text:
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
I'll Be Back
Dear Readers: I have been working on a new Cyrus Skeen novel (no. 13) and so I have been absent from Rule of Reason the last two or so weeks. There is of course a lot going on, most especially the invasion of Europe by the Islamic and Third World hordes hell-bent on subduing Europe, an invasion by invitation by ex-Soviet Socialist Angela Merkel, who believes that Germany's guilt over the Holocaust and WW2 can be expiated by setting loose rapists, murderers, ISIS fighters, and other predators on the German population. That within a decade there will be no more "Germany," just a fiefdom of Pax Islamia concerns her not. Sweden, again, is as wussy as ever in the face of the hordes swarming into that country. In Germany now calling the macho Muslims Nazis can get you arrested, or at best, beaten up by a Muslim gang (Muslims don't like to fight one-on-one, never heard of it). So, the way to make up for having killed six million Jews is to let in hundreds of thousands of Jew-hating Muslims so they can take a turn at exterminating them, too. Anyway, I'll be back in about two weeks.
Posted by Edward Cline at 4:34 AM No comments:
Monday, September 14, 2015
Philosophy and Anger Management
My first article on the European immigration/invasion crisis, "'Just Do it!' Kant and the Immigration Crisis," elicited some very hostile responses from readers on Facebook, a response I was not aware of until alerted to the cacophony by a friend. In the name of protecting the identities of the perpetrators, I will not provide the link to that particular Facebook account nor name names of those who called me "obnoxious," an "amateur critic" of Kant, or just plain but uncivilly and unjustifiably angry. I'm not sure if any of them has yet read "Part Two."
After reading all of the comments on this particular Facebook page, I left my own, not thinking I'd need to return with more words to the wise. My Facebook comments here are edited for style and ease of reading:
To all the talking heads here who think I'm obnoxious, or who don't like my "manner" of commentary, or who think I'm an "amateur critic" of Islam and of Obama and of Third World immigration and invasion and of all the other plagues that threaten Western civilization, or who question my grasp of Immanuel Kant:
When you've written four successful fiction series, including Sparrowhawk, the Skeen novels, the Hanrahan novels, and the Fury novels, and a handful of nonfiction works, plus about 1,400,000 words of commentary on Rule of Reason in over 750 columns, which do not include numerous reviews in the Wall Street Journal and various encyclopedias and other print publications over the years, risked your life by speaking your mind in a public forum and possibly earning an Islamic fatwa or the unwanted attention of our own government – then you may presume to judge my "manner" and any other offensive faux pas you wish to accuse me of committing.
As Howard Roark, the hero of Rand's The Fountainhead, did not discuss the merits of his work with members of the Architectural Guild, I don't discuss the merits of my work with people who don't seem to have anything else to do but nitpick (and when there are not nits to pick). This is why I haven't participated in your discussions here. I can only thank those few who came to my defense on the matter of the Kant/Immigration column of mine. And that is all I have to say.
But, the thread went on and on. I finally felt it necessary to leave another comment.
Mr. K, on whose Facebook page this session of the Star Chamber is occurring, wrote in answer to another commentator's remarks:
Peter: I have not read Mr. Cline's fiction, but I have heard good things from those who have. Mr. Cline's position on immigration, like his position on LGTB people, plays right into the hands of the left. Leftists are forever saying: capitalism is for straight white American men to get rich by oppressing everyone else who is different. By saying foreigners and people with atypical sexual desires are grave threats to civilization--as opposed to irrationality and altruism--is to make their case for them, intentionally or not.
My reply was:
Mr. K: You could just as well claim that Rand's fiction "plays into the hands of the left" and "makes their case for them, intentionally or not" regarding capitalism and LGTBs and foreigners and any other current topic one might wish to raise. As Rand didn't write her fiction unintentionally to "play into" anyone's hands, so I do. I can't control what others "intend" my fiction to be or to represent. She didn't write her fiction to raise the hackles of conservative William F. Buckley or to cause indigestion in any leftist critic or intellectual.
You seem to be looking at fiction through a counter-Marxist lens – the Marxist position being that fiction represents an expression of class, or of race, or of gender. Well, let the Marxists make their "let's give his texts a close reading so we can see what are his subtexts and his encoded racial and gender messages" claims, but you shouldn't dignify their "deconstruction" of fiction by saying that my or Rand's fiction is somehow guilty of bolstering their arguments against capitalism (or freedom of speech, etc.).
Moreover, if I recall correctly, Leonard Peikoff once received a proposal to produce Rand's novel "Anthem" as a play with the stipulation that it feature a multi-racial cast. He turned it down. I don't know his reasons, but I gather it was because there are no homosexual or lesbian or black or other ethnic characters in any of her fiction. There are some "ethnic" characters in my fiction, particularly and necessarily in the Sparrowhawk series, and in some in the Skeen detective series; the homosexual ones are pathetic, the lesbian ones vicious, and in China Basin there's particularly brutal bisexual, but in all the titles reason trumps their race or gender.
I suggest you sample my fiction and judge for yourself. But don't approach it with a "deconstructive" motive in mind, that is, expecting to find my intentional, unintentional, or subliminal "subtexts." I don't "do" subtexts. You won't need a secret decoding ring to get something out of my fiction. You won't need to subject it to cryptanalysis. There are no "signifiers" or "signifieds" in my fiction. Should a deconstructionist claim to find any, then he's seeing things that aren't there.
I half expect someone to reply to that by pointing to my "White Literary Privilege," that is, my making all my characters "white" with few ethnic characters. No, I'm not being fair now. I would expect that from the harpies of Academe. I will confess that I have one Chinese character in An August Interlude.
And then there's that "anger" issue. So what if I'm "angry"? How many of Rand's columns were written from "anger"? Plenty. Hell hath no fury like a philosopher scorned. But it's not okay for an "amateur critic" of Kant to write from "anger"?
Mr. P left this suggestion:
What would interest me much more would be to know if Mr Cline is open to having the basis of his ideas challenged (not so much the principles, which I agree with) if they were based on facts, on correct observations about current events in immigration and refugees. I had a similar try with Mr Mazlish, who holds views similar to his, and got nowhere with simply showing that many of his facts were not real, but manipulated by his sources. Often they are conflations of truth and fiction.
The truth is that, sadly today's Internet and today's radio and TV shows are sadly totally unreliable to use as sources to build ideas upon. They are 80% fabrications and only 20 % truth.
No, Mr. P, I'm not interested in debating my position. I don't need to validate it. Read what I have to say, take or leave it. I've already done the heavy lifting. I'm guessing also that because I'm not speaking from a position of "authority," everything I have to say can be challenged. Challenge away. Although Mr. P is right about the bias in today's news reportage on the "refugee" and "asylum seekers" investing Europe. But I don't get my news from the MSM anymore. I get it from Jihad Watch, Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs, Gatestone, The Gates of Vienna, Steve Emerson's IPT, FrontPage, and Sultan Knish, among many other sources. Those are all sources I trust to tell the truth. If I read the MSM's version of the news, it is with a jaundiced eye and a developed skill of reading behind the lines, as I've read the New York Times for decades.
Here I end this column, my anger having been spent, to turn to other, more pressing matters.
Posted by Edward Cline at 5:01 PM 24 comments:
Saturday, September 12, 2015
"Just Do It!"—Part Two
"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law." Immanuel Kant, in Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785
Or, to put Kant's categorical imperative in contemporary language: "Do the right thing!"
See my article, "Just Do It!" – Kant and the Immigration 'Crisis'" for an explanation of today's title.
On September 11th, I responded to Diane West's foreshadowing article, "Strangers in Your Own Land," in which she details the inexplicable behavior of European leaders in wanting to "redistribute" the invasion of the Continent by raggedy hordes of Muslims and other "asylum seekers" or "refugees." In her article she expresses some bafflement about why German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others are inviting the demise of their countries as Western countries committed to Western values and civilization:
I wonder about the wielders of power, the redistributors, seated in their elegant conference rooms, sipping sparkling water, pronouncing on the fate of millions of citizens across Europe. German Chancellor Merkel. Swedish Prime Minister Lofven. European Commission President Juncker, and the rest. Either they have no understanding of the plight of their peoples; or, they have full understanding of it. That is, either they are insulated to a point of numbness to what actually happens to Europe's people – their churches and remaining synagogues, their schools and languages, their marketplaces and streets, their customs and their lore – when a town or neighborhood is engulfed by an alien and predatory culture such as Islam; or, they sadistically relish the prospect in the name of something they like to call "European values."
Well, an alleged "European value" that contains the kernel of its own destruction is nihilistic and no longer anything, least of all "European." In point of fact, an ethical "value" that prescribes the suicide of the person who holds it is Eastern in nature, rooted in the anti-life mysticism of various such systems that originated and thrived in the Far East. It neither European nor Western.
And, you can bet that neither Merkel nor her cohorts in treason will need to experience first-hand the inundation of Muslim barbarians in their homes or neighborhoods. They will be living safely and undisturbed in their gated or fortified communities, away from the chaos they have birthed in the name of altruism and repudiating genuine, life-affirming Western values.
I wrote Miss West this comment, edited for the occasion:
Just read your "Strangers in Your Own Land" column via Ruth King. Great piece. You are, however, one who also is baffled by Angela Merkel's actions and those of the EU privileged class (that non-elected gang of bureaucrats you briefly mention) in deciding to allow tens of thousands of innately hostile Muslims to change the character and demographics of Germany and other European countries.
I think Merkel's actions are particularly vicious; seeing the hesitation and often the resistance of Germans to allowing even more rapists, killers, and welfare parasites into the country, she deliberately dumps batches of them amidst the "foot draggers" with a "get used to it" or "eat it" attitude.
Now, one reason I wrote the "Just Do It!" piece was to underscore the Kantian premises of European leaders. Ideas do have consequences, and Germany in particular has never entirely shaken off the influence of Kant (and, implicitly, of Nazism).
One of Kant's categorical imperatives, as I illustrate in my piece, is that you must "do your duty" even if it means your death – even when you know it will mean your death. Merkel and Company are saying to their underlings in Germany and Sweden and elsewhere: "We, the powerful, are doing our duty by welcoming hordes of Muslims into our countries; you, the hoi polloi, must do no less; it is your duty to tolerate Muslims even though they may beat you up on the street, pursue your Jewish neighbors, prey on your daughters and wives, demand more and better welfare benefits which you will pay for, and enjoy more freedom of speech than we allow indigenous Europeans; that is, they are free to spew hate speech against you, but you may not criticize them or answer them in any way without incurring penalties."
Merkel harks back to the bad old days of Nazi Germany:
"If you thought the scale of Russian rape in Germany once the Soviets occupied it was awful and once that not very nice man Hitler was gone, you ain't seen nothing yet! ('Sie ist noch gar nichts gesehen!') Just look at Sweden, the rape capital of Europe. But then, we deserve a sharp rise in crime rates among Muslims. Don't we? We are all guilty for having killed so many Jews. Muslims hate Jews, and would like to kill them all, but I'm sure some accommodation can be reached between Muslims and Jews, so that fewer Jews are victimized. Why are you laughing, Blöd?
"You may not 'provoke' or 'incite' Muslims to violent behavior by wearing short skirts or giving a Muslim a dirty look or refusing to serve halal food exclusively in all European restaurants and schools. If physically attacked by Muslim youth, you may not defend yourselves without the risk of arrest or enduring other penalties. Muslims may do as they please. Yes, we will prosecute Muslims who commit really, really, really awful crimes; but, for the most part, we must grant them a free hand to conquer you and subject you to their peculiar barbarism and harassment and being beaten up by gangs of 'asylum seekers.'
