Posted 11/30/2002 04:46:10 PM

fasting and its traditions
a response's response

i came upon an interesting response to my off the cuff ruminations re: the consumer fast from two days back. an Orthodox gentleman kindly responded in some detail on our community blog and left his blog URL in the post. following this link to his blog i was met with a more extensive reaction to my thoughts that seemed to key off of two points:

1. my completely stream of consciousness public musing regarding the plausibility of cuisine-oriented fasting, and,
   
2. my reference to Ramadan, which seemed to raise his ire even more than the first point.

naturally, given my history of conflict on this blog and elsewhere, his reaction intrigued me and set me on a course of consideration regarding my all-too-unrigorous thoughts. first, one must bear in mind that i do think out loud in my writing--especially blog writing and other Internet related posts. seldom, if ever, is there forethought or editing. generally, i sit down and begin writing or i run across something in an article online and then respond to it in some way.

my post under consideration on this occasion was simply a collection of sentences endeavoring to bring to language my own experiences of fasting in both interdenominational Christian, predominately Sunni Muslim and more generally western democratic communities. the gentleman responding to my post went to great lengths to underscore the living tradition of the Orthodox way with regard to fasting. i commend him and his compatriots who are currently postured in a season of fasting during Advent. nonetheless, the rather smug handling of other's traditions, specifically with regard to the various Islams and Protestantisms in this case, and the somewhat self-indulgent references to his perception of the Orthodox way (that seems rather characteristic of partisans who deem themselves in possession of True truth--at least when they're speaking among themselves, as this gentleman seemed to be doing in the blog response) was less than admirable in my view.

i would suggest that most of us castigated as bush whackers on this gentleman's blog, like him, seek an ancient path. nevertheless, i for one cannot share the presumption that is latent in a position that would claim for itself a privileged interpretive stance with regard to the Christian tradition. i would suggest, good sir, that you too cut your own way; you too have only the tradition and *your* appropriation of it upon which to stand.

we all stand in the cycles of appropriation that are the lot of human communities. there is no non-interpretive stance to take. there is no objective, original path. there is only the constellation of questions that orbit the sun of agreement. who shall we agree with? what does it mean to agree with them in this time and place? in what way does appropriation itself do violence to the tradition, or, in what ways are the traditions evolved through the very act of agreement? ah, yes, it is never as black and white as some would have it seem.

interestingly, at the end of the conversation, as at its beginning, we agree that fasting is a part of the tradition. so, agree we do. where we go from here is up to us.

peace.

Posted 11/30/2002 04:07:16 PM

given my penchant for the geekier side of the technical spectrum and the fact that they are a Dallas-based company, i have followed the work of Despair, Inc. for some time. this weekend i caught their 2003 Demotivators lineup. my brother and i gave each other the Pretension desktopper a couple years back to keep from having to say we bought it for ourselves. that would be a bit too, well, you know.

Posted 11/30/2002 09:41:19 AM

per the TSK, Pagitt now has a blog... and from the looks of it he has cut his hair. he must be about to publish a book or something--needs to clean up for all the speaking gigs he'll be getting. i've been growing my hair since McLaren commented at a conference two summers back that any man who still had the hair to grow should do so before it was no longer an option.

oddly, though, i too have felt the need to perhaps cut the locks. maybe it is a global move of the spirit... kinda like the Toronto blessing. it is the emerging church haircutting... maybe not.

i think i'll keep my hair.

Posted 11/30/2002 07:50:23 AM

AKMA This is Not a Bible
comments to follow...

somewhat related (not really, but i read it this morning as well):
an essay on Levinas by Terry Veling.

Posted 11/30/2002 07:08:49 AM

The Ethics of Technology Transfer

Amnesty details 33 Chinese Internet arrests

The report also singled out technology companies Microsoft Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Nortel Networks Corp. and Websense Inc. as vendors that have "provided important technology which helps the Chinese authorities censor the Internet.... (and) providing China with the technology which will help the government "shift from filtering content at the international gateway level to filtering content of individual computers, in homes, Internet cafes, universities and businesses."

at what point does commerce become oppression?

we need to begin to ask more strident questions about the free market. it is not enough to claim innocence with the refrain that these technologies are dual use or that there is no way to control what a government/other entity does with said technology. both of these statements are true, but cannot act as justification for profiting on the development of a global police state.

where is the courage to simply say no?

revenue has no ethics. only people have ethics. ethical courage has no part in the close-the-deal corporate culture of the dominate multi-national firms monopolizing industries today because revenue is driving institution not people with real communities, real families, real voices. the Nazi's gold in Swiss banks and the Chinese gold in Microsoft coffers--these transactions, and those like them, are not about people with personal and social rights. they are not about a better world. they are about power denominated in marketshare and monetary dominance.

