The Excavator

Rudolf Steiner On Plato, Mathematics, Seekers of Knowledge, And The Truth

2013-05-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

Rudolf Steiner On Cultivating The Higher Organs.

Rudolf Steiner On Ancient Indian Vedanta Wisdom.

Below is an excerpt from Rudolf Steiner's book, "Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos." 1994. Anthroposophic Press: Hudson, New York. Pg. 187 - 189.

"Plato required those applying to his school to take a course in mathematics first. Since the strict laws of mathematics are not subject to the ordinary course of sensory phenomena, they make a very good preparation for seekers of knowledge, who must put aside personal arbitrariness and distractions if they wish to make progress in mathematics. Voluntarily overcoming all uncontrolled and arbitrary thinking prepares them for the task ahead. They learn to respond to only the requirements of thinking itself, since that is how they must proceed in all thought activity that serves spiritual knowledge. Their thinking must replicate the undisturbed results and conclusions of mathematics. Wherever they go, wherever they may be, they must always attempt to think in this way. Then the laws of the spiritual world, laws that pass through without a trace when thinking is of the everyday confused variety, can flow into them. Well-ordered thinking leads them from secure starting points to the most hidden truths. (These suggestions should not be taken one-sidedly, however---although mathematics is good practice and discipline for our thinking, it is certainly possible to learn pure, healthy and vital thinking without it.)

Seekers of knowledge must have the same goals for their actions as they have for their thinking---that is, their actions must not be disrupted by their personality, but must be able to obey the laws of eternal beauty and truth, accepting the direction these laws provide. Knowledge seekers who have begun something they recognize as right may not give up simply because what they are doing is not emotionally satisfying. On the other hand, they may not continue with something just because they enjoy it if they discover that it does not conform to the laws of eternal beauty and truth. In everyday life, people let their actions be determined by what is personally satisfying or fruitful; they impose the direction of their own personality on the course of world events. They are doing nothing to bring about the truth laid out in the laws of the spiritual world; they are simply fulfilling their own arbitrary demands. We are acting in harmony with the spiritual world only when its laws are the only ones we obey. Actions proceeding only from our own personality supply no forces that could form a basis for spiritual knowledge.

Seekers of knowledge cannot consider only what will yield fruit or lead to success for themselves; they must also consider what they have recognized as good. They must willingly submit to the strict law that requires them to renounce all personal arbitrariness and all fruits their actions may have for their own personality. Then they are walking the paths of the spiritual world and their whole being is permeated by its laws. They are freed from all sensory constraints; their spirit being lifts free of its sensory trappings. This is how they spiritualize themselves, how they make progress toward the spiritual.

We cannot question whether it does any good to resolve to obey only the laws of truth when in fact we may be mistaken about what is true. Everything depends on our effort and our attitude, and even people who are mistaken but are aspiring to the truth possess a strength that will set them back on the right track. The very objection that we may be mistaken is in itself destructive belief and demonstrates a lack of trust in the power of truth. The point here is that instead of presuming to decide on our goals from our own self-serving point of view, we should submit selflessly to the spirit and allow it to determine our direction for us. Self-serving human volition cannot dictate to the truth. Truth itself must become sovereign in us, filling our whole being and transforming us into a replica of spirit country's eternal laws. We must imbue ourselves with these eternal laws in order to let them flow out into life. As seekers of knowledge, we must have our will as well as our thinking strictly under control. Then, in all humility and without presumption, we become messengers of the world of truth and beauty. We advance to become participants in the spiritual world and are lifted from one level of development to the next. But we cannot achieve living in the spirit merely by being beholders of it---it has to be experienced."

Scientists: "Stop repressing your anger!"

2013-05-22T01:25:00.000-04:00

The Hulk only gets mad at people who invade his space.

Article by Alexander Besant: "Expressing your anger is good for your longevity, says new study: Researchers at the University of Jena in Germany found that getting your anger out and being hot-tempered is actually helpful in extending one's lifespan."

Title: Scientists: "Stop repressing your anger!" YouTube Video Description - [Channel: AutonomistVoice. Uploaded on Feb 15, 2012]:

"Staying positive" while you're surrounded by injustice can kill you.

What America And Iran Have In Common: Only Approved Candidates Are Presented To The Public

2013-05-22T00:03:00.003-04:00

"The decision on Tuesday to bar the presidential candidacy of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a founding father of the revolution and a former president, shocked Iranians, particularly among the 70 percent of the population that is under 35 and grew up when he served in many leading positions." - Thomas Erdbrink, "A Founder of the Revolution Is Barred From Office, Shocking Iranians," The New York Times, May 21, 2013.

America is an oligarchy; Iran is a theocracy.

Actually, it isn't that simple. Iran's system of government has oligarchical elements, and America's leadership is more theological than most people like to think.

