Thursday

♠
It is raining in earnest, again. Hardly surprising, but there is more disappointment in it.

This morning was only fizzly-drizzly, and then we actually got some glimmerings of sunlight upon the landscape. But if there was any native optimism left, that was dashed when I caught a CNN forecast complete with graphics showing that another wave of storms was coming from the gulf, so that we have at least one more weekend of this wet dreariness. Like an ocean pouring itself down on us.

I never thought I would be saying this in late July in the southwest, but we badly need some sun. This constant rain wears away on you and makes your nerves soggy.

On a side note, when we were in that dry spot this afternoon, I was looking out the theater window and saw Calico walking across the driveway, apparently returning to the back yard.

This may explain why we hardly see the cats at all. Their world is much bigger than our patio. We're just a pit stop now.

Well, that was the idea. We didn't want more pets. And maybe this means they won't shit so much on our lawn.

Though, there is a little disappointment in it, too.

I'm also sorry to see that they really are no longer a family anymore. Calico and Socks will sometimes eat together still, but that's about it. They don't even hang out together.

I haven't even seen the baby grey in a long time. I wonder if it is still alive. The baby is presumably the least ready to be independent, too small and too simple.

I guess that was more than a side note, but cats have a knack for stealing the show.

xXx

Thursday

♠
It is raining in earnest, again. Hardly surprising, but there is more disappointment in it.

This morning was only fizzly-drizzly, and then we actually got some glimmerings of sunlight upon the landscape. But if there was any native optimism left, that was dashed when I caught a CNN forecast complete with graphics showing that another wave of storms was coming from the gulf, so that we have at least one more weekend of this wet dreariness. Like an ocean pouring itself down on us.

I never thought I would be saying this in late July in the southwest, but we badly need some sun. This constant rain wears away on you and makes your nerves soggy.

On a side note, when we were in that dry spot this afternoon, I was looking out the theater window and saw Calico walking across the driveway, apparently returning to the back yard.

This may explain why we hardly see the cats at all. Their world is much bigger than our patio. We're just a pit stop now.

Well, that was the idea. We didn't want more pets. And maybe this means they won't shit so much on our lawn.

Though, there is a little disappointment in it, too.

I'm also sorry to see that they really are no longer a family anymore. Calico and Socks will sometimes eat together still, but that's about it. They don't even hang out together.

I haven't even seen the baby grey in a long time. I wonder if it is still alive. The baby is presumably the least ready to be independent, too small and too simple.

I guess that was more than a side note, but cats have a knack for stealing the show.

xXx

Turkey and the Islamic Divergence

♠
David Warren sounds another sour note on the prospect of a harmonic convergence occurring between the West and the Muslim Middle East in our lifetime, looking at the election in Turkey of an Islamist party, and seeing how Turkey was perhaps our most secular and liberal Muslim nation in the region, capped off by this conclusion:

As I've written several times before (most recently June 20th), there is every demographic and political indication that Turkey's "secular" experiment is ending. It went sufficiently against the grain of an Islamic society to begin with. Over time, the prestige of Islam revived, and by presenting themselves as only moderate Islamists, whose main intention is to clean up corruption, and deliver welfare services more efficiently to the country's poor, the A.K.P. has cleverly insinuated itself into the hearts and minds of the people who still have most of the children.

Let that be a lesson to us. The Islamic world is not going to become more Western and "modern" over time. For Turkey was the farthest "West" any Islamic society could be taken, and then only by force. We must confront that reality plainly, and stop dreaming that "democracy" will make the Muslims just like us.

Some may say that it is good that they are not to become Western clones. However, what we are really talking about, I think, are governments and nations that we can deal with.

I imagine one of the main reasons why this conflict has come to a head is the ramped up globalization of recent decades, as the world seems to have become too small for both the Western and the Islamist visions. We can deal with the likes of a China, because although they are not democratic, they are into the market economy and they don't seem particularly interested in making everyone communist or Chinese for that matter. The Islamists on the other hand seem to regard the market as corrupting and they think everyone should be Islamist.

( David Warren )

xXx

Turkey and the Islamic Divergence

♠
David Warren sounds another sour note on the prospect of a harmonic convergence occurring between the West and the Muslim Middle East in our lifetime, looking at the election in Turkey of an Islamist party, and seeing how Turkey was perhaps our most secular and liberal Muslim nation in the region, capped off by this conclusion:

As I've written several times before (most recently June 20th), there is every demographic and political indication that Turkey's "secular" experiment is ending. It went sufficiently against the grain of an Islamic society to begin with. Over time, the prestige of Islam revived, and by presenting themselves as only moderate Islamists, whose main intention is to clean up corruption, and deliver welfare services more efficiently to the country's poor, the A.K.P. has cleverly insinuated itself into the hearts and minds of the people who still have most of the children.

Let that be a lesson to us. The Islamic world is not going to become more Western and "modern" over time. For Turkey was the farthest "West" any Islamic society could be taken, and then only by force. We must confront that reality plainly, and stop dreaming that "democracy" will make the Muslims just like us.

Some may say that it is good that they are not to become Western clones. However, what we are really talking about, I think, are governments and nations that we can deal with.

I imagine one of the main reasons why this conflict has come to a head is the ramped up globalization of recent decades, as the world seems to have become too small for both the Western and the Islamist visions. We can deal with the likes of a China, because although they are not democratic, they are into the market economy and they don't seem particularly interested in making everyone communist or Chinese for that matter. The Islamists on the other hand seem to regard the market as corrupting and they think everyone should be Islamist.

( David Warren )

xXx