Chengdu

Well, dear daughter Tianshu has moved from Shanghai to Chengdu for her career in digital AI/IT and seems to have landed well on her feet.

Very relieved to hear this!

Nice apartment in the CBD of the grand and colourful high tech City, & half the price of Shanghai, & more pay. 

Well done!

Israel is Insane.

I think the best response to the Hamas attack on Israel killing about 1,200 Israeli folk would have been for Israel to kill about 12,000 Palestinians, based upon well studied Old Civilisation 10/1 Roman views, that have provided a degree of Pax Romana ever since Caesar and cohort, through all the many decades since Rome.

But to recklessly and vindictively go on, like vicious animals, to butchering over 40,000 good folk, including lots of babies and women as well as men has been somewhat bizarre...and quite psychotic...as those numbers are totally unnecessary to drive home the point of 'who is in charge'.

This is hate and hubris. There is no 'just cause' in this matter at all. It degrades everyone on Earth, living and dead, to have Israel doing this, and therefore even existing. This is beyond the most extreme. This is evil, which is, actually, why most folk don't do it.

Israel: It's quite a Quality Standard, as a Nation, isn't it? The greatest achievement of Israel as a Human Civilisation: "We did the worst anyone could ever do or has ever done in the shortest time in our vicious treatment of our slaves when they chose to disagree with our righteous dominance".

Israel: These are not good or decent slave owners, nor members of the Enlightened West at all. They are insane. Israel is insane.

my letter to an angry atheist

 Why be angry?

(Dear Kate

I didn't forget, but I just wished to be concise, and that took time. To answer your question posed about 20 years ago regarding teaching kids about religion...)

On Faith:

"Dermot, It's a broad cross. I don't think that Catholicism is a particularly nasty form of corruption, the same way that one form of Protestantism, or of Islam, or one form of Buddhism is a greater corruption than any other form.

You could say, of Catholicism, that it is the most successful living form of Christianity over about 2000 years...which is a long time. So, well done!

As all are Human organisations, they are obviously all to some extent corrupt and quite horrid in many ways, as are many non-religious people, pagans, civilisations, etc...whatever. The Human Condition is somewhat odious at times. That's what makes it human.

It is only important for the individual to gain something from being a member of any of these forms for that religion to have done its job.

My membership of the traditional Tridentine Catholicism Form is for totally my benefit. Im not in it to love God, I can do that in a field just as equally.

I am not in that Church to serve the Church, that Church is there to serve Me...because I like the Latin language.

As long as you give none of the above any of your money, they're all quite good, and some can be delightful, with the lovely singing etc.

For as many believers, there are as many different beliefs. Best not to just pick on the shiniest one, Catholicism, to despise.

I enjoy the Latin Mass as a direct supplier, through time, of the Holy Roman Empire. Thousands of years, yes, and still moving along. It's astonishing how well it has done. I doubt many neo Christian evangelical folk last even one lifetime with their shiny jazzy Jesus who, all the time, needs more money...can't exist without the big bucks every minute.

Keep the Faith. You can toss out the manipulation of the notion of God as you see fit. It's your Faith. It's not God's....well, except for Tridentine Catholicism, of course. Yes, the Transubstantiation is true, but only in the Latin form, of course.

It's good to study the Italian people and their appreciation of the Papacy. The Pope is more a Grand Dad figure than the Living Emblem of a vengeful Judging Jesus. Yes, yes, they respect Grand Dad, but they don't necessarily do what he says. They have interesting lives. You can't live by the Pope's view...That would be nuts.

They have their own lives, beautiful passions, delights, abortions, hard times etc that are always more important, and more pressing in meaning and implications than any Pope. The Italians, especially the smart women, are like that because they are very, well, locally, close to Grand Dad... he's not new or mysterious at all...so, being so nearby, they not like us, you and me, Dermott, seeking to somehow know something eternally, culturally, from so far away. The Italian view of the Pope is that he is totally Grand Dad...you show respect, but you don't live with him, nor do what he says.

Many of my fellow Tridentines don't believe so much in God at all, or especially the Bible, and neither are concerns that take away anything from the joys they find in the form, and the sustenance of it....as long as you never ever give them money.

I love the statues, the more gilt and colourful, the more wondrous, the better...but I don't pray to them. That would be very primitive. I knew that when I was 8.

As for the Bible, well, some of it is well written, but most is very poor fiction indeed. Religion is much like a big roast pork dinner, really. It's always polite to not wolf down everything, and to always leave a little, some of the peas and the burnt pumpkin etc, on that plate. It kind of shows Respect. And leaves room for dessert."

well, daughter Tianshu is moving this week from Shanghai to a new town, and job, in Chengdu. Something to do with digital arts and advanced AI. We wish her well in this career jump. She is immensely competent and educated as a being.

As for North Asia, Peace Continues with neither the USA or South Korea being overly mad. At the same time, North Korea is quite sane as well. These are quite good times.

Understanding Israel and The Ukraine

In the Great Scheme of Things...I would offer, from my observations over time:

1: Well, Israel will win their evil genocidal war against the poor old Palestinians totally and horribly, and no one will try to stop them. The Palestinians are Dust. That's the Truth.
Whatever comes after that is yet to be apparent, but this will not include Israel in any Popularity Contest.

2: Russia will win its very sane, sedate, relaxed war against The Ukraine, and will hold the Ukrainian Western Provinces, and Crimea, permanently, as part of Mother Russia. The Southern Ports of the Ukraine will be offered back to the Ukraine, if they accept the general hegemony, and The Ukraine won't have a choice in that, as, by that time, they will have lost their friends in Europe and America.

