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<channel>
	<title>Balafon &#187; History</title>
	<atom:link href="http://balafon.net/archives/category/history/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://balafon.net</link>
	<description>Shouting Into the Void</description>
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		<title>Better the Devil You Know</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/1335</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/1335#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 May 2011 03:01:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=1335</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It seems to me that tonight&#8217;s federal election results in Canada are a reaction to the instability of the last few years. The Liberals have distinguished themselves from the Conservatives merely by reflexive opposition to any policy supported by the Tories, regardless of the merits and indeed whether or not the policy was initiated by [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It seems to me that tonight&#8217;s federal election results in Canada are a reaction to the instability of the last few years.  The Liberals have distinguished themselves from the Conservatives merely by reflexive opposition to any policy supported by the Tories, regardless of the merits and indeed whether or not the policy was initiated by the Liberals in their previous tenure (Afghanistan, fighter jets, etc.).</p>
<p>It also seems to me that the NDP will be a much better opposition than the Liberals, since their primary policies actually differ in substantial ways from the Conservatives&#8217;, and they&#8217;ll perhaps be less likely to oppose sensible positions simply because they&#8217;re the Tories&#8217;.</p>
<p>The thing that has most struck me is the sanctimonious tone of the Liberals&#8217; and NDP&#8217;s rhetoric, especially in the soi-disant grass-roots internet media meme-mongering.  Do you really expect me to believe that if Stephen Harper is a lying cheating scumbag polishing a pair of jackboots in his back room then Ignatieff and Layton are pure as the driven snow?  I think it&#8217;s that kind of contempt for the common sense of the ordinary Canadian that has given Harper his majority.</p>
<p>Canadians are tired of the self-righteous wrangling over trumped-up rhetoric, and have handed Harper a mandate to finally get things done, Layton the responsibility to provide real opposition on issues rather than partisanism, and Ignatieff a huge slapdown.</p>
<p>And good on Elizabeth May, who at this writing looks to win her seat.</p>
<p>UPDATE: An example of sanctimonious partisanism and not: the NDP supporters booed when Jack Layton congratulated Stephen Harper.  The Conservative supporters cheered when Stephen Harper congratulated Jack Layton.</p>
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		<title>Cuneiform Demonstration</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/1263</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/1263#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:14:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cuneiform]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=1263</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Courtesy of Daily Hebrew via Awilum.com comes a great demonstration of cuneiform writing:]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Courtesy of Daily Hebrew via <a href="http://awilum.com/?p=1426">Awilum.com</a> comes a great <a href="http://www.dailyhebrew.com/2010/10/19/cuneiform-demonstration/">demonstration of cuneiform writing</a>:</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Aux armes, citoyens!</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/1214</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/1214#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:47:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=1214</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Charlie Stross waxes sycophantic about France. One of his reasons is that France refused to go to war with Iraq. Oh so principled. Meanwhile, the French were: Getting cheap conflict hardwood from civil-war-ravaged Liberia. Bombing the crap out of Cote d&#8217;Ivoire. Slaughtering peaceful protesters, also in Cote d&#8217;Ivoire.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Charlie Stross <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/07/five-reasons-to-envy-the-frenc.html">waxes sycophantic</a> about France.  One of his reasons is that France refused to go to war with Iraq.  Oh so principled.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the French were:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/881/en/international_timber_company_dlh_accused_of_fundin">Getting cheap conflict hardwood from civil-war-ravaged Liberia</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/9/french_forces_destroy_ivory_coast_airforce">Bombing the crap out of Cote d&#8217;Ivoire</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/9/140522.shtml">Slaughtering peaceful protesters, also in Cote d&#8217;Ivoire</a>.</li>
</ul>
