Faster than Light, Slower than Heavy

Critical Theory
Flecting and Re-Flecting

Crit Lit

Early to bed,
still earlier to rise,
would surely make
physical laws
meet demise.

Those Emasculating Burgers! That Hideous Drink!

Chivas Regal
Aged 38 Years!
Not Fresh!
Wikipedia

In an item from Memri about three years ago (January 13, 2013, Clip No. 5291 {Transcript}), we learn from Saudi Cleric Ali Al-Malki that the "West Tampers with Burgers, Whiskey to Induce Birth of Girls among Muslims":

Ali al-Malki: Unfortunately we have problems in this country and we call upon Allah and the Saudi political leaders to protect us and to protect our children.

Jeffery Hodges: So far, so reasonable . . . but what's the problem?

al-Malki: Our Milk has been tampered with. Our Juice has been tampered with. Everything imported into this country has been tampered with . . . Even the hamburgers. By Allah, when I was in China, I got a study in English, translated into Arabic. It said that the hamburgers sent to McDonald's, to Harvey's, and so on, contain a substance . . . Look at the level of scheming by the West. By Allah, I read this, and I am willing to attest this on the day I face God. They put into the meat that comes from abroad, a substance that kills the male genes both in men and in women. They kill the male genes in the man or his wife, so that there will be more women than men. They know that men are tantamount to future power, army, and hope among all the leaders in the world. Imagine how they came up with the idea of putting that substance in the meat.

Hodges: Ah, hamburgers . . . I now understand the name given to the character in the Popeye cartoons who so loved to eat hamburgers: "Wimpy."

al-Malki: Unfortunately we take all our dates from Al-Kharj and the north, and all of our grain, corn, and milk, and export them to America . . .

Hodges: Is that so?

al-Malki: . . . whereas they export whiskey to us. By the way some of that whiskey is not even fresh. It's defective. I'm a member (of the staff) at the narcotics hospital so I know. They send us defective alcohol, I'm sad to say."

Hodges: Saudi Arabia imports whiskey? And whiskey that's not even fresh? Like that Chivas Regal above that's at least 38 years old! I just happened to stumble upon this very old Chivas Regal, and damned if it doesn't provide evidence for al-Malki's concern about whiskey that isn't fresh . . .

Conspiracy theories are sometimes right! As this case shows! Mr. al-Malki must therefore be right on all his other points about the dreadful conspiracy that confronts Saudi Arabia.

Cicada: Truth Strange Enough to Inspire Fiction?

Cicada 3301

The Telegraph

In "The internet mystery that has the world baffled" (The Telegraph, November 25, 2013), Chris Bell tells of Cicada, "a mysterious online organisation [that] has been setting the world's finest code-breakers a series of seemingly unsolveable problems" that can nevertheless be solved, using these clues to take elite codebreakers on "a scavenger hunt that has led thousands of competitors across the web, down telephone lines, out to several physical locations around the globe, and into unchartered areas of the 'darknet'. So far, the hunt has required a knowledge of number theory, philosophy and classical music. An interest in both cyberpunk literature and the Victorian occult has also come in handy as has an understanding of Mayan numerology." And everyone is asking, "But to what end?" Here's a possibility:

One long, cautionary diatribe, left anonymously on the website Pastebin, claimed to be from an ex-Cicada member -- a non-English military officer recruited to the organisation "by a superior". Cicada, he said, "was a Left-Hand Path religion disguised as a progressive scientific organisation" -- comprising of "military officers, diplomats, and academics who were dissatisfied with the direction of the world". Their plan, the writer claimed, was to transform humanity into the Nietzschen Übermensch. "This is a dangerous organisation," he concluded, "their ways are nefarious."

Is this true? I don't know, but I tend to be skeptical of conspiracy theories. Anyway, I only learned of Cicada yesterday, when I noticed a blog entry on the mystery posted by my friend Malcolm Pollack. I don't have the brains for codebreaking, but the mystery intrigued me by virtue of its plot potential for a mystery novel, so I left a comment at Malcolm's site:

That story would make a good plot for a high-tech novel in which some elite cyber-intellectuals with apocalyptic beliefs lead cyber-sleuths on a chase that itself activates the ticking of a doomsday clock set to strike midnight when the last clue is solved, but each clue has a double meaning, the more hidden one being a revelation of the plot, though that, too, can be only fully understood at midnight of the doomsday -- unless some clever fellow manages to see where the deeper clues are headed, which comes late in the story because the deeper clues are not initially noticed.

I wish I were clever enough to write a novel like that . . .

President Obama's words in Cairo about 9/11

President Obama in Cairo

(Image from LA Times Blogs)

I haven't been carefully following President Obama's trip to the Middle East, but I am interested in what he said to the Muslim world in the major speech that he presented in Cairo. I've not yet read his words closely, for the end of the semester is upon us here in Korea, and grading starts today, but I did find this interesting passage by skimming the printed text:

I am aware that some question or justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet Al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with. (Available on Johanna Neuman's blog entry at LA Times Blogs)

I'm glad that President Obama emphasized this point because so many conspiracy theories constantly distract people from the fact that Al Qaeda has repeatedly taken credit for the attack. I've had students here in Korea who have asked if they can write their essays defending some conspiratorial point -- such as the rumor that no Jews showed up for work in the World Trade Center on 9/11, that the collapse of the WTC's two towers was due to controlled explosions, or that the US Government, the Mossad, or perhaps the Illuminati planned and carried out the attacks. I discourage students from writing such essays because they'll be defending something about which I am profoundly skeptical, rendering their task of persuasion more difficult than ordinary, and I tell them pointblank that they're likely to receive a poor grade unless they can write a very detailed, in-depth, fact-based persuasive essay that can adequately address questions and competently quell doubts. So far, they've all chosen to write on something else.

