The Daily Bluster

The Hebrews, who settled in Palestine about 4000 years ago, were a nomadic tribe that came from southern Mesopotamia. They were among the many peoples who lived in the Fertile Crescent. Hebrew came from the Hebrew word Ibri , which means people who passed over, or people from the other side. Their story is told in the Bible.             The Old Testament mentions that the first Hebrew was Abraham, who lived in the Sumerian city of Ur. Travelling with his family, he came to Syria, then to Canaan (Palestine), where he eventually settled. His grandson Jacob (Israel) had twelve sons after whom the twelve tribes of Israel were named. A famine in Canaan resulted in Jacob leading his people to safety in Egypt.  The Hebrews are also called Israelites.  The Israelites later became slaves in Egypt, until a religious leader named Moses brought them back to Canaan. Before they could establish their settlement in Canaan, how...

We are so used to the idea of giants that we take it for granted that they exist, or must have existed at one point in our history.  You know, those very large and very tall human-like creatures, carrying a humongous club, and being very nasty. Like this: And if you are a typical, god-fearing Catholic Pinoy, you would swear that not only are they true, you even saw one beside that big-ass, scary-looking tree not far from your home, one night when you were going home after an evening of binge-drinking with your buddies. And the bastard’s smoking a cigar as long and as big as your leg! Or you know someone who saw one of those cigar-smoking monsters. This creature is called a kapre —a cigar-smoking giant wearing a loincloth. Or maybe a tikbalang —a half-man, half-horse creature about as tall as a kapre. Unlike a centaur, however, a tikbalang is a giant with the torso and arms of a man, and the head and legs of a horse.  Scary creatures, these—and...

If there is one book that I wish everyone (or at least, a great number) would read, it would be Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World . Carl Sagan, with a model of the Viking lander  I visited several bookstores a few months ago looking for a copy, but I did not find any. The bookstores I visited all had prominent displays of those “Shades of Grey” books, and many, many editions and translations of the Bible (you really can’t miss those two), but no Carl Sagan books, unfortunately.  Or any other sciencey books, for that matter.  Carl Sagan was an American astrophysicist who popularized science and promoted scientific thinking in his books. Published in 1995, “The Demon-Haunted World” is one of those books that the rather trite expression “eye-opener” applies perfectly. The book promotes critical thinking to be applied in everything , to help people avoid being bamboozled by charlatans and crackpots (like  the people on this list )  who deceive an...

In an interview by Egyptian news outlet El Wady , Ali Ahmed displays unbelievably astute observation and intelligent commentary on his country’s political, social, and religious condition, considering he’s only twelve years old. TWELVE YEARS OLD! I bet many of our politicians can’t even spell “fascist theocracy.” I am awed— I am humbled!—by this kid’s intelligence and cogent observations.  This video has gone viral these past few days. Although the interview occurred last October, his views are  more relevant  now  than ever, as the Egyptian military removed from office President Mohamed Morsi last week, a year after he was elected to office.  The twelve-year-old spoke passionately on topics like religion’s undue influence on politics, society’s disingenuous treatment of women’s rights, and the lack of social justice. The kid would put to shame even our country’s current crop of leaders—both political and religious. Watch the ...

I first read Peter De Vries when as a skinny, bespectacled college freshman, I ran across his novels at the library of the old Thomas Jefferson Cultural Center located then in Makati (Philippines). His novels were the funniest I've ever read, even funnier than John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces , which is considered by some to be the funniest novel ever written. By “some,” I mean Americans; by Americans, I mean those good people over at Cracked . Well, Toole’s novel might be funny to them (I tried reading it, but I couldn't finish it), but Mr. De Vries’ novels are so much funnier, so much wittier. Peter De Vries (1910-1993) I remember all those good times I had reading Mr. De Vries' novels. I remember them the way other college freshmen remember the good times they had at all those parties. I’m a geek, in case you still hadn't surmised it yet (but then again, I was Grand Chancellor of the coolest Greek society in our university—for five ass kickin...

If you like happy endings, if you believe that good, honest, decent folks should triumph over adversity, and that evil, sadistic, psychotic, murdering bastards should die horrible deaths, then George R. R. Martin’s saga A Song of Ice and Fire is not for you. Stay away from it, don’t go near it, don’t touch it with a pole of any length. In Martin’s world, acting all honorable and shit will get your head rolling on the ground. Honor will not get you anything, except a knife in the back—the metaphorical kind, and the physically painful kind, the kind that makes you dead. And not only in the back; but also in the front, in your face, or in your neck. Decapitations are a common occurrence in the series. The books (there are five : A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons, with two as yet unpublished) set out providing in depth characterizations of various characters, and when you, the reader, gets to know them, the author kill...

Frustrated at being unable to help Filipinos abroad who are in trouble, Vice President Jejomar Binay of the Philippines proposed to President Noynoy Aquino the formation of a crack team of operatives whose members are expert in all kinds of weaponry and proficient in hand-to-hand combat; a unit that would be capable of extracting Filipinos abroad who are wrongfully imprisoned, Filipinos who are detained by an abusive employer, or being held hostage, in different parts of the world. After consulting with his classmates in Ateneo, President Aquino agreed. Binay then arranged a secret meeting with his fraternity’s Inner Circle and asked them to assist him in looking for candidates. Here are the results of the search. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Binay Babes : Mayumi Dimapilas -Expert in stealth missions, hand-to-hand combat; inhumanly proficient in bladed weapons and firearms. Born in the hinterlands of Mindanao, Mayumi was a lumad princess whose village was destroye...