text:
Well I don't usually like Monday's anyway.
New York Giants Win the Superbowl
Another win by the G-men. The Patriots had many chances to put this game away, but never could. Up 17-9, 17-12, and 17-15 the offense did not generate any sustained drives or points. The Giants executed better and it's over. It's a hard thing, Patriots have been playoff disappointments for years now and another tough loss.
Monday Mourning
I am still a bit off from last night, good thing I took today as a vacation day. As such, going to get some work done tonight on charts and screening so you get a linkfest.
Robert Sinn (The Stock Sage) wonders:
Why Isn't the Market More Worried About Iran?
I agree with his 3 points on this.
My friend Mark of The Illusion of Prosperity covers Net Worth to Wages Ratio and uses some technical analysis to boot!
I can take a break from the markets anytime and not be behind. Why? Because I check out iBC's ChessNwine and the 5 minute market recap and I am good to go:
Stock #Market Recap 02/06/12
Market Anthropology has some new market analogs to look at, so check them out:
The Illusion of Strength
Macro Man thinks Portugal worries may be on hold for a while should Greece get their act together:
Death by x-axis
The bizarre and sad tale of FedEX flight 705 via Damn Interesting:
Aches on a Plane
My man Paul of No Excuses BBQ does Moinks and wings for the Superbowl and invents the MOINKroissandwich:
And the Winner Is…
Have a good night.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday Mourning
Posted by EconomicDisconnect at 7:06 PM
4 comments:
- Stagflationary Mark said...
First off, thanks for the plug.
The Patriots had many chances to put this game away, but never could.
I'd blame the Patriot Act, but then again I'm probably a bit biased.
- February 6, 2012 at 7:39 PM
- EconomicDisconnect said...
LOL, plenty of blame to go around, Ugh. trying to shake it off.
- February 6, 2012 at 8:15 PM
- Jennifer Hillier said...
Sorry about your Pats loss. Hope the sting is wearing off a little.
- February 7, 2012 at 1:19 PM
- EconomicDisconnect said...
JH, a little bit. Staying away from sports articles or sports shows is helping.
- February 7, 2012 at 5:41 PM
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text:
"There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet, which fails so regularly, as love."
What's God Got to Do With It?
I try not to get angry with people. I might allow myself to show frustration at times. But not anger. Not anymore. Nowadays I try to just shake my head and get on with things. You see, I'm old and really don't have time for the foolishness of judging other people. Or for trying to impose my unsolicited opinion on them. Or for bickering with them about politics or some other nonsense. I don't do those things because there's God to consider.
And so you've just re-read the last sentence and are asking, "What the hell does that mean? What's God got to do with it?" Well, if you believe in love, then God's got to do with everything. "Whoa! What kind of shit it that? I thought this is a blog about Ceara Lynch." It is. And I'm going to get to there. Just bear with me a bit and I'll explain.
Love is the Answer
One of the most influential books of my life is The Art of Loving by American psychologist Erich Fromm. Fromm starts with the assumption that man's most basic need in life is to escape from the prison of aloneness; to find union or togetherness and avoid the anxiety and despair that separateness brings. As Fromm puts it, "The unity achieved in productive work is not interpersonal; the unity achieved in orgiastic fusion is transitory; the unity achieved by conformity is only pseudo-unity. Hence, they are only partial answers to the problem of existence. The full answer lies in the achievement of interpersonal union, of fusion with another person, in love. This desire for interpersonal fusion is the most powerful striving in man. It is the most fundamental passion, it is the force which keeps the human race together, the clan, the family, society. The failure to achieve it means insanity or destruction — self-destruction or destruction of others. Without love, humanity could not exist for a day."
The Semantics of Love
Fromm goes on. "Yet, if we call the achievement of interpersonal union 'love', we find ourselves in a serious difficulty. Fusion can be achieved in different ways — and the differences are not less significant than what is common to the various forms of love. Should they all be called love? Or should we reserve the word "love" only for a specific kind of union, one which has been the ideal virtue in all great humanistic religions and philosophical systems of the last four thousand years of Western and Eastern history?"
"As with all semantic difficulties, the answer can only be arbitrary. What matters is that we know what kind of union we are talking about when we speak of love. Do we refer to love as the mature answer to the problem of existence, or do we speak of those immature forms of love which may be called symbiotic union? I shall call love only the former. I shall begin the discussion of love' with the latter."
"Symbiotic union has its biological pattern in the relationship between the pregnant mother and the fetus. They are two, and yet one. They live "together" (symbiosis), they need each other. The fetus is a part of the mother, it receives everything it needs from her; mother is its world, as it were, she feeds it, she protects it, but also her own life is enhanced by it. In the psychic symbiotic union, the two bodies are independent, but the same kind of attachment exists psychologically."
"The passive form of the symbiotic union is that of submission, or if we use a clinical term, of masochism. The masochistic person escapes from the unbearable feeling of isolation and separateness by making himself part and parcel of another person who directs him, guides him, protects him; who is his life and his oxygen, as it were. The power of the one to whom one submits is inflated, may she be a person or a god; she is everything, I am nothing, except inasmuch as I am part of her. As a part, I am part of greatness, of power, of certainty. The masochistic person does not have to make decisions, does not have to take any risks; he is never alone — but he is not independent; he has no integrity; he is not yet fully born. In a religious context the object of worship is called an idol; in a secular context of a masochistic love relationship the essential mechanism, that of idolatry, is the same. The masochistic relationship can be blended with physical, sexual desire; in this case it is not only a submission in which one's mind participates, but also one's whole body. There can be masochistic submission to fate, to sickness, to rhythmic music, to the orgiastic state produced by drugs or under hypnotic trance — in all these instances the person renounces his integrity, makes himself the instrument of somebody or something outside of himself; he need not solve the problem of living by productive activity."
"The active form of symbiotic fusion is domination or, to use the psychological term corresponding to masochism, sadism. The sadistic person wants to escape from her aloneness and her sense of imprisonment by making another person part and parcel of herself. She inflates and enhances herself by incorporating another person, who worships her."
"The sadistic person is as dependent on the submissive person as the latter is on the former; neither can live without the other. The difference is only that the sadistic person commands, exploits, hurts, humiliates, and that the masochistic person is commanded, exploited, hurt, humiliated. This is a considerable difference in a realistic sense; in a deeper emotional sense, the difference is not so great as that which they both have in common: fusion without integrity."
"In contrast to symbiotic union, mature love is union under the condition of preserving one's integrity, one's individuality. Love is an active power in man; a power which breaks through the walls which separate man from his fellow-men, which unites him with others; love makes him overcome the sense of isolation and separateness, yet it permits him to be himself, to retain his integrity. In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two."
"If we say love is an activity, we face a difficulty which lies in the ambiguous meaning of the word "activity". By "activity", in the modern usage of the word, is usually meant an action which brings about a change in an existing situation by means of an expenditure of energy. Thus a man is considered active if he does business, studies medicine, works on an endless belt, builds a table, or is engaged in sports. Common to all these activities is that they are directed toward an outside goal to be achieved. What is not taken into account is the motivation of activity. Take for instance a man driven to incessant work by a sense of deep insecurity and loneliness; or another one driven by ambition, or greed for money. In all these cases the person is the slave of a passion, and his activity is in reality a "passivity" because he is driven; he is the sufferer, not the "actor". On the other hand, a man sitting quiet and contemplating, with no purpose or aim except that of experiencing himself and his oneness with the world, is considered to be "passive", because he is not "doing" anything. In reality, this attitude of concentrated meditation is the highest activity there is, an activity of the soul, which is possible only under the condition of inner freedom and independence. One concept of activity, the modern one, refers to the use of energy for the achievement of external aims; the other concept of activity refers to the use of man's inherent powers, regardless of whether any external change is brought about." Here Fromm differentiates between "actions" and "passions." "In the exercise of an active affect, man is free, he is the master of this affect; in the exercise of a passive affect, man is driven, the object of motivations of which he himself is not aware. Thus envy, jealousy, ambition, any kind of greed are passions; love is an action, the practice of a human power, which can be practiced only in freedom and never as the result of a compulsion. Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a "standing in", not a "falling for". In the most general way, the active character of love can be described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving."
Love and Freedom
Fromm wrote, "Without love humanity could not exist for a day." These are strong words, but if we think seriously about it, most of us will agree there's truth within those words. We sometimes tend to dwell on those things with separate us such as war, hate, selfishness and greed, without realizing the underlying power of relationships. The very fact that humanity continues to exist on this planet, in spite of all the destructive forces which divide it, offers a semblance of proof for the unifying power of love.
But this is only theory. In order to determine why this is true and how it works, we must examine some of the practical aspects of love. The first of these is the fact that love demands something of us. As Fromm says when he speaks of the art of loving, loving is something which we must learn. It does not come naturally; it is not something which we do instinctively. Loving is a skill which must be learned and practiced in an active fashion. Many of us have grown up with the idea that it is our right to be loved. We therefore have a tendency to wait, passively, for someone to love us, and then we feel unjustly treated when nobody seems to care. However, in order for love to exist, someone must act; someone must do the loving. What Fromm tells us is that love demands much more than our passivity. This implies, therefore, that if we expect to receive love, we ourselves must be prepared to give love. Love is not a one-way street.
