Recently in dostoyevsky Category

The Pope's Skewed Priorities

» Here is something I find interesting and curious .. Pope Francis calls "evil" (not merely "unwise") substances with known medicinal properties that can help people deal with things in their lives ..

Pope John Paul II Gives a Warm Papal Embrace to Marcial Maciel.. yet he calls "a saint" a man who has repeatedly embraced a known pedophile

(.. because the pedophile provided a financial benefit).

I like what you are doing, dawg. I appreciate what you are doing. I respect what you are doing.

I admire what you are doing. I am even impressed by what you are doing. And I am not the only one.

But I think you need to rethink some of your priorities.

The Catholic church has long had a problem in the area of misprioritization, and I don't want you to fall into the same trap.

You are basically embracing a man who has repeatedly embraced a known pedophile.

Christ the Redeemer | Rio de Janiero, BrazilActually, you MORE THAN embrace him. You gave him your highest honor.

Your highest blessing. Your ultimate seal-of-approval.

I was not going to give you shit about making the pedophile-embracer John Paul II a "saint" ..

.. because I can see the ecclesiastical expediency behind it.

But if you want to start calling innocent people "criminals" and saying they should be incarcerated ..

.. then I will start comparing values. (Just watch me work .. watch me go-to-town .. like mister James Brown.)

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This page is PART FOUR, continued from » Part Three. It was split into FOUR pages in order to adhere to principles of web site optimization. Here's the final page. Buckle up, Dorthy. Kansas is about to go » bye-bye...

Russian Serfs Freed in 1861» Notes from Underground

While you are there in Russia .. here is a little tidbit that I just found, that I just learned ..

.. that you might find interesting ..

.. is that Dostoevsky's novel » Notes From Underground [.. called the "first existential novel," ..

.. and also the book that "separates 19th century literature from 20th century literature" ..

.. and the book that Nietzsche claimed » "cried truth from the blood" ]..

.. and also the book that has been called » "the prelude" .. to his great novels.

This book is (effectively) a response .. an artistic response .. to a dude named Chernyshevsky (Nikolai, 7 years younger than Dostoevsky, and born the same year as Tolstoy) .. and his followers.

This Chernyshevsky was the leader of the Young Radicals (.. utopian socialists).

[ I'm not sure, but I think his name is pronounced » share-nih-SHEV-skee ]

This is the same guy (Nikolai Chernyshevsky) who wrote a book while in prison for "revolutionary activities" in 1862. ( Notes from Underground was published in 2 parts in January and April 1864. )

JFK (1917-1963) at the beach This book, written in prison in 1862, then published in 1863 .. is the very same book that Lenin said (several decades later) ..

.. turned him into the "confirmed revolutionary" that he eventually became.

[ I connect to these years by seeing them as early Dylan (in America) minus one century. Shit was stirring. Kennedy was assassinated in '63 (on 11-22).

In real-time, this was American Civil War years.

Note that the Russian serfs got their freedom in 1861 .. several years before American blacks technically got theirs. ]

The title of Chernyshev's book is » What Is to Be Done?

So .. it appears that Dostoevsky was opposing [ most vigorously ] the very guy [ and the very book ] who/that turned Ulyanov (Lenin) into Lenin [.. according to Lenin's own testimony].

Small world, no?

In Chernyshevsky's book, he writes a passage where he talks about wanting to make everybody happy. And he says, "Can you hear that, you in your underground hole?"

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1864) cover jacket for Everyman's LibraryAt first, Dostoevsky was merely going to write a review on the book. But that would not do.

So, at age 42, he took up the challenge (of the man in the "underground hole") ..

.. and that is where he got the title for his book. Very clever. Cojones grande.

So it would seem .. that even back in the Nineteenth century .. there were things that made people ..

.. that compelled them [.. much as they'd rather not ] ..

.. to say, "Something needs to be said about this shit. Because it is taking our country in a very bad direction."

Chernyshevsky's views eventually won out (.. in the person of Lenin, 54 years later).

Why? Why is that? Why did Chernyshevsky's views germinate?

» This page is PART FOUR, continued from » Part Three. It was split into FOUR pages in order to adhere to principles of web site optimization.

And now, without further commercial interruption, the conclusion of » Dostoevsky, Aaron Swartz and the Broken Butterfly of Tomorrow. Here you go...

Baloo & Mogli | Jungle Book» Parenting & Paraphrasing

So I identify with Aaron, easily .. with parenting representing the most significant difference.

[ I could be wrong, but I do not think Aaron had children. ]

The threat-of-jail pales beside the threat of losing your son. Tho I must say .. that I was faced with mere days, possibly weeks. Not months or possibly years, like young Aaron. ]

The threat of losing your child fucks with your head .. in a far more exquisite manner. In my opinion. Straight to the looney farm.

