23rd Mandalation

Biblioscopes Advice for All Sun Signs 5/20-26

2006-05-20T10:26:00.000-04:00

Biblioscopes are the union of bibliomancy, divination through opening books to random pages and pondering the meaning of the phrases therein, and horoscopes, in that each sign does share certain commonalities, including planetary transits. Each Saturday I ask the Universe to lead my hands in opening the book to the right page for a week's worth of good advice for each sun sign.
This week's featured book is "The System:How to Get Laid TODAY" by Roy Valentine. To connoisseurs of "how to pick up gals" books, this is not the Bible but the DaVinci Code written flat out in 12pt. type on 4x7 paper, with softcore illos.

Aries (March 21 - April 20)
The more you try, the more you're convinced yov've just wasted your night with that "bitch." I hate to say it, but it's your own fault.
He's right. It is your own fault. Putting your own wants before the needs of others will only lead to anger and failure.
Taurus (April 21- May 20)
If still nothing, then I move on. If I do get a hit, though, it's time to play the game.
A certain part of life is luck. Another part, a numbers game. Opportunity will knock twice, but do you really want to wait?

Gemini (May 21-June 20)
She's too hot. She could never want me.
As the sun goes into your sign, Gemini, it is reminding you that you are good enough, smart enough, and darnit, people like you!

Cancer (June 21-July 20)
Control your mind and realize that girls love sex as much as men. That doesn't make her a whore--it makes her human.
Your prejudice of others is controlling your fate. Try, as best you can, to open your mind. If there are contentions between you and someone who is different from you right now, you may want to read an autobiography written by someone else of that background or gender to understand them better.

Leo (July 21-Aug. 20)
My cock isn't big enough.
The secret is out, Leo! Actually, when I see you fluff your mane for the hundredth time, I know that is what you are really feeling. But it's not true. Okay, well it may be true. But a lion with a small penis is still a lion. No need to overdo it.

Virgo (Aug. 21-Sept. 20)
You will start noticing girls who are hot for you based on eye contact and you will pass them up.
Discrimination is the better part of valor, but the question is, is it the better part of fun? Make sure you have some fun this week.

Libra (Sept. 21-Oct. 20)
Well, this is so simple that when I first tell it to guys they refuse to believe me until they try it.
When you explain the obvious this week, make sure you have your PowerPoint ready, or you will look dumb or end up frustrated or both.

Scorpio (Oct. 21-Nov. 20)
In fact, in most cases I know that I'll be able to take home the girl and have sex with her even before I speak to her.
The only reason the above statement is true is that the girl has already made her decision first, either consciously or unconsciously. You will make an important, unspoken connection this week.

Sagittarius (Nov. 21-Dec.20)
You may have danced with a girl in the past and closed the deal, but dancing wih countless others brought no success.
Being goal-oriented this week will only suck the joy out of the moment. Forget the future, and notice the good times you are having now.

Capricorn (Dec. 21-Jan. 20)
They have the ability, at will, to mentally condition themselves for success; identify an opportunity for the perfect shot; and they have the skill required to execute the perfect shot.
These are called professionals. Take one step forward this week by learning a little more about one of the above.

Aquarius (Jan. 21-Feb 20)
Often when you meet a girl on the street, in the supermarket, at the department store, etc., she lives only a few blocks away and was probably on her way home anyway.
You will find opportunity for the extraordinary in the ordinary, if you are helpful, friendly, and keep your eyes open.

Pisces (Feb.21-Mar. 20)
The problem is, many women feel cheap if you say something like, 'Hey, let's go back to my place and have sex."
In Japan, women speak an entirely different dialect than men. It's true in English, too, only not so overt. Pisces women: if a man doesn't understand you, just take all the sensitivity out, and poetry out, and say what needs to be said, in sentences of four words or less. Pisces men, if a woman is upset with you, or doesn't understand you, get your ass to Hallmark, and buy a card.

Notes: A complete review of "The System" can be found on my love and sex blog, http://love-suki.blogspot.com.

*The dates given to each sun sign are approximate--the dates of each sun sign change annually with the date of the vernal equinox. If you were born between the 18th and 24th of any month, you should get a free astrology report from www.astrology.com or www.geocosmic.org just so you can answer properly when someone asks, "What's your sign?"

Vampires on the Net

2006-05-19T16:09:00.000-04:00

According to the research and interviews in this book, Something in the Blood: The Underground World of Today's Vampires, blood drinkers are everywhere. While not all consider themselves vampires, they share a compulsion to drink blood, preferably human, though a few in the book would make do with animal if necessary.

Still, quite a few of these people believe they are vampires. While they scoff at Hollywood's interpretation of the modern vampire, they do enjoy the movies and books, especially the Lestat books from Anne Rice . What they don't want is to have people harbor negative views of them because of the movies and books.

Not all of the vampires in this book drink blood. Some consider themselves psychic vampires who feed on energy instead of the red.

Something in the Blood helps to dispel a few myths:
No, they don't have a problem with garlic.
No, they don't burn up in daylight.
No, they don't fly.
That bat thing... uh, no.
No, they do not harm people.
They only drink from willing donors.
No, they don't have the power to turn to mist or read your mind, but a few claim they have the power to "see" things or remember past lives.

Since the book is ten years old, I decided to look up some of the organizations and people mentioned-- see if any were still involved in the lifestyle:

The first is actually an international church for vampires. The opening flash is a fun, Gods-among-you type thing. If you want to be a lifetime member of the church you have to be willing to cough up 20 to 45 dollars for their bible. There is also a temple ring or a silver medallion available for purchase. My favorite part of the website is at the bottom in small print. Says, discriminate with care. Temple of the Vampire Like most of the other sites for vampires, they have a nifty FAQ section.

Vlad of the band, The Dark Theater, is one of the non-vampire blood drinkers. He says the "reincarnated from the original Vlad" is a publicity thing -- that he's actually reincarnated from one of Vlad's henchmen. I found him at myspace. www.myspace.com/tdt3

The Vampirism Research Institute and its founder, Liriel McMahon, did have a site on the internet but her institute is now closed. There are a few articles left here. VRI Office Or, you can follow her to her new project, Badblood Comics, BadBloodComic.com

There was a chapter about The Dark Rose Journal, an erotic underground zine that was popular in the nineties. I didn't find it on the web, but I did find its address buried in this huge list of vampire underground publications and clubs. Vampire/goth/fetish etc... Address List

I went on to search for other internet sites about real vampires today and found too many to list. After poking around in some, I discovered several interesting things in common. The majority believe only sick people take blood from unwilling donors. There are a lot of places to chat or meet up with other vampires and quite often, the desire to be a vampire stems from angst-ridden teenagers with a severe sense of isolation. They don't fit in, yet they have no desire to be one of the "mundanes."

I came across this term often -- have come across it in other groups as well. (I heard it a lot while researching hackers for a book.) While the definition of mundane is not particularly offensive, the use of the word in this context can't help but carry some derision. There is an explanation here. SphynxCatVP - FAQ - (SphynxCatVP) Why We Use The Term "Mundane" This site also offers support to vampires with advice, articles and ways to get in touch with others. SphynxCatVP's Real Vampires Support Page (v5 modern vampires vampyres psi sang .

Here's another site that offers support. Sanguinarius: IntroductionThe FAQ page has answers for questions such as "Should your donor have the same blood type?" and "How long do you live?" This last question will be a disappointment to most, I'm sure. This site also has terminology and lingo, as well as a section with typical questions about problems-- quite a few teenagers in this area. They have chats scheduled weeknights. I did find Something in the Blood on their recommended reading page under Nonfiction.

An article for vampires or people who are dealing with one"
"There is no "generic advice" to give those who believe they may be dealing with a real vampire. Those who are so inclined might try to help a friend or fellow group member explore their inner nature and come to terms with their destructive behaviors. Those who feel victimized can choose to end the relationship. Each case is different, and can only be judged by the individuals concerned. But it is important for anyone involved in magickal or psychic work to understand that vampires are a real phenomenon, and that, like all perils, they should not be greeted with fear or anger. Nothing is evil by nature -- only by choice. Terror of discovery (followed by ridicule or rejection) inhibits the self-development of many real vampires. When they reach out for friendship, they are often reaching out for help." From Real Vampires

Vampire origins offers information on ethymology, mythology as well as explanations of the different types of vampires. It also lists strengths, weaknesses, how to recognize one, etc.

This one offers info on feeding, origins and it has an essay on the Nature of the True Vampire. CRIMSON VISION: REAL VAMPIRE WEBPAGE & WEBLOG

For vampires in the GLBT community -- Queer Vampires

There may be an association for vampires in a city near you. Here's one in New Jersey... New Jersey Association of Real Vampires

And of course, what piece on vampirism would be complete without mention of the original Vlad Tepes, the man believed to be immortalized forever in Bram Stoker's gothic novel, Dracula Amazon.com: Dracula (Signet Classics (Paperback)): Books: Bram Stoker ? A fervently religious ruler with a love for torture, his reign was bloody in the extreme. For more: VLAD TEPES - The Historical Dracula This page has an area devoted to the reason why people still belive that Stoker used Vlad Tepes as inspiration.

Do your own search. There's an interesting, underground world of vampires out there. It's just possible you sit next to one at work every day.

How Third Reich Can You Get?

2006-05-19T12:06:00.000-04:00

Iran's parliament this week makes law ordering that non-Muslims begin wearing identifying badges on their clothing--Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth. Article is here. A really bone-headed move by Iranians or another psy-op by the West to make Westerners hate them and not so much mind a nuke strike?

"Space Cadet" Actor Dies at 85

2006-05-19T09:56:00.000-04:00

From the New York Times (the last line of this is classic):
Frankie Thomas, 85, Actor in 50's TV, Is Dead
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: May 18, 2006
LOS ANGELES, May 17 (AP) — Frankie Thomas, who starred in the 1950's children's television show "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet," died here on Thursday. He was 85.
The cause was respiratory failure, said his stepdaughter, Julie Alexander.
Mr. Thomas began acting on Broadway in the early 1930's and soon went to Hollywood, where he appeared in films including "A Dog of Flanders," "Boys Town" and "The Major and the Minor," as well as four Nancy Drew movies.
In 1950 he beat out actors including Jack Lemmon to win the title role of Tom Corbett, a Space Academy cadet in training to become a member of the elite Solar Guard, 400 years in the future.
"Frankie looked like the all-American boy," said Jan Merlin, who played the wisecracking cadet Roger Manning on the show. "Everyone in the room knew immediately this was the guy we were going to get."
The show was broadcast on CBS, ABC, NBC and the DuMont network.
Mr. Thomas quit acting when the series ended in 1955 and over the years worked as a television and radio writer, bridge instructor and author of mystery novels, including "Sherlock Holmes and the Masquerade Murders."
He is survived by his stepdaughter and a stepson, James Aicholtz. At his request, Mr. Thomas was buried Tuesday in his "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" costume.

PSA

2006-05-19T09:46:00.000-04:00

Hollywood and Illuminati Team Up on "Da Vinci Code"

2006-05-19T09:42:00.000-04:00

From the article:
"Illuminati code buster Jack Fermanian is burning the mystical midnight oil these days, trying to make sense out of the secret cult's numbering system, adding the Da Vinci Code provides another interesting clue. Fermanian, who spends endless hours trying to make sense out of the Illuminati numbering code, said the DaVinci Code movie strangely opens today on the exact day of the new Illuminati 33 day cycle, acting as a reminding of the devilish intent behind the cult trying to take over the world."

Rest of the article is here.

That Left-Handed Number

2006-05-18T08:21:00.000-04:00

XXIII is a website devoted to exposing the treachery of this most sinister prime number. Some examples:

* It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the human body

* Julius Ceasar was stabbed 23 times by the assasans.

* X-Files: 10.13 productions.10 + 13 = 23

* "Scottish Rite Freemasonry" has 23 letters.

* A technological singularity has been predicted by "experts" in the near future. It is expected around 2030 AD.

* Geosynchronous orbit occurs at 23,000 miles above Earth's surface.

* Psychic Edgar Cayce started having visions of lost Atlantis in 1923.

* Hitler joined a secret society in 1923.

* Avagadro's number as used in the ideal gas law is 6.02 * 10^23

* The CIA headquarters in McLean, VA is located on rt. 123.

* The tilt of Earth's axis is roughly 23o accounting for the changing seasons and the procession of the Zodiac.

* Homo sapiens are given 46 chromosomes from their parents, 23 male and 23 female.

2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

2006-05-17T15:07:00.000-04:00

This is a newly released book. From the description on Amazon:
"As his mind opened to new and sometimes threatening experiences, disparate threads and synchronicities made new sense: Humanity, every sign suggested, faces an imminent decision between greater self-potential and environmental ruin. The Mayan "birth date" of 2012 could herald the close of one way of existence and the beginning of another, symbolized by the prophesied return of the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl, the mysterious "Plumed Serpent" of ancient myth. In just the nick of time, the skeptical modern mind can reclaim the suppressed psychic, intuitive, and mystical dimensions of being, and institute a new planetary culture. But it is only - and by no means assuredly - possible if we confront the environmental catastrophe staring us in the face."

Pentagon 9/11 Video Is Giant Psy-Op

2006-05-17T14:25:00.000-04:00

From the article:
1) The government truly is frightened to death of releasing any images which accurately depict what happened at the Pentagon because it doesn't jive with the official version of 9/11.
2) Or the government knows that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon and has clear footage of the incident, but is deliberately releasing these speculative images in order to stoke the debate so it can later release the high quality video and use it to debunk the entire 9/11 truth movement.
The media obsession with this one facet of an entire smorgasbord of 9/11 questions, and their refusal to address more hardcore 9/11 evidence, leads us to fear the latter explanation is the case.

Albinos Upset at "The Da Vinci Code"

2006-05-17T10:55:00.000-04:00

"Critics cite a long list of albinos cast as heavies by Hollywood: The dreadlocked twins in "The Matrix Reloaded," a powder-haired hit man in the Chevy Chase-Goldie Hawn crime romp "Foul Play," the pasty zombies in "The Omega Man," a sadistic killer in "Cold Mountain," even the wicked executioner in the fairy-tale comedy "The Princess Bride."
"Michael McGowan, an albino who heads the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, said "The Da Vinci Code" will be the 68th movie since 1960 to feature an evil albino."
The rest is here.

Religious Affiliations of World's Most Influential People

2006-05-17T09:43:00.000-04:00

An interesting list.

A Jainist is included, as is Mongolian shamanist.

Murderous Sect or Just Finding God in Daily Life?

2006-05-17T09:38:00.000-04:00

Here's what Opus Dei has to say about themselves (from their home page)
"Opus Dei is a Catholic institution founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá. Its mission is to spread the message that work and the circumstances of everyday life are occasions for growing closer to God, for serving others, and for improving society."

Thought I'd give them a platform to dispute the big challenge they face this week.

Mary Alice Doesn't Lay Here, Anymore

2006-05-17T01:29:00.000-04:00

After her 1975 arrest, Patricia Hearst had several sessions with Dr. Jolyon West, a key figure involved with MK-ULTRA, the CIA’s mind control program. Later, Dr. West testified openly in her defense. But these initial meetings were secret. What could they have been up to? Was he trying to undo the Symbionese Liberation Army’s brainwashing? Was he brainwashing her into being a good girl for the first time in her life? Or, was he coaching her on how to mimic someone who had just been brainwashed?

In preparation for her trial, the prosecution assigned Dr. Harry Kozol to examine Hearst in order to evaluate her brainwashing claim. But she stormed out of his office just minutes into the session, yelling that he accused her of dirty things. He only asked about her feelings concerning SLA member Willie Wolf. At that point, according to Dr. Kozol, she went ballistic, vehemently denying that she had anything to do with her own kidnapping, and that she was a victim, and how she never wanted to be involved with this in the first place.

Hearst’s best friend, Patricia Tobin, playfully mentioned to Patty the rumors that she helped in the planning of her own abduction, because she thought that her sister would be the intended victim--a teasing that prompted the same severe overreaction that Dr. Kozol witnessed. According to her fiancé, Stephen Weed, when the SLA entered their apartment, she screeched, “It’s not supposed to be me,” or words to that effect.

Why would Hearst plan her sister’s kidnapping? Better yet, why would the Hearst family offer their daughters to be used in such a manner?

First question first. If Hearst planned her sister’s kidnapping, with the full knowledge that she would be subject to rape, it might have been because Patty had already made her own sacrifice to the cause.

“Where?” you ask.

Most likely, at The Vacaville Medical Facility in California.

When Willie Wolf’s father heard that his son had gotten mixed up in a band of paramilitary left-wing yahoos, he couldn’t believe it. So he hired Lake Headley, a top-notch private investigator, to find out what the hell Willie was doing. On May 4, 1974, thirteen days before the younger Wolf’s death at the hands of the LAPD, Headley concluded his investigation, and filed a sworn affidavit of his findings. In the quaint language of legal mumbo jumbo, he found (more like came to the opinion, but that’s legal mumbo jumbo for you) that the SLA was, in fact, an ongoing domestic operation of the CIA. He further found:

"That Patricia Campbell Hearst and her parents disagreed bitterly over Patricia's political and personal relations. That a love affair between a black man and Patricia Hearst did take place prior to her relationship with her fiancé Steven Weed. That Mrs. Randolph A. Hearst subjected her daughter to extreme pressure to change her personal and political relationships."

Patty was eighteen years old when Mary Alice Siem made her trips to Vacaville. Like every other guest, she needed a photo ID to get in and out. So, if you’re wondering what Siem looked like in that photo, imagine Hearst at eighteen and you’ll have an exact match.

(Figure 1. Mary Alice Siem and Thero Wheeler, Prison IDs)

(Figure 2. Patricia Hearst, c. 1973)

(Figure 3. Patricia Hearst, 1974 SLA Publicity Photo)

Hearst has three rather distinct facial features. The first are her eyes. They’re very intense. The most distinctive feature, however, is the nose. If you look at Hearst’s face straight on--doesn’t matter how old she was at the time--you will see that her nose angles noticeably to her right, and has sort of a button tip, almost as if there’s a tiny bump on it. You will also note that her chin points in the opposite direction at about the same angle. These three elements also appear (reversed) in Siem’s photograph. Moreover, the woman looks considerably younger than twenty-three.

Paul Krassner, a freelance reporter who often wrote for The Berkeley Barb discovered that the real Mary Alice Siem dropped out of UC Berkeley during the middle of her sophomore year, and left the bay area in 1972. Hearst, he speculated, “borrowed” Siem’s identity in her absence.

Several years ago, Siem’s prison ID photo was pretty easy to find on the Internet. But as I wrote in a previous post, a lot of information about the SLA has sunk into the memory hole. I’m not saying that it’s impossible to find the above photo anywhere else (I’ll jump up and down with joy if you can). I am saying, however, that I can no longer find it, whereas three years ago it was just a mouse click away.

As to the second question, it’s helpful to remember how things were during the first half of the 1970s. Protests spurred a paranoid President Nixon to order illegal surveillance on political opponents in a series of actions that culminated in the Watergate scandal, and his own disgraceful resignation. Police departments began hiring public relations firms in order to repair their reputations, damaged from years of aggressive action against peaceful protestors. The CIA had gotten caught red-handed illegally tapping the phones of dissident American citizens, and would be called before the Senate, House and the Oval Office in three official investigations. The company was also implicated in Watergate, and former CIA officers Victor Marchetti and Philip Agee had begun to chronicle the Agency’s criminal activities. The death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972 had allowed a number of Special Agents (most notably William Turner and W.C. Sullivan) to spill the beans on his nearly fifty-year reign of terror.

