The Call to Peace.
March 20, 2003 7:40 AM   Subscribe

The Call to Peace. An astrological analysis of the September 11th attacks and their aftermath. Saddam Hussein, a Muslim despot who 51% of Americans think was personally involved in the September 11th terrorist attacks, is charted.
posted by johnnydark (28 comments total)
 
50% of Americans also believe that evolution is bunk. And I sense that there's some overlap there.
posted by goethean at 7:50 AM on March 20, 2003


Funny how astrology never takes into account precession.
posted by the fire you left me at 7:50 AM on March 20, 2003


Bullshit is bad.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:53 AM on March 20, 2003


For the umptieth time: Saddam is not a muslim.

Repeat after me:

Saddam

Is

NOT

A

Muslim.

If he's anything ideologically, he's a socialist.
posted by NekulturnY at 7:54 AM on March 20, 2003


Is egotism an ideology?
posted by goethean at 7:56 AM on March 20, 2003


In Chinese Saddam is an Ox born in the hour of the Dragon, from a book published 20 years ago on Ox/Dragon:

"You have the strength and power of the Dragon for achieving your ambitions in life. Your main shortcomings will be your opinionated and inflexable Ox character. If you could adapt to changes and accede to the wishes of the majority, you would gain much more. The Dragons intensity makes you see things only one way: your way. But to succeed, you will need help from diffrent sources. Try to learn to negotiate instead of dictate"

This stuff cracks me up, it's like a pre-made script
posted by stbalbach at 7:58 AM on March 20, 2003


BTW if you dont believe in personality prediction stuff, post your birthday and time of day born (has to be accurate no guessing) and Ill post a pretty accurate description of you from Chinese astrology.
posted by stbalbach at 8:02 AM on March 20, 2003


stbalbach - i've always wondered about that - i was born in europe. so do you use greenwich mean time?
posted by harja at 8:18 AM on March 20, 2003


stbalbach: That sounds like fun.

Me:
6/19/1979
12:31 A.M. EST
posted by Pinwheel at 8:23 AM on March 20, 2003


I don't believe in personality prediction stuff at all, it might be entertaining in the way that suspending disbelief for a fantasy movie might be but it's false.

For every Saddam type person who happens to be "An Ox born in the hour of the Dragon" there are many more people that don't fit the personality description. Some of those people are dying of starvation, others are ambitionless and so on. This one data point happens to fit. By selecting a newsworthy figure you're guaranteed of a few things. First, since he's in the news there is something about his personality that separates him from most people. It doesn't matter whether you're an abusive dictator or an actor, there was something about your personality traits that let you reach your spot.

I would be more impressed if you went into the slums of Detroit city and picked several dozen people at random and showed me how accurate your descriptions from Chinese astrology were.

The descriptions in hindsight seem accurate because the positive traits are things that the majority of people would like to believe about themselves. In comparison the negative traits are minor criticisms. See how many people would say that the traits matched them if it were worded equally, but differently:

"Your Ox characteristics make you opinionated and inflexible. Your refusal to adapt to change or accede to the wishes of the majority, due to your dictatorial nature, thwart your attempts at success in life despite the strength and power of the Dragon character."
posted by substrate at 8:27 AM on March 20, 2003


Okay, stalbach, take a shot. 08/24/1970 at 9:13am.

Give me something better than a standard cold reading, and I'll be impressed. And no peeking.
posted by majcher at 8:28 AM on March 20, 2003


If he's anything ideologically, he's a socialist.

He's not a socialist either, except in name. The Iraqi Baath party is basically nationalist, with messianic ambitions, and arabs as the master race. Manifest destiny, that sort of thing. Pretty much what you'd expect from Saddam's history.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:29 AM on March 20, 2003


Saddam a socialist? Come on, if anything, a stalinist, or rather, a real fan of father Stalin.

(in Russia, a recent poll showed >50% of the people considering Stalin having been a good man for the country... Saddam might be aiming for such an afterlife-popularity as the one who stood up to Big Bad America. In other words, the Samson option. But I digress.)
posted by esha at 8:33 AM on March 20, 2003


Here's my reading for you majcher:

You really like good things and nice people, but hate evil things and especially evil people. You dislike injustice, pillaging, Adolf Hitler, people who chew with their mouth open, and child molestation.
posted by Ljubljana at 8:40 AM on March 20, 2003


Here's my reading for you majcher:

You really like good things and nice people, but hate evil things and especially evil people. You dislike injustice, pillaging, Adolf Hitler, people who chew with their mouth open, and child molestation.

Am I right or am I right?
posted by Ljubljana at 8:40 AM on March 20, 2003


Sorry for the double post. Neptune, disrupter of the Internet, must be ascendent.
posted by Ljubljana at 8:44 AM on March 20, 2003


Pinwheel

Your a sheep like myself, and sheep are known for enjoying things of an astrological nature. Ok heres your personality prediction. Your born in the Year of the Sheep, Hour of the Rat.

"You are a lovable but opportunistic and crafty Sheep. Both signs are sentimental and close to their familys. But the Rat's presence could make you more dependable and less inclined to fall apart during a crisis. The Rat has a more outspoken and spicy disposition than the retiring Sheep, and you could turn out to be an excellent critic, writer or artist who is able to get on the good side of everyone".

