Thursday, April 16, 2009

Connecting the Dots: Deja Vu...Have We Been Here Before?

I received an email from my all-time favorite hippie type the other day. All those scratching their heads (either at the confusion that I would have a favorite hippie emailing me or at the idea of the lice that is associated with such) rest your weary minds. I'm not jumping sides. The sides, however, are not what you thought they were.

This favored hippie was John Michael Talbot. He was the former (brilliant) guitarist for Mason Proffit, opening for bands like Pink Floyd, The Byrds and The Grateful Dead. Now, remember the name of his band. It all ties in beautifully. John Michael (JM to those who love him) heard a unique call and answered it. He abandoned the rock star future and did a 180. He left the lifestyle that promised money and fame, and turned to contemplation and the peace that only the Master can offer. In his abandonment to himself, he found his real purpose and his talents weren't laid aside either. Here is a snippet of his work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aYecuDlDYM

Now, while some would say it is airy fairy, there is a much bigger message for you all. He sent me an email, calling us all to rethink where we've been and where we're going as a nation.
Plato and even St. Thomas Aquinas said that the majority of the population should be those who produce the basic food we need to live. They are rural farmers. The reason is simple: If we do not eat, we die. The city should have most of its needs produced locally from the farms in its immediate vicinity. Trade with other cities and towns is necessary, but should be kept to a minimum. Cities should be largely self-sufficient from the land around it. The result was to be a healthy and colorfully rich environment for everyone on the city and on the farm. Today cities are a polluted grey sprawl of factories, warehouses, urban and suburban houses, and cookie cutter strip malls. Most of us produce a specialized service that we really don't need. Then we have to convince everyone else that we all NEED this specialized product. A friend of mine said that his city was a population of restaurant owners where everyone goes to another restaurant for dinner every night. Somehow this seems rather inane.


In other words, we've been redirected out of providing food and sustenance for our families by leaving the family farm and gone into the cities in the hope of finding wealth by working for a bunch of elitists who promise us riches if we just work indefinitely for the corporation.

While reading, of all things, an art history book, I stumbled upon this gem. (Proof that not all university institutions are full of lies.) Regarding the post Napoleonic era, it outlines the societal situation that lead to the Great Depression:
Drawn from pre-industrial home industries and farms, the new machine worker class lived and worked in often deplorable conditions. No longer their own masters, they became virtual slaves. Unable to help themselves, they remained subject to severe organizing restrictions, hampered by a lack of education, and threatened constantly by the prospect of unemployment. The middle classes, caught up in their own aspirations to wealth and political power, largely ignored their plight. Into this mix came the philosophy of Karl Marx.
Reality Through The Arts Dennis J. Sporre Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ

We have, once again, become the unwitting pawns of the upper classes in their addiction to more wealth and power. John Michael is right. We need to get back to the basics. The Depression was the direct result of this kind of industrialization, and we're headed in that same direction, unless we stop and turn things around.

John Michael speaks to the idea of answering a call from God that seems so fantastic, so unbelievable for us, that our defeated egos believe it impossible. I'm sure if someone told him where he would be at the age of retirement back when he was with Mason Proffit, he would have laughed. But the truth is, sometimes we sell ourselves short.

Now, the big tie together. John Micheal, my favorite hippie, runs a hermitage called the Little Portion, where they farm, raise their own livestock and barter for services. He has inspired many to do the same. He is married, and answered the call to live a holy family life (not equal to giving up sex,) in answer to what his heart told him was right.

If you watch the video, you can't help notice the peaceful place some of the notes in his musicplaces the soul, through the crescendoes. Remember this place. It is where you usually get when you meditate, or pray, or look at a little baby's sleeping face. It hits you in your heart, right in the center of your chest, and fills you with a feeling you can't explain. That is what talking to God is.

JM turned away from the pursuit of wealth and focused on what God was calling him to do. The ills of our society are caused when we pursue wealth and ignore what God is calling us to do. Once the "Great Generation" started to come out of the Depression, after finally getting the message that they needed to turn away from the misdirected path the elites had veered them towards, they responded to God's call and had the courage to fight a maniacal ruler named Hitler. They defended the gift of liberty God willed for all humanity. They overcame the evil, and were horrified when they realized how evil he was. Will we do the same?

Remember JM's original band name? Mason Proffit? Supposedly, the Masons were a group that met secretly to gain political control and domination of Europe in response to the control of the Medieval Catholic Church, although this is speculative. The open Masons started in England in 1717 and were predominantly aristocracy who never dirtied their lily white hands. (Interesting.) Proffit..well, that goes without saying. Together, JM turned away from an oppressive group that was drawing him towards virtual slavery.