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		<title>The Danger of &#8220;Scientific Consensus&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/1143</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/1143#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:43:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Space & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scurvy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=1143</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Read a great article this morning on the dangers of scientific consensus. The Royal Navy had established in the 18th century that lemon juice cured scurvy. But in the second half of the 19th century, when steamships&#8217; fast travel times had mostly eliminated the danger of scurvy, scientists enamoured of the new germ theory of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Read a great <a href="http://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm">article</a> this morning on the dangers of scientific consensus.  The Royal Navy had established in the 18th century that lemon juice cured scurvy.  But in the second half of the 19th century, when steamships&#8217; fast travel times had mostly eliminated the danger of scurvy, scientists enamoured of the new germ theory of disease hypothesized that scurvy was in fact caused by bacteria.</p>
<blockquote><p>Over the course of fifty years, scurvy would return to torment not just Polar explorers, but thousands of infants born into wealthy European and American homes.</p></blockquote>
<p>On Scott&#8217;s Antarctic expidition they made sure to boil all their fresh food extra long (in the process destroying all its vitamin C), and immediately began getting scurvy.  They switched to freshly-killed seal while they stayed on the Antarctic coast, which cured them, but on their final push into the interior had to make do with processed food, with fatal results.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Near Miss</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/1100</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/1100#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:20:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Space & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global warming]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=1100</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Thankfully, contrary to the fears expressed in my last post, the Copenhagen conference did not finally end up with a substantive deal. The irony is that most of North America and Europe is experiencing record snowfall and low temperatures.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thankfully, contrary to the fears expressed in my last post, the Copenhagen conference did <i>not</i> finally <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/science/earth/19climate.html?_r=1">end up with a substantive deal</a>.</p>
<p>The irony is that most of North America and Europe is experiencing record snowfall and low temperatures.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Imagine a Snow Boot Stamping on a Human Face &#8212; Forever</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/1094</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/1094#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:45:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global warming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tyranny]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=1094</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It seems that there has been an eleventh-hour deal in Copenhagen. If you don&#8217;t think giving hundreds of millions of dollars to an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy with absolute power over the majority of the world&#8217;s economies is an inevitable recipe for corruption and tyranny, consider this: Lord Monckton, an official delegate from the UK to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It seems that there has been an <a href="http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/134/">eleventh-hour deal in Copenhagen</a>.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t think giving hundreds of millions of dollars to an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy with absolute power over the majority of the world&#8217;s economies is an inevitable recipe for corruption and tyranny, consider this:</p>
<p>Lord Monckton, an official delegate from the UK to Copenhagen, was barred from the conference hall, <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/17/lord-monckton-barred-from-copenhagen-conference-pushed-to-the-ground-by-security/">thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious</a> by the police today.</p>
<p>His crime?  Pointing out that the &#8220;evidence&#8221; for global warming &#8220;climate change&#8221; is <a href="http://balafon.net/archives/1063">suspect at best</a> and <a href="http://balafon.net/archives/1080">completely fraudulent</a> at worst.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m sure there are some who regard this as just a good start.</p>
<p>For some perspective on the mild uptick in temperature at the end of the twentieth century, watch this video:</p>
<p><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8mxmo9DskYE&#038;hl=en_US&#038;fs=1&#038;"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8mxmo9DskYE&#038;hl=en_US&#038;fs=1&#038;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p>