Microsoft's recent byline, Where do you want to go today?, means altogether different things in Seattle and Beijing. What is a statement of empowerment in Seattle is a statement of oppression in Beijing.

What prison do you want to go to today?

Posted 11/29/2002 07:42:08 PM

Posted 11/29/2002 02:48:45 PM

Happy Jerusalem Day

today is the 55th anniversary of the United Nations resolution which led to the partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel.

it is also the last Friday of Ramadan which is Jerusalem Day in Iran.

Posted 11/29/2002 07:20:49 AM

current video:
the.offspring::L.A.P.D.

Posted 11/29/2002 05:50:11 AM

29.11.02

Posted 11/28/2002 09:17:54 PM
CNN.com - Nov. 28, 2002
Fund-raising trend: Nude calendars

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- Forget the rummage sales and pancake breakfasts. For serious fund-raising, posing in the buff for calendars seems to be the ticket.

so, if this works for old people who want to go to Ireland could it work for younger, unemployed people? hey, Jason and Coop, you guys want to do a calendar?

Posted 11/28/2002 09:08:04 PM
peaceluvnjoy

Krista wrote personal thoughts to a lot of the people from Carriage as part of her Thanksgiving observance.

Dan : Well dear, you are the enigma. This has got to be one of the best things possible. Just when I think I know something about you, it morphs into something else. The kalidescope has never been disappointing. It has always been exciting to observe.

Posted 11/28/2002 08:24:38 PM

meditation on the consumer fast

as many of you are aware, we are in the midst of a global observance of the month of Ramadan in which Muslim's fast from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. pondering these things today, in light of Buy Nothing Day tomorrow, i determined that cuisine-oriented fasting is, in many respects, less plausible in our time than perhaps consumption-oriented fasting.

what if communities regularly practiced protracted periods of living without buying? what would that do to our patterns of life? how would that require new ways of thinking? in what ways would that open us up to being shaken a bit by an intentional return to momentarily living through sharing, barter and giving exclusively?

that is the way i am living tomorrow. join me.

maybe we can make this a more regular event?
perhaps a core value that somehow shapes our practice of consumption?

Posted 11/28/2002 08:10:27 PM

Posted 11/28/2002 08:02:38 PM
nickdenton.org: Amazon is a search engine via ev

People forget that the most successful companies on the internet -- Google, Yahoo, eBay, and, yes, Amazon -- are all search engines.

Amazon has a new C-level position even: Chief Algorithms Officer (CAO). i like it.

Posted 11/28/2002 06:30:47 PM

It is too dangerous to leave religion in the hands of zealots, particularly after September 11.
-Shabana Azmi

Posted 11/28/2002 06:29:43 PM

our diversity as a composite whole is an identity that can overcome any perceived conflict. it is only when more narrow goals are vicariously sought on the behalf of those not interested that we teeter on the edge of the violence of homogenous identity. our conflicts are not simple, and any who would offer a simple answer seeks something beyond sustainable peace, but it is the very substance of humane human living to be part of the unfolding peace of our families, our communities, our nations and our planet as an end in itself. each of us are obligated by the very mode of our existence to walk the path of peace in the spaces we occupy.

in large measure it is only the scope of our intentional peacemaking that is usually the issue. seldom does one seek out war in the place one has to exist day-to-day. even the most ill-tempered want peace even if but for selfish motive. it is time that with broader scope and nobler intention a selfless generation enacts new, living, multifaceted intercommunal promises of peace out of which will flow new ways of being together and new opportunities we have, to this moment, been unable to imagine. this is the work of the impossible in our midst.

