Eleven ISIL Rules for the Press

Excerpted from the online magazine This Ongoing War
Isis releases 11-point guide for journalists
Matthew Champion
According to the website Syria Deeply, journalists and activists still based in territory ruled by Isis have smuggled out official guidance issued by the jihadist group for journalists who continue to work in the areas it controls.

These 11 rules were reportedly issued in Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria.

1. Correspondents must swear allegiance to the Caliph [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi … they are subjects of the Islamic State and, as subjects, they are obliged to swear loyalty to their imam.
2. Their work will be under the exclusive supervision of the Isis media offices.
3. Journalists can work directly with international news agencies (such as Reuters, AFP and AP), but they are to avoid all international and local satellite TV channels. They are forbidden to provide any exclusive material or have any contact (sound or image) with them in any capacity.
4. Journalists are forbidden to work in any way with the TV channels placed on the blacklist of channels that fight against Islamic countries (such as Al-Arabiya, Al Jazeera and Orient).Violators will be held accountable.
5. Journalists are allowed to cover events in the governorate with either written or still images without having to refer back to the Isis media office. All published pieces and photos must carry the journalist’s and photographer’s names.
6. Journalists are not allowed to publish any reportage (print or broadcast) without referring to the Isis media office first.
7. Journalists may have their own social media accounts and blogs to disseminate news and pictures. However, the Isis media office must have the addresses and name handles of these accounts and pages.
8. Journalists must abide by the regulations when taking photos within Isis territory and avoid filming locations or security events where taking pictures is prohibited.
9. Isis media offices will follow up on the work of local journalists within Isis territory and in the state media. Any violation of the rules in place will lead to suspending the journalist from his work, and he will be held accountable.
10. The rules are not final and are subject to change at any time depending on the circumstances and the degree of cooperation between journalists and their commitment to their brothers in the Isis media offices.
11. Journalists are given a license to practice their work after submitting a license request at the Isis media office.

i100.co.uk has not been able to independently verify that the decree is genuine but Isis expert Shiraz Maher said it was eminently feasible. “It certainly seems possible,” he told i100.co.uk. “And it's written with the verbosity one would expect from Islamic State.”

According to Syria Deeply, journalists that did not agree to these terms have left Isis territory, with some receiving incentives to return and others threats that their families would be crucified if they did not. There are not thought to be any foreign journalists still working in Isis territory, so it would follow that these rules would only apply to Syrian and Iraqi reporters.

The Book of Job Revisited

I just published my fourth book: The Book of Job Revisited. It is an extension of my novelette, A Taxi Romance (word count: 28,000). If you haven't read it you can skip it because that story is a story within this one.
I realized I left out some important events and elements that needed to be included adding 30,000 to the word count to 58,000 doubling the story
The most important aspect left out of A Taxi Romance was Max's head injury and concussion... how the even the medical profession had little understanding of the long term affects: depression, drug addiction, alcoholism and sometimes violent or angry outbursts.
Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have amplified the impact of brain trauma and contributed much to the treatment of it in the psychiatric and medical community. Additionally, MRI's and CT scans have helped to detect the physical condition as well as the response to therapy in patients.
I believe I have hit on a topic that was not understood at all when I suffered a basal fracture in 1985. Concussion was taken more lightly with short term affects unless there was obvious physical problems with debilitating nerve damage to limbs. I was told by the Nuero-surgeon that  treated me that I would get over it within a few months. I still have problems associated with it but I am one of the lucky ones that have found treatment.

I'm a STAR!

Did you know that rat spelled
backwards is Star.
I'm a STAR!

Star or not... I am not pleased I have rats on my lanai and neighbors that play hip-hop loud. Life! Why does it have to interfere. 

Gretel_Grimm

Evidence that we had alcoholism and over-indulgence long before AA.

Morningstar East

Morningstar Mesa above Arroyo Hondo

I have been searching for pictures of the pueblo at Morningstar East on the mesa across the highway from New Buffalo in Arroyo Hondo New Mexico. I have only found a few and none that show the most marvelous part of the structure, the kiva. Nothing has been published and I'm wondering whether anyone took pictures of anything on the east side of the highway. Reality Construction Company shared the same property and I don't find anything of it either.

Dream Escape Postcard

Dream Escape Postcard

Time passes…

I’m awake.

My lover sleeps.

What holds me

In the past?

What holds my heart in abeyance?

Where does shame become

A bludgeon to wake my dreams?

Longing takes a turn

Towards rage and rage

Takes a detour:

A flat … air let out… a slow leak.

Mahayana wheels

Worn to the wires

On the rutted-road of remorse.

Changing the tire…

Shit! No spare…

Echoes of high Himalayan

Despair’s night of the

Void I rest my soul…

A vehicle frozen in time.

High desert landscape

Left of old Route 66…

An empty highway

Nostalgia sick

I send a postcard dreamscape

Of this glassy mirage.

Are You a Psychopath?

From an article in Salon. Psychopaths: how can you spot one?

By Tom Chivers

Posted 04/06/14

Here is a list of 20 criteria, each given a score of 0 (if it doesn’t apply). 1. (if it partially applies). 2. (if it fully applies). The list is composed by the criminal psychologist, Professor Robert Hare, creator of the PCL-R, a psychological assessment used to determine whether someone is a psychopath.

If ya feel like taking a look... how do you score?

     1.      Glibness and superficial charm.

     2.      Grandiose sense of self-worth.

     3.      Pathological lying.

     4.      Cunning/manipulative.

     5.      Lack of remorse.

     6.      Emotional shallowness.

     7.      Callousness and lack of empathy.

     8.      Unwillingness to accept responsibility for actions.  

     9.      A tendency to boredom.

   10.     A parasitic lifestyle.

   11.     A lack of realistic long-term goals.

   12.     Impulsivity.

   13.     Irresponsibility.

   14.     Lack of behavioral control.

   15.     Behavioral problems in early life.

   16.     Juvenile delinquency.

   17.     Criminal versatility.

   18.     A history of revocation of conditional release (I.e. broken parole).

   19.     Multiple marriages.

   20.     Promiscuous sexual behavior.

A pure psychopath will score a perfect 40. A score of 30 + qualifies as a diagnosis of psychopathy. Most certainly above 35 or 36.

The terms cognitive empathy and emotional empathy were of the most interest to me. Cognitive empathy is the ability to know what others are feeling and emotional empathy is the ability to feel what others are feeling. A typical psychopath lacks emotional empathy but is quite adept at knowing what you are feeling, thinking and so on. 

I suspect that most people read these lists and see many of these traits in ourselves... at least I do. At various times it appears that most of us just don't give a damn one way or another how others feel about anything outside of our immediate circle of family or friends. CEO's, politicians, sales people, and poke players may have developed a high degree of cognitive empathy but are sometimes lacking emotional empathy. They can say "I feel your pain" but simply don't give a shit accept for manipulating our emotions to close the deal. 

I include myself in this analysis. My emotional empathy is stunted. I know it is and am sometimes actively developing a seed of it that needs nurturing. I don't say this to set myself aside from those who are naturally empathetic so much as to recognize it for what it is. Though I'm no Ted Bundy, I am confident that I score higher than most. I'm thinking that this might have something to do with being an Alpha male. Maybe... maybe not.