<p><strong>Update</strong>: James Randi, the world&#8217;s foremost debunker of pseudoscience of all kinds, <a href="http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/805-agw-revisited.html">weighs in</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) &#8212; a group of thousands of scientists in 194 countries around the world, and recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize &#8212; has issued several comprehensive reports in which they indicate that they have become convinced that &#8220;global warming&#8221; is and will be seriously destructive to life as we know it, and that Man is the chief cause of it. They say that there is a consensus of scientists who believe we are headed for disaster if we do not stop burning fossil fuels, but a growing number of prominent scientists disagree. Meanwhile, some 32,000 scientists, 9,000 of them PhDs, have signed The Petition Project statement proclaiming that Man is not necessarily the chief cause of warming, that the phenomenon may not exist at all, and that, in any case, warming would not be disastrous.</p>
<p>Happily, science does not depend on consensus. Conclusions are either reached or not, but only after an analysis of evidence as found in nature. It&#8217;s often been said that <strong>once a conclusion is reached, proper scientists set about trying to prove themselves wrong</strong>.</p>
<p>&#8230;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s easy enough to believe that drought, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes are signs of a coming catastrophe from global warming, but these are normal variations of any climate that we &#8212; and other forms of life &#8212; have survived. <strong>Earth has undergone many serious changes in climate, from the Ice Ages to periods of heavily increased plant growth from their high levels of CO2, yet the biosphere has survived</strong>.</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Smoking Gun</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/1080</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/1080#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:53:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Space & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cru emails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global warming]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=1080</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[People with more time on their hands than me have been poring over the source code in the leaked CRU files. Here is a snippet of IDL code that produces a graph showing temperature data for the twentieth century (osborn-tree6/briffa_sep98_d.pro): ; ; Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!! ; yrloc=[1400,findgen(19)*5.+1904] valadj=[0.,0.,0.,0.,0.,-0.1,-0.25,-0.3,0.,-0.1,0.3,0.8, 1.2,1.7,2.5,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6]*0.75 ; fudge [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>People with more <a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1447">time on their hands</a> than me have been poring over the source code in the<a href="http://balafon.net/archives/1063"> leaked CRU files</a>.  Here is a snippet of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDL_%28programming_language%29">IDL</a> code that produces a graph showing temperature data for the twentieth century (osborn-tree6/briffa_sep98_d.pro):</p>
<p><code>;<br />
; Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!<br />
;<br />
yrloc=[1400,findgen(19)*5.+1904]<br />
valadj=[0.,0.,0.,0.,0.,-0.1,-0.25,-0.3,0.,-0.1,0.3,0.8, 1.2,1.7,2.5,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6]*0.75 ; fudge factor<br />
if n_elements(yrloc) ne n_elements(valadj) then message,’Oooops!’<br />
;<br />
yearlyadj=interpol(valadj,yrloc,timey)<br />
</code></p>
<p>That long string of numbers with some negative values in the middle and positive values at the end?  Those numbers are multiplied by the real temperatures to hide a warm period in the 1940s, and exaggerate the temperatures at the end of the century.</p>
<p><strong>This is scientific fraud, pure and simple.</strong></p>
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		<title>Archeology and History</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/1059</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/1059#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:20:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cambyses]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=1059</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Herodotus was right. A team of archeologists has discovered Achaemenid artifacts and human remains near the oasis of Siwa, leading them to believe they have discovered the lost army of Cambyses: It was a rock about 114.8 feet long, 5.9 feet in height and 9.8 feet deep. Such natural formations occur in the desert, but [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Herodotus was right.  A team of archeologists has <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33791672/ns/technology_and_science-science/">discovered</a> Achaemenid artifacts and human remains near the oasis of Siwa, leading them to believe they have discovered the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambyses_of_Persia">lost army of Cambyses</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>It was a rock about 114.8 feet long, 5.9 feet in height and 9.8 feet deep. Such natural formations occur in the desert, but this large rock was the only one in a large area.</p>
