are seen as a key to controlling the American intelligentsia. The Internet has partially broken the promotional chokehold of Mockingbird.

• The ESF is legally mandated to lie, which is why even an audit of the Fed will not reveal the true nature of what has taken place in the US and the world in the past 100 years. The Fed and the ESF are symbiotic, but the ESF is in charge.

• In order to prop up the Dollar and to protect the interests of the US, the ESF has performs an enormous number of illegal tasks and does so with maximum anonymity and without oversight of the rest of the executive branch or the Treasury itself.

• The ESF, through then-Treasury Secretary Harry Dexter White, virtually created the modern money system, including the IMF and World Bank. Today, the ESF is responsible for most of the rapine of the modern world's developing countries, as described in John Perkins's book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

• John F. Kennedy was ready to expose the ESF and its dark deeds and to create a new non Bretton-Woods financial system, which is why he was murdered by a "magic bullet." Later on, his brother was murdered for the same reason.

• The ESF, thus empowered, has continually and energetically bankrupted the US in order to 'save' it.

• It has disposed of much if not all of the nation's gold supply.

• It used its secret funds to first create the CIA and then to fund its cover operations, including destabilization of democracies around the world.

• It has demanded enormous amounts of money printing from the Fed to prop up the US economy, the dollar and its illegal operations.

• It has coerced the Japanese, Chinese and others into buying dollars to mop up "inflation."

• It has sanctioned and created drug addiction in the US to "Dollarize" the rest of the world. It has done so by imposing money-laundering regulations on banks that force drug dealers to export, via smuggling, tens and hundreds of billions of physical dollars out of the US.

• It has created a sophisticated forgery apparatus to ensure that the Dollars do not flow back into the US, creating inflation. These Dollars are apparently being printing by the US Treasury at a loss, but are the same as regular Dollars in almost all ways. As a result, foreigners are afraid to bring their Dollars back into the US for fear they will be confiscated as counterfeit.

• Because there are so many drugs flowing into the US, especially heroin and cocaine, people are dying of drug use in record numbers. As a result of these deaths, the ESF created the fiction of AIDS. It is still the accepted explanation for the deaths of millions, but there is no explanation for why the "virus" is found equally in men and women, although the deaths have been predominantly gay men who, especially in the 1980s, were apparently aggressive abusers of powerful drugs that depress the immune system. African statistics showing AIDS deaths are merely made up and not to be trusted.

• In order to keep the supply of Dollars flowing out of the US, and to continue to fund illicit activities, the ESF has been responsible for wars as well as for covert and illicit assassinations and destabilizations. It was, for instance, responsible for the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban had begun eradicating poppy fields and this could not be tolerated, as the supply of heroin worldwide was plunging. Today, the CIA and US military guard the Afghan poppy fields and heroin production is heading toward peak supply.

• ESF manipulations have resulted in global "blowback." The Dollar is in ruins. The ESF and its enablers are becoming unglued. Even Alan Greenspan has begun to admit the fraud that surrounds the ESF.

• As the ESF and the Dollar itself has operated as a kind of Ponzi scheme and like all Ponzi schemes has fostered misinformation and disinformation. One of the most pervasive of these "tales" is that the world is run by an elite group of individuals intent on creating a New World Order. Even journalists who believe they are working for this group are being misled. The New World Order is nothing but a beard for the world's real power, which is the ESF and its enablers and associates.

• In reality, those who are responsible for the Ponzi scheme, bankers and government officials alike, are culpable. Mr deCarbonnel says that they have no idea of what is about to happen to them. Hundreds of millions who have been defrauded by the ESF Ponzi scheme and all its ramifications are likely to be merciless when it comes to light. Justice will winnow those involved with special vehemence.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners - Tommy Peters)

Fly From Here • YES • a Grim appraisal

2011-11-28T09:02:00.001+08:00

Released June 2011

"Familiarity breeds contempt”, said the lion to the fox. While the application of this principle exists in our psychological make-up, the opposite effect is more often than not the case when one is up close with the blow by blow from the catalogue of renowned progrock overlords, YES. The loveliness of their tunes have a gradual crushing effect on one's welling criticism for their anticipated 2011 release, Fly From Here.

If you can’t pick out the sucker in the listener within 20 minutes of a YES journey which isn’t up to par, chances are, the sucker is you.

Yes, familiarity impairs one’s judgment for a constructive breakdown when it comes to reviewing the YES catalog. Steer clear from their centrifugal force as subliminal programming, gradual conditioning and inevitable conversion to being diehards are usually the order of the day. Which is why Grim never engages the REPEAT ALL button at the first spin.

For all the claims, raves and reviews that Fly From Here is an undeniable return to form and that the songs and production values are way higher than they have ever been… well … they’re not!

A Grim Review

• and let’s be grim about this •

The demise of the Steve Howe empire is strikingly evident in their 90125 (circa 1983) release, when Trevor Rabin stepped up the grunge in Owner Of A Lonely Heart and steered them off on a perpendicular course laying out the template of considerable latitude for the from-then-on Yes sound.

Hence, the need to factor in cogency of argument, economy of language and analysis of musicianship in their latest offering, Fly From Here.

The presence of 80s icon, Trevor Horn, in the producer’s chair compounds the problem with his choice of the tried, tested and reverby piano/pads from the PROPHET at the start of track one which dulls the anticipation of the Yes diehard momentarily, but thrilling the newly enrolled pupil and old foggies. However, progrock sensibilities explode in a salvaging moment, timeline 0:19.

Seraphim

The urgency of the Anderson-esque pitch and vocal-space-reverb grandeur is glaringly absent from the equation. Recruiting Benoit David (lead vocals) is a calculated move in place of Jon Anderson. His high register pitch is uncannily not too dissimilar. Works eerily well. The same calculated move witnessed in Drama (circa 1980).

