RE NYT SMARTER LIVING W C FIELDS NEVER SMARTEN UP A CHILD

Ten most popular recipes now...

Guaranteed dumb and dumber...

MARGARET COURT AND THE RETURN TO JUST TENNIS

She has a good point.

 

Why should what started innocently enough with the Virginia Slims, come to be called womens' tennis?

 

Why should it now be dominated and run by gay rights gay women?

 

Why?

 

Let's just start calling it now, again, tennis, in which there have long been events for men and for women, and for mixed doubles...

 

I don't care what Martina or Billie Jean think. They have their reasons, of course. They aren't good enough. I know you will understand, Lisa.

 

THE SHARK TANK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNzRHuqvMxQ

WEST AFRICAN STATE WESTERN DIPLOMATIC DIALOGUE CONGO MALI SENEGAL YOU NAME IT

They were killing and eating the nearby tribes on a regular basis... especially pygmies.

What did you do?

I liberaled them into submission after reading the nyt. I told them poverty, not food stamps, was their real problem.

But they are all Muslims, right?

Pygmies are apparently ok for Muslims to eat.

But what if they are Muslims too?

You got me there. I just liberaled em, I didn't convert em.

GOVERNANCE AND SURVIVAL LIBERAL AS A LIEO VERB

Freeing the slaves here without Lincoln's solution (transportation), is analogous to the West decolonizing the Rest of the world without a governance solution.

 

Decolonization is, long term, big picture, by far, the more disastrous of the two.

You can't liberal, lieo, the Rest of the world into anything!

The Dumb Money LIEO Ideology has kidded itself about this for over 200 years now.

The rogue American Rebellion was the first successful instance of the downward LIEO Dumb Money Ideology trend. The French Revolution was the biggie that came soon after. And so on throughout the 19th Century and into the 20th.

Pace Schroeder, the Congress of Vienna was rather like putting a band aid on gangrene.

Smell the coffee, game over.

LIBERALISM AND TERROR LEAVING ASIDE THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS ON TOP

Ever since the French Revolution, in modern times, after the onset of the Age of the Democratic Revolutions and the  overturning of the Old European Order, Western liberalism has resulted in instability, first in the West, tending to go over into polarizations, tending to go over into terror of the right or left, and then autocracy is returned for a time, but without the old class and religious structure which had underpinned it for centuries. The classic example is Paris in the Terror. 

 

Since 1789, liberalism, liberalism to the point of revolution, is terrorism's twin, really.

 

You may say, well then, terror is liberalism's ' evil ' twin. Liberalism is good, old empires were bad, all despots bad, blah blah blah. Can't have too much of it; can't have too much of a good liberal thing...killing Louis XVI, and all the nobles, a smart liberal move.

 

I say rather, the question then becomes, if terror is liberalism's twin, which is the greater evil, after all, too much liberalism or terror?

Paul Berman, actually, put them both together, sortof, Terror and Liberalism, talking in some places about how the liberal worm can turn.

But, Berman is the liberal worm: "...he calls for a new radicalism and a liberal American interventionism to promote democratic values throughout the world-- a vigorous new politics of American liberalism."

DUMB MONEY lIEO IDEOLOGY FLAT BELT POST OLD EUROPEAN ORDER WORLD

Kabul, not a diplomat's heaven.
Manchester, maybe want to look somewhere else for a townhouse.

Just think about, in larger terms, think about it as an enormous, global, belt, let's call it a Thomas L Friedman Flat Belt, of Hobbesian disorder, in some ways and in some places a holy war, elsewhere a war of sectarian and political domestic conflict, in many places a war for survival without borders and a war of all against all, stretching from many places in Europe, all places in Africa, across all of the Middle East, Southern Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, to and through India, SE Asia, Indonesia, to Korea, the South China Sea and ending at the Straits adjacent to Alaska.

It continues around the Pacific down near the equator, in Mexico, Central America, and South America.

It is really, taken together, the Old European Order Colonial Dominions, Colonies, and Protectorates, which the West gave up managing and dominating, shortly after WWII.

 

Let's just call it  all, now, the whole post colonial third, and second, and boomed and developed Asian world,

 

' The Theater of War '

See also prior post: RE TERROR AND RACE

RE THENEW RED GUARDS: CHINA'S ANGRY STUDENT PATRIOTS

You all let very large numbers of patriotic Chinese in here to study. Bad idea for so many reasons.

You thought you were being smart, LIEO, The Dumb Money Ideology.

Well, get ready for only the next round, in what will, after decades, come to seem interminable,  The Clash of Civilization.

LIEO

I call it, now, The Dumb Money Ideology.

That seems to sum it up, for me.

THE LEOPARD MEN

Chapter One - Storm

The exhausted Kali Bwana awakens as Golato, headman of her safari, enters her tent. He won't leave and lunges for her. The woman fires her revolver. During the storm Tarzan tries to comfort Nkima. Tarzan leaps from the tree as a tornado topples the tree. Nkima finds a great branch pinning the unconscious ape-man to the ground. After courting is girl friend, Nyamwegi leaves the village of Kibbu to return to his village, Tumbai. When the storm hits, he fingers his amulet and prays to his muzimo, his protecting spirit. He seeks shelter but is attacked and killed by four leopard men.

Chapter Two - The HunterOrando, son of Lobongo, the chief, says a prayer to his muzimo and leaves the Tumbai village to hunt. He comes across Tarzan pinned under a tree. Nkima runs to safety. Orando prepares to kill the stranger. Tarzan talks to the native telling him that he does not know who he is. With misgivings, Orando frees the ape-man from the branch. They go to hunt game. Tarzan calls Nkima to his shoulder. Orando believes Tarzan to be a demon. They come upon Nyamwegi's body. Tarzan notes that it was the deed of the Leopard Men, a secretive cannibalistic cult. Orando says that Nyamwegi was his friend. Tarzan reads the spoor and says he will punish the four who did this. Orando suggests finding the village then returning to Tumbai to enlist the aid of the Utenga warriors from Watenga country. As they track the Leopard Men, Orando concludes that Tarzan must be his muzimo and that the monkey must be Nyamwegi's ghost. He calls Tarzan, 'Muzimo.' Tarzan goes on ahead through the trees because the wind is at their backs. Orando is inattentive as he follows the trail into a clearing. Four Leopard Men surround him.

Chapter Three - Dead Men Who SpokeGolato leaves the tent with a bullet in his right arm. The next day the Kali Bwana has to force Imba, her 'boy,' to prepare her bath and meal. The natives prepare to desert her. Under the protection of the askaris, Golato tells Kali Bwana they are returning home. She decides to make camp here and wait for rescue. She builds a boma. Orando spears one of the Leopard Men. Tarzan kills one and rushes towards the other two. Tarzan chokes the larger Leopard Men to death and gives the victory cry of the bull ape. Orando, the Utenga, is puzzled by the animal nature of his muzimo. Orando thinks they should go after the warrior who escaped. Tarzan says he knows where the escapee is going. Tarzan is confused as to who he is. The Muzimo tells Orando they should hunt for food. Tarzan drives an Okapi towards Orando. Before the native can launch his spear, Tarzan drops from a tree and kills Bara with his knife. He gives the victory cry of the bull ape. Tarzan growls at Orando when he gets too close while they are eating. 

