George Gershwin wrote ‘Summertime’ (lyrics by DuBose Hayward) as an aria to the 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess”.  This song has subsequenty been recorded over 2,600times and is unoffically tied with the Beatles’ single  "Yesterday"as the most popular song of all time.  (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/860618)

Its whimsical nature can be traced to the inspiration for the song which comes from a Ukrainian lullaby “Oy Khodyt Son Kolo Vikon”.

(lyrics courtesy of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oi_Khodyt_Son_Kolo_Vikon)

Here is a sample of the original lullaby:
http://musicishere.com/getdemo.php?cid=149938

Porgy and Bess was intended to be an "American Folk Opera" revealing the plight of African Americans in America.  Its centerpiece aria was inspired by a Ukrainian lullaby and the rhapsodized by a Jew.  This is a telling summary of the fundamental power of music.

Here is a close representation of what the original was intended to sound like as scored:

Here is a more popularized version, highly popular at that:  Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald

All of the divas of the day recorded this tune so let’s take Ella’s rendition as representative.

Here is a creole style jazz rendition of Summertime by Sidney Bechet.  This recording and subsequent album launched his career.

Starting to diverge more significantly from the original, Stan Getz offers a bassa nova stylized rendition:

Miles Davis renders a more interpretive jazz version which became highly popular in the 50’s

Janis Joplin recorded a version in the late 60’s which emphasizes the soulful nature of the piece.

America, American Folk Opera, Ella Fitzgerald, George Gershwin, Janis Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Porgy and Bess, representative, Sidney Bechet, Son Kolo Vikon, Stan Getz

The list of talent in this recording is unprecedented and the ensemble is unrepeated.

Reunited after many years with tenor saxophonist Lester Young, Billie’s visual reaction to his moving solo remains as eloquent as anything she ever sang; a touching finale to their historic musical partnership. Introduced by Robert Herridge (producer/host of CBS’ "The Sound of Jazz"), this is perhaps the single most famous "live jazz" performance in TV history. Other members of the all-star band seen here: Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge, Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson, Danny Barker, Milt Hinton, Mal Waldron.

Ben Webster, CBS, Coleman Hawkins, Danny Barker, Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young, Producer, Robert Herridge, Roy Eldridge, tenor saxophonist, Vic Dickenson

Over 70 years ago, scientists invented aerogel, the least dense solid known to man, and an insulator four times more efficient than fiberglass or foam. Famously, according to Dr. Peter Tsou of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "you could take a two- or three-bedroom house, insulate it with aerogel, and you could heat the house with a candle. But eventually the house would become too hot."

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/aerogels-hit-consumer-insulation-market

fiberglass, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Peter Tsou

Lori Gottlieb, the 43 year old single author, having learned from her failed experiences in dating has penned a book due out this spring:

“Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr Good Enough”. 

The reviewer suggests that Gottlieb’s “stark message ran directly counter to the neofeminist Sex and the City perpetuated mantra that we should all hold out for The One because we’re worth it.”  Feminisms however is typically anti marriage and against romantic love. 

The phenomenon of un-marrieable females goes well beyond the simple explanation offered above.  I can’t offer a few sentences to summarize what would take a novel to explain except to say that the answer is as involved as my now retired ‘black book’ is full of un-marrieable women I’ve dated over the years.

I think Kierkegaard said it best:

“If you marry, you will regret it.  If you do not marry, you will also regret it.  If you marry or do not marry, you will regret both.  Whether you marry or do not marry, you will regret both."
– Soren Kierkegaard.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article7009556.ece

author, Lori Gottlieb, single author, Soren Kierkegaard

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Keith Olbermann is decrying what could be the most fundamental miscarriage of justice since Dred Scott v. Sandford, [1] declaring that a Black man had no right of citizenship in the United States.  This decision led, in short order to the Civil War. [2]

In the recently decided case Citizens United v. Federal Elections Committee [3] the issue before the court was the ability for a corporation to make campaign contributions, specifically to fund campaign ads.  Currently there is a cap on business campaign donations which have to be made through a political action committee.  The cap is in place to ensure that citizens can vote with their dollars early in the democratic process, specifically the funding of a candidate. 

