Part # 3


Not what you thought, but its true anyway










"The first thing to tell you about Islam," said Barrymore, "is that nearly 
everything

you may have seen on television or heard on any mainstream media, is false.

The amount of misinformation about Muslim religion that is dispensed to the 
American

public is staggering. One lie after another, lie upon lie, followed by 
falsehoods.

This never ends, and what is needed most is a campaign to finally inform 
citizens

about the real nature of Islam. We are being misled every day of our lives."


Some of the people in the room felt the blood rush out of their faces; these 
few words

had put most of the room into shock.


"But there needs to be a disclaimer at the outset," Barrymore continued, "this 
is

not meant to condemn some Muslims, those who are unlike most Muslims. That is,

there is considerable difference between peaceful Qadiri Sufis and the highly

political and sometimes violent Muslim Brotherhood, or between MINOs in

places like the Gulf states or Tunisia and the Taliban in Afghanistan or

the groups like al Shabab or al Qaeda.  MINOs are "Muslims In Name Only,"

basically ordinary people going about their business. Generally speaking,

they are uninformed about their own religion, they are seeking to take part

in  the global economy like other people, and they are disinterested in

suicide attacks or jihad. And as a rule the Muslims in South Asia are

peaceful; this is mostly to talk about Indonesia, parts of India,

and parts of Sri Lanka. Which is to say that if you know Muslims

of these persuasions or from these places, my comments may not ring

true. Not all Muslims are alike."


"About the Qadiris in particular," Barrymore continued, "keep in mind that they

are different than Ghazali-inspired Sufis.  Al Ghazali was a medieval 
anti-intellectual

who despised philosophy and any kind of  "reason"  that might be found outside 
the Koran.

The Sufis who follow that tradition can be, in our terminology, crazies and 
violent

political activists. The Qadaris operate altogether differently and, by and 
large, have

values that are compatible with our own. They were very much on the scene in the

19th century at the time of the rise of the Baha'i Faith and, in fact, were an 
influence

on Baha'i religion. Sajor was a Baha'i himself for more than a decade and,while 
he

came to reject various Baha'i teachings, he nonetheless maintains respect for 
parts

of that tradition including its association with Qadari Sufis. Which is to say

that this is not some kind of condemnation, en bloc, of all of Muslim culture

nor of all Muslims without distinction."


"In other words," said Meg Whitman,"to use a hypothetical example,  if someone 
was

critical of Christianity he  -or she-  might make a distinction between the 
Christian majority

and a minority like the Mormons?"


"That's the idea in principle," said Barrymore. "The one thing to keep in mind 
is that

about some of these groups there is no 1:1 comparison we can make. There is 
nothing

like the Mormons within Islam, maybe somewhat with the Shiah, and nothing like

the Qadiri Sufis, except maybe somewhat with the Quakers."


"Then there is Indonesia," Jake went on, "which was the last country to switch 
to Islam,

which was, let's say, completed by about 1700 AD.  In that case, while there 
also are

orthodox Muslims in the population, a minority of maybe 25 %, the rest of the

Muslim population of Indonesia follows a form of the religion that reflects 
that nation's

mixed religion history and is partly Hindu, partly Buddhist, partly Christian 
and

partly folk religion, as well as Muslim."


"What I'm trying to say is that in talking about Islam you need to make it clear

that you know about these differences, otherwise you can make all kinds of 
mistakes

and end up antagonizing some people needlessly."


"And I should mention Muslims in America, who sometimes  -not always, but 
sometimes-

are very different than other Muslims.  Those who are most Americanized tend to

become 'Protestant' in their outlook. But this is only possible because few 
Muslims

really know all that much about their own religion  -just as few Christians

are really all that well informed about Christianity.  What is common practice

in the media is for on-air personalities who have never read the Koran,

who have never studied Islam, who have no idea what they are talking about,

to pontificate about Islam as if, "of course," it is just like Christianity

except that it is kind of exotic. Nothing could be further from the truth."


