in8snotes

Time Magazine

Regarding the Fraternity of the Master Metaphysicians
Peaceful Fraternity
Monday, Jul. 18, 1938

William Kissam Vanderbilt called it Idle Hour: a 100-room house in Oakdale, Long Island, as sumptuous and showy as a Summer Palace of the Romanovs. Thirty years ago it cost about $7,000,000, but nowadays it is a bit run down. Last week 500 Truth Students, Adepts and Master Metaphysicians twitched on hard chairs in the big reception hall with its encrusted ceiling, ivory-colored fireplace, concealed pipe organ. Above the doors were signs reading "Peace, Discrimination, Enlightenment, Inspiration." James Bernard Schafer, Master Metaphysician, entered.

Conversation stopped. He strode to the platform. "Peace," he said. "Peace," said the 500.* Dimpled, businesslike Mr. Schafer, M.M., was dedicating Idle Hour as a sort of spiritual sanatorium for the members of one of the most elusive cults in the U. S.—The Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians. It will be called Peace Haven. Mr. Schafer acquired it some months ago for $350,000, raised by Love Gifts from his disciples. "Truth Students never lack anything," he says. It will be used as a retreat "for those Students who desire Metaphysical assistance or loving care. . . ." One of the wings will be made over into Camp Peace for children. Every night a loud speaker in the reception hall will broadcast an inspirational message by telephone from Mr. Schafer in Manhattan.

Room and board at Peace Haven: from $14 a week, up.

At the Royal Fraternity's headquarters, the Forum of Truth and the Center of Peace (a fairish-sized lecture room) in Manhattan's Steinway Hall. Mr. Schafer delivers four talks a week. Truth Students become Master Metaphysicians after studying more than a year and a half.

What they study is far from clear, but the Royal Fraternity's creed might be described as a theological goulash of Rosicrucianism, Christian Science, Christianity, Supermind Science, faith healing and How to Win Friends and Influence People. As to the number of middle-aged ladies he has attracted, "the Christian Science Church doesn't publish the number of its membership," says Mr. Schafer; "Why should we?" However: "Our organization is unorganized. You can't define a thing like that."

Last week some 100 Fraternity members moved out to Peace Haven to stay. Mr. Schafer (called by his disciples the Messenger) went back to Manhattan to continue his lectures. Said he comfortably to the press, "People think we're a lot of nuts."

*"Peace!" is also the greeting of little Father Divine's darky sect in Harlem.

Last saved: 02/10/2008
Links: /history / pepperidgehall.txt

Humble Pie

Venison from deer would also be on the menu. It has also given us a famous saying !! The poor would not be allowed to eat the best parts of a deer. However, in keeping with the spirit of Christmas, a decent lord might let the poor have what was left of the deer. These parts were known as the deer's umbles. These were the heart, liver, tongue, feet, ears and brains. Mixed with whatever else a cook could get, they were made into a pie. Therefore, the poor would eat umble pie. Nowadays, if you have taken a tumble in life and have to live a standard of life you would not usually be used to, it is said that you are having to eat humble pie.

from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_xmas.htm

Last saved: 12/28/2007
Links: /history / humblepie.txt

Odin as Santa

According to Phyllis Siefker, children would place their boots, filled with carrots, straw or sugar, near the chimney for Odin's flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or candy . This practice survived in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands after the adoption of Christianity and became associated with Saint Nicholas as a result of the process of Christianization and can be still seen in the modern practice of the hanging of stockings at the chimney in some homes.

This practice in turn came to the United States through the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam prior to the British seizure in the 17th century, and evolved into the hanging of socks or stockings at the fireplace. In many regions of Austria and former Austro-Hungarian Italy (Friuli, city of Trieste) children are given sweets and gifts on Saint Nicholas's Day (San Niccol� in Italian), in accordance with the Catholic calendar, December the 6th.

Numerous other influences from the pre-Christian Germanic winter celebrations have continued into modern Christmas celebrations such as the Christmas ham, Yule Goat, Yule logs and the Christmas tree.

Last saved: 12/26/2007
Links: /history / santa.txt

Our collective digital library (the internet) is far more extensive and certainly more accessible than Alexandria could have possibly been, however the internet depends on the maintenance of a network of complex technological machines as well as a stable worldwide power grid. The standards for the technology are changing rapidly as well. I worry that our new Alexandria is a lot more vulnerable than the old one was in the following sense: If you find a book a thousand years after it was written, it's still obvious it's a book with information in it, and depending on the quality of the preservation, it might still be readable. If you find a hard drive a thousand years after it was written on, not only might you not be able to read it (I would say it's almost a certainty that you won't be able to), or have the technological ability to figure out how to go about trying, you might have no clue what it is, or that it previously held information at all. The internet may very well help usher in a time, after a particularly bad nuclear war, or an asteroid hit, or a similar natural disaster that will be much darker than any dark ages we've ever known.