"Unfortunately, many of our citizens must learn the hard way that they must correct their 'White European Privilege' and not flaunt it provocatively in front of our Muslim brother citizens.
"Resign yourselves to the inevitable!
"We know, from experience, that Muslims already here and this new wave of Muslims – mostly adult males between 25 and 35 years old, and ready to rumble, jihadist style, if you will – will not assimilate into German or Swedish or Dutch or French culture; to avoid conflict, you, the hoi polloi, must assimilate into Muslim culture. You must accommodate their customs and practices; it is the height of imperialistic hubris to expect them to adopt our 'superior' ways. It is your duty. Just do it, no questions permitted.
"We have done our duty, by opening wide our borders so that you may prove your moral worth by submitting to Islam; now it is time for you to do yours. It is the altruistic thing to do, even if it means suicide. Do you question altruism? Do you question our motives? It is the multicultural thing to do, even if it means the submersion and more likely the drowning of Western culture! You don't think multiculturalism is working? Off with your head!
"If you won't comply with our edict, then we can only conclude that you are racists, or bigots, or Islamophobes. You are common lickspittle! Dare we call Muslims racists, or bigots, or Europhobes – even though most Muslims have amply demonstrated those character flaws, intrinsic and prescribed in their 'creed'? No. However, you will not be permitted to point that out publically without incurring penalties. Europe oppressed Islam and Muslims for fourteen centuries. Now it's pay-back time. We must do our duty and submit to Islamic justice! Submitting to Islamic justice is our moral duty! If we don't, we are immoral!"
Anyway, Diane, I don't know how else to better demonstrate the poisonous influence of Kantian ethics that is governing European behavior. There's really nowhere else to look for a reason why Merkel and Company are behaving as they are. It's a philosophical issue first, a moral one second.
Merkel and Company say: We must do our duty – it is categorically imperative! – even if it means soaking and choking Europe in the swirling sewage waters of Islam!
Glug, glug. The sound you hear is Europe drowning.
Back home, Obama, heeding Rahm Emanuel's advice to never let a serious crisis go to waste, has jumped on the Syrian refugee bandwagon and announced that he wants to bring in at least 10,000 alleged Syrians. These will be in addition to the tens of thousands of Somalians and other Muslims he's welcomed into various American towns and cities. Don't get me started on his open borders invitation to countless Mexicans and other South Americans who have no cultural affinity with the U.S., but rather a cultural hostility.
Syrians? Columnist Daniel Greenfield remarked recently that Syrian passports are as cheap to buy as a European Union bureaucrat's honor. In his FrontPage article of September 11th, "Get Ready: Obama Bringing 10,000 Syrian Refugees to U.S," Robert Spencer wrote:
The Reuters headline was "Obama wants U.S. to prepare for 10,000 Syrian refugees next year: White House."
Prepare? How can we prepare? Bomb shelters? Underground bunkers? Metal detectors at shopping malls? Funeral arrangements? Exactly what preparations does the President expect us to make?
I know what you're thinking: there you go again, Spencer, you racist, bigoted Islamophobe. Here is Barack Obama magnanimously opening America's doors to a desperate population in crisis, and you're demanding that our nation's hospitality not be tendered to these poor people – and why not? Just because they are "brown"?
Nope. That's not the problem at all, although as always, charges of "racism" will be used to drown out any dissenting voices. The real problem is that last February, the Islamic State promised to flood Europe in the near future with as many as 500,000 refugees. That future is upon us, and it is important to note that the Islamic State was not simply talking about engulfing the continent in a humanitarian crisis that would strain its resources to the breaking point. The jihadis were also planning to cross into Europe among those refugees, and now they're boasting that they have done so.
An Islamic State operative boasted last week that among the flood of refugees, 4,000 Islamic State jihadis had entered Europe. "They are going like refugees," he said, but they were going with the plan of sowing blood and mayhem on European streets. As he told this to journalists, he smiled and said, "Just wait." He explained: "It's our dream that there should be a caliphate not only in Syria but in all the world, and we will have it soon, inshallah."
And now Barack Obama is bringing 10,000 of these refugees to the United States. How many Islamic State jihadis will be among them? No one can say, but what jihadi would pass up a chance to go to the Great Satan itself, and win his share of virgins by destroying an American landmark or mass murdering American infidels wholesale?
And what about those Syrian passports? Daniel Greenfield provides the lowdown on just how "Syrian" most of those "refugees" are in his September 12th column, "Syria Happy to Help 'Refugees' Fake Their Way into Europe."
The official story is that all those poor refugees are fleeing Assad's oppression. But Assad seems eager to help them go.
Lax new rules handed down from Damascus allows passports to be issued abroad with virtually no checks for just £250.
Why is Assad doing this?
1. Obviously money - Refugee smuggling is big business and his regime is happy to take a cut. 10,000 passports being issued in August in Jordan adds up to 4 million dollars or so. Keep multiplying and you end up with half a billion dollars.
2. Russia - Assad is an Iranian/Russian client and Moscow is obsessed with destroying Europe, particularly the big three players, the UK, France and Germany. A flood of Muslim migrants will eventually get that job done. Muslim migration will also destroy Russia, but it's not like anyone is thinking rationally here. Instead the various Western nations keep using Muslims as weapons against each other.
But that was also true back in the Gates of Vienna days.
3. Refugees as a Terror Weapon - There's quite a history of countries using refugee dumping to destabilize and damage other countries. Gaddafi is a famous regional example. Assad is warning Europe that the alternative is a flood of refugees and so it ought to meet his demands. Since Europe can't actually shut down the Syrian civil war, it's a little pointless, but European leaders aren't known for having any understanding of the situation anyway.
4. Mainly this benefits Iran, which can once again claim that it can stabilize everything as long as its demands are met. Again, all it can do is prolong the conflict, but that is what it wants anyway.
The Washington Post ran an article on September 12th, "Protests in support of migrants expected throughout Europe" about the "hardships" of these "refugees," complete with the standard tear-jerker photograph of a little girl screaming her head off. No photographs or videos, however, showing the overwhelming number of physically fit Muslim men rioting and throwing food and water back at their benefactors in Hungary and Greece and Austria and trashing the hostels they've been billeted in. It's not the poor women and children – an infinitesimal percentage of the Mongolian horde sweeping into Europe – that anyone is worried about. It's all those "asylum seekers" in their prime ready to go on welfare and ready to wage jihad. They're escaping the "war torn" Middle East and North Africa, you see, so they can wage the same war in Europe itself.
Of course, with Obama, it's not an issue of his being captive to one of Kant's categorical imperatives. He's just a hateful nihilist who wishes to subject this country to the same chaos that Europe is now experiencing. He wants to beat down "whitey" by surrounding him with Muslim brown and Mexican brown. But, don't call him a racist. Or an ally of La Raza or the Muslim Brotherhood or of #BlackLivesMatter.
That would be "racist."
Posted by Edward Cline at 4:50 PM 10 comments:
Friday, September 11, 2015
"There Was a Crooked House…."
…called our Cultural Establishment, of crooked little men and cash-flush caitiffs and assorted other denizens of the ongoing cultural scam with their crooked little smiles and crooked sixpence.
Have you ever wondered where all the trashy literature and modern anti-art comes from? Or, rather, have you ever scratched your head in wonder about who paid to have it produced? In large part, we, the taxpayers pay for it, through Federal, State, and local taxes. These unreadable, boring, super-naturalistic or unclassifiable novels, those "controversial" or shock-jock or feminist shock-crotch plays, the sculpture that looks like debris from the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11, the crucifixes in jars of urine, the welded-together auto parts, the cheapjack, hand-held camera movies one can find by the wheelbarrow-load on Netflix, each crediting half a dozen or more oddly-named production companies – these are also the products of private grant money.
This private grant business – or, I should say the private grant racket, as it's as much a racket as are the government's – together with the Federal government encourages, promotes, and enables mediocrity and the otherwise unsalable in the culture. The irrational, the sub-average, the hackneyed, and the prosaic passed off as "novel" or "radical" are the touchstones of virtue worthy of a lifetime sinecure, a prestigious teaching job, and lots of money. It is the practice of elevating the undistinguished distinguished only by their banality.
Government grants today are the whores' whelps of the Depression era Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Federal Writers' Project (FWP). Their official progeny are the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
In sum, private and government grants have also turned fringe writers and artists into the foremost. Receiving a grant, fellowship, residency, or all-expenses-paid "quiet time" vacation at some artists' or writers' colony or community is one's official induction into the cultural establishment. For example, see this Wikipedia entry on one of the more famous "retreats," Yaddo:
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400-acre (1.6 km²) estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment."[1] On March 11, 2013 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
It offers residencies to artists working in choreography, film, literature, musical composition, painting, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and video. Collectively, artists who have worked at Yaddo have won 66 Pulitzer Prizes, 27 MacArthur Fellowships, 61 National Book Awards, 24 National Book Critics Circle Awards, 108 Rome Prizes, 49 Whiting Writers' Awards, a Nobel Prize (Saul Bellow, who won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976), and countless other honors.
There are even sites that promote the writing grant applications as a profession. Remember those matchbook correspondence school ads that asked if you wanted to become a painter or a medical billing expert or a dog handler, and "here's how"? These are the online equivalents of how to get started in writing government and private grant applications for yourself, for your community or business, or for others.
I began taking notes for this column to discuss PEN, and out of curiosity I went onto the PEN America Center site to see what writers – known to me and unknown – were members of this organization. There seemed to be hundreds of members – perhaps, I imagined, over a thousand. I tried counting them, but it would've taken me two mind-numbing hours to complete just one column of names and as a result would have grown cross-eyed. And there were two columns. I got through about 1/20th of just one column before calling it quits.
Then a PEN staffer answered my query about the number of living, dues-paying PEN members: "Roughly 4,200."
Red highlighted names are links to a writer's own blog site or to some program he is connected to or affiliated with. This double-columned list, which seems to go on for several scroll-downs, is just chock full of names of famous writers you have never heard of:
Such as: Paul LaFarge, Britt Leach, Linda Leavall, Russell Banks (Banks is better known), Joyce Carole Oates (also better known), Millicent Dillon, and Judy Blume. Ever hear of Belinda McKeon, Marie Mutsuki Mocket, Selene Castrovilla, Taiye Selasi, Norman Sprinrad, Samrat Upadhyay, Luis Alterto Urrea, Metta Sáma, or Sergio Troncoso? No? Don't you read? They're literary immortals.
Many of these writers are recipients of MacArthur and Guggenheim Foundation grants and "fellowships." The MacArthur Foundation is singular in its awards to some of the most ditzy "artists" and writers. The mission statement of the MacArthur Foundation goes:
Now led by President Julia Stasch, MacArthur is one of the nation's largest independent foundations with assets of approximately $6.3 billion and annual giving of approximately $220 million.
The Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and society.
The Guggenheim Foundation's purpose is similar in ends and means:
United States Senator Simon Guggenheim and his wife established the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1925 as a memorial to a son who died April 26, 1922. The Foundation offers Fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions and irrespective of race, color, or creed. The Foundation receives between 3,500 and 4,000 applications each year. Although no one who applies is guaranteed success in the competition, there is no prescreening: all applications are reviewed. Approximately 200 Fellowships are awarded each year.
About those Guggenheim Fellowships, here is a clue:
Often characterized as "midcareer" awards, Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.
Fellowships are awarded through two annual competitions: one open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada, and the other open to citizens and permanent residents of Latin America and the Caribbean. Candidates must apply to the Guggenheim Foundation in order to be considered in either of these competitions.
I've seen some of the "productive scholarship" the Guggenheim subsidizes. It's on a par with "The History and Social Status of Maori Tattooing Arts," while much of the "exceptional creative ability" sustained by the Foundation is along the lines of the notorious ribbon fence in California. See also the works of Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano, and Richard Serra.
Many, many MacArthur, Guggenheim and other foundation "fellows" are "double dippers," that is, they are recipients of both government and private grants. To wit:
Anthony Cerulli's next project, Sanskrit Medical Classics in Crisis: Language Politics and the Reinvention of a Medical Tradition in India, which he will pursue as a Guggenheim Fellow, explores the impact of European colonial medicine on the transmission of knowledge in one of India's classical medical traditions, Ayurveda….
Cerulli has been the recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, European Institutes for Advanced Study, Fulbright Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities. He has held appointments as Directeur d'études invité at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris, Chercheur invité at the Institut d'études avancées in Paris, and twice as scholar-in-residence at the Rochester Zen Center in western New York. Since 2008, he has taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Asian Studies. Since 2009, he has been the Managing Editor of the journal India Review.
PEN (comprising of PEN International and PEN World) opposes censorship and champions the freedom of speech of many foreign writers jailed or persecuted by their governments. Its mission statement reads:
International PEN, the worldwide association of writers, was founded in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere; to emphasize the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned, and sometimes killed for their views.
PEN is strictly non-political, a non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO and Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
PEN is composed of Centers, each of which represents its membership and not its country, and membership of its Centers is open to all qualified writers, journalists, translators, historians, and others actively engaged in any branch of literature, regardless of nationality, race, colour or religion. Every member is required to sign the PEN Charter and by so doing to observe its conditions.
PEN is supported by a Mulligan stew of major corporations and government agencies, including the NEA and the Open Society Institute (the latter is a George Soros creation to help bring about Obama's "transformed America"). But PEN can't be "strictly non-political" if is associated with the United Nations, with the Open Society Institute, with the Ford Foundation, and with other left-wing "charitable" entities.
PEN's overall opposition to censorship and restrictions on freedom of speech may be commendable, but it is a policy which operates in a moral and intellectual vacuum. There are some thirty PEN affiliates in various countries. It views freedom of speech as an intrinsic value that ought to thrive in any political context, and as a "right" that should be respected irrespective of the character of a country's political system. It is a "floating abstraction." Without property rights, there can be no freedom of speech. If a government owns or controls all venues of expression, then demanding that it guarantee its citizens freedom of speech is whistling into the wind.
On a personal note, I would not be invited to join PEN, nor would I be able to receive any kind of grant, government or private, even if I applied for one, because my fiction has no "edge." It's not "mainstream." It performs no discernible or definable "social good." It wasn't written as a "community service." It would probably be deemed "violent," "homophobic," "sexist," and even "Islamophobic."
No, this is not a "sour grapes" column. I haven't written it because I've been overlooked or ignored by today's cultural establishment and wish to send a zinger to PEN or any other leftward cultural organization. My name and book titles are not household words in the homes of establishment critics. I'd be unwelcome in any secular synod of contemporary writers and artists.
Frankly, I'm grateful that I've been ignored or rendered invisible in today's culture. I'd rather be known for the company I keep, and that's all my fans and loyal readers.
Posted by Edward Cline at 4:27 PM No comments:
Sunday, September 06, 2015
"Just Do It!"—Kant and the Immigration "Crisis"
"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law." Immanuel Kant, in Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785
Or, to put Kant's categorical imperative in contemporary language: "Do the right thing!"
Just do it! Don't think, don't hesitate, don't wonder whether or not you will benefit from doing "the right thing," because if you think or wonder, then your action will be impure – nay, immoral! – and won't make you a moral person. It might be praiseworthy by others, but the esteem you might be held in by them should not be a primary consideration. The thought should never enter your mind.
If you hesitate, that means you were thinking. Thinking is not allowed.
In fact, your wanting to be a moral person by doing "the right thing" will also disqualify you from being a moral person. To be a moral person, your doing "the right thing" must be scoured of all personal interest, it must be eminently and literally disinterested, expecting no kudos, no laurels, and not even personal satisfaction for having "done good." When and if you see the "right thing" to do, you must know it somehow beforehand –– that it is a priori the "right thing to do" – and take action and just do it.
If "doing the right thing" means leaping trance-like off a bridge without a Bungee, so be it. Others will mourn your passing, and reflect on how moral a person you were. You did your duty.
So, if you've ever wondered why Europe is committing suicide by allowing itself to be invaded by hundreds of thousands of Muslims and other "asylum seekers" or "refugees" from the pestholes of the planet – in fact, by inviting them to swarm over hills, dales, and borders to infest their countries with their "culturally enriching" primitive practices and behavior – the answer lies in understanding Immanuel Kant's philosophy of selflessness and self-sacrifice and its death-grip on Western leaders and Western culture. The ostensive morality is altruism; the underlying morality is Kant's nihilistic code of "just doing it" because it is "good," even should one's own consequent death or the extinction of one's country be a certainty. No thought is required, necessary, or desired. Only a feeling that action is the "right thing to do." To Kant, a feeling is a tool of cognition, a sense organ.
One supposes that "doing the right thing" like a robot would elevate one to sainthood, just as Islamic jihadists "do the right thing," as commanded by the Koran, and kill themselves while killing others, to achieve "martyrdom."
We know, say the political leaders and champions of enforced multiculturalism, that by allowing these barbarians to settle in our countries, it will change the identities, character, and nature of our countries beyond recognition, repair, and reclamation, but we must do it, because to not do it would be inexcusably immoral. Those political leaders, of course, will expect their indigenous citizenry to "do the right thing" in the most disinterested and tolerant manner, even while they foot the bill for their own conquest and are exposed to the criminal depredations of the barbarians. If they resist, they can be called "Islamophobic," "racist" and "bigoted." Ordinary citizens thus can be shamed into submission.
These same political leaders would never think to accuse the barbarians of racism, bigotry, intolerance, and a proclivity towards crime.
On the other end of the bookshelf are Kant's two ponderous Critiques. The ultimate test in a refutation of Kant's noumenal and phenomenal worlds, on the other hand, is to ask whether or not any sentence or statement in either of his Critiques or in his Grounding of the Metaphysics of Morals is exempt from the distortions he claims are inherent in his phenomenal thesis. How can one know, when he writes, for example, that "the moral strength of a human being's will [is] in fulfilling his duty,' he is stating just that, when in reality – or in the reality of his noumenal world – it might be actually a recipe for bouillabaisse or beef stew or instructions on how to repair a carburetor? Are printed words exempt from his phenomenal rule? Are Kant's books exceptions to his own rules? And if we cannot know the "real" meaning of his printed assertions – if what we read in print is merely a distorted rendition of some ethereal, crystalline entity somewhere out there beyond our ken – then what can we know? Was Kant's quill "real"? The ink? The paper? Or were they merely distortions of what they "really" were beyond even his perception?
Have these questions ever occur to Kant? Has they ever occurred to any of his champions and teachers in academia? For if Kant's works aren't exempt from the conditions governed by his noumenal and phenomenal thesis, then his works are all gibberish, what is being communicated via our distorting senses is rubbish. And if his works are exempt from his rules, then Kant was some kind of savant who, like Mohammad, received his knowledge of the noumenal world magically from the Transcendental angel Gabbo the Verbose who visited the caves of Königsberg, Prussia. Or perhaps Kant was a space alien from that alternate, noumenal universe sent here to confuse the human race.
However, to quote from a book review that questions the inclusion of Kant as a champion of freedom and reason, citing Kant's purpose to save religion and a codified submission to all things mystical, I wrote:
Religion was what he wanted to save from the onslaught of reason. He appropriated the term "reason" and then proceeded to eviscerate it of all meaning in two brain-stultifying Critiques…. Kant's Critiques – of Pure Reason and of Judgment – are what he is best known for, and through those works Kant has had a profoundly pernicious and deadly influence on the course of philosophy and politics in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Immanuel Kant was a malevolent leprechaun who offered man a pot of lead coated with arsenic.
Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch asks: "Meanwhile, no one is bothering even to ask, much less answer, one central question: why is it incumbent upon Europe to have to absorb all these refugees?"
Spencer identifies what Europe's political leaders refuse to see.
Approximately 104,460 asylum seekers arrived in Germany during the month of August, setting a new record. That makes 413,535 registered refugees and migrants coming to Germany in 2015 so far. The country expects a total of around 800,000 people to seek asylum in Germany this year. And that's just Germany. The entire continent of Europe is being inundated with refugees at a rate unprecedented in world history. This is no longer just a "refugee crisis." This is a hijrah.
Hijrah, or jihad by emigration, is, according to Islamic tradition, the migration or journey of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622 CE. It was after the hijrah that Muhammad for the first time became not just a preacher of religious ideas, but a political and military leader. That was what occasioned his new "revelations" exhorting his followers to commit violence against unbelievers. Significantly, the Islamic calendar counts the hijrah, not Muhammad's birth or the occasion of his first "revelation," as the beginning of Islam, implying that Islam is not fully itself without a political and military component.
To emigrate in the cause of Allah – that is, to move to a new land in order to bring Islam there, is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. "And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance," says the Qur'an. "And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful." (4:100)
Why is it incumbent upon Europe to have to absorb all these refugees? Because Europe is the captive of Kant's categorical imperatives, that's why. According to Kantian ethics, it is indeed incumbent upon Europe to "do the right thing" and welcome its colonizers, its destroyers, its conquerors. It's the altruistic thing to do. How could anyone question altruism? Viewing the scale of rapes, murders, harassment, welfare costs, and destruction wrought by the barbarians in all these countries as mere "phenomenal" phenomena – critics of Islam and Muslims offer a "distorted" view of thing, don't you know? They're just Nazis – Kantian-bred political leaders see instead a kind of noumenal Nirvana of cultural "diversity" for having done their "duty."
In closing, I cede the floor to Ayn Rand, who, in her essay, "For the New Intellectual," explains what Kant really means by duty and his whole mare's nest of non sequiturs.
