When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.*

plato, my childhood friend... who said
god makes the perfect bed, the carpenter makes a very good bed, and the artist makes an imitation of the carpenter's work

plato was speaking figuratively... he says god makes all the perfect forms, so for every thing there is a perfect form... but

god does not make beds

Ο Θεός δεν κάνει κρεβάτια
God does not make beds

ο ξυλουργός γνωρίζει καλύτερα τη φύση των κλινών
the carpenter knows better the nature of the beds
(google greek)

 

If you please.

Well then, here are three beds: one existing in nature, which is made by God, as I think that we may say --for no one else can be the maker?

No.

There is another which is the work of the carpenter?

Yes.

And the work of the painter is a third?

Yes.

Beds, then, are of three kinds, and there are three artists who superintend them: God, the maker of the bed, and the painter?

....

Yes, there are three of them.

God, whether from choice or from necessity, made one bed in nature and one only; two or more such ideal beds neither ever have been nor ever will be made by God.

Why is that?

Because even if He had made but two, a third would still appear behind them which both of them would have for their idea, and that would be the ideal bed and the two others.

Very true, he said.

God knew this, and He desired to be the real maker of a real bed, not a particular maker of a particular bed, and therefore He created a bed which is essentially and by nature one only.

So we believe.

Shall we, then, speak of Him as the natural author or maker of the bed?

Yes, he replied; inasmuch as by the natural process of creation He is the author of this and of all other things.

And what shall we say of the carpenter --is not he also the maker of the bed?

Yes.
But would you call the painter a creator and maker?
Certainly not.
Yet if he is not the maker, what is he in relation to the bed?
I think, he said, that we may fairly designate him as the imitator of that which the others make.

Good, I said; then you call him who is third in the descent from nature an imitator?

Of appearance.
Then the imitator, I said, is a long way off the truth, and can do all things because he lightly touches on a small part of them, and that part an image. For example: A painter will paint a cobbler, carpenter, or any other artist, though he knows nothing of their arts; and, if he is a good artist, he may deceive children or simple persons, when he shows them his picture of a carpenter from a distance, and they will fancy that they are looking at a real carpenter.

I have here a painting that needs repair -- a fleck of background is chipped... nude w drapery sitting on a chair... thirty years later I see the chair is missing a rung.. so the painting has always lacked stability.. and I, the imitator did not do a good job representing the carpenter's art... even worse... it took 30 years to notice it.
________________
* Corinthians 1:13 
* Plato's Republic

He is Devo
Obama, June 28, 2006
(prepared remarks): "Given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

"For one, they need to understand the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice. That during our founding, it was not the atheists or the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of this separation; it was the persecuted religious minorities, Baptists like John Leland, who were most concerned that any state-sponsored religion might hinder their ability to practice their faith.

"Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."

September 11, 2011
Without attribution, Obama reads Psalm 46.  It ends with, "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."  He is preaching to the Big Three Abrahamic religions:  Christianity, Judaism and Islam, for whom "God of Jacob," has meaning...

Buddhists, Hindus, and "non-believers," need not apply.  Don't strain your brain to try to understand Psalm 46, nor when Giuliani reads Ecclesiastes 3... DON'T ASK when is the time to hate?  when is the time to make war?  when is the time to kill? Your government has answered for you.

These are not prayers for thinking people. 

Andrew Cuomo, on the other hand, read from the famous "Four Freedoms" speech of  US President Franklin D. Roosevelt given January 6, 1941.  Absolutely appropriate.  Well chosen, well read.

Oy Vey Gevalt, does anybody know the difference between a recitiation and a speech??  Obama made no speech at Ground Zero Sept 11, 2011.
September 12, 2011 google search news
obama read psalm Ground Zero About 322,000 results (0.21 seconds)
obama+speech+Ground Zero About 1,320,000 results (0.24 seconds)

*he is devo... Obama is de-evolving from his 2006 recognition of religious and non-religious diversity.  In 2009 Obama announced establishment of Faith Based Office... do you think you will find Buddhist or Agnostic offices there?

A breather.....of fresh air:



...

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

"Leave the dead to bury the dead.  Take care of the living."

"It's not about money - we're looking for some decency," Kenneth Specht

 

9/11 first responders outraged over exclusion of cancer from Zadroga health act

My friend says First Responders are not invited to 9/11 Commemorative Ceremony Ground Zero because they are visual reminders of how their country has failed them, and this does not make "good tv."

_____________________________

"It has been argued that if your search is not found on Google it does not exist.

Research by group of Austrian researchers^[5] claims that they observe a tendency to misuse the Google engine as a "reality interface".

Not just ordinary users but even journalists tend to rely on the first pages of Google search, assuming that everything not listed there is either not important or merely does not exist. The referenced source says that "Google has become the main interface for our whole reality.

To be precise: With the Google interface the user gets the impression that the search results imply a kind of totality. In fact, one only sees a small part of what one could see if one also integrates other research tools".

The mentioned group warns that page rank can be influenced by individual views of the Google staff: "it became clear that not only mathematical algorithms and software, but also human brains in the Google headquarters will edit information processed by Google and decide what will go online and in which form."  wikipedia

The only thing I can do is keep a log of what Google could not find for me, yet I know it exists.. in this other reality... my library.

"Every line is a decision."  Vincent Van Gogh


Drawing, Black chalk, pen, brown ink, heightened with white
Saint-Rémy: March - April, 1890

First Responders Carry the Body of Fr. Judge, FDNY chaplain, first recorded victim of 9/11

Flags, Prayers, Suits and Other Empty Things

O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,
The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,
The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,
Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,
Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark,

Families will be weeping
Flags will be raised
Flowers will be floated
Bells will ring
Silences will be observed
Bin Laden will be mentioned
2 wars will be justified
Giuliani will look ghostly
Bloomberg will get posey
Bush will look puffy
Obama will get preachy

Jesus will be quoted, but not when he said
"Leave the dead to bury the dead,
Go take care of the living."

And First Responders will be thanked
again and again and again
Somebody might even say to them,
"Sorry you couldn't be with us today."

Zadroga will not be mentioned
Lancet will not be mentioned
The event will be cancer-free and child-safe.
It all will go down like warm junk food.

3,000 remembered, 3,000 forgotten,
3,000 honoured, 3,000 betrayed.
The media math will work it all out
To Zero. To Absolute Zero.
Left staring into a pit of zero.

The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

 The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

 The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

T.S. Eliot, East Coker 

State and federal government idolize the First Responders to 9/11 but refuse to listen to them, to take care of them, even to invite them to the scene of their extraordinary heroism on the 10th Anniversary of the worst day in American history.