Editor's Page
The Imposter Magi / Los Reyes Impostores by Frank Thomas Smith
A
boy from the village ran into
our yard at lunchtime on the fifth of January and announced at the top of his
lungs that the Three Kings were coming to the
schoolhouse that night at nine o�clock. That�s how news in Las
Chacras is announced � by word of mouth. I remembered that a neighbor had asked
for a donation to buy sweets and balloons a few days before. Making enquiries
on the main road, I found out that the Kings were scheduled to begin their
descent to the school from the almac�n
at nine o�clock, which meant that they would more likely begin at nine-thirty
and arrive at ten... /
Al mediodía
del 5 de enero un chico del pueblo entró corriendo a nuestro
patio y anunció a voz en cuello que los tres Reyes Magos
llegaban a la escuela esa noche a las nueve. Así es como se
transmiten las noticias en Las Charcas –de boca en boca.
Recordé entonces que, unos días antes, un vecino me
había pedido una contribución para comprar golosinas y
globos. Preguntando en el camino principal, averigüé que
a las nueve los Reyes tenían programado iniciar su descenso
desde el almacén hacia la escuela, lo que significaba que más
probablemente saldr�an a las nueve y media y llegarían
a las diez...
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Features
Morning After To-Do List by Michael Moore
1. Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the
people. They have failed us miserably.
2. Fire all pundits, predictors, pollsters and anyone
else in the media who had a narrative they wouldn’t let go of
and refused to listen to or acknowledge what was really going on.
Those same bloviators will now tell us we must “heal the
divide” and “come together.” They will pull more
hooey like that out of their ass in the days to come. Turn them off.
Continue reading
The Most Dangerous Country on Earth - The Election that Changed Everything
by Tom Englehardt
For decades, Washington had a habit of using the Central
Intelligence Agency to deep-six governments of the people, by the
people, and for the people that weren’t to its taste and
replacing them with governments of the [take your choice: military
junta, shah, autocrat, dictator] across the planet. There was
the infamous 1953 CIA- and British-organized coup that toppled the
democratic Iranian government of Mohammad Mosadegh and put the Shah
(and his secret police, the SAVAK) in power. There was the 1954
CIA coup against the government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala that
installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas; there
was the CIA’s move to make Ngo Dinh Diem the head of South
Vietnam, also in 1954, and the CIA-Belgian plot to assassinate the
Congo’s first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961
that led, in the end, to the military dictatorship of Mobutu Sese
Seko; there was the 1964 CIA-backed military coup in Brazil that
overthrew elected president Jango Goulart and brought to power a
military junta; and, of course, the first 9/11 (September 11, 1973)
when the democratically elected socialist president of Chile,
Salvador Allende, was overthrown and killed in a U.S.-backed military
coup. Well, you get the idea...
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Fiction
The English Teacher by Frank Thomas Smith
The reason I accepted Larry Lawrence's offer to teach English
to the Chief of Police was that I was broke. After a period of hyperinflation
that toppled an honest but hopelessly inept President, the new one (not so
honest but equally inept) appointed Harvard educated Carmine Caramelo to
the economy portfolio. The first thing he did was peg the peso to the U.S.
dollar at a one-to-one exchange rate -- for eternity according to him --
thus confounding my plans for a comfortable early retirement in a country
where the dollar had been king since General San Martín crossed the
Andes and the women were as lovely as a September morn. Hyper-inflation was
licked, the dollar dethroned and, despite the Economy Minister's promises
to the contrary, everyone except the rich woke up poorer, especially the
poor. My purchasing power was reduced to roughly that of a peon's. No one,
however, dared question the fixed exchange rate for fear of being thought
unpatriotic and in favor of inflation...
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Anthroposophy
Reincarnation and Karma - Lecture Four by Rudolf Steiner
The
lecture yesterday dealt with questions of karma, and the
endeavour was made to speak of them in such a way that they appear
to us to be linked with inner processes in the soul, with
something that is within our reach. It was said that certain
tentative measures can be taken and that in this way a conviction
of the truth of the law of karma may be awakened. If such
questions are introduced again and again into our studies, this is
because it is necessary to realize with increasing clarity how
Anthroposophy, in the genuine sense of the word, is related to
life itself and to the whole evolution of man. There is no doubt that at least an approximately adequate idea can
be formed of the change that will gradually and inevitably take
place in all human life if a considerable number of people are
convinced of the truths upon which studies such as those of
yesterday are based. By steeping themselves in such truths,
people's attitude to life will be quite different and life itself
will change in consequence...