The elections in both countries are also very similar. The Guardian Council in Iran approves a list of candidates, but at least it does it publicly so people know who is really in charge. America's equivalent of a Guardian Council is in the shadows, and it operates through transnational oligarchical organizations like the Bilderberg, making it more difficult for well-meaning voters to look behind the curtain and realize that the people's voice doesn't matter at all.

So, which system is better? Neither. America and Iran are both tyrannies wherein the people's opinions are not considered by the elites. The only difference is America is an aggressor and it spreads its tyranny through war and economic means.

Edward Dorn - Wait till the Christians Hear About This

2013-05-21T22:23:00.000-04:00

The IRS should like this poem.

Allying With Jihadists In Syria Is A Surefire Way To Creating Instability For Decades

2013-05-21T21:20:00.001-04:00

Obama and Erdogan say Assad must leave Syria. The civilized world says Al-Qaeda must leave Syria. Source for photo: Charles Dharapak/AP.

Establishing a timeline to determine the origins of Washington's support for the Jihadist terrorists in Syria is difficult because of its covert nature. But, what we do know for certain is that leading neoconservative figures in the Bush administration such as Paul Wolfowitz had their eye on Syria since the end of the first Gulf War in 1991.

General Wesley Clark confirmed Washington's anti-Syria agenda in numerous media interviews and lectures that he gave in the mid to late 2000's.

"Some hard-nosed people took over the direction of American policy and they never bothered to inform the rest of us," said Gen. Clark in October 2007 at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, adding, "This country was taken over by a group of people with a policy coup. They wanted us to destabilize the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control."

A year or so ago, USrael's alliance with Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria was kept off the public radar. It just didn't look good from a public relations perspective. But, with Israel bombing Syria in the last couple of weeks to help out its Jihadist comrades who are in trouble, the narrative is rapidly changing.

It is no longer taboo to praise Al-Qaeda or raise the flag of Jihad in the capitals of Tel Aviv, Washington, Paris, and other European capitals. Jihadists are romanticized by the mainstream media. They are referred to as "rebels" and "revolutionaries." Never mind that all they do is destroy, rape, burn, and pillage.

One of these days an ambitious author will write a novel about the heroics of Al-Qaeda terrorists in their holy war against Assad, and it will probably sell millions. But what about Al-Qaeda's past? Who cares, says Obama. "We must look forward," he said. 9/11 was so yesterday. Three thousand innocent people were killed on 9/11? That's so old news.

The supporters of Al-Qaeda's campaign of terror against Syria in Washington don't dwell on little things like victims of terrorism, whether they be Syrian or American. It's a new day. Now, Al-Qaeda is officially on the side of America and Israel. Islamic radicals are even cheered on by Fox News and company.

What are the consequences of Washington's cold-blooded policy towards Syria? Instability and sectarian conflict for decades. Coincidentally, these are also the aims. Why? Because current American leaders are insane and evil.

It is a mistake to describe them as American because they do not reflect the American character or stand up for American values. I don't know what they are, but what's clear is that they have turned their backs on humanity, peace, law, justice, God, and everything good. They believe that if you can't rule the Middle East then the next best thing to do is to destroy it and ruin it. And this also goes for the majority of European and Gulf Arab leaders, who understand that the political awakening in the Arab world means the end of their dreaded rule.

At least there are some countries left where the leaders are sane and humane, such as Russia. They are not crazy with power. Read this excerpt from the article by Julia Ioffe called, "The Cold War Heats Up in Syria: Why Russia won't allow an intervention":

“Moscow understands that something has to be done because the war has been going on for two years and it has to stop,” he explains. “But if Assad’s opponents win, there will be a bloodbath. Shiites and Alawites will be slaughtered.” Moreover, he adds, echoing the official Russian position, that the successors to Assad will likely be the ones flying the black flag of jihad and sponsoring terrorism outside Syria’s borders. Lukyanov points out that Syria has long been home to those displaced by the upheavals in the Caucasus, which has become a hotbed of terrorism and Islamist insurrection. “Getting rid of a dictatorial but secular regime, and replacing it with an Islamist regime creates yet another support network for the terrorists in our backyard,” Lukyanov explains. Yusin makes a starker analogy. “Assad does not want to target America, but these guys do,” he says. “These are thousands of potential Tsarnaevs, and France and Britain want to arm them!”

The biggest difference between America and Russia at this moment in time is that Russia doesn't want instability near its borders because it is sane and America does want instability near its borders because it is insane.

Funding Jihadist terrorist groups in Syria can at least be explained on a strategic level. But U.S. leaders are also funding Mexican drug cartels in their backyard for the sole purpose of creating instability on the border with Mexico in order to create a greater demand for Homeland Security and other U.S. government agencies. That's why people are saying that U.S. leaders have gone insane. They create instability not just on the other side of the world but even inside their own borders. It's completely crazy. U.S. leaders need therapy or pain medications or something. They are making America crazy along with the rest of world.