The thing with jail is that .. it is the FEAR-of-the-unknown that fucks with your head. The p-r-o-l-o-n-g-e-d fear is definitely worse than jail itself. (In my admittedly limited opinion.)

And yes, jail does indeed suk very badly. But any experience with institutions should help there.

That 'parenting' thing .. seems to run below / underneath the part of us that rationalizes.

Cuz I recall that my thinking was obviously severely distorted on one level .. yet remarkably lucid on another.

My clearest recollection .. was that of feeling literally 6 feet under .. as tho I were ALREADY dead .. and as tho I was looking UP at the ground .. at the zero point.

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» This page is PART THREE, continued from » Part Two. It was split into FOUR pages in order to adhere to principles of web site optimization. Here you go...

» Aaron Swartz Hangs Himself in NYC on January 11

Aaron Swartz hangs himself in NYC on January 11, 2013UPDATE - Oh, this is sad. Very sad. I just saw that Aaron Swartz hung himself today. At age 26. In New York City. (Brooklyn.) January 11th, 2013.

Such promise. Such remarkable promise. What a loss. What a colossal loss .. for the cause .. of sanity against insanity.

Of certainty against uncertainty. Of freedom against incarceration. Of life against death.

A beacon in the darkness .. extinguished, silenced forever.

It may surprise you, Mr. U.S. Justice Man, but some people actually need a reason a live .. and you took his away.

When unrighteous shit like this happens to our brothers, to our prophets .. we need to cry out .. to make it know .. that we DO NOT AGREE with our ancestors deeds.

Therefore, let it be known unto you. Let this serve as a solemn protest.

» Fight of the Ages!

Announcer: "Ladies and gentlemen, in THIS corner! .. we have » Yesterday!" [ crowd cheers with wild enthusiasm ]

"And in the OTHER corner, we have » Tomorrow!" [ crowd curiously silent ]

Confused-sounding Announcer » "Uh .. something seems to have happened to Tomorrow."

Tomorrow has been persecuted (by Yesterday) so savagely .. that Tomorrow said, "Fuck it!"

The endangered Schaus swallowtail butterfly (male)Tomorrow is a butterfly that has been broken over a wheel.

A beautiful butterfly, broken over an ugly wheel.

A very ugly wheel. A corrupt ugly wheel .. that discriminates against youth .. on the behalf of age.

Do you not recognize .. can't you see .. that Tomorrow is being sacrificed .. for the sake of Yesterday?

From my perspective, it is not difficult to see. Not at all difficult. Because clearly, Yesterday can vote ..

.. while Tomorrow can't. And you only seem to care about getting (re)elected. That's sad. Very sad (.. especially for Tomorrow).

You know .. if the government were smart, it would have funded a Research Group .. and made Aaron the director. Just imagine what effect that remarkable young man might have had ..

. on technology that increases efficiency .. and that helps people everywhere become more efficient ..

.. sort of like, you know » Steve Jobs, Mr. Apple himself. Patriarch of one of our nation's largest companies.

Aaron already HAS contributed to our nation (.. and the entire world) .. things which have had a positive effect. But you dont seem to value his contributions .. as much as the ones by those who MAKE MONEY.

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)Perhaps this is why our economy is still sputtering after .. years, now. Why it is only benefitting a select few.

Perhaps .. in their fear of radically new things / technologies ..

.. they are unwittingly stifling good old fashioned Unites States creative ingenuity.

I don't understand why you continue to focus all of your energy on bullshit .. and ignore the real problems facing our nation and our economy.

You need more vision .. than just what you can see leading up to the next election cycle. I think the term for your condition is » myopia. Political myopia.

[ And you need to grow some cojones while you work on fixing the vision problem. Obama needs to grow the courage to follow the law .. just like you & me .. and all the other "little people".]

» The Weight of a Suicide .. of a Geek's Geek

I did not know Aaron, but this grieves me .. more than I expected. I needed to go for a walk. The weight was surprising. (Perhaps because this comes so soon after Newtown. Less than a month. Maybe I am still grieving for those 20 first-graders.)

What a stark reminder that human beings have limits .. to the bullshit they can endure .. especially those who are more human than most.

Even a cursory look at the circumstances and the comments coming in from around the world make it easy for me to identify with him. Because he was Geek's geek ..

.. caught up in an heartless legal system .. that was bound and determined .. to grind him into sausage meat .. without any regard for the need for human dignity. "If you dare disagree with the Overlord$, you are not even worthy of human dignity."