Simply put, the period between 1972-1974 was a desperate time for many of the elite in government and the private sector. Desperate times entice desperate measures. Perhaps it’s beyond the pale, but for all I know maybe a bunch of mucky-mucks formed a plan to discredit the progressive movement, and drew straws to see who would be the pointman for the attack. Maybe the Hearst family drew the short straw. Although that’s purely speculative, obviously, conservative columnist William F. Buckley cryptically wrote during the middle of the SLA debacle that Patty should be sacrificed “in the name of Christ.”

Enemy of the Republic has pointed out that there is a western cultural mythology of the sacrificed princess that extends back to antiquity--an idea that makes perfect sense were some kind of occult organization a participant in the plan.

In 1974, many speculated that Hearst's conversion to the SLA came about through some kind of sexual seduction, either by Willie Wolf, or the group's leader Donald "Cinque" DeFreeze, especially after Headley's investigation found that Patty had been having some kind of affair with a black man. As Mary Alice Siem, Patty might have visited Cinque's conjugal trailer. Noting the end of Black Abductor, in which the kidnapped victim saves her beloved kidnapper from annihilation, one must also remember that Dr. Gerald Vale refused to identify the black male corpse as DeFreeze. Speculating that Hearst was heartbroken over Cinque's death, Berkeley Barb reporter Paul Krassner penned a number of joke headlines that he didn't have the heart (or guts) to put into print (my favorite: "Patty Frigid after DeFreeze").

Of course, another scenario seems possible. Maybe the black man Hearst visited as Siem was not DeFreeze, but Thero Wheeler, the special forces veteran. Wheeler was romantically linked to Mary Alice Siem, even in prison--the reason many websites used to pair their pictures together. After his escape, many sources, including Marilyn Baker, linked Siem with Wheeler. However, if Hearst actually posed as Siem, then it would appear that her allegience was to him and whatever his assignment might have been. The fact that she completely wrote him out of her 1982 autobiography, despite the numerous eyewitness accounts and the police sketch that finger him as her second kidnapper, certainly raises my eyebrow.

The teenyboppers of the 1960s had already grown up, and the powers that be probably gave up on them, at least temporarily. The purpose of the fiery destruction of the SLA, the Helter Skelter murders, along with the slaughter of Kent State and Jackson State students in broad daylight was to keep the children of the 1970s from developing the same revolutionary fervor adopted by their elder siblings, encouraging them instead to indulge in some of the hedonistic tangents associated with it, namely sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

As Krassner put it, the movers and shakers wanted to send parents a message: “Destroy the seeds of rebellion in your children, or we will have it done for you.”

British Skies UFO-Free For Past 30 Years

2006-05-16T17:02:00.000-04:00

LONDON (AFP) - None of the numerous UFOs reported over Britain in the last 30 years was a flying saucer, the government said as it released previously secret defence files probing mysterious aerial sightings.

The declassified study -- "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in the UK Air Defence Region" -- concluded that such UAP do exist and are "usually described as coloured lights and sometimes as shapes".

"Very occasionally they are reported with sound and even with smell," it added.

But it noted that "reports occur because they comprise unfamiliar and unexpected lights, shapes and patterns, in the context in which the observer sees them. The phenomena occur on a daily, worldwide basis".
Rest of article here.

Biblioscope-free week, because...

2006-05-12T12:16:00.000-04:00

1. The book I ordered didn't arrive in time.
2. My mother is coming to visit. She will not understand what I'm doing, and interrupt me with a thousand questions.
3.I will be busy tending to my mother as she deserves, and making sure she doesn't "clean my house" which basically means, "hide all my important stuff so that I can't find it and forget about it" which doesn't mean my house is messy. It's just that I have a few extra bills and stuff lying around. So I remember to pay them.

As a mom myself, I can honestly say: you were a pain in the ass once, but she did the best she could with you. If, for some reason (and there may be several good ones) you can't do something nice for your mom this weekend, do something nice for someone else's--let a pregnant lady have a seat in the subway, help an old lady cross the street. Something!

If you see something, DO something!

2006-05-10T11:40:00.000-04:00

Think you've seen a terrorist? Or maybe you've just seen someone you want to see again? You don't even have to get close to your target with this GPS tag, ID installer!

See just too many suspicious bags on the subway to bother telling the police every single time? Not sure if the Homeland Security weather is red or orange today? This handy-dandy gizmo handles both functions, all in one!!!

George Orwell was wrong. Big Brother isn't everywhere. It's everyone
Thanks for filling us in, Hellkitten! I can't tell if it's a joke either! Those wacky Danes!!!

Medical Astrology

2006-05-10T09:32:00.000-04:00

Let's all get this straight, shall we? I am a firm believer in doctors, in going to the doctor, in non-optional medicine (all medicine is optional, but I think we can all agree that some is more optional that others) and taking aspirin. But as a kid, my parents did not believe in going to the doctor unless you were almost dying, so I was left on my own to deal with minor physical ailments: sore throats, colds, flus, cuts, burns, mysterious aches and pains. I found holistic healing, because basically, it was the 1970's/80's, there's a thousand books on it, and very little that you can do (and even do clumsily) that will make you any worse off.

What does all of this have to do with astrology?
What we now consider holistic or alternative medicine is actually more ancient than "new age." Back in the day, you wouldn't heal anyone with anything other than herbs, teas, roots, etc.

I'm talking about pre-bleeding days. People still thought about their health then too, seeing as they had long days in the fields to deal with, or castles to storm. Astrology has been around since the Greeks (Asklepius below).
And astrology, a symbolic language, has for almost that long been used to decipher what ails us. Following is a list from wikipedia of astrological sign rulerships on the human body:

* Aries - head, face, brain, eyes
* Taurus - throat, neck, thyroid gland, vocal tract
* Gemini - arms, lungs, shoulders, hands, nervous system
* Cancer - chest, breasts, stomach, alimentary canal
* Leo - heart, chest, spine, spinal column, upper back
* Virgo - digestive system, intestines, spleen, nervous system
* Libra - kidneys, skin, lumbar region, buttocks
* Scorpio - reproductive system, sexual organs, bowels, excretory system
* Sagittarius - hips, thighs, liver, sciatic nerve
* Capricorn - knees, joints, skeletal system
* Aquarius - ankles, calves, circulatory system
* Pisces - feet, toes, lymphatic system, adipose tissue

Now, what in the world are you supposed to do with that??? Well, start with the part of your body that's causing you pain. Today, it's my hands--I burned them twice in one day. Gemini rules the hands. My sun (sun=soul energy) sign is Gemini. Seeing as both burns were caused by carelessness, this is a message that I am not paying attention to what my soul really needs (diversity). If you're a Pisces and your feet hurt, then in life, you have to decide what is out of balance--have you been trying too hard lately, or taking it too easy?

So, armed with this information, one can augment traditional healing (for me, today, salve for my hand) with other practices--for Pisces, a nice nap.

Dream People Faces

2006-05-09T14:16:00.000-04:00

I do not usually write about dreams--people don't want to hear disjointed ramblings that mean nothing in the real world, but the other day something spectacular happened. I dreamt that I was surprised by a pair of fighting hispanic couples in my ziggurat-shaped duplex executive office penthouse suite.

No, I do not have said ziggurat suite. Obviously, I wish I did. What is amazing to me is that the hot-blooded latinos/as were detailed as if I met them on the street. But I never met them before in my life. How can I dream, vividly, of the noses, eyes, hairstyles of people I do not know in the day time? And they were not mysterious--just the opposite. And they were also not special or odd in any way.

The fact that I've been quite struck by this dream itself is important. If anything comes of it, I'll be sure to blog.

Wheeler the Dealer

2006-05-08T13:51:00.000-04:00

In his novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury wrote, “Those who control the past, control the future.” If you think about that for a second, the meaning becomes clear. If you can describe the past in such a way that necessitates certain actions in the present, you can get public support for whatever you do, even if your actions are illegal, immoral, fattening or just plain useless.

We don’t have to examine fiction to find examples of rewritten history, however. Sometimes it exists right under our noses.

There’s been a long-term effort to replace knowledge of the Symbionese Liberation Army with facts that support a more suitable official version. But in the process, the new party line left behind a paper trail that we can trace. For now, let’s stick to one example of how someone changed this history. In a subsequent post, I’ll tell you why they changed it.

The Patty Hearst kidnapping occurred in front of a number of witnesses, among them Hearst’s fiancé, Stephen Weed, neighbors, and an unfortunate Volkswagon owner whose car was commandeered for the mission. The police got excellent eyewitness descriptions of two of the kidnappers, and were able to craft composite sketches of them. Several weeks later, the police were able to attach names to these sketches, both of which so strongly resembled the men involved that Marilyn Baker, a journalist who covered the story for the local PBS station, quipped that they almost looked as though they posed for them.

The first was of a light-skinned African American, and it looked precisely like Donald DeFreeze, the SLA’s titular leader. The guy in the second sketch was identified as Thero Wheeler, a pitch-black man with a rather distinctive appearance made all the more singular by his plastic-rimmed Coke-bottle glasses.

With one exception, everybody stipulated in 1974 that Wheeler, a convict who, like DeFreeze, escaped from California’s Soledad prison after given a low-security work detail, was the second kidnapper. The only person who didn’t identify Wheeler as the second kidnapper was the victim herself, Patty Hearst.

In Every Secret Thing, her 1982 autobiography, Hearst claimed that the second kidnapper was a white man, who stood a couple of inches shorter than DeFreeze. The only SLA member who fit that description was William Harris. But Harris was in the Volkswagon when the kidnapping occurred, so he escaped the notice of witnesses, who only saw DeFreeze and Wheeler clearly, and could only get a blurry glimpse of SLA member Nancy Ling Perry, the sole woman to take an active role in the kidnapping. Yet Hearst did not mention Wheeler’s once in her autobiography.

Several years ago, Internet sites devoted to the SLA began to disappear. One, which claimed to be Hearst’s official website (www.pattyhearst.com), now says that it was never connected in any way to Patricia Hearst, and it’s content has been taken down. Furthermore, the site’s administrator has deployed text robots that prevent archive retrieval of that and mirror sites.

The site, like Heart, never mentioned Wheeler at all, despite his numerous ties to other SLA members, and his constant presence at the skuzzy little edifice known as the Peking House, one of the group’s major hideouts. Other sites have also taken down references to Wheeler’s connection with the SLA as well. A 2004 documentary film on the Hearst kidnapping titled Guerilla makes no mention of Wheeler in its trailer (I have yet to see the movie).

In short, Wheeler’s connections to the SLA have nearly vanished from the Internet.

One might assume that because he was escaped convict connected to the Symbionese Liberation Army, Wheeler simply stayed underground. Yet, he surfaced again in 2005, in a San Francisco Sentinel story about Project Connect, a charity that supplied men living in homeless shelters with prescription eyewear. Wheeler was featured quite prominently as one of the indigent recipients, and the article included a photograph of him. The reporter casually mentioned that he served in Special Forces during the Vietnam War.

(Figure 1. Thero Wheeler 2005, Project connect (left); Thero Wheeler c. 1973, Prison ID Photo)

I don’t know how long the statute of limitations is for prison escape in California. Yet the FBI hunted down James Kilgour, fugitive soccer mom Kathleen Soliah and others connected with the SLA for over two-and-a-half decades.

And think of this: if you needed to kidnap someone, would you entrust that task to amateurs like Defreeze, Perry or Harris? Do you cross your fingers and pray that they’ll able to maintain their cool, and not simply gun down everyone they saw in panic? Wouldn’t a special forces vet--one who’s been in combat situations, one whose training included prisoner acquisition and the use of firearms—have more of the requisite skills for the job?

Biblioscopes: Advice for All Sun Signs May 6-12

2006-05-06T09:06:00.000-04:00

Biblioscopes are the union of bibliomancy, divination through opening books to random pages and pondering the meaning of the phrases therein, and horoscopes, in that each sign does share certain commonalities, including planetary transits. Each Saturday I ask the Universe to lead my hands in opening the book to the right page for a week's worth of good advice for each sun sign.
This week's featured book is "How to Succeed with Men" by David Copeland and Ron Louis, in which we learn that men consider commitment a sort of business deal in which they trade the improbable possibility of having sex with every hot woman in the world for ho-o-o-o-o-ome coookin'.
Aries (March 21 - April 20)
The groups which seemed barren of potential men she visited less often, or not at all.
I think she's being a bit ruthless. Maybe you are too. Spend some time with people who can't help you. Maybe you can help them.

Taurus (April 21- May 20)
Just get talking, give him wins, and don't disqualify him too quickly (more on that in a bit), and you'll have the first step of the flirting interaction underway.
To get what you want, you will have to smile through some awkward stupidity. It's only temporary.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)
We want you to use that sense of innocence, fun, creative expression, spontaneity, freedom, and wonder while you're dating.
Explore each of those senses all week, dating or not. You can have fun when you're not playing the field, Gemini. I know you don't believe it, but it's true.

Cancer (June 21-July 20)
Does he accept bad service and abuse readily?
Do you? You deserve better. Start asking for better. You'll be surprised at how fast it comes.

Leo (July 21-Aug. 20)
Helping you,if you appear grateful for it, is an immediate win for a man.
Asking for help with your project will not make you seem as needy as you think. It may give someone the chance to befriend you.

Virgo (Aug. 21-Sept. 20)
If you call him, it is permissible to leave a message two times.
Nagging never works, but be especially low-key about your needs this week.

Libra (Sept. 21-Oct. 20)
These little actions add up. Rome wasn't built in a day, and habits don't change in an instant, so you can stop worrying that they ought to.
Be patient with yourself. Even small changes in behavior take lots of mindfulness and strength of will. You may want to try self-hypnosis, affirmations, etc.

Scorpio (Oct. 21-Nov. 20)
Karen began to model herself after a character in a novel as a way to break out of her habitual patterns and fear.
And dressing up is fun, too! It was cape day in Iceland not too long ago. So dig out one of your trek shirts, or something gothic, whatever, for a day--or for your lover, for a night!

Sagittarius (Nov. 21-Dec.20)
Most of the time, you handle a bomb by sending in some sort of robot just blow it up. No problem if you are not nearby. Repeat: no problem if you are not nearby. Keep your emotional and/or physical distance from hot-button issues, red flags, bombs, and Osama.

Capricorn (Dec. 21-Jan. 20)
The first thing we want you to do is to get over the idea that your relationship conversation has to be a big, heavy, scary operation.
Let's talk about us, shall we? How is our relationship going? If you're reading what I'm typing, I think we're getting along. If you need to bring up any heavy topic this week, try to give it some humor, try not to take it seriously. And put yourself in the other person's shoes and frame the dialog on how it is advantageous to them, as in: "Bob, this demotion will be great for you! Now you really will have time to blog at work!"

Aquarius (Jan. 21-Feb 20)
Are you excited? Does the idea of having tons of dates and being desired by many eligible bachelors seem wonderful to you?
Aquarius loves to be loved, and makes everyone work hard to do it. This is your week to shine though. Congratulations!

Pisces (Feb.21-Mar. 20)
Also, if the drive is stressful, any talk you have will be stressful, too. Only bring up your relationship in the car if the drive itself is easy, beautiful, and fun.
I have a better tip for you. Don't bring up your relationship in the car. Go parking and have sex in the car. Your relationship will take care of itself.

Notes: "How to Succeed with Men" is actually a good book for women getting back into the singles scene and would like to find a steady boyfriend. This is not a book about getting married. (This is written by men--they wouldn't betray their kind so easily!)
As a Nympho, I only use the Ruthless Nympho method (which only work for chics who love sex, but hey, I'm just me here!).

*The dates given to each sun sign are approximate--the dates of each sun sign change annually with the date of the vernal equinox. If you were born between the 18th and 24th of any month, you should get a free astrology report from www.astrology.com or www.geocosmic.org just so you can answer properly when someone asks, "What's your sign?"

The Lurking Porno Boogeyman

2006-05-05T11:23:00.000-04:00

Black Abductor, a pornographic novel published in 1972, so precisely described the 1974 Patricia Hearst kidnapping that Special Agent Charles Bates, who conducted the FBI’s investigation into the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), deemed it necessary to buy a copy.

In this novel, two men and a woman snatch the daughter of a wealthy senator at the apartment she shared with her fiancé, a teaching assistant at the local university. The assailants savagely beat the fiancé, whom police initially view as the prime suspect in victim’s murder and disappearance. Her captors, a paramilitary left-wing group led by an embittered black man, take her to this rattrap of a house, and announce that they have her in a communiqué. Everyone there winds up having sex with her, but she becomes particularly close to the leader, who unsuccessfully tries to make the encounters as emotionless as possible. She then decides to join the group, even though they give her the option of going free.

The physical descriptions of some characters fit SLA members Donald DeFreeze, Nancy Ling Perry, Willie Wolfe and Hearst to a tee. In some cases, the author didn’t even bother to change the names. The kidnapped victim was named Patricia. The female kidnapper, who actually seems to function as more of a conflation of the SLA women, was named Angela. During the course of the novel, the author reveals that Patricia had an ongoing incestuous relationship with her brother, Will, both of whom lived in a mansion that bore strong resemblance to San Simeon where Hearst actually grew up. Here, the story deviates from real life a bit. Hearst has no brothers. She does, however, have a “favorite” cousin named William Randolph Hearst III, whom everybody called ‘Will’. He must have been of some importance to her, since he was the only family member she would speak to after her arrest.

Some passages that deviate from the official version of the SLA still rang true. In the story, a number of the revolutionaries have secret ties to the police, and nebulous government agencies. The same agencies wind up murdering them in a climactic shootout at the house. Yet, Patricia finds a way to rescue the leader from annihilation, in the process replacing his body with that of another person so police will presume that the skipper went down with his ship.

According to its title page, Black Abductor was written by a man named Harrison James, and published by a company calling itself Regency Press. There actually was a pornographic writer using the pen name Harrison James. Yet, he categorically denied that he wrote the book. If he did, he would have made a small fortune two years later, since the Hearst kidnapping was the hot topic of the day. You would have also thought that he would have objected to an unauthorized 1974 edition put out by Al Ellenberg for Dell Publishing.

Think about this. You’ve written a book. News events make the book extremely marketable. Do you call your publisher and kick him or her in the ass to print more copies? I certainly would, if the publisher hadn’t beaten me to it.

But Regency seemed to have had no interest in either exploiting or protecting its own valuable commodity. Dell tried to get the publisher’s permission to print the Ellenberg edition, but they couldn’t find the company. The only contact person was a woman named Rita Loob, a rather unimaginative pseudonym for a pornography house. No one could find her either. Dell’s detectives couldn’t ascertain whether or not she even existed. They discovered, however that payment for distribution fees came from Nova Publishing, a subsidiary of Hearst Press.

When Dell approached James to get his permission, he denied authorship, despite the fact that he could have made some real good money just by saying yes. In fact, nobody ever claimed to be the author of this book. Once the investigation exhausted all possible procedures for obtaining permission, Dell discovered that Regency didn’t even properly copyright the book. That left Dell free and clear to republish it and keep all the money.

By now, you’re probably wondering why somebody would publish a novel about a crime that they intended to commit at some future time. Wouldn’t it make more sense that somebody in the SLA read it, and patterned their actions after its plot line? Then again, it could have been coincidence, couldn’t it?

Yes, and yes.

But I would then have to wonder why somebody would pattern themselves after doomed characters. As for coincidence, that might be the case, but what a hell of a coincidence!

I have in my possession an unpublished manual of an elite secret society. You might find what the manual says about magic kinda interesting.

Esoteric magic sounds metaphysical, but in actuality it describes any action designed to enact the will of the adept. If you were in a hot room, for example, the proper magic, in their view, would consist of turning on an air conditioner or fan -- nothing really all that spooky.

