New Orts #76
June 29 MMXXV
In other words, apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?
— Harold Pinter (1930-2008)
[The name] Baghdad...is made of two words: the Indo-Iranian Bagh and the Persian dad. The first of these meant "god" in the ancient world among Arabs, Persians, Turks and Greeks. The name of the Greek god Bacchus has the same root. The second word means "gave". So "god-given" would be the correct meaning of the word Baghdad.
— Reza Bahareni, president of PEN Canada, in Toronto Star, April 22, 2003
Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.
— Goethe (1749-1832)
...the new American approach to social control is so much more sophisticated and pervasive that it really deserves a new name. It isn't just propaganda any more, it's "prop-agenda". It's not so much the control of what we think, but the control of what we think about. When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it's the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone's talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false "intelligence" and selected "leaks".
― Brian Eno, Lessons in how to lie about Iraq, The Guardian, August 16, 2003
The last quote: This is THE topic these days, Attention. Who/what gets it, manipulates it and feeds on it. Attention is now the most valuable commodity.
Brian Eno's observation is spot on, and was prescient at the time.
Reza Bahareni's observation applies to any and all land occupied by long-time inhabitants: "God gave us this land." Who know that God was a real estate mogul? I guess that explains DarnOld Tramp's elected avocation.