Video: Jeremy Scahill Speaks About His Book "Dirty Wars"

2013-05-21T19:07:00.002-04:00

"Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield" By Jeremy Scahill.

YouTube Video Description - [Channel: jeannekyle. Published on May 20, 2013]:

Jeremy Scahill is an author and self-taught journalist. He is the National Security Correspondent for The Nation magazine and has reported from four continents.
Scahill gave a talk in San Diego, California, on 2 May 2013, based on his newest book, Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield.

Jeremy Scahill Part 1: Iraq

Jeremy Scahill Part 2: Yemen

Jeremy Scahill Part 3: Abdulrahman

The Peace Process: Is It A Cynical Enterprise That's Set Up To Crumble?

2013-05-21T17:54:00.000-04:00

Does the peace process lack credibility? Is it a cynical enterprise that is set up to crumble? Do both sides want peace?

No, not the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Turkish-Kurdish one.

Two months ago, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan said that the Kurdish movement for freedom and autonomy in Turkey will leave the battlefield and fully enter the political arena. Ocalan ordered his troops to withdraw from Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Kurdish cities for the celebratory occasion.

The PKK's decision to declare a ceasefire was a historic turning point. But is Turkish Prime Minister Erodgan seriously interested in meeting the demands of the PKK and ending the long and bloody war with the Kurds? There are still many doubts about Erodgan's sincerity to make the peace process work and his ability to deliver on his promises, especially among the high command in the PKK. The Kurdish organization, which has been fighting the Turkish state for nearly three decades, has refused to disarm. Its fighters have begun to enter Northern Iraq.

The timing of the reconciliation between Erodgan's government and the PKK is also very suspicious. Erodgan is locked in an adventurous war of choice with Assad, and neutralizing the PKK in northern Syria would give Turkey greater leeway to put pressure on the Syrian government.

This Turkey-PKK peace deal has to do with the foreign-fueled conflict in Syria more than anything else. So we can be sure that long-term peace was not the main objective for Erdogan's government in its dealings with the PKK. Also, Erdogan didn't suddenly have an epiphany and finally recognized the existence and rights of the Kurds in Turkey. He will not uphold his end of the bargain.

There are so many reasons why this peace deal smells fishy. It's too good to be true. Will it last, or will the war restart? Read the articles below for analysis from a variety of perspectives.

Jonathan Spyer - Behind the Lines: Erdogan’s Kurdish gambit.

Michael Rubin - Turkey-PKK Peace Will Fail.

Dorian Jones - Turkish Peace Initiative with Kurds Meets Resistance.

Isabel Coles - First Kurdish rebels reach Iraq under Turkish peace plan.

Lale Kemal - Turkey’s Military Uneasy Over Peace With PKK.

Related: Light Reading: Articles About The Tentative Turkish-Kurdish Peace Deal.

There Is No Civil War In Syria

2013-05-21T01:17:00.005-04:00

There were no WMDs in Iraq and there is no civil war in Syria. To say that there is a popular revolution taking place against Assad is to turn reality upside down.

Obama and Erdogan both want Assad to step down, but it doesn't matter what they want for Syria's future because political and social reality is going against their wishes.

Obama is not God. The White House can't shape and manipulate the reality in Syria. Saying Assad is a butcher doesn't make it so. Washington has lived in a fantasy world for so long that it doesn't know how to adjust to reality. It is foreign to them. They are like spoiled children who for the first time in their lives can't get what they want.

Washington's machinations and the media's deceptions cannot destroy the reality on the ground. The response of the Syrian people to the war of aggression waged by Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, EU, US, and Israel has been heroic.

This is the response of the Syrian people to the thugs Obama and Erdogan: Welcome to the real world. In the real world, Syria is not in a civil war, it is fighting a foreign-led Jihadist insurgency. Syria is doing what America and Israel won't: defeating Al-Qaeda.

II.

Below is a short article called, "Syria: it’s not a ‘civil war’, it’s an imperialist war," that was published by the blog 'Agent of Change' on May 20:

‘Civil war’ is a totally inaccurate label for what’s going on in Syria. I think we should start calling it what it is: an imperialist war of destabilisation, where the aggressors’ fighting has been outsourced to sectarian religious terrorists. This outsourcing follows the same logic as any other type of outsourcing: it’s cheaper. The political and economic cost of pushing thousands of Iraqi, Libyan and Saudi (etc) terrorists in Syria’s direction is extremely low, at least in the short term. Imagine if it was European and North American soldiers coming home in body bags - there might actually be a viable anti-war movement in the west! And people the world over would know exactly who was to blame for the shameful destruction of a beautiful nation - for the needless deaths of thousands, for the forced migration of hundreds of thousands, for the reversal of decades of progress, for the brutal attack on thousands of years of civilisation.