Magic requiring the joint participation of many different individuals, however, requires a Statement of Intent. A Statement of Intent is a proposal put forth into public discourse, so that operators can act independently. In days of yore, you could find them in art, dramatic, or literary works. Commentary on the play or the painting could express approval, rejection, or suggested modifications.

One could speculate that the Hearst family could have had connections to this elite secret society, especially since its headquarters were close to their home. Then again, I wouldn’t really know if other elitist esoteric groups use Statements of Intent, since I only have the one manual. Nevertheless, you could read Black Abductor as history, and pass a true-or-false test on the subject of the Hearst kidnapping.

After reading Black Abductor myself, I got the impression that it was professionally written. It’s only errors in syntax and grammar occur when a character speaks. The formulaic structure is quite similar to such contemporary sex novels as Naked Came the Stranger.

Since the only legitimate (so to speak) publisher associated at all with it is Hearst Press, the possibility remains that the Hearst family might have had some hand in planning in Patty’s abduction.

Did the U.S. teach the Mujahedin how to bomb us?

2006-05-04T15:36:00.000-04:00

U.S. Special Forces experts would now provide high-tech explosives and teach state-of-the-art sabotage techniques, including the fabrication of ANFO (ammonium nitrate-fuel oil) car bombs, to Pakistani intelligence service (or ISI) officers under the command of Brigadier Mohammed Yousaf. These officers, in turn, would tutor thousands of Afghan and foreign mujahedin, including the future cadre of al-Qaeda, in scores of training camps financed by the Saudis. "Under ISI direction," Coll writes, "the mujahedin received training and malleable explosives to mount car-bomb and even camel-bomb attacks in Soviet-occupied cities, usually designed to kill Soviet soldiers and commanders. Casey endorsed these despite the qualms of some CIA career officers."

More here.

I guess we felt unstoppable when bombs were really big. So were cell phones, back then, as I recall. And computers.

Behind the Biblioscope

2006-05-04T09:21:00.000-04:00

Yeesh.

And They're in Texas...

2006-05-03T10:49:00.000-04:00

From today's Overheard in the Office:
Co-worker: Seriously y'all, if people don't start getting my Kennedy assassination references I'm just going to have to leave Accounting.
305 South Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas

If a Comedian Makes a Joke in a Desolate Wood, Is He Still Funny?

2006-05-03T10:11:00.000-04:00

Mainstream press coverage of the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner last Saturday virtually ignored the presentation of Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, who performed a gut-bustingly hillarious routine that was scathingly critical of the Bush administration.

As netizens debate whether the Colbert media blackout amounts to a conspiracy, one point remains crystal clear: the desire of all major networks and newspapers to suppress this routine, while at the same time playing up a comedic bit between George W. Bush and a Bush impersonator.

They say that because of the second Bush White House, satire is dead.

But when media supression becomes so naked, could conspiracy theory itself be on life support?

(Listen to the routine yourself at the Democracy Now website. It comprises approximately the last fifteen minutes of the broadcast.)

Futuristic Furniture

2006-05-02T10:45:00.000-04:00

I did a search on Yahoo! for the phrase "futuristic furniture" and came across this (file under Sci-Fi Living)

Some Movies I Like

2006-05-02T10:06:00.000-04:00

Conspiracy
"Suddenly" Frank Sinatra plays a would-be presidential assassin. After the JFK thing, he withdrew the film from public consumption and it wasn't seen again until the late 1980s. Sinatra's son was kidnapped shortly after JFK's murder and some have speculated it was done to draw attention away from the Slaying of the Divine King. (Yeah, like people care more about Junior than a slain president.) You can watch the movie, free, here.

Occult
"Horror Hotel" Witchcraft in New England circa 1960. Spooky. A great climax (I won't spoil it).

Obscure Weirdness
"Wise Blood" Brad Dourif plays Hazel Motes, a mixed-up Southerner who starts his own church--The Church of Jesus Christ Without Christ. Best line: "Shake hands with Gonga!" Based on a Flannery O'Connor story.

"The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" Psychiatrist (Edward G. Robinson) becomes fascinated with the criminal mind and hooks up with a gang of crooks led by Humphrey Bogart. He takes their vital signs while in the act of committing crimes. Weird.

"Wild in the Streets" 1960s teenagers revolt and take over. The government, everything. Anyone over 30 is put into concentration camps. Shelley Winters is force-fed LSD at Camp #23!

UFO/SF
"Repo Man" You got an alien in a car trunk, a secret government organization after the alien, punk rock, and great lines from Harry Dean Stanton ("Look at 'em!
Normal people! I f*ckin' hate 'em!")

People Who Don't Know They're Dead

2006-05-02T09:56:00.000-04:00

Came across this link over at Reality Carnival:
"When people die by accident, in violence, or maybe they're drunk, stoned, or angry, they get freeze-framed. Even if they die naturally but have no clue what to expect, they might not notice they're dead. It's frustrating to see and not be seen. It's frustrating to not know what you're supposed to do next. It's especially frustrating to be in someone else's body and think it's your own. That's if you're dead. If you're alive and that spirit has attached itself to you, well that's a whole other set of frustrations."

Are there insane asylums in the afterlife? A lot of those spirits sound sorta bonkers, in my estimation.

Hypno-spam?

2006-05-02T04:29:00.000-04:00

The other morning, I was looking for hypno-wheel buttons for 23rd Mandalation--I want people to take more responsibility for their own mandalation-- when I signed up with this guy. I've been getting hypno-spammed by him 3x a day ever since.

Suki... You need to listen to the following VERY carefully.

Things are getting even more frantic now in the underworld.

My contact said the "Order of the Leaders" are meeting this evening to
discuss how to handle the leak of this insider information. If they
are meeting, than this is a serious issue.
This underground info might not be available much longer:

http://secret.undergroundhypnosis.com

The groups found out that information on the "Mass Hypnosis" has been
put on the site. The same strategies those filthy rich T.V. evangelists
pay thousands to learn.

Read about that right here:

http://secret.undergroundhypnosis.com

Unfortunately It looks like the average person will never know these
cryptic secrets of hypnosis. I hear these groups are working day and
night to keep this underground knowledge from you.

Find out all the answers you seek before it's to late:

http://secret.undergroundhypnosis.com

Take Care,

Damon Foster

P.S. - Word on the street is that the Order of the Leaders know A LOT
of "high level" people. So it could be as simple as snapping a finger
for these groups to take out this site:

http://secret.undergroundhypnosis.com

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06/06/06

2006-05-01T10:35:00.000-04:00

People are getting their panties in a bunch because of the upcoming "Mark of the Beast" date on June 6. From a comprehensive news article:

"On one popular evangelical website last week, a “rapture index” that calculates the likelihood of the Lord’s arrival stood at 156 — which the website declared was time to “fasten your seatbelts”. By contrast, another website claimed that the Antichrist had already arrived — he is supposedly George (six letters) Walker (six letters) Bush Jr (six letters), the president whose name adds up to 666. “The violence and destruction that began when Bush first entered office is now certain to culminate in the apocalypse, as predicted in the Bible over 2,000 years ago,” warned Stephen Hanchett at isbushantichrist.blogspot.com."

Head for the hills!

Life among the Spirits

2006-05-01T10:01:00.000-04:00

I once lived in a haunted house. At least it had the reputation of being a haunted house.

When my roommates and I moved in, we noticed the neighbors staring at us, and none of them would come to visit. We also heard women’s voices late at night, but that wasn’t too unusual since one of my roommates was so good-looking (he made Brad Pitt look like Homer Simpson) he always had women with him in his room. Since his bed was next to a heating duct, we could hear every pant, moan and scream. Sometimes, when we had nothing better to do, we’d just listen to him and write down a blow-by-blow description (so to speak) of that night’s conquest.

This good-looking guy and another roommate eventually got to where they couldn’t get along. At that point, their stuff (stereo, a bowling ball etc.) went missing, and each blamed the other.

One night, we were watching Saturday Night Live when we heard women’s voices coming from the basement. We couldn’t make out any words, but we assumed our resident Casanova had notched a double conquest on his belt, and for some reason took them downstairs instead of to his room. But he surprised us all when he and his date walked into the house. They listened to the mysterious voices along with us.

We later did some spring-cleaning, and we eventually went to tackle the basement. We had pretty much finished everything except for a closet that was blocked by a heavy bureau. We had never gone in there, of course, but we figured it must be dusty. So three of us moved the bureau, opened the closet, and found the stereo, the bowling ball, and all the other missing items that were believed stolen.

That summer, we got a visit from a friend of ours who worked at the local historical society. As soon as she entered, she gasped, “You guys live in this house?”

“Yeah,” I said. “What’s wrong with this house?”

“It’s haunted.”

She then told us about the history of the house. Its first owner was a wealthy, adulterous doctor, who bought it sometime around 1890. One day, his mistress came over while he was away. The wife let her in. The mistress promptly took out a revolver gunned down the wife, and then called the doctor on the telephone to tell him what she had done. The doctor told her to wait there for him. When he arrived, he shot the mistress to death.

Because of its notoriety, the house had never been sold. In fact, our landlord was the doctor’s great-great nephew, who inherited it upon his father’s death in 1974.

Biblioscopes: Advice for All Sun Signs April 29 to May 5

2006-04-29T01:26:00.000-04:00

Biblioscopes are the union of bibliomancy, divination through opening books to random pages and pondering the meaning of the phrases therein, and horoscopes, in that each sign does share certain commonalities, including planetary transits. Each Saturday I ask the Universe to lead my hands in opening the book to the right page for a week's worth of good advice for each sun sign.
This week's featured book is The Slate Diaries, written by a whole bunch o'folk, but edited only by Jodi Kantor, Cyrus Krohn, and Judith Shulevitz.

Aries (March 21 - April 20)
The second time I was fired, the job also lasted four days, though spread over four months.
Look for hints that you may be in trouble--one of them may be a time lapse.

Taurus (April 21- May 20)
Our very thoughtful priest, Father Krawinkel, delivered an appropriate sermon, ending by quoting Malcolm Muggeride in his Chronicles of Wasted Time, lamenting the loss of the years he'd wasted before finding faith. This closing was particularly stinging to me because not only was I unsure I had yet found any faith, but also I have had Chronicles of Wasted Time sitting on my bedroom bookshelf for about five years, waiting to be read.
Live this week like its your last. Not that it is, but you will avoid some great disappointments.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)
When we were tykes, we would never go to the nurse for an itch due to a bug bite or for chapped lips. It was understood hat these things were parts of life with which we coped. Now such visits are commonplace.
"When I was your age..." from you, Gemini? Hush your mouth. When you were that age, you hated those "when I was your age" stories and shut your ears right away. Just listen to what the people around you are saying.

Cancer (June 21-July 20)
As a man I didn't worry about my weight. Men think they look good no matter how they look.
Points of view you had at different stages of your life will help you now, whether those other points involved being the opposite sex or not.

Leo (July 21-Aug. 20)
De-regulation and a sky-high stock market have indeed provoked human nature--a number of 50- and 60-something bankers are making some big, empire-buiding moves, while others are counting their options and golden parachutes and heading for the door.
Be an opportunist, even if you must make lemonade from lemons. In a hurricane.

Virgo (Aug. 21-Sept. 20)
I like now, as then, dark-haired Jewish girls, spy novels, and thrillers.
You will rediscover yourself through your past loves and hobbies. If it will not affect any of your relationships, take a nice, dark-haired Jewish girl to a thriller.

Libra (Sept. 21-Oct. 20)
I was actually inundated today with twisted ankles and stomachaches, urinary accidents and nosebleeds.
Your week may be embarrassing, but not life-threatening. Handle with aplomb.

Scorpio (Oct. 21-Nov. 20)
I really am going to lose my mind if I have to keep reading my parents' words for the rest of my life and not have them to talk to.
If your parents are still around, give 'em a call. If not, write a very short letter to them, and burn it to send.

Sagittarius (Nov. 21-Dec.20)
The red-hot Mongolian sauce in the curious little bottle sent a convincing warmth to every corner of my body.
I don't really have to advise you to try some new cuisine, adventurous Sagittarius? You must be getting away from your true nature. Start with the foreign food, and move on to the foreign books, films. Maybe plan a trip outside the country.

Capricorn (Dec. 21-Jan. 20)
"Now really, Dan," my personal Torquemada said to me at the end of this literary equivalent of a root-canal session, "I don't want you to feel bad about this."
Your superiors can see how badly you feel about this painful situation. And they only know how to pretend to care. I'll never know how you can stand these fake people, Capricorn. I guess your upper lip is stiffer than mine.

Aquarius (Jan. 21-Feb 20)
Inaugural plans have been haunting me for weeks, and I lurch between micro-management mode and lead-me-around-I'm-a-smiling-vegetable mode.
Neither of those modes is good for business. When no one is looking, take a deep breath, shake out your hands, and delegate, delegate, delegate!

Pisces (Feb.21-Mar. 20)
pointing a stream of soundwaves
to translate the dark inside his ribs
into a midnight screen, its pulse
Get thee to a fancy new nightclub, or to a jazz club. Your ruling planet, Neptune is calling you to music, and the night. Just like a vampire. Vampires are sexy, Pisces is sexy...I'm starting to see the connection. What are you doing reading this? Find a night club now, get your outfit together...NOW!

*The dates given to each sun sign are approximate--the dates of each sun sign change annually with the date of the vernal equinox. If you were born between the 18th and 24th of any month, you should get a free astrology report from www.astrology.com or www.geocosmic.org just so you can answer properly when someone asks, "What's your sign?"

Legendary Giant Turtle Bodes Well for Vietnam

2006-04-27T16:07:00.000-04:00

This is my favorite news item of the day.

Mystery Boom in California

2006-04-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

"A group of local scientists has uncovered some clues to the source of a mysterious disturbance that rattled San Diego County on the morning of April 4, shaking windows, doors and bookcases from the coast to the mountains.
"The scientists, based at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, say the disturbance was caused by a sound wave that started over the ocean and petered out over the Imperial County desert."
More here.

Time Travel This Century?

2006-04-27T15:24:00.000-04:00

A University of Connecticut professor says in an article here that time travel could be possible sooner than we might think.

"To determine if time loops exist, Mallett is designing a desktop-sized device that will test his time-warping theory. By arranging mirrors, Mallett can make a circulating light beam which should warp surrounding space. Because some subatomic particles have extremely short lifetimes, Mallett hopes that he will observe these particles to exist for a longer time than expected when placed in the vicinity of the circulating light beam. A longer lifetime means that the particles must have flowed through a time loop into the future."

If you could travel anywhere in time where would you go, the future or the past? If the past, when?

Why Americans Will Believe Anything

2006-04-27T14:50:00.000-04:00

"We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased. The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely regulated."

Excellent article can be read here.

Penn & Teller Diss Cryptozoology

2006-04-26T12:31:00.000-04:00

"What can you say about Penn & Teller? They left no sacred cryptids untouched by their silence and their profanity. Bottomline, you did not miss much "science" (despite their claims) if your cable system doesn’t get Showtime and you did not watch Penn & Teller’s April 24th show on "Cryptozoology.""
Read all about the show here.

Transparently Opaque

2006-04-26T11:10:00.000-04:00

Enraged about the leak disclosing the illegal, unwarranted NSA and CIA domestic wiretaps, the Bush administration went on the warpath to crackdown on any further revelations. They eventually pegged former case officer Mary McCarthy, a career CIA case officer ten days from retirement, as the culprit, and planted false stories about her in the press.

For the past few weeks, we’ve heard that McCarthy confessed to telling journalist Donna Priest about the illegal domestic spying program. Problem is, McCarthy did not confess anything to anyone. Despite reports that she was unceremoniously escorted out of Langley, no such event occurred. McCarthy also did not have any knowledge of the program. The ex-spook now seeks to clear her name.

The blind rage that made McCarthy a sacrificial lamb is characteristic of a neo-con movement within government that has been trying to keep potentially damaging information of a political nature away from the public. In 2003, the White House stamped a record 14,000,000 items top secret, and were on pace to produce 21,000,000 secrets in 2004. By Executive Order, Bush reclassified presidential papers over the objection of former president Bill Clinton, who had no problem with the due publishing of his administrative records. Despite the fact that she had disclosed FBI foreknowledge of the events of 9/11 before Congress, and on 60 Minutes, Sibol Edmunds statements were classified after they had already been made public. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has been under continual review. EPA studies that comment negatively on the relationship between the administration’s pet industries and the environment have been taken down from the Agency’s website, and new studies indicating are openly opposed. At the time of this post, the FBI is also trying to suppress the papers of the late columnist Jack Anderson.

Knowledge is a form of power. By keeping the public away from what has been historically considered public knowledge, the administration has the leverage to claim ‘national security’ for any illegal activity that affirms the power of the elitist clique that Bush openly acknowledges as his “base.” Such an atmosphere is conducive to rampant conspiracy.

Our Quintessential Self

2006-04-26T01:06:00.000-04:00

Image from Visual Paradox

Is it possible to tap into other realms or a higher state of consciousness while performing mundane tasks that require little focused thought? While gardening or painting walls? Washing dishes?

Ever been so lost in thought you arrived at work with no memory of the actual drive? As a writer, this has happened to me. Scared me each and every time. But what if you let your mind hang loose? A part of you is intent on the mechanics of driving while the other is busy grasping fleeting images or thoughts from... where?

That's the big question.

The movie, Altered States, Altered States (1980) , asked a similar question. Can a man who experiments with hallucinogens and sensory deprivation, find a way to break into something new? Or would it be something old?

Another dimension, a higher state of mind... or merely basic instinct?

Studies have been done in such places as Cambridge and Stanford with invariable results. Students put into dark rooms with white noise microphones scored higher than those who were less confined.

Dean Radin Dean Radin - Short Bio , a scientist who studies the far reaches of human consciousness, believes "these experiences are responsible for most of the greatest inventions, artistic and scientific achievements, creative insights, and religious epiphanies throughout history."

The Koestler Parapsychology Unit has a site on research they've done into PSI.

Despite the magnitude of this challenge, we have a duty to address it because society deserves a firm understanding of psychicexperiences. As true skeptics, we can question and test both psi and non-psi hypotheses. If there is nothing to the notion of psychic phenomena, we will only learn this by an organised effort to explore the evidence for it. And if there really is some completely new means of interacting with the world around us, then we must come to understand its practical and theoretical implications as thoroughly as possible, otherwise our picture of humankind will remain woefully incomplete." From their website Koestler Parapsychology Unit - Graphical Version for version 6 browser

A few other research sites:
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research
Rhine Research Center
Anomalistic Psychology - PNI.org Pacific Neuropsychiatric Institute

It's not a secret that most psychics do their work through the most mind freeing state we reach-- through sleeping and dreaming. We reach revelations or discover ideas while sleeping. Ever consider all the things we don't remember?

Edgar Cayce Edgar Cayce: Twentieth Century Psychic - Medical Clairvoyant , claimed he could place a book under his pillow and memorize it while sleeping. Mr. Cayce believed his gifts came from God but there is also the possibility that he was somehow more open to an ability we all share.

Some people believe psychic experiences comes from tapping into electromagnetic fields. But then, there are those who believe the aura is a person's electromagnetic field.

Auras: The Human Energy Body - The Aura
Life Force Energy: Journey to explore the life force energy

If that's the case, are we bouncing off our own fields... once again being directed back to our center?

Think about the people who do their best work when they rely on gut instincts. How about cops? These are people who train to be on guard at all times, to pick up on behavior, to be ready to spot a bad situation and even rectify it. That sort of training opens doors.