But one wonders why producer, Trevor Horn, did not employ the YES ballads as the Anderson-metric for that soar-and-dip musical graph inherent in all of them, namely ...

• Soon at timeline 17:07 of The Gates Of Delirium (Relayer, circa 1973)

• Turn Of The Century (Going For The One, circa 1977)

• Circus Of Heaven (Tormato, circa 1978)

• Onward (Tormato, circa 1978)

It is apparent Benoit has the ability to soar to the skies and dive bomb in almost the exact way as Anderson, why then weren’t intricate compositional structures laid out, á la YES, for maximum exploitation of Benoit’s vocal cords to resonate with the urgency which is what YES essentially is?

Pick a track from any one of the Rabin produced albums in the last 28 years, specifically, City Of Love, track 8 of 90125 (circa, 1983). The visceral explosion of Alan White’s drums are literally felt. The tight burst of snare in turn, shapes the projection of Anderson’s vocal cords seraphically and steers him in directions only angels may have tread once and now cautious of a repeat. He is governed by the splatter, the breaks and the occasional odd time signature.

One feels the organic flutter of this three winged creature in a digital storm.

Technical Inertia

Aesthetically Fly From Here with its signature fantasy art by Roger Dean stokes the fire of the curious protégé and mentor alike with the promise of the richest meat of an exotic game from a different amazon.

Alas, musically, they have only pieced together unexciting material from their ‘vault’, which is perfectly alright if it was their intention to begin with.

“I didn’t want anything programmed. I wanted it to sound more like the band sounded in the 70s, necessarily than the band sounded in the 80s.” ~ Trevor Horn, Producer ~

For one, Fly From Here isn't even remotely close to the likes of Fragile, Close To The Edge, Tales From Topographic Ocean, Relayer, Tomato and Drama or even their lesser god, Going For The One (1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1980 and 1977 respectively)

Secondly, it is a superb ruse of Horn to washing his hands off the gargantuan task of having to fill the Anderson/Rabin shoes.

“You just wanna make people happy with just a lot of great intricate music that’s kinda different.” ~ Alan White, Drummer ~

Intricate music? Kinda different? The only semblance of ‘great intricate music’ is heard on track 5 Fly From Here Part IV - Bumpy Ride. And their 13 full step ascension from timeline 1:04 through 1:17 is supposed to kiss it and make it all better? To be passed off as intricate and progressive?

An erroneous title of song from misled descriptions and deluded sentiments.

To experience a true ‘bumpy ride’ you only have to push PLAY on track two of Relayer (circa, 1973). Sound Chaser. It boggles the mind that a Tolkien-esque epic like that was performed and recorded 38 years ago by mere mortals. Even today it sounds like the aliens have landed. And Steve Howe was, in a word, supreme!

In progressive rock recordings segue is employed for that seamless transition between one song and another. A good example of this is heard in The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s album and how the gentle guitar tinker of George Harrison’s semi hollowed out Epiphone forms the segue from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band into With A Little Help From My Friends.

The transitions employed in Fly From Here aren’t so much segues as they are poor fade-ins and fade-outs. Weakly arranged and flatly engineered save for a flange fade-in inserted in the master track at the start of Bumpy Ride for about 5 seconds. Possibly added on for color.

When one has gone on voyages with segue-kings the likes of Dream Theatre, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Rick Wakeman's Journey To The Center Of The Earth, to name a few, it becomes claustrophobically difficult to let this one ride. More often than not the responsibility of a mix always falls on, well … the mixing engineer. And even in this case, it should, but for all intents and purposes, I’ll put this one on producer, Trevor Horn for his sheer lack of initiative to pushing the technical and compositional boundaries.

And through all their technical antics Chris Squier laughs to see such fun knowing well, his Rickenbacker bass is grounded as always.

Technical Inertia is what Fly From Here needs to be reissued as.

Solitaire

Track 10 might just as well come off a Steve Howe solo album. Solitaire is a strange jewel. A misfit. Almost a misfit as in Mood For A Day (Fragile - circa, 1972). But given the psychedelic climate of the time Mood For A Day came off as fresh, exciting … even considered ‘groovy’ that one of the members of a progrock band could pull off a flamenco/classical piece.

Solitaire doesn’t even come close to the sombre pieces of the 70s. It is a contrived and self indulgent instrumental which sounds like a fairly good guitar student practising in the wee hours of the night. It lacks musical finesse, flair and compositional excitement. And given the ‘ascended master’ title attached to Steve Howe surely it must come off as a bit of an embarrassment. Then again, I seriously doubt it. Solitaire was thrown in as an album filler, a segue into break time for the rest of the boys in a live setting.

Trough of Disillusionment

Fly From Here marries shades of Pink Floyd and musical maneuvers of 90s progrock band Porcupine Tree.

Not necessarily a negative chemistry, but should a British progrock powerhouse, YES, after having laid out an irreproducible template and having carved an exclusive niche market for themselves inadvertently take two steps back only to sound like a Yes tribute band?

The absence of the Anderson/Rabin collaboration resonates in the dryness of drums, absence of vocal urgency, outmoded keyboard layering and clumsy flurry of old Howe notes, “Just one more time, same thing … just for timing.” Trevor Horn quips, while being weighed down in the couch by a sizable beer belly.

The diehards feel the restraining order on the artistic license granted them decades ago for their rich tapestry. They have gone through the ‘trigger’ phase of the product launch and graduated to the frenzied expectations stage. The diehards now sit in this trough totally disillusioned. A 'worse off' deal than Drama had offered. 'Worse off' only because of the shock they were put through and the commotion that ensued from Anderson's first departure back then. And Drama wasn’t even bad. If I can still be softly chanting “I am a camera … camera, camera … “ it must have come with the promise of the slope of enlightenment.

