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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Avocado... from the Aztec "ahuacatl" meaning "testicle": What we say a thing is, it isn't.

Dear Fred,

Strict adherence to "Original Intent" is as absurd as strict adherence to "biblical literalism." 

Any translation, starting with "the translation" of Reality into Words, is significantly different --- sometimes categorically different --- from "the original version."

An "avocado" is not the word "avocado" (from the Aztec/Nahua, "ahuacatl" meaning "testicle"). 

Nor does literal interpretation of the word, avocado, forfend bizillion different interpretations of what "avocado" means across the spectrum of humankind's collective sensorium.

Some people love avocados. 

Some people hate them.

Furthermore, no one's "view" of "avocado" is right or wrong.

Human "views" are existential realities and are, necessarily, as diverse as human viewpoint.

This is not to deny the reality - nor the importance - of semantic approximation. 

Concerning semantic approximation, I encourage you to review the following translation of The New Testament. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_(Bible) 

 Excerpt: 
“While I was teaching a class on Galatians, I began to realize that the adults in my class weren't feeling the vitality and directness that I sensed as I read and studied the New Testament in its original Greek. Writing straight from the original text, I began to attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language. I knew that the early readers of the New Testament were captured and engaged by these writings and I wanted my congregation to be impacted in the same way. I hoped to bring the New Testament to life for two different types of people: those who hadn't read the Bible because it seemed too distant and irrelevant and those who had read the Bible so much that it had become 'old hat.'"

Here is the translation of The Gospel of Mark as rendered in The Message:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1&version=MSG

Pax on both houses,

Alan

PS The 20th century philosopher-semanticist, Ludwig Wittgenstein (a cradle Catholic), said: "That which we say a thing is, it isn't." (Which, on one level, is to say that the word "avocado" is not, in any way, the experienced essence of "avocado.")


On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 11:24 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
We should have Original Intent Day. Like you would imagine the first day you took this job and re-visit your Original Intent. Also the day of your marriage, the birth of your child, and so on -- what was your Original Intent?  Has it changed? Should it change?
Interesting thought


On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 8:19 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear C,

Thanks for your commentary.

Every now and again, an authentic monster occupies a position of crucial geo-political importance.

But most often, the self-aggrandizing "nature of institutions" is responsible for creating more problems than it solves (or prevents).

Consider...

The Founding Fathers were strongly opposed to "standing armies" - an ideological position probably made obsolete by the development of realpolitik.

Still, it would be tremendously helpful if "strict constitutionalists" like Scalia voiced The Founders' "original intent" as it related to their disdain for standing armies.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_intent

If Scalia and his confreres brought this fundamental fact to light, the precarious "balance" of "original intent" would collapse faster than The Twin Towers.

Pax on both houses,

Alan

PS Ready for lunch?


On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 8:43 AM, CC wrote:

How many in the world have grasped that the US
is telling its citizens and the world that everyone's
security depends on the transparency of
all to an opaque American government?

Interesting that the "secrets" leaked are
pretty common knowledge.

One assumes there are secrets at different levels,
with different opacity.

What lies beneath the surface?

Does breaching the veneer risk exposure?

Does the Israeli government have access
to all data acquired by US intelligence?
Remember when we learned that they could
order imaging from the KH-11 spy satellite?
What American ops can Israel order now?
When an order to NSA arrives from
Mossad, do the AMericans ask:
"Would you like fries with that order?"

I'm just sayin' - Claiborne Clark


On Jul 2, 2013, at 8:18 AM, TC wrote:

What are the odds that Putin - a former KBG officer - made the 'not harm American allies' (which no one is commenting on, is not actually the USA itself) a public statement to throw everyone searching off the trail?



I wouldn't be surprised if Snowden was already on Russian soil in a comfortable hotel/apartment as his new undercover life were being worked out. Or, already overseas elsewhere, and it's all a ruse.

Since when were intelligence agencies around the world suddenly not up for hurting the US, given they're all so furious about what the US has been doing?

Surely the world isn't that gullible.

