2005.3.23=3[#82]:4703.2.14[#43/60]:Eye glass exam. 1)US Neo-cons,2. 2)N Chomsky on Palestine. 3)China-Russia > Taiwan? 4)Gnosticism.

[Search People] Automated web-crawler harvests resume info, 18:34 21 March 2005 http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7181 [DDN Linguistic and Cultural Diversity] http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/languages [Library] PubLofSceince, 185 Berry Street Suite 1300 San Francisco CA 94107 USA phone +1 415.624.1200 email plos@plos.org http://www.plos.org/ [House Dust] http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/21562/ Cloudy, rain, bit sun cool: up 8:10, full bath off vibrisae(nostril hairs), emails and from [ChinaU] "gnosticism". 1:11pm to the topic. Rushed to hospital for eye glass exams then to Bk of Am but left early. Jyun wanted computer at 11:30, now 11:48pm, so finishing with a few emails left. Bed 12:55. 1) US Neo-cons [II]: "Bolton Bashing, Part II", Steve Clemons; TomPaine.com, March 23, 2005; From The Washington Note: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/bolton_bashing_part_ii.php "" Bob Kuttner Blasts Wolfowitz and Bolton Bob Kuttner has a powerful op-ed this morning in the Boston Globe on President Bush's nominations of John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz. There is one super-zinger paragraph on Bolton that deserves special notice: Bolton was among the most ferocious in promoting the fake story that Iraq had sought to buy nuclear material in Niger, long after intelligence agencies had discredited it, and he sought to mislead allies on a false report that North Korea has supplied nuclear materials to Libya. Bolton will also face questions for his role a decade ago in a foreign money-laundering scheme when he headed a think tank that lost its tax status as a Republican Party front. "" 2) Noam Chomsky on Palestine: "22 March 2005: Noam Chomsky speaks in Edinburgh", Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign: http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/Events/events_chomsky2.html "You can change the world" Chomsky tells thousands The Fateful Triangle: The US, Israel & the Palestinians - Another World is Necessary, Another World is Possible The world-renowned linguist and political analyst Professor Noam Chomsky gave a public lecture for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign at Edinburgh's McEwan Hall today (co-organised with the Edinburgh University Palestine Solidarity Society, People and Planet, Scotish Jews for a Just Peace and Student Action for Refugees). The hundreds in Edinburgh were joined through video link technology by meetings throughout Scotland and England as well as Bir Zeit and Al-Najjar Universities in occupied Palestine and venues in Italy and Croatia. In a powerful analysis of US policy throughout the Middle East, Chomsky ridiculed the Bush administration's claim that their actions are bringing a "vision of democracy" to the region. Noting that for decades internal pressures for reform have consistently been opposed by the United States, he pointed out that the recent elections in Iraq were forced on the occupiers in what he views as a remarkable success for non-violent resistence. In Lebanon too, he emphasised the internal debate, pointing out that the US could only possibly take credit for the recent demonstrations of popular opinion if it was responsible for the atrocity that sparked them off, the murder of Rafik Hariri. Although he doesn't believe that this was the case, he did note that the worst car bombing in Lebanese history was carried out by the CIA, with support from UK intelligence. "" 3) China-Russia > Taiwan? "Analysis: Russia, China clash on war game plans", By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst: http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050322-053830-2135r.htm "" Washington, DC, Mar. 22 (UPI) -- Russian Chief of General Staff Yury Baluyevsky flies home from the Far East this week after finalizing plans for large, ambitious joint-military exercises to be held with China this fall. But the negotiations were far from a bed of roses. China wanted the exercises -- the first ever between the two countries -- to be held in its southwestern Zhejiang province near the island of Taiwan, the Moscow newspaper Kommersant reported Thursday. The political message of holding the exercises there would have been dramatically clear: Russia would be prepared to support China in an eventual military confrontation with the United States over the island whose president, Chen Shui-bian, has been moving toward full legal independence from the mainland. "" 4) Gnosticism: (1) "Gnosticism", J.P. ARENDZEN, transcribed by Christine J. Murray; The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VI: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06592a.htm "" The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word (gnosis "knowledge", gnostikos, "good at knowing"), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. "" ""It has the same parent-soil as Buddhism; but Buddhism is ethical, it endeavours to obtain its end by the extinction of all desire; Gnosticism is pseudo-intellectual, and trusts exclusively to magical knowledge. Moreover, Gnosticism, placed in other historical surroundings, developed from the first on other lines than Buddhism. When Cyrus entered Babylon in 539 B.C., two great worlds of thought met, and syncretism in religion, as far as we know it, began. Iranian thought began to mix with the ancient civilization of Babylon. The idea of the great struggle between evil and good, ever continuing in this universe, is the parent idea of Mazdeism, or Iranian dualism. This, and the imagined existence of numberless intermediate spirits, angels and devas, as the conviction which overcame the contentedness of Semitism. On the other hand, the unshakable trust, in astrology, the persuasion that the planetary system had a fatalistic influence on this world's affairs, stood its ground on the soil of Chaldea. "" (2) "The Coptic Gnostic Library: A Complete Edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices", by James M. Robinson (Editor): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/9004117024/qid=1111607765/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-2864853-8964016?v=glance&s=books "The Coptic Gnostic Library., October 16, 2003 Reviewer: javafusion - See all my reviews From the publisher: The Coptic Gnostic Library continues where the Dead Sea Scrolls left off. Our main sources of information for the Gnostic religion are the so-called Nag Hammadi codices, written in Coptic."" "" bringing to light a long-hidden wealth of information and insights into early Judaism and the roots of Christianity. Furthermore, these writings clearly show that the Gnostic religion was not only a force that interacted with early Christianity and Judaism in their formative periods, but also a significant religious movement in its own right. The Coptic Gnostic Library contains all the texts of the Nag Hammadi codices, both in the original Coptic and in translation. Each text has its own introduction, and full indexes are provided. The Coptic Gnostic Library is the starting point for all research into ancient Gnosticism. It is the result of decades of dedicated research by the most distinguished international scholars in this field. The Coptic Gnostic Library is the only authoritative edition of many of the Coptic writings of the Gnostics from the first centuries AD."" "Only For Serious Students, March 26, 2001 Reviewer: "ts_58" (New York)": ""The E.J. Brill Academic Press graciously reprinted the full Nag Hammadi library,"" ""along with an extensive and insightful critical apparatus linking the texts to the Greek New Testament, the Vulgate, writings of the early Church fathers, and other Nag Hammadi and Coptic works.""