And of course the ‘civil war’ narrative has another very important function: it contributes to our general prejudice that “these Arabs” (much like “these Africans” and “these Asians”) are inherently barbaric people who simply can’t get along. And it sends out a message that any attempt by a third world nation to follow a path of resistance to imperialism and zionism will inevitably end in murderous in-fighting - for which the civilised, sophisticated, modern imperialist states of course cannot reasonably be blamed.

So to call it a civil war is to take part in a vast deception.

Video: Calling Syria A Civil War Is A Vast Deception - Carlos Voice Over. Morris of '108morris108' reads the article above for his YouTube channel audience.

Rudolf Steiner On Ancient Indian Vedanta Wisdom

2013-05-20T18:59:00.000-04:00

Below is an excerpt from Rudolf Steiner's book, "Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos." 1994. Anthroposophic Press: Hudson, New York. Pg. 135-36.

"This is one of the fundamental ideas of ancient Indian Vedanta wisdom. The sage acquires during earthly life what other people experience only after death, namely the ability to grasp the thought that we ourselves are related to all things, the thought, "that is you." In earthly life this is an ideal that our thinking can aspire to, but in the country of spirit beings it is an immediate fact that becomes ever clearer as we gain spiritual experience. We become ever more aware that, in our essential being, we belong to the spiritual world. We perceive ourselves as spirits among spirits, as organs of the primal spirits. We feel in ourselves their word, "I am the primal spirit," or, in terms of Vedanta wisdom, "I am Brahman," that is, I am part of, an organ of, the primal being from which all beings spring. Thus we see that what we grasp during earthly life as a shadowy idea and the object of all wisdom's aspiration is a matter of direct experience in the spirit world. This idea can be thought during earthly life only because it is an actual fact in spiritual existence."

The Real News - New Film Exposes the Israeli Weapon and Security Industry

2013-05-20T13:38:00.003-04:00

Below: a video about Israel's military-industrial complex. Also, read the article, "How the EU subsidises Israel’s military-industrial complex," by Ben Hayes.

Title: New Film Exposes the Israeli Weapon and Security Industry. Source: The Real News. Description:

Yotam Feldman: the Israeli economy has become dependent on the massive security market. Governments act in hypocrisy when they purchase Israeli arms used against Palestinians, but criticize Israeli violence.

Video From German Documentary: Americans Teaching Iraqis How To Torture

2013-05-20T02:11:00.002-04:00

Below is a clip from what looks like a German documentary about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It shows American soldiers teaching Iraqi officers the dark art of torture.

Remember what Obama said soon after he became president: "We need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards." Imagine an American president saying that at Nuremberg.

My god, how low America has fallen. It went from liberating Europe to teaching Arabs how to torture other Arabs.

Why post this video now? Because we must look backward. Even in the middle of the night.

Obama is wrong. Torture is wrong. America has chosen to be the masters of torture and terror, and taking this destructive path will haunt America and its people for years to come.

But is America alone in this injustice? No. Islam and Israel both have their torturers. None of the main armies that are fighting each other in the Middle East can truly call themselves liberators. America, Israel, and the Islamic Republic of Iran all live and thrive on terror, torture, assassinations, executions, systematic deception, totalitarian propaganda, collective brainwashing, state violence, and oppression.

5 Poems by Edward Dorn

2013-05-20T00:43:00.001-04:00

Title: 5 Poems by Edward Dorn. YouTube Video Description - [Channel: PoemsBeingRead. Uploaded on June 27, 2010]:

Ed Dorn (1929-1999)

Edward Dorn told Effie Mihopoulos in a 1991 interview that "[Poetry is] obsolete...But so what? There are lots of great things that are obsolete. Kerosene lamps are obsolete, but there's no light like it in a cabin in Northern Wisconsin...." (1)

Edward Dorn was born April 2, 1929 in Villa Grove, Illinois. Attending a one-room school house until eighth grade, he was raised during the Depression in a family of itinerant farmers. In 1964 he included poems about his memories of his childhood in his collection Hands Up!

Dorn spent two years at the University of Illinois and then graduated from Black Mountain College in North Carolina. At Black Mountain he became acquainted with Robert Creeley and Charles Olson. His first teaching position was at the University of Idaho in 1961.

In the summer of 1965 Dorn visited Indian reservations in collaborated with photographer Leroy Lucas for a book, The Shoshoneans. He was invited to join the faculty at the University of Essex in England that fall. During the five years he stayed in England, he wrote the first book of Gunslinger.

Robert Duncan said the 5 volume work "Gunslinger" was like an American "Canterbury Tales." Myrna Oliver in the Los Angeles Times says "Gunslinger" involves a diverse cast of characters including a talking horse, who are headed to Las Vegas to confront Howard Hughes whom they view as "hustling the future." This merry band is stoned most of the time and tell nightly tales on their trek.