Posted 11/28/2002 07:48:25 AM
22 American Cities Have Passed Anti-War Resolutions

Posted 11/28/2002 07:21:55 AM

god of our fathers and mothers;
that which enables all that is and is not;
make us a family that loves without measure:

when we disagree; a family of unity,
when fear is society's muse; a family of courage,
when the stranger is at our door; a family of hospitality,
when our community is fixated on conflict; a family of peacemakers,
when the passion to live smolders under apathy's ash; a family of inspiration,
when others invest in the treasures of a wasted life; a family of sacrifice,
when resignation's mediocrity is near; a family of tenacity,
when identity is ambiguous; a family of security,
when all seems lost; a family of hope,

when the borders of the possible are strained; a family of the impossible.

make us a family that embodies the thankfulness of an awakened peace,
that at the end of our days we may have lived, truly lived.

amen.

Posted 11/27/2002 08:48:59 PM
Voices in the Wilderness - Sanctions: Myth & Reality
via fatblueman

Posted 11/27/2002 05:04:56 PM

the day after Thanksgiving is:

Buy Nothing Day
celebrate November 29th with contentment.

Posted 11/27/2002 05:01:23 PM
The Pentagon’s House Philosopher

The fact that the idea may be reckless, ignorant, ill-informed and incompetent is of only secondary concern...

Posted 11/27/2002 04:18:41 PM

current mp3:
boysetsfire::rookie

Posted 11/27/2002 10:33:42 AM
We are the middle children of history, man.
No purpose or place.
We have no great war,
or great depression

Our great war is a spiritual war.
Our great depression is our lives.

We've all been raised by television
to believe that one day we'll all be
millionaires and movie gods and rock stars,
but we won't.

You are not your job.
You are not how much money you have in the bank.
You are not the car you drive.
You are not the contents of your wallet.
You are not your fucking khakis.
-Tyler Durden

Posted 11/27/2002 10:32:28 AM

i really do not want to work. not in the way i once did. i want to provide for my children and for the stranger at my door. other than that, i want freedom. i want a simple life in terms of time commitments in pursuit of money and a richly complex life in everything else.

how did life come to be each waking moment in the pursuit of green? tired we drive home in a comatose state, see our children for an hour and watch TV before doing it all over again. i wonder though if most could answer what they would do if it were any other way?

Posted 11/27/2002 10:06:44 AM

what is the kingdom* of god like?

it is like a start up with no venture capital, no angels and no sales that releases an open source project to the world that slowly displaces monopolies and is home to countless, related projects.

*the kingdom is anachronism in gestalt. the obtuseness of the phrase is help in underscoring the always already multiple, communal and mortal ways that are the cycles of open human living that define the kingdom of the other. open in secret giving, open in symbolic whipping, open in eating and drinking, open in all night praying, open in children's laughter, open in friends on journeys, open in arrest and torture, open in forgiving death...

{happy are those depressed now
they will be inspired}

Posted 11/27/2002 09:06:53 AM

what's grace? Refusing the urge to tell me, "I told you so." Refusing to quietly gloat when they did tell me so. Refusing to dismiss the good in me because of the bad. That’s called grace.

liked this article.

liked this comment from, uh, a reader:

Nov 27, 2002 - 10:12 AM
why the altar call? jesus left it with the unresolved parable. tell your story.
don't sell me something.

or at least throw in some ginsu knives when you do.

Posted 11/27/2002 07:04:42 AM

Wired 10.12: Eyes in the Back of Your Mouth

our brain takes input in scads of ways. Michael Abrams, in this Wired article, describes sense data receptors as wet USB ports. the idea is simple: plasticity (as it is called) is the capacity of the brain to adapt to data coming from new input channels. the brain basically rewires itself on the fly to begin to receive, sort and use this new sensory data.

examples:

using a response suit you can cram a pilot’s brain with expanded spatial awareness akin to sight.

using an image-to-pulse converter you can feed the brain "visual" data through the tongue.

...scanning the environment behind me with my taste buds sounds intriguing.

Posted 11/26/2002 09:37:54 PM
Bienenberg Declaration: Peace Church Characteristics

Posted 11/26/2002 04:20:43 PM

AlterNet: Bodies? What Bodies?

Patrick J. Sloyan won the Pulitzer for his coverage of Desert Storm. in this piece for the Alicia Patterson Foundation, that was picked up by AlterNet, he opens up an intriguing story that details the systematic control of the press by the US government during the Persian Gulf conflict.

the visual and verbal lies that Cheney and others perpetrated are unacceptable. being a war correspondent has to get dangerous again. pool and briefing-based reporting is worthless.

