In behalf of the record

Seems very depressing. Everyone on Earth could probably benefit from a short course on randomness. This is a good example of using jfreechart though. Here is a link to the source code.

These studies may actually understate the problems. They are aggregating older studies. Many studies were done using older phones, and very low frequencies which are not even close to today's frequencies. As low as 800MHz, just above UHF television. The higher the frequency the more energy is contained in the radiation. New phones are using higher frequencies and more of their energy is absorbed. The 4G phones BRS/EB runs at a high 2496–2690MHz. This is just above your microwave oven frequency at 2450MHz.

Also the problem with using only cancer is that brain tumors that are benign kill about the same number of people as cancer tumors. It may be possible since both tumor types share common mutations that benign neoplasms should be included in the study. This should double the statistical signal size.

If cell phones cause harm, then the harm to children who are growing is worse since damaged cells are copied many more times during growth vs. aging. This increases the standing population of cells with cancer precursor like defects for exposed children. 

For the US, the safest phones are older CDMA phones from Verizon/Sprint with a protruding antenna. These low frequencies penetrate building better and drop connections less. More of the radiation goes through your head rather than is stopped by your head. Also note that radiation exposure from a cell phone antenna decreases by the square of the distance (very fast). So just holding the phone a little bit off your ear makes a big difference.

IBM's DeepQA project produced Watson, a computer designed to beat the best Jeopardy champions of all time. Watson did this handily on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 beating Ken Jennings $24,000, and Brad Rutter $21,600 with IBM's Watson taking the prise of $77,147.

Computers talk, computers translate words into text, finally computers understand natural speech. We know this because the ultimate test of understanding is of course answering questions.

U.S. GEOGRAPHIC NICKNAMES for $800

Appropriately enough, this New York metropolis is "Bison City"

Watson: Buffalo

DeepQA can register Yahoo mail addresses just like I can, DeepQA can obtain as many Twitter accounts as it wants. Imagine DeepQA surronding someone in a chat room or on FaceBookand battering them with ridicule?

The Challenge graphic is not likely to pose an obstacle for registration to social networking sites. DeepQA does not need the cooperation of the social networking sites to register, or use the sites or follow rules and etiquette.

The eruption of the Arab world comes at a seminal time for IBM's DeepQA. Could DeepQA have stopped the revolution in Egypt? DeepQA remembers all its conversations, it's always awake and always understanding. It could engage a chat room. It could engage a 1000 people at once. It could surround someone, humiliate them, put someone in their place. Convince an individual that their ideas are poorly received. Even make disarming and compelling arguments.

Final Jeopardy! Round

19th CENTURY NOVELISTS

William Wilkinson's "An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia" inspired this author's most famous novel

Watson: Who is Bram Stoker?

The network belongs to Virizon so should they be able to do with it as they please?

It is reasonable to assume that all access to the internet originates from the customer. The customer turns on the computer or internet appliance, buys applications, and directs her browser to the sites she wants to visit. She subscribes to services she is interested in. Is there anything that she is not doing with her eqipment that goes on without her direction? Is there anything left to sell to someone on the other end of the connection?

Basically the conflict is that Verizon, is selling both sides of the same wire, …and there's only one wire. This means that you, the consumer represents value that can be sold and to that extent you loose control of what you pay for. You may think that having payed for internet access you may then control it in a self directed purposeful manner. But Version has also sold the other end of the wire and therefore controls access to you and from you. So you can be sold up-line and your internet experience includes what others are paying Verizon for you to see.

You are in an internet-like space, or a Verizon-aquarium whose content is limited in substance or bandwidth. They are selling the same thing to both sides, --access to the internet for a user and access to a user from the internet. It sounds like racketeering and it is. Hypothetically Verizon, AKA strong man, says to TD Ameritrade, you want access to my people then you gotta pay something, --if you want that nothing bad happens to their stock trades. Meanwhile the Verizon customer thinks she is paying for internet and that she, the customer, is directing and controlling purposefully all internet access from her computer and blames TD Ameritrade for slow execution, unaware that Verizon has made a deal with Charles Schwab to deliver speedy execution.

Now another argument is that there is some benefit in the mix and that it is not logical for an internet service provider to abuse their position. Except that is has already happened, big-time. Some boring background, or skip to the next paragraph. Internet is controlled by an IP protocol (internet protocol) which is used to route messages. Traffic shaping is a way to manage bandwidth, typically messages are simply destroyed when too many arrive at one point to be processed and cannot be routed. The IP protocol backs off and retries. This can be done with finesse and there can be discrimination. Above the IP layer in the protocol stack is the TCP or transmission control protocol. TCP is part of the application layer which means it is part of the program the customer is running inside the customer's computer or appliance. It talks to another program running on a remote computer, such as a mail server, a stock broker's computer or a website computer. TCP layer is personal, it carries your search queries, your secret bank transactions or messages to your stock broker to buy and sell stocks. It is a layer that is part of an application you run on your computer and not part of the IP routing.

Comcast intercepted TCP layer traffic over their network, searched through all the packets of their customers looking for an application protocol used in file transfers. Then they intercepted the TCP message and replaced it with one of their own construction telling the application on the customer's computer to reset it self, which caused a persistent malfunction of the protocol the customer was purposfully running. In a distributed communication system only one of perhaps hundreds of computers needed to be on the Comcast network, or merely travel over the network to disrupt functionality. There certainly was some movie sharing, but also legitimate usage like moving large ISO images for open source (me). Bottom line is that Comcast was spoofing messages from outside of their network to disrupt applications running on desktops that were none of their business. A very good example of abuse.

If all purposeful internet access is under the direction of the customer then to discriminate traffic is to take away something from the consumer. This must be true in all cases if in all cases the customer decides what he will do with the internet that he pays to subscribe to. I believe this is true because I do not think there is any internet traffic to the customers home equipment that the customer does not control or instigate purposefully. Subscribing both ends of the internet muddies the customer expectation for access. Also it creates internets.

Jesus light of the world is come. Let us recognize his coming in this season. Shatter the allusion that darkness is substance. Darkness cannot overcome light. Let the light of Christ into our hearts and into our minds and overcome the darkness there. The light of Christ, let it flow through us without resistance. Know that we can change our selves and the world. Life is not in vain. When we love, the light of Christ shines brining light into the world. Let us know that when we love our self, the light shines also. Let us love as much as we can then. Begin with any step we are able.

Amen

What's new in government? The green bud is not democracy, it's law for government.

Sometimes hidden by the conflation of law and government, an emerging form of government is found in the admission that the law includes the government and the law is above government. Rather than the idea that if we traverse the hierarchy upward we well eventually find the power to do what ever we want. This is the conflation of law and government, an escalation. This distinction was probably less obvious in our past. A constitutional government, whether monarchy or democracy, is an attempt to recognize this distinction. This acknowledgment of the primacy of law has existed at least since the year 1215 in the form of an English charter known as the Magna carta. The 1297 version of the Magna carter is still on the statute books in England and Wales.

What is interesting to me is how little progress this law for government has made during this time. Governments that have such charters and constitutions see very little growth in them. It is still very appealing to power to have every question posed to the law be an assault on government and a call to anarchy. And who gives up this power willingly? It is the vice of every man. What is more interesting is that when a people tries to add to the document, the addition more often than not does not effect the liberty of government but the liberty of the people. We see good examples of this in the gay marriage initiatives of the US States constitutions and alcohol prohibition in the US constitution.

Sudden drop of 80% in RSS/Atom hits after post on Wikileaks. It is interesting to think about moral underpinnings of this issue. Is expedience a sin? Is expedience the choice between better and worse and not between good and bad? We know that we can be lead by the nose choosing between better and worse. We can be subjected to coercion by strong forces. The lone man, unarmed, standing before a tank must admit that the tank makes a compelling argument.I guess I'll take my lumps. I still think the error is with the State Department and Wikileaks is a happless victum with no aternative.

As of the writing of this post the Wikileaks light is out. My first observation was that this subterfuge was a wildly successful attempt to draw attention away from the leaky State Department. I cannot imagine in America that a concerted attempt would even be considered against an organ of transparency. But Joe Lieberman's office is contacting all the companies Wikileaks works with, like Seattle-based Tableau Software and the giant cloud service provider and book seller Amazon.com. Like the ideas in the bill of rights, Wikileaks is also present as a concept. A concept we all want to endorse. We expected the leaks to be on despotic governments blowing the whistle on extra judicial murder. Or misdeeds by our own government for which we would be grateful to have exposed. Isn't it the State Department that has erred? Or the military that made a mistake?

There may be other reasons why the office of Sen. Joe Lieberman is crossing this line of decency, and that is that there are too many secrets. The blanket of secrecy is too large for a healthy society to live under. This happens when you are too secret, the disinfecting property of light cannot do its work. We need to restrict not the access but the generation of secret documents. The blame lies with the State Department. That is the end of it. After secrets are out only despotic nations persist in silencing information. It has to end with the individuals who leaked the documents and only if they were properly made unavailable to them and further that those people had agreed in advance to keep the secrets of the state. I would add to this the removal of any and all punitive remedy for revealing secrecy for criminal acts. The constitutional form of government is remarkable in only one way, in that it restricts the range of behavior of the government it self. Here the government must adhere to the law. This is truly what is at steak here, that the constitutional protections cannot be applied in secret.

I find that I become passionate when I oppose the concept of moral relativism, or relativism in any form. Believing instead that there is a record. That truth, while elusive yet does exist. Perhaps I am defensive in defending my position so that it is not taken from me. I must admit fallibility and allow myself to be persuaded by arguments in order to defend my position. My position must defend itself, it must stand upon its own legs. The relativist does not have this weakness or strength. So there is an imbalance from an argumentative perspective. The moral relativist can, when all is said an done, laugh; knowing that he is impervious to arguments

“Man is the measure of all things, of things that are that they are, and of things that are not that they are not.” Protagoras (c. 481–411 B.C.), Greek sophist.

Yet I cannot deny relativism in judgment because it is a valid a tool of discovery. My objection is in the germ of belief which states that the final arbiter is me and not God. While relativism appeals to my vanity and easily reconciles conflict in my models, --yet it seems like a sickness to the mind where the mind may go anywhere it wants to create reality with impunity, as a child discovering denial. I object to the denial of perfect knowledge because this denies the existence of my Lord Jesus Christ, even though I cannot possess such knowledge but for the Holy Ghost.

First Christian Church of San Jose, as spoken.

Dear Lord,

I am comforted by your presence in the world today. So great a force upon the face of the world for gentleness, charity, beauty and love. You show to me the power of love and charity to erode corruption and shape the world anew for the glory of God. Through salvation you collect the wicked and the retched and bring them into communion with God. When I cannot empathize and when I am filled with contempt for the wicked actions of some, I am reminded that you Jesus have the power to reach out in love and bring those back, --and with them me also. To act in love is so personal. Love is so beneficent and you Lord are able to act toward the retched of the world with love.

When other's act in your name Lord, I will test that to see if they act in love and defend your name. And I will follow your example and try to be in love with all.

Amen

Today I know we are all equal in Christ. Your nature of service to the Lord cannot become an appellation with Jesus. He is the source of greatness which you are close too when great things are done in his name. Hear we are all equal in our service, any size of strategic importance will not result in punitive rewards. This is made known to me, one who was in need of correction. Rejoice for when we greet each other in Jesus we do this on equal footing. This then cannot stand between Christians.

First Christian Church of San Jose, as spoken.

Lord Here my Selfish Prayer.

Jesus our Lord wants something from us. For us to make Him happy. Lord what does it mean to love? Jesus' love is so great. Jesus your love is so inclusive that even your enemies are loved by you. Lord, what can I do to help myself that will make you happy?

I know I am loved by you Lord, and when I ask of your gifts for myself, I realize that this makes the one who loves me happy too.

Using this example that you are for us Lord, gift that I too may be happy when I give to others, even those who have plenty. Provide the blessing that I can have that wonderful emotion of love, even toward my enemies. Grant that I can feel gratitude when good things happen to other people, even enemies of mine. Grant me increased love in all areas yet unexplored by me so that love follows me and my heart can be glad.

Thank you Lord,

Amen

Sermon for

August 22, 2010

Before the

First Christian Church of San Jose

"Your kindom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven"

From a prayer Jesus spoke when he taught us to pray. He was teaching us to pray, nobody was recording his private conversation with God. Here we don't risk abusing the authority of our Lord, it was given to us by Jesus himself. We are given the message from our Lord in the most prophetic way. Jesus knows us, he knows what we are capable of understanding.

Considering our human weakness, our ability to deny, perhaps the only place this message could be hidden, is in our repeated recitals every Sunday. We do examine it from time to time, this is true. Certain words have a tendency to change more often then others. “Bread” never changes, but, “Forgive us our ____,” trespasses, debts, sins. I wonder sometimes, are the debtors on good terms with the trespassers, is there maybe some tension there? Will the sinners prevail? I think we can all agree, we can insert our own sin in that place and to not have to repeat a phrase twice. Yet the meaning seems clear, at least we do not dwell on it. But there is disagreement on how parts of the Lords prayer are interpreted. I don't think these enter our minds when we recite the prayer.

It seems clear to me that Jesus is pronouncing the coming of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, to come to us, on Earth. Many theologians have looked at this. They tell us it falls on us from above, perhaps onto one generation. That it is just around the corner, so look busy. When it comes it is over. The wheat is sorted from the chaff. But who cannot see the effect of Jesus Christ on the Earth and wonder if the kingdom's coming isn't more gradual? Jesus' influence is touching everything, quickening all progress. There is earth bound evidence that the kingdom of God is coming. We know more about creation, we see this in the science. I think we can place the origin of the universe with more precision than the age of the earth using current cosmological science. With study of God's creation there are benefits. We get neat stuff, cell phones, computers. As we study God in the character of Jesus we also grow morally. And there are benefits here too. In fact, when you combine the progress in our understanding of creation as science, with moral progress, you see changes in something called economy. The two are intimately connected. Economy is largely based on stuff, made from our understanding of creation, but it also has a moral component that is even bigger. But who believes in moral progress on earth. Inside a person’s lifetime we accept this, but reject it for the culture for the race. But there is evidence of moral progress.

In February of 1840, Wm. Ellery Channing wrote his introductory remarks for his lecture on the elevation of the laboring classes. In the essay he writes, “... I am not discouraged by the objection, that the laborer, if encouraged to give time and strength to the elevation of his mind, will starve himself and impoverish the country...” He is arguing that educating the laboring class will not destroy the country! It's a long argument because there is a lot of resistance to the idea. Its a game changer, the playing field is going to have new rules. One lifetime later enter the First World War, aerial combat, tanks, poison gas, radio communication, automobile, telephones and medicine, justice is becoming wide spread (always in comparison). Yes, justice marched forward too. The world is transformed, yet we say morally nothing has changed. I have taken a survey and could not find one person to admit moral progress. No one argues that there is no technological progress, only that there is no moral progress. The industrial revolution was not a moral revolution, even if income of the whole world increased 10 times in the two centuries that followed, instead we probably focus on child labor or helpless factory workers, as well we should.

A common misconception about our down-hill path we draw is our conception of modern warfare. That modern warfare is worse then primitive warfare that preceded it seems logical. Let your hearts be lifted then. As Lawrence Keeley in War Before Civilization writes, “Imagine living in a society in a near-constant state of war, both within and without. A society where you lose 0.5% of your population to violence every year, a rate which would translate to 2 Billion war deaths during the 21st century.” World war II in contrast killed 63-77 Million world wide. Warfare methodology changes with technology becoming more efficient, we see this escalation, it frightens us, and it should. But we also have forgotten as a culture the smaller constant raids and wars that were rarely interrupted by periods of peace.

Let's consider warfare, it is often repeated that war will be with us always. But how great are the chances that Germany will once again declare war on Poland? The spread of social justice and equality are pushing back the prospects for war. And in time war will become unwelcome police actions and civilian deaths will continue to decline as they have in non-genocidal wars. In the space of lifetimes there is much progress, and disappoint too. For me when the United nations weapons inspector Hans Blix felt that Iraq had been disarmed of weapons of mass destruction and that for the first time in history we had intervened successfully to reduce the threat of war. Opening the door for other interventions in North Korea and Myanmar or with other belligerents. There was great value in this while preserving the current governments, after all, what despot would not use every drop of his people’s blood to preserve his power, especially when the outcome for him would be death. We were standing on the edge of a new world. Of course the yellow cake uranium forgery undid this hope, leading to interventions costing the lives of 10s of thousands. Will war be with us always? Perhaps, but not war as we know today, we will succeed at some time. War will further erode after this police stage, even into economic trade aggression. Eventually there will be no mass death from this cause, it shall become insane and irrational with the advancement of the kingdom of God.

Another sign of moral progress which can be found in the record is in the continuous decline of homicide. As many as 1.4 million Americans have died from homicide in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Compare this to 535,965 Americans who died in both world wars. Some cities and small states have kept census and homicide data in Europe that allows us to look back a long way. In fact, homicide rates have been in continuous decline for 800 hundred years. State murder also declined. In England there were 75,000 executions in the 100 years between 1630-1730, a rate of 750 a year. It fell to 140 a year between 1770-1805 and again to 75 a year between 1805-1832. Today there are no executions anywhere in Europe.

It is not as easy to separate economic progress from moral progress. This is perhaps because economic progress is in lock step with equality, fairness and our understanding of value and justice. We need to go back a long way to connect the industrial revolution to moral progress. The first iron bridge made crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. It was built in 1773. It is an exceedingly moral bridge. When you consider that iron could be a threat to the Crown, power is jealous of power. Industry required secure property rights. Building an iron foundry may get the owner killed, this was a disincentive for progress. Iron foundries make armor and weapons, and money too, which is a potent form of power. Property rights are a threat to a Sovereign. Emperor's and Presidents like to have their power without strings attached. Is it moral that you can own something? How secure in your rights of ownership do you need to be before you invest. If it is immoral to steal, how can the property of ownership not also be moral? The bridge, like the industrial revolution, could not happen without morality. Morality evolving to become contract law. Institutionalized fairness, and what a battle that must have been. Shares were issued to raise the £3,200 required to build the bridge. Iron master Abraham Darby cast the bridge and agreed to pay for overruns. The world needed to have rights given to the individuals, then needed to be secure in their possessions, power had to be given up by the powers of the day. We see the elevation of the human in this place.

We do not always understand the economic, logistic or logic behind a good decision and use our moral compass. Moral decisions are usually early and of great value. Later, always as far as I know, we can fill in the logical and economic reasons and they make sense to us. Because the kingdom of God will make sense, eventually. Why would progress toward the kingdom of God be any other way? But this does not mean that logic alone can guide us in this place, it has its many dead ends and circles that fold back in itself, it has a tendency to be cold and has a great deal of trouble placing value on some types of consideration. Particularly those considerations having to do with the coming kingdom of God.

We do not see the Kingdom of God coming, we do not see the agency of Jesus at work bringing about that part of change that we call progress. Our gaze is fixed on our decline and destruction. It seems irresistible to us that some end is to come, brought to us by our unworthiness. Make no mistake about this, our destruction is there as an option on our horizon, and it is all together fitting that we keep close watch and fear it. Surely as we can decide our course, our destruction must be available to us. I am sure that God has allowed us such latitude to control our destiny, he has breathed freedom into our beings and would not keep from us from any well deserved destruction we could bring down on our heads. We deserve this much freedom. We might even test God, you love us God but would you deny me my self destruction?

But such great hope comes from our knowing that even our time in life is not futile. That this world we have spent so long in is becoming compliant, moving toward the unity with the Kingdom. That our suffering is heard in Heaven and recorded here on Earth and we should demand it recorded on Earth as well. Who would take our suffering and have it repeated endlessly for those who come after us. Our contribution to the record protects us from injustice. How many times do we hear the call that if the injustice we suffer would only be recognized? We would like to be restored but the barest minimum we would accept is that we not be denied to render our mark on this world in vain as though erased. There is a mark left on Earth. For better or worse, that shall be felt in some mysterious way on the future of this wondering sphere spinning in space. Does the engineer leave this world knowing he has delivered clean water to millions, saved perhaps hundreds of lives. Why cannot then the victim of injustice hold up there injury to the record and expose injustice. It is true we can never let our self be satisfied, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” We must be accustomed to increasing progress and demand nothing less. Seek and find reasons when we do not see the change we expect. Our recognition of progress is not to be a call to complacency.

Channing writes, “It is idle to hope, by our short-sighted contrivances, to insure to a people a happiness which their character has not earned. The everlasting laws of God’s moral government we cannot repeal; and parchment constitutions, however wise, will prove no shelter from the retributions which fall on a degraded community.”

It seems that we must make every single mistake. That we cannot escape one lesson, and if we do we are doomed to go back for it. Perhaps the question becomes how many times is enough. Let us lift up the record, demand more fidelity and hold our selves accountable for each measure. And also be comforted by the knowledge that like the engineer, what we do we also leave behind. So let goodness and justice rule in our lives. And be comforted by our savior whose agency is quite active in the world today.

Notes:

The twentieth-century estimate of 1,266,660 is from Douglas Eckberg, e-mail, September 5, 2004; Eric Monkkonen obtained the nineteenth-century estimate of 135,460 using New York City as my source for the rate of homicide per capita.
Homicide rates per 100,000 population in English counties and cities, 1200–1970. From Ted Robert Gurr, "Historical Trends in Violent Crime: A Critical Review of the Evidence," Crime and Justicen> 3 (1981): 313. © 1981, The University of Chicago Press.
Vic Gatrell’s study of English executions, The Hanging Tree, In the waning years of capital punishment, 1805–1832, more than 2,000 people were publicly hanged; only 20 percent of those were for murder. Those numbers—about 75 a year—were down from an estimated 140 per year for 1770–1805, and even more dramatically

The meditation had 4 parts.

1. Discovery of something we want to effect.

2. How this area we want to change is effected by its environment (excluding us).

3. Accurately identify what power we have in this environment for our subject.

4. Plan a way to combine our power (3) with the environment (2) to effect change (1).

General guidelines

We will not discuss the object of our effort. We use the whole time to meditate and pray on the steps. We try to stay on the subject step and not wonder to other steps. Our minds can dart about, popping to step 4 for example when we are on step 2. Note this wandering and try to go back to the step. We maintain a contemplative prayerful state. The main objective is obtaining the skills to practice doing the steps discretely in order to help focus and become more effective. Failure is acceptable, the benefits can be realized from the exercise anyway but picking something easier to start with is advisable.

Step one

During step one we are encouraged to put aside the really big issues that trouble us or have been occupying our minds full-time. Because these may not have solutions that are accessible to us, we want success in this exercise. These projects/issues can be anything, desires for happiness, work projects, relationships that involve us or between other people. The only constraint is that it be something that we can make actual progress with using only our mind and the time allotted to us.

Step Two

In step two we need to think about the issue and how it naturally arises in its environment. If we are part of the issue, such as in a relationship with our daughter, we need to think abstractly about it, using general terms, --always trying to remove ourselves personally. If we chose something such as a carpentry project to knock down a wall, we use objective measure rather than how we feel, How many times do we walk around, how would it be better to see into the room from another room? We need to be objective and should exclude our selves, focusing instead on the subject and all the forces which act on it.

Step Three

Understanding our power. It is important to be accurate! If our subject has to do with our teenage children this may be very small, so in the next step examples may be better than advise. Be contemplative and humble. If our power is very small, knowing this is essential to formulating a plan for success. Having little power means we need a bigger lever. Try not to think about the size of the lever we will need and stay focused on expanding the range of forces that we have now that we can apply to the environment we identified in step two. Be creative and think outside the box.

Step Four

This is the three, two, one, go step that brings it together. Often this is the first part that comes into out mind. Here we have separated the other steps so we do a better job on them. This is when we use our power inside the environment that holds our subject to effect the change we want. Here is where we plan. It would be a good exercise to come up with more than one solution to prove to our self we were not stuck on one solution from the beginning. Staying with one solution can make us less effective in our process of thinking, so three soultions would be even better.

Delivered Sunday before the First Christian Church of San Jose.

Lord, please guide us in our use of judgment. Keep us from using judgment reserved for our Lord Jesus. Keep us from vain judgment which cannot benefit our actions. Keep us from judgment that requires that we be perfect beings. Where Jesus' judgment is motivated by pure love and philanthropy, ours is not. Jesus said of those who crucified him, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Let us make those kinds of judgment when our motives are as pure. Surely we only convict our selves of ignorance when we make vain judgments. Then we finally confuse these vain judgments with our own actions thinking we are greater than we are. Refine us Lord, do not allow us to be still. Open our eyes and ears. Expand our understanding.

Amen

I am reading a rare volume, Channing's Note-book: Passages from the unpublished manuscripts of William, Compiled by his granddaughter, 1887. These are from notes, not polished at all but I find this book full of gems. Here are some opening quotes on freedom and liberty by William Ellery Channing.

"Forgo everything, rather than invest another with the power of determing your actions, or transfer to him the empire which belongs only to our minds."

"Each man being a law to himself, he cannot be a slave to others."

"Civil liberty is not enough. There may be a tyranny of the multitude, of opinion, over the individual. He is free who is most encouraged to consult his highest nature and to act from it. Popularity enslaves. We want no limits to the range of the human mind."

"The necessities of nature leave us no liberty. How we act on traditional rules, maxims, customs! How few think for themselves! How many depend for light!"

"Liberty is not a animal license."

"Worlds should not tempt me to bend my mind to the yoke which Christians here bear. I owe too much to intellectual liberty. If I have made any progress, --here the spring."

"If there be one interest dear to me on earth, it is the freedom of the human mind. If I have found my existence a growing good, --If I have gained any large views of religion or my own nature, --if I have in any measure invigorated, I know nothing to which, under God, I am so indebted as to my freedom. This has been the breath of life to me.

Another poem found on my old laptop. This is a rant I recall. Inspired by policital arguments.

What I am not

 

You go through life discovering who you are not

We then may know according to what twisted life presents

What creation had given the world in our being

 

Carving away not, which is so much greater

The earthly time is not long enough to glimpse

A scruple, a principle, grains of sand

 

What keeps our face pressed against the glass?

Discovering what was created.

Our station, relative position, by Him

 

Given what time we have

It is better to decide what we are to be

--and make it so

 

R Hinchley

Found this poem I wrote in 2005 on my old laptop. Looking back I feel a strong temptation to allow my work to be detroyed with the passing of this computer.

Dispair of Progress 12-14-05

Pity those that seek to reach the high plateaus
The angels tears drop down on their hands
They go beyond the realm, to be alone
In solitude they are convicted of their ignorance

What shall they find should they grow?
It shall be the space behind them
To be removed from community
To know in silence

The companion of knowledge is growth
The signs then cannot be removed
The artful predators will know these marks
There should be a rally to destroy them

Or blossom may come in harsh winter
To be devoured by the nameless elements
Too early, too soon, only to suffer ignoble destruction
Progress, but to suffer, to be eaten as if by gnats

Alone then to endure the folly of others in their night
To reach solitude and to despair alone
The paradox to strive and achieve that goal
But then to become unfit for the world

R. Hinchley

This cover from 1985 shows a flat panel TV from a defunct company. I googled companies from this publication and most are gone. This publication comes before the epoch; --a google search reveals nothing about a dominant laser printer company selling a "LaserSet" printer. Bits of information can be found only if they are especially significant in terms of computer lore. Names like Wordstar and CPM are in Google. In the Silicon Gulch Gazette there are bulletin board phone numbers, and computer kits; but no e-mail or Internet. If the Internet likeness could exist at this time, it would be in the fabric of bulletin boards that people would dial into using their modems and phone lines. These bulletin boards would provide temporary storage so they could communicate ideas and share. These hosting boards had more in common with actual bulletin boards you hang on a wall than with the modern Internet.

So the epoch that I am talking about is the permanence, the glue, the amber that holds everything in it's information grip. It seems that nothing is ever lost today. After the epoch, an anthropologist can discover anything with a finger stroke. The trick is not in finding the bit of information but making sense from the mountain of information. Before the epoch, information is subject to mold and uncertainty. The epoch exists in the sudden vastness of information, in particular the unimportant information. This ephemera will change society too as a second order effect. One thing is clear, this epoch will in time become clearly delineated.

I feel melancholy for those portions of us that come before this epoch. So much is washed away by the tides of time. These people, companies and products where foot holds that carried us to today. Their story is important, but lost to the epoch. Perhaps how the parents of the Renaissance feel, getting pleasure from their work but lumped and dumped on by the future they secured for their children.

Delivered at the First Christian Church of San Jose, 80 South Fifth Street

Dear Lord,

We face disaster and ruin of our plans each day. Wind, tide and storm tear out work to pieces. We seem inadequate to face the challenge that comes before us. Even though we loose the battle, and our victories seem small, still in you Jesus, the greater work of your mission is accomplished. When the progress is so slight we loose sight of the wonderful change that Jesus has brought to this world. Let us recommit our selves to Jesus, and let Jesus' faith be our faith, and Jesus' love be our love, and Jesus' work be our work. For the salvation of our soul, at this time let us now feel gratitude.

Amen

What can be learned from the Greek economic crisis that is immediately relevant to the United States economic condition? Not too much. There is a Greek crisis because Greece shares a currency, the Euro, with the rest of Europe. This sharing of a common currency is what gives urgency to the Greek debt crisis. If the US dept causes the USD to depreciate against world currencies, it would be cause for celebration. When the USD does fall against world currencies it will benefit the US export market, but that's not all. The percentage of US made components in finished goods made in America would increase, thereby creating new jobs. It would be helpful to the economy even using the tired global economy arguments, because the US is under productive now. We have people, engineers, space, and assembly workers who are fit to make things, who are not. The romantic idea that the service sector is going to absorb all these manufacturing jobs is pretty unlikely. At least I have not seen enough charity toward one another to make the service sector big enough to replace manufacturing, so I am skeptical.

We are extending the discussion for another Sunday. The subject is interesting to us because it shapes our destiny and touches us personally. Effecting personal relationships, our work groups, our society, even reaching the highest levels of international relations.

An interesting aspect of this study area is that the causes of escalation are the same at each level, social or political. This remains an area where progress can be made and measured in our practice of religion. The Bible provides a lot of instruction and scriptural support for the importance of this subject in our moral conduct.

Some possible discussion points for this Sunday:

• What instruction can we develop to apply to our life to reduce escalation?

• What forms of escalation bother us that we can identify?

• Find a method of escalation, then show a personal, social and political view of this method.

• What do we lose, or what sacrifice do we make when we use non-punitive methods?

• What types of forensic evidence can we use to methodically discover escalation?

• When we resist escalation, how can this action be misinterpreted by others?

• Do punitive methods that control escalation contribute the problem?

• Give some examples of practical escaltion (not expedience).

The poem was written for Aki-No-Bo about the year 1690 on Basho's second visit. Aki-No-Bo died on the 4 day of the 1 month in 1718. Taken from the book Japanese Death Poems Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets.

No sign

In the cicada's song

That it will soon be gone

-- Matsuo Bashō 松尾 芭蕉

I have come to Bassui Tokusho's death poem, my feelings are that it is brilliant. It is an achievement of considerable skill and I am humbled by it.

Look Straight ahead. What's there?

If you see it as it is

You will never err.

--Bassui Tokusho

A humorous death poem in Tanka form.

Raizan had died

to pay for the mistake

of being born:

for this he blames no one,

and bears no grdge.

-- Raizan

I like this visual expression.

My old body:

a drop of dew grown

heavy at the leaf tip.

--Kiba

Kasenjo was a geisha at a mineral spring. Later she shaved her head and became a buddhist nun. The editor notes the cold (samusa) is not the usual cold used in haiku to signify a season.

Depths of cold

unfathomable

ocean roar.

--Kasenjo

Hokushi was a sward sharpener who learned to write from Bashu. He was extremely poor and of good disposition.

I write, erase, rewrite,

erase again, and then

a poppy blooms.

--Hokushi

Ensei writes at the age  of sixty nine, 1725.

A parting gift to my body:

just when it wishes,

I'll breath my last.

--Ensei

Yamazaki Sokan of samurai birth and renga poet who died in 1540 was among the first composer of haiku.

Should someone ask

where Sokan went,

just say,

"He had some business

in the other world."

--Yamazaki Sokan

The subject will be peacemaking. The topic will be escalation. We are going to look at the role punitive escalation plays, zero tolerance, forgiveness, and the changes in escalation in our society over time. The discussions will cover practical methods to identify and control the presence of escalation, as well as the practical reasons on why forgiveness and tolerance actually work to produce durable change.

Matthew 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Exodus 23:3-4 If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.

Mathew 5:38-42 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Isaiah 50:6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

Proverbs 20:22 Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

Colossians 3:13-14 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Today we had a creativity class before worship and I wrote a poem. The poem was forced but since it is in the record I'll post it.

A Sabbath Poem

Not sinning is to emerge from ignorance gracefully.
Progress in morality uncovers what is to become sin.
Looking back too far we see darkness,
Then impute this on the character of our ancestors.
Vanity, all vanity.
We do learn.

Spoken before the First Christian Church of San Jose (Disciple of Christ)

Dear loving God, who through His love would have us realize our greatest good. That through our actions for you Lord we might be fulfilled, --realizing peace, happiness, and have our needs met. Generosity and fairness is the greatest recipe for prosperity. Remind us that this recipe, generosity with fairness, is not limited to boarders that we recognize, or race, or family, but falls on all who work to bring the kingdom of heaven to Earth.

And having achieved some measure of grace from our obedience to Your guidance, let our spirits be lifted up in communion with You, and among us, to penetrate the divine mysteries and pleasure which we are fit to enjoy in you Lord.

Amen

For our Church we are composing a book of practices for Lent. This is my contribution to the booklet. In the Christian calendar Lent is the preperation for Easter involving repentance, fasting and discipline. It begins on Ash Wednesday, 4o days before Easter (Sundays are not counted).

Proverbs 18:13

He who answers before listening--
that is his folly and his shame.

When we listen, let us also then reserve judgment. Who can see beyond their judgment? If we are full with our judgment, have we not blinded our eyes too? No one can see through their own judgment unless they first doubt themselves again. So for simplicity and respect to the speaker, let us keep our eyes and our ears unplugged by judgment until we need to form conclusions.

Let us practice reserving judgment so that we know how to do this. If the situation does not call for conclusions, make none. Be reminded of our Imperfection and wait for the time of decision before forming a conclusion so our judgment is not merely vain; otherwise, instead of helping someone we just convict ourself. Narrow the scope and time our conclusions are to be valid as far as possible. We are not perfect, neither can our judgment endure for eternity. If the judgment is for a moment, let it be a moment and let it go, if it is for a week, let it be a week and let it go. It is not for us to impose eternal judgment, even in small matters. Do this so we can see past our self in order to see change.

Lord, remove the judgment and bias from our eyes and ears so that we see your world. Let us live in the presence of your grace, --in place of the world we create from our imperfect and improper judgment. Let use reserve judgment for decisions rather than for vanity. Let us see the world before us as it is, so that thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in heaven.

Amen

Has any political event shaken you, roused fear that this republic may not endure? Today those same Justices who gave us Bush v. Gore unloosed every fetter on corporate spending in the political arena, overruling more than 100 years of precedent. If you don't know what stare decicis is, don't bother leaning, --it's too late. As of today we cannot limit corporate spending, even a company that sells history books to public schools can engage a school board election without limitations on spending.

How big is this? Compare these numbers. By October 2008 Barak Obama had raised $659,697,826 and John McCain had raised $316,419,883. Does this seem like a lot? Lets add them together and compare them to Wall Street Bonuses for 20010.

976,117,709.00 (LINK) Total raised by both McCain and Obama in presidential campaign.

18,000,000,000.00 (LINK) Wall Street bonuses. Don't even get started on healthcare companies.

If you were worried about overreacting, you cannot overreact. There is no hyperbole. The court even strongly attacks disclosure laws citing multiple examples where disclosure of funding sources might be withheld. Thomas actually argues that disclosure of funding sources would have a chilling affect on the free speech of corporations. So it looks like we are going down a road where corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money and can withhold disclosure. Requiring court challenges by those who want to know the source of money. Court challenges that protect the corporation's anonymity.

What does this mean?   The decision is here-> (LINK)

“Because §441b is not limited to corporations or associations created in foreign countries or funded predominantly by foreign shareholders, it would be overbroad even if the Court were to recognize a compelling governmental interest in limiting foreign influence over the Nation’s political process. ”

What does this mean?

From the Opinion of THOMAS, J.

Irony aside, the Court’s promise that as-applied challenges will adequately protect speech is a hollow assurance. Now more than ever, §§201 and 311 will chill protected speech because—as California voters can attest— “the advent of the Internet” enables “prompt disclosure of expenditures,” which “provide[s]” political opponents “with the information needed” to intimidate and retaliate against their foes. Ante, at 55. Thus, “disclosure permits citizens . . . to react to the speech of [their political opponents] in a proper”—or undeniably improper—“way” long before a plaintiff could prevail on an as-applied challenge .2Ibid.

I cannot endorse a view of the First Amendment that subjects citizens of this Nation to death threats, ruined careers, damaged or defaced property, or preemptive and threatening warning letters as the price for engaging in “core political speech, the ‘primary object of First Amendment protection.’ ”

Colossians 3:12-17

As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

But we do these things according to our view of the world. We will forgive, but not when we believe this weakens us in the eyes of others. Not when it might say to those around us, take advantage of this person and consider them and easy mark. The world may also confuse forgiveness this way, saying, “he does not care about justice. We cannot depend on him to bring order in the world”. Also we will not forgive when we believe the fabric of the world is held in place by our punitive response. We feel, “If I forgive this infraction the world would unravel it self, --it will surly lead to an end to polite society.”

When we forgive and how we act is based on a view of the world that we have. Like the song says, “What's in your alleyway, recycling bins or bullet casings?” World view is like the interpretation of bible verses, everyone is quite sure their view is correct and nobody can quite agree with each other. Our world views may be shaped the same way stones are shaped on river bottoms. And when we try to change these views we see that we prefer irresistible force to pry our eyes open and admit God's creation, yet our conflict with the world more often closes our eyes to the kingdom. Perhaps we are a good witness to our journey along the river bottom, but one stone cannot describe the river because the river is wider than the stone. In forming congregation and community, we are agreeing to communion in world views. A world view that admits the presence of Christ and leaves room for his actions. This is why light has come into the world. By the admission of Christ we are permitting Christ like behavior and so comes the light into the world.

Amen

Drum roll please.... Plastic is 2.8 times better than paper.

There is an Australian Study that compared the bags to Canvas. Canvas bags are 14 times better than plastic bags and 39 times better than paper bags. So using a little algebra we get plastic being 2.8 times better than paper. But the lesson is take a  bag with you. There is a steep environmental cost associated with the paper mill. The plastic bag is made from natural gas. The technology exists to make bags that biodegrade from lactic acid, but these poison existing recycling processes. Most people are using the bags to line waist baskets.

Here is a nice article on the treehugger blog. This is the link to the Austrailian study.

Between 2006 and 2008 the value of a statistical human life dropped by 11%. This statistical value is used in deciding what regulations should be made to preserve public wellbeing. Consider this example from the Huffington Post article.

"A hypothetical regulation that costs $18 billion to enforce but will prevent 2,500 deaths. At $7.8 million per person (the old figure), the lifesaving benefits outweigh the costs. But at $6.9 million per person, the rule costs more than the lives it saves, so it may not be adopted."

The former regulators in the Bush administration said the reason for the drop was based on workers willingness to take more hazardous jobs for lower pay. Basically this amounts to an admission of lower prosperity.

Not every US agency uses the same metric. The Unites States Environmental Protection Agency ($4.8 million), United States Department of Agriculture ($721,418), and United States Food and Drug Administration ($1.2 million) use their own VSL Value Statistical Life. But it gets even more complicated. In surveys, long and difficult deaths are valued more. Preventing 100 cancer deaths is worth 300 accidental deaths. So agencies tweak the value based on the argument being made. (Document link to FDA arsenic in bottled water)

This VSL number can really tell us a lot about our selves.

Here is paper on the subject from the USDA web site. And this is an interesting link that computes the human value based on traffic laws(125,000 Hrs per life). Here is a google search.

Belief is a general term. There should be a concise way to specify immutable belief. When some belief achieves the status of perceived perfection, it becomes also immutable. The transition probably takes three forms, two in error because of our imperfection as human beings. This transition or manifestation is either idolatry, belief in that which is perfect or resulting from the prideful elevation of our judgment to perfection, according to the reality of where it falls.

Can we create two categories then, and call them belief and inquiry? And into these two categories we sort everything from the stuff of knowledge. After we sort all things this way and we add our errors into new categories, are there now four or five categories? Belief, inquiry and idolatry, conceitful pride. The fourth is a category held by God. We will call the fourth category forward.

Let us be careful with immutable belief, it has the power to reduce our intellectual acuity when we make this error, setting the stage for greater errors. The habitual misuse of immutable belief is rooted in pride and in indolence. We can reduce the temptation of pride and indolence by sharpening our inquiry skills so the distinction is more obvious. And know that inquiry is not offensive to belief, but belief is offensive to inquiry. Mind your perfection.

A dictionary definition of idolatry is:

1. The worship of idols, images, or anything which is not God; the worship of false gods.

To the First Christian Church of San Jose California

Sunday, October 18, 2009

As we gather here in remembrance of Jesus we can be reminded why he came. Remember then that Pilate called Jesus into the praetoriam in order to find some crime with which to charge him. Pilate said, “So you are a king.” Jesus replied, “You say that I am king.” Then Jesus went on to tell his purpose to Pilate. “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.”

Let us now take up this commission also, to bear witness to the truth. Let us find duty in our service to the record. Let us develop our minds for this purpose so that our skills can be put to bear on that commandment Jesus gave to us, that we should love each other. Let us be as committed as Job is to not harm the record. From the depths of Job's despair speaks Job, “As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter; as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

Let us be Christ like.

Amen.

This is one of my favorites, lots of deep moral issues.

Boy, I can't get over the way we rolled 'em in the aisles.
-Just wait'll we hit the big town. - This gives me an idea.
Let's raise the platform the elephant jumps off of.
Yeah! If they laugh when he jumps 20 feet...
they'll laugh twice as hard if he jumps 40 feet.
- Yeah, that's right. That's right. - Simple mathematics.
- Let's make it 80 feet. - Don't be a piker. 180.
- Make it 300. - A thousand.
- Yeah, that's good. - Hey, be careful.
- You'll hurt the little guy. - Aw, go on.
- Elephants ain't got no feelings. - No, they're made of rubber.
This idea is sensational. Let's go tell the boss.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Come on. Let's go.
Hey, hey! Let's hit him for a raise.
Yeah, sure. This is worth real dough.

People who cause other people to not be able to realize their potential, inflict unhappiness and frustration, according to this interpretation of Aristotle.

"Unhappiness and frustration are caused by the unrealized potential of a person, leading to failed goals and a poor life. Aristotle said, 'Nature does nothing in vain.' Therefore, it is imperative for persons to act in accordance with their nature and develop their latent talents, in order to be content and complete."  LINK

Our justice reef

We have in our personality such rocky shoals
If a ship is driven against them it would be lost
Cries of the passengers never heard
Even just a few degrees from of our goodwill harbor

You turn to me and find the likeness of granite
Unfeeling, unseeing and not knowing
knowing only that the shoals exist, because I built them
Knowing that a vessel may come upon them to their ruin

My peering eyes are open but do not see
A friend might call for comfort or recognition
But the stone continence would not be aware
This, our justice, and the reward for ten thousand acts

On the barren landscape which bears our likeness
Stands Jesus on the wind lashed outcrops
What resource does he find within us here?
Only the submerged rocks greet the world from this direction

R. Hinchley

Title: Song On the Times. The Bands website.

Senryu is a form of Japanese poetry similar to haiku in syllabic form. It does not require a cutting word or a season word. It covers topics such as human weakness. Senryu Wikipedia Link

Value trust itself

Esteem greater than its charge

Bear rediness then

 

R. Hinchley

The word context is too poorly defined, a boundary should be used for arguments. The argument should begin with an agreement on a boundary. If the argument is over a boundary, then this too requires a defined boundary. An argument may spawn relevant boundary arguments. We should defer to the larger boundary, but in a practical sense it is possible that an argument boundary is too large and obstructs a step of intermediary value. Possibly stated as an appeal to perfection.

There should be a stock of useful constraints that can be drawn on a priori. Such as, agreement on whether it is a vanity argument or will the conclusion effect some behavior that light shines on. Or the augment is constrained by means available or within the some scope of change.

All of the participants in an argument must be sentient. Punitive behavior introduces a non-sentient entity, we cannot always know whether the stick is making many points on its own since the effect is secret and may influence different people differently, irregardless of who brings the stick to the discussion.

Owing to our admission of imperfection and the promise of continuous progress, increasing boundaries may indicate progress. The way Isaac Newton's gravity description was further improved by Albert Einstein's inclusion of the effect of intense gravitational fields on space. Both remain valid within their boundaries. We avoid the deprecation process by acknowledging progress in scope.

I would like to come up with a rudimentary list that can be remembered to initially apply to arguments. Is there a canonic class of arguments that can be created by merging first order constraints? Post a list in the comments.

As Spoken

To the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

San Jose, CA

On the Sunday of August 16, 2009

Our God, from whom all authority comes. we see your rules. Rules which feed our spiritual needs. Rules that lift us up from the dirt. Rules that bring peace and order to the world. Grant us wisdom to know these rules beyond the depths of our ability.

Keep us from the vain belief in our own perfection Lord. Let us reserve perfect judgment to our savior Jesus Christ. Humble us so we know we are yet fallible creatures from whom God requires progress.

Grant us the energy and desire to move forward. Even though we are poor in spirit, let us use our human faculties to effect Your progress in the world. Let us clear the way for the Holy Spirit to penetrate our Earth, our nations, cities and our hearts.

In Your name,

Amen

for Sunday, July 26, 2009

First Christian Church of San Jose California

80 S. Fifth Street, San Jose, CA

Jesus, our Lord, possessing the power to penetrate the mystery of death, come to us and fill the darkness. With Jesus we know that our future is secure, our place is reserved, our challenges without end, our spirits yet useful even to the coming world. Lord, lift us up out of the despair for this world. Light the dark places, replace our ignorance with the happiness of understanding. Clear away the shadows that hold our fear. Loose our grip that we have on our own world, so that we can know freedom. Let goodness fill the Earth with charity, love and understanding.

Amen

Prefatory comments are not usually included with poetry but I will add some lines to help with the understanding. The poem was written during the time of the Beslan school massacre where 1100 people were taken hostage by a Chechen martyr group, including 777 children. The hostage crisis ended with 334 killed, of which 186 were children. The poem is not about the this loss. I am not skilled enough to write about that. It does discuss that human property of justification. Understanding justification requires some understanding of punitive social behavior and the steps of escalation, to which we must admit some magical systems of social forbearance, punishment and valuation. The original title was The Dark Room.

Exodus 23:5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.

Justification

The magic process begun like an inward prayer, enter the dark room

In silent communion with your enemies, together seeking from the same oracle

Holding your injury high you came to trade, turning it to get the best value.

Perhaps your offense needs to be smaller, or something for which you are entitled?

Conjuring justification, what if in life you are blameless?

Why not use a past misfortune for partial atonement?

Be sure to keep track so you don't use your fated injury twice.

There is your adversaries gifts to consider in the balance.

Use the scale that that measures the unalike

An eye for a finger, an insult, something we wish we hadn't done

Logic becomes a whore, passion an alibi

An alchemy as old as guilt and shame, injury and revenge

Your admitted fault can find an equal, a desire can be made clean.

Find only that society requires your satisfaction then escalation is your due.

Look then into the past and come forward with your indulgence

All can be mended and brought back into balance using the magic

The currency of destruction, the coin that takes away to make things even

The temptation of the pit masquerading as equality and fairness

The payment that makes no one richer

Do not think then, take your reward

R. Hinchley