tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13184712113747135402024-03-04T20:49:55.798-08:00The North SignalAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-3809080799936590602014-09-14T06:11:00.002-07:002014-09-14T06:11:18.247-07:00The Signal Goes Home!The North Signal is back on blogger.<br />Due to recent and rather Orwellian changes, the Signal will be relocating our posts to the blogger venue and eventually to a connected website.<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-36300373010561217932014-09-07T05:11:00.002-07:002014-09-07T05:11:12.228-07:00Scotland the thick...I have resisted, so far, writing or speaking about Scottish separatism. <br />I wanted to see the general reaction. So far it seems to be polite disbelief that such idiocy and so many ingrates could exist.<br />What am I on about? Well...Some may have heard this idea promoted in it's perfumed, prettied up, transvestite form of 'nationalism' or 'independence'. This is just a pretentious spin employed by the naive, pronoid, globalist types. These people mean to remove Scotland, or some large portion of the land and people, from the United Kingdom. Dumb, you say? RETARDED, you say?<br />We'll sure.<br /><br />Yeah, you guessed it;. I think it's the most incredibly slimy, Hegelian, manipulative, and completely superficial moves in recent British history. Right up there with some of the police state stuff and along the lines of the immigration and border fiasco in the USA. A deliberate, designed crises. Built from the bottom up to exploit the idiots it sucks in.<br />Why am I opposed to the Scots cleaving their own path? <br />Here's why: Scotland IS independent. Scotland is a KINGDOM (that is a type of nation) in a UNION of KINGDOMS and PRINCIPALITIES. The single most powerful and influential such union in all of history, the UK of GB & NI. It has it's own houses of government, It's own tax codes. It's own immigration quotas. The only invasive power in Scotland is from BRUSSELS, the EU - which the Separatists want MORE OF!!!<br />What does this mean? That the entire platform of Scottish Separatism amounts to 'we're bored and need a change up, and there was this movie with this big fellow who said 'freedom' in it, and he made the Anglish look bad'. <br />The so called 'benefits' of becoming the Greenland or Nunavut of the UK, and the new doormat of the EU are non existent. I have seen NONE presented that have any actual substance, and cannot / are not connected to the current system in place. In other words, the benefits simply do not exist or would cease to upon secession of ties. <br />Such benefits where attainable, would take a long, hard, and very tough times to achieve or rebuild without the Union. Is this 'in the cards' for the 'bored', spoiled residents of e're so soft Caledonia? I think not.<br />Further, the defence issue is also central. Do these deluded hipsters with blue paint on imagine a world where they claim some portion of British might? What about their place in the commonwealth and the markets thereof? The EU?<br />No. Only a totally pronoid, post modern, Utopian MORON could think this a good move for the Scots in specific, the British in general, or the west as a whole. <br />The only groups this benefits are those that feel nation states must be abolished and replaced with some form of bloc rule. That these blocs should then be merged, like corporations.<br />Divide and rule is the method of these 'globalist' types, and this is why many of the less patient and intelligent globalists back 'sovereignty' movement like the Scots, Quebecois, Secessionists in the USA, Spain, France, etc.<br /><br />That angst and a few poorly made Hollywood anti-British pieces have managed to resurrect this old hag of a booze, treason and bad history boggles the mind. But that's today's comic book educated, whacked out, drugged up, video game addicted, raised by the television and controlled by internet access population. They who die without wifi. <br />What's their plan? They'll take a democracy pill, smoke some more love, watch some peace.com, and find the spirituality channel on the box, and the world will be fixed....or so they dream Just read the glowing optimism of these kids in the Scottish press. <br />Yeah, I said it didn't I? KIDS.<br />Look at the demographics here. KIDS. <br />So much so that these separatists want SIXTEEN YEAR OLD minors to vote in the referendum. No doubt they will, legally or not.<br />So there you have it. The exact same brand of idiots that voted for Obama in the US (TWICE) are the same idiots that will vote for Scottish separation; YOUNG, gullible, idiots. <br />Then there are the old fools who trust youth, who have 'faith' in youth...please. These people are the frogs who offer rides to scorpions (look up the folk tale if you do not understand the ref).<br />In all, I hope and pray that Scotland has enough sense left to navigate this trap.<br />If she does not - if they do not, then the divorce must be complete.<br />They must be called for what they are: Scotland the THICK.<br />Perhaps those of us left in the commonwealth could hold a ceremony once a year to commemorate the Kingdom that once was.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-52589634639193930162013-04-24T08:29:00.000-07:002013-04-24T08:31:25.337-07:00Greer and Sirius. I have to admit, I am very suspicious of anyone like Greer. <br />
Multiple reasons. <br />
His back ground. <br />
His need to profit from the information he claims to want to freely disseminate. <br />
The new age / ancient aliens dogma. <br />
The faith based LEAP to the concept that 'alien' means 'extra terrestrial', that unexplained or unknown equates to visitations by beings 'evolved on other worlds' is not only unscientific, but also fails to recognize the far more baroque and truly interesting aspects of our experienced reality.<br />
<br />
All that said, Dr Greer's new film 'Sirius' is making the rounds on the video sites all around the web, and can now been seen for no charge on a couple of major sites. <br />
I will grudgingly admit that this availability speaks to Dr Greer's integrity. <br />
If he and his producers began demanding these videos be removed and that the only source of viewing the the film became a $10 HD on Demand rental (obviously too expensive and too high bandwidth for more than 70% of the human population), the doctor's credibility would be destroyed. <br />
He must have known the video would be ripped and posted. <br />
He chose for it to happen this way. <br />
So, we can at least assume <i>he believes</i>. <br />
I may not buy his ideas, but he <i>does. </i>That makes 'Sirius' worth watching. It is an insight into a new faith. A new interpretation of the signs and wonders of the ages. <br />
A materialist, science fiction based, simplistic rendering of reality that still manages to purvey a sense of wonder - especially to young and curious minds. <br />
I don't agree with the conclusions at all. Not even close. <br />
I would also argue it encourages dangerous experimentation with altered mental states and promotes pseudo scientific occultism. That makes it a fascinating study (of the movement), if somewhat risky and Jim Jones like in it's approach. <br />
<br />
And with that introduction, below is the link to Sirius on vimeo for as long as they, and Dr Greer see fit to allow it to be shown.<br />
If you enjoy this educational viewing and would like to share it with others for whatever reason, please purchase the feed or DVD. <br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="314" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/64655063" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/64655063">Sirius Movie (Full Documentary)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user17898561">Mel</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-17205279878794374702012-01-05T08:07:00.000-08:002012-01-05T08:07:57.526-08:00Pre-History is pushed back...again.Lots of people seem to think 'we' (the academe) know all there is to know. They claim science has killed off tradition, and we are highly enlightened by comparison to our ancestors.<br />
The problem with their ideas is that science and history do not agree!<br />Prehistory, once the realm beyond 8000bc has now been stretched to at least 12,000 BC.<br />
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Enjoy and be amazed at the wisdom and beauty of our most ancient ancestors...so far!<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-45792262076062174892011-11-11T14:03:00.001-08:002011-11-11T14:03:42.538-08:00Remembrance Day 2011<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/mfjTSJsZI8A?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>As the sun sets on this first snowy day of the year, we remember our veterans living and gone.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-55880441705298458352011-09-29T04:03:00.000-07:002011-09-29T04:03:23.558-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, 'microsoft sans serif', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"></span><br />
<h1 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i>A reminder we should not take our freedom to worship (or not) as we choose lightly. </i></span></h1><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/28/facing-execution-for-crime-being-christian-in-iran/">From FOXNEWS</a></span></div><h1 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Facing Execution for the 'Crime' of Being a Christian In Iran</h1><div class="author" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By Ben Cohen</div><div class="dateline" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Published September 28, 2011 | FoxNews.com</div><div class="ad-300x250" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="1" src="http://tags.bluekai.com/site/668" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="1" /><div class="ad-context" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">advertisement</div></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 2010, the Iranian regime carried out 546 executions, more than at any other time during the preceding decade, and representing an increase of around 25 per cent on the previous year. Increasingly, execution is becoming Tehran's favored method for dealing with anyone it deems an opponent -- like Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor who has<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/28/iranian-pastor-faces-execution-for-refusing-to-recant-christian-faith/#ixzz1ZGbix2e1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"> refused to recant his Christian faith.</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/b0/2b05d938-e9e2-11e0-b716-001a4bcf6878/4e8335d1f15f7.preview-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/b0/2b05d938-e9e2-11e0-b716-001a4bcf6878/4e8335d1f15f7.preview-300.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pastor Nadarkhani's case is another grim illustration of the volatile situation faced by religious minorities living under Iran's Islamist clerics. Even though the state formally recognizes the existence of Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, these minorities are under no illusions about their subordinate status.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Since 2009, when <a class="r_lapi" href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/president-mahmoud-ahmadinejad.htm#r_src=ramp" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</a> stole Iran's election to claim a further term as the country's president, the crime of "moharebeh" -- waging war against God -- has frequently been invoked against those who question the Islamic legal codes which underpin the state. </div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pastor Nadarkhani's embrace of <a class="r_lapi" href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/relationships/christianity.htm#r_src=ramp" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Christianity</a>, is a prime example of "moharebeh," and carries the penalty of death. This is <i style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">despite the fact</b></i> that Nadarkhani maintains he has never been a Muslim as an adult. But an Islamic court has determined that he has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It's important to note that the persecution of religious minorities in Iran did not begin with Ahmadinejad. </div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ayatollah Khomeini, who led Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, was clear that abandoning Islam amounts to apostasy. </div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 1990, Hossein Soodmand, a Muslim who converted to Christianity in 1960 -- nearly two decades before Khomeini came to power -- was executed. Soodmand's fate proved that the Islamic Republic has no hesitation about acting retroactively in the face of such "crimes."</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The only way to escape the death sentence, as Pastor Nadarkhani knows, is to publicly renounce his conversion to Christianity. That he has not done so is a humbling display of his courage, for in Iran, the death sentence is the climax of a long punishment that begins in the jails of the regime.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Recent Congressional testimony by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom detailed the <a class="r_lapi" href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/cia-memos.htm#r_src=ramp" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">torture</a> and abuse faced by inmates whose offense is simply to adhere to a different faith, or to ascribe to an alternative set of political beliefs. </div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At a human rights summit in New York last week, Ahmad Batebi, a former Iranian political prisoner, gave a chilling account of his own experiences, which included having his head forced into drain filled with excrement, and being compelled to watch his friends beaten senseless in order to secure his confession.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thousands of Iranians can offer similar testimony, among them many Christians. A recent shocking case involved Vahik Abrahamian, an Armenian Pastor carrying a Dutch passport who served a year in prison, including 44 days in solitary confinement. Abrahamian's family's spoke of the "severe mental and psychological torture" which he'd faced while in jail.<br />
Arguably, the circumstances of those religious minorities who are not defined as "People of the Book" -- a term denoting those faiths which came before Islam's advent -- is even worse.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The 300,000 members of the Baha'i faith, whose religious beliefs crystallized in 19th century Persia, are regarded by Iran's rulers as virtually subhuman. Under Iranian law, the blood of a Baha'i is "mobah," which means that Bahai's can be killed with impunity.<br />
When they are not being killed, Bahai's face discrimination with few parallels elsewhere in the world. In May, for example, the regime's security forces arrested and imprisoned hundreds of Bahai's who were involved in a clandestine university that had been launched only because members of their faith are legally proscribed from attending Iranian universities.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Against this bloodstained background, Ahmadinejad again flew to New York last week to address the U.N. General Assembly. His visit sparked fervent demonstrations outside the U.N. building, with many of those present demanding his arrest; as a head of state, however, Ahmadinejad is free to come and go as he pleases.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ahmadinejad's annual jaunt to the U.N. General Assembly highlights a painful truth: as public awareness of his regime's depravity has reached unprecedented levels, the outside world has remained utterly powerless to rein him in.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"We have very little leverage in Iran," Rev. Keith Roderick, a leading advocate for the civil rights of religious minorities, told me. "Ahmadinejad is at war with the Christian church there, but our influence has diminished."</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rev. Roderick explained that on the cases of individual prisoners, intervention by Vatican or Swiss Embassy representatives in Iran can be helpful. However, the occasional act of mercy by the Iranian authorities does not change the legal or political fundamentals.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Should the Iranian regime should one day decide that it no longer needs to use its religious minorities for political window dressing, the consequences are too painful to imagine.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ben Cohen is a political analyst and commentator based in New York. He writes frequently on Iranian and Middle Eastern issue. Follow him on <a href="http://www.twitter/BenCohenOpinion" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Twitter @BenCohenOpinion</a>.</i></div><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
<br />