...Daniel and the rest of the world would not find out until months later why the dead had vanished. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers, some of them alive and firing their weapons from World War I-style trenches, were buried by plows mounted on Abrams main battle tanks. The Abrams flanked the trench lines so that tons of sand from the plow spoil funneled into the trenches. Just behind the tanks, actually straddling the trench line, came M2 Bradleys pumping 7.62mm machine gun bullets into the Iraqi troops.

"I came through right after the lead company," said Army Col. Anthony Moreno, who commanded the lead brigade during the 1st Mech's assault. "What you saw was a bunch of buried trenches with people's arms and legs sticking out of them....

More than 150 reporters who participated in the Pentagon pool system failed to produce a single eyewitness account of the clash between 300,000 allied troops and an estimated 300,000 Iraqi troops. There was not one photograph, not a strip of film by pool members of a dead body – American or Iraqi.

Posted 11/26/2002 01:01:01 PM
Islam and Freedom of Thought - Akbar Ahmed and Lawrence Rosen

Ordinary citizens have little idea that an indigenous democratic model is available to Muslim society, because the scholars and intellectuals who can articulate that vision are being silenced....

When the scholar is silenced it is not useless knowledge that is lost: It is the sense that pursuing knowledge, wherever it may be found, is no longer part of the expression of God's will....

The prophet Muhammad said, "The death of a scholar is the death of the universe." And the president of the American University of Beirut, Malcolm Kerr, gunned down in his office in 1984, once wrote: "If ideas are not available to shape events, then by default events will shape ideas, in keeping with their own unplanned and, perhaps, grotesque course." At a time when it is easy to ignore intellectual freedom while concentrating on combating terrorism, we must remember that only when Muslims have a full range of options freely and openly available to them can creative alternatives to extremism be entertained...

Posted 11/26/2002 09:50:45 AM
a series of 60-second sermons at Landover have brought more laughter to my morning than i thought possible. i also learned some important new issues to be writing my congressman about. specifically the terrible scourge of satan's little cotton fingers.

Posted 11/26/2002 09:43:03 AM

Posted 11/26/2002 09:38:21 AM

misguided christians
don't run off and do anything stupid like Mother Theresa.

Posted 11/26/2002 09:02:58 AM

Wineberger points me to Steven Johnson's Fun With Google.

Steven helps us to articulate the central question of egomaniacal bloggers everywhere, "So, what is your lexical penetration?"

Theyblinked holds 29.4% of the "jewish anime" mindshare on google (thanks, in no small part, to David Lowenstein), while only 2% of the "sekusutomo" noosphere.

Posted 11/26/2002 08:43:09 AM

David Hopkins (you know, the illustrious playwright and comic book maven of anti-hero renown) and I are good friends. Sometimes when we encounter something in real life that is in desperate need of being blogged we immediately call each other and record what we have come to term a "phoneblog."

David phoneblogged me yesterday about a bumper sticker he saw.

satan is a nerd

initially i thought that it was a pro-satan sticker. then David said that it was next to the car's nice little icthus fish. i find it rather funny that the Christians who put this sticker on their car did so thinking that it was a put down to call satan a nerd. i think that it says more about their view of nerds than about their position on the problem of evil.

given that i consider myself a nerd i guess this places me in company with the prince of darkness. to seal the deal i'm putting my darwin-fish-eating-the-icthus car icon next to my new "jesus was a nerd" bumper sticker.

Posted 11/26/2002 08:17:18 AM

Many Saudis feel bitter toward U.S.

(After September 11th, to) American eyes, Saudi Arabia suddenly looked like Afghanistan with money...

Mohamed al-Ghamdi, a journalist who lived and studied in the United States for eight years and can talk nostalgically about Bloomington, Ind. (says) “We don’t go to America anymore. We are afraid of you."

“Had (the events of 9/11) happened here, we would have been just as anxious and just as fearful as (the Americans) are. But it is during periods of crisis that wisdom is required...
-Prince Saud Faisal, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister

Posted 11/26/2002 07:58:58 AM

::energy drink update::
if you are looking for a better value in your energy drink try Monster Energy by the good people at Hansens (they brought us the original Energy drink).

Posted 11/25/2002 01:10:39 PM

the email reviews keep rolling in!

...utter balderdash...

You are not easy to understand...

...the problem with "free speech" is summed up in "They-Blinked Christianity."

...a shooting pain of oddity, incoherence and self-pity...

...Send the heritic to a foreign country where they kill Christians. He'll be begging
to return...

my only response, my dear friends: there is no dash in TheyBlinked!