Stephen King said Dorn's poetry is a "talismans of perfect writing." Along with British poet Eric Mottram, Dorn was a mentor of the group Devo.

Tom Raworth in an obituary of Dorn in The Independent said "Dorn suffered fools not at all, and sloppy thinking not for a moment." In his August 2003 Jacket review of Tom Clark's biography of Edward Dorn, Skip Fox suggests that Dorn was dropped from anthologies because of his outspokenness. He quotes Amiri Barka's "I dug Ed Dorn because he wd rather/ Make you his enemy/ Than Lie."

Always a witness to his time, Dorn considered democracy a responsibility, and included political and social criticism in his work.

Edward Dorn died December 10, 1999 of pancreatic cancer.

Light Reading: Articles About The Tentative Turkish-Kurdish Peace Deal

2013-05-19T21:43:00.001-04:00

"The anti-humanitarian tenor of Western policies towards the Kurds are well rooted in history. Indeed, they are based on long-standing strategic interests in the region. “The Kurds are in several countries and that was planned by Britain”, observes former President of the American Kurdish Society in Boston, Hussein Aktas. “If you have a problem with Iraq, you can use them against Iraq, same for Iran and Turkey.” Thanks to this disasterous condition, historically established by the West, there are “millions of Kurds who have been displaced from their homes since 1993 in Turkey”, and “hundreds of thousands of people have been tortured.”" - Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, "Modern Turkey - A Shining Example of Secular Democracy?"

II. Light Reading: Articles About The Tentative Turkish-Kurdish Peace Deal

Oray Egin - Turkey Kurd Peace: What Lies Beneath Turkey's Peace With Kurdish Rebels? (May 13).

Isabel Coles/Reuters - First Kurdish rebels arrive in Iraq under Turkey peace plan (May 14).

Galip Dalay - Kurdish peace process: The latest phase of de-securitisation politics (May 14).

AlBawaba.com - Kurds Begin Arriving In Iraq, Government Says Relations With Turkey Damaged (May 14).

John Hannah - Erdogan's Great Gamble (May 14).

Wladimir van Wilgenburg - Turkish Ties with Iraq, Iran Worsen Over PKK Peace Plan (May 19).

Noreldin Waisy - With Abdullah Ocalan from Athens to Nairobi: Exclusive interview with former Greek intelligence officer Savvas Kalenteridis (May 6).

III. My Thoughts, For Whatever It's Worth (Not Much, I Know)

Where to begin?

Well, for one thing, Erdogan cannot be trusted, plus he is America's dog in the region so his word means nothing. Siding with America and Erdogan against Syria's Assad may boost the options for peace between Kurds and Turks in the short term but it won't end well for the Kurdish people in the long-term, especially since after America is done wrecking the region it will leave the Kurds to fend for themselves. How do I know this? Because it happened once before in history. And it wasn't that long ago. America betrayed the Kurds once, and it will do so again.

America betrays its allies at will because it has no morals, honour, a long-term vision, or anything except guns and bombs to offer. Being the ally of America is like being the ally of Death. You're better off marrying Lady Death and spending your honeymoon in Hell than forming an alliance with America.

So good luck to America's allies like Israel, but be prepared to be stabbed in the back, along with the Kurds. That's how America treats its friends. And, oh yeah, Turkey will end up getting screwed as well.

There is nothing honourable about that evil regime in Washington. It deserves to crumble to ashes and wither away from this earth.

Richard Tarnas - City Dark: Facing the Shadow of Modernity's Light

2013-05-19T16:21:00.003-04:00

"Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View" by Richard Tarnas.

City Dark: Facing the Shadow of Modernity's Light, Richard Tarnas 11-30-2012. Source: Uploaded by ArchetypalView on December 26, 2012.

The City Dark Trailer (2012)

Turkish TV Reporter/Propagandist Gets Owned By A Truth-Telling Villager

2013-05-19T15:25:00.003-04:00

Somebody wrote in the comment section for the video below, "this needs to happen all over the planet....correct the mouthpieces live on tv!"

Also, remember this? CNN got caught demonizing the Tea Party movement.

Turkish People Protest Against Their Government's Policy Towards Syria

2013-05-19T15:04:00.002-04:00

Now it's about to get interesting.

Cops beat, teargas Turkish protesters angry at govt stance on Syria. Source: RT.

Anti-government anger in Turkey after Syria border bombings. Source: Euronews.

'Neo-Ottomanism driven Turkey does NATO's job, adds fuel to Syrian fire.' Source: RT.

The Plight of Syrian Refugees

2013-05-19T13:10:00.001-04:00

There are Syrian refugees in Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and other countries. There is an estimated 400,000 refugees in Turkey alone. But it is hard to pin down the real number of Syrian refugees because there has been no systematic accounting of people leaving Syria during this crisis.