One interesting thing that this post led me to discover was that the legendary fire that destroyed the library, and all its amazing contents is not much more than that - legend. I had always thought the great fire that destroyed the library was a known fact, but apparently not - the library's destruction has been blamed on several different folks over time.

Last saved: 08/29/2007
Links: /history / alexandria.txt

Your'e a secular humanist!

I'm not a secular humanist - and my many Gods can beat up your one God any day. Personally I really dig the (admittedly controversial) idea that Moses got the monotheism bug from the Egyptian Pharoh Akanaten (who was written out of history for attempting to impose monotheism on Egypt in the form of one supreme God - the Aten. Some hold up the similarity of Akhenaten's Great Hymn to the Aten and the Biblical Psalm 104 as proof of this theory.

Last saved: 08/30/2006
Links: /history / secularhumanist.txt

Investigation into the Speech and Debate Clause

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/052406/jefferson.html
In the Speaker’s lengthy statement, Hastert complained that the seizure of legislative papers, no matter how innocuous, was a violation of the “the principles of Separation of Powers, the independence of the Legislative Branch, and the protections afforded by the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution.”

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/article01/21.html
The immunities of the Speech or Debate Clause were not written into the Constitution simply for the personal or private benefit of Members of Congress, but to protect the integrity of the legislative process by insuring the independence of individual legislators.'' [Footnote 384] United States v. Brewster, 408 U.S. 501, 507 (1972). This rationale was approvingly quoted fromCoffin v. Coffin, 4 Mass. 1, 28 (1808), inKilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U.S. 168, 203 (1881). “The protection of this clause is not limited to words spoken in debate. ''Committee reports, resolutions, and the act of voting are equally covered, as are 'things generally done in a session of the House by one of its members in relation to the business before it.''' Thus, so long as legislators are ''acting in the sphere of legitimate legislative activity,'' they are ''protected not only from the consequence of litigation's results but also from the burden of defending themselves.'' But the scope of the meaning of ''legislative activity'' has its limits. ...

http://www.slate.com/id/2107840/
This reflects a widespread misconception that bribery has no legal meaning in Congress, where "I'll vote for your bill if you vote for mine" is a way of life and members enjoy broad immunity from prosecution under the Constitution's "speech and debate clause." But the speech-and-debate clause doesn't apply in the Smith case, because DeLay was not acting in a governmental capacity when he offered the endorsement. As the Supreme Court noted in United States v. Brewster, a 1971 case involving the bribery of U.S. Sen. Daniel Brewster, D-Md., The only reasonable reading of the Clause, consistent with its history and purpose, is that it does not prohibit inquiry into activities that are casually or incidentally related to legislative affairs but not a part of the legislative process itself. Brewster was convicted. Let the DeLay prosecution begin!

Posted on Toddslater.com:
I've only done a quick investigation, but I'm not sure that I agree with you on this. There is a precedent of sorts in a similar case mentioned on Slate:

"As the Supreme Court noted in United States v. Brewster, a 1971 case involving the bribery of U.S. Sen. Daniel Brewster, D-Md., 'The only reasonable reading of the Clause, consistent with its history and purpose, is that it does not prohibit inquiry into activities that are casually or incidentally related to legislative affairs but not a part of the legislative process itself.' Brewster was convicted."

The article was discussing DeLay, and how investigations into his activities in the Smith case were not prohibited by the 'Speech and Debate Clause' of the Constitution.

The understanding is that the Clause protects members 'acting in the sphere of legitimate legislative activity' from unreasonable intimidation by other branches of government. I'm not sure that accepting monetary bribes for political action is 'legitimate'.

Last saved: 05/27/2006
Links: /history / speechanddebateclause.txt

John McCain is NOT the direction we need

I respect McCain for his service to this country, but I couldn't ever support him for any public office. He was one of the Keating Five, if you remember that debacle. Although he has done his best to stand up for causes he believes in, despite the Republican party line, he also tows that line way too often - he agrees with the president on the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools (a personal peeve of mine), and continues to support the invasion of Iraq. A recent comment on the topic: "If we lose in Iraq, they're coming after us. We will fight them somewhere else - like here". Oh, OK John. How long can we maintain a war in Iraq to keep them 'over there', I assume - forever.