And that brings us to the second practical aspect of love which is that, since love is active rather than passive, it is also basically giving. This is a point which is often misunderstood. Many people interpret this as meaning that love is giving up,. that it means sacrificing, or being deprived of something. They also often feel that love destroys their freedom as an individual. Fromm says this is not true, for two reasons. First, love is not limited to giving in a material sense. The most important aspect of giving is that we give of ourselves, of that which is alive in us, of our joy and our sorrow, our interest and our knowledge, our understanding and our concern. Then, secondly, giving ourselves in love does not, as some people fear, mean sacrificing our freedom as an individual. This is expressed in the paradoxical Christian, and the Buddhist, concept that we must lose our self, in order to gain our self. What we must lose is our selfishness, our self-centeredness. We must lose the ego, in order gain the soul. And for those who are worried about freedom, Fromm emphasizes that to give ourselves in love proves that we are free to give. Loving is giving that enriches the giver because it heightens his sense of being a free and active individual who has something of value to give to another person. Love is active, love is giving, and love produces union which strengthens our true individuality. For myself, this is the guiding philosophy behind my play in financial domination. Giving enriches me. It strengthens me. It makes me free.
In addition to these basic aspects of love, Fromm also discusses other elements of love which are care, responsibility, respect and knowledge. Care is the active concern for the life and growth of the person we love. Responsibility is the effort to respond to the needs of another, a sense of openness to the person we love. Respect means that we respect the other person as an individual, that we accept him as he is and do not try to change him or turn him into an object for our own needs. Knowledge means that we must try to know the other person, both on a rational and on an intuitive or emotional level. To care, to respect, to respond responsibly, to know … these things enable faith
In order to give ourselves in love to another person, we must have faith in that person. To love means to open ourselves, and to be open means to be vulnerable. Some of us hesitate to do this because in the past we have been hurt or disappointed. But without this sense of openness, which is based on faith, there can be no love. Love is therefore an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.
Types of Love
Fromm differentiates between different types of love. Specifically, between brotherly love, motherly love, fatherly love, self-love and erotic love.
As he begins to discuss brotherly love, Fromm makes a rather startling statement. He says that unless we love everybody, we don't really love anybody. Real love is based on an attitude, a way of thinking or feeling, which is directed toward the entire world and everything in it. If I have developed the capacity for love, then I can't help loving my brother. If a person says that he loves just one other person, or one group of persons, and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow-men, this is not real love. On the contrary, it is a form of selfishness, or what Fromm calls egotism for two. In order for love to really be love, and not a form of selfishness, it must be this all-inclusive, unselfish love which Fromm calls brotherly love and which is the basic attitude underlying all other types of love. As an addendum to this point, I would like add that perfect brotherly love does not mean one must love everything another person may do. That person may perform an act which you feel is wrong, so that it is all too easy to condemn the person for this act. What love demands, however, is that we separate the person from the act. This may not be easy to do, of course, but no one can say that love is easy. It is much easier to hate or be indifferent, which requires no effort at all. But love always requires effort on our part
Unlike brotherly love, motherly love is unconditional. There are no strings attached. The mother loves the child regardless of what he does, simply because he is her child. On the other hand, fatherly love is conditional. That means that father's love is not always there, that it depends on the conduct of the child, on whether the child obeys and fulfills the expectations of the father. Fromm is quick to point out, however, that just as we all have within us a mixture of so-called masculine and feminine characteristics, each person also has ability to express both motherly and fatherly love. In fact, mature love results from the ability to balance these two different types of love. When either type of love is exaggerated, there is a negative effect. Motherly love, if it is too strong, tends to become possessive and limits development by making the child too dependent on mother. Fatherly love, when it is exaggerated, tends to be harsh and authoritarian. Therefore, it is important that each person learn to achieve a balance between these two forms of love. As Fromm says, in this balance lies the only basis for mature love, not only for our children, but for all other people as well
Speaking of motherly and fatherly love from the point of view of the child, Fromm says that in the beginning the child loves primarily in response to being loved. He senses that he is the object of unconditional mother love. This need for the mother's unconditional love is obviously something which nature has given the child to protect him in his early period of development. But although it is good for the child, this kind of self-centered attachment, which is based only on need, is not good for the adult. Unfortunately, some people never outgrow this form of childish, immature love which only expects to receive, and not to give. Fromm puts it very succinctly when he observes that the immature person says .I love you because I need you,. while the mature person says, .I need you because I love you.. The immature person always puts his need first, while for the mature person love is most important
Another important type of love is self-love. It may seem strange to talk about self-love, since it appears to contradict much of what has been said about love being open and all-inclusive. Fromm points out, however, that this is not the case. This is because first of all, we must distinguish between self-love, and selfishness. Selfishness is a form of egotism which has nothing to do with love. In fact, Fromm feels that the selfish person doesn't even really love himself because his selfishness cuts him off from others and makes him suffer aloneness. On the other hand, a loving person who loves all people also loves himself. If it is a good thing to love my neighbor, then it must also be good to love myself. Love for one's self cannot be separated from love for another person. One can even go so far as to say that unless I first love myself, I am incapable of loving another person. Unless I love myself, that is, unless I have confidence in myself as a person who is worthy of being loved, I will always feel insecure and dependent on my relation with another person. This results in an immature relationship which is based on need, and the need to find protection for my insecurity will inevitably destroy my ability to open myself in love.
Finally, erotic love, or physical love, is often greatly misunderstood. People often make the mistake of thinking that, because they are attracted to another person physically, they also feel love for that person. If the relation is only physical, however, it never satisfies the basic need for togetherness except in a brief, transitory sense. In fact, if the relation is only physical, it can make people feel even farther apart than before. It can actually make them dislike, or even hate each other since it emphasizes their basic aloneness. If, on the other hand, physical love is accompanied by a loving attitude, if it is also brotherly love, it can be a form of mature love. And in this way it can also be the means of achieving union in more than a transitory sense.
Love and God
The basis for our need to love lies in need to overcome the anxiety of separateness. The religious form of love, that which is called the love of God, is, psychologically speaking, not different.
Fromm provides a lengthy analysis of how the idea of God and, in particular, how love of God has evolved through motherly love, fatherly love and finally to love of oneself. (See Appendix A at the end of this post for that discussion.) It's an insightful analysis that juxtapose Western religious systems with that of Eastern religion and mysticism. Relying on Aristotelian logic, Western religions love of God becomes essentially the same as the belief in God, in God's existence, in God's justice, in God's love. Here, the love of God is essentially a thought experience. By contrast, Eastern religions and mysticism rely on paradoxical logic. The love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living. The East's paradoxical logic led to tolerance and an effort toward self-transformation. The Western Aristotelian logic led to dogma and science, to the Catholic Church, and to the discovery of atomic energy.
For myself, I've adopted a more Eastern perspective of God, a perspective best expressed by the 13th Century theologian, Meister Eckhart: "If therefore I am changed into God and He makes me one with Himself, then, by the living God, there is no distinction between us. . . . Some people imagine that they are going to see God, that they are going to see God as if he were standing yonder, and they here, but it is not to be so. God and I: we are one. By knowing God I take him to myself. By loving God, I penetrate him."
Ceara is God
If God and I are one, then God and Ceara Lynch are one as well.
And if love of God (as expressed by Eastern paradoxical logic) is an intense feeling experience of oneness, then to see God within others is to experience oneness with them. To see God in others is to love them; to love another person, is to see God within them. There is a communion of spirit, a oneness of souls, experienced in that sort of love. And to see the Godliness within her is to feel a profound experience of oneness expressed in act of living; an expression overlaid and compounded by feelings of erotic love and, for the submissive, motherly love.
Love and Present Day Western Society
Before I wrap things up, I'd like to mention a few points Fromm made regarding the importance of love in present-day society. Fromm felt that the position of love in our world today is not a favorable one. He felt that, in fact, the basic principles on which our society are based are often not compatible with the principle of love. In modern society, the so-called free enterprise system is based on the idea of competition, on the idea of getting ahead at the expense of someone else. Material values are all too often emphasized at the expense of spiritual ones. Fromm does not feel that it is impossible to love in today's world, but he does feel that it is difficult, and that sooner or later some radical changes must be made in order for love to survive. Perhaps the first change is to recognize that love is an informed practice rather than an unmerited grace.
"The first step to take is to become aware that love is an art, just as living is an art; if we want to learn how to love we must proceed in the same way we have to proceed if we want to learn any other art, say music, painting, carpentry, or the art of medicine or engineering. What are the necessary steps in learning any art? The process of learning an art can be divided conveniently into two parts: one, the mastery of the theory; the other, the mastery of the practice. If I want to learn the art of medicine, I must first know the facts about the human body, and about various diseases. When I have all this theoretical knowledge, I am by no means competent in the art of medicine. I shall become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice, until eventually the results of my theoretical knowledge and the results of my practice are blended into one — my intuition, the essence of the mastery of any art. But, aside from learning the theory and practice, there is a third factor necessary to becoming a master in any art — the mastery of the art must be a matter of ultimate concern; there must be nothing else in the world more important than the art. This holds true for music, for medicine, for carpentry — and for love. And, maybe, here lies the answer to the question of why people in our culture try so rarely to learn this art, in spite of their obvious failures: in spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power — almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving."