Chapter Four - Sobito, the Witch-doctorTwo white men, The Kid and Old Timer, reminisce how they met. Old Timer has talked The Kid into coming to Africa to hunt ivory. Old Timer is avoiding women. A native chief, Bobolo, told them there are elephants in the area. They commiserate about being ivory poachers. Sobito, the witch-doctor, disbelieves Orando's story of his Muzimo. Sobito questions the Muzimo's credibility. Tarzan turns the tables on him and walks away. Orando tells his story once more to the council. The young men talk of war with the Leopard Men. Sobito questions the talk of war and suggests that the Muzimo may be leading them into a trap. Orando rallies support amongst the younger warriors to make war with the help of Muzimo. Lobongo councils speaking to the ghosts of the dead chiefs to see if the time is right for war. Sobito conjures up the spirits and reports that there should be no war. Tarzan, believing he is Muzimo, scoffs at the phony ritual. Sobito predicts that Muzimo will die in three days. Tarzan snatches the witch-doctor's fetish, a hyena tail, and throws it into the fire. Sobito leaps at Tarzan. The ape-man disarms him and throws him. Sobito declares that Muzimo will die tonight. A raiding party is selected for an attack on the Leopard Men. Ten warriors from Kibbu come to join the fight. One of the warriors, Lupingu, talks with Sobito and receives a protection amulet plus a devious plan.

Chapter Five - 'Unspeakable Boor!'Kali Bwana kills a boar and drags it to her camp. Old Timer and three of his bearers hear the shot and find her camp. Old Timer is curt to her. Kali Bwana is indignant. Old Timer learns that she has been abandoned by her safari and is looking for a man named Jerry Jerome. Old Timer tells her that he will get her out of Africa whether she likes it or not. She decides to humor the crazy person. That night their thoughts linger on each other, much to the dismay of Old Timer. The next day Old Timer takes two of his men on an elephant hunt, which proves fruitless. He thinks about the girl all day. When they return, they find the man they left behind mutilated by the Leopard Men and the woman missing. They bury the dead man and start to follow the trail of the Leopard Men.

Chapter Six - The TraitorOrando has amassed about one hundred warriors to move on the Leopard Men. The secret order of the Leopard Men recruits from many different tribes. Because the Muzimo and Sobito are missing, Lupingu suggests abandoning the effort. Orando attempts to rally his forces when Tarzan drops from a tree with the carcass of a buck. As Tarzan eats his meat raw, the natives are terrified of him. Tarzan tries to remember his past as the warriors get organized. He can't remember. For three days Lupingu predicts disaster. The fourth day Lupingu is missing. Tarzan and Nkima go to reconnoiter the Leopard Man village. Tied about the neck, Kali Bwana is led by three Leopard Men to the village of Gato Mgungu, a Leopard Man chief. Because of the diverse membership of Leopard Men, Gato Mgungu knows everything that goes on in the area. Kali Bwana is brought before the chief. He asks Lulimi, the priest, if he has brought him a present. Lulimi spins the tale of how the brother of the Leopard God told him where to find the white woman and to bring her to the white high priestess in the temple. Realizing Lulimi will soon replace Imigeg, the old high priest, Gato Mgungu declares that the white woman will be brought before Imigeg. A messenger comes, gives the secret sign, and tells Gato Mgungu about the Utenga warriors approaching the village. They prepare a counterattack. The messenger, Lupingu, must return so he will not be missed.

Chapter Seven - The CaptiveKali Bwana watches the Leopard Men prepare for war. Lulimi places her in a canoe and takes her down a river infested with crocodiles to the temple of the Leopard God. Lulimi falsely tells the memory impaired Imigeg that he has brought him the prophesied white priestess. Imigeg has lesser priests take Kali Bwana to prepare her for the induction ceremony. Mumga, an old priestess, is put in charge of preparing the woman for the ritual. Young priestesses rip her clothes off. A description of the female quarters is given. Kali Bwana is anointed with vile smelling oils and clothed in leopard skins. (See J. Allen St. John's frontispiece.)

Chapter Eight - Treason Unmasked Tarzan and Nkima go to the Leopard Men village, watch Lupingu talking with the chief, and follow him as he returns towards the Utengas. Lupingu hides from the fleeing Leopard Men war party. It is evident that a battle has taken place. Lupingu returns to the Utenga camp. They are gone. He finds the new camp and concocts a story of how he went to scout out the Leopard Men village, killed a Leopard Man, was captured, and escaped. Orando doubts his story but accepts him into the camp. Muzimo drops into the camp. Orando relates the details of the battle with the Leopard Men and tells him that his men wish to leave. Tarzan reveals Lupingu as a traitor. He stops them from killing Lupingu, has him bound, and carries him into the trees.

Chapter Nine - The Leopard God Old Timer and his two companions track Kali Bwana to Gato Mgungu's village. The blacks tell him, 'It is the village of the Leopard Men.' His servitors remain behind as Old Timer enters the village and walks up to Gato Mgungu. He demands the release of the white woman. The wily chief knows all about Old Timer's small party and has him taken prisoner. That night, Bobolo enters the filthy hut where Old Timer is tied up. He offers to free him for ten ivory tusks. He takes Old Timer's ring as proof that a message to The Kid comes from him. Bobolo has no intention of freeing the white man. As the chief discuss matters with his men, Lupingu's body drops into their midst. They conclude that it was the work of the Muzimo. They decide to take the prisoner to the temple. Thirty canoes are launched. Tarzan and Nkima follow along the shore and through the trees. Old Timer hopes they are taking him to where they are holding Kali Bwana. They arrive at the temple. He is brought before a leopard, the Leopard God. In a human voice, the Leopard God calls for Old Timer's death and the presentation of the new high priestess. A description of the priestess is given. Kali Bwana makes her entrance.

Chapter Ten - While the Priest Slept Kali Bwana enters the room, and Imigeg pulls her to the dais next to the leopard. She sees that Old Timer is a prisoner also. Tarzan watched and is mystified by the ventriloquism used to make the leopard speak. Nkima asks Tarzan to leave. Muzimo does not know who Tarzan is. Muzimo recognizes one of the priests and leaves. The ceremony comes to a fever pitch with dancing and drinking. Bobolo desires the white woman for himself and devises a plan. He gets Old Timer's guards to join the celebration. He convinces Old Timer to follow him to a back room by promising to return for the girl. He releases Old Timer's bonds. Bobolo convinces Kali Bwana to follow him. Bobolo returns to the ceremony, drinks, and finds a priestess with whom to lie . When the Leopard Men awaken from their drunken orgy, Gato Mgungu sends them on their way. Bobolo forgets about the two white people and leaves with the others by canoe. Old Timer searches for Bobolo but can not find him. They climb out a window and make it to the last canoe. They drift down the river.

