Laksamana.Net

Ingeld & Christ:

An interesting story from Laksamana.Net underlines both the differences of Southeast Asian Islam, and the age of the region's cultures.

Majelis Mujahedeen Indonesia, or "Indonesian Council of Holy Warriors" (MMI), is a radical group founded on all too familiar principles: the founding of an Islamic state where there is now Indonesia, a state under Islamic law. It holds all the vaguely Wahabbi strictures about life. The Front Pembla Islam, or "Defenders of Islam Front" (FPI) is a vigilante group designed around enforcing those same strictures. It does things like attack and destroy cafes that serve alcohol in Jakarta during the fast of Ramadan.

These groups, linked to Saudi Arabia's vast school-funding movement, will hold no suprises for the Western reader. But there is one part of Indonesia that is actually under Islamic law (sha'riah): Aceh province. And there is a separatist movement in Aceh province which has been fighting for the full independence of Aceh from the Indonesian government. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is a name you will probably get to know in the next few weeks, as they spar with the Indonesian military around our Marines and sailors.

Here's the twist, for those of you who have not heard of Aceh before now: GAM has demanded the expulsion of MMI and FPI from Aceh province.

"The government of Aceh in exile... deplores the arrival in Aceh of members of the thuggish so-called Islamic Defenders Front and the terroristic Indonesia Mujahidin Council. The introduction of these organizations into Aceh at this most critical time squanders scarce resources by the Indonesian government which is better allocated to the victims of the recent tsunami," said the statement.

"The FPI and MMI are not welcome in Aceh and have never been supported by the Acehnese people, nor has their presence been requested. The FPI has been involved in sectarian killings in Maluku and Central Sulawesi and illegal attacks against non-Muslims and others in Java and elsewhere."

The statement said MMI is the "umbrella organization for groups such as Laskar Jihad, Laskar Jundullah and the FPI" and has "the explicit aim of turning Indonesia into a non-democratic fundamentalist Islamist state".

"The actions and words of both the FPI and MMI are against the teachings of the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith and contradict the tolerance and faith of Acehnese Muslims. Neither the FPI nor the MMI has any credentials or skills in disaster relief, and their presence is clearly intended as a provocation to the people of Aceh. Their intervention in Aceh is therefore counter-productive and is not wanted," it added.

GAM is an indigenous people's movement defending, in their way, the traditional culture of Aceh. Precisely because it is a genuinely traditional movement, it frowns on Islamist/Wahabbi rhetoric and practices of the sort that has become popular in the urban areas of Indonesia among groups such as FPI and MMI. Islamists are enemies of traditional cultural practices, such as the famous Indonesian shadow puppets, which aren't directly related to Islam -- in fact, they have their roots in Hindu culture, though they are now an important feature of life in Aceh province.

It was in just this way that early Christian saints deplored the traditional culture they were trying to supplant: you may remember Alcuin's famous diatribe against traditional Germanic hero poems, "What has Ingeld to do with Christ?"

Very early in the life of Grim's Hall, I wrote a piece suggesting that the relationship between Ingeld and Christ was the way to break the Islamist movement. I still think that it is, as the Aceh case may demonstrate. What has Wayang to do with Islam? To the people of Aceh, they are as father and mother.

Musings of The GeekWithA.45

Royal Marines:

The GeekWithA.45 tells a story, pertaining to the selection of a military sidearm:

'As regards to calibers, I once had a Royal Marine tell me, over Guiness in a London pub: 'The 9mm is, you see, a round invented in Europe for shooting other Europeans.

'Being civilized, we fall down when shot, and wait for the chaps with the red cross armbands to carry us off.

'You yanks, on the other hand, keep getting into arguments with disagreeable sorts who insist on trying to kill you after they've already been shot, so naturally you think you have to blow great bloody holes in them. Quite right, really.'

I'm not sure if he means that it's "quite right" that we favor the big guns, or that these folks keep insisting on trying to kill us. Hard to tell with the Brits. That dry sense of humor, you know.

