Editor's Page
The Intelligence Analyst by Frank Thomas Smith
Jim
Tate was kicked out of Military Intelligence unceremoniously, and he
wanted to know why. I was reminded of Jim's story when reading about
and sympathizing with Bradley Manning, that private-first-class who
sent all the so-called “secret” information to WikiLeaks.
I was reminded of how stupid, that's the best word for it, but one
could also say inept, bureaucratic, clumsy and a whole list of
adjectives from the thesaurus to describe the United States Army –
or, probably, any army. It's just that my experience is with the
American version.... Read more
Fiction
The King of the Elves by Philip K. Dick
It
was raining and getting dark. Sheets of water blew along the row of pumps
at the edge of the filling station; the tree across the highway bent
against the wind. Shadrach Jones stood just inside the doorway of the little building, leaning
against an oil drum. The door was open and gusts of rain blew in onto
the wood floor. It was late; the sun had set, and the air was turning
cold.
Shadrach reached into his coat and brought out a cigar. He bit the
end off it and lit it carefully, turning away from the door. In the
gloom, the cigar into life, warm and glowing. Shadrach took a deep draw. He buttoned
his coat around him and stepped out onto the pavement "Darn,"
he said. "What a night!" Rain buffeted him, wind blew at
him. He looked up and down the highway, squinting. There were no cars in
sight. He shook his head, locked up the gasoline pumps....Read more
Cleopatra in Manila by Victorino Briones
Madam
María Perez Rubio had just ended her last performance as
Cleopatra at the famous Teatro Zorilla and was entertaining friends
and admirers inside her dressing room, when a nervous young policeman
weaved through the crowd to approach her, cupped his hands around her
ear and whispered that her husband’s body had been found
floating in the Pasig river. Would she please identify the body in
the morgue? Her
expression was impassive -- a surprise to the policeman, who often
encountered shock, weeping or fainting after delivering similarly
tragic news of death. María discreetly waved her right hand,
signaling her mother to escort everyone else out of the room....Read more
Current Events
Osama bin Laden Dead and Alive by Tom Engelhardt
Back in the 1960s, Senator George Aiken of Vermont offered two American presidents a plan
for dealing with the Vietnam War: declare
victory and go home. Roundly ignored at the time, it’s a
plan worth considering again today for a war in Afghanistan and
Pakistan now in its tenth year. As everybody not blind, deaf, and dumb knows by now, Osama bin
Laden has been. Literally. By
Navy Seals. Or as one of a crowd of revelers who appeared
in front of the White House Sunday night put it on an impromptu sign
riffing on The Wizard of Oz: “Ding, Dong, Bin Laden Is
Dead.” And wouldn’t it be easy if he had indeed been the Wicked
Witch of the West and all we needed to do was click those ruby
slippers three times, say there’s no place like
home,” and be back in Kansas. Or if this were V-J day and
a sailor’s kiss said it all...Read more
The Butterfly and the Boiling Point - Charting
the Wild Winds of Change in 2011 by Rebecca Solnit
Revolution is as
unpredictable as an earthquake and as beautiful as spring. Its
coming is always a surprise, but its nature should not be. Revolution is a
phase, a mood, like spring, and just as spring has its buds and
showers, so revolution has its ebullience, its bravery, its hope, and
its solidarity. Some of these things pass. The women of Cairo do not
move as freely in public as they did during those few precious weeks
when the old rules were suspended and everything was different. But
the old Egypt is gone and Egyptians’ sense of themselves -- and
our sense of them -- is forever changed. No revolution
vanishes without effect. The Prague Spring of 1968 was brutally
crushed, but 21 years later when a second wave of revolution
liberated Czechoslovakia,...
Read more
The Great Israeli Security Scam by Ira Chernus
Here
are the Three Sacred Commandments for Americans who shape the
public conversation on Israel:
1.
For politicians, especially at the federal level: As soon as you
say the word “Israel,” you must also say the word
“security” and promise that the United States will
always, always, always be committed to Israel’s security.
If you occasionally label an action by the Israeli government
“unhelpful,” you must immediately reaffirm the
eternal U.S. commitment to Israel’s security
2.
For TV talking heads and op-ed pundits: If you criticize any
policies or actions of the Israeli government, you must
immediately add that Israel does, of course, have very real and
serious security needs that have to be addressed....Read more
Features
Überlegungen
zur Gestaltung gesunder
gesellschaftlicher Verhältnisse von Michael Schreyer
Die
menschliche Gesellschaft wird von Menschen gestaltet.
Menschliche
Einsichten, Vorstellungen, Wünsche und Ideale stellen den
Hintergrund für die Gestaltungsintensionen und –formen
dar. Hier wird der Mensch zum Schöpfer. Nicht irgendwelche
Schwierigkeiten durch Sachzwänge, sondern nur wir selbst sind
für die geschaffenen Verhältnisse verantwortlich. Die
Gesellschaft ist Menschenwerk.
...
Read more
Berlusconi: Underneath the Arches of Rubygate by Gaither Stewart
Rubygate it’s called. The final act of the Berlusconi saga.
Over fifteen years of comedy for the outside world. A comedy played
out against a background of non-government and misery for many
Italians. For years now, each new scandal, each new act of
corruption, is identified with the suffix “gate”.
Deriving from the original Watergate, even though the latter was not
actually a “gate” as used today to pinpoint scandalous
behavior and the resultant cover-up. During these last stages of the
Berlusconi era there has been Noemi Gate, named for another of Sultan
Silvio’s teenage favorites. Then, the Bunga Bunga Gate, in
reference to the sex games and “orgies” in the Sultan’s
luxurious private residences in Milan and Rome. In Italy, in Commedia
dell’Arte fashion, the gate suffix means scandal, speculation
and gossip... Read more
Science
A Wasp's Story by Paul Carline
I never knew my mother or my father. I will never see my children. I was impregnated by one of my brothers even before I emerged from the womb. My birthplace was a secret garden full of flowers on which the sun never shone. The garden was my mother's tomb, and would be mine also but for the help of my brothers, who gave their even briefer lives to allow me to make the escape which they cannot. Once free, I have only a few hours in which to accomplish the purpose for which I was born. I will neither eat nor drink. I may be captured and die before I reach my destination. But there are many of us and some will get through.
... Read more
Anthroposophy
Freedom and the Catholic Church - Lecture 1 of 3 by Rudolf Steiner
...Since then, of course,
things have changed throughout the civilized world. That is
primarily a historical fact, but it comprises
something which is of the utmost interest to us. That is, that in
the measure in which man loses the capacity to see the spiritual
in the world, to explain the world of nature around him by the
spirit, in that same measure must he place a special world side
by side with nature and the ordinary world, that is, the world of
miracle. The more natural science takes its stand on mere
causality, the more the life of human feeling is driven, by a
quite natural reaction, to accept the concept of miracle. The
more natural science continues along its present lines, the more
numerous will be those who seek refuge in a religion which
includes miracles. That is why today so many people embrace
Catholicism, because they simply cannot bear the
natural-scientific conception of the world...
Read more
La Libertad y la Iglesia Cat�lica - Conferencia 1 de 3 por Rudolf Steiner
...Desde
entonces, por supuesto, las cosas han cambiado en todo el mundo
civilizado. Eso es ante todo un hecho histórico, pero encierra
algo que es para nosotros del mayor interés. Y es que, en la
medida en que el hombre pierde la capacidad de ver lo espiritual en
el mundo, de explicar el mundo de la naturaleza que lo rodea a través
del espíritu, en esa misma medida debe colocar un mundo
especial junto al de la naturaleza y al mundo ordinario, es decir, el
mundo del milagro. Cuanto más se base
la ciencia natural en la mera causalidad, más será
empujado el sentimiento humano, por una reacción absolutamente
natural, a aceptar el concepto de milagro. Cuanto más continúe
la ciencia natural con su línea actual, más numerosos
serán los que busquen refugio en una religión que
incluya los milagros. Por eso es que hoy tantas personas abrazan al
catolicismo, porque simplemente no pueden soportar la visión
natural-científica del mundo... Read more
Critique of Rudolf Steiner by Osho
Question
- Osho, I was brought up in the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, but I
could not yet break through my barriers towards him. Although I
believe him to be right in the way he shows that for the west, the
possibility to free ourselves from 'Maya' is to learn to think in the
right way. By doing this and by meditating, he says we are able to
lose our egos and find our “I”. The central figure for
him is Christ, whom he differentiates from Jesus as a totally
different being. Your way seems different to me. Can you please
advise me? I am somehow torn between you and the way Steiner shows...Read more
Karmic Relations, Volume 1, Lecture 9 by Rudolf Steiner
In
these lectures we are speaking of karma, of the paths of human
destiny, and in the last lecture we studied certain connections
which can throw light on the way in which destiny works through
the course of successive earthly lives. I have decided —
although needless to say it was a decision fraught with risk —
to speak in detail of such karmic connections, and today we will
carry our studies a little further....Read more
Poetry
A Prayer by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Brothers,
be not afraid of men's sins. Love man even in his sin,
for that already bears the semblance of divine love
and is the highest love
on earth.
Love all God's creation, the whole of it and every grain
of sand.
Love every leaf, every ray of God's light!
Love the animals, love the plants, love
everything
If you love everything,
you
will perceive the divine mystery in things....Read more
The Southern Cross and more light verse by Frank Thomas Smith
Gracefully the gaucho galloped through
The pampa's waving windswept grasses;
From time to time he stroked his beard,
Black as the eyes of the country's lasses.
Orion patiently made its rounds,
Dripping dust in the River Plate,
While over the rancho, his destination,
The Southern Cross guarded the gate.
...Read more
The Other Tiger by Jorge Luis Borges
A tiger comes to mind.
The twilight here
Exalts the vast and busy Library
And seems to set the bookshelves back in gloom;
Innocent, ruthless, bloodstained, sleek
It wanders through its forest and its day
Printing a track along the muddy banks
Of sluggish streams whose names it does not know...
Read More
Espa�ol: (El Otro Tigre)
Atadecer por Gabriela Bayarri
Tus manos
dibujan lirios
amarillos en mi cuerpo.
Y cuando/los zorzales/regresan/desde el horizonte,
tu boca,/
desenredándose
de mi boca,/
vuelve más violeta/
la tarde...Read more
Letters to the Editor
So
if I understand you right, the nudes which you put on the cover of
your Journal is a signal of your intention to drag Anthroposophia
into the material world, a means to muddy the spiritual being, hence
your pose as a literati type. No? If yes, it is too bad Frank, as
what with your wide reading in anthroposophical literature you must
be aware of the fact that we all do die, one day or another, we die,
and must make an accounting for the actions of our lives. It is one
thing if we act in ignorance, quite another if we have knowledge of
how things stand but choose to act in a manner contrary to
Reality.
Read more
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You can find us under the
Southern Cross constellation in the Traslasierra Valley, Province of
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reads: La Cruz del Sur.
Frank Thomas Smith, Editor
JoAnn Schwarz, Associate Editor
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