January 22, 2010

LOST SOULS

 

THIS IS AN ALLEGORY FOR THE HUMAN CONDITION.

 

cOFFEE hOUSE 

 Introducing the

 

LOST SOULS COFFEE SHOP

By Jay B Gaskill

(Author of “The Stranded Ones”)

 

“My name doesn’t matter.  Just call me Stranger.  You’ll see why soon enough. 

 

“I want you to imagine ice fog twinkling and dancing around a streetlamp and that you are standing right outside the front door.  You have found an urban legend, a single building right out of the small town 1920’s, parked in the epicenter of Nowhere, North America: The Lost Souls Coffee House.

 

“Some urban legends just don’t exist.  Others simply can’t be found.  But there is a third category.  I should know....”

 

 

There is a place with no address, invisible to all GPS devices, unreachable without an invitation.  This is the Lost Souls Coffee House of urban legend, a place where visitors use sign-in names, where storytellers are welcome but not every story earns a ride home. 

 

One bitter winter night, Stranger is dropped off at an isolated non-address: no cell phones or electronic devices work.  Story-tellers come and go, relating tales about a preternaturally smart animal living in someone’s basement, a young man who dies because he can’t solve a demon-deity’s riddle, a Silicon Valley tycoon who attempts to design an immortality machine, stories about animals that illuminate the human condition and the story of a war that may or may not happen. 

 

Then it is Stranger’s turn.  But he did not come prepared....

 

 

LOST SOULS COFFEE SHOP has just been published an E-book, downloadable to any electronic format (list $4.99), to your reader, laptop, smart-phone or other handheld device, released on January 21, 2010 by the cutting edge Canadian publisher, ireadiwrite. 

 

To locate a seller, Google “Jay B Gaskill/lost souls coffee shop” or go directly to one of the E-Book vendors at the following links and start reading this engrossing and thought provoking little book in seconds:

 

IREADIWRITE

http://www.ireadiwrite.com/Lost-Souls-Coffee-Shop.html

 

AMAZON

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lost+souls+coffee+shop&x=21&y=17

 

BOOKS ON BOARD

http://www.booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewbook&BOOK=597756&v=synopsis

SMASHWORDS

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8913

 

ALL ROMANCE BOOKS

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-lostsoulscoffeeshop-404201-143.html

 

Jay B Gaskill’s THE LOST SOULS COFFEE SHOP, Key Words: Animal stories, fantasy, urban legends, mystery, miracles, artificial intelligence, Deep Thought, humor, spirituality....

 

 GASKILL

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Jay B. Gaskill is a well-known California trial and appellate lawyer who served as a Public Defender until 1999, but left his “life of crime” to devote more time to his writing projects. He loves humor and philosophy equally; science and science fiction interchangeably; Manhattan and the western wilderness irresistibly. His fiction works are peopled with likable heroes and recognizable villains whose struggles are disturbed by dichotomous themes.

 

He has completed two thrillers and is working on a number of other fiction works.

 

For more about Jay, please visit him at: www.jaygaskill.com/Profile.pdf

 

 

 

 

Posted by U2RGood at 08:43 PM |

December 05, 2009

Montana Rabbis, Isaac Asimov and the Future of Earth

Read Jay Gaskill’s new thriller – information links:

http://www.jaygaskill.com/TourTheStrandedOnes.pdf (with pictures)

http://jaygaskill.com/TheNewThrillerByJayGaskill.htm

 

As Published On

The Policy Think Site: www.jaygaskill.com

& THE BRIDGE TO BEING BLOG:  www.jaygaskill.com/blog2

All contents, unless otherwise indicated are

Copyright © 2009 by Jay B. Gaskill, All Rights Reserved....

A time-limited license to publish, distribute or print all or part of this article (except for personal use) is always needed. [A one time license for use in group discussions is almost always routinely given.]

For permissions, comments or submissions, please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail at - law@jaygaskill.com

 

In HTM Format -- http://jaygaskill.com/AsimovNimoyMontanaRabbis.htm

 

Montana Rabbis, Isaac Asimov

& the Earth’s Future

 

Here’s a must read for the day -- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/us/05religion.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

 

A sample:

 

“Miky...was born in an animal shelter in Holland and shipped as a puppy to Israel, where he was trained by the Israeli Defense Forces to sniff out explosives. Then one day, Miky got a plane ticket to America. Rather than spend the standard $20,000 on a bomb dog, the Helena Police Department had shopped around and discovered that it could import a surplus bomb dog from the Israeli forces for the price of the flight. So Miky came to his new home in Helena, to join the police force.