Chapter Eleven - BattleMuzimo returns to Orando and tells him about the Leopard Men's village and temple. He also tells him that their witch-doctor, Sobito, is a Leopard Man priest. They set up an ambush for the returning Leopard Men. In the ensuing battle, most of the Leopard Men are slaughtered. A few escape by canoe. The village is burned. Orando finds Muzimo unconscious. Nkima is afraid. Old Timer and Kali Bwana try to hide from the canoes returning up river. Bobolo captures them. He takes the girl and a different course on the river. With Old Timer back at the temple, Gato Mgungu berates Imigeg's bad medicine. Imigeg has the Leopard God speak of imprisonment for Old Timer and threatens Gato Mgungu.

Chapter Twelve - The SacrificeTarzan awakens and remembers who he is. The Utengas accept him. Tarzan leaves to reconnoiter the temple. Sobito delights in telling Old Timer about his impending torture and death. He also tells him that Bobolo has run off with Kali Bwana. At the great chamber, Imigeg, through the Leopard God, commands Old Time's sacrifice, Bobolo's capture and torture, and the disposition of the white woman. In an increasing frenzy of a dance, they prepare to break Old Timer's legs and arms.

Chapter Thirteen - Down RiverKali Bwana questions Bobolo, who tells her that he is keeping her for himself. Bobolo stops her from jumping into the river and ties her up. He takes her to the village where he is chief. He protects her from his wives and instructs, Ubooga, the old head wife, to protect her, as she will be his new wife. Ubooga berates Bobolo. She grabs Kali Bwana by the hair. Kali Bwana hits her up the side of the head. After ensconcing Kali Bwana in her hut, she talks to a dimwitted warrior who lets it slip that they are Leopard Men. When Bobolo returns, she accuses him of being a Leopard Man. In fear of exposure as a hated Leopard Man, Bobolo agrees to get rid of the white woman. He goes to Kapopa, his witch-doctor, for advice on how to keep the white woman and not have Ubooga reveal that he is a Leopard Man. For the price of one daughter he will help Bobolo house the captive in the village of the little men until Ubooga dies.

Chapter Fourteen - The Return of SobitoTarzan pushes all the Leopard Men's canoes into the river except for one, which he hides. As the priestesses make their final approach upon the helpless Old Timer, from the rafters, Tarzan calls to Sobito that Muzimo has come for him. Tarzan's presence freezes the Leopard Men. He tells them that he is taking the white man hostage, in a back room, until Sobito is brought to him. He brings Old Timer to the canoe and sends him on his way. Tarzan returns to the dais. The Leopard Men bring him Sobito. When they go to retrieve Old Timer, Tarzan leaves with Sobito. Imigeg and the others realize that they have been tricked and that they are stranded at the temple. Tarzan brings Sobito to Orando's camp. He leaves with Nkima.

Chapter Fifteen - The Little MenBobolo and Kapopa drag Kali Bwana toward the village of the little people. The small warriors recognize the witch-doctor and escort them to Rebega, the old pygmy chief. Bribes are not enough for the old chief to keep the white woman. Kapopa whispers something to Rebega to make him change his mind. Comments on the servitude of power are given. Bobolo and Kapopa leave. Rebega instructs Wlala, a pygmy woman, to keep the white woman in her hut. She begrudgingly takes Kali Bwana to her hut and forces her to help grind corn. Wlala tells her that soon Bobolo will tire of her, and the Betetes, the pygmy tribe, will eat her. After three days Bobolo has not returned with the promised food for the starving pygmies. Kali Bwana gets fed up with Wlala beating her, and she strikes her keeper. The hungry Betetes talk of feasting on the white girl. Although Rebega is afraid of Bobolo and the witch-doctor, he submits to the demands of his people. They drag Kali Bwana from her hut and tie her up.

Chapter Sixteen - A ClueAs the Utengas sleep, Sobito frees himself and commandeers a canoe. He heads for Bobolo's village. Old Timer reaches the area of Bobolo's village and hides his canoe. He sees Sobito paddling towards the village. He spies on the village. Sobito and Bobolo talk. Sobito is trying to gain a place of refuge. Bobolo is trying to figure out how to get rid of him. From the vantage point in a tree, Old Timer hears woman gossiping about Bobolo taking the white woman to the village of the little people. He decides to go there.

Chapter Seventeen - Charging LionsTarzan leaves the Utengas by canoe. He and Nkima sleep in a tree that night. Tarzan finds a grassy plain with game. As he stalks his prey, he disturbs a male lion seeking a mate. The lion charges. Tarzan casts his spear into the lion; many more lions start to charge him. Tarzan races to a tree and leaps into it just in time. Around noon the next day the lions leave. Tarzan returns to Nkima, makes a kill, and starts for Bobolo's village. On his way he visits with Zu-tho, the great ape, and his tribe. He approaches the village. He realizes that it is not Bobolo's village, but he catches the scent of Kali Bwana. He observes the village from a tree.

Chapter Eighteen - Arrows Out of the NightThe Kid worries about his friend and his retainers. Old Timer's two remaining bearers return to camp. They tell The Kid that the Leopard Men have killed Old Timer and Andereya, the other bearer. From their tale The Kid surmises that Old Timer may still be alive. He also wonders who the woman is. The bearers agree to go with The Kid as far as Bobolo's village. Old Timer travels in circles. Finally he finds some tracks and follows them to the pygmy village. He sneaks into the village and sees that Kali Bwana is about to be killed. He cries out as he charges the pygmies with his little pocketknife. An arrow pierces Wlala's heart. Old Timer shouts out, a bluff, that the village is surrounded. He runs to the woman's side. Rebega regains his senses and commands his men to kill the intruder. An arrow pierces Rebega. Three more arrows drop three more pygmies. The little people run for their huts. Old Timer picks up Kali Bwana and carries her out of the village. He hears a crash but does not look back to see what it was.

Chapter Nineteen - 'The Demons Are Coming!'From a tree inside the Betetes' village, Tarzan unleashes his arrows. The branch he is standing on gives away, and he crash to the ground. Pygmies swarm over him, and he is tied up. Fearing an attack, which Old Timer predicted, they guard their gates and drag Tarzan into a hut. Tarzan gives the cry of the great apes, which makes the pygmies believe that they have captured a demon. Nyalwa is chosen as the new pygmy chief. Nkima sneaks into the hut where Tarzan is being held. Nyalwa and five warriors come to the hut to slay Tarzan. They see Nkima leave the hut. They surmise that the demon has changed into a monkey and escaped. Nyalwa enters the hut to check. An ape cry from Tarzan sends the six warriors running. They surround the hut and plan to throw their poison tipped spears through the walls of the hut. Suddenly, Zu-tho and six bull apes appear in the village and carry Tarzan into the jungle.Chapter Twenty - 'I Hate You!'Old Timer carries Kali Bwana deep into the jungle and releases her bonds. She tells him of her rescue from the temple. He tells her about the mysterious arrows killing the pygmies. They make a nest in a tree for the night. They eat fruit as they travel. They try to get each other to reveal their real names. But all they can learn is that Old Timer's first name is Hiram or Hi, and that the woman insists on being called Kali. They become a little friendlier towards each other. This emboldens Hiram to grab and kiss her. She says she hates him. He tells her that he loves her.