"America is also complicated." Barrymore continued,  "because their are a good 
number

of mosques that are funded by the Saudis, mosques where orthodox Sunni Islam is

preached with its message of violence as a valid means to promote their 
religion, and

because of the large number of so-called Black Muslims who follow a blatant

anti-Semite and anti-white bigot named Louis Farrakhan."


"One thing to say on behalf of orthodox Islam is that," Barrymore added, "as 
far as

it goes anyway, it is not racist in character. It is the opposite. But, like 
Farrakhan,

it decidedly is anti-Semitic, and the Koran is filled with slanders against the 
Jews."


"I had no idea," said Lowell McAdam.


"Don't expect the media to tell you any of this," said Barrymore, "and the 
situation

in Europe is much worse. What is vital to remember that people have a tendency

to substitute economic self interest for the truth.  In Europe, which is heavily

dependent on oil  from the Mid East, any excuse or outright lie will suffice

if it keeps the public from knowing about the real nature of Islam. Nobody

in power wants to jeopardize the supply of Arab oil. In America the oil factor

is limited since we have a decent supply of our own oil, but  we are concerned

about political stability in the Mid East and are willing to overlook  all kinds

of really bad news about Islam in order to keep things quiet."


"This is an education unto itself,"  said  Phebe Novakavic.


"Let me give you the names of two sources of reliable information about Islam,"

said Barrymore, "Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller.  Each have their limitations.

Spencer tends to address himself to a lowest common denominator public,

and often Geller is rather shrill in her approach.  But in each case the 
information

they supply is spot on, no serious mistakes, or no mistakes 98% of the time,

Who comes closest to 100% is Ibn Warraq. The one problem with him

is that his magnum opus, Why I Am Not a Muslim, is kind of dated now,

it was published in 1995, but otherwise you can't do better than him.

This is in stark contrast to media reliance on such dupes for Islam

as Karen Armstrong  -who seems to me to be totally incapable

of the least objectivity about Muhammad's religion."


"I should also mention Daniel Pipes,"said Barrymore. "Possibly he is the

best scholar of Islam in the world, he is very good. However, he has a serious

limitation and it keeps him from being totally truthful about Muslim religion.

He has made himself into an apologist for the state of Israel."


"Please don't misunderstand me; I'm also pro-Israel. But repeatedly skewing 
one's

research findings to parse things in such a way that they magically always line 
up with

foreign policy objectives of Israel does a disservice to the truth. And what I 
am about,

what Sajor is also about, is truthfulness, and if this ruffles somebody's 
feathers,

that may be a problem but it is far better to get this into the open, now, and 
deal

forthrightly with reality, otherwise all we are doing is deferring the 
inevitable

to some other time  -which may end up making everything worse."


Barrymore clearly was talking from the heart.  He had tried again and  again
over the years to make his case and had been widely ignored by the establishment
media and he was not about to backtrack now, not even one inch. This was his 
first chance
in several years to say exactly what he wanted to say, no need to compromise 
about
anything. Indeed, Musk had asked him to be as candid as he wanted. This was
no time to withhold the truth   -no matter how unpleasant it might be
for someone to hear that truth.


Barrymore added these comments, however: "But allowing for Dr. Pipes' agenda,

he is an extremely good source to turn to, his writings are information rich

from start to finish."


"All of this said," Barrymore went on, " it is essential that we learn the truth

about the vast majority of  Muslims, mostly Sunnis of the Arab states and 
Africa,

and about the Shiah of Iran.  As Warraq has said of these people, they are all,

to use popular vocabulary that really needs some modification, 
"fundamentalists."


"That is," Barrymore continued, "we should make distinctions, but it is

necessary to use some generalizations and I can assure you that the information

I am working with is accurate. There may be exceptions, and it is hard not to 
find

exceptions about something as large as the Muslim world, Dar al-Islam.

After all, it is in the nature of a massive religion that there will be 
exceptions.

But we nonetheless need to say something about what is most typical

so that we make sense in discussing the real world."


"By the way, " Barrymore added, " we are discussing approximately 1.3 billion 
people

although some scholars dispute that figure and prefer a number a few hundred 
million less.

