I'm up here @ 11:21 PM, Mountain Time, having watched nearly ALL of the film "The Stoning of Soraya M."
I feel disgusted, furious, and contemptuous of fundamentalist Islam.
Some time back, but recently, I was part of a lively discussion on the book, "INFIDEL" which is written by the Somali woman genius, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Suffice it to say that after reading that book, and discussing it with friends, as well as my wife, I concluded @ a roughly 95% certainty, Islam is NOT a religion, if a definition of religions entails legitimately seeking a path to peace, love, and compassion.
I've had growing concerns within, about whether Mormonism, too, is a religion.
I've concluded that Mormonism's a cult for otherwise decent people.
Islam as religion, is a sham, a despicable front for ugly, hateful, oppressive men, who want to dominate women at all costs, when taken in context with a Sharia driven state.
***I want to make that distinction. The film, "The Stoning of Soraya M." is about revolutionary Iran, when the Ayatollah Khomeni took charge, and fundamentalist Shi'a had center stage. I do not believe that more moderate Arab or Muslim states that do not live by the Sharia, should be dismissed outright.
Sharia driven states, however, produce what happened (in true life), to this woman.***
I have tried to be an objective voice for the rights of Palestinians and others to live in Peace in Gaza and the West Bank of Israel/Palestine.
I still stand for those principles, and what I saw this evening, in this film, also harkens me back to the male, Orthodox dominated religious state that Israel has become. The Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews of Israel are the same as the Muslim men in this film of "Sharia LAW" as practiced in Revolutionary Iran, shortly after the Ayatollah came to power in the 1970s. Given a chance, they'd more than likely resort to stoning their unfaithful women to death, too. I truly think this would be possible. The Ultra Orthodox choke hold on Israel has turned Israel's political system into something very dark..
I have nothing but contempt for any ascendancy of religion over state in the United States, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and any other Islamic nation or nation of rigid, hateful, despicable men who wish to dominate women and culture calling down God's name as their imprimatur for approval and actions.

This film, in a nutshell, is about a very, very evil man who is tired of his wife, and realizes as a jailer, that he has new power & sway in the Revolutionary Iran of the Ayatollah. He is involved in a relationship with a 14-year old girl, the daughter of a doctor whom he has imprisoned, awaiting execution, for cooperation with dangerous enemies of the "regime." He is, at his heart, a dark, dark soul, inhabiting every ring of hell that exists, in that he is more than willing to lie, and force or coerce others into lying about his wife, whom he has treated with utter disrespect, violence, contempt, so that he can be "free of her," and be free to have the young 14-year old honey for his own. It's doubtful, in my mind, whether that doctor would somehow see his freedom if this guy has anything to say about it. Once he has the 14-year old daughter, the doctor's history for Ali.

Wife out of the way ... father, doctor, out of the way ... green like to a pedophile's dream relationship.

There are many beautiful parts to this film, but I'll cut straight to the chase.
RUN, don't walk, to your computer, and order a copy of "The Stoning of Soraya M.," but be forewarned: to witness stoning, as ISLAM (my tongue spits out that word right now) requires, means digging a hole about four feet deep. The woman who is about to be stoned is then placed in the hole, her arms tied behind her back, so that she cannot do ANYTHING to protect her face or body from the stones that are about to strike her. As if that isn't enough, the hole is then filled, so that she stands encased in dirt, from the waist down, arms tied behind her, facing the crowd, all of whom has stones.

Ali, the despicable husband, throws two or three stones. He then offers his own MALE children, a stone, a stone so that they may also stone their adulterous, shameful, horrible (innocent) mother. The phony Imam gets his shot (he gets a nice trim to his sorry ass beard, and puts on sunglasses, as some kind of special accoutrements) for the stoning; and the mayor, both of whom are complicitous, for totally self-serving reasons, in this horrible travesty of justice, participate as cowards. Then, the coerced decent man who is supposed to have had shameful dealings with Soraya, also get's his stone, to cast at her.

This is the fear of going against the grain. This is how totalitarian control systems silence people into allowing some self-centered fear to destroy your principles. The husband, Ali, is truly an evil personality. He works in a jail, and knows full well what the histories of all the principal figures in the village were/are, regarding their pasts. He blackmails them routinely.

Soraya, just to be clear, takes stone after stone in the face or head. Blood gushes. Just as I have asked men and women, who talk solicitously to me about how horrible Vietnam was, and how they would like to watch some of the Vietnam War films, but just can't bear to watch (screw that ... watch the films or shut up) ... everyone who has any lingering doubts about the nature of Islam should stay there, in their seats, and watch the whole bloody mess. This is a horrible, horrible thing to sign up for ... but I truly believe, American women, and women all over the free world, should watch this film to the end.

