Lars

If you are from Canada or Australia or the Netherlands or Spain…Christmas has become so secularized that one encounters religious elements quite seldom unless they chose to. Religious elements can be enjoyed as cultural-historical artifact in a non-religious way…and if someone puts a nativity scene or a christmas tree with an angel on to…[Read more]

I’m a black pudding fan, myself, Robert 🙂

@bellerose I’d be interested in reading some snippets of the stuff you’re studying, if you care to post any.

And back on the subject of Islam and Muslims, I read about the Egyptian massacre a day or two ago, where there was a bombing at a mosque that killed over 250 people including 27 children.  The mosque was a known Sufi one.    So I wonder…[Read more]

How interesting, Belle!  That sounds like a fascinating course.  I’m guessing it’s dealing with ‘western’ criminals but still, an interesting subject 🙂

@bellerose What are you studying?  What’s the content and purpose of the course you are doing?

I thought Thanksgiving addressed the ‘family’ get together here.  Because the children are all adults now, with their own partners and their own kids,  we celebrate Cranksgiving – a convenient Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas where we know they aren’t conflicted as to whose family to visit.  We do the full Thanksgiving feast, add all…[Read more]

You know, Belle, if more people said, “I don’t know any different” it would be a huge step forward for the species 🙂

I’ve learned that there’s a lot more to learn than I’ll ever be capable of learning, and that’s just as regards day to day wisdom.  Forget anything larger!

I do, however, feel that better brains than mine will be needed to come…[Read more]

Why ‘better’ and not ‘differently’?  The American attitude towards terrorism appears to be fear. I lived in London for forty years of IRA terrorism.  We stopped being terrified and began to heal ourselves.  Then we extended that slowly.  What we did not do, was to call anybody less than human.  Dehumanizing was what the fuhrer did to Jews befo…[Read more]

Ass-kicking to teach non-violence?  Sort of like fucking for virginity…

Belle, the future is changeable, the past less so.  However, if you feel extermination is the answer, I’d suggest you review history to see how that worked out.  Have you ever seen any of the North Korea propaganda against the USA?  Whilst to you it may seem ridiculous and untrue, to many there it is seen as fact.  Why do you think the USA is si…[Read more]

Belle, we need to understand how an innocent baby turned into a terrorist, and how to attempt to repair what humans have done to humans.  Humans are not animals in the perjurative sense.  (We are all animals biologically).  It is fear that makes us angry.  We have to understand the thought processes of the people whose actions cause us fear.  Th…[Read more]

Belle it is us who need to understand, if we are to approach the idea of healing the tragic situation.

In Any Tongue – David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd)

Home and done it’s just begun
His heart weighs more, more than it ever did before
What has he done? God help my son
Hey, stay a while, I’ll stay up
No sugar is enough to bring sweetness to his cup
I know sorrow tastes the same on any tongue
How was I to feel it
When a gun was in my hands
And I’d…[Read more]

@robert  Excellent.