tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-122964252024-03-23T13:07:40.853-05:00The Tattered ThreadTrebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.comBlogger333125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-46066835668883720122022-01-02T23:27:00.002-06:002022-01-02T23:27:22.658-06:00<p> Indianapolis Magic Magician Photography Directory</p><div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns: 20% auto;"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img alt="" class="wp-image-229 size-full" src="https://indy.photo/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Indy-Magic-Monthly-at-IndyFringe-02-07-2018-925-1024x765.jpg" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content"><!-- wp:paragraph {"placeholder":"Content…","fontSize":"large"} -->
<p class="has-large-font-size">Indy is a city that's full of magic. These are the marvelous magicians I've had the privilege to work with so far.</p>
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<!-- /wp:list --></p><ul><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/amazing-barry">The Amazing Barry</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/benjamin-barnes">Benjamin Barnes</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/brendon-ware">Brendon Ware</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/cody-clark">Cody Clark</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/corbett-troyer">Corbett Troyer</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/dan-stapleton">Dan Stapleton</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/daniel-lee">Daniel Lee</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/david-london">David London</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/david-ranalli">David Ranalli</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/eugene-burger">Eugene Burger</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/francis-menotti">Francis Menotti</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/hunter-tabor">Hunter Tabor</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/jamahal-keyes">Jamahal Keyes</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/jeff-mcbride">Jeff McBride</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/jim-keplinger">Jim Keplinger</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/joe-turner">Joe Turner</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/john-west">John West</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/jonathon-lachance">Jonathon LaChance</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/jordan-allen">Jordan Allen</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/jordan-rooks">Jordan Rooks</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/justin-willman">Justin Willman</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/karl-koppertop">Karl Koppertop</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/kristian-charles">Kristian Charles</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/larry-wirtz">Larry Wirtz</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/luis-carreon">Luis Carreon</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/matt-tran">Matt Tran</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/matthew-david-stanley">Matthew David Stanley</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/obtuse">Obtuse</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/patrick-livingstone">Patrick Livingstone</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/reed-masterson">Reed Masterson</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/ryan-siebert">Ryan Siebert</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/sean-lewis">Sean Lewis</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/sean-scott">Sean Scott</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/shawn-hurst">Sean Hurst</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/sir-pat-trick">Sir Pat-Trick</a></li><li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/magician/taylor-martin">Taylor Martin</a></li></ul>Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-17755729595673950832021-12-30T18:07:00.001-06:002021-12-30T18:07:04.883-06:00Indianapolis Theatre Photographer<p>All the amazing shows I've had the privilege of shooting photos for organized by production company</p>
<h1><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">American Lives Theatre</span></span></a></strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/small-mouth-sounds">Small Mouth Sounds</a> - by Bess Wohl</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/oak-island-the-musical">Oak Island: The Musical</a> (As part of 2021 IndyFringe Festival)</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021">2021 Short Play Festival</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/annexing-the-palisades">Annexing the Palisades</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/choices">Choices</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/fishtown">Fishtown</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/gift-horse">Gift Horse</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/karma">Karma</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/lady-balls">Lady Balls</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/pretty-like-normal">Pretty Like Normal</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/the-first-anti-vaxxers">The First Anti-Vaxxers</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/the-pumpkin-pact">The Pumpkin Pact</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/water-doesnt-kill">Water Doesn't Kill</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/american-lives-theatre/short-play-festival-2021/why-are-you-here">Why Are You Here?</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indy-bardfest"><span style="color: black;"><strong><span style="font-size: 20px;">BardFest</span></strong></span></a></h1>
<ul>
<li>2021 Season
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indy-bardfest/antony-and-cleopatra">Antony and Cleopatra</a> - Directed by Ryan Shelton</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indy-bardfest/elizabeth-rex">Elizabeth Rex</a> - By Timothy Findley - Directed by Glenn Dobbs</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indy-bardfest/lears-shadow">Lears Shadow</a> - (As part of 2021 IndyFringe Festival) - By Brian Elderling</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indy-bardfest/loves-labours-lost">Love's Labours Lost</a> - Directed by John Johnson</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indy-bardfest/measure-for-measure">Measure for Measure</a> - Directed by Paige Scott</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><span style="font-size: 20px;"><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/buck-creek-players" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Buck Creek Players</span></a></strong></span></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/buck-creek-players/rosie-the-riveter">Rosie the Riveter</a> (Show Photos) - Nov/Dec 2021</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><span style="font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory"><span style="color: black;"><strong>Catalyst Repertory</strong></span></a></span></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory/scavengers">Scavengers</a> (As part of IPC's 10-Minute Play Festival) - Nov 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory/copyright-safe">Copyright/Safe</a> (As part of 2021 IndyFringe Festival) - Aug 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory/popular-monsters">Popular Monsters</a> - Nov 2018</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory/hells-4th-ring-the-musical">Hell's 4th Ring - The Mall Musical</a> - Feb 2018</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><strong><span style="font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/cyt-indy"><span style="color: black;">CYT Indy</span></a></span></strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/cyt-indy/annie">Annie</a> - Nov 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/cyt-indy/pirates">Pirates</a> - Sep 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/cyt-indy/radium-girls">Radium Girls</a> - (As part of 2021 IndyFringe Festival) - Aug 2021</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><span style="font-size: 20px;"><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Footlite Musicals</span></a></strong></span></h1>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020" target="_blank">2019-2020 Season</a></strong>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020/ragtime">Ragtime</a> (Rehearsals/Behind the Scenes/Show photos) - Sept/Oct 2019</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020/cinderella">Cinderella</a> (Rehearsals/Behind the Scenes/Promotional/Headshots/Show photos) - Nov/Dec 2019</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020/first-date">First Date</a> (Rehearsals/Behind the Scenes/Promotional/Headshots/Show photos) - Jan/Feb 2020</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020/mamma-mia">Mamma Mia</a> (Auditions) - Cancelled due to COVID</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2020-2021">2020-2021 Season</a></strong>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2020-2021/women-of-broadway">Women of Broadway</a> (Show Photos) - Presented Virtually Jan 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2020-2021/brooklyn-the-musical-reunion">Brooklyn the Musical Reunion</a> (Show Photos) - Presented Virtually May 2021</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022">2021-2022 Season</a></strong>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/joseph-and-the-amazing-technicolor-dreamcoat">Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat</a> (Promotional/Headshots/Show Photos) - June/July 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/gentlemans-guide-to-love-and-murder">A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder</a> (Auditions/Rehearsals/Behind the Scenes/Headshots/Show Photos) - Sep/Oct 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/holiday-inn">Holiday Inn</a> (Auditions/Rehearsals/Show Photos) - Nov/Dec 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/25th-annual-putnam-county-spelling-bee">25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee</a> (Promotional) - Jan 2022</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/wild-party">Wild Party</a> - (Auditions) - TBD 2022</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><strong><span style="font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/herron-high-school"><span style="color: black;">Herron High School</span></a></span></strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/herron-high-school/every-day-i-prayed">Every Day I Prayed</a> - Nov 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/herron-high-school/25th-annual-putnam-county-spelling-bee">25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee</a> - Sep 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/herron-high-school/she-kills-monsters">She Kills Monsters</a> - Sep 2021</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><strong><span style="font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival"><span style="color: black;">Indiana Playwrights Circle</span></a></span></strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival">2021 10-Minute Play Festival</a> - Nov 2021
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/dog-park">Dog Park</a> - by Josie Gingrich - Presented by Theatre Unchained - Directed by: Megan Ann Jacobs</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/echoes">Echoes</a> - by Garret Schneider - Presented by Monument Theatre Company - Directed by: Caleb Clark</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/karma-cop">Karma Cop</a> - by Megan Ann Jacobs - Presented by Elliot Productions - Directed by: Spencer Elliott</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/nice-knowing-you">Nice Knowing You</a> - by Lou Harry - Presented by American Lives Theatre - Directed by: Chris Saunders</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/scavengers">Scavengers</a> - by Marcia Eppich-Harris - Presented by Catalyst Repertory - Directed by: Casey Ross</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/terms-and-conditions">Terms and Conditions</a> - by Mary Karty - Presented by Emerging Artists Theatre - Directed by: Anthony L Nathan</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/two-yards-of-satan">Two Yards of Satan</a> - by Kelly Andronico - Presented by Westfield Playhouse - Directed by: Kate Hinman</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021"><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 20px;">IndyFringe Fest 2021</span></font></a></strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/a-dry-rose-a-lesbian-love-story">A Dry Rose: A Lesbian Love Story</a> - by Missy Koonce</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/abraham-lincoln-hoosier-hero">Abraham Lincoln: Hoosier Hero</a> - by Danny Russel</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/act-a-foo">Act a Foo Improv Comedy Crew</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/being-black">Being Black</a> - by OnyxFest</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/betsy-patsy-show">Betsy-Patsy Show</a> - by Elizabeth Young-Collins</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/big-gay-debutante-ball">Big Gay Debutante Ball</a> - by Meg Anderson</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/brad-hinshaw">Brad Hinshaw's DadBod</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/brendon-ware">Brendon Ware</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/chasing-temples">Chasing Temples</a> - by Betsy Murphy</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/classical-collaborations">Classical Collaborations</a> - by Crossroads Dance Indy</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/climate-follies">Climate Follies</a> - by Jim Poyser</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/copyright-safe">Copyright/Safe</a> - by Catalyst Repertory</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/deadpan-jan">Deadpan Jan: My Life is Not a Sex Party Or Is It?</a> - by Jan Gudaitis</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/driving-kenneth-and-betsy-ross">Driving Kenneth and Betsy Ross</a> - by Garret Mathews</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/jordan-allen">Jordan Allen's Magic Party</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/jordan-rooks">Jordan Rooks' Downtown Magic!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/joyous-faggotry-the-ron-popp-story">Joyous Faggotry: the Ron Popp Story</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/lears-shadow">Lear's Shadow</a> - by IndyBardfest</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/mandee-mckelvey-how-i-got-my-warts-prayed-off">Mandee McKelvey - How I Got My Warts Prayed Off</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/nick-and-grace-have-you-been-drinking">Nick and Grace: Have you been Drinking?</a> - by Grace Bahler and Nick Polk</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/oak-island-in-concert">Oak Island, in Concert</a> - by American Lives Theatre</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/pixel-the-cat-does-shakespeare">Pixel the Cat Does Shakespeare</a> - by To The Rescue Theater</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/radium-girls">Radium Girls</a> - by CYT Indy</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/rocket-in-your-pocket-father-ned-in-space-the-musical">Rocket in Your Pocket! Father Ned in Space, the Musical!</a> - by Clerical Error Productions</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/shakespeares-histories-ten-epic-plays-at-breakneck-pace">Shakespeare's Histories; Ten Epic Plays at a Breakneck Pace!</a> - by Tim Mooney</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/small-gods-big-problems">Small gods BIG Problems</a> - by Mary Karty</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/stewart-huff">Stewart Huff: Do Jokes Still Work?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/stroopwafel-improv">Simon Ferocious: Improvised Music Legend</a> - By Stroopwafel Improv</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/the-breakfast-clue">The Breakfast Clue</a> - by Defiance Comedy</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/the-old-man-and-the-old-moon">The Old Man and the Old Moon</a> - by Carmel High School</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/the-old-white-lady-tells-it-the-making-and-unmaking-of-a-racist">The Old White Lady Tells It: The Making and Unmaking of a Racist</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/toni-smith-wife-material">Toni Smith - Wife Material</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/too-much-light-makes-the-baby-go-blind">Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind</a> - by UIndy Theatre</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/weve-come-a-long-way-ladies">We've Come a Long Way Ladies</a> - by Of Thee I Sing</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indyfringe-festival-2021/win-lose-or-die">Win, Lose, or Die</a> - by ComedySportz Indianapolis</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/onyxfest-2021"><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 20px;">OnyxFest</span></font></a> - 2021</strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/onyxfest-2021/the-price-of-progress">The Price of Progress</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/onyxfest-2021/1200-miles-from-jerome">1200 Miles from Jerome</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/onyxfest-2021/fly-blackbird-fly-voices-we-cant-unhear">Fly Blackbird Fly/Voices We Can’t Unhear</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/onyxfest-2021/ransom-place">Ransom Place</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/onyxfest-2021/that-day-in-february">That Day in Feburary</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/onyxfest-2021/this-bitter-cup">This Bitter Cup</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/onyxfest-2021/being-black">Being Black</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><strong><span style="font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/mud-creek-players"><span style="color: black;">Mud Creek Players</span></a></span></strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/mud-creek-players/holiday-channel-christmas-movie-wonderthon">A Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon</a> - Dec 2021</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><strong><span style="font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/southbank-theatre-company"><span style="color: black;">Southbank Theatre Company</span></a></span></strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/southbank-theatre-company/seneca-and-the-soul-of-nero">Seneca and the Soul of Nero</a> - Written by: Marcia Eppich-Harris - Directed by: Doug Powers - Sep/Oct 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/southbank-theatre-company/rabbit">Rabbit</a> - Director: Marcia Eppich-Harris - Dec 2021</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1><strong><span style="font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/westfield-playhouse"><span style="color: black;">Westfield Playhouse</span></a></span></strong></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/westfield-playhouse/white-christmas">Irving Berlin's White Christmas</a></li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<hr />
<h1><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/other-productions"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">Other Shows</span></span></strong></a></h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/jason-adams/is-a-god-damned-mind-reader-2018">Jason Adams is a God-Damned Mind Reader</a> - Aug 2018</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/projekt-opera/dido-and-aeneas">Projekt Opera - Dido and Aeneas</a> - Nov 2018</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/iu-opera-theatre/hansel-and-gretel">IU Opera Theatre - Hansel and Gretel</a> - Nov 2018</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/church-at-the-crossing/dessert-theatre-2019">Church at the Crossing - Dessert Theatre</a> - Mar 2019</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/lutheran-high-school/the-addams-family">Lutheran High School - The Addams Family</a> - Sep 2019</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/projekt-opera/arias-and-appetizers">Projekt Opera - Arias and Appetizers</a> - Nov 2019</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/carmel-community-players/last-five-years">Carmel Community Players - The Last Five Years</a> - July 2020</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/phoenix-theatre/hedwig-and-the-angry-inch">Phoenix Theatre - Hedwig and the Angry Inch</a> - Aug 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/jason-adams/face-your-fears-2021">Jason Adams - Face Your Fears!</a> - Oct 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/the-district-theatre/pillar-of-fire">The District Theatre - Pillar of Fire</a> - Bill Oberst Jr - Oct 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/franklin-central-high-school/little-shop-of-horrors">Franklin Central High School - Little Shop of Horrors</a> - Sep 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/rocky-horror-picture-show">Rocky Horror Picture Show</a> - Various</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://indyghostlight.com"> Indianapolis Theatre Photography</a></p><p><a href="http://indyghostlight.com"> Indianapolis Event Photography</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://indyghostlight.com"> Indianapolis Theatre Photograper</a></p><p><a href="http://indyghostlight.com"> Indianapolis Event Photographer</a></p><p><br /></p>
Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-4589955526271871542021-12-28T20:11:00.003-06:002021-12-28T20:11:52.762-06:00Indianapolis Theatre Photographer Directory<p>All the amazing shows I've had the privilege of shooting photos for organized by production company</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-size:20px;"><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/buck-creek-players" target="_blank">Buck Creek Players</a> (<a href="http://www.buckcreekplayers.com/" target="_self">BuckCreekPlayers.com</a>)</strong></span></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/buck-creek-players/rosie-the-riveter">Rosie the Riveter</a> (Show Photos) - Nov/Dec 2021</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-size:20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory"><strong>Catalyst Repertory</strong></a></span></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory/scavengers">Scavengers</a> (As part of IPC's 10-Minute Play Festival) - Nov 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory/copyright-safe">Copyright/Safe</a> (As part of 2021 IndyFringe Festival) - Aug 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory/popular-monsters">Popular Monsters</a> - Nov 2018</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/catalyst-repertory/hells-4th-ring-the-musical">Hell's 4th Ring - The Mall Musical</a> - Feb 2018</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-size:20px;"><strong><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals" target="_blank">Footlite Musicals</a> (<a href="http://footlite.org" target="_blank">Footlite.org</a>)</strong></span></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020" target="_blank">2019-2020 Season</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020/ragtime">Ragtime</a> (Rehearsals/Behind the Scenes/Show photos) - Sept/Oct 2019</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020/cinderella">Cinderella</a> (Rehearsals/Behind the Scenes/Promotional/Headshots/Show photos) - Nov/Dec 2019</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020/first-date">First Date</a> (Rehearsals/Behind the Scenes/Promotional/Headshots/Show photos) - Jan/Feb 2020</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2019-2020/mamma-mia">Mamma Mia</a> (Auditions) - Cancelled due to COVID</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2020-2021">2020-2021 Season</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2020-2021/women-of-broadway">Women of Broadway</a> (Show Photos) - Presented Virtually Jan 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2020-2021/brooklyn-the-musical-reunion">Brooklyn the Musical Reunion</a> (Show Photos) - Presented Virtually May 2021</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022">2021-2022 Season</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/joseph-and-the-amazing-technicolor-dreamcoat">Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat</a> (Promotional/Headshots/Show Photos) - June/July 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/gentlemans-guide-to-love-and-murder">A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder</a> (Auditions/Rehearsals/Behind the Scenes/Headshots/Show Photos) - Sep/Oct 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/holiday-inn">Holiday Inn</a> (Auditions/Rehearsals/Show Photos) - Nov/Dec 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/25th-annual-putnam-county-spelling-bee">25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee</a> (Promotional) - Jan 2022</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/footlite-musicals/2021-2022/wild-party">Wild Party</a> - (Auditions) - TBD 2022</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival">Indiana Playwrights Circle</a></span></strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival">2021 10-Minute Play Festival</a> - Nov 2021
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/dog-park">Dog Park</a> - by Josie Gingrich - Presented by Theatre Unchained - Directed by: Megan Ann Jacobs</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/echoes">Echoes</a> - by Garret Schneider - Presented by Monument Theatre Company - Directed by: Caleb Clark</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/karma-cop">Karma Cop</a> - by Megan Ann Jacobs - Presented by Elliot Productions - Directed by: Spencer Elliott</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/nice-knowing-you">Nice Knowing You</a> - by Lou Harry - Presented by American Lives Theatre - Directed by: Chris Saunders</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/scavengers">Scavengers</a> - by Marcia Eppich-Harris - Presented by Catalyst Repertory - Directed by: Casey Ross</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/terms-and-conditions">Terms and Conditions</a> - by Mary Karty - Presented by Emerging Artists Theatre - Directed by: Anthony L Nathan</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/indiana-playwrights-circle/10-minute-play-festival/two-yards-of-satan">Two Yards of Satan</a> - by Kelly Andronico - Presented by Westfield Playhouse - Directed by: Kate Hinman</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:20px;"><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/southbank-theatre-company">Southbank Theatre Company</a></span></strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/southbank-theatre-company/seneca-and-the-soul-of-nero">Seneca and the Soul of Nero</a> - Written by: Marcia Eppich-Harris - Directed by: Doug Powers - Sep/Oct 2021</li>
<li><a href="https://indyghostlight.com/theatre/southbank-theatre-company/rabbit">Rabbit</a> - Director: Marcia Eppich-Harris - Dec 2021</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-92206691112433266082011-11-13T19:53:00.004-06:002011-11-29T21:22:22.043-06:00On Veterans DayThis past Friday was Veterans day, a holiday in which we celebrate the sacrifices of those who have served in America’s military. Watching Facebook I saw a lot of tributes to this group of people and let me start by saying that I share the sentiment. Every day there are thousands of Americans who put their very lives on the line to service the needs of our country. These people go to work every day with the knowledge that they may very well get their faces blown off by an IED or be killed or horribly maimed. That’s a claim that very few of us can make. Those who serve in the military are truly selfless individuals who deserve to be praised and honored every day of the year, not just one single day in November.<br />
<br />
All that said, the idea that any of that is necessary at all is complete bullshit. On one hand I respect immensely that people are willing to do that. It takes a hell of a lot of guts to put everything you have in jeopardy every time you put your boots on in the morning. On the other hand, it makes me utterly sick that in this day and age our government is still so backwards and unsophisticated that it requires that people fight and die to support its strategy on the world stage. Every American soldier who comes home without a hand (or a face) represents the failure of the U.S. government to do its job. Surely in this day and age diplomacy must rule first and foremost. Only when the statesmen fail to do their jobs properly must we resort to the abomination of war, physical intervention in some remote area. <br />
<br />
So on this Sunday after Veterans day, I say simply, thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for what you put on the line every day. But it’s a complete fucking shame that you have to do it. If our politicians weren’t such utter fucking failures, you would all be safe at home, every single one of you, warm and comfortable by the sides of the ones you love. Your deaths lay heavily on the failures and the egos of the American political system. The sooner that the United States can take its right and proper position in the world, the sooner you will come home safely. I honor the veterans of America’s wars, but I hope for a day when they will be an extinct species, a relic of a bygone and obsolete age.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-84478149630843710002011-10-31T20:31:00.002-05:002011-11-29T21:22:34.797-06:00On the Stock MarketSo, a while back I invested some money in the stock market. Not in a mutual fund mind you but in pick a single stock and hang on type schenario. I was alive in the ninties so I have this pervasive mental image that money invested in stocks is like planting a money tree in the back yard. You put $5 in and before you know it, $57.67 has grown in its place. I still remember in my college days thinking, “Boy, if I only had some money I’d really invest in that eBay place!” I remember watching the stock tick gradually up and up and up and up and split and split and split until I was woozy with the math of how much my $10 then would be worth today. OK, it’s only $166, but still. That’s 4.5% interest! I’m sure I would have sold in 2004 when it peaked. Not…<br />
<br />
As I sit here today looking at the returns, on one hand I’m happy. I bought in a fairly severe dip in the markets. My Walmart stock is up 11.02% in a month! Microsoft, up 6.5%. Starbucks, up 6.4% in three weeks! Great returns, right? Fuck no. The whole market, on average, was up 12%! Even my absolute best pick, Walmart, suffered worse than the Dow Jones and NASDAQ, both mindless conglomerations of companies that managed 12% gains in the period of a 30 days. God damn. That’s a lot of wasted effort to do WORSE than the average of just a bunch of companies thrown into a bucket.<br />
<br />
Every single day I watch the markets hour by hour. One day they’re up and one day they’re down. Today my portfolio was down 1.91%. The Dow was down 2.26%, a miniscule gain. Tomorrow, I’m willing to bet that my portfolio, in obedience to the oscillating markets at large, will be up by about the same margin. This blind zombie obedience makes me regularly consider selling off my entire list of stocks just to buy some index fund. On many levels, I wonder what in the WORLD the point is. Unless I’m smart… impossibly smart and ahead of those MILLIONS of investors trying to do the same thing, I’m just gambling. If I drop $1,000 into Akorn, I might make more than the Dow or I might lose it all in a day. Who knows? I’m not sure any of it is worth the risk. Tomorrow I will sit and hit the refresh button every hour or so and watch my money go up….. (hopefully) and inevitably go down…. All based on the whims and speculations of millions of other investors who are influenced by random stories on the radio or a single internet speculation. Who can compete with that? Not me. I’m just gambling. It’s like slot machines with one-share minimum.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-32071857700909340232011-10-31T19:20:00.004-05:002011-11-29T21:22:47.735-06:00Random Thoughts for Halloween 2011As I sit here alone in my third-floor apartment on Halloween night in 2011, I realize that lately I’ve been on a renewed search for a sense of purpose. Of course that search has been blunted by as much rum as I can cram into the refrigerator but even the thick blanket of Sailor Jerry cannot completely suffocate the part of my brain that calls out for something meaningful to do with my life. As I look around the apartment (which, it should be noted, is 77 degrees today even with the windows open because of the ambient heat leaking up from my poorly-insulated neighbors) I see the evidence of many of my previous attempts to have some meaning to the world. They’re like little tombstones to the hopes of a person who only really wanted to be someone… <br />
<br />
<br />
Between my elbows rests “The New Middle Eastern Cookbook” and yesterday saw the first-time preparation of three new recipes. Fish with Chermoula sauce was divine (p187) with the aptly named “Rice to Accompany Fish” (p 342) and Kousa Mabshoura (p 287). They were all tasty and well worth having again. They gave me a peek into the foods of other cultures and made me a more knowledgeable and efficient customer when next I venture to order food at an Iranian restaurant. The experience added to the sum total of what it is to be “Rob” but ultimately, they’re meaningless in the grand scheme.<br />
<br />
<br />
Looking left, I see the Jared Diamond book I’ve almost finished. It goes on in much detail about the intimate practices of various species and describes how those practices relate to human practices in the bedroom. For the most part, it’s all fairly cliché and material that I’ve either concluded on my own or read in other literature. It’s all very edifying in its way and adds to the sum total of what it is to be “Rob” but ultimately, it too is meaningless.<br />
<br />
<br />
Peering further across the room I see the book on Islam. It was very edifying and I still swear that I’ll finish its summary at some point. It will, I’m sure, be an interesting period in my life to look back on. It too adds, but ultimately it’s meaningless.<br />
<br />
<br />
Today I worked another day at work. I slogged through the same relatively inane garbage that really does fail to challenge me in any way. My job is far too easy and despite the fact that we really do a wonderful service to our customers, that too is meaningless in the grand scheme of things.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you add up all the pieces of a person’s life, one by one and end to end, how can you determine their actual worth? How many pieces and parts add up to a meaningful whole? On measure, no individual item that I have ever undertaken seems to add up to a hill of beans in the world. No one picture I’ve ever taken has ever inspired anyone. Nothing I’ve written has ever made a difference in anyone’s life. No line of code or documentation that I wrote in my professional life ever really mattered one damn bit in the grand scheme of the universe. Taken in this light, my life is a waste. Time ticked ploddingly past one grain of sand at a time with no one to notice or to care.<br />
<br />
<br />
But I like to think that taken as a whole, my life has great meaning. Perhaps that funny turn of phrase that I shared in the hallway rolls around in a co-worker’s mind long after I’m gone. Maybe that smile I shared with a stranger in a crowded store turned around some part of their day. Perhaps my whole body of work, everything I’ve done over the past four decades of my life has inspired SOMEONE or made someone think or smile or love or laugh. <br />
<br />
<br />
This is the battle that rages in my head. As I sit here by myself I think back upon all the things that I have most definitely NOT done in my life. I am no great man. I am flawed and lazy and in error and utterly a mess in many small ways and in many big ones. But at the same time I am devoted and passionate and caring and above all I really do give a damn. I hardly ever say the right thing but I am dogged and determined enough that I will try, again and again, until I find it. What I lack in skill I make up for in raw and unadulterated tenacity. I am a small and ferocious dog with almost impossibly dull teeth. It is with the balm of these words that I sooth myself from the ache of the “am nots” that roll so fluidly and effortlessly from my mind. I am not great. I am not wise. I am not powerful. But I will be there after everyone else is gone. I’m not the most fun or giddy guest at the party, but I am the one who will help you with the dishes after everyone else is gone.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-37535852237639076382011-10-23T19:11:00.000-05:002011-10-23T19:11:09.493-05:00Unpopular Opinions - Dan WheldonGenerally speaking, my fits of writing tend to begin with writing about something that is exceptionally unpopular. This particular topic is likely to earn me more heat than most but I can’t help but feel that I don’t really care very much…
<br />
<br />
Driving back from Lafayette today I heard a protracted WIBC story about Dan Weldon. They went on at length about what a shame it was that he was killed and I don’t disagree. When people die, it sucks. From everything the news reporter had to say, he was a nice guy: involved in his community, great father, great husband, all the usual stuff. That’s wonderful. More people should aspire to such a position in life. I was right on board with them until they suggested that listeners should contribute to the trust fund for his family. Excuse me? Perhaps I didn’t hear properly?
<br />
<br />
During his racing career, Dan Wheldon has earned $14,612,570. The median annual household income in Indiana is $45,424. When I think that the local radio station is suggesting that households that make 1/300th as much as Dan Wheldon send his family money it quite frankly turns my stomach. Seriously? Was Wheldon’s death a tragedy? Yes, by all means. I hate to see anyone lose their life in pursuit of their job. But for the love of all that’s good, do not send this millionaire’s family any money. If you feel the need to help someone, why not give to the many millions of families who don’t have enough money to even fulfill their basic needs.
<br />
<br />
All too often I think that in this country we confuse grief with actual need. Wheldon’s family is hurting emotionally. They lost a loving father and husband. I feel for them. However, that doesn’t mean that they need the financial outpourings of people across the country. If you feel the need to help people who are REALLY hurting, how about donating time or money to the local homeless shelter? How about helping people who really need it? There are families all around us who can’t buy food or the basic necessities of life. Wheldon’s death is a tragedy, but there are so many better ways that your money could be spent.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-66635351558818039652011-09-21T20:07:00.003-05:002011-09-21T20:07:50.089-05:00Personal: Echoes of SolitudeI have, as of late, avoided posts of a personal nature. In part, I think that’s because I’ve tended to have a less public venue for my personal outpourings and in part it’s just damn embarrassing. Both for me and for my readers because honestly, who wants to read someone’s innermost struggles online? I know I do, but then I’m all about figuring out how people work.<br />
<br />
At any rate, as I sit here looking about this apartment on a Wednesday night I’m struck by the need to be doing something. I don’t mean walking about by myself in Zionsville in the dark taking night photos. I don’t mean sitting reading a book. I’ve found as time goes on that I need people. People are really important to me and yet in some bizarre way I have the damnedest time relating to them. I am, if we must be utterly honest, terrified of people. Well, amend that slightly. I’m terrified of people that I don’t have some sort of handle on. People at work are a snap because I have an “in” with them. I can talk about work! What could be more natural than that? Unfortunately, that seems to be just about ALL I can talk about at work. <br />
<br />
For example, one of my coworkers is leaving our company soon and it was announced today. I sent him a short missive that said, in a nutshell, how much I appreciated the work he had done and that one of the things that I really admired about him was the fact that he managed to really get things done but also forged personal bonds with people. He’s just an amazingly nice guy and people can sense that and appreciate it. Meanwhile, I’m off in the corner just sort of working away and I suspect that people think of me as “Rob, that guy that does the work” but it ends at that. My coworker is real. He’s human. People like him and relate to him. I feel most days like I’m just a drone. I come in, I’m good at what I do and then after the work day ends I vanish (unless there’s an emergency support call). For the most part people don’t know how to really relate to me. It’s clearly not their fault, but I can’t help but feel that there’s some part of me that’s missing. That they try to connect and all there is in response is empty air.<br />
<br />
Anyway, my personality dysfunctions aside, I was reflecting tonight on my situation and realized that my feelings of isolation, as they always are, are self-induced or at the least a function of my anthropophobic tendencies. It is not that life does not throw ample opportunity at me for social interaction but much more that I simply fail to grasp it. For example, let’s just look at the calendar for the next several days. Tomorrow the Center for Inquiry has an event going on that sounds pretty interesting: “The Dark side of the Sacred.” If that doesn’t scream, “Rob Slaven come see this!!” I don’t know what the hell does. Friday through Sunday morning I have my girls over so that’s certainly accounted for. Sunday afternoon I have an Ultimate Frisby (whatever the hell THAT means) invite that I should not ignore. Monday I have photography class where I will sit quietly in the corner and fearfully not really participate. (Yes, I realize that anyone reading this from my workplace will be totally agog at the idea of me sitting quietly anywhere.) Tuesday I can go to a classic movies discussion. (assuming I can find and see the subject movie by that time). Wednesday I can…. Well. Hrm. Not much going on Wednesday. Perhaps I’ll relax that day… anyway, point is that there’s SO much crap going on. There is absolutely NO excuse to be sitting here on my own. The whole world teems with ideas and activity for those willing to partake of them…<br />
<br />
It really is funny, in an odd sort of way, that someone who seeks so vehemently the company and friendship of others is so incapable (scratch that, not incapable, but inherently unskilled in) of taking advantage of all that the vast society around him has to offer. In times of more assiduous reflection, it seems clear that society would welcome my contributions if only I were more readily capable of producing them and making them clear to those around me. Sadly, this tiny and ill-heard forum is insufficient to bridge that gap. One voice crying out in the forest is far from sufficient. The voice will have to take to its legs and go forth unto the people. And once there, proclaim itself to be appreciated…Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-32192673135959384632011-09-19T09:14:00.001-05:002011-09-21T18:35:05.933-05:00Book Notes: St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArVw2iOh0WHo5NaJO2kYzfRjdo8eiFt0ZMvuNqoEMzZ8d8ypKMgqgRuPyGs1eC7L07rF4r8RhF-EMfnSYRcxc1UrA2QB4dVBjDEqT_Kfb7nmBDKVd1nqz3cOmkQwQs92KEF7-/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArVw2iOh0WHo5NaJO2kYzfRjdo8eiFt0ZMvuNqoEMzZ8d8ypKMgqgRuPyGs1eC7L07rF4r8RhF-EMfnSYRcxc1UrA2QB4dVBjDEqT_Kfb7nmBDKVd1nqz3cOmkQwQs92KEF7-/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7221551304121084" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Below,
find my observations as I read Norton's selection of St. Thomas Aquinas
on Politics and Ethics. The topics discussed are entirely outside the
realm of my current expertise and so I reserve the right to falter, fail
and downright err in my attempts to assimilate and summarize the text.
You'll also no doubt note that my writing style is faulty and at times
illegible due to the complete lack of familiarity with the topic.
Parties wishing to correct my interpretation, grammar or content are
welcome to do so. Parties wishing to argue about the nuances of Thomist
theology should find a more worthy opponent with whom to test their
expertise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Norton Critical Editions</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Life of St. Thomas - Timeline</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1225 - Born near Naples</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1244
- Joins to Dominican order but is imprisoned for a year by his family
as they are disappointed in his choice. They preferred he become a
Benedictine.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1259 - 1264 - Writes '</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summa Contra Gentiles</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'; an aid to help missionaries in their work to convert Muslims and Jews in Spain and North Africa.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1265 - Writes '</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On Kingship</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">' for the youthful new king of Cyprus</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1266 - 1272 - Writes '</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summa Theologiae</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">', an introduction to the Dominican theology for novice members</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1274 - Died after striking his head on an overhanging tree branch</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1323 - Canonized</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Introduction</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Saint
Thomas' primary contribution to history was to integrate the newly
discovered and seemingly contradictory teachings of Aristotle into the
theological teachings of his day. Because Aristotle's teachings ran
contrary to long-standing church teachings they were banned in 1215.
