Quote of the Day

The ultimate value of life is based on awareness
and the power of contemplation
rather than mere survival

- Aristotle.

Front Seat, Back Seat

I was running from my master, and I tried out every new thing I could find
But my life turned into one disaster, without the Lord I almost blew my mind

I was sitting in the front seat, trying really hard to be the driver
Thinking I was making real good time,
but always winding up the late arriver

But now I've been riding in the back seat,
and I see it is a very great relief
Now I'm trying out the back seat,
and I'm leaving all the driving to the chief

I went barrelling out full speed ahead,
I went a-running every stop sign that I'd see
Thinking I'd give the Lord a short cut, yeah,
but I found out he don't need no help from me

Front Seat, Back Seat
Words and Music by Chuck Girard and Tom Coomes
on Love Song
Copyright 1971

Quote of the Day

"Death will never be pretty--its sights and smells too close and crude. And it will never come under our control: it gallops where we tiptoe, rips up our routines, burns our very breath with its heat and sting.

And yet while sorrow is certain, fear is not. "She had a very good death," a friend says of her mother, and I have an idea of what she means and don't hear it as a shrug of denial or contradiction.

I asked a doctor friend what makes the difference, once the battle is out of her hands.

"Fear," she said, "and regret. Take those away, and what's left is peace."

Source : "The Light of Death" by Nancy Gibbs

More Again on Emotional Intelligence

I googled the phrase "listening to your emotions" and the top ranked page was:

"Emotions - How To Understand, Identify Release Your Emotions".

Now as far as I can make out, that article has quite a lot of valuable information on the subject. It really does.

But it does suffer from a few drawbacks which are common in circles that deal with psychology or pop psychology. Let me touch on a few such examples using this article as my jumping board.

First, when you read about the author you learn that she is a "vibrational consultant" who can perform a "vibrational assessment" on you. Wow! Whatever is that and whatever does it mean ?

Do you see already where I'm going with this ? For me, if I were approaching this subject cold the image put out by this article would immediately lead me to write it all off as 'cranky' and 'weird' and boy I sure don't have any time for that sort of thing, thank you very much. It might be a mistake but you do "consider the source" and if the source smells fishy well out it goes with the rest of the garbage.

Secondly, while the article does have a lot useful and insightful information it all sits in a sea of subjectivity and is presented in such a way that what is subjectively real is ultimate. Nothing wrong with subjectivity since the topic we are considering demands it but if it leads to navel gazing then it's too much. And this article as probably 90-95% of all psychological literature does just that-- navel gaze.

This is why my appreciation of the subject of emotional intelligence had it's impetus from what i read about it on Brett Starbarger's blog called Trader Feed. It's an interesting trading blog where Brett quite often has a pastoral take on things. In the context of rational intelligence and analysis which is what all good stock market traders do plenty of he manages to bring in emotional intelligence in a grounded way that also makes a lot of sense.

For instance, consider that once all the hard analysis has been done, the trader must take a decision to buy or sell. From that point on he has skin in the game. He is emotionally engaged which means he's now existentially heightened. That is where Brett comes in and he says "listen to your emotions" because your emotions are giving you important information about this trade. What is that information ? Well it has to be drawn out and that takes 'emotional intelligence'.

Jesus - (Ben Hur)

Charlton Heston (1923-2008)

(views:26,237) - an obituary HERE
and HERE.

Richard Widmark (1914-2008)

views :347

Good Friday Meditations

Jesus Smells! : a Good Friday Reflection from Euangelion


Mother Kirk: the agony : poetry about the crucifixion.

Linkestan on Mathematics

Indispensability Arguments in the Philosophy of Mathematics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Golden ratio : coolio !

Tipler_PeerReview_070103.pdf :

Symmetric Groups and Group Actions : very good and easy to understand explanations

My Son Is Playing The Guitar

Views :42

The Grand Mufti of Canterbury Has Spoken

UPDATE :
There is a superb philosophical/theological treatment of our dear 'Grand Mufti' 's speech HERE. Very much worth reading;but, really, the final verdict on the state of this man's silly and depraved mind must remain as depicted in this pic at the left.

Some Notes on Emotional Intelligence

I have been thinking about the subject of 'emotional intelligence' and think that maybe it might shed some light of self-knowledge.

I realise this term 'emotional intelligence' itself is poorly defined but i approach it as that internal ability to *listen* to what our feelings are telling us and then the ability to bring those feelings under rational analysis without suppressing them or judging ourselves for them.

At the extreme where there is perhaps little or very limited emotional intelligence perhaps the expression "bitter and twisted" comes to mind. I don't like to go there because it assigns a value judgement to a person's inability to listen to his or her emotions in a healthy and liberating kind of way.

I hope to think through some of these aspects and hopefully reach some helpful conclusions in which case i may post some of my thoughts on this later, God willing.

UPDATE : Kansas Bob has a series of posts HERE which speak around the subject of "emotional intelligence" from a Christian perspective.

Slow Posting Here For A While

In the meantime there will probably be more posting action over on my financial blog : click HERE if you are interested.

'Turkishness'

HERE is a thoughtful and thought provoking post on the the subject.

