Why do they hate us?

“"History will forever teach that evil comes from men (or women) who lack conviction that each man deserves basic human dignity"

Phaedrus
11:32:12 PM
11/27/02

I basically agree. Religion can help us see the divine (and therefore the dignity in every human), or it give us reason to hate, despise, or dismiss those who don't believe as we do.

I think I also agree with Birch's illustration about kindness to one's neighbor. Just because a principle can be turned around doesn't make it wrong.”

“And Lo Ped, Drunken Priest of Reason, said unto all who would read his drivel...

Ye must have faith in Reason!
Only Reason can set us free!
Ye can not enter the gates of the heavenly city but by reason!”

“The Ugly Truth About the
Republican Party:
The Myth of GOP Conservatism
by Kevin Tuma


"An elective despotism was not the
government we fought for."
--Thomas Jefferson

"Degrees do not matter...
one does not bargain about inches of evil."
---Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

As a paleoconservative, I find myself these days looking back at the Clinton Administration with a sort of warm, golden nostalgia. Much has changed since those days...and not for the better.
To anyone with even a basic understanding and respect for the Bill of Rights, the United States, since September 11, 2001, has begun a nightmarish descent. To put it simply, the Bush White House has put the Constitution on the chopping block in ways the Clintons would have never dared to attempt.

The US public---naive and obedient as always--blithely sucked up the maudlin flag-waving and crocodile tears that accompanied the passage of the Patriot Act and the Office of Homeland Security. Authorities can now invade homes without warrants, arrest people without charges, and jail people without trials.

The Feds have declared Posse Comitatus obsolete, and they are creating hordes of military police to be unleashed upon the country. A new branch of the military is now on the drawing board, to deal with "domestic threats"--i.e., common American citizens. Despite the fact that we are not at war, the government continues to hold hundreds of military prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and apparently will deal with them using military tribunals. People in the Press continue their ongoing demonstration that there's no lie the Federal government can tell that they are willing to expose, and no usurpation of power that they will ever find objectionable. Even the United States' 'shadow government' has been openly discussed--and no one dares to criticize the concept. Orwellian newspeak abounds.

The government continues to turn the word Treason on its head with its unconstitutional treatment of the public and its illicit treatment of 'enemy combatants' like Yaser Esam Hamdi and Jose Padilla. In the latter case, the 'terrorist' is an American citizen being held without any charges, denied all legal representation, denied the right to defend himself, and the right to face his accusers. No one in the Imperial Media cares. Machiavellian plotting to establish armies of secret police and citizen informants goes on unabated, despite the fact that these measures did not pass Congress. The small public outcry generated by the TIPS plan is swept aside...a citizen informant system will be implemented anyway. Why? Because the Attorney General says so. Apparently, Mr. Ashcroft learned a very valuable lesson from his predecessor, Janet Reno: The Attorney General is--absolutely and without question---above the Law, and is capable of creating policy by fiat, just like the President does. We now have a modern triumvirate of entities that create policy, and answer to no one: the Supreme Court, the President, and the Attorney General of the United States. All Americans are subservient to their whims.

The abuse of liberties in the name of safety goes on. The government continues to push for National ID cards and a computer chip implant tracking program for children--it would appear that human privacy is just as irrelevant now as human liberty. Only human 'safety' is important, even if it's the safety of the gulag. The New York Times published an article suggesting that the Feds have built concentration camps within the United States...there was no real denial from the Executive Branch. Media talking heads have actually asked citizens if they think torture of 'terrorist suspects' is a good idea--as if to suggest that favorable public opinion would legitimize such tactics. In the War On Terror, no potential abuse of civil liberties goes unconsidered. One gets the queasy feeling that once official Washington has finished off what is left of the Constitution, they will revive the Inquisition and go after the Magna Carta next.

It is time for a realistic assessment: We are living in a Police State right now. Not six months from now. Not ten years down the road. Not if someone we do not like gets elected President. Not if all our guns are taken away.

Right now.

The only reason you are reading this article here is because they haven't started censoring political dissent on the Internet...yet. There are many evils that have not been implemented to date, but the mechanical apparatus of totalitarianism is completely in place, oiled, idling, and ready for use, thanks to the War On Terror.

America was fascistic and centralized before, but not nearly this bad. American citizens at least had some legal protections against government abuse in the past, and some means to keep an eye on the Feds--these have been essentially stripped away. The Independent Counsel Act is dead, thereby making it much harder to investigate the Executive Branch. The FBI is rewriting its own rulebook to make Federal whistleblowing a dangerous and difficult thing to do. The Freedom of Information Act has essentially been nullified-to protect our "national security".

The Fourth Amendment is effectively dead until the USA-Patriot Act is repealed, or until it is declared unconstitutional by a high court. The Patriot Act's deadly provisions do not sunset, despite government misinformation to the contrary. Most of the other nine amendments of the Bill of Rights have been ignored for years. They will certainly be ignored now that the Federal government has voted itself unlimited power and control over our domestic liberties in the name of security. Meanwhile, we are inches away from full-blown Martial Law, and in constant danger that it will be put into effect at the slightest new terrorist provocation.

Unfortunately, these changes are pretty much unknown to the typical indolent, unfocused US citizen. While the average American was lazing around, stuffing his face with potato chips, and watching "Big Brother" on TV, the Federal Government became Big Brother in real life. Sadly, it requires effort---like reading and thinking---to see that our liberties are being threatened from within; this is apparently beyond the scope of most modern Americans. Of course, another reason why there has been little outcry is because there has been very little information disseminated by the official state propaganda corps we once euphemistically called "the Free Press".

The biggest problem, however, is not the fat, lazy American or the many goose-stepping little Goebbels of our news media--the big problem is that these changes have been wrought by a Republican President who was elected by millions of gullible conservatives. There is no "lesser of two evils" or philosophical core to the Republican Party, and the inarticulate Mr. Bush is proof of that pudding. The massive abrogations of freedom that have come from Washington since 9-11-01 are an official product of Republican governance. They cannot be blamed on Bill Clinton or Al Gore or Tom Daschle.