Read more: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/28/facing-execution-for-crime-being-christian-in-iran/print#ixzz1ZL1XHnyq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #003399; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/28/facing-execution-for-crime-being-christian-in-iran/print#ixzz1ZL1XHnyq</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-20103839113760867592011-08-16T11:00:00.000-07:002011-08-16T11:00:01.575-07:00Insiders think that claimed future NASA goals are just fake Wild West storefronts<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #e4e7f5; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.uncommondescent.com/cosmology/insiders-think-that-claimed-future-nasa-goals-are-just-fake-wild-west-storefronts/">FOUND HERE at uncommon descent.</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">At <em style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">MSNBC</em> (August 14, 2011), we are <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44136691/ns/technology_and_science-space/" style="color: #a17244; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;" target="another">told</a>, “NASA opens new office for deep space missions: In post-shuttle era, agency looks at trips to the moon, asteroids and Mars”:</div><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: dotted; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: dotted; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 10px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">To embark on its next chapter in human space exploration, NASA has created a new department to oversee manned spaceflight in the post-space-shuttle era.</div></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The department is called the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, and combines two previous organizations, the Space Operations Directorate and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">You know they’re not actually going anywhere when the big news is “office,” “department,” and “directorate.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">When NASA was going somewhere, it was A-OK! and reading Genesis, floating in space.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.rbsp.info/rbs/RbS/cv.html" style="color: #a17244; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;" target="another">Rob Sheldon</a> comments,</div><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: dotted; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: dotted; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 10px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">If you recall, George HW Bush wanted to put a man on Mars back when he became president in 1988. In 1971 Werner von Braun called all the NASA Marshall employees to a all-hands meeting in to announce we would be on Mars in 1981. So this is nothing new for NASA, but Obama has to look like he has a plan after he cancelled the Moon mission, which would have put a base on the Moon in 2020. So after abolishing George W Bush’s program that was 10 years in the making, he is merely saying we’ll do “something” by 2030. And along the way, he is “combining” (read reducing) various offices at NASA. So it looks like a cost-cutting reorg with some splashy PR about a mission, but pushed so far into the future it won’t affect his reelection or his budget.</div></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Why should NASA bother? In the newly popular multiverse isn’t everything true anyway?</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-15967544213745446532011-08-13T12:45:00.000-07:002011-08-13T12:53:09.745-07:00Dr Cleese is in the house!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/-M-vnmejwXo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Still slaying sacred cows 35+ years on.<br />
You have to hand it to Mr Cleese: Classy guy, and funny as hell!<br />
Special thanks to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Pépé </i>on <a href="http://egnorance.blogspot.com/">Egnorance</a></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-39704412868931929162011-08-12T08:27:00.000-07:002011-08-12T08:29:13.062-07:00Should we let Europe burn this time?One would have to be blind to miss the decline of the West.<br />
The USA is becoming more isolationist by the month. Economies shrink globally.<br />
Export markets have shrivelled and imports and debt have become our stock of trade.<br />
In the midst of this, like some flock of mad ostriches, the governments bury their heads in the sand and pray nto some mythical future technology or event that will 'save us'.<br />
The USA, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand watch in horror as the UK and their new masters in Europe plummet into chaos. Seasonal riots, immigrant revolts, Islamic intifada: ALL in the EU. Some leaders seem to recognize this and call for change and a REVERSAL in policy, but will it come?<br />
<a href="http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/images/eu-flag-burning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/images/eu-flag-burning.jpg" width="153" /></a>For the purposes of this post I will assume it is NOT coming. I will assume that the Federal powers of the EU are engaged in social engineering and have NO intention of preserving indigenous European culture and values. I hope I am wrong here, and I may be.... but IF I am not, should we in the Americas and Australasia run to help, AGAIN?<br />
Us backwards ignorant 'red-necks', 'bible bumpers', 'hood rats', 'cowboys', 'eskimos', and 'arrogant' North Americans in general have done it before, and could no doubt do it again, but at what cost? Millions of lives? Generations of our youth?<br />
As contradictory as it sounds: YES, we should. Why? We are next.<br />
Europe has been deracinated by socialist (national) policy. A vacuum has been created and it is now filling RAPIDLY with 'others' that will soon enough wrestle for control.<br />
Quite simply put, if we allow this to happen there - it will happen here too. Europe and our ties with her, will be used as the staging ground.<br />
Should we let Europe burn this time?<br />
For altruism: NO. For pragmatism: NO!<br />
We must NOT let Europe burn again, even if that means preventing it with FORCE. <br />
If we do allow the downfall, it will be at our own peril.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-16761062603481881632011-08-11T12:54:00.000-07:002011-08-11T12:54:54.128-07:00Upside of a Downturn I: TV / MediaWe live in a market driven society. Known as many things since it's inception, with all sorts of ever expanding and changing 'principles' it has provided our (Christian/Western) cultures with much wealth and material prosperity. It has provided us with more, as well: A means to provide <i>security. </i>Most commonly it is called 'capitalism'.<br />
This area of great cultural strength seems to be suffering a setback recently. We are being weakened by our economies. Some would suggest it is our enemies, unable to attack us militarily, who seek to destroy us by destroying our material wealth and strangle us with trade agreements and debt. Others would suggest the system itself is to blame; failed or flawed in one way or another. <br />
The whole idea is scary, and there obviously many negative 'changes' on their way. Adaptations will be made, some painful. Prosperity must be exchanged for Austerity. Not a nice switch.<br />
But, as in all clouds there are silver linings to this storm.<br />
In this series of posts, you will encounter my more optimistic side (yes there is one, you snarky @$$holes). <br />
I will attempt to discover some of the positives we may encounter, as we roll back our ambitions and change our focus as cultures and as a broader civilization. I will suggest that, as an inevitable consequence of our prolonged prosperity, we have suffered from a horrid form of cultural malaise known as 'affluenza', and that like a cold (rather than flu) this bug is beaten by staying hungry, not getting fatter.<br />
I will suggest that if we stay resolute and hold fast to our diminished roots, this collapse may just be a fall - and not only can we get back up from a fall - but we can get back up with rediscovered strength and passion. That we can not only recover what we lost in our opiated slumber, but go beyond and be even greater than before. <br />
The signs of this reawakening will be subtle, cultural, and obviously many will be driven by economics. Simply put: Austerity (pulling in the belt) forces people to think ahead. They do not have imagine what they would do in a hard situation - they are in one. We are talking about a great 'bursting of bubbles' here, or the potential for that. <br />
<br />
In the first part I will write on TV, Film, and visual media (music videos etc).<br />
No one with the slightest bit of taste could deny the general decline in quality of visual media over the last two decades. Stupid, simplistic, empty, and blatantly politically motivated programming have dominated the airwaves. The 'Geezer' TV of the 60-80's seems Shakespeare by comparison. <br />
Most critics and pundits claim market forces are to blame for this. The old 'root of all evil' .<br />
Mum and Dad's wallet to be precise. Or, you could say it was spoiled brats.<br />
Spoiled brats who grew up and spoiled their own brats. <br />
The idea is to sell - and to sell ideas. Not new or profound, but on a never before seen scale.<br />
The 'tween' became the new target market. They were easy prey.<br />
If you were selling soda/pop, candy bars, minivans, TV's, vacations, or even adult clothes little ms missy and junior HAD to be taken into account. Still do. DVD players in your truck? Disney Cruise? Gangsta Rap videos playing in your hybrid van on the way to the magic kingdom?<br />
More and more media was influenced by this desire to apply the economic pressure of advertising on kids/ preteens, and teens. It became normal to see 'cute' images of children hurling their dinner at the wall, or 'cute' teenage brats demanding new electronics and clothes, bitchy little girls demanding this or that while both parents scramble, or the whipped and henpecked idiot father yanking out the plastic for worldy and ( but still a 'big kid') mum's 'retail therapy' sessions.<br />
Hilarity! ....<br />
*coughs*<br />
This is the NORM now. If anyone is getting steamed at this, it is not because I describe some future horror, but that they feel I am somehow being mean spirited. Judgemental etc. Not so. I am as culpable as the rest of the market. As any of the readers. Just as guilty, but maybe a tad more honest with myself than those who see no flaws in what I have described above. I have laughed at the lame assertions and vague references as if these were 'inside' jokes. I have had plenty of chances to indulge myself in bohemian pursuits, and taken more than a few! I am no saint or pure spirit who is above all this, and cannot look down on this mess; but rather only about.<br />
What I see is a society that has taken it a step further again.<br />
We now design our film, TV, and visual media in general to attract this 'market' and hold them.<br />
The advertisements, once a filler and means to produce 'timeslots' on TV, are now the programming.<br />
The result? We have all seen it, and changed the channel. Hard stuff to watch sober.<br />
So where is the optimism? What was this about a silver lining?<br />
Okay. <br />
Well the storm clouds have been described. In order for the storm to break, the rains to fall, and the silver lining or rainbow to show itself, mum and dad have to be too POOR to give a damn; or less of a damn. Little Ms Missy and Junior will have to play with toys, not 50' Plasma screens. Read some BOOKS not snuff or porn sites. Meet some REAL flesh and blood people, not just internet pals. The economic engine will have to step back a decade or two, just to sell us the goods - just to keep some semblance of their wealth alive. The alternative, to continue to market to kids and overgrown kids with no means of payment, will result in collapse and out-competition.<br />
Once things get perceivably tougher, people become more realistic; more pragmatic. I have seen this many times in operations and in the field. People are shaken out of their complacency and malaise, and forced to wake up or retreat into fantasy land where some technology or (usually scifi or religious) event rescues us (2012, Green energy etc). Those that wake up face a scary, but beautiful and BIG new world full of risk and wonder.<br />
Right now we are not quite there yet, as a populace. Not quite awake.<br />
Most people still prefer the dream; to place their faith in hope. <br />
They hope there will be a reprieve and they will not face such hardships as their parents, but they know better in their hearts. They enjoy while they can, what they can. Still, they know something is in the wind. <br />
The markets know it too, and they are changing their targets.. They are contracting and restricting.<br />
they are shutting down or controlling areas once their focus. Consider the, internet for example. While it grows in size and ability, it diminishes in 'freedoms' and just the areas previously built up for the 'spoiled brat' market: video, networking, gaming, Big corps launch infringement suites and hacker revolts create security backlashes. <br />
The markets are beginning to react, as they always do.<br />
They begin to refocus.<br />
When they do, there is a real potential for change.<br />
One such change I hope for is a more creative and adult visual arts scene.<br />
What do I hope to see more of on my TV and at the big screen?<br />
<ul><li>Adult plots in dramas, adult comedy and satire, and adult news coverage. When I write 'Adult' I mean adult, not XXX or pornographic. </li>
<li>Political pundits with an education that speak in sentences and do not simply recite talking points. Less sneering and more real engagement on the issues. </li>
<li>Comedies with real people, who have jobs, and are in realistic situations (e farce/sit coms) and less kiddy comedies with penis jokes for the grey haired kids in the audience. Cartoons (adult and kiddy) that don't make Fred Flinstone look like a Da Vinci. </li>
<li>Scifi and fantasy that doesn't try to neatly explain everything away with some current/trendy political or scientific theory. </li>
<li>An ORIGINAL film or two on an interesting (not simply nostalgic) subject- not a shitty retelling of a classic. (If we <i>must</i> retell, do so FAITHFULLY and LITERATELY so there is a reason to read the book or watch the play - otherwise watch the old film and learn something about the past.)</li>
<li>Music videos and styles presented for an over 30 audience. Less giggling thonged buttocks, less fish eye lens thugs, less 'mo' mo' mo'', less twitching 'diva heads' and more of what people actually listen to who can pay for it. I suspect more R&b, blues, jazz, contemp, pop, rock, even metal. </li>
<li>Brand new ideas in gaming designed to attract older gamers and provide them with a good 'fix' for a busy day. A return of many 'old school' gaming ideas that require less hardware and resources to play; that can be played online or stored on a card/chip/pen etc.<br />
Maybe JUST maybe the return of the arcade... and even pinball, bowling, or skate parks???....(fingers crossed here)</li>
<li>Speaking of games, how about the return of REAL RPG's and board games?</li>
<li>Food! Who could forget food. Less bullshit health trends and fast food. More filling, tasty, homecooked FOOD. Mum, Dad, and the kiddies could even find themselves at a table? Perhaps I hope for too much too fast.<br />
</li>
</ul><div>Those are the possible silver linings. If we can recover enough of our foundations and dignity to march on and live with and enjoy what we have - we could just come out of this hardship BETTER than before. Our kids could inherit a world were material things are not as important as family, education, love, and purpose. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV3V9kIKhNaEJXyKM5d_swukt-p_2g4fQPDlbuRnz35LASWlKviCffm6q4HmjGntHpDcdvWh7SHoe1QZKmvBhufwLLdxrLwr6p-KB-yZlS98ROsnLR081X0DsIRB8zXypnmChFim-uSTSa/s230/shit+tv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV3V9kIKhNaEJXyKM5d_swukt-p_2g4fQPDlbuRnz35LASWlKviCffm6q4HmjGntHpDcdvWh7SHoe1QZKmvBhufwLLdxrLwr6p-KB-yZlS98ROsnLR081X0DsIRB8zXypnmChFim-uSTSa/s230/shit+tv.jpg" /></a></div><div>This could be a BIG upside to the Downturn!<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-30007956746560908262011-07-28T06:34:00.000-07:002011-07-28T06:40:37.221-07:00Madman - real issues<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">I wrote this little blurb on one of <a href="http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/07/27/jonathan-kay-on-sex-and-slaughter-how-breiviks-sex-phobic-manifesto-echoes-mein-kampf-2/#Comments">Canada's big daily's</a> and thought it might interest the folks at the Signal.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">First allow me to state I have skimmed, and am now reading this 'maifesto' for professional reasons; otherwise I would not defile my senses with such madness. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">While I will agree there is a connection (w/Hitler's book) with sexual obsession and this kind of madness, there is no doubting that some of these issues are real (STD, Promiscuity, childless parents, crime, cultural issues, immigration backlash, sex slavery etc) and they are very important issues. We cannot simply, as a society, ignore these problems.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">One reason we cannot pretend there is no problems is that maniacs like this are a DIRECT result! These circumstances enabled this murderer; gave him an excuse, and obsession.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">We seem to have no problem grasping that opportunism when it comes to international and Muslim terror groups, but when it comes to a white man who is a self described Christian, we seem to miss the point ENTIRELY. Could it be there is a little post colonial guilt or even RACISM in these bleached progressive bones we call a culture?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">This man did NOT do these things because he was white, Christian, read Darwin, Mill, or Orwell; or because had issues with social morality.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">His motives are clear as day: He did mass-murder for attention/fame/infamy. He killed 85+ kids for a gruesome publicity stunt. For his publicity statements post arrest, he used the common politics, religion, and racial rational. POPULAR stuff, really.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">We may act shocked by the ideas in this book, but that is not being honest. We have ALL heard these ideas about before. In the bar, at the water cooler etc etc. Who has not heard someone say 'well he was crazy to go that far, but...' But WHAT? But, the issues are real enough and controversial enough. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">But reason is not what Breivick is about: This guy is a perfectly modern sociopath, a product of nu Europa. Child of the liberal elite, JUST like his victims. <br />