Also, since belligerent nations like the United States, Saudi Arabia, France, and Turkey that seek to oust Assad have a political interest to increase the number of refugees on paper, official statistics that are reported in the news cannot be trusted.

One last note: Thank you United States of Israhell for all that you do! First you create problems in the Arab world by arming Jihadist terrorist groups to fuel years of warfare in the region, and then you don't do anything about the human costs and consequences of your war-making. Have a nice fall, assholes. And don't let your pet toy, Al-Qaeda, hit you on the way down.

Below are videos about the Syrian refugee crisis:

Title: The Syrian Refugee Crisis In Iraq: Neglected, Underfunded And Escalating. YouTube Description - [Channel: NorwRefugeeCouncil. Published on May 16, 2013]:

Today there are more than 140 000 Syrian refugees in Iraq. Every week, thousands of new refugees cross the border in the search for protection. What's needed?
1: Emergency funding to provide safe water and camp sanitation
2: A realistic plan to house the expanding refugee population
3: Political and technical support to bolster the capacity of host authorities

Title: Race against time in Zaatari refugee camp. YouTube Description - [Channel: NorwRefugeeCouncil. Published on December 21, 2012]:

With temperatures plummeting down to near freezing point at night, it is a race against time to ensure that Syrian refugees in Zaatari camp are prepared for winter. The NRC is insulating tents, distributing thermal blankets and has airlifted 6,000 heaters into Jordan to be distributed in the coming days.

Title: The Plight of the Syrian Refugees. YouTube Video Description - [Channel: Salwa Attiga. Published on January 28, 2013]:

Hi everyone, this is a video that I made to support my 10th grade personal project at school. The objective is to raise awareness about the suffering of Syrian refugees in Jordan and particularly those in Al-Za'atari refugee camp in Mafraq.

Hope you enjoy it...

Title: The suffering of Syrian refugees in Jordan. Uploaded by Medlebanon on March 31, 2013.

Rudolf Steiner On Cultivating The Higher Organs

2013-05-18T20:29:00.000-04:00

Below is an excerpt from Rudolf Steiner's book, "Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos." 1994. Anthroposophic Press: Hudson, New York. Pg. 96-99.

"Within our body, our eyes and ears develop as organs of perception, as senses for bodily processes. Similarly, we can develop soul and spiritual organs of perception that will open up soul and spirit worlds to us. For anyone who does not have such higher senses, these worlds are dark and silent, just as the physical world is dark and silent to a being without eyes and ears. However, we relate differently to these higher senses than to our physical ones, which as a rule are fully developed in us by good Mother Nature without our doing anything about it. But we ourselves must work at developing our higher senses. Just as nature develops our physical body so that we can perceive our physical surroundings and orient ourselves in them, so we must cultivate our own soul and spirit if we want to perceive the soul and spirit worlds.

There is nothing unnatural about cultivating the higher organs that nature itself has not yet developed, because in a higher sense, everything that human beings accomplish also belongs to nature. Only those who contend that we should all stay at the level of development where nature left us could call developing these higher senses "unnatural." For such people, these organs and their significance are "mis-known" in Goethe's sense. Such people might as well oppose any and every kind of education for human beings---because that too goes beyond the work of nature---and should also be especially opposed to operating on anyone who was born blind. What happens to a blind person after a successful operation is very much like what happens to those who awaken their higher senses in the way described in the last section of this book. The world now appears to them full of new qualities, new processes and new facts that their physical senses never revealed. They see clearly that there is nothing arbitrary or capricious about supplementing reality through these higher organs, and that without these organs the essential part of this reality would have remained hidden from them. The soul and spirit worlds are not "next to" or "outside" the physical world, not separated from it in space. The formerly dark world is suddenly radiant with light and color for a person born blind who has undergone an operation. Similarly, the soul and spiritual qualities of things that until now had appeared to us only in a purely physical way are revealed when we are awakened in soul and spirit. Of course this new world is also full of occurrences and beings that remain totally unknown to anyone who has not undergone a soul and spiritual awakening. (Later on in this book, the development of the soul and spiritual senses will be discussed in greater detail, but first the higher worlds themselves will be described. Those who deny the existence of these worlds only demonstrate that they have not yet developed their own higher organs. Human development is never complete at any given level; it must always be taken further.)

We often tend, unintentionally, to imagine these higher organs as being too much like our physical ones. It is important to remember that these organs are soul or spiritual formations and that we must not expect what we perceive in the higher worlds to be only a misty and diluted form of material substance. As long as we expect anything of that sort, we will not come to a clear idea of what is actually meant here by "higher worlds." Many people would find it much easier to actually know something---at first, of course, only the elementary facts---about these higher worlds if they did not imagine that what they are to perceive is a highly refined version of something physical. That they make this assumption usually means that they do not want to recognize what is really involved. They find it unreal, do not accept it as something that could satisfy them, and so on. True, the higher levels of spiritual development are difficult to reach, but the levels adequate for recognizing the nature of the spiritual world---and that is already a lot---would not be nearly as difficult to reach if people would first get rid of the prejudice that makes them imagine that what is of a soul and spiritual nature is simply a more refined version of what is physical.