The GOP has been wholly in charge of post-War-On-Terror Washington, and is fully responsible for the unconstitutional policies that have been enacted. These are oppressive government policies that--if implemented in the 1990s, under Clinton and Reno, would have provoked screams of outrage. The mavens of talk radio are now silent about civil liberties, and seem only interested in discussing the joyful topic of going to war in the Mideast again, and killing more fleeing Iraqi soldiers. There are no philosophical principles behind the policies of the Bush Republicans; they simply want to seize as much Federal power as possible, and make war. The 21st Century conservative movement is not just an intellectual wasteland..it has become a primary threat to our freedoms as well.

However, the real reason the Republican Party is a threat to liberty is not because conservatism itself is an errant philosophy. The reason is because the Republican Party never stood for conservative values in the first place, and is lying to the public whenever it attempts to co-opt the values of conservatism. Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater were never the standard bearers, or the rule. They were the exceptions to the rule, at least when they were at their best, and were not being manipulated by empire builders themselves. The real Republican Party is and always has been an arrogant political body, dominated by snobs and big business people who are more interested in Robber Baronism than honest capitalism. They have always been ready and willing to use Big Government to enforce their schemes, to hand out corporate welfare to them, and to protect their investments--particularly in the case of petroleum. The Republican establishment backs the Federal Reserve, the IRS, and other unconstitutional agencies while giving shifty-eyed lip service to the concept of small government and lower taxes. Such people have no populism in their soul, and no concern for the constitutional rights of the little people--and they couldn't possibly care less about the size, scope, and intrusiveness of the government. Snotty corporate monopolist wannabes and closet socialists are the true heart and soul of the GOP…not the poor, misled middle-class voters who believe "that government is best which governs least".

That is not to suggest that the Democrats are any better. They aren't; their party is a massive fraud as well. But they are also not any worse. Those voters who mistakenly thought they were worse are responsible for voting Bush into office, and thereby destroying the 4th Amendment. This abrogation of human liberty probably never would have happened under Gore, had there been a President Gore, because talk radio and the FOX News Channel would have provided large-scale political dissent that we do not have today. Unfortunately, the GOP masses have proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that they are every bit as much a bunch of partisan lemmings as the Clintonistas were. And they have also disproven--with their popular President, who is treated with kid gloves--their own long-held contention that the elitist news media is liberal. On the contrary. The elitist news media is a whore, dancing to the tune of those with power and influence--and if it is firmly anything at all, it is firmly Anti-Liberty and Pro-Big-Government. How fortunate for the Bushies that their beloved "President 911" stands for exactly the same things.

The word 'conservative' implies preservations of values and important traditions. In America, our most important traditions would be embodied in the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. By this standard, the most conservative Americans around today are libertarians, not Republicans. However, very few libertarians today would willingly claim the word 'conservative'..and I can hardly blame them.

What is called 'conservative' today is warmongering 20th Century statism drummed to a flag-waving beat. The common diatribe used by liberals--that 'Republicans are still living in the 1950s'--is incorrect; they are actually living in the 1940s, instead. It is very telling, for example, that Rush Limbaugh is a huge fan of the Spielberg film "Saving Private Ryan", and had nothing but praise for Tom Brokaw's book "The Greatest Generation". How apropos that Limbaugh calls himself the "Doctor of Democracy". If Republicans pine for the histrionic days of World War II, they are nationalists--not conservatives. They are longing for the nostalgic trappings of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's world, not a conservative culture. FDR was both a Communist and a liar, but, additionally, he was also a very effective warmonger and militarist. War, apparently, is very important to the Republicans--they do not worry much about little things like rights or liberties; they want to be fantasy heroes with a gun, like Rambo or Dirty Harry. The star-spangled cloak that self-proclaimed conservatives like Rush and Hannity and O'Reilly and Kristol wrap themselves in is a fabric of big-government nationalism and military expansionism. If boot-stomping nationalism is all conservatism really stands for, the warmed-over '60s peacenik academics who have called Hitler a 'right-winger' are correct.

The true spiritual father of the Republican Party is not Goldwater, or Reagan, but Abraham Lincoln. Some people might misinterpret this as a compliment. I refer to the real Abraham Lincoln. The same Lincoln who suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus, and the same Lincoln who used a noble human idea---the freeing of the slaves-to wage a greedy war of aggression on a separate and sovereign nation, and to grind its culture and people into the ground. The same Abraham Lincoln who ordered the arrest and imprisonment of newspaper editors and publishers who disagreed with his war, and ordered Federal troops to demolish their printing presses. The same "Honest Abe" who ordered troops to interfere with the election process in opposition Congressional districts, and who ordered the arrest and imprisonment of several dozen state legislators. The same brooding tyrant who went on to order the military arrest of a sitting member of Congress who was a war opponent, and then have him deported from the United States.

Abraham Lincoln was the ultimate Federalist and the ultimate propagator of War. He was the summation and the embodiment of the essence of Republicanism. There is nothing new about this; it is how things have always been. Republicans in authority have almost always kowtowed to corrupt business interests and marched the US to war for greedy causes, just like Lincoln did. Any list of historically prominent GOP leaders is predominantly a list of globalists and elitists who have believed in a strong, centralized government. There is no grand and glorious history of GOP conservatism...GOP conservatism is a sham. They are not capitalists or constitutionalists; they are statists.

And that is the ugly, untold truth of the Republican Party.


Copyright 2002 by Kevin Tuma”

“I’ve posted parts of this before. It is perhaps my favorite literary passage as it speaks so eloquently of my own spiritual journey. I think it is common to many people. Here is an abridged form:



“Following an operation, I am lying in the surgical ward of a camp hospital. I cannot move. I am hot and feverish, but nonetheless my thoughts do not dissolve into delerium, and I am grateful to Dr. Boris Nikolayevich Kornfeld, who is sitting beside my cot and talking to me all evening. The light has been turned out, so it will not hurt my eyes. There is no one else in the ward.

Fervently he tells me the long story of his conversion from Judaism to Christianity. I am astonished at the conviction of the new convert, at the ardor of his words.

We know each other very slightly, and he was not the one responsible for my treatment, but there was simply no one here with whom he could share his feelings. He was a gentle and well-mannered person. I could see nothing bad in him, nor did I know anything bad about him. However, I was on guard because Kornfeld had now been living for two months inside the hospital barracks, without going outside. He had shut himself up in here, at his place of work, and avoided moving around camp at all.

