h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

a couple of loose ends to tie ... about American intervention and about the Crusades:

excerpts from an article in the 'Jung' newspaper published in London on January 17, 2003-

"... a USAID $50 million grant to the University of Nebraska in the 1980s [funded] textbooks [that] sought to counterbalance Marxism through creating enthusiasm in Islamic militancy. They exhorted Afghan children to 'pluck out the eyes of the Soviet enemy and cut off his legs.' Years after they were first printed they were approved for use, by the Taliban ... a stamp of ideological correctness. The cost of America's mission myopia has been a staggering one. ... the 9/11 operation was a strategic blunder of colossal proportions. It vastly strengthened American militarism, gave Sharon the license to ethnically cleanse Palestine, and allowed state sponsored pogroms of Muslims in [the Indian state of] Gujrat with only a squeak of international condemnation. The absence of a modorn political culture and the weakness of Muslim civil society have long rendered Muslim states inconsequential players on the world stage. ... no Muslim country has proposed an oil embargo or a serious boycott of American companies. ... Only a global peace movement that explicitly condemns terrorism against non-combatants can slow, and perhaps halt, George Bush's madly speeding chariot of war."

a quote from Raymund Aguiles, an eye-witness reporter on the Crusades, on the day they entered Jerusalem, after a 40 day siege, on 15 July 1099:

"Wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of the enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But, these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are normally chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth it will exceed the powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much, at least, that in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood upto their knees and bridle reins. Indeed it was a just and splendid judgement of God that this place should be filled with the blood of unbelievers since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies." The Crusaders boiled the people of the city in cooking pots, roasted children on spits and roamed the countryside hunting for pagans.

I'm not sure what your point is exactly but I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.

First, I think it goes without saying that just because something is possible doesn't mean it will happen, although some physicists would assert otherwise. They would say if it isn't forbidden, it's compulsory. But that's hardly the point.

Archimedes was expounding on a law of physics which isn't optional, although his particular application was. We have been expounding on US law, which is both optional and selectively applied by the very people sworn to uphold it. That's why we say the indians have always been on the right side of the law but the wrong side of the issues.

Now, does that mean there is always a court of higher jurisdiction. No, it doesn't mean that although I wouldn't necessarily rule it out either.

Given Mr. Bush's agenda, we might see the rest of the world cobbling together a tribunal much like the one the Americans and their allies cobbled together at Nuremburg to deal with the Nazis. We might see this soon if Bush's agenda pushes the rest of the world to the breaking point. It's possible the Americans can dominate everybody. They've been rather successful for the past few years, but it will require a good deal more resources than they currently can liquidate on short notice.

Which brings up another point, which in turn might be particularly relevant to people who have assimilated like yourself. What do you suppose is going to happen after the government has finally forced everyone to assimilate and has extinguished all the land claims and transferred the public domain to the few who dominate the country? Who will they steal from then?

Dare I suggest people just like you? And then it will be people just like you posting here, complaining bitterly, but then who will adjudicate their complaints? What higher authority will they appeal to? That may actually provide you with the opportunity of answering your own question I think.

The link that Kyaa posted previously has a nice paragraph at the end suggesting what might be done about this. I respectfully suggest you review it, not merely because it's possible, but because it's right. And strangely it doesn't necessarily suggest that you must do right. It suggests you refrain from doing wrong, that you help stop the abuses of the past 500 years.

The higher court then might actually preside in the hearts of people like you.

refrain from doing wrong, stop injustice, seek knowledge, help whoever, however, wherever and whenever you are able; be one with the family.

I will not kill, I will not be killed, I will not allow killing.

Amen!

Whatever can you mean, Ana ...

I'll look for patterns in the stars, in the movements and calls of the wild creatures, in the clouds' whispers as they paint the sky, in the rays of the sunset, in the motion of the waves and the swell, in the quite warbles of the stream, in the undulations of the road, in the interlock of the bricks, in the sway of the leaves on the trees, in the color of the grass, in the blush on a rose, in the taste and textures of my food, in the wafting on the zypher that slips into my nostrils ...