“The problem, the officer explained, was that Miky had been trained entirely in Hebrew.

“When Officer Fosket got Miky, he was handed a list of a dozen Hebrew commands ... He made flashcards and tried practicing with Miky. But poor Miky didn’t respond.

“Officer Fosket...tried a Hebrew instructional audio-book from the local library, but no luck. The dog didn’t always understand what he was being ordered to do. Or maybe Miky was just using his owner’s bad pronunciation as an excuse to ignore him. Either way, the policeman needed a rabbi.

“And now he had found one. They worked through a few pronunciations, and the rabbi, Chaim Bruk, is now on call to work with Miky and his owner as needed. Officer Fosket has since learned to pronounce the tricky Israeli “ch” sound, and Miky has become a new star on the police force.”

Copyright 2009 New York Times 

OUR FUTURE IS UP TO US

& THAT’S NOT A BAD THING

 

I think we all need a rabbi, even – or especially - those of us who were raised in that Jewish variant, Christianity that was started in the life a devout First Century Jewish male (rev. Rabbi Jesus, by Bruce Chilton -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Chilton ).

 

Why? You ask.  Because the core message of Judaism is profoundly human-centered. As many of us despair about the condition of the planet, of Western civilization and of the USA, I am reminded of Isaac Asimov’s perspective.  My Sci-fi nourished mind was raised in Isaac Asimov’s vision --We humans will populate the entire universe.  In his novels - all self consistent - our species did that so well that we lost track of our planet of origin.  

 

Asimov was a secular Jew, a deep thinker, a polymath (he taught biochemistry in Boston before he moved back to his native New York).  There were no aliens in his fiction, just us.  This view is, at core, a biblical one, if you think about it.  And it is my core view of humanity as well. 

 

This is why my litmus test for realistic, morally centered liberals and intelligent, future-aimed conservatives, is the same life affirming, humanity affirming, forward-aimed affirmation, captured in the popular culture as:  (a) "Space, the final frontier" and (b) "Live long and prosper".  As a rabbi from Hungary told me, that Spock salutation from Star Trek by Leonard Nimoy and the Vulcan hand-salute is quintessentially Jewish (based on the priestly blessing – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_salute).

 

Today, I celebrate our humanity and the joy of a Hebrew-trained police dog in Montana.

 

JBG

 

READ JAY GASKILL’S NOVEL launched as an E Book by the Canadian publisher, ireadiwrite. 

 

The Stranded Ones is the Sci-Fi novel for the non-Sci-Fi reader, an engaging travel companion with loveable and disgusting aliens, a touch of romance, a hint of whimsy and a full load of danger.  Download The Stranded Ones to your Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble nook, your laptop, notebook, and net-book, Blackberry, smart-phone...

 

Purchase links:

 

Go to ireadiwrite --

http://www.ireadiwrite.com/home.php 

 

Also --

Books On Board at

http://www.booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewbook&BOOK=548140 

 

Or --

KINDLE (by AMAZON) at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=node%3D154606011&field-keywords=%22the+stranded+ones%22&x=15&y=12 .

 

Or --

All Romance books at

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thestrandedones-386711-143.html

 

AND

 

SONY E BOOK Samples at

http://sony-ebook-samples.com/sample/6823/the-stranded-ones

 

 

 

Posted by U2RGood at 09:34 AM |

November 26, 2009

Graces for Today

May the ruler of the Universe bestow Grace on the children of Abraham, the children of God, all children, everywhere.  Go to this link: http://jaygaskill.com/grace.pdf .

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Jay Ben Gaskill

Posted by U2RGood at 08:49 AM |

November 13, 2009

REVISIT THE MOON

  

  

  

moon  

 YES, WE WERE THERE

Forty years ago, a human being walked on the surface of another heavenly body for the first time. 

When interviewed by Walter Cronkite, writer Robert Heinlein predicted that some day the human calendar would mark that day as YEAR ONE, assuming - as we all did - that civilization would continue. 

Meantime, NASA has provided us with a virtual tour of the Tranquility Landing Site, where those first extra-terrestrial footprints were made. 