This meant that he was afraid of having his throat cut. In our camp it had recently become fashionable to cut the throats of stool pigeons. This has an effect. But who could guarantee that only stoolies were getting their throats cut? One prisoner had had his throat cut in a clear case of settling a sordid grudge. Therefore the self-imprisonment of Kornfeld in the hospital did not necessarily prove that he was a stool pigeon.

It is already late. The whole hospital is asleep. Kornfeld is finishing his story:

"And on the whole, do you know, I have become convinced that there is no punishment that comes to us in this life on earth which is undeserved. Superficially it can have nothing to do with what we are guilty of in actual fact, but if you go over your life with a fine-tooth comb and ponder it deeply, you will always be able to hunt down that transgression of yours for which you have now received this blow."

I cannot see his face. Through the window come only the scattered reflections of the lights of the perimeter outside. The door from the corridor gleams in a yellow electrical glow. But there is such mystical knowledge in his voice that I shudder.

Those were the last words of Boris Kornfeld. Noiselessly he went into one of the nearby wards and there lay down to sleep. Everyone slept. There was no one with whom he could speak. I went off to sleep myself.

I was wakened in the morning by running about and tramping in the corridor; the orderlies were carrying Kornfeld's body to the operating room. He had been dealt eight blows on the skull with a plasterer's mallet while he slept. He died on the operating table, without regaining consciousness.

And so it happened that Kornfeld's prophetic words were his last words on earth, and those words lay upon me as an inheritance. You cannot brush off that kind of inheritance by shrugging your shoulders.

But by that time I myself had matured to similar thoughts. I would have been inclined to endow his words with the significance of a universal law of life. However, one can get all tangled up that way. One would have to admit that, on that basis, those who had received even crueler punishments than imprisonment, those who were shot or burned at the stake, were some sort of super-evildoers. And yet it is the innocent who are punished most zealously. And what would one then have to say about our torturers? Why does fate not punish them? Why do they prosper?

The only solution to this would be that the meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul. From that point of view our torturers have been punished most horribly of all: they are turning into swine; they are departing downward from humanity. From that point of view punishment is inflicted on those whose development . . . holds out hope.

But there was something in Kornfeld's last words that touched a sensitive chord, and that I completely accept for myself. And many will accept the same for themselves.

In the seventh year of my imprisonment I had gone over and re-examined my life and had come to understand why everything had happened to me: both prison and my malignant tumor. And I would not have murmured even if all that punishment had been considered inadequate.

I lay there a long time in that recovery room from which Kornfeld had gone forth to his death, and all alone during sleepless nights I pondered with astonishment my own life and the turns it had taken. Looking back, I saw that for my whole conscious life I had not understood either myself or my strivings. What had seemed for so long to be beneficial now turned out in actuality to be fatal, and I had been striving to go in the opposite direction to that which was truly necessary for me. But just as the waves of the sea knock the inexperienced swimmer off his feet and keep tossing him back onto the shore, so also was I painfully tossed back on dry land by the blows of misfortune. And it was only because of this that I was able to travel the path which I had always really wanted to travel.

It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhlemed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.

Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: they struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”

- Alexander Solzhenitsyn from The Gulag Archipelago”

“everyone wants to live like we do here in America, but unfortunately there really aren't enough resources to support an American lifestyle world wide. This conflict will only get worse. We are fortunate to be in the place that we are. I just don't know how long it's gonna last...”

“and I don't think they "hate us", they just want a piece of the action...”

“Question:
A book I am reading mentions that Islam denies the existance of a soul for females. True, or false?”

“LOL! Le Subtil... in my readings I came across the same allegation being made by a moslem against Christianity:

"Islam denounced the assertion of the Christian Fathers that women do not posses a soul . Woman's spiritual equality with man is repeatedly stressed in the Holy Quran."

http://www.geocities.com/alzahra94/Women01.htm

It goes to show you, neither side has a monopoly on slanderous misrepresentations of the other.”

“BTW: Le Subtil... I was laughing at the coincidence. I genuinely respect you for trying to look beyond what one partisan says. I wish everyone did that.”

“I'll give 'em a piece of a tomahawk”

“An Iranian diplomat in Baghdad was shot and killed Thursday, Iranian Embassy officials said, a day after Iran said the United States requested Iranian help to defuse violence in Iraq.

Khalil Naimi, first deputy of the Iranian Embassy in Iraq, was killed near the embassy in the Salhiya neighborhood, the embassy said.

Iran is a nation of mostly Shiite Muslims that has important links in Iraq, where Shiites account for about 60 percent of the population.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday that after receiving a letter passed along by U.S. representatives, a delegation would go to Iraq Thursday to survey the situation and attempt to contact local leaders.”

“Now they just don't like us

John Zogby

My very first column in this series for the Business Journal was in April 2002, and it dealt with potentially deteriorating attitudes toward the United States in the Arab world. Zogby International had just completed two major polls in several Arab countries, and we found that Arabs and Muslims had very positive feelings about American science and technology, freedom and democracy, products, people, educational institutions, movies and television, and so on. They simply deplored U.S. policy toward "the Arab nations" and "the Palestinians."

The fear and warning expressed in that column and in briefings with State Department officials and think-tank fellows was that if the policies continued without change, that a point would be reached whereby Arabs and Muslims simply didn't like us at all anymore.

What was particularly clear from our polling was that there are several opportunities for bridge building. Notably, and contrary to many myths about the region, Arabs under 30 years of age -- the majorities in all Arab and Muslim countries -- were the ones most positively inclined toward the United States. So were those with Internet and satellite television access. But if we squandered these opportunities, all could be lost.

I must admit that there have been several sincere efforts to deal with these issues. I have been fortunate enough to participate in two of the most prominent and will soon be a part of the third effort. The Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy and a corresponding effort to create a Corporation for Public Diplomacy have both issued recommendations calling for renewed efforts in these countries -- radio and television broadcasts of the U.S. values and messages, the re-creation of American libraries accessible to the many interested young people, and a stronger commitment to appoint more cultural attaches were among the serious recommendations. Indeed, one of our most astute colleagues on the Advisory Group told us that when he was a young student in Pakistan, there were no fewer than four American cultural attaches in Islamabad alone. Today there is one in all of Pakistan for a population that approaches 200 million people.

We have every reason to believe that our recommendations are being taken seriously by the Bush administration, the Congress and the State Department.