The arch-advocate of "duty" is Immanuel Kant; he went so much farther than other theorists that they seem innocently benevolent by comparison. "Duty," he holds, is the only standard of virtue; but virtue is not its own reward: if a reward is involved, it is no longer virtue. The only moral motivation, he holds, is devotion to duty for duty's sake; only an action motivated exclusively by such devotion is a moral action (i.e., an action performed without any concern for "inclination" [desire] or self-interest)…."
She quotes directly from the horse's mouth:
"It is a duty to preserve one's life, and moreover everyone has a direct inclination to do so. But for that reason the often anxious care which most men take of it has no intrinsic worth, and the maxim of doing so has no moral import. They preserve their lives according to duty, but not from duty. But if adversities and hopeless sorrow completely take away the relish for life, if an unfortunate man, strong in soul, is indignant rather than despondent or dejected over his fate and wishes for death, and yet preserves his life without loving it and from neither inclination nor fear but from duty—then his maxim has a moral import" (Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, ed. R. P. Wolff, New York, Bobbs-Merrill, 1969, pp. 16–17).
While you may love life, Islamists love death, as they so often claim, and they are willing to be "moral men" – by Kant's measure – and live long enough to kill you, and entire Western nations.
They just "love" doing it.
Posted by Edward Cline at 3:24 PM 15 comments:
Friday, September 04, 2015
Review: Classical Liberalism – A Primer
I would recommend that Classical Liberalism – A Primer, by Eamonn Butler, be incorporated into the standard curriculum of any university's political science or economics course, and be made required reading, qua primer, except I know that in today's educational environment pigs will fly first class on Kuwait Airways before that ever happens. I would even recommend it be used as a textbook in high schools' "social studies" courses; however, I realize that is as unlikely as roses blooming on Mars, as well, as long as public schools remain in the government's "public" hands. Public schools and universities are in the tenacious grip of anti-American, anti-Western, anti-freedom, anti-freedom of speech faculties of Marxists, collectivists, feminists, enforcers of politically correct thought and language, and the advocates of tolerance for everything but free inquiry.
High school students who survive the dumbing-down of their cognitive powers and the corruption of the evidence of their senses by Common Core, and college students who successfully resist, at the risk of their tenure as students, their incessant political indoctrination in academia, may or may not have difficulty reading Butler's brief introduction to the subject of classical liberalism. It all depends on their commitment to take their "education" seriously and their willingness to escape or combat the poisonous miasma of contemporary educational philosophy. It all depends on whether they're satisfied with being the passive receptors of the "received wisdom" of Karl Marx and Howard Zinn and the U.S. Department of Education, or have active minds that are not satisfied or content with the zealous but pat explanations offered by their PC professors.
Butler writes that Classical Liberalism – A Primer is "designed for students and lay readers who may understand the general concepts of social, political and economic freedom, but who would like a systematic presentation of its essential elements."
Butler is director of the Adam Smith Institute in London, and has written a number of books on the Austrian and other pro-freedom schools of economics. In this new title he painlessly and in plain language introduces the reader to the whole panoply of classical liberal thought throughout the centuries.
As a primer, Classical Liberalism introduces the student or lay reader to some fundamental aspects of this school of economics, such as the upholding of the individual over the group, the primacy of individual choice in terms of economic action over a government's "command economy" policies, and the long-range destructive consequences of state interference in an individual's life and in a nation's economy. What classical liberalism isn't, is conservatism, which bases its advocacy of individual freedom on religious or traditional argumentation. Stephen Davies, in the Foreword, writes of Classical Liberalism:
It is a wonderfully clear and well set out introduction to what classical liberalism is as a system of thought, whence it came, what it is like now and where it might be going. One valuable feature of the book is the way that it brings out the differences and variety within what nevertheless remains a coherent approach to political [and not merely to economic] thinking and questions of public policy.
Davies explains that classical liberalism is:
…is distinct from socialism and other forms of egalitarian collectivism such as social democracy and social or 'new' liberalism. It is also not the same as conservatism, being generally more optimistic, more trusting in reason (as opposed to faith or tradition).
My chief reservation about all the classical liberal thinkers cited and discussed by Butler – beginning with John Locke and ending with Milton Friedman and Robert Nozick but excepting Ayn Rand – is that they all based the moral justification of laissez-faire capitalism and freedom on either an explicit or implicit altruistic tenet: that such freedom benefits society, it is for "the greater good," it is the "greatest good for the greatest number," and so on. John Locke, Adam Smith, and Thomas Jefferson, and their contemporaries can be excused that failing; to have advocated in a largely Christian culture that man exists for his own reasons and for no other, would have clashed violently with the overriding moral atmosphere of their times, and had them excoriated.
But John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer especially among all the thinkers highlighted by Butler are guilty of having characterized freedom as a utilitarian value, not as one that is derived from man's nature as a volitional being. That failing continues to be indulged up to the present day. The "practical" values of freedom, reason and capitalism can always be denied by socialists, collectivists who seize the moral "high ground" and declaim that these values have outlived their purpose and assert, as Barack Obama has said, "It's time to try something new." Which, in his mind, was the expansion of government powers. Hardly "new."
Butler, intentionally or not, does credit to his book by not challenging the altruist premises of most of his subjects. Still, the moral foundations of classical liberalism, as presented in the book remain woozy and adumbrate, even though such ideas as natural rights, spontaneous orders, toleration, and the rule of law are treated at length.
I would like to have seen Butler agree with Ayn Rand that laissez-faire capitalism is a primarily a political system, and not just an economic one. He could very well have quoted her from Capitalism: The Unknown idea:
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.
The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships: basically, rights can be violated only by means of force. In a capitalist society, no man or group may initiate the use of physical force against others. The only function of the government, in such a society, is the task of protecting man's rights, i.e., the task of protecting him from physical force; the government acts as the agent of man's right of self-defense, and may use force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use; thus the government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of force under objective control.
This means that the social system is a coercion-free one, except in the circumstance of retaliation, and that the state's role in it is a subsidiary one. A society governed by a laissez-faire morality could be likened to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel or to any other luxury hotel; such places are not defined or known by how many doormen, valets, and maids they employ.
I would recommend Classical Liberalism – A Primer, but with two major caveats, and one minor one.
The first is that Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the Prussian philosopher who never left his home town of Königsberg, was not a "classical liberal," even though Butler includes him among past thinkers who contributed to the literature of liberty. He wrote far, far fewer words about liberty and governments being restrained in their powers than he wrote on philosophy, that is, on the noumenal and phenomenal worlds and the categorical imperative. He wrote that man cannot know the "real" ideal world, and that our senses inherently distort what we think we know. Kant was a dedicated enemy of the Enlightenment, which he saw as a threat to religion. His categorical imperative is the basis for the notion of "duty," which let loose the horrors of Nazism and Communism (and, separately, Shintoism for the Imperial Japanese government). "We've got to break eggs and heads to achieve the perfect human society, regardless of reason and the lives we sacrifice."
Religion was what he wanted to save from the onslaught of reason. He appropriated the term "reason" and then proceeded to eviscerate it of all meaning in two brain-stultifying Critiques. So any scrivenings he may have penned are distracting and utterly irrelevant in any discussion of freedom and liberty, and should be dismissed as a very minor footnote in the history of ideas, if even that. Kant's Critiques – of Pure Reason and of Judgment – are what he is best known for, and through those works Kant has had a profoundly pernicious and deadly influence on the course of philosophy and politics in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
One wouldn't call Hitler, Mao, Stalin or Mussolini champions of free enterprise and individual rights just because they happen to have once uttered those words at some point in their murderous political careers. Drafting Kant as an ally of classical liberalism is like consulting an Islamic supremacist on how to fight and defeat ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood.
My second reservation regards an exclusion, which is the glaring and inexplicable omission of Ludwig von Mises from Classical Liberalism in terms of a précis or two of his positions on politics and economics. He is mentioned infrequently, and only incidentally and parenthetically (e.g., p. xvi and p. 25, ), as a kind of "also ran" contributor to the corpus of classical liberal literature throughout Butler's book. His works are not included in the list of "classical texts." There is no web link listed to the Mises Institute. In the "classical liberal timeline" (p. 125), an early work of Mises's, Liberalismus, from 1927, is grudgingly mentioned but not explicated.
By omitting von Mises as a "key classical liberal thinker," and giving him very short shrift as an economist and innovator in the field, Butler does his book a disservice. Snubbing von Mises, possibly because of doctrinal differences between him and other classical liberals, is tantamount to leaving Victor Hugo out of a serious discussion of the major Romantic novelists of the 19th century. When I read of the differences between the Mises camp and the other camps, I can't help but recall that tune, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off." I do not know the nature of the animus Butler (and, by implication, the IEA and the Adam Smith Institute) has for Mises. It would be interesting to learn what it is.
My minor reservation concerns the designation of Ayn Rand, whose philosophy is partly but erroneously distilled in the book (p. 105), as a "Russian-American novelist and moralist." Rand regarded herself as an American, exclusively, who escaped Soviet Russia. A better designation might have emulated that of Hannah Arendt, who is called a "German-born political theorist." Rand retained all her life a heavy Russian accent, but she would have been the first to protest the hyphenation of her nationality. She came from a Jewish family, but she would also have objected to being called a "Jewish-American novelist": she was an atheist. The précis affiliates her with libertarianism, which she abhorred. She was also a philosopher, and not a mere "moralist." Her having written extensively on epistemology, metaphysics, concept-building and the development of philosophical thought over time, eminently qualifies Rand as a bona fide philosopher, and not just as a classical liberal groupie. The skewed distillation of her philosophy makes her sound like a champion of holistic mental health. She advocated egoism and selfishness, not "self-actualization," as the moral foundations of any political and economic system.
To conclude, I would recommend Classical Liberalism – A Primer as a textbook, but only if I were teaching a course on the subject. That way I could be certain that my students would be cautioned concerning my qualified endorsement. And they are important reservations. A likely alternative text would be Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
Classical Liberalism – A Primer, by Eamonn Butler. London: the Institute of Economic Affairs, 2015. pp. 132.
Posted by Edward Cline at 1:52 PM No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
Stocks in the news (amata, amatav, aq, biz, bsm, cpf, iii, ori, ptg, top, tsth) 29.08.18
AMATA AMATA expects land sales to reach 925 rai this year as it already sold 350 rai. It is dealing with customers to sell several hundred rai, especially in the EEC. It expects to revenue contribution from recurring income to rise to 80% from 60% now. It is studying investment projects in Myanmar and Laos. […]Read More →