Appendix: Religion and God (Excerpts from "The Art of Loving")
In all theistic religions, whether they are polytheistic or monotheistic, God stands for the highest value, the most desirable good. Hence, the specific meaning of God depends on what is the most desirable good for a person. The understanding of the concept of God must, therefore, start with an analysis of the character structure of the person who worships God.
The development of the human race as far as we have any knowledge of it can be characterized as the emergence of man from nature, from mother, from the bonds of blood and soil. In the beginning of human history man, though thrown out of the original unity with nature, still clings to these primary bonds. He finds his security by going back, or holding on to these primary bonds. He still feels identified with the world of animals and trees, and tries to find unity by remaining one with the natural world. Many primitive religions bear witness to this stage of development. An animal is transformed into a totem; one wears animal masks in the most solemn religious acts, or in war; one worships an animal as God. At a later stage of development, when human skill has developed to the point of artisan and artistic skill, when man is not dependent any more exclusively on the gifts of nature—the fruit he finds and the animal he kills—man transforms the product of his own hand into a god. This is the stage of the worship of idols made of clay, silver or gold. Man projects his own powers and skills into the things he makes, and thus in an alienated fashion worships his prowess, his possessions. At a still later stage man gives his gods the form of human beings. It seems that this can happen only when he has become still more aware of himself, and when he has discovered man as the highest and most dignified "thing" in the world. In this phase of anthropomorphic god worship we find a development in two dimensions. The one refers to the female or male nature of the gods, the other to the degree of maturity which man has achieved, and which determines the nature of his gods and the nature of his love of them.
Let us first speak of the development from mother-centered to father-centered religions. According to the great and decisive discoveries of Bachofen and Morgan in the middle of the nineteenth century, and in spite of the rejection their findings have found in most academic circles, there can be little doubt that there was a matriarchal phase of religion preceding the patriarchal one, at least in many cultures. In the matriarchal phase, the highest being is the mother. She is the goddess, she is also the authority in family and society. In order to understand the essence of matriarchal religion, we have only to remember what has been said about the essence of motherly love. Mother's love is unconditional, it is all-protective, all-enveloping; because it is unconditional it can also not be controlled or acquired. Its presence gives the loved person a sense of bliss; its absence produces a sense of lostness and utter despair. Since mother loves her children because they are her children, and not because they are "good," obedient, or fulfill her wishes and commands, mother's love is based on equality. All men are equal, because they all are children of a mother, because they all are children of Mother Earth.
The next stage of human evolution, the only one of which we have thorough knowledge and do not need to rely on inferences and reconstruction, is the patriarchal phase. In this phase the mother is dethroned from her supreme position, and the father becomes the Supreme Being, in religion as well as in society. The nature of fatherly love is that he makes demands, establishes principles and laws, and that his love for the son depends on the obedience of the latter to these demands. He likes best the son who is most like him, who is most obedient and who is best fitted to become his successor, as the inheritor of his possessions. (The development of patriarchal society goes together with the development of private property.) As a consequence, patriarchal society is hierarchical; the equality of the brothers gives way to competition and mutual strife. Whether we think of the Indian, Egyptian or Greek cultures, or of the Jewish-Christian, or Islamic religions, we are in the middle of a patriarchal world, with its male gods, over whom one chief god reigns, or where all gods have been eliminated with the exception of the One, the God. However, since the wish for mother's love cannot be eradicated from the hearts of man, it is not surprising that the figure of the loving mother could never be fully driven out from the pantheon. In the Jewish religion, the mother aspects of God are reintroduced especially in the various currents of mysticism. In the Catholic religion, Mother is symbolized by the Church, and by the Virgin. Even in Protestantism, the figure of Mother has not been entirely eradicated, although she remains hidden. Luther established as his main principle that nothing that man does can procure God's love. God's love is Grace, the religious attitude is to have faith in this grace, and to make oneself small and helpless; no good works can influence God—or make God love us, as Catholic doctrines postulated. We can recognize here that the Catholic doctrine of good works is part of the patriarchal picture; I can procure father's love by obedience and by fulfilling his demands. The Lutheran doctrine, on the other hand, in spite of its manifest patriarchal character carries within it a hidden matriarchal element. Mother's love cannot be acquired; it is there, or it is not there; all I can do is to have faith (as the Psalmist says, "Thou hadst let me have faith into my mother's breasts." and to transform myself into the helpless, powerless child. But it is the peculiarity of Luther's faith that the figure of the mother has been eliminated from the manifest picture, and replaced by that of the father; instead of the certainty of being loved by mother, intense doubt, hoping against hope for unconditional love by father, has become the paramount feature.
I had to discuss this difference between the matriarchal and the patriarchal elements in religion in order to show that the character of the love of God depends on the respective weight of the matriarchal and the patriarchal aspects of religion. The patriarchal aspect makes me love God like a father; I assume he is just and strict, that he punishes and rewards; and eventually that he will elect me as his favorite son; as God elected Abraham-Israel, as Isaac elected Jacob, as God elects his favorite nation. In the matriarchal aspect of religion, I love God as an all-embracing mother. I have faith in her love, that no matter whether I am poor and powerless, no matter whether I have sinned, she will love me, she will not prefer any other of her children to me; whatever happens to me, she will rescue me, will save me, will forgive me. Needless to say, my love for God and God's love for me cannot be separated. If God is a father, he loves me like a son and I love him like a father. If God is mother, her and my love are determined by this fact.
This difference between the motherly and the fatherly aspects of the love of God is, however, only one factor in determining the nature of this love; the other factor is the degree of maturity reached by the individual, hence in his concept of God and in his love for God.
Since the evolution of the human race shifted from a mother-centered to a father-centered structure of society, as well as of religion, we can trace the development of a maturing love mainly in the development of patriarchal religion. In the beginning of this development we find a despotic, jealous God, who considers man, whom he created, as his property, and is entitled to do with him whatever he pleases. This is the phase of religion in which God drives man out of paradise, lest he eat from the tree of knowledge and thus could become God himself; this is the phase in which God decides to destroy the human race by the flood, because none of them pleases him, with the exception of the favorite son, Noah; this is the phase in which God demands from Abraham that he kill his only, his beloved son, Isaac, to prove his love for God by the act of ultimate obedience. But simultaneously a new phase begins; God makes a covenant with Noah, in which he promises never to destroy the human race again, a covenant by which he is bound himself. Not only is he bound by his promises, he is also bound by his own principle, that of justice, and on this basis God must yield to Abraham's demand to spare Sodom if there are at least ten just men. But the development goes further than transforming God from the figure of a despotic tribal chief into a loving father, into a father who himself is bound by the principles which he has postulated; it goes in the direction of transforming God from the figure of a father into a symbol of his principles, those of justice, truth and love. God is truth, God is justice. In this development God ceases to be a person, a man, a father; he becomes the symbol of the principle of unity behind the manifoldness of phenomena, of the vision of the flower which will grow from the spiritual seed within man. God cannot have a name. A name always denotes a thing, or a person, something finite. How can God have a name, if he is not a person, not a thing?
The most striking incident of this change lies in the Biblical story of God's revelation to Moses. When Moses tells him that the Hebrews will not believe that God has sent him, unless he can tell them God's name (how could idol worshipers comprehend a nameless God, since the very essence of an idol is to have a name?), God makes a concession. He tells Moses that his name is "I am becoming that which I am becoming." "I-am-becoming is my name." The "I-am-becoming" means that God is not finite, not a person, not a "being." The most adequate translation of the sentence would be : tell them that "my name is nameless." The prohibition to make any image of God, to pronounce his name in vain, eventually to pronounce his name at all, aims at the same goal, that of freeing man from the idea that God is a father, that he is a person. In the subsequent theological development, the idea is carried further in the principle that one must not even give God any positive attribute. To say of God that he is wise, strong, good implies again that he is a person; the most I can do is to say what God is not, to state negative attributes, to postulate that he is not limited, not unkind, not unjust. The more I know what God is not, the more knowledge I have of God.
Following the maturing idea of monotheism in its further consequences can lead only to one conclusion: not to mention God's name at all, not to speak about God. Then God becomes what he potentially is in monotheistic theology, the nameless One, an inexpressible stammer, referring to the unity underlying the phenomenal universe, the ground of all existence; God becomes truth, love, justice. God is I, in as much as I am human.
Quite evidently this evolution from the anthropomorphic to the pure monotheistic principle makes all the difference to the nature of the love of God. The God of Abraham can be loved, or feared, as a father, sometimes his forgiveness, sometimes his anger being the dominant aspect. Inasmuch as God is the father, I am the child. I have not emerged fully from the autistic wish for omniscience and omnipotence. I have not yet acquired the objectivity to realize my limitations as a human being, my ignorance, my helplessness. I still claim, like a child, that there must be a father who rescues me, who watches me, who punishes me, a father who likes me when I am obedient, who is flattered by my praise and angry because of my disobedience. Quite obviously, the majority of people have, in their personal development, not overcome this infantile stage, and hence the belief in God to most people is the belief in a helping father—a childish illusion. In spite of the fact that this concept of religion has been overcome by some of the great teachers of the human race, and by a minority of men, it is still the dominant form of religion.