Be wary of official estimates of members  because it is in the interests of 
Muslims to inflate

their totals and also in the interests of politicians and big oil companies to 
do likewise.

Bigger numbers, greater importance, even if the numbers are partly hot air."


Another basic fact is that the Koran is a fairly short book even if some 
editions
use large type or scholarly notes to make it seem as if the volume is good 
sized.
Actually it is about the same length as the New Testament of the Bible.  There 
are
maybe 20 popular translations, some old, some fairly new, some good, some bad.
It is a peculiarity of Arabic that when it is rendered into English there may be
several ways to say the same thing. The result is that there is no agreed upon
numbering system for verses in the individual surahs  -chapters- in the book.
Hence Surah 4:15 in one version may be 4: 13 in another or 4: 20 in still 
another.
The Surahs are always numbered the same but not the verses."

"The quality of the text is uneven and often very poor; many scholars have 
commented that
it is written in tortured Arabic. This is not surprising. Muhammad was a 
near-illiterate who
had pretensions of literary sophistication. But  there are all kinds of 
mistakes in the book,
besides being written in clumsy Arabic, like the ludicrous claim that Alexander 
the Great
was a Muslim or the howler that the Jews worship Ezra as if he was God.  Warraq,
in his book, discusses these errors in detail."

"By the way," Barrymore continued, "Muslims believe that the Koran consists of 
Allah's
verbatim remarks directly from Heaven as relayed by the angel Gabriel. Hence 
they
never say that Muhammad wrote the Koran.  For myself, this fiction is nonsense
and I always call it "Muhammad's book" since attributing this mish-mash of 
literature
to the Almighty seems to me to be an insult to any God who is worth the name.
It is false attribution. And the book is a travesty of scripture."

"Still, it has its moments, and now and then actually sounds like something 
worthwhile.
This should not be surprising either. Much of the Koran is based on the Bible, 
a mixture
of both the Old Testament and the New Testament, with additions from apocryphal
texts    -like the little story about Jesus blowing upon some clay birds who, 
anon,
became real birds and flew away. Cute, but totally fanciful."

"This is the basic problem for the Qadiri Sufis and the Baha'is," Barrymore 
added,
"they regard the Koran as sacred scripture. Well, you can pick and choose verses
to suit your values but the fact remains that a lot of really dubious verses 
are still there
and need to be explained. A good example is the verse about Jews being apes
and pigs, from Surah 5: 64 - 65.  There have been news stories commenting about
signs carried by demonstrators in crowds which say that Jews are apes and pigs,
the reporters claiming that these are examples of misguided Muslims who distort
their religion. Actually, the demonstrators were holding signs that quoted 
directly
from the Koran."


"Journalists frequently have no idea what Islam is all about. They assume    
-based on

ignorance alone-  that Islam must be very similar to Presbyterianism or the 
like,

and share the same values. But that viewpoint is pure rubbish."

"As an aside, to give you another example of the ignorance of many journalists, 
I recall

the caption of a picture which showed a school age young girl and her mother. 
The girl

was wearing informal western style clothing, the mother was attired in a chador 
or

abaya or burka.  The caption said words to the effect that the new will one day 
replace

the old as the younger generation grows up.  The implication was that the young 
readily

adopt western fashion and will surely continue to do so as they get older. But 
that was

not what the photograph showed at all. Which was?  Well, in Muslim countries

little girls wear whatever is convenient, often western style garments, But 
these girls

know that when they reach puberty and start to have menstrual periods thy will

need to switch to Muslim garments suitable for adult women.  The journalist

was clueless,  she got the meaning of what she was seeing completely wrong,

and projected her values onto the Muslim mother and daughter as if anything else

than the inclinations she knew growing up in Boston or Denver necessarily are 
universal.

News flash:  They are not."


"As for the contents of the Koran, when you get past the uplifting stories 
derived

from the Bible, or past a few stories taken from the folklore of Arabia,  there 
is

no avoiding Muhammad's twisted mind and his contorted values. There is

no way to say this in a nice way, Muhammad was  a psychopath. Or a sociopath.