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Preparing my home for packing
Accepting offers for: Hurry!
Location: Sunnyvale, California, 94089
Category: House Chores & Cleaning
Budget: $20.00/hr
Payment type: Pay Directly with Cash or Check
Complete by: Feb 5, 2017
Posted: Jan 31, 2017
Offers: 0
I need someone to give me a hand in preparing for our move day (packing essential items in suitcases, decluttering, packing delicate items). The actual move happens afterwards with a professional moving company, this is to get prepared for that move.


text:
Multiple Teams · Fall Athletes earn Academic All State Recognition
These student athletes were honored by the UHSAA at their respective state meets for achieving outstanding academic success throughout their high school years. Each athlete has maintained a 3.75 or higher cumulative GPA and in most cases closer to a 4.0 to earn the Academic All State Award. Congratulation to these Student Athletes!


text:
ESB Accountany can help you with your tax credits.
If you are self employed and a recipient of tax credits you know that you have to submit accounts information within four months of the start of the tax year.
We can help you meet this deadline with final accounts and tax returns submitted as well so it reduces the chances of a sudden adjustment in benefit. That is how our clients prefer to manage their affairs.
So if you want help with submitting your tax credit returns- you can either ring us now on 01242 583001- email us on email@example.com or click the Contact Us button or please fill the form at the bottom of the contact us page.


