Captioned Picture – a reflection – Years ago, in the Middle East, I was a distinguished foreign guest. It’s common when you are in an official or semi-official capacity outside the US to be considered so. It’s not as if I’m suggesting otherwise, as if I were important. Anyway, I was hanging out with some Persians/Iranians who were trying to be as hospitable as possible because they needed my help and wanted to increase their partibazi.*
They offered me the company of an attractive young lady, and I declined. They hurriedly said it was okay; they said they would have a local mullah (holy man) conduct a temporary marriage so it would be ‘legal and proper.’ The holy man was at hand, and they brought him in. I said that I didn’t understand, so the mullah explained further that temporary marriage, known in Islam as mut’ah and in Iran as sigheh, is a practice permitted under Shia jurisprudence and sanctioned by God, in which a couple contracts a romantic union for a fixed period – in this case, hours (the mullah gets a cut of the action for drawing up the contract). My hosts would pay the young lady a fee as part of the contractual deal.**
I asked how that was not prostitution. They explained that whereas prostitution is forbidden by the Qur’an, punishable by death (to the lady), this was well within Sharia (garden of earthly delights) and completely acceptable even with an infidel (that would be me) as one of the contracting parties. Even if you are married, the Qur’an permits up to four wives at a time and an unlimited number of concubines. The young lady supported her aging parents and paid for university classes by contracting in this way. I have no idea what her body count was. I took a hard pass, but you can file it under different countries and customs.
* Terms: (Farsi: پارتیبازی, pârtibâzi) or (Arabic: واسطة, wāsiṭah) referring to the use of personal connections, influence, or “clout” to achieve desired outcomes, such as securing employment, accelerating government bureaucracy, or gaining social advantages. It is deeply rooted in tribal traditions of loyalty and interpersonal networking, often acting as a form of social capital, networking, or “who you know” in the Arab/Persian world.
** It requires a contract specifying the duration and a set dowry (mahriyeh). When the time expires, the marriage ends without the need for a formal divorce.
Note: Don’t be too hard on them. I’ve known devout Christians who flew to Vegas, were married at a drive-through wedding chapel (think of The Hangover), had a weekend of drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll debauchery, and the wedding was annulled at the same drive-through chapel on their way out of town (she remains technically a virgin – body count resets to zero), and thereafter went their own ways. Same thing? Sort of. It was legal, not Biblically prohibited, fornication. I’ve also known of Christian couples who, in a very similar way, flew to Acapulco, were “married” in Mexico, and just flew home at the end of the vacation without mentioning the legal union to anyone, least of all their spouses. No need for a confession to a holy man. Clear consciences all around. Sin avoided.
I guess anyone can find a legal or faith-based loophole for anything.
Bullet Points:
** People tend to reduce events to a level of simplicity they can comfortably explain to themselves, a lowest-common-denominator version of reality that fits inside their existing worldview. It is as much a coping mechanism as an intellectual shortcut. Complex systems, layered motivations, and long arcs of history get flattened into something bite-sized and emotionally satisfying, but because that reduction is filtered through individual experience, preexisting bias, and whatever information stream someone happens to swim in, it is very often wrong.
** Mexico instituted a law requiring everyone in Mexico to register their cellular phone with biometrics and link it to a Mexican voting card (national identification card) and/or passport.
** Dreams – Freud postulated that dreams were the symbolic expression of frustrated desires relegated to the unconscious mind. T. E. Lawrence wrote in Seven Pillars of Wisdom, “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” Can you and another person dream the same dream at the same time? It’s a concept explored in the upcoming novel, HALF LIFE by LL. File it under shameless self-promotion.
In humans, most dreams result from random neuron firing in the cerebral cortex. and the forebrain creates a story to make sense of what the brain experiences. However, in this case, the story that unfolded was neither random nor nonsensical.
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The path to spiritual salvation is not about securing, gaining, or achieving status in a social order or institutional hierarchy. It is not about pleasing teachers. It is not about employing rote memory to achieve technical proficiency, nor repetition to achieve craft or guild proficiency, nor is it the province of intellectual erudition.
** Reports have shown a potential decrease in veteran suicides, indicating some success in targeted prevention.
** Part of this war with Iran was to hamstring China’s world dominance ambitions, and it’s done that quite well. BRICS is essentially dead. Iran can no longer muster as much world terrorism as it used to be able to. The only weapons Tehran has now are the American legacy press and its allies in the British government.
** An interesting discussion of wargaming (h/t Claudio). Is the US Navy doing an honest job of wargaming? I don’t have access to that information, so I don’t have a valid opinion.
** Farming abalone (Mexico) and in the USA.
How the Sausage is Made
Instructions to AI – cinematic wide scene, astronaut stepping onto an alien planet covered in reflective black liquid, surface slightly rippling under the foot, distant strange rock formations, glowing horizon, first step frozen mid-air, dramatic tension–chaos 12 –ar 16:9 –raw –v 7 –stylize 180
Instructions to AI – soft warm illustration, small puppy trying to climb onto couch, front paws on edge, back paws slipping on floor, body stretched, hesitation moment, cozy interior light–chaos 12 –ar 4:5 –v 7 –stylize 160
Instructions to AI – conceptual architecture, engineer with helmet placing first marker on empty ground, massive gothic building emerging as transparent structural framework, solid proportions, visible depth and volume, like unfinished blueprint in space, quiet minimal environment–chaos 15 –ar 16:9–v 7 –stylize 110
Identify the Aircraft
1
2 graphics – with yet another hint – four-engine experimental tailless transport aircraft, designed under the direction of Reimar Horten, but not a German aircraft
End
(1) It’s Argentine. Now I have to try and remember WTF it was called.