Sound accurate? What's your general occupation?
posted by stbalbach at 9:17 AM on March 20, 2003


51% of Americans think was personally involved in the September 11th terrorist attacks

undoubtedly the same people who think bill gates is a technology genius who, shortly after inventing computers, invented the internet to use them on. and the same people who think osama bin laden and saddam hussien are the same person. and the same people who think expressing an opinion that differs from shrubs is anti-american/pro-saddam. america more and more seems to be a land of idiots who apprehend reality through a television screen, who think what's good for general motors is good for america, and who fill with good feelings when they envision themselves sitting next to campers they don't own, in a desert they've never been to, communicating effortlessly with loved ones thousands of miles away thanks to the wonderful people at verizon, who just wanna let people be free.
posted by quonsar at 9:21 AM on March 20, 2003


majcher

Your a Rooster, Born in the hour of the Dragon

"You could be a Rooster who will not let anyone usurp one iota of your power. The Dragon within makes you ultra-assertive, fastidious and fearless. You could mow down the opposition with the finesse of a bulldozer. Straightforward and dynamic, there is no lazy or deceptive bones in your body. When you are in a position of leadership, you could be awe-inspiring and people will fight to be on yoru team. The trouble is that you tend to expect too much and others may push too hard. Life would be much more pleasant if you could tone down your overzealous nature and accept people for what they are."

Let me guess your an extravert?
posted by stbalbach at 9:25 AM on March 20, 2003


i was born in europe. so do you use greenwich mean time?

I take it your being sarcastic but they say use the local time. IMO, I think it has to do with hormonal balances in some way. We know that hormones fluctuate over 24hrs like Testosterone is highest in the am and lowest in the pm. We also know that the the brain "hardens" like plastic circuits are set and the first few hours after birth there may be some of that going in in areas that affects our personality and influenced chemically by whats in the system. Thousands of years of observation by "mystics" and they come up with a system that mirrors reality. Don't take the "stars and animals" jumbo too seriously.

These are not exacting predictors, but they can get some general things right very often I have found if you look at personality predicition matching charts, like Sheep and Rabbits get along well but Sheep and Ox are enemies, and look at friends and family who are married, they match up more times than not. Which mathematically is unlikely since only about %20 of people chosen randomly should get along, according to the charts, yet in my experience %80 of the time good relationships jive with what the chart says.
posted by stbalbach at 9:38 AM on March 20, 2003


I'm gonna pass this link over to my mother, who is an astrologer. We were talking about all of this last night, since she knows that the astrological datebook she writes every year was in use in the White House during the Regan and Bush senior years. I remember during the first Gulf War that she commented that Bush couldn't have picked a better day, astrologically, to start a war. She's under the impression that her book has returned to the White House, since Bush Jr. picked a better day to start a war than his father. Not really relevant, I guess, but I get to pass my mother off as someone famous. :)
posted by emptybowl at 9:48 AM on March 20, 2003


"You are a lovable but opportunistic and crafty Sheep. Both signs are sentimental...

This may be a miss.

"and close to their familys."

Though this is true.

"The Rat has a more outspoken and spicy disposition than the retiring Sheep, and you could turn out to be an excellent critic, writer or artist who is able to get on the good side of everyone".

This is pretty accurate. I am in fact a writer by profession and I aspire to be a novelist.

Thanks very much for your analysis; whether it's valid or not, astrology is really fun.
posted by Pinwheel at 10:18 AM on March 20, 2003


Better for the us that we are conducting our
assault in aries with the fire sign in the house
of the sheep. "Go forth as many and set aside
our enemies."

If we went as the crab that would make them run.
New argument for war to be called off...?
posted by xtian at 11:04 AM on March 20, 2003


Oh, as much as astrology pisses me, siunce I don't like the idea of some overbearing fate telling me what I can or can't do, I'm still intrigued, so here goes:

my bday is August 25th, 1981 at 8:09 pm PST

fun fun! =)
posted by ookamaka at 12:07 PM on March 20, 2003


For heaven's sake - some of you are taking this astrology crap seriously? Or am I just missing the irony this morning?

Metafilter is one of the last places I thought I would encounter such silly superstitions.

Want a scientifically valid test of stbalbach's claims? Ok - it has to be done in a double blind fashion. Get together a small group and submit a list of birthdays with no names attched. Stbalbach should then post a list of readings without the identifying dates on them. If the people who submitted the dates can recognize correctly their own reading (and the percentage who need to hit depends on the sample size - but it had to be greater than blind chance), then (and only then) I will publicly eat my words and apologize. Until then, I say you spout crap.
posted by John Smallberries at 1:01 PM on March 20, 2003


ookama

Rooster, House of the Dog

The House/Dog reading is pretty vauge. Since everyone wants specifics for this exercise, none of us know each other, instead here is your Rooster/Virgo (western) combination reading:

"This is an incredibly secure Fowl (Rooster) who has both feet firmly planted on the ground. Because both signs are virtuously eccentric, he could puzzle us with his unusual preferences as well as his perfectionism. A clear and logical thinker, he excels in mental tasks. He is the perpetual student: you can put your encyclopedia away and trust him to an absolute authority in his field or fields. He is a walking library of facts, and is seldom wrong. He will meticulously register every bit of information for posterity. A lover of charts and graphs, he is incurably performance-oriented. On the negative end, both signs are given to the peculiar pastime of faultfinding. Please keep in mind that his critque is never personal and may be just a recitation of facts. He has nothing against you. Believe it or not, he is trying to help."

Here is a general Rooster description.
posted by stbalbach at 1:54 PM on March 20, 2003


I take it your being sarcastic but they say use the local time.

No, not being sarcastic at all. Seriously have wondered about why time of birth was important and not location and thanks for the explanation. My guess would have been that the charts were based on the alignment of the stars at a very specific time, which would have indicated to me that two children born at the same time on opposite ends of the earth would have had the same indicators in personality. Oh well, don't know what time I was born anyway... :)
posted by harja at 2:20 PM on March 20, 2003


Here's a better chart and personal profile.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 2:47 PM on March 20, 2003


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