text:
Donald Trump says he'll decide on third party bid soon
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Donald Trump says he's going to make a decision once and for all about whether he'll mount a third party bid if he loses the Republican nomination for president.
Trump told reporters following a speech in Nashville Saturday that he's going to make a decision "very soon."
He says he thinks the decision will make a lot of people "very happy."
Trump has so far refused to pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee. He says it gives him leverage.
But his hands are largely tied: He'll have to sign a pledge to do so if he wants to appear on the ballot in South Carolina and potentially several other states.
Trump was courting tea party voters at a conference hosted by the National Federation of Republican Assemblies.


text:
This Week's Reading: Numbers 30 – Deuteronomy 2
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there. They shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment. And of the cities which you give, you shall have six cities of refuge. You shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there (Numbers 35:10-15, NKJV)
Have you ever had your life derailed by sudden loss? Have you ever hurt others accidentally or intentionally? Welcome to the human race.
God knows the struggle we all face. Paul, in describing our human condition, reveals that Jesus Christ is the only solution to humanity:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life… But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5: 8, 10,21).
In this passage, as the Israelites prepare to embrace their new destiny as conquerors of Canaan, God released crucial instructions to Moses. God established six strategic places of mercy for His people named "cities of refuge". Cities of refuge were designated havens where a person could flee to avoid an avenging family for the accidental slaying of their relative. In the city of refuge, a person could live in safely, free from the threat of retaliation, since by law, the family of the slain could not enter these cities to avenge their deceased loved one. If, however, the person ventured outside the city of refuge, the avenging family could then execute the manslayer with impunity. The house arrest would remain in place for the person until the death of the high priest, when the person could return home, back to their family property without fear of retribution.
To access the cities of refuge, the congregation would first determine if there was intent for murder and the murderer would be executed by the victim's family, life for life. However, if the tribal congregants determined that the slayer did not have intent, the tribe would protect the slayer from the grief-stricken victim's family and send the slayer to a city of refuge. No bribes to amend these consequences were tolerated. The kinsmen had every right to avenge the death of their loved one, should the slayer return before their sentence was over. God tolerated no mercy for those convicted of murder and no revenge against those judged as manslayers. The value of life is priceless to God, the Giver of Life.
God in His mercy, laid out the cities in Canaan and across the Jordan, that wherever you lived, you could access a city of refuge within a day's journey. Better yet, Israelite citizenship was not required, as stated in Num 35: 15, "These six towns will be a place of refuge for Israelites, aliens and any other person living among them, so that anyone who has killed another accidentally can flee there. " Come as you are, dear people, for God's mercy has no limitations on His welcome home.
After God laid out the blueprint, years later, Joshua obeyed and established the six cities of refuge:
So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. On the east side of the Jordan of Jericho they designated Bezer in the desert on the plateau in the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead in the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan in the tribe of Manasseh. Any of the Israelites or any alien living among them who killed someone accidentally could flee to these designated cities and not be killed by the avenger of blood prior to standing trial before the assembly (Joshua 20:7-9).
When God decreed cities of refuge to be set apart before the Israelites had stepped a single foot onto Canaan, God mandated his priesthood to provide refuge. In His mercy, God provided not a jail, but a haven where the slayer could dwell safely, though his freedom was kept within the boundaries of that city. The names of the cities are incredibly significant: Kedesh – "Sanctuary", Golan – "Exile", Ramoth – " Heights", Bezer – "Gold", Hebron – "Community" and Shechem means "Shoulder".
At Kedesh, God offer sanctuary for all, alien or Jew for broken people:
Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; and you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you— the sure mercies of David (Isa. 55:1-3).
With the refuge of Shechem, God extends His shoulder to weep upon for those who have accidentally caused great loss and then extends to us the authority to govern:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ (1 Cor. 1:3-5).
In Hebron, God places us in community to eradicate that orphan spirit brought in through trauma and bring wholeness through the life force of spiritual mothers and fathers:
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:14-20).
In Bezer, God whispers His love to us, calling us the finest, the most beautiful, when we cry to Him. The Lord extends His Hand to come to His side, and we, the mess-ups, are called royal, as He saturates us with His love:
I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see (Rev. 3:18).
In Ramoth's refuge, God lifts us above the limited vision of our eyes and show us greater heights, a God-breathed shift of perspective:
I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore (Psalm 121).
In the wilderness of Golan, God tenderly works on our hearts, woos us back to His side, and eases the pain of loss with the balm of His destiny:
Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor Me, The jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise. (Isa. 43:18-21)
The Door Who swings wide open and welcomes us to refuge is Jesus, who paid the ultimate price to usher us into Father's embrace. Our High Priest died a brutal death to purchase our freedom from sin's tyranny. In mercy, God established the manslayer could return home only upon the death of the High Priest of the nation of Israel. Jesus, our Great High Priest, died for all, that each of us could come home to God, all wages of sin paid in full, by His Blood sacrifice. As Hebrews 6:18 states, "We might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."
As royal priests, may we encounter the refuge of God and then, may we love others clamoring at the door of need with faith to say, "Come in, He's waiting to see you".
Let's Pray: Merciful Jesus, thank You for refuge from sin and its death wages. Father God, as Your royal priests, may we present Jesus as the open door of grace to all. Thank you, Jesus, our Great High Priest, for the freedom that cost You everything. Sweet Holy Spirit of God, lead us to walk humbly, act justly and love mercy, that we would be living cities of our God, great cities of refuge for those crying for mercy. Amen.
Study Questions:
- As priests of God, what perspective can we offer to those who can only see their mess?
- As lovers of God, do we offer living water to those who thirst in the barren places? Are we willing to dig wells for those in the desert place?
- Are children of God, do we abide in community? Are we family to those whom God has placed around us? Do we still see ourselves on a singular journey when God calls us into family to have the greater adventure and greater growth?
- Do we offer our blind eyes to the Lord, our naked need and our longing for encounter in expectation of His mercy? Can we lift our faces before Him and let Him heal us with His declarations of love?
Next Week's Reading: Deuteronomy 3 – 12


text:
Windows 10 Technical Preview Watermark Remover 100% working Free Download
Window 10 is now most recognized and the extreme operating system now in the market. Window 10 Technical Preview is the version many of the user using its evaluation copy and this thing appear in the corner of the desktop which ruined the beauty of beautiful desktop. As Window 10 now in the market so it's annoying showing in the desktop that you still using the preview version of Window 10.although watermark is so small but it's annoying sometimes we wish to remove the statement written on our desktop.
Removing the watermark is pretty difficult because it's built in we have to edit many files to do this so need the cracked software to do this. As the operating system doesn't allow us to edit the files because its security reasons there any malicious program may affect the performance of the computer so we first need the authorization of those files.
Remove Watermark from Window 10 desktop
Her we have a free tool which can remove watermark from window 10 desktop and will work for both of the version 32 and 64 bit of window 10.
Instruction How to use
First, you have to download the tool for removing the watermark of window 10.
Click and start the program with administration permission
Click next and read the warning dialog.
Click save and ok..!! Done that's it.


text:
"This year I'm telling clients to use their couch for an easy workout. These moves hit all the problem areas—arms, legs, butt. Just have your favourite five-minute song ready:
I like 'What Now (R3HAB Remix),' by Rihanna."
Here's the workout:
Step-Ups {for legs + glutes}: Step right foot onto couch, followed by left. Step down, leading with your right foot.
Do 16 times on each side.
Side Lift {for side abs + arms}: Lie on your right side. Place feet on the couch and rise to a side plank on your right forearm. Draw your left leg into a bent-knee shape, then extend and kick up toward the ceiling. Return to start position. Do 16 times on each side.
Plank Kick {for low abs + butt}: Get on all fours, facing away from the couch, then extend your left foot behind you and rest it on the couch. Lift your right knee off the ground and kick out your leg to the side. Bring right knee back to the floor. Do 16 times on each side.
{The pic above is post-workout – ha!}
{Source: Glamour}


text:
With over 50 years' experience in providing quality design & furnishings, Western Contract Interiors is dedicated to helping you receive the best and most affordable product and services for your project. An authorized Herman Miller dealer, we boast excellence in all that we do with the highest degree of value. With Western Contract, you can be assured that your project won't get lost in the shuffle and that your experience will include only the highest level of attention. WCI is known for our ability to offer the best product and services and at the most competitive prices.
Our showroom displays the most popular Herman Miller seating, systems & furniture. Our expert sales staff is available to assist you in your selections. We offer professional design and planning with installation services and project management.
Give us a call or come by the showroom. We are here to assist in your important facility decisions – both large and small.
Contact us
for more information.