– Kle.
IAe-38 Naranjero.
– Kle.
Well done, Kle!!
Identify the Aircraft:
1. FMA I.Ae 38
Spot on!
DINFIA IA 38 was a 1960s Argentine four-engine experimental tailless transport aircraft
Precisely so!!
Dreams. Whenever I had a difficult construction job the next day, or maybe one I hadn’t done before, I would spend the whole night before thrashing it out in my sleep. Sometimes that helped, sometimes I was just exhausted.
Sometimes, dreamscapes and letting your subconscious wrestle with a problem can yield interesting results. It’s not controllable to an absolute degree – but listening to that inner voice is never a bad idea.
My thesis advisor said, repeatedly, “If you aren’t dreaming every night about your work, you aren’t working hard enough.”
I never did get that PhD.
Temp ‘marriages’ – you can fool yourself into believing anything, and pay people to tell you what you want to hear. How many really think they can pull one over on God?
Apparently most of the people in Iran think that.
A surprisingly large population of people seem to think that their god is essentially
a Mob Boss, and that priests (or whatever) are his consiglieri and mouthpieces.
It’s kind of weird.
– Kle.
Salvation is not a negotiation. Mullahs make side money by granting these ‘indulgences’, which is why they do it.
I’m racking my brain trying to remember what other religious group that wore robes sold indulgences. It’ll come to me.
There are a number of examples from both the Old and New Testaments where an analogy is made comparing marriage to God with His people, and Christ with the church.
If your behavior is teaching that Father and Son can’t keep their pants on, then you are leading others to think God and Jesus are in the same category as Bill Clinton. Is that really a good idea?
Agree on all commentary points…God gives The Ten Commandments, man spends forever doing work-arounds to allow bad behaviors (to put it mildly) while offering oneself a clear conscience. Yeah, not gonna work come judgement time when mere mortals won’t even be able to look at God’s countenance when His truth is revealed.
“A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, ‘But I was told by others to do thus,’ or that ‘Virtue was not convenient at the time.’ This will not suffice. Remember that.”
— King Baldwin IV, Kingdom of Heaven
@LL…100%!! Have that from KoH, plus ‘the oath’, printed and sitting in front of my computer as a reminder.
Reflection: ‘Distinguished’ is one heck of a title to add to the business card, has a certain panache to it, like PhD, only better: ’LL DsGd’.
***
1st BP: Our reality is ours to have and keep…even if self-exonerating or aggrandizing…like a politician, only to a lesser amount.
***
The Brain Never ‘Sleeps’: As an engineer-type I always had a pad and pen on the nightstand, often waking up to jot down a solution to a niggling problem I was unable to solve during office hours. Never failed to offer some direction of outright solution.
I keep pencil and paper on the nightstand, too.
What AI do you use?
https://www.midjourney.com/
AI astronaut. Very cool. I wonder how it would look if you added rings in the liquid from the footsteps.
With AI you can always experiment and delete, change the prompt (the creation language) and try again.
Thing is———–Jesus ain’t dealing in loopholes!!!!!!!!!!!!
The same Persian mindset that thinks that they can get the USA to allow them to keep working on nuclear bombs is involved in the mindset mentioned on the blog.
AI. Does it involve reading instructions?
————
Dreams. A frequent one involves frustration. I’m trying to drive somewhere, and the route keeps changing, the roads get worse or dead end. A similar one involves some task that keeps going sideways. The only positive, if there is one, is I never quit in the dream.
———–
Fornication. Basic, make a vow or give your word, keep it!
A.I. is like sex. There are instructions, but experimentation is half the fun.
thanks for info.
Dreams; The main point to the paragraph is that in the story 2 individuals dream the same thing at the same time. The script writer of the movie Inception ( Leonardo Dicaprio ) led the viewer audience into an intriguing complexity. This bullet point is packed with several side points that draw this moth for another orbit closer to the flame. I.E. nearly a daily routine of reading V.M. blog!
In a couple other bullet points there are new vocabulary words and a point addressing my need for restraint with erudition’s. The Lawrence quote of a daydreamer inspires the possible!
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” … whatever information stream someone happens to swim in, it is very often wrong.” This whole paragraph is very thought provoking. H/T L.L.
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Writing; We both started writing Novel’s as a recreational pursuit circa 2013. Mrs W. made it as far as 120k with a series in mind, but “life” and priorities sadly delays the tough part of going back and editing the rough draft into a finished work. I made it about four chapters in with a road map to go farther but got side tracked with research, and side railed with a relationship of characters that paralleled what would happen with one of our adult children after I wrote it. What was ironic was what we were creating as fiction, just general conflicts and adversities became real life experience for our family. ( Divorce of one of our children.)
_
Half life, wishing you all the best with the work of writing and hope it is a success for sales and a joy in telling morals to the story.
Which AI do you use to generate the images
Midjourney
Larry, Thank you.
Did you know WO Chamblee at Group One?
“Part of this war with Iran was to hamstring China’s world dominance ambitions, and it’s done that quite well. ”
Right to the point.
Then there’s Islam, also on point. Poor girl, what savages.
“But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” The dreams I could handle, it’s when they enact their nightmares that I worry about.
They’re dangerous.