The ban was re-affirmed in 1231 but a few short years later the logic of
Aristotle's arguments was irresistible and by 1255 he had become
required reading.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thomas'
use of the scholastic approach allowed complex philosophical problems
to be broken down via rational debate. Where previously issues of
governance and morals were resolved by attempts to extract answers
directly from interpretation of Biblical texts, with Thomas we see the
evolution of the use of natural law or reason as an extension of
Biblical teachings. The belief that man's natural reason is all part of
God's plan for the world is key to Thomas' work. "Grace does not
destroy nature, but completes it." he writes. The grace of God and the
knowledge of Jesus' sacrifice does not contradict our observations of
the world around us but instead caps it nicely by wrapping up the lose
ends that human reason is too feeble to resolve. Man can know some part
of God's divine plan by use of his intellect but can never know God
completely. Where knowledge ends faith must begin. For Thomas, reason
was simply another path to God, not one of self-deception as St.
Augustine argued.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summa Contra Gentiles</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In
Summa Contra Gentiles Thomas argues about the fundamental properties of
God and the universe. God, he argues, cannot be entirely understood by
application of human reason. Using the human senses to know God is
like knowing an object merely by the shape of it's shadow. One can
demonstrate logically that God exists, that God is one and eternal but
the deeper mysteries of God, such as the fact that he is simultaneously 1
and yet also 3, are impenetrable to logic. Though it is possible to
know something of God by argument alone, few men do so. Most are
distracted by earthly concerns, not mentally capable of the pursuit or
merely too lazy. But the knowledge is there for anyone who seeks it;
reasoning and logic, derived as they are from God himself, will never
contradict faith and truth. It cannot be emphasized enough, however,
that no matter how diligently we may seek or reason, the final step to
knowing God must be an act of faith. Reason alone will not give us all
the answers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thomas
goes on to compare humans' relationship with the divine to an oyster's
relationship to a plant. The oyster represents the very lowest of the
animal forms and as such is only slightly separated from a plant. In
the same way, humans, supreme among the animals, are only slightly
separated from the angels above them in the great 'Chain of Being.'
Man, as ruler of the animals has only his soul to separate him from his
baser counterparts. While all animals outstrip man in some manner (some
are faster, stronger, better hunters) man dominates them all in that he
has a soul and can partake of the ultimate happiness, the contemplation
of God. While communion with God is the greatest joy possible to
mankind this is never without an accompaniment of sorrow or
distraction. No man is without suffering until he reaches his ultimate
reward. The soul needs the human flesh to help it derive knowledge from
the substance of the world around it but this flesh comes with a price,
constant suffering while man lives on Earth. Only the divine light of
God can teach the soul directly without the need for a human form.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All
the acts of man, no matter how base-seeming, come about as the
fulfillment of natural appetite. Since nature tends always towards the
good and optimal all acts are good though that good may be of a strictly
local nature. If a man should kill another man, it would be for the
benefit of himself. Whether this should benefit society in general is
another argument altogether but in the context of murderer alone the act
is a good one. Similarly, all intellectual acts bring us closer to
God. No matter what we seek the only truth in the universe is God
himself and when we approach truth by any path we approach God. If we
should derive pleasure from any act we commit it should be noted that
this is merely a byproduct and not the goal to be achieved. Pleasure is
never an end in and of itself but instead merely a sensation that
signals that we have completed some more important goal.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On Kingship</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On Kingship</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
illuminates Thomas' views on the best manner of government. This text
was started for the King of Cyprus in 1265 but Thomas did not, in fact,
ever finish this work as the young King was killed not long after it was
started. Another writer completed the text afterwards. Thomas argues
emphatically that the best form of government is a Monarchy. A single
ruler, he says, is not burdened with differing viewpoints. A benevolent
monarch can move quickly to serve the needs of his people without the
need to consult anyone else. While private concerns of the citizens
work to divide the community the king's role is to guide the people to
focus on the public goals that bind them together. It is this act of
uniting his people in peace that is the ruler's first and most important
responsibility. Because this is the first goal, it can obviously be
done most efficiently by only one man. No appearance of dissent is
possible if all the decisions stem from a single individual. Nature
also demonstrates to the superiority of a single leader. Thomas points
out that the body is ruled by a single organ, the brain. The universe
is ruled by a single God and even bees are guided by a single 'king' bee
as he refers to it. Lastly, a government ruled by many, no matter how
seemingly benevolent, is more likely to devolve into tyranny. If a
group rules then it becomes increasingly likely that at least one of
them is corrupt and thirsts for more power and may overthrow the
others. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While
a king is the best form of government a tyrant is the worst. As the
king works for the benefit of the ruled the tyrant works only for the
benefit of himself. A tyrannical monarch is worse than any form of
government in which many rule since he works in the interest of only
himself while a oligarchy at least works for the benefit of a select
handful of people. A tyrant also drives the virtuous from his kingdom.
Any who excel in a society ruled by tyranny represent a threat to the
status quo and are quickly forced to either leave or act against the
king. Men will still labor to support a just king but a tyrant brings
out the best in no one around him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A
relatively benign tyrant can be better than a particularly oppressive
oligarchy, Thomas concludes. A tyrant only steals for his own benefit
but an oligarchy may go so far as to spur a war or in the best case
steal for the needs of many more individuals. Once established, a
tyrant should not be removed except by the united rebellion of those he
rules. It is thought by many that simply assassinating the despot will
resolve the government's problems but often is it found that another
even worse tyrant simply replaces the first. Since this new ruler is
keenly aware of the delicate position he holds his reign will be even
more oppressive. If the ruled cannot unite strongly enough to depose
their ruler then their only valid course is to appeal to God himself.
It is better to suffer an unjust ruler than to act unjustly in deposing
him as God sometimes uses such rulers to punish the sinful.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A
king who wishes to be just should model his rule after that of God over
the universe. Rulers should consider their subjects like parts of
their own body and treat them with the same respect. The ultimate goal
of the government is to support the people in their own goals: to live
virtuous lives and enjoy the divine knowledge of God. The government
should recognize the supremacy of the church in all matters since it is
the Church which is the best guide of virtue and Godliness.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summa Theologiae Part 1</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In
the Summa Theologiae, Thomas takes on some of the stickier theological
questions of his day. The format for these answers takes the form of a
debate in which the question is posed, objections are raised and then
Thomas puts forth his proof. I will boil down these proofs to their key
points below.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Does God Exist?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Objections:
God cannot exist because a true God would not allow evil to exist in
the world. Besides, everything that takes place in nature can as easily
be explained without God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God's existence can be proven in 5 days:</span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Objects
on the Earth and outside it move from the stars to the wind. In order
for these things to move there must be someone to move them. This is
most assuredly the work of God.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
universe operates on the principle of cause and effect. Everything we
see around us has some cause but there is no effect without a cause.
This first cause which is required for anything to exist is God.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Objects
in the world either exist or they do not. Objects come into being
because of other preexisting objects therefore there must be some
initial object to have created all others. Again, this first object is
God.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To
all properties in the universe there is a greatest superlative
example. God exist to represent the greatest possible example of
'goodness' and benevolence in the universe.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Nature
operates in the optimal way possible for the survival of animals and
plants. Just as for the arrow in flight there must be an archer to
guide it, so also in order for nature to behave in a rational manner
there must be some God to dictate this behavior.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Responds
to Objections: God is so utterly powerful that he allows evil to exist
so that he may turn it to good. Further, all the acts of God seem
rational and explained by other means exactly because God dictates that
they behave in a reasonable fashion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Can we know God in this lifetime by use of reason alone and is it better to know God by reason or by Grace?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Man
can learn to know God by the use of his reason but the results will be
hollow when compared with that gained by God's grace. The pursuit of
God by logic is prone to error since man's reason is subject to the
frailty of his senses while God's grace instructs the soul directly.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Does God love all things?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God
does love all things and everything is good in God's eyes. God's very
love for things makes them good while man's love is contingent on the
belief that they are good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Is the soul a material object? Is the human soul corruptible?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The soul is incorporeal and as such is not corruptible</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Should woman have been made in the Original Creation?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Objections:
A woman is basically just a defective man so she shouldn't have been
made in the first place. This is obvious because she is subject to the
rule of the man and this is an indication that she has sinned and is
being punished for it.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Woman
was made as a "helpmate" to man. Not for helping in the fields but as
an aid to procreation. Animals in nature reproduce in the same way and
while the woman is concentrating on bringing new life into the world the
man can be focused on the first goal of mankind: communion with God. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Responses
to Objections: Woman is somewhat defective in her nature but that's
what God made her to be. Her duty is to create children and this was as
God intended therefore it is good. Also, woman is subject to the rule
of man but that's only because man is more endowed with intelligence
than woman so it's for her own good that this is so.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If the 'Fall' had never happened, would we still need Kings to lord over us? Would we still have sex?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Man
is a social animal so regardless of the circumstances he will require
the company of others. Whenever men congregate there will be some who
are more intelligent or stronger than others so even if man had never
fallen from grace, we would still need leaders to direct the actions of
the community. As to sex, male and female were made before the fall so
sexual intercourse would still exist. It would be different however in
that it would not be tainted by lust. This is not to say that it would
be less pleasant however. A moderate man who eats only what he needs
enjoys his meal no less than a glutton. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Are there different orders within the hierarchy of angels?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes, angels are broken into orders by their function and into three levels: highest, middle, and lowest.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summa Theologiae Part 2a</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In
part 2 of the Summa St Thomas pursues a few more questions but for
brevity I will reduce the findings to a more comopact form and dispense
with the Question and Answer format.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
only happiness that can be found in this life is merely transitory.
Man is never truly happy as long as there is more to do and more to find
out about and in this life we cannot possibly hope to exclude all
suffering and evil. It is only by achieving his primary goal, to know
God, that man can achieve happiness. God in his wisdom and mercy gives
us tools added to our natural intellect to help us attain this final
happiness, they are the theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.
It is by exercising these virtues that man can eventually become truly
happy.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Just
as you would not blame the hand alone for a murder it carried out, so
too can one man alone not be blamed for his sins. The body of mankind
as a whole is tainted and this is the nature of original sin.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Law
is the rule or measure of action or restraint in a man and the first
law of all is that of human reason. A law is said to be good if it is
oriented towards the common good. To be effective a law requires
consensus among the ruled and must be widely known. Effective law also
requires that the ruler has the power of compulsion in cases where the
law is disobeyed. Unjust law is contrary to divine goodness and should
be considered no law at all. There are four types of law:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eternal
law is the law by which God governs the universe, the divine wisdom by
which all things are ultimately ruled. Eternal law is a constituent in
all other laws.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Natural
Law represents the manner in which man behaves according to the Eternal
Law. These laws are the same for all men but are unknown or unfollowed
by some. They are also prone to exceptions since they can be changed
or exceptions made depending on the situation or the will of God.
Natural Laws fall into three basic categories: those laws which preserve
life (prohibitions on murder, suicide), that knowledge shared in common
with the animals (sex, education of children), knowledge of how we can
become closer to God.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Divine
Law is the word of God given to us in the form of Scripture. Divine
law serves four purposes. First, to aid man to reach beyond the Natural
law towards his own salvation. Secondly, to correct human laws where
they may err. Third, to judge those things which cannot be judged by
man's sense of the world around him. Lastly, to tie up any loose ends
that are unenforceable in the course of a normal human lifetime (such as
punishing suicides who would otherwise be beyond the reach of civil
authority).</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Finally,
Human law is constructed by man and derived from Natural Laws as an aid
to the young and the weak who might not otherwise observe those laws.
The purpose of human laws is not to suppress all human vice, this would
be impossible to enforce. Rather, those infractions which would
diminish the social order are focused on. Even those who are outside
the enforceable realm of human law are subject to it as God will sit in
judgment of even Kings who violate it. Over time, Human Law evolves and
exceptions are made but changes should only happen with the support of
the ruled and in cases when the risk of changing a long-held belief is
small compared to the benefit derived from the change. In many cases,
local custom has the force of law even when it is not formally
codified. The best way to administer Human Law is through a single
ruler and a council of elders much like Moses and the council of 72
elders. Human Laws fall into two basic categories. Firstly, those laws
which are common to all nations and from which there is no
dispensation. These laws are derived directly from the Natural Laws. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Secondly, laws which are derived less directly from the Natural Laws
merely for the convenience of the of the community.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most
importantly, it should be noted that no system of laws, no matter how
constructed or how closely adhered to can make a man truly good. Only
the Grace of God can bring man to the level of true goodness.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summa Theologiae Part 2b</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Those
who never believed in the salvation offered by Jesus Christ (primarily
the Jews and the Muslims) should should not be physically compelled to
believe since this would not actually do any good anyway. Heretics,
apostates, and any others who stand in the way of the faith can be
removed by any means necessary as these threaten the viability of the
faith. The faithful should also not associate with unbelievers,
especially those weak in faith. Others may associate with them only if
there is hope of conversion and the rituals of unbelievers are not to be
tolerated unless that tolerance directly serves to advance the cause of
conversion. Further, the children of unbelievers are not to be
baptized against the will of the parents until such time as they reach
the age of reason. In extreme cases, heretics may be killed but only
after being given the chance to renounce their heretical views.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">War
is not in and of itself a sin. If waged for a just cause and in a just
manner war is an acceptable means of advancing the cause of the faith
or removing an tyrannical ruler. In all cases of violence, however, the
benefit must be weighed against the costs of the disruption to the
common peace. Similarly, it is just to murder a criminal if that murder
benefits the public good but this must be undertaken by the ruler of a
community and not by its private citizens. Killing in self defense is
not considered murder as long as it is proportionate to the risk of
doing nothing. In such cases, the intent of the killer is paramount.
If the intent was to murder then so should the action be adjudged. In
the same way accidental killing is not considered murder except in the
case where gross negligence caused the death. In that case, regardless
of intent, the ruling shall be that of murder. Finally, in the case of
the death of an infant before it's birth, it shall be considered murder
if the pregnancy is more than 40 days old (in the case of a male) or 80
days old (in the case of a female).</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Suicide
is a mortal sin for three reasons. Firstly, the act of suicide is
contrary to the natural law of self preservation. Secondly, the
destruction of a member of a community is harmful to that community so
the act is also one against the common good. Lastly, suicide is an
infringement on the sole jurisdiction of life and death that belongs to
God.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It
is within man's natural rights to own objects as his own private
property. In this way he is best able to care for those objects as he
has a sense of ownership and pride. However, with that ownership comes
the responsibility to share that objects in a time of need. A man may
rightly steal if he is in dire need so the right of ownership is
secondary to that of necessity. A man may also sell his objects for a
profit without fear of committing a sin but it is a sin against nature
to charge interest on the use of money itself since nothing is bought or
sold in the transaction.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It
is natural that inferiors obey their superiors in life but a slave may
never be commanded in contradiction to orders given by a greater
superior (ie, God). A superior can also not command outside the realm
of his dominion. Specifically, a master may command the body but the
mind is beyond his reach. It should also be noted that faith in Christ
does not release us from our duty to secular authority.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In
no case is lying acceptable even in cases where a another sin may be
averted by use of a falsehood. Instead, it is recommend that one simply
avoid giving a direct response.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
act of drinking is not a mortal sin unless the intention is to actually
become drunk. Drinking to drunkenness deprives man of his natural
reason which directs him to act virtuously.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Virginity,
although contrary to the natural law of procreation, is not a sin if it
is done so as to free one for more time to contemplate the divine. The
opposite extreme, that of promiscuity, however, is a mortal sin as it
works against the proper rearing of children. The mere act of kissing
and embracing is merely a venial sin but those of masturbation,
bestiality, sodomy and 'sex using the wrong organs' is against nature
and constitute mortal sins.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summa Theologiae Part 3</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Christ is the head of all mankind though in differing degrees:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Christ is head of those united to him in heaven</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Christ is head of those united to him in love (those not currently in a state of mortal sin)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Christ is head of those united to him in faith</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Christ is head of those who have not yet united with him but who are predestined to before their deaths.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. Christ is head of those who will never be united with him and who will separate from him utterly upon their deaths.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-29414131446444399512011-09-18T23:01:00.000-05:002011-09-21T18:43:14.594-05:00Books: How to Work a Room<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060957859.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i><img border="0" height="200" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060957859.jpg" width="133" /></i></a></div>
<i>Extracted from a 2007 post that had some other garbage in it that had nothing to do with the book.</i><br />
<br />
I started reading a book in the vicinity of this day. It's completely
out of character as it's called, "How to work a Room." Yeah, yeah. Get
back on your chair. After 50 pages I'd gleaned a couple of useful
facts. By 100 pages I was just about ready to tear the book in half
just to guarantee that one copy of this bullshit out of the millions
available would not poison another impressionable mind. Anyway, let's
start with the good and useful things I was told. Yes, I know, they're
obvious but I'm not sure anyone had told me these things specifically:<br />
<br />
*
If you go to a party and you're uncomfortable, then other people are
too. When I mentioned this to my wife she reminded me of the July 4th
party I 'ruined' about 13 months ago. It went something like this. We
went to some distant friend's house where we were in company of several
other people who were good friends with the hostess. They all sat about
drinking heavily, talking about nothing and I sat quietly and waited
for the party to end. This, apparently, was enough to ruin the party
and it certainly ruined my attitude for the rest of the day. The lesson
learned here is a simple one I think. If you're not enjoying yourself
then just leave so you don't screw it up for everyone else. Fair
enough.<br />
<br />
* 93% of people in the world consider themselves shy. I
think most of the time that I consider myself shy but really I'm not.