So, since I've made this an essay of questions, I'll end with this one.

Do you think moments of ESP are messages from another plane of existence or... could they be nothing more than us dipping into the very undiluted and concentrated essence of our own minds?

When You Get Your Ass to Mars...

2006-04-25T16:39:00.000-04:00

...this will alow you to tell time on the Red Planet. A useful tool for Sci-Fi Living.

Smart Chairs?

2006-04-25T14:26:00.000-04:00

• Once the chair is placed in the room, it should automatically detect the positioning of all the items in the room and modify the original map of the room accordingly.
• The user would be given an interface, where he/she can pinpoint the location where it wants to move. On the basis of the map and the locations of all the other items in the room, the chair would find the shortest route to reach the point.
• The chairs should auto-adjust themselves in the most optimum manner in the room whenever the room is empty.
• When a user enters the room, a chair will automatically move to him/her when he/she snapped and then called “Chair”

That is part of the design abstract from Smart Chair and I saw Alan Alda demonstrating one on PBS. The one that he was on, which was not the same as this model here, I don't think, (yes, more than one group of people in the world are thinking about smart chairs) showed an imprint of his back and ass on a computer screen. I guess its the test one. In the future we will all be sitting on chairs with brains larger than the ones in our heads.

The Falun Gong Heckler and the Vandalized Newspaper Boxes

2006-04-24T14:39:00.000-04:00

The first report of the heckler at the White House said she had credentials from a Falun Gong newspaper. I immediately knew they meant The Epoch Times, which is readily available here in downtown Manhattan in distinctive blue and yellow street boxes. I pick up a copy of the vehemently anti-Chinese weekly from from time to time to keep abreast of all things Falun Gong-ish. A couple of weeks ago I got one for lunch-time reading, and read about the concentration camps where the Chinese supposedly put the devotees after rounding them up, where they work them to death, and then sell the persecuted saps' organs.
I practiced for a bit Chi Kung, a meditative physical exercise and source of chi cultivation that forms the basis of Falun Gong. I kept up with their protests in Tianemen Square (late 1990s), which eventually led to the group's outright banning in China. Back then, I checked one of their main sites (unoperable now, it seems), and discovered there was lots more than exercise going there. Extraterrestrials were mentioned...
Anyway, I noticed that over the past few months several of the newspaper's street boxes down here had been vandalized--I wondered if secret agents from the Chinese consulate at 520 12th Ave. were responsible...

The Loving Cup

2006-04-24T13:58:00.000-04:00

According to legend, Merovech came to power because of something he possessed: the Sangreal (or Sangraal). The Sangreal is traditionally described as an extraterrestrial item which gave its holder unlimited power by rendering his or her enemies docile. As to what the Sangreal specifically functions as, or looks like, nobody knows for sure.

One can interpret the term as san (holy) greal (grail). Question: what the hell is a grail, holy or otherwise? Ostensibly, it’s a vessel that held the blood of Christ. Many logically concluded that it was the chalice Christ used during the Last Supper. (“Drink, for this is My blood.”) Others see it as the chalice Joseph of Arimathea used to collect Christ’s blood on the cross.The Loving Cup

Before He died and resurrected, however, Christ turned to a fisherman named Simon and said, “Simon, you’re a real peter [Greek for rock – as in bedrock – as in foundation], and upon this rock, I shall build my church.”

“Fine,” Simon probably thought. “What the #$@! is a church?”

The question is an important one. There was no precedent for such an institution, and the disciples were undoubtedly clueless as to what it could be. Christ’s background in arcana would make it quite possible that He wanted to create something that would disseminate His secret knowledge to all of mankind, perhaps something analogous to a present-day university or club. As the first Pope, however, Simon-Peter, who like Christ was Jewish, conceived of the church as a new-fangled synagogue – i.e., a house of worship.

The Church has historically demonstrated its authority through pompous display. Christians have beautiful cathedrals and picturesque chapels on hillsides. In the past, they’ve reserved the right to sell indulgences and call for Holy War. They had Christ’s hand-picked successor as its founder. They would someday have all the televangelists. In fact, the Church seemed to have all the tools necessary to establish its claim as Christ’s sole agent on Earth.

But there were others who would claim Christ’s legacy for themselves. What did the other side have to establish its authority?

The Holy Grail. An item of reputedly alien manufacture which by its very nature gave the holder almost unlimited power.

As I stated earlier, ‘Holy Grail’ is only one interpretation of the word ‘Sangreal’. You can also read the word as ‘sang (blood) real (royal)’. This would imply that the blood was important, not the chalice that held it. It would refer to anybody who carried the blood of Christ, who inherited His royal blood from King David. Thus the phrase could apply to His children, or even to His wife, St. Mary Magdalene.

The term is probably a play on words. These alternative Christians know that ‘Sangreal’ has multiple meanings. The Church and its believers, however, understood only one: the Holy Grail. This would explain why knights and kings loyal to Rome searched in earnest for a chalice. If they could take away the other side’s main instrument of power, then they could reign supreme on Earth.

The Church’s problem was that the Merovingians had the loving cup, and were loath to give it up.

How did they get the chalice? If you ask them, they’ll tell you they got it the same way they got their royal blood. They inherited it. You see, the Merovingians claimed to be the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Punks, Pre-Cogged

2006-04-24T13:11:00.000-04:00

Last night in my typical Sunday night insomnia, I got down from the bookshelf the egregiously misfiled Nightmare Age, which has been in my Earth Mysteries section for a couple of years due to some lackadaisical flaw on my part. The book, published in 1970 and edited by Frederick Pohl, is an anthology of eco-catastrophe stories culled from 1960s science fiction mags. (It wasn't until a while later I realized it was the waning hours of Earth Day.) (Hit Read more! below) I read one story in there last night, "Day of Truce," by Clifford D. Simak. It concerned a future suburbia in which the subdivisions are veritable fortresses. The suburbanites must daily battle a group of youthful outsiders called--get this--The Punks.
I laughed when I saw that.
The story was published in 1963 in the February issue of Galaxy, beating the "nihilistic" real-life subculture by more than a decade. I wonder if Richard Hell had read this story. "Day of Truce" describes how The Punks started out as your run-of-the-mill suburban vandals and eventually became the force that threatened to bring down all of society, as the Sex Pistols threatened in 1977.
(Check out the movie Suburbia, as well.)
I recall there's also a scene in Philip K. Dick's Time Out of Joint (1959) that seems to describe 1970s-era punks. I'll look it up tonight and get back to you...

Biblioscopes: Advice for All Sun Signs April 22-28

2006-04-22T12:10:00.000-04:00

Biblioscopes are the union of bibliomancy, divination through opening books to random pages and pondering the meaning of the phrases therein, and horoscopes, in that each sign does share certain commonalities, including planetary transits. Each Saturday I ask the Universe to lead my hands in opening the book to the right page for a week's worth of good advice for each sun sign.
This week's featured book is Self-Reliance and Other Essays" by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Aries (March 21 - April 20)
By and by that boy wants a wife; and very truly and heartly wil he know where to find a sincere and sweet mate, with out any risk such as Milton deplores as incident to scholars and great men.
Your status will not help you in your search for like-minded others, companions, etc. You will have to go with your background and instinct.

Taurus (April 21- May 20)
So use all that is called Fortune. Most men gamble with her, and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls. But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings and deal wih Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God.
Whether you win or lose, you will have to deal with the consequences. Whatever those consequences may be, mull over the actions you take because of them.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)
So I will owe my friends this evanescent discourse. I will receive from them, not what they have, but what they are.
Your chatty friendship is worth more to those around you than you may understand. And admit to yourself that they are worth more to you than a free round at the bar.

Cancer (June 21-July 20)
The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity and Instinct.
Listen to your gut and take spontaneous action, even if it seems out of character or a little risky.

Leo (July 21-Aug. 20)
For every friend he loses for truth, he gains a better.
If a friend seems angry at you, do this simple exercise: raise shoulders to ears, release. Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat with other foot. Keep repeating foot action until you are somewhere interesting.

Virgo (Aug. 21-Sept. 20)
Wintered with the hawk and fox,
Power and speed be hands and feet.
You learned a lot this winter. Stop thinking about it, and start using it.

Libra (Sept. 21-Oct. 20)
Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection.
Let someone you love be your muse, and you will experience success.

Scorpio (Oct. 21-Nov. 20)
The new continents are built out of the ruins of an old planet; the new races fed out of the decompostion of the foregoing. New arts destroy the old.
Some aspect of your life may be dying (or totally flatlined). Mourn, but know a new start is coming.

Sagittarius (Nov. 21-Dec.20)
Only it is to be hoped that, by patience and the Muses'aid, we may attain to that inward view of the law which shall describe a truth ever young and beautiful, so central that it shall commend itself to the eye, at whatever angle beholden.
Sagittarius is known as the Truth-Seeker. This week, you will be a truth-finder. Be sure to write it down a post-it so you don't forget it. Maybe you can sell it.

Capricorn (Dec. 21-Jan. 20)
Not possibly will the soul all rich, all eloquent, with thousand-cloven tongue, deign to repreat itself...
Savor the feeling that every experience is somehow different than every other. It will truly enrich your life.

Aquarius (Jan. 21-Feb 20)
All that is in the world, which is or ought to be known, is cunningly wrought into the texture of man, of woman.
Passionate times ahead. 'Nuff said.

Pisces (Feb.21-Mar. 20)
We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken.
Be sure to thank people for their thoughtful actions this week, even though they may be near-unnoticeable.

*The dates given to each sun sign are approximate--the dates of each sun sign change annually with the date of the vernal equinox. If you were born between the 18th and 24th of any month, you should get a free astrology report from www.astrology.com or www.geocosmic.org just so you can answer properly when someone asks, "What's your sign?"

A Ripping Yarn, Pt. III

2006-04-22T10:29:00.001-04:00

Forensic pathologist and novelist Dr. Patricia Cornwell fingered Sickert as the sole Ripper in her 2002 book Portrait of a Killer. She offered as evidence a series of letters to the Times of London by someone claiming to be the Whitechapel murderer, who declared that he was “. . . down on whores . . . . and shan’t quit ripping them [hence the nickname]” The penmanship and writing style were similar to Sickert’s. Watermarks indicate that the Ripper letters were written on paper stock purchased by Sickert. Even more telling, some of the letters featured artwork that bore a striking similarity to some of Sickert’s cartoons.As a forensic pathologist, Dr. Cornwell had an advantage over previous investigators in that she knew where to look for viable mitochondrial DNA. Sickert had always been her prime suspect, a bias she clearly states at the beginning of her book. After procuring a sample of Sickert’s, she then received permission from Scotland Yard to perform DNA testing on some of the letters that the Ripper sent to the Times. Most of the readings were inconclusive, due to their age and deterioration. After exhaustive searching, however, she found that the dried saliva on the back of the stamp of one letter positively matched Sickert’s, leading her to conclude that the case was finally solved: Sickert was the Ripper, and he acted alone.

Although Dr. Cornwell does her best to dismiss a possible conspiracy in the Whitechappel murders, she gives evidence of it. The letters themselves provide evidence of conspiracy. After all, if we buy into the Chicago tale, the point of the operation was to divert attention away from the Kelly hit, by masquerading it as one more in a spectacular line of murders by some monstrous individual. Problem was, the first two murders (or three murders, if you count Smith) received very little attention indeed. The Times published nothing about their deaths beforehand. So if the conspirators were to hide Kelly’s death in a series of sensationalistic murders, they would have to make sure that the killings gathered as much media attention as possible.

Dr. Cornwell’s psychological portrait of Sickert shows him to be something of a joker, a man who liked to taunt authority, and shock his friends. She describes some of his artwork that depicts themes of the Ripper murder that she insists that no one but the Ripper could identify. At the same time, she also notes, but dismisses, references to Sir William Whitney Gull and other possible co-conspirators. She also points out that Sickert’s curt resignation from the London desk of The New York Herald followed an incident when a “mysterious soldier appeared at the [office], and announced a murder and mutilation he could not have known about unless he was an accomplice or the killer” (pg. 271). Despite this turn of events, Dr. Cornwell offers no explanation as to why an unnamed soldier’s confession to Ripper-like murders would have spooked Sickert enough to quit his job, since she maintains that Sickert acted alone. In my mind, the event implies that Sickert feared that the soldier, possibly the bayonet stabber described to police by Emma Smith, would rat him out.

Official victims three and four were murdered about sixty-minutes and a hundred yards apart. The first victim of the night was found dead in her stairwell, and the blood still gushing from her indicated that she had died just moments before. A crowd of people had gathered to look at the pitiable sight when they heard screams. They traced the sound to a nearby fence, where they found the second victim convulsing in her final death throes. The police, who finally arrived in response to the first murder, went directly to the dying, disembowelled woman before them. Since the crowd had migrated to the fresher kill, the bobby in charge asked if anyone knew the identity of the second woman. An unknown, masculine voice identified her as Mary Kelly. Four hours later, Scotland Yard positively ID’d her as Catherine Eddowes. Mary Kelly was, at this time, still quite alive, and very pregnant.

The Times-Herald story doesn’t mention the misidentification of Eddowes, but the point seems clear. It wouldn’t be unusual if either Gull or Sickert had some reservation about the whole ordeal, for if Dr. Howard was correct, Kelly might very well have been a friend of theirs. By falsely identifying Eddowes as Kelly, they may have been trying to save the latter’s life, while at the same time satisfying the crown with false evidence that the operation was successful, and at a close.

By the time they finally got to Kelly, the last and most gruesome of the killings, public imagination took over the cover story from there. Copycat murders sprang up all over the place. Furthermore, the police eventually warmed to the cover story, issuing cryptic statements that they had in fact captured the Ripper, and/or he was dead. That didn’t stop the public from looking for a Ripper, however, nor did it keep them from lynching a shocket named Kaminsky. (A shocket is a Jewish butcher versed in the traditional methods – anti-Semitic fervor led many to believe that the Ripper murders were carried out, quite literally, in a kosher manner.) One thing the hysteria did accomplish: it drew attention away from the crown.

Dr. Howard claimed that he, along with the other doctors of the Royal College, had committed Sir Gull to the looney bin in1889, where he died in 1895. The purpose of te commitment was to silence him. Remorseful about his role in the killings, Gull threatened to expose the plot. To cover their tracks, the crown then staged Gull’s death in order to mask the true reason for his disappearance.

Whether or not Dr. Howard was full of it, the fact remained that as the Twentieth Century dawned, the English were unsurpassed when it came to clandestine operations and gathering intelligence. At the same time, England drew closer politically to the United States. Eventually, the British urged the Americans to ally with them and become partners in their little spy games.

Americans, however, still tied to isolationist policies, felt that such “pranks” were strictly European business. Americans found the whole cloak-and-dagger thing rather distasteful, and beneath them. Former Secretary of State Henry Stimson put it this way: “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.”

Silly Flying Saucer Lyrics

2006-04-21T12:32:00.000-04:00

From one of my favorite pop-punk bands of the early 1980s, The Rezillos:

There's a threat approaching from the stars
All the horrors from Venus and Mars
Everybody better be on guard
When the Flying Saucers land (read the rest by clicking Read more! below)

Watch the skies above the horizon
For the spies who have no flies on
When they appear through the stratosphere
Better lock yourself inside

[Chorus:]Flying Saucer Attack
I'm never coming back
Oh, oh oh
Until it's over

Laser beams and gamma projectors
There'll be nothing on earth to protect us
When they arrive out of the sky
They'll be frying us alive
Call out the Army and United Nations
Alert the Police and Airforce Stations
Tell everybody to run and hide
Because the end is near at hand

[Chorus:]Flying Saucer Attack
I'm never coming back
Oh, oh oh
Until it's over

9/11 Woodrow Wilson / / BUSH --- The Song Remains The Same

2006-04-21T10:40:00.000-04:00

To begin with, I want to remind you, the term "conspiracy theory" does NOT mean the theory is fictitious or wrong. It was only a THEORY that the Nazi's CONSPIRED to commit genocide of the Jewish people. Near the end of the war, the theory was proven to be correct...

The following link takes you to a video report about 9/11 and a conspiracy theory about it. Loose Change 2nd Edition - Google Video

I've seen a similar video. I've looked at pictures. I've read parts of the 9/11 commission report. ( http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/index.htm) I believe the evidence for a conspiracy is not only obvious, but it is overwhelming.

For years now I have believed, and said, that genius is the ability to recognize the obvious and I believe that.

For example, Isaac Newton noticed "If a thing isn't moving, then it isn't GOING to move.... Unless something pushes it."

From that observation of the obvious he began, the study of physics and then calculus...

With that in mind, think back to 9/11. We saw hijacked planes flying into the twin towers, we were told another hijacked plane flew into the pentagon, and that a fourth hijacked crashed into the ground as the passengers fought the hijackers for control of the plane.

We were told that, we believed it, and it angered us. Most of us were so enraged we wanted war against the guilty party.

Now I ask you... Did we REALLY see HIJACKED planes flying into the twin towers?

Consider some painfully obvious evidence that we the people didn't see that day. Let's begin by considering the attack on the pentagon.

The report says this huge plane flew straight into the outerwall and penetrated all the way to the interior. That is 18 feet of steel reinforced concrete, and that doesn't include everything that was within those walls. The hole in the inner wall was only 3 feet in diameter and nearly a perfect circle.

This link will take you to a page in which you can see a Boeing 757 imposed on a picture so that it stands in front of the pentagon. The plane is too large for that small hole. Even the hole in front. The wings would have had to

A Ripping Yarn, Pt. II

2006-04-21T10:26:00.000-04:00

Today, we know the results of this supposed operation as the Jack the Ripper, or Whitechapel Murders. Pretty much everyone knows the story about some unknown madman, who murdered a bunch of prostitutes. But if we give any credence at all to Dr. Howard, then we have an eerie new story of domestic black operations. One might ask if there is anything outside the source that would corroborate the Chicago Times-Herald story alleging that the Ripper Murders were a hit consented to by Queen Victoria.

Believe it or not, there are eyewitness accounts and forensic evidence produced as late as 2002 that point to that very conclusion.

Due to the nature of 1880s press coverage, many misconceptions about the Whitechappel murders took place, and to this day have never been corrected. First of all, the Ripper victims were not wildly hacked to death, but rather have a distinctive MO--a fact that led Scotland Yard to uncover a number of copycat crimes (thirty-four in all).

A number of other things mark Kelly as unusual, in terms of the five acknowledged Ripper victims. The other women were about the same age, and in similar health condition. Such isn’t unusual for a serial killer. Usually, there is some ritualistic or strategic reason for choosing homogeneous victims. While the other women were in their late-thirties to late-forties, Kelly was a twenty-something. Furthermore, the autopsy photos reveal that the other victims showed signs of poverty--badly curved spinal columns, dental problems, calloused hands, and so forth. Kelly, however, was in very good shape, a woman of clear skin, soft hands, perfect posture, and she possessed a head full of healthy teeth. In short, she had lived a life of luxury, a fact totally consistent with the lot of a lady-in-waiting.

Although police believed that there were only five victims. there is good reason to think that there was a sixth, forty-five year-old Emma Smith, the very first to die by the Ripper’s hand. If you’re wondering why the cops didn’t count her in the official statistics, I would speculate that it is probably because on that first night, someone interrupted the “Ripper,” and this allowed this first decedent to live for about twenty hours, during which time she gave a statement to police. According to her, she had picked up a very handsome, wealthy (from his clothes and his watch), younger man, and had taken him back to her flat. When they got to the door, a large, muscular man stabbed her with what she alternately described as a “bayonet” and “a sharp spike.” She was then taken inside by the larger man and a third accomplice, an elderly, left-handed man who, with a scalpel, proceeded to disembowel her on the spot.