We obviously do not really know a person if we have only an idea of his or her physical appearance, nor do we really know the world around us if we know only what our physical senses can tell us about it. A photograph becomes intelligible and full of life to us once we come to know the person in the photograph so well that we know his or her soul, and in the same way, we can really understand the material world only once we know its soul and spiritual basis. That is why it is good to talk first about the higher worlds of soul and spirit, and only then come to conclusions about the physical world from a spiritual scientific point of view."

Egyptian Music Video About The Betrayal of the Muslim Brotherhood

2013-05-18T19:48:00.003-04:00

An excerpt from the article, "Brotherhood loses the middle class," by Azmi Ashour, published in Al-Ahram on December 5, 2012:

Anyone who watched the million-man marches in Tahrir and other Egyptian cities on 23, 27 and 30 November (which is to say three huge mass protest demonstrations in a single week) can easily observe the change in the composition of the revolutionary crowds. The middle class, which is generally more moderate and less activist than the revolutionary youth, added their numbers to Tahrir and other major squares in the country. Their anxieties as to where the Muslim Brotherhood is leading the country galvanised them into staging huge marches from various parts of the capital to the epicentre of the revolution, lending a strong backing to the youth who had remained steadfast in their defence of the principles of the revolution from the outset.

Title of Song - Ikhwan Survive. YouTube Video Description - [Channel: Aaskar Kazeboon. Published on May 16, 2013]:

Ikhwan Survive.. performed by: Kazeboon campaign team
Original music -- sound track:
"I Will Survive" is a hit song first performed by American singer Gloria Gaynor,
written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Will_Survive

Friedrich Hölderlin - To Hope

2013-05-18T17:22:00.000-04:00

Friedrich Hölderlin - Love.

Friedrich Hölderlin - The Gods.

Friedrich Hölderlin - The Time of Socrates.
Friedrich Hölderlin - To the Sun-God.

Friedrich Hölderlin - Ganymede.

Friedrich Hölderlin - Vulcan.

Friedrich Hölderlin - The Blind Singer.

Friedrich Hölderlin - Sung Beneath the Alps.

Source: Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin. Translated by Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover. 2008. Omnidawn Publishing: Richmond, California. Pg. 165.

Hope! Sweet industrious one
   Who doesn't scorn the house of grief,
   Serves happily, noble one, to form ties
   Between mortals and the powers of heaven.

Where are you? I have lived little; but my evening
Already breathes cold. And silent as the shadows
   I am already here; and, without a song,
My shivering heart lies quietly in my chest.

In the green valley, there, where the fresh spring
Rushes daily from the mountain, and the lovely
   Meadow saffron blooms for me on a fall day,
There, in the quiet, I will search for you,

My dear, or when at midnight
   Invisible lives stir in the forest,
   And above me the ever-joyful
   Flowering stars are shining,

Daughter of the Upper Air, you appear to me
Out of your father's gardens, and if you cannot
Draw near as a spirit of the earth, frighten, o
Frighten my heart with a different face.

Some Light Reading For Saturday [Plus Breakdown on The Situation In Syria]

2013-05-18T02:46:00.004-04:00

Breakdown on The Situation In Syria:

The Obama administration is supplying weapons and money to Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria in order to create chaos, destroy its economy, disrupt the regional peace, keep the central state occupied with security problems for years to come, and, finally, to be able to present invented excuses to the world to justify the invasion of another Middle Eastern nation.

Assad is no butcher. He is simply defending his country from an empire gone mad and thousands of Jihadist terrorists who can't tell their head from their ass.

If you're looking for heroes in this tragedy, they're hard to find. Villains are all around. But, those who are using terrorism to destroy Syria and use deception to create public support for another war against an innocent country are definitely the bigger villains.

Again, Assad is not Saddam. He has never gassed anybody. He is the one who is acting with humanitarian motivations and proceeding with caution in this crisis, not the United States, Saudi Arabia, France, Qatar, Israel, and Turkey, who are aiding and protecting Al-Qaeda.

Some Light Reading For Saturday:

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting - Iraq Then, Syria Now? (May 15).

F. William Engdahl - Israel’s Act of War Against Syria—Madness or Cold Calculation? (May 12).

Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett - "Iran and American Foreign Policy: Where Did the US Go Wrong?"— Noam Chomsky and The Leveretts at MIT (May 17).

Ahmed Ateyya - 'Rebel' Egyptian Movement Defies Morsi Through Petitions (May 17).

