Member: EncompassedRunner

Hey there! I haven't heard from you in a long time and just wanted to stop by and say hi. I love the music you chose for your player. I thought I was the only person who had heard of Ginny Owens. Hoping all is well. :)

posted by lefty33 at 2:07 am (EST) on Apr 12, 2009

Interesting comment. Why didn't you post in on the thread?

posted by rrp at 7:20 pm (EST) on Mar 1, 2009

Hi EncompassedRunner,

Because of my holidays a late reaction, we are just back from Crete.
The book you ask my thoughts about, “The Conquest of Crete by the Arabs (ca. 824), a Turning Point in the Struggle between Byzantium and the West” by Vassilios Christides, is a book I borrowed from the library (and as such tagged kb-dob) just before we went there, to read afterwards.
It is about a rather unknown period in the history of Crete, when the island was in the possession of Arabs from Spain … but so recently as last week we drove through the agricultural village of Armeni, which has its name from this period: Armenian soldiers from Nicephoras Phocas’ reconquest army settled here, after 960.

As I haven’t read the book yet, I haven’t so many thoughts about it.
But I can give you the things from its preface that made me borrow it.

First, the thing about his “position” by the author:
“It should be mentioned here that Moslem Crete (840-960) has usually been considered as one of the meanest Moslem states. This view is not based on the actual situation in Crete, but is rooted upon the exaggerations of Byzantine authors. I can not recall a more striking example of irreconcilable differences between the Arabic and the Greek sources.
For the Byzantines, as well as for a number of modern Byzantine historians, Moslem Crete was the meanest Moslem state, a nest of bloodthirsty pirates; for the Arab authors it was a land of illustrious men.
… my endeavour throughout will be to place this critical theatre of the ongoing Byzantine-Islamic struggle in a broader, more sympathetic perspective, resisting scholarly and ethnocentric preconceptions while bringing into play a more extensive range of sources, i.e., Greek, Arabic and monumental.”

Then some other things from the preface:
• “Prior to the present study, no book has treated the subject of the Emirate of Crete as a whole …
• After a cursory examination of the relevant sources, this study will discuss the naval strength of the Byzantines and their Moslem adversaries. In turn Moslem Crete will be examined as a civilised Moslem state, not as a corsair’s nest as it is so often, unjustly considered.
• The ethnic and religious changes brought about by the Andalusian Moslem’s presence … will be studied …
• …little has remained of the flourishing Moslem civilization of Crete, … what little we know about it mainly derives from Arabic sources.
• … the few monuments that betray traces of the possible impact of Moslem Cretan civilization will be examined…. Brief references will be made to some other Byzantine monuments seemingly influenced by the art of Moslem Crete.
• Finally the emergence of Moslem Crete and its fall will be discussed in its broader international context.”

Used sources are:
Greek:
Byzantine historians and chronographers; naval manuals, meteorological treatises and manuals of general warfare; hagiographical and ecclesiastical works; iconography.
Arab:
Arab historians and geograpers; manuals of naval warfare; hagiographical works; poetry; coins.
In other languages:
Michael the Syrian’s Chronicon (12th cent., Syriac); Johannis’ Chron. Venetum (end of the 10th cent. , Latin); the travel narration of the Persian author Nasir-I Khusraw (ca. 1050).

This study, which was published by the ΑΚΑΔΗΜΙΑ ΑΘΗΝΩΝ in 1984, includes lots of figures, maps, a Greek summary, four appendices and a bibliography. It has 265 pages but no ISBN.

I hope these little pieces from the preface are of some use to you.

posted by marieke54 at 4:19 am (EST) on Sep 28, 2008

Thanks for the link for "song of solomon." and i'm glad you liked the review! :)

I like your library collection!

posted by enoch_elijah at 5:16 pm (EST) on Jul 30, 2008

That's funny that I saw your Listmania list and it flitted away before I could see it. Now I don't know how to get it back. That's not funny, but your adding my library through LibraryThing at just about the same time your list popped up on Amazon is funny.

Carter's stuff is, well, not very knowledgeable about the Bible. He's one of those people who insist that Abraham's seed includes Ishmael and his descendants, when the Bible is clear, after Abraham asks that Ishmael might live before YHWH, that "NO, but through Isaac your seed shall be named."