It seems as tho our government cannot tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. As Harvard professor, Lessig [ who knew Aaron since Aaron was just a kid ] said »

"Remember, we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House -- and where even those brought to "justice" never even have to admit any wrongdoing, let alone be labeled "felons."

Alan Turing | Father of Computer Science (1912-1954)I admit .. this kind of shit (injustice, inequality) pisses me off. It frosts my ass. Because it clearly isnt right.

Aaron stood for what I myself stand for. So it feels like a part of me has died .. under nasty circumstances. Horribly nasty.

Light a candle, ye Geeks. A candle of remembrance. The flame will speak.

Meanwhile Jon Corleozonie .. you know » Mr-Uh-I-somehow-LOST-$1.6-Billion-Dollars-of-Other-People's-Money .. has never even been charged with a crime.

[ Not hard to find victims THERE, is it, Jonnie? Because they have lined up .. and line disappears around the block.

The Authorities: "What's that, Jon? You lost a few billion of other people's money? No problem. Hey, shit happens, bro."

Meanwhile, the same Authority a little later: "Hey you over there .. with the 6-pack tucked under your arm. Dont make me tase you, dude." ]

How do we reconcile such vast disparity in justice? We can't. It is merely one-more-spotlight .. on the sad fact .. that our government has been co-opted. Clearly the wealthy-few OWN our government. And therefore they own us.

You set yourselves up as gods when you do that » "We-up-here, above the law, can do whatever the fuck we like. While you chumps down there in Sausage-land .. have different rules. Sausage-manufacturing rules. Make more sausage faster."

» Bouazizi & Swartz » Both 26 when they Committed Suicides-of-Despair

Do you not recognize similarities with Mohamed Bouazizi, the kindly street vendor who torched himself in the streets of Tunisia .. which became the event that led to the outrage that ignited the Arab Spring?

Mohamed Bouazizi (1984-2011).. who also died, coincidentally, at age 26 .. exactly two years and one week ago. And the fires are still raging there in the Middle East.

The same age Einstein was the year (1905) when he kicked maximum scientific ass .. while working in his SPARE TIME, no less ..

.. as a 3rd rate patent clerk .. because he could not land a teaching job, despite countless applications, nor even get into a PhD program.

The world is still trying to comprehend the implications of Einstein's muscular throw-down when he was just 26 years old. (Still.)

I also can't help but think of Alan Turing, the Father-of-Computer-Science, who committed suicide .. by eating a cyanide-laced apple .. after his government had him chemically castrated (.. for homosexuality) ..

in lieu of imprisonment .. after he played a major role in helping them win World War II .. by breaking the German Naval Enigma code (.. at Bletchly Park). No good deed goes unpunished.

Rumor has it that Alan's poison apple is where Apple Computer got its logo .. an apple with a single bite missing.

British government: "Thanks for helping us win the war, Alan. Looks like it's now time to cook your nuts now, seeing that we have no more wars for you to help us win. Thank-you for your service at Bletchley Park and cracking the German Enigma code that helped us win the war."

Dude, chemical castration .. is like dropping your 'nads into a pot of boiling water .. and leaving them there until they're well done. Hard-boiled.

That's what the British government did .. to one of the twentieth century's greatest geeks. So I'm not very surprised that he chose to kill himself (.. just like Aaron did).

[ I know it's hard to believe.. but governments have done worse shit than that. Waay worse. ]

» Warning Delivered | Warning Ignored | Momma Wizard Not Happy

Okay .. I tried to warn them » "Do NOT piss off the Geeks," I told them. I tried. You can lead a horse to water. I feel like I failed. Utterly.

Okay, here's what I said May 15th (.. copy-n-paste):

Guy Fawkes Anonymous MaskSo you've been busy. But .. if you piss them off, they will come after your ass. And they have special powers. You will RUE the day, my friend. Mark my words.

Because they are not forgiving, like me (« Mr. Niceguy). No, sir. Like an angry African wasp, they will sting .. and KEEP stinging ..

.. until their asses are good-n-sore. (That's why you dont want to provoke them.)

If they get really pissed, they will come after your ass .. with a vengeance. And then you're fucked. (Give me points for clarity. Ozy sends his best.)

Interesting, no? .. that Ozy was published on this exact date (January 11th) 195 years ago (1818).

Tho I also added:

I am not one of these wizards, no. (Not hardly.) But I understand them. I can FEEL them (.. we must share some of the same geeky chromosomes). Thermo-nuclear bonding, you might say.

This is how I know that you are in trouble. And I'm here to help (.. cue audio track of cavalry bugle cry amid the sound of galloping hooves). Consider it a lifeline.