<p>&#8220;Its size and shape made it the perfect refuge in a sandstorm,&#8221; Castiglioni said.</p>
<p>Right there, the metal detector of Egyptian geologist Aly Barakat of Cairo University located relics of ancient warfare: a bronze dagger and several arrow tips.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are talking of small items, but they are extremely important as they are the first Achaemenid objects, thus dating to Cambyses&#8217; time, which have emerged from the desert sands in a location quite close to Siwa,&#8221; Castiglioni said.</p>
<p>About a quarter-mile from the natural shelter, the Castiglioni team found a silver bracelet, an earring and few spheres which were likely part of a necklace.</p>
<p>&#8220;An analysis of the earring, based on photographs, indicate that it certainly dates to the Achaemenid period. Both the earring and the spheres appear to be made of silver. Indeed a very similar earring, dating to the fifth century B.C., has been found in a dig in Turkey,&#8221; Andrea Cagnetti, a leading expert of ancient jewelry, told Discovery News.</p></blockquote>
<p>Demonstrates that ancient writers might have known what they were talking about.</p>
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		<title>The Family</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/906</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/906#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:24:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conspiracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evangelical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fundagelical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fundamentalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heresy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the family]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=906</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve recently been reading about the secretive fundagelical political organization described in Jeff Sharlet&#8217;s disturbing book, The Family. Some further links are via Amicus Dei and Slacktivist. While I have some minor quibbles with certain aspects of Sharlet&#8217;s interpretation, the evidence and conclusion are as compelling as they are depressing: the US government &#8212; of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve recently been reading about the secretive fundagelical political organization described in Jeff Sharlet&#8217;s disturbing book, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Family-Jeff-Sharlet/dp/0060560053">The Family</a>.  Some further links are via <a href="http://amicusdei.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/book-review-the-family-by-jeff-sharlet/">Amicus Dei</a> and <a href="http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2009/08/wylie-why-young-life-is-evil.html">Slacktivist</a>.</p>
<p>While I have some minor quibbles with certain aspects of Sharlet&#8217;s interpretation, the evidence and conclusion are as compelling as they are depressing: the US government &#8212; of both parties &#8212; and financial elite are pervaded by a clandestine organization whose express goal is global theocracy, and whose members, lacking any moderation via the wider context of scripture or theology or the main stream of orthodoxy in the church, are, as C.S. Lewis warned, capable of blithely colluding in the worst kind of oppression and violence in the name of &#8220;the will of God&#8221;.</p>
<p><span id="more-906"></span></p>
<p>This seems like a startling conclusion.  Surely the rather kooky fundamentalism that Sharlet describes must remain on the margins of even religious society, and sensible people remain more moderate and realistic in their goals and world view.  What disturbed me most about Sharlet&#8217;s research, and went a long way in my inductive evaluation of his book, were the eerie echoes of the Family ideology and vocabulary in my own fundamentalist upbringing and indeed in the more moderate evangelical church of today &#8212; from the anti-theological emphasis on personal ecstatic experience, to the outspoken support for tyrrany and dictatorship on the part of Christians in the community I grew up in, to the pervasive ideology of the &#8220;cell group&#8221; in evangelicalism today.</p>
<p>Sharlet almost avoids the common anthropological error of imposing a materialist worldview on his subjects.  He acknowledges that many members of the Family are sincere in their belief that their peculiar variety of Christianity would benefit people, and thus their work to spread it is a good work.  However, he, along with such observers of fundagelicalism as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thy-Will-Done-Rockefeller-Evangelism/dp/0060927232">Colby and Dennet</a>, tends to conflate the language of &#8220;spiritual warfare&#8221; with physical militarism.  There is, of course a significant stream within American fundamentalism who do conflate the two, but it is my sense from experience that the language of &#8220;spiritual warfare&#8221; is mostly used with reference to prayer against not primarily human enemies, but demonic powers who use human enemies as pawns.  I think it is a mistake to see references to &#8220;spiritual warfare&#8221; as automatically militarist.</p>