I don't expect President Obama's remarks to persuade those who believe in conspiracies other than the single correct conspiracy theory -- namely, that Al Qaeda conspired to carry out the 9/11 attacks -- but he at least addressed the issue directly in a place where false conspiracy theories are widely believed.

Enough on that, for my day must begin.

9/11 was a conspiracy!

7 World Trade Center

(Image from Wikipedia)

A fellow named Richard Brennan posted the following comment to my post about my return to Seoul:

Jeffery, I buzzed through your text about 9-11. I suspect that you didn't know about WTC7. It fell at 5:20pm, on 9-11. No plane hit this building. To look at this go to Google, (WTC7, Larry Silverstein). This might open your eyes to what really happened on 9-11. I stumbled onto your site by accident. I was looking for another person that goes by the name, (Gypsy Scholar) Talk to you later.

I must admit that Richard has made a positive impression upon me by getting my name right. He has spelled it J-e-f-f-e-r-y. Far too many people 'correct' it to J-e-f-f-r-e-y, but the fact that Richard got my name right the first time bespeaks a praiseworthy attention to detail.

I'm not sure, however, as to which 9/11 text Mr. Brennan was referring to. Perhaps he meant my 9/11 talk, "Striving to Understand 9/11: Some Religious Dimensions of the Attack," which I presented on the first anniversary of 9/11 and also published -- and which can be read at my academic website. Or he may have meant some blog entry or other that I've posted over the years.

Anyway, I replied, for I almost always reply:

Richard, your comment belongs on some other blog post than this one. Thanks, anyway, for the advice, but I haven't yet been convinced by any of the various conspiracy theories . . . except for the one about an Al-Qaeda conspiracy, of course. This blog post, however, is not the place to discuss the issue.

In fact, I'm not especially interested in discussing the accusation about controlled demolitions of the various World Trade Center buildings, for I have no expertise in that area and would simply make a fool of myself.

I do wonder, though, how a conspiracy of such magnitude as to involve the US government could be so successfully kept secret when we all know full well just how incompetent the US government is.

Some of the 9/11 conspiracy theorists -- though perhaps not Mr. Brennan -- cite a statement by Larry Silverstein 'admitting' to having demolished WTC 7 through a controlled demolition. You can see Mr. Silverstein on video making this 'admission':

"I remember getting a call from the, uh, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire . . . and I said, you know, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is, is pull it.' Uh . . . and they made that decision to pull, and we watched the building . . . collapse."

Since I can't reasonably imagine Mr. Silverstein openly admitting to having okayed the controlled demolition of WTC 7 even if he were in on a conspiracy, I take him to mean that he was advising the fire department to pull out its firefighters to prevent further loss of life if the building did happen to collapse. That was a smart decision, for WTC 7 did collapse.

I therefore don't see this 'admission' as much evidence for a conspiracy.

I have to admit, however, that I don't reject all conspiracy theories, as I've already noted in my reply to Mr. Brennan. I accept the 'theory' that Al-Qaeda conspired to destroy the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and possibly the White House or Congress . . . but I find the evidence for this particular conspiracy theory to be overwhelming.

I reckon that some folks don't.

Dong-A Ilbo: "America: 2% Jewish, but Manipulated by Jews"

"JEW: 유대인 파워"

("JEW: Jewish Power")

(Image from Dong-A Ilbo)

After church yesterday, my family and I went out to lunch at a local Korean restaurant near Bonghwasan Subway Station, and as we sat down to our table, I happened to glimpse on a neighboring table the flag image that you see above taking up fully one-quarter of page A19 in the International (국제) section of the Dong-A Ilbo (동아일보) for Saturday, December 15, 2007. Concluding that the paper, already a day old, had been left behind by a customer, I took it and brought it home for closer inspection.

I've provided my best translation effort for the Dong-A Ilbo headline in my blog heading above, but someone better in Korean than I will probably need to retranslate it:

"2% 유대인, 미국을 쥐락펴락"

I've asked the Big Hominid, of Hairy Chasms fame, who suggests "2% Jew(ish), Puppeteering America," which he considers a bit awkward, but he adds that the headline alone strikes him as antisemitic. I had considered something like "puppeteering" for "쥐락펴락," but my wife and my daughter both said "manipulating" or "molding." I await a more exact translation.

Much the same goes for the article from which this headline and the unpleasant photo above have been borrowed, i.e., someone more proficient than I will need to take a crack at the whole article.

However, the Korean expression "유대인 파워" superimposed on the flag itself just beneath the equally superimposed majuscule "JEW" is simple to translate. It means "Jewish Power" and apparently implies that Jews are the controlling power in America.

The author of this article, Kong Jong Sik (공종식), who serves as the Dong-A Ilbo's foreign correspondent based in New York might not be the one who chose the headline and the photo, since that's usually an editorial decision, but even if the article itself is merely a report on Jewish influence, the title and photo will nudge the reader toward reading the article as saying that Jews manipulate American policy on Israel.

If the article minus the photos simply notes that Jews have influence greater than would be expected from their tiny percentage of the American population (2% or whatever) because of their remarkably high percentages in various professional fields, then the article might be unobjectionable, but combined with the prominent headline and photo, it seems to go beyond this to suggest manipulation, possibly even control, of America by Jews, and this is where we're led into the realm of conspiracy theory.

Never underestimate the power of visual cues.

But I'll leave the more exact analysis to fellow bloggers here in Korea who have the requisite Korean skills (though experimentalists can copy here and paste here for a rough translation).

I was, however, truly hoping that we'd gotten beyond Lee Won-bok's Far Countries and Close Countries (이원복, 먼나라 이웃나라)...