Inasmuch as this is so, the criticism of the idea of God, as it was expressed by Freud, is quite correct. The error, however, was in the fact that he ignored the other aspect of monotheistic religion, and its true kernel, the logic of which leads exactly to the negation of this concept of God. The truly religious person, if he follows the essence of the monotheistic idea, does not pray for anything, does not expect anything from God; he does not love God as a child loves his father or his mother; he has acquired the humility of sensing his limitations, to the degree of knowing that he knows nothing about God. God becomes to him a symbol in which man, at an earlier stage of his evolution, has expressed the totality of that which man is striving for, the realm of the spiritual world, of love, truth and justice. He has faith in the principles which "God" represents; he thinks truth, lives love and justice, and considers all of his life only valuable inasmuch as it gives him the chance to arrive at an ever fuller unfolding of his human powers—as the only reality that matters, as the only object of "ultimate concern"; and, eventually, he does not speak about God—nor even mention his name, To love God, if he were going to use this word, would mean, then, to long for the attainment of the full capacity to love, for the realization of that which "God" stands for in oneself.
From this point of view, the logical consequence of monotheistic thought is the negation of all "theology," of all "knowledge about God." Yet, there remains a difference between such a radical non-theological view and a non-theistic system, as we find it, for instance in early Buddhism or in Taoism. In all theistic systems, even a non-theological, mystical one, there is the assumption of the reality of the spiritual realm, as one transcending man, giving meaning and validity to man's spiritual powers and his striving for salvation and inner birth. In a non-theistic system, there exists no spiritual realm outside of man or transcending him. The realm of love, reason and justice exists as a reality only because, and inasmuch as, man has been able to develop these powers in himself throughout the process of his evolution. In this view there is no meaning to life, except the meaning man himself gives to it; man is utterly alone except inasmuch as he helps another.
Having spoken of the love of God, I want to make it clear that I myself do not think in terms of a theistic concept, and that to me the concept of God is only a historically conditioned one, in which man has expressed his experience of his higher powers, his longing for truth and for unity at a given historical period. But I believe also that the consequences of strict monotheism and a non-theistic ultimate concern with the spiritual reality are two views which, though different, need not fight each other.
At this point, however, another dimension of the problem of the love of God arises, which must be discussed in order to fathom the complexity of the problem. I refer to a fundamental difference in the religious attitude between the East (China and India) and the West; this difference can be expressed in terms of logical concepts. Since Aristotle, the Western world has followed the logical principles of Aristotelian philosophy. This logic is based on the law of identity which states that A is A, the law of contradiction (A is not non-A) and the law of the excluded middle (A cannot be A and non-A, neither A nor non-A). Aristotle explains his position very clearly in the following sentence: "It is impossible for the same thing at the same time to belong and not to belong to the same thing and in the same respect; and whatever other distinctions we might add to meet dialectical objections, let them be added. This, then, is the most certain of all principles. . . ." This axiom of Aristotelian logic has so deeply imbued our habits of thought that it is felt to be "natural" and self-evident, while on the other hand the statement that X is A and not A seems to be nonsensical. (Of course, the statement refers to the subject X at a given time, not to X now and X later, or one aspect of X as against another aspect.)
In opposition to Aristotelian logic is what one might call paradoxical logic, which assumes that A and non-A do not exclude each other as predicates of X. Paradoxical logic was predominant in Chinese and Indian thinking, in the philosophy of Heraclitus, and then again, under the name of dialectics, it became the philosophy of Hegel, and of Marx. The general principle of paradoxical logic has been clearly described by Lao-tse. "Words that are strictly true seem to be paradoxical." And by Chuang-tzu: "That which is one is one. That which not-one, is also one." These formulations of paradoxical logic are positive: it is and it is not. Another formulation is negative: it is neither this nor that. The former expression of thought we find in Taoistic thought, in Heraclitus and again in Hegelian dialectics; the latter formulation is frequent in Indian philosophy.
Although it would transcend the scope of this book to give a more detailed description of the difference between Aristotelian and paradoxical logic, I shall mention a few illustrations in order to make the principle more understandable. Paradoxical logic in Western thought has its earliest philosophical expression in Heraclitus' philosophy. He assumes the conflict between opposites is the basis of all existence. "They do not understand," he says, "that the all-One, conflicting in itself, is identical with itself : conflicting harmony as in the bow and in the lyre." Or still more clearly: "We go into the same river, and yet not in the same; it is we and it is not we." Or "One and the same manifests itself in things as living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old."
In Lao-tse's philosophy the same idea is expressed in a more poetic form. A characteristic example of Taoist paradoxical thinking is the following statement : "Gravity is the root of lightness; stillness the ruler of movement." Or "The Tao in its regular course does nothing and so there is nothing which he does not do." Or "My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practice; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practice them." In Taoist thinking, just as in Indian and Socratic thinking, the highest step to which thought can lead is to know that we do not know. "To know and yet [think] we do not know is the highest [attainment] ; not to know [and yet think] we do know is a disease." It is only a consequence of this philosophy that the highest God cannot be named. The ultimate reality, the ultimate One cannot be caught in words or in thoughts. As Lao-tse puts it, "The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name." Or, in a different formulation, "We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it the 'Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it the 'Inaudible.' We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it 'the Subtle.' With these three qualities, it can not be made the subject of description; and hence we blend them together and obtain The One." And still another formulation of the same idea: "He who knows [the Tao] does not [care to] speak [about it] ; he who is [however ready to] speak about it does not know it." Brahmanic philosophy was concerned with the relationship between manifoldness (of phenomena) and unity (Brahman). But paradoxical philosophy is neither in India nor in China to be confused with a dualistic standpoint. The harmony (unity) consists in the conflicting position from which it is made up. "Brahmanical thinking was centered from the beginning around the paradox of the simultaneous antagonisms—yet—identity of the manifest forces and forms of the phenomenal world. .. ." The ultimate power in the Universe as well as in man transcends both the conceptual and the sensual sphere. It is therefore "neither this nor thus." But, as Zimmer remarks, "there is no antagonism between 'real and unreal' in this strictly non-dualistic realization." In their search for unity behind manifoldness, the Brahman thinkers came to the conclusion that the perceived pair of opposites reflects the nature not of things but of the perceiving mind. The perceiving thought must transcend itself if it is to attain true reality. Opposition is a category of man's mind, not in itself an element of reality. In the Rig-Veda the principle is expressed in this form: "I am the two, the life force and the life material, the two at once." The ultimate consequence of the idea that thought can only perceive in contradictions has found an even more drastic sequence in Vedantic thinking, which postulates that thought —with all its fine distinction—was "only a more subtle horizon of ignorance, in fact the most subtle of all the deluding devices of maya." Paradoxical logic has a significant bearing on the concept of God. Inasmuch as God represents the ultimate reality, and inasmuch as the human mind perceives reality in contradictions, no positive statement can be made of God. In the Vedantas the idea of an omniscient and omnipotent God is considered the ultimate form of ignorance." We see here the connection with the namelessness of the Tao, the nameless name of the God who reveals himself to Moses, of the "absolute Nothing" of Meister Eckhart. Man can only know the negation, never the position of ultimate reality. "Meanwhile man can not know what God is, even though he be ever so well aware of what God is not. .. . Thus contented with nothing, the mind clamors for the highest good of all. For Meister Eckhart, "The Divine One is a negation of negations, and a denial of denials. . . . Every creature contains a negation: one denies that it is the other. It is only a further consequence that God becomes for Meister Eckhart "The absolute Nothing," just as the ultimate reality is the "En Sof," the Endless One, for the Kabalah.
I have discussed the difference between Aristotelian and paradoxical logic in order to prepare the ground for an important difference in the concept of the love of God. The teachers of paradoxical logic say that man can perceive reality only in contradictions, and can never perceive in thought the ultimate reality-unity, the One itself. This led to the consequence that one did not seek as the ultimate aim to find the answer in thought. Thought can only lead us to the knowledge that it cannot give us the ultimate answer. The world of thought remains caught in the paradox. The only way in which the world can be grasped ultimately lies, not in thought, but in the act, in the experience of oneness. Thus paradoxical logic leads to the conclusion that the love of God is neither the knowledge of God in thought, nor the thought of one's love of God, but the act of experiencing the oneness with God.
This leads to the emphasis on the right way of living. All of life, every little and every important action, is devoted to the knowledge of God, but a knowledge not in right thought, but in right action. This can be clearly seen in Oriental religions. In Brahmanism as well as in Buddhism and Taoism, the ultimate aim of religion is not the right belief, but the right action. We find the same emphasis in the Jewish religion. There was hardly ever a schism over belief in the Jewish tradition (the one great exception, the difference between Pharisees and Sadducees, was essentially one of two opposite social classes). The emphasis of the Jewish religion was (especially from the beginning of our era on) on the right way of living, the Halacha (this word actually having the same meaning as the Tao.