If you wander into a topic that I know something about, I will talk
incessantly and I'm always blabbering on about my innermost thoughts on
here so I'm certainly not shy about talking when I have something to
say. The important bit here though is that the hard part for most
people is approaching others. So, if you approach them then you've done
90% of the work and you can go about the conversation. Amusingly,
evidence for this was right at hand. I often talk to people at random
in stores or whatever and people almost always react positively to what I
have to say so people want to talk to you. People are, in general,
ready to have a conversation. The key is getting over that initial
hurdle and breaking down the initial barrier between people. Now that, I
think I can try to do more effectively. At this point, I can't imagine
people will think me any MORE of an ass no matter what I say so I have
that going for me. The down side here is that I typically just DON'T
have anything to say on most of the common topics of conversation. You
want to talk about the science or mathematics or literature or computing
or religion then I'm your man. Let's set a date. You want to talk
about what diet Cher's on or what happened on American Idol last
night.... um, no, not so much.<br />
<br />
* People can sense what your real
intentions are so you can't schmooze just to get something. Now this, I
thought, was a damn interesting little tidbit and hopefully true. The
author tells bits about how she's gotten all sorts of random perquisites
from her smoozing. Tickets to shows, free crap, discounts, etc because
of some incident she had in an elevator. That's all well and good and a
nice thing to look forward to I suppose but really just random gravy.
What I guess pisses me off most is that there are people out there who
have to be told, "just don't do this to take advantage of people" while I
sit here on my own with absolutely nothing going on. It's damn
frustrating to try to put yourself out there for people and get blank
stares in return. I take cookies across the street to the old couple at
Christmas but I'm not even sure they eat them. I'd be happy to help
the neighbors get their yard in order so maybe they could sell their
house but they won't even acknowledge my greetings. We're just such
isolationists in this country. Either that or I'm just too damn scary.
Whatever the case it's annoying. It's not that I WANT to get a call at
4 a.m. from some friend who has a major problem but it would at least
be nice if that were a possibility.<br />
<br />
So the first 50 pages went
about like that. I was relatively upbeat on the whole process but it
was clear that the book was geared for sales types which I most
definitely am NOT a sales type. Then we start getting into the 'how'
phase. How to make contacts and break the ice and get the free flow of
information going. Sounds good doesn't it?<br />
<br />
* The book recommends practicing a self-introduction. OK. Here's the best one I could think of:<br />
<br />
****
Hi! I'm Rob! Now, I'm only here as part of a court-order.
'Socialization re-adjustment phase' of my parole they call it. Anyway,
when we gone done talking there are some forms the judge would like you
to fill out if you could.... Ma'am? Where are you...<br />
<br />
* Practice
your smalltalk. Look through the news and find 2 or 3 interesting
stories and read them so you'll be prepared. Read People magazine so
you can be aware of all the latest goings on.<br />
<br />
It was at this
point, that I measured the book to see if it could fit down the toilet.
So basically, the key to successful smalltalk is to go read something
you wouldn't ordinarily so that perhaps you'll have something to say
that people might find interesting. Well I'm sorry but that's just a
bunch of horse shit. If the idea of socializing with other people
requires me to read fvcking People magazine then I'll just sit quietly
and leave when I think it's no longer rude to do so. What the hell kind
of lasting relationship is based on that sort of? Am I going to have
to read People magazine every week/month/whatever for the rest of my
life to sustain such a relationship? I'm looking for people to be
friends with, to have interesting conversations with. Not sell them
stool softener and rubber cane tips.<br />
<br />
The first person to express a desire for this book gets it. Assuming, of course, that they can catch it as I hurl it at them.
Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-47208578038297319012011-09-18T21:33:00.002-05:002011-12-01T19:59:39.162-06:00* Books: Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/phdisk5.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/phdisk5.gif" width="200" /></a></div><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5498302883642263" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.5498302883642263" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Introduction</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writing evolved about 4000 B.C. due to the need to store accounting information. Farmer A had to know how many things Farmer B had given him so he wrote some symbols that looked like cows and some lines representing numbers and from there writing evolved into what we have today. Even thousands of years later, most of the texts found boil down to basic accounting.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As writing systems evolved, they became less pictographic and more symbolic. Rather than draw a picture of a cow a farmer might draw a rebus that represents the sounds in the verbal word for cow. Then even the rebus symbols became abstracted until a proper alphabet was developed.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ferdinand de Saussure - "Thought is one side of the sheet and sound the reverse side. Just as it is impossible to take a pair of scissors and cut out one side of the paper without at the same time cutting the other, so it is impossible to isolate sound from thought or thought from sound."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Egyptian Hieroglyphics</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Deciphered in 1823 by Jean-Francois Champollion. For centuries even the Greeks had been mistranslating Egyptian Hieroglyphics (Greek for "Sacred Writings") assuming they were pictographs as did more modern translators. Champollion finally cracked the real meaning using the Rosetta stone, a 3/4 ton slab of rock found in 1799 by Napolean's army. The stone which describes an agreement between priests and Ptolemy V Epiphanes, a thirteen-yeary-old newly-crowned Pharaoh in which they'll offer their support for the new ruler for certain unspecified privileges. Good to know some things never change. The stone was written in Greek, Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Demotic (the language of common Egyptians.) As it turns out, Hieroglyphics are both pictographic and phonetic (each symbol can represent an idea or perhaps a sound.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Linear B</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The first examples of Linear B were discovered in Crete in 1900 by Arthur Evans. It was written around 1450 B.C. in clay tablets and comprised mostly of inventory lists. Evans kept the finds to himself for the most part in hopes that he could decipher them. It was not until after his death that they were published and translated by Michael Ventris. Evans believed the tablets to encode a lost Minoan language but as it turns out they represented ancient Greek.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mayan Glyphs</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Only four books (bark paper with jaguar skin covers) survived the Spanish conquistadors who burned Mayan artifacts as works of Satan. The longest is the Dresden Codex which folds out to 12 feet in length. Until the 1970s, Mayan Glyphs weren’t even considered writing. When they eventually were decoded they bespoke of a warlike people who were overly obsessed with hallucinogenic enemas and astronomy. Their calendar was complex sporting 18 named months of 20 days plus a single month of only 5 days. The workings of their calendar are well understood and allow the exact dating of several Mayan artifacts. The Mayan calendar begins on August 13th 3114 B.C. and ends on December 23rd 2012 leading some to believe this date represents the end of the world. The script would have been indecipherable except that in 1547 Fray Diego de Landa wrote down a partial rendering of their alphabet with pronunciations. That in combination with existing Mayan spoken languages has allowed interpretation of existing manuscripts.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Meroitic Script</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Meroitic civilization thrived along the Nile where Sudan is today. In 712 B.C. they conquered Egypt to become the 25th Dynasty. The Egyptians later repelled the invaders and subsequent Pharaohs carefully removed evidence of the outside rulers. By the first century A.D. the Meroitic civilization had evaporated leaving behind its undecipherable writings. Only 26 written words have been translated despite the discovery of some loosely translated documents written both in Egyptian and Meroitic.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Etruscan Alphabet</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Located in what is now Tuscany, the Etruscans are credited with bringing the Greek alphabet to the attention of Rome. The spoken Etruscan language is extinct and apparently bore no resemblance to any modern tongue. The Etruscans were highly literate and borrowed their alphabet from 8th century B.C. Greece. About 13,000 examples of Etruscan are known with 4,000 of those being graffiti or fragments of inscriptions. Of those, only about 250 words have been deciphered, mostly numbers and terms used later by Latin authors.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most abundant among the artifacts are about 3,000 bronze mirrors bearing engraved pictures and brief Etruscan inscriptions. The Zagreb Mummy was wrapped in an older Etruscan linen religious text of about 1,200 words. The Tabula Cartonensis was found in 1992 and bears 200 Etruscan words. The artifact appears to be a contract for the sale or lease of land.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Linear A</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Linear A was used in Crete between 1750 and 1450 B.C. and was believed for some years to be the ancestor of Linear B. As it turns out, it was used before Linear B and in many of the same areas but is not related. Only about 1,500 examples exist totaling about 7,500 characters. Linear A has been found throughout Greece and as far away as Israel. Emmett Bennett Jr. worked out the numerical system of Linear A in 1950 but the bulk of the written language is still undeciphered.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Proto-Elamite Script</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Used between 3050 and 2900 B.C. in what is now Western Iran, Proto-Elamite is the oldest known undeciphered writing system. Despite the fact that 1,500 examples have been found containing over 100,000 characters, only the numeric system has been translated. The primary difficulty in decoding the writings stems from the relative lack of variety. The vast majority of items are simple accounting records. Like other languages, the numbering system has been worked out along with a few simple words and it seems that counting was done in base 10 when counting people or workers but base 6 was used for counting grain products.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rongo-Rongo</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rongo-Rongo is the only written language of Polynesia and was used solely by the inhabitants of the isolated Easter Island. Rongo-Rongo is written in reverse-boustrophedon, meaning the writing proceeds from left to write on the object, and then the object is turned 180 degrees and writing proceeds again from left to right on the opposite end. Writing continues until the two lines of text converge in the middle of the piece. Only 25 wood carvings survive from the island carrying a total of 14,000-17,000 characters.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The island was discovered in 1722 and later claimed by the Spanish in 1770. At that time, the local chiefs were asked to sign a treaty with the Spanish and they did so using pictograms but did NOT use the Rongo-Rongo language. When Captain Cook arrived in 1774 he reported no signs of a written language whatsoever; for this reason and others some speculate that the language developed only after contact with the west. In 1864 when Peru raided the island for slaves the written language seemed to be dying. By the time missionaries arrived in 1869, their attempts to save the language by asking the islanders to read the markings aloud were unsuccessful. Subsequent attempts similarly failed but it is believed by some that the language may not be in fact a complete writing system but instead a system of mnemonics to aid local leaders in remembering oral histories and genealogies.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Zapotec & Isthmian Scripts</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Zapotec is the oldest known script of the new world, used from 600 B.C. to 800 A.D. About 1200 inscribed objects survive but only 570 are indisputably writing. No apparent relationship with Mayan scripts from the same area but it is clear that the Zapotec originated the calendar system used by the Mayans though the Mayans improved upon it significantly.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Isthmian script is scarcer with only about 600 total characters discovered so far. The artifacts themselves are unusual:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* In 1902 a jade statuette was discovered in a field in Olmec. It depicts a man dressed as a duck and includes about 70 written characters. Included is a date of 162 A.D.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* In 1986 a 4-ton basalt stone was found a La Mojarra. The stone was 8x5 ft and contained a stunning carving of a prince and 400-500 written characters. This item was dated 143 and 156 A.D. Several decipherments of this item have been published but all are highly suspect.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Indus Script</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At it’s height between 2500 and 1900 B.C. the Indus Valley Civilization covered much of Pakistan and N.W. India. It had maritime trading as far away as the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia and was larger than either it’s Egyptian or Mesopotamian rivals. Over 1500 sites have been found, 5 of them major cities. Yet when Alexander the Great traveled in the area in 326 B.C. all he found were abandoned villages.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3,700 inscribed items have been found with 60% being seal stones containing very brief inscriptions. The longest inscription found is 26 characters with most less than 4. Since so little is known about the people or culture of the area at the time, all that can be said with certainty is that the reading order is right to left and the language seems to be made up of 400-450 distinct signs.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Phaistos Disc</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The enigmatic Phaistos Disc is unique. No other written example of this language exists and therefore it’s thought by many to be a fake. Discovered in Crete in 1908 in the Palace Ruins at Phaistos, this 6.5 inch diameter disc dates from 1850 to 1600 B.C. It contains 242 characters demarcated into 61 groups. The text is written along the outside edge and spirals inward and rather than being marked in the clay with a stylus the signs are actually stamped into the clay making it the first ‘printed’ document. The disc includes several scribal ‘corrections’ which many believe lends credence to its authenticity. Its uniqueness seems to lend credence to the theory that it is not of Cretan origin but has also acted to bring out all manner of crackpots who believe it to be an extraterrestrial artifact of some sort.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you find this post interesting? If so, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tatteredthread">'Like' the Tattered Thread on Facebook</a> and replace some of that inane babble from your old High School classmates with out slightly less inane babble.</span>Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-55081134352396565922011-09-16T23:35:00.001-05:002011-09-21T18:43:14.596-05:00Islam: The Straight Path – John L. Esposito [1998] – Chapter 3: Religious Life – Belief and Practice (Pt 3)<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZzgbGcfPSrxSYWSKJ6SoaIEV4ClFVkQ5GjvIOPSotYrntY_m_JAAYuo5EEW4yW2kBfV_7nOSRdGVG2qXb_Du5W3l22spMp0dk2zn7EKkQDsyBJDyVemh_ezd6z7sPmNbI-Eq/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZzgbGcfPSrxSYWSKJ6SoaIEV4ClFVkQ5GjvIOPSotYrntY_m_JAAYuo5EEW4yW2kBfV_7nOSRdGVG2qXb_Du5W3l22spMp0dk2zn7EKkQDsyBJDyVemh_ezd6z7sPmNbI-Eq/s1600/index.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Below you will find my notes and random observations from the book indicated by the title of this post. It is hoped that it will be effortless to differentiate between those locations in which I provide information from the book proper and those in which I offer personal observation, illumination or pose further lines of inquiry. Whenever any doubt is evident it should be assumed that anything even remotely factual should be attributed to the author of the book and anything that would be construed as otherwise can be attributed to me personally.</i></span><br />
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Links to related posts: (<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/08/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 1</a>, <a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 2</a>, Chapter 3 [<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_13.html">Part 1</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_16.html">Part 2</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_8099.html">Part 3</a>])<br />
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<b>Muslim Family Law</b><br />
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Before the introduction of Islam, Arabic family customs regarded women largely as property. One male head ruled over one or more wives with any married sons and their families. Divorce was as simple as stating the desire to be divorced and the woman had no rights or say in the matter. <br />
<br />
Islamic law has as its cornerstone a respect for the role of marriage and family and a deep seated concern for the welfare of the wife. Marriages, often arranged by the families far in advance, were considered contracts not only between two individuals but agreements between the families themselves. Quranic law also gave women the right to arrange their own marriage contracts and to keep her dower for herself rather than giving it up to her husband. Most importantly women gained the right to inherit property, an innovation that only firmly established itself in the west in the early 20th century. Men were admonished to take up to four wives but only if they could demonstrate that they could care for them all equitably and provide them separate housing in accordance with the family’s means. This typically meant a room of their own or more rarely an entire house.<br />
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However even with Quranic admonitions, women were still not considered equals. Early Muslim society still suffered from centuries of traditional behaviors which took some time for the populous to unlearn. Further, since the roles of man and woman were very strictly defined with the man taking care of outside affairs while the woman focused on the home, some inequities still exist such as the fact that the eyewitness accounts of two women count only as much as one male account of identical quality.<br />
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Divorce also became more difficult under Islam and according to the Quran, divorce is the most reprehensible act that is not strictly forbidden. Traditionally, the man could divorce the woman with just a word while the woman must go to court and prove her grounds to be granted her request. Traditional Muslim divorce took three very similar forms, each actionable by the husband:<br />
<ol><li>A single pronouncement of the phrase, “I divorce you” was sufficient to divorce a wife though there was a requisite three month waiting period before the act was final. The delay was intended to assure that the wife wasn’t with child before the dissolution.</li>
<li>Similarly, three pronouncements of the phrase in three consecutive months would actuate a legal separation. Once the final month had passed the act was final and the couple could not remarry unless the wife married someone else first and consummated that relationship.</li>
<li>Lastly, and most problematically, the husband can merely declare three times in immediate succession and the divorce is final and immediate. This is seen as antithetical to the Quran which admonishes husbands to wait three months for the reasons stated in method one above. </li>
</ol><br />
The other Muslim tradition most familiar to Westerners is the hijub, or chader, the wearing of burqa and veils to hide all but the eyes and hands of women. While not strictly prescribed by Islam, this tradition acquired from conquered Persian and Byzantine lands does fulfill the Quranic requirement to “speak from behind a screen and be modest.” Unfortunately, this tradition combined with the purdah, or seclusion of women, has had a vast and deleterious impact on women themselves. This separation from the outside world has in some cases left them ignorant even of their duties to God.<br />
<br />
<b>Popular Religion</b><br />
<br />