Fly From Here now settles in the trough of disillusionment. The slope of enlightenment is a long way off, if not, completely out of view. As for the plateau of productivity, well, this product isn't about to complete the 5 stages of the hype cycle.

28 years on, 90125 (circa, 1983) and Big Generator (circa, 1987) still packs voluminous heat from their metallurgical furnace. Push to PLAY and the inevitable requirement to suit up from their solar flares is felt. In the advent of the technological assault where updates and upgrades are already obsolete by the time Jobs announces them on the center stage, there is the inherent expectation, even a demand, of Yes’s latest offering to stand above their previous models with a numerical suffix, 10.0.

Is this a very lengthy album review? Actually, it’s a bloody complaint!

Grim

(Does Grim come off as one of those trolls, arsewipes and pratts who have achieved nothing but a decline in ratings by knocking the great progrock overlords' latest offering?

Well, yes he does. So there!

At least he's not kissing their bloody arses! 'Give credit where it’s due', Grim always says!

Oh, but take 'eart boys. Consider this a compliment! Yes, you 'eard him.

A constructive breakdown if you will.

After all Grim does possess the entire YES collection. Even this little jewel and will continue to purchase anything and everything you boys release in the near or far future. Even as Grim is writing this he eargerly awaits the release of In the Present: Live From Lyon)

Fly From Here

Needless to say the latest offering is a good album. Even if convenient-amnesia isn't able to wipe out 30 years and pick up where they left off on Drama (circa 1980). And to reiterate, it is a giant step back even from Drama. It should never be placed, compared, juxtaposed against or along side their tremendous works of the 1970s.

The harsh truth about Fly From Here and why it fails to deliver compositionally and suffers technically is that, YES, since their last release, Magnification (circa, 2001) have been waiting around 7 to 8 years for something to happen. With Trevor Rabin turning down their offer to tour with them and compounding it with Jon Anderson being hospitalized for severe asthma, all that was left on their plate was Trevor Horn's, Fly From Here which he had given them some 30 years ago to record and of which they had discarded and forgotten about. To make matters worse Anderson has been openly critical of Fly From Here saying,

"The sound is a bit dated and the production isn't as good as I expected. Trevor Rabin has been a good producer but what the hell are you doing?"

Beggars can’t be choosers now. They have nothing left but this little ditty and Benoit David. Truth is stranger than fiction.

So what would a bunch of progrock gods sound like after 43 years?

age + writers block + inertia = Fly From Here

“It’s a hard thing to live up to because there’s no point looking back and saying, ‘let’s be like that’ because that’s gone by.” ~ Steve Howe ~

Fly From Here, should, indeed … fly, from here.

(Afterword: This critique was penned by Grim Preacher, a die-hard dyed-in-the-wool YES person. It was written November 2011 and posted thereafter on the band's Facebook page but understandably, due to the potency of the narrative, the appraisal was deleted from the page and the writer was blocked - Tommy Peters)

Gaddafi's Dinar

2011-11-27T22:35:00.001+08:00

A brilliant caricature depicting the power who lords over his dominion that includes the Muslim world. I am unable to trace the source or the caricaturist. It is intriguing because the All Seeing Eye appears dumbfounded and unable to control the pesky people disconnecting the puppet master from his puppets. One school of thought is that people power is emancipating itself from the clutches of the Global Elite (GE), but the question remains! Is the caricaturist asking us to swallow that Gaddafi himself was amongst the rest of his puppets?

Indeed he was! Over the years Gaddafi, the main African instrument of the Elite, realized the value of his land, strengthened himself from his resources and even up to the months leading to the NATO military intervention, was calling upon African and Muslim nations to create the Gold Dinar, a new currency pegged against their own gold reserves that would rival the Dollar and Euro and that would sell oil exclusively in exchange for the new currency.

Russia Today: May 5th 2011

His hard-money proposal was brilliant but proved deadly for him as it did for Saddam when he announced in 2000 that Iraqi oil would not be traded in Dollars. Incidentally, the Dollar as a reserve currency is based on an agreement made with Saudi Arabia in 1971, the largest oil producer. Technically no other OPEC nation, save Saudi Arabia, is bound by the agreement. The Elite counts on Saudi Arabia to pied piper the OPEC nations.

His Gold Dinar proposition simply pitted the vast gold in their own reserves as the ultimate peg against fiat currencies of the Elite that would unwittingly force Dollar and Euro to match the value of gold in their own vaults.

The Gold Dinar proposal was not the only bone of contention. To the GE, Gaddafi was analogous to a tank coming towards them with a rose stuck on the side mirror and a chocolate box on the bumper. The GE concentrates on the rose and chocolates that do not belong and before they realize it, their guard is down and the Gaddafi tank has arrived. He was trouble and had to be taken out, period.

A cursory look at his untold redeeming points :-

1. He proposed a $400 million African Satellite and promised $300 million for the project. European powers, in particular France, were miffed because they are paid $500 million a year in rent for satellite services that Europe provides Africa.

2. African Monetary Fund - Gaddafi proposed no borrowing from the West for African countries. The AMF planned its own currency for Africa backed by the Gold Dinar standard, interest free. Incidentally, Libya alone had $300 billion in gold reserves and sits on Africa's largest oil and natural gas reserves. In essence, he planned to free the entire African continent from the clutches of GE and Western imperialism.