text:
by Shane Thomas Follow @tokenbg
It's Friday, so chances are that you may be heading out to socialise tonight (or tomorrow). Even if you're like me, and prefer to spend most of your weekends away from the prospective nightlife of music, dancing and alcohol, there's no doubt that it makes up a major part of some people's weekends.
Some of you may even be heading to central London, but beware because the nightclub Libertine, (formerly known as Chinawhites) reputed to be one of the most estimable clubs in London, appears to have an admittance policy akin to Jim Crow-era America.
This was initially brought to light by fashion blogger Fisayo Longe, who described her experience at being refused entry to Libertine, with the woman on the door saying to her and her friends, "Not tonight ladies, please step aside." It was only after repeatedly demanding an explanation that Longe was told by a separate member of staff, "Maybe because you're black", as well as, "…probably because you're not good looking enough."
It isn't just Longe who's had issues with being allowed access to Libertine. User reviews on other websites detail this racist door policy, while a scan of Twitter also produced emetic anecdotes:
At the time of writing, Libertine's response has been telling. They've made no comment on the criticism they've received online. I also emailed them about their door policy, with their response being, "We obviously do not have an admission policy based on race."[1]
What's equally as telling are a recent series of tweets from their Twitter page, the undertone of which stating, "Look, we can't be racist. We let the odd black person in." However, these are little more than racism shields. You can't claim diversity by stating "One is enough".
While such conduct is truly abhorrent, this is a problem that goes further than one nightclub. Libertine isn't the only establishment to have been called out for racism in deciding who they let gain access. Indeed, promoters are sometimes advised to allot their guest list places on the basis of race.
You may be of the mindset that this issue can be rectified by eschewing going to these venues, or maybe you're an introverted person, and would never dream of spending your weekend in a bar or club. But the problem remains that these clubs are a symptom of the systemic racism in this country, that far too many like to tell themselves doesn't exist[2].
For some, these nightspots function as a much needed social crutch. After working for 35 hours plus during the week, being able to mix with friends – with or without the aid of alcohol and/or music – can be a valuable decompression period. A brief oasis of renewal where the often restrictive nature of 9-to-5 can be cast off, before having to get back on that treadmill on Monday morning.
Go to the website gallery of numerous clubs and bars, and you'll see a litany of revellers. Many of them women, and most of them white. The image being portrayed isn't just one of hedonism, but also that their venue should be where you want to go to, because all the pretty people are there.
The pretty people. Which means thin, cisgender, able-bodied and white. It's not just the bigoted gradient of melanin and violence that's the issue here, but also that racist beauty standards assert that black women (especially dark-skinned black women) can't be pretty. Or at least, not too many of them.
It also proves that it doesn't matter how black people dress in terms of them being treated as human. Respectability never obviates blackness. One can wear the most expensive and stylish attire to some clubs, and it's still subsumed by racism. The first, last, and only thing the staff on the door see is your race. You can forget V.I.P, when you're not even seen as a "P".
It's important to note that white supremacy has caused blackness to be twinned not only with violence, but with poverty[3]. I'm certain I'm not the only one to try and gain entry to a club or bar, only to be superciliously told of the entry fee, as if that would automatically dissuade me from going in.
The message is clear and simple: we don't want you here. Just because we play plenty of black music doesn't mean we want to house black people.
Well, this remains our country, too. All our names are on the list. It's about time Libertine – and clubs of their ilk – realised that.
[1] – What's also obvious is that anti-racist words come a lot easier that anti-racist deeds.
[2] – I'm expecting at least one person in the comments to accuse me of "playing the race card".
[3] – So take the "It's really all about class" sentiments elsewhere.
All work published on Media Diversified is the intellectual property of its writers. Please do not reproduce, republish or repost any content from this site without express written permission from Media Diversified. For further information, please see our reposting guidelines.
"Two Weeks Notice" is Shane Thomas's bi-monthly column encompassing "Pop culture to sport, and back again".
A mixed-race film graduate, Shane comes from Jamaican and Mauritian parentage. He has been blogging about sport since 2010 at the website for The Greatest Events in Sporting History. He is also a contributor to 'Simply Read', the blogging offshoot of the podcasting network Simply Syndicated. A lover of sport, genre-fiction, and privilege checking, Shane can be found on Twitter, both at @TGEISH and @tokenbg (and yes, the handle does mean what you think it means).
Related articles
- Who Stole all the Black Women from Britain? (mediadiversified.org)
- Brazil's new primetime show "Sex and the Niggaz" serves the white gaze (mediadiversified.org)


text:
Z50 Portable Speaker
Portable Speaker
Z50 Portable Speaker
Portable Speaker
$ 19.99
Free shipping on orders over $29.00
Key Features
Amplified Sound
10 Watts Peak/5 Watts RMS power from the 2.25 inch driver design amplifies your device's audio in any room. Small speaker; big sound.
Simple Setup
Plug in the power adapter and connect your smartphone, tablet or computer via the headphone jack (3.5mm) input. This portable speaker is simple to setup and easy to move around.
- Height x Width x Depth: 4.2 in (106.5 mm) x 3.88 in (98.6 mm) x 3.88 in (98.6 mm)
- Weight: .62 lb (.28 Kg)
System Requirements
- Television
- Computer
- Smartphone
- Tablet
- Music player
Works with any device with a headphone jack (3.5mm) input
Technical Specifications
Total watts (RMS): 5W
3.5mm input: 1
Controls: Control volume from your device
Package Contents
One speaker
Power supply
User documentation
Warranty Information
1-Year Limited Hardware Warranty
Part Number
Grey: PN: 980-000797


text:
Faculty Honored for Undergraduate Teaching with 2015 Emerson Award
For 26 years, Emerson's "Excellence in Teaching" Awards have honored exceptional educators from across the St. Louis region. Each year, Emerson recognizes over 100 individuals with this award. Six faculty, nominated by their schools and by The Teaching Center, received this award in recognition of their leadership in undergraduate teaching. The 2015 honorees were recognized at a reception on Sunday, […]Read More


text: Today when I was introduced to Mr. Chapman's 5th grade class, I received applause even before I began speaking. I felt like a Nobel laureate rather than the guy who comes to tell the class about rockets each year. We had a great time with lots of questions and comments. In a couple of weeks we will launch the rockets they build. Later in the day I received my state income tax refund of $23. It is amazing how small victories can really boost the mood.


text:
Dear Valued Customers,
Following the recent Government guidelines we are pleased to be able to tell you that our Enfield showroom is now open between the hours of 9.30am – 5pm Monday to Saturday and 10am – 4pm Sundays.
To ensure a safe environment for both our customers and staff we are asking everyone to follow the latest Government guidelines regarding social distancing and Hygiene. Automatic hand sanitisers are located around the showroom.
Please visit our 15000 square foot showroom where we have an extensive display of our furniture.
We hope you stay safe and well.
The Team at Crownhill Garden Furniture


text:
Mega-Expensive Wedding Full Of Range Rovers and Helicopter
(Last Updated On: February 22, 2016)
Different people have different plans for their weddings, some prefer small ones while others want to make a statement and go full out.
This couple going by the names Bernahdette and David spent millions on a fleet of around 9 Range Rovers to make a grand entrance to the wedding. Then at the end they used a helicopter. Just check them out.


text:
Happy to Be Here
Product Description
This is one of our metal signs for suicide awareness. We made this as a way to help have a direct conversation with someone who may be in crisis. But don't keep this important information to yourself. Percentage of this sale will go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
- Size: 15" - 24"
- Several Powder Coated Options
- Made in the USA
Our typical ship times are 7 business days after order placement.


text:
It's not sunny in Philadelphia right now when it comes to hockey. The Flyers dropped a 3-1 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes to fall to 0-3-0 this season and they have scored just three goals in three games. Steve Mason stopped 32-of-35 shots in the loss.
Luke Schenn scored his first goal of the year for the Flyers while Jay Harrison (1) and Radek Dvorak (2) tallied for the Hurricanes. Anton Khudobin stopped 17-of-18 shots in the win. It's frustrating to figure out where the problems lie in Philly and I don't want to begin to figure it out. I'm low on Advil among other things.
Let's just say this. There is a time for patience to be exercised and there is a time to panic. We're getting closer with each game to the point of panic. It's the second straight year the Flyers started 0-3-0 and they had a difficult time in even getting to .500. If they can't get it done in their next game against Florida, it could be tough with PHX, DET,VAN and PIT as their next four after the Panthers.
Anaheim 3, Winnipeg 2 Box Goals ANH-Mathieu Perrault (2), Corey Perry (1), Andrew Cogliano (1); WPG-Andrew Ladd PP, ES (1,2) Goaltenders: ANA Victor Fasth 13-15 W; WPG Ondrej Pavelec 31-34 L
Analysis: Ladd had both goals for the Jets and Blake Wheeler picked up assists on them. This will be the last trip for Teemu Selanne to Winnipeg unless these two teams meet in the finals, barring a trade.
Vancouver 5, Calgary 4 F-OT Box Goals-VAN David Booth (1), Jannik Hansen (2), Mike Santorelli (1,2), Dale Weise (1); CGY Mikael Backlund (1), Sean Monahan (2), David Jones (2), Mark Giordano (1) Goaltenders: VAN Eddie Lack 32-36 W; CGY Joey MacDonald 23-28 OTL
Analysis: Jiri Hudler also had a pair of assists so he's off to a solid start this season. This was a battle of backup goaltenders and we got what we expected. No, not really. It's hard to tell what you get when you have backups involved especially this early in the season. This was one of those games where half of the skaters picked up at least a point but none got multiples except for Santorelli and Hudler.
Also, keep in mind that the Saddledome was flooded like we saw in the diagram above earlier this summer. It's amazing the work that was put in to get that building back to game shape in around three months.
There just wasn't a whole lot of fantasy action in this one and there won't be much tomorrow as there are just two games.
New Jersey at Edmonton 930pm ET and NY Rangers at Los Angeles 1030pm ET are the only two we have. Fun times. Like you're really going to be watching the Jets-Falcons on Monday Night Football?