In modern history, the same principle is expressed in the thought of Spinoza, Marx and Freud. In Spinoza's philosophy the emphasis is shifted from the right belief to the right conduct of life. Marx stated the same principle when he said, "The philosophers have interpreted the world in different ways—the task is to transform it." Freud's paradoxical logic leads him to the process of psychoanalytic therapy, the ever-deepening experience of oneself.
From the standpoint of paradoxical logic the emphasis is not on thought, but on the act. This attitude had several other consequences. First of all, it led to the tolerance which we find in Indian and Chinese religious development. If the right thought is not the ultimate truth, and not the way to salvation, there is no reason to fight others, whose thinking has arrived at different formulations. This tolerance is beautifully expressed in the story of several men who were asked to describe an elephant in the dark. One, touching his trunk, said "this animal is like a water pipe"; another, touching his ear, said "this animal is like a fan"; a third, touching his legs, described the animal as a pillar. Secondly, the paradoxical standpoint led to the emphasis on transforming man, rather than to the development of dogma on the one hand, and science on the other. From the Indian, Chinese and mystical standpoints, the religious task of man is not to think right, but to act right, and/or to become one with the One in the act of concentrated meditation.
The opposite is true for the main stream of Western thought. Since one expected to find the ultimate truth in the right thought, major emphasis was on thought, although right action was held to be important too. In religious development this led to the formulation of dogmas, endless arguments about dogmatic formulations, and intolerance of the "non-believer" or heretic. It furthermore led to the emphasis on "believing in God" as the main aim of a religious attitude. This, of course, did not mean that there was not also the concept that one ought to live right. But nevertheless, the person who believed in God—even if he did not live God—felt himself to be superior to the one who lived God, but did not "believe" in him. The emphasis on thought has also another and historically a very important consequence. The idea that one could find the truth in thought led not only to dogma, but also to science. In scientific thought, the correct thought is all that matters, both from the aspect of intellectual honesty, as well as from the aspect of the application of scientific thought to practice that is, to technique. In short, paradoxical thought led to tolerance and an effort toward self-transformation. The Aristotelian standpoint led to dogma and science, to the Catholic Church, and to the discovery of atomic energy.
The consequences of this difference between the two standpoints for the problem of the love of God have already been explained implicitly, and need only to be summarized briefly. In the dominant Western religious system, the love of God is essentially the same as the belief in God, in God's existence, God's justice, God's love. The love of God is essentially a thought experience. In the Eastern religions and in mysticism, the love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living. The most radical formulation has been given to this goal by Meister Eckhart: "If therefore I am changed into God and He makes me one with Himself, then, by the living God, there is no distinction between us. . . . Some people imagine that they are going to see God, that they are going to see God as if he were standing yonder, and they here, but it is not to be so. God and I: we are one. By knowing God I take him to myself. By loving God, I penetrate him."
We can return now to an important parallel between the love for one's parents and the love for God. The child starts out by being attached to his mother as "the ground of all being." He feels helpless and needs the all-enveloping love of mother. He then turns to father as the new center of his affections, father being a guiding principle for thought and action; in this stage he is motivated by the need to acquire father's praise, and to avoid his displeasure. In the stage of full maturity he has freed himself from the person of mother and of father as protecting and commanding powers; he has established the motherly and fatherly principles in himself. He has become his own father and mother; he is father and mother. In the history of the human race we see—and can anticipate—the same development: from the beginning of the love for God as the helpless attachment to a mother Goddess, through the obedient attachment to a fatherly God, to a mature stage where God ceases to be an outside power, where man has incorporated the principles of love and justice into himself, where he has become one with God, and eventually, to a point where he speaks of God only in a poetic, symbolic sense.
From these considerations it follows that the love for God cannot be separated from the love for one's parents. If a person does not emerge from incestuous attachment to mother, clan, nation, if he retains the childish dependence on a punishing and rewarding father, or any other authority, he cannot develop a more mature love for God; then his religion is that of the earlier phase of religion, in which God was experienced as an all-protective mother or a punishing-rewarding father.
In contemporary religion we find all the phases, from the earliest and most primitive development to the highest, still present. The word "God" denotes the tribal chief as well as the "absolute Nothing." In the same way, each individual retains in himself, in his unconscious, as Freud has shown, all the stages from the helpless infant on. The question is to what point he has grown. One thing is certain : the nature of his love for God corresponds to the nature of his love for man, and furthermore, the real quality of his love for God and man often is unconscious—covered up and rationalized by a more mature thought of what his love is. Love for man, furthermore, while directly embedded in his relations to his family, is in the last analysis determined by the structure of the society in which he lives. If the social structure is one of submission to authority—overt authority or the anonymous authority of the market and public opinion, his concept of God must be infantile and far from the mature concept, the seeds of which are to be found in the history of monotheistic religion.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cadillac Reviews Discussion, 2007 Cadillac DTS Review/Opinion in Item Specific Cadillac Discussion; This isn't so much a review. My Escalade is at the dealer getting some minor stuff taken care of - ...
2007 Cadillac DTS Review/Opinion
This isn't so much a review. My Escalade is at the dealer getting some minor stuff taken care of - and I have a DTS as a loaner.. I'm guessing it's the bottom-of-the-line version.. It's actually a nice improvement over the outgoing 2005 DeVille.. The build quality is much better.. The seats have nicer leather (even the cheaper leather that's on this particular version) and the feel more comfortable. There's more than adequate power and responsiveness.. The steering is tighter than I like - but I suppose it's more European feeling now (woopee). Anyway, I like the improvement. The ride is soft, comfortable and quiet.. The DTS is definitely a comfortable Cadillac - the way I like them to be...
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Re: 2007 Cadillac DTS Review/Opinion
There's a DTS rental at the dealer I go to. They have that and 3 CTSs, so far I've had all 3 of those but not the DTS yet. Hopefully next time
Re: 2007 Cadillac DTS Review/Opinion
I drove the DTS more last night and I'd like to mention that I'm very pleased with the interior lighting. It's different. I haven't seen anything like it yet. I do believe it's used in the new Escalade as well, but I'm not sure.. This is really a nice, comfortable car that'll make any Cadillac owner proud. Especially traditional Cadillac owners.. I know there's a tighter suspension on the performance version, but that's just not me..
The only two things that I can see improvement on are:
The size of the vehicle.. It's not a tight fit inside by any means - but it could be wider and longer. I'm sure only people who like BIG Cadillacs would agree with me, however - because the DTS IS roomy.
There's lock/unlock stalks on the door-sills.. It just doesn't look right and they get in the way of leaning your arm.. Kinda silly, if you ask me..
Re: 2007 Cadillac DTS Review/Opinion
...and before I forget.. I really need to stress that while this car rides soft, it handles Very well.. I was very surprised with the confidence I had driving up and down on/off ramps on the highway.. This car sticks to the road surprisingly-well for the non-sporty version...


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My booth for One of a Kind in Toronto is almost done! I'm very proud of myself this time. I took the time to put in a lot of little details. I love woodworking and it's been fun to take a break from intense studio production.
Tag: canadianceramics
Restock for MakerHouse
Working on the order for MakerHouse today. Restock in two weeks!
Little gestures
Sometimes it's the little things that count. I've never told one customer before today what lengths I go to to make sure my business has as little environmental impact as possible, but this invisible part of my business is very important to me.
Great coffee by Barking Barista
Day two of Etsy: Made in Canada. I'm enjoying my Barking Barista coffee available right by the front door.
Deal of the day!
All set up and ready to start the day! The lucky first 100 people in the show get a swag bag filled with surprises. Mine is 15% off your purchase today! The same deal will be offered tomorrow if you feel like getting up early.
Goodies for Etsy: Made in Canada!
The kiln is filled to the brim with goodies for Etsy: Made in Canada! I'm driving over later today for the Night Market.
Not so wild squirrels
Look who greeted me at my doorstep this morning! You know the squirrels in your neighborhood are used to people when they follow you around looking at you and asking for food.
Studio messes
@cheerfullymade has asked that we post photos of our studio messes. My work is all in the kiln now and most of my tools are clean (they rust if they don't get cleaned immediately after usage) so here's yesterday's setup for glazing. I know it's not the worst mess around, but what can I say? Mess in a ceramics studio = dust = health hazard.
Glazing, glazing and more glazing.
Glazing, glazing and more glazing. I have about 75 pieces dip, clean up and place in kiln before tonight! Yesterday I really thought I was ahead, so I made a few tests and now I'm late. Oops. But don't worry people, all these pieces are going to be ready for Etsy: Made in Canada (Ottawa) this week-end.
Shelves full!
When the shelves are completely filled with work in progress, I know it's time to get some things finished! I'll have some new work out for #etsymadeincanada next week-end.
Etsy: Made in Canada Ottawa next week-end
I'm glad to participate in Etsy: Made in Canada Ottawa next week-end! It's gonna be awesome!
Building stock
Fall is the big season every year and I am slowly building stock while there are still fresh plants outside. This is my table looks like when I'm cleaning up the edges of the pieces.