3. The $70 trillion Blue Gold, Libya priceless water basins. In Libya there are four major underground basins, the Kufra, the Sirte, the Morzuk and the Hamada basin. The first three of which contain combined reserves of 35,000 cubic kilometres of water. These vast reserves offer almost unlimited amounts of water for the Libyan people. In the 1960s during oil exploration deep in the southern Libyan desert, vast reservoirs of high quality water were discovered in the form of aquifers. Gaddafi started construction for Phase I of the $25 billion Great Man-Made River Project (GMR) in 1984.

The GMR is a network of pipes that supplies water from the Sahara Desert in Libya and from the Nubian Sandstone fossil aquifer. It is the world's largest irrigation project. Before the NATO intervention, three phases were finished by the Libyan administration.

The GMR carries more than five million cubic metres of water per day across the desert to coastal areas, vastly increasing the amount of arable land. The cost of one cubic meter of water equals US 35 cents compared to a cubic meter of desalinized water at US $3.75. Scientists estimate the amount of water to be equivalent to the flow of 200 years of water in the Nile River.

4. There is no electricity bill in Libya. Electricity is free for all its citizens.

5. There is no interest on loans. Banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.

6. Owning a home is considered a citizen's right in Libya. Gaddafi vowed that his parents would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a home. Gaddafi’s father died while he, his wife and his mother were still living in a tent.

7. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$ 50,000 ) by the government to buy their first apartment to help start a family.

8. Education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans were literate. As it stands, the figure is 83%.

9. Should Libyans want to take up farming career, they would receive farming land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and livestock to kick- start their farms – all for free.

10. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need in Libya, the government funds them to go abroad for it – not only free but they get US $2, 300 a month in accommodation and car allowance.

11. If a citizen buys a car, the government subsidizes 50% of the price.

12. The price of petrol in Libya is $0. 14 per liter.

13. Libya has no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion – now frozen globally.

14. If a citizen is unable to get employment after graduation the state would pay the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until employment is found.

15. A portion of Libyan oil sale is credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.

16. A mother who gives birth to a child receive US $5,000

17. 25% of Libyans have university degrees; and lastly

18. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $ 0.15

(Afterword:

2011-11-23T08:07:00.001+08:00

Belief is an impetus for action. Say you believe your home is about to be burgled. The perception of such certainty would have you keeping vigil for intruders for as long as the conviction holds. It underscores that belief is an impetus for action, but sometimes it becomes stimuli for detrimental ones.

In Christianity, the term 'Rapture' is evolving into a euphemism for conviction; a harmless conviction, nevertheless. It is not a biblical word but whenever the term erupts, non-adherents roll their eyes and entertain themselves to a plethora of evangelists who go about embellishing biblical prophecies as fact, but the point is, predicting the second coming or 'rapture' of Christ has spawned an industry that is harmless, if not entertaining. At worst, you have a coterie of placard-wielding die-hards holding up traffic, lest a deluge of printed pamphlets littering township and neighborhood is preferred.

In Shiite dogma, the spectre of an Imam’s 'return' is sinister. The impending 'resurrection' of the Twelfth Imam, commonly known as The Mahdi, is a clutch in the Shia psyche that dribbles towards a conclusion so bizarre that it is worrisome for non-believers.

Twelvers, as they are commonly known, comprise the majority of Shiites. They believe that twelve particular imams are in a perpetual state of divinity. The twelfth was a child in the 9th century when he disappeared while attending the funeral of the eleventh. One school of thought says the adolescent vanished into a well in Iran, from where he will eventually emerge. The other school proclaims he ascended into a suspended state, not unlike a html widget in ascii code, where he remains until certain conditions are 'fulfilled' for his return to Earth.

No belief system outside Islam would have a truck with the child Imam or the eleven reverends before him, but when such conditions comes with a dastardly caveat, they would have.

Words - Tommy Peters ...... Post under construction ......

Foreword:- The post below relates to the video and is written by Ryan Mauro, the founder of WorldThreats.com, the national security adviser for the Christian Action Network. Mauro is an analyst with Wikistrat and a frequent contributor to Fox News. It was published on FrontPage in March 2011 and is used without permission.

The Iranian government has produced a bone-chilling documentary that claims that Ayatollah Khamenei, President Ahmadinejad, and Hassan Nasrallah are talked about in Islamic prophecy as leaders who will wage war to bring about the arrival of the Hidden Imam, which the film says is “very close” to happening.

Reza Kahlili, a former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who spied for the CIA and authored A Time to Betray last year, procured the entire film and says it was created by close associates of Ahmadinejad and was shown to top clerics two weeks ago. His chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, is said to have played a role in its creation. Kahlili allowed FrontPage to view a shortened version of the film over the weekend, which he says the Iranian regime intends to distribute to mosques and Islamic centers throughout the region with an Arabic translation and is currently being shown to members of the Revolutionary Guards and Basiji.

The purpose of the film is to make the case that Iran is prophetically destined to lead the war against Islam’s enemies, which is as a prelude to the appearance of the Hidden Imam, also called the Mahdi, who brings the final victory for Islam and reigns over the whole world. It uses current events to argue that “the final chapter has begun” and the Mahdi’s arrival is imminent. Most disturbingly, it teaches that Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah are the individuals prophesied to make this happen.

The documentary claims that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is the Seyed Khorasani talked about in the Hadith that leads a nation in the East (Iran) as “the preparer” for the Mahdi’s intervention. In July 2010, a senior Iranian cleric revealed that Khamenei had told close associates that he had privately met with the Mahdi and was told that he’d arrive before his time as Supreme Leader ends. Khamenei is 71 years old and widely understood to be in poor health, so the grand jihad that Khamenei believes he must command must come soon.

