Quote for the Thanks Giving Month of November:

If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.
— Meister Eckhart Theologian and Mystic

New Stuff on the Internet:
• You may have noticed that I often share with you quotations from The Patriot Post. It offers a concise, informative and entertaining analysis of the week's most important news, policy and opinion delivered to your e-mail inbox at no charge. I recommend you consider subscribing as well to the Internet's leading advocate of individual liberty, the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and the promotion of free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. Subscribe today at http://PatriotPost.US/subscribe/
• On website, http://www.philosophyoffreedom.com/ Submitted by John Ralph on Fri, 10/19/2007 - 2:15pm:

  Bobby Matherne is a prolific online writer of reviews of Steiner's lectures and more. Many of these reviews include a commentary on significant themes with additional challenges and contemporary insights.

  Bobby's review from 2002 of Steiner's Lecture Cycle on Bees, mentioned above is at http://www.doyletics.com/arj/beesrvw.htm. While you are there, take a look around...

  RJM: Well said and thanks, John!

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Movies we watched this past month:

Notes about our movies: Many of the movies we watch are foreign movies with subtitles. After years of watching movies in foreign languages, Arabic, French, Swedish, German, British English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and many other languages, sometimes two or three languages in the same movie, the subtitles have disappeared for us. If the movie is dubbed in English we go for the subtitles instead because we enjoy the live action and sounds of the real voices so much more than the dubbed. If you wonder where we get all these foreign movies from, the answer is simple: NetFlix. For a fixed price a month they mail us DVD movies from our on-line Queue, we watch them, pop them into a pre-paid mailer, and the postman effectively replaces all our gas-consuming and time-consuming trips to Blockbuster. To sign up for NetFlix, simply go to http://www.netflix.com/ and start adding all your requests for movies into your personal queue. If you've seen some in these movie blurbs, simply copy the name, click open your queue, and paste the name in the Search box on NetFlix and Select Add. Buy some popcorn and you're ready to Go to the Movies, 21st Century Style. You get to see your movies as the Director created them — NOT-edited for TV, in full-screen width, your own choice of subtitles, and all of the original dialogue.
P. S. Look for HD/DVD format movies which are now available from NetFlix.

“Georgia Rule” (2007) Georgia’s daughter drops off her 17-yr-old daughter Rachal for the summer. Lacking a moral compass, Rachal is lost and loveless. Tries to ruin two men’s lives by seducing them. Jane Fonda upholds her Georgia Rules, seeming to play Henry Fonda as he must have had to deal with his recalcitrant and unruly daughter. He shows up in her face and voice. Powerful, moving drama as Rachal finds a compass pointing to Love as its true north. A DON’T MISS HIT ! ! !
“Fracture” (2007) a brilliant aeronautical engineer shoots his young wife after discovering her affair with a prominent Police Negotiator. He barricades himself in the house and the negotiator comes to the door, not knowing the last name nor address of his weekly lady, and there she is on the floor shot through the head. He accepts a signed confession from Tony Hopkins (Ted) and bags the gun he used. Case is assigned to a young Asst. DA and the fun begins when the case is thrown out of court. A DON’T MISS HIT !!!
“Mr. Brooks” (2007) loves Mrs. Brooks and his daughter and is a successful manufacturer and Man of the Year for the Portland region. He has one flaw: he’s an addict. But he goes to AA meeting and admits publically, “I’m Earl, and I’m an addict.” And he prays constantly on screen the “Serenity Prayer” of Bill W. Only problem is he’s addicted to killing people. And he’s a master of the art. Till one night he makes a minor mistake and must take on a novice accomplice. A DON’T MISS HIT !!!
“Callas Forever” (2002) is a great movie about the final years of a great operatic diva, Maria Callas, whose life was sideswiped by Jackie Kennedy who took Ari away from her. Her singing career was replaced by years of reclusive sobbing until Larry Kelly barges back into her life and stages her first Carmen using her own earlier recordings done on a bare stage in front of an orchestra. The effect is incredible both on the audience and on Callas . . . until ... well, that would telling wouldn’t it? Watch and enjoy a night of singing by the very best. A DON’T MISS HIT ! ! ! ! !
“Goodnight, Mr. Tom” (1998) Tom Oakley lost his wife and son years ago and enters WWII in a coastal village in England living alone, until a ten-year-old London boy is billeted with him. Neither the boy nor Tom want this new arrangement, but stuff happens and Mr. Tom takes over the parenting in this amazingly good movie. A DON’T MISS HIT ! !
“Captains Courageous” (1937) with Spencer Tracy as Manuel, the Portuguese fisherman, and Harvey the spoiled rich kid who became a man in the course of three months at sea on a fishing boat out of Gloucester after Manuel pulled him from the water after he’d fallen out of his father’s yacht.
“Iphigenia” (1996) An excellent portrayal of the events which preceded Agamemnon’s sailing with his 1,000 ships to rescue his brother Menelaus’s wife, Helen. Agamemnon is unable to sail for lack of wind until the Oracle decreed that he must sacrifice his firstborn daughter, Iphigenia, before the winds would blow. Shot in Greece, with Greek actors, and dialogue in Greek, this was as authentic as you could get without being there. Agamemnon is shown as much a victim as a murderer in this production. Caught between a rock, his wife, Clytemnestra, and a hard place, 10,000 angry troops, he strives every way he can to get out of the sacrifice, but is stymied every which way. If you’ve ever wondered how he could have killed his daughter, watch this movie.
“Lucky You” (2006) is a professional gambler in Las Vegas, a likeable guy, but addicted to gambling and his father who taught him to play poker as a kid. Meets Drew Barrymore and she anchors him into values outside of gambling. He finds a way to forgive his father and his life changes. Lucky you who have found and watched this movie. Two hours of “No-Limit Hold’em” with a father and son at the final table. Who wins? No telling.
“The Hoax” (2006) It is no hoax that Richard Gere gives a dynamite performance as Clifford Irving who sets out to do an Authorized Autobiography of Howard Hughes and ends up doing one of his own life which became this movie. A DON’T MISS HIT ! ! !
“The Darwin Awards” (2005) with Joseph Fiennes as an insurance investigator through whose eyes we get to witness many of the famous man whose last act was a supreme comedy as they removed themselves from the gene pool forever. Don’t miss this funny movie. You’ll roar even if the storyline of some of these are familiar.
“Killing Me Softly” (2002) with Joseph Fiennes humping and stalking Heather Graham for most of the movie. Who is this mystery man with his dark past hidden behind closed doors? And from whom were the mystery warning notes coming?
“Dodson’s Journey” (2001) David James Elliott (Harm from JAG) as a father of two faced with impending divorce. On a fishing trip with his 10-year-old daughter, he confronts the ghosts of his past which have been filling up his time in the present.
“Stealing Beauty” (1996) Liv Tyler as Lucy, a virgin in her own “Enchanted April” manor in Italy, tracking down her mom’s past, her father, and love. A marvelous two hours in the Italian countryside with interesting people. A Don’t Miss Hit! ! !
“I Like Killing Flies” (2005) Kenny Shopsin says in his Greenwich Village Greasy Spoon, Shopsin’s Café. It was one of the memorable phrases of his with no F-word in them. Over 200 diverse items on his menu, all of which are prepared on the spot. You want orange pancakes with chocolate chips and a maple syrup glaze? No problem. You want to have lunch with four of your friends? Big problem. You’ll get kicked out immediately for breaking Shopsin’s cardinal rule. If you wish to eat here, you have to have eaten here before or come with one of the regulars. All of which talk to us in this documentary which allows us to watch Kenny holding forth as he has for 32 years like Merlin in his workshop, tossing mysterious items into a cauldron, slopping soup into a bowl, or glazing a custom pancake concoction. Don’t watch this on an empty stomach.

Misses (Avoid At All Costs): We attempted to watch these this month, but didn't make it all the way through on most of them. Awhile back when three AAAC horrors hit us in one night, I decided to add a sub-category to "Avoid at All Costs", namely, A DVD STOMPER. These are movies so bad, you don't want anyone else to get stuck watching them, so you want to stomp on the disks. That way, if everyone else who gets burnt by the movie does the same, soon no copies of the awful movie will be extant and the world will be better off.

“Dogville” (2004) Nicole Kidman stars in this curious production of the town of Dogville where the walls are non-existent but the residents knock on invisible doors and open them. An elegant lady is a fugitive from the law and makes her home in Dogville, but it seems the town has a bite as bad as its bark. Mostly a waste of 3 hours, but some redeeming parts before the gloomy ending. A dark version of “Our Town.”
“Twentynine Palms” (2004) was 29 kinds of boring! Run to the nearest train track and leave it on the rail for the midnight express to shatter it into a million pieces. About a guy and a gal who only like each other for sex, but the rest of time drive each other crazy and dead. A DVD STOMPER! ! !
(There was also a BBC TV Show DVD so bad, I won't even mention its name.)

Your call on these — your taste in movies may differ, but I liked them:

“Rat” (2000) is what a man turns into after coming home from a pub. What to do? Buy a cage? Write a book? Toss him into the AGA (Wood Stove)?
“The Reaping” (2007) Banal brutality and Hollywood message warns viewers about every large company except those in the film industry. Unless you wish to be visited by the ten biblical plagues, then this movie should be Avoided At All Costs. Buy him a pint? Toss him into a Maggot Factory? Store him in the Fridge? Call a doctor? Order an exorcism? Well, this movie does all these things and makes us laugh along the way. Stuart Little meets Franz Kafka.
“Running With Scissors” (2006) Augusten Burroughs had a crazy life: A crazy mother with a crazy psychiatrist who adopted him into his crazy family and crazy home. His memoir was made into this crazy movie that you don’t have to be crazy to watch, and it doesn’t help.
“Storytelling” (2001) Since there are two kinds of storytelling, fiction and non-fiction, the movie deals with both kinds separately, but strangely the fiction resembles real life and the real life, fiction. That’s the most I can tell you without giving away the whole story.
“Kikojiro” (2000) A young orphan is taken by Kikojiro to find his mother. In this awkward yet charming movie, we watch the events unfold as if in slow motion as love blossoms.
“Wild Hogs” (2007) a dentist, a janitor, a nerd, and a loser take their Harleys on the road in this sitcom quality movie with predictable scatological jokes and pratfalls. Peter Fonda as the deus ex machina arrives to save the day and keep this one from being a DVD stomper.
“A Mighty Heart” (2007) was a mighty bore. Plot: man’s wife is pregnant, man gets kidnaped, man is killed. Dragged out for a whole movie. Skip this one is my call. Your maya may vary, so it’s a Your Call.
“Oklahoma” (1999) movie of stage play from London starring Hugh Jackman as Curley. Watching this impresses on one the incredible talents of the movie version’s stars. Fun to watch a stage version and Jackman does a credible Curley.
“Leo” (2002) Joseph Fiennes in this rambling walk through the life of Leo Bloom and his heartless and useless mother.
“Beyond the Gates” (2005) The Hotos are slaughtering the Tutsis and anyone who gets in their way. Will the priest of 3 decades in Rwanda survive the onslaught? Will his young assistant? Thousands of hacked bodies decorate the streets, making this otherwise excellent movie a Your Call.

Blackeye Peas and Cabbage

Background on Blackeye Peas and Cabbage: In New Orleans, it is an old tradition to begin each New Year with Blackeye Peas and Cabbage to ensure prosperity and good health. (See photo at left.) You can soak the dried black eye peas overnight and cook them for several hours, but that is way too much work for New Year's Day. Using the canned peas, you can prepare this meal in under and hour and be eating it before the football games begin. If you are a newcomer to New Orleans, you probably have wondered where all those cans of black eye peas and cabbage that showed up after Christmas Day, disappeared to within a week. They went into happy tummies by the end of New Year's Day! ! ! Using a recipe similar to this one.

You will want to serve the black eye peas over rice, and there is no better way to make rice that to use my recipe for wild/long grain rice. If you can get the pre-cooked wild rice, you will have the rice ready within an half-hour, and can start it before you start cooking the beans. See recipe here in the December, 2002 Good Mountain Press Digest Issue.

Ingredients
Two medium-sized yellow onions
Two cans of Trappey's Black Eye Peas
One small cabbage
Bertolli's Extra Lite Olive Oil

 Preparation
Chop the onions. Open up the two cans. Chop the cabbage into quarters.

Cooking Instructions
Blackeye Peas: Add enough Bertolli's Extra Lite Olive Oil to cover the bottom of a pot. Sautée; the onions till translucent. Add the contents of the cans. Add an inch or so of water to each can and swirl around to remove the last of the peas and pour into pot. Stir well and bring to boil, then move to low heat and simmer for about an hour.
Cabbage: Place cabbage chunks in separate pot, dribble Bertolli's Extra Virgin Olive Oil over cabbage, add salt, cover with water, and Boil till done. We like it while it's still green and with some texture.


Serving Suggestion (Serves TWO hearty appetites)
First spoon out the steamed rice on the plate, and then cover the rice with black eye peas as shown. Make sure there's enough of the gravy so that the mixture is easily palatable. (Cajuns NEVER put a big dry scoop of rice on the side of the dish. That is an affectation of certain so-called Cajun Restaurants, the purpose of which escapes me. You cannot possibly gauge the correct amount of stew to rice except by placing the stew over the rice on the plate when serving.) Then add a chunk of boiled cabbage to the side. After trying this for one New Year's Day, you can pretend you live in New Orleans and always know what you're going to fix and be eating every New Year's Day!

Other options
The other regular side dish made in New Orleans for New Year's Day, which complements the black eye peas and cabbage very well, is cornbread. A single box of Jiffy Cornbread Mix will do nicely for two people.

For a little extra zest, use for one of the two cans: a can of Trappey's Black Eye Peas with Jalapeno Peppers (or simply chop up a couple of peppers yourself and add to pot with the chopped onions.)

And for my Good Readers, here’s the new reviews and articles for this month. The ARJ2 ones are new additions to the top of A Reader’s Journal, Volume 2, Chronological List, and the ART ones to A Reader’s Treasury.

1.) ARJ2: To Spit Against the Wind — A Novel about the turbulent by Benjamin H. Levin

Tom Paine was an innovator. He saw ways of doing things that no one had perceived clearly before. In his writing, he moved people to action with his visions. His most memorial work, a short pamphlet entitled Common Sense, fanned the flames of independence in the colonies to a fiery heat. This novel takes us from his early life in England, through the Revolutionary war in America, and later through his life during the French Revolution.

He began in his father's girdle shop showing him how to save half the time of marking up and cutting a girdle by marking one-half and then folding it over and cutting both sides at once. His father objected that people are not symmetrical like such a pattern would be. Tom's explanation was simplicity in itself, "Then we shall make them that way." In this novel Levin portrays Tom Paine as a man who found people who were asymmetrical, the king and the pauper, for example, and, in his writings, he showed with reason and logic how they were symmetrical: that each were endowed with common sense in equal measure. As such, no man could assert the right to rule over another. He even went so far in his "Rights of Man" to equate the king's (or anyone's) claim of infallibility with that of a fool.

[page 382, quote from "The Rights of Man"] When it is laid down as a maxim, that A KING CAN DO NO WRONG, it places him in a state of similar security with that of idiots and persons insane, and responsibility is out of the question with respect to himself.

His publisher refused to print those words and Tom objected, "Do you not believe they are true?" "Yes, but they are treason," he replied.

Treason was no reason to stop Thomas Paine. Symmetry and reason were his great shears and if people were not made that way, then, he was going to make them that way. His will was the force of intellect which drove the American Revolution, rightly understood, and led to a new birth of freedom throughout the world.

We hear Tom as he has revealed to him the folly of the coercive imposition of a tax on windows. This may seem ludicrous to us in 2007, but believe me, such folly exists at so many levels in our current coercive society as to cause this exemplar to pale in comparison. He asks the owner of the Drum Tavern about the Tinneville Courts which used to be filled with townsfolk and now filled with the poorest of the poor. One need only think of ramshackle public housing today to be disabused of the thought that our current so-called government is better than that of Tom's 18th century England.

[page 59] "In the courts, I saw all the windows bricked over as though to keep out the cold. But sealing them also keeps out the light and air. And keeps in the heat of summer. It seems foolish."
       The tavern owner let out a guffaw that was half belch and half laughter. "Wot! Dost think the landlords give a fat monk's fart 'bout light an' eat. 'Ere's been a tax put on windows in the shire. An' so the landlords brick 'em up. An' when the poor basta'ds used more candles they up an' taxed the bloody tapers! An' now the filthy beggars sit in the dark like sick cats. Me, I'd go t'London or Manch'ster, could I sell the Drum Tavern. The stinkin' ole wot its become! I c'n read an' rite an' figure."

Have you ever given any thought that the very existence of the head of any country is a relic of having a King? It wasn't until I studied carefully Andrew Joseph Galambos's works in Volitional Science that I found proof that we have no need for the modern day equivalent of a king today. Paine knew in his day the onerous effects of having a king and sought about slaying, not the King himself, but the very need for a king! Tom recognized back then what we have yet to have sink into our heads today, that a king or a president or any head of state or country is a relic of barbarism — it opens the way for top-down rule and coercion instead of bottom-up service which matches that required by the common-sense wielding everyman on a volitional basis. That our so-called modern government is a relic of barbarism is well-hidden by politicos and the mass-media both, up until now. Rightly understood, the time has come for another strong dose of "Common Sense" for the modern citizen.

[page 71] "The King. Now, there you have it. The very King himself. Do you gentlemen realize, have you given it any thought, that the very existence of a king, in any country, is a relic of barbarism?"

In this vignette fashioned by Benjamin Levin, the author of this novel, we find ensconced the seed of the idea for the pamphlet which Tom Paine will be led to write in which he lays out for the common man a common sense approach to the reasons for independence from Britain and its despotic plantation master, the King.

Tom puts the matter to a businessman in a convincing way:

[page 129] "You, Mr. Rittenhouse, will bear me out that the owners of smelting furnaces are required to send the raw iron to England. There is it worked up and sent back to us in a finished form. Can anyone deny that a growing metalworking industry has been destroyed? Are we so lacking in courage that we cannot insist on what is right? If we are English, we should be permitted to live and work as Englishmen. If we are not, then we have a right to our own destiny!"

The author also portrays how Tom Paine was inspired to write the Declaration of Independence while musing over the last page of "Common Sense."

[page 162] Were a manifesto to be published and dispatched to foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we have endured, and the peaceful methods which we have ineffectually used for redress; declaring at the same time, that not being able, any longer, to live happily or safely under the cruel disposition of the British court, we have been driven to the necessity of breaking off all connection with her; at the same time, assuring all courts of our peaceable disposition toward them . . .

His own writing conjured up within him the need for such a manifesto, one that would not beg, but insist, "A Declaration of Independence."

[page 162, 163] There was as yet no such manifesto. He, Thomas Paine, would write one. He would call it a . . . A Declaration of Independence! As in Common Sense, he would point out the grievances of the Colonies, the cruel disposition of the British court, the necessity for independence, and a peaceable disposition to all governments. A declaration of independence!

No one should doubt that the idea for a Declaration of Independence was Thomas Paine's. It is and shall always remain his primary property, a derivative of his own thoughts and ideas. He began to work on an elaboration of the idea for which his pamphlet Common Sense contained merely a prologue, a sketch of the need for a fuller and more comprehensive document, which he proceeded to write. At one point, his initial draft was given over to a committee of the Continental Congress that was headed by Thomas Jefferson who smoothed out the prose somewhat, edited it to the committee's liking, and produced the final document in his own fine cursive script which we know today as our founding document, "The Declaration of Independence." The idea for the document sprung, not from a committee, not from Thomas Jefferson's pen, however, but full-grown from the mind of one man, Thomas Paine. The subsequent obfuscation of this essential point of American history, namely who actually wrote this document, can only highlight the serious and fatal disregard the rulers of modern America have for primary property, providing no adequate means of acknowledgment or protection thereof of ideas which can only derive from a single person's life and thoughts. Except for detailed biographical records such as Levin used to create this novel, everyone attributes the writing of the Declaration of Independence to the wrong Thomas, up until now!

We catch a brief glimpse, looking over the Paine's shoulder, of the changes made by the other Thomas to his initial draft of the document:

[page 181] As he read on, Paine noted more and more alterations. "Undisguised tyranny of the King" had been entirely omitted. "Deluge us in blood" had been modified to "destroy us." There were so many changes that the draft had lost the mask of Thomas Paine and now wore the façade of sensitive Jefferson. But it was a Declaration of Independence . . . independence!"

What is the importance of primary property? Why bother to give such a pretentious sounding name to a person's thoughts and ideas? The reason is this: it is necessary to remind people everywhere that ideas are not free! They do not simply float in the air for anyone to grab and use as if it were one's own idea! They are an essential derivative of the person's life to whom the idea came, if it was an original idea. But for that person, the idea may never have happened. But for Tom Paine, we would likely be driving on the left side of the road today and celebrating Queen Elizabeth's birtday! I quote Paine's pamphlet The Crisis, "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; tis dearness only that give every thing its value." The pervasive illusion that ideas are free causes them to be esteemed so lightly that few people recognize the paucity of ideas coming as a unique derivative of their own lives!

[page 222, The Crisis ] These are times that try men's souls.
      The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
      Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph.
      What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; tis dearness only that give every thing its value.
      Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.
      Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, hath declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but to "bind us in all classes whatsoever," and if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then there is no such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

On his arrival in London from France he accepted an invitation to the English Revolution Society. He met there Mary Wollstonecraft, who was later to marry the radical philosopher William Godwin and die in giving birth to her daughter. Mary Wollstonecraft acknowledged to Paine the debt she owed him. His Rights of Man had already inspired her to write her famous feminist manifesto, The Rights of Women.

[page 379] The only woman to attend the dinner was introduced to Paine as Mary Wollstonecraft. She was escorted by William Godwin and insisted that she be seated next to Paine. Just turned thirty, with inquisitive grey eyes and a tumbled mass of blond hair, a few strands of which she permitted to fall down upon her forehead as though to shorten the brow, she seemed to possess both the gentleness of femininity and the spirit of an indomitable man. "I have read your essays on women's rights," she confined to Paine in a slightly husky voice. "I am deeply gratified by both your opinions and your boldness in expressing them. I do not know how they were received in America but here, . . ." She waved a hand about the table to indicate that she was the only member of her sex present. "I am at work on a feminist document. I shall call it Vindication of the Rights of Women."

Mary Wollstonecraft acknowledged Paine's primary property and showed her gratitude to him, in fact, insisted on being given the opportunity to do so. She gives us an excellent example to follow which is all too seldom followed by Paine's common man, today. Respecting primary property, rightly understood, is the most important property of the common man, but because the abuse of primary property is so pervasive from the top of society (in the halls of Congress) down to the local public elementary schools, the common man has little understanding for the enormous boon that respect for primary property at all levels would be for his own life — be he an assembly line worker in an auto plant, a technician in a nuclear power plant, or a T-shirt designer working alone.

Back in France, Paine publishes his "Rights of Man" and unleashes a firestorm. Duchatelet reads some of the inflammatory parts of the document. No loud applause followed his reading. The silence was deafening. It was a pregnant silence. The germination of the French Revolution by the same sperm that had germinated the American Revolution.

Close to my heart is this idea that Paine put into his friend Jefferson's head: "Buy Louisiana from Napoleon." Once more the man who wrote up the document and affixed his signature to The Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson, is universally acclaimed as the man who had the original idea for the deed. I live in the southernmost and eponymous region of that great Louisiana Territory, which according to Paine's own writings was apportioned in whole and pieces of 17 states. As you read this passage, you will gather that Jefferson was not so keen on the idea. Most great ideas require a gestation period, and this was truly a great idea which helped manifest the destiny that Paine envisioned for America and these United States which comprise it. Below is his conversation with Jeff, as he called his friend.

[page 539] The conversation drifted to politics, and Paine confessed, "I have never been farther west than the Susquehanna River, Jeff. I would like to go to the Mississippi. And then down to New Orleans." When Jefferson said nothing, Paine added, "When I was a member of the French Assembly, I was consulted on the future of the Louisiana Territory. Even then, I envisioned it as a part of America, not governed by any European power. And now Spain had ceded the territory to France."
      Jefferson nodded. "The new government of France is not too friendly."
      "It is not the French. It is Napoleon Bonaparte. He will settle the Louisiana Territory with the scum of Europe unless we buy it."

It may amaze some to discover that Thomas Paine wrote lyrical poetry. Here is one that he wrote to Lady Smythe on Love (from pages 562, 563):

      Tis that delightful transport we can feel,
       Which painter cannot paint nor words reveal,
       Nor any art we know of can conceal.
       Canst thou describe the sunbeams to the blind,
       Or make him feel a shadow on his mind?
      What are the iron chains that hands have wrought?
       The hardest chains to break are those of thought.

Those people whose chains of thought about the need for a King that Paine had broken for them, were still locked so tightly in the need for a specific religion that they rejected Thomas Paine as a heretic and refused burial for his bones after his death on Thursday, June 8, 1809 at age seventy-two. His friend Marguerite had two workman bury his coffin on the grounds of his small farm in New Rochelle, New York. Ten years after his death, William Cobbett disinterred his remains and shipped them to England for burial, but the government of England forbid the burial that Cobbett had planned, so Tom's remains remained with Cobbett in Liverpool. After Cobbett died, the coffin and remains, according to the best information available (rumor) passed into the hands of a furniture dealer who re-used the wood of his coffin. No one knows where Tom's bones were scattered.

It should be surprising to no one that the man who dared to spit into the wind, time after time, country after country, issue after issue, should have his bones literally scattered into the wind.

Read the Review at:
http://www.doyletics.com/arj/tospitab.htm

2.) ARJ2: Who Are We? — Book 5 of The Ringing Cedars Series by Vladmir Megré

Anastasia tells us each one of us can create our own Paradise on Earth today and exactly how to go about doing that. All over the world today people have begun considering how to acquire their own hectare (2.5 acres) of land to begin constructing their own Kin's Domain along the line of the plans which Anastasia laid down in earlier books.

In Russia, we find the biggest movement towards the creation of this domain, with a national policy in place to provide the required land to every Russian citizen who wants it. The land is there in ample quantities and is currently under-utilized and much of it eroding away if nothing is done. Anastasia's plan is the only plan which can turn the situation around with huge investments by the State, investments which are projected well out of the reach of Russia's government, in any case. Vladimir Megré writes on the future of his country in this book.

If there was ever a monument to cupidity and stupidity, the island of Cyprus is one. The Romans created a desert isle of this beautifully wooded Paradise by removing all of the cedar trees to build their ships. With no tall cedars to slow down the trade winds, the moisture that previously fell on the island passed right over. In place of a living Paradise, we find a mostly dead monument, with people scratching out a living from the dry, rocky soil. Megré visited Cyprus to see for himself and it led him to think about the fate of people whose bodies are laid out in a cemetery where loved ones go to visit and think about them being dead. Rather than a monument to death, Anastasia proposes a monument to life: a family tree in a kin's domain which grows from generation to generation and under which the person who planted and nurtured it is buried.

Vladimir investigates eco-villages all over the world and focuses on one as a representative of the others, Auroville, founded in 1940 near Pondicherry, India. Designed to hold 50,000 or more people, it has fallen to a present-day 1200 residents. Vladimir mentioned his discouragement to Anastasia and her response was encouraging.

[page 19] If anyone knew where to find the foundation on which to build a happy life for both the individual and society as a whole, a happy society would have probably been built somewhere. But it doesn't exist — anywhere in the world! The only experience we have is negative. Where can one find anything positive?
      "In Russia!" replied Anastasia.

This is not something that is easy for us Americans to accept, this idea that Russia will become a fount of individual happiness for individuals and society, while America will not. Time will tell whether Americans will pick up Anastasia's banner and carry it forward on this side of the world. If it is to happen, millions of Americans will literally have to get their hands dirty.

In America, we are always thinking big on a large scale; in Russia, we can already see the evidence that they are thinking small. How else can you explain that in 1997 small households in Russia independently grew 97% of Russia's potatoes, 77% of its berries and fruit, and 73% of its vegetables, and those percentages have risen in the decade since then. Something is going on in Russia and let those who have ears to hear and eyes to see perk up. Russians are thinking small on a large scale!

A living answer to Vladimir's question about whether Anastasia's plan for a kin's domain which takes care of itself came to him when he visited the area on the Klyazma River about 100 miles east of Moscow. He stumbled upon an old abandoned estate, built close to Anastasia's specifications. It had lain neglected for so long the buildings were gone, but the townspeople of the locale picked fruit from the trees which bore more fruit every year than the fertilized village orchards nearby. In 1976, a heavy freeze caused the necessity to replant the fertilized village orchards, but the fruit trees on the old estate did not die and continued to bear fruit. Vladimir asked Veronika, a villager, if the trees on the estate were some special hybrid:

[page 30] "Just the usual variety. But the way everything was set up on these former estates — the way they did it on just a single hectare of land — wow! It's pretty much the way Anastasia describes it in your books. Two hundred years ago people planted Siberian cedars all around it along with local oak trees . . . Another thing: the hay from the grass that grows there is a lot richer. It keeps for a long time."

Two hundred years of proof that Anastasia's dream scheme would work was located in the area of a city called Vladimir. What wonderful synchronicity! What is synchronicity? It's a word coined by Carl Gustav Jung — I think of it as coincidence with a pedigree. Here is Vladimir's report of sighting the old estate.

Finally Vladimir asks Anastasia to show him the Russia of the future, and she does. He cannot believe his eyes.

[page 38, 39] Kalinin Avenue (or the New Arbat, as it is called) stretched a green boulevard about four meters wide. Concrete curbs rose about a half-meter above the pavement, enclosing earthen beds from which sprouted grass and wild flowers, interspersed at brief intervals with various kinds of trees: rowans with their clusters of red berries, birches, poplars, currant and raspberry bushes and a host of other plants such as one might find in a natural forest.
      There were similar boulevard strips down the center of many of Moscow's avenues and broad streets. And on the reduced traffic portion of these streets there didn't seem to be very many motorcars — mainly buses carrying passengers who did not look at all Russian in their appearance. The same could be said of many of the pedestrians on the sidewalks., I wondered for a moment whether Moscow had been occupied by a technically more developed country. But Anastasia reassured me, saying that the people I was seeing here were not occupiers, but simply foreign tourists.

What draws these tourists to Moscow? Her answer is simplicity in itself. A demonstration of how large grand things can happen when people revert to thinking on a small scale. The Moskva River has become as revered by the people of the world as the Ganges is in India. People come to Moscow to drink the health-giving water and meet the people who have restored the river to its pristine vitality. She explains how this happened to Vladimir.

[page 40] "Look and see how many people are standing along the banks of the Moskva River and collecting water in containers on strings they let down from the high embankments, and drinking the river water with great delight!"
      "But how can they drink water straight from the river without boiling it first?"
      "Look and see, Vladimir, how pure and transparent the water is in the Moskva River. It contains living water, not water deadened by gases like the kind sold in bottles throughout the world."
      "It must be a fantasy — something impossible to believe!"
      "A fantasy? But when you were little, would you and your friends have believed it if someone told you that before long people would be selling water in bottles?"
      "You're right: when I was young nobody would have believed that. But how was it possible to make the water so pure in such a big city as Moscow?"
      "Stop polluting it, stop throwing harmful waste into it, stop littering the river banks."
      "It was that simple?"
      "Exactly. Nothing fantasy-like — it is actually all quite simple. Today the Moskva River is protected even from the runoff water flowing over the pavement, and it is closed to dirty ships.

This is truly an awesome view of the future of the world when weapons of mass destruction are destroyed by children who tap into a force for good and all the powers of science are helpless to prevent their destruction. Anastasia paints for us an incredible picture of human beings living in peaceful domains, beautiful hand crafted homesteads, drinking living water, breathing life-giving pollen and ethers, and raising beautiful children who are recognized as God's special creatures. She has one last lesson for Vladimir about what will happen to all the artists and inventors in her vision of the future.

Who are we?

We are Star Beings. All of the atoms in our body of with an Atomic Number higher than iron (AN= 57) were formed in a Supernova, an immense exploding star. We are star-stuff — made of the stuff of which galaxies are made. Physicists have proved that to be case. Their latest theories say that we are intimately connected with the distant galaxies at every moment of our lives, both awake, when we are unconscious of the connection, and asleep, when we are conscious of the connection. It should be no surprise that the galaxies might quiver at the actions of a single human being, You.

[page 99, 100] "The galaxies quiver in joyful anticipation when they see the human dream merging into a single whole. Creation will soon witness a new birth and a new co-creation. Their human thought will materialize a beautiful new planet."

The time is now. Love is a verb. Life is a verb. The meaning of Life is living in the eternal now. You are alive as you read these words. I am alive as you read these words, in the spirit, if not in the body. Do you wish to experience eternity? You are living it now! There is no other time which corresponds to eternity. Only now. And you are living in that eternity. You are Man. You are a unique human being, a Child of the Universe, rightly understood. That's Who You Are. Freedom is in your grasp. There is no one who can control what you think. Drop those chains! They are but an illusion, a nightmare you have accepted as reality, up until now. Go forth to Live and Love upon this incredibly complex Earth which Divinity has prepared for you. Use its interconnectivity to your advantage by planting your own food, fruit, nuts, vegetables and create a Space of Love for yourself and your kin in your own unique homestead or domain. Form your own thoughts of the world, and slough off the thoughts of others who are fearful of the beautiful and robust world in which we can live together in peace and harmony from now on.

Read the Review at:
http://www.doyletics.com/arj/whoare05.htm

3.) ARJ2: I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This — and Other Things That Strike Me as Funny by Bob Newhart

One night I watched the David Letterman show, a rarity for me, but my favorite comedian, Bob Newhart, was on. I remember his early comedy albums in the 1960s, the TV skits which followed, and most of all our anchor for Saturday nights in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the Bob Newhart Show. We never missed one of them and loved them all. Jerry the dentist with his Mr. Tooth, Carol the zany receptionist, Howard the airline navigator and pop-in neighbor, Emily the loving but independent wife, and Bob who tied them all together. I wanted to see what Bob looked like in 2007 and what he was up to. Wrote a book. This book. Usually I don't buy a book by comedians, but I felt that I owed Bob a lot for all the years he'd made me laugh plus I had never bought an album or anything else of his, so it was about time. In addition he gave me two jokes for my monthly Digest.

Here's one which has been converted into a Cajun joke and will get into a future Digest :

      Boudreaux was on the Art Linkletter one day when he was ten years old. Art was interviewing the other kids, and had noticed that Boudreaux had a sad look on his face. Finally, he came to him and asked, "Is there something wrong?"
      Boudreaux hung his head and said, "My dog, T-Bone, jus' died."
      Art said, "I'm sorry to hear that, but you should know that he is in doggie heaven." Boudreaux just grunted and kept looking down disconsolately.
      Art said, "Don't feel bad. Someday when you're really, really old, you'll go to Heaven, and God will let you see your dog again."
      Boudreaux looked up at Art and said, "Dat's crazy. What would God want with a dead dog?"

Bob thought this was funny and so did I. So I bought his book as a way to say, Thanks, Bob! And I got a chance to enjoy a different side of Bob, the side that reflects on the work he's devoted his life to, which is the serious business of making people laugh, instead of actually making people laugh. But sometimes he fails in this book and does both!

On the reflective side, I wondered why I was strange. No one else seemed to be bothered by the oddities of life which stand out for me. Then Bob announces right on page 5 that is a sure sign of a comedian. Why did he wait so long to tell me? I suppose it's a trade secret, so you have to wait until you're so old, you don't care how much competition you get from beginners.

[page 5] Comedians are innately programmed to pick up oddities like mispronounced words, upside-down books on a shelf, and generally undetectable mistakes in every day life.

Bob gives us a list of the odd sides of comedians:

      1) Comedians are sadistic.
      2) Comedians are self-absorbed.
      3) Comedians have multiple personalities.
      4) Comedians have a perverse sense of humor.
      5) Comedians can bury a joke like your uncle.
      6) Comedians can teach you something.
      7) Some comedians can't tell a joke.
      8) All comedians are thin-skinned.
      9) On the other hand, ventriloquists are downright crazy.

[page 19] Dick Martin knew a ventriloquist named Pat Patrick who committed suicide by throwing himself from a plane. Pat Patrick left a note that read, "The dummy pushed me."

Bob got into accounting at the Glidden Co. where he was in charge of petty cash. That meant he would be stuck in the office till 8 pm some nights trying to balance a dollar or two at the most. So he tried a new tack. If the petty cash was short a dollar or so, he'd replace it with his own money, if it was over a dollar or two, he pocketed it. Doing this, he could leave on time every day. Saved him several hours a day, and on the average he took out what he put back. But his boss assured him that it was not sound accounting practice and continued to pay him six dollars an hour to spend 3 hours looking for $1.48 on a typical day. That drove him batty, so he would swap stories on the telephone with his friend Ed Gallagher in advertising. Here's one where he called Ed saying that he was a plant manager at a yeast factory. You can hear the beginning of his famous telephone monologues here. All thanks to sound accounting practices.

[page 42] "Sir, it's Mr Tompkins and we have a problem at your yeast factory. There's a fire . . . Hold on, sir. I have to put you on hold while I run up another floor. The yeast is rising . . . Sir, are you still there? The firefighters are on-site trying to contain the blaze . . . Hold on, sir. I have to run up another flight of stairs . . ."

I never watched the Newhart Show — by the time it appeared, I had outgrown situation comedies. But I did get to watch the amazing ending to the last episode of Newhart on an anniversary special. Bob reveals in this book that his wife, Ginnie, was the one who came up with this brilliant idea. I imagine she had dreams of Bob with other women a lot. She spent many years watching him supposedly married to Emily and then to another actress. Bob reveals that once Ginnie woke up mad at him and when he asked her what's wrong, she said:

[page 112] "I had a dream that we went to a party and you spent the entire party talking to this beautiful young lady."
      "Honey," I protested."That was a dream."
      "Yeah, but it's just the kind of thing you would do."

Once Ginnie came up with the idea to end the last episode of Newhart, everyone kept the ending secret. They even built the set of the Bob Newhart bedroom and hid it from the studio audience until the final scene started, at which time, it moved into view, showing Emily and Bob lying in bed:

[page 227] "Honey, honey, wake up," Bob Hartley implores Emily. "You won't believe the dream I just had."
      Emily switches on the light. "All right, Bob. What is it?"
      "I was an innkeeper in this crazy little town in Vermont. The maid was an heiress; the husband talked in alliteration; the handyman kept missing the point of things, and then there were these three woodsmen."
      "That settles it," Emily replies. "No more Japanese food before you go to bed."
      "I was married to a beautiful blonde . . ."
      "Go back to sleep, Bob," Emily says, switching off her light.<
      "Good night, Emily," I say, switching off mine.
      "What do you mean beautiful blonde?" she says, switching her light back on."

What a wonderful way to end two great sitcoms by blending both of them together in one final crescendo! Thank you, Ginnie! Thank you, Bob! Keep those observations of oddities and funny bits coming. Like the earthquake joke you heard a couple of days after the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake, "The traffic is stopped, but the freeways are moving."

Read the Review at:
http://www.doyletics.com/arj/ishouldn.htm

= == == == == == == == == == ==

I hear often from my Good Readers that they have bought books after reading my book reviews. Keep reading, folks! As I like to remind you, to obtain more information on what's in these books, buy and read the books — for less information, read the reviews.

In this section I like to comment on events in the world, in my life, and in my readings which have come up during the month. These are things I might have shared with you in person, if we had had the opportunity to coverse during the month. If we did, then you may recognize my words. If I say some things here which upset you, rest assured that you may skip over these for the very reason that I would likely have not brought up the subject to spoil our time together in person.

1. Padre Filius Reads the New Orleans Times-Picayune this Month:

Padre Filius, the cartoon character created by your intrepid editor and would-be cartoonist, will appear from time to time in this Section of the Digest to share us on some amusing or enlightening aspect of the world he observes during his peregrinations.

This month the good Padre reads a Headline about a Notorious Senator in Washington, D. C.

• EMAIL from Jeff about Photo Captions on MACs:
  Hello, Bobby,
  
  Please allow me to offer my condolences on the passing of your godmother. Was Azelda actually your aunt, or was she one of those benevolent folks whom everyone called "Aunt Zelda"? I hope your pleasant memories of her will endure. (RJM NOTE: She was my mom's sister, and according to Cajun custom, I called her Nanan.)
  A note about your photo captions: I'm a Macintosh user, and I was able to view your captions, but only because I use Mozilla Firefox as my browser rather than the default Safari, which Apple packages as part of its operating systems. I also happen to have a two-button mouse with a wheel, in contrast to many Mac users who use a one-button mouse. Simply sliding the cursor over the photo did not produce a caption. In Firefox, however, I was able to right-click and view captions. I also tried it in Safari, but it did not offer a "properties" option, and so I was unable to view the captions using Safari. I don't use Internet Explorer because Microsoft stopped updating it for the Mac several years ago, and I've disliked Netscape Navigator since AOL acquired it and turned it into a really klunky application.
  I loved the Cajun story about Boudreaux and the car trunk. That got me grinning first thing this morning.
  Ciao for now . . .
  Jeff
• EMAIL from Jim Conley, Category: Once was lost, Now is found:
  Thanks for finding me; I had a computer break and didn't try to go get the hard drive info . . . just started over.
  I love your digest!
  Love to you and Del,
  Jim Conley
• EMAIL from Paula, Category: Will not be lost:
  Hello,
  I've changed my email and would like to receive your newsletter at name@email.com.
  Thanks,
  Paula

• EMAIL from Jeff Parsons, Category: Once was lost, Now is found:
  Please change our email address in your records.
  I wrote Jeff back:
  Welcome back to the Good Mountain Press Digest list! Have missed your missives.
  Did you know Monique had a little boy? Photos in latest Digest.
  Jeff replied:
  I did. It was nice seeing everyone again. Your dad still looks good. Thanks for sending it.
• EMAIL from my brother, Kevin, on occasion of his 50th Birthday:
  Hi Bobby,
  Thanks for the birthday wishes. We have do have plans for an adult lunch at Drago's in Metairie this coming Friday, October 12th. Vicki's mom is in town and we are planning on bringing Dad as well. Both you and Del are invited.
  Thanks again, Love you..........Kevin
• EMAIL from Stephen, Category: description of what soul means:
  Bobby,
  Thank you for the detailed message. What you gave me was a good description of the soul. I have started to read the Anastasia book and will let you know how I like it. Thank you also for all the tips and references. I will continue to check out the reviews on your website.
  Warm regards,
  Stephen

• EMAIL from AJ, Category: Info on Nei Kung:
  Hi,
  I'd like to find out some more about the Nei Kung you mentioned here. If possible, send over or direct me to infomation on the 24 exercises please.
  Thanks,
  AJ
  [RJM NOTE: I sent AJ the instructions with the primitive drawings. One of our projects at Good Mtn Press is to publish a webpage with instructions and improved drawings as soon as possible. Look for word on its availability here. Until then, anyone wishing the exercises may write me directly. Simply Click on "To Contact Bobby" link above the Table of Contents Block at the Top of any Digest.]
• EMAIL from a Theatrical Director about doyletics:
  http://lists.topica.com/lists/doyletics/read/message.html?mid=1721198611&sort=d&start=575
  Read how Stanford used the speed trace successfully in his own life and in helping aspiring actors to get over butterflies during an audition.

3. Coercion: A Curse upon Nature

In a Teaching Company lecture, Professor Arnold Weinstein of Brown University said, “A curse moves words into action — it coerces the world of Nature.”

This is an amazing thought because of what can follow from it. Any government which is coercive at any level is therefore a curse upon Nature. Coercion consists of words driving people to action to do what otherwise they would not choose to do. Thus coercion operates exactly as a curse. This alone is ample reason to preface any extant "government" in the world of 2007 by the adjective "so-called".

There is no example of a non-coercive or true government at a country level in the world today. The so-called government of the USA is replete with coercion at many levels — taxation is but one example that affects every citizen. Claiming that we live in the "freest country in the world" is small solace if we have a so-called government, one which can be considered to be a curse on Nature, up until now.

Once we Americans have removed all traces of coercion then we will be able to claim that we have formed a true government. And once more the other peoples of the world will follow the USA's lead and insist on forming true governments for their countries.