Take your pick."


Barrymore spoke with passion, he was remembering 9/11 and remembering news 
stories

about unprovoked attacks by Muslim fanatics  against Jews, Brits, Spaniards, 
even occasional

Japanese, and, of course, against many black Africans.  No-one can wish this 
all away

and no-one can pretend that these atrocities never happened.  Not to mention 
Muslim

attacks against priceless works of art, horrible vandalism also sanctioned by 
the Koran.


"What do you say about the Koran? asked Barrymore. "There are some incredible 
ironies.

Like black people converting to Islam because, so they say, Christianity allows 
for slavery

and, hence, they are free in Islam. Like many African-Americans, however, to 
claim

any such thing is to put one's ignorance on display, and they are, like it or 
not,

the most poorly educated population in the United States."


"The fact is that, to speak of the new Testament, slaves were advised not to 
rebel

against the Roman state of the Roman army; doing so would be suicidal. The 
history

of slave revolts made this abundantly clear, with many examples, like the 
Spartacus

uprising which ended with several hundred slaves crucified along the Appian Way

to show Rome's displeasure with the rebellion. Slaves, under those 
circumstances,

would be well advised not to confront the Roman authorities; they would lose.

In the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, there is provision for slavery  -in 
common

with virtually all of the ancient world-  but also the rule to free one's 
slaves every

seventh year, even if that requirement was not always lived up to. But the Koran

sanctions slavery outright, and does not limit the practice except by way of 
saying

that masters should not be cruel to their slaves,  another religious requirement

that wasn't always followed.  In any case, the Koran is the only 'scripture' in 
the

modern world that sanctions slavery, which is still practiced in some African

countries,  like Mauritania and Sudan. And black Americans think that

Islam makes them free? Sorry, but that view is ridiculous."


"Then there is jihad," said Barrymore. "There are about 120 jihad verses in the 
Koran.

Although 50 or so counsel inner struggle to live up to one's faith, the other 
70 are as

bloodthirsty as anything gets. To simplify only a bit, any able bodied Muslim 
male

is supposed to kill unbelievers who refuse to convert to Islam during a jihad 
war.

Or, if the unbeliever is lucky, so to speak, the captive may be enslaved, which 
was

more likely the more attractive that a woman prisoner might be.  Captives might

be crucified on the battlefield, beheaded, or otherwise abused or tortured.

The whole idea, also from Surah 5, is that an enemy army should be slaughtered

without mercy if its people are not monotheists. And slaughter the Arab Muslims 
did,

and later the Turks, Iranians, and others."


The worst fate befell the Hindus of India, although the way that Muslims kept 
records

we know that the "Hindus" they killed included substantial numbers of Buddhists,

plus some Jains.  In any event, during a period of approximately 1000 years,

starting in 998 AD with the first of the depredations of Mahmud of Ghazna,

including the utterly horrific reign of terror under Aurangezeb in the 17th 
century AD,

it is estimated that somewhere between 80 million and 100 million "Hindus" were 
killed

by Muslims, with a similar number enslaved, many of those people, or their 
descendants,

eventually free, being the basis for the 20% Muslim minority in modern day 
India.

Bad as the Holocaust in the 1940s was for the Jews of Europe, that tragedy was

eclipsed more than tenfold, maybe on the order of 15: 1, by the "holocaust

on the installment plan" carried out by Muslims in India."


"In case," Barrymore added, "you were wondering about the bad blood between

Hindus and Muslims in India, with the Muslims in denial, the Hindus not 
forgetting

even one outrage in their history. And in case you wondered about the rise of

the BJP Party, its political successes in part due to the official policy of

the Congress Party that sought Muslim votes in elections, soft peddling

the real history of India to airbush out the massive crimes carried out

in the name of Islam. Meanwhile the BJP was reminding Hindus of that past

and making it an issue in politics."


"Muslim violence is nothing new, Muslims have destroyed a number of past

civilizations, starting with the Zoroastrian Persian empire in the 7th century.

