Lester Ness
Kunming
China

Lester Ness
Kunming
China

Indeed the foundress of the British empire, Elizabeth I, had frequent recourse to the arcane talents of the astrologer John Dee–when plotting where next to send her pirates.

To anyone who is interested in these subjects, I recommend the works of Michael Hoffman on the role of the occult and the thaumaturgical in apparently “secular” politics. Hoffman is more an intuitive/associative thinker than a rigorous logician, but that may be what is required in this day and age. He writes with verve, though with perhaps too much acid. He is always interesting, nonetheless.

According to Pickens, Iraq should not be allowed to sell oil to any entity save the “US”, surely to be translated, “private US oil companies”.

How such a monopoly translates into “market price”, whether in the US or Iraq or globally is to be pursued under the search functions “Elder Bush” and “Voodoo Economics” perhaps.

As for Gematria, the release of a report that Saddam Hussein’s interrogators reached the conclusion that Abu Nidal–as one will recall, Colonel North’s “most dangerous man in the world”–was a US spy may be pertinent.

Strangely, though there was mention of Egypt and Kuwait as well, there was not a whisper about Israel.

Transliterating from different writing systems has its perils and conventions. Never persuaded by Colonel North, one long ago noted the curiosity that N-I-D-A-L is L-A-D-I-N written backwards.

In fact “Bin Ladin” is the more standard transliteration.

A coincidence surely for two personae advertised successively by the US in the category “most dangerous man in the world” to share the same name backwards and forwards, no?

Lester Ness
Kunming
China