So it's not like they werent warned. And I TOLD you they were wizards .. didnt I? [ Momma wizard is going to be verrry angry. ]

You probably already know this .. but for the benefit of our obviously-clueless government officials » "Dude, there is a tsunami coming." I dont know when it will make landfall .. but it will not be pretty. You might wanna look around for something sturdy to grab hold of.

» Stand the Fuck By

Mushroom cloudAnd you thought Sandy was bad. "Stand the fuck by."

Dylan wrote "It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls." Unfortunately, Dylan never said when.

Japan had 9 minutes. The clock has started. Tickety-tock went the clock.

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Update - Jan 26, 2013. Oh, I just saw » THIS .. Anonymous' response to the government's handling of Aaron Swartz (.. very well articulated, as usual) ..

.. which ends with a promise » "Not this time. This time there will be change or there will be chaos."

Give them points for clarity. Two weeks to the day. That was quick. Easy to see the 'love' they put into it.

I have been trying to tell you .. that they do not think like you. (And they seem to have the patience of a saint.)

Part of the art & craft of Writing, as I see it, is to convey the most .. in either the clearest, most efficient, or most artistic way .. depending on the desired result and your intended audience.

So I caught myself admiring the sentence construction. Nobody will be able to claim that their position was ambiguous. Certainly more tasteful than I would have done.

I find it noteworthy that Henry Miller wrote » "Dostoevsky is chaos and fecundity" .. implying that, in the writing of the Russian, the two forces meet to create a » "vortex in the bubbling maelstrom." In other words » humanity.

If you were selected to write the one sentence that was to initiate the countdown sequence to doomsday .. that would be it. =)

I jest of course, but it's the truthful undercurrent that makes it funny. Actually, the last two sentences go together. The repetition made me think of Hemingway.

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» This page is PART TWO, continued from » Part One. It was split into FOUR pages in order to adhere to principles of web site optimization. Here you go...

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)» Who is this DostoYEVsky dude?

"Who?" I interrupted and asked. But the officer [off-going EOOW] wanted to continue with his original train of thought.

So I waited a little and asked again. =)

"Who's this dahs-tuh-YEF-skee dude?"

My recollection of his answer goes something like »

"He's a Russian novelist from the 19th century who wrote about subjects that are DARK, such as Crime and Punishment. He had remarkable psychological insight. He could see into your soul."

The word 'dark' was the thing that stuck out. My curiosity was piqued .. because I found myself wondering » "Why would anybody want to write about a dark subject? Because who would ever READ about such a thing?"

I remember walking away and thinking to myself, "Crime and punishment .. that is a HORRIBLE topic. Nobody in their right mind would ever want to read about crime and certainly not about punishment."

[ Key phrase » in their 'right mind'. ]

The thoughts continued to come as I ducked thru the water-tight door, heading forward to the mess decks .. with the aroma of grease-burgers growing stronger.

[ The officers eat by themselves, with the captain and the XO .. not with us lowly enlisted folks. Heck, even the chiefs won't eat with us. They eat in the "goat locker." ]

"This Dostoevsky dude must be very strange," I thought. And I wondered what events in someone's life could make them such an expert on the disk-side .. that they are able to write entire novels on the subject.

[ That is obviously a dangerous rabbit-hole-of-a-question, my friend. =) So let's go take a look .. and see where this wormhole leads. ]

Clearly, there was something I did not understand. But at 21, there's a lot you dont understand. You just don't know it. (Yet.)

Perhaps it is worth noting .. that the first time I heard the name 'Dostoevsky' .. I was standing on a large movable object .. specifically designed to rain down death and destruction .. on a scale never before seen on the planet (.. should the need arise).

So you could call it » The Exterminator. (The life exterminator.)

Tho officially [ repeat after me ] .. "I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard this United States naval vessel."

And over the years .. I would hear this distinctive Russian name mentioned .. you know, here and there .. from time to time.

But every time .. the thought would come » "There's something there .. something you might want to look into .. if you have cojones grande sufficientcio. A taunting distant echo » 'Are you afraid of the dark?'."

Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)» The Great Prophet of the Twentieth Century

And these mentionings always contained a bit of fright in the person who uttered the name ..

.. as tho he would immediately run away, shouting over his shoulder, "He's coming! Run!"

Yes, I exaggerate, but that's the mood I remember. Dostoevsky's name only arises in certain types of conversations.

And this was before I learned that the French existential philosopher Albert Camus [ ca-'moo, 1913-1960 ] called Dostoevsky "the great prophet of the twentieth century".

But the thing I dont get is .. Dostoevsky [1821- 1881] never lived in the twentieth century. He died nearly two decades shy. So how can he be "the great prophet of the 20th century"? See my point?