The that has come down from Justice Roberts (a Bush Jr. appointee) has ruled that corporations, in line with previous rulings, are to be regarded as human beings in the eyes of the law, and thus limiting their ability to donate to campaigns is a fundamental violation of a corporation’s human rights. [4]

The previous ruling is the 1886 decision in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad [5] which had to do more to do with tax law.  It was decided that Southern Pacific Railroad was entitled to "the right to deduct the amount of their debts [i.e., mortgages] from the taxable value of their property, a right which was [previously only] given to individuals." [6]

During the pleading of the case, an orbiter dictum (legal: ‘passing comment’) was made that corporations were entitled to the same rights as humans.  The remark didn’t show up in the decision (merely the head notes) but from that point hereafter, corporations were regarded as human beings citing this ‘precedent.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution, indeed the Bill of Rights, (1791) establishes that "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…".  The Supreme Court has taken this legislative gold and combined it with the dross of a passing comment in an unrelated case to produce an unholy alloy which now allows corporations, lacking human sensibilities aside from greed, all the rights of same. 

Olbermann concludes his commentary with a nod to another famous journalist famous for offering us a political conscience, Edward R. Murrow: “good night, and good luck.”

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Other Resources:
Jeff Toobin on the Colbert Report:
(United States) http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/249057/september-15-2009/citizens-united-v–federal-election-commission—jeffrey-toobin
(Canada) http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-colbert-report/interviews-a-z/the-colbert-report—interviews-b/clip97669#clip215649
—–
Citations
[1] http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1856/1856_0 
[2] http://rawstory.com/2010/01/olbermanns-special-comment-freedom-speech-destroyed/
[3] , [4] United Citizens v. Federal Elections Committee: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf
[5] Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad
[6] Carl Brent Swisher, "Motivation and Political Technique" in The California Constitutional Convention, 1878-1879 (New York: Da Capo, 1969), p. 78

Congress, Edward R. Murrow, Federal Elections Committee, fundamental miscarriage, journalist, Keith Olbermann, miscarriage, Santa Clara County, Supreme Court, tax law, United States

                US Airways Express Flight 3079, bound for Kentucky, grounded in      
                Philadelphia after an attendant reported a suspicious passenger.
                                                                                 (Matt Rourke/Associated Press) ¹

Imagine you are on a plane and a teenager wearing a white sweater proceeds to strap a small black box to his forehead affixed by what looks like wires. He then attaches a second black box to his arm and runs these same ‘wires’ down to his hand. In a world where shoes, underwear or bottled water can be explosive devices, how would you react? The reaction of the flight crew on board US Airways Flight 3079 was to ground the plane and have it swarmed by police officers.

The young man politely and cooperatively explained to the armed officers with weapons drawn that he was engaged in prayer. The plane and the black boxes were searched and no explosives were found. Hopefully by now, Jewish readers are beginning to suspect that the black boxes and straps were in fact Tefillin and the young man was engaged in morning prayers. Most Jews would understand that such a display would be a cause for concern in a world of terrorism. Indeed the boy’s Rabbi, Rabbi Greenberg, likewise understands and has advised him in future to“pray on the plane and put the Tefillin on later on”. ² Disaster averted; add another item to the no fly list: shoes, underwear, bottles and Tefillin.

But was disaster averted? The basis for putting on Tefillin comes from four separate passages in the Torah such as Deut. 11:18 “Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.” ³ The bitter irony in this story is that Tefillin are a literal enactment of this verse intended to remind oneself to think and act in accordance with God’s laws. Those laws in turn are filled with mention of Pikuach Nefesh: the fundamental protection and respect for human life. Pikuach Nefesh is not only a primary principle but also one in a rare class: capable of overriding virtually all other Torah commandments. The young man thus was praying for and expressing the precise antidote to the fear he unintentionally caused.