Islam has in its history also enjoyed a wide variety of variation in practice. As we’ve seen in earlier sections, Muslim adherence ranges extremely literal to much more relaxed. At the end of Chapter 3 our author introduces us to the Sufi. The Sufi are Muslim mystics much like traditional western monks. They lived isolated ascetic lifestyles in an attempt to connect directly with God. By blocking out all worldly distractions they hope to be directly and personally inspired. In 1058, Abu Hamid al-Ghazuli was born and he was to become to great unifier of the Sufi religion with mainstream Islam. Al-Ghazuli was a successful lecturer until one day he was mysteriously struck mute. In personal anguish at his loss, he retreated into the wilderness and there became a Sufi and thereafter their greatest spokesperson (at least in writing.)<br />
<br />
After al-Ghazuli, Sufi practices started to see widespread acceptance. In pursuit of a connection with God, the Sufi practiced four basic methods of self-purification:<br />
<ol><li>Self-denial – poverty, fasting, silence. It was believed that only by stripping away earthly desires and distractions could one come to truly know God.</li>
<li>Repetition of a Mantra – often the Sufi would repeat the names of God hundreds of thousands of times in a sitting</li>
<li>Song and Dance – it was believed that through music one could become intoxicated by the presence of God. The most famous of the Sufi dances is that of the Whirling Dervishes which reenacts the motion of the celestial bodies around the sun(? Would they have had a Heliocentric view of the universe at this time? We’re talking about 1100 AD.)</li>
<li>Veneration of Muhammad and the Sufi saints – it was believed that the saints provided a link between God and mankind</li>
</ol><br />
Unfortunately for the Sufi, their methods of worship gradually came to be their undoing. Much of their practices came to be considered heretical and by the 17th century they had become a repressed minority.<br />
<br />
Similarly, the Shii also venerate special humans as god-like in the person of the Imams. While the Sunni reject any such notion vehemently, the Shii recognize 14 pure or perfect ones: The prophet and his immediate family along with the 9 Imams. The Imams have their birthdays and death anniversaries celebrated yearly by the Shii faithful.<br />
<br />
Another central figure of Shii faith is Prince Husayn who was martyred in the year 680. The town of Kafa called to the Prince to save them from a tyrant. The Prince left Mecca with a procession of only 77 followers but upon his arrival he is greeted by an army of Syrians in the tens of thousands. His small band is quickly overwhelmed but not before the Prince’s brother Hasan killed 3,000 Syrian soldiers single-handedly. As the Prince is making one final charge to the attack he is suddenly called back to his camp where his women await him. While on his way he is attacked by a group of cowardly archers who riddle him with hundreds of arrows. Husayn along with his mother Fatima are held up as elite examples of proper Muslim behavior.<br />
<br />
<i>Textual Note: Items in this post are noted in the order they appear in the book. Oddly, this is resulted in a somewhat fragmented presentation of the material. At a later date this will be revised into one longer volume with arranges the information presented in a more topically logical manner.</i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Now that you've read this far, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tatteredthread">come "like" us on Facebook</a>. </span><i><br />
</i>Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-27715480111660581922011-09-16T06:20:00.005-05:002011-09-21T18:43:14.596-05:00Islam: The Straight Path – John L. Esposito [1998] – Chapter 3: Religious Life – Belief and Practice (Pt 2)<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3VqlAY95hBBVaebajUsMSDNYUuHB5mmTtDK4tUt_FBbXyhBNSrC7FeFuonXmqzoJqeyrMg3-WJslahP-7OzWR1wdl0NLPOap_GUgaE3R76kDUB484OAqOk4c0cf8TRE44s4o/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3VqlAY95hBBVaebajUsMSDNYUuHB5mmTtDK4tUt_FBbXyhBNSrC7FeFuonXmqzoJqeyrMg3-WJslahP-7OzWR1wdl0NLPOap_GUgaE3R76kDUB484OAqOk4c0cf8TRE44s4o/s1600/index.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Below you will find my notes and random observations from the book indicated by the title of this post. It is hoped that it will be effortless to differentiate between those locations in which I provide information from the book proper and those in which I offer personal observation, illumination or pose further lines of inquiry. Whenever any doubt is evident it should be assumed that anything even remotely factual should be attributed to the author of the book and anything that would be construed as otherwise can be attributed to me personally.</i></span><br />
<br />
Links to related posts: (<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/08/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 1</a>, <a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 2</a>, Chapter 3 [<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_13.html">Part 1</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_16.html">Part 2</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_8099.html">Part 3</a>])<br />
<br />
During Muslim history there existed many regional schools of law but by the 19th century these had been reduced to four to represent the Sunni faith: the Hanafi, the Hanbali, the Maliki and the Shafi. These four schools have as their jurisdiction large geographic areas. Due to previously mentioned doctrinal differences, the Shii have pursued their own schools of law, the Jafari being foremost among them. Both schools of thought accept the Quran and the Sunna of the prophet but the Shii reject the establishment of law by consensus and by analogy. Instead the balance of the law is derived from the sunna and judgment of the infallible Imam, or failing that, the decision of his religious representatives. <br />
<br />
To enforce the laws set forth by the schools, a system of courts was established. Muslim courts differ from western ones in a few key ways:<br />
<ul><li>Judges act only to interpret the law, not set precedent for future cases</li>
<li>Two male witnesses are required for any crime. If this is not available then the crime must be sworn to “in front of God”(?) Note: The text is not terribly clear on this point and I’m further unsure how much this applies to modern courts versus traditional ones.</li>
<li>No circumstantial evidence is allowed</li>
<li>No witness cross examination is allowed</li>
<li>Decisions are final with no appeal, though all decisions are reviewed by the Caliph. Note: Again, I’m not sure how much this applies to the modern day, though these courts only deal with matters of religious law rather than smaller civil matters which we’ll get into a bit further along.</li>
</ul><br />
The courts enforced the laws with the help of the muhtasib, a religious police force which still exists in some countries (Saudia Arabia, Kuwait and presumably others) and has recently seen a resurgence in others (Pakistan and Iran).<br />
<br />
In addition to the Muslim courts, the Grievance Courts were set up to deal with matters of a more civil nature. The only real restriction on the laws for the Grievance Courts is that they must not directly conflict with Sharia. Generally, these courts deal with such matters as taxation, criminal law and business regulation.<br />
<br />
The underlying premise of the law in general is that God is the leader and sole legislator of all human action. Islamic law is intended to be absolutely egalitarian without regard to race, creed or social stature. The actions which the law governs fall into two basic categories:<br />
<ul><li>Duties to God – prayer, almsgiving, fasting, etc</li>
<li>Duties to Others – penal, commercial and family law</li>
</ul><br />
The Duties to God are represented by what is referred to as the Five Pillars of Islam:<br />
<ol><li>Profession of faith – simply speaking, one must acknowledge that there is one God and that Muhammad is his prophet. The only unforgiveable sin is that of associating God with some other entity (such as Jesus) as this is viewed as polytheistic.</li>
<li>Prayer – Five times a day (dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, dusk and evening), the muezzin, or call to prayer sounds from a mosque and Muslims must face Mecca and pray. Each time of day has a set ritual that includes 2-4 positions and specific prayers which must be recited. On Fridays, all gather for prayers in a central Mosque. Men are required to attend but women are optional. If women do attend they stand at the back (often behind a curtain) to preserve their modesty during the proceedings. Friday is not traditionally a day of rest but in some countries has begun to replace the Christian Sunday tradition.</li>
<li>Almsgiving – Every Muslim is required to give 2.5% of his accumulated wealth to the poor each year. Note that this differs from income but is instead a percentage of whatever you have on hand. It’s unclear to me if the assessment of wealth includes only ready cash or also personal property. Traditionally this was collected in an official manner but lately it has been left to the individual to manage on their own though Pakistan, the Sudan and Libya have recently formalized this in the form of a tax.</li>
<li>Fast of Ramadan – In the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset if their health permits. Neither food, nor drink nor sexual activity is permitted. The intent is to spend time during the month reflecting not only on the mercy of God but to contemplate the plight of those who are poor and hungry. At dusk a light meal is prepared (referred to as breakfast) and in the evening families visit and congregate for what is no doubt a larger than usual dinner. The mood seems exceptionally festive with special foods served only at Ramadan and prayers at Mosque. The month ends with a feast that is somewhat reminiscent of western Christmas.</li>
<li>Pilgrimage: The Hajj – After the month of Ramadan the month of Dhu al-Hijja signals the start of pilgrimage season. Once in their lifetimes Muslims must travel to Mecca to see the Kaba. The Kaba is a square house built around a sacred black stone. The Kaba is said to have been built by Ibrahim (Abraham) and Ismail around the stone given to them by the angel Gabriel representing God’s covenant with the Muslim people. The traditions of the Hajj are many:</li>
<ol type="a"><li>circle the Kaba seven times (It’s not clear to me what this is symbolic of, if anything)</li>
<li>running between Safa and Marwa, two neighboring mounts, seven times symbolizing Hagar’s frantic search for water for her son Ismail. Most fascinatingly, if you do a quick image search for Safa and Marwa, you will find that an enclosed walkway has been built between them so pilgrims can walk without fear of the weather.</li>
<li>"stoning the devil" with the devil represented by three stone pillars</li>
<li>a visit to the plain of Arafat in which pilgrims stand from noon to dusk seeking forgiveness not only for themselves but for all Muslims</li>
<li>visiting the “Mount of Mercy” where the prophet made his last speech</li>
<li>the month of pilgrimage ends with a Feast of Sacrifice in which hundreds of animals are sacrificed and their meat given up to the poor</li>
<li>Lastly, the pilgrimage is a source of great pride among Muslims and some go so far as to prefix their names with ‘Hajji’ upon their return</li>
</ol><li>The Struggle (jihad) – Unofficially, the sixth pillar of Islam is the jihad, or the struggle to realize God’s will on Earth. Most typically this takes the form of extending the Muslim community by education and preaching and leading by example by living a virtuous life. In the case of extremist groups, this has been taken to the extent of actual warfare against non-believers but that is not officially sanctioned by the Muslim community at large.</li>
</ol>Now that you've read that, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tatteredthread">visit us on Facebook</a>! (and click that little Like button while you're at it) <br />
<ol></ol>Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-92115926642065137802011-09-13T22:13:00.003-05:002011-09-21T18:43:14.598-05:00Islam: The Straight Path – John L. Esposito [1998] – Chapter 3: Religious Life – Belief and Practice (Pt 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGp__mwpcDu_vBGiXOTTt87M9lCCLUMZP1WcYo6qp8UqqBhrq5JJmBXzIfm6YdbXrYlYw1NKD0QpZb3J2rErX7xfl6Fw6v_pk3E46ZrU6bjHO8J94w57cOaDuLo5Kd3VT1Kc1_/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGp__mwpcDu_vBGiXOTTt87M9lCCLUMZP1WcYo6qp8UqqBhrq5JJmBXzIfm6YdbXrYlYw1NKD0QpZb3J2rErX7xfl6Fw6v_pk3E46ZrU6bjHO8J94w57cOaDuLo5Kd3VT1Kc1_/s1600/index.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Below you will find my notes and random observations from the book indicated by the title of this post. It is hoped that it will be effortless to differentiate between those locations in which I provide information from the book proper and those in which I offer personal observation, illumination or pose further lines of inquiry. Whenever any doubt is evident it should be assumed that anything even remotely factual should be attributed to the author of the book and anything that would be construed as otherwise can be attributed to me personally.</i></span><br />
<br />
Links to related posts: (<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/08/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 1</a>, <a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 2</a>, Chapter 3 [<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_13.html">Part 1</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_16.html">Part 2</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_8099.html">Part 3</a>])<br />
<br />
The Muslim faith distinguishes itself from the Christian one very simply. Christians, Esposito says, are focused on “belief.” The main point of salvation is one of belief in Jesus Christ and acceptance of his gift of salvation. Muslims, contrarily, focus on actions. One cannot simply believe in the oneness of God but must also act according to God’s laws. Belief without action is meaningless to the Muslim. Personally, I would argue with the lackadaisical portrayal of Christians though I do see a difference in main focus between the two faiths.<br />
<br />
One of the early formative questions of the Muslim faith is that of sinners. Is a sinner or even one who does not sin explicitly but simply does no good works truly a Muslim? Opinions on this differ, as we saw for the Kharijites earlier they would say that a sinner is not a Muslim while the Murjiites would claim, as many Christians do, that no one on Earth is fit to judge and that only God will be ultimate decider of such matters. Muslims also struggle with the question of free will as Christians have historically. If there is no free will, then how can man’s actions possibly be judged? If there is free will then how can God still be omnipotent? It’s unclear that any consistent answer for this paradox is ever arrived at.<br />
<br />
The author goes on to describe a third set of Islamic beliefs in addition to the Murjiites and Kharijites. Contrarily to both these sects, the Mutazila strived for compromise. To them the Quran is metaphorical rather than literal. They used imported Greek philosophy and science to argue that the Quran was illustrative in scope but not to be taken verbatim. Contrarily, the Asharite argued against the rationalization of the Quran with the idea that some things are simply beyond human reason and understanding. Even this brief snapshot will help, I hope, to illustrate the diversity of the Muslim belief system. It is unclear (at least to current reading) how prevalent any of these sects are in the modern day.<br />
<br />
After this brief overview of the players, Esposito goes on to talk a bit about the history of the Islamic law. Early on, of course, while the Prophet Muhammad was still around, he could (and often was) just asked his opinion. Unfortunately, this convenient state of affairs couldn’t exist indefinitely. After the death of the prophet the Umayyad Caliphate set up qadi or regional judges to determine such items of the law. This proved unsatisfactory, however, as it was argued that too much human opinion and regional difference was being inserted into what should have been very straightforward and uniform God-given law. Under the Abbasid Caliphate a further attempt was made to iron things out and gain some consistency. Now rather than leaving the determination of law to individual judges, Schools of Law were formed and tasked with determining exactly what the law should be. Somewhat predictably though, since the schools too were regional in nature, they also fell to petty squabbling and disagreement.<br />
<br />
This continued until the appearance of Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shaffi (d. 819) the father of Islamic jurisprudence. Al-Shaffi wrote that there were four sources for Islamic law:<br />
1. The Quran itself – The Quran does have some legalistic content but of course doesn’t cover every conceivable situation. Where it does speak to an issue, however, it is given absolute preeminence.<br />
2. The Sunna (example of Muhammad) – at varying times ‘The Sunna’ was extended to mean the accepted behaviors of any group of Muslims but with al-Shaffi it was determined that only the acts and example of the Prophet himself constituted this second source of law. The argument for the position of the Prophet as the prime example flows from the very natural supposition that he was guided closely by God in his actions. Unfortunately, after the prophet’s death the corpus of literature which claimed to represent the Sunna blossomed into hundreds of thousands of documents which comprised a monumental task to actually validate. Esposito goes to great lengths to defend the Sunna as it’s currently accepted against Western critics who claim that it is almost entirely apocryphal.<br />
3. Local consensus – Where the Sunna and the Quran are silent, local precedent and tradition must be heard. These tend to create regional differences and common examples given are centered around policies for divorce and dowry establishment.<br />
4. Analytical Reasoning – Lastly, law can be established by logical deduction from stated laws that are deemed analogous to the situation being looked at. The example given was the establishment of a minimum dowry. The Quran doesn’t have anything to say about how much of a dowry should be given but the problem was solved logically in this way: when a woman is married, they argued, the loss to her is that of her virginity. To put a price on this, we make a correlation between the woman’s virginity and the amount goods that must be stolen in order to warrant the amputation of the thief’s limb. So the minimum dowry amount is the same as the amount of money one would have to steal in order to justify hacking off one’s arm. Let’s hope that the wedding night is slightly more pleasurable than an amputation.<br />
With the help of al-Shaffi’s writings, Islamic law was completed by the 10th century and (based on current reading anyway) seems to have remained relatively fixed since that time.<br />
<br />
Continued in Part 2…Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-58834059658914731672011-09-11T20:31:00.004-05:002011-09-21T18:43:14.599-05:00Islam: The Straight Path – John L. Esposito [1998] – Chapter 2<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpflKBPaZItjBI806dYbA0bdE7SBcubWm0dNXT4QipoSPmyuuokePpWCvkY1uDqKDhVCnSiH7FgiFmRhhzHrLKwqJ82q2k4eIHzhJSxCZ2CQoTzEvipQ5QXVvU046UJJWgZr74/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpflKBPaZItjBI806dYbA0bdE7SBcubWm0dNXT4QipoSPmyuuokePpWCvkY1uDqKDhVCnSiH7FgiFmRhhzHrLKwqJ82q2k4eIHzhJSxCZ2CQoTzEvipQ5QXVvU046UJJWgZr74/s1600/index.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Below you will find my notes and random observations from the book indicated by the title of this post. It is hoped that it will be effortless to differentiate between those locations in which I provide information from the book proper and those in which I offer personal observation, illumination or pose further lines of inquiry. Whenever any doubt is evident it should be assumed that anything even remotely factual should be attributed to the author of the book and anything that would be construed as otherwise can be attributed to me personally.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Note: In Chapter 2 our author goes about the daunting task of summing up 1000 years of Muslim history in a couple dozen pages. While I began with the goal of summing up his summary, it became quickly clear that further condensing of already condensed (and dense) material would likely be utterly impossible. Instead I will merely jot down a few conceptual notes.</i></span><br />
<br />
Links to related posts: (<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/08/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 1</a>, <a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 2</a>, Chapter 3 [<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_13.html">Part 1</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_16.html">Part 2</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_8099.html">Part 3</a>])<br />
<br />
<br />
Like its Christian neighbors, Islam is a religion that seeks actively to promote itself. Unlike Christianity, Islam prides itself on spreading its message with a tolerant rather than a destructive hand. The Quranic mandate is to transform the world, not destroy it. In the early Muslim conquests, the cities in conquered territories were given three choices:<br />
<ol><li>Convert to Islam</li>
<li>Accept Muslim rule but pay a special tax to the ruling establishment</li>
<li>Fight it out and get decimated</li>
</ol><br />
In this way Christianity in conquered territories was disestablished officially but not specifically persecuted.<br />
<br />
This tolerance left the Muslim world with four distinct social classes:<br />
<ol><li>Arab Muslims – natively born Arabs of the Muslim faith</li>
<li>Non-Arab converts – those who converted to Islam after conquest of some sort. Quranically speaking, these converts were in fact equal to those who came to the faith by birth, but practices varied. Some divisions of Islam required these converts to pay the special taxes levied on non-Muslims. This proved to be one of the many sources of conflict within the religion.</li>