President Ahmadinejad is an End Times character named Shoeib-Ebne Saleh, the film states. He is appointed as the commander-in-chief by Seyed Khorasani (Ayatollah Khamenei). The speaker in the film says that this individual will “move” 72 months prior to the arrival of the Mahdi and will lead the recapturing of Jerusalem on “the threshold of the Coming.” It is unclear if “move” means a physical action by Ahmadinejad or if it means his coming to power in 2005. If it is the latter, then the regime believes the Mahdi is to appear by the end of this year.

Also mentioned is military commander called Yamani, who is to form the army of the Mahdi that will march to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The film teaches that this is the leader of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. These three prophesied Islamic leaders are to wage a war against the “Antichrist” and “the imposters,” which are said to be the United States, Israel and their allies, including Arab leaders. The current uprisings in the Arab world are viewed as the fulfillment of prophecy and confirmation that they are to wage this final war against the enemies of Islam.

The film states that the invasion of Iraq was foretold, as Imam Ali said that “they [the enemies of Islam] will conquer Iraq and through bloodshed create divisions in tribes” and “at that time, be ready for the reappearance of the last messiah, Imam Mahdi.” The Iranian-backed Houthi rebellion in Yemen is referred to as a “holy revolution” and the removal of Egyptian President Mubarak are also End Times events.

It also preaches that the death of Saudi King Abdullah will be a major sign that the destruction of Israel and arrival of the Mahdi are imminent. The film almost immediately states, “Whoever guarantees the death of King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, I will guarantee the imminent reappearance of the Mahdi,” a not-so-subtle call for his assassination. The film later refers to his “uncertain condition,” as he is ill and 86 years old and his demise is not far off. Once it happens, it will be seen as a green light by the Iranian regime.

The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood is addressed as being “in accordance with the Hadith.” The Brotherhood may be Sunni, but this film states that Iran is theologically-required to ally with it. The ties between Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood are not the result of converging interests but of religious commandment. The film says that according to Islamic prophecy, revolutions will happen in the Arab world that rid it of foreign influence and result in a united front to “reconquer Palestine.” As stated, it is taught that Ahmadinejad will accomplish this. If the film reflects the private views of the Iranian leadership, then it is clear the regime believes it is now on the precipice of leading a coalition to destroy Israel.

Iran’s support of terrorism and pursuit of nuclear weapons must be viewed in this context. Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, widely believed to be a close spiritual guide to Ahmadinejad, has written of the need to make “special weapons” of the kind only a few countries possess, a likely reference to nuclear weapons. In February 2006, a follower of Mesbah-Yazdi that is a cleric in Qom said that “for the first time…the use of nuclear weapons may not constitute a problem, according to Sharia” and it is “only natural” for Iran to acquire them. In October 2010, the website belonging to the Ministry of Intelligence and Security published an article by an advisor to the Defense Minister that said Iran must be prepared for nuclear war. “[I]f the United States launches an unconventional attack, Iran needs to respond with a nuclear strategy,” it said.

Luckily, a top seminary in Qom rejected the comparison of Ahmadinejad to Shoeib-Ebne Saleh after a clip of the documentary was aired on Islamic Republic of Iran Voice and Vision. However, the religious beliefs of the Iranian regime are not contingent upon popular approval, and Reza Kahlili told FrontPage that a portion of the complete video is devoted to showing clerical support for its message.

“For about 10 minutes, the video lists the names of clerics, including very influential ones like Ayatollah Haeri Shirazi and former Revolutionary Guards chief commander Seyed Yahya Safavi, who affirm their belief that Khamenei is Seyed Khorasani. This isn’t propaganda, the regime really believes it,” Kahlili said.

The documentary produced by the Iranian government confirms that it believes a final grand war against Islam’s enemies, which will culminate in the destruction of Israel, is not something to be avoided, but something to be sought. Recent events are being interpreted by the Iranian regime as prophetic fulfillments confirming that this war is near and its duty is to lead it. This is not a belief system that the West can accommodate.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners - Tommy Peters)

Three Churches in the Allah issue

2011-11-19T18:51:00.001+08:00

In the Allah issue, three churches are jostling for pole position in Malaysia.

The Christian church graduated in splitting-hairs and is all gung-ho about vocabulary oppression nothwitstanding that challenging the extreme physical persecution of the founder even, is forbidden by his doctrine, not to mention by the founder himself. While his tenacity and industry are admirable traits, with agonizing fervor, he lays claim to an Arabic word quite alien to him, when a Malay synonym is traditionally available.

The Muslim church does not know what the fuss is all about. Naturally, he is miffed at the attempt to appropriate what he perceives to be well within his domain. He is peeved, not because defining god by vocabulary is relevant to him in form before function, but because the expression has been traditionally applied as a device in worshipping his 'divine'.

The third church is the Atheist, perceived by the other two as a hedonist without a 'god'. The Atheist is laughing at the two dogmas but he is inclined to the position of the Muslim church, not because the Christian church had usurped without permission, his own job description of spiltting-hairs, but because its position merely robs him of Vocabulary, not Soul.

In essence, when an atheist contends a Christian, he attributes his position to logic while he paints his theist contender with psychology. The religionist becomes trapped in the realm of belief not knowing that he is bilingual, armed with one language in the public sphere (when he renders unto Caesar) and another in the private (when he renders unto God) but when the freethinker contends a Muslim he utterly destroys him simply because the dogma-driven debater is obliged to announce his position with one language in the public and private domain and often finds himself doing so from within a self-made hamster’s cartwheel.

Words - Tommy Peters

2011-11-17T20:42:00.001+08:00

Siberia, November 15th 2011:- A dialogue between a hysterical school principal and a calm, tech-savvy 15-year old, who surreptiously made the recording, represents a generation gap where the old fascist reigns, not necessarily in that part of the world, that symbolizes ignorance in assuming that knowledge is and will always be the monopoly of politicians in higher echelons.