His murder costume was as a <i>Christian Conservative</i>. Want a picture of madness? Do the Freud or Jung on THAT one folks!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">He KNEW that millions of people would read his book. He knew people would react.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">This man is literally a maniac who preaches sexual abstinence and meets with call girls, who calls for Social Darwinism and then describes himself as a Christian Knight, who wants to liberate Europe form a cultural invasion by 'Muslims' by killing EUROPEAN children as 'punishment', and who dresses up like an imaginary Knight to make himself look important. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 18px;">In closing I will say this: There is an element here (in these posts / media in general) that wants to lay blame. They want to point fingers, ban books, enforce ideas. Just like this murderer, they see an opportunity - an opportunity to use the deaths of these children to defame people of faith and of legitimate conservative political values. Most of them are just conformist tools, parroting off what they think is edgy or subversive, but some of them harbour very deep seated hatreds and spew them openly. I urge all my fellow Christians and ALL Canadians to be VERY aware and subtle in the coming days and weeks, as I honestly fear there could be a backlash, copycat, or reprisal due to the statements of this horrible crime. Keep your eyes open and report anyone saying or acting crazy in that respect. Remember the hate crime laws of this country are there to protect ALL the faithful, not just minorities.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-12795997780726251892011-07-27T10:24:00.000-07:002011-07-27T12:06:46.999-07:00A vacation? ME? NO!?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Yes folks. Your favourite Crusader will be taking a vacation.<br />
Not for a good time yet, but it is on the distant horizon.<br />
It has been a LONG time since I have travelled simply for pleasure, and I am literally starting to look into destinations already. One week with the Mrs our new little guy, and In-laws, and another 'on the loose'. Looks like I will have some company in the way of my grown son and maybe even an old friend or my brother in law and his lads.<br />
But WHERE will I go?<br />
Still working that out. But it will be in the winter...so SOUTH.<br />
I am going to post some pics of where it COULD be and see if any of you computer savvied or well heeled travel types may just recognize it!<br />
<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-30501063826649889442011-07-27T09:36:00.000-07:002011-07-27T09:36:53.990-07:00What or WHO is this 'Science'?Science! SCIENCE!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.metrolic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/madscientist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="http://www.metrolic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/madscientist.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>What a profound word that is. A <i>LOADED </i>word like 'nature', 'world', 'child', 'love', or even to some degree like 'God'. It is a word we here used all the time. 'The science behind this...' or 'according to modern science', or even 'thanks to science', spoke like a prayer of Grace or thanks*. I have even heard, recently, the most ridiculous yet, in a kids game called 'Portal 2'. 'You saved science', says one of the most irritating fictional robots in the history of scifi. 'Saved' it, eh? Must be alive too!<br />
'Science' is everywhere.<br />
It seems often times people are calling <i>his name, </i>not talking about the <i>method</i> I am thinking of <i>.</i>Who or what is this much invoked person or principle?<br />
Science, as <i>I think of it</i>, is the attempt to make useful categories of knowledge about the universe we experience and sense (feel, see, smell, touch, and otherwise perceive). It is information gained by inductive experimentation and research and is embodied by Bacon's <i>Method. </i>When I think of science, I think of men like Newton. What is it's purpose/function? Science's <i>only</i> purpose is to better the life of the people who pay for /support it. There is no such thing as 'for the sake of science' or 'saving science' to me, as science is not a living thing. But real PROXIMATE science, <i>my</i> science - is useful. <br />
For example, there is medical science. Medical science is funded by governments and taxpayers to research cures, preventatives, palliatives, surgeries, etc etc for the good of the public. The Doctors of Medicine make an oath like Judge, Soldier, Lord, or Police officer. They declared their <i>scientific</i> ideology for all to see. Any doctor who violates this oath is no Doctor <i>at all</i>.<br />
So what about other types of scientists? Well, they may swear allegiance for a club or board. They may make arbitrary oaths to various groups of peers, but nothing like the physicians do, and even the Hippocratic oath has been watered down in recent years; which is in itself a very nasty indicator of things to come.<br />
Do Astronomers need a binding oath and laws to back it? Chemists? Geologists? Fossil hunters? Diggers of Ruins? Collectors of bugs?<br />
Maybe - Maybe not. Maybe these studies are apolitical and remote enough that they don't. I don't see why an oath would hurt, but I cannot see the immediateness in the need.<br />
But what about (nuclear/particle) physicists? What about microbiologists? What about ballistics engineers? Robotics engineers? Genetic engineers? <i>Social Engineers? </i><br />
These new 'disciplines' all hold the potential to be both extremely dangerous and beneficial. What happens if they are USED by power hungry minds to fuel movements and broader ideologies?<br />
The answer has been, and no doubt will be, catastrophic.<br />
This leads me to another thought: Academic Hybridization.<br />
There are many pseudo sciences (fake, semi-scientific metaphysical pursuits) masquerading as 'hybrid' studies in today's academe. They are actually philosophies/ideals with an academic stake or axe to grind. They are usually materialistic/naturalistic ideals, but there has been more than a few theological based ones over the <i>centuries</i>. They are always about power.<br />
A popular 19th and 20th century one was called 'social Darwinism', and was advocated by the Nazis in Germany and Eugenicists world wide. Social Darwinism was the ideal behind the the horrific holocaust of the handicapped in the Third Reich. Designed to save the Aryan race (The idealized European in Nazi eyes) from a some imaginary decline into idiocy and foreign dominance, this disgusting embrace of cold barbarism was justified by declaring the sky was falling. A socially engineered problem (declining birth rates etc) was shown to be an indicator of an impending cultural apocalypse, and the social engineers stepped in to fix it. They broke the system and it was reformed in a new and horrific one. They did not do this all at once, but drip fed the ideas to the public for years through the media and education systems. They <i>used </i>the academe to deliver their ideas to the masses.<br />
People today blame these horrors on Hitler, a mere facilitator and figure head, but the men/women and ideas who committed the atrocities were already in place, for decades. The efficient systems for killing they created, in turn, facilitated the Nazi's racial genocides.But before the Jews and gypsies and long after: People rounded up and 'put down' because of 'idiocy' or 'defects', like a lost limb or blindness (or homosexuality). Others, more useful to the state, were simply sterilized against their will and/or locked in 'asylums'. <br />
You think we would learn to at least avoid <i>this</i> garbage, wouldn't you? I mean, after WWII and all that hell.<br />
At least how they sell it?<br />
No such luck.<br />
In 2011 AD we see the creep of the <i>very same </i>pseudo science. Not only alive, but thriving.<br />
Now under the new, PC, consumer friendly repackaging. Now it is 'Evolutionary Psychology'. Well just about any outfit that tries to sell as 'Evolutionary- <i>anything</i>'...<br />
You know the lobby? <br />
The one with the guys who say you are nothing more than a brain? The ones who say 'morality, even consciousness is all an illusion' (you're imagining your imagination). Love, beauty, art, even altruism is all instincts to these folks; evolved from behaviour patterns that help us survive. <br />
Survive for what?<i>To replicate. </i><br />
For what/why? <i>Because shit happens!</i> (how PROFOUND)<br />
The supernatural you say? <i>Just illusions and delusions</i>. <br />
Purpose? <i>None.</i><br />
I find this hard to reconcile with reality! <i>That's because you're stupid and probably have some disorder.</i><br />
<br />
Okay...so other than being arrogant, depressing and banal / boring as all hell, and being built on assumption rather than science; what do these Evolutionary Psychologists have in common with Social Darwinism? <br />
Lots!<br />
First off they base their ideas on Darwinian natural selection models: The fittest survive. <br />
Also,both groups are CONVINCED they have it <i>all </i>figured out; and I mean <i>ALL</i>. Origins.The soul. Life/death. ALL of it.<br />
These folks make the Pope look like a dithering agnostic.<br />
All you have to do is read their 'stuff' to get it. You'll quickly find the sky is falling again.<br />
Oh yes! There is something going on and we need to let them fix it for us. The tale goes like something like<br />
'<i>It seems that some unknown group of minds (usually portrayed as Christian & Conservative) has allowed progress to run rampant and pollute the planet. Millions of tonnes of junk have been produced for landfill. Our oceans are getting billions of gallons of shit dumped in them, there is too much fuel burning, and the atmosphere is hot and toxic in many places it wasn't. So what do we do? We <b>must</b> summon the wise scientists and they will help us breed new seeds that can take the pollution and waste."</i>So we are told to go to the men who got us <i>INTO </i>this mess to get us <i>OUT. </i>Having been shot, to seek the gunman for a cure. Okay, I don't buy it, but let's follow that rabbit down the hole.<br />
So? What is this 'way out'? For most of us, the obvious answer would seem to be a reversal of course. To turn some aspects about. To temper our personal ambitions. To rush a little less, to live a little more.<br />
Eat a little less, use less fuel, recycle, grow our own food, and maybe spend a little more time in the real world with people we love. We didn't ask for a lot of this 'stuff', and we are more than happy to do without. I mean I like big Mac's, but you don't have to burn Brazil so I can have one. I'll cook my own burger. I like the internet nice and fast, but you don't have to fill the air with microwaves to do it.<br />
It is only 'stuff', after all. <br />
Other people, love and immaterial things are what most people find important in life.<br />
Not these guys. <br />
Progress <i>must</i> continue in the straight line form for them. We must advance for the sake of 'science'!<br />
There can by no cycles, nor altering of course. We MUST progress!<br />
We must alter nature's design's to <i>our course, </i>in this thinking. Biologically, we must change the genes of plants and animals (even ourselves) to suite our increasingly degraded environments. It may kill off the natural creatures and even change the environment completely , but we will deal with that the 'science becomes available'. New worlds will appear for us to devour and use for 'progress'. <br />
Progress towards WHAT?<br />
This mad logic is extended to man, in Evolutionary Psychology. <br />
Man is simply a product of his environment and can be made to fit into an efficient one, it is argued. There are many natural behaviours that can lead to fulfilment, we are told by the EP crowd. Not all of them are current. Some of the current ones are now deemed 'outmoded'. Like Marriage or parenthood for example. Other behaviours could be perhaps re-awakened for the enjoyment of the masses. Some of these behaviours may make living in a purposeless, overcrowded, culture-less, polluted hell-hole better; well, that is the argument. <br />
Now, eat your GM lunch and LIKE it, Citizen!<br />
What could these new future freedoms look like? Well drugged out, <i>of course</i>! Promiscuous, definitely!<br />
But there's more; much more.<br />
Dr Singer, perhaps the most famous evolutionary psychologist and advocate of this pseudo science, has made arguments in favour of 'post natal abortion' (up to 3 years of age) and 'animal human' sexual relations as natural, but suppressed behaviours. There is no application of morality to infanticide or bestiality, rather a genetic advantage to keeping that behaviour in a 'back up' capacity...currently.<br />
Obviously NOTHING is off the table in securing the happiness of a futurist Utopia. <br />
Problems? Never mind, 'science' will solve the ALL.<br />
Could it be that these folks really believe that much in this mystical person of science they feel an answer MUST be forthcoming to all their problems?<br />
Whatever there reasoning it does not sound like the science I know and enjoy. It sounds like a faith in matter, in solids and liquids and gasses to resolve themselves in favour of the the 'scientist' invoking 'science'.<br />
The correct term for these folks is not Atheist, Darwinist, Naturalist, or Evolutionary<i> this or that</i>, it is Materialists; Promissory Materialists to be precise. All the former terms are descriptives of types, not nature. They are sub categories of the same faith. <br />
The word for what they do is not 'science' it is tautology. They tell stories about OTHER people's science and research. Stories about a past they cannot begin to fathom, and a future they cannot possibly know.<br />
Their motive? Tools don't have motives, they are simply used by those with motives.<br />
Like the Social Darwinists of the 20th century the Evolutionary Psychologists (and even many Biologists) of the 21st are being used to forward an agenda loaded with scientific pretensions. In order to set up this faith in technology and the future, the word and idea 'science' has been transformed into a semi-religious, ideologically pregnant concept. Science must now be saved, and can now save us. If Science is used correctly it can save people, feed the hungry, and cure illness.<br />
"Science save us all from the wrath of the South Men!"?<br />
So Where is He? This Science? Maybe we are just imagining him in our imaginary imaginations.<br />
Make sense?<br />
Not for I. I will continue to rely on HUMANS and living beings for my welfare, and pray to a Creator known to my ancestors since time immemorial. I will have faith that if life should stumble, or fall - it will rise again; That there is a purpose and meaning to life, no matter how mysterious. And, of course, that 'science' is a method and means (if limited) to understand our world, not it's meaning.<br />
<br />
*<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Much less rarely do we hear the honest 'scientists think/speculate', or 'scientists think that one day...'.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Even then, many times the 'scientists' that are quoted they are nothing of the sort. They are researchers with a theory.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-52190346361673511502011-07-24T15:29:00.000-07:002011-07-24T15:29:02.288-07:00The horror in Oslo<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has only been a few hours since the horrific and murderous rampage of a certain <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">Anders Behring Breivik. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">This maniac planted explosives in government and press buildings in his nations capital, Oslo. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">His intent, it seems, was to 'punish indigenous' Europeans for allowing (truly) massive amounts of Muslims to migrate there in the last few decades. He decided to 'punish' them by killing Norwegian children at a summer camp, 85+ of them. The bombs killed another 8-10. All innocent lives lost to madness of a lone nutter.<br />