Is Albert saying that Dostoevsky was ABLE TO SEE INTO .. the next century? Sure would seem that way.

But if Dostoevsky is "the Great Prophet of the Twentieth Century" .. then who is the Great Prophet of the Twenty-First Century? .. the century in which you and I live.

I'll return to this question later. For now, I am merely cocking back our slingshot .. so later we can let the smooth stone fly .. with added velocity.

Yours truly» I am thinking of a book. Try to guess the name of the novel I have in mind.

I will give you a hint. My hint is an excerpt extracted from the Wikipedia entry for this title. So see if this next sentence rings a bell »

"Acclaimed the world over .. by intellectuals as diverse as .. Freud, Einstein, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Cormac McCarthy and Kurt Vonnegut .. as one of the supreme achievements in literature."

Supreme achievement? Uh, do you mean as in » 'EV-vuh'? As in » the-history-of-the-planet? Homo sapiens ultimo maximus?

Like » near or at the top of what our species has been able to accomplish in literature? .. a species whose trajectory-of-civilization has been defined by centuries of intellectual development.

The only species capable of inventing symbolic written language and using it to communicate among themselves. "Bonjour."

Such big words. My goodness. Any ideas? Care to venture a guess? Give up?

The KEY word in that excerpt, I think » diverse. There you have writers, yes, of course, but also very prominent philosophers, plus a psychologist [ » thee Psychologist of our most recently completed century ] ..

.. and even a physicist. Not just any physicist. No, sir. Rather thee physicist .. of the 20th century ..

Dr. J Robert Oppenheimer | Father of the Atomic Bomb (1904-1967)[ I say that with all due respect to Oppenheimer, who I hear was also a big fan of my mystery author ..

.. and who gave away copies of this other title (by the same author) to friends as a birthday present ..

.. a title, which, I hear, is "the best book ever written" on the subject of Revolutionary Conspiracy.

"Here's a little something I think you might enjoy. Happy birthday, dawg. How about another martini?" ]

.. not to mention that Einstein was declared Time magazine's » Person-of-the-Century.

You must admit .. that would be an impressive collection of signatories .. adding their John Hancocks to your already towering bona fides ..

.. seeing we could easily add to the list luminaries such as » Hemingway, Chekhov, Joyce, Sartre, Virginia Woolf, and EM Forester. More big names.

Regarding the original six, I could not, for example, have more respect for Cormac McCarthy (.. as a writer, as an author, and as a brave man). For me, Cormac is like Elijah-the-prophet .. in that he » turns the heart of the fathers to the children.

 » Harold Bloom Chokes Twice on Blood Meridian Before Speaking

Speaking of Cormac McCarthy .. the inside-flap of my Modern Library copy of Blood Meridan [thanks to Paula, who gave me her new copy, which she could not read] says »

"Widely considered one of the finest novels by a living writer, Blood Meridan is an epic tale of the violence and corruption that attended America's westward expansion .. I venture that no other living American novelist, not even Pynchon, has given us a book as strong and memorable."

America's most celebrated literary critic, Harold Bloom calls Blood Meridan "the greatest single book since Faulkner's As I Lay Dying" [which was published back in 1930, 83 years ago]. There's an eyebrow-raising statement, no?

Cormac McCarthy (1933- ) | The Real DealBlood Meridian is not an easy novel to read. Even the celebrated Bloom himself choked on it during his first attempt. His first *two* attempts, actually.

Here are Harold's own words (taken straight from the novel's 8-page Introduction):

"I will begin by confessing that my first two attempts to read through Blood Meridian failed, because I flinched from the overwhelming carnage that McCarthy portrays.

The violence begins on the second page, when the fifteen-year-old-kid is shot in the back and continues almost with no respite until the end, thirty years later, when Judge Holden, the most frightening figure in all of American literature [.. sentence trucated due to spoiler]."

You have to steel yourself before cracking open a McCarthy novel (.. or you will choke) .. for the same reason that you don't set a t-bone steak before an infant.

It's like you have to go into training before taking on Cormac. Good luck. He has no mercy on your soul.

Only the courageous dare to attempt one of McCarthy's darker novels .. and even then at their own peril. The literary gods will gladly administer last rites to those determined to assimilate one of those. America's most celebrated Literary Critic himself twice required resusitation.

But what about some of those other names we find referenced there in my Wikpedia excerpt?

» Einstein Peels Back the Skin of Reality Itself

Einstein is almost certainly the greatest mind of the twentieth century, no? E=mc2. Relativity. Wave/particle duality. Quantum mechanics. The illusion of time. Truly mind-bending shit. Major cranial torqueage.

[ I can almost see Uncle Fester with his bald head jammed in a vice .. saying to Einstein, "Hey Albert, be a sport and give it another turn, will ya?"