We can do the same, but we all have to start at the same origin. Where did we come from, and where are we going? As a nation, as a people, as a parent, as a person? It all comes back to the One.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Show Me The Money

My next series will focus on "Connecting the Dots" and demonstrating who is REALLY running the country. You will notice a large proportion of money going to B.O., but a much smaller amount going to J.M. This is due to the standard (campaign funds from the government versus private companies.) This is just the Presidential Campaign. I will also go after the Speaker, the Senators (Majority vs Minority) and the individuals known for pushing the key pieces of legislature through that has gotten us in the Depression thus far. Note the names seem to keep reappearing. This is no accident.

Barack Obama's top contributers

University of California $1,385,675
Goldman Sachs $980,945
Microsoft Corp $806,299
Harvard University $793,460
Google Inc $790,564
Citigroup Inc $657,268
JPMorgan Chase & Co $650,758
Stanford University $580,904
Sidley Austin LLP $574,938
Time Warner $547,951
National Amusements Inc $541,251
WilmerHale $524,292
UBS AG $522,019
IBM Corp $518,557
Skadden, Arps et al $510,274
Columbia University $503,566
Morgan Stanley $490,873
US Government $479,956
General Electric $479,454
Latham & Watkins $467,311

John McCain's Supporters

Merrill Lynch $371,295
Citigroup Inc $320,251
Morgan Stanley $271,152
Goldman Sachs $230,095
JPMorgan Chase & Co $225,557
US Government $207,829
AT&T Inc $194,913
UBS AG $182,079
Credit Suisse Group $179,053
Wachovia Corp $169,057
PricewaterhouseCoopers $167,900
US Army $162,870
Bank of America $155,251
Blank Rome LLP $154,426
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher $150,396
Greenberg Traurig LLP $146,437
FedEx Corp $132,974
US Dept of Defense $131,675
Lehman Brothers $125,357
Bear Stearns $117,498

Now, you will first notice the names all sound like investment firms and banks. This is no accident either. Next, look at the so called TARP fund payments and then look at the stimulus plan. Notice the similarities? The U.S. Government gave our money to these folks like candy, then committed us, our children and our children's children to pay back the stimulus funds at exhorbitant interest rates that will send future generations into poverty.

Consider the president's budget. Carbon taxes, aka cap and switch, aka bait and switch, and the other members of the green movement and low and behold...who do you see on the big contributors list? None other than The University of California (i.e. the grant money for research on green tech) and General Electric. They have another back door perk. Remember the idea of doing universal healthcare? Along with doing energy and financing, GE also does healthcare equipment. A coincidence? Probably not. Broadband and internet access in the stimulus assists the Silicon Valley crowd, and all the banks that swallowed up the smaller fish exist on BO's list. Finally, I find it curious that so many uni's contributed to BO, and Pell Grant increases were also part of the 'stimulus' (ironically sounding more and more like 'stimulate us') and you'll finally understand what has been happening. We, as a country, have been duped, shanghai'd, bamboozled and taken for a ride. In other words, we fell for it.

In Karl Marx' Communist Manifesto, Marx declares that religion is the opiate of the people. Like so many parts of this piece of literature, he was ALMOST right. Religion isn't the opiate, OPIATE is the opiate of the people, heretofore known as television. Anything that renders its minions catatonic must be an opiate. But it isn't so much what the opiate is, it is what it does to them that is so dangerous. It renders the victim complacent and impressionable. That makes them very easy to manipulate. Watch BO's manner when he speaks...he either talks side to side, even when the teleprompter is in front of him, or he says Uh...Um...Uh..a lot. This has a hypnotyzing effect on people as well. Add to it all the subliminal and overt messages in television ads and programming, and you have the perfect storm. How do you think the members of Congress and the Senate were convinced people would be okay with $700 billion in spending? Because the 'crisis' mantra was plastered all over the boob tube.

Notice, they use 'crisis' whenever it means pushing important legislation through, and it was both parties. It worked for the Patriot Act. It worked for pushing through the TARP and making the Sec of Treasury the Money King. Finally, it is now being used to manipulate a new bill, Senate bills 773 and 778 to limit the internet access in the time of a 'crisis'. Now, which crisis could they be referring to? The real kind, or the last three that have been presented by Bush and Obama?

Now, this is a lot to absorb, and you may say, "But Mama, this is how politics work." Maybe so, but let's consider the gajillion small businesses that were conveniently left out of TARP and the stimulus. Notice also that this keeps going back to the bankers. So, just for the fun of it, let's follow the money.

The banks on the list for BO include JP Morgan Chase. Chase was also known as the Rockefeller Bank. Who is now introducing the bill giving the President the authority to limit the internet? David Rockefeller. This appears to be a bit of a power grab to control the information resources. If the President throws around the word 'crisis' at the drop of a hat. I doubt they would require much criteria to use it to stop information that is damaging from getting out.

Also, you might take note the direction all this is taking. Look at the key players here. Rockefellers, Gates (Microsoft), Harvard...who exactly is calling the shots? Us, or them?