But usually depopulation of non-Muslims happens because of long range policy

that creates so many problems for kufirs in areas controlled by Islam that,

in time, the "infidels" convert  -or are driven away. We can see this in our 
own era.

There still were about 2 million Christians in Iraq in 2003, although maybe

a better number is more like a million and a half.  At one time, just before the

Arab conquest, Iraq was a majority Christian nation, mostly Assyrians.

All that remain today are about 300,000, roughly 1% of the total population.

The same thing happened to the 25% Hindu minority in Pakistan in  1949

which is now under 2%."


"The dominant Christian civilization of Dongola in what is now Sudan is a 
distant

memory;  Muslims have sought for many years to bring about the same fate for

Ethiopia, which has become about 35% Islamic, but Christianity has been strong

enough there to maintain control of its civilization."


"The latest target for demographic takeover is Europe, in case you are curious 
about

the rise of the political Right in places like Hungary, Austria, Sweden, the 
Netherlands,

Lithuania, even France. The European political Left is also in denial."


"As Ibn Warraq said, the most imperialist religion in the history of the world 
is Islam.

Meanwhile." Barrymore continued, "the Left is in the midst of a love affair with

Muhammad's religion based on the Leninist view that Muslims are an 'oppressed'

people needing assistance from Marxist revolutionaries.  If this logic 
mystifies you

be assured that it mystifies me just as much."


"But,"  asked Robert Swan, "doesn't the the Koran say that there should be no 
compulsion

in religion?  In fact I hear this all the time."


"You have heard correctly", Barrymore replied. "However, there are two distinct

parts of the Koran, although they are not presented in its pages chronologically

and, as a result, this is not obvious. The Koran, except for the very short 
opening Surah,

is arranged by chapter length, not dates. The longest Surah is first, then they 
get

shorter and shorter. But there still are two distinct types of Surahs, those 
written

before Muhammad was able to set up a dictatorship in Medina while he

still lived in the town of Mecca, and those written in Medina. The Mecca

Surahs tend to be tolerant, reflecting a time when Muhammad sought acceptance

and was being criticized widely. That's where the "no compulsion in religion"

material comes from. But  in Medina this idea was thrown out; everyone was

now supposed to become Muslim and there would be no toleration for

any other faith. Jews were killed in large numbers and Pagans were

forcibly converted to Islam. Christian were driven out.  The discrepancy

was taken care of by means of the doctrine of abrogation. Any early verse

that did not conform to the new Medina rules was abrogated, nullified,

no longer applicable. All Muslims know this; but all Muslims also know

that almost no Americans have any idea. Therefore, Muslims and feel free

to mislead Americans all they like since it serves their purposes to be

perceived as open minded and tolerant. Does this answer your question?"


"Unfortunately it does," said Swan.


"There is also a principle in Islam, taken from the Koran, that is is perfectly 
OK

for Muslims to lie to others if they feel that it is expedient to do so, in 
order

to protect Muslim interests. This principle is called taqiya,"   Barrymore 
explained.


"There is also the doctrine of shirk," Barrymore continued."This is understood

as stemming from one basic principle, that there should be no association

of God  -the Arabic word is Allah-  with any other spiritual being. Usually this

rule was meant to outlaw worship of a Goddess."


"There is kind of a gray area concerning Christians," said Barrymore,  inasmuch 
as

Christianity is regarded as a 'religion of the book,' hence Christians are 
officially protected

under Islamic law,  but the concept of the trinity is rejected outright by 
Muslims as

an example of associating God with other deities, namely Christ and the Holy 
Spirit.

What the Christians whom Muhammad knew meant by Holy Spirit  is unclear,

but some may have been Assyrian Orthodox, a Church that follows Old Testament

usage and regards the Spirit as female, as does the Tanach in nearly every case.