His all too common off-color jokes may go down well in Arizona, but they don't fly too well in more sophisticated parts of the country. For instance, his infamous 'Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.' comment while President Clinton was in office shows the man's true character.

Oh yeah, come to think of it, he was one of those who voted to Impeach Clinton. That whole thing still pisses me off. To think that the Republicans were too busy pursuing Clinton into trial for his marital indiscretions that Clinton could take no action against a real threat to America after the Cole was attacked. In a real way, I blame the Republicans for 9/11 because had they been gentlemen about that issue, and shown some respect for the office, Clinton might have been able to rally and follow up on his attacks on Osama's Afganistan bases. McCain and as many other Republicans as possible need to be KICKED OUT of office in November, so we can start taking our country back. If you want a country run by a religion - move to Iran.

Last saved: 05/16/2006
Links: /history / mccain.txt

Thoughts on the President of Iran's letter to Bush

Although you would never learn this if your political compass is spun by Rush Limbaugh, the United States was founded by Political Liberals (those who believe in individual freedoms and liberty) who believed that citizens should make the laws and agree, through social compact to live by them. The trouble is, those calling themselves 'Conservative' rail against 'Social Liberals' (opposing government intervention on the freedoms of lifestyle) and fail to recognize that they may actually be themselves politically liberal. To be Conservative is quite meaningless, really unless you attach it to something like: Fiscally conservative, religiously conservative, etc. To favor 'little or no change', or to maintain the status quo when time does change anyway, is really very silly. After all, the only constant is change, and to not face it is sticking your head in the sand.

It seems that if Ahmadi-Najad believes that 'Cultural' Liberalism has failed the promise of humanity, that he is saying we should give hard-line religious conservatism a try. After all, it's working very well in his country, right? Perhaps we can start by rolling back all the freedoms granted to women and minorities over the last century. He kindly mentions that there is poverty in some US states? Let's compare that poverty to 10 percent of all Iranians subsisting on less than $2 a day, and that's in the world's 4th biggest producer of oil. Oh, did I mention they're running a budget deficit too?

Iran is the poster child for why religious conservatives should not be running nations. Please don't take his advice: the world is not flocking to his Almighty God just yet, but they may be flocking to Democrats in November...

Last saved: 05/12/2006
Links: /history / liberalism-iran.txt

Email to Tim Bishop

March 4, 2006

I've lived here for almost 40 years and I have been using the same voting machines all that time. I have no idea how the machines work - they've got the big red handle you throw one way or another to close the curtains, but I've been very concerned ever since the elections of 2000 and 2004 that they may be easily falsified. I was always under the impression they had some kind of paper trail associated with them. I had some fanciful idea that the big handle was 'punching a card' or something that was stored inside, untouchable unless legitamately retrieved. I'm starting to think that I dreamed this. Can you investigate how they work, do they have a physical paper trail or not (other than the election helper's notes), do we need to upgrade them so that there is some accountability? Everyone has read the Newsday story placing New York last in compliance with the 'Help America Vote Act', but I'm concerned with facts. How do they work, and are they adequate?

Last saved: 03/04/2006
Links: /history / voting.txt

Evangelists in Office

What concerns me more is that most of the founding fathers of this nation were opposed to the evangelist churches (at the time a New England phenomenon) playing any role in government. Today's movement is RE-WRITING history by attempting to cast the founders in a different light, calling them god-fearing Christian men. They were anything but - with the exception of some of the New Englanders like John Adams, who himself was by today's standards quite moderate. The men who framed our nation (for the most part) were wealthy, landed, church-fearing intellectuals and lawyers who were products of the Enlightenment. Many believed in God, though like Thomas Jefferson, were very sceptical of the bible stories since they were written by man. They didn't believe that God played a hand in the daily course of human events (a Deist philosophy), and would be shocked to learn that an evangelist has become president. Luckily, the founders of this nation wrote in English, most of what they penned is still in print and you can read what they wrote. I have no doubt that the evangelists are capable of ignoring all evidence that they are being misled by their corrupt (and, I daresay EVIL) ministers and will likely claim that the manuscripts of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Paine and others were placed there by the devil to decive us.