It's worth noting that the Texas Rangers were early adopters of the five-shot Paterson Colt revolver, which fired a lightweight round of .36 caliber, with even lighter calibers available. They used it to great effect in the constant skirmishes, and occasional battles, with the Commanche. The heavy Walker Colt was designed later on the recommendations of one of the most famous of the early Rangers, Captain Sam Walker. Among his innovations was an increase to .44 caliber. Although this weapon was designed by a Ranger for the needs of Rangers, many didn't like it because of the heavy weight and massive concussion. They stuck with the Patersons.

So it's an old debate, really, even among Americans.

Philstar.com - The Filipino Global Community

Incitement:

If you want to interrupt a festival, this is how serious people do it:

"Had we not recovered these bombs and arrested these people, the procession could have turned into a bloodbath," said Senior Superintendent Elmer Jamias, chief of WPD Station 5 which covers Ermita.

The place is the Philippines, where suicide bombers linked to Jemaah Islamiyah and a local mosque were planning to infiltrate a Christian parade, on the feast of "the Black Nazarene."

Tens of thousands of barefoot Roman Catholics take part in the annual Jan. 9 procession in which the centuries-old ebony statue of Jesus is taken from Quiapo church and paraded around the district.

Among the most prominent regular participants is Vice President Noli de Castro.

"The scenario is, there would be suicide bombers in the feast of the Black Nazarene," Jamias said.

"They would rig their bodies with bombs, join the procession, and blow themselves up. God made sure this would not happen," Jamias added.

No one could be sure that the police caught all the bombers, or recovered all the explosives. In spite of that, the largest crowd ever came out to the Quiapo Church. The vast turnout slowed the procession, such that suicide bombers could have easily decimated the crowd. Bombs in such a crowd would be brutal, but less so than the stampede and the crush which would follow. Supporters seemed unafraid:

Despite concerns that the procession might be attacked by militants, hundreds of thousands of devotees thronged to see the ebony statue of Jesus Christ, which is believed to have miraculous healing powers, as it was paraded through the sidestreets of Quiapo district.

"We were not bothered by the reported plot to bomb the procession. But if anything happens, at least we are in the presence of the Nazarene," said market vendor Mario Dignos....

"I’m not scared of anything, even bombs," added Zenaida Gutierrez, a housewife. "I am with the Lord."

This is the spirit of the true martyr, unlike the twisted form of the word which has come to grace the lips of the cruel. It reflects in any number of ancient texts, but still has the power to astonish. We have seen it before, but never become accustomed to it.

It is this kind of radical hope and faith which alone can defeat the enemy. We see similar courage in the hearts of men and women standing in line to vote in Afghanistan, and we shall see it in Iraq. We saw that kind of courage, once, in Tienanmen Square. We see it in our heroes and volunteers.

These men and women have met with different fates. The pilgrims of Quiapo pass unmolested; the students of Tienanmen were driven under with tanks and bayonets. The voters in Afghanistan suffered but little, and gained much; there is no doubt that the voters of Iraq will suffer more, for the enemy is more powerful in their nation. And as for our own fighting men, they contest from behind the strongest armor and most deadly firepower we can devise. Our medical skill is second to none, and the injured can be transported to safety for the length of his recovery. But it would be folly to say there is nothing to fear:

Thus ended the memorable field of Ashby-de-la-Zouche, one of the most gallantly contested tournaments of that age; for although only four knights, including one who was smothered by the heat of his armour, had died upon the field, yet upwards of thirty were desperately wounded, four or five of whom never recovered. Several more were disabled for life; and those who escaped best carried the marks of the conflict to the grave with them. Hence it is always mentioned in the old records, as the Gentle and Joyous Passage of Arms of Ashby.

Yet they go, each in their turn. In their courage, the world has hope. It falls to us to be worthy of them: and to go ourselves, if Fate should call.

Monday

Kurdistan:

Every twenty years
Comes to us a gambling man
To stake our country and culture
And resources and rivers
And trees and fruit
And men and women
And the waves and the sea
At the gambling table.