But our mandates for both groups were to avoid any discussion of U.S. policy in the region. So while radio broadcasts and television ads continue, the United States launched a war in Iraq and embraced policies in the Israel-Palestine dispute that have been perceived as hopelessly one-sided. The war has done immense damage to any semblance of good will among Arabs. Strong majorities tell us in our polling in Iraq and throughout the region that the real thrust behind the U.S. effort was for oil, imperialism and another shot at humiliating Arabs.

As for Palestine, it remains the No. 1 issue for most Arabs, and they see a policy that: endorses Ariel Sharon, who is widely regarded in the Arab world as a murderer; the erection of a fence that has been castigated in the World Court because it encroaches as much as five miles into Palestinian territory; and an effort to decimate Palestinian economies and security forces.

So where does that leave us today? There has been serious erosion among Arabs in their view of the United States. The numbers who have favorable views of U.S. culture, people and products is down dramatically since 2002. (Ninety-eight percent are negative toward the United States in Egypt!) Even sadder and more ominous, the erosion of support for these characteristics is very low among the under-30 Arabs. Will they be a lost generation?

Significantly, majorities or significant pluralities told us in our most recent polling, in May and June in six Arab countries, that they support greater rights for women, democratization and other reforms. However, when our interviewers read follow-up questions that asked if they supported any U.S. help in achieving any of these changes and reforms, the support plummeted.

Who are their favorite leaders outside their own countries? The top choice was French President Jacques Chirac -- who presides over a country that prohibits Muslim women from wearing veils -- and Gamal Abdel Nassar, the former Egyptian leader and Pan-Arab movement leader who led Arabs into a disastrous war. It appears that they were selected because they met the most important criteria for Arabs these days: They stood up to the United States.

I don't know about you, but I find this so sad -- so very sad!

St. Louis Business Journal”

“I think they ate us because we are better than them and our God kicks butt...and we have blondes...”

“How many Arab men ate you BM?”

“The Christian *god* is the same as their *god*.

We could only hope that things will turn around.

Without Arab support, we have a harder road to walk.”

“LMFAO!

I nead moor sleap. Oar les alcohaul”

“They hate us because we have freedom... fries.”

“Drooooooooooooooooooool

freedom fries and Liberty toast”

“Why do they hate us?
There are most probably several reasons why "they" hate "us".
After the fall of the Ottoman empire, "they" were divided into several countries. Some of the borders were created for ballance.
After WWII, the winning side felt bad for what was left of the scattered jewish population. Scattered because they lost battles in their homeland long long ago. Some of the countries in the world decided to give some of that lost land back to the jews. Israel, the land of jews is a small country surounded by arabs on 3 sides and water on the 4th. It is sitting on land that was once Palastine. Israel would have fallen a few decades ago if it weren't for American generosity. Generosity in the form of weapons and billions of $'s in hand outs.

So in a nut shell, it is our governments economic policies that the Arabs dislike.

Perhaps it would have been less expensive if we had just given the jews part of France after WWII.”

“Four more years for al–Qaida

The following is a translated full transcript, provided by the U.S. government, of Osama bin Laden's videotaped message aired on the al-Jazeera satellite television network.

The prohibited month, for the prohibited month, and so for all things prohibited, there is the law of equality. If then any one transgresses the prohibition against you, transgress ye likewise against him. But fear Allah, and know that Allah is with those who restrain themselves.

Praise be to Allah who created the Creation for His worship and commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to retaliate the oppressor in kind.

To proceed, peace be upon he who follows the Guidance.

People of America this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan and deals with the war and its causes and results. Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we didn't strike -- for example -- Sweden. And we know that freedom haters don't possess defiant spirits like those of the 19. May Allah have mercy upon them.

No we fight you because we are free men who don't sleep under oppression. We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation, so shall we lay waste to yours. No one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others and then makes himself believe he will be secure whereas thinking people when disaster strikes make it their priority to look for its causes in order to prevent it happening again. But I am amazed at you even though we are in the 4th year after the events of Sept 11th. Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real causes. And thus the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred. So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and I shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken for you to consider. I say to you Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers, but after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon it came to my mind.

The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. The bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorized and displaced I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood, and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high-rises demolished over their residents rockets raining down on our homes without mercy the situations was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn't include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard but didn't respond. In those difficult moments, many hard-to-describe ideas bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense feeling of rejection of tyranny and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors. And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children. And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy while resistance is terrorism and intolerance. This means the oppressing and embargoing to death of millions as Bush Sr. did in Iraq in the greatest mass slaughter of children mankind has ever known and it means the throwing of millions of pounds of bombs and explosives at millions of children -- also in Iraq -- as Bush Jr. did in order to remove an old agent and replace him with a new puppet to assist in the pilfering of Iraq's oil and other outrages. So with these images and their like as their background, the events of September 11th came as a reply to those great wrongs.

Should a man to be blamed for defending his sanctuary? Is defending oneself and punishing the aggressor in kind objectionable terrorism? If it is such, then it is unavoidable for us. This is the message which I sought to communicate to you in word and deed repeatedly for years before September 11th. And you can read this, if you wish in my interview with Scott in Time Magazine in 1996 or with Peter Arnett on CNN in 1997 or my meeting with John Weiner in 1998. You can observe it practically, if you wish in Kenya and Tanzania and in Aden. And you can read it in my interview with Abdul Bari Atwan as well as my interviews with Robert Fisk. The latter is one of your compatriots and co-religionists and I consider him to be neutral. So are the pretenders to freedom at the White House and the channels controlled by them able to run an interview with him so that he may relay to the American people what he has understood from us to be the reasons for our fight against you? If you were to avoid these reasons, you will have taken the correct path that will lead America to the security that it was in before September 11th.

This concerned the causes of the war. As for its results, they have been by the Grace of Allah, positive and enormous and have by all standards exceeded all expectations. This is due to many factors, chief amongst them that we haven't' found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries half of which are ruled by the military and the other half of which are ruled by the songs of kings and presidents. Our experience with them in lengthy and both types are replete with those who are characterized by pride, arrogance, greed, and misappropriation of wealth. This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Sr. to the region at a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries all of a sudden he was affected by those monarchies and military regimes and became envious of their remaining decades in their positions to embezzle the public wealth of the Nation without supervision or accounting. So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act under the pretense of fighting terrorism. In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors and didn't forget to import expertise in election fraud from the region's presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty. All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two Mujahedin to the farthest point East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qa'ida in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human economic and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits to their private companies. This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers as we alongside the Mujahedin bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat. All Praise is due to Allah.