<p>Sharlet also seems to view the Family&#8217;s opposition to Communism (and recently Islamism) and support for democracy and capitalism as merely reactionary, with the goal of maintaining existing hierarchies of power.  I would tend to see both as more complex.  First, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism was explicitly anti-Christian, so it would have been natural to oppose its economics along with its atheism.  (Nowadays the opposition to Islamism is to an equally fundamentalist movement whose goal is likewise global theocracy; this could be seen as a natural evolutionary struggle over a niche.)  As time passed, the manifest failure of Stalin&#8217;s Soviet Union, Mao&#8217;s China or North Korea to provide for the basic welfare of their citizens would have done nothing to persuade the Family of any benefit to Communism.  Sharlet acknowledges the fact that there were in fact &#8220;honorable&#8221; Cold Warriors, convinced of the need to oppose the likes of Stalin or Pol Pot, even militarily if necessary.  Presumably &#8220;honorable&#8221; opposition consists of a lack of religious motive, even if your enemies are explicitly anti-religious.</p>
<p>Second, I find Sharlet rather bemusing and unconvincing when he portrays the Family support for capitalism as motivated by the love of hierarchy, of a benevolent elite ruling over a subservient flock.  This strikes me as far more characteristic of communism or socialism, where a wise elite who know better distribute society&#8217;s wealth to all.  The Family ideal of divinely-inspired &#8220;servant leadership&#8221; seems to partake more of the capitalist &#8220;rags-to-riches&#8221; fairy tale, where a poor nobody is chosen by God to make lots and lots of money / run prayer meetings for the rich and powerful.</p>
<p>Sharlet also goes to considerable length to criticise the American habit of deposing democratically-elected leaders, without acknowledging that electing a Communist or other totalitarian is to choose to become undemocratic.  This American tradition could be said to have started with Hitler.</p>
<p>Regardless of these minor issues of interpretation, which I suspect are the product of leftist reflexes rather than reflection, the picture Sharlet paints is otherwise convincing and disturbing.</p>
<p>The danger of the Family movement is two-fold: first, theocracy, especially in its peculiar anti-theological form, is dangerous <i>ipso facto</i>, simply in itself.  Second, the romantic fascination with the redemption of the rich and powerful simply results in the Family&#8217;s members being easily and trivially duped by the worst kinds of tyrants and criminals.</p>
<p>C.S. Lewis said it best:</p>
<blockquote><p>Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber barron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron&#8217;s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-906-1' id='fnref-906-1'>1</a></sup></p></blockquote>
<p>The Family&#8217;s peculiar perversion of Christianity makes it all the more dangerous.  The essence of the Family&#8217;s theology is &#8220;Jesus plus Nothing&#8221; &#8212; that is, that a personal ecstatic experience of the presence of Jesus is all that is necessary to confirm that he (and I use the gendered pronoun deliberately) has been specially chosen by God as a leader, one of the elite of the spiritual and temporal world.  Just as King David was called a man after God&#8217;s own heart despite his many sins and failures, one&#8217;s own sins and failures simply don&#8217;t matter if one has Jesus.</p>
<p>That this is a perversion of Christianity is obvious.  King David&#8217;s story is one of repentance and consequences for sin.  Christ came to the meek and lowly, constantly talked about caring for the poor and disadvantaged, and rebuked his disciples when they jostled for power.  The essence of the Christian message is repentance for sin, turning away from wrong, and seeking to behave better, which in the words of the Apostle James, means &#8220;caring for widows and orphans&#8221;.</p>
<p>Reasonable people can debate over whether capitalism or socialism can result in better care for the poor, but when caring for the poor is at best a secondary consideration compared to the gaining of influence and power, you&#8217;ve missed the mark.</p>
<p>The pathetic aspect of the Family is that its fascination with the redemption of the rich and powerful leads to its members becoming willing dupes and suckers for any tyrant or oppressor who can talk the good talk.  Growing up in a fundamentalist community that nevertheless had its feelers out in the wider world of politics and power, one experienced a <i>frisson</i> of vicarious power when a leader would &#8220;come to Jesus&#8221;.  Neither prior nor subsequent behavior ever counted; murderous butchers like Liberia&#8217;s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Doe">Samuel Doe</a> or Kenya&#8217;s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_arap_moi">Daniel Arap Moi</a> won unequivocal support and praise from the fundagelical community after once having wandered into a church service.  I remember being profoundly uncomfortable while members of my church community assured Africans that apartheid South Africa was really a wonderful place to live for blacks and whites alike.</p>
<p>Again, this is a perversion of orthodox Christianity, which really rather suggests that one try to behave a bit more nicely after being converted.</p>