I thought of how lucky I have been, whether Catholic, or Agnostic, or Quaker, or Quaker-Zen believer as I have been or am ... to know that Jesus Christ challenged JEWS of his time, to cast the first stone in killing an adulterous woman of his time ... if, that is, they were without sin.

Somehow, folks, I doubt Jesus would have gained any traction with most of these Iranian Shi'a Muslims.

If this is Sharia, folks, screw the Sharia. If this is a "peaceful religion," folks, then the hell with that peaceful religion.

I saw, in the phoniness and evil decisions the Imam made (he propositioned Soraya to in essence, to become his singaya (whore), if she would grant Ali a divorce and do things the easy way; and the moves Ali made to satisfy his lustful desires for a young girl. I recalled that recently, the TV series, "South Park," was criticized by American Muslims in Brooklyn, N. Y., for daring to show caricatures of Mohamed. I never saw that particular show, but somewhere in here, I recall some artist in the Netherlands or Sweden, Denmark, somewhere, portrayed Mohamed as a pedophile.

With all the bad press Catholics & Boy Scout leaders, gym teachers, etc., et al, have gotten here in the U.S. over pedophilia encounters with under age boys and girls, I now find it just par for the "equal opportunity mockery course" that we mock Islamic Imams, too.

Why not? Pedophiles, let's face it, reside within every religion, and every institution where men (mostly) have control, influence, and domination of young boys and girls. Why should Islam be any different.
In Zen, we say, after all: If you see the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha.

Thank God that Christianity and Buddhism have managed to pull away from any such barbarous practices as stoning a person for adulterous conduct. I read a book about Islam recently, after reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book, by Karen Armstrong. I saw nothing in it that showed me exactly WHERE the "peace fringe" of Islam resides. The Sufis qualify as the "mystical" wing of Islam, but mystical is NOT, peaceful in it's approach to infidels and those who do not believe as Muslims do. It is up to whatever groups within Islam who say Islam IS a peaceful religion, to NOW stand up and discredit Sharia law if Sharia law, somewhere in it's arcana, justifies stoning a person to death.

I feel so upset, and angry right now, my stomach's trembling. What cowards these men are (I DO realize it's a movie, so just bear with me on that expression). This is based on a true story, and I KNOW for a fact, that somewhere recently, perhaps on Utube, allusions have been made to stonings in Afghanisan. That's what the Taliban stand for, isn't it? Sharia?

I want to make this clear:
I stand for justice for Palestinians.
I stand for a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
I stand for just treatment for Arabs and Muslims AS PEOPLE.
They can forget it, though, if they want to tell me HOW, in ANY PART OF ISLAM, stoning a woman to death, for such contemptuous manipulation of whatever system of religious laws exists ... is justified. While I do not believe a Palestinian State would adopt Sharia as the legitimate form of law within, there's no doubt extremists would begin arguing for that if Statehood were granted.
There IS NO JUSTIFICATION for Sharia if Sharia sanctions this despicable practice.
If a Palestinian State, or Pakistan, or Iraq, or Iran, or Afghanistan reverts to Sharia driven legal domination, then there's no way I could support that, either.

It's time, finally, for us all, to write our own letters. I mean, write letters on the Internet, so that googling them will show up. It's time for Americans to post challenges to Sharia leaning Muslims, worldwide. We are in the 21st Century. Stoning a person to death is an abomination. If you read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book, "INFIDEL," you'll read about female circumcision, and the incredibly stacked deck women must endure in Islamic societies like Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, etc. The WOMAN IS THE ONE, IRREGARDLESS OF WHAT SHE MIGHT HAVE OR MIGHT NOT HAVE DONE, WHEN A MAN BRINGS CHARGES OF ADULTERY. IT IS THE WOMAN WHO IS STONED TO DEATH, NOT AN AMORAL HUSBAND. I HOPE THAT FOLKS UNDERSTAND THE INCREDIBLY DISGUSTING WAYS MANY WOMEN ARE TREATED IN THESE FUNDAMENTALIST ISLAMIC SOCIETIES.

THE CHALLENGE HERE IS, WRITE YOUR OWN LETTER, SO THAT GOOGLING WILL PULL IT UP FOR THOSE ISLAMISTS OUT THERE WHO WANT TO KILL INFIDELS. The truth is: they can't kill all of us. Maybe they will run out of paper, and wind, bringing down fatwa after fatwa on our heads. But this is the 21st Century, and I firmly believe: wherever Muslims and Arabs live, in the Western World, they, not us, must conform to the standards established for the practice of religion in the State.