Looking out on the intellectual landscape I can only see Murat Belge and Mustafa Akyol who are not afraid to take this subject on head on.

What distinguishes Akyol even further is that he does not shy from taking an almost humourous and light hearted approach (THIS recent post from his blog is a perfect example).

Is he the first 'Turk-in-essence' , to borrow a phrase from Ziya Meral, in all of recorded history to be able to laugh at himself and his Turkishness ?

Maybe.

The U.S. Presidential Election

Milton Friedman on YouTube : what is libertarianism ? it's only a 2 minute 23 second video but covers the subject pretty comprehensively

Libertarians Rising - TIME : that would be Ron Paul

Christians for Ron Paul .com - home page : the only candidate that makes sense

It's not funny anymore, it really isn't : a small indication of the lost opportunities under Bush. can the next prez clean up this global mess ? who is up to the task ?

Why He's Rooting for John McCain : the guy makes a pretty good case; but, as someone said in the comments the lot for the Republicans could be to "sit in the corner and think about what they have done" for (at least) the next 4 years.

Obama, Huckabee sweep to Iowa victories : They each seem to have pretty slick political machines. This is what is needed to become President these days, especially as people are generally too mentally lazy to discern beyond the PR to real issues and to real potential. So while Ron Paul is the first and only true and consistent libertarian presidential candidate, he seems to have hurt himself by coming across as an "America blamer". Will it then be a Obama/Huckabee horse race in November ? We will see.

UPDATE : Libertarian or not, there is simply no excuse for racism. I am withdrawing my personal support for Ron Paul : right ideas, but the wrong man.

Linkestan 2008 01 01

Kemalist Science and Its Perpetual Motion Machine and
Israeli UAVs For Turkey : 2 pointers that all is not healthy in this country which has been coming into the world's spotlight in the past 5 years.

New Year's Resolutions

1) no snacking at bedtime
2) replace lunch with a snack of brazil nuts and dried fruit
3) to go down to 75 kg by 01.01.2009

Bye Bye Miss American Turkish Pie

Looking back on 2007

It was the year my 'Turkishness' DIED and was BURIED.

Check out My Blogroll . . .

. . . down the right side under the heading 'Blogs of Interest'.

It's been cleaned up and updated.

I don't necessarily agree with the positions taken by each and every blog listed there. In fact, that would be impossible since some take radically opposite views on issues that I consider important.

But, they are all there because they represent quality.

Check 'em out and let me know in the comments if any strike your fancy.

Quote of the Day

"Upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your God." -Martin Luther

What is 'Turkish Exceptionalism' ?

The dean of Turkish social scientists, the venerable Şerif Mardin, was interviewed by Asharq Al Awsat newspaper recently.

(H/T Erkan's field diary)

Mardin gave his learned opinion on Turkish Islam and seems to have coined a new term echoing Alexis de Tocqueville’s American Exceptionalism .

He is calling it Turkish Exceptionalism. What is this Turkish Exceptionalism ?

Well, according to Mardin, it arises from the observation that :

"[t]he state takes precedence over religion by 'one millimeter'(...) Throughout its history the Ottoman Empire was cautious to distance the religion from the state(...) and was founded on the power of the state  which is a concept that is difficult for many Arabs to apprehend. ".

Actually, to get a complete picture of Ottoman governance and "power of the state" one needs to go further back in history to the point where Turks were a nomadic people constantly advancing and conquering territory. By doing so, one finds a continuous strand from that period to the very present day namely a style of governance marked by expedience.

Expedience requires that one is not diverted too much by abstract notions such as human rights and human values.

The reason the Arabs don't apprehend or see themselves in the Ottoman state is because the latter is based on Turkish not Arab nationalism. Mardin says :"It is important to affirm that the religious orders in Turkey are always related to the Turkish state, (...)" How very true it is that in Turkey Islam is subservient to the state and so subservient to the principle of expedience.

Moving on, Mardin curiously makes the claim that Turks and Iranians are somehow 'philosophical'. It's not clear why or in what connection he interjects this comment but empirical study would probably reveal this philosophical aspect is seldom integrated with governance . Such philosophical traditions, for Turkey, have always been irrelevant to the state. After all, who ever heard of a Sufi Sultan ?

Perhaps what Mardin is really trying to say is that for the Turks (and the Iranians) Islam is not about ethnicity and tribalism since we are dealing with an Arab religion 'revealed' in the Arab tongue.

Sociology is a science based on real facts, real history and real evidence. Unfortunately, these elements are strangely absent from in the responses Mardin has given in this interview.Nevertheless, if we wanted to be as faithful as possible to the most coherent fragments of Mardin's analysis, we would have to conclude that the Ottoman view of the state and religion is to be summarised as a secularism of praxis and of race. Just consider that while racist supremacist parties form the fringe of politics in all Western European countries, in Turkey they are part of the mainstream.

Linkestan 2007 12 15

The Greening Earth : CO2 is your friend

Prominent Atmospheric Scientist Calls Anthropogenic Global Warming “Ridiculous”

Foundations of Bali climate conference condemned by leading experts

Boney M Christmas Song (1978)