A deeper irony comes in the reaction of the flight crew. While their reaction is understandable, it is regrettable. The underwear bomber is an extreme example of religious intolerance and hatred run amok. While tightening security is a first-line defence it mustn’t be the only one. Fostering amity and understanding is a necessary corollary measure. In this light the crew of the flight not being aware of the practice of putting on Tefillin — a practice as common as Muslims prostrating themselves five times a day, and a ritual observed some 6 days a week by observant Jews — demonstrates a fundamental failing in this regard. One would think a flight crew trained to deal with people from all backgrounds ought to have been trained in the basic religious rites of the various religions.

Some would contend that the underwear bomber, despite revealing holes in our security, was successfully thwarted in that there was no loss of life or limb. To use the word thwarted in this case is perhaps overly generous. He was after all successful in adding further items to the no fly list beyond just Tefillin. The list now reads: shoes, water underwear, Tefillin, our security, and – any day soon – our souls.

———————————————-

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/nyregion/22airplane.html

2 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/nyregion/22airplane.html

3 http://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0511.htm

explosive devices, Kentucky, Philadelphia, Rabbi

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there (American humorist Will Rogers)

humorist, Will Rogers

Sigmund Freud once famously said — despite his tremendous talent for intuiting the most complicated explanations for things – that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”. 

I was curious to understand the origins of the swastika and it’s meaning in Nazi Germany.  I read many long diatribes of the occult links and/or how it’s cooption of an ancient Hindu symbol.

The swastika comes in two forms representing the involution (left facing) or evolution (right facing) of the universe.

(The right and left facing swastika respectively) 

There are many fascinating theories, but let’s examine a simpler one.  Let’s look at the church where Adolf Hitler sang as a chorister:

skip ahead to time index 2:50.

 
(Swastika or Hakenzreuz in honour of Theodore Hagen (TH) at Abbey Lambach (AL), Austria, dedicated in the year 1869)

The German word for swastika is NOT ‘swastika’ it’s ‘hakenkreuz’ (hooked cross).  The ‘swastika’ that bedecks the Abbey Lambach where Hitler sang as a boy is a play on words in honour of a former Abbott: Theodore Hagen.  Thus it’s a ‘hagenkreuz’ ‘hakenkreuz’ which honors Theodore Hagen.

You might be surprised to see the papal salute at Abbey Lambach:
(There’s no sarcasm here, seriously)

I’ve long thought that attempts to complicate or concoct a more mysterious or supernatural origin for Hitler and his ideologies is a human failing trying to theologically distance ourselves from evil.  In other words: hatred of that magnitude can only happen “over there” where over there is some supernatural space or some otherwise distant and evil theology.

The truth is far scarier.  Hitler was a choir boy who corrupted the symbols presented him to seduce a people in distress.  Hitler wasn’t an occult warlock, nor were his origins mysterious enough for us to deny his proximity to us.  He was a forlorn and rejected artist who needed a scapegoat and subscribed to megalomania to compensate for a feeling of nothingness.

Hitler’s Paintings:

Abbey Lambach, Abbott, Adolf Hitler, Austria, forlorn and rejected artist, Germany, Sigmund Freud, Theodore Hagen

A picture is worth a thousand words and in the case of these key figures from Ray Kurzweil’s “The Singularity is Near”.

http://singularity.com/

Recall that a straight line on a logarithmic curve represents exponential growth.  Key to Kurzweil’s arguments that the ‘singularity’ is near is that technology, or perhaps sentience proceeds in exponential order.

The ‘singularity’ in turn is not a take-over of humanity by machines, but more appropriately, the humanization of machines.  Humanity will not become more mechanized, but technology will become more humanized.  Beyond that point, the ‘singularity’, it is hard to predict what will happen next, but perhaps the perfusion of thinking processes will overwhelm the cold mechanic universe making it alive itself.

In the beginning there was nothing.  Then the Lord said “Let there be light, and there was light.” Genesis 1:1

mechanic, Ray Kurzweil