<li>Non-Muslim “People of the Book” – Christians, Jews, and their religious counterparts</li>
<li>Slaves – Generally, no Christian or Jew was allowed to be enslaved.</li>
</ol><br />
I’ve mentioned that the Muslims of the time were factional and the chapter goes on at some length on a few of the major players in Islamic politics. The Kharijites were strict Quranic literalists. They viewed any act of sin as a traitorous act against Islam. By this definition, every previous leader of Islam was viewed as a traitor on the grounds that they had not properly followed the rules of succession of leadership put forth in the Quran. The Shii, as have been previously described, believed in familial succession to leadership which is their primary point of difference with the Sunni. The Shii are lead by an Imam, a divinely inspired, sinless and infallible embodiment of Allah on Earth. They await the “Hidden Imam” or Mahdi as their savior. In addition, the Shii are also split off into the Ismailis whose primary distinguishing characteristic seems to be that they believe as the Shii do, but they believe themselves to be somehow special and elite from other Muslims. One cannot imagine why this would cause them to come into conflict with their brethren. Most uniquely, we have the Druze, a separatist faction that forbids intermarriage or conversion. Because of this their practices remained localized and untainted by any outside influences. They also differ in that they believe in a form of reincarnation. So with this diverse cast of characters, it is unsurprising that the next millennium of Islamic history was as unsettled as it turned out to be.<br />
<br />
Muslim history is tangled and far beyond your blog-writer’s abilities, but I will attempt to summarize in brief. After the death of the prophet , the “Rightly Guided Caliphs” established themselves (632). Caliphs were established by vote among tribal elders. This met perfectly with Sunni expectations, but the Shii factions were unsatisfied that the original bloodline of the prophet was not honored. As a result of this and other internal disagreements, the reigns of the Caliphs tended to be brief and ended at unexpected times in unpleasant ways. In 661, the Umayyad Empire was formed at the end of an unusually bloody period. The ruled until 750 as a military aristocracy and were eventually replaced by the Abbasid Caliphate.<br />
<br />
The Abbasid are sometimes referred to as the true Flowering of Islam. Under Abbasid rule and patronage, Islam truly came into its own and for once owed much of its success to conquest by trade and cultural domination rather than the sword. It is at this time that we find the formation of the Ulama, or religious professional elite who lead the final formalization of Muslim practice and the translation of the great works of the time into Arabic. It is particularly interesting that centuries later when Europe sought to regain its own lost cultural heritage, it was Arabic source material they found rather than their own relics. Unfortunately, due to the sheer scope of geography being ruled, the Abbasid Caliphate began to undergo significant political decline by 950.<br />
<br />
Our author also goes on at length about the Muslim response to the Crusades, specifically in Jerusalem. The Arabs originally took the city in 638 and in so doing left the Christian and Jewish populaces largely unmolested. However, when Constantinople fell to the Arabs in 1071, it became widely feared that the event was only the vanguard of a larger effort that might end in the conquest of the entire Western World by the Arabs. So in response, a Crusade was undertaken in 1095 to retake Jerusalem. When the Crusaders arrived in 1099, they murdered every Muslim in evidence despite promises to the contrary and Muslim buildings were desecrated and converted to serve Christian purposes. In contrast, when Arab forces once again retook Jerusalem in 1187, typical Muslim mercy is displayed and Christian buildings and families are again left untouched. At the close of the Crusades, our author points out, the wars that were intended to unite the Christian faith under a common flag was now more fractured than ever by infighting and theological disagreements. When the Crusades officially ended in 1453 with the final fall of Constantinople, the Muslims, not the Christians, were the ones who stood united.<br />
<br />
The rule of the Abbasid Caliphate ended officially with the sack of Baghdad by the Monguls in 1258. The remnants of the once great empire lingered in Egypt and Syria until 1517. By the 16th century, the Muslim world was split into three great Sultanates: <br />
<ol><li>The Ottoman Turkish Empire centered in Istanbul covered much of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Eastern Europe. This Sultanate remained in one form or another until it was finally dissolved in the fallout from World War I. </li>
<li>The Persian Safavid Empire existed until 1736 in what is now Iran. It distinguished itself as having established Shii as its state religion</li>
<li>The Mughal Empire had its seat of power in Delhi, India and covered Pakistan, parts of India and Bangladesh. It was finally ousted officially from power by the British in 1857 when India was declared a British Commonwealth though the real transfer of power in the region had started long before.</li>
</ol><br />
Thus ends Chapter 2. It should be further noted that it is likely that I’ve just plain gotten something totally wrong in the summation above. Readers who note such inaccuracies should point them out so I can correct them or at the least feel bad about them and then quickly forget.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-14957417947492067032011-09-10T07:03:00.000-05:002011-09-21T18:39:12.610-05:00Back to Class<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgv4wJXUkhA_eVuq1xKpgHhCdgc5qJRnQY-ti0qsuBWl3wRzmdIy5BSxC-AxjIV10sLfkv0ygO4hpbG9pxF9buk9UBtb2GOxRAOpWHXQDghyphenhyphenG8arB6kBhmqsLo2Z-JhqHQXa7U/s1600/IMG_4258.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgv4wJXUkhA_eVuq1xKpgHhCdgc5qJRnQY-ti0qsuBWl3wRzmdIy5BSxC-AxjIV10sLfkv0ygO4hpbG9pxF9buk9UBtb2GOxRAOpWHXQDghyphenhyphenG8arB6kBhmqsLo2Z-JhqHQXa7U/s320/IMG_4258.JPG" width="256" /></a></div>
On Monday (two short days) I’m going to do something that I haven’t done in 17 years. (When I put it that way, and when I realize that’s almost half my life, I’m suddenly sad.) OK, so what’s the thing, you might ask? Well, to put it unexcitingly and finally just spill it, I’m going to go to a place of learning and take a class in something that’s not related to my work. In fact, it’s a class on a topic totally unrelated to my vocation. It’s a class just because I want to learn something that will probably never actually be profitable to me economically in any way. That’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is the way in which people have reacted so far when I tell them this.<br />
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Universally, the first thing people say when I tell them I’m headed back to class is to express their envy that I actually have time to do this at all. Since I started getting this feedback, the realization has crept into my conscious just how much time I do have to myself to do… whatever… and to utilize this time at least a bit more productively. Even before people expressed this envy I had a lot of productivity guilt. I’d regularly look back on a day and say, “I had 6 hours of time that I wasn’t engaged in work or sleeping. What did I get out of it exactly?” I have a lot of difficulty “relaxing” or whatever it is the average person likes to do with their free time. Now that other people have expressed to me the perceived value of my underutilized hours, I find myself guarding it much more jealously and in many ways I put it to better use. My previous retrospective guilt over the waste of this precious commodity has become proactive and now I feel much more satisfied with the use of it. The unintended impacts of people’s random comments is endlessly fascinating.<br />
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Now all this does bring up a couple of related concepts. Firstly, I’ve written several times that the average person actually has much more free time than they want to admit and that they choose intentionally to put themselves in situations in which they lose this commodity. For example, if you have a yard that rivals the size of some golf courses, you shouldn’t be surprised if you have to spend a lot of time mowing it. Those with twelve kids need not be shocked that they spend much of their time shuttling people to ballet class. I can’t help but point out, however, that the majority of topics which consume our free time are mentally passive ones. In today’s media-saturated world, that’s no excuse. You can easily find a podcast about medieval French ballet to listen to on the mower. Those twelve kids might enjoy learning Russian with you in the car on the way to their activity. It can be done, and, I would argue, it should be done. It sets a good example for those around you and, I’d further insist, an intellectually growing parent is a good parent. I see far too often parents who forget to take care of themselves both physically and intellectually in the name of raising their children. This does them a great disservice and denies their children a fulfilled and happy and growing parent in their lives. That, however, is a topic better left explored in another post.<br />
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The second subtopic is to wonder exactly what actually constitutes a “productive” activity. Is productivity anything that’s not just sitting and watching television? If I come home, cook dinner, exercise, finish the book I was reading, write a review of it, edit a batch of pictures, upload them and put together a narrative blog post for them all before 11pm, is that *REALLY* productive or is it just busy? What’s the standard here? Does a productive activity have to be financially profitable or does fiscally neutral suffice? Does it have to be intellectually broadening and if so, what exactly does that even mean? I could probably learn something from watching a reality show in MTV. Does THAT count as productive if I now know more about waterproof mascara than I did before? Clearly this is all a personal judgment but it’s still one that I struggle with. Somewhat scarily, my opinion on this topic does seem to change from one day to the next. I sincerely wonder how I will look back on myself a decade from now and judge my use of time. <br />
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At any rate, photography class starts Monday. I will not fail to document the process. It will be interesting to see if this is the first of many or simply the first.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-79017284681961838342011-09-05T21:01:00.000-05:002011-09-21T18:39:40.745-05:00Online Identity CrisisIn the past month I’ve taken advantage of Facebook’s generosity three times. The first time I created a page for The Tattered Thread, my blog of almost a decade. The second time I created a page for At the Bijou, my short-lived desire to see and write about every new movie in the theatres. The third time I created Rob Slaven Photography, a pseudonym for my tendency to take photographs of everything in the universe… at least that small subset of things in the universe that I can set a camera lens to.<br />
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In the end and with the help of an absurd book written by a comedian, I’ve come to realize that all of this is simply a search for validation: an attempt to find some group of people who will say by way of word or deed, “you’re doin’ good, Mr. Slaven!” Part of me realizes quite plainly that I don’t care what I do. If the masses want me to write, I shall write. If they want me to go take pictures, I shall do that. The validation I seek is not internal so much as it is external. Perhaps in no small way this goes back to my mother who failed to appreciate me no matter WHAT I did. So now I flail somewhat hopelessly in an attempt to fill that blank and yawning void with the approval of others. Apparently the nascent approval of the maternal is more important than we care to admit.<br />
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Somewhat recently though, Laura brought up with me a good point. She said simply that what I really needed was internal approval. I needed to be proud of myself and that would trump any vacuous leftovers I might have from my own upbringing. Nobody could fill the void I felt except me, she said simply. And I will not deny that she is right. But the problem is that I am such a relentless taskmaster. To feel even an iota of self-validation I need to create something momentous. I hold myself to an epic standard rather than a modern one. Every non-productive moment that creeps by is a pain, a sin, a terrible affront to the legacy of humankind that brought me to where I am now. <br />
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So where does this leave me? I am not, honestly, all that sure. Clearly, there are some fads which need to be allowed to die. I have puttered about with The Tattered Thread for 10 years but the hallmark of that small and unheard-of publication is that you never quite know what you are going to get on any given day. It is as fluid and as unpredictable I am. One day you might be reading about copper-age warfare and the next you might be assailed by a prolix description of the latest vampire movie. While I can’t claim to have, in fact, any following at all, I do have several years of history to live up to. And while the majority of people who wander on to my blog couldn’t give two rats shits about what I’ve done over the past decade I can say with sincerity that I *DO* care. Deeply. Passionately. This is my history. More history, frankly, than I can personally remember. The devoted reader of this open missive to the universe will probably know more about ME than *I* actually know about ME. Having been in your position as reader, however, I don’t honestly expect you to take that much interest. It’s too much. One cannot live one’s own life and consume that of another. It cannot be done. I get that. I’m flattered that whoever you are, dear reader, you have taken even this much time.<br />
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As for the photography, as I look back on my history, I realize that I’ve been at that for a solid three years. I look back at those first pictures and I can’t help but feel a pain in my gut. I look back at those pictures from a week ago and I still can’t help but feel a pain in my gut. Some days I look at my output and think, “Damn. I fucking suck at this” and other times I look at my pics and think, “Damn. I fucking rock.” Perhaps this is the nature of any endeavor. I can say without a doubt that I’ve gotten better over the years. Compared to my early attempts at photography, I’m a photographic genius. Trial and error have left their mark, though I’m sure many would rightly argue that the mark hasn’t been deep enough. <br />
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The point is though that I have no standard. By the standard of history, I would vanish utterly. I would have tried my utmost in writing, in photography and if I died today there would be none to remember me at all. None. Silence. Yet part of me thinks that if I don’t accomplish more then I will be a failure. I hold myself to some idiotic standard that if I don’t paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel then I should not have even bothered to have lived at all. In my own mind, no matter what reasonable thing I do, I am too small to have mattered. In the end, I am still a small child who looks expectantly up to his mother but is still too small and too inconsequential and too much of a bother to have mattered. <br />
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So after all this I can only say that I think the correct thing is to continue on in the two paths I have chosen even if nobody ever bothers to notice. When I am at my best, I can write, and write well. I’ve been told at work that I need to “tone it down,” that my writing is too elevated to actually be understood widely. I’ll choose to take that as a compliment. On the note of photography, I receive precious little feedback. This is either because my output is so terrible as to not justify a response or that people have come to expect excellence and therefore they say nothing. To feed my own ego, I will assume the latter. If the former is the case then more practice is the only relevant remedy. Either way, I will continue to assiduously and continuously photograph everything that comes into my view. <br />
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Returning back to practicalities, those of you are interested in my verbal outputs, should pay your homage to The Tattered Thread page on Facebook. There I will continue to push my observations in whatever form they present themselves. Those who wish for more visual media have Rob Slaven Photography to sate their needs. I will not be offended in the least by any who choose to pursue one in deference to the other. Each of us has a muse who speaks to us with most primal force and I will not think less of anyone who listens most keenly to one but neglects the other. As I sit here pondering the darkness of the night on September the 5th, like countless men before me, I can’t help but wonder about the meaning of it all. What will history, a thousand years from now, think of any of us? Are we vapid, squalid mewling infants in the view of history? It’s idiotically broad and rhetorical thoughts like this that make me realize that I have been out of society far too long. Thank the powers that be, whether they be, God or the random machinations of the universe that I start a new class on the 12th. It has been far too long that I have been out of the normal circulation of society.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-81661276025234271592011-09-03T19:50:00.002-05:002011-09-21T18:40:27.996-05:00Movies – The Help – 2011Today Laura and I wandered out to an early afternoon movie and for a chance, we chose one intentionally. Also of note is that for the first time in a while the theatre wasn’t empty except for your faithful reviewer. By the time the movie had started the theatre was at least half full and it was interesting to note the difference that this made in the whole movie-going experience. Crowds are like sentient beings all on their own so in a way this crowd took on a life of its own and we all seemed to react together in the same way at the same time. It is part of the movie-going experience that one misses when at home or in an out-of-the-way location.<br />
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“The Help” is a merciless and poignant view of the life of black servant-class people in Jim Crow era Jackson, Mississippi. I am not a person generally prone to displays of great emotion but it was all the willpower I could muster at several points in the movie to not openly weep. It is a merciful circumstance that movie theatres are dark and private places. This movie moves in a way that very few ever have before and as I walked from the place I wanted sincerely to shake the hand of every person of black descent I met on the way out. The portrayal of the unjust and heartless treatment of southern servants of color during this era was just about all I could bear to watch.<br />
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Aside from the sheer emotions evoked, the movie also raised some interesting psychological questions. In these circumstances, white children of privilege were practically raised by black servants and came to view many of them as more parental than their own parents. Given this, how was it that they somehow managed to uphold the horrible injustice of the situation for so many generations? Similarly, it seems that on some level many of the characters were against the treatment received by blacks in the area yet they sat quietly and did nothing while secretly objecting. How can such implication by non-action by tolerated? Sadly this sort of thing is endemic in human history and this movie’s depiction of the circumstance should be applauded.<br />
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Overall, I feel confident in saying that this movie is among the best of the year. It’s heart-wrenching portrayals (though mixed with a bit of seemingly inappropriate comedic breaks) of life in the era were flowing and organic and natural and evoked real regret for their accuracy in the audience. As the credits rolled, the audience in the theatre I was in just sat stunned in contemplation of what they’d seen. This is truly a movie to be seen and shared and applauded. I can’t rank it highly enough.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-42344427083959842092011-09-01T21:00:00.002-05:002011-09-21T18:45:44.690-05:00Movies: Another Earth – 2011As a general rule, it can be assumed that any movie with the word ‘Earth’ in the title is either an environmental allegory or a science fiction fantasy. “Another Earth” is anything but. While having a slight sci-fi bent with the discovery of a nearly identical copy of the Earth in the solar system, tonight’s movie was more an anthropological investigation than space exploration.<br />
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On the day that a new Earth is discovered in the heavens as a tiny, taunting blue spec, our protagonist’s life takes a fateful twist. In the space of a few seconds her dreams of going to MIT are traded for a prison jumpsuit as she is involved in a fatal collision with another vehicle due to her own intoxication. As the movie develops the twin Earth grows closer and our heroine struggles to cope with the repercussions of that pivotal event in her life.<br />