The mark of the official victims is that they bear two distinct wounds: one made with a heavy-gauge knife (or bayonet?), and a number of clean, surgical incisions. From their angle, it was plainly apparent that the heavy-gauge blows were from a right-hander, the scalpel cuts from a southpaw. Here, we have further corroboration of the Chicago story, for Howard claimed that the murderous surgeon was no other than Victoria’s trusted advisor and personal physician, Sir William Whiney Gull, an elderly “gentleman” who just happened to be left-handed. By refusing to link this first murder with the others, the physical descriptions given by the deceased would languish into obscurity.

So who would the other assailants be? We will probably never know the identity of the bayonet stabber, most likely a foot soldier or a palace guard. The physical description of the young man who lured her, however, was consistent with that of Walter Sickert. A writer, cartoonist and actor, Sickert was also the guardian of Prince Eddy’s illegitimate daughter, the one whom Kelly had nursed.

In 1895, Howard knew only that Sickert had played some role in the killings, but was unsure as to the nature of that role. A later examination of evidence, however, links Sickert to the murders, and clarifies what part he played in them.

A Ripping Yarn

2006-04-20T12:53:00.000-04:00

The UK expanded her intelligence activity during the Nineteenth Century. While most of the gruntwork now fell within the jurisdiction of the London Metropolitan Police (founded 1829-referred to by Londoners as Metropol, and by us outsiders as Scotland Yard), the most sensitive operations were still handled by the aristocratic clique that surrounded the crown. In this era, the real cloak-and-dagger aspects of intelligence and clandestine operations were truly a “gentleman’s” game, practiced solely by the elite for the purposes of maintaining the elite.An example of this “gentleman’s game” may have possibly been exposed in 1895. In that year, Dr. Benjamin Howard, a member of England’s Royal College of Surgeons, gave an interview to The Chicago Sunday Times-Herald, and spilled the beans on an extremely sensitive domestic operation that occurred seven years earlier.

Queen Victoria was the penultimate ruler from the German house of Hanover. From the Eighteenth Century onward, political forces within England pushed towards a more limited role for the monarchy. Victoria’s ancestors faced ever-dwindling constitutional powers. Although Victoria had some constitutionally approved authority–- e.g., the power of line-item veto, which she actually exercised on occasion--she still had to cooperate with Parliament, which was likewise beholden to popular vote. As the last monarch of the Nineteenth Century, she indeed walked a tightrope trying to appease the House of Commons and public opinion, while at the same time maintaining the privileges of the nobility in the rigid class structure embedded in English tradition. Any hint of impropriety, any hint of scandal, or anything else that might turn popular factions away from the crown could therefore have been disastrous.

Lo and behold, such a disaster occurred in 1888, according to the Times-Herald’s source. Mary Kelly, Dr. Howard claimed, had served as a nursemaid to Prince of Wales Albert “Eddy” Victor’s illegitimate daughter. Prince Eddy, however, wanted the then-pregnant Kelly as a sex toy. Outraged, and mindful of the political climate, she attempted to blackmail him and the royal family into taking care of her and her baby.

Victoria allegedly responded by authorizing a hit on Kelly.

The queen’s inner circle advised her not to carry out the murder brazenly lest she arouse suspicion, potentially more devastating than the illegitimate child/prostitution/blackmail scandal. The point would be, they insisted, to bury her death among many others.

Today, we know the results of this supposed operation as the Jack the Ripper, or Whitechapel Murders. Pretty much everyone knows the story about some unknown madman, who murdered a bunch of prostitutes. But if we give any credence at all to Dr. Howard, then we have an eerie new story of domestic black operations. One might ask if there is anything outside the source that would corroborate the Times-Herald story.

Are you worshipping the right gods?

2006-04-20T10:44:00.000-04:00

With all the things that can and do go wrong some days, between the toilet backing up, making you late for work and your cell phone dying so that you can't call the boss, making him angry at you, have you ever thought you were worshipping the wrong gods?

If you are not a morning person, you can start with the Mayan Goddess of Dawn, Aya, and now moving on to that toilet problem
there's Zi-gu, the Chinese Goddess of Toilets or if you prefer Japan (or need a lady doctor), there's Mawaya-no-kami, who also specializes in gynecology. Once the toilet is done with, there's always work traffic, or avoidance of getting stuck on the tram from Roosevelt Island for 11 hours, so you can start praying to Hermes (or Mercury). Hermes is an multi-purpose god who can also ensure that the vintage movie poster of "Bride of the Monster" will go for a good price on ebay.

While you are hoping your boss does not notice your ebay traffic, you may want to start praying to Nephthys (so you fly under her radar) or Marduk just to stay in his/her good graces. While your boss is busy not-noticing how active you are online, you can check your stocks. Pray to Leib-Olmai, god of luck against bears. If you then see a bear in your office, you'll know your stock will probably split.
Pray to Hygeia you don't get food poisoning on lunch or to Ceres or Manisar that you get a good deal (maybe they throw in an extra large fry?) when you go to McD's.
Pray to Bast (the goddess of dance) that you don't twist your ankle on that piece of rug in the middle of the office everyone trips on; to Legba so everyone understands you when you call on your cell, and to Venus, Eros, Freya and Yarilo, so that when you finally see your sweetheart, no one picks a fight and you finally get some. If you are not tired after all this, ask Oisin
to give you a good night's sleep.

Thanks, Godchecker. You rock.

Kali, Devil Implicated in Queens Murders

2006-04-19T13:08:00.000-04:00

From last week's New York Press:

Last Wednesday, two defendants in two separate cases tried to weasel their way out of the Firm Grip of Justice by claiming that they had no choice—they had to do what they did, given the presence of malevolent spiritual forces.
In Queens, Krisna Soogrim, 38, was trying to work out a plea deal in the murder of his girlfriend back in February 2002. Last week, he said that while, yes, he killed her, he couldn’t help himself. See, he was possessed by the Hindu god Kali at the time. The judge informed him that possession by Kali (a force of dissolution and destruction) wouldn’t exactly hold up under the law—and what’s more, blaming everything on a Hindu deity might be perceived as falling a little short of taking full responsibility, which meant going to trial.
It wasn’t long before Soogrim (apparently a diagnosed schizophrenic) decided to just plead guilty and be done with it.
In Brooklyn, Zoila Mosquera, 46, was being arraigned for the stabbing death last January of her 87-year-old grandmother. Mosquera allegedly used a scissors to stab her grandma 600 times. According to court papers, the Flatbush woman claimed she was convinced that her grandma—the woman who’d just made her French toast that morning—was possessed by the devil. Or was the devil. Ripping her apart with a scissors was apparently the only way to save her. Although she had earlier been declared mentally fit to stand trial, the fact that she kept laughing as her grandmother’s wounds were described led the judge to rule that (maybe) she should probably be given another psychiatric exam.

Where Was Your God When the Order Got Messed Up?

2006-04-18T12:43:00.000-04:00

A friend who works e-tail customer service forwarded this angry complaint she received (all spelling/grammar errors left intact):

“The consumer has enough people beating them out of their money without you doing it. Be sure if you can’t straighten this out then my father in heaven will. What ever you sow you will reap. You won’t get by by cheating your customers the way you have us. According to my bible, what ever you sow you are going to reap. You don’t have to worry about us but you do have to worry about what my heavenly father thinks. By misleading us and not sending us what we ordered you lied, cheated and mislead us. Wheather you believe what the bible says or not you will pay for mistreating one of god’s children. I’m praying for you and do forgive you but you will reap what you sow.”

More 23M Jokes

2006-04-18T11:15:00.000-04:00

Oh, Woody!

Before he starred and directed in his own movies, Woody Allen was a standup comedian of some note. In one of my favorite routines, Allen talks about the time the ghost of a 1939 Packard drove through his living room every night.

He called the American Psychics Institute to get some help with his problem. They told him to get the license plate number of the vehicle.

So he did.

They called back and told Woody that there was nothing they could do. The car, as it turns out, was a rental.

I Told You

A conspiracy theorist watches a skeptic as he paces nervously in front of the Grand Canyon. “C’mon,” she screeches. “I haven’t got all day.”

“Don’t push me,” the skeptic screeches back. “There’s a lot of thinking involved, here. I’ve got to concentrate, and you’re just making it worst.”

“Okay, okay,” says the conspiracy theorist. “Just take your time.”

After much contemplation the skeptic says, “Ah ha! I’ve got it!” He points to his arm and says, “This is my elbow.” Pointing to his backside, he declares, “This is my ass.” Pointing to the Grand Canyon, he triumphantly states, “And that’s a hole in the ground.”

“Hmm.” deadpans the conspiracy theorist. “I was wrong.”

An Old Gag from the Ether

During a midnight church service, the lights begin to flicker on and off, startling some of the congregation. Strange noises emanate from the church’s PA system, and the smell of sulphur begins to permeate the air.

Suddenly the lights go out. An apparition appears behind the pulpit and bellows, “I am Satan, in all my glory in majesty. Bow before me now, lest you truly want to suffer the tortures of the damned.”

The flock, en masse, screaming in terror, haul ass to the church exit. . . . except for one middle-aged woman sitting in the third row of pews. The devil looks at her and says, “Didn’t you hear me? I’m Satan.”

“I heard,” said the woman.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”

“Why should I be?” she asks. “I’ve been married to your son for the last twenty-five years.”

I Don’t Know Where I Picked This One Up, but . . .

An elderly Ojibwa (Chippewa) gentleman and his grandson went hiking one day in a forest near the Wisconsin Dells. They stopped to rest on top of an eighty-foot bluff that overlooked a clearing.

As they sat, admiring the beauty of nature, they watched as a flying saucer landed in the middle of the clearing. They then saw an all-terrain vehicle screeching to the site. Two men in black suits got out of the car at about the time two gray aliens disembarked from the UFO.

The grays and the black suits began conversing, while the old man and his grandson looked on in amazement. Suddenly, one of the gray aliens noticed the Indians, and pointed them out to the other three. The four stopped their conversation in mid-sentence and approached the man and his grandson.

Before the black suits could say anything, one of the grays began to speak to the old man in fluent Ojibwa, and the old man responded in kind. The grays then waved bye-bye, ran to their ship, and took off.

The black suited humans raced after the grays, but to no avail. They then thought to question the old man and his grandson, but they had resumed their hike and couldn’t be found. After making composite sketches of the two and running them through face-recognition software, they finally tracked down the grandson.

The suits went to grandson’s house, and flashed credentials. “We’re from the NSA,” one of them explained. “We’d like to ask you some questions about what you and that old man saw yesterday.”

“Okay,” said the teen.

“Do you speak Ojibwa?”

“Yes.”

“So can you tell us what the gray alien said?”

The teenager replied, “The alien told my grandfather that his people were visiting the Earth from another planet lightyears away. They needed a place to set up a refueling station, and were in the process of negotiating with the United States government for landing rights in exchange for advanced technology.”

“And what did your grandfather tell them?”

“Grandpa said, ‘Be careful of these guys. They break their treaties. The next thing you know they steal all your land, and kill off your buffalo.’”

Somebody Loves Raymond

2006-04-18T11:09:00.000-04:00

In January of 1999, the mix format collided with the traditional form of radio drama to produce a sterling piece of conspiracy art when “Spooked” aired on Pacifica station KPFA (Berkeley) as an episode of Over the Edge.

The premise: the host introduces a guest as Raymond, an ex-CIA insider who disguises his voice through computer-generated speech. As the program unfolds, however, the host gets Raymond to admit that he is not in fact human, but rather a computer program, RAICS (Remote Artificial Intelligence Cryptography System), created by the CIA in the 1960s, and later discarded. Hackers found out about RAICS later, and uploaded gigabytes of information into it, causing the program to develop a conscience (after all, it does have artificial intelligence). Consequently, Raymond (the program re-named itself after the main character in The Manchurian Candidate) has been on a crusade to expose the CIA’s “crimes against humanity” ever since.

During the course of this piece, Raymond spews copious information about CIA malfeasance, all of which is not only true, but well documented. Mae Brussell protégé Dave Emory, in the days before his suddenly loutish behavior (witnessed by many, but unknown to him, apparently) got him kicked off of KPFA, appears as one of the actors. One would also suspect that Emory wrote a good deal of the script, judging from the phraseology and cadence of Raymond’s speech.

Also curious to note: a couple of months after this aired, the problems that began at KPFA and spread to sister station WBAI (New York) began a couple of months after this aired. Part of those problems had to do with the implementation of policy directives from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose board had become increasingly staffed by veterans of Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, and The Voice of America--three propaganda arms used heavily by the CIA.

Would a Soprano by Any Other Name. . . .

2006-04-17T11:44:00.000-04:00

Italian ethnics had settled Sicily since the days of the ancient Romans. In the tenth century, however, Sicily had become invasion central for a number of North African, Middle Eastern, and European groups who wanted this gem of an island. The most serious threats came after the Crusades when Arabic factions tried to take it over. The Sicilians formed a number of small terrorist cells in order to repel the attack, and their success endeared them to the locals. Over the centuries, they maintained their ranks by enlisting new recruits and inducting the offspring of its members.

Over the course of time, the descendants and initiates of these famous freedom fighters from days gone by still went around conducting their affairs in cells. Several of these bands went into the estate management business. Others formed elite theft squads called ‘Brigantaggia.’ Another group of cells dealt in underground business – e.g. prostitution, extortion, and so forth.

Since they had always been a rather informal collection of characters, they never decided on an official name. They only refer to themselves in such generic, or descriptive terms as “Family” or “This Thing We Do,” even today. Eventually, however, a name became associated with them. This name seems to have numerous etymologies, some more plausible than others.

The earliest, extant, documented reference to the term was found in a 1685 list of heretics spared by the Church after their conversion and penance, among them an ex-witch named Catarina la Licatisa, nicknamed Nomata ancor Maffia. Her enemies used the sobriquet to describe her haughtiness, her bravado, and ambition. Where did the term come from? At first, scholars thought that it might have derived from a Florentine slang word for ‘a pitiful person’. Others linked the term to the Piedmontese slang term ‘maufin,’ meaning ‘cutie.’

My friend’s mom, a US native who grew up in Sicily, gave me another etymology born from folk legend. According to her old world kin, the term came about when a number of brigantaggia rescued a young girl from a would-be rapist after her mother shouted “Ma Figlia! Ma Figlia! [My Daughter! My Daughter!].”

Most likely, the term came from the Saracens. According to one story, the Saracens initially came to Sicily before the Crusades. At first, they lived in caves, or mafie, in an attempt to hide from all the locals, who wanted them off the island. Yet, the word could very well come from the name of the Saracen sect themselves, the ‘Ma Afiir’, who went on to control Palermo. Sometime between the Tenth and Seventeenth Centuries, the word evolved in meaning and usage to denote a person who is gutsy, and won’t take shit from anybody.

During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, the honored and legendary defenders of Sicily had pretty much devolved into criminals. After all, they were powerful and organized. They had maintained an aura of fear and loyalty among the peasantry for hundreds of years. Italian officials attempted to control and demolish the brigantaggia. Still, law enforcement had yet to use the term ‘Mafia’ to describe them, referring to them instead as a ‘unioni o fratellanze’ or ‘camorristi.’

Playwrights Rizzotti and Mosca popularized the word in their 1862 comedy I mafiusi della Vicaria. Set in a prison, the play features the hierarchical structure and cutthroat nature that we nowadays associate with organized crime. Goethe University historian Henner Hess, one of the first scholars to do extensive research on the Mafia, writes that after the play, some of the original cells adopted the term as a name.

A few cells had already used the term Mafia to describe themselves, and had even begun to break it down into cute acronyms: for example, Morte Alla Francia, Italia Anela (“Death to France,” Italy groans) or Mazzini Autorizza Furti, Incendi, Avvelenamenti (“Mazzini authorizes theft, arson and poisoning).

In 1799, five men representing five separate cells used the name Mafia when they created their secret Masonic chapter (secret, because at the time, Roman Catholics weren’t allowed to be Freemasons).

Biblioscopes: Advice for All Sun Signs April 15-21

2006-04-15T10:32:00.000-04:00

Biblioscopes are the union of bibliomancy, divination through opening books to random pages and pondering the meaning of the phrases therein, and horoscopes, in that each sign does share certain commonalities, including planetary transits. Each Saturday I ask the Universe to lead my hands in opening the book to the right page for a week's worth of good advice for each sun sign.

This week's featured book is "Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult" by many, many people edited by Richard Metzger

Aries March 21 - April 20
The author alludes to an approaching world crisis brought on by the invasion of the Elder Gods--Qlipothic transdimentional entities who ruled protohumanity until they were banished by "the agent of Intelligence," a Promethean figure who set humanity on its current course of evolution. Your head is ruling your body and your spirit, some very powerful forces that do not want to be cast aside. Take a little break from "thinking over" everything and listen to your body--exercise, dance, eat, and do some meditation or church-going (whatever suits you) for your spirit.

Taurus (April 21- May 20)
...it was necessary to make a dogma of his sexual theory because this was the sole bulwark of reason against a possible "outburst of the black flood of occultism." This week you will encounter someone who goes against everything you believe in, just by being themselves. Try not to pick a fight.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)
However...one does not change the universe simply by masturbating...Oh, man! I knew I was doing something wrong! If you want to change things, you are going to have to go out there and deal with actual people.

Cancer (June 21-July 20)
He was a true psychedelic savant, on 150 mics of LSD invoking the Russian philosopher P.D. Ouspensky and the Fourth Dimension to describe the experience. You will be going on a trip. You will know what to do when you get "there."

Leo (July 21-Aug. 20)
What will this world look like? We have no precedent in profane history to use as a guide; we must look further afield, to mythology, to understand the form of a linguistic universe. If you are not going to therapy to recognize and understand how your personal myths affect your life, perhaps you should. Or at least get a self-help book about family/beliefs and read it on your lunch break.

Virgo (Aug. 21-Sept. 20)
You might think that seeking out two Beatniks was a fnny place to start looking for a functional, modern process of magick. This week you will find powerful friends in strange places. Keep an open mind.

Libra (Sept. 21-Oct. 20)
Rosaleen Norton was born in Dunedin in 1917 during a violent thunderstorm which she late claimed was a portent for her love of the night side of life. Find and claim your dark side before it finds and claims you.

Scorpio (Oct. 21-Nov. 20)
It is evident that Dee was to be restrained from opening the gates of the Watchtowers until it pleased the angels. Whatever you are pursuing, wait for the signal before taking action.

Sagittarius (Nov. 21-Dec.20)
Like the Luddite sects who felt that man's technological progress led him away from God, and created all the world's ill and iniquities, the author of the Book of Enoch is telling us hat higher understanding was contrary to man's true nature, and resulted inevitably with woe. Do not buy any hi-tech gear this week.

Capricorn (Dec. 21-Jan. 20)
Let us suppose for the sake of argument that the signal for the initiation of this psychic invasion occurred in 1904 when Crowley received The Book of Law, as Crowley himself believed. And a little over a hundred years later, it looks like the world might be ending. Fancy that. Small things that you do and pay attention to this week will have huge effects on your future and those of your loved ones. Be careful.

Aquarius (Jan. 21-Feb 20)
If the viewer comes closer more information is revealed. The more one looks, the more is revealed. Keep looking! There is more information inside the information you have already discovered!

Pisces (Feb.21-Mar. 20)
They were not armed, or hiding guns in their temples. I think if the Nazis had had any proof of that, it would have been highly publicized. Burn the skeletons in your closet, get that bit of reefer out of your car, don't spend time at naughty websites at work this week. Be squeeeeeky clean. Just for this week. For a little while.

