“Larry, you’re absolutely right,” Gregg said. “This is a very important point for your viewers to understand. This spending is being done intentionally. The reason the GDP –the spending-to-GDP ratio has gone from 20 percent to 24 percent, it’s heading to 27 percent of GDP is because the present government, the present presidency and the present Congress genuinely believe that you create prosperity by radically growing the size of government and they genuinely believe that our society is fundamentally under-taxed and they want to fill the gap between what has historically been our tax revenues, which have been about 18 to 19 percent of GDP and the spending, which they put in place at 24 percent.”
Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Six Christians rip pages from Koran in White House stunt
Not surprisingly, supposedly one protester is the leader of the right wing conservative Tea Party from Indiana.
Cops pounced on one protester when he held up a Koran and whipped out a lighter. They didn't arrest him
Free speech must not be held in high esteem anymore. An "unidentified" man ignited the Koran near Ground Zero, and why exactly did no one identify him? Maybe he was CIA.
The original pastor, Jones, who threatened to burn a Koran ended up not burning one at all. Meanwhile, In Kabul, more than 10,000 Afghans set fire to tires in the streets and shouted "Death to America" for a second day in a row, also prompted by Jones' calls to burn the Islamic holy book.
The original pastor, Jones, who threatened to burn a Koran ended up not burning one at all. Meanwhile, In Kabul, more than 10,000 Afghans set fire to tires in the streets and shouted "Death to America" for a second day in a row, also prompted by Jones' calls to burn the Islamic holy book.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Ringless: Obama's wedding band is "an intricate gold design from Indonesia"
Obama goes ringless at presser; what needs to get repaired on a wedding ring?
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Pastor nixes Quran-burning, claims NYC mosque deal
Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, told The Associated Press there is no deal to move the mosque. Yet previously, goth the local Muslim representative and Pastor Jones met at a news conference to call off the burning while the Victory mosque drive will end. Perhaps Musri made an agreement in order to break it after leaving the Pastor.
Obama Promotes Islamist Ban on Koran Burning
Obmama stated: "You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan." Apparently Obama has not noticed that American troops face serious violence every day; in fact, he ordered more U.S. troops there and some have even gotten killed. I wonder if he noticed the violence against Americans while he was promoting Islamism.
May 22, 2009: Military burns Bibles sent to Afghanistan
US loses ground in competitiveness report
The U.S. is not as competitive as it has been formerly.
The U.S. has slipped down the ranks of competitive economies, falling behind Sweden and Singapore due to huge deficits and pessimism about government, a global economic group said Thursday.
Sweden moved up to second place while Singapore stayed at No. 3. The United States was in second place last year after falling from No. 1 in 2008.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Vatican: 'Outrageous'...
The Vatican described the act as outrageous, Petraeus said out troops would be at risk (aren't they already?), according to the NYPD: 'Dangerous,' Holder: 'Idiotic,' and Clinton: 'Disgraceful.' Yet, I can not help but wonder where the moderates are in Islam who would describe the burning of the American flag as outrageious, dangerous, idiotic, or disgraceful. Of course it is an insipid idea to burn a Koran but the condemnations are swift and clear from Western voices: not a peep against Islamism atrocities by the moderate Muslims.
"Burn, Baby! BURN!"
When rioters in Watts, California, began shouting "Burn, Baby! BURN!" in the turmoil of 1965, they were echoing the most popular cry on rhythm-and-blues radio: The trademark of Magnificent Montague. In Los Angeles on KGFJ Montague yelled "Burn!" whenever he was playing a record that moved him. His listeners followed suit, calling Montague and shouting "Burn!" on the air. The emotion in that exchange reverberated with as much excitement as the music of Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding.
The slogan proved to be, dare I say it, so incindiery that "Bill" Epton Jr., a Maoist African-American activist, was "the first person convicted of criminal anarchy since the Red Scare of 1919"-—reportedly for the crime of uttering three words: "Burn, baby, burn."
The slogan proved to be, dare I say it, so incindiery that "Bill" Epton Jr., a Maoist African-American activist, was "the first person convicted of criminal anarchy since the Red Scare of 1919"-—reportedly for the crime of uttering three words: "Burn, baby, burn."
In any event, “Disco Inferno” is a 1976 hit by The Trammps. It became a success in 1978 after being included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever.
English & History Inter-disciplinary Assignment: A Man For All Seasons and What Went Wrong?
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS: SUMMARY
THEMES
“...to thine own self be true, and it shall follow, as the night the day, thou cans’t not then be false to any man.” ~Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene III
Integrity is the major theme of A Man for All Seasons. Sir Thomas More stays true to his conscience even under threat of death.
Some minor themes are:
No man can serve two masters.
Every man has his price.
Look to your own conscience for what to believe and how to act.
Having serious concerns about your life and death does not preclude being lighthearted and sociable.
At roughly the same time as the setting for A Man for All Seasons, the Western world and the Arab Middle East diverged.
In What Went Wrong?, Bernard Lewis writes of the key role of the Middle East in the rise of science in the Middle Ages, before things went wrong:
And then, approximately from the end of the Middle Ages, there was a dramatic change. In Europe, the scientific movement advanced enormously in the era of the Renaissance, the Discoveries, the technological revolution, and the vast changes, both intellectual and material, that preceded, accompanied, and followed them. In the Muslim world, independent inquiry virtually came to an end, and science was for the most part reduced to the veneration of a corpus of approved knowledge. There were some practical innovations — thus, for example, incubators were invented in Egypt, vaccination against smallpox in Turkey. These were, however, not seen as belonging to the realm of science, but as practical devices, and we know of them primarily from Western travelers.