Morning rituals
I love morning rituals. Drinking quality loose leaf tea every day makes me feel like a lucky lady! Thank you @salonsenthe for your great selection! Today is Sencha Mobata
Shopping in Verdun
Here I am on my day off, leisurely shopping in Verdun and still checking out pottery like an obsessive person! These two mugs are very similar in shape but the top one (by @not_madeinchina ) is nice and smooth with an interesting surface while the other one (mass produced) is gritty and must be incredibly annoying to handle and wash. Good design makes a huge difference.
Analyzing glaze tests
Analyzing glaze tests next to the window and trying to figure out which colors I'm going to use for the mugs. As usual, I'm having trouble with red, but I have good starting points for greens and blues.


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Crayola brushes are made from 100% natural hair for quality, durability and ease of use. They're designed for multi-purpose use with Watercolours, Poster Paints, Tempera, Acrylic Paints, School Glue, etc. For kids and grownups alike, these brushes are ideal for crafts, hobbies, school projects or just for fun!
Delivery ChargesThe cost to deliver your order, no matter the size or weight, anywhere within Australia is $9.90 including packing & handling. It's called a 'Flat-Rate' shipping fee and you're going to love it because you will pay no more to have your entire order delivered to your door by Australia Post.
Delivery TimesAustralia is a large country geographically which means transit times can vary significantly from one location to the next. Deliveries can take anywhere between 1 to 10 days, or even more to places like Christmas Island. All orders are packed and despatched from our Derrimut (Melbourne-based) warehouse.
Same Day DespatchFor same-day despatch, orders must be placed and paid for prior to 10:00am (local Melbourne time or AEST). This excludes weekends, public holidays and peak periods during the October, November & December months.
Next-Day DeliveryUrgent, next-day* deliveries are offered to specific areas of Australia by Australia Post. Delivery areas that are covered by the Express Post Network can be can be viewed here. Addresses situated outside of the Express Post network may still be ordered as 'Express Post' if quicker delivery times are needed, compared to standard shipping. *Additional shipping fees apply.
Order Collection/PickupOrders may be collected from our warehouse (located at 180 Calarco Drive, Derrimut Victoria). Please remember to select "Warehouse P/U" as your shipping method at the checkout. This is a free service and you may collect your order from our warehouse usually within the hour.


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Building on Infrastructure
What institutional investors should look for in a provider—and why experience matters.
Chief Investment Officer spoke with Pantheon Partner Kathryn Leaf Wilmes, head of global infrastructure and real assets, to find out where the opportunities are and how Pantheon is taking advantage of them. Q: What's driving the intense interest in infrastructure? Is it all low interest rates? Kathryn Leaf Wilmes: With record low interest rates, many investors are looking for defensive strategies that also have the potential to produce yield. Infrastructure fits that bill perfectly. There is also a longer-term trend at play where investors are looking to establish, and increase, allocations to infrastructure as a stand-alone asset class for diversification purposes and as an inflation hedge. The combination of these two trends is leading to the robust fundraising environment. To put numbers around it, Preqin found private infrastructure fund managers raised $131 billion from 2013 to 2015, and a one-year record of $52 billion in 2016 year-to-date. Q: Your approach to the infrastructure market differs from that of many of your peers. What's the key difference, and how does it benefit investors? Wilmes: What differentiates us is how we access the asset class on behalf of our investors. Our strategy focuses on secondaries and co-investments. These are less competitive markets where deal flow continues to be robust and relationships are key to unlocking opportunity. The potential benefit to our clients is that we have a lot of deal flow to choose from, which can be a critical differentiator in today's market. We currently invest in less than 10% of the co-investments we see. There can also be significant portfolio benefits in terms of vintage year and asset and manager diversification, which may add additional resilience to our client programs. Lastly, we work very collaboratively with our clients. We do not apply a "one-size-fits-all" approach, so we can tailor programs to a client's specific needs. Q: What's the appeal of the secondary market? Wilmes: We view secondaries as a differentiated access point to the same high-quality infrastructure assets other investors may be investing in directly. The key distinction is that we typically invest several years later. A big advantage of this is that, in many cases, the companies have been de-risked at our entry point; leverage has been paid down and there is clear visibility on operating and financial performance. And because of market inefficiencies, we're often able to buy in at a lower price point than the original investors. Q: With all the money flowing into infrastructure, what do valuations look like? Wilmes: In the direct market, it's 2007 all over again. We are seeing record pricing, particularly for core trophy assets which have significant scarcity value. It has become very challenging for core fund managers to compete with aggressive direct buyers, and this may only get worse as the new owners look to hold these core assets long-term. As a result, core managers are increasingly being pushed up the risk-return spectrum. We see some managers looking to do more greenfield deals, focusing on assets that have more operational complexity, and pursuing opportunities in "stretch infrastructure"—assets that have infrastructure-like characteristics but aren't what people traditionally think of as infrastructure. There are still attractive areas to invest, but we believe investors need to be strategic about how they get exposure. Q: Given these valuation levels, how are you positioning yourself for success? Wilmes: We are trying to build resilience in our client programs. First, we are being highly selective, focusing on reasonably valued assets we believe can withstand market cycles. We're also diversifying by asset type, vintage year and sector. Secondaries are powerful in this respect because they can allow you to invest across multiple vintage years and access deals that may have been completed in a very different valuation environment. Lastly, we are focused on investments with conservative capital structures. Q: Where are you finding the most interesting opportunities? Wilmes: In our view, energy infrastructure, particularly in North America, offers deep value today. The collapse in commodity pricing has impacted valuations of assets that transport, process, and store natural gas and oil. A number of these companies have needed to raise capital to de-lever and fund future projects, and there was a window in the first quarter of this year when many of them were unable to access public debt and equity markets. Through our market relationships, we were able to take advantage by investing in the preferred equity of a couple of midstream companies, gaining what we believed to be strong downside protection through the security along with significant equity upside. We anticipate a second wave of opportunity as challenged exploration and production companies look to divest midstream assets. We've also been investing in de-risked greenfield projects where all key permits and contracts have been secured but where we can earn a return premium for investing at an earlier stage in the life-cycle of the asset. Q: Are valuations challenging in the secondary market, too? Wilmes: We continue to see good value in the infrastructure secondary market, thanks in part to favorable supply-demand dynamics. This market has grown from just over $1 billion of deal flow back in 2010, when Pantheon did its first infrastructure secondary, to $9.7 billion in 2015. Meanwhile, this is still a niche market where the universe of buyers remains very limited. The supply-demand imbalance typically translates to favorable pricing.Investors in search of yield increasingly are turning to infrastructure, where private markets investment firm Pantheon has nearly three decades of experience.
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Feel like ranting...my bike has been on hold for about 4 months now..we just had our second child.(a beutiful little girl..black hair blue eyes)..and a family member has moved in to help them out and my poor bike is longing for my touch ...never thought i would have to put her on hold to get other stuff done...man is it annoying...anyway thats my rant....
Re: MISS MY BIKE
Due to the work i do i drive a van for work and weeks go by when i don't get in the saddle.Then i miss riding espcially when it's nice weather.Thing is once you ridden a bike it never leaves you even if have not ridden for years. I know loads of people who have not ridden for years then all of a sudden gets a bike.
1980 honda cb 650
peterborough England
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Debkafile, a website with sources close Israel's intelligence and government has been informed that the joint US-Israeli military drill scheduled for April was called off by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alone.
His decision to postpone what would have been the biggest ever-joint military exercise between the two countries reportedly took Washington by surprise.
Calling off the drill code-named Austere Challenge 12 is moreover thought to signal an ominous new development in relations between the two allies in their face-off with Iran.
Following the drills postponement several of Netanyahu's senior ministers were uncharacteristically critical of the Obama administration.
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon called the Obama administration "hesitant" on Jan. 15, while the following day Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on America to "move from words to deeds".
Neither statement could have been made without Netanyahu's countenance and both indicate growing Israeli unease over America's apparent hesitance to strike Iran.
According to Debkafile's sources, as a result of this Netanyahu believes that joint US-Israeli resolve is now at stake, calling into question the decisiveness of their military alliance.
Several recent developments have further underlined Netanyahu's concern:
Washington has taken no action over the seizure of the RQ-170, beyond Obama's meekly asking for its return. To compound U.S. humiliation, Debkafiles sources report a new computer game called "Down the RQ-170" has appeared in Iran. Players assemble the drone from the components shown on their screens and then launch it for attacks on America.
Washington has been similarly restrained over Iran's announcement on the start of 20-percent grade uranium enrichment at the underground Fordo facility near Qom.
Washington has likewise been silent over the Iranian Army chief's threat that the aircraft carrier USS Stennis and other "enemy ships" would be barred from entering the Strait of Hormuz. Since then no U.S ships have attempted to challenge this, leaving Tehran to gain more confidence in its face-off with the U.S.
After approving sanctions at the beginning of January Washington announced that they would only be imposed in six months. According to some observers, IF Iran has a nuclear weapons program another six months will be enough to take it to a critical and irreversible point.
