My Identity Crisis

Who am I? The guy on the left or the guy on the right? I dunno. I got an identity crisis!

I gotta talk to a psychiatrist. Which one of the above should I pick? Hey, do you think that I'm gonna pay $200 an hour to talk to someone who looks like Sigmund Freud?

The Book Test Thing

Doing the book test thing:

1. One book that changed your life: Ayn Rand's "Fountainhead". I read this as a teenager and it turned me into one of those Ayn Rand fans. But as I grew older I moved farther to the left, and am today really a fan of no one.

The Old Testament continues to change my life.

2. One book you have read more than once: Moby Dick. A totally unique book, it fascinates me that Melville describes every detail on board that whale vessel in minute detail. But the metaphysical implications of his writing sail right over my pretty little head. I have read literary criticism saying that Melville is very "transcendental" and "metaphysical". But I don't have a clue what that means. As I have stated previously, I don't know a symbol from a cymbal or an allegory from an alligator.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?: The Old Testament, with facing Hebrew and English pages.

Second choice: One of Donald Knuth's computer algorithm books. It would take years to work thru all of the problems in any of his mind-boggling computer algorithm books. That would keep my mind occupied.

4. One book that made you laugh: Dilbert's book.

5. One book that made you cry: Can't think of any.

6. One book you stayed up all night to finish: James Michener's "Hawaii", when I was back in High School. I remember writing a book review of it, and my teacher said to me: "You ignor-a-mus, you didn't read that WHOLE book (it was 600 pages). You can't fool me! You must have used Cliff notes!" But of course I DID read it. She hated me because I used to heckle her remorselessly.

7. One book that took you too long to read: All of them. I'm a slow reader and am currently reading 10 novels and am in the process of reading a hundred books. I just sort of do "round robin" reading them.

8. One book you are currently reading: "From Beirut to Jerusalem", by Thomas Friedman. Kind of prophetic with the recent war. Thomas Friedman is one of the few people in the entire universe who presents any sort of hope for peace in the Middle East.

9.One book you have been meaning to read: "Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry", by Albert Pike. This is a mind-bogglingly incredible book that I found at a used book sale for a dollar. It was written back in the 19th century.

10. Best novel: Paste together 3 of Herman Wouk's World War II novels: "Winds of War", "War and Remembrance" and "The Caine Mutiny". The three of them together are an exhausting experience. You feel like you've just gone thru WWII.

Draft 3: 8/30/06

The World Trade Center Movie

The World Trade Center movie is not a movie. It is an emotional experience. No other movie this year even has a remote chance of winning the "Best Movie" Oscar.

It does not follow the usual tired pattern of a "disaster movie". A disaster movie typically spends an hour leading you into the disaster, and then shows you pictures of the disaster for a half hour. I had thought that this movie would just show endless footage of the planes crashing into the towers.

But the movie really doesn't. The movie focuses on something different: What it must have been like to be buried alive in the rubble and slowly dying.

This is an extraordinary movie.

The movie also has some strong political implications for the coming election. Judging by the emotional reaction to it, it is clear that 9/11 is still an enormously potent political issue. If the Democrats go anti-war, it might well be political suicide. There is no doubt that the Republicans will continue to focus on 9/11 and the War on Terror.

It would be interesting to get comments from non-Americans about their reaction to the movie. I wonder if they will find it as emotionally moving as I did.

Iran/Syrian Involvement in Hezbollah

Some reflections on the Hezbollah-Israel War:

For those brain-dead anti-semites who are attempting to portray tiny Israel as a giant fascist state, here are the populations (according to CIA stats) in millions:

Israel: 6.2
Lebanon: 3.8
Syria: 18
Iran: 68

Fully 20% of Israel's population are friendly Arabs, who are quite happy living in Israel, thank you. Of the Jews in Israel, about 50% are of European origin (Ashkenazic) and 50% are of Meditteranean or Arabic origin (Sephardic).

The idea that Israelis are racist is totally and completely preposterous. This is borne out by the high level of diversity in the tiny nation.

It is hardly likely that Israel is a humongous fascist state when it is so outnumbered by Arab neighbors who are assisting, supplying, training and staffing Hezbollah. Additionally, Iran is filthy rich from oil revenue, partly at America's expense.

Iran has funnelled at least 13,000 missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a large number of Hezbollah troops have been identified as Iranian. Chief Hezbollah Nazi Nassrallah studied for several years at Jew-hating Mosem Fascist Mosques in Iran. He has openly declared his desire to not only kill every Jew in Israel, but every Jew in the world. One can also assume that he has no great love for Americans in general, since we are all part of The Great Satan.

Since Hezbollah does not represent the government of Lebanon, this is an act of blatant, authoritarian terrorism by Iran. Without being handed these weapons by Iran, Hezbollah would have no means for purchasing weaponry, much less expensive guided missiles. Therefore, providing these missiles to Hezbollah is both an act of international terrorism as well as an act of war. There would not currently be any serious conflict between Hezbollah and Israel if it were not for Iran providing Hezbollah with free missiles.

If Iran is so concerned about the living conditions of the "oppressed" Palestinians, wouldn't it be more logical to provide them with money for economic development? Instead, Iran provides these hate-filled, self-indulgent idiots with missiles, so that they can more conveniently destroy the little that they have.

The question is, why do the leaders of Islam hate Israel so much? Isreal is a tiny little nation on the far fringes of Arabia which has always been more a part of Europe than of Arabia. As evidenced by a huge amount of archeological artifacts, the Jews been in Israel for at least 4,000 years. The Jewish homeland far antedates the wave of usurping Arabs would brutally, and briefly, conquered the area in the middle ages. Before that, Israel was a dominion of both the Greek and the Roman empires.

The chief value of Israel has ALWAYS been as a buffer and a trading post between the great continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. The tiny-brained idiocy of orthodox Islam could NEVER survive in Israel! The storm of countervailing orthodoxies in Israel would shatter it's rigid thought-patterns like glass.

In addition, there is really nothing IN Israel that Arabia really wants. There is no oil and no great national resources. Additionally, it is too close to the Satanic influence of Europe, just across the Mediterranean.

No, the purpose of Israel to Arabic Islam is simply to have a scapegoat to hate. But in truth, most Arabs do not hate Israel. Israel is the model of how Arabs COULD live if they didn't have the pea-brained Mullahs and the idiotic dogmas of Islam chained around their necks. THAT is why the Mullahs hate Israel so much, but why the average Arab does not.

Third revision: 8/10/06.