SNight

https://22tracks.com/par/deephouse/70663

Religion

Far be it from me to tell politicians (and military bureaucracies) how to do their jobs. But there are human limits not to cross, and I fear that in the case of the Syrian Arab Republic, we may be crossing them.

Ten thousand bombs have been dropped on ISI so far. They are living in tunnels - kilometers of them - under what used to be cities. We reproach them being cavalier towads women, but let's admit things are pretty extreme, and there is no Prom night.

That country needs to be rebuilt from the ground up; we should be thinking about ways to make that happen.

                                                                         * * *

Voltaire wanted to see parallels between the Hindu concept of Brahman - the universal consciousness which ensures that prayer is efficient - and the Hebrew (and Islamic) person of Abraham. Such questions take us back beyond research, and relies on to intuition. We'll probably never know, but I cannot help but feel that someone 'did coffee' even if it is not in the historical record. We are often tempted to blame religion for many ills, but that need not be. Religion is also a positive thing, and bringing the Hindu tradition (which is not centralised) into the equation might ease tensions.

                                                                          * * *

http://www.lefigaro.fr/economie/le-scan-eco/dessous-chiffres/2015/11/19/29006-20151119ARTFIG00006-petrole-taxes-donations-trafics-d-humains-comment-daech-se-finance.php

TGiving

Bought a rapid yeast, and tried my hand at the following dessert for TGiving:

The outcome:

Tastes more like a cookie than a cake, but who's complaining. It's fine with vanilla ice cream and frozen raspberries. And it will go swimmingly in a morning cereal bowl!!

 

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, AMERICA!

Changing Colors

 

Felt like changing things this morning. One can change the color of one's CHROME page with an extension, which keeps the color choice on the browser.Yes!

 

 

 

 Once installed, one merely needs to choose from the proposed palette:

 

 

 A bit strong!

 

 This is okay, but the window border needs to go, and that is on Windows settings:

 

Go to Control Panel, and type in color scheme. Then, 'change window border'. You can change color intensity for just that shade:

Et voilà, winter colors:

 

Funny Thing

Monday morning here, at doxa. To kick off the week: jokes on Belgians. For those who didn't know, yes,  it is a genre.And there are assuredly Belgian jokes about the French. Why even Belgians find jokes about themselves amusing and ask for them from stand-up comics (...Don't get me started!)

http://www.blablagues.net/blagues-belges.html

And while we're there, found the website Cracked, which currently has a piece from someone who has read through the entire Dabiq opus:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/isis-wants-us-to-invade-7-facts-revealed-by-their-magazine/

Inneresting!

PsychoA

source: le Monde
Soren Seelow, in an interview with psychoanalyst Fethi Benslama
translation: doxa-louise

...

Historical traumas have long waves of propagation

especially so when an ideology feeds the masses. They are

transmitted from one generation to the other so that certain

individuals become the inheritors of infamy, be they aware of

the facts or not. The year 1924 sees the end of the last Islamic

Empire, 624 years old, the abolition of the Caliphate, that is to say the

principle of theologicla-political sovereignty for Islam, and the foundation

of the first secular government in Turkey. The Ottoman territory is parcelled and

occupied by colonial powers, Muslims go from masters to servants in their

own house. It is the collapse of a 1400 year old era, the end to the illusion of unity

and power. Thus begins a melancholy murmur on the dissolution of an

Islam which no longer exists.


The symptom of this historical fracture is the beginnings, in 1928, of the

Muslimsm Brotherhood, which is the transformation as an organization of

what one could designate the theory of 'the wounded Islamic ideal' which needs to

be avenged. Islamism promises the return of the caliphate by a defeat of States.

This reaction is multi-faceted: literal, puritanical, science-worshiping, political or

war-mongering. It carries a memory of the trauma and projects it to the

bad news dailies of suffering populations, military expeditions from the West and Civil

Wars.

...

http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2015/11/12/pour-les-desesperes-l-islamisme-radical-est-un-produit-excitant_4808430_3224.html

Attack-a-Day

Feeling overwhelmed today, by the attack-a-day turn things seem
to be taking. Good to stay clear about what is going on. I am
not so sure one should one should keep Islam out of it. It seems
the ultimate battle between good and evil (Dabiq) creates many enemies:
the apostate (Shia Muslims), hypocrites(Al Qaeda) and Crusaders (the
degenerate and/or oppressive West).

A note of sanity here: a team from l'Uqam is offering a guidebook on how to
help prevent extremism in one's community, in French and English:

http://trev.uqam.ca/