I saw Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Anderson Cooper, the night the goofy ass Muslim Imam from Brooklyn, N.Y., was interviewed, and asked: did he really sanction violence against the producers and creators of "South Park?" While I can't quote the conversation verbatim, essentially, Anderson Cooper & Ayaan Hirsi Ali agreed that in the United States of America, WE ALL write a letter like this, placing a target on our asses, and see how many of US Islamic religious adherents take out through assassination or poisoning, bombing, terror attacks.

In other words, the way to finally confront this b.s., is to ALL stand up, and make your own statement about
a religion that is so cruel, so ruthless in it's view of women, mothers, daughters, sisters, wives. I think when you SEE those stones hit this poor woman, and knock her back, and see the blood gushing ... you will see what cowards these men are.
Watch this film, therefore, and then write your own letter.
There are many of you who probably despise Islam, and Muslims, and Arabs.
That's not what I'm saying here.
I will from now on remember this film, and my support for any Islamic or Arabic nation where Sharia, in the 21st Century, allows a woman to be stoned to death.
Islam has had and until they find their way to a peaceful expression of Islam, will continue to have, a serious, perhaps even fatal inability to relate to modernity.

I would say the same thing for any religion that allows a segment of their census to justify such horrors. That certainly includes fundamentalist Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, etc.

I do not, really, know how peace will come to Palestine.
On the other hand, I won't support Americans who act like we're joined @ the hip with Israel on foreign policy issues.

Israel has the population of Houston, TX. Think about that! We tie our fate to a nation with no more people than Houston, Texas!! That's insane! I'm sure not going to kiss my rear end goodbye in a nuclear war started over men who stone their women and Israelis who act like bullies and increasingly, become oppressors of Palestinians.

We've paid our dues for ignoring European Jews during the Holocaust. There's no doubt: the Holocaust may not have happened had Americans, and Europeans such as the British, have announced, when they knew it, that the Nazis were killing Jews in masses. I've studied the Holocaust for 45 years, and I know what horrible things the European Jews suffered through. However, that ticket has been punched repeatedly, until there's literally no more room for another punch. We've paid our dues for abandoning European Jews during the Holocaust.

One has to ask: have we stayed as joined @ the hip with the Slavery & Reparations Movement, as we have with "Israel can do no wrong" sentiments. Of course, not.

The Israelis just last week, could have used a variety of non-lethal means, munitions, techniques, to neutralize those boats taking supplies to Gazans. I know that. All you have to do is google "non-lethal crowd control devices," and you'll see plenty of them available. Having been through both TEAR GAS AND VOMIT GAS in Vietnam, I can tell you ... you get a lung full of both, you'll take off that gas mask as you vomit, or your mask will be filled with vomit.
I know that for a fact. I saw it happen.
Spraying sticky, cobweb type foams onto people, already in a hot, humid climate (such as off Gaza), which makes even the smallest move difficult, would also force people to take off their gas masks, making them vulnerable to Tear Gas and Vomit Gas. So, don't tell me Israel had to board those boats.

Islam cannot be a "peaceful religion" if any element of any Islamic national constitution said: "well, the Sharia IS, of course, the way we should or must govern." Sharia allows stoning to death for adultery.
Therefore, I cannot support that. If Muslims & Arabs want to run their country that way, fine.
This then becomes a Human Rights issue. And the Western World has shown it CAN, and DOES, change in response to oppression -- slavery, exterminationist policies against race or ethnic group, modern racism, kow towing to beligerent Muslims who want whatever society they're in to turn itself inside out for their beliefs, rather than existing within the nation's beliefs.

I hope you will watch the film.
Sharia has already happened in Afghanistan.
In Pakistan, which was the first true Islamic nation, it's happening more and more.
Idiots in Brooklyn, N.Y., support some form of Sharia law retribution for anyone who dares mock Mohamed.

In America, we mock all religious leaders and figureheads, equally. That's the American Way. Americans shouldn't allow themselves to be intimidated by threats that they'll get fatwaed to death.

So be it.

At some point, this phenomenon of Islam demanding the entire world bow to their beliefs about their religious principles, OR ELSE, RISK DEATH, must be resisted.

Watching this film will be a teeth clenching experience: but have the guts to watch.

Best to know what Islamists are: cowards.

Be ready to talk with any Muslim, however, anywhere in the world, who says: Yes, Islam should modernize. Islam should repudiate ALL double standard Sharia laws, and find their way into the 21st Century. And, that they must stand up and say, Islam no longer has any credibility as a peaceful religion if ONE stoning still happens!

