". . . Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n."

John Milton Paradise Lost (1667)



Well, well, well. Once again we have arrived at the month of October, my favorite month for a variety of reasons, not least of which being that it heralds the real arrival of autumn, the change of colors, the melancoly yet deeply satisfying turning inwards of both the northern hemisphere and the thought processes of people in that hemisphere. On top of which, October culminates in one of my favorite holiday festivals of the year, Halloween. In order to commence the month in appropriate tenor, I assembled all the available gargoyle films I could find, five in number, and watched them one after another. They ranged from the 1972 camp Gargoyles to a recent Sci-Fi channel effort, Reign of the Gargoyles. The premises of all the films are silly in the extreme, but if one is a fan of the genre it is a delightful way to usher in the month and its rather lugubrious undertones. I was amused to note that in one Romanian effort, there was a credit in the technical team for Zoltan Dracul, and one can only hope that is his real name and that he glories in it. On Halloween weekend itself, Devi and I shall be in Paris visiting some dear friends whom we plan to take to dinner on that night. I jokingly requested that my friend find a restaurant that will be serving "werewolf soup, vampire steaks, fresh hot witchbread, iced gargoyle delight & pitchers of ghost wine." He replied that he knows the perfect place, which throws an unexpected new light on his character. No matter the result, we will be delighted to visit them at the end of the month, they are cherished friends and as well we will have the opportunity to congratulate them in person on the news which they announced only last night that they have decided to marry, an unexpected but delightful surprise. Devi is overjoyed as she is a friend of long date with the husband-to-be, who recently brought his companion down to Montpellier to introduce her to us and we both found her delightful and charming with a great deal of interpersonal warmth.

In keeping with the October theme, I also watched an American television miniseries playing on French television, Fallen, concerning the Nephilim. While the series itself was rather nebulous, fluffy and commercially driven, the ideas it presented were interesting. For those who do not know, the Nephilim are/were the offspring of fallen angels and human women. I have run into this idea previously but never in depth, so the series served to drive me to the Internet and do some research on the topic. It is quite fascinating. The whole subject ranges from the biblical idea that the Nephilim were giants, such as Goliath, to the modern idea that the Nephilim still exist among us and serve a definite purpose in the divine plan for humanity. What that purpose may be is still clouded and unsure, but the whole theory that angels can couple with humans runs into a small snag; angels are supposedly non-sexed, a difficulty which is sidestepped by stating that that requirement applies only to angels still in Heaven, that the fallen can indeed take corporeal form and couple sexually. Also inherent in the theories is that not all the fallen went to Hell with Lucifer, that a great number decided to remain in corporeal form on the Earth and lead their immortal lives amongst us for a variety of reasons, not least of which is their fascination with the fact that human beings have souls while they do not. The price of immortality I suppose. The series turned around the point that one day a Nephilim will be born as "the Redeemer", the one who has the power to redeem the fallen and send them back to Heaven despite whatever crimes or sins they may have committed. From a rather promising idea evolved a great deal of foolishness, including a teenage romance and a Nephilim son of Lucifer the Lightbringer. Azazel had a thick Cockney accent and the angels were a politically correct mélange of races, colors and political beliefs. Oh well, American television will always put its own idiotic spin on big ideas.

As I sit here writing this it has just been announced that President Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for 2009. Of course the whining, naysaying and random sniping started immediately, mostly of the tone of "yeah, but what has he actually accomplished?" Well, yes, there is that, but I believe people are missing what he has done in fact; he has single-handedly changed the American image abroad and at home, has re-opened diplomatic dialogue instead of resorting to Texan six-shooter "diplomacy," and is fighting an uphill battle on the fronts of health care reform, climate change, nuclear disarmament and poverty while coping with the Great Recession. Give the man a break. Despite any opinion to the contrary, the Nobel committee does not make these decisions in an atmosphere of "oh, what the hell. . . ." I personally am deeply happy for him even though surprised by the award, as he is only the third sitting US president ever awarded the honor, the last going back to Woodrow Wilson in 1919. My grandmother was only seven years old and her concern at the time was whether she would receive the doll she wanted for Christmas from the Sears mail order catalogue. And thus the beatification of President Obama continues, but there is a down side to that as well. In any process of beatification, there must be proof of miracles and "hope" does not fall into that category. As well, this award will add to the tremendous burden already riding on his shoulders. Very rarely have so many hoped for so much from a single man, much less a politician. He may be humbled by the award but I would wager a nickel to a dollar that the implications of the award do not escape him and that somewhere in his being there is a small, reverberating groan. After his failure in Copenhagen to win the 2016 Olympics for Chicago and media reflections on his uxoriousness with Michelle, however, perhaps it is a sweet moment for him after all; it will certainly be tougher for the GOP to continue to demonize him (unless they can prove he is Nephilim). In speaking of the 2016 Olympics, I was amazed to see the president of Brazil burst into tears when Rio de Janeiro was announced as the winner. Oh, those emotional Portuguese. It may be hard, however, to keep the athletes focused on the games when surrounded by naked Rio samba dancers and their enticing 20 foot feather headdresses. Of course, 90% of Rio de Janeiro will be off limits as the crime rate is astronomical, but what the hell, live a little, compete a lot, just stay away from the crack (in every sense).