The reaction from the Norwegian people was simply shock and horror, as encapsulated in the quote from CTV news here:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">"Norway's King Harald V and his wife Queen Sonja and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg joined mourners on Sunday at Oslo Cathedral, where the pews were packed, and the crowd spilled into the plaza outside the building. The area was strewn with flowers and candles, and people who could not fit in the grand church huddled under umbrellas in the rain."</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><br />
The loss of so many children at once will forever scar the people of Oslo. They are a tough bunch, but this is </span></span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">children</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"> of whom I write, and <i>NOTHING</i> can prepare a parent for that. A Hundred parents? Like </span></span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">this? </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">At least there is strength in community, numbers, and faith.<br />
truly heartbreaking.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">The murderer himself?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><br />
I have, unfortunately, skimmed his 'manifesto' pdf now and cannot see a common thread all the way through, it is ALL over the place. No Marx. No Hitler. More like Manson. <br />
Due perhaps to this insanity, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Breivik (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">thankfully!) seems to be unconnected to any larger group or movement. So far his 'Knights' and 'associates' have all denied knowledge of him, or proved non-existent.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">There is no green banner, no symbol, no leader. So, for this we should be thankful.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"> In short: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Breivik's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">writings (his 1500 page 'manifesto') are utter madness: First he is a racist fascist, then a liberal anti-racist, then a 'Templar Knight' on a 'Crusade', and then a Mason who is in favour of charity, and LOTS of anti Muslim stuff; literally ALL over the place and replete will all sorts of photoshopped images. A maniac who seems to have been reinventing himself over and over.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">All this madness and pent up rage eventually resulted in him acting out in an act of murder and Evil. Now he has been caught, and they are actually </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">listening</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"> to him; giving him an audience. 'Why?' they ask. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">His responses have led the grossly incompetent Oslo police officials (who DROVE for 30 minutes to the scene while helicopters buzzed about officials and investigated an overturned boat) to say he is a 'Christian </span></span><i style="line-height: 20px;">fundamentalist</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">' (my emphasis). <br />
Yeah that's right. Not an extremist, fanatic, or terrorist - but a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><i>fundamentalist</i>, you know like those people at the church (the victims families), ministers, friars, saints, nuns, and Mother Teresa? WTF? This guy does not even get DOMESTIC terror, how the HELL is he supposed to protect the Norwegian people from foreign ideological groups? </span>I am not trying to say this guy could not have held Christian beliefs or attend Church(?), he writes he is and does.<br />
But, he was no practising Christianity as he massacred children; and to assert Christian beliefs drove him to this Evil demonstrates CLEARLY just how THICK these cops are and how irresponsible the media are about their language use. Nor did the fact his hair was blonde have much to do with the news, but it was reported by EVERY media outlet I scanned today. What was news is he was Norwegian. Why was that such a shock? WHO did we expect to see in Norway, if NOT a blonde haired, blue eyed, Christian man? <br />
These are important questions that tie in with the madman's motives.... but they will not get the 'limelight'. Modern Europe is all about burying it's collective(ist) head in the sand. Those with pretentious social agendas will have no problem turning this into a great straw man debate on religious rights and a back patting session for progressives. Like vultures, they will not even wait till the dead are cold. In fact they have already begun, hence the 'fundamentalist' comments and the PRESS surrounding them. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, for those who wish to politicize this event and blame it on 'Christian Fundamentalist' thinking, I suggest you consider the differencs and consult your powers of reason (if available).<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">Consider: There was no organization jumping up to claim the responsibility (well there WAS actually a Jihadist group that later detracted the note), no national holidays in Iran or Iraq, no dancing in the street, no religious leaders calling for blood and the death of entire races and/or peoples, no Presidents firing assault rifles off the palace balconies, no candy being handed out in celebration. There was collective shock and horror from the Christian nations and Churches of the West (the fundamentalists). This was no 9/11, 7/7, Bali, or Madrid. This was no act of fundamentalist religious sect (certainly not REMOTELY Christian in foundations) , but of a lone murderer who want's us to buy his garbage book on politics. A Maniac so narcissistic he would kill children to write his name into history..... </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">The horror in Oslo can not be blamed on any one but the killer, and that seems to fall short. <br />
So in our human need for justice, we seek to broaden the scope. 'Who enabled this? Who emboldened or inspired him?' are the questions law enforcement and security in Oslo <i>want</i> us to ask, but perhaps the most important question is really 'how did this nut get through, and how do / can we stop this from happening again?' This line obviously leads to 'how did HOURS of youtube, blogs, forums, and facebook danger signals go unnoticed? How did he get the hollow point rounds? How did get the police kit/uniform?' Much less embarrassing for police to discuss religious fundamentalism (ie freedoms) vs. individual rights.<br />
The blame game will go right around. Who knows who will end up being slurred with associations?<br />
But in the end, the dead are still dead and evil has been done to the innocent.<br />
All we can do is hope and pray that the policy makers learn from this in some way that may save lives in the future, and that the cowardly killer of children who committed this act pays in both this world <i>and </i>the next. </span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-70194325294809847572011-07-14T09:16:00.000-07:002011-07-14T09:39:30.941-07:00The Angel of DeathHistory is full of enigmatic, information-bearing events.<br />
To the uninitiated, these may seem like events that replay themselves over and over in some insane regression. In fact, I think this is one of the reasons so many people find the study of history 'tedious' and boring; or even 'horrible'.<br />
But as a farmer or hunter loves his bloody work, so do I love mine.<br />
For me as a young man, history was a<i> passion</i>. The older and more remote: The better.<br />
Prehistory fascinated me.<br />
I loved the tales of the most ancient order. <br />
I can remember being a boy of eight, and listening to my dad read The Odyssey – chapter by chapter, night after night one summer.<br />
He had suggested I read it one day, as I seemed to love all things Roman and Greek. Legions in Africa and Gaul, the Spartans at Thermopylae were standard fare in 'boys books' and comics when I was a lad, and I loved those sword and sandals style stories, the stories of the medieval period, and those of the great periods of exploration.<br />
Our passion for the Classical period was an overlap of mine and my father's tastes. I found Homer's book on his shelves and tried. It was too much for my eight year old mind to grasp. I read the words but they confronted me with strange realities. How to even pronounce the names?<br />
What is a boy to do? I asked him if he would see fit to read it to me.<br />
I can remember him saying he would try, but would stop the very moment he saw me lose interest. It was not to happen. Once I had the characters fairly clear in my minds eye, the story had me hooked. Not only me, but Grandad – who we were living with at the time – also kept popping his head in our den, ostensibly to bring tea and such, but eventually to sit and listen with me.<br />
I was <i>hooked</i>. Two degrees and years of post grad later, I am still an avid student more than instructor of history. I am still learning, although I try to share what I have learned.<br />
Some of these lessons are enlightening and happy. Others are dark, mysterious, and even <i>evil.</i><br />
One of the most commonly understood lessons that posterity teaches is the simple: History that is forgotten or wilfully ignored will repeat itself. There are many colourful versions of this thought throughout the history of Christian (IE Western) culture.<br />
The lesson here is of The Angel of Death.<br />
Not the Biblical Angel called forth by Moses the final plagues on the house of Egypt, but a man who lived within the memory of those alive today.<br />
The Angel of Death that is referred to herein, is a certain 'Doctor' Josef Mengele.<br />
I have use the inverted commas on the term Doctor, as he was such in Degree/Title only.<br />
The Oath of Hippocrates was not his creed. The Schultz Staffel was.<br />
But our little journey through the darkness does not begin with Hauptsturmführer Mengele, and his stain on infamy. It began centuries before. In the dawn of the modern age.<br />
During the High Medieval and Renaissance period human cruelty reached long lost technical heights. Methods imported from around the world and studied with sadistic efficiency combined with new and potent psychological concepts came into play.<br />
The method of delivery for these first sick experiments in pain threshold, living biology, and mental endurance/tolerance was improved and pushed into new levels; but the ideas were ancient. People had been doing horrible things to animals in the name of religion, diet, and sheer curiosity for as long as can be remembered. Extending this to other men and women? Just a matter of <i>when </i>this sadism shows it's face, and what pretence it will use to justify it's existence.<br />
In the high medieval, it was morality and religion.<br />
Gone were the days of the Reconquest and the justifiable Crusades in defence of the holy land and home.<br />
Now all was about conquest.<br />
That was not ideologically pure, and for that reason there had to be a work around. <br />
Some reason to allow themselves to do what they knew was selfish and barbaric. They used the medium of the time. Religion. Religion and it's close cousin: philosophy. This was a slippery slope and we are still sliding down it.<br />
While I will grant the overall outcome of the conquest of the New World has been beneficial (it certainly has for my people and family) the initial justifications introduced had a lot of very nasty side effects. Ideas that had been considered reprehensible were reasoned into morality by weighing options.<br />
This same relativism can and will be applied to other areas. It will spread, like all ideas do; even if resisted.<br />
I will use analogy to speed up the explanation. I will use the 'Conquest' as an example.<br />
<b>Moral Problem:</b>The desperate needs of the many subjects of Imperial Spain (example) outweigh the needs of the fewer Caribbean Natives. Their resources must be annexed, but to kill people and steal their belongings is against all the moral teachings of the European Nations. <br />
<b>Justification:</b> The Caribbean Natives are of a 'lower order of men' due to their lack of knowledge, morality, and religion. They must be converted and/or enslaved (for private venture, but taxed), or killed. Rules to be determined later. The native lands and property shall be annexed by the the regional or military powers. <br />
<b>Repercussions:</b>Aside from the horrible suffering, a vast increase in the use of slavery and indentured labour created a market for more slaves than the island populations could supply, thereby increasing trade with the Arab West African (mortal enemy at the time) slavers, but also creating and entirely new market for the capture and sale of 'Indian' slaves in South and Central America. The evil grew and metastasized.<br />
So what the F does this have to do with a Nazi guy or cutting people up in experiments?<br />
Good question.<br />
Here's the parallel, you see: Just as the slavery infected and corrupted the ventures of the Crowns and Churches of Europe, so did this other form of evil.<br />
Just as the Natives of the 'New World' and West Africa had been dehumanized for sale and exploitation, so had an old favourite: The Heretic.<br />
In reality these people usually had enemies in high places, or were the mob picked hapless victims of the the notorious blood circuses of the <i>auto-da-fé </i>and other such displays of barbarism. Not many were actually heretics of any sort. The real Heretics were usually quite good at hiding, especially in the areas that bordered or where formerly Moorish.<br />
During these horrible periods of disemboweling and decapitations, the scientific minds took note. <br />
I mean that literally. They took notes. An information source for anatomy was discovered. There was benefits to being able to see living things ripped apart, and now there was an excuse to do it to humans! Religion was used as a tool to achieve the justification, reason and sophistry to apply it selectively, and science to observe the results. Well, it was a <i>new</i> excuse, anyway.<br />
Even after the Churches, Academia, and even some of the most powerful Crowns of Europe cast off these evils, and returned to a more morally guided path, the demand for the labour of slaves and the information (often called intelligence in my circles) gleaned from carnage still existed. <br />
A quite vacuum, in constant balance with laws designed to keep those cruel markets closed.<br />
Reasons, economic and social, were found to force people to work in far off lands and march boys into coal mines. Slavery's demand was met with criminals and 'Negroes', who were now scientifically being argued as 'racially'sub-human.<br />
Brutal torture and vivisection was no longer religiously justified. <br />
Those damn priests always go back to their book, and it says 'NO” to such bloody sport. <br />
There needed to be a more EARTHLY and less far less limited justification!<br />
No now Evil was <i>politically</i> endorsed. The Church had been taught it's place by the Crowns and State Houses of Europe, and now <i>they</i> would control that avenue. There was a new upsurging class; The Bourgeois. A new demand for medicine and doctors, and more demand for cadavers and the gory rites of vivisection. The new scapegoat, in human terms, was the 'traitor', or any capitol offence deemed nasty enough. But newly popular was the scientific justification for the animal cruelty that goes under this name. There had been no acceptable reasoning for the live butchery of animals since Constantine banned it. <br />
All excuses had seemed savage by comparison to the sage and humane laws of the First Holy Emperors of Rome. But Rome was a long way back in the 18th and 19th century, and Science was a damn good excuse. A new word began to make the rounds: <i>progress!</i><br />
New heights were reached during this period. Not just of means to deliver pain, and prolong suffering; but also of anatomy performed on the still warm and even living bodies of the 'prisoners'. These observations did not result in great leaps in proximate medicines and in understanding of the function of our organs, as one might suspect. While the use of cadavers became popular for anatomists centuries ago, the gains have all been far more recent.<br />
While vivisection of beasts has been used since at least Bronze age Greece, it also has only seen very recent and limited uses. An ultrasound or MRI of the interior of a man or pig is not only of more use that a dying organism, but also recordable and replayable – unlike the man or pig.<br />
The most recent upsurge in this horrible trend has been during the 20th Century and into the Early 21st.<br />