Here is that LINK:

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/apollo11_landing/index.html

I do believe that our Creator wants this civilization to continue, without guaranteeing that outcome.  After all, we are trusted with freedom, the risk of failure and the gifts of reason creativity and conscience.  

I believe that future generations will mark off this site as a park and that it will be visited by thousands of space tourists.  

For the rest of us, the virtual tour will have to do for now.

 

Jay B. Gaskill
Earth 2009

 

 

 

 

Posted by U2RGood at 02:55 PM |

October 09, 2009

Dialogue - The Bridge to Survival

 YES THERE WAS A HOLOCAUST is still posted at this link:  http://jaygaskill.com/blog2/2009/09/yes_there_was_a_holocaust_and.html 

 As Published On
The Policy Think Site: www.jaygaskill.com
& THE BRIDGE TO BEING BLOG:  www.jaygaskill.com/blog2
All contents, unless otherwise indicated are
Copyright © 2009 by Jay B. Gaskill, All Rights Reserved....

A time-limited license to publish, distribute or print all or part of this article (except for personal use) is always needed. [A one time license for use in group discussions is almost always routinely given.]
For permissions, comments or submissions, please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail at - law@jaygaskill.com

ADDENDUM

 

My two pieces, The New Social Compact and Dialogic Imperative (see the immediately preceding post) have already produced interesting and revealing responses among friends, family and correspondents.

 

___

 

Here is one sample from the thoughtful left-of-center:

 

Ayn Rand is a "visionary" for the Anti Democratic forces of Darkness.  What have you read lately?

 

MY REPLY:

 

I quoted from Ms. Rand’s speech to a West Point Graduating Academy because her commonsense and passionate defense of philosophy was the best ever made, in my opinion.  Your question deserves a longer and more complicated answer, but this will have to do.

 

I admire Ayn Rand’s eloquent and accessible defense of philosophy as such, (as in Philosophy, Who Needs it?), and her defense of romantic literature, carefully and intelligently defined (in The Romantic Manifesto), and her fine tuned rationality - reminiscent of Bertrand Russell (with whom I also disagreed on many issues). 

 

Her powers of analysis were particularly admirable in An Objectivist Epistemology.  And I still agree strongly with her defense of creative freedom in The Fountainhead.  

 

In all, with warts acknowledged, Ayn Rand made valuable contributions to the ongoing dialogic.  

 

For my part, I depart from her resolute uncharitable ethos, her narrow atheism and her flashes of unreasonable arrogance.   But the same sorts of things can be said of Sartre and many of the other intellectual heroes of the left, many of who were poseurs who left no lasting philosophical legacy –not in her league.  

 

The “forces of Darkness” - in my universe anyway - gestate in the overheated minds that are self-disabled by ideology.  These minds are incapable of dialogue in the sense that any authentic dialogic requires deep listening by each participant.  Jacob Needleman's Why Can't We Be Good contains important insights into this.  I was privileged to see him (sharp as a needle in his 80's) when he described the deep conversations between students holding polar opposite views that he conducted in his philosophy classes.  Listening long and attentively enough to the “other” eventually pierces the ideologically self-inflicted mindset and allows for creative breakthroughs.  

 

___


From an academic on the right of center:

 

“You're preaching to the converted. Conservatives and Christians already believe what you urge.”

 

MY REPLY:


Many of my conservative friends who are religious hate Ayn Rand, while others disdain philosophy and still others reject dialogue with anyone who fundamentally disagrees with the right. 

 

Many members of the “choir/converted/comfortably complacent” are unable to defend their positions except by reference to their ideological catechisms, much as the liberals for whom the contemporary left/progressive doctrine is itself a secular religion. 

 

They suffer from a malady that Ayn Rand has aptly described – the inability to think in principles.

 

Few on either side of the ideological chasms have a clue just how much danger threatens the very survival of contemporary Western civilization, or just how FRAGILE any liberty-friendly zone is, or just how much heavy lifting the whole business of keeping civilization alive and well is required, and just how close we really are to a new Dark Age. 

This is one of those tipping points in history.

 

Recently I reread Thomas Cahill's little masterpiece (How the Irish Saved Civilization), and I was impressed at how tellingly his concise, several-page summary of the fall of Rome echoed growing elements in the deterioration of the Western model of civilization.

 

But it does little good to sound an apocalyptic alarm unless you are also proposing a prescription, one that – in this case – can be heard across several growing chasms.  