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)E=mc2 is the reason I wanted to learn about reactors. "Show me how you boys make that E out of the m using the c-squared thingie."

Like magic, a nuclear reactor turns matter (mass) into energy. A very little mass (.. known technically as the mass defect) .. into energy. Very MUCH energy.

Notice that the c-squared is over on the mass-side of the equals sign, helping it to make LOTS of energy.

Yes, it's true that real matter actually disappears. No mas. Adios matter. Hello energy.

That, my friend, is what you call » power (turning matter into energy) .. a truly remarkable thing to behold .. especially when done on an industrial scale .. and in a highly controlled fashion.

And even more remarkable when the fashion is less controlled. ]

The way that Einstein was able to peel-back the very skin itself of (perceived) reality and say, "Dude, check this out! You won't believe what I found. Lookie here. Aint that some shit." .. is the reason why he is generally considered thee Baddest Dude of the entire 20th century.

And here's the kicker » Einstein did this shit IN HIS HEAD! (As if he werent already intellectually impressive enough.) His mind was like a super-collider. (Powerful enough to destroy centuries of well-entrenched classical ideas.)

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» This entry is Part 3, continued from Part 2, which is posted here » Geeks vs the Government | Game On - Part 2. It was split into three parts in order to adhere to principles of web site optimization.

Guy Fawkes Anonymous MaskAnd now, without further commercial interruption, we present the conclusion of » Geeks vs the Government | Game On.

» Because they are not forgiving, like me. Like an angry African wasp, they will sting and KEEP stinging .. until their asses are good-n-sore. (That's why you dont want to provoke them.)

You see, Geeks tend to stick together (.. like worker-bees in a HIVE) .. cuz [like you] they feel a connection to one another .. due to similar interests, values, and mind-sets.

Obviously this is something you understand quite well. (Too well, some might argue.) Tho unlike you, geeks are also comfortable operating as a lone wolf. Also unlike you, Geekdom recognizes no international boundaries.

The Rich-and-the-Powerful vs the Geeks-and-the-Rebellious. "More popcorn, please."

Now you might find this difficult to comprehend .. perhaps even impossible .. but, while you can certainly rent-a-Geek, you can't buy them. Because Geeks are NOT ABOUT THE MONEY.

In other words, they do not place the same value on money that you do. Tho they may pretend that they do .. in order to make you feel more comfortble with/about them.

Because they know that you do not trust anyone who won't sell their soul for pieces of silver (.. like you already have). Have you sold grandma yet? (I heard that somebody saw her listed recently on eBay.)

The only people who want to be part of your corrupt SY$TEM are corrupt themselves. So you should not hold it against the Geeks if their sense of justice (or their sense of right and wrong) differs from your own.

lightning bolt strikes empire state bldg nycGo look in a mirror and you'll see what I mean. From what I can see, they possess superior morals & better ethics than many of you.

You think there are just a handful of hackers, or hacktivists, as they are called. But there are more behind them ..

.. far as the eye can see. And some of them are much badder, and more clever (.. which is why you dont know about them).

Do the math. Analyze the statistics. "A wasp by any other name," said the Bard, "stings just as exquisitely."

We now have a whole generation who have been raised on coding .. who cut their teeth on powerful programming languages. They speak the language cuz it runs thru their veins. (With more on the way.)

So you should not be surprised to hear that it was a Software Engineer (named Waed Khalil) who made the first list-of-demands by the Egyptian people and posted them on his web site.

[ Not sure if he has any fingernails left. Typing suks with no fingernails. Blood everywhere. ]

If you boil down the difference between you and them, you come up with the following philosophical contrast » they feel/believe access to information should be freely available (OPEN) .. whereras you feel it should be controlled & restricted.

That's why the Geek approach is » "Long as you guys aint fucking up or doing stupid shit, you got nothing to worry about."

[ In other words » dont fuck up, and dont do stupid shit.

Because it's difficult to question your foolish decisions if nobody knows about them. Hence your designations of "SECRET" and "TOP-SECRET" and "TRIPLE TOP-SECRET". ]

Open vs Controlled & Restricted. Now WHO do you propose should be the one doing the controlling & restricting?

But once you start talking about INFORMATION and information technology [ IT ], and the communication or transfer of that information .. now you're talking about THEIR world (.. the shark's world). Cuz that's where they live.

Right now you have people working for you who hold top-secret clearances. And if you are paying them to do unethical shit, there's a chance that their conscience will start to bother them. (That's why you should only hire people who have no conscience.)

And if they work in IT, they no-doubt have IT friends .. who likely know other IT people. You see my point. It only takes one. The odds are against you. Sure they work for you (because you pay them well), but they are Geeks at heart.