November 16th 2011, GlobalVoices:- A scandal caused by a hidden camera recording at a school in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia has highlighted a serious problem in Russian schools: teachers campaigning for the ruling party, United Russia. Underpaid and dependent on government funding, teachers are one of the pillars of the current political system. Local and regional elections often take place in school buildings, and the electoral committees in Russia often consist mainly of teachers. Whether it's from fear of losing funding, or belief in United Russia's promises, this often leads to illegal electioneering in schools.

One brave student takes on the authorities.

On 15 November, 2011, 15-year-old Matvey Tsivinyuk, uploaded a video of himself being scolded by his school principal, Alexandra Pronina, at Krasnoyarsk Gymnazium number 3 (the website went offline after massive interest from bloggers).

Tsivinyuk had been caught defacing political posters that were hanging in the school hallways. The posters with a Russian tricolor flag in the background bore portraits of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and two local politicians.

Before meeting the principal, Tsivinyuk turned on the video recorder in his smartphone. The dialogue captured by the device has been widely cited as evidence of unlawful actions from school authorities, and also lends a narrative to explain the support for the current political regime. Later that day, Tsivinyuk removed the video from his own profile but bloggers have not let the video disappear:

Here is a translation of what is said:

Principal: Do you know what this means for you?

Tsivinyuk: It means nothing to me because, according to the point 5 of the article 9 of the Law on Political parties... [Matvey correctly cites the law that forbids interference of the political process in education]

Principal: Enough, enough, Matvey. There's no article number 9, number 10, they [the police] will write that you damaged the poster. […] Does your family have lots of money to pay for the fine for the damage?

Tsivinyuk: A fine for the piece of paper?

Principal [screaming]: For the hooliganism! You understand it's not just a paper, it's a political poster!

Tsivinyuk: It can't be in school. Because the activity of political parties on the territory of schools is forbidden.

Principal: You understand, it's not campaigning.

Tsivinyuk: So what is it then?

Principal: It is not campaigning. People put it there so that everyone could read the biographies [of Medvedev, Putin, and local politicians]. From now on I forbid you to do anything to these posters. You've spoiled several posters. If you will spoil more, I will call the police.

Tsivinyuk: And what will they do to me?

Principal: I don't know. […] But I have warned you. […]

Then the principal compared Tsivinyuk to Lenin and reminded him of Lenin's expulsion from his school and the university. After a digression about Tsivinyuk's religious beliefs (he's an Orthodox Christian) the Principal exclaimed:

Principal: How can a Christian person perform such non-Christian actions? [speaking of defacing a political poster]

Tsivinyuk: Political views and religious views are different spheres of life.

Principal [screaming]: If you don't understand this, let's meet with your leader [of the Orthodox Christian group Tsivinyuk belongs to]

Tsivinuyk: He has nothing to do with this.

Principal [screaming]: How is that? For example, I think that no one is teaching you this in school. No one teaches you in school how to do such nasty things, to write bad things on posters. Where and who teaches you then? Where did you get this into your head? We should find the place where you were taught this. […] Once again, the minimum is a fine.

Tsivinyuk: For what?

Principal: You still don't understand?

Tsivinyuk: Well, tell me the article number of the administrative code I have violated.

The principal did not explain to Tsivinyuk why the defacement of illegally hung political posters would be cause for administrative or police charges. The case may have never reached the public had it not been for Moscow blogger and journalist Vladimir Varfolomeev who published [ru] the story in his blog (the post attracted more than 2,000 comments). Siberian and federal websites quickly re-published the story.

Vice-Governor of Krasnoyarsk, Sergey Ponomarenko, said [ru] that Tsivinyuk's actions were “mean” and this attracted critical comments from bloggers who said United Russia and Ponomarenko himself were the “mean” ones.

By the end of the day, Tsivinyuk removed his video (there is no information regarding what pressure was put on him). On his Vkontakte page (Russian equivalent to Facebook) he wrote [ru]: I haven't given up, but I'm not in to politics anymore. I hope you get me right, don't get into this crap, think of the future, take care of your friends.

There have been many incidents of this nature leading up to the Russian election in March 2012. Kartanarusheniy.ru [ru], a website that crowd-sources reports of electoral fraud, currently lists 737 cases of “Authorities creating preferential conditions [for candidates]”. And last year, a video [ru] on YouTube showed teachers in one school giving first-graders gifts while talking about how great United Russia is.

The dialogue between the hysterical principal versus the calm, tech-savvy Tsivinyuk who knows the law, represents a huge generational gap, and a hope that the obscurity and ignorance (for instance assuming that all knowledge comes from school) can be exposed and defeated.

Update: Vladimir Varfolomeev reports that Tsivinyuk's mother was called to the police. The police so far have not explained the reason for the call.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners - Tommy Peters)

Conjecture vs Fact • Klang Valley MRT

2011-11-17T15:20:00.001+08:00

There is a distinct fissure between one who is intellectually dishonest and one who is oblivious. To turn a phrase with undiscerning mathematical vocabulary, you face a toss between a liar and the ill-advised. Say, if you disagree that 5+1+8 amounts to 14, then the crevice between the storyteller and the unwise becomes apparent.

I deal with data and subscribe to the data-information-knowledge construct. Conversely, a reasoned opinion precedes the accrual of knowledge, information and data on any given issue. Data is the basement of the construct, thus conscious deliberation in the realm of conjecture and supposition enhances the job description of the storyteller.

An example of conjecture:-

Datuk Ahmad Maslan, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, was quoted to have said that the Klang Valley has less than 2 kilometers of rail per million residents. He parlayed the number to justify construction of the Klang Valley MRT. Pemandu (The Performance, Management and Delivery unit) compounded the Minister’s supposition when it offered a figure of 15 kilometers per million residents. Neither party offered data or statistics to support their position; hence, there is no issue to discern because conjecture and suppositions are consciously not deliberated upon.