Don't get me started! ;-)

Doc

posted by doc411 at 11:18 pm (EST) on Jul 16, 2008

Did I see one of your Listmania lists at Amazon.com called "Deprogramming Jimmy Carter"?

posted by doc411 at 10:33 pm (EST) on Jul 16, 2008

(lol Its Ok) Yes They can become human if a preist either does that which takes FOREVER! Or they try to pray and be more religious so their "sins" will go away But The thing about Vampires they dont really turn to bats - - But they do fly another thing is There as people called The Vampanese who kill when they drink Sawyer Is a Vampanese but u will learn that in the new chapters she will be working on soon OH! also if u wanna talk to the author you can talk to my friend darkcruxisangel28 ^ ^

posted by sadxboyx28 at 12:43 pm (EST) on Jul 16, 2008

Lol Vampires?..Uhm Well My Friend Morgan is writing a story about Vampires and she is pretty good with writing so she sorta got me into them now I know like EVERYTHING about them and werewolves! ^ ^

posted by sadxboyx28 at 8:33 pm (EST) on Jul 12, 2008

You can check out the analytical-literal Translation at Gary F. Zeolla's website; www.dtl.org
I do enjoy this for comparison. He has another great book on Bible versions; "Differences Between Bible Versions"

posted by donnamack at 4:44 pm (EST) on Jun 25, 2008

Dear encompassed runner,
I do not know where to start really, since I'm deeply enmeshed in Zimbabwe's politics. I guess if you go for the kind of 'one man representing evil' type of approach you could read one of the many biographies on Mugabe. Of these I tend to like the one by David Blair at the expense of the others, including the Dinner with Mugabe book which is really a piece of self-centred work by its white female author. If you go for a slightly deeper understanding, looking beyond Mugabe as a person, I guess the book by Jocelyn Alexander provides you with a scholarly, empirically strong view on the 'land question'. Terrance Ranger's book on peasant consciousness is also a well informed read on the independence war, which created the discourses Mugabe is still tapping from in his quest to hold on to power. As a counter to Ranger's book, you could read Kriger's fascinating alternative view on the Guerrilla war and the violence used by the guerrillas (something the ZANU thugs never quite seem to get enough of). A well informed and insightful novel or rather series of novels on events from a white settler perspective is provided by Peter Godwin's books (Mukiwa and When a Crocodile eats the sun, especially the latter is a master piece). Anyway, thanks for your concern, and good luck in reading endeavours.

posted by alexbolding at 9:17 am (EST) on Jun 18, 2008

Hablas espanol?
I'm looking for the book " From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya" but in Spanish. I was looking for trouhg Internet but I didn' t find. Can you tell me where to find out? I'm cuban and I live in Cuba. Please contac me. My e-mail adress is n_luis59@yahoo.com
Send me an e-mail

posted by esousia at 6:29 pm (EST) on Jun 17, 2008

Rossetti's Obsession is about a writer (Juan Martin) who is obsessed with his work. And this obsession interferes with his relationships with two women. It makes some references to Basque nationalism. It's told in the first person; so far, it's more of a "character" story than a "plot-driven" story, if you know what I mean. I'm about 40 pages into it.

You probably know this, but I had to look up Rossetti on the Internet because I didn't know who he was. He was a painter and poet, and it seems like Juan Martin may be modelled on him, or inspired by him. One of the women involved with Juan hates Rossetti, but there have been no other references to him so far.

posted by LynnB at 7:00 am (EST) on Apr 14, 2008

Hehe, yes, I have a weird taste for books. Too bad I have almost none of my library cataloged. The books I have cataloged here are only the 20 or so that, at the time I registered in this site, were in the front row of my shelf, as I was only testing the system. I still don't know whether I'm going to use this site more often or not, but if I do, and I have both the time and the energy to start cataloging my disorganized library (for the 1st time ever), I can say you'll find even more "interesting" (so to speak) things in it. :)

As for TPD, if you haven't read NLfO yet, I suggest you do so. Reading TPD first wouldn't be a good idea, as the meat of Golitsyn's theory is in NLfO. TPD is really just a companion book, and that's why I myself haven't been interested in reading it. Roughly speaking, it would be like jumping directly into "Brave New World Revisited" without first reading "Brave New World". Not a good experience.

posted by alexgieg at 4:20 pm (EST) on Mar 30, 2008

Thanks for the positive feedback on my review of The Life of Muhammed. I found the book interesting, but fustrating at times due to the seemingly obvious personal, economic, and political spin The Prophet placed into many of his Suras. But then I began to think about the nature of ALL religion, its machinations and bureacracy. My musings kept me from being judgemental, and caused me to actually become appreciative of the work...once I remembered that all "religion" becomes perverted in some way over time. This book just happens to "show" the steps to things that many other religions do a better job at hiding from the masses.

posted by Tahlil77 at 4:22 pm (EST) on Aug 27, 2007

I thank you for the input on Africa Will Always Break Your Heart. Coming from a religious person as yourself it is greatly appreciated.
After everything that has been said and done I am still a believer in a greater entity and seeing that my roots were of a Calvinistic nature it will always centre around Christianity. That is the God I turn to when wanting to give thanks and in time of need.
I know of no other way to tell my story. Brutal honesty was the only way forward. I did not want to give my enemies anything to attack me with and hence the crudeness in addressing all of my faults, crimes and shortcomings.
Thank you for being able to see through all of that and to comment objectively. I know the subject matter can and will offend.
Gerrie Hugo

posted by gerrie at 3:15 am (EST) on May 25, 2007

re: thoughts on Anatoliy Golitsyn

Hi EncompassedRunner, thanks for the comment. Obviously I can't talk about the perestroika deception because I don't own that book. However, on I'll gloss over a few points about News Lies for Old and the author.