*The dates given to each sun sign are approximate--the dates of each sun sign change annually with the date of the vernal equinox. If you were born between the 18th and 24th of any month, you should get a free astrology report from www.astrology.com or www.geocosmic.org just so you can answer properly when someone asks, "What's your sign?"

Fiction That Pre-Cogs, Iran, Carl Sagan, and the Need For a New "America's Scientist"

2006-04-14T01:42:00.000-04:00

This is a real mish-mash of a post, I tells ya, but it might learn you a couple of things.

Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent" pre-cogged the Unabomber. (I like that Conrad's real name was Teodore Korzeniowski and, well, you know the Unabomber's name...)

There was a novel that eerily presaged the Titanic disaster. From this site: "In 1898 Morgan wrote a novel that at the time was seen as so far-fetched as to not be believable. The novel detailed the harrowing tragedy of an ocean liner called the Titan. This huge fictional ship tempts fate and after striking an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic during its maiden voyage sinks with a tremendous loss of life due to a lack of life boats."

Which leads me to "Threads," a 1984 BBC production about nuclear combat and the horrible aftermath endured by the surviving British. It was downright compelling and scary when I viewed it--unlike the hokey "The Day After" telepic produced by an American network. What made me think of "Threads" this morning is that the nuclear exchange is prompted by a crisis in...Iran. Learn more about the movie here and here.

Dr. Carl Sagan was a scientific advisor on the movie, according to IMDB. I recall he was fervently trying to get the word out about "nuclear winter" back in the 1980s, the Reagan era. Sagan was "America's Scientist" for years, just as Dr. Joyce Brothers was "America's Psychologist," Billy Graham is "America's Preacher," and Donald Trump is "America's Casino Operator/Real Estate Dude." What we need is a new "America's Scientist," a beloved, popular and smart figure that will be feted at the White House, one who can make President Bush listen to--and make him seriously address--real concerns about the environment, global warming, peak oil, and the effects of nuclear combat.

Oh Christ. What am I, on drugs?

Anyway, the Iranian crisis depicted in "Threads" has no resemblance to current events. It's just a simple East vs. West/Warsaw Pakt vs. NATO matter in the film. But let's hope the BBC's Iran reference point does not turn out to be prescient.

No Book Score This Time Around

2006-04-14T00:55:00.000-04:00

Whenever I'm on a trip to these here parts in upstate New York, I enjoy going to a particular used bookstore. It's the sort where you never know what you will find. It's usually in these types of places I can add to my collections of books that have the words "flying saucers" (not UFOs) and "headhunters" (not about executive placement services) in the title.

This time I was dismayed to find out the store was shuttered a couple months ago.

In the past, in one memorable trip to that store, I got "Great Operatic Disasters," "The Strange Ways of Man: Rites and Rituals and Their Incredible Origins," and the first paperback edition (1964) of Philip K. Dick's "The Game Players of Titan." At a buck-fifty each, they'd have been a bargain at twice the price.
(*One review of "The Strange Ways of Man" I looked at included this: "This book deals with many customs throughout the world, such as hara-kiri in Japan, suttee or the immolation of widows in India, the binding of feet in 19th century China, the self-inflicted torture of the fakirs of India, the completely tattooed skin of the Papuans of Borneo, and a number of other customs, strange to our culture." Fair enough, but this smart-ass know-it-all (me) would like to point out that Papuans do not live on Borneo--they live on New Guinea. And it is the indigenous people of Borneo, not Papuans, who practice, with much skill and beauty, tattooing.)

So, as I was denied a chance for some real book hunting, I sought alternatives. The big thrift store's "Book Nook" room should have been labeled "Closet o' Crap." They didn't even have the ubiquitous "Sometimes God Has a Kid's Face" by the alleged pedophile Fr. Bruce Ritter, which I've seen at every thrift store, yard sale, and flea market I've ever patronized while Upstate. The village library's book sale section blew too. The big one, I might add. It was all irrationally normal.

Oh well, I've still got a day and half to do some scrounging. The weather's nice, and yard sale seaon is beginning. Maybe I'll hit gold.

My Favorite Bible Story

2006-04-14T00:39:00.000-04:00

God sends two bears to eat 42 children for making fun of a dude's bald head. From 2 Kings 2:23-24.
And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
2:24
And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
Thank you, Skeptic's Annotated Bible.

Giants. Real? Myth? Conspiracy?

2006-04-13T15:50:00.000-04:00

The giant. A monster of myth. Or is it based on truth?

Stories of giants have circulated for centuries. We have the Titans Ancient Gods - The Titans and the Gigantes MYTH MAN'S GIANTS PAGE. We have Magog and Gog, the last of the British giants forced to stand guard for Brutus. We have stories that depict Hercules and even King Arthur as giants. Names of Giants

I became interested in these old stories at a young age and for two reasons. One, my interest in myth and one based on reality. Myths interested me -- especially the Norse ones. In fact, I had a fascination with Norse culture early. My name is even Norse and it means giant -- a fact friends find infinitely amusing since I'm nearly six feet tall. Rinda, or Rind, was a man-hating ice queen and giant who became Odin's third wife. The Northmen had a running joke that whenever their weather grew unnatually warm, the ice queen was being nice to Odin. The myths about this giantess range from her yielding to the battle god to her being tricked and raped into having his child.

In The Norsemen, a collection of folklore by Guerber, Odin's third wife, Rinda, was a personification of the hard and frozen earth who reluctantly yielded to her husband. According to the same story, she kept turning the God down and in a fit of anger, he beat her with a rune wand until she promised to marry him. A couple of links: Mythology Notes , wotmania: feed your wheel of time addiction

So, I had my interest in Norse giants, but I also had an interest in real, human giants. A member of my extended family suffered from gigantism, a long-suffering, extremely painful disease. People who have this illnss rarely live past early adulthood.

Anna Swann who grew to 7 feet 11 inches .

Robert Wadlow. When he died at 22, he was nearly nine feet tall.

So, what do you think? Could the stories of races of giants be real? Could they be based on real people who suffered from a very real disease? Or, as this article suggests, is there a very "real" conspiracy going on here? Did Giants Really Roam the Earth? - Associated Content

More Sex!

2006-04-13T12:06:00.000-04:00

A continuation of the post, "Sex! Sex! Sex!"

Psychological factors play a large role in the human sex drive. The Kama Sutra, the Tantra, and other protocols, developed over the years to induce bonding in individuals who had entered into a marriage arranged by their parents.

Totalitarians understand the cohesive power of sex, and deal with it accordingly. Some cults built around the aura of a charismatic leader fiercely restrict sex. By this, I don’t mean that they just preach abstinence from the X-rated stuff. They also want their followers to refrain from flirtation and fantasy. They often ask invasive questions to adherents, hoping to elicit confessions of dirty thoughts, and then chastize them for so much as admitting desire even to themselves. This way, individuals find it difficult to form bonds with each other, bonds that can sometimes challenge those between the subject and centralized authority.

Some cults do it the opposite way. They demand sex, sex, sex, and for an occasional change of pace, more sex. Here, the rationale is similar to those who practice abstinence. Since the central authority both initiates and directs sexual activity, and each member co-joins with multiple partners, the bonds of the former are much more powerful than the bonds between each other. Sex is both one of our most primal and secretive urges. Even the more open societies regard sex with some degree of shame, especially if it happens outside the sanctification of marriage. Often the subject of blackmail attempts, sex is one of the few things that could actually scandalize those in power.

The orgy scene in Eyes Wide Shut depicts some of the esoteric sex rituals in this context. The super-rich and powerful represent a micro-fraction of the world’s population. The sex serves to bond them together in an us-vs.-the- world type of solidarity. More importantly, it assures a degree of control. Reportedly, one of the first rituals of the Skull and Bones Society requires the initiate to lie naked in a coffin and confess his “sins” before his brethren. Some men have leaked that initiation practices of other secret societies have included homosexuality. Imagine what might happen to the Tom Cruise character, or any of the attendees of the EWS orgy if they broke their silence regarding any sensitive information on how the world is actually run. It would then be a simple matter to discredit such an individual by exposing their sexual relationships with others – especially if the partner happens to be a child.

Many of these rituals prominently feature children. I first heard about this in 1986 while attending graduate school, but could hardly believe it at the time. My last year, I lived off-campus, and spent a lot of time between classes, hanging out in the commuter room in the student union. One of my fellow commuters, Algernon (pseudonym), worked nights as a park ranger. When he didn’t show up for class one week, we were a bit concerned. But we really got worried when he finally showed up bandaged from head to toe; missing a tooth, both eyes blackened, and sans fingernails.

Alger told us that somebody attacked him, and that seemed ridiculous. He was six-foot-six, three-hundred pounds of solid muscle, and knew karate. What the hell kind of opponent could do this to him? Alger explained that while on his usual patrol he spotted a bonfire from a distance. He set out on foot to investigate, because the park had closed hours earlier, and he knew that nobody had any authorization to be there. As he came closer, he saw a number of people in grotesque disguises, and a masked figure at an altar. Too many people for him to handle alone, he called into his station for police backup. But help didn’t arrive before the ritual commenced. A girl--Alger estimated her age to be about seven years--was led to the altar and stripped naked. After an incantation, the man at the altar began to mount her. With backup slow in coming, and faced with the possibility of watching a statutory rape in progress, Alger decided to do what he could to stop the felony, but he couldn’t get past the gargantuan thugs guarding the site. With the help of other masked men, the guards beat Alger to the condition that I then saw before me.

The party disbanded and moved elsewhere. As soon as they left, other rangers found Alger and summoned paramedics. He intended to file a report on the incident the following morning, until his superior came to his hospital bed and had a “chat” with him. Just like the Tom Cruise character in Eyes Wide Shut, Alger listened as his boss informed him that the attendees comprised the upper echelon of Hamilton/Butler County (Ohio) society. They could kill him and his family, and get away with it. He further stated that no investigation would take place, and advised him to forget the whole thing.

I dunno. It’s hard for me to forget the image of a man that large and that powerful, and that frightened.

Bush, the End Times and You

2006-04-13T00:46:00.000-04:00

Excellent take on President Bush's apocalyptic fervor:

"When you've been primed into a rapturous frenzy by the Jerry Falwells, Pat Robertson and Tim LaHayes of the world, those right-wing refrains are music to your ears. If you think you're headed to heaven in short order, what good are the rest of us to you? Or the environment? Or diplomacy? What good is moderation and bridge building when your president can bring about the end of the world, which, to you, is a good thing?"

The End of the World? Here's an excellent take on the run-up to nuclear combat with the Iranians (really, the insights in this interview are mindblowing; it's via What Really Happened):

"However I believe there is very little time: an attack may well happen within the next 2 weeks, while Congress is in recess. There is no advantage to those that want it to happen in waiting."

And, of course, how science fictional is this photo I first saw on the front page of the New York Times on Wednesday? Men dancing in traditional colorful garb while holding the magic vials said to contain enriched uranium:

Medium Blog

2006-04-12T12:59:00.000-04:00

He sees dead people. I am sympathetic.

Symbology 101 For Christians

2006-04-12T12:51:00.000-04:00

Occult symbols are fast replacing Christian symbols in our culture. Therefore, we encourage you to use this list to warn others, especially Christian children who intentionally wear and display them because they are popular.

Keep in mind that some of these symbols have double meanings. For example, the pentagram has been used to transmit occult power in all kinds of rituals for centuries, but to Christians the same shape may simply represent a star -- a special part of God's creation. The image of a fish may mean a sign of the zodiac (astrology) to some, but to Christians it has meant following Jesus and sharing the message of His love. We will continue to delight in the cross, while recognizing that others use the same image to represent their dark forces.

Please don't pass judgment on those who happen to wear these symbols. Instead, let us seek God’s will and discernment so that we might all honor Him with our lives. Remember, "each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block. . . in our brother's way." (Romans 14:12-13)

More here.
(originally posted by Johnny at linkfilter.net)

The Burnt Over District

2006-04-12T11:07:00.000-04:00

Greetings from upstate New York, where I'm spending the week. It's the birthplace of Spiritualism and Mormonism. It was also called the Burnt Over District.

"This part of western New York became famous after the Erie Canal for its history of revivalism, radicalism, communitarian experiments. It was fertile ground for new ideas to take root and spread to other parts of the country. It became a "psychic highway" for New Englanders who left the East and headed West in search of new ways of life."

Oh yeah, and check out Lilydale. I drove through there once. Filled with spirits, it is.

Real Mars/Fake Mars.

2006-04-11T15:47:00.000-04:00

According to these guys, the NASA people have been faking the color of the sky on Mars. They do not have a reason why, but I am willing to listen to possibilities.

For the new pictures of Mars, click here.

Sex! Sex! Sex!

2006-04-11T10:15:00.000-04:00

A co-worker asked if I had seen Stanley Kubrick’s last film, Eyes Wide Shut. I hadn’t. I meant to, since I’ve seen and enjoyed many of his classic works – Lolita, Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; A Clockwork Orange; and The Shining, for example. Unfortunately, my work-schedule prevented me from indulging in many of my favorite past-times, including movies. My colleague’s question, however, prompted me to buy a videotape of the film later. Lucky me. I got it on sale for two dollars.

Although I had read a number of reviews, they really didn’t convey any sense of the movie’s plot. Instead, the press harped on its stars, Tom Cruise and wife Nicole Kidman, the abundant nudity, the sex (one critic referred to it as Legs Wide Open), and the fact that Kubrick died before its premiere. The plot, however, is quite interesting, especially in light of the subject matter here. All in all, they were two of the wisest bucks I ever spent.

A physician (Cruise) gets mad at his wife (Kidman) after she confesses her lust for other men. He decides to get even with her by attempting a series of flings, which never seem to pan out. As luck would have it, he runs into an old friend of his, a pianist at a local jazz club. This musician friend then tells him about a side gig that’s really strange. He’s never told when or where it will be until shortly before it happens. Furthermore, he has to play blindfolded throughout, and he needs a password to get in. But on one night, the blindfold was looser than normal, and he managed to sneak a peek. All he could see were a lot of naked women running around with guys in cloaks and masks. The doctor, frustrated because his attempts to commit adultery have met with the success of Wile E. Coyote, thinks that anywhere naked women roam like that can’t be all bad. He convinces the musician to help him get in.

Doc buys the required costume and mask, and then takes a cab out to a plush estate. He enters a sprawling mansion where a room full of people don the same disguise. Inside, a ceremony takes place. Kneeling on the floor are ten cloaked women. A shaman of some type utters an incantation in a strange language while Doc’s friend provides the music. The women then stand up, disrobe, walk off with various men and an orgy begins. One of the women goes directly to the physician and begs him to leave before he is killed. The doctor, however, isn’t going to miss any of the action, and demands that the naked masked woman reveal her identity. She tells him that she cannot lest she risk certain death. She stresses that he might die too if he doesn’t, for crissakes, leave.

Before he can, he’s caught. The shaman demands that the doctor remove his mask and take off his clothes. The woman who warned him stands before the crowd, and pledges to “redeem him.” They let the doctor go, warning him that if he didn’t forget what he saw, then they would have to kill him and his family. When he asks what will happen to the woman who stood up for him, the shaman replies, “No one can change her fate, now.”

The next day, Doc finds that his musician friend has disappeared. Furthermore, somebody has been following him. He reads in the local paper that a former beauty queen was found dead in an apparent overdose. He recognizes her as one of his former patients, and now fears that she might have been the naked woman in the mask. He is then summoned to a wealthy patient of his, a powerful businessman. The patient confesses that he was one of the people in the mansion that night. He saw everything. He also knew of the doctor’s continuing efforts to find his musician friend, and the woman who redeemed him. The patient reiterates the warning, adding that the people taking part in the ceremony were among the most powerful in the world.

I wonder how many people watching the orgy scene at the theatre had any idea about what Kubrick presented there. After all, have you ever participated in such an event? At a mansion? With the rich and famous?

Burning Pits of Passion, Gore, and Cheap Special Effects, Part II

2006-04-10T12:03:00.000-04:00

In 1995, The Century Group Ltd., a Canadian telecommunications firm, produced a curious little flick titled Out There, and distributed it through IRS, a celebrated independent record label (home of the Go-Go’s), but not really a major player in the film industry. IRS sold it to the Showtime cable network, where it ran before committed to video.

Out There isn’t your typical B-movie. It sports a number of big name actors: Academy Award winners Billy Bob Thornton and Rod Steiger; June Lockhart, Jill St. John, Bobcat Goldwaith, Julie Brown, and (one of my favorites) slasher film victim PJ Soles. Thomas Strelich and Alsion Nigh, two award-winning playwrights wrote the script, which at times contains some sparkling dialogue.

The deliberate corniness of the movie Out There doesn’t even attempt to hide the fact that it is replete with disinformation--i.e. accurate information from a disreputable source. The characters, through the course of the film, give the precise range and scope of the Project Blue Book inquiry. The props used are copies/facsimiles of real cultural artifacts. Serious and pertinent articles that were actually published in Penthouse and its sister publication Omni, figure into the plot. One of the protagonists is supposed to be a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer. The picture in question actually won the Pulitzer in 1968. The classification of UFOs used in the movie is real. Since the movie was accurate about so many arcane points of ufology, I wonder if it might have also been accurate about something else.

Out There gives a rather detailed history of Plan 9 from Outer Space even though the script never mentions that movie by name. Instead, the 1995 movie transferred the circumstances of Plan 9 onto a fictitious film, Invaders from Uranus. Instead of being shot in 1957, Invaders from Uranus was filmed in 1969. The star was not Bela Lugosi, but rather Boris Karloff who, like his former colleague, died before the start of the production (and yes, Karloff actually died when the film says he did).

According to the Out There script, Invaders from Uranus served as a ruse to prevent discovery of a real UFO landing. Witnesses saw it and reports of it were coming in from all over the place. US intelligence therefore dispatched a team of filmmakers to provide a cover story. When people reported their CE3 experiences, the Sheriff, or other law enforcement officials would then say that they actually saw a movie set.

It’s fun to speculate that Ed Wood might have made the world’s worst movie as a clandestine spy mission, but that’s all it is: speculation. Yet, Wood was immensely proud of this work. If the purpose of the movie was to obfuscate actual UFO activity, and if nobody suspected that Plan 9 from Outer Space was nothing more than the terrible film it appeared to be, then Wood could rightfully pat himself on the back for a job well done.

Passion pits went into decline during the course of the 1970s. The new megaplexes (or ‘ant farms’ as they’re called in the business--just in case you wanted to know how studio execs think of us when we pay that ten dollars for a seat) pretty much revolutionized the way in which films were distributed, thus turning single-run, repertoire, and drive-in theatres into white elephants. At present, only a handful of drive-ins still exist, and most play A-list, first-run features.

The UFo/Tornado Connection

2006-04-10T10:45:00.000-04:00

In light of the recent flurries of tornadoes in the Southeast, killing twelve people (that we know of), I did some self-edgimication.

Rather than simply buying the idea that storms with strong updrafts cause tornadoes, which makes me think they should be a lot more common, and the population of the world a whole lot smaller, I started looking into other reasons for tornadoes.

Several tribes of American Indians seemed to think that tornadoes were the revenge of the Great Spirit, and told settlers that they would be safe if they lived between two rivers. But since then, this has been proven not to be the case. Maybe the white men made the Great Spirit more angry.

Other people believe that tornadoes are evidence of UFO landings. After the mass disinformation conspiracy in Siberia, where many, many people understood they saw a UFo, but the government somehow convinced everyone they saw a tornado, I am a bit more inclined to believe in the UFO/tornado connection.