Nasa has "bombed" the Moon at almost the same moment as the Nobel announcement. Bomb is not the correct term, of course; they have sent an unarmed rocket crashing into a south polar lunar crater in order to cause a plume of debris which will be analyzed for the presence of ice (water) on the Moon in order to justify further lunar expeditions and the possibilty of human bases there. I hope no one is surprised when the Lunarians "bomb" the Earth, searching for signs of intelligence beneath the surface since there is obviously none ON the surface. Meanwhile the Giant Space Crabs (see previous blog entry # 29 ) are fine tuning the hexnut on Saturn, advising the homeworld of this disquieting development and requesting advice on the feasability of launching the "Humans with Butter & Lemon Sauce" operation sooner than foreseen.

Let us mosey around the world a bit, shall we? The "Hail, Prince(ss) of the Obvious!" award for this entry goes to Manisha Tank, a Hong Kong based CNN anchor who stated, on presenting video showing a protester throwing his shoes at the chairman of the IMF in Istanbul (a deep insult in the Middle East), "Well, there must be some discontent there." Hail, Manisha! The Swedish firm IKEA® will not being doing much business in Israel for awhile due to Israel's discontent with a Swedish media story of Israeli soldiers harvesting Palestinian organs from their victims for use back in Israel. In Saudi Arabia, a man convicted of bragging about his sex life has received a sentence of five years in jail and 1000 lashes. Presumably he will not receive the lashes all at the same time as I understand that you die well before 100. A small useless fact is that 25% of the world is Muslim and that percentage is growing - Pope Benedict XVI, on your toes and take that Popemobile on a tour! Drifting over to Southeast Asia, one can only marvel at the massive amount of bad karma that seems to be falling from the sky. Successive earthquakes in Samoa and Indonesia, a linked chain of typhoons sweeping the Philippines, many hundreds dead, many hundreds of thousands displaced and homeless, being born in Southeast Asia seems to be a definitive judgement by Fate that you need to atone for something, even if you do not know what that may be. The Sri Lankan general Udaya Nanayakkara explains to the international media that there were and are no war crimes committed against the Tamil Tiger rebels, despite claims to the contrary, yet he will allow absolutely no reportage from within the "former" war zone, keeping it utterly isolated. China, in a wistful recall of the imperial days of the Mandate of Heaven, celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communism with a gigantic celebration in Tienanmen Square, complete with dancing dragons, fireworks and a military parade the likes of which has not been seen since the glory days of the USSR. Upon watching bits of the proceedings, I began to wonder, "If China can do that for its 60th anniversary, why can't I?" I can imagine it now - a nominal rent for the Square, dancing dragons, a commission for the largest fireworks display ever seen, a banquet for ten thousand of my closet friends, thousands of tightly choreographed dancers as entertainment during the banquet, all to celebrate my 60th birthday in just a few years. Why not? I will have to see if Devi and I can squeeze the necessary funds out of our retirement accounts. Japan continues its cinematic fascination with the erotic, the psychotic and the homicidal as attested by a spate of recent films combining all three elements, most of which show up on the French arts channel, a kind of francophone PBS. A recent piece on fad mad Japan informed me of the newest trend there, IV cafes. You enter one of the countless Tokyo highrises and proceed to the offices of your favorite IV cafe, where you choose from among ten packages of various vitamin supplements suspended in saline solution. There is one for clearer skin, one for rejuvenation and muscular suppleness, one for this and one for that, etc. You relax in a recliner while the nurse administers your vitamin boost intravenously, at the price of around $30.00 USD, and walk out feeling as if you have done something to better your health. All of this only served to remind me of my small regret that I have never tried smoking opium and probably never will. Perhaps they can administer it intravenously if I go to Tokyo . . . .