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"Apologia" concerning the publication of the the First Class Lessons: Apologia
Karmic Relations, Volume IV, Lecture 4 by Rudolf Steiner
If we wish our human thought and action to be permeated once more by spiritual
life, it will be necessary to receive again in full earnestness
such conceptions of the spiritual world as have passed through
our souls in these last lectures. For many centuries these
conceptions have in reality been lacking to mankind and notably
to civilised mankind. Looking back into various epochs of human history we shall find
how in earlier ages human action upon earth was everywhere
connected with what was taking place in the super-sensible realm.
It is not that consciousness of the super-sensible — a
certain abstract consciousness of it — has been lacking to
the greater part of mankind in recent times. No, but the courage
has been lacking to attach the concrete deeds and happenings in
the earthly sphere to the equally real forms of life and movement
in spiritual worlds...
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Poetry
Rootless in Patagonia (Toothless in Brooklyn)
) by Frank Thomas Smith
For anyone who gets
to be over eighty
certain questions
arise unbidden.
They (the eighties)
are dead statistically,
Life and health
insurance aren't interested,
Credit cards keep
their distance, preferring,
like Mephisto,
rosy-cheeked lads and lassies.
Mephisto shuffles
center-stage
ready his scythe to
unerring swipe
at the unsuspected
moment ripe.
But, you'll say, the
old are dead to destiny due,
karma is
something to be borne smilingly.
including birth
and death, pure and simply...
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Consejos de Mart�n Fierro a sus hijos - Mart�n Fierro's Advice to His Sons by Jos� Hern�ndez
Un padre que da consejos
M�s que padre es un amigo
Ansi, como tales digo
Que vivan con precauci�n:
Naides sabe en qu� rinc�n
Se oculta el que es su enemigo.../
A father who gives advice
More than father is a friend;
Your ears
to me a moment lend,
Be careful nights as well as days:
No one knows
in which dark place
An enemy he'll have to fend.
Continue reading.
To be continued... by Frank Thomas Smith
Pablo led a life at home
Never left to seek or roam.
Pedro led a different life,
Coming and going, often in strife.
Pablo, unsurprisingly,
Died unrepentently.
Pedro, though often inconsistent,
Never doubted for an instant
That when his time also came
His fate and Pablo's would be the
same...
Continue reading.
Que nada se sabe / Where nada is known by Jorge Luis Borges
La luna ignora que es tranquila y clara
Y ni siquiera sabe que es la luna;
La arena, que es la arena. No habr� una
Cosa que sepa que su forma es rara.
Las piezas de marfil son tan ajenas
Al abstracto ajedrez como la mano
Que las rige.../
The moon knows not that it's calm and clear
And doesn't even know that it's the moon;
The sand, that it's the sand. Nothing in truth
Knows its form is unique and queer.
The ivory pieces are just as far
From abstract chess as is the hand
That moves them...
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In All Directons by Mike Helsher
Have
you ever wished to touch a star?
Look
to the end of your finger
While
pointing toward a clear night sky,
And
it almost feels like a possibility.
But
the stars are touching us:
Their
eons old photons
Touch
the retina in the back of our eyes,
Whenever
we look up at them...
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In the Name of Love by Kimberly Potter Kendrick
She closes her eyes
Denial deeply embedded
Young wife and mother
She’s strong; invincible
Those things won’t happen to her
In the name of love.
A life-altering mistake
Enduring consequences she must
Not yet capable of forgiving herself
He’s reluctant to exonerate
No comprehension of the freedom
In the name of love...
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You can find us under the
Southern Cross in the Traslasierra Valley, Province of Córdoba, Argentina. Visitors always welcome. Just follow the sign that reads: La Cruz del Sur.
Frank Thomas Smith, Editor
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