 

MY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

 

Set aside the “bad empire got what it deserved” question.  Rome was a decaying bureaucratic state whose core elites had lost resolution, purpose and moral integrity.  They had formed the first attempt at an almost-modern civilization, but weren’t up to the moral, practical and political challenges.  Something new under the sun was needed.

 

But when any large swath of civilization goes under, as the Roman Imperium did, the effect on everyone else is like being in a rowboat far from land when a huge nearby ocean going vessel suddenly capsizes.  Being sucked under far from shore is typically fatal.  I am personally persuaded that the submergence of Western civilization would usher in a new Dark Age.  Empires come and go, but whole civilizations do not dissolve without lasting malign consequences, especially now in this culturally fragmented and interlinked age of ours.

 

A true dialogic is our bridge for survival.  But the very term has been confused with the therapeutic model, those superficial chats among New Age types, or trivialized as the occasional pragmatic discussions than can fleetingly unite left and right neighbors (“How about that leaking sewer?”), all without scratching the surface.

 

We need locate the underlying universal principles; we need allow them to center the discussion and then we need move into a dialogic that has one overriding purpose: Saving, preserving and growing a creative civilization.

 

Another article of mine, LAMB, Legal And Moral Boundaries as Civilization’s Life Support is posted at this LINK:

http://www.jaygaskill.com/ProjectLamb.htm 

A downloadable version of this article, in pdf format with graphics, is available on request.

JBG

 

 

 

Posted by U2RGood at 04:20 PM |

October 07, 2009

The Eternal Dialogic

Why read this? 

Is a celebrity infatuated narcissistic culture our future?  

WHY is our civilization worth defending? 

Why the secular pessimism and the religious bickering?

Are there reasonable answers?

Of course there are.  Read on....

 

GO TO THIS LINK:  http://www.jaygaskill.com/i2i.htm

 

JBG 

Posted by U2RGood at 07:05 AM |

September 30, 2009

Yes there was a holocaust and the Iranian President wants one more

Of course there WAS a holocaust.  My father served in Europe in WWII.  My brother and I saw the pictures . Dad brought them when he returned safely home to mother.   We found them in a dresser.  We saw the harvest of evil in small black and white photos brought home in an Army officer's trunk, saved because of the lesson....

And the lesson is still NEVER AGAIN.

 

I've just received an email (reproduced below), one of those hundreds of ‘forwards’ one gets these days.  But this was from a physician I respect, someone who – as do I – strongly supports the cause of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish refuge state.  This was a forward from another good physician, someone I don’t know, and it contained an email trail. 

 

The normal protocol is to erase an email trail to protect the privacy of those who are in the chain, then to re-forward the piece – if one is inclined to do so.  But, for technical reasons, I can’t elide the trail of email addresses for the message I received.

 

So I have elected to post the entire message on the ‘Bridge to Being Blog’. 

For this purpose, I’m considering the whole work to be public domain.  If I am wrong, I invite someone holding the copyright(s) to contact me by email at – law@jaygaskill.com .

 

The piece begins with a compelling, not copyrighted picture, and includes a brilliant and touching ‘Non Sequitur’ cartoon by Wiley, whose work is syndicated nationally.  There is no indication whether the cartoonist has given copyright permission, but I believe that Wiley would approve a limited distribution.  So, in lieu of a forward, I’m posting everything here for the next ten days, after which I’ll pull it down.

 

Please do share this. 

 

Jay B. Gaskill

 

 

sixty three years later

 

 In MEMORIAM - 63 YEARS LATER 


Please read the little cartoon carefully, it's powerful. Then read the comments at the end. 
 
I'm doing my small part by [forwarding] posting this message. I hope you'll consider doing the same. 


 Wiley

In Memoriam 
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian Peoples looking the other way! 
 
 Now, more than ever, with Iraq, Iran , and others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again. 
 
 This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! 
 
 Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world.  

[][][]

 One comment:

Why, why, I must ask, was the despicable Iranian president, a holocaust denier and Israel hater - who was given an international platform in New York City NOT roundly denounced for his views by every congressional leader and, dare I say it, our new President?  Only the Israeli President, in words worthy of a Churchill, spoke truth to venality.  The silence from POTUS and the chattering left and isolationist right was stunning.  G-d save Israel and G-d save the USA

JBG 

JBG

Posted by U2RGood at 06:54 PM |