Adding to pressure to deal with Iran's nuclear program, the Officer Commanding Israel's Military Planning Directorate has suggested that even if Iran didn't strike at Israel, its mere possession of nuclear weapons would limit the Zionist State's options closer to home.
Speaking at a Jerusalem think tank recently, Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel said Hamas and Hezbollah would both gain in confidence from a nuclear armed Iran.
"They will be more aggressive. They will dare to do things that right now they would not dare to do," he said in a briefing to foreign journalists and diplomats.
All of which means that Netanyahu is increasingly under pressure to act on Iran and if the U.S. won't then Israel will; unilaterally if necessary.


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Monday, November 21, 2011
Juvenile Squatch Spotted at Salt Fork!
it was all black in color and was about four and a half to five foot tall !!!it was a sight that startled us as we were not expecting that to happen!!well talk to you later!
4 comments:
Interesting! A couple years ago I was going to see the Stone House one afternoon at Salt Fork. On the gravel road that leads to the house there is a small ranch house. It's on top a hill above the Stone House. It's where whomever is the curator for the Stone House at the time lives. There were a couple folks in front of the house talking so I stopped the car, got out and started talking with them. During our conversation 3 loud and close by "whoops" erupted from the woods across the road and down the hill a little ways. We were startled by it and paused in our conversation for a few seconds. We talked for about 5 more minutes before I got back in the car and continued down the road to the Stone House. There were no other people around and I had heard that "whooping" sound a couple other times before at different places... think it might have been a Squatch.ReplyDelete
This sighting took place probably a couple hundred yards from where my MIST team found the 14.5 inch print when we were hiking at the convention. (See photo on MIST FB). Probably mama foot! Hoping to bring the team back in the spring, some interesting locations at SF that need combing!
Grey Geezer, I am not sure what MIST is can you send me a link?ReplyDelete
We are a close knit group of family and friends who spend hours and days outdoors hunting, fishing and camping. Located in SE MI but originally I am from Elyria. Six of us were down for the convention!


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Cast & Crew
Jared Padalecki
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Supernatural Contest
Supernatural Episode Review/Recap
Supernatural Promos
Supernatural Season 8
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—In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural
The book isn't officially released until March, but there is a site with an excerpt of the book and finalist essays from the Supernatural essay contest that is up. Three essays every Monday are being posted, from now until the book's release in March. Check out the link after the jump!...
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New Supernatural Book
We recently reviewed a copy of "The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghosts" for the site. I have to say I absolutely love this book. I don't know how many times I have found myself watching an episode and wondering if the supernatural occurrences within that episode were actually real legends or something completely made up by the writers of the show. This book takes an inside look at the cases on the show giving you the back story with all of Sam and Dean's cases over the previous seasons. It's also written from their perspective which helps to tie it in even more so with the series. I honestly have to say the book is a must for any fan of the series, but moreover, it's also a must for sci-fi fans out there. Our Grade: A The only thing that could have made this better for us would have been more pictures of Jared and Jensen. Perhaps some color ones in the center? But that's seriously all we have to complain about! 🙂 This book is a great buy and a must for your collection! Here's an official description of the book! This is a one-of-a-kind compilation of all of Sam and Dean's demon-busting knowledge. The book contains illustrations and detailed descriptions that catalogue the more than two dozen otherworldly enemies that most people believe exist only in folklore, superstition, and nightmares. You'll find within these pages Sam and Dean's notes, observations, and memories interwoven with sections of John Winchester's invaluable journal, making this book the perfect companion to every thrilling episode—and an essential weapon in the secret war against the hidden creatures of the darkness! We'll be giving away 5 prize sets including this book, Supernatural Season 2 dvd set, and the book Supernatural: Nevermore starting later today, so be sure to check back...
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How to Evolve Murkrow
Explore this Article Obtaining a Dusk Stone Using the Dusk Stone on Murkrow Questions & Answers Related Articles References
Murkrow was first introduced in the second generation of the Pokémon game (Gold, Silver, and Crystal). It is characterized as a black-feathered bird (similar to crow) with a yellow beak and red eyes. It has a crest shaped like a hat and a broom-shaped tail. Murkrow wasn't known to evolve to any Pokémon up until the fourth generation (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver), where its evolved form was introduced: Honchkrow. Murkrow is one of the few Pokémon that only evolves when exposed to an Evolution Stone (stones that induces evolution to certain types of Pokémon). To learn how to evolve Murkrow, scroll down to step 1.
Part 1
Obtaining a Dusk Stone
1Go to locations where you can find a Dusk Stone. A Dusk Stone is a kind of Evolution Stone that induces transformation to dark-type Pokémon such as Murkrow. Dusk stones are dark violet, semi-circled stones that can be found on specific locations, depending on the version of the game:
- Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum—Victory Road, inside Galactic Warehouse and Wayward Cave.
- HeartGold and SoulSilver—By defeating Biker Reese, a trainer on Route 17, inside Pokéathlon Dome and Cerulean Cave
- Black and White—Inside the Mistralton Cave and Black City
- Black 2 and White 2—Inside the Strange House, Black City, and Join Avenue
- X and Y—Inside Terminus Cave, Laverre City, and by defeating Inver, a trainer on Route 18.
2Find the Dusk Stone in the specified area. To get one, all you need to do is walk around the areas where you can get a Dusk Stone. When your character walks on the right section of the floor (which is randomly selected), a message prompt will appear telling you that "Your character has found a Dusk Stone," and it will be added in your Bag.
Part 2
Using the Dusk Stone on Murkrow
1Open your Bag. Press the Start button and move the directional arrow buttons of your Nintendo console to select "Bag" from the options.
- Press the A button to open and access the contents of your Bag.
2Select the Dusk Stone. Use the directional arrow keys to navigate around the Bag. Look for the Dusk Stone and press A; a list of Pokémon in your current party will be displayed.
3Evolve Murkrow. Select Murkrow from the list of Pokémon, and press the console's A button to confirm using the Dusk Stone. Watch as Murkrow evolves to Honchkrow.
- Do not cancel the evolution or you'll waste a stone.
Community Q&A
QuestionWhich generation is it from?Lugia2453Top AnswererMurkrow is from generation 2 (Gold/Silver/Crystal).
- Only a select few can evolve using Evolution Stones, Dusk Stone in particular.
- Murkrow can only evolve using a Dusk Stone. It can't transform just by leveling up.
- Evolving Murkrow allows it to learn techniques that can only be used by Honchkrow, such as Night Slash and Nasty Plot.
Article Info
Categories: Pokemon Video Games
In other languages:
Deutsch: Murkrow entwickeln, Português: Evoluir Murkrow, Español: evolucionar a Murkrow, Italiano: Far Evolvere Murkrow, Français: faire évoluer Cornèbre, Русский: эволюционировать Murkrow, Bahasa Indonesia: Membuat Murkrow Berevolusi


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Hyde Park attracts many with it's history and expansive culture. Any Chicago resident that has a passion for museum hopping would swoon over the idea of living walking distance from The Oriental Institute to escape to the Near Eastern civilizations for the perfect date night, or a Sunday stroll to catch a performance at Court Theatre.
If Chicago's past stimulates your present, Hyde Park is home of two of the four sites listed in the 1966 National Register of Historic Places. At the Chicago Pile-1 get a glimpse of the Manhattan Project with the world's first nuclear reactor. Or, explore the early 1900's construction of Robie House, an example of the first American architecture style.
Apartment Finder helps to provide listings in the Unites States best neighborhoods, including Chicago's Hyde Park. If you wish to spend your free time exploring these attractions, as well as being steps away from Lake Michigan and Washington Park, we recommend you sign a lease at Regents Park, Hyde Park Tower, or The Blackwood Apartments.
Regents Park, located on South Lake Shore Drive, has an abundance of amenities that makes it hard to leave the building. Drop off your favorite newborn-6-year-old at Kangaroo Park to learn, play, and get exercise while you take advantage of me-time in The Regents Club. The Regents Club is more than just a gym, it's a health club that includes an indoor pool, restaurant, sauna and more. After your workout, pick up ingredients for your dinner recipe at Market in the Park, and perhaps a bottle of wine to enjoy in the Bergen Garden.
If you can't seem to get enough fresh-air, perhaps Hyde Park Tower is the place for you with it's newest amenity, smoke-free living. Enjoy your fresh-air overlooking the lake, with Hyde Park Tower's breathtaking views. And that's not all the free amenities they have to offer, save on those expensive java purchases with the complimentary coffee bar and wi-fi located in the lounge.
If you live your life on the simpler side, The Blackwood Apartments may be the Hyde Park living space for you. Conveniently located on South Blackstone Avenue, have your pick of views from Lake Michigan, the park, or downtown. It's beautiful 1920 art deco style takes you back in time, while still enjoying modern day amenities with a 24 hour fitness center.
Whatever your style of living, Apartment Finder can help you find it. Please Tweet or Facebook us your apartment hunting needs and TeamAF will send over custom listings to explore.


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Sarah Palin wins: 'Death panels' declared 'Lie of the Year'
WASHINGTON — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's claim about so-called "death panels" has landed her on the political equivalent of Santa's naughty list: PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year."