In this age of Racialism, Multiculturalism, Objectivism, and Communism; of polar ideological 'styles' and never ending political excuses we have seen a forceful return of these evils.<br />
We have seen the rise of The Third Reich within living memory, for example.<br />
That brings us back to Herr 'Doktor' Mengele.<br />
The man held the rank of Captain in Himmler's SS, and was in charge of medical experiments at Auschwitz concentration camp. He had proved his ability as a surgeon serving with an SS Pnzer (tank) division on the 'Eastern Front' against the Soviets. He had apparently saved the lives of several colleagues and been wounded in the process.<br />
As a 'reward' for his service he was given the horrible task of camp doctor at one of history's most notorious concentration / death camps. He experimented on men, women, and children. He injected dies and even isotopes into the eyes of his victims ('subjects' to him). <br />
Mengele's real obsession was with twins. He felt the secret to breeding super human, disease and pain resistant Aryan soldiers was to be found in the relationship between twins. The depravities this man committed against children in the guise of research is nightmarish. He was an instrument of unspeakable, directed evil.<br />
Mengele's justification was one of science and was based on the premises of 'Social Darwinism', as preached in the works of Ernst Haeckel. He like his Nazi colleagues, was an utterly modern man.<br />
He was no black robed Inquisitor, no painted Pagan priestess, no Imam demanding conversion at the curve of his sword – he was a perfectly modern, civilized, normal looking man with a degrees in Medicine.<br />
Mengele could vanish in a crowd. <br />
In fact, that is what exactly what the 'angel of death' did.<br />
For years the Israelis hunted him, but he evaded and was protected. Mengele died an old man of a heart failure, while swimming in his favourite lake near his family's ranch in South America in 1979.<br />
The Escape of the 'Angel of Death' was made much of in film and media. Books, movies, and mystery shows are dedicated to the subject. It fascinates.<br />
I feel there is a lesson here, or perhaps even a warning.<br />
Mengele's trial would have exposed this particular evil in a light that it has never been in living memory. Such evils could have been set much further back, but justice failed. Corruption won.<br />
The tumour that was Mengele's ideas continues to fester and grow.<br />
The Eugenics in the West, Russia, and China of the past and present are mentioned only in hushed tones, or are even touted as '<i>progressive</i>'.<br />
Examples? Organ harvesting from near dead (vivisection) / executed criminals , 'euthanasia' of depressed and the physically /mentally disabled (also a 'resource' for organ harvesting/Vivisection), abortion-on-demand (IE non medical / for profit / Mills), stem cell harvesting from the before mentioned aborted young, and the needless vivisection and repetitive experiments performed on 'lab' animals. All these evils self perpetuate. They will give rise to their own market and forces of demand and grow. They fester.<br />
I am not suggesting Religion, Politics, Science, or philosophy is at fault. I am saying they have been the paths by which we reached this crossroads, and they are same paths used by this evil - time and again. <br />
I am suggesting that when we see men of standing suggesting that we should just kill off old people because they are depressed (no wonder!) and they cost too much, or when we hear people suggest criminals should be killed in order to sell kidneys to rich bankers, or when 'doctors' have full time for profit practices designed to END life and the potential for life and to make further profit from the very carrion they create; we should think about where this Evil ended last time. It ended in TOTAL WAR. The <i>womb of Evil</i>.<br />
Perhaps it seeks to release, or be born anew? <br />
But these are metaphysical questions (a bell tolls outside as I write o.0) and may be considered endlessly.<br />
We should confront this legion of amorality for what they are, and we must do so intuitively.<br />
We should not allow reason or dogma to cloud our perceptions, and be USED against us. We must hold fast to our faith, morality, reason, and understanding. The philosophies, including <i>science</i>, are OUR tools. <br />
This tendril of Evil must be felt , it must be understood as a cyclical eventuality and be expected.<br />
We must recognize it when it attempts to wrestle away one of our foundations.<br />
That presents a further problem. While most politicians, soldiers, labourers, salesmen, priests, philosophers, poets, workmen, and artists all believe in Evil - the academe (researchers, journals etc - regent priests) , in our current age, does <i>not</i>. <br />
It is distinctly materialist. The non existence of evil is a corner stone (moral subjectivity etc) of materialist ideas. Evolutionary psychology is probably the most extreme example of this (mind=brain). No Evil means there is no Good, and no culpability (guilt or punishment) beyond this life. <br />
All morality becomes a luxury and survival becomes central. The EXTENSION of life (primarily one's own and those of immediate importance) becomes all that matters.<br />
No evil means no limits. . <br />
This is how Mengele's are made.This is why this type of evil thrives in the Academe.<br />
Like Faust, the Academe gladly sells it's soul, which it has forgotten or does not believe in to a Devil it does not believe exists; <i>ALL </i>in the name of the <i>PROMISE of </i> progress, which is termed broadly as 'science'. <br />
It is an abuse of the word.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzwvg3uWBU1qzgcpyo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzwvg3uWBU1qzgcpyo1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mengele, left Some of his 'subjects', right</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I suggest this:<br />
Not only did Josef Mengele escape the gallows at Nuremberg, but so did the ideals he represented.<br />
In the early days of the 21st century A.D., <br />
the Angel of Death flies free.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-22762095867576998992011-07-04T09:01:00.000-07:002011-07-04T09:25:11.564-07:00Proud of WHAT?<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Okay... so PRIDE week has come and gone again. We are all still here. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cache.gifts.com/photos/opd/E/2/7/6/E2764QYHJ8KB6UR4DBPJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://cache.gifts.com/photos/opd/E/2/7/6/E2764QYHJ8KB6UR4DBPJ.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">No lighting bolts from above have vanquished these 'sinners' (who isn't?) for their outlandish public displays. No Armies of NAZIs have stormed the streets to oppress them. No lynchings. No beating. No pillars of salt. <br />
Nothing has happened BUT the hype. <br />
So, what is the big deal? <br />
Well there isn't one really.<br />
For those of you not familiar with PRIDE events, they are supposed to be some sort of demonstration in favour of 'Gay rights'. A parade to prove Gay and Lesbian citizens are just a fun loving bunch that mean no harm and just want to live the 'lifestyle' they have chosen without being the target of hate and bigotry. In principle, I am behind it 100%. That is not to say 'I approve' of this lifestyle: I do not. But, I would not dream of denying it to those who feel compelled to live that way. Nor would I ever condone the persecution of gays and lesbians. But that is in PRINCIPLE. In practice, I really don't see what the PRIDE events have to be proud of. <br />
These are not marches of serious minded homosexuals protesting oppression. There are placards, sure. Many carried by completely naked adults..or worse: People dressed up in sexual / S&M style costumes and who expose themselves to other revellers. <br />
Having witness two such events recently, I would say they seem like pro-promiscuity events and more of a carnival than any sort of serious political statement. Naked people dancing, drinking, smoking pot, 'making out', and waving their naughty bits at the police. Like Carnival in Brazil or Mardi Gras in New Orleans, these are ADULT events designed for the sensual pleasures of the party goers. <br />
Okay. Big deal you say. Sure. Don't like – don't look. Find it offensive or outrageous don't attend.<br />
Fair enough. That has long been my strategy. Let them have their fun, but don't include me!<br />
So what's my beef? (pun intended)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Well, I just want to know what the HELL this has to do with 'rights'? <br />
If anything the anti-gay attitude such displays engender FAR outweigh the penis waving hijinks. Sure they may be having fun poking fun, but do they expect the traditional and conservative minds they are laughing AT to chuckle too? A sober expression of gay rights and a reminder of the persecution these people have faced in the past (in the name of race, religion, politics etc) have endured ; A march for tolerance seems to make more sense to me. <br />
Martin Luther King Jr. Did not march naked through Birmingham. The suffragists did not go on 'slut walks'. Can you imagine the backlash had they done so? <br />
Then there is the whole aspect of 'pride'. <br />
Proud of what? <br />
There is two schools of thought on the reality of homosexuality. One says it is a choice, a preference that is exercised as a lifestyle of exclusive homosexuality or of ambiguity (bisexual). The other, the favourite of evolutionary biologists, is that homosexual behaviour is inborn: ie a defect of the sexual impulse. <br />
A choice can change. People who choose one thing, may one day choose another. But people can be proud of a choice. They choose to love a person, despite the moral and social consequences. This love justifies this choice – a tough one – and they are proud of that decision. Those lofty ideals are of the 'gay day' events of decades past. Proud enough for a parade? Sure why not!? <br />
But how does the nudity, sexual excess, and promiscuity fit in to this scenario? It doesn't. <br />
Today's PRIDE events are a different type of beast altogether.<br />
My point here is that to be proud of a choice (to love) is one thing, to be proud of your sexual impulses is just plain screwed up. Should I be 'proud' I am 'white'? or Tall? Should I be proud I am male? Should I be proud I can become aroused by looking at women? WHY? I just AM/DO these things. I had no choice - I was born that way. <br />
If I should be proud, does that mean blacks, women, and impotent people should be ashamed they are not? Of course not. Should we ALL be proud? WHY? Again we just ARE these things. We live with them and perhaps even embrace them...but pride?<br />
I DID have a choice to fall in love and be devoted to my wife and partner in life, but that does not mean we should dance naked in the streets waving our genitalia at police and passers by, or demonstrate our intimate acts. Such a display would be rightly seen as 'gross' and 'nasty'. <br />
What is there to be proud about in that of 'nasty'? Nothing I can see. <br />
Pride – the healthy SANE type – should be the result of achievements and well made choices. It should be tempered with humility. <br />
The choice to portray everyone of the homosexual inclination like insatiable exhibitionist perverts, and anyone who does not approve/agree a (straight) homophobes or (gay/lesbian) 'uncle Toms', is certainly NOT one I would be proud of. It is a position of Nero-like intolerance and hypocrisy.<br />
Suggestions? Yes I do. <br />
PRIDE should be a family friendly parade/march that culminates in some act of generosity and gratitude for the continued tolerance of the larger community and exposure of any continuing prejudice. <br />
'Thanks Toronto, here is a new playground, clinic, or park DONATED by the gay / lesbian community' or 'Free food for the homeless from the lesbian and gay community' sure beats the SHIT out of 'look at my dick, I am gay!' or 'see! this is how we F**K!' displays replete with penis shaped water guns.<br />
The positive display results in a positive reaction. The political display results in a political reaction. The VULGAR and crass display results in disdain and avoidance; and very possibly backlash. <br />
It plays into the imagery that bigots use to portray homosexuals. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">So what happened? <br />
Where are today's Harvey Milk style marches? <br />
Where are the <i>real </i>issues in the modern PRIDE parade? <br />
Today's argument from the homosexual lobby is that people are BORN gay – the defect argument. Homosexuals cannot help but act like they do, and that extends to the wild and vulgar behaviour at these Carnival like events, it is posited. <br />
Homosexuals, they assert, have the 'right' to be promiscuous, outrageous, and 'in your face'. Any attempt to AVOID this outburst – as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford found out – results in a media frenzy and labels of 'homophobia'. <br />
Ford is the first mayor of Toronto since 1994 who has dared NOT attend the event. His excuse is that he spends Canada Day weekend at the cottage (same weekend) and has done so for 30 years. He also commented that he will only attend parades his wife, children, and grandchildren would accompany him to – thus NOT the X-rated PRIDE revelry. For this he is labelled a homophobe? <br />
I am not gay, and could never imagine being so..for many reasons. I also could not imagine the whispers, lies, exclusion, prejudice, and sheer bigotry they are treated to. I would and have defended their rights to choice and freedom. That extends to how they wish to live their lives. I have openly gay friends and in laws that I happily break bread with. Some of them have a LOT to be proud of in their lives.<br />
But I see/saw very little to be proud of at recent PRIDE events in Toronto. <br />
I see a lobby being USED to promote a diagnosis / pathology style explanation for their choices, I see adults behaving like spoiled children, I see people acting out in acts sexual exhibitionism and promiscuity, I see a source for great social concern. <br />
Above all I see a wasted opportunity for real change and progress in gay / lesbian rights, and that is a real SHAME. <br />
<br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">CrusadeRex<br />
July 2011</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-22466633747102782682011-07-01T09:55:00.000-07:002011-07-01T09:58:53.854-07:00Canadian by choice...Today is Canada Day.<br />
On this day, loyal citizens and subjects of this Dominion celebrate it's birth, or more precisely confederation. <br />
Canada is compound nation, in many ways like Australia or the USA. It is actually a grouping and alliance of smaller countries or Provinces, once part of the biggest Empire to have ever graced this earth.<br />
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Unlike the United States, Canada was loyal to the Empire and was granted a transcontinental Dominion via Royal Decree under the B.N.A (British North America Act) of 1867, by her Royal Majesty Queen Victoria, DGR et IMP Ind. In fact, we fought AGAINST the insurrectionists of 1776. <br />
It has often been said of Canada, in military circles, that we are 'Red Coats, or Red Skins - but never RED (leftist/revolutionary)'.<br />
Unlike Australia, Canada was populated by willing immigrants - not indentured servants or prisoners. Later by and refugees from the American Wars and slavery to the south. Some historians would suggest that as much as a third of the populations of our Eastern Provinces (Man-NFLD) are descended from folks who fled the war and chaos of the American War of Insurrection (Revolutionary War), as it was known here; and also many more from the Northern States during the oppressive rule of President Madison, whose brutal taxation to fund campaigns against the Royal Navy and the Spanish Colonies drove them to seek settlement in the unsettled regions of South Western Ontario, and Western Quebec. One of our famous and loved heroines, Laura Secord, was just so. Born in Massachusetts and settled in Ontario, she is Canadian heroine of the war of 1812.<br />
There is also a great deal of the Francophone population of Quebec that can trace their lines to the sacking of New Orleans and the military annexation of Louisiana, and the expulsions of their kin from Vermont. The Natives have an even greater debt to this land. Over 60% of natives in Ontario are descended from dispossessed tribes in lands now known as the states of Michigan and Illinois, and remnants of the Eastern bands which had been pushed west by settlers from the '13 colonies'. These bands formed a massive confederation that allied themselves famously with Gen Sir Isaac Brock, and defeated the Yankee forces and Kentuckian Mercenaries at Queenston Heights, and later at Stoney Creek - to win the war of 1812 in North America, and allow our nation to continue to exist as independent provinces, and eventually become Canada. And of course there was the slaves. Tens of thousands of them would flee slavery in the southern US states and make their way to Canada. Although slavery was illegal in the Northern United States by the time of the US civil war, they were not welcomed there and were often hunted down. In Canada they could get a land grant and settle, or they could work for passage to the British Caribbean Islands; there was safety and something as close to freedom as a black person could get in those years. <br />