So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah is willing and nothing is too great for Allah. That being said, those who say that al-Qa'ida has won against the administration in the White House or that the administration has lost in this war have not been precise because when one scrutinizes the results, one cannot say that Al-Qa'ida is the sole factor in achieving these spectacular gains. Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations -- whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction -- has helped al-Qa'ida to achieve those enormous results. And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and us are playing as one team towards the economic goals of the United States even if the intentions differ. And it was to these sorts of notions and their like that the British diplomat and others were referring in their lectures at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (when they pointed out that) for example, al-Qa'ida spent $500,000 on the event, while America in the incident and its aftermath lost -- according to the lowest estimates -- more than 500 billion dollars, meaning that every dollar of al-Qa'ida defeated a million dollars by the permission of Allah besides the loss of a huge number of jobs. As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record, astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars. And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the Mujahedin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan with Allah's permission. It is true that this shows that al-Qa'ida has gained, but on the other hand it shows that the Bush administration has also gained something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Haliburton and its kind will be convinced. And it all shows that the real loser is... you. It's the American people and their economy. And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Atta. Allah have mercy on him that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration notice. It never occurred to us that the Command-in-Chief of the American Armed Forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at the time when they most needed him. But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers we were given three times the period required to execute the operations. All praise is due to Allah. And it's no secret to you that the thinkers and perceptive ones from among the Americans warned Bush before the war and told him.

All that you want for securing America and removing the weapons of mass destruction -- assuming they exist -- is available to you and the nations of the world are with you in the inspections and it is in the interest of America that it not be thrust into an unjustified war with an unknown outcome. But the darkness of the black gold blurred his vision and insight and he gave priority to private interests over the public interest of America. So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threatened his future. He fits the saying "Like the naughty she-goat who used her hoof to dig up a knife from under the earth". So I say to you over 15,000 of our people have been killed and tens of thousands injured while more than a thousand of you have been killed and more than 10,000 injured. And Bush's hands are stained with the blood of all of those killed from both sides all for the sake of oil and keeping their private companies in business. Be aware that it is the nation who punishes the weak man when he causes the killing of one of its citizens for money, while letting the powerful one get off when he causes the killing of more than 1000 of its sons also for money. And the same goes for your allies in Palestine. They terrorize the women and children and kill and capture the men as they lie sleeping with their families on the mattresses that you may recall that for every action, there is a reaction.

Finally, it behooves you to reflect on the last wills and testaments of the thousands who left you on the 11th as they gestured in despair. They are important testaments which should be studied and researched. Among the most important of what I read in them was some prose in their gestures before the collapse where they say "How mistaken we were to have allowed the White House to implement its aggressive foreign policies against the weak without supervision". It is as if they were telling you, "The people of America hold to account those who have caused us to be killed and happy is he who learns from others mistakes". And among that which I read in their gestures is a verse of poetry.

Injustice chases its people
And how unhealthy the bed of tyranny
As has been said
An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure
And know that
It is better to return to the truth than persist in error
And that the wise man doesn't squander his security, wealth, and children for the sake of the liar in the White House.

In conclusion, I tell you in all truth that your security is not in the hands of Kerry, nor Bush, nor al-Qa'ida. No, your security is in your own hands. And every state that doesn't play with our security, has automatically guaranteed its own security. And Allah is our Guardian and Helper while you have no Guardian or Helper.”

“someone summarize this for me”

“President Bush's war on terror is working.”

“so Osama's full of #&%!$ then bbw?”

“Excerpted from: Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication


We call it a war on terrorism ― but Muslims in contrast see a history-shaking movement of Islamic restoration. This is not simply a religious revival, however, but also a renewal of the Muslim World itself. And it has taken form through many variant movements, both moderate and militant, with many millions of adherents ― of which radical fighters are only a small part. Moreover, these movements for restoration also represent, in their variant visions, the reality of multiple identities within Islam.

If there is one overarching goal they share, it is the overthrow of what Islamists call the “apostate” regimes: the tyrannies of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan, and the Gulf states. They are the main target of the broader Islamist movement, as well as the actual fighter groups. The United States finds itself in the strategically awkward — and potentially dangerous — situation of being the longstanding prop and alliance partner of these authoritarian regimes. Without the U.S. these regimes could not survive. Thus the U.S. has strongly taken sides in a desperate struggle that is both broadly cast for all Muslims and country-specific.

This is the larger strategic context, and it is acutely uncomfortable: U.S. policies and actions are increasingly seen by the overwhelming majority of Muslims as a threat to the survival of Islam itself. Three recent polls of Muslims show an overwhelming conviction that the U.S. seeks to “dominate” and “weaken” the Muslim World. Not only is every American initiative and commitment in the Muslim World enmeshed in the larger dynamic of intra-Islamic hostilities — but Americans have inserted themselves into this intra-Islamic struggle in ways that have made us an enemy to most Muslims.

Therefore, in stark contrast to the Cold War, the United States today is not seeking to contain a threatening state/empire, but rather seeking to convert a broad movement within Islamic civilization to accept the value structure of Western Modernity — an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a “War on Terrorism.”

But if the strategic situation is wholly unlike the Cold War, our response nonetheless has tended to imitate the routines and bureaucratic responses and mindset that so characterized that era.

Today we reflexively compare Muslim “masses” to those oppressed under Soviet rule. This is a strategic mistake. There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-U.S. groundswell among Muslim societies — except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the U.S. so determinedly promotes and defends.
[…]
The information campaign — or as some still would have it, “the war of ideas,” or the struggle for “hearts and minds” — is important to every war effort. In this war it is an essential objective, because the larger goals of U.S. strategy depend on separating the vast majority of non-violent Muslims from the radical-militant Islamist-Jihadists. But American efforts have not only failed in this respect: they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended.

American direct intervention in the Muslim World has paradoxically elevated the stature of and support for radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single-digits in some Arab societies.

• Muslims do not “hate our freedom,” but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states.

• Thus when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy. Moreover, saying that “freedom is the future of the Middle East” is seen as patronizing, suggesting that Arabs are like the enslaved peoples of the old Communist World — but Muslims do not feel this way: they feel oppressed, but not enslaved.