Palin earned the dubious honor last week for her Aug. 7 assertion on Facebook that people would face "death panels" under the health care overhaul bill as proposed by the House of Representatives this summer.
It was such a falsehood that the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking Web site gave it a "Pants on Fire" rating on its Truth-O-Meter in August. And this week, Palin's truth stretching was seconded as "Lie of the Year" by an overwhelming 61 percent of PolitiFact readers who cast votes on the editors' pick.
At the time, Palin wrote: "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care.
"We agree with Palin that such a system would be evil," PolitiFact's editors wrote at the time. "But it's definitely not what President Barack Obama or any other Democrat has proposed."
Palin's claim about death panels -- although disproven and widely derided -- came to define the health care debate in the pivotal month of August. That's when lawmakers were home for their summer recess, facing constituents who showed up at raucous town hall meetings with questions about what's in the health care legislation being debated by Congress.
The provisions Palin referred to in the legislation gave Medicare patients the ability to seek paid-for counseling for end-of-life issues, such as living wills. Nothing was mandatory about the counseling provision, which Medicare previously had not covered.
Although she has been rebuked repeatedly as a liar for her remarks, Palin this week continued to repeat the assertion that health care legislation might include "death panels." On the Twitter account she's using to promote her new memoir, "Going Rogue," Palin wrote on Tuesday that it was important people pay attention to the legislation.
She used the social networking Web site's vernacular to bring up the topic again: "merged bill may be unrecognizable from what assumed was a done deal: R death panels back in?" Palin wrote from her Blackberry.
The Senate is set to pass its version of a health care bill on Thursday morning; next month, the House and the Senate will begin working next month on combining their two versions of the bill.
Palin's falsehood did have a few runners-up. They include an assertion about the H1N1 virus by the man who landed the job Palin wanted last year: Vice President Joe Biden. In a April 30th interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Biden claimed that "when one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft."
Not so, said PolitiFact, which talked to scientist Tony Overfelt of Auburn University. The particles from a sneeze "might travel a row or a couple of rows or something like that," Overfelt told them. "They're really not going to travel up and down the airplane as our vice president said."
Ultimately, though, only 1.7 percent of PolitiFact readers thought Biden's germaphobic claim worthy of "Lie of the Year."


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GENEVA, 11 November 2013 – IKEA Foundation has donated Euro 2 million to UNICEF to support relief efforts in the aftermath of the Super Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Philippines on 8 November.
Current estimates indicate that 4 million children could now be affected by the disaster.
Funds from the IKEA Foundation, UNICEF's largest corporate partner, will help UNICEF to reach children and families as quickly as possible with critical water and sanitation supplies, to help protect their health and safety following the disaster.
Alongside other supplies, the donation from the IKEA Foundation will be used for the provision of generators and water treatment plants to ensure access to safe drinking water for children and families in affected areas and the distribution of water and hygiene kits to help avoid the risk of disease outbreak.
Children who have escaped the terrible devastation of Haiyan need urgent assistance to survive the aftermath of the storm. The impact of the typhoon on water supply and sanitation systems has raised particular concerns around the health of the affected population.
"We are extremely grateful to the IKEA Foundation for their invaluable contribution, which will be critical in helping the lives of so many children and their families in the affected areas", said Leila Pakkala, UNICEF Director of Private Fundraising and Partnerships.
UNICEF is rushing emergency supplies to the Philippines for rapid distribution to areas ravaged by Super Typhoon Haiyan. The IKEA Foundation's contribution will be critical to helping UNICEF scale up its emergency response in the difficult days ahead.
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. For more information about UNICEF and its work visit www.unicef.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
About IKEA Foundation
The IKEA Foundation aims to improve opportunities for children and youth in the world's poorest communities by funding holistic, long-term programmes that can create substantial, lasting change. The Foundation works with strong strategic partners applying innovative approaches to achieve large-scale results in four fundamental areas of a child's life: a place to call home; a healthy start in life; a quality education; and sustainable family income. Currently-funded programmes benefit an estimated 100 million children by 2015. Learn more at www.ikeafoundation.org and www.facebook/IKEAfoundation
For more information, please contact:
Anna Kowsar, UNICEF Geneva
Tel. +41-22-909-5325
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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@Tosh_Black_Cat is one of my favorite panfur furends. Come meet him and his mummy.
How old were you when you moved in with your family? Were you a rescue?
I am not a rescue cat. I came to live with my mum when I was 6 weeks old.
What breed of PET are you?
Black domestic.
What inspired your mom to name you?
I am named after my mum's dad.
Do you have siblings? Do you get along?
How would you describe your personality?
Do what I want to do.
Do you have a mischief incident that is still talked about with your family?
Jumping of the wardrobe and frighten mum as she was sleeping.
Tell me about an Awww moment.
When I am sleeping,
Do you have any health issues?
Do you like to be brushed, have your nails trimmed?
No to both.
Do you like certain hoomans outside of your family?
My mum's friend Ron.
What are your favorite foods and toys?
Whiskers steamed fish. I have a small teddy.
|awww baby Tosh
What is your birth date, or Gotcha Day date?
I was born 27th March 2011
When did you join Twitter and what clubs do you belong to?
30th April 2011 #WLF.
What type of work do you do?
Volunteering work in a chancer charity shop
Are you an outdoor person, or an indoor person, and why?
I like to be in my own home. Feel secure in it.
Do you blog or Facebook? Tell me about it and give addresses.
I am on fb Wendy Tosh
What is your favorite book, favorite author?
No fav book
What TV shows do you enjoy?
I like my soaps
What type of music do you enjoy? What is your favorite song?
I luv 50s and 60s music. Do not really have a favorite song
Do you travel? What is the most memorable vacation you've ever taken?
I do not travel.
Tell me about your town and what makes it special to you.
It has a lot of nature around it.
Tell me about your first pet, and how many have you had in your lifetime?
My pet that I remember having is my last one Tommy he died when he was 22
When he died. He was my life.
Do you have other Twitter accounts?
Yes as the one I use now was mine but Tosh took over it.
What is a typical day for you, starting when your pets want breakfast?
Feed Tosh eat breakfasts clean flat go shopping watch tv.
Thankew Tosh and his mom for intermewing!


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Online Buyers and Sellers: You May Owe State Taxes
Board of Equalization Franchise Tax Board
For Immediate Release
The California State Board of Equalization (BOE) and the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) urge online buyers and sellers to be informed about their tax obligations. The Internet is a dynamic and convenient technology that many businesses use to sell their products and that shoppers use to find great deals. However, one essential fact is often overlooked – there is no general tax exemption for sales made over the Internet.
The BOE and FTB are jointly contacting Internet auction houses to provide them with educational material to help their customers meet their state tax responsibilities. The BOE and FTB created a new publication designed to assist online buyers and sellers to understand their tax responsibilities titled, Online Buying or Selling – Know Your Tax Obligation.
Sales Tax
The tax imposed on retail sales in California is called sales tax, and the retailer is responsible for reporting and paying the tax to the BOE. California retailers typically collect tax reimbursement from their purchasers for the sales tax these retailers owe. If a business is located in California, Internet sales of its physical products are generally taxable. For sales tax purposes, Internet sales are treated just like sales made at retail stores and other outlets. A seller's permit is generally required if a business makes three or more sales in a 12-month period. This applies even if sales are made through Internet auction houses or websites that offer online classified advertisements.
Use Tax
When a California purchaser buys from an out-of-state retailer who does not collect California tax on the sale, it is the responsibility of the individual purchasing the product to report use tax on the item paid. Use tax is simply a tax on the use, storage, or consumption of personal property in California. As an individual, use tax can be reported and paid either through a separate line designated for use tax on the California state income tax return or by filing a consumer use tax return directly with the BOE. If the purchaser is a retailer with a seller's permit, the use tax should be reported on the regular sales and use tax return.
Income Tax
In general, California taxes the income of residents on all of their income, regardless of source. A state tax return is due when an individual's income reaches certain levels. For 2009, a single person must file when his or her income reaches about $15,000. If you are an online auction seller and have exceeded this income level, you may have income tax obligations.
About Us
The California State Board of Equalization is a publicly elected tax board. The BOE collects more than $53 billion annually in taxes and fees supporting state and local government services. It hears business tax appeals, acts as the appellate body for franchise and personal income tax appeals, and serves a significant role in the assessment and administration of property taxes.
The main role of the Franchise Tax Board is to administer California's personal income and corporation tax laws. Combined, these two tax programs comprise more than 60 percent of the state's General Fund for major tax and license revenue. Over the years, we have also been given added responsibility to administer certain nontax programs. Board members are the State Controller, the director of the Department of Finance, and the chair of the State Board of Equalization.
Additional helpful information (some publications also available in non-English languages):
- FTB 3730 — Online Buying or Selling – Know Your Tax Obligation
- Publication 109, Are Your Internet Sales Taxable?
- Publication 177, Internet Auction Sales and Purchases
- Publication 110, California Use Tax Basics
For more information on other taxes and fees in California, visit taxes.ca.gov.