I wonder if somehow, someone will knock on my door and blow me away, if this somehow gets out.

I don't really care.

Over time, I've stood for some unpopular ideas, and principles. I'm not about to turn into a pansy over this. I've been called, even recently, a "commie," and a "traitor," and a "liar about what I did in the war," and also a "coward," and a "piece of shit" because I wanted to read the names of the dead in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Big deal. As we used to say, in Army hospitals, when we were recovering from our wounds, and some chicken shit
sergeant told us to do some chicken shit thing:

What you gonna do? Send me to VEEE t NAAAM?

Jerry Eagan

Grateful Dead

I was musing over a connection that I've had for over 40 years now: that is, with the Grateful Dead.
My first awareness with the Grateful Dead would have been in the summer of 1967 & 1968, when I was in Army hospitals recovering from gunshot wound (1966); and later, malaria. Going home to Indiana over a # of convalescent leaves put me in touch with several old friends from high school. We all drank hard, and while I don't think I smoked dope, I may have.
Dope was readily available in the Army Hospital I spent most of my time in 1967 ... & certainly in the unit I was assigned to during the remainder of my time in the Army (i.e., latter part of 1967 & 1968 -- until June. when I was discharged. It was definitely the summer of 1968 that I got introduced to daily dope smoking, and dropping hallucinogens.
My friend then, Denny F., was already introduced to "the Dead" as they were known. I listened, and became an ardent, totally committed "Deadhead," from the start. I listened to the first two Dead albums, and practically had worn out
"Anthem Of The Sun," by April, 1969, when I first saw them play live.
Somewhere in the early new century, I think, but perhaps it was in the late 90s, I wrote two reviews of Dead shows that I saw. The reviews appeared in a book that came annually called "D-BASE." Deadbase, was the brain child of some SERIOUS Deadheads who had recorded hundreds of the many shows "the Dead" played. Taping suggestions, and reviews were always a salient part of Dead Base books. My reviews appeared in D-Base X.
Here they are:
04-18-69 Purdue University - Jerry Eagan
"My first Grateful Dead show was one of the most memorable. The four years preceding that show had been intense. I was discharged from the Army in 1968. Prior to that, I'd done a tour in Korea and three months in an Infantry unit in Vietnam, where I'd been wounded. I spent a year in various Army hospitals, began my trip into serious drinking and drugging, spent 1968 watching two of my heroes -- RFK and MLK -- assassinated, not too mention seeing some of my Vietnam friends going off to do riot duty in Baltimore - dropped acid in October, 1968 for the first time, and "turned on (in a much bigger way) to The Grateful Dead (including "Anthem of the Sun.") In the summer of 1968, I joined the ranks of several other "longhairs" working @ the U.S. Post Office in Indianapolis, Indiana, and by April, 1969 -- the month of my 22d birthday -- I was toasted. While my mind didn't articulate it -- I was ready for a shattering event to follow up with where the Acid had left off, and take me into new territory.
"I foubd it that night @ Purdue University. Purdue is not the place you'd expect a paradigm shift to occur. I'd always considered it a "cow college," -- i.e., agriculture and engineering. But the Ballrooom was small with room for maybe 2000 people? Certainly not the massive numbers I'd be part of later, at Dead concerts. We went through the opening act - a guy named George Stavis. Never heard of him since. May have been a couple of songs he layed that energized me @ the moment, but I was psyched for the Dead. I'd already worn out one copy of "Anthem of The Sun" and like the guy in "Jerry McGuire," ('show me the money!'), I wanted the Dead to PLAY ME ALLIGATOR.
"There were screens between the North & South Ballrooms (located in Purdue's Student Union). The Dead were set up in the North Ballroom, let's say, and when Stavis completed his act, the screens were opened and we (who had been forewarned this would happen) rushed into the other room. The lady I was with (named Sheila), and I wound up flush against the stage. They guys who had played Cryptical and New Potato Caboose on vinyl were right up there in front of me, looking down on me, and then they cut loose with a Hard To Handle that rocked me back so hard I thought I was going to explode. They blasted that song out so hard, with so much energy that I felt stunned. Pig Pen was singing with that yoddle of his that cracked me up. I was smiling and dancing and screaming and could feel something sneaking up my spine that was unfamiliar.