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Symbolically the movie gives us the approaching planet as a symbol of redemption and opportunity for rebirth after failure. We also get a chance to see the impact of the realization that we are not, as a species, alone in the universe. Society stands enraptured at the possibility of getting to know the “other” Earthlings. This is a movie that lives on after the viewing in the form of the conversations that result.<br />
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At a technical level the execution of the film was amazing. The music, photography and storyline worked in perfect harmony to advance the narrative in the film in a way I’ve very seldom seen in any modern movie. Unfortunately, due to the mistaken belief that this is a science fiction film and its very non-Hollywood ending, I’m expecting the film to fare poorly at the box office. Despite that, this movie earns a very satisfied 9 stars out of 10 from this reviewer.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-82599586280952962362011-08-30T20:23:00.000-05:002011-09-21T18:45:44.691-05:00Movies: Conan the Barbarian – 2011This evening wins a very small and very silly prize for drama. I realized at 5:03 that the $5 movie theatre down the street started a round of movies at around 5:00 so I jetted from my place of work at 5:04 and dashed into the theatre at 5:19 just in time to enjoy five minutes of silence before Conan the Barbarian started. Well, to say it with a more hearty and satisfying grain of truth, five minutes of silence before the 20 minutes of previews started.<br />
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The Previews<br />
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This particular venue is not only desperately quiet before the movie but also pounds down the previews like an addict at a Methadone clinic. Tonight’s total was six and started with “Red Tails” which seems to be following on the coattails of other war movies featuring under-appreciated units made up entirely of minorities. This time it’s WWII African-American fighter pilots. I can’t resist a war movie of any type so it’ll probably have my $5 when the time comes. Next we had “Ghost Rider” a movie with such a twisted and confusing preview that I’m not sure if the self-immolating skull-faced dude is a hero or a villain. We have established, however, based on the preview alone that if you take a whizz while you’re on fire it does hurt. (No, I’m not just making that up to be funny.) “Immortals” seems to be a standard epic adventure mythology flick. The new hero of the week seems to be Theseus and he’s going to save the world or destroy it or something similarly stimulating. Next up was “Drive” which seems to be one of your typical plotless thug movies. Somebody beats up somebody else to get something. Yadda, yadda, yadda. There’s also a new Sherlock Holmes movie coming out it seems making ready to make me spout profanity as I leave the theatre about how completely they’ve destroyed the spirit of the original Conan Doyle genre. And lastly, “Warrior” is apparently one of those stories about a war vet who comes home, doesn’t have any money and decides to become a UFC fight champion to make money to save the house or farm or pay for grandma’s operation. Whichever it is the preview, was nice enough to give away the climax in which the guy has to fight his own brother in the finals. What a devious twist! Pity they told me that BEFORE I gave them the $5. <br />
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The Movie<br />
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So now after 20 minutes we get down to the movie which, as you will no doubt be unsurprised to learn, is your standard adventure slash-em up western-but-with swords bit. People with impossibly white teeth (and some with no eyebrows) fight each other, heal impossibly fast and fall from impossible heights without any harm whatsoever. Easy enough.<br />
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Excessively high level summaries aside, just take the Lord of the Rings and replace it with a weird squiggly, tentacle mask and you’ve about got it. In the beginning (ages and ages ago), evil necromancers (what’s any movie without necromancers, after all) created a terrible mask that they wished to use to enslave the whole world. Well, the barbarian tribes got wind of this and so they united and had a huge and terrible war. As a result they destroyed the mask and broke it into a dozen pieces that they scattered through the world under the protection of the tribes. That takes you up through about the opening credits.<br />
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Ages go by and people are still fighting about things but not always about the latest in fashion headgear. In one of these petty squabbles, Conan’s mother, herself a great warrior, is grievously wounded. With her last dying words, the pregnant woman gasps, “I want to see my baby before I die!” so in what I can only describe as the clumsiest C-section ever, Conan’s father plunges his sword into his wife’s abdomen without even looking down and within seconds has produced the instantly wailing infant. Conan’s mother quickly expires from the botched surgery while his father wails his grief that he didn’t pay more attention in nursing school. <br />
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More years go by and Conan (that’s pronounced COnan like Conan O’Brien, btw, not coNAN like that OTHER barbarian) grows into a boy. He wants to be a warrior so he and the other children his age are set a challenge. They must take an egg in their mouths and run around some mountain and the first one back without breaking the egg gets to be a warrior. So the boys run out some distance, then stop to beat the shit out of one another and break everyone else’s eggs when suddenly they’re attacked by a band of 7 or 8 large brutal-looking men twice their size. The other boys, of course, wisely run away but Conan wades in and decapitates the whole lot of bandits. In dramatic fashion, Conan arrives back at the village carrying the warrior’s heads and casually spits his unbroken egg on the ground. It’s at about this point that we’re supposed to believe he’s quite a bad-ass.<br />
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Well, as you might expect, not long after, some new evil dude decides he’s going to do the Blues Brothers thing and “put the mask back together.” He arrives at Conan’s village having gotten all but the last piece. Evil dude’s armies descend on Conan’s village (which has managed to field quite a sizeable fighting force considering it’s just a tiny village) and bloodshed ensues. It is at about this point that the movie engages in one of my personal movie pet peeves. Either through some complete failure in logic or a flaw in the editing process, evil dude sends in his horsemen, then he sends in his footmen and THEN he lets the town have it with the archers. It is just this sort of disregard for basic military protocol that makes the infantry cut all the archer’s bowstrings the night before a big fight. Evil dude’s footmen don’t want arrows in their backs either. Anyway, long story short, evil dude gets the last piece of the mask, Conan’s dad gets melted to death by a small vat of molten steel that seems to just stay hot FOREVER and evil dude escapes. Conan, however does too but not before he manages to cut the nose off of one of evil dude’s cohorts.<br />
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So flash forward several more years and Conan has buffed up into quite the justice-dealing hunk of man meat. We find him first fighting to free a colony of slaves by rolling boulders down from the mountains onto the camp. Doubtless he’d forgotten that groups of slaves chained together or in cages tend to suffer more from falling rocks than guards who can move about more freely, but his heart is in the right place. Conan and his merry band go on to free the slaves including several dozen topless women who remain topless for several minutes as they carouse in celebration. It’s not exactly clear WHY any of them are topless but it’ll certainly make the television edit of the movie shorter.<br />
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Conan now starts to pick up clues about the man who killed his father all those years ago. He tracks down one after another without any really notable results except when he finds the man whose nose he cut off as a boy. By now the guy’s wearing a leather face-bra to protect the hole in his face and when Conan finds him he takes the opportunity to shove his finger into the hole until an unpleasantness ensues. Apparently it’s not fatal unpleasantness, however, since Conan has a more brutal method of execution in mind for him. Mr. no-nose runs a slave community so Conan forces him to swallow the key to the front gates and then pushes him out amongst his slaves to be thoroughly “searched” for the key. <br />
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Alright, my patience with this movie nearly exhausted, we move into really fast-forward mode. Conan finally finds evil dude and his daughter (a witch). They have the standard cliché fights: fight in an impossible physical situation (this time on a large rotating wheel), fights involving two swords each, a fight between Conan and some sand djinns summoned by the witchy daughter, fight with a monster in a dungeon with a bunch of tentacles. Between fights, Conan manages to schtoop the pretty girl and say those magical words: “I live, I love, and I slay. I am content.”<br />
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All in all, it was exactly what you would expect. Excessive gore and insufficient plot but I will say that it had my attention. It was, of course, entirely and utterly predictable but it did have moments of amusement. The eye candy factor was fairly high and on that account I give it a five out of ten. It’s a movie that I will very soon forget, but it’s one that I paid five dollars for and you can’t take that away from it. Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-81681719061358879432011-08-26T22:02:00.000-05:002011-09-21T18:45:44.691-05:00Movies: Alfred Hitchcock’s : “Easy Virtue” – 1928 [silent]It’s been an entire day since I resolved to watch and review all the Hitchcock films and I’ll admit that his 1928 silent film was an initial challenge to my resolve. In this day and age of HD video and theatre-quality sound, watching a film with no real audio takes a surprising amount of concentration. As if that isn’t enough, it’s even clearer how far we’ve come in the intervening century when you can’t help but notice that even the edges of the screen fade in and out of view because the illumination is inconsistent. Quite a bit is left to the imagination and in some ways, that’s a good thing. In other ways, watching a movie at 11pm that requires this much concentration is just asking for trouble.<br />
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The plot synopsis is fairly standard, though it reveals a sensibility that we would today find boggling. Larita Filton is in the midst of a divorce from her drunkard husband and at the same time ensnarled in a bit of impropriety with a painter (Claude) who has been commissioned to do her portrait. Larita does finally escape her marriage but her honor and reputation is sullied forever when she’s “found guilty of misconduct” with Claude. Her reputation in tatters, she escapes to the French Riviera. There she meets John who falls desperately and almost immediately in love with her. Larita keeps mum about her past and only John’s mother suspects that something might not be on the up-and-up. The couple are quickly married but not shortly after, the meddling mom finds a picture of Larita in the paper and the connection with her scandalous past is made. Remaining married is, of course, unthinkable and Larita steps aside so that John can divorce with his honor intact. <br />
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Despite the lack of actual audible dialog, the movie doesn’t suffer from a vacuum of memorable quotes. Early on, the love interest, Claude, writes Larita a love note and it’s as sappy and as generic as could be possibly imagined:<br />
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<blockquote>Darling,<br />
Why suffer that foul brute when you know I’d give anything I have in the world to make you happy?<br />
--Claude</blockquote><br />
Near the end, the Larita spars with John’s mother in a manner so standard between generations that it’s almost cliché:<br />
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<blockquote><b>Mother</b>: In our world we do not understand this code of Easy Virtue<br />
<b>Larita</b>: In your world you understand very little of anything</blockquote><br />
Larita’s position is summed up quite nicely by her closing line: “Shoot, there’s nothing left to kill!” Her virtue lost, her prospects dim, there is nothing else for her to live for. Sensibilities have certainly changed, haven’t they?<br />
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Visually, there are a few interesting moments as well. During some of Larita’s time in the Riviera she takes in a few sporting events and it occurred to me as I watched (somewhat bored, honestly) that audiences of the time might very well have been fascinated by the prospect of watching filmed sport. With the cinema still a relatively new and novel art, things we find mundane today would doubtless have been viewed with breathless wonder. Also, earlier on, John anticipates the response to his proposal from Larita by phone and we’re treated to an extended segment of the telephone operator connecting their call and then reacting as she listens in on their conversation. These are images of a day long, long past.<br />
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To close, while I’ll admit that I didn’t find much Hitchcock in “Easy Virtue” I did find plenty of 1928 which is almost as good. While these bygone relics don’t entertain in the way that modern movies do, they do act to make us think and help us to know where society has gone before. Whether these changes are progress or regress is left as an exercise to the viewer.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-67723313939373162652011-08-25T18:19:00.000-05:002011-09-21T18:45:44.692-05:00Movies - Fright Night - 2011Today’s ‘next available movie’ was Fright Night. I will admit that going in I was expecting an utterly mindless slasher flick. When it was over, I’d watched a nearly mindless slasher flick but it had its up sides. This trip was my first to the newly restyled theatre at Michigan road and 86th redubbed “The Movie Buff Theater.” I’m not sure I see any real elements of movie buffness in evidence but it was at least semi-clean and utterly quiet. When I questioned the cashier about the utter desolation she acted as if she had no idea what I was talking about. Apparently such things are typical. I should also say that I went into this movie with absolutely no foreknowledge. I’d heard of it from movie listings but hadn’t seen a preview or in fact heard any word that I remembered so I was utterly clueless at the onset.<br />
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The Previews<br />
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The Movie Buff theatre is certainly no frills in that before the movie starts there is… silence, utter and complete. Awaiting a movie which ones assumes to be suspenseful it does create a certain amount of tension. It’s unclear whether the movie will fade in gradually or crash into presence on the screen like a semi-truck full of cymbals getting into a wreck on the interstate. When finally the previews did begin, they certainly didn’t skimp. For the third time I saw a preview for the “50/50” movie. Long story short, guy is diagnosed with cancer lives out the last days of his life… maybe? I’d say it qualifies for the list of movies not to avoid like the plague but it would be one to take a date to. (A date who doesn’t mind occasional scribbling in a notebook.) Next up was “The Woman in Black” a very gothic-looking horror movie about a gent trapped in an isolated and apparently haunted house. I’d say that one deserves an intentional look though it’s not for the easily creeped out. The sci-fi movie “In Time” has a title that doesn’t really do it justice and I think it’ll eventually suffer for that defect. This futuristic yarn is at heart a crime drama but with the twist that in the future the only real currency of exchange is time itself. When your “bank clock” runs down…. Well, you drop dead. Interesting concept I’d say. Next up we have one of those previews that leaves one wondering what the movie’s actually about. “Killer Elite” has something to do with shooting people. More than that I couldn’t really tell you. Lastly and mercifully we had “Real Steel,” the movie about an old down-and-out robotic boxer who finds new inspiration at the hands of a child-hero. This movie is guaranteed to annoy me if it comes up in a “next available movie” review. Kid heroes piss me off.<br />
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The Movie<br />
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The first five minutes of this movie are so sudden and so gory that I honestly expected the director to pop up and yell, “Cut!” With no pre-amble or setup whatsoever a family of three is devoured by some monstrous beast. After the devouring, we pan out typical Hollywood style to show the whole neighborhood full of cookie-cutter houses… that are… well… JUST LIKE THE NEIGHBORHOOD YOU LIVE IN! OH SPOOKY! Well, not really, but it’s a pretty typical movie device.<br />
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So to set the scene we have Charley, a recently rehabilitated geek who has abandoned his old posse to hang out with the cool kids. That is, until Ed, one of his recently abandoned buddies, contacts him to say that one of their mutual friends has been killed by a vampire. As it turns out, this vampire just happens to be Charley’s hulky new neighbor who is putting the moves on Charley’s mom. After some amount of negotiation and blackmail, the duo find themselves vampire hunting. <br />
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Unfortunately, before they can really make much headway, Ed runs into “Jerry the Vampire” (as the movie points out repeatedly, what the hell kind of name is Jerry for a vampire?) and is taken in typical vampire style to the dark side. It’s not long, however, before Jerry learns that Charley too knows the truth and quickly Charley and his family become targets. A lot of gratuitous violence ensues which everyone survives just fine (conveniently).<br />
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After this wake-up call that he just might not be able to destroy the undead all on his own, Charley decides to enlist the help of Peter Vincent, famous Las Vegas act specializing in on-stage fake vampire killing. This relationship goes through the standard stages of any such movie relationship: <br />
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Stage 1: Oh, it’s all an act kid. <br />
Stage 2: It’s all an act kid, but my family WAS killed by vampires. <br />
Stage 3: It’s not just an act kid, but I’m too chickenshit to help. <br />
And finally, Stage 4: Oh hell, let’s go kill some vampires!<br />
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So now having a reluctant ally to assist, Charley and Peter head off armed with Peter’s collection of vampire killing goodies (wooden stake guns, holy water and a wooden stake blessed by St. Michael that will revert all the vampires victims back to non-vampire form). In typical movie fashion, some drama happens, things look hopeless for a brief period and then all the vampires end up dead. Happy ending ensues. Nothing very surprising about any of that.<br />
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At its heart this is a typical suburban vampire tale to help inspire you to keep a little closer eye on what the neighbors are doing out in their back yards late at night. It has all the standard plot devices and processes from holy water to the standard vampire speech: “I’m doing you a favor making you undead. You can live forever!” So in that respect it was as cookie cutter as the houses depicted in the opening scene. <br />
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I will say though that it touched a bit on some interesting and newish points. Our vampire antagonist thought ahead and actually had small rooms built into his house to act as ‘meat lockers’ so he could keep his victims in captivity as he periodically fed on them. This is a practical matter not often touched on. Further, rather than being a single individual of an undead form, this vampire is one of a species. It is infrequent (ok, less than 50% of the time at least that the vampire is looked upon as a biological entity rather than a mere result of satanic influence. So while the standard vampire lore was still in place, the story did go in somewhat non-standard directions.<br />
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The best thing about the movie, however, was the casting. While the story itself was somewhat lame, Colin Farrell made a wonderfully menacing member of the undead empire and David Tennant of Dr. Who fame did a spot on portrayal of a Las Vegas showman who was at once less than he appeared and more than we expected. To me Tennant saved this movie from utter oblivion. So it earns five stars out of a possible ten. It loses stars for its lack of originality and needless use of violence but as usual the actors save the day. <br />