text:
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Concept Artwork Showcases 27 Armor Sets for Geralt
The previous Witcher games were awesome, but the visual variation in the armor Geralt of Rivia could wear wasn't exactly amazing. This is apparently going to change with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as you can see in the artwork by CD Proket RED Concept Artist Jan Marek showcased below.
While we don't know if the concept art showcases only part of the armor sets that will be available or all of them, visual variety seems to be guaranteed, alongside a grim and rugged look for our favorite Witcher.
They're also a further testament to Geralt's athletic abilities. Try to roll as he does while wearing a full suit of chainmail down to your knees if you can.


text:
Meg Meranus
Voice of Diets Are Fattening
I built this community for you, the disillusioned dieter. Change your perspective on food and your healthy "thin mentality" will emerge…
Welcome › Forums › Diet Myths › How diet myths keep you heavy by making you focus on the wrong thing.
Tagged: Where to buy z pack.
This topic contains 1 reply, has 1 voice, and was last updated by admin 6 years, 9 months ago.
Looking outside of your body for the answer doesn't work.
You are a unique person. And every day is unique. Some days you need more food, some days less. Some days you are more active. This uniqueness is good – it is what makes you, you. No diet will be able to account for all of this. But if you listen to your body, (I know you can't hear it now, but it will get louder and louder) your body will guide you.
Does that seem strange, magical? It isn't. It is very normal. Don't you think Mother Nature gave you the tools you need to know what and when and how much to eat? Of course you have these tools! We have simply been trained to ignore our hunger. And to ignore our satiety. This has completely perverted our relationship with food…
Your thin mentality will get it back.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.


text:
Global trends are disrupting traditional ways of providing services to people and businesses in urban areas. Smart mobile in combination with the Cloud will provide mobility packages to meet an individual's needs and values. This emerging market is attracting non-traditional players who have the skills and expertise to provide such services.
These changes will bring huge benefits to users and cities, but also disruption and threats to existing business models and governance. Whoever owns the customer in this new model has the ability to nudge users in any direction and sell a range of products and services to users and cities.
In the future we will have a system that is driven from the user up. This takes us into the world of co-design, incentives and loyalty programmes, and back office systems that provide the user with one account for all services. City authorities and transport providers will need to create an interface between their strategic aims and objectives, driven from the top down, and the user-focused, seamless and personalized model driven from the ground up.
These trends are already happening across Europe, North America and Asia. They will have significant impact in several ways:
Infrastructure will be connected through the Internet of Things. The Connected Car will be able to talk to smart street furniture, control centres and users. There will be no need for expensive signing gantries. People will have individual mobility packages that will guide them through the city, offering choices and updating the status of the systems.
Autonomous vehicles will arrive within the next 10 years in complex urban scenarios. This will have a huge impact on city life. For example, an OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] study in Lisbon in 2009 concluded that if every car in the city centre was autonomous and shared we would only need 10% of the current number of cars and would need no local public transport services. Imagine the impact of this on congestion, pollution and land use as large areas of car parking are released.
Freight logistics will be impacted in a fundamental way. Vehicles will be driverless, with intelligent routing making the system much more efficient and the last mile will be transformed. For example, there are projects in Sweden to deliver packages to parked cars when the owner isn't present. This saves money for the delivery agent, generates income from the customer and reduces congestion and pollution.
The shared economy will mean that the ownership model will change to a pay-as-you-go model. Auto manufacturers are already changing their business model to cope with this. The emergence of Uber, Hyacar, Lyft, etc. combined with community car clubs, car hire and bike hire will see the demise of many local bus services. This will save money for local government, provide a better service for users in the city and surrounding areas and also change the design of the urban streetscape.
City management will benefit from these new models. Whoever owns the customer can offer incentives to manage supply and demand, incentivize users to shop in different areas, walk more, travel at different times, etc. However, to enable that to happen the business and governance models need to change. A vertical, siloed approach to services will not work. The new world of user-focused services cuts across all sectors and departments.
Mobility expert George Hazel will be discussing Mobility as a Service at Smarter Travel LIVE! 17–18 March 2016
TransportXtra is part of Landor LINKS
© 2020 TransportXtra | Landor LINKS Ltd | All Rights Reserved
Subscriptions, Magazines & Online Access Enquires
[Frequently Asked Questions]
Email: email@example.com | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7091 7959
Shop & Accounts Enquires
Email: email@example.com | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7091 7855
Advertising Sales & Recruitment Enquires
Email: email@example.com | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7091 7861
Events & Conference Enquires
Email: email@example.com | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7091 7865
Press Releases & Editorial Enquires
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7091 7875
Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Advertise
Web design sussex by Brainiac Media 2020


text:
From the Museum's permanent collection, this exhibit featured original hand-colored etchings created for Geisert's book, "Roman Numerals I to MM", published by Houghton Mifflin in 1996. Lessons of how to count Roman numerals are filled with fanciful depictions of pigs in hot-air balloons, pigs playing tug-of-war. and pigs romping about the farmyard.
Past Exhibitions
Pig Latin: Illustrations by Arthur Geisert
November 23, 2004 - February 18, 2005
Curated by Jane Milosch, sponsored by Cottingham & Butler
Michelle Sales: Accumulations
August 10, 2004 - November 7, 2004
Organized by the Dubuque Museum of Art. Sponsored by Cottingham & Butler
Michelle Sales: Accumulations
Fiber artist Michelle Sales expresses herself forcefully with dyed and heat treated synthetic fiber in her exhibit "Accumulations", in the Kris Mozena McNamer gallery at the Dubuque Museum of Art. Photojournals of decay and erosion created during travles to Central and South America influence her work. Each piece of material that Ms. Sales manipulates and then sews together represents a memory that she recalls while creating her work. The exhibition work provides viewers with a chimerical yet corporeal environment of human forms including torsos, arms, and life-size figures to examine.
Image: Paladin 3, 2003, 74 x 24 x 12 in., Thermoplastic materials, dyed and stitched, wire, transferred text, found objects, collection of the artist
Dubuque: The Grant Wood Collection
May 29, 2004 - January 9, 2005
Organized by the Dubuque Museum of Art. Sponsored by Dubuque Internal Medicine, PC and Tri-State Independent Physicians Assoc. Inc.
Dubuque: The Grant Wood Collection
This exhibition featured works from the Museum's significant collection of Iowa Regionalist, Grant Wood. Wood's work celebrates the rolling landscape of rural Iowa and gives dignity to the seasonal labors of the farmer who works the soil. Wood's work is also infused with a gentle humor that viewers can easily identify with.
Dubuque's Grant Wood Collection was established in 1935 when the Carnegie-Stout Public Library, using a bequest of Mary E. Lull, purchased two important paintings: "Appraisal" and "Victorian Survival." It was the first public collection in Iowa to acquire major works directly from Grant Wood. Throughout the history of both organizations, the Museum and Library have enjoyed a longstanding professional partnership. This relationship was capped in 1999, when, through a long term loan by the Carnegie-Stout Library, the Dubuque Museum of Art became the caretaker of the Woods and other paintings. The Museum was entrusted with the collection because they could "provide the best facility and opportunities for the community to enjoy these treasures."
Other works in the exhibit came to the Museum through the generosity of Museum patrons, Dr. Randy Lengeling and Bob and Barbara Woodward. The exhibit included Wood's early work, as a student exploring a variety of aesthetic models during his travels in Europe, his iconic and familiar Regionalist images of the Midwestern landscape and rural folk that he loved and respected, and the set of lithographs completed during the last four years of his life. Also included in the exhibition were whimsical flower pot sculptures, "Lillies of the Alley" composed of nuts and bolts found in Wood's alley. Other objects in the exhibition included books illustrated by Wood and a brochure he published to advertise the Stone City Art Colony.
Image: Tree Planting Group, lithograph, 1937, Gift of Dr. Randall Lengeling, 99.12.02
Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian-Selections from the Complete Portfolio Collection
May 29, 2004 - January 9, 2005
The exhibit was sponsored by Target and FRIENDS of the Dubuque Museum of Art
Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian-Selections from the Complete Portfolio Collection
Pioneering photographer Edward S. Curtis captured the daily and ceremonial existence of the Native Americans during the period 1900-1930. His ambitious project was endorsed by then President Theodore Roosevelt and financed by JP Morgan. Curtis' goal was to produce a 20 volume set of ethnographic text illustrated with high quality photogravures.
The exhibition consisted of 20 images from the Complete Portfolio. The Portfolio came to the Dubuque Museum of Art once again through the auspices of the Carnegie-Stout Public Library. Former Dubuque native, Mrs. Emma H. Ward gave the portfolio to the Library as a memorial to her late husband, Hiram Pond Ward. This Portfolio came under the care of the Museum in 1999, with other significant works from the Library's collection.
After languishing for years unnoticed, the Curtis photographs resurfaced in the 1970's and are now recognized as one of the most significant records of the Native American cultures ever produced.