Fact:-

A mathematical calculation of the total kilometer of rail in the Klang Valley is 224.6km. This figure is derived from the lengths of all individual rail networks lines comprising:-

Kelana Jaya Line – 29km

Ampang Line – 27km

KTM Komuter Sentul – Port Klang – 43 km

KTM Komuter Batu Caves – Sentul – 7 km

KTM Komuter Sungai Buloh – Kajang – 53 km

Monorail – 8.6km

ERL – 57km

The population of the Klang Valley at 6 million, puts the km of rail per million population closer to 37. Incidentally, the Klang Valley is on par with Hong Kong and Singapore which are about 40 kilometers of rail per million, respectively.

Apparently, what is needed in the Klang Valley is not more kilometers of rail, but better interconnectivity between the various rail networks, say between the Monorail and the railway hub at Sentral, not to mention the stretch between the Komuter Station at Mid Valley and the Abdullah Hukum LRT Station.

It is hoped that the authorities take a linear progression with the data, information construct to flesh out reasoned opinions on any given issue and while they are at it, they may want to avoid conjecture and suppositions to justify the Klang Valley MRT project, lest the crevice between the storyteller and the unwise becomes apparent.

Nice! - Tommy Peters

The Carpenter's Laboratory

2011-11-17T12:43:00.000+08:00

Carpenter holds passion for his art. He manufactures a cupboard for a friend and a usual trade sequence escapes attention, almost. There is no bill to the beneficiary. Incidentally, his occasional altruism is featured in other examples which his friend is aware of. Carpenter is aware that his position reduces his own strength while increasing the vigor of the one he aids. He is programmed to expect no reciprocation, not because recipients of his aid are not inclined to wood-working, but because they are specimens in his laboratory.

Carpenter has another passion. He observes the plethora of responses his specimens manifest in maligning the benefit they receive.

Some of the gems, carpenter has observed:-

“You know, the reason he is passionate about carpentry is because he is an egoist that pursues self-interest. The other day, he offered build a teak cabinet for me without charge and I accepted. I guess, wood-working simply makes him happy.”

“Why doesn’t he charge? I think he feels fulfilled when he works with wood, but then again, he must be using stolen timber, but in any case, what do I have to lose. I get my cupboards built free of charge, yeah!”

“He wants the opportunity to help himself to my jewellery. I have lots of trinkets lying about. Who knows if he had helped himself to some”

January 19th 2012: Sometime last year carpenter repaired a box for a lady friend that needed nails which he supplied without informing or charging the person. Carpenter then inducted her into the laboratory, not because she was ungrateful when she denounced the nails without which the box would falter, but because Martha C. Stout (in her book The Psychopath Next Door) recognized her guilt.

Last month this person asked me to help her with another box for which I asked her to supply the nails required to do the work. Carpenter was obliged to lock her in his laboratory for a full evaluation, not because she ranted that I was not prepared to help with the second box, but because Stout recognized the debri of her guilt from the previous encounter.

Words – Tommy Peters

Infusion, not Legislation

2011-11-17T08:11:00.001+08:00

If someone says Malaysia will not be Islamic by legislation, I would pay attention. A nation becomes Islamic not by decree but when infusion of the Islamic doctrine is acheived.

On one hand, infusion began in 1969 when Tunku Abdul Rahman was appointed the first Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference. It then progressed to the Cairo Declaration, a pact ratified by the OIC in 1990 and grew wings two years later when the 'Shar'iah' amendment to the Federal Constitution was introduced. A decade later, it germinated into a full-blown 'butterfly', when the Prime Minister assumed the Chair of the OIC. Incidentally at that point, he arbitrarily declared Malaysia ‘Islamic’.

On the other hand, 20,000 Malaysians are being schooled in the Middle East in the nuances of Wahhabism, at any one time. A sneak preview was offered during the Arab Spring when statistics unwittingly spilled out. 11,000 students were stranded in Egypt and 5000 in Libya. In our midst, is a generation of Malaysians who subscribe to Wahhabism, period. They are entrenched in public and private sectors and are part of a pincer movement from that part of the world. this movement is replacing Sufism as quoted by former Grand Mufti of Egypt Masr Farid Wasel who said that education, finance and media, ensures that Wahhabism envelops this (the Asian) part the world. Incidentally, Wasel heads Reform Rights Authority, an NGO comprising scholars of Egypt's Al-Azhar university. He is quoted to have said that "the objective of the Reform Rights Authority is to support the right candidates in the upcoming (November 2011) elections and that those who are against the Islamists rising to power in Egypt are infidels who do not believe in God.’

To underscore the Wahhabi influence, Malaysia hosted the 3rd World Al-Azhar Alumni Conference in 2008. A sizable and proud alumnus in Malaysia was in attendance.

Post under construction ….

Words - Tommy Peters

Fear drives the Criminal Shout

2011-11-16T13:51:00.001+08:00

Screaming the opening declaration of the Islamic prayer does not support the view that the dregs are flattering their god but instead the negative effect that emanates from the guilt of their Criminal Shout, ironically through the very declaration they pronounce, not only suggests a banality in the dribble but a primordial Fear within, that the imbeciles they have become are scheduled for some extreme punishment for performing their dastardly deed in his name. Fear, rather praise, drives the Criminal Shout.

Words - Tommy Peters

Foreword: The post reposted below is from Associated Press, November 2011:- It looks at the fate of key members of ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's family:

Killed: Muammar Gaddafi: Libya's leader of nearly 42 years was captured by revolutionary forces in his hometown of Sirte. Libyan officials initially said Gaddafi was killed in crossfire between revolutionary fighters and loyalists. However, video footage emerged showing him being beaten, taunted and abused by his captors, raising questions about how and when he died. His body was later put on public display in the nearby city of Misrata until he was buried in a secret location.