"Then Jerry began "Morning Dew." Soft, sweet, with that nasally voice of his that I would come to know with that song that took me into a new and beautiful soft place. There was a space there where Garcia played that song so soulfully that I felt like I was going to cry. I was watching all of those guys do their thing, and was exhilirated that I had made that I had made it to this time and space. And then they cut into a Cryptical>Drums>Other One>Cryptical>Top Of The World>King Bee segue that was the ride into that new place I'd been searching for. I can't say exactly when it happened, but somewhere in that long blast off, someone up in the front row, beside me, got up on stage. It wasn't that big of deal ... just six or seven feet (if that) off the floor. I was being squashed against the stage, so I did the same, heloing Sheila up with me. We squeezed into the bow of the grand piano that Tom Constanten was playing. Cryptical had gone into drums. First time I'd ever seen two drummers trading licks and the sound on stage was deafening. I was screaming ALLIIII GAAAA TOOR! It's always amazed me that I didn't get thrown off the stage by one of the roadies 'cause I was deinitely in an ALLIGATOR frenzy.
"Looking back over the set lists for shows preceding this one, those guys were probably sick to death of playing Alligator, but they somehow put up with my crap and went right on through that incredible fabric of tunes. The Cryptical was clearly one of the most memorable I ever heard. Top of the World and King Bee were full of blinding energy. If I had to describe the music and the delivery the King Bee was oily, sensually oily, like the massage oil you spread all over your lover's back in the dim light of your bedroom.
"'Doin' That Rag' always cracked me up. 'Lovelight' wasn't the finale this night, as it had been in so many later shows. It was a song that pulsed and surged up and down several times, as Pig Pen and Jerry played with it, Pig doing his rap. Jerry, threading through some incredible rifs that were like shimmering needles he was shootinh into the air off his guitar. Bobby joined Pig Pen in the finale of that song and then they went into the one and only 'Cosmic Charlie' I've ever heard live.
"Somehow, that song exploded some of those time release capsules of 'Red, White & Blue Acid' that I' taken earlier in the spring, 'cause everything that been stuck up in my skull came loose. The deep rumbles of the beginning of 'Cosmic Charlie' reverberated in my molars and went all the way down to my heels. I was awed into silence by then.
It was all too much. I felt like I was going to melt. And then they finished us off with 'BIODTL.' I climbed down off the stage after a fine minutes of watching them leave ... looking at the drum sets that were standing there without their masters, and shook my head again and again. They hadn't shown me 'ALLIGATOR' ( I never heard one live), but they'd shown me plenty more. We drove the forty or fifty miles back to Indianapolis early in the morning, charged, psyched, definitely a half dozen people who'd all been taken into a new dimension of reality.
"For me, the music was liberating. I was pointed in a new direction. The pain of the death and destruction I'd seen in Vietnam, the incredible desolation of having my right arm nearly shot off over there, seeing hundreds and hundreds of 18 and 19 year old guys moving around me with arms and legs gone in Army hospitals, the deaths of the last good part of the Kennedy/Civil Rights-Movement-early 60s-heroes-American-cities-burning-down-antiwar protestors-being-tear-gassed -- all of that crap that had left me so full of despair -- was left behind by what these Grateful Dead guys represented. I understood -- without being able to articulate it properly at the time -- that there was a form of freedom here, not just with the music,but with "the movement, the dane, the smiles, the community of people exploding into new lifeforms all around me, that I had fallen in love with. And I have always stayed in live with that experience from that night in April, 1969, to the last concert I attended -- the infamous Deer Creek show in 1995. And for me, 'The Music [has] never stopped.

OVER THE YEARS, BEGINNING IN 1969, UP TO 1982, I ATTENDED A NUMBER OF GRATEFUL DEAD SHOWS.
ONCE I GOT SOBER, IN JUNE, 1982, I TOOK AN EIGHT YEAR BREAK. I WAS DETERMINED TO DO WHATEVER MEASURES I HAD TO USE TO STAY SOBER AND CLEAN. AS OF 24 JUNE, 2010, I HAVE 28 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SOBRIETY. IN 1990, LEARNING OF "WHARF RATS," FROM A COUPLE OF GOOD SOBER & CLEAN DEADHEADS, I BEGAN ATTENDING SHOWS AGAIN. I HAD THIRD ROW, CENTER, PAVILLION, DEER CREEK, FOR THE THREE SHOWS SCHEDULED FOR JULY, 1995, BUT THE RIOT THE NIGHT BEFORE ENDED THAT RUN. I WOULD HAVE SAT RIGHT DOWN IN FRONT OF JERRY, BUT THAT WAS NOT TO BE. I WAS ON THE SOUTH RIM OF THE GRAND CAñON WHEN I LEARNED JERRY HAD DIED.