max eclipse
Mornin’
On Islam
John Quincy Adams on Islam:
In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, [Mohammed] combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust, by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion.
He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE [capitals in original].
Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. That war is yet flagrant; nor can it cease but by the extinction of that imposture, which has been permitted by Providence to prolong the degeneracy of man. While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men. The hand of Ishmael will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. It is, indeed, amongst the mysterious dealings of God, that this delusion should have been suffered for so many ages, and during so many generations of human kind, to prevail over the doctrines of the meek and peaceful and benevolent Jesus…
The precept of the koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.
John Quincy Adams, “Christianity—Islamism.” “Unsigned essays dealing with the Russo-Turkish War, and on Greece,” originally published in The American Annual Register for 1827–1829 (New York, 1830).
John Wesley on Islam:
Ever since the religion of Islam appeared in the world, the espousers of it … have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations, rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron teeth; that numberless cities are raised from the foundation, and only their name remaining; that many countries, which were once as the garden of God, are now a desolate wilderness; and that so many once numerous and powerful nations are vanished from the earth! Such was, and is at this day, the rage, the fury, the revenge, of these destroyers of human kind.
John Wesley, “The Doctrine of Original Sin, Works” (1841), ix 205
Winston Churchill on Islam:
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammed-anism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill (The River War , first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899)
Sunday morning scenes
Reality is the illusion we agree upon
Pinyon Jays, Northern Flicker, Say’s Phoebe, Rock Wren, Vesper Sparrow, Mountain Bluebird
…Quite the assortment of birds visited this morning, and I think I missed a few species!
Colors
Frontera Grill in Franktown
If you, like us, miss the old Guadalajara dishes and service, Viri and Luis have set up shop in Franktown in the Grill on the Hill space. It was great to find them again!
9/11/15 – changes in light
6:30 P.M.
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7:10 P.M.
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8:10 P.M.
9/11 – a good day to learn about our enemy
Bosch Fawstin begins at 6:15 …
Sep 8th 2015
Sep 7th 2015
It’s a small world after all…..
Kiowa morning
Deer on 118
Limon windmills
Maul cows
Hare and Vesper Sparrow
Full moon – rise and set
colorful end to the day
teleprompters
This is a sound principle but law is the wrong remedy. Candidates could not get away with using teleprompters if the media did not enable the practice by keeping the teleprompter screens off camera.
a solar perspective
Shooting pictures of a fixed object from the surface of a rotating ball.
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/ice-dwarf/SolarSystem_side.en.gif
http://www.spaceacademy.net.au/library/notes/axialorien.htm
Image on the left taken shortly after sunrise 8-22-2015. Image on the right taken shortly before sunset 8-22-2015. The two images were taken approximately 12 hours apart from Kiowa, CO., which is approximately 39.3 degrees North latitude, a month away from the Fall equinox when the Northern and Southern hemispheres will be equidistant from the Sun. Even though equidistant, the tilt of the Earth’s axis of rotation remains 23.5 degrees off plumb with the plane of the Earth’s ecliptic around the Sun.
Note the apparent shift in position and orientation of the sunspots, and consider how the Earth must rotate in the course of a 12 hour period to explain this change in view of these relatively fixed sunspots. The Sun’s own rotation of 25 Earth days at the Sun’s equator, and the Earth’s revolution period of 365 days around the Sun in the same direction of the Sun’s rotation do not explain the apparent clockwise 12 hour rotation of this sunspot group on the Sun. The Earth’s own rotation partially explains it.
http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml
To rule out sunspot movement, the next photo from the following morning shows the orientation of the sunspots back as they were, except for the rightward shift from the solar “day” rotation. So these sunspots are a relatively fixed point to compare against. Next – images at 3 hour intervals.
Turns out I introduced sunspot rotation over the course of the day by my reorientation of the camera to remain perpendicular to the horizon. Had the camera been kept on the same plane – on a constant azimuth – throughout the day, only changing its altitude to track on the Sun, the sunspots would not appear to rotate. In other words, changing the azimuth – or compass heading – of the shots, to compensate for the Earth’s rotation, caused the apparent rotation of the sunspot.
We see different lit phases of the Moon, however its rotation coincides with its orbit of the Earth and it always presents the same face to us – it’s a very apparent marker in the sky that doesn’t tell us anything about ourselves.
The Sun is too intense to observe with the naked eye, so the visual cues that indicate how we turn upside down each day aren’t readily apparent. But the evidence from these solar-filtered photos can change one’s perspective.