<p>So the litany of slaughter and oppression supported by the Family that Sharlet chronicles is all too explicable.  Any tyrant who once attended a prayer breakfast in Washington would win unqualified support from Family members who could then gleefully add to their tally of the rich and powerful they had conquered for Jesus.</p>
<p>So where does this leave America and the world?  I think that it was a good thing that the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, and I think that I would rather live in a relatively free West than in an Islamic theocracy.  That these enemies have been convenient for the theocrats does not make them less dangerous.  I continue to believe that the forcible democratization of Afghanistan and Iraq is better for their people and the rest of the world than the alternative &#8212; it worked in Germany and Japan, after all.</p>
<p>I guess I don&#8217;t quite think that America is in immediate danger of sliding into theocracy, but like Sharlet, I think that openness and transparency are essential to a democracy &#8212; which is of course the worst form of government, except for all the others &#8212; so I think that Sharlet has done Western democracy an invaluable service in exposing those who would mask their pride and power in the name of Christ.</p>
<div class='footnotes'>
<div class='footnotedivider'></div>
<ol>
<li id='fn-906-1'>How is it that otherwise well-meaning people become convinced that their own &#8220;cruelty and lust of power&#8221; is as the very voice of God?  My personal theory is that the practice of ecstatic religious experience, from glossolalia to modern &#8220;praise and worship&#8221;, has the effect of creating a Jaynesian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_%28psychology%29">bicameral mind</a>, in which a person percieves the intuitive urges of the right hemisphere of the brain as a literal voice of command.  I recently watched a TED talk by a neuroscientist who <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html">observed her own consciousness as her left hemisphere was turned off and on by a stroke</a>.  She observed that when her left hemisphere was inactive, she experienced an ecstatic perception of union with all people and the universe.  I propose that the habitual practice of ecstatic religious experience, and especially <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia">glossolalia</a>, which has the function of inhibiting the speech centers in the left hemisphere of the brain (not incidentally the seat of logic and reason), by frequent hightened activation of the right hemisphere actually serves to inhibit the connections in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum">corpus callosum</a> between the hemispheres.  Thus one becomes less and less able to perceive the action of one&#8217;s own consciousness, and intuitive and primal urges take on the force and form of external commands.<br />
 <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-906-1'>&#8617;</a></span></li>
</ol>
</div>
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		<title>Why We Innoculate</title>
		<link>http://balafon.net/archives/753</link>
		<comments>http://balafon.net/archives/753#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:25:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Journal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anti-vaccination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vaccination]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://balafon.net/?p=753</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I should have noted this earlier, but the last month has been pretty busy. Turns out that the original research used to support the idea that vaccinations cause autism was based on falsified data. That&#8217;s right. Made up out of whole cloth. I feel tremendous empathy for the health-care professionals in places like the UK [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I should have noted this earlier, but the last month has been pretty busy.  Turns out that the original research used to support the idea that vaccinations cause autism was <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece">based on falsified data</a>.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s right.  <a href="http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=384">Made up out of whole cloth</a>.</p>
<p>I feel tremendous empathy for the health-care professionals in places like the <a href="http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=18919">UK</a> and Minnesota, where childhood diseases are making a comeback due to the idiocy of anti-vaccinators.</p>
<p>In case you wondered why we vaccinate, Jim McDonald has a <a href="http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010978.html">whole list of reasons</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Hepatitis B</li>
<li>Polio</li>
<li>Diptheria</li>
<li>Pertussis</li>
<li>Tetanus</li>
<li>Haemophilus influenzae type B</li>
<li>Measles</li>
<li>Mumps</li>
<li>Rubella</li>
<li>Chicken Pox</li>
</ul>
<p>You may not even have heard of these diseases, because we were <i>this</i> close to wiping them out.  Now, thanks to a few noisy idiots, you may come accross them all to often in the future.</p>
<p>On tiny little gravestones.</p>
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