That poem, written by the late poet Nizar al-Qabbani, is quoted as part of an article in the Kurdistan Observer, entitled "Of Arab Political Culture, the Kurds, and the Falsehood Called Iraq." It provides a genuine, independent assessment from a Kurdish point of view.

The author obviously feels a great weight on his shoulders in trying to provide such a view. He feels it necessary to reject, by name: Al Jazeera, John Kerry, Al Quds Al Arabiyah, Edward Said, Saddam, the CIA and Mossad but also anti-Zionist forces in Arab culture, a former professor at the US War College and a top Arab writer named al-Obaidi. It isn't all negative: The New Yorker comes in for some high praise.

[A]t a time when even the United Nations was acting like nothing had happened at Halabja, it was magazines like the New Yorker and journalists like Goldberg who forced the truth upon the consciousness of an indifferent world. Yes, some of these writers were Jewish; yes, some of these writers are people with dual citizenships. But to claim, as al-Obeidi does in his piece, that much of what Mr. Goldberg has written about Halabja is not a representation of what actually had happened but rather the product of some sort of a conspiracy by a man of "Israeli/American citizenship" is to reveal a deep-rooted commitment to a culture of lies and bigotry. Mr. Goldberg is capable of telling the truth about Halabja because intellectual honesty prevents him from doing otherwise. Mr. al-Obeidi is incapable of telling the truth about Halabja because, being the brainchild of Arab political culture, he is not accustomed to intellectual honesty.

Having thrown off so much of the worlds' weight -- that is, the Arab World's and the Western World's -- the author is finally sufficiently unencumbered to explain his own view. The poem he closes with is telling, but no less than the argument that preceeds it. If you wanted an independent assessment of the situation in Iraq, here it is.

MILSCI:

Hi everybody! Hope everyone had a nice holiday(s) and all. I've not been about due to some work related matters, but I think that may be easing up some.

So, I was going to contrast the Army's Field Manual 100-5, Operations, with the Marine Corps' Warfighting manual, but I just stumbled across this blog which I think will demonstrate the Army's current way of fighting in a way 'not so dry' as the manuals can be.

The author is a 1st Lieutenant in an armor regiment, and is writing up his experiences from the battle of Fallujah. I give you Armor Geddon.

AIM Column - Muslims vs. Muslims: The Untold Story - January 4, 2005

Muslims v. Muslims:

Accuracy in Media has a story today that targets the notion that Americans are insufficiently protective of Muslim holy buildings. The author argues that the real story, if you want to talk about the destruction of Muslim holy sites, is the story of other Muslims doing it.

Ironically, however, during the same month that thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets in a furor over what America was doing in Iraq, zealots with the backing of the Pakistani police stormed the Ahmadiyya mosque in Nakhalpara, Pakistan, to remove books deemed offensive to Islam and banned by the government. The Ahmadiyya sect of Islam has had its mosques attacked and reduced to rubble and their creeds erased from the front of mosques. This sect is singled out as heretical because it is dedicated to non-violence and opposes terrorism....

Giving Pakistan a run for their money, though, is the astonishing scope of destruction of Islamic sites in Saudi Arabia. Historic tombs, landmarks, mosques and battle sites, all central to the Muslim faith, have either been destroyed or been ordered to be destroyed. The birthplace of Mohammed, founder of the Islamic faith, was razed over and turned into a public restroom.

These clashes within Islam -- clashes over how it should be interpreted, and by whom -- have always been more important than the clashes between Islam and the outside world.

Jeremy Black of the University of Exeter wrote a piece for last year's Orbis called "The Western Encounter with Islam." For most of Islam's history, he argues at length, Islam was only barely interested in the West at all, even during the occasional wars with Christendom.

The West’s primary concern with the relationship between Christendom and Islam appears to be underlined by the traditional world map, with its depiction of an Islamic world stretching into the Balkans and the Western Mediterranean. However, if the conventional map— an equal-area cartogram— is replaced by an equal-population cartogram, then a very different perception of Islam emerges. It becomes a religion not primarily of the Arab world but of South Asia: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Iran....