Tanya

2 July 2013 Last updated at 12:13

    Edward Snowden's asylum options narrow

    Edward Snowden. File photo

    Edward Snowden is wanted in the US on charges of leaking secrets
    Fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has suffered a setback in his attempts to avoid extradition to the US, as a number of countries have rejected his requests for asylum.
    Eight European states including Spain and Germany said asylum applicants had to be on their soil.
    India has also said no.
    Mr Snowden, who is at Moscow airport, sent requests to 21 countries in total, Wikileaks said, but he later withdrew a request to Russia.
    A Kremlin spokesman said his decision came after Russian President Vladimir Putin set conditions for him staying.
    The former intelligence systems analyst is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets.
    He accuses US President Barack Obama of putting pressure on the countries to which he has applied for asylum.
    Meanwhile French President Francois Hollande called for the European Union to take a common stand over allegations by Mr Snowden that Washington is spying on its European allies.

    Jonathan MarcusBBC diplomatic correspondent 

    Vladimir Putin's warning to Mr Snowden that he should stop "harming our American partners" is indicative of a significant shifting of gear. Russia now has ownership of the Snowden affair. What happens to Mr Snowden will depend upon Russia's calculations and what serves Russia's interests.
    The authorities in Moscow could have moved Mr Snowden on quickly, joining the diplomatic game of pass-the-parcel that began in Hong Kong. But the longer the errant US intelligence analyst stays in limbo at the Moscow airport, so the more Russia has become a central actor in this drama.
    Russia must balance a range of factors in seeking to determine Mr Snowden's fate - the risk of a serious rift with Washington and Russia's own standing as an international actor that upholds the legal order must be set against the strong vein of sympathy for Mr Snowden amongst Russian public opinion.
    'Not allowed'
    The Wikileaks press release said that most of the asylum requests - including to Russia itself - were handed to the Russian consulate at Sheremetyevo airport late on Sunday for delivery to the relevant embassies in Moscow.
    But responses came in on Monday morning.
    "Following careful examination we have concluded that we see no reason to accede to the Snowden request," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said on Twitter.
    Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland said his request was invalid because it was not made from their own territory.
    "Delivering an application for asylum from abroad is in principle not allowed," Norwegian deputy justice secretary Paal Loenseth told the country's state TV.
    Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski said it would have been rejected even if it was valid.
    "We received a document that does not meet the requirements for a formal application for asylum," he wrote on his Twitter account.
    "Even if it did, I would not give a positive recommendation."
    Meanwhile Mr Hollande denied that France had received a specific asylum request from Mr Snowden.
    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is on a visit to Moscow, said the same, but added that Mr Snowden had "done something very important for humanity" and "deserved the world's protection".
    "The world's conscience should react, the world youth should react, the decent people who want a peaceful world should react, everyone should react and find solidarity with this young man who has denounced and altered the world that they [the US] pretend to control," he told the BBC.
    Continue reading the main story

    Asylum requests

    • Rejected: Austria, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland
    • Withdrawn: Russia
    • Pending: Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Nicaragua
    • Unconfirmed: France, Venezuela
    Transit limbo
    Meanwhile Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Snowden had withdrawn the application to Russia because Moscow had said he should give up "anti-American activity".
    "After learning of Russia's position yesterday, voiced by President Putin ... he abandoned his intention [of staying] and his request to be able to stay in Russia," he said.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that while Moscow "never hands over anybody anywhere", Mr Snowden could only stay on condition that he stopped damaging Russia's "American partners" with his leaks.
    Mr Snowden has reportedly been in the transit area of Sheremetyevo since arriving there from Hong Kong on 23 June.
    Mr Peskov confirmed he was still there and had not crossed into Russian territory, adding that the former analyst had never been a Russian agent and had never worked with its intelligence services.
    European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso: Allegations are "very disturbing and raise important concerns"
    Mr Snowden had previously submitted an application to Ecuador, whose embassy in London is sheltering Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and to Iceland.
    Ecuador's President Rafael Correa told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Monday that his country would process Mr Snowden's asylum request if he managed to enter an Ecuadorean embassy.
    However, if he can complete his asylum request on Russian territory , then "the situation can be processed and resolved there," President Correa added.
    Details have also emerged of a letter from Mr Snowden to President Correa, thanking Ecuador for guaranteeing "my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong - I could never have risked travel without that".
    Mr Snowden describes himself as "a stateless person", accusing the US government of stopping him from exercising the "basic right...to seek asylum".
    The leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents has led to revelations that the US is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.
    --
    Fred Owens
    cell: 360-739-0214

    My blog is Fred Owens

    send mail to:

    Fred Owens
    35 West Main St Suite B #391
    Ventura CA 93001

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