Thin Slicing

Let's cover as much ground as quickly as possible, guaranteeing shallowness. I'm coming back to the cauldron for a bit and I doubt I'll be much inspired to keep up the critique. Merka inspires more shock and awesome alcohol consumption from me these days. Maybe I'll tell you what I had for breakfast if blogster keeps ditching my URL for inactivity but haven't I given you enough irritation already? In fact I may stop dropping the articles on the Religion channel altogether soon. Information WANTS to be free. The act is very nearly complete methinks.

So let's slice it thin. Fill in a few of the innumerable cracks in the edifice. Couple of tangents. One reason I couldn't marry my Chinese fiancee' (gratz on the work L, if you're hanging around here for some reason ;)), her thin slicing mother. Implications there, some hatefulness. Or, more gently, lack of compassion. Don't assume I believe human nature is any different in Asia. Anger is anger whether you're allowed to express it or not. But you can read about Ma thin-slicing Pa when L chooses to write about it, I've said enough. Approximately opposite tangent, Pratchett's time monks. Don't ask me which novel, they're all worth reading when you need a lift. But you must know I love monks (and nuns but not like THAT C!:P). And if you don't know that includes Franciscans and even some Jesuits I confused you. Just because I think their Church is in the hell realm doesn't devalue them. By and large monks do no harm and think about things we could all be thinking about a little more. Terry's slice time. So draw a circle contiguous to these tangents, a person can be sliced as thin as you care to and it needn't be hateful if done with lovingkindness and in quest of microscope slides. Time can be sliced very, very thin, if only in the narrative. But what else is there? Detail is infinite. Our minds work. Why I love JJ. Probably he was the lowest form of scum; it's unfortunate Stephen destroyed the letters to and from Lucia that could have exonerated him forcing us to assume they didn't. I love him anyway, he sliced the people and the time thin, so thin. And I'm a reasonably low form of scum myself mais c'est la vie, may I have slicing talent in proportion. Let's give it a wack, shall we?

Prophets should be sliced wafer thin, a la Mr. Creosote's mint. If you miss a reference don't worry, you can pick up later or fuggetaboutit. We're trying to get that transparent corned beef they'll make you in Brooklyn if you're patient. Where only the dead know, much like all the best prophets. Why? So we can pervert their words? The dead do know more than we. Immeasurably more, they all have experience we lack. Go gently, whyever not? Of course it's unlikely they're building on it but so what, there are certainly living people who don't want to learn. Don't pretend you can "teach the controversy". I don't mind ID, I don't even mind creationism. The problem is NOT teaching the useful theory. The useful theory is Darwin's. There is no controversy. We can say non-overlapping magesteria or we can ask -why do some people hate knowledge? It is genuinely hateful. People die as a result. God never said -choose ignorance. Trust me on this. I ain't no prophet but I am surely equivalently insane. God talks to me, ayuh. The silence is deafening. Like your science is suffering. If you can't fix it now your kids will never be in the top 5 again. Well, never is a long time, but is your media even telling you you're out now? Congratulations Ham! Ah, I see The Sun picked it up, ain't exactly The Times but ok. You can't say it's purely French jingoism then, though Le Monde is where I first heard it. O media, what fun to follow along with McLuhan and try to figure out what's hot and cold. OTOH that's a pretty pure waste of time when you have citizens who believe Fox is news. How do you fix that? We're filling in the cracks today, go back and read about liberalism and conservatism if you're confused about what's what. Or which what I think is which for whatever that's worth; I mean, I've been known to read the dictionary, that could be worth something. American public discourse is garbage. Well, maybe there's a worthwhile blog or two :D And Mom's books. OK, slice it thinner. 99.999% of Apd is garbage. And 99.999% of the people know it. Why is the republic failing? I bet you know. If we think about it instead of taking refuge in anti-thoughts like fundamentalism something can be done. Really rich people own the media. They do not like you. They do not think you are like them. If you fall for religion as a substitute for knowledge you make them very happy. It's painful. The women's movement was painful. Civil rights were painful. America is beautiful and sliding into the cesspool. Nothing wrong with a little suffering. On the other hand I bolted like a colt on gelding day so don't ask me too much about it. Unless you want to hear paper go from construction- to rice- slice, slice, slice.