In fact, when it comes to slavery Canadians have a record we should be proud of. <br />
The sheer LACK of slavery in this nation's colonial period is astounding, and almost unique. The handful of African slaves that were owned in the Provinces that deemed it legal, were owned by the wealthiest people. Settlers did not abide the practice, and in Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) the practice and it's owners were shunned and punished (fines and taxes) as early as the 1760's, so that by the time Upper Canada achieved it's own courts and constitution (The Quebec Act 1774) the practice had virtually vanished and was deemed a 'criminal blasphemy'. In 1830 the British Empire banned the practice all together forcing the last slave traders in ALL of what we call modern Canada (West Coast Natives) to abandon their practice, or face the legal consequences, which could include hanging. By the 1840's even native slaving was stamped out.<br />
Canada has also been a traditional pioneer in women's rights, medicine, and technology. <br />
Canadians distinguished themselves in both World Wars as some of the most rugged and determined soldiers, sailors and airmen in those conflicts. Today we still hold our own. Despite being screwed out of our Security Council seat by the EU (on order to weaken NATO), we hold a very special position in the ONLY alliance that matters anymore: The North Atlantic Treaty Org.<br />
Canadians are a tough, intelligent, and loyal bunch. Anyone who has met them, worked with them, and lived among them can attest to this.<br />
I came to Canada as a lad, from England. An immigrant like so many of us. It took years for the pronunciations to change, for my feeling of 'home' to relocate; but, it happened. I am now a TOM - EH - TO guy, rather than a TOM-AH-TO bloke. Although, I will eat either :P<br />
I may have been born in the cradle of the Empire and modern civilization, and I may have lived for many years in the 'Land of the Brave', and BOTH those lands remain dear to me - especially England -but, I made my home and put down roots in the true North Strong and FREE. I have a beautiful Canadian wife I love more each day, and a Canadian son who instills more pride than all the History above. Here is my home.<br />
I will always be British even if of the North American variety, and ENGLISH by birth, BUT I am Canadian BY CHOICE.<br />
Happy Canada Day to all the Canucks and their friends around the world!<br />
And a GREAT summer to all!<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-62395725261343757062011-06-30T23:29:00.000-07:002011-06-30T23:29:19.481-07:00New Mini-Series: Female Gaming: Interview 1: Ditty-Kitty<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">My first mini-series for the North Signal is... Female Gaming! This is a mini-series, made up of several interviews (undecided on how many). The first interview is with an officer of probably the largest all-female clan, Femme Fatale, who is known as 'Ditty-Kitty'. So, here it is: my first interview and post on The North Signal</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">1. Well first off, Hello, and thanks for joining us. Well we know you are a Officer of [ F ], when did you first hear about [ F ] and what was your first reaction?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">1. Well, I met MsFlashBang (the clan leader) in December 2010. It was after a game of Domination (on the game MAG). She asked me to join [ F ] and thats how I found out. I was so excited to know there was so many girls playing!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">2. What is it like being in [ F ]? Do you think you play like any other clan?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">2. It's great, the girls are fun, good and we work great as a team. We all work together great, so yes, as well as any other well as any functioning clan does.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">3. How long have you been playing with [ F ] and what has made you stay there?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">3. I have been at [ F ] for 7 months, and the teamwork, the girls and I really am proud to be in [ F ]. Estrogen Power!</div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">4. In-Game, when people realise your a girl, do they treat you any differently?</div></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">4. People usually make fun of my name (Ditty-Kitty), but usually after they realize I can carry my weight (do good) they stop. Most off the time I get treated like every other bluedot (friendly) does.</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">5. There aren't many games that have playable female characters. Do you think that every game should have playable female characters? </div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">5. That is a total dissapointment, I think more games should have playable females and hopefully someday this happens.</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">6. Duke Nukem Forever has been critized for what happens in the game involving women. They has also been a Woman Rights campaign against it. Would you join in the campaign or would you be happy to play the game the way it is?</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">6. I would play the games as it is. I am all for woman rights but when it comes to game and stuff, I don't want them censored. I say, you don't like what happens in a game, don't play it.</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">7. How long have you been gaming and what was the first game you played?</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">7. I have been playing games regularly since I was 4. My first game was Super Mario 3.</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">8. What appeals to you most in gaming?</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">8. I have a lot of fun gaming, the great stories, it's competitive, social. What's not to love? My favorite is how competitive it is.</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">9. Who do you think are better are gaming: Men or Women and why?</div></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">9. I don't think enough women gamers are on the scene yet, to compare to men. I am all for women gamers but men out number woman in games 10x over. I mean I am rooting for woman to out game men, but for right now I would have to say men just because they out number woman by so much.</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">10. What do you prefer: The Xbox 360, PS3 or Nintendo Wii, and why?</div></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">10. I am going to say Nintendo is my all time favorite console, I am and always will be loyal to Nintendo, I grew up with them. But for online gaming, PS3 all the way. I like Nintendo, because they are innovative and new, never scared to go out the norm. They are just lacking in he online and 3rd Party support. As for the PS3, I love the online and they have great support.</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Thanks for joining us, and have a great gaming career.</div></div><div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Your welcome, and thanks for the interview!</div></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And that's a wrap for interview one!! When will the second one be posted?</div></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-73515346800117371902011-06-29T10:42:00.000-07:002011-06-29T13:39:35.681-07:00buddha's rosaryThis is probably one of the most interesting topics that I discovered many years ago.<br /><br />Until now we have talked about our mind and our essence; but still we need to dig more about them and you will notice that those are the basis on which the rest of the concepts will land at the end.<br /><br />Well, let’s start….<br />If we already established that our mind is something outside our physical body and brain, and it is complemented by our essence which will unify and become a soul at some point; having agreed with that: don’t you think that those two should have more years of existence than our physical body? There are so many thing we know that were not learned here in this world! <br />For example, is there any occasion in your life where you felt you already went through something or visit a place even if it’s the first time? (Déjà vu ), or when you meet someone you feel like you already know this person and you realize that this person shares many things in common with you, why is that!?<br />It is simpler than you imagine actually…. Mmmm Not really! I was kidding; the concept we are about to talk is one of the most (not the most but one of them) complex and controversial topics in the list, and will require you to keep an OPEN MIND!!! So, bear with me and allow your MIND and ESSENCE understand it.<br /><br />The mind and essence are our real being and they combined together have a name you know? <br />Our real name.. not this name given by our parents to our physical body; This real name was the one given by our creator; you can find this type of concept in many other cultures and religions around the world like Buddhism, Masonic Gnostic, Dogon/Shinto, Hinduism, Rosicrucian, Maya, Inca and Aztec; all of them believed in our real name, all of them fight across their lives to find their truth BEING and in that way to have a direct connection with GOD, during their journey they also discovered two powerful concepts: Evolution and Involution, but more interesting they also believed in the reincarnation, so among many spiritual manuscripts those cultures explained that the reincarnation can be in both direction an evolutionary reincarnation or an Involutionary reincarnation.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEF22LHQUGyjq9vJ-g5DySAPo0RnEdQEp16P_jF46eADU7jxh7qEoOUxf50ynAgsrb8-gAz2Kole5G0wkJWvJv58geekemDSNN5ANZMMbsbYqv0WewXSAklsvqFSYIR1pIEmmInDwwFJcL/s1600/spiritual+evolution.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEF22LHQUGyjq9vJ-g5DySAPo0RnEdQEp16P_jF46eADU7jxh7qEoOUxf50ynAgsrb8-gAz2Kole5G0wkJWvJv58geekemDSNN5ANZMMbsbYqv0WewXSAklsvqFSYIR1pIEmmInDwwFJcL/s400/spiritual+evolution.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623742576928089714" /></a><br /><br />Among all the species in the universe there are ones that are evolving and there are others that are involving, and to add more complexity to this two concepts, all these cultures and religions also discovered that inside of each species are individuals that are evolving and others that are not (involving). Sounds complex eh!?... the first time I went through all this I felt my brain (the brain not the mind) crashing trying to understand this new concept.<br /><br />Well, for now we already know that our real being have many more years than our physical body, AND!!! More important that our BEING has been in many other physical bodies and species during all its existence!! Impressive conclusion don’t you think?.. well yes, but hold on, that means that I in my previous life could be a dog!?, or a fish?, OR a ROCK?... well is not that simple and is not a disorganize evolution/involution process after all; the evolution process takes many thousands of years going from the simplest form of existence to the more complex (human in our case), let’s see it in this way (I’ll keep it as simple as I can): when our BEING was born (our very first existence) was not deployed into a human vehicle immediately, it was necessary a maturation process, BUT that Being was not allocated (linked) directly to that previous vehicle, instead of that our being existed in other place or dimension just linked at certain level with this vehicles, this allowed our being to be aware of certain things, like time, day and night…etc. simple things, this will be the case to be linked to a plant for example, but as the learning process starts to demand more knowledge our BEING goes from this simple organism to another one more complex, let’s say a dog, then at this point the link between the being and this new body gets more complex, and we will see things like emotions, sadness, happiness, love, anger…etc. So our Being starts to learn more about all these new concepts and is able to interact with the world in a more palpable way than before but that level is not enough. The link between our being and our human vehicle is the ultimate link because we feel not only emotion, we receive enlightenment, we are intelligent, we are able to discover or invent new theories, we can analyze them, correct them, share them…etc. and it is here where our real BEING has the opportunity to achieve 100% of perfection, to become a superior BEING, a Light master, an Angel, a Demon.. depending of what culture/religion are we investigating the names for this reached level changes, but the objective is the same, to become pure and part of GOD.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju7HdMakmjBJ_cpNteJ7y7E8qyAOrPgXGazCdOKMbfZwbXjdvLSF43Fii06zZ4ZqXLlj0gASRFXybaFdr5XIxaRyAVse5lwLFCwk4oUduL9E7AvaB522w62n2XG1XXJC8ECF2zynG9syXI/s1600/Buddha%2527s+rosary.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju7HdMakmjBJ_cpNteJ7y7E8qyAOrPgXGazCdOKMbfZwbXjdvLSF43Fii06zZ4ZqXLlj0gASRFXybaFdr5XIxaRyAVse5lwLFCwk4oUduL9E7AvaB522w62n2XG1XXJC8ECF2zynG9syXI/s400/Buddha%2527s+rosary.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623742826698563554" /></a><br /><br />So, how many chances do we have to achieve this objective, this is the easy part, and the answer is on the Buddha’s rosary… 108 opportunities!!!, our BEING has being linked to each vehicle 108 times on each species; make some numbers to see the importance of this. We are pretty old right?... to jump from one species to another takes 108 recurrences. That means we have only 108 reincarnations as humans to achieve the perfection and after that we will need to wait a lot of time (thousand of centuries) to be able to be linked into a vehicle (equivalent to our current human body) that allow us to achieve that objective again. That is the reason why we need to setup a clear target in our life, white or black but no grey, we need to evolve not to involve!!, MEN of GOOD, MEN of LIGHT.<br /><br />All these cultures/religions were aware of that, they discovered the 108 recurrences that our being has to go through each vehicle, and yet more important they realized that the opportunity to cut that cycle and reach perfection is while your BEING is linked into a human body, Yes this belief system says that if our BEING reaches the perfection the cycle will be broken and a no other vehicle is needed for the eternity; Brilliant!. <br />The question that comes to my mind now is: Why all this was forgotten?<br />Why all the humans are spending their lives without knowing this and why they are not aware of what is our real objective?<br />Did we covered all this on purpose?.<br /><br />To finish this chapter, the last piece of information coming from one of the Buddha manuscripts says that most of us are living their last recurrences, this means that a big part of these BEINGs are between the recurrence 100 and 105, so the chances that we have to reach perfection are about to end. Nevertheless I would say to you: Don’t waste your time, don’t be afraid to try new things, don’t give up yet until your last heart beat, take those last 8 or 3 lives left and do something good with them!.<br /><br />I’ll see you on my next lives!.<br />-From a Buddhist point of view, the actual experience of death is very important. Although how or where we will be reborn is generally dependent on karmic forces, our state of mind at the time of death can influence the quality of our next rebirth. So at the moment of death, in spite of the great variety of karmas we have accumulated, if we make a special effort to generate a virtuous state of mind, we may strengthen and activate a virtuous karma, and so bring about a happy rebirth.-<br />- the Dalai Lama-Akenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10132688040850877740noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-64971566504409877192011-06-29T06:19:00.000-07:002011-06-29T08:43:08.331-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists."</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<h1 class="firstHeading" id="firstHeading" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: black; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal">Blaise Pascal</a></span></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://lifeondoverbeach.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/pascal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="294" src="http://lifeondoverbeach.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/pascal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-11209663703261902772011-06-24T05:36:00.000-07:002011-06-24T06:26:24.619-07:00The Netherlands take a stand<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Over the past two years a court room battle over the freedom to criticize one of the worlds largest ideological blocs was won. In this battle the sometimes controversial, and always flamboyant Geert Wilders was the central figure. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01290/web-wilders_jpg_1290040cl-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01290/web-wilders_jpg_1290040cl-3.jpg" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Mr Wilders is the leader of the 'Freedom Party' and has been the subject of a criminal investigation for several years. The reasons for his legals woes would make most North Americans take note: He SPOKE the wrong words. He was accused under the ultra modernist 'hate-crime' laws of the Netherlands that make it illegal to incite violence or target a particular group for derision. <br />