Chapter Twenty-one - Because Nsenene Loved Zu-tho and To-yat had a quarrel over a she-ape. Zu-tho took the female and some friends, including Ga-yat, to start a new tribe. They carry Tarzan to a clearing. Nkima gnaws through the rope but can not release the copper wire that binds Tarzan's hands and feet. Tarzan instructs Ga-yat to bring a person to undo the wires. The Kid and his men make it to Bobolo's village. He is looking for help to go to Gato Mgungu's village. The Kid and Bobolo trade insults. The Kid's bluff that soldiers are on the way stops Bobolo from harming the party. They camp close to the village. A young girl, Nsenene, comes to visit. The Kid has flattered her on previous visits. Nsenene is in love with him. She tells him that Bobolo plans to pretend to take them to Gato Mgungu but will kill them along the way. She also tells them about the destruction of Gato's village and about the white woman who was taken to the Betetes. Nsenene becomes jealous when The Kid asks for directions to the pygmy village. He tells Nsenene that the white woman is his sister. He plans to tell his men that Gato's village is out and that they will hunt ivory. But he will lead them towards the pygmy village.

Chapter Twenty-two - In the Crucible of DangerOld Timer and Kali Bwana make camp, no words are spoken. Old Timer starts to make a bow and arrows. A bull ape enters their camp. Despite his pleading for her to run, Kali Bwana won't leave Old Timer's side. The ape charges, knocks down Kali, and carries Old Timer off into the jungle. With his disappearance, Kali realizes that she is in love with Old Timer. Ga-yat carries Old Timer to Tarzan. The astonished Old Timer unties Tarzan. With their respective stories told, Tarzan starts for Kali Bwana. He tells Nkima to show the tarmangani the way. Nkima is not happy about it but does it anyway. Feeling sorry for herself, Kali breaks down and cries. By the time she has regains her resolve, she notices a leopard creeping towards her. Tarzan leaps onto the cat's back, snaps it's neck, and give the victory cry of the bull ape. Tarzan calms the girl with the news that her friend is following him. Old Timer rushes to greet her. She is cool to his concern. Tarzan wants to bring them to safety, but Kali Bwana plans to keep searching for Jerry Jerome. Tarzan brings them food.

Chapter Twenty-three - Converging TrailsOn their way to the river, Tarzan senses a white man's camp and goes to investigate. Tarzan brings Old Timer and Kale Bwana to the camp of soldiers and The Kid. Kali Bwana rushes to The Kid. She calls him Jerry. The soldiers learned about Kali Bwana's porter deserting and have come for her. Old Timer tells the soldiers to arrest Bobolo and Sobito as Leopard Men. Tarzan is surprised that Sobito is still alive. He leaves camp. The Kid tells Old Timer about the coincidence of claiming to Nsenene that the white girl was his sister when she really is his sister, Jesse Jerome. Jerry never told his name to anyone because he believed that he was wanted for the murder of Sam Berger, a notorious womanizer. Sam Berger did not die so Jesse came to Africa to bring him home. They arrive at Bobolo's village and arrest him. They learn that a demon came and took Sobito to the village of Tumbai. The Jeromes and Old Timer leave for America. Jesse confesses her love to Old Timer.

see: ERBlist.com

THE MENU MEMORIAL DAY BARBECUE

Woodchuck, also known as groundhog, should be handled in accordance with the general rules for game in the field. The blood should be drained, and the entrails removed and the body cavity wiped clean. When hung for 48 hours, they are ready to the skinned and cooked.

 

Woodchuck meat is dark, but mild flavored and tender. It does not require soaking; however, many people like to soak it overnight in salt water. If the woodchuck is caught just before he begins his winter sleep, there is an insulating fat layer under the skin. Remove excess fat. Remove 7 to 9 "kernels" (scent glands) in the small of the back and under the forearms. Parboil the meat of older animals; cook by recipes calling for chicken or rabbit.

RE KRUGMAN ENERGY POLICY LIEO ENERGY POLICY IN XANADU

The history of energy, sorry story, especially throughout the 20th Century.

 

The Middle East should have been governed by a Viceroy, and should never have come under the control of the bedouins. It is bad enough that Russia has so much petroleum.

 

The West should have rationed its consumption (not just in war) both in the West and elsewhere.

 

Krugman talks about renewables as the direction of the future. The reason is that the West squandered so much of it so fast already.

 

Just stop and think for a moment of all the ways we here in America have fostered and continue to blithely support  this incalculable permanent loss, many decades of horrendously bad super high consumptionist automotive, home, and industry  product designs, and wasteful private monopolistic power generation policies, that there are mostly only bad renewabilist alternatives left now.

Why make any energy (or advanced products or technology know how), much less cheap energy, and the very revenue from it, readily available to the hostile leadership of countries in civilizations with, as Bobbitt put it so well, a seething anti Western underclass?  An enormous underclass. Why?

Unless you want to commit civilizational suicide?

Dumb and Dumber...The Dumb Money Ideology

Ed Boyle, on DK's site, recites the now popular saw about the inevitability of China rising again to its alleged former heights.
Anyone who studies it a little knows that the Mongols were a far greater (not a good, or a better) empire than China ever was, that the Mongols conquered weak China, and much more importantly, most of the world, and that China never recovered, frankly.

It was a so called Pax Mongolica to which liberal economists like Krugman love to advert with admiration.

Unfortunately, it was built on the most enormous slaughter the world has ever known...the road to freer trade pacifism.

Bobbitt loves to make poetic allusions, 'why oh why can't I'?

THERE ARE SUMMARIES OF BURROUGH'S BOOKS

ERBlist.com

THE MENU MEMORIAL DAY BARBECUE I ORDERED A PYGMY

I have to do him in batches!

Terms search: pygmies

THE MENU ITALIAN TOMATO SAUCE IMPROV

I use leftovers to flavor tomato pasta sauce. This time, leftover roast chicken slop and skin.

A can of tomato sauce, leftover anchovy fillets, crushed garlic, italian herbs, a splash of stale red wine, and capers.

 

This goes over gluten free pasta.

 

For the diabetic conscious, who may follow Robin Ellis' site, I suggest making a sort of veggie lasagna with this sauce, instead of high carb pasta, using say sliced broiled zucchini, broiled red bell peppers, throw in a layer of spinach or say turnip or mustard greens, arranged in layers, with whatever cheese you favor.