Paying attention is fun. I'm terrible at it (I perceived neither the billy club passing within inches of my head back in my violent anarchist days nor the fact that I was breaking bread with a member of the trilateral commission (~not life unlived but unrehearsed~)). Maybe you (would) like to give it a try sometime(s). You might pay attention to yourself, as selflessly as you may. If you can meditate, do so. If you like to pray, go for it. But do try not asking for things, it that's your idea of prayer. Don't bother God, it's been a rough day with the bullet-riddled and the starving. Just be with, there's no need for sin. Nothing separates you. Ego is ectoplasmically thin. It probably isn't real in fact. Ask a cognitive psychologist, they like to think about thought. Unless you're a scientologist (or other thought hater) and would prefer to ignore. In which case it's pretty shocking you put up with my noise this long. Astronomically unlikely, one might think I'd cut it out with the asides to the damned. But you might be surprised what Google does. How the hell was I the number one hit for Kalam Fadi (easy talk indeed)? How does blogster game it I wonder. Learning proceeds, with or without us. You know this if you'll just look at you. You made it up. I made up I. About the lamest 'proof of God' I ever heard was the 'create something from nothing' argument. I think the 'random airplane' has more merit. To poke our noses into the next paragraph, 'The Ninth Configuration' has merit. Every day we are making something from nothing. Call it 'I'. Then give 'me' a little break and see if you don't hear from God. Unless you're a strong atheist in which case you can call it common sense. Locke's, not Wilde's.

Cut the culture then. From Weill's "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" to Primus's "Too Many Puppies". Negativland oracular of youtube; copyright violation IS your greatest entertainment value. The prophets may live but how do we reconcile that with profit? _Barton Fink_'s always a good kick in the ass for a writer (not that I qualify unless the only qualification is to write). The Coen's are artists. But likely make more than my arbitrary limit (~if I had a million dollars...~), so cap 'em. How about Waters? We know Joyce drank it faster than he made it but it is a nexus perplexus, art and commerce. I ask for more from religion. I ask for a lot more. If it's going to claim value as an ethical framework shouldn't it be ethical? Why does the Pope have a gold hat while Teresa's flock continues to starve? Likely in higher proportions thanks to her ministrations? If you can't get equitable food distribution a condom is not a meaningful sin. I'm repeating myself, why I know 'the tri-partite crock' is nearly delivered. So say again, Pat Robertson is despicable. I can't argue with Hitchens about Falwell. Allowing the 'Christian Right' into your government is really wrong. REALLY, slice and dice it, take a good look. In your society it isn't doing good in any measurable way. Religion can unite. It can teach tolerance, mercy and compassion. What's wrong with the crock? Well, we railed on about Hinduism (~who killed Gh/B/a-n/m/d/b-i~ (Sex Pistols with N. Godse, slicing so hard I might hook)?), we didn't go to town on Shintoism (or Pure Land or...) but Japan's had the occasional narcissistic moment, yet what really compares to the judeo-chroslem body count? Isn't that special? Church Lady culture. Getting thinner...

How do you pronounce Sapir? Seriously, I need to know. How long did I call Camus 'Kaymuss'? O, grin and bare it indeed. Your greatest gaffes, biggest buffooneries, most fantastic foolishnesses, that's you. And it isn't. It's what happened to you, as often as not an animal reaction and then that coruscating ego's attempt to rationalize. Codify into memory. Make a personality. Or not. It is better to remember I think. Remember everything you can as accurately as you can, a closeted skeleton is a waste of both storage space and learning tool. I pronounce Whorf like the 'Next Generation" Klingon and that's an accurate slice, betcha. Of course English has as many words for snow they're just compound, linguistic causality is pretty weak but it still is, Thai doesn't really have a word for 'no'. 'Not yes' is a more literal translation. What kind of language are the young in Israel using? Or, not to sic the Dershowitz-bot on myself, the young in Darfur?