Neither of these conflicts will ever amount to any kind of threat to World Peace

Keep the Faith, but be careful with the Chillies/ Israel & Palestine and the Overview

Shiver me timbers. Winter's long cold neck is in these darkening Autumnal days. We do like the cold more than we ever liked the tropics. Strange how it took so long to move South. maybe sometimes people do need to actually suffer.

Our small house is good in the winter. Rooms are small, the heating is by gas and is inexpensive still when used in a 'seldom' fashion; the heat that comes through the ceiling vents in each room is very effective, and so fast, and more than is ever possibly needed. We can turn off any of the vents we like to, say for the second bedroom, that we aren't using. The thermostat works.

Also the one savvy air-conditioner in the lounge will also act as a mild heater, if you like, bringing the house temperature up to ten degrees celsius. Sensible, not wasteful.

The best thing about small rooms and small houses.

When/if we have money ever again after Beth's last visit, we will get the ceiling re-insulated, as the cellulose/newspaper that was sprayed in there is 15 years old now and quite sparse and worn out.

We had a grand holiday with Beth here. We travelled to Daydream Island (not impressed) where the view is delightful and everything expensive, and to Uluru (not impressed by the big Roast Potato there, nor its indigenous folk or history), and even more expensive.

The most fun was had in the last ten days, back at home, going to markets and out for dinner sometimes. Beth does like Melbourne but would prefer Sydney, I think. Still, she has chosen her life as she has, and she must wear that, as an adult being.

She is back in Shanghai and has a few more weeks of working from home for a new company before going to live in Chengdu, in Central China, where the Pandas live, to work again in the digital AI computer realm. The pay is good in Chengdu, like Shanghai, but the living costs in Chengdu are much lower...rent, food, power etc...so that would either allow her to save a fortune...unlikely...or to spend one...highly likely. I expect she will miss her friends in Shanghai a lot, but travel is easy and not expensive.

Lisa is a much happier soul after spending time with Beth. Lisa is back at work at the usual work, and that is okay, for now. The constrictions applied by Government and Trade Unions to stop successfully teaching Mandarin remain, and only the super-rich can set up their not very good but remarkably profitable schools in Australia.

I'm back at my 3 shifts per week role in The Addictions Unit, and it's pretty good. I do notice lapses in my memory, but no one seems to mind, and I just accept it. I'm 70, I have to be less bright. That's what just often happens. They still put me in charge when necessary, and I just keep the focus on safety.

The Garden has become Winter-Dormant now apart from the Carolina Reaper Chillies that are still fruiting quite fast. Wow, they are so hot! Too hot. A young guy in China won a prize for eating 25 of them in one episode, and they took him and his prize to hospital and induced a coma for him. Fortunately, due to his prize, he could afford the medical care.

I find that if you slice a thin 5 cent sized piece of the shell/skin of a good Reaper chilli, and put it in a big bowl of pasta for 4 people, already flavoured by spices and mushrooms and sauces and all that, that it provides a good and potent 'heat' to the meal and for a few hours after, without destroying the taste of everything else, but it really is a matter of being a bit minimal in using it.

The Great Heat isn't in the seeds, per se, nor in the shell, but rather in the white fleshy-like support structures for the seeds.

It is very important, after preparing the Reaper chilli for the saucepan, to wash one's hands vigorously with lots of soup and water and it is suicidal to make the mistake of scratching one's testicles at this time. Those without testicles have always had an easier life.

I see the Gaza War on the Very Poor and Not Fiscally Relevant Human Animals continues as horribly genocidal as it has been, relentlessly, for so long now. The Evil that real men and real women freely do. The Jews. No wonder Jesus wept. With his ideas, no wonder they killed the poor bleeding crucified bastard.

There have been quite big protests in Melbourne, and even one guy, today, about 50, carrying the Palestinian flag as he walked into the Main Street here in our small town, probably to buy fruit at Coles. I sounded the car horn in support as I drove home from the Illegal Cigarette shop.

There is only one Illegal Smoke Shop in town now. There were three shops all doing good business but, through misadventure or tragic perdition, the other two burnt down or the owners were somewhat biffed about the head a lot until they stopped doing it. The Joys of Capitalism. The Market will work it out. The Saudi Omega Brand, at $15/packet are still the best ones I've found. They are as good as a Benson and Hedges Special Mild cigarette and I'm sure Stuart Wagstaff would agree.

As for the upcoming USA Presidential Elections, I'm pretty sure that Mr Trump will win. The only real problem for that bizarre and very foreign nation that could arise is what would happen if he didn't win...particularly if he just lost by a whisker again...as we know, they are somewhat well armed, mad, juvenile, and divided unto themselves. The Evangelical Right is convinced that this is the End Game. They Desire The End of it All. They will hold sway. Idiots.

I'm following up with my attendance at the Tridentine Latin Catholic Mass at the Cathedral in the city tomorrow, and Lisa is interested in coming along for the spiritual aspect and shopping and dinner afterwards as the Cathedral is very near Chinatown.

I've told her it is a very solemn and serious Rite of the One True Church on Earth, Church, and that it is okay to go outside for a smoke when the Priest gives the sermon in English as I expect it will be the usual highly scripted quirky messianic pro-Israeli drivel. I love it just to see the remnant embers of the Holy Roman Empire, still sparking a bit. They've had a long run in the world.

My intention in this matter is to have a religion that serves me, rather than one where I serve it. So, nothing for the plate...I will do $2 for a candle though as I am not mean, although I will take 5 candles for the $2. The most important thing I've worked out regarding the Great Religions, Catholicism, and all the lower forms of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Jew, is to never ever give them any of your money because it rots them to the evil core in a minute. Next time, I'll go wholesale...$2...maybe ten candles?

It all works out, In the name of the Father.