Temptations of left and right

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Monday April 18, 2005 · 7:52 AM PDT

2005/04/18 · 07:52

I've been watching the latest scandal in the US (Bill Frist going to join Justice Sunday event) and something came to mind.

There was a Romanian monk (N. Steinhardt) who wrote a nice book (Journal of Happiness) - mostly about his religious experience in communist jails. He was Jewish but converted to christianity (orthodox) and was baptized in prison. The guy's writing is amazing and some of the stuff I think is relevant to Kossacks.

He mentions the teachings of another orthodox monk (Parintele Cleopa) about temptations. There are two kinds of temptations, equally damaging:

1. Temptations "of the left" (no relation to the "political" notions of left/right) - which are classical (sexual excesses, greed, etc).
2. Temptations "of the right", which are more spiritual in nature. These are things like self-righteousness, the belief that you hold the absolute truth, the belief that you can judge others are included. These temptations (and the sins associated with giving in to them) are considered just as bad - if not worse - than the "left" temptations.

ctrlro

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Wednesday September 22, 2004 · 5:02 PM PDT

2004/09/22 · 17:02

A few suggestions for Kerry to use:

George Bush forgot about Osama bin Laden. I don't forget, and I don't forgive.

George Bush's world is not our world. He doesn't read newspapers, he doesn't watch TV. He doesn't have his own opinions - because his only view of the world is filtered by surrogates who tell him what he wants to hear. He lives in a bubble, protected by Dick Cheney and Dr. Rice. No wonder he sees freedom on the march where the reality is people dying.

George Bush never confronts reality in the eye. He never confronts the voters - they have to sign a loyalty oath to enter his campaign events. He never answers questions from anyone - he just repeats the same line over and over again. He never confronts journalists - he walks out on them when they start asking real questions. He never confronts his adversaries face to face. What is George Bush afraid of ?

Civil War in Iraq starting ?

ctrlro

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Monday September 20, 2004 · 2:48 AM PDT

2004/09/20 · 02:48

BBC News is just reporting that a senior Sunni cleric was kidnapped and killed in Sadr City (the mainly Shiite area of Baghdad, a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters).

Update [2004-9-20 8:53:37 by ctrlro]: A second cleric was gunned down. BBC story.

RNC talking points hotline?

ctrlro

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Friday August 27, 2004 · 7:07 AM PDT

2004/08/27 · 07:07

A few days ago, Bob Dole confirmed the existence of the RNC talking points hotline on Wolf Blitzer's show.

How about some journalist calling this hotline and posing as a Republican hack just about to get on a show ? I wonder why nobody did it so far. Is there some sort of "authentication" mechanism ?

al-Sadr refusing to talk peace

ctrlro

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Tuesday August 17, 2004 · 1:10 PM PDT

2004/08/17 · 13:10

CNN (Europe) is just announcing that Moqtada al-Sadr has refused to receive the Iraqi delegation who was supposed to negociate peace with him.

I guess Iraq is on the verge of blowing up... it's getting hopeless.

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Temptations of left and right

Kerry soundbites

Civil War in Iraq starting ?

RNC talking points hotline?

al-Sadr refusing to talk peace