The Hate law's main purpose, it seems, is to silence opponents to modern Dutch / EU social engineering programs. Eugenics and immigration seem to be the main reasons and protected ideas under this act; Abortion, euthanasia, and mass migration of low wage workers.<br />
This time it imploded. This time, the speaker would not be silenced. <br />
Mr Wilders has been acquitted on <i>ALL</i> counts! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>What does this mean? ... and what did he say that was so bad it resulted in charges?</b><br />
Well let's start with what he said!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Did he call for a Crusade against Muslims? Did he demand their deportation or killing?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">No.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Wilders said that purist, unreformed Islam is not compatible with Western Democratic ideals. He said that Islamic teaching have inspired hatred and countless acts of terrorism across the western world. He said that this is because in the Muslim Holy Book, the Koran, there is justification for violence, misogyny, slavery, and worse. He compared the Koran to Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' which is banned in the Netherlands under the hate propaganda laws. He called for the ban to be extended to the Muslim Book as well, essentially making the point that if European works promoting the genocide of Jews were to be banned, as Hitler's book is in the Netherlands – then so should Arabic ones calling for a Genocide of ALL non-Muslims (starting with Jews). <br />
Wilders did not make these claims 'out of the blue', standing on box in front of a mob of skinheads. The left-biased media gives that impression, but it is FAR from true. Such coverage is of the 'fellow traveller'. <br />
Actually it is quite the opposite: He made them in Parliament as the head of the leading opposition party. He was backed by statistics, Historians, police, Koranic verses, scholars on Islam, and ex-Muslims, and even moderate Muslim migrants (notably MANY women). His ideas were amplified by the killing of Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker critical of Islam who was butchered in broad daylight on an Amsterdam street, the terror attacks of the early 21<sup>st</sup> century, the Paris Intifada, and the Mohammed Cartoon fiasco. <br />
Also to back Mr Wilders argument there was a large catalogue of critical media on religions OTHER than Islam, that are completely accepted as a right of expression, even if not based on facts – as Mr Wilders work was. Calvinist works were cited, for example. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">How can the Netherlands accept the elitist and violent edicts of the Koran, and not criticism of it was the main thrust. The logic of this argument was inescapable, even to the Uber-Liberal Dutch Bench.<br />
Wilders popularity has GROWN, not decreased. The PEOPLE of the Netherlands LIKE Mr Wilders, and can relate to his position. <br />
In short, the man was not worrying about being offensive to those he found an offence to his way of life. His position has been that he is defending that way of life from foreign ideas harmful to it.<br />
For that perceived possible offence, he was taken to task and charged. <br />
Wilders work, it was asserted by the prosecutors, was designed/intended to incite hatred and rage against Muslims in particular and immigrants in general. The truth/validity in his statements was only of secondary interest. Let me be clear here: The court was NOT really interested in whether Mr Wilders assertions were true, but rather in whether they were made to incite/direct public hatred at a specific group; to make a scape-goat. Very special attention was payed to a film, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to82WYQluVg"><b>Fitna</b>,</a> the Mr Wilders had produced in which the Koranic verses calling for Jihad and the effects of the verses on real Muslims are explored. Lines or 'Surahs' of the Koran are posted beside images of real Muslims acting the edicts out, calling for war and genocide. It is truly a disturbing video, and just over 7 minutes long. <br />
But who is showing hatred here? Was Mr Wilders spewing hatred or was he EXPOSING hatred. <br />
The court decided, after YEARS of deliberation, appeal, and overturn – the case was dropped and re-prosecuted THREE times – that Mr Wilders was EXPOSING hatred. They finally found Mr Wilder's totally innocent. They have acquitted him. That is not a 'not guilty' verdict, that is an 'innocent' verdict. We are left to assume that after YEARS of prosecution and three trials, there was not ONE SINGLE aspect of Mr Wilder's film or speeches that the courts could disprove as libel, and thus a hate-crime. The facts DID matter, it seems. Perhaps not on paper, but in practice. <br />
This is a good thing for those who cherish freedom of expression, and good on many levels! <br />
That leads us to 'What does this mean'?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Quite simply put this means that people in the Netherlands are now LEGALLY able to interpret the Koran and criticize Islam. Islam is now just like any other religion in that nation, and will no longer be afforded a special protected status. Modern 'moderate' Muslims will have more freedom, and the rest of the Dutch people can be critical of extremism. <br />
These are concepts we take for granted in Canada and the USA, and much of the Western World. Take for granted, mind you! While the Dutch move away from these restrictions, our left moves toward them. Terms like 'Islamophobia' become more and more popular in the English speaking world. In the world of phobes and philes there can be no neutrality. One is attracted or repelled. Anyone who speaks against the HUGE Islamic influence on our culture, diets, laws, and even our cherished 'secularism' can be quickly branded as an 'Islamophobic bigot'. Perhaps not actually charged with a crime, but derided and sneered at by the likes of Bill Maher, MSNBC, the Huffington Post and all the other PC darlings of the leftist dogma. <br />
But nobody ever calls those who appease Islam 'Islamophiles' in the media, do they? <br />
Maybe it's time we do? </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Congratulations, Mr Wilders! <br />
A victory for comm sense, and common law! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/to82WYQluVg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-88790862768785368362011-06-22T09:32:00.000-07:002011-06-22T09:33:22.920-07:00To live and die – as a Jack Ass...<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Ryan Dunn, one of the icons of the potty-humour troupe 'Jack Ass' died in a tragic vehicle accident this week, causing much media buzz. While most has been respectful and even insightful, much of it has been very unbalanced.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">On the one hand we have people praising this young man as if he were a genius or saint, and excusing his excesses. On the other we have people mocking his death – as if it were one of his gags. In my view both takes are equally unrealistic. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">First this man was skit comic, not a world changing genius. Some found his act funny, others saw it as a sign of the infantile nature of modern pop-culture. Whatever the take it was just comedy, and not even the high-browed pseudo-intellectual stuff. Jokes about poo and pee, boobies, wieners, and gays are not exactly satire. In fact many could argue that these antics lead to all sorts of copy-cat behaviour, thus reducing the level of humour. Many comedians fall in this last group. Was he funny? Yes. No doubting that – he had legions of young fans. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Secondly he was no saintly character. He was not a philanthropist, educator, or man of deep philosophical inclination. His drunken escapades prove that point without further digging the dirt.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">But these points do not give license to those people who openly mock his death.<br />
He had a family, friends, and a girlfriend of many years. He was not a joke, but a living man. <br />
To mock him while the corpse is still warm speaks volumes on the mentality and morality of those 'fans' and detractors. <br />
So where I am going with this? Well. I would suggest the man died as he lived, as self-proclaimed 'Jack Ass'. He took nothing too seriously – not even jumping into a $90K car drunk and doubling speed limits in residential areas. He did not think of his passenger, or the other motorists/pedestrians he could have killed– just the FUN of it all. <br />
Now equally care free types have fun with his death. In truth, he may not have disapproved.<br />
Before anyone gets offended, I am not saying 'he deserved this', nor am I saying 'he asked for it', I am just saying Dunn died the way he lived: Selfishly. <br />
His last act in this world was vehicular manslaughter – the negligent killing of his friend, and that is decidedly UNFUNNY. <br />
Would anyone be shocked if I, as a soldier, were to be killed at war? Would there be any incredulity at the death of a firefighter in a fire? No. While there may be more meaning to these deaths, they are just part of how myself or the firefighter LIVED. <br />
So what can we take away from this? If you wish to die and be remembered as a responsible person who had purpose and meaning to their life, then your best bet is to live like one and to promote such living. <br />
It is no guarantee you will die that pleasantly or in a meaningful way, it just greatly improves your odds of it. <br />
If you should be lucky enough to die in your bed as an old person, you will at least leave some memories of that life with those who love you. If you live like a Jack-Ass even such a quiet and peaceful death will not add meaning to what you did while you were here, and you will be remembered as a Jack Ass, even if it is as a loveable one.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">RIP MR Dunn & MR Hartwell.<br />
Thanks for the all laughs. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-48087978516206511892011-06-22T06:43:00.000-07:002011-06-22T06:46:57.451-07:00It is easier to just be STUPID<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>(WARNING – IT ASSHOLE ALERT)</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Does your brain get tired trying to figure out all these deep and complex issues we face today? <br />
Are there challenges to you beliefs, do they make it hard for you to converse with other people who think differently than you? <br />
Are all these politicians talking about boring stuff? <br />
Do 'old' people piss you off?<br />
Why not just go with the flow and be STUPID?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">It is easier to be stupid than EVER! <br />
Just think about it (not too much): We can't ALL be smart can we? <br />
And if we are all to be equal, we must all be STUPID! DUH!<br />
But how do we get there?<br />
Well, let's start with redefining stupid, in fact let's avoid that word at first. <br />
We will start using 'ignorance' and 'ignorant' as an insult. Ignorance, we will say is the REAL problem. Ignorance is why people do bad things..right? I mean if I did not know there was cops who are against theft or murder, I might just steal and kill right? So, people who are ignorant are bad guys, but only BEFORE they get to see all the stuff we have and learn the rules...right? <br />
So stupid is just the same ignorant now. And we are ALL ignorant in some way.<br />
Next we need to do a little work on our language. <br />
It is too complicated for many ignorant people, and we don't want them left behind – so we must dumb down our language too! Why use so many big words, when the ignorant folks wont understand? The idea is complex you say? Then SIMPLIFY it! “The war in Afghanistan is dragging on” becomes “War is bad”. The “Taliban are fighting a fierce ideological war” becomes “The ragheads are bad”...see? It's easy! How about “that guy is brilliant at maths” to “fucking nerd”? Or “what an athlete! If he could only get his grades up” becomes “Jock”. These words and ideas all existed before, true – but now they can replace the BIG words and ideas, instead of enhancing them (sorry BIG word!). <br />
See you brain is more relaxed already! <br />
Okay so some words, we can change. How about our lifestyles? I mean if we keep running into these 'smart' people, wont they make us feel .... er.... not so smart? Sure! So how do we get past this?<br />
Well, let's let the machines help us there. They can be smart for us!<br />
Those smart guys invented machines that can make us ALL look like we know what we are talking about -even correct our spelling, and if we start to feel...er...ignorant, we can just turn it off, or redirect the browser to another place that is more friendly. 'Debate' is now an open-to-all argument, and the majority can easily drown out the minority – even if they could be right! <br />
Those guys in Castles who had a big Church with guys in Hoodies and red-hot pipes did it! The guys with the Camels do it, so why can't we? Must be ignorance. We will learn to do that too! In the mean-time we can call the people who disagree names and bully them. We could even make up new names for bullying and insulting – like 'flaming' when it's done on the web, and maybe 'dissing' when face to face. Yo! I like it!<br />
What about Uni you say? What if I go to college, how can I still take the easy STUPID route? <br />
NO PROBLEM. Everyone gets a pass now that we are all stupid. <br />
We have for a long time. Even your prof will most likely ACT stupid, even if he was born with that 'smart' disability! If he doesn't – if he asks questions instead of giving you the answer – he will be in trouble! Besides, they way it is set up now is you just all pretend to agree – even if you don't understand. Acceptance is more important that understanding!<br />
Sure, you may have to head to France or Europe or whatever its called, as they are always way ahead of us backwards rednecks. Sure they may talk funny, but they sure know how to be STUPID! They have even found ways to be stupid with BIG words! That is like the space-atom-bomb of DUMB! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Okay, I know what you're going to say now (NO! 'Not cuz I am smart! I just have the internet!') that the country or culture thing will get in the way. No worries there my fellow cretins! The 'nation' and 'culture' are just dumb old things. THIS is the 21<sup>st</sup> century, and only ignorant people don't understand that the future is always better because their is more science and stuff. Culture is just stupid clothes, and we can make our own up – like 'thug' and 'Emo'. Holidays you say? Just a reason to get intoxicated and eat. Who cares what they 'mean'? Some dead dude jumps out of hole? So what? Some jerk has a revolution, so what? Some slaves got let loose, so WHAT? Let's get drunk and fuck yo. Opera? Fuck THAT – titty bar time! <br />
Besides, Nations are a thing of the past, anyway right? They just have wars and stuff, and get in the way of contest rules. I mean, fuck I can't enter to win an ipod from China so WTF? I mean soon enough we will have spaceships and robots and they will stop all that stuff. We all know America is bad and stuff. <br />
And what about the OLD people. Never mind them. They will all die soon. If they don't want to be STUPID, the thing to do is ignore them, and maybe even help them along. Some of them even shit their pants, yo! <br />
I mean what did they do anyway? Just started wars and stuff. They had all those years and they never even had gaming consoles – that <i>is</i> ignorant! Besides their music sucks.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">So, don't let the meaning of life, war, politics, science, philosophy, art, or poetry get you down, that stuff will all be explained by 'scientists' who specialize in STUPID! <br />
Remember people: You can't all be smart, and you want to fit in, so even if you are unlucky enough to be 'smart' - it is WAY easier to just act STUPID. <br />