They are taking over the control of the banks, with the intention of putting it all under one umbrella...the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. They have proposed a bailout for the nation's newspapers. If they do that, do you realize what it means? It means all the safeguards for our country are in peril. I know, I know...just TRUST me. What makes us different from Communist China? Not much, outside of religion. But if we defer our laws to an international body, such as the UN, we're totally screwed on that because their Rights of Children specifically states a parent should NOT choose religion for their children.

Now, with all this in mind...a banking system owned by the government, a car industry owned by the government, the newspapers and the internet potentially owned by the government, a system of law authorized by the UN and a government that flips the voters the bird when they say DON'T GIVE THEM OUR MONEY and you have one thing....China, North Korea, Vietnam, Venezuela, Cuba...all communist or socialist governments that claim to have elections that are 'democratic.'

Next time...Nancy Pelosi and Howard Reid.
/?

Monday, April 6, 2009

When Size Really DOES Matter

Last night, I watched a program which constitutes pornography here on Irish television. It was a documentary investigating sperm dysfunction, testicular cancer and reproductive abnormalities in men (commonly referred to as 'small penis size'.) I'm not kidding. This was prime time television in rural Ireland and they were discussing...small penises...as if it were the end of the world. After about ten minutes, I was able to see the television through the blur of tears caused by the laughter. It was then I began to understand how serious the whole thing is (the subject, not the penises!)It may really BE the end of the world if the average penis size becomes small. And not just for the pleasure of women!

The Canadian Medical Association Journal January 1999 edition hthttp://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/160/2/213.pdf cites a number of possible causes, but penis size was an indicator in a number of problems that all combine to paint a very disturbing picture. Small penises, hypospadius and non decendant testicles were all associated with slow sperm swimming. It was also linked to a higher frequency of testicular cancer. Testicular cancer, on the rise in Canada by 2% annually (a 60% increase in ages 15 - 29 over the last 30 years) was the most alarming.

Interestingly, they managed to blame the mom, citing influences caused in the fetal period that contributed to the increase in cancer. You read that right. Now, some people are being exposed to things that will cause their death BEFORE they are even born! While a curious argument for the pro-life debate crowd, a 60% increase is crazy scary! And the fact that it has been increasing steadily every year is also alarming. OK, so it IS Canada, and there are some who would argue whether this was really a bad thing, but it is also happening in Danish populations too. (Again, there are some...) But the journal makes this incredible statement:

  • Which environmental agents are the likely culprits? A
    number of microcontaminants have hormone-disrupting
    properties, either with estrogenic or antiandrogenic activity.
    The list includes DDT, PCBs, nonylphenol, bisphenola
    and vinclozolin

  • Epidemiologic trends support the concept that testicular
    cancer, undescended testis, hypospadius and impaired
    spermatogenesis are related biologically. A substantial
    amount of evidence indicates that environmental pollutants
    with estrogenic or antiandrogenic activity result in
    hormonal disruption and are responsible for the steadily
    increasing incidence of testicular cancer.

  • This hypothesisis also supported by wildlife studies. For example, small
    genitalia and decreased semen quality have beeen reported
    in Florida alligators and American panthers.


Guillette LJ Jr, Gross TS, Masson GR, Matter JM, Percival HF, Woodward
AR. Developmental abnormalities of the gonad and abnormal sex hormone
concentrations in juvenile alligators from contaminated and control lakes in
Florida. Environ Health Perspect 1994;102:680-8.


Facemire CF, Gross TS, Guillette LJ Jr. Reproductive impairment in the
Florida panther: nature or nurture? Environ Health Perspect 1995;103(Suppl
4):79-86

The point here is the fact that we have bigger problems than the economic crisis on the horizon. If toxins (which are currently approved by the FDA) are actually reducing the population of many species, including man, we won't have to worry about money. There won't be enough people to do the jobs. We'll be looking at number reductions that border on that of the Black Plague during Medieval Europe! Carbon footprints won't be an issue. Hell, any footprint will be acceptable if this happens.

Why, you ask? Aren't there too many people on the earth as it is? Well, aside from the reality that the population explosion is just another manufactured crisis to distract us from the real problems, it means few species in certain locations, across the board. Fewer species mean less food. And if humans are also going to see fewer numbers, or face greater cancers (remember, this could also have an influence on breast and uterine cancers) we, as a nation, will be facing a healthcare crisis, and possibly other man made catastrophes (thought I'd throw that in, just for fun, Ms. Napolitano!)

This IS the real problem. We need to pay attention to what is happening around us ALREADY...not some fairytale story about global warming that has no basis in fact and was contrived by a bunch of dreadlock hippie throwbacks who smoked a lid of bad pot and got paranoid. Oh, but they better check the pesticides on that pot. Drug use has also been indicated in sexual dysfunction. Coincidence? I think not!