 

There are bechamel sauces, instead of or in addition to cheese, (makes a change: North Italy), that do not use much or any flour, although a bechamel sauce is really a de minimus amount of flour, anyway.

For the bechamel roux, you might even drip in chicken and or bacon fat, instead of olive oil or butter, the standards.

You won't read stuff like this in, say, Marcella (the Julia Child of Italian cooking), or, say, Martha Stewart....or even someone from the classic tradition like Luigi Carnacina. Marcella seldom crushed a clove of garlic, in her life. That's not me...

TYPICAL MIAMI BEACH OR ACAPULCO SUNBATHER

ALL THE THINKING LIBERALS AND WHACKO CONSERVATIVES HERE WORRY ABOUT THE TOP .1% GAP WIDENING

Call them Pikettyites or civil libertarians.

I worry more about the global bottom 90% moving up, call it convergence.

People in American poverty, what the NYT calls the real issue versus the food stamps faux issue, are still wealthy by global living standards.

The reason they are poor is that most of the prosperity of the lower income folks here has now been offshored for the bottom 90% elsewhere to do, or rendered obsolete by labor saving techniques.

FLAT AND FLATTER WHO NEEDS AN INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

when you can build a new concrete and steel silk road, from China to Europe and Africa, in a flat world?

 

What matter, this or that virtual, IT, WWW innovation, when you can coopt them, and, moreover, when you can physically take over the flat world, between Europe Africa and Asia?

I don't intend to flatter Friedman by suggesting that there are flatter things than are dreamed of in his philosophy.

RE THE FLAT WORLD IN THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS MEANS

No doubt you don't believe me...about convergence, or most anything else. So what? 

 

You think me either an alarmist charlatan, or a conservative (whatever you think conservatism means to you) fool.

 

Here's Bobbitt; you can take issue with him:

 

"...(because our security problems do not arise from a competition among the great powers, but rather out of the seething underclass, domestically and in the Third World, that has been seduced by the cult of consumption at a time when the future dictated by its demographics moves this class ever farther from realizing its fantasies)..." The Shield of Achilles, p. 258.

Bobbitt does not agree with Huntington, same page 258, but Huntington is right about the causes of what Bobbitt is talking about, not Bobbitt.

THE FLAT WORLD IN THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS MEANS

they all can now walk across it,
text across it,
hack across,
fire across it,
campaign across it,
plunder across it,
pirate across it,

at will,

to get directly at you, wherever you are.

In a flat,  a nuclear, a WMD, a WWW IT world, you now have no place, whatsoever, wheresoever, to hide.

There are also, incidentally, a whole lot more of them, hundreds and hundreds of millions more, in other civilizations, out there, than there are, here, of you few.

Mostly, if you look at large numbers, they don't look like you. They don't act like you. They don't think like you. They don't believe like you. They don't live anything like you. 

And to be truthful, they don't really like, or understand, you, at all. And, I don't really blame them for that. In their shoes, with their heritage, I would feel and think as they do.

Further, they are a whole lot, a whole lot, poorer than you as a group.

They especially hate and envy you, as a whole civilizational group, every man woman and child, for that.

You are not safe in your gated community.
You are not safe in your compound.
You are not safe in your high rise.
You are not safe in any city.
You are not safe in your country.
You are not safe in any other country.
You are not safe in any countryside.
You are not safe in undeveloped places.
You are not safe in the largest most highly developed metropolises.

Think about it.

STAG NATION

Degeneritz

ONCE YOU ADMIT THE PROBLEM IS POVERTY NOT SUPER WEALTH OF THE FEW WHAT CAN YOU THEN BE MADE TO TURN AND FACE?

See this post today: RE DUMB AND DUMBER NYT THE PROBLEM ISN'T FOOD STAMPS ITS POVERTY

You can perhaps be cornered into talking about the ultimate cause of widespread poverty even in wealthy countries.

And where will that lead you?

To global income and wealth convergence.

And where did convergence come from?

From your LIEO system, your globalist ideology, and your propaganda, over a long period of time.

RE DUMB AND DUMBER NYT THE PROBLEM ISN'T FOOD STAMPS ITS POVERTY THE DUMB MONEY IDEOLOGY

The real problem is institutions like the NYT, the LIEO best symbolized by the NYT, the World is Flat Newspaper, lording it over a now flattened economy to blame on Washington rather than on itself.

It is not a problem Washington should only now be solving, but rather one which the NYT should have warned against, rather than having sponsored, say with the Marshall Plan as it later unwound into globalization, Bretton Woods from the beginning, or even with Wilson's initiatives, and then with FDR's opening to free trade after 1932.

Smell the coffee, game over.

 

Nothing worse than having encouraged us to be on the wrong side of longterm historical change, the Whig Milner Group Fallacy, rather then merely the Lorch Media Entertainment Problem. People like Drew Pearson of course did both at once!

 

Terms search Lorch, Drew Pearson, Brooks, Thomas Friedman

Liberal institutions like the NYT actually are primarily responsible for raising up a backward and anti intellectual conservative media even dumber than they: What I have called, following Lewis in The Big Short, The Dumb Money Ideology.

IF BANKS ARE TOO BIG TO FAIL ARENT THEY TOO BIG TO COVER BIG HACKING LOSSES?

That will be the next step.

Depositors, or investors, will be required to bear hacker losses beyond a certain point, by agreement, or even by statute, or ultimately by both.

They will all do it, so there is no way out of this monopoly.

They control the currency itself, frankly.

RE BA GLOBAL IT CRASH AMERICAN GLOBALIZED IT WWW FALLOUT HACKOUT

 

If their system crashes, they can't even sell you a cup of coffee, for cash.

 

They can't make change....

 

If either system crashes, yours or theirs, they can't buy anything from you, unless you both agree on terms of a barter, on the spot, in the new jungle.

 

 

BALANCE OF POWER WESTERN CIV DECOY NOTION

It ceased to be relevant, even in the West, except fitfully after say 1800. That seems to be a fair inference from Schroeder.

 

There is no balance of power in the jungle of civilizations.

 

Of course some thinkers think the notion of civilizations is rather like that of unicorns.

FOR THE BUDS

 ALONE IN A CROWD ON MY BIRTHDAY

My wife has on the menu thin gruel, accompanied by fully raw Christina root vegetables!

Perhaps a small, raw, fish....

She is from Friesland, after all.

THE MENU VENISON OPOSSUM HEDGEHOG SAUERBRATEN IMPROV

This is just a very good idea, to me.

 

Why? Venison is notoriously tough. I can vouch for that.

 

We make beef sauerbraten, using home brewed pickle brine, from pickled cucumbers and collards.

 

We can't buy venison at the local Publix, so I can't tell you how it would turn out, but I guarantee it will be more tender than most everything else you try.

 

Mutton would also be helped by this method. We get relatively tender Australian lamb, and so the issue seems less pressing.

 

The classic cookbook Charleston Receipts has receipts for opossum... I cannot imagine that some of these would not be helped by such a marinading procedure.