Chicago NATO Protest | May 20, 2012» The DUTY of Honorable Citizens

Knowing what I know about you, I dont think you will "get it" ..

.. that civil disobedience is a DUTY for honorable citizens .. when their leaders are fucking up in grand fashion.

But hey, there's always hope.

Yet I must express my reservations. Because I would be surprised .. if you *did* get it. So here's a bit of official speculation » you will never see it coming. Like a ghost. =)

None of this would be necessary if you guys werent so blatantly corrupt .. so motivated by greed for the almighty dollar. How many yachts can you water ski behind?

You are obviously not strong enough to resist the corrupting influence of power.

[ But I've been praying for you .. that you smarten up .. before you piss off the hive.

They are just playing now, tuning their wings. But if they get really pissed, they will come after your ass .. with a vengeance. And then you're fucked. (Give me points for clarity. Ozy sends his best.)

I shouldnt need to remind you that Geeks gave you the atomic bomb .. the power of the sun itself .. by no means their last trick.

But you are smart people, too .. or you wouldnt be where you are. So start making smart decisions .. because it appears you are playing with fire. (And the Hammer cometh.)

Despite an abnormally low tolerance for incompetence, corruption (viruses & other malware) & bullshit in general .. that tends to send them into that nasty stinging frenzy you've heard about .. geeks are actually very nice.

You neednt worry about them taking over, cuz Geeks dont care much for Politics (.. which they consider inherently evil). They only get upset when your bullshit starts to affect them.

But you guys really fucked things up in the Credibility department, and that will be difficult to repair. ]

Dont say I didnt try to warn you.

I'm not saying it IS .. but you can call this the Rad prophecy .. for purposes of labeling and identification.

Because .. it can be downright difficult to recall names ..  when your dumb ass is trying to dodge lightning bolts. =)

In What Universe?

» I lived in Florida for nearly a year. It was the first place that the Navy sent me .. after prying me away from mom's apron strings in Connecticut. I was 18 (close to Trayvon's age) and Florida is where the military sent me for bootcamp (.. via Amtrak, 1-way, 2-day trip).

Sanford, FloridaSix months later I RETURNED to Florida to attend the Navy's [ Holy plutonium, Batman! ] Nuclear Power school (.. in Orlando).

After I got out of the Navy some 6 years later [at EAOS], I again returned to Florida .. to visit an ex-shipmate who I'd previously lived with on the North Shore of Oahu (.. in a shack on the beach in Waialua).

"Come on down," he roared. "You'll LOVE it here!" (He was a Brooklyn boy who could talk anybody into anything.)

Seeing it was the dead of winter, and the rest of the country was freezing their babushkas off, I hopped on a plane and headed south, spening another month or two down there.

[ Takes time .. a while .. to re-orientate yourself back into civilian life. Not easy. I found it a formidable challenge .. and nobody even SHOT at me.

In other words, I think our military needs a REST .. after more than a decade of fighting two wars on the other side of the planet. I mean, come on .. isnt it obvious?

Our government wants our military to be more disciplined, yet they themselves have none. ]

I did however, love it down there in Florida, and was shown a great time.

So Florida is where I went to re-orientate myself back into the civilian world .. with a small part of the world's best ex-military support group (.. who had already experienced the transition and understood its psycho-dynamics) .. to try and screw my head on straight .. and grow my hair long again.

So I like Florida. The good-sized waves at Daytona Beach, the cool-sounding name of Cocoa Beach, the Disney World buzz of Orlando, the "on vacation" attitude of Ft. Lauderdale ..

Florida map.. especially the tropical feel in Tampa & St. Petersburg, and the bathtub-warm murky waters of the entire Gulf coast (.. before the spill, anyway).There was no part I did not enjoy. Even Ocala horse country.

Tho I never made it down to the Keys, I believe I could someday retire there.

It's definitely the FLATTEST state I've ever lived in. Great state if you like to bike .. cuz there's not a hill to be found anywhere.

Takes a little getting used to the humidity. Sitting at sea-level means that much of the the state is a swamp (.. called the Everglades).

It's a state where .. in the span of 20 minutes you can go from beautiful blue skies to a torrential downpour and back to sunny skies again .. with the wet pavement STEAMING in the hot sun before it's dry again. Can you say sauna?

[ You learn to wait, and not make a mad dash for it, where the faster you run, the wetter you get. Because, by the time you get there, the rain has stopped. ]

And then there's the BUGS. Florida has more bugs than any other state I've been to. Cockroaches thrive there. The mosquitoes have been known to carry off cattle. Alligators think nothing of taking a dip in your swimming pool.