Anyway, in all cases where there is a Goddess or goddess-like figure, the Koran

is very clear that people who  have these beliefs must be converted to Islam

or killed. Since this injunction has only been rarely enforced against 
Christians

it is largely ignored by them as if it had no real world meaning. But Hindus,

who venerate a hundred or so Goddesses, and those Buddhists who worship

a Goddess or equivalent, are nor about to overlook what Muslims think

on the subject. Hence, for instance, the bad odor of the Rohingas to the

Buddhists of Burma, who know damned well that if given  the chance

the Muslims would kill them all. Yet our "O so enlightened" mass media

carries water for Muslims as if (as if) the Rohinga were poor unappreciated

victims who have done no wrong.  Do you begin to see the problem? "


"I had no idea," said Swan, "no idea whatsoever."


"This is as educational as anything I have ever been through," said

Lowell McAdam. "There is so much that I thought I knew that

turns out to consist of nothing but falsehoods. Damn!"


"There is much more," said Jake, "but I need to bring this to a close.

Just a few other matters to bring to your attention."


"Please stick around after this meeting," said Sundal Pichal, "I need to

talk with you. I'm not at all sure what this means for Google,

but we need to make changes, that much is clear, even if we

can't make them any time soon."


Google people wouldn't make them at all, of course, but for one moment

in its recent past it seemed like they would.


"The last thing I'd like to discuss," said Barrymore, "is Muslim treatment of 
women.

This goes in several  directions but, briefly, by rules in the Koran, women

are worth half that of a man.  A woman cannot inherit more than half as much

as a brother, and a woman's testimony in Shariah court is only worth that

of 1/2 of what a man may say;  in other words, it takes the testimony

of two women to equal that of one man. In some cases, like rape,

a woman must produce four male witnesses to prove her side of

the story. Besides these liabilities there are rules, not enforced

in many Muslim nations these days, that say that a woman cannot

go outside her home unless accompanied by a close male relative

or by her husband. Within marriage a woman has no right to refuse sex

with her husband no matter what.  Even after her husband has beaten

the hell out of her, which, according to the Koran  -see Surah 4: 34-

he has every right to do if, in his opinion, she deserves it.

Regrettably the wife beating rule is one that survives

in Muslim culture in most Islamic states."


"This may be more than you ever wanted to hear about Islam," Barrymore 
concluded,

"but this is a subject that cannot be dealt with in 20 words or less. It takes 
time,

there is a lot of information to digest. My sincere thanks for hearing me out."


Elon Musk spoke to the guests:  "This is more than I could have imagined.

I think I speak for everyone here, that we owe you a debt of gratitude.

My guess is that you will be asked to help any number of us in the coming

days or weeks. Well done."


Phebe Novakovic spoke up: "I take it that there are no Muslims on planet 
Centroid."


"No criminal religions are allowed," Musk replied. "There are Baha'is but they 
have

relegated the Koran to the status of false scripture."


Satya Nadella asked a question: "There have been a number of references to 
Sajor.

Obviously he has unique importance in all of this. What can you  tell us about 
him?"


"First of all," said Musk, "he is finalizing a presentation for us. Not sure 
exactly when

he will complete it but apparently very soon. He said he will send me an 
encrypted

e-mail; when that arrives I will look it over and write a short preface and 
send a  copy

to each of you. My guess is that this will help fill in a lot of blanks.  He 
could not

join us today for reasons I tried to explain earlier, that, and he has a 
medical issue of

some kind. Yet from the sound of things  he expects to be in good health in a

fairly short time. I know for a fact that he has plans for a rather active 
life."


"What plans?" asked Meg Whitman.


"I wanted to talk to everyone here about them," Musk answered. "Keep in mind

that what I  am about to tell you is confidential and that he is very interested

in the success of my plan  -which I hope you all will sign on for. I want this

to become our plan."


"I'm curious," said Lowell McAdam, "I think it is a safe bet that everyone else

is also curious. Whatever you can let us know."


"Sajor wants to launch a media empire," said Musk. "But not, at first, about 
Centroid

or anything to do with outer space. He very much appreciates the value of 
secrecy

in this endeavor. However, he wants to speak out about Islam and  homosexuality

and a variety of cultural themes. There isn't the least overlap with our space 
project

except insofar as that dae when we finally need to deal with the culture of 
Centroid,

at which time it would be central to the story.  But Sajor has some kind of 
access

to the green men although he was reticent to explain very much about that 
matter.