Last saved: 08/16/2005
Links: /history / religion-evang-politico.txt

The Intolerable Acts

Subj: Re:intolerable acts
Date: 97-01-15 21:07:00 EST
From: WhitWords

The Boston Port Bill, prohibiting loading or unloading of ships in Boston harbor (until damages had been paid for the tea dumped into the harbor), and was put into effect on June 1, 1774.

The Justice Act, was first administered on May 20, 1774, and protected royal officials by providing that those accused of a capital crime committed in aiding the government would not be tried by the provincial court where the official court was located, but would be tried in another colony -- or England.

The Massachusetts Government Act first went into effect on May 20, 1774, virtually annulled the colony's charter, and geve the governor control over the town meeting.

The extension of the Quartering Act and the Quebec Act were not an integral part of the coercive program which encompassed the first three acts mentioned above, but were so considered by the colonists.

Last saved: 08/14/2005
Links: /history / intolerableacts.txt

Henry Purcell's Last Will and Testament, 1695

In the name of God Amen. I, Henry Purcell, of the City of Westminster, gentleman, being dangerously ill as to the constitution of my body, but in good and perfect mind and memory (thanks be to God) do by these presents publish and declare this to be my last Will and Testament. And I do hereby give and bequeath unto my loving wife, Frances Purcell, all my estate both real and personal of what nature and kind soever...

Last saved: 08/08/2005
Links: /history / purcell-will.txt

Celtic Spiral Design

At one time I was so into Celtic art (knotwork and stuff) that I bought a bunch of books (like George Bain's Methods of Construction and all of Aidan Meehan's Celtic design series and practiced the ancient art of 'compass and straight edge' - all the stuff you see in the illustrated manuscripts (book of Kells, etc.) Nice article about that kind of stuff here I agree that most of that stuff just plain kicks ass.

Last saved: 08/04/2005
Links: /history / celtic-design.txt

Roberts (on NP)

Andrew: I must agree with wob (early comment here) that although Roberts can boast of a very impressive "riches to riches" personal history (much like our dear president), he hasn't been a judge for very long at all. That's probably why he was selected: there's next to no record on which to 'judge' him. However, the documents released on Tuesday (see the Washington Post story) are beginning to shed some light on Robert's political (and ideological) leanings which includes wonderful little snippets like:

1. Roberts presented a defense of bills in Congress that would have stripped the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over abortion, busing and school prayer cases.
2. He argued for a narrow interpretation of Title IX, the landmark law that bars sex discrimination in intercollegiate athletic programs.

Oh, and for some reason, the administration won't be releasing Robert's tax returns. Hmmm, I wonder why? Could it be that the administration fears that most evangelical Christians would not be able to relate to someone who has made mega-bucks defending big business and that it might give them some pause when they consider if he really has the interests of the people at heart? I'm not a learned bible scholar, but I seem to remember Christ gave away all his earthly goods, and urged his followers to do the same. Why is it that American Christians seem to idolize these rich folks so much?

Last saved: 07/29/2005
Links: /history / jroberts-post.txt

Debate on CAFTA on CSPAN - 7/28/05

Ron Paul, Republican of TX - we've transferred the power to negotiate trade to president and then a beaurocratic body. This is an awful bill, if we wanted free trade, it could have been a paragraph long.

The Commerce Clause
Article 1, section 8: "To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among
the several states, and with the Indian tribes;"

Bob McDermott, Democrat of WA - the 'threat' of more immigration if CAFTA fails is bogus: these folks are poor, not stupid. They would much rather come to do a job in the US than work for 0.50/hr with no protections.

Arthur Davis, Democrat of AL - "standing by these countries", while not considering the economic plight of those children and women in these countries who are forced to work for nothing with no labor protections other than 'enforce your own laws'

Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of OH - trade without worker's rights is tyranny. What the administration wants is to institutionalize cheap labor where workers have no rights.

Last saved: 07/27/2005
Links: /history / cafta.txt

Understanding the Division comment

I really don't think that's it. Most of the MEN I work with are republicans and the mantra there is that LIBERAL is of the set = {pussies, communists, bleeding hearts, fags}. It is not MANLY to consider yourself a liberal because of these connotations (imposed by a very successful propoganda campaign of slander of the ilk that knocked John McCain out of the presidential race (a republican I actually LIKE)). When a person agrees with the positions of the current administration (not truly conservative, but more fascist in my opinion), they see any argument made by a liberal in that context. The argument is not valid because the person who makes the comment is abhorent (this is classic ad hominem argument and a logical fallacy). This idea is perpetuated by staging these FAKE (faux) news shows where liberals who embody the stereotype of the weak liberal are placed in the pit against a strong conservative type. It is as dangerous as the propoganda that the NAZIs used against the jews in WWII and just as effective against people who don't recognize it. I think you are making excuses for your Dad here. Perhaps he is a brilliant physicist, but a poor student of history?