Remember this one point, where it ALL starts: You are all that is important, and nothing exists but what you can see and agree with – and you are HOME-FREE STUPID!<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-80476711685960132242011-06-20T04:24:00.000-07:002011-06-20T04:24:15.162-07:00In yo face 'meatbags'...<div align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 0.42cm;">I came across the awesome little bit of prose dashed with philosophy when I was in University many moons gone by... it has stuck with me ever since. On Sunday, I </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;">received</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 0.42cm;"> this in my inbox after returning from a rather sad memorial. It again struck a a cord deep within me! I hope it at least gets the folks thinking.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 0.42cm;">"Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves? The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.</span></span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">That drunken poet from whom you would not take a dreary tragedy, he believed in himself. That elderly minister with an epic from whom you were hiding in a back room, he believed in himself. If you consulted your business experience instead of your ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter (degenerate). Actors who can’t act believe in themselves; and debtors who won’t pay.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Complete self-confidence isn’t merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness.Believing utterly in one’s self is a hysterical and superstitious belief.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Poets are commonly spoken of as psychologically unreliable; and generally there is a vague association between wreathing laurels in your hair and sticking straws in it.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets don’t go mad, but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers do; but creative artists very seldom. I am not in any sense attacking logic. I am only saying that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">The general fact is simple. Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">And if great reasoners are often maniacal, it is equally true that maniacs are commonly great reasoners.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">(Some have) said that free will was lunacy because it meant causeless actions, and the actions of a lunatic would be causeless. I do not dwell here upon the disastrous lapse in determinist logic. Obviously if any actions, even a lunatic’s, can be causeless, determinism is done for. If the chain of causation can be broken for a madman, it can be broken for a man.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">The last thing that can be said of a lunatic is that his actions are causeless.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">It is the happy man who does the useless things. It is exactly such careless and causeless actions that the madman could never understand, for the madman (like the determinist) generally sees too much cause in everything. He would think that the lopping of the grass was an attack on private property. He would think that the kicking of the heels was a signal to an accomplice. If the madman could for an instant become careless, he would become sane.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">The madman’s explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory. If not conclusive, it is at least unanswerable. If a man says that he is Jesus Christ, it is no answer to tell him the world denies his divinity; for the world denied Christ’s.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Nevertheless he is wrong. But if we attempt to trace his error in exact terms, we shall not find it quite so easy as we had supposed. Perhaps the nearest we can get to expressing it is to say this: that his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but, though it is quite as infinite, it is not so large. In the same way the insane explanation is quite as complete as the sane one, but it is not so large.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">There is such a thing as a narrow universality; there is such a thing as a small and cramped eternity; you see it in many modern religions. The lunatic’s theory explains a large number of things, but it does not explain them in a large way.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">(Speaking again of the lunatic who sees conspiracy where others are carefree and careless). Suppose we grant the details; perhaps when the man on the street did not seem to see you it was only his cunning; perhaps when the policeman asked you your name it was only because he knew it already. But how much happier would you be if only you knew that these people cared nothing about you! How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">How much happier your would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos, scattering the stars like spangles, and leave you in the open, free like other men to look up as well as down!</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Contemplate some able and sincere materialist. He understands everything, and everything does not appear worth understanding. His cosmos may be complete in every rivet and cogwheel, but still his cosmos is smaller than our world. Somehow his scheme, like the lucid scheme of the madman, seems unconscious of the alien energies and the large indifference of the earth; it is not thinking of the real things of the earth, of fighting peoples or proud mothers, or first love or fear upon the sea. The earth is so very large, and the cosmos is so very small. The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.42cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">For we must remember that the materialist philosophy is certainly more limiting than any religion. (While no idea cannot be broader than itself, eg, you are not allowed to believe in something that makes your idea false). But as it happens, there is a very special sense in which materialism has more restrictions than spiritualism. The materialist thinks me a slave because I am not allowed to believe in determinism. I think the materialist a slave because he is not allowed to believe in fairies. The Christian is quite free to believe that there is a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe. The materialist is sure that history has been simple and solely a chain of causation, just as the (madman) is quite sure he is simply and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never has doubts."</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://chinadivide.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/god-of-materialism-chen-wenling-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://chinadivide.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/god-of-materialism-chen-wenling-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The God of Materialism' by Chen Wenling</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>From G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, Chapter two, The Maniac.<br />
</i></span></span></span></span> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1318471211374713540.post-10759643099773791642011-06-15T14:58:00.000-07:002011-06-15T15:45:40.413-07:00The argument on origins...so far<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This post is meant as humourus and is in NOT inetended to reflect the true mind numbing range of this debate. It is a jest, and in good faith. I<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
The argument on origins...so far</span></i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Bronze Age</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Creationism</b>: The world is too complex to be designed by sheer chance, therefor it was designed by the Gods (or God – but that is not fashionable yet, unless you are a Chaldean, Egyptian, or Jew)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism</b>: Nothing exists but what we can see, feel, hear, and touch. I may not even be real, and this argument is a figment of your imagination! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Creationism</b>: Some things are too small to see, some to quiet to hear, and some to removed to touch, but they exist just the same. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism</b>:Whatever, retard. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Classical Age:</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheists:</b> We have PROVEN with mathematics that the Gods do NOT exist....uh wait a second what is this negative stuff, and what is.... wtf (jumps off a cliff in Italy)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Polytheism:</b> Wait! Don't do it! Oh shit...we had a rebuttal. Oh well, let's focus on those barbarians shall we? Hang on a minute: Did he eat the mushrooms? </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Medieval period</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism:</b> Okay now we have you! What about EVIL? EH? Well? Don't wait for the translation! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Theism:</b> Evil's very existence proves that Good must exist. If these things are not man made paradigms, then they must exist by themselves...why? Who decides what is 'good'? Why God of course – the Creator! <br />
<b>Atheism</b>: WHAT – EV – ER! Hey, are you guys lighting a fire or something? </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Renaissance</span><br />
Atheism</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Okay, I am not trying to be a jerk or anything, but there is evidence the world is older than the Bible says it is... well at least what I think it says... does it say anything about that? </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Theism</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Sure, the Bible was written by men. The dates could be off, and the method could be metaphor. Why not study some theology and see what you make of it.</span><br />
<b>Atheism:</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Okay... Oh shit this is pretty good stuff. (changes his name to deism and meets a girl)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The 'enlightenment'</b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism:</b> HA! Now we have got you backwards cretins! We have created a new faith, in the state. We have Turned your 'Notre Dam' into our temple of reason. The age of MATERIALISM is born!!!<br />
<b>Theism:</b> Make sure not to lose your heads over all that. </div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism:</b> What's that? We will never – chop- ..... (interrupted by Mme Guillotine) </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Victorian Period</b></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism:</b> (after repeating all previous arguments) Okay THIS time you're FUCKED. We have finch beaks and protoplasm, what do you have Mr God guy? Eh? Come on now, or did they not teach you how to speak in the monastery? </div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Theism: </b>Cambridge a monastery? We have purpose, meaning, the soul, and our traditions. Besides what on earth is 'protoplasm' and what did the finches turn into? Just longer beaked finches? Oh... neat. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The modern age to present</b></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism:</b> AHA! Not only did all pour previous arguments destroy you completely (but you are somehow still oppressing everyone!) but we have a new one now – the BIG BANG! We can prove that the universe was a void, formless, and with out purpose! Then there was light and EVERYTHING came for NOTHING all at once – time space, everything...so how's your God now? DEAD maybe?</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Theism: </b>Reads like Genesis... and almost ALL creation epics. Thanks! We needed that. <br />
<b>Atheism</b>: You people are really too much, it's almost like you're cheating! Who's helping you with this crap? Alien theists? Maybe it is the 'right wing'??? EH?? Never mind you probably have a brain disorder.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Present</b></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism:</b> Now your toast, Senor Divinity. We have mapped the DNA code and found massively complex instructions that design the anatomy of every living thing, we have mapped the brain and found out that the brain is a computer, earth was probably seeded by aliens, and we have physics to prove that other realities exists...well, scratch that last one. Our tests PROVE that all traits are just functions of the brain. Being gay is a disorder and inherited, religion is a throwback, and emotions are easily medicated. Anyway DNA and the brain = your toast! </div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Theism:</b> Okay...sure. The DNA is a code of information. Where did it come from, and who or what encodes the information, and for what end purpose? A design requires a designer and a function. The brain a computer? Okay, where is the 'user'? As for the 'disorders', how do you propose to 'treat' them? Maybe you just want to breed out those gays and religious types. As for the physics, we have been saying that all along. You call it M-theory, we call it the Supernatural. Aliens, why not? We have all sorts of mythology about that type of thing. Want to address string and wave theory? Maybe the quantum field?</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism: </b>NO! Why would I, idiot. You only know about that stuff because of modern western science!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Theism:</b> Sure, that's true! And we only have modern western science because of the Theist classical and Christian civilizations. And what about the Norse and Celtic faiths? </div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism: </b>You people are trapped by your false morality (an illusion) and cannot hope to ever see the real freedom that is non belief ! Your tiny minds have been the cause of all the horrors in history, and you DARE take credit for science!!! ???You and those toga wearing ASSHOLES?! Vikings? Druids? PUH-LEASE! They were better than you, but I am WAY better than them! Besides, they scare me...JERK! (performs the obligatory materialist sneer). Your children should be taken away, as you are abusing them by exposing them to and limiting them with your superstitions! </div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Theism:</b> Morality is not false, it is essential. History is not ours alone, and while we admit our guilt freely, and issue apologies - will the New Atheists do the same for Social Darwinism and the various genocides committed by these 'free' minds (or should we say brains?) such as the Nazi, Chinese, Korean, Cambodian, Soviet, etc etc? Methinks not. <br />
Children will be better with strangers and no culture? I see why morality is a problem for you, as I see why moral authorities higher than your own are a problem. “thou shall worship no other God but me”, eh? We will stick to the real deal, thanks – humans are brilliant, but just NOT up to the task. </div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Atheism:</b> You bat-shit crazy, bipolar, passive aggressive, <strike>faggot </strike><span style="text-decoration: none;"> er, I mean redneck, whitetrash, cracker. Soon enough you will see! Atheism is coming back in a big way...hey who's that guy with the Shamagh and the knife glaring at me and my stuff? Whats with the green flag? Oh never mind, at least he not a ZIONIST or a Corpse worshipper! </span> </div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Theism:</b></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> Well, I guess we will have to continue this later...we have supper with the Deists, Pantheists, and Agnostics. We would invite you along, but we know you think we are all idiots and would be embarrassed by our silly traditions and clothes. Anyway, looks like you have company too. Again, don't lose your head over this stuff. God bless, and have a good life. </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Atheism: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fuck YOU and your God!!!! Nothing exists but what I can sense. You deluded bastard, the people of the ..... </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The adhān</span></span></span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> (Muslim call to prayer) </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">drowns out the rest. </span></span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Agnosticism:</b></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Holy shit, man. What's with him? </span></span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Theism:</b></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> He's fanatical about his beliefs.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/upload/2011/06/defining_the_big_bang/bigbang.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/upload/2011/06/defining_the_big_bang/bigbang.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Deism:</b></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Can we get a pizza?</span></span><br />
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Theism</b></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Sure, what do you want on it?</span></span><br />
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Deism:</b></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Make me one with everything! </span></span><br />
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Pantheism:</b></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Smart ass!</span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14739783974158130525noreply@blogger.com0