Even the inimitable Robin Ellis' beloved pet hedgehog would doubtless be a delicacy, perfectly in keeping with his diabetic conscious menus, done this way, but banish the thought!

An afterthought, for my apparently momentary fulsome French readership: why not advert briefly to such things as pieds du cochon?

These are routinely marinated in much this way. Let us gratefully acknowledge our French readers by this reference to their kindred, and often exemplary, culinary practices.

RE DK CURRENT POST AND MY COMMENT

The thing I remember, 5 years younger tomorrow, more than JFK's ignominious death, was nuclear so called preparedness duck and cover, early 1960s.

With the benefit of Whiggish hindsight, we would all have been much better off had we taken Cuba at the time of Jackson, when we had the chance.

Then I, and you, would not have been having to do duck and cover a hundred and fifty years later, or JFK have been blundering into a Bay of Pigs...

SNAPSHOT PAGEVIEWS POSTS TODAY WONDER WHY THEY LIKE ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID?

Entry	Pageviews
ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID May 24, 2017	8
RE NYT SOMALIA LIMITS OF BOMBING SIMON SAYS NATION... May 25, 2017	6
RE DISSECTING WHITE FLIGHT NORTHERNERS FINALLY SME... May 25, 2017	6
RE NYT TOP RUSSIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS HOW TO INFLUE... May 25, 2017	6
re ROGUE VASSAL STATES IN THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES... May 24, 2017	5
RE MANCHESTER ATTACK US LEAKS THE WEST IS AN INSTA... May 24, 2017	5
RE BALANCE OF POWER AND THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS... May 23, 2017	5
MIDDLETON MURRY'S LIEO MORAL FROM THE CIVIL WAR May 23, 2017	5
THE MENU BACON CHEESE BURGER IMPROV May 25, 2017	4
RIVAL GANGS: POLITICIANS AND PUBLIC FIGURES VERSUS... May 25, 2017

THE MENU BACON CHEESE BURGER IMPROV

Why not, once in a while?

 

It is really all about the quality of ingredients and condiments.

 

The pattie, grass fed ground beef and home ground beef heart...Sunday bacon, etc., beefsteak organic tomato...

 

I use Martin potato sesame buns, rather than bake them myself.  I am that lazy.

 

Even my wife, a reformed vegetarian, might eat some of this.

 

I have talked about condiments here so many times... 

RE MARYLAND SPEECH I THINK I AM WITH THE CHINESE PEOPLE

RIVAL GANGS: POLITICIANS AND PUBLIC FIGURES VERSUS THE MEDIA

Call it the endgame of liberalism.

Stand your ground....

The sensationalism of the media has long served to foment this endgame situation, always couched in terms of liberal freedoms.

The sensationalist news media has long been the evil twin of pop culture, or is it not, perhaps, rather the other way around?

No matter...

RE NYT TOP RUSSIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS HOW TO INFLUENCE TRUMP AIDES

This is all more or less what I would have expected, (apparently business as usual among politicians, diplomats, and spooks) and had predicted they would find, so far.

 

Flynn apparently took the position that the US being closer to Russia would help in the struggle against radical Islam, a superficially quite reasonable view.

 

This is, of course, a rather shortsighted and quite distorted view, however, of how we, or Europe, should look at Russian actual interests, either here, there, or elsewhere.

RE DISSECTING WHITE FLIGHT NORTHERNERS FINALLY SMELLING THE COFFEE FROM LINCOLN'S BLUNDER

See Richard Rothstein's letter...

That gives you a sense for how thing ultimately went, Hoover and FDR.

Lincoln had betrayed the racist North, this gave them a way out when, finally, the freed negroes were at the door.

RE NYT SOMALIA LIMITS OF BOMBING SIMON SAYS NATION BUILDING

Confidential White House briefing: "They are all radical human rights criminals over there, either on one side, or on the other."

 

What would democratic Samantha Power have said, had Trump kept her? Bomb them.

 

Democrats: Bomb them.

Republicans: Bomb them.

 

Americans: bomb them.

 

Simon says: nation building here, bombing there.

 

Simon says next week: bombing here, nation building there.

See also BBC Ugandan Army or Kony, recent post.

Syria...: Kill off Sunnis, then, different day, bomb Shiites

"Sir, I see no method." Apocalypse Now

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID

For Gigi.

Honey, your time will come.

re ROGUE VASSAL STATES IN THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES

This is the post they like the most today... and why not?

Rome was only the latest lordly state to rule over Israel, in ancient times, before it destroyed it.

Israel really had no actual existence, ever, as anything other than a vassal state of some other Middle East great power.

If you read the Old Testament, you get a vastly different impression. Saul, David, Solomon..........

Put it out of your mind, utterly false. I can give you citations.

Think about it.

RE MANCHESTER ATTACK US LEAKS THE WEST IS AN INSTANT INFORMATION SEWER FOR THE WORLD

The WWW, IT, globalization, and the LIEO are things we predominantly promoted.

 

We were helped and encouraged by our co LIEO global civilizationalists, or vassals, like Britain, and others in Europe.

 

Transparency, open sunshine governments, freedom of the press and speech, freedom of association, yet privacy of confidential information, sources, informers, tipsters, whistleblowers, secrecy of diverse public and private security agencies and contractors (such as Edward Snowden) from which secret information can nevertheless emerge at will without let or hindrance. 

RE BALANCE OF POWER AND THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS

On the periphery of Western civilization, which has long thought in terms of balance of power within the West, other civilizations and their powers have skulked,  fawned, lurked, and waited.

MIDDLETON MURRY'S LIEO MORAL FROM THE CIVIL WAR

One might also call his analogy classic Whig historical exegesis:

 

"There is a manifest analogy between the situation which forced Lincoln's reluctant but unskakable decision to compel the Southern states to remain in the Union, and the situation today. A modern Lincoln wold apply himself to making the issue crystal-clear to his fellow-countrymen, and if he could find means, to the Russian people also. The issue is world-union or world-anarchy; world-union or world-slavery.  The rulers of Russia, he would say, cannot be permitted to refuse world-union, and thereby to condemn the world to anarchy and slavery. If they will not consent, they must be compelled to come in." In Wight, Why is there no International Theory?

RE SEPARATIONS OF REALMS OF SOCIETY

Why not talk, for a moment, about a topic, seldom broached in general terms but ubiquitous nonetheless, it seems to me; hard to wrap your head around: differentiations, and then separations, gradually, over a long period of time, separations and further distinctions and sub separations, call them specializations, of various aspects, all really one way or another, of dimensions, crafts, technical skills, institutions, callings, academic fields, learned professions, social and exact sciences, realms, sectors, confessions, games, studies, etc., within societies.

 

What might be implications of this immensely long and complicated development?

Would it be fair to say that these developments, call them evolutionary (or revolutionary, if you like) differentiations of all societies' institutions, (some of course much sooner in history than very late developing others) themselves engendered yet further differentiations?