[. . .]
Another example of the widening gap may be seen in the fate of the great observatory built in Galata, in Istanbul, in 1577. This was due to the initiative of Taqi al-Din (ca. 1526-1585), a major figure in Muslim scientific history and the author of several books on astronomy, optics, and mechanical clocks. Born in Syria or Egypt (the sources differ), he studied in Cairo, and after a career as jurist and theologian he went to Istanbul, where in 1571 he was appointed munejjim-bash, astronomer (and astrologer) in chief to the Sultan Selim II. A few years later her persuaded the Sultan Murad III to allow him to build an observatory, comparable in its technical equipment and its specialist personnel with that of his celebrated contemporary, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. But there the comparison ends. Tycho Brahe's observatory and the work accomplished in it opened the way to a vast new development of astronomical science. Taqi al-Din's observatory was razed to the ground by a squad of Janissaries, by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of Chief Mufti. This observatory had many predecessors in the lands of Islam; it had no successors until the age of modernization.
The relationship between Christendom and Islam in the sciences was now reversed. Those who had been disciples now became teachers; those who had been masters became pupils, often reluctant and resentful pupils. They were willing enough to accept the products of infidel science in warfare and medicine, where they could make the difference between victory and defeat, between life and death. But the underlying philosophy and the sociopolitical context of these scientific achievements proved more difficult to accept or even recognize.
Contrast what you know and have read of The Man for All Seasons and What Went Wrong?
What are the differences of one's conscience, the role of science, and thinking along a skeptical, scientific manner, or not, between the West and the Middle East? The assignment should be limited to 250 words, about one page of standard type-written text. You are free to email the text as well.
For an open-ended assignment such as this please bear in mind that there is no right or wrong answer. The instructor grades on the quality and clarity of your writing. Are you using proper form? Do you support your ideas with evidence, logic, and is the prose coherently written?
THEMES
“...to thine own self be true, and it shall follow, as the night the day, thou cans’t not then be false to any man.” ~Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene III
Integrity is the major theme of A Man for All Seasons. Sir Thomas More stays true to his conscience even under threat of death.
Some minor themes are:
No man can serve two masters.
Every man has his price.
Look to your own conscience for what to believe and how to act.
Having serious concerns about your life and death does not preclude being lighthearted and sociable.
At roughly the same time as the setting for A Man for All Seasons, the Western world and the Arab Middle East diverged.
In What Went Wrong?, Bernard Lewis writes of the key role of the Middle East in the rise of science in the Middle Ages, before things went wrong:
And then, approximately from the end of the Middle Ages, there was a dramatic change. In Europe, the scientific movement advanced enormously in the era of the Renaissance, the Discoveries, the technological revolution, and the vast changes, both intellectual and material, that preceded, accompanied, and followed them. In the Muslim world, independent inquiry virtually came to an end, and science was for the most part reduced to the veneration of a corpus of approved knowledge. There were some practical innovations — thus, for example, incubators were invented in Egypt, vaccination against smallpox in Turkey. These were, however, not seen as belonging to the realm of science, but as practical devices, and we know of them primarily from Western travelers.
[. . .]
Another example of the widening gap may be seen in the fate of the great observatory built in Galata, in Istanbul, in 1577. This was due to the initiative of Taqi al-Din (ca. 1526-1585), a major figure in Muslim scientific history and the author of several books on astronomy, optics, and mechanical clocks. Born in Syria or Egypt (the sources differ), he studied in Cairo, and after a career as jurist and theologian he went to Istanbul, where in 1571 he was appointed munejjim-bash, astronomer (and astrologer) in chief to the Sultan Selim II. A few years later her persuaded the Sultan Murad III to allow him to build an observatory, comparable in its technical equipment and its specialist personnel with that of his celebrated contemporary, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. But there the comparison ends. Tycho Brahe's observatory and the work accomplished in it opened the way to a vast new development of astronomical science. Taqi al-Din's observatory was razed to the ground by a squad of Janissaries, by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of Chief Mufti. This observatory had many predecessors in the lands of Islam; it had no successors until the age of modernization.
The relationship between Christendom and Islam in the sciences was now reversed. Those who had been disciples now became teachers; those who had been masters became pupils, often reluctant and resentful pupils. They were willing enough to accept the products of infidel science in warfare and medicine, where they could make the difference between victory and defeat, between life and death. But the underlying philosophy and the sociopolitical context of these scientific achievements proved more difficult to accept or even recognize.
Contrast what you know and have read of The Man for All Seasons and What Went Wrong?
What are the differences of one's conscience, the role of science, and thinking along a skeptical, scientific manner, or not, between the West and the Middle East? The assignment should be limited to 250 words, about one page of standard type-written text. You are free to email the text as well.
For an open-ended assignment such as this please bear in mind that there is no right or wrong answer. The instructor grades on the quality and clarity of your writing. Are you using proper form? Do you support your ideas with evidence, logic, and is the prose coherently written?
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