The Signal Goes Home!

The North Signal is back on blogger.
Due to recent and rather Orwellian changes, the Signal will be relocating our posts to the blogger venue and eventually to a connected website.

Scotland the thick...

I have resisted, so far, writing or speaking about Scottish separatism.
I wanted to see the general reaction.  So far it seems to be polite disbelief that such idiocy and so many ingrates could exist.
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?
We'll sure.

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.
Why am I opposed to the Scots cleaving their own path?
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!!!
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'.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
Yeah, I said it didn't I? KIDS.
Look at the demographics here. KIDS.
So much so that these separatists want SIXTEEN YEAR OLD minors to vote in the referendum. No doubt they will, legally or not.
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.
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).
In all, I hope and pray that Scotland has enough sense left to navigate this trap.
If she does not - if they do not,  then the divorce must be complete.
They must be called for what they are: Scotland the THICK.
Perhaps those of us left in the commonwealth could hold a ceremony once a year to commemorate the Kingdom that once was.

Greer and Sirius.

I have to admit, I am very suspicious of anyone like Greer.
Multiple reasons.
His back ground.
His need to profit from the information he claims to want to freely disseminate.
The new age / ancient aliens dogma. 
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.

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.
I will grudgingly admit that this availability speaks to Dr Greer's integrity.
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.
He must have known the video would be ripped and posted.
He chose for it to happen this way.
So, we can at least assume he believes.
I may not buy his ideas, but he does. That makes 'Sirius' worth watching. It is an insight into a new faith. A new interpretation of the signs and wonders of the ages.
A materialist, science fiction based, simplistic rendering of reality that still manages to purvey a sense of wonder - especially to young and curious minds.
I don't agree with the conclusions at all. Not even close.  
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.

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.
If you enjoy this educational viewing and would like to share it with others for whatever reason, please purchase the feed or DVD. 


Sirius Movie (Full Documentary) from Mel on Vimeo.

Pre-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.
The problem with their ideas is that science and history do not agree!
Prehistory, once the realm beyond 8000bc has now been stretched to at least 12,000 BC.

Enjoy and be amazed at the wisdom and beauty of our most ancient ancestors...so far!

Remembrance Day 2011

As the sun sets on this first snowy day of the year, we remember our veterans living and gone.

A reminder we should not take our freedom to worship (or not) as we choose lightly. 

From FOXNEWS

Facing Execution for the 'Crime' of Being a Christian In Iran

By Ben Cohen

Published September 28, 2011 | FoxNews.com

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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 refused to recant his Christian faith.

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.

Since 2009, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 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. 

Pastor Nadarkhani's embrace of Christianity, is a prime example of "moharebeh," and carries the penalty of death. This is despite the fact 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.

It's important to note that the persecution of religious minorities in Iran did not begin with Ahmadinejad. 

Ayatollah Khomeini, who led Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, was clear that abandoning Islam amounts to apostasy. 

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."

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.

Recent Congressional testimony by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom detailed the torture 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. 

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.

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.
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.

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.
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.

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.

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.

"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."

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.

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.

Ben Cohen is a political analyst and commentator based in New York. He writes frequently on Iranian and Middle Eastern issue. Follow him on Twitter @BenCohenOpinion.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/28/facing-execution-for-crime-being-christian-in-iran/print#ixzz1ZL1XHnyq

Insiders think that claimed future NASA goals are just fake Wild West storefronts

FOUND HERE at uncommon descent.

At MSNBC (August 14, 2011), we are told, “NASA opens new office for deep space missions: In post-shuttle era, agency looks at trips to the moon, asteroids and Mars”:

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.

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.

You know they’re not actually going anywhere when the big news is “office,” “department,” and “directorate.”

When NASA was going somewhere, it was A-OK! and reading Genesis, floating in space.

Rob Sheldon comments,

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.

Why should NASA bother? In the newly popular multiverse isn’t everything true anyway?