Last saved: 07/16/2005
Links: /history / division-comment.txt

Bush on Traitors

During a White House Press Briefing on September 30, 2003 President Bush said the following in response to a question regarding the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity, "... if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of." When asked at a post G-8 Summit News Conference on June 10, 2004 if he stood by his statement that he would fire whoever was responsible for the leak, Bush said, "Yes. And that's up to the U.S. attorney to find the facts."

At the Dedication Ceremony for the George Bush Center for Intelligence on April 26, 1999, former President George Herbert Walker Bush stated, "Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."

According to Title 50, Ch. 15, Subch. IV, Sec. 421 intentionally revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent is punishable by 3-10 years in prison or $15-50k in fines or both.

Last saved: 07/14/2005
Links: /history / bush-on-treason.txt

Are "Celtic languages" Indo-European?

(from soc.culture.celtic)

The Brythonic and Goidelic languages are classified as Indo-European,
and the Basque language is not - it is considered to be unrelated to
other European languages and is said to have evolved from the languages
spoken by the first inhabitants of Europe.

http://www.unc.edu/~nielsen/soci011/hs6/hs6015.jpg

"The word Celt is derived from Keltoi, the name the Greeks gave the
"barbarian" tribes along the Danube and Rhone rivers."
http://www.lost-civilizations.net/celtic-civilization.html

Despite all this, modern anthology has positively established that
people in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Cornwall are genetically,
fundamentally speaking, of Stone Age European extraction and are not in
fact Celtic (who were believed to have arrived in Britain in
approximately 500 BCE). Their ancestors were those Europeans who took
refuge in Iberia during the Ice Age, 30,000 years ago. These people
were the source of the genetic marker referred to by anthropologists as
Haplogroup R1B. 20,000 years later, these people began arriving in
Britain and Ireland. In Connacht and Munster (two of Ireland's four
provinces, in the south west and west), there is more than a 95% chance
that men with a Gaelic surname belong to Haplogroup R1B. The frequency
for the whole of the country is approximately 80%, as is the case in
Scotland and Cornwall. In central Europe, the homeland of the Celt,
this frequency falls below 50% - 40% in Germany for example, 20% in the
Czech Republic. The figure is 90% for the Basque Country and the
remaining parts of Iberia also have high frequencies of this marker.
Therefore if the Celts had arrived in Britain and Ireland in
approximately 500 BCE, fundamentally replaced the native population and
thereby introducing their own culture, then haplogoups other than R1B
would be found with much higher frequencies throughout both islands.
This is not the case.

"The Celts originated in central Europe, not in Spain, and their genes
are not detectable in modern Irish people. "
http://www.irishexaminer.com/text/story.asp?j=483889234410&p=483889z35zyy&n=483889235244

"On the Y-chromosome the Celtic populations turn out to be
statistically indistinguishable from the Basques,"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1256894.stm

Note here that the BBC are basically saying that the Celts are not
Celts. The fact is, the word Celt is used to define two different
unrelated groups, hence the confusion. The people referred to by the
Greeks as being barbarian on one hand, and those who speak Celtic
langueges on the other.

http://www2.smumn.edu/uasal/DNAWWW/pdfs/Yirish.pdf
http://baz.perlmonk.org/haplogroups.jpg
http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mcdonald/WorldHaplogroupsMaps.pdf
http://home.comcast.net/~libpjr1/haplogroupI.htm

So the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Bretons, etc. share the same
ancestors as the Basques, and these ancestors would have shared a
common tongue.

"An interesting feature of Celtic languages is that in several
characteristics they resemble some non-Indo-European languages. These
characteristics include the absence of a present participle and the use
instead of a verbal noun (found also in Egyptian and Berber), the
frequent expression of agency by means of an impersonal passive
construction instead of by a verbal subject in the nominative case as
in Egyptian, Berber, Basque, and some Caucasian and Eskimo languages),
and the positioning of the verb at the beginning of a sentence (typical
of Egyptian and Berber)."

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0857224.html

Another grammatical feature not typical of Indo-European languages -

"The rules of pronunciation for all the Celtic languages are extremely
complicated. For example, the final sound of a word frequently brings
about a phonetically changed initial consonant of the next word, as in
Irish fuil, "blood," but ar bhfuil, "our blood." Another
example is Welsh pen, "head," but fy mhen, "my head.""