• Furthermore, in the eyes of Muslims, American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering. U.S. actions appear in contrast to be motivated by ulterior motives, and deliberately controlled in order to best serve American national interests at the expense of truly Muslim self determination.

• Therefore, the dramatic narrative since 9/11 has essentially borne out the entire radical Islamist bill of particulars. American actions and the flow of events have elevated the authority of the Jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy among Muslims. Fighting groups portray themselves as the true defenders of an Ummah (the entire Muslim community) invaded and under attack — to broad public support.

• What was a marginal network is now an Ummah-wide movement of fighting groups. Not only has there been a proliferation of “terrorist” groups: the unifying context of a shared cause creates a sense of affiliation across the many cultural and sectarian boundaries that divide Islam.”

“Perhaps the Islamic world would have more sympathy if they changed their view on Israel's right to exist.

Those who have a stated goal of genocide, denying the right of others to exist is somewhat inconsistent with their claim for "rights".
The current terrorist campaign is only because repeated open military attempts to accomplish their desired genocide have failed miserably. To the extent that the elected governments (Egypt, Jordan, Syria) have given up the military attempts because they can no longer afford the futile attacks.

Where the Islamic church has become the State as in Iran and Afghanistan, we see an intolerance for other religion reminiscent of the Crusades or Catholic Inquisition.

Perhaps if Islamic religious leaders publicly condemned and disassociated themselves from atrocities carried out in the name of their religion they would have more credibility for their grievances.

Your article above is exactly the same argument used to persuade the Shah to leave Iran so the people would be better off. What it actually did was initiate in a reign of terror in the name of religion. The Officer corps of the military were all executed, opening the way for a greedy neighborhood dictator to start an 8 year war. The 'better off' people of Iran sent children marching in to clear minefields.

Does Iraq appear to be ready for democracy?
The US is attempting to get out, attempting to have the people elect their own government.
How is Islam helping ?”

“Now why would they be pissed because demand that a sovereign nation have a right to exist? Do we not ALSO want a Pali state? Have we not been pushing for just that for decades now? Have we NOT gone to war for the sovereignty of Arab countries?

It also wouldn't have anything to do with what the general population is being fed is it? So what does state run Islamofacist media outlets say about us?

http://www.memri.org/index.html

It comes down to hate. Pure and simple hate. It doesn't matter what we do or how we do it, they will hate us until we either bow down and pray towards Mecca or we bow down to receive our sword as infidels.


BTW, can a brotha get a link that works?”

“ummm...

1) It's not an article - it is a report to the DOD from a Federal advisory committee. The Defense Science Board consists of of thirty-two members plus seven ex officio members": the chairmen of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Policy, Ballistic Missile Defense Advisory Committee, and Defense Intelligence Agency Science and Technology Advisory Committee. Members, whose appointed terms range from one to four years, "are selected on the basis of their preeminence in the fields of science, technology and its application to military operations, research, engineering, manufacturing and acquisition process."

It's not exactly salon.com.

2) Iraq (a US supported dictatorship) invaded Iran, not the other way around.”

“Oh I wasn't saying it was one your ussual slanted cut and pastes but I tend to like to know where stuff comes from.”

“I was responding to manuka. Upon re-reading his post, I realize he didn't say that Iran invaded Iraq. My bad.”

“When I was in Iraq it was overrun with Soviet "Advisors" and Engineers - most of whom hated the place.

And no I did not say Iran started the war.
They created an opportunity for a greedy neighborhood dictator (Saddam) because Iran had just executed all it's military leaders.

http://reference.allrefer.com/country-guide-study/iraq/iraq94.html


Iraq


Arms from the Soviet Union

From 1972 to 1979, the percentage of Iraq's military equipment supplied by the Soviet Union declined from 95 to 63 percent. Even so, in 1987 the Soviet Union, having provided more than US$8 billion worth of weapons since 1980, was Iraq's most important arms supplier. In its 1987 annual study, Soviet Military Power, the United States Department of Defense stated that, while maintaining official neutrality in the IranIraq War, the Soviet Union had provided extensive military assistance to Iraq, and at the same time, continued its efforts to gain leverage on Iran. In early 1987, Moscow delivered a squadron of twenty-four MiG-29 Fulcrums to Baghdad. Considered the most advanced fighter in the Soviet arsenal, the MiG-29 previously had been provided only to Syria and India. The decision to export the MiG-29 to Iraq, also assured Iraq a more advantageous payment schedule than any offered by the West and it reflected Soviet support for one of its traditional allies in the Middle East. Caught in a financial crisis, Baghdad welcomed the low-interest loans Moscow extended for this equipment.
last edited: 11/30/04 12:10:10 PM”

“MEMRI TV Project: Mothers of Hizbullah Martyrs: We are Very Happy and Want to Sacrifice More Children

On the occasion of "Martyrs Day," Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV recently broadcast statements from the mothers of several martyrs, including an interview with Umm Said ("Mother of Said"). The mothers expressed pride and joy for the actions of their sons. The show was translated by MEMRI's TV Monitor Project; to view a segment from the show, visit: http://memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=371. For more MEMRI TV clips from Al-Manar, visit www.memritv.org/special3.asp. The following are excerpts: [1]