In every century of its history, more people have been killed in the Islamic world in conflicts among Islamic powers than in conflicts between Islam and the West. We tend to think that the major external problem has always been Western power. But from an extraordinarily early stage, Islam fractured between a large number of polities, some of which were linked to religious and/or ethnic divides. These divisions were much more important in many senses than what took place on the margins.

Thomas Friedman argues today that these divisions are the very challenge we face in Iraq:

This is a tough call, but I hope the elections go ahead as scheduled on Jan. 30. We have to have a proper election in Iraq so we can have a proper civil war there. Let me explain: None of these Arab countries — Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia — are based on voluntary social contracts between the citizens inside their borders. They are all what others have called "tribes with flags" — not real countries in the Western sense. They are all civil wars either waiting to happen or being restrained from happening by the iron fist of one tribe over the others or, in the case of Syria in Lebanon, by one country over another.... [U]nlike in Eastern Europe -- where a democratic majority was already present and crying to get out, and all we needed to do was remove the wall -- in Iraq we first need to create that democratic majority.

This seems to be the evolving consensus. But it is not complete.

In fact, there is a democratic polity in Iraq. There is a large section of the population that is urbane, and that identifies itself first as "Iraqi," and only second or third as "Shi'ite" or "Sunni," or a member of this sect, or a follower of that traditional clan of imams. Both LtCol Couvillon, and Omar and Mohammed of Iraq the Model spoke about that group, and how large it is. Both Omar and Mohammed are members of the group -- witness Mohammed's new year's poem about the "Sons of Iraq." The Colonel said that his experience holding local elections suggested a turnout that neared one hundred percent, and was certainly ninety percent, of all eligible voters.

There are universities and students, professionals, and tradesmen -- even Communist-oriented unions. The "tribes with flags" still do exist in Iraq. Primarily they are out with the insurgency, but some -- for example, the Kurdish Peshmerga -- are fighting on our side. These tribes exist alongside the polity Friedman says we need to create. But to a large degree, those tribes which are participating in the process are being drawn into it, and thereby transformed into members of the democratic polity:

In Kirkuk... I could sense that there's an alliance between the Arabs and the Turkmen to balance forces with the strong Kurdish alliance. Many Kurds have demanded to postpone the elections of the city board as they felt that it's not easy to compete with the Arabic-Turkmen alliance. Still, this demand didn't include the general elections as Iraq is considered one electoral region and local alliances that are limited to a certain spot will not have an effect on the big picture.

In the south, the tribes decided to contribute to the IP and the army efforts in protecting the electoral centers within their regions and this was agreed on after a meeting for the higher commission with the tribes' heads in Hilla and Nasiriyah.

Compare the attempts to use democratic politics to "balance" ethnic tensions in Kirkuk with the story from Georgia of yesterday. Consider the tribal warriors, serving alongside the Iraqi Police and the National Guard to protect polling stations from insurgents. Remember the democrats, the Omars and Mohammeds, going back and forth about the country even in this time of chaos, talking about democracy, manning polling stations, organizing parties, teaching the tribes.

There is the civil war Friedman says he wants.

CNN.com - Sheriff posts snipers�after firings - Jan 4, 2005

Bad News From Georgia:

A headline you generally don't want to see in your local paper: "Sheriff posts snipers after firings."

On his first day on the job, the new sheriff called 27 employees into his office, stripped them of their badges, fired them, and had rooftop snipers stand guard as they were escorted out the door.

The move Monday by Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill provoked an angry reaction and prompted a judge to order him to rehire the employees.

The Sheriff had a few words to say in his defense:

"A lot of people are under the impression that the sheriff's office is under civil service laws," he said. "But my research shows the employees work at the pleasure of the sheriff." ...

Hill said the manner in which he fired the workers -- including taking some deputies home in vans normally used to transport prisoners because the deputies were barred from using county cars -- was necessary.

He cited the assassination of Sheriff Derwin Brown in neighboring DeKalb County in 2000. Brown was gunned down in the driveway of his home three days before he was to be sworn in. Former sheriff Sidney Dorsey was found guilty of plotting to kill him and sentenced to life in prison.

"Derwin Brown sent out letters to 25 to 30 people letting them know they would not be reappointed when he took office," Hill said.

CNN reports a "racial overtone" to the firings. I'm normally suspicious when the media finds "racial overtones" in anything, but this time it's hard to avoid agreeing:

Hill was among a spate of black candidates elected last year in the county once dominated by rural whites. The county seat was the setting for the fictional plantation Tara in "Gone With The Wind."

The fired employees included four of the highest-ranking officers, all of them white. Hill told the newspaper their replacements would be black.

Georgia is a large state -- the largest east of Big Muddy. I've lived most of my life inside her borders, and there are huge swathes of the state I've only visited once or a few times. Clayton County I've only been through, travelling from my family's home in the mountains to Savannah on the coast. As a consequence, I don't have anything much to say about the place. It's in classic plantation-cotton country, unlike the mountains to the north or the lowlands to the south and on the coast.

Population changes in Georgia have outpaced the nation for decades now, but there remain pockets of old Southern families, who have lost control of their local governments due to the heavy immigration from the rest of the country. That's undone all the traditional social systems, which will tend to inspire violence and chaos in any culture. It's probably a measure of the relative civilization of the United States that it hasn't been worse than this: with Iraq and Afghanistan in the rearview mirror, one doesn't have to think hard to imagine what can happen when the balance of power between vaguely hostile ethnic groups is changed. And really, both of those places have been fairly gentle examples themselves: for the real story, look to Daurfur, or remember the Japanese invasions of Asia.

Likely it will work itself out peacefully, through the courts and the county commission. Still, it's a reminder of how fragile are order and peace. Even in the greatest civilization of our day, one can wake to find the police posting snipers against their former officers, for fear of assassination.

The Diplomad: More UNreality . . . But the Dutch Get It

End the UN:

The Tsunami has been the blow that even Iraq was not. The thing is utterly worthless: indeed, insofar as it provides legitimacy to the corrupt, it has only negative worth. It's past time to put an end to our participation in this fiasco, and send them packing to higher ground. Switzerland, say.

But not Holland. The Dutch are pretty irritated with them, too.

China e-Lobby

China:

The China e-Lobby has decided to cease publication of its email newsletters, and become a blog. Welcome to the blogosphere, and good luck.

YONHAPNEWS WORLD SERVICE::ENGLISH NEWS

Yeah, Good Idea:

The title of the article speaks for itself: "Kim Jong-Il Urges Increased Rice Output This Year." Well, never let it be said that the Communist system can't identify its problems. Fortunately, they have the leadership of Kim to guide... no, I won't even type it out. The DPRK is immune to sarcasm. Next week, I could be reading in Yonhap, "American MilBlogger praises Kim Jong-Il's wise leadership."

Mudville Gazette

Advice to Reporters:

Greyhawk has some advice to reporters covering Iraq. I think they're pretty much already following it, though.

China

China: Lessons Learned

There have recently been some excellent translations out of the Chinese and Japanese, on the subject of the lessons learned by the Chinese military while observing several recent wars. The Iraq war is one of these, and the NATO action in the Balkans, and the Gulf War.

Due to their length and the lack of an "extended entry" capability at Grim's Hall, I've posted these over at Del's Free Speech site. They are rather long, but rewarding.

The translations, which are from the Eurasia Research Group's Global Geopolitics Group, provide some real insight into the Chinese military approach and mindset. If any of you are interested in thinking about China and the Chinese military, this is a hearty serving of useful information.

Grim's Hall

Canis:

For reasons entirely unrelated to my intentions, I spent the majority of the day with dogs. Dogs, and one noble cousin.

I was supposed to have dinner with a business associate, but on the way she was diverted to assist in an emergency with a dog charity group for whom she does volunteer work. This is All Breed Rescue and Referral. The dogs, it seems, were escaping, and they needed help fixing the electrical fence.

Just why they called her for this is not immediately clear to me. She's a wonderful, good-hearted and cheerful young woman. She isn't, however, a country girl -- a fact that became immediately clear at the feed & seed on the way out to the kennel, where she was trying to buy parts for the electrical fence. It's no dishonor to have grown up in the suburbs and not know anything about electrical fences; and she was therefore not dishonored.

Still, by coincidence she happened to be with me when the call came in, and I've worked on plenty. I grew up in North Georgia's cattle country. My family had an electrical fence; my neighbors had them; our friends had them. So, I figured we could pick up the needed supplies on the way and a pair of blue jeans for me, as I was wearing my office clothes -- but also cowboy boots, so no need for extra shoes -- and fix up whatever the trouble was in about an hour.

The "about an hour" thing didn't work out. I won't go into the details, but it took at least four hours to take care of all the details involved in the exercise, and that isn't what I wanted to write about anyway. What I wanted to write about was the wolf.

His name is Tundra. His back is as high as the top of my hip, and his head stops about the top of my armpit. He is a pure white, as are the white wolves of the high tundra. I don't know that he is an arctic wolf, though; he could be an Eastern Timberwolf with a rare coloration. He has the yellow eyes characteristic of his kin.

I was warned on the way in that I might have to fight him off. Apparently he can be aggressive. In fact, he tried to knock me down twice as I walked in, once from each side. The first time I knocked him down; the second, I just nudged him off. After that, he was perfectly peaceful. He followed me much of the afternoon, just at the heel, and often licked at my hand and let me pet him when I wasn't working.

This gives the lie to almost everything I've ever heard about wolves. I don't know if he is an exception, or if I've simply been misinformed. I've always heard that wolves in captivity are quite dangerous and a little unstable, being wild animals. And it's true that the head of the rescue organization warned her assistant a time or two to keep him separate from some of the other animals, lest he kill them.

Even so, what a fine beast, and what noble eyes. It is easy to see how we came to befriend them, once upon a time in the morning of the world.

The Diplomad

Disaster Relief:

The US military's response to the disaster in PACOM has been magnificent. The Diplomad has more.

The Blogger's Tsunami Challenge | Loaded Mouth

Challenge Update:

The Blogger's Tsunami Challenge has decided to up its goal from five thousand to ten thousand dollars, after receiving $4,900 in one day. I had a feeling that the five thousand wouldn't prove too hard to come by. I won't even be put out that none of the donors has requested any poetry from me, which reluctance is finally quite understandable.

Coffee drinkers among you may also wish to consider buying Sumatran coffee. I've always liked the stuff, which is flavorful but not very acidic.

Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate

God & Tsunami:

Arts & Letters Daily has picked up on the latest echo of an eternal debate. It arises each time there is a natural disaster of particular magnitude. The debate forms around the question, "If God exists, and is both all powerful and good, how can evils such as this disaster occur?"

The technical term for this, in philosophy and theology, is theodicy. Partisans of atheism generally argue that the disaster in question proves the nonexistence of a benevolent, all-powerful God; partisans of theism generally argue that the question is misstated. Arts & Letters Daily has collected arguments on all sides: An anti-God argument from the UK Guardian (which is to be expected), a pro-God argument from the Wall Street Journal (likewise), and also arguments from the India Telegraph and Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, which is by the way one of the world's finest newspapers.

The Journal piece points out that Voltaire made the same argument in 1755, following an earthquake off Lisbon. It is, as I said, an eternal debate.

And yet, that very fact astonishes me. It seems to me that the Bible itself addresses the question directly and at length, in a fashion that is largely set aside by theists and apparently ignored by atheists. This very question is the subject of the Book of Job.

Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Gird up thy loins now like a man:
I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Wilt thou also disannul my judgment?
Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Hast thou an arm like God?
Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency;
and array thyself with glory and beauty.

It seems to me that the proper argument from a belief in the supernatural is to assert the supernatural. Indeed, this answers not only the crisis posed by the question of earthquakes, but that posed by the sciences:

The vulgar metaphysics we all carry round with us includes the vague idea of a self, an “I,” imagined as a little homunculus crouched inside our heads an inch or so behind the eyes, observing and directing all that goes on in our lives. It seems probable that this is as false as the medieval notion of the sky being a crystal sphere. Yet if the self is indeed an illusion, then what is to prevent that dissolution of all values foreseen by Nietzsche? .... The deconstruction of self is not a new thing, of course. It has been 250 years since David Hume, by the rigorous application of pure reason, concluded that neither the inner world of the self nor the outer world of physical matter could possibly exist. Hume then turned and laughed at himself and at what he had accomplished: "This sceptical doubt ... is a malady, which can never be radically cur'd, but must return upon us every moment, however we may chace it away ... Carelessness and in-attention alone can afford us any remedy. For this reason I rely entirely upon them; and take it for granted, whatever may be the reader's opinion at this present moment, that an hour hence he will be persuaded there is both an external and an internal world..."

Although the neuroscientists are chasing the self through ever narrower and darker passageways of the brain, they have not caught it yet, and there are good reasons to believe they never will. Roger Penrose’s book about fundamental physics offers one of those reasons. Physicists have been pursuing matter for much longer, and with much more fruitful consequences, than neuroscientists have been pursuing mind, yet still the nature of physical reality eludes us. What is the physical world composed of? If you make it through the 1,000-odd pages of Penrose’s book, through the explanations of tensor calculus, Clifford algebras, spinors, twistors, Riemann surfaces and Feynmann propagators, you may have an inkling, but that is all you will have. If you can’t hack all that heavy-duty math, you won’t even have an inkling, ever.

The point is not that science is wrong, but that human wisdom is limited: what science cannot find is not untrue, but beyond human understanding. The "hour hence" restores belief in the external and internal worlds for the same reason described by Edward Abbey, himself no friend to religion:

In metaphysics, the notion that earth and all that's on it is a mental
construct is the product of people who spend their lives inside rooms. It is
an indoor philosophy.

Try it on the mountainside, or by the angry sea.

But if science cannot answer these questions, what remains except religion? In these great mathematics and terrible physics, we have girded ourselves up like men. We cannot answer, now or ever. In that yawning gap, faith forms: and we have no answer, no more than Job was answered by the whirlwind, or Loddfafnir by Odin:

It is best for man to be middle-wise,
Not over cunning and clever:
No man is able to know his future,
So let him sleep in peace.

Sleep in peace. Happy New Year.

John Henry

Mike Mulligan:

Here's a bit of a departure for you.

While visiting family over the weekend, my mother -- my son's grandmother, that is -- produced a copy of what she says was my favorite book as a boy. This was Mike and Mary Anne - Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, originally published in 1939. It is apparently eternally popular, and has never been out of print since that date.

It is the story of Mike and his steam shovel, Mary Anne, who worked on the Panama Canal together. As gasoline and diesel powered excavators come into the fore, Mike tries to find a place for himself and Mary Anne. He finally enters into a competition in which they dig out the basement for a City Hall, only they dig so fast that Mary Anne can't get back out again. So, a smart fellow turns her into the furnace for the new City Hall, and Mike gets a decent gov't job maintaining her. It is, in that way, the classic New Deal story.

But that isn't all it is.

I haven't thought of that book even once in my adult life. But sitting there, listening to my mother read it, I realized what it was: it's the legend of John Henry, with the steam engine as the hero.

John Henry said to his captain, "A man ain't nothin' but a man.
"But if you'll bring that steam drill round,
"I'll beat it fair and honest, I'll die with my hammer in my hand
" -- but I'll be laughing --
"'Cuz you can't replace a steel driv'n man."

Now ain't that something?

The Blogger's Tsunami Challenge | Loaded Mouth

Engagement Rings:

I see on checking the Blogger's Tsunami Challenge today that a brave young man has decided to take two gambles at once:

I just donated $1000 to the red cross, via amazon's one-click donate page, as a direct result of your challenge. To make it an interesting story, please consider it the "DeBeers Matching Fund"... I'm just about to buy my girlfriend an engagement ring, and I know she'd not mind me getting her a slightly(!) cheaper one, for the much greater benefit of the victims. She's pretty cool like that. I hearby challenge any future grooms with balls and money to do the same.

The mind boggles on several counts. Grim's fiancee was won with an engagement ring that cost US$12 -- a sterling silver ring done with Celtic knotwork that Grim himself wore once upon a time. The lady in question, now my wife of some years, wears the thing on a chain around her neck as it is far too big for her hand. We were grad students at the time, but she put aside any hope of financial prosperity and married me instead. Such women are too rare.

Love knows the victory, they say. Happy New Year to you all, and may Love find you, and abide with you, all the days of your life.

Lthrnk Chllng

Charity & Leathernecks:

I changed the "Leatherneck Tartan" button at the top right to point to the Tsunami Blogger Challenge, in case any of you should wish to keep track of it. I put it there to keep track of the Spirit of America "Friends of Iraq" Blogger Challenge.

Grim's Hall was never intended as a fundraising device, although from time to time I do like to post links to worthy charities. We don't do blog ads or tipjars here, though I see nothing wrong with either. I just think of this blog as a Hall, a gathering place for friends and warriors. We do things by the old code at Grim's Hall. This is my home, not a hotel: nobody will try to sell you anything, and nor will I accept payment in exchange for hospitality.

For that reason, I'm always a bit reluctant to post requests for reader charity. I do it anyway. The one part of the webpage that hasn't changed from the very beginning is the tagline: "A weblog on politics, ethics, mythology, history, and the heroic life." Charity is an important part of all of those things, and particularly the last.

I find as I get older that it's getting harder to live "the heroic life." There are two reasons for this. The first is the problem of age. It was easy as a youth to believe in "eating and drinking heroically." Now, I find that even at the greatest feast I eat moderately; and a grand bout of drinking only makes the head hurt, while one's thoughts turn to the long-term viability of the liver.

The second is the problem of experience. The more you learn and the older you get, the harder it is to believe that anything you do is heroic. Every day I read about, talk to, or exchange emails with men whose lives are far more heroic than mine has ever been. I have been brave. I can remember mornings hiking alone over the tops of snow-covered mountains, with all the trees sheathed in ice, so that at sunrise it was as if the world was made of gemstones. I have fought, and dared, and done much. But aside from the stories, what good has come from any of it?

There is so little that we can do for those half the world away. Even if my duties would let me go, I have no skills that would help anyone. Beyond first aid, I know no medicine. I can dig and fill, and lash things with rope, but I am not trained in electricity or plumbing.

But there are those who are, and many of them are rushing to the aid of the peoples injured in this disaster. It is a very small thing to offer them a parting gift, some small money to speed them on their way, or to purchase medicines to use when they arrive.

A small thing, but not nothing; and a thing done for people you have never met, and never will. Some would say it is still no more than duty; indeed, some would say it doesn't even meet the duties we owe. Some ethicists have raised high standards on such questions, although others have said otherwise.

Regardless of whether you consider it a duty or a glory, no one will make you do it. It is a free choice made for noble reasons. If you are choosing the heroic life, such choices are the stuff of it.

I will not say that anyone who does not give has failed his duty. I will, however, praise those that do.

Charity

Charity Challenge:

Blogger Tas has started a Tsunami Blogger Challenge, which has the modest goal of $5,000. The notion is that I should post some sort of challenge, which of course I will do. Anyone donating at least $50 may request that Grim compose a poem on a topic of their choice, except for such topics as honor forbids.

Since the terms of the challenge allow you to donate to the charity of your choice, send evidence of your donation to tas at loadedmouth dot com. He will apply it to the chart. Anyone who decides to donate because of reading this post, please drop me an email or leave a comment to let me know what you want your poem about.

Grim is not the best poet living today, but you can see a small sample of poems I've written by clicking on the links toward the bottom of the sidebar.