Kings of Jerusalem

 

Baldwin IV the Great King of Jerusalem had a Great Enemy, and Great Friend in Saladin the King of Syria.  It was agreed that Jerusalem would be a place of worship for both Muslim, and Christian during this the last Crusade.  Baldwin had a personal army in the Order of Saint Lazarus, a military order of priest knights that are often confused with Templars.  These holy knights took an oath only to the King of Jerusalem himself.  They were the army of Jerusalem.  

Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi known as Great Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty, was a Kurdish King and the first Sultan of both Egypt and Syria.  During his reign it can be said that he commanded the greatest army in the known world.  

Saladin lived under the impression that he was working through and for the hand of Allah.  He eventually attacked and took Jerusalem back from the Romanized Catholics after the death of Baldwin.  His intent was to cleanse Jerusalem of the evil that had taken hold of the city, not to conquer a city in his name.  But to protect it's people in the name of Allah.  He was upholding Baldwin of Jerusalem's wishes.  

Like Baldwin, Saladin had enemies within his own camp, he was quicker to respond and quelch any rebellion that would rise against him before it was started.  It can also be stated that he had a larger force of followers.  It seems Christianity from it's inception always had political difficulties from within it's own state.  A malady that would make holding onto Jerusalem eventually impossible.  

Saladin, and Baldwin were Great friends, Brothers of Spirit, and Great Enemies and at the end of Baldwin the Lepers life, the Great Saladin stepped in to uphold his Brother's final wishes, to protect Jerusalem for the people.  

Peace and Balance,

John 

Tryptophan Hangover

 As a rule, I don't drink.  Not that I'm not against having a frothy adult beverage socially, however through the wisdom that comes with age and some past experiences where universal forces have taken over and spun me in directions that aren't altogether happy, I am what we can classically coin as a Coffee Totaler.  

That being said, there is a ramification to the over indulgence in a full course Turkey dinner.  That force started early this morning as I began waking.  It made me reclose my eyes and go back to sleep in hopes I was just having a bad dream.  I woke a little later, it wasn't a dream.  My head was pounding, my eyes were teary, I had that whooshing sound in my ears that made it hard to concentrate, I was in the throws of a full blown Turkey Hang Over.  

I saw in the morning ABC news that claims it isn't the Tryptophan in the Dead Bird that gives us the sleepies, and or other symptoms of self indulgence, it's the eating to much thing that creates the agony, the pain.  I disagree.

The pain in my brain feels very much like a chemical implosion.   It sits with the memory of past badness's I've experienced in the past due to other types of to much.  But no, it is the Food.  So I looked it up and I found out that Tryptophan is used to calm the aggressive behavior of quarrelsome individuals.  It is used in conjunction with certain antipsychotics to calm the behavior of rowdy psych patience.  It makes the individual sleepy and less aggressive.  hmmm. 

Ok, the ABC news people are smart, they research, they understand things, but why and how did they pass this one up.  It didn't take me more that one search to find the information.  Is there a Thanksgiving conspiracy in the works?  Are the majority using this kind of meal as a way to manipulate the masses?  No, it couldn't be.  

Although I really don't believe that, my brain hurts.  So, I've taken an Excedrin Migraine pill and turned the lights down low.  Maybe the meal will pass.  

Peace and Balance,

John  

Books, the Portals to Infinity.

 Most High School Text books published in this country are written way above the reading levels of the standard High School student.  Academically the text book is written at a level that presumably the student is at during the presenting of the material in the book.  However, most High School students in this country read at about a 5 to 6th grade level upon graduation, and that level is declining.  

The average adult in the United States reads, if they are readers, at about the 9th grade level, but that to is declining as our students join the massive working class machine.  It seems that as people mature into adult hood so their reading levels improve, possibly due to this maturation if nothing else.  

School libraries have been whittled down to the main hub of technology driven devices like the Chrome Book, and other Lap Top computers as well as the repair and maintenance of these devises.  The School libraries are slowly down stocking their inventory of paper reading materials, books, papers, and periodicals, for the replacement reading opportunities that the World Wide Web offers from one of these electronic items.  

I am a lover of the old fashioned book.  I like the tactile experience.  I like the smell of a new book.  I like the feel of a new book.  I particularly like finding real old books that society may have forgotten about stashed in the back of a library in a hidden corner on a never dusted shelf.  This experience wakens the old Wizard in me and learning of historical documents begins.  Books are the stuff of magic, the stuff of legend, the stuff of the future, past, present, and what may or may not be.  Books are our conduits to places we would otherwise never walk unless we had the book to tickle our imaginations.  

It is a sad day when a school librarian looks you in the eye and tells you that the books are all being replaced by technology.  This has happened, and I quake in fear at the prospect of a society of people who have forgotten what a Book is.  

If you have a library of your own, as I do, protect it, read it, get to know it, and enjoy it.  When the Moral Majority appears at your door with torch and a can of fuel in hand fight them off with the biggest baddest book you can find and don't let them in.  For right around the corner lurks our Doom.

Peace and Balance,

John