Alexa L. McMahon - Syria? Turkey? Many Americans Still Unsure (May 17).

Nervana Mahmoud - Rise of Radical Jihadists Setback for Syria (May 15).

Nasser Chararah - Europe and the Politics Of Syrian Oil (May 9).

Kadri Gürsel - Ankara’s Syria Policy A Source of Instability (May 13).

Shlomi Eldar - The Kurdish Minority Within the Syrian War (May 10).

Moon of Alabama - Syria: News Roundup (May 17).

Friedrich Hölderlin - Sung Beneath the Alps

2013-05-17T18:12:00.000-04:00

Friedrich Hölderlin - Love.

Friedrich Hölderlin - The Gods.

Friedrich Hölderlin - The Time of Socrates.
Friedrich Hölderlin - To the Sun-God.

Friedrich Hölderlin - Ganymede.

Friedrich Hölderlin - Vulcan.

Friedrich Hölderlin - The Blind Singer.

Source: Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin. Translated by Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover. 2008. Omnidawn Publishing: Richmond, California. Pg. 141-43.

Friedrich Hölderlin - Sung Beneath the Alps

Holy innocence, that men and gods
Love the most! either inside the house
Or out of doors, you sit at the feet
   Of the ancients,

Always full of contented wisdom; for man knows
Much that’s good, but astonished as the animals
He looks toward heaven, but how pure everything is
                           To you, Pure One!

Look! The rough beast of the field gladly
Serves and trusts you, the voiceless forest
Speaks to you of the ancients, the mountains
                            Teach you

Holy laws, and even now what the Great Father
Wants to name for us, who have
Much experience, only you can clarify
                             And brighten.

To be alone with the gods, and when
The light passes over, and wind and flood, and
When time hurries to its place, you have a steady
                            Eye for them,

Nothing is holier that I know and want,
As long as the flood doesn’t take me, like
The willows, well cared for, sleeping as I must
                          On the waves;

He who holds divine things in his heart
Will gladly stay home, however, and I'll be free,
As long as needed, to translate and sing
                             In the tongues of heaven.

Rumsfeld The Wise Speaks About Iraq [May 16, CNN]

2013-05-17T16:55:00.003-04:00

Obamağan - Face of State Terrorism In The 21st Century

2013-05-17T00:45:00.001-04:00

Obamağan Is Bringing Death and Destruction To Syria In The Name of Democracy.

On Thursday, May 16, U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a press conference outside the White House to discuss their enthusiastic support for Al-Qaeda in Syria, as well as other pressing issues.

Both are leaders of the world's biggest terrorist states. America and Turkey lead the world in various uncivilized and undemocratic categories, from the torture of innocent victims to the number of repressive anti-terror laws.

Press freedom in both America and Turkey has been under attack for decades, but it only has been recently that Washington's horrible record of stopping the work of journalists has come under the light of public scrutiny.

Obama and Erdoğan - Obamağan for short - have supported Al-Qaeda terrorist groups in Syria from the start of the conflict. These groups have attacked Syrian civilians and terrorized towns across Syria.

Syria's minorities have been targeted by Al-Qaeda and other Sunni terrorist groups supported by the US and Turkey, especially the Christians, Kurds, and Alawites.

And, yet, Obamağan has the audacity to stand outside the White House and try to sell the world the big lie that all of the violence in Syria is Assad's fault.

But the violence in Syria is not Assad's fault. Not in the least. And the White House is not the White House but the Death House, because it spreads nothing but death all around the world in the form of GMO food, high-priced weapons, and Jihadist terrorist groups.

Let's call things for what they really are. Obamağan is not the liberator of Syria, but the face of state terrorism in the 21st century.

Obamağan is bringing death and destruction to Syria, and the civilized world must not listen to a word that this demon says.

Ian Hutchinson: The Scientism Delusion

2013-05-16T19:36:00.002-04:00

Title: Ian Hutchinson: The Scientism Delusion. YouTube Video Description - [Channel: VeritasForum. Published on May 5, 2012]:

http://www.veritas.org/talks - Since its beginning, science has demonstrated its uncapped ability to uncover and explain our universe... or has it? MIT Professor and Christian Ian Hutchinson argues that the fairly recent view that science can explain everything, or scientism, makes unrealistic promises of the scientific method. Instead, Hutchinson opens up a world in which multiple ways of knowing, including science, are equally legitimate. Among them, Hutchinson argues, is faith. Join Dr. Hutchinson and the Emory audience for a discussion about science, faith, and how we come to know the world.

Over the past two decades, The Veritas Forum has been hosting vibrant discussions on life's hardest questions and engaging the world's leading colleges and universities with Christian perspectives and the relevance of Jesus. Learn more at http://www.veritas.org, with upcoming events and over 600 pieces of media on topics including science, philosophy, music, business, medicine, and more!