Sanford, FloridaThe Feel You Get Living in Florida

Now every state has its own distinct 'feel' .. its own unique flavor, its own particular characteristics .. which you might not be able to appreciate until you've LIVED there a while. (At least, that's how it was for me.)

And I could certainly wax verbose here and talk at great length on the subject .. and maybe things have since changed .. but suffice to say that the #1 'feeling' I got from Florida .. while living there ..

.. was that THIS was a place where they » LET YOU DO YOUR OWN THING .. which is one of the reasons why I liked Florida, and one of the reasons why my buddy decided to settle there .. after globe-trotting for 6 years with the Navy. (In other words, they stay out of your business.)

[ By contrast, California (like the Feds) tries to get involved in every little aspect of your life. I have LIVED, btw, in ~ a dozen different states, and visited many more, which gives me a variety of points of reference from which to compare & contrast. ]

So while I *am* surprised about the Trayvon Martin shooting by George Zimmerman (4-weeks ago today), and by the SPECIFICS of the case, I'm not surprised that it happened in Florida.

I mean, the Stand-Your-Ground law, which the authorities cite as justification for the shooting, sounds a whole lot like » "You folks go ahead and take care of whatever business you need to take care of .. and call us only if you really need us." Does it not?

Now, many people have already commented on this tragedy at length, so I wasnt sure that I was going to comment myself .. which is why I waited a month. (No sense in duplicating what others have already said.) So I'll get right to the point.

Autumn Arrives with a Ditty on Dostoyevsky

» Autumn arrived today. Around noon. You could feel it in the air. Something shifted. That faint yet unmistakable hint of a chill .. first of the season .. that carries with it the promise of cooler days to come.

Autumn leaves & treesMy favorite time of year .. when the mind clarifies .. after the stifling heat of summer.

The last few nights here have been surprisingly warm. I've taken advantage and gone for walks at sunset. Even in the dark. Gorgeous nights. Stars like a canopy.

No, I'm not gonna say more about JAIL right now .. even tho many have expressed interest. I have however, gone back and added an addendum .. to the original entry.

Also added some graphics .. to break up the text and improve readability. [ Note the Get-out-of-Jail-Free card included at the end. =) ]

Yes, I'm okay. (Thanks for the notes & the calls.) Just tired. Way deep inside. Emotionally. Cant seem to get enough rest. Maybe I'm depressed.

I've taken two big blows. Back-to back. One after the other. So it might take a while to recover. One interesting anomaly » I didnt get sick .. following either event (.. which I normally do). That surprised me.

As part of my therapy, I've been RUNNING the hills here. I walk-down / run-up. Steep grade. Think I heard the neighbor say "9%." About 100 or 120 yards. Five times. Gets the heart-rate going and the sweat flowing. Have done six, but usually regret it (.. next day).

If you wanna run here, gotta run HILLS. Cuz there's nothing else. No flat stretch anywhere. Hills are hard. Kicking my butt. Sucking serious windage. Specially that last 20 yards (.. talk about pain & suffering). Agony. Only just starting to get a handle on the slopes.

Dostoevsky'FEE-uh-dor Dos-toy-'EV-skee

If I had any energy, I might write up a little ditty on Dostoevsky .. like the one I did on Nietzsche or the quickie I did on Ernesto.

I've been trying to figure out Dostoevsky. Holy crap!

He's a trip. My whole center-of-gravity has shifted .. trying to glean some insight into the Russian .. trying to grapple with .. uh, that thing he does.

Dostoyevsky vs 'NEE-chuh

Nietzsche is an insolent schoolboy next to Dostoevsky (.. the headmaster). Then again, Nietzsche never found himself standing in front of a firing squad, either .. an experience that will age you right quick. (Can you imagine? A death sentence?)

Nietzsche BEATS YOU UP (.. which you masochists might enjoy). In other words, he ASSAULTS you .. your beliefs, your values, your ideas .. about things we in the Judeo-Christian world hold most dear.

But Dostoevsky MOVES you .. and I mean that in the most unsettling aspect of the term .. like an earthquake with a kick. Boom! "Holy crap! What was that?"

It is a different kind of force .. than the one Nietzsche wields (.. which is certainly no slouch .. Nietzsche's mojo, I mean). The 'force' that Dostoevsky exercises is more powerful. It's on a whole 'nuther level. Like a glacier. The quotes I've included here should shed light on what I mean.

Hemingway, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and who's known for his study of, and sizing up of, other writers and their books, said this:

"In Dostoevsky, there were things believable and unbelievable, but some SO TRUE that THEY CHANGED YOU as you read them; frailty and madness, wickedness and saintliness ..." [ A Moveable Feast ]

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