That seems to me to have been the case.

Notions of what was considered, by primitive societies, sacred, as distinguished from what was considered secular, seem to have developed early in the dawn of civilizations.

Originally, a priest king had presided over all realms of activity within society including war.

The distinction, within kingship, between a king and a military commander is a rather late development. Kings, and their military commanders, tended to be, or at least to become in the case of nonnoble commanders, aristocrats, who also, until very recent times, also customarily often wore priestly crowns.

The Romans had hereditary aristocratic families, who also served priestly functions, as well as military ones, long after the monarchic era. Similarly for Europe, until very recent times.

ROGUE VASSAL STATES

Let's think about this category for a moment, and their fate...

 

Do any spring to mind?

 

The one I like to think of, from time to time, a paradigm in Western Civilization, but there are others, is the ancient temple cult of Israel, under the Roman yoke.

BBC UGANDAN ARMY OR KONY'S TEN COMMANDMENTS

What matter this or that?

Power: both are gross human rights violators: bomb them all!

THE MENU CHICKEN SLOP BEEF PATE PORK BUTT CACCIATORE CULINARY IMPROV REALITY

The title says it all...gluten free pasta...the menu and after...

You sort of have to be here...

The cook:

FOR BOOP

CATHOLIC HISTORY BROUGHT THE REFORMATION ON ITSELF JEWISH HISTORY HAD BROUGHT CHRISTIANITY ON IT

Body and blood, transubstantiation, indulgences, stuff like that. These needed to be addressed from within.

 

Rather like trying to corner the market on grace, what had also been done, say, after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, when the Temple at Jerusalem was then held to be the only legitimate site for animal sacrifice. Jesus, of course, had objected to such a thing, too.

 

Doctrinal overreachings, so to speak.

SOMEONE NOTICED THIS 2016 POST RATHER WELL PUT

Sunday, October 23, 2016

RE DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA DK CURRENT POST

SOMEONE SAW THIS RECENT POST WHY NOT REPRISE IT FOR THE REST OF YOU

Friday, April 14, 2017

RE SDW COMMENT ON DK'S SITE

SDW:

RE INSTITUTIONAL WEAKNESSES

Reflecting on DK's last post, The Hedge Fund Economy, Black Edge etc., and its carelessness, and on other chronicled debacles, in financial markets, especially the Big Short etc., and pursuing the dumb money ideology theme I raised, flaws in missed medical diagnoses, food and drinking water safety inspection balls dropped, failures in all manner of very technical, sometimes very well paid, areas of our economic commercial medical and financial systems, let's ask ourselves a few more little questions, say, about our national security systems, FBI CIA NSA etc? What inherent institutional weaknesses are lurking there, too, waiting to pop out, anywhere, at any time, on an unwary and unprepared citizenry?

THE MIDDLE EAST RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE

Juan Cole

 

• Iran is a theocracy that mixes religion and state more thoroughly than any other country in the world.

• Shiite Islam gives a special place to its clerics and demands blind obedience to their rulings on religious law.

• The commemoration of the martyrdom of holy figures is central to Shiite religious sensibilities and plays out in Iran’s populist politics.

• Since 1979, the Islamic Republic has imposed a strongly patriarchal order, but pious women have found ways to assert themselves in society and education.

• The contemporary Shiite revival has given Iran influence in the Muslim world and especially among other Shiite communities in the Arab world and South Asia, challenging the Sunni secular nationalists and traditional monarchies.

Overview

 

The 1979 revolution unseated the last dynasty to rule Iran from the Peacock Throne. But it also represented a revolution within Shiism, which had traditionally shunned direct clerical involvement in politics. Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini introduced the idea of clerical supervision of a modern republican state that has all three standard branches of government—the executive, legislature and judiciary.

 

Iran is today the world’s only clerically-ruled government. Shiite Islam is not just the religion of state, but also forms the framework for a theocracy. As such, religion and politics are inseparable. The starting point for debates in Iran is not secular law and civil rights, but the tradition of Muslim jurisprudence and practice called the Sharia. Lively debates center on issues such as the nature of a just government, women’s rights in Islam, economic justice and the extent of limits on personal liberty. Since the mid-1990s, the Iranian political divide has also played out over the balance of power between the republican and religious nature of the state.

 

Shiite history

 

Only 10 percent of the world’s Muslims belong to the Shiite branch of Islam; most of the rest are Sunnis. The initial split between Islam’s two main branches followed the Prophet Mohammed’s death in 632 AD. It was triggered by a dispute over leadership of Islam. Shiites believed that the Prophet should have been succeeded by the relatives or descendants most familiar with his thinking and practices. In contrast, the group that later evolved into the Sunnis believed that the early Muslim community had the right to select elders from the noble tribe of Mecca, even if they had no blood ties to the Prophet. 

 

Many Shiite traditions—which heavily influence practices and policies in Iran today—emerged during that early schism. Shiites hold that the Prophet’s son-in-law and first cousin, Ali, should have been his immediate successor. Shiite is the short form of Shi‘atu ‘Ali, or followers of Ali.Ali did become the fourth caliph for five years, but was murdered in 661 AD. The new Umayyad Dynasty then assumed leadership of the young Islamic empire. Ali’s son Hussein and his followers decided to fight against harsh governance, knowing that they were likely to be massacred. But they believed it was better to die fighting for justice than to live with injustice—a concept that today defines Shiite beliefs. Hussein was killed in the battle of Karbala. His tomb is one of Shiism’s two holiest shrines and Shiites annually mourn his death in reenactment passion plays. His martyrdom also defines contemporary Shiite beliefs.

       

Clergy’s powers

 

Twelver Shiites, the branch to which most Iranians belong, hold that the twelfth imam, or divinely-appointed successor of the Prophet, disappeared as a child in 874 AD and will one day become visible again in this world to restore it to justice as the Mahdi, or the promised one. In the absence of the Mahdi, Twelver Shiites believe that clerics trained in seminaries can substitute for his authority on some issues. So clerics in Shiism are powerful in interpreting God’s word for their followers. And the faithful are obliged to give blind obedience to cleric’s religious rulings. Khomeini transferred this religious power to Iran’s new theocracy after the revolution.

 

At the core of Shiite belief and history is a basic contradiction. Shiites believe in the need for divine authority in this world. But the disappearance of the Twelfth Imam in the ninth century left the community rudderless. Over time, Shiites have tried to answer this power vacuum in their faith in several contradictory ways. They came to hold that, in general, seminary-trained clergymen could substitute themselves for the absent Imam. Thus, they could authorize the state to collect and distribute the poor tax. They could authorize the appointment of Friday prayer leaders. But the trained clergymen only solved half the problem posed by the absence of the Imam, since no one alleged that they had the prerogative actually to rule, as the Imam did. Instead, they uneasily co-existed with lay monarchs, who exercised authority on a customary, common-law, not an Islamic-law, basis. 