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Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-30327110428232498482011-08-24T15:25:00.001-05:002011-09-21T18:45:44.693-05:00Movies: 30 Minutes or Less [3/10]<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To me the idea is simple and intuitive: You decide on no notice to traipse off to the movies and when you get there you watch the next available movie no matter what that happens to be. What could be easier? There are three possible outcomes. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Outcome the first: You end up seeing a movie that you would have seen anyway. Delay of gratification fail but nothing really lost or gained otherwise.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Outcome the second: You see a movie that you would have ignored otherwise and it turns out to have been the most awe-inspiring and amazing cinematic experience of your entire life. Or... some shade of gray between that and “eh, should have stayed home and watched Jerry Springer.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Outcome the third: You see a movie so bad that you can have endless fun regaling all of your friends/readers/countrymen about just how utterly and absolutely moronic it was and invoke mirth if you tell the story right or at least pity if you don't. With these three possibilities at hand, I fail to see how any such scantily-planned scheme can fail. (As long as you ignore the $7-$12 you paid to get in, anyway.)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So today's winner of $7 was the movie “30 Minutes or Less.” Instinct and reputation said immediately that this movie was an utter loser but one must stay true to one's beliefs so I boldly went forward unto the ticket stand and placed my order. I was immediately accosted by a rather glacial woman next to the cashier who was hanging all over a notebook filled with movie reviews like too much icing on too small a cupcake. “Why'd you pick that one?” she said. Ever-ready and well-rehearsed I went into my standard spiel on movie selection criteria which left her with exactly as much information as she had before. She went on to explain that she lives in Frankfort and “they don't get no fancy movies like this in Frankfort.” Having been born in that town, I can well believe her statement. I turned my attention back to the cashier (a teenage girl) who handed me my ticket and conspiratorially whispered “You'll like it, it's really funny.” Now my doom was assured.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The Previews</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Whenever I'm in movies I always think to myself that I should actually make note of the previews and review THOSE so that I can make an informed decision about actually picking a movie later (gasp, I know, sacrilege, right?). In this case, a couple of movies actually struck me as having some weird non-zero potential. The faithful-servant turned crook movie of the fall seems to be “Tower Heist” (due out November 4<sup>th</sup>) and it intrigued me not only because of its cast of actors I've actually seen before and can name but also it's sort of sweet timeliness. Like any movie-going schmuck I love justice and especially when it's at the expense of rich, powerful corporate types. I'll definitely put this on my “don't offhandedly ignore” list. The other movie that made me actually bother to write down its name in the movie theatre was “Moneyball,” (September 23) a baseball movie about the Oakland A's and their success at using analytical methods to win baseball games rather than relying on the conventional wisdom of 150 years of baseball history. When you put baseball and analytical analysis together you've got me hooked already. So I'll put that down solidly in the “think about going to see on purpose” category.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The Movie</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Yes, hard to believe that after ALL that blather there is actually still a movie to be reviewed. Well, before I go on, I should say a bit about spoilers. In this case, there's nothing to be spoiled so no worries. Long story short, Nick's a pizza delivery guy who seems to have only one actual friend, Chet. Chet is the highlight of this pair and he has some wonderful one-liners. Early on he sets the stage for Nick's character with the line: “Dude, you had a Lunchables for dinner last night. You are a total manchild.” That about sums up those two.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Dwayne is the maniacal idiot son of an ex-Marine. He and his sidekick Travis plot to kill Dwayne's dad for the inheritance but in order to do this they need $100,000 to hire a hit-man to whom he is referred by a stripper with the moniker of Juicy. So their plan to get this money, is to call for a pizza delivery and when the delivery guy arrives, they'll strap a bomb to him and make him rob a bank. It's utterly fool-proof. Dwayne and Travis too have a few amusing exchanges but this one made even me blink with a bit of aghast surprise (paraphrasing a bit):</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dwayne</b>: I have an idea for a cash business that's just crawling with hot bitches!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Travis</b>: Taco stand?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dwayne</b>: No</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Travis</b>: Abortion Clinic?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So after much kerfuffle the plan comes to pass. Dwayne and Travis wire Nick with a bomb and he finds himself forced to rob a bank in the company of a surprisingly faithful Chet. The duo makes the standard preparations for the robbery and manage to pull it off in a friendly fashion that gives one faith in the kind, honest hearts of criminals everywhere. After even more unnecessary and gratuitous violence they thwart the bad-guys and even end up with the $100,000 for their trouble which they don't even consider actually returning to the bank. There seems to be little justice in this movie that can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a comedy or an action movie and even takes a short side-trip into the maudlin. This movie gets a solid 3 out of 10 stars due only to the fact that you could get some enjoyment about of the first 30 minutes... assuming you had had enough to drink beforehand.</div>Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-36290521570514141152011-08-16T20:03:00.004-05:002011-09-16T23:38:46.749-05:00Islam: The Straight Path – John L. Esposito [1998] – Chapter 1<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Below you will find my notes and random observations from the book indicated by the title of this post. It is hoped that it will be effortless to differentiate between those locations in which I provide information from the book proper and those in which I offer personal observation, illumination or pose further lines of inquiry. Whenever any doubt is evident it should be assumed that anything even remotely factual should be attributed to the author of the book and anything that would be construed as otherwise can be attributed to me personally.</span></i><br />
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Links to related posts: (<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/08/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 1</a>, <a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito.html">Chapter 2</a>, Chapter 3 [<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_13.html">Part 1</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_16.html">Part 2</a>][<a href="http://tatteredthread.blogspot.com/2011/09/islam-straight-path-john-l-esposito_8099.html">Part 3</a>])<br />
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It is evident early on that “Islam: The Straight Path” is authored by one who is himself a believer in the Muslim faith. Similarly, it will become quickly evident that your commentator is not a believer in the Muslim faith or, in fact, a believer in any faith at all. As such, the book’s author and the blog’s author will be quickly distinguishable. While the author of the blog will do everything in his power to maintain respectful of all possible beliefs, it is of fundamental importance that we all deal with this important area of study as frankly and openly as possible.<br />
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The book opens with a few simple numerical facts and some historical background. The adherents of the Muslim faith number 900 million strong with 85% belonging to the Sunni division and 15% to the Shii. Before Muhammad, Arabian society was tribal in nature. Nomadic herders wandered the desert tending their flocks moving from one oasis to the next. Rule of law was primarily enforced by the threat of retaliation. Social structure was familial in nature with many families combining to form a clan and several clans forming a tribe. Leadership of the tribe was determined by a vote of senior members of each family. Warfare was common but generally focused on assimilation rather than annihilation. Religious practices were polytheistic with Allah at the center but different tribes adopted different members of the pantheon as their patron or preferred objects of worship.<br />
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Muhammad was called to be the prophet of Allah in 610 C.E. at the age of 40. He was orphaned at a young age but married at the age of 25 and had 3 sons (all of whom died as infants) and 4 daughters by the time of his calling. He often retreated into the mountains to contemplate life and its injustices and it was on one of the retreats during the month of Ramadan that he received his first prophetic message from the Angel Gabriel. Over the next 22 years Muhammad continued to receive prophecy from Allah and these prophecies and teachings were compiled into the Quran or, “The Recitation”.<br />
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At first, as with most prophets, Muhammad thought himself crazy. Luckily, his wife and her Christian friend (ironic) were able to convince him that he was in fact not crazy but instead the chosen one of God. As time went on and his following grew, Muhammad and his teachings also came under the scrutiny of government representatives who resented his insistence on justice in public affairs that ran afoul of the typically corrupt practices of the time. After 10 years of preaching in Mecca, Muhammad was invited to migrate to Medina to solve a dispute(?) for a public official there. It is this migration to Medina in 622 that is viewed as the true beginning of the Muslim faith. Muhammad quickly gained influence in Medina and wages periodic war with his previous home, Mecca. In 630 Mecca finally capitulates but Muhammad doesn’t have long to celebrate as he dies not long thereafter in 632.<br />
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Culturally, Muhammad is held up as the example in all things good and pure in Muslim culture from hygiene to politics and prayer. Contrary to popular Western opinion, Muhammad is not the founder of Islam so much as the one who brought the previously polytheistic Islamic culture back into line with the classic monotheistic beliefs of Abraham from which all Arabs draw their lineage. The Muslim faith existed before Muhammad but needed correction in the same way that Muslims believe that Judaism and Christianity need correction to bring them into line with the will of Allah. Muslims share many common aspects of their faith with their Christian and Jewish neighbors and even go so far as to compare themselves to the oppressed followers of Moses in the Old Testament. <br />
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The schism between Islam and the other religions of the region are, unsurprisingly, blamed on Jewish influence. Muhammad attempted to approach his Jewish neighbors in an attempt to “correct” their belief systems and even went so far as to suggest that Muslims should direct their daily prayers toward Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the Jewish populace refused these “corrections” and prayers were then redirected to Mecca as they remain today. Since this rejection of sharia (“The Straight Path”) by Jewish leaders, the Muslim mujahidin (holy warriors) wage jihad against their Jewish oppressors. The martyrs in this war, or shahid (literally: witnesses), are viewed as heroes since they gave all defending the truth of Allah.<br />
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The Quran, dictated to Muhammad over the period of 22 years is seen as absolute and incorruptible. Its 114 chapters are arranged in ascending order of length and were collected after Muhammad’s death. Like the Bible, the Quran considers itself self-evident. Anyone seeking validation of the Quran need merely look around at nature and the world around us or the history of the world in which the unjust are repeatedly smote by Allah. Of the Jewish faith, the Quran claims that the Torah was indeed originally the word of God but was unfortunately corrupted by the desire of mankind. Christians seem to be viewed as idolaters who have placed Jesus, who is acknowledged as a prophet of God, above God himself. The Quran, by contrast, is the centerpiece of not only Muslim faith but the Arabic language. The Quran is viewed as the very epitome of perfect and unsurpassable literature not only for its content but because it is written in Arabic, the one true language of God.<br />
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As a text, the Quran bears many similarities to the Bible but also bears some striking differences. For example, the Quran repeats the famous episode in which Abraham is called upon to sacrifice Isaac but in the Quran’s version it is Ismail who is to be sacrificed instead. Where the Bible and the Quran are the same, it is claimed, they are the divinely inspired word of God. Where they differ, it is a corruption. Most pointedly, the Quran specifically points out the uniqueness and oneness of Allah. Allah has no sons. No partners. This seems to invalidate the entire Christian religion in one small sentence. One can see why there’s conflict.<br />
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The Quranic universe is composed of three principle parts: heaven, earth and hell. Heaven is represented as a mansion surrounded by peaceful bliss and flowing rivers. It’s inhabited by nubile young women and they’re apparently not shy yet still perpetually virginal. In typical fashion hell is a rain of torment and fire. Earth is the domain of man and the jinn. Jinn are intelligent spirits that roam the Earth and, like man, will be judged on the day of reckoning as they can be either of good or evil varieties. Joining these we have the typical angels and of course Satan. Satan, or Iblis, seems to have a different story than the Biblical one. When Allah created man, he commanded all the angels to bow down but Satan refused (presumably as an act of jealousy). For this refusal Allah cast Satan out but Satan managed to negotiate his punishment so that he was allowed roam the earth until the judgment day. Presumably for the purpose of tempting mankind into hell.<br />
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Finally, the difference that I suspect causes the most trouble (aside from the blatant denial of Jesus’ position as son of God) is the concept of the fundamental nature of mankind. From Biblical tradition we have an inherited evil or sin for each man or woman on the planet. The missteps of Eve haunt us all even to this day. The Quranic tradition seems much more forgiving and frankly, much more just. In the Quran there is no original sin. Each man is good or sinful based on his own actions. Man is an agent of Allah’s will and will be judged based on his own ability to carry out that will, not based on some inherited debt of virtue over which is has no control. Even more galling perhaps, in the Quran’s telling of man’s expulsion from the Garden, it’s not Eve who gives in to temptation first but Adam. <br />
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In conclusion (at least for this chapter) I find a lot of this fairly typical. The Quran is deemed perfect in the same way that the Bible is deemed perfect since God will watch over his word for Christians. Islam claims the flag of “absolutely and completely right” while the Bible does the same. Clearly one or the other must be flawed but the decision for that seems to have much more to do with what you were raised believing than any real qualitative differences. They are two very similar documents cut from very similar cloth with just enough niggling differences to make the adherents of each really, really dislike each other. I will say that the Quran seems much more fair than the Bible, at least based on this small overview. The abolishment of original sin and introduction of personal responsibility ring very true with me. The sociopolitical revolution of Islam that brought order to a tribal society is deeply important and should be recognized. The historical importance of Islam should not be diminished by any perceptions of its negative influence on current events.Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12296425.post-42784319020673961172011-08-15T19:36:00.000-05:002011-09-21T18:44:59.501-05:00Storyboard - Misc 6/28/2011Like any human I've found myself up and down on the energy required to go out and take photos. To the best of my recollection, the photoset from 6/28 is an amalgamation of a couple of days of random photography. <br />
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So this fly, as I recall, was buzzing around in Laura's backyard. For some reason I cannot fathom it stood still long enough for me to get its picture with the macro and even preened itself with that cool "I'm going to rub my eyes with my feet" move that flies like to do so much.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YgS4mOyBQqIDHhbH0-d97Q?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="266" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yli2rdBFU5E/TgqHkAQMbVI/AAAAAAAA9E4/SU8JbCmQuBU/s400/005.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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Yeah, this next picture is a bit questionable but I trust you all to be adults about it. Birds do it and beetles do it. <br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/113098971055847431819/20110628?feat=embedwebsite#5623457064192226706"><img height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0OHrH7mAqNIfw3gYo5_xEh36-2GxjqljUMwwE3raMFK1WqZSozhVVG3yOvkPfgD5p80DqWajUzO7JMiCexw4_3rQ5eUOse7soA_cErt9bxdGXw6qgMMGw0GlvgUNo4S4pAtRO/s400/027.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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These two are always a hoot. <br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Zd4A_hvt4FzKIeFBWtyZ0A?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaPwyb9-xmUX_PH-gt-Z1eGMskyuVCqLoV9WbtA3yK04gG4LGZ9jZIV1CYws67XIhx_uDwqOLJJI_JYt1Gyp09j_WEMKbevqWt8vZxBvPnlSIDoho3ARe0Il2LRPcGRXin8ThJ/s400/045.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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This shot is from the Wabash river beach. For once it's not flooding.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KoUeXBAIwHWmndWDN9oCaw?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggsUrmxQWOAbbILq3kgcIr5vmYde0xUQoolerkdG4O91bGKk_lpccWdBacEIySHOZbxjAVixKzTgRt_s3b6BDG_DSxYJz7-yfzCEmiR1S4fxLSdzdFBDu9BM-IUHnioxAlljbo/s400/046.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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To continue the craziness of this random time period, there was also a horse show in this. I like the way the horse holds itself so stiffly like it's posing to be a chess piece.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ojTapPwzqpYYgOw_79GU5Q?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKmwkPR31ObMi__qxeK1QJfYZczR26IqYKYa6x94jIRbz3VtIRsKKyJEMOuoOZbXMlr7M_yT7KWfk3VGxUTV_yI-yEIRRx2guQPAZgJo7Q0fabB6spJB1YZypa1kDoUcJiVX6-/s400/035.JPG" width="377" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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And in an accidental recreation of Muybridge we prove that when horses run they DO get all four feet off the ground at once. (Quite a difference 139 years can make)<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9anlgtgi1h5QU1nofezYxQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr-hAsrCAef3DI5wBl5qEwLr_Ut91aTuFZSiGbu_wn4osmwB6nPw0xfO9u7RVl1Y8U9GQXAPTXHedoWQDMiM4irB9Ru70pZH1HR6Q5M50PfoijkZWhOOdjCYkFHA5zgqtMHzkB/s400/062.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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Laura has a way with the savage beast... <br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0ICBW3Ga2NxITZmSRtA85Q?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbT2ofv6MMeo-9CC5J3hVBYjNlmjljo1SXFA0nKrgzWcc3_yEhXiS3eOBnPLhARfsFB3BX-Rf6nUnvs4cbETJidzkKHpBPp62s8KIYHiWShUa-xGzQinyJaVrQuGsz4eXPeaSN/s400/088.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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Such deep and soulful eyes. It honestly breaks my heart that we take these creatures... though this one does have sort of an eyebooger thing going.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tvRfmbdwg4zTcPCq19jzig?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc-NctdqFEblLZDjrNf0rIRipQCdfhygPoqRYmAcGzuI4c0zs0VDyROcFNMvjI6A3y6_CIZ8OM75V6rgPM7CYhXHen7nhF5ya7R9tK8LXhnSK1KJMpfy78HXHgFCqfC_EfTxoo/s400/086.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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And the stereotypical shot of Indy downtown from near the state museum.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/HwWR3OuOrAwdVjGNjzuOWQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0wL4bLYw_hH3zum2UMGNPtebIfUpu2SsHqJqdlCRqZtz1cvsnJ71svJikXMgLPlbH35BSEYUGo6pXSZ8XTtDbo4u-GxcyBlOUXuf9l_K2lITmNXz8soj_TbiYahQwXYAXlX2/s400/090.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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I love this shot. Laura's beautiful (nothing new there) but the gondolier in the background on the cellphone is a priceless anachronism.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/113098971055847431819/20110628?feat=embedwebsite#5623467234508461890"><img height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAuZHQBsZb16YOrxd4WbqzePrlu5g3_iweH_gPDvuzbgxA9Bx0Hz__ADcRCKi3eDTTWaLi-ApbBg-eF_CbnSMXXnJJc7kYDK_u7BIOaf2Yh3gt5tfFg4kz4XU6SIotQE8mIcSy/s400/093.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/slavenrm/20110628?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">2011-06-28</a></td></tr>
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Trebor Nevalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10060017886345376583noreply@blogger.com1