It would also explain why there are more tornadoes in rural areas, why so many tornadoes come at once in certain areas. Why a large percentage of the population in those areas seem fearful and none too bright. Are tornadoes caused by UFo's? You decide.

Biblioscopes: Advice for All Sun Signs April 8-14

2006-04-08T12:52:00.000-04:00

Biblioscopes are the union of bibliomancy, divination through opening books to random pages and pondering the meaning of the phrases therein, and horoscopes, in that each sign does share certain commonalities, including planetary transits. Each Saturday I ask the Universe to lead my hands in opening the book to the right page for a week's worth of good advice for each sun sign.

This week's featured book is “The Press” by A.J. Liebling, who worked the press beat for the New Yorker in the 1940's and 50's.

Aries (Mar. 21-April 20)*
"In the darkness of the newspaper blackout, many dubious deeds were done in many public places." Just because no one knows who you are doesn't mean you should try to get away with just anything. Besides if you do anything that bad, you know you'll feel guilty.

Taurus (April 21- May 20)
The head over Miss Killen's story read: Hysteria gone, Wives Waiting Scrip Income.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)
After 12 weeks of the Wall Street Journal, during which all I had read about Mr. Kennedy was that he was wasting money and plotting against business, it was a novelty to read that anybody was plotting against him, or that he might deserve any sympathy. The enemies of your enemies are your friends. Opinion about you is changing.

Cancer (June 21-July 20)
The Oracles of Mars--Continued Look at the battles you are in. They are saying something about you and your future. Be meditative.

Leo (July 21-Aug. 20)
Up he would get, from those comfortable banquets at which he could have squatted indefinitely in an executive capacity, and back to sea to see what the world looked like. It's time for you to leave your realm of comfort a bit. If you don't have time or money to vacation in an exotic place, even reading a magazine you would never read or visiting a museum you think you have little interest in can open your mind to the world around you.

Virgo (Aug. 21-Sept. 20)
This for me was one of the high moments; would the small joke reassure the human bomb, or would he touch his fingers to the attache case and blow up the air terminal?
Take a chance with your humor this week. A small chance. Really small.

Libra (Sept. 21-Oct. 20)
I shall always be saddened by he thought that I saw Mr. Crum miss a signal that, had he heeded it, might have sent the Star's circulation up to a quarter of a million almost overnight. If you see something, say something! Even if you doubt it, even if it seems like it's probably nothing! Really! Do it!

Scorpio (Oct. 21-Nov. 20)
In conjunction with another story on the same page, about a trip to Russia being made by a reporter named Andrew Tully, it indicated that the organization was now running a shuttle service through the Iron Curtain--a contrast indeed with last spring, when it was still relying largely on intuitional coverage. A week of covert ops and whistle blowing. Your previous intuition are now backed up by hard evidence.

Sagittarius (Nov. 21-Dec.20)
Although Colonel McCormick hasn't publicly made the offer yet, I suspect behind the rolls of newsprint in the Tribune Tower, from the seventh floor of which the S.S. Yale's earsplitting whistle could function as the nation's new liberty bell. He is a man with a sense of destiny. Use your sense of destiny to start a new project this week, even if the project means rebellion.

Capricorn (Dec. 21-Jan. 20)
Daily, while training my anti-Bob White cat, I waited for a newspaper to give us word of what had happened to this thirty-odd million dollars, but never did word come. You should not bother waiting around either.

Aquarius (Jan. 21-Feb 20)
I am more grateful than I can say to Kenneth Robbins for helping me with the emendation of this book. Remember that whatever you accomplished, you did not really do alone.

Pisces (Feb.21-Mar. 20)
I do not wish to intimate that the measure of a newspaper's success is its balance sheet, but Hearst's example, more than that of any other man, has been cited for 60 years by newspaper barroom debaters who say that "you have to give the public what it wants" and what it wants is the worst. You are always helping others. But what if they want something that is actually bad for them? You are going to have to work that out for yourself this week.

*The dates given to each sun sign are approximate--the dates of each sun sign change annually with the date of the vernal equinox.. If you were born between the 18th and 24th of any month, you should get a free astrology report from www.astrology.com or www.geocosmic.org just so you can answer properly when someone asks, "What's your sign?"

Burning Pits of Passion, Gore, and Cheap Special Effects:Pt. 1

2006-04-08T11:07:00.000-04:00

The CIA’s formal research into UFOs began with the Robertson Panel in 1953. Fearful that another phone tie-up, such as that which had occurred during the Washington sightings, would create a major threat to national security, the CIA set out on a campaign to “debunk” them. In his book Hollywood vs. the Aliens, Bruce Rux posits that the CIA set out to debunk UFOs by seeding a lot of money and disinformation--i.e. accurate information from a disreputable source--into the production of b-grade movies during the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s.

You’d often find these types of flicks at the local drive-ins, nicknamed ‘passion pits’ for reasons other than the on-screen sexual content. By the late-1940s, teenagers with no place of their own, found cars to be sort of a mobile bedroom. Drive-in owners consequently wondered why they were paying good money for real films, since fewer and fewer of their patrons actually watched them. They found it more profitable to play cheaply produced, cheaply distributed fare to serve as a background. If the movie were scary, all the better. Teenaged lads could prove their bravery by withstanding the countless scenes of gore that would rocket their dates into their arms for comfort. If the movie had (how shall we say?) tawdry content, then that could spice up the action too. Thus, over the course of the 1950s, a number of movies destined for the passion pits, proudly featured oodles of sleaze and blood, preferably at the same time.

Drive-in movies represented the epitome of disrepute. The films were horribly written, ineptly directed, and indifferently acted -- hardly things that would entice a true cinema connoisseur. The ‘passion pit’ moniker that they picked up during the 1950s made their audiences seem shady as well. The CIA might very well have seen them as the perfect vehicle for disinformation.

Former US Marine Ed Wood became a Hollywood legend for arguably being the worst movie director who ever lived. Yet, his first stab at professional filmmaking came at the behest of The United States Department of Defense, who asked him to prepare a series of documentaries on a major defense contractor, Autonetics Incorporated. Since he completed the series, we can safely assume that the Pentagon was satisfied by his efforts. They didn’t fire him after he made one or two. Surely they would have done so if the quality of that work weren’t at least fifty times better than the normal Ed Wood fare. Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know how good those pictures were. All of Wood’s films for Autonetics are still classified.

While such efforts as Jail Bait, The Violent Years, and The Sinister Urge were god-awful films, many consider Wood’s masterpiece, Plan 9 From Outer Space, to be the worst movie ever committed to celluloid. I can personally vouch for the film’s lack of quality. For starters, it had a confused and bizarre plot. Secondly, most of the cast consisted of proudly untalented amateurs, who ponied up production money just so they could say that they made a movie. Worse yet, the film’s star died several weeks before it went into production.

Wood had used over-the-hill, monster movie icon Bela Lugosi in previous movies. Hampered in his later years by declining health and a virulent morphine addiction, Lugosi looked forward to working with Wood, a good friend and the only director who would hire him. With no script in mind, Wood decided to shoot some footage of Lugosi romping around in his Dracula costume. Lugosi wore the same outfit at his own funeral the following week.

Undaunted, Wood saved two of the shots: a sequence that shows Lugosi exiting his house and smelling a flower, and another shot where Lugosi, dressed as Dracula, walks down a hill, strikes a vampire pose, then walks back up the hill. This is the about the only Lugosi footage you ever get to see in Plan 9 from Outer Space, and for that, Bela got star billing. Just so that the moviegoer didn’t feel gypped, thinking that he or she has shelled out money for what was billed as the great Lugosi’s last film, Wood repeated the second shot about thirty or forty times in the picture (that should give you some idea of why many consider it to be the worst film of all time).

Of all of his movies, some of which are actually watchable, Wood genuinely admired Plan 9 as his greatest work, his masterpiece. But it’s an odd film, even for Wood. One has to wonder why he made it.

Perhaps Wood launched the project because it would be the last chance to star his old friend Lugosi. But that doesn’t explain it’s content. Why not just make a monster flick if a vampire is what you wanted to base your film on? We do see some Robertson Panel themes in it. Nevertheless, while these themes and Wood’s intelligence background might have suggested that the movie was pure disinformation, it doesn’t necessarily explain the timing. Is there anything that explains both?

Not really. But, I’d like to interject an outlandish explanation all the same, based as it is (believe it or not) on another b-grade movie, this one made in 1995.

Science Fiction Film to Premier April 28

2006-04-07T14:11:00.000-04:00

Phooey.

That is all.

War Already Declared Againt Persia

2006-04-07T10:44:00.000-04:00

From Executive Order 13292, issued this past March 16:
"We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran."

* "The Iranian regime sponsors terrorism; threatens Israel; seeks to thwart Middle East peace; disrupts democracy in Iraq; and denies the aspirations of its people for freedom."

* "[T]he first duty of the United States Government remains what it always has been: to protect the American people and American interests. It is an enduring American principle that this duty obligates the government to anticipate and counter threats, using all elements of national power, before the threats can do grave damage."

* "The greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction and the more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack. There are few greater threats than a terrorist attack with WMD."

* "To forestall or prevent such hostile acts by our adversaries, the United States will, if necessary, act preemptively."

* "When the consequences of an attack with WMD are potentially so devastating, we cannot afford to stand idly by as grave dangers materialize."

* "[T]here will always be some uncertainty about the status of hidden programs."

* "Advances in biotechnology provide greater opportunities for state and non-state actors to obtain dangerous pathogens and equipment."

* "Biological weapons also pose a grave WMD threat because of the risks of contagion that would spread disease across large populations and around the globe."

* "Countering the spread of biological weapons .... will also enhance our Nation's ability to respond to pandemic public health threats, such as avian influenza."

Interesting article here.

I Thought Satan Put Them There to Deceive Us

2006-04-06T14:29:00.000-04:00

From today's Overheard in New York:

Yeah, Famous Like...Um...
Chick: I know you'll think I'm crazy, but I just don't believe that dinosaurs ever existed.
Guy: What? Well, where do you think those dinosaur bones come from?
Chick: People just make them and put them in the ground and then dig them up so they will be famous.
Guy: I can't believe you're serious.
--Museum of Natural History

On second thought, maybe God put them there to test our faith.

Iraq War And Ancient Extraterrestrial Technology, Or So They Say

2006-04-06T13:11:00.000-04:00

Regarding my post of yesterday about "crazy ideas," I did a Yahoo! search for Iraq, War, Ancient, and Technology and came up with Gold, Jerry! Gold!
Turns out the Sumerians were using technology they learned from extraterrestrials.

From the Exopolitics site:
"The Sumerian scholar, Zecharia Sitchin translated thousands of cuneiform tablets, and discovered that the civilization of Sumer that flourished in the territory of present day Iraq, was aided by extraterrestrial visitors. These extraterrestrials, the ‘Anunnaki', played a key role in developing Sumerian civilization in 3800 BC, and then mysteriously left around 1800 BC. What they left behind were more than just stories of humanity's extraterrestrial connection, but advanced technology that has lain hidden for millennia.
This extraterrestrial technology far surpasses the technological proficiency of the regime of Saddam Hussein who is certainly aware of its existence. While he may be devoting his regime's resources to exploiting this technology, it is very unlikely he can reverse engineer it. Therefore, like the mythical dragon, President Hussein can only marvel at his extraterrestrial treasure without knowing how to use it. On the contrary, US based clandestine government organizations have much experience in reverse engineering extraterrestrial technology, and want to gain unrestricted access to Saddam's treasure. However, given the grandiose aspirations of President Hussein, these organizations have decided that little can be achieved through negotiations. Thus there is a need for President Bush to play the role of St George, leading his military forces into Iraq to conquer the ‘evil' dragon."

That was written in February 2003, before the Crusade began.

Other sites with same info:
http://www.strayreality.com/Lanis_Strayreality/iraq.htm
http://www.alienshift.com/id41.html
http://www.ufoarea.com/conspiracy_iraq_heritage.html

It's all pretty elaborate, and even the Challenger shuttle disaster comes into play. By the way, I'd kill to own that painting in the photo above.

The Mystery of the Knight

2006-04-06T13:00:00.000-04:00

Over the course of the Twelfth Century, the Knights Templar retrieved a number of artifacts from the ruins of King Solomon’s temple in Jersualem. Many described one object as a magic box. High-ranking knights of the order sat around it and posed questions, expecting the box to answer them. Some claimed that the mystery box was in fact the Ark of the Covenant. The Bible gives some specific measurements about this legendary artifact that were similar to the item in question. Furthermore, we are told that the Ark was made to house the Ten Commandments. If so, why would anyone ask it questions? Does it work like a magic-8 ball? (Petitioner: “Oh magic Ark of the Covenant, does she love me?” Ark of the Covenant: “Answer hazy, try again.”)

We moderns also have magic boxes that answer our questions, but we don’t call them Arks. We call them computers. (We also call them a lot of other things when they don’t work as expected.) We can also store documents like the Ten Commandments in them. Of course, even if they could build one, why would the Knights Templar need a computer in the 1100s?

Mathematics professor Dr. Eliyahu Rips may have provided an answer to that question following a startling discovery in the year 1990. A rabbi friend of his casually mentioned that another rabbi, H.M.D. Weissmandel, had seen what he believed to be a code in the Torah. The mere thought intrigued Rips enough to dig a little deeper into the possibility of a Bible code.

Rips got a copy of the 1008 (AD) St. Petersburg (or Leningrad) Codex, which standardized the Old Testament into a strand of 304,805 Hebrew letters (with no spaces). He then wrote a computer program that could recognize equidistant spacing of any keyword that he chose to input. Say if a particular word can be found and has a spacing of 1000 letters, the computer then aligns the complete text into 304 rows of 1000 letters (with the remaining letters in the 305th row). This way, all of the letters of the keyword are contiguous, and can be read vertically, horizontally or diagonally. More importantly, other words intersect the keyword or lie in close proximity, like a word search puzzle.

Rips queried the term ‘Yitzhak Rabin’ in July of 1995, and the phrase “assassin will assassinate” cut through it like a crossword puzzle. He immediately contacted a friend, Wall Street Journal correspondent Michael Drosnin, who knew the Prime Minister. Drosnin and Rips warned Rabin of his impending doom, but to no avail. In November of 1995, a man named Amir shot and killed Rabin in Tel Aviv. After the assassination, Rips took another look at his Bible code grid and found that he indeed missed some of the information: the words “name of assassin who will assassinate,” “Amir,” “Tel Aviv,” and “5756 [i.e., Jewish calendar year 5756 – the fall of 1995 to the fall of 1996].”

Rabin’s death wasn’t the only consistency found. The query “Clinton,” which Rips did in the summer of 1992 intersected the word “president,” again months before it happened. The query “Watergate” yields “Who is he?” and “President, but he was kicked out”; “Kennedy” yields “Dallas”; “Hitler” yields “NAZI and enemy,” “evil man,” and “slaughter”; “economic collapse” yields “The Depression,” “Stocks” and “5690 [1929]”; “Shoemaker-Levy” yields “will pound Jupiter” “8th Av 5754 [July 14, 1994]”; and so on, and so on and so on. There are an infinite possibilities of keywords and answers, but as with the Rabin example, it is difficult to know what information might be relevant to a search until after an event has happened.

Rips tested his theory by trying to find other works of literature (both new and old) to see if any consistencies could be found in this manner, but found none. (Critics found plenty, but they admit to fudging Rips' methodology, writing, "They found that a small change in the choice of appellations for the famous rabbis can lead to War and Peace performing just as well as Genesis.") Convinced that he had sufficient reason to publish, Rips teamed up with Professors Doron Witztum and Yoav Rosenberg to write “Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis,” and then submitted the paper to Statistical Science, the review journal of the US-based Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Editor Robert E. Kass, Professor of Mathematics at Carnegie-Mellon University, was understandably sceptical to say the least. The research had been examined and subsequently confirmed by teams of mathematicians at Harvard, Yale and Hebrew University, and by NSA cryptographer Harold Gans, Kass still subjected the paper to three peer reviews before finally publishing it in the August 1994 issue, adding in his editor’s note “Our referees were baffled: their prior beliefs made them think the Book of Genesis could not possibly contain meaningful references to modern-day individuals; yet when the authors carried out additional analyses and checks the effect persisted.”

Perhaps the encryption found in the Old Testament explains why the Knights Templar needed a computer. They could have gotten their hands on the Leningrad Codex, and lacking the computational skill of Newton, might have found it necessary to get answers from a magic box.

But even if this box were neither a computer nor the Ark of the Covenant, it still held some power and meaning to those allowed in its presence. More to the point, since it was one of the objects extracted from his temple, what did Solomon do with it?

Assassination Trivia Answers

2006-04-06T10:54:00.000-04:00

Merrell McCullough was an undercover officer of the Memphis Police Department, and, according to the Senate Select Committee on Assassinations final report, an FBI operant. He infiltrated a youth group before King's first march for the Memphis garbage workers, and recruited agent provacateurs who caused the mayhem that forced King out of Memphis the first time.

McCullough was also in the parking lot of the Lorraine motel when King was shot,and responded immediately. In the famous photographs of the incident, he is the gentleman leaning over King as he lay dying.

Ed Redditt was a Memphis police detective who feared for King's life, and decided to do everything he could to keep him safe. Among other things, Redditt set up an observation post at a fire station located next to the motel, and kept an eye on King and any potential assassins.

But two hours before the assassination, the chief of police ordered Redditt back to the station, where Secret Service, FBI and other federal people awaited. The Secret Service told Redditt that he was to stand down his guard at the Lorraine, because someone would kill him. Redditt refused to go home as ordered, but was ultimately persuaded to submit himself and his family to protective custody.

Charles and Grace Stephens were neighbors of James Ray at Bessie Brewer's boarding house, across the street of the Lorraine. Grace heard gunshots from the bathroom, and went to the hall to see what the commotion was. She saw a man darting from the bathroom, and going downstairs. Police asked her to identify the man who exited the bathroom, hoping that they could persuade her to pick out James Ray from a number of photographs. She refused to do so.

Charles, a black belt alcoholic, who had been drunk for three days in a row at the time of the shooting, and who never left his room, was persuaded by Memphis police to file committment papers against his wife (Grace had no history of mental illness), who was then carted off to a mental hospital where she stayed for nine years. Charles then identified Ray as instructed.

Mark Lane, an attorney, represented Grace Stephens, and managed to get her out of the loony bin. Lane also represented James Ray. Along with Martin Luther King's personal friend, Dick Gregory, he co-wrote Code Name Zorro, a must-read for anyone interested in the assassination.

Ramsay Clark was US Attorney General at the time of King's Assassination. On the very night it happened, he vowed that the FBI would find the killer, whom he described as a lone assassin--even though the investigation was in its infancy at that point.

Eric St. Vincent Galt was a Union Carbide forman at the company's plant in Toronto, ON. Ray stole his identity while on the lam for his prison escape the previous year. Ray used Galt as his main alias the year prior to the shooting.

Dr. Philip Melanson is a Professor of Political Science at Hobart-Smith College who has done excellent research and publishing on the King (and RFK) assassinations. (Recommended reading: The Murkin Conspiracy)

Earl Caldwell was a New York Times reporter, who was at the Lorraine when King was murdered, and subsequently got the scoop on everyone else. He testified before the Senate Select Committee, and mentions it frequently on his radio show, The Caldwell Chronicles.

Percy Foreman was Ray's second attorney. A powerful man with many connections, Ray dismissed his other attorney and hired Foreman after Percy assured Ray that the case against him was weak, and that he would walk out a free man. Foreman then brokered a deal with a newspaper journalist, William Bradford Huie, to write a book about the case that would help Ray clear his name. Over time, however, Foreman and Huie pressured Ray to plead guilty, mostly by taking advantage of Ray's weakened condition (guards would not allow him to get a full night's sleep for several months), and threatening to have Ray's brother indicted as a co-conspirator. Huie subsequently demonized Ray in the book, He Slew the Dreamer.