... or maybe, just maybe, I can understand you mean from what you've said, elsewhere: "...the hard part's knowing what you need and then trusting that you'll get it sooner or later without proving anything to anybody..."[?]

"amen (a-men)interj. Used at the end of a prayer or a statement to express assent or approval." ^1

1-- American Heritage Dictionary

Ana, thank you for the definition. I wrote in reference to an earlier post of yours. You can see which one by using the reference 'ball and arrow' navigational tool provided with each post.

I wait.

Would this be the post then? "Goodbye? Is that what you're saying or is that what you want me to say?"

What part of the question don't you understand? I don't have a "ball and arrow" navigational tool or at least I can't seem to find it.

yes Ana, that is the post in reference to which I posted and reposted. ... care to dissimulate, deflate, degrade, diminish, dispute, dispose, discomfit, discount, disavow, dissolve, dishabille, disdain ... further, especially the last phrase of that post?

oh, yes, the nav tool seems to appear, when it does, at the bottom right corner of each post.

Oh, the thing with the eyes. Okay, thanks for pointing that out.

I don't think I want to do any of those things, Kyaa. And I don't think I was doing any of those things when I posted it so why would I want to do them further? Am I really so difficult to comprehend?

no Ana, that's the complaint thingy. The tool I'm speaking of actually consists of different colored balls (depending on what they are at the moment telling) and arrows pointing between them from one to another.

no matter, you're such a clever creature, you twigged what I was getting at without that.

no dear Ana, I don't say you are difficult to comprehend, difficult yes. however, being the bright sparkler you are, you bedazzle at times.
and, yes, you are quite capable of obfuscation though not as pedantic as some of those so called professors at school.

this is most difficult to do, but here:

why would you cry? and, why just then?
is it relief (as in good riddance)
is it frustration (as w/ GHWB)
is it sadness (as in why do _that?)
is it joy (as in Free At Last)

...But, you'll remember, you've changed ...

they had major troubles here at h2g2, maybe we'll be sent packing?

That's clearer now. So if you assign in order A, B, C, and D to your multiple choices, I would select C. I hope that's clearer for you now as well.

no Ana, that's the complaint thingy. The tool I'm speaking of actually consists of different colored balls (depending on what they are, at the moment, telling) and arrows pointing between them from one to another.

no matter, you're such a clever creature, you twigged what I was getting at without that.

no dear Ana, I don't say you are difficult to comprehend, difficult yes. and, being the bright sparkler you are, you bedazzle, at times.
and, yes, you are quite capable of obfuscation though not as pedantic as some of those so called professors at school.

this is most difficult to do, but here:

why would you cry? and, why just then?
is it relief (as in good riddance)
is it frustration (as w/ GHWB)
is it sadness (as in why do _that?)
is it joy (as in Free At Last)

...but, you'll remember, you've changed ...

they had major troubles here at h2g2, maybe we'll be sent packing?

It seems like you've posted the same thing twice, or the site has.

sorry about the double post, what's up with that?

Ana, thank you for your care and I don't mind the U going missing either though that's a whole another thing, no?

What is "the U going missing"?

U as in UK ..., verbum sat sapienti est.

I don't, at all, mind ...
only, I wonder, as ever, why?

dear quarter-penny.


btw, do you know Lewis E. Wing, at all?

He was one of the signers of the Ute Mountain Tribe constitution. He was from the Allen Canyon band too, not Towaoc.

So I'm not saying I do know him and I'm not saying I don't, he might even be a cousin, although in the interests of protecting the family from any consequences of my online indiscretions, I think it would be prudent if we sort of dropped the subject.

...you sound like the CIA! I think I see.

It's a strange time to be doing it but I'm eating a salad with fresh pine nuts, good! I like them best by themselves, fresh hulled. how about you?

...do address the rest of the prior post(s) or do I look elsewhere?