Killed: Muatassim Gaddafi: Formerly the regime's national security adviser, Muatassim was shot to death after he was found hiding with his father in Sirte. His body also was put on display alongside Muammar Gaddafi and ex-defense minister Abu Bakr Younis. A former bodyguard has said Gaddafi and his son traveled to Sirte shortly after fleeing Tripoli when the Libyan capital fell to revolutionary forces. Mansour Dao said Muatassim led loyalist fighters in the besieged city.

Killed: Khamis Gaddafi: The former commander of one of the regime's strongest military brigades, Gaddafi's son Khamis was reportedly killed in a clash in August.

Military officials have said they believe he was buried in Bani Walid, which was one of the last cities to fall to revolutionary control. He was pursuing an MBA in Spain when he was expelled for his role in attacks on Libyan protesters in the months leading up to Gaddafi's ouster.

Killed: Seif al-Arab Gaddafi: Seif al-Arab was reported to be 29 when Libyan authorities said Gaddafi's son and three of the leader's grandchildren were killed in an April 30 Nato airstrike in Tripoli. He was a businessman who lived for some time in Germany, where he was investigated but never charged in an illegal weapons possession case.

Captured: Seif al-Islam Gaddafi: Gaddafi's second eldest son and the first by his marriage to second wife Safiya, Seif al-Islam was captured by revolutionary forces deep in Libya's southern desert. The British-educated 39-year-old was taken to the mountain city of Zintan where authorities promised he would be treated humanely. The Netherlands-based international criminal court has charged him with crimes against humanity and discussions were under way over where he should face trial.

Fled: Hannibal Gaddafi: Gaddafi's son Hannibal was briefly arrested in 2008 for allegedly beating up two servants in a Geneva luxury hotel, sparking a diplomatic spat that dragged on for months. In 2005, a French court convicted Hannibal of striking a pregnant companion in a Paris hotel. He was given a four-month suspended prison sentence and a small fine. He fled to Algeria after Tripoli fell with his mother and several other relatives.

Fled: Al-Saadi Gaddafi: Known for his love of professional soccer, Gaddafi's son al-Saadi reportedly had a colorful past that included run-ins with police in Europe, drug and alcohol abuse. A man identifying himself as al-Saadi said he was ready to negotiate with the rebels to stop the bloodshed as fighting raged despite the fall of Tripoli. His conciliatory tone contrasted with a defiant statement attributed to Seif al-Islam on the same day. Al-Saadi fled to Niger in September, and the government there gave him refugee status.

Fled: Mohammed Gaddafi: In his early 40s, Mohammed is the only child of Gaddafi and his first wife, Fatiha. He was Libya's Olympic chief and was involved in the country's telecommunications industry. The rebels reported capturing him after they moved into Tripoli, and soon after said he had escaped from house arrest. He married in 2000. He was among Gaddafi's children who fled to Algeria.

Fled: Aisha Gaddafi: A lawyer in her mid-30s, Aisha helped in the defense of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's toppled dictator, in the trial that led to his hanging. During a 2000 visit to London, Aisha delivered an impromptu speech praising the Irish Republican Army at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. Gaddafi's daughter had been a goodwill ambassador for the UN Development Program, but the UN ended its agreement with her as Gaddafi cracked down on anti-government protesters. She gave birth on the border as the family members fled to Algeria.

Fled: Safiya Gaddafi: Safiya was a teenage nursing student when she met Gaddafi soon after he took power in 1969. He ended up divorcing his first wife and marrying her. The couple had six sons and one daughter together and adopted two more children. She was among the group that fled to Algeria.

Unconfirmed: Hana Gaddafi: One of Gaddafi's adopted children, the Libyan leader claimed she died as an infant in the 1986 US airstrike that hit his Tripoli compound, Bab al-Aziziya. The airstrike was in retaliation for the Libyan-sponsored bombing of a Berlin nightclub earlier that year that killed two US servicemen. At the time, Gaddafi showed American journalists a picture of a dead baby he said was Hana. But Libyan rebels who took over Bab al-Aziziya found a room in Gaddafi's home with Hana's birth certificate and pictures of a young woman with the name Hana written on the back, possible indications that she lived well beyond infancy. Tripoli hospital officials also say Hana worked as a surgeon. Her whereabouts is unknown.

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners - Tommy Peters)

Tommy Peters' Bicycles

Jar of Hearts • 4

Jar of Hearts • 3

Jar of Hearts • 2

Jar of Hearts • 1

Chickenfoot III (Official Videos)

A Case for Judaism • Dennis Prager • ©2008 92Y

Ken Spiro • 8 hand-picked lectures • II

Ken Spiro • 8 hand-picked lectures • I

Jewish Impact on the World • Ken Spiro

Ask Sam Harris Anything • Hours 1 and 2

Sam Harris • Christianity, a cult of Sacrifice • 2011

Sam Harris • The End of Faith • 2005

JIMI HENDRIX • The Uncut Story • ©2004 Passport Intl. Productions

JIMI HENDRIX • Sep 11 1970 • Final Interview

OPEN • Jon Anderson • a Grim appraisal

Exchange Stabilization Fund, explained • Eric deCarbonnel

Fly From Here • YES • a Grim appraisal

Gaddafi's Dinar

Return of the 12th Imam • ©2011 Iran

Three Churches in the Allah issue

United Russia • Lenin's Doctrine • ©2011 Tsivinyuk

Conjecture vs Fact • Klang Valley MRT

The Carpenter's Laboratory

Infusion, not Legislation

Fear drives the Criminal Shout