Judge Joseph Brown took over for Judge Preston Battle in Ray's bid to get a trial. A firearms expert, Brown concluded from the bench that the shot that killed King could not have come from the Lorraine, and has spoken publically about it since.

Did Aleister Crowley Sire Barbara Bush?

2006-04-06T10:24:00.000-04:00

Wacky assertion or "Holy crap!" revelation? You decide! (Thanks RLG for the link.)

Excerpt:
"Few people understand that one of the most notorious individuals in British history may have contributed to the lineage of our current president. Aleister Crowley, a.k.a., "The Great Beast 666" -- the infamous practitioner of "sex magick" whose motto was "Do What Thou Wilt" -- came to know a great many remarkable people, including the maternal grandmother of George W. Bush. "Know," in this case, may be taken in the Biblical sense. Evidence points to the disturbing possibility that he was the true father of Barbara Bush, the former First Lady and mother to George W. Bush."

Some Crazy Ideas

2006-04-05T14:31:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you see or hear something weirdly interesting if just for a second and you keep it in the back of your brain intending to look it up "at some point." Well, of course, that "point" never comes. Here's a few oddball things I've heard or read a sentence about recently.

Monkeys de-volved from man.

The REAL reason the U.S. invaded Iraq was to get control of the ancient Sumerian technology that FAR surpassed ours.

The Big Bang spawned God, who then created everything else. (I thought about this in the context of Native American religion, which holds that there is a Creator, but there's a higher power called The Great Mystery.)

The Sphinx is a representation of a Neanderthal man.

Yeah, I'll have to look up this stuff at some point.

Assassination Trivia

2006-04-05T10:48:00.000-04:00

The names listed below are of people who were connected in some way to the Martin Luther King assassination. How many of them can you identify without Googling? What role did they play?

Merrell McCullough
Ed Redditt
Grace Stephens
Charles Stephens
Mark Lane
Ramsay Clark
Eric St. Vincent Galt
Philip Melanson
Earl Caldwell
Percy Foreman
Joseph Brown
William Bradford Huie
Dick Gregory

Okay. Go ahead and Google.

The FEMALE CONSPIRACY - THE MOTHER OF ALL CONSPIRACIES

2006-04-05T01:26:00.000-04:00

Gentlemen, I’m about to share with you something that all men should know, but all women conspire to keep secret from men. I, however, have broken the code. I’ve paid attention, eavesdropped, asked, and searched. I’m now going to tell you about

THE FEMALE CONSPIRACY

James Brown said “It’s a man’s world!”
Tammy Wynette said “He’s JUST a man.”

Billy Joes said “The young man is the King of any Kingdom that he sees.”
Helen Ready “I am woman, hear me Roar!”

What is the Female Conspiracy?

Women have kept secret, since the time of Eve, that THEY run the world. Women have cleverly created the illusion that men have always been in charge of the world. They laugh at us as we call this a Patriarchal society… Men, since the time of Eve, have been duped, manipulated, emasculated, and controlled by women. Note that I said ‘Women’ and not woman. All women, every single one of them upon reaching the age of ascension, are inducted into the great sisterhood of the female conspirers. They are ALL in on it.

Do you not believe me? Go to the nearest woman and ask her to tell you about the Female Conspiracy. Know what she’ll say? She’ll at you confused like, and like you’re a bit crazy, and she’ll say:

“What are you talking about?”
“Whuuut?”
“The female whut?”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“YOU tell ME!”

Do you see it men? Yep… DENIAL! And denial is always the first symptom. But I’m sure this isn’t enough to convince you, and it shouldn’t be. You need more evidence to really be convinced. I’m going to give that to you today.

- NO WIFE OF MINE IS EVER GONNA WORK!

Men use to actually say that!!! Women had them so well trained, that men not only thought it was good that a wife not work, but they thought it a shame for a wife to work. Of course, things have been breaking down, which is why I’ve been able to gather evidence.

- A MAN'S BIKE HAS THAT DAMNED BAR

A man’s bike has a bar that goes from just under the seat to the the front of the bike.A woman’s bike does NOT. WHY? Mechanically a woman’s bike is strong enough to support a mans weight and average velocity. It is not like that for any engineering reason. Now the reason we have been given is “because women wear dresses and that bar would get in the way.”

Ha ha ha ha ha. It is to laugh. Ha. I laugh.

Guys, you’ve been through this. What happened when you were a kid and slipped off the seat and fell forward? That’s RIGHT… You smashed both of ‘em on that damn bar! THAT is that bar’s only purpose. (Later I will explain how testicles were actually a woman’s invention)

- MEN HAVE TO ASK WOMEN TO DANCE.

Why? I’ll tell you. So that they can occasionally shatter his ego and will, thus reducing him to a miserable, feeble hearted, confidence lacking son of Adam. You see, if you want to control someone, you have to break their will. This also happens during high school dances, Prom, and casual dating.

- WOMEN GO TO THE BATHROOM TOGETHER.

They really do! You’ve seen it. Now, inevitably the women you personally know are going to say one of two things. “Oh OTHER women do that, but I never do.” And “That’s so that we can gossip about you guys.”

It is to laugh. Ha. See!? I laughed.

Add something else to this equation that they are hopeing men over look. If a group of men got up to go to the bathroom together, they are looked down upon. It’s true. I led a rebellion once at a Chile’s restaurant. After the women in our group went to the bathroom together, I decided it was time for equality. I stood and said “Tony, I’m going to the men’s room! Are you ready?” (Note just like a woman. They don’t ask the other woman IF she has to go, they just say ‘are you ready’ because it’s understood that they will go together.) So my friend Tony, whom I had earlier exposed the Female Conspiracy to, stood up and said “Why YES! Yes I’m ready to go! Barry, Come on. We’re going to the Men’s room. Bill you too.” A group of SIX men went to the men’s room together. I casually glanced back and looked at the expression on the women’s faces. Shock! Confusion! Worry! Yep.. they were wondering if we were doing what they do.

So why DO women go to the bathroom together? What do they really do when they are in there?

INTELLIGENCE reports! And information queries!!! Years before Pc’s hit the market, before radio shacks trash-80, before the commodore 64, before the z-80 processor, women had personal computers. They kept them in the one place men would never look for the - In the women’s room of restaurants and clubs. And it was a perfect choice. On dates, or group outings they go in there, press or pull the right button and everything changes. Computers fold out from behind the mirrors or stalls, satellite dishes come out of the roof, microphones, video phones, the whole shooting match.

They take the data they’ve collected about the men they are with and enter it into the female uni-mind storage master. They can also get information about their date or the men they are with. That enables them to have the upper mind and control men. Ever notice how women seem to be able to read your mind men? And they SAY it’s female intuition.

It is to laugh. Ha. I laugh.

It’s all the data they’ve collected and shared!!! Quite brilliant really. By the way, I believe to actually get the computers and what not to pop out, you have to pull the right combination of knobs on the tampon machine. One thing men will never touch. One more thing about this.

Have you ever noticed how long women take when they go to the women’s room? EXACTLY! You see it now don’t you? They need that extra time to do their data exchanges. Is it not obvious now?

- TESTICALS! IS THIS A LOGICAL DESIGN?

Men, I ask you… Our gonads are external to our bodies. They’re not kept inside where it’s safe and warm. NO! They’re out there exposed to the elements. Ever go into the pool when it’s cold? Or a lake? The ocean? See what I’m saying? Damn right it’s cold!

Can you even recall the number of times you’ve been kneed, kicked, hit with sporting equipment, or made a bad mistake when a mechanical sex machine was in use… Is this something God would design??? Is this something evolution would design? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Evolution AND God both want the species to survive. In fact, God commanded men to go forth and PROCREAT.

So how did things get like…this? Genetic manipulation by women thousands of years ago. Although I have no direct evidence yet.

-WOMEN SPEAK IN CODE!

“Nothing.” A word that has a hundred different meanings when women use it. I’ll expound on that another time.

“Fine.” Same as Nothing.

Women can speak to each other and leave parts of sentences out and not lose the thread of the conversation. We men get lost and can’t follow what they’re saying. As we get older we just give up trying. And how many times have you heard this?

“Well, he should have just KNOWN!”

It is to laugh. Ha. I laugh.

- ELIJAH RAN FROM JEZEBEL Elijah

a Prophet of God mentioned in the old testament. His name means Yahweh is God. Elijah was pretty hard core. A tough guy. He could eat bugs and raw birds and survive. One day, Elijah challenges over SEVEN HUNDRED prophets of Baal. SEVEN HUNDRED!!! Do you know the story? Here’s the gist.

They both piled up wood, put a dead cow on top of it. And the challenge was to burn it as a sacrifice to their respective god’s. The 700 couldn’t get their fire to start. Baal just wouldn’t answer them… Elijah has gobs and gobs of water poured over his pile of wood and cow, and even a trench dug around it and filled with water. He then prays to God and fire comes down from the sky and consumed BOTH piles.

So what? Well Elijah stood up to 700 false prophets, and afterwards they were thrown off a cliff, to their deaths. Later, I cant remember how much later exactly, he goes and confronts Queen Jezebel (Yes she was a real person. She is where the term comes from. She was something of a hussy and idol worshiper) He confronts her and tells her, that her time is over and that even the dogs will feast on her bones. Her response? “GET HIM!” and Elijah RAN!!!

In fact, he ran so far and so fast that he outran chariots!!! It’s one of the seven miracles he performed. Do you see it? He stood up to 700 evil men! And ran away, at miracle speed, from a single woman… Need I say more?

I had better stop here for now. Leaking too much of this at one time could cause change to come so fast it would be catastrophic. Plus, it could REALLY piss the women off. I don’t need that. A whole world of women mad at me? Who would I smooch?

There Is A Light

2006-04-04T14:18:00.000-04:00

Tired of the same old religion choices?
Tired of someone else telling you what to believe?
Tired of looking up the noses of strangers?
Or worse, friends?

I'm telling you today... don't lose heart, my children. Haven't found a religion to suit your needs? Start your own! There's valuable help on the Internet. Just googling alone will help you find the instruction you need to get started.

Choose from Four steps The Fed - Start Your Own Religion, in Four Easy Steps
Ten steps How To Create Your Own Religion In 10 Easy Steps
Or Twelve EZ 12-Step Guide to Starting Your Own Religion, How To Program

Prefer something a little more restrictive? Cults have been a popular form of religious expression for scads of years! You can make your cult with creepy big-brother dogma or without. THE CULT CONSTRUCTION SET

But don't fear. If starting your own religion or cult makes you break out in a cold sweat, you still have a choice. (Wait, we do still have choices, right?)

How about Mooism? Mooism started in a virtual community in the early nineties as an experiment using religion as a medium. It's popularity spread and why not? Just look at their slogan!

"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law, Unless Thou Wilt Not Follow The Law, In Which Case Don't."

Or look at their answers to just what is this Mooism all about?

MOOism is a form of Metagnostic Agnostic MystiSchism
MOOism is a memetic virus designed to promote diversity
MOOism is a cult/religion/collision
MOOism is an alien thought-control plot to destroy humanity
MOOism is the only surviving remnant of Atlantis
MOOism is nothing at all
MOOism is a reductio ad absurdum argument against the universe
MOOism is that which remains when all belief is removed
MOOism is that stoopid f**king religion thing. You know.
MOOism is a WOMBAT-construct
MOOism is an Elvis/"BoB"/Eris worshipping PseudoKult
MOOism is a religion that doesn't discrimiate by belief
MOOism is a living incarnation of the Law of B*llsh*t
MOOism is that property which CapriCancers lack
MOOism is a bagel left on the counter too long
MOOism is the quest for personal identity through stupidity
MOOism is organized hebephrenia
MOOism is a figment of someone's deranged imagination
MOOism is a branch of the SubGenius/Discordianism
MOOism is nothing
MOOism is something
MOOism is everything

The Grate Book of Moo is a very, very large, translated text with oodles of information such as the explanation for the real beginning of civilization, the fact that mind-control conspiracies are people too and The Semi Chronicles.
http://www.textfiles.com/occult/MOOISM/mooism.txt

The Official Website is hereThe Church of MOO. I found various sites with information on this religion, but most had mysteriously disappearing links. Two survivors: HOUND PAGES:MOOism, Asparagus & Miscellaneous Strangeness and MOO As An Artform - For Real This Time

If this doesn't appeal, you can always go back to his Great Noodliness. His forgiveness to strays is infinitely wide open, man. Flying Spaghetti Monster And don't forget to pray for Pirates!

Waiting for the Blue Star Kachina

2006-04-04T13:58:00.000-04:00

All about Hopi prophecy is right here.

"Hopi prophecy states that World War III will be started by the people who first received the Light -- China, Palestine, India and Africa. When the war comes, the United States will be destroyed by "gourds of ashes" which will fall to the ground, boiling the rivers and burning the earth, where no grass will grow for many years, and causing a disease that no medicine can cure. This can only mean nuclear or atomic bombs; no other weapon causes such effects. Bomb shelters will be useless, for "Those who are at peace in their hearts already are in the Great Shelter of Life. There is no shelter for evil. When the Saquahuh (blue Star) Kachina dances in the plaza and removes his mask, the time of the great trial will be here." The Hopi believe that only they will be saved.
The Hopi also have prophesied that "Turtle Island could turn over two or three times and the oceans could join hands and meet the sky." This seems to be a prophecy of a "pole shift" -- a flipping, of the planet on its axis. The Hopi call this imminent condition -- and that of society today -- "Koyaanisqatsi," which means "world out of balance...a state of life that calls for another way."

Jose Padilla and OKC

2006-04-04T13:37:00.000-04:00

Seeing a story involving alleged dirty-bomb terrorist Jose Padilla and the Supreme Court on today's New York Times front page reminded me of the facial similarity to John Doe #2 of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Non-mainstream-wise, read all about it here and here.

Anybody Here Seen My Old Friend Martin?

2006-04-04T11:31:00.000-04:00

Good things happen on April 4th, every year I’m sure. On this date in 1974, for example, Hank Aaron homered off Reds pitcher Jack Billingham to tie Babe Ruth’s record. The game temporarily stopped for a brief ceremony, whereupon the Reds asked Hammering Hank to say a few words to mark the historic event. Among other things, Aaron paid tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, pointing out that King had died on that very same day in 1968. The following day, sportswriters for the Cincinnati Enquirer characterized Aaron’s brief homage to King as inappropriate

April 4th 1968 wasn’t a good day for me personally. I spent the better part of it in the emergency room of Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH, where I received medical attention for a broken thumb and collarbone, injuries I got from riding recklessly on my bicycle.

Dad and I returned home from the hospital and found my mother sitting cross-legged on the sofa in front of the TV. Her face was twisted in searing fury, and I assumed that my mishap earlier that day was the reason for it. But of course, her anger that day had nothing to do with me. She had been watching the news coverage of King’s assassination ever since the story broke some five hours earlier.

All three networks broadcast King’s funeral live a few days later. The cameras frequently cut to the faces of some of those gathered. Many of the faces I didn’t recognize, but I assumed they were VIPs for there were other illustrious persons there, among them Harry Belafonte, Robert Kennedy and (surprisingly) Richard Nixon.

A month later, the press reported that a man named James Ray alone murdered the Reverend on his own initiative. Many now cite this supposition as the official explanation of King’s death. Most people do not realize, however, that there were two official explanations of the King assassination. The 1976-1977 Senate Select Committee on Assassinations found a probable conspiracy involving a racist cabal from St. Louis, a spurious explanation that still fingered Ray as the triggerman:

Ray did not live long enough to see the case against him unravel. Actually, it still hasn’t unraveled, at least to the degree necessary to force the official version to change once again. Nevertheless, a few of its loose threads are getting longer.

The NESARA Conspiracy

2006-04-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

I found this very strange site on today's edition of The Anomalist. It makes my head swim.
From Wikipedia:
"Believers in the existence of NESARA claim that the law languished in congress before finally being passed in March of 2000 and signed by President Bill Clinton in October of 2000. The Supreme Court illegally placed a gag order on the law, forbidding anyone from announcing its passage, or even admitting its existence, under penalty of death. According to their account, benevolent men and women referred to as "white Knights", mostly high ranking military officials, have been working since that date to get NESARA announced. NESARA supporters believe that President Bush is actively working to suppress the law and prevent its announcement, as it would require his immediate resignation. Under this account, President Bush orchestrated the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, as well as the 2003 invasion of Iraq, to forestall the inevitable announcement of NESARA."

UFOs get some play too.

Astrology 101: In the News

2006-04-04T09:01:00.000-04:00

Describing your entire personality by your Sun Sign is kind of like describing your personality by the way you style your hair. The way you style your hair does describe something about your personality, but it's not all of you. If you find your Sun Sign does not describe you that well, it's because when you were born, each planet was also in a certain sign, at certain angles (also called aspects) to each other, and each planet was at a certain angle to where you were on the planet when you were born (indicated by the rising sign and the houses).

It is all pretty complicated, and that's why there are astrologers. And why people have boiled everything down to Sun Signs, because most everyone knows their own birthday. And also why a lot of people don't believe in astrology--because they think that this popularized Sun Sign astrology is the whole of it. Since everything is connected to everything else, it follows that where the planets were and are effect our lives on a day to day basis.

The way that popular or newspaper astrology works is that the astrologer, because he doesn't know all your signs, puts the Sun Sign (makes it the rising sign) in the first house and compares where all of the planets are, and their aspects to that. So, basically, his predictions are only going to work for 1/12 of the population: those who have the same sun and rising signs (e.g. sun in aries, rising sign aries).
What it all boils down to is this: if you want your newspaper predictions to work, find out what your rising sign is, and read the prediction for that, and not your sun sign.

To find your rising sign, you need to know the approximate time/place of your birth, and go to www.astrology.com or www.geocosmic.org and get a free sample of your birth chart. They will give you a cool pic of your chart, and underneath a little blurb about what sign everything is in, including your rising sign.

Bibilioscopes, by the way, are by Sun Sign, and not your rising sign.

Bloody Idiots, or...

2006-04-03T14:59:00.000-04:00

From Aljazeera.Net:
Statue Fatwa Riles Artists
"A fatwa issued by Egypt's religious authority forbidding the display of statues has raised fears that it could be used as an excuse to destroy the country's historical heritage.
Shaikh Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt and the country's most senior Islamic jurist, issued the religious edict last week. He ruled that the exhibition of statues in homes is prohibited and based his opinion on the hadith (the sayings of Prophet Muhammad). Intellectuals and artists argue that the decree represents a setback for art - a mainstay of the multi-billion-dollar tourist industry - and would damage the country's fledgling sculpture industry. Gomaa did not mention statues in museums or public places, but he condemned sculptors and their work.
Still, some fear that the edict could encourage people to attack the thousands of ancient and pharaonic statues at tourist sites across Egypt. (Empahasis mine--Johnny)
Gamal al-Ghitani, editor of the literary magazine Akhbar al-Adab, said: 'We don't rule out that someone will enter the Karnak temple in Luxor or any other pharaonic temple and blow it up on the basis of the fatwa.'"

The "or" in my headline refers to the remote possibility that this is some kind of psy-op geared toward Westerners in an attempt to foster further mistrust of the Muslim world.

The "Book"

2006-04-03T10:24:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about my future career. I'm talking about the dystopian not-too-distant future, with PowerDown extant, with The Long Emergency going on, and with the Die-Off waiting in the wings.
I want to be The Book.
In the movie Soylent Green, Edward G. Robinson played Sol, