Jesus and Afghan Outpost Restrepo

well, we've mentioned a few times on this rambling rollercoaster of crap of a blog over the months that we'd address the topic of Jesus (a real life person from History) and 'Christianity' (a religion in his aftermath).....

probably the two best books in print about Jesus are by an American (now deceased): H. Spencer Lewis who lived in the early part of the 20th century.... one is called 'the Mystical Life of Jesus', the other, 'the Secret Doctrines of Jeus.'

Spencer Lewis was probably one of the first writer's in history to begin legally safeguarding his works by including the clause 'electronic retrieval system' in his intellectual copyright protections in an age before internet and computers..... we do not want to go against his will in this regard and tarnish the things he sets forth in his books....

nor is it desirable to appear as or be a wiseacrer unknowingly (someone that talks without knowing)....

in any case, just touching on one notion Spencer Lewis raises in one of aforementioned books, the well known episode in the evangelicals where Jesus is quoted to say, 'it's harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven than it is for a camel to pass throught the eye of a needle.'........ Spencer Lewis says this is a mistranslation of some old word, e.g., from Aramaic, and that Jesus was in fact talking to some career fishermen who were interested in having strong nets to catch the fish with and were challenged by the need for strong chord when fixing their nets but still something slender and workable, e.g., with a needle........ Lewis explains that the old words, e.g., in Aramaic, for camel and rope, were similar and in fact Jesus said: it's harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven than it is for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle........ this at least makes good sense, let's assume it's true.....

wouldn't a rope be strong and make a good fixer for broken fishing nets? and couldn't a bigger needle be found? the fishermen would probably realize that rope would be too big for their nets and not practical... they would need strong and slender fishing lines such as is mass produced today as a derivative of the petro-chemical (oil) technology we have --- these kinds of strong fishing lines would have been highly prized by the fishermen of the pre-industrialized world

keeping in mind fishing is as old as humanity, with the Aborigines in Australia and the Aborigines of Hawaii and the Aborigines of Africa and every other land, fishing at the same time as the Aborigines of Galilee were doing in Jesus' time.......

so a rope is strong, does that mean a rich man is strong? but the strong rope cannot enter the eye of the needle which is the means of fixing a practical, necessary conduit to self-survival and good living (fishing industry) -- so the rope is impractical.... does that mean a rich man is impractical........ if you have a good haul of fish, would you be in Heaven?

Jesus is also said to talk about the kingdom of Heaven alot... let's assume the bible is true in this and words weren't made up by some pervert paedophile black magician priests..... in which case, Jesus says that the children (of the world) are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven

but can you imagine a world where children have to organize everything practical? put food on the table, etc? well the english carried out this experiment already during their (the first) industrial revolution...... however, somehow, because of the hierarchy of things, the children never did become the bosses and instead were left to be menial workers (slaves) -- this is a historical fact of the english industrial revolution, and before anyone gets whiney about the way to english race has trod on other races (e.g., in india and africa) - let them first consider how they have treated and acted amongst themselves

most people would therefore admit, that while children can probably perform all functions of working society that are carried out now by adults, like PR campaign managers, politicians, factory workers (such as in england), etc, etc, etc, that they do not have that killer, exploitative instinct like the mean brother in the tv sitcom from the 80s or 90s, 'Perfect Strangers'....... therefore they end up being 'shafted' as it were....... the only exception to this scenario in fictional culture is Robin Williams' tv show 'mork and mindy'......  william golding's book 'the lord of the flies' explores social compacts where children are left alone and organize a hierarchical society

so is it correct to say, that Jesus is saying: 'try to cultivate your spirituality, enter the Kingdom of Heaven (which we might construe as a kind of spiritual happiness or spiritual world), even if you are an adult, try to be like the children who are in the kingdom of heaven, but at the same time, be practical, like the fishermen that need to catch fish, where a rope to fix your fishing nets is just as impractical as a  (useless) rich man (who leaves his money in 10 year bonds where it cannot be usefully invested in some useful business).....'

but then Jesus goes on to do magic tricks (twice in the standard bible) involving fish: 1st he makes fish appear in the water for his apostles to catch, then he makes them appear like magic on another occasion to feed the masses' (these are, to quote Spencer Lewis again, 'happy, fantastic tales') --- in this scenario, it appears Jesus is following some Libran soul impulse to build up a brotherhood of man, regardless of sectarianism (again quoting Lewis) by saying, hey you know what? rich man, rope, whatever -- just eat fish on my dad, God

on this note, we should add that sectarianism, really, is what separates religions and races and FINANCIAL CLASSES

so is Jesus saying: hey look you don't even need to bother slaving around all day working to catch fish when if you cultivate your spirituality and faith, you'll be able to make them appear out of nowhere anyway?

Spencer Lewis also gives it out that Jesus was most likely a Libra..... Librans, normally those born in the 26 days (1/14th of a year) preceeding september 20 or 21 (the spring equinox)..... Librans are always looking to find the balance in everything... and are calm and seldom flustered, also very logical, and patrons of the arts

Jesus is said to say: give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's.......... or something like that...... this appears to contradict what Nietzsche (also a Libra, by the way, who styled himself at one point as the 'anti-Christ' but really meant anti-Christian) said about Jesus being a political criminal in a ridiculously apolitical environment...... that seems balanced, right?

so is Jesus essentially just promoting spirituality and his code of ethics: love God above all else and do unto others as you would have done unto you (but at the same time/or as a balance to that: turning the other cheek)?

most people wouldn't even expect someone to turn the other cheek, they would love it if it happened and just go with it like they were winning or something.....

doesn't turning the other cheek equal encouraging and reinforcing bad behavior, such as disrespect, etc?

clearly Jesus doesn't mean turn the other cheek in a sarcastic, bitter way, but finding the exact point of turning the other cheek where you feel you are not bitter and sarcastic, but getting screwed in a way that you can comfortably bite down on your tongue and bend over without feeling bad about it all*..... or at least if you do, feeling like you're experimenting with a new kind of code of conduct....... you can probably neutralize alot of hatred and negativity by turning the other cheek, obstensibly snuffing it out, potentially..... unfortunately, it seems it's on tap, neverendingly..... maybe people that keep doing the wrong thing will end up like the seeds thrown by the wayside where they cannot grow like in the parable --- who knows?

*this idea of tolerance is also part of the Lord's prayer as ascribed to Jesus: forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us

there's some notions about Jesus for you... maybe we'll have more on that later


it's been a long time since the writer kind of just stopped thinking about things.... perhaps realizing that the Americans are smartest (at least the football players) by banging their heads against something hard and causing brain damage in their pursuit of happiness......... however, the writer vaguely remembers a time when we cogitated on social cohesion and how sectarianism, aceptance, rejection, tribal culture, national culture, etc are all very necessary things....... just take languages, they are tremendously sophisticated mechanisms that can evolve over centuries and in many cases constitute the very identity and badge of a race or people that makes them uniquely what they are........ in many cases, a person's education is strictly tied up to his or her language or languages....... here in Australia, for example, kind of like in California, the people like to be some kind of left-leaning, all permissive, all-liberal, all-tolerant, all-loving, all-sunny-beaches little obnoxious Jesuses.... except Jesus wasn't an alcoholic or a druggie and was most likely a vegetarian who never ate meat unless he ate some fish.... probably never swore once in his life and probably a softly-spoken person not given to yelling, temper tantrums, ego-maniacal fits (despite being God's son, etc)..... anyway, languages separate people, cultures separate people, genes separate people..... separation equals sectarianism equals disunity...... the only hope with so much disunity is harmony and harmonious relations, hence turn the other cheek

finally on the topic of wealth and how to use money, we have two contradicting episodes from the Evangelicals: first, we're told that Jesus hangs out with rich men and has rich followers and doesn't judge them for this in accordance with his judge not policy..... on the other hand, a newbie expresses interest in Jesus after witnessing some of the power he channeled, and we are told Jesus tells him to: 'sell your belongings, give everything you have to the poor and follow me,'..........  how is it Jesus can have rich disciples and yet asks one particular guy to sell everything........ is that personalized coaching? tailored to the individual?

we don't seem to know much about the topic, maybe a fresh reading of the evangelicals would be worthwhile

well, and this is possibly off topic - now there's some discovery channel documentary on tv about psycho-paths -- they're doing brainscans on psycho-paths and trying to prove with science that the emotional centres of pycho-path's brain is differently hard-wired to a normal person.......... tying this back to Jesus, does this mean that the people that nailed Jesus to a cross were psychopaths..... Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands of it all, was he a psycho-path too?  and come to think of it, are all those soldiers fighting wars, are they psycho-paths too? how about the people that kill cows in the abbatoirs? are they psycho-paths? how about the people that eat that cow?

are people full of shit?

ok thank God for national geographic channel, whenever they do a documentary about Jesus you don't even bother watching it, it's always crap

but here's a great documentary they made on one of the most dangerous u.s. military outposts in the world, in afghanistan:

http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/restrepo-the-deadliest-outpost/

this is must see tv.......... hey soldier guy, talibani chicken, or american hero, here's a joke for you: what's orange and sounds like parrot?  carrot.....

machine guns fire... a u.s. lieutenant colonel (olsen?) was just bitching at the afghani elders about what chicken-shits the $5 a day afghan taliban recruits were and how they won't fight bravely and now they're shooting at eachother at close range, don't tell us the taliban are shit fighters....... actually what he says is that afghani spotter/spies who don't even fight are radio-ing in positions of u.s. soldiers to talibanis with machine guns and that the spotters won't even fight --- but it's not like the afghanis have helicopters anyway

now a u.s. soldier guy is crying in shock -- like one of his buddy's just got shot (rugel) -- who can blame him? -- this documentary is like a really good war movie except it's real... now they've sent a blackhawk helicopter to find where the shooting talibanis are hiding out --- it's not like the talibanis can factor in having helicopters of their own when they strategize, is it? they aren't russia, are they? now the soldiers are taking after the fact, e.g., in italy, about the time rugel was killed...... they had some woman on bbc last nite from bosnia saying how she's been dreaming since she was a kid a helicopter flies up to her and someone opens the door and shoots her dead in her dream, said she's been dreaming that for years now...... if these soldiers with post traumatic stress could see that scarred, disfigured, burnt looking girl we mentioned couple of days ago, they'd chill out a little..........

now three u.s. soldiers are dancing to some stupid euro-trash music -- these guys are really nowhere... perched on top of some mountain -- looks like the goddam himalayas so mountainous...... now one of them is drawing pictures of mountains..... they have a 'spartans' insignia on some wood, now someone is playing a guitar..... they have shitty christmas lights -- they look like kids on a mountain holiday rural trip on some stupid reality tv show except they have machine guns and occasionally kill people or get killed......  now it's started to rain...... now they're saying they'll be back in italy (from their restrepo perch in afghanistan) in exactly 2 months  -- august 4th - 7th (so that would be 2008 or 2009).....

now they're getting a debriefing by their c.o.  -- he's saying they should mourn, pray and get revenge....... in vietnam the americans just carpet bombed and sprayed agent orange, genocide on mass.... here in afghanistan it looks like they just want to reconnect to their wild west 19th century roots by shooting the occasional person in the middle of nowhere which is what afghanistan is anyway......... we got a ton of them here in auburn and they are awesome people -- and they don't have shitty goats and no teeth like in afghanistan but mercedes benz and all cashed up........   one american guy just shot some afghani guy a million miles away with a high powered long distance machine gun he needs a telescope just to shoot with....

he's happy after that and the editors are really clever for parsing that little victory after the c.o.'s blood and guts revenge talk....  as if, after all that time perched in restrepo, the taliban wouldn't have relocated themselves away from their previous positions....... conclusion: strategically useless site.... and finally they're leaving -- alls they got to do is get on a helicopter anyway.....  these guys were from 503rd infantry regiment, 173rd airborne brigade combat team