Also when an Indo-European word is made plural, a post-fix is generally
applied to the end of the word, or sometimes the middle. One Boat - Two
Boats. One Man - Two Men. But in Gaelic we get Fear Amh‡in - Beirt
Fhear, or B‡d amh‡in or aon Bh‡d amh‡in (pronounced b-ah-d) - Dh‡
Bh‡d (pronounced w-ah-d). This suggests to me that changing B‡d to
Bh‡d is not done to indicate that a word is plural but is done instead
to help the flow of the sentence. R’ocht Fear Amh‡in = One Man's
Kingdom. The Basques also do not change words to indicate they are
plural.

I believe that Gaelic is the language that has been spoken in Ireland
for the last 10,000 years, and that over this period due to contact
with the rest of Europe, it has adopted an Indo-European vocabulary.
I'd image its grammar has also been effected to a degree, but can
anyone tell me how significant this has been? In other words, ignoring
vocabulary and concentrating on grammar, how much do Gaelic or Welsh
have in common with Russian, relative to Basque or Finnish (another
non-Indo-European language)?

If the Chinese were to adopt an English vocabulary tomorrow, would
Chinese therefore become an Indo-European language?

The point I'm trying to make is that unless the people of Ireland
stopped speaking the language their ancestors brought from Iberia and
started speaking a whole new language of Indo-European extraction, then
Gaelic does not has an Indo-European root. Correct? Therefore should so
called Celtic languages be classified as a branch of the Indo-European
family?

Having said all that though, what is the root of the word Gael? I've
read that it shares the same root as the words Gaul, Galles (pay de
galles = wales), and Gallicia. But in Gaelic, Gall means foreigner,
stranger or foe. I've also read that it means "foreign Gael",
suggesting that it was a referral to the p-Celts perhaps.

Regards,

Aine.

Last saved: 07/14/2005
Links: /history / celtic-origins.txt

Liberalism again

c - I'm not hiding behind a moniker! I think the essay I linked to above explains my point best and I'll quote from it below. It asserts that the big social programs of the New Deal Democrats of the 40s was the beginning of the end of Liberalism (and freedoms!). What you are failing to recognize here is that the big social programs like welfare and social security (which you don't like) were not 'Liberal' programs. By the definitions I gave above for classical liberalism say nothing about protecting people through massive social programs! What happened was this: during the world wars, the government got more and more powerful (sound familiar?) becoming

"... engaged in everything from wage and price controls to rationing, censorship, and propaganda. Once the wars were over, the governments never decreased to their previous sizes ... The cultures now accepting of government's ever-broadening role, people expected economic and social needs to be met by legislation. The United States' New Deal and Great Society are indicative of this trend.

There has been a concerted, politically-driven effort to alter the meaning of the term "liberal".

Last saved: 07/14/2005
Links: /history / liberalism-again.txt

Numbers, India, Christianity

comment on John's Blog 5/8/05

While Rob's ancestors in Europe were still fumbling with the abacus, the early Hindus had come up with a number system (which unlike the system in Europe, included zero) enabling them to perform complex calculations very quickly. Luckily, the idiotic ideas of the Greek Aristotle had not made much of a long-term impression on the Hindus as it did on Europe. Later, when the Arabs swept through India, they discovered the Indian system of numbers and quickly became experts at it. What we call the "Arabic" numerals should really be called the "Hindu" numerals (evidence: Sanskrit). Thanks to those 'bad ideas', we can thank the chaotic Hindus and Arabs for eventually dragging the Chrisitians (who stone-walled on the change for centuries) out of the 'Dark Ages' and introducing the power of a real number system to the rest of the world. The seemingly inconsequential idea of a number system with zero (and infinity) brought about a loosening of the power of the Roman Catholic church (which fought the idea, and lost to business which realized it's usefulness) and set the stage for a scientific revolution and the protestant reformation. Thus, in a sense, Rob can thank those 'chaotic' Hindus for making it possible for him to read the bible in English (and not Latin), and to choose to ignore several texts of the bible that Catholics accept, and permitting protestants to read the Old Testament as allegory while claiming the New Testament is not. [aside to self in Groucho Marx voice] "How Christians get away with claiming the trinity is not polytheism, I'll never know."

Oh, and if he thinks India is chaotic - he should try driving in lower Manhattan sometime.

Last saved: 05/09/2005
Links: /history / zero-hindus.txt