The impression I got was that there is nothing direct but a lot that is similar 
to what

I went through when collecting all that information about science and 
technology;

only in his case it was all about culture, religion, psychology, communications,

that sort of thing."


"A media empire?" asked Darius.


"Yes indeed," said Musk. "He is thinking big, and I can see why.  We have no 
direct

interest in that sort of activity but we do have access to people who can help 
him

if we vouch for him. I believe his presentation will be convincing enough to 
persuade

us all that we should use our contacts to get him started with his media 
project."


"What is it that he is proposing?"asked Dennis Muilenburg.


"It is something he is calling Bugle Enterprises," said Musk. He likes bugles,

don't ask me why, he just does.  I don't see any problem with that. Still, this

will cost some real money.  It may be difficult to explain this to, for example,

Jamie Dimon at Chase Manhattan.  When I say real money, that is exactly

what is meant, millions of dollars."


"He doesn't mess around," said Marillyn Hewson.


"Considering the fact that this is about extraterrestrial contact and a 
revolution

in the culture of our entire planet, he knows what he is doing," Musk said.


"The centerpiece of his media project is to be a newspaper called the Chicago

Daily Bugle. Not because it will be published in Chicago but because that is

his home town and because the Windy City is centrally located and can represent

the whole country. He hasn't decided exactly where he would like to set up shop

for a headquarters except to say someplace near a university town.  He joked 
that

he would like nothing better than a cabin in the woods. He lives in a modest

apartment now.  I think he really wants to employ architects from Taliesin

to design a highly functional, stylish building,  something that is a showcase 
of

sophisticated architectural taste. Did I mention that he doesn't think small?

And, O yeah, his first college major was architecture."


"The Bugle is supposed to start with an online version but branch out

into a hard copy follow-up.  He has all kinds of ideas for making a  print 
newspaper

profitable.  He doesn't have all that much experience as a newspaperman but he

has some, and he knows the business and has studied it in depth."


"What else?" asked Sundal Pichal.


"A number of things,"  Musk replied. "For instance, he would like to launch a 
TV channel

but he realizes that something like that requires expertise he simply doesn't 
have

and, besides, he only has limited experience in television. Same for radio.

Down the road he also would like to create a rival magazine to The Atlantic,

that he currently labels "The Pacific," to act as the mouthpiece of West Coast

Radical Centrism. The Atlantic speaks for East Coast Radical Centrism,

to give you an idea of what RC consists of."


"And he wants to eventually have his own book publishing imprint although

he said that can wait. His major focus is the Bugle, what he calls a

"newspaper of practical ideas."  News for people with brains,

in other words."


"That would be a first," said Randall Stephenson.

"He basically despises the mass media, Musk added, "just about all of it,

including the major TV networks and each of the cable news networks,

CNN, MSNBC, and Fox.  He can't stand any of them.  He is ambivalent about PBS.

About newspapers specifically, he wants to emphasize solutions to social 
problems

but  in such a way that people might actually be motivated to do something

about their problems and not just jawbone them to death and never get around

to real world action. That is his major complaint about the Radical Centrist

group he is currently associated with, all talk,  no action.  Some really  smart

people in the discussion group, which  is why he sticks with them, but in terms

of practical action, zilch, nada, nothing.  RC, by the way, is intended to be

a philosophy for political Independents.  He also despises the two major

political parties. You know that joke about them, don't you? "We have two

political parties, the Evil Party and the Stupid Party." He told me

-this is no joke-  he takes that literally as gospel truth."


"From the sound of it," said Meg Whitman, "I should look into Radical Centrism."


"Basically this is the idea," said Musk. "Parallel tracks, technology and 
theology.

so to speak. We prepare the space vehicle, he sets up the cultural denouement.

I think we can do business with him."

-- 
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Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community 
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org

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