 

Sunni clergymen do not have the same prerogatives or powers as Shiite ayatollahs; they are more pastors than priests. The Sunni faithful do not owe blind obedience to their sheikhs. As a result, most Sunni Muslims are today organized, like Europeans, on the basis of the nation-state, and many have chosen a relatively secular national framework. The Sunni world is thus dominated by nationalist republics and by conservative monarchies. As a result, many Sunni governments, whether secular nationalists or monarchs, view Shiite Iran as a dire threat because it offers an alternative vision of the state based on religion and clerical authority. Sunnis are also concerned by the appeal of Khomeini-ism among Shiite communities outside Iran, especially in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Lebanon, part of the so-called “Shiite crescent.”

 

Khomeini-ism

 

Khomeini’s reform of Shiism proclaimed that there is no place for the monarchy in Islam. He described secular nationalism as a tool of the devil. Under Khomeini-ism, only clerical rule in accordance with Shiite law can create just government in the absence of the Prophet and the imams. But the Islamic Republic he founded in 1979 represented a unique blend, since the supreme cleric or leader presided over a government formed by parliamentary and presidential elections that implied popular sovereignty.  

 

During the revolution’s first decade, many popular Shiite themes melded with regime goals. This was the height of Khomeini-ism—and the last decade of his life. During the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, young men who died at the front fighting the secular Arab nationalist regime of Saddam Hussein were commemorated as martyrs. Fountains spewing red water—symbolizing blood—were set up in Tehran’s main cemetery. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was founded as a sort of Shiite national guard to defend theocratic rule. Imbued with the passions of popular religion, it often competed with the regular army for preeminence—and won. Khomeini brought Friday prayer preachers from all over the Muslim world to Iran in hopes of influencing even Sunnis with his theocratic ideals. 

 

The balance between religion and republicanism shifted from the late 1990s during the reform era. President Mohammad Khatami, who served two terms between 1997 and 2005, emphasized popular sovereignty over the clerical authority of the supreme leader. He sought to increase the scope of personal liberties and freedom of speech. Shiite philosophers began debating ideas about Islamic democracy. By the time Khatami left office, however, this second political tendency was crushed by clerical hardliners. 

 

A third tendency emerged after the 2005 election of populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. He led the so-called “principlists,” a faction named for adhering to the strictest interpretation of the revolution. The principlists attacked both the wealthy upper echelon of clergymen as fat cats preying on the people, and the Khatami liberals as traitors to the ideals of the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad often invoked the Twelfth Imam and predicted that he would soon return. 

 

The reform tendency reemerged in 2009, when Muslim liberals launched the Green Movement to protest what they saw as the stealing of the presidential election by Ahmadinejad and his clerical allies. They too employed the symbols of Islam to prove legitimacy. Green is associated with the descendants of the Prophet and is considered the color of Islam. And their rallying cry was Allahu Akbar, or “God is great.” The Green Movement leaders sought less stringent controls on personal liberties and speech. But they insisted their mission was to defend the ideals of Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution, even though they emphasized the sovereignty of the Shiite populace over high clerical authority. The regime effectively curbed this movement, reasserting the joint control of the high clergy and the principlist populists.

 

Shiism and women

 

The 1979 Islamic Revolution proved a turning point for women in Iran and in the Muslim world generally. Khomeini, the theocrat-in-chief, and the new regime, imposed veiling on women and forbade them from serving as judges. The regime insisted on segregating beaches, sporting events and universities, on gender lines. Yet the populist character of Iran’s revolution also led to the establishment of many new provincial schools and resulted in impressive advances in female literacy.

 

The Iran-Iraq War also drew large numbers of women into the work force for the first time, so that practical developments often offset patriarchal law-making, and unexpectedly gave women a prominent place in Iranian society. The strongly patriarchal Islamic Republic has paradoxically created an active, literate and idealistic class of women who will increasingly shape its society, to the dismay of many male ayatollahs.  

 

Factoids

 

• Iran was largely a Sunni area until the 1500s, when the Safavid dynasty began imposing Shiite Islam on the population as the state religion. This era also saw international competition between the Safavids and the Sunni Ottoman Empire.  

• The most important religious holiday for Shiites is Ashoura, which commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet’s grandson, who Shiites believe was unjustly killed in 680 AD. Shiites recite elegiac poetry, tearfully tell the tales of Hussein and his family and companions, and march in processions with banners. Some practice flagellation, whipping themselves with chains or cutting themselves with knives—folk rituals frowned upon by the educated clergy.

• Twelver Shiite-majority countries include Bahrain, Iraq and Azerbaijan, along with Iran (though Azerbaijanis are mostly secular in outlook). Countries with Shiite minorities include Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. 

 

Notable players

 

• The International Center for Islamic Studies is in the theological center of Qom, Iran. This non-governmental institute, backed by Shiite religious authorities, teaches Shiism to non-Iranian students and prepares them to become teachers, sermonizers, researchers, jurisprudents and translators. It seeks to spread worldwide the teachings, sayings and practices of the Twelve Imams, which are studied by Shiite scholars but not by most Sunnis. It has students from 101 countries.

• As an alternative to orthodox Shiism, Sufism has experienced a fresh wave of popularity in Iran in the early twenty-first century, especially among youth. Nur-Ali Tabandeh is a leader of the mystical Nimatullahi Sufi order based in Gunabad, northeastern Iran. Sufis believe in a quest for a mystical union with God and organize themselves in orders or tariqehs. Their ecstatic chanting, love of poetry, and tendency to believe that God is present in all things makes them hated by orthodox Shiites. Tabandeh has been accused by the regime of a political alliance with the reformists. He was briefly arrested in 2007. In 2010, he was accused of meeting with leaders of the reformist Green Movement, which seeks greater personal liberties.

• Zahra Rahnavard represents the new Islamic feminists. A political scientist and sculptor, she became prominent as an anti-shah Muslim activist in the 1970s. During the monarchy, she argued that attempts to abolish the veil or headscarf were an imperialist imposition of foreign ways on Muslim Iran. But after the revolution, she also became the first female chancellor of Alzahra University. She is from a conservative religious family, but she has emerged as a leading political activist, as wife of Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. Through her essays and books she argues for an Islamic feminism that does not challenge the principles of the Khomeini-ist state, but makes a place in Muslim society for dynamic, educated women.

 

Trendlines

 

• The central political conflict in the Khomeini-ist system is between clerical authoritarianism and populist aspirations for liberty. This seems likely to play out with potentially momentous consequences in coming years.

• The ideological underpinnings of the clerical state may be undermined in the next generation by either a lack of interest in religion or an enthusiasm for unorthodox forms of Islam such as Sufism, which is now widespread among Iran’s youth.

• Iran has influence in the Arab world, but its theocratic form of rule has limited appeal. It has largely been rejected by Iraqi and Lebanese Shiites. And it seems inappropriate for minorities in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Most Sunni activists are hostile to the Islamic Republic. 

• Iran is a regional player, but the monolithic Shiite crescent feared by some Sunnis has not materialized.