On the random side of things . . . watching an Italian film recently, I was amused to note among the technical credits the name of Fabiomassimo Dell'Orco, a name which I find highly wonderful. A friend of Italian extraction in Seattle states that either he had "a grand drunken time thinking up his stage name or his parents had delusions of grandeur." I opt for the latter, as normally a technical person does not need a stage name. In an Austrian fim, under tech credits, came the name Helga Ungarat. Again, I enjoyed it. The name itself conjures up an image of Helga, a mix of Prussian and Romanian influences, perhaps a childhood spent in Bucharest, longing for the freedom of East Germany (sic). Quincy Jones, in a CNN segment entitled "My City, My Life" bills Seattle as a city of mystery and intrigue. Really? I have visited Seattle and it did not strike me as the Prague of the American West Coast. Lately it seems that my eyes have become more focused on spotting really beautiful women, the stunningly beautiful kind, and I find it wonderful to look and appreciate while at the same time my mind repeats constantly that you cannot trust an improbably beautiful woman any further than you can toss the Great Pyramid. In line with the old adage, "Never marry a very beautiful woman, you will never be sure." My acquisition of the complete 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Universalis is now complete and I am content that we now have in the house a decent reference source for history, art, literature, science, religion, economy, society, philosophy and geography, at least until next year when new discoveries or political changes will render it all absolutely out of date.

I shall finish at this point, as I need to contemplate whether I shall take an Halloween costume to Paris or not. I had planned, when the idea was to stay in Montpellier, on dressing as a Roswell grey alien carrying a Doc Johnson® anal probe, but that is now out of the question as the Parisians might just take me at face value if I were to wear said disguise. Please do not forget to take the latest poll at the end of the blog (just hit "End" and you will be whisked to the appropriate line). Until the next,

Leducdor

". . . I was born to live in the sunset of the world and that nothing matters, nothing."

Sinuhe (Edmund Purdom) The Egyptian, (1954)


Hello, hello to all of you out there in Magic Toaster Land. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the magic toaster is the computer, which is thus referenced by the technologically unsavvy, as in, "I turn on Magic Toaster, but no toast. What happen?" I have been on a history riff lately (when am I not?). Recently I rewatched the BBC series I, Claudius (1976), and was once again struck by the very close interpretation of the series to the Robert Graves' books, and those books to the historical record. For those of you who saw the series the first time around, you should rent it and see it again; for those of you who have never seen it, run, do not walk, to the video store, take it home and watch in horrified and amazed fascination the history of the founding of the Empire and the Julian dynasty that started it. This all began when, for some unknown reason, I began to mind-drift into speculation about the Teutoburg Forest disaster in 9 A.D. A familiar story for a Roman history buff, when Publius Quinctilius Varus, through a series of disastrous decisions and miscalculations lost the XVII, XVIII and XIX legions in the Teutoburg Forest to Arminius, a Roman trained German rebel leader. The golden legion eagle standards were later recovered, but the shame was endless. Naturally Varus committed suicide upon losing the battle (better than facing Augustus' wrath back in Rome). I have even toyed with the idea of visiting the Teutoburg Forest and, in particular, the Hermannsdenkmal, the monument erected by Germany in the 19th century to commemorate the very symbolic Germanic victory over Rome. After the battle, the Rhine became forever the boundary between the Roman empire and the "lands beyond." Lest you think, "How German, how very European of them," there is a similar Hermannsdenkmal in New Ulm, Minnesota, also erected in the 19th century. So if a trip to Germany is out of the question, try Minnesota. I myself have doubts about traveling in Germany, despite its position as the powerhouse economy and one of the two founding countries of the European Union (the other is France, of course. They became tired always surrendering to the Germans.) I dislike Germany. My father's family was mainly of German/Prussian extraction, which no doubt accounts for so many disagreable qualities in their makeup. I traveled in Germany once, almost four decades ago and aside from getting very drunk in Munich for Oktoberfest, did not enjoy the country at all. Of course, it must be said that at that time I did not enjoy France at all, either. I lived in Rome, traveling mainly to Greece and Spain for pleasure and fun. At any rate, back to Rome. From the founding of the Empire (not to be confused with the founding of Rome), until the partition of the empire by Constantine, there were forty-four emperors, reigning a total of 311 years. The Eastern Roman empire, otherwise known as the Byzantine empire, continued another 1000 years, but for all intents and purposes it was no longer the Roman empire. The famous Pax Romana lasted only 200 years. The emperors were, in order; Augustus 27BC-14AD; Tiberius 14-37; Caligula 37-41; Claudius 41-54; Nero 54-68; Galba 68-69; Otho 69; Vitellius 69; Vespasian 69-79; Titus 79-81; Domitian 81-96; Nerva 96-98; Trajan 98-117; Hadrian 117-138; Antoninus Pius 138-161; Marcus Aurelius 161-180; (Pax Romana ends); Commodus 180-192; Pertinax 193; Didius Julianus 193; Septimius Severus 193-211; Caracalla 211-217; Macrinus 217; Heliogabulus 218-222; Alexander Severus 222-235; Maximinus 235-238; Gordian I and Gordian II 238; Pupienus and Balbinus 238; Gordian III 238-244; Philip the Arabian 244-249; Decius 249-251; Gallus 251-253; Aemilian 253; Valerian and Gallienus 253-260; Gallienus 260-268; Claudius II 268-270; Aurelian 270-275; Tacitus 275; Probus 276-282; Carus 282-283; Carinus and Numerianus 284.If a genie were to appear on your doorstep and grant you an historical lifetime during the Roman empire, be sure and choose the time between Nerva and Marcus Aurelius, a period known as the Five Good Emperors. Of course, you would miss the splendors of the Baths of Caracalla, but you would also miss Caligula, Nero, Commodus and Heliogabulus, all devoutly to be avoided.


Devi and I are in a state of lassitude at the moment. The DHOSF languishes under the oppressive heat and humidity of summer in the south of France, not quite the Grace Kelly/Cary Grant storybook locale so many are apt to imagine. Air conditioning (la climatisation) is still a luxury in France, and while one can have it installed, it is expensive to begin and remains expensive to run, the price of European electricity being ruinous. (On the other hand, I am watching the insane circus going on in the USA over health care reform and thank the gods that I live in France.) The indigenous, woad-painted population suffers as well, as typified by our neighbors, a French version of the battling Bickersons. With the windows wide open, one is witness to their daily morning ritual, the hysterical screaming match complete with tears, crying and bellowing. They are raising her grandchildren because their mother is somewhat occupied with her newest worthless boyfriend. We have become rather accustomed to the drama as it serves, much like a cock's crow, to signal that the day has indeed begun. Also, it makes me smirk; they really should remember that when they had their Revolution in 1789, they obliterated their learned, intelligent, mannered classes and were left with a population of screaming, ignorant, savage peasants who still lurk beneath a very thin veneer of acculturation and civilization. France is also a showcase exhibit for two great Western world traditions, women shaming men, "Why would you do this to me?", and the greatest justification in the world for selfishness - a baby. (Please do not bother to respond with outrage or contrary examples, I already know. And besides, I do not care.) Yet, I continue to live here, for many reasons. In all my travels so far, it remains the best place to live that I have found. Yes, I remain American and yes, I am proud to be American, but that does not equate with the idea that I find America a civilized place to live, I do not. The next time that you are rushed to the hospital emergency room for whatever, I will compare my 16 € bill with anything you may produce. For those of you not at the hospital but at home downloading music and worrying if the industry police are watching your every move, check out WE7 and Spotify (Europe only right now, but soon in North America). Music for free, legally.


Let us slip over to the other side of the Mediterranean for a moment to remark that Nigeria is the world's second largest consumer of Guinness beer, after England. Yes, Ireland falls behind Nigeria, amazing, is it not? It gives new meaning to the phrase, "black Irish." Our good friend, Prof. Oyalindamalo Ndomba, who teaches at an American university, states that the reason is that the Nigerians add local hallucinogenic herbs to the brew which is licensed to Nigerian breweries, but I can find no hard evidence to back up this assertion. She swears it is true, however, and I have a tendency to believe her, as she has so often been correct in the past.


Slipping further east, I remark the tales of male rape coming out of Iran. You remember, of course, when Mahmoud Ahmedinejad spoke at Columbia University in New York City, he replied to a question with the statement, "We have no homosexuality in Iran. That is a Western sickness." He was hooted and hollered at, laughed almost off the stage. The stories coming out of Iran are that young men who have been arrested, especially during the recent unrest and protests over the Iranian election, are routinely brutally sodomised in prison by officials, usually with an 'instrument", and their internal organs are permanently injured or destroyed, with no hope of ever again leading a normal life with normal biological cycles. The Taliban is chopping off the dye-stained fingers of women who voted in the recent Afghani election. Note that it is women they are mutilating, no stories yet of men being mutilated - my, what brave, ideologically pure lads they are. When I was a child, I used to use Elmer's Glue® to make "fake skin" on the palm of my hand or fingers - spread it, let it dry and peel it off. It occurs to me that were I an Afghani female, I would coat my index finger in such a manner, let them dip it in the ink to show that I had voted and immediately peel it off upon exiting the polling station. Provided I could obtain paste glue in Afghanistan, of course. (In the unlikely case that you have not already seen it, please go to YouTube and watch "Achmed the Dead Terrorist", it is quite funny.) Another lovely place to be a woman is India, where 40% of the world's marriages take place. Despite the laws, child brides are still common and after marriage, they move in with their husbands' families where they are subjected to virtual enslavement by the family, especially the mother-in-law. If they do not completely please the mother-in-law, they are doused with kerosene and set on fire. Yes, this is true. Their dowry is kept and they are left to die. "Time to look for a new wife!" says the husband's mother. Malaysia has decided to postpone the judicial caning until after Ramadan, which started last Friday, of a young woman for drinking a beer. She is to receive six strokes. Now, while you may be thinking, "Six strokes of the cane? Unpleasant, yes, but not that big of a deal," think again. This is not an English prep school, and these canings are not "spankings." Check out the pictorial evidence on the Web if you care to inform yourself, it is brutal, ugly, horrifying, agonizing and medieval. You are strapped into an apparatus that leaves you exposed from your shoulder blades down to your knees, and the canes are not little whippety things, think more along the lines of leather and bamboo construction poles. You may be internally injured for life, you will certainly be forever scarred. Meanwhile our televisions (CNN) are awash with colorful, utopian advertisements for Malaysian tourism, stating, "Malaysia - Asia as it was meant to be!" It will be a cold day on the surface of the sun before I EVER visit Malaysia. We may, more or less, blame the British for this; their colonial empire spread the British taste for rum, sodomy and the lash throughout their former possessions, and although radical Islam has given it all certain "refinements", it remains deeply British. To be fair, imperial China did not historically help greatly in the cause of humane punishment, either. The world continues to bathe in a basin of barbarism, brutality and blood - we are not a spiritual, shining species.


In speaking of spirituality, I am reminded that the Grand Hierophant has informed me that he is still hard at work defining and refining the precepts of the Path of Totality. While he is not yet ready to disseminate these precepts, he tells me that at this point most of the work is in a refining stage, and he feels confident that it will soon be ready. Confident enough, in fact, to begin to accept, on a limited basis, questions of faith from those who in earnest seek a new, better path to self-realization. You may contact him at: grandhierophant@hotmail.fr .


I shall end this blog entry with another excerpt from the Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day. Wherever you read the name of Ani, I suggest you replace it with your own. With that in mind:


Chapter 134: Praising Re on the first day of the month and sailing in the divine bark



Hail to Him who dwells in his shrine, who rises and shines, who imprisons myriads at his will and who gives commands to the sun-folk, Khepri who dwells in his Bark, for he has felled Apophis. It is the children of Geb who will fell you, you enemies of Ani, who would demolish the Bark of Re. Horus has cut off their heads in the sky like birds, and their goat-buttocks are in the Lake of Fish. As for any male or female adversary who would do harm to Ani, whether he is one who shall descend from the sky or ascend from the earth, who shall come by water or travel in company with the stars, Thoth the son of an eggshell who came out of the two eggshells shall decapitate them. Be dumb, be deaf before Ani! This is Re, this god mightily terrible and greatly majestic; he will bathe in your blood, he will drink of your gore, O you who would do much harm to Ani in the Bark of his father Re. Ani is Horus; his mother Isis bore him, Nephthys nursed him, just as they did for Horus, in order to drive away the confederacy of Seth, and they see the Wereret-crown firm-planted on his head. The spirits of men and gods and the spirits of the dead fall on their faces when they see Ani as Horus, with the Wereret-crown firm-planted on his head; they fall on their faces when Ani is triumphant over his enemies in the Upper Sky and the Lower Sky and in the tribunals of every god and every goddess. (To be spoken over a falcon standing with the White Crown on his head; Atum, Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys being drawn in ochre on a new bowl placed in the Sacred Bark, together with an image of this spirit whom you wish to be made worthy, it being anointed with oil. Offer to them incense on the fire and roasted ducks, and worship Re. It means that he for whom this is done will voyage and be with Re every day in every place he desires to travel, and it means that the enemies of Re will be driven off in very deed. A matter a million times true.)


Please do not forget to take the poll at the bottom of the blog, simply hit "End" and the page will shoot down to the poll, thank you. Well, thus ends another entry. Until the next,
Leducdor

" . . . full of stars, AGAIN!"

Dave Bowman 2001: A Space Odyssey (redux) (1968)

Happy Independence Day to all you Americans out there, real or imagined. There is not really much to add to that basic greeting on this, the 233rd anniversary of American independence, other than do not eat too much barbecue, do not drink too much and drive, and do be careful when you are drunk anyway and lighting the children's fireworks. No one wants little Buffy or Muffy to go up screaming in flames (well, almost no one).
To round off my discussion of the last entry concerning astronomy and astrophysics, I have been watching season two of the History Channel's series on the Universe. It is very good, not quite as elementary as the first season, with topics that are equally as interesting. There are some very compelling bits on exoplanets in one episode, and the hopes of astrophysicists that life may be discovered much nearer and much sooner than we had imagined. (Hitler's 1938 Olympics broadcasts are only now reaching our stellar neighbors.) Apparently a prime candidate is Gliza 436 b, a mere 40 to 50 light years from Sol. The presenters talked blithely about how the planet was only 5 to 8 times the mass of Earth, orbiting close to its red dwarf star (thus in its own proper frame of reference, the habitable zone). In recognizable terms, that means it is about the size of Uranus, therefore habitable is a relative concept. Certainly not habitable for human beings, but perhaps it is the home planet of the Giant Space Crabs. As is well known, the Giant Space Crabs long ago colonized Mars, exploiting it to the point of turning it into a vast, barren desert world before moving off to strip mine other, newer discoveries. At the time, Earth was very unpromising, fluctuating between ice ages and volcanic hell, so Earth was left untouched. Sedna, the furthest icy worldlet of our solar system, is another remnant of their interstellar "raze and burn" civilization. In line with this, one of the greatest surprises for modern astronomy is the absolutely perfect hexagon at Saturn's north pole. It is 25000 kilometers in width, the size of three to four earths, with each side measuring around 13,800 kilometers. It rotates completely once every 10 hours, 39 minutes and 24 seconds, which happens to be exactly the length of radio emissions from Saturn. It is blindingly obvious to anyone with eyes, except, apparently, astrophysicists, that it is in fact a giant hex nut with which the Giant Space Crabs originally tuned and regulated Saturn and his rings. Think about it: the rotation of the hexagon; the length of radio emissions from Saturn; the obviousness of the rings as a giant satellite dish aimed "elsewhere"; the pure geometric perfection of the hexagon contrary to all known interstellar physics. Saturn is not natural, it is a crabmade technological device. "To what end?" you ask. To which I reply, "Do you really need to ask? Did you foolishly think we are alone, that no 'one' is keeping tabs?" Silly rabbit. In a sidebar, I would ask you if it never occurred to you, when you were a child and read Dick Tracy comics in the daily newspaper, that the French had long ago colonized the Moon? Chester Morton, the author of the eponymous comic, obviously thought so. Why else, for several long, uninterrupted years, did Dick Tracy court Moon Maid, discover that she was the daughter of the dictator of the Moon as well as discovering that their only exportable product, indeed their only product at all, was giant escargot? All lunar feasts consisted solely of giant escargot, along with whatever edible comestibles Tracy and his cohorts had brought along from Earth. All of which means that the Lunarians, as well as the French, are in for a tough time when the Giant Space Crabs discover that they have been harvesting and devouring creatures much closer to the crab phylum than we are.
In the neighboring realm of pure physics, I am currently reading a book entitled, It's About Time : Understanding Einstein's Relativity. N. David Mermin, Princeton Univ. Press, 2005. It is a text written by an eminent physicist for non-physicists, for laypeople. I read approximately one chapter per day so as not to push ideas and concepts too quickly into my mental apparatus, to understand them as fully as possible before moving on to the next step. It is wonderfully clear and precise, and quite droll in its own way. One can read in the first chapter the following:
" 'All other things being the same' raises deep questions. In the case of translational variance, it means that when you move the experiment to a new place or time you have to move everything relevant; in the case of rotational invariance you have to turn everything relevant. In the case of the principal of relativity, you have to set everything relevant in motion.
If everything relevant turned out to be the entire universe, you might wonder whether there was any content to the principle. One can thus descend immediately into a deep philosophical abyss from which some never emerge. We shall not do this."
I laughed out loud when I read that and immediately thought, "I am going to like this author." If you see nothing droll or amusing in the above statement, perhaps this is not the book for you, assuming you have any interest in understanding the principle of relativity. If you do have such an interest, however, I can highly recommend this book. It claims to be an "easy read," which it is not, but it is certainly an understandable one. Use your brain, flex those neurons!
The French Supreme Court (or its equivalent) recently struck down a government proposal to cut off Internet access for anyone found "guilty" of downloading p2p files, torrents and the like, without paying for them. This means movies, music, etc.. The law proposed that one could be "convoked" twice for the offense, and if found culpable a third time then Internet access for your computer was cut off, for good. The problems with this idea are so many, so evident, that the mind boggles. The Court's argument in striking down the proposal was that the Internet fell under the domain of freedom of the press, freedom of information, the rights of man, etc. etc.. Good for the French court, and the middle finger to the Sarkozy governement that wanted this. It is blatantly in line with governmental hand-in-hand politics with the moneyed copyright interests, the movie and music industries, and political control of public access to information, in a creeping, dictatorial kind of way. Shades of China and its control of public access! One can only imagine Prohibition of the Internet and the resulting mass underground system of "Screw you, I'll get the 'Net anyway!" In fact, it sounds like a match to start a revolution. If the French government thinks that it can control access to information in such a way, and with such a "law abiding" step, I suggest it take its head out of the sand and look around at the populace, the era we live in and the global communication structure. They cannot control it in Iran, they cannot control it in China, so what makes the French government think they can control it in one of the nerve centers of Western society? It is far, far too late to try to smother the baby in its crib, it has grown up.
International news has simply bored me silly recently. The death of "a well-known musical celebrity" (I refuse to use the name) has been covered ad infinitum, as if his death is the greatest tragedy to befall humanity since our exclusion from the Garden of Eden. S'il vous plaît, he was a sad, confused, deeply conflicted, drug-addicted individual who did not know which end was up anymore. Obama is getting out of Iraq (cheers!) and more heavily engaging in Afghanistan (judgement reserved). North Korea is running around the cocktail party with a lampshade on its head, screaming drunkenly, "Look at me! Look at me!" A man in England tried to circumcise himself with nail clippers and was rushed to the hospital, only to be immediately transferred to a mental asylum (quelle surprise). The Italian president, Silvio Berlusconi, adamantly denies his involvement with voluptuous 18 year old girls and prostitutes by stating, "Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?" - he retains his position in a vote of confidence. Turkey is back on the assault for membership in the European Union saying, "Alright, we will stop killing Kurds and Armenians, does that suffice?" (I do not care, I still want to visit Istanbul.) Spain's unemployment hits 20% and nobody seems unduly concerned; "Hello? Is anyone home? Do you realize what is going on?" I recognize almost no one in the current generation of film stars, not that that is a concern for anyone but me, but who ARE these people? It is shocking, and a sign of my age, that almost all current "hot" celebrities are people I have never heard of nor do I care to inform myself about them. Celebrity is as common as Coca-Cola® these days. Karl Malden died. Finally?? Farrah Fawcett-Majors died; quick, drape your blowdryer in black crêpe.
On a personal note, it is hot here in the DHOSF. I am speaking of the weather. In the six years since I came as a missionary to the DHOSF, I have noticed the effects of global warming. Winters are not noticeably worse, but summers are becoming brutal. I have finally succeeded in making the change, mentally, from Farenheit to Celsius, so now when I hear that the temperature is 32°, I think, "God, that's hot!" Perhaps this accounts for my dream cycles of late. I am having wild, outrageous dreams. One of my latest came in the form of a film, as if presented at the cinema, it even started with a technirama title, "Les Divinités Assiégées." In the dream, I was back in the USA, trying to buy drugs but having no success. I wondered why until I looked down into my hands and realized that all my money was in Euros. In another, I was commissioned by an unknown deity to write the sequel to Moses' story, entitled, "And If Moses Had Remained in Egypt?" In yet another, I had written a very popular noveled entitled "Nu à Rome" ("Naked in Rome), a first-person account by Vercingetorix of his defeat and l-o-n-g stay in Rome before his public execution before Caesar. I was being wildly attacked by French literary critics on every side, but eventually was redeemed by winning the Prix Goncourt (a very prestigious French literary award). For no particular reason, I find it easy to invent French as I go along, perhaps this a quality of my being American. For instance, the verb "to editorialize" does not exist in French. Yet, I can easily whip out "Elle éditorialise sur n'importe quel sujet." ("She editorializes on any subject.") The French, generally, do not even blink an eye. If one does not know me well, he/she may comment, "That doesn't exist in French.", but I find a withering glance suffices to shut that kind of niaiserie firmly up. Dewi, who was a French language teacher before she transcended to goddess, no longer bothers to correct anything unless I ask her advice on such-and-such a construction, declination or argotic turn-of-phrase. French is a wonderful language and if it is not your native tongue it is a constant source of both amusement and knowledge. I am reminded of my use of English, when I would use abstruse constructions simply to amuse myself, much to the annoyance or mystification of those around me. Quoting from a well-known citation one evening at a bridge party, I turned to an opponent after an unfortunate bid and declaimed, "You are evil, and you must be destroyed!" Much to my surprise, she was wounded by this, taking it to heart. I did not correct her impression, as it left her off guard and contributed to her partnership's eventual defeat. I find "obliterate" to be an useful word as well, as in, "If you continue in this manner, I shall be forced to obliterate you." The English hoi-polloi have done this for centuries, aping their betters. Go ahead, throw in "You swine!" the next time you are upbraiding someone and see if it does not give you an immediate gloss of English aristocracy.
On to other things. I have been asked by a dear friend to publish the following. After my last statement about forming my own religion, the Path of Totality, I was shocked to be contacted by an individual, well known to me, who informed me that, indeed, such a belief system was already in its formative stage and that I would be welcome to join the effort to concretize its existence. Naturally I acquiesced, as the propagation of a serene, systematic and rational approach to enlightenment in the three human realms (physical, mental and spiritual) is my dearest desire. In light of which, I give you the following as given to me by its preceptor and guide:

" Work has begun on the creed for the new faith, The Path of Totality. There shall, of course, be a spiritual founder, leader and Grand Hierophant. ("Dear Prophet" is far too North Korean. "Supreme Prophet", unfortunately, has overtones of "Supreme Leader", as in Iran, so that is unsuitable as well.) This will not be a faith of force but of spiritual Illumination, not as in Freemasonry or the Illuminati movement, but rather individual striving towards personal transformation and realization. Yes, yes, I know many of you are thinking, "Ho hum, been there, done that, what else is new?" But it will not be simply a $5.95 (10.65 € , including 19% VAT) paperback course in modern self-help gobbledygook, or abracadabra mysticism mixed with a few feel-good truisms and moronic maxims. It will be a faith of dedication to the belief that with serious effort, dedication and ruthless self-honesty anyone can attain transformation from this level of being to a better, higher plane of existence, knowledge and action. I believe the Synthesis of Mysticism will be central in the new creed, although it will need to be broken down and worked out in simpler terms for step-by-step progression. For those of you not familiar with the Synthesis of Mysticism, it goes as follows:

"Human Will, illuminated by Science and manifested by Action, creates the Realization of a power that is used or abused according to good or bad Inspiration in the circle traced out by the laws of universal order. After overcoming the Trial that is imposed by divine Wisdom, Will comes, by means of its Victory, into possession of the work that it created and establishing its Equilibrium on the axis of Prudence, dominates the oscillations of Fortune. The Strength of man, sanctified by Sacrifice that is the voluntary offer of itself on the altar of devotion and expiation, triumphs over Death and its divine Transformation elevates it, beyond the tomb, to the serene regions of infinite progression opposing the reality of an immortal Initiative to the eternal lie of Fatality.
The course of time is measured by means of the ruins but, beyond every Ruin, the dawn of Hope can be seen reappearing in the twilight of Disillusionments. Man incessantly aspires to what escapes him and the sun of Happiness only rises for him after the Renewal of his being through death that opens up a higher sphere of will, intelligence and action to him. Every will that allows itself to be governed by bodily instincts is an abdication of freedom and condemns itself to Expiation of its mistake or blame. In apposition, every will that joins God in order to manifest truth and operate justice enters, right from this life, into participation with the divine power over beings and things: the eternal Recompense of freed spirits."
No easy task, as you can see. On the mundane side of things, a general organizational format and hierarchy will not only be unnecessary but highly discouraged, from the top to the bottom, from worldwide community to local chapters or cells. One of the great errors is to allow such organisms to start in order to foster the growth of a belief system, but inevitably the organizations become cumbersome, tyrannical, self-serving and parasitic, warping while at the same time feeding off of the very body of spiritual thought which they were meant to protect, foster and encourage to grow. The Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church, organized Christianity, the ruling bodies of Islam, all theocracies, fundamentalism in any form and Scientology are all examples of spiritual systems ruined beyond redemption by the cancerous, bloated growths of their organizational hierarchies. (In the case of Scientology, it is, of course, simply sheer lunacy rather than a spiritual system per se.) Now I know many of you are thinking, "But how, then, will the Path of Totality be able to propagate and spread?" It will, of course, be slow to start, but it will grow inevitably as the example and pattern of the progression, peace and transformation of its followers becomes apparent. Money will not form an element in the faith, for from the necessary organizational system needed to channel money always springs endemic ill in the body of faith. (Donations to the well-being of the Grand Hierophant, of course, will be accepted, but will be neither solicited nor encouraged.) In time, perhaps, a commemorative temple could be constructed, somewhere where an entrenched, dogmatic spiritual belief does not have a stranglehold on the political, intellectual and spiritual spheres of the host country. Perhaps this could be Switzerland, or somewhere in western Europe where its existence would not be remarkable. However, such a project is far in the future, depending entirely on the need for such a commemorative temple as expressed by the adepts of the Path of Totality and, of course, the financial wherewithal necessary, but again, the evils and strictures of financial entanglement must be avoided. Donations, while necessary, must never be equated with influence.
Symbology will be central to the Path of Totality, oriented around ancient truths and universal imagery; more about this at a later date. There will be a "book", of sorts, which is already well known but, again, this will be more fully revealed in the course of time. For now, the formation of the creed is all-important and constitutes my first duty as Grand Hierophant of the Path of Totality. In coming days I hope to present the fully formulated creed to you who, I hope, will become its core practitioners. My duties as Grand Hierophant will be onerous, without doubt, but no sacrifice is too great to disseminate the knowledge for realization and trancendence."

The Grand Hierophant has told me that soon he will share the creed and at the same time publish an address where one may direct more personal inquiries and questions of faith. We can all only hope that this moment will approach with haste as we consider a world descending into savagery, violence, decay and death. (Please participate in the poll that appears at the bottom of the blog. You need only strike "End" for it to immediately arrive.) Until the next,
Leducdor