I think there are pros and cons to Golistyn. On the whole I don't think Golistyn is too "way out there".

The pros...

New Lies for Old was very well written and follows the form of a cold, factually hard intelligence analysis. There is little emotion, it is pure descriptive information followed by a forecast. It contained the structural elements of Russian deception and disinformation and layed out the history of these operations. The strength of the book was "seeing" from the perspective of Soviets, especially the west's misunderstanding of Marxist dialectics in international relations (also sometimes known as the acroynym diamat for dialectical materialism). Simply put the diamat posed that contradictions, especially quantitative and qualitative shifts, drived development. Marxist dialectic thought seemed to have shaped the Soviets international policy according to Goliytsyn particularly when applied to strategic deception. Examples of these shifts being the shift from strong to weak. The shift from war to peace etc.

Now, I'm not that well read in Marxist or Hegelian philosophy (or international relations for that matter) to know whether or not this is true, or whether the theory is sound. However, I do know that several other philosophers/historians of warfare have come to similar conclusions that warfare and intelligence gathering is based on these dialectic shifts. The great American strategist John Boyd for instance had his creation/destruction thinking at the heart of his talks on OODA loops and patterns of conflict. The historian Edward Luttwak also came to the conclusion that all warfare is based on paradox e.g. to ensure peace we must prepare for war, sometimes the easiest way to engage the enemy is the wrong way as it may be a trap, so the long hard way, guerrilla warfare, oftens surprises the enemy. William Lind is also the same in his theory of fourth generation warfare (which he called a dialectically quantitative shift).

Another interesting point in the book was the influence of Sun Tzu on Russian strategic thinking, something I'll return to in a bit.

The book is also thoroughly sourced. It also ends with his thoughts on the final phase of this strategic deception and predictions extrapolating from the historical forces.

Now onto the cons...

On his writing I can find nothing wrong with it. However, when discussing Golitsyn I don't think I can escape the context of his environment. He emerged from an intelligence system, a system of secrecy and deception. Some American scholars think of intelligence as a form of secret warfare, and I agree, and much like all warfare, in the words of Sun Tzu, it is based on deception. To that end Golitsyn could have been not all that he seemed. Golitsyn was the man who pushed the CIA's counterintelligence chief, James Jesus Angleton into paranoid la-la land. Amyplifying paranoia and mistrust in your own side is a highly effective method of warfare. It forces internal conflict and unglueing of your own sides "tao" and trust, something Sun Tzu advocates appreciate.

So Golitsyn, IMO, was probably right in his views, however, the extent of Russian disinformation campaign may have not have been as superhuman as he layed it out. There is also the slight possibility that Golitsyn was an agent provocateur. The mere act of him defecting is a dialectic shift i.e he went from a secretive system to complete openness with his former enemy. By giving them the truth of Russias secrets (large scale disinformation and deception campaigns run by a failing nation-state), he amplified paranoia within the U.S. intelligence system (on another note, using truth in propaganda was a notable element of communist propangada, see the history on propagandists like Willi Münzenberg).

That may sound like an ad hominem against Golitsyn, but we aren't talking about scholarly debate here. The book GOlitsyn wrote is doused in politics and the world of deception. So there is a going to be a bit of skepticism on my behalf cause we'll never know the whole story. Good book though.

That's an interesting blog you mentioned as well.

posted by duvee at 2:32 am (EST) on May 12, 2007

Thx for the note about the FOI book. I'll have to keep an eye on whether anyone's able to get it for Prophecy Conference (Bible prophecy, not wacky "prophecy").

Are you familiar with the following: http://reborn-by-design.com/if-project.h... They have graphics for adding to one's website/blog.

Enjoyed reading thru the Creation conversation with lefty33 and others. Nice going, guys.

posted by ZooCat at 11:03 am (EST) on May 11, 2007

Good deal. We'll have a new ep up in just a couple of days.
We've been dealing with some production problems.
Glad to see you in the 6 day crowd.

posted by pastakeith at 4:55 pm (EST) on Apr 11, 2007

Thanks! I've only recently began to think with a more eternal mindset. There is a Christian singer, Andrew Peterson, who has a CD called The Far Country. It really got me thinking about it.

Also wanted to tell you, I'm glad I'm not alone on the young earth, 6-day creation. Thanks for speaking up. :)

posted by lefty33 at 3:05 pm (EST) on Apr 11, 2007