Umm Said: 'This is a Blessed Day, the Day My Son Gave Me Reason to Hold my Head High'
Interviewer: "In addition to your being the mother of a martyr, it so happened that your son said was martyred on this very day - 'Martyr's Day.' Let's begin with a few words from you to all our viewers today. What are the feelings and emotions of a martyr's mother every year on this day?"
Umm Said: "In the name of Allah the Compassionate and Merciful, Allah be praised for granting my son to me, on this blessed day. I can not begin to explain what this day means to me, how great and significant it is for me and for all martyrs' mothers. I am talking about the martyrs' mothers and all mothers in Lebanon. Whatever I could say about them would not be enough, especially since they paid the price in blood, liberated southern Lebanon, and brought us closer to victory. They granted us a great reward.
"It is enough that they granted us paradise, the greatest thing in this world. I wish a good year to all the martyrs' mothers and our children, may Allah honor them. Allah be praised for having granted us our sons. Allah be praised."
Interviewer: "Do you feel that as a martyr's mother you have a special status that is different from that of mothers who don't have martyred sons?"
Umm Said: "Definitely, Definitely…"
Interviewer: "How do you cope with this?"
Umm Said: "If I'm in the company of others, I can sense the respect and the pride. They say, 'She's a martyr's mother.' What does this name mean? For me, it's very meaningful. I walk about with my head high. Allah be praised, Allah be praised, every hour and every minute."
Interviewer: "Can you tell us how martyrs are commemorated among their families, brothers, and relatives? What do they leave behind? When martyrs are gone – is that it? Do they stop to exist, even in if only in thought and spirit? Or is it the opposite and they are felt even more?"
Umm Said: "On the contrary, their presence is even greater and their memory is engraved upon our hearts. We sat down to feast in the month of Ramadan – may we all have a good year. When we sit down to feast in Ramadan, I gaze upon his picture like this. Everyone thinks that I'm about to recite the blessing of 'In the name of Allah the Merciful and the Compassionate,' so as to begin the meal that breaks the fast. I look at him and say, 'I wish my day had come before yours, Allah bless you. I wish you could be here with us.' That's how I talk to him when I sit down to eat."
Interviewer: "What do his brothers, children, and others say to you? Allah willing, you will always be a model of steadfastness and patience."
Umm Said: "Allah be praised. On the contrary, I am very happy, especially on this occasion."
Interviewer: "… Of course, the reward of Umm Said and of all martyrs' mothers is not in vain. The patience, the strength to bear the pain and the example we draw from them. Not only locally, this is an experience that is now shared by all societies. We always say – as you mentioned earlier – that Allah will give you strength and patience. I would like you to close on an optimistic note."
Umm Said: "Allah be praised, I am very happy. On the contrary, I am crying out of happiness. This is a blessed day, the day my son gave me reason to hold my head high..."
Mothers of Other Martyrs Praise Their Sons' Acts
Martyr's mother #2: "We cherish the memory of the martyrs' blood. I'm proud of my son's martyrdom."
Martyr's mother #3: "I am prepared to sacrifice my life. All I want is martyrdom. I'm willing for all my children to become martyrs. May my husband also become a martyr, and Allah willing, may I die as a martyr."
Martyr's mother #4: "Compared to others, what I sacrificed is nothing. It's true I sacrificed a son, but others have sacrificed two or three. I hope more of my sons will become martyrs."
Martyr's mother #5: "Allah be praised. I thank Allah for all the good He has bestowed upon us. He has blessed us with martyrdom. Allah willing, we too will be martyred, just as they did."

[1] Al-Manar TV (Lebanon), November 11, 2004.”

“Yeah, you cannot beat the men so you murder their women and children, such courage.”

“It would seem to be a bit interesting how an 111 page report has been boiled down to such a small bit and then further boiled down to a single paragraph.

“Muslims do not “hate our freedom,””

Of course not. To admit they hate our freedom is to admit they desire our way of life.

“but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see”

What they see or what they are shown?

“as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights,”

Again the question must be asked again, have we not worked for a free and separate Palestinian state for decades? Are we wrong for supporting Israel’s right to defend themselves?

“and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states.”

What they SEE as tyrannies. While these countries are still dictatorships of one level or another they are the freer ones.
last edited: 11/30/04 12:19:41 PM”

“Violin, you may not have noticed, but now that the elections are over, people are actually talking about BACKPACKING on this BACKPACKING board.

Have you ever considered expanding your horizons? Maybe getting involved in something POSITIVE for you instead of all this negative crap?

You would benefit from a Positive Mental Attitude, it is now PROVEN!

Meditation study aims to leap over mental barriers
Volunteers will spend one year exploring minds.
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Monday, November 29, 2004
Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here.

For more than a year, researchers at UC Davis have been trying to find the best way to frame a provocative question: How good can human beings get - how focused, how calm, how kind?
In seeking the answer, they plan to use an audacious tool. Think of it as a little like brain science meets reality television.

They will gather 30 people for a yearlong meditation retreat and then watch what happens.



With electroencephalogram (EEG) caps, attention measurements, emotion testing and a form of meditation practice called Shamatha, researchers hope to answer a key question about the brain systems that regulate attention and emotion. How much can those systems change with effort, how much - in the Silly Putty neuroscience term applied to our malleable brains - is plasticity at work?

"Is attention plastic? We have a hunch that it's trainable, but there is very limited research on training of attention," said Clifford Saron, an assistant research scientist at UC Davis' Center for Mind and Brain.

Saron is coordinating the project, which at this early stage is already a simmering esoteric brew.

There is the encouraging note from the Dalai Lama's personal secretary. There is a French filmmaker who wants to chronicle the effort for her "Monks in the Lab" documentary. There is seed money from the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, which got it through a donation from actor Richard Gere.

And there is interest from other researchers, who have seen the project mentioned in the journal Science or heard about its scope through the grapevine.

"We have people clapping us on the back,' " said G. Ron Mangun, head of the Center for Mind and Brain. "It's like when you say, 'Well, I want to go to the moon,' and they say, 'Well yeah, it's gotta be done. ... Good luck, pal.' "

Dr. Bennett Shapiro, who follows meditation research as a board member of the Mind and Life Institute, a collaboration of scientists and Buddhists, calls the upcoming study "pioneering work."

It's uncommon to sequester 30 people for a year and probe them so intensively, said Shapiro, a retired physician.

At least another 30 people will be monitored equally closely as a control group, although they won't be taken away from their daily lives.

Researchers will look for differences between the groups as meditators are trained in a technique of refining their attention that has its roots in India and is known in Tibet as Shamatha.

The claims for Shamatha - that its practitioners can increase the stability and vividness of their attention as a way to improve their emotional balance - makes it especially fascinating for some neuroscientists.

Attention is vital to who we are and how we cope with the world.

The act of paying attention to something, picking it out of the stream of sensations that bombards our brains, is critical to remembering it, said Ewa Wojcuilik, a UC Davis assistant professor who specializes in visual attention.

But paying attention can be tough. Give people something simple and boring to do, and their distractibility zooms. Ask them to be alert to small, sporadic changes in a stream of data, and they manage for 10 or 20 minutes, then fumble badly.

But is this truly the best we can do, or can some specially trained individuals go further, breaking through mental barriers the way Olympic athletes surge past physical ones?

"Within the science of attention, we have formed certain ideas about what our limits are," Wojcuilik said. "If the cognitive apparatus can be pushed beyond what we expect ... we are on to a new beginning."

She is among more than a dozen researchers who have met regularly to design the Shamatha project, a collaboration of a half-dozen arms of UC Davis and the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.

While the group's primary focus is on attention, it also will explore whether meditators become calmer, kinder and more compassionate, as tradition holds.

Phil Shaver, who chairs the UC Davis psychology department and specializes in the study of emotions, will look at how quickly meditators get their equilibrium back after viewing upsetting movie scenes, whether disturbing words disrupt their focus and whether their health seems to indicate lower stress.

With the team still nearly two years away from its target start date of Sept. 22, 2006 - the autumnal equinox - many details remain to be resolved, but some general outlines are emerging.

B. Alan Wallace, who has trained as a Buddhist monk and has a doctorate in religious studies from Stanford, will take 30 people to some quiet corner of California.

There, they will rise at 6 a.m. for cycles of group and private meditation that continue until 10 p.m., punctuated by silent meals and a couple of two-hour breaks of unstructured time.

Their goal will be to cultivate a stable, vivid attention, because "this is going to bring you to a much, much higher platform of mental balance, mental well-being," Wallace said.

Wallace, who heads the Santa Barbara institute, has recruited participants from shorter retreats he leads in Europe, Mexico and the United States.

They will be people with a contemplative bent, eager to pay $1,000 a month to be sequestered for a year, away from homes and jobs, family and friends, to explore the reaches of their own consciousness.

As often as every two weeks, live-in research assistants will take some study participants to an on-site lab to probe their minds and hearts, their health and behaviors.

Their performance will be tracked on standard attention tasks and on some created specifically for the project.

Sometimes, they'll be plugged into EEG caps that monitor electrical impulses in their brains, listening to the simultaneous firing of millions of nerve cells. Their blood or saliva will be checked for stress hormones and their immune systems subjected to allergens to see how robustly they respond.

And in a twist that brings a whiff of being voted off the island, they may be asked to report on each other, assessing who is the most compassionate or how fellow participants' behaviors change over time.

With so many measures, over so many months, "you're going to have a very, very rich data set," said Emilio Ferrer, an assistant professor whose specialties include quantitative psychology.

First, though, the research team has more groundwork ahead, in refining the experimental design, conducting pilot studies and nailing down funding. The team is hoping to raise $1.5 million to $2 million from foundations, the National Institutes of Health and donors.

While the thrust of the project is pure science, simply to learn what a highly trained brain may be capable of, it someday could have implications for attention deficit disorders or other ills - if the project finds that training can make a difference.

It is a big if.

"Most research comes to naught. That's the rule. Getting definitive results is the exception," said Paul Ekman, an expert on emotional expression and deception.

"This is really an extremely exciting adventure that UC Davis is taking," he said. "This collaboration between top-rank neuroscientists, psychologists concerned with behavior and a Buddhist scholar and practitioner is in many ways quite unique.

"We don't know if it's going to be productive, but if you knew it was going to be productive, then it wouldn't be exciting."


About the writer:
The Bee's Carrie Peyton Dahlberg can be reached at (916) 321-1086 or cpeytondahlberg@sacbee.com.”

“Have you ever considered sucking on someone else's #&%!$ for a change?”

“But you're so much fun?”

“I thought you guys wanted to pass a Constitutional Amendment against that... LOL”

“I think they just hate me. The rest of you are standing too close.”

“I apologize. My most recent response was not worthy of our exchange, and I sincerely didn't want to demean or disparage it.

I admire people with strong convictions & think those who hold them are a benefit to the growth of our societry / culture. To that extent, I actually hold you, Violon, in very high regard. I disagree with your position vehemently in many respects, but, admire you none-the-less.

Having now said all that, I do believe, and I believe it is proven, that one can live a longer & healthier life by learning to "go with the flow", as we used to say.

So... you could interpret my post as one from someone who WANTED you around for awhile... as in "take care of yourself you a$$hole", I want to debate you for a long time to come!!

This is a POSITIVE post v, take it that way.”

““Violin, you may not have noticed, but now that the elections are over, people are actually talking about BACKPACKING on this BACKPACKING board."

Why do think Violin and Geobeet are about the only ones still posting these types of threads?”

“BRING BACK FEDERAL MONEY FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH!!!!!!!!”

“BRING BACK UNDERPANTS GNOME RESEARCH!!!”

“I HATE HATERS OF SOCK BLACK HOLE QUANTUM RELATIVE THEORY!

or is it relative quantum theory???”

“To quote Tom Lehrer: "I know that there are people out there who do not love their fellow man, and I just HATE people like that."”

“Students quit over anti-US slurs
By Ainsley Pavey

AMERICAN students are quitting Queensland universities in the face of hate attacks by Australians angry at US President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

One university has launched an investigation into claims an American student returned to the US after suffering six months of abuse at a residential college in Brisbane.

American students have told The Sunday Mail the verbal attacks are unbearable and threatening to escalate into physical violence.

Griffith University student Ian Wanner, 19, from Oregon, said abusive Australian students had repeatedly called him a "sepo" – short for septic tank. "It is so disrespectful. It's not exactly the most welcoming atmosphere here," he said.
[...]
A female American student from Griffith... said she was desperate to go home after the slurs, which also spilled over at pubs in central Brisbane.
[...]
"I have had a few incidents in bars. I had a guy and he heard my accent and he said: 'I hate your president. I hate your country.' "
[...]
All the students received counselling before arriving and were warned of the backlash against the US.

They said they were advised not to carry any items that would identify their nationality.
[...]
Another American studying at UQ said attitudes towards him were "scary".

"It's unbelievable," he said. "It's been war. People are scared. It is hard to be an American in Australia at the moment, it is really hard. It varies with different people, but you have to be quiet and try not to draw attention to yourself."
[...]
Australearn's Australian director, Shelia Houston, said the briefings aimed to give American students "coping strategies" in the face of an attack.

She said some students suffered culture shock because of the belief that everyone loved Americans. "We are giving them the heads up that it is a bit more heated because of the war in Iraq," Ms Houston said.”

“Well, frankly a school where the students are dumb enough to take out their Bush/American frustrations on the common American student isn’t exactly what I’d call an institution of higher learning. They’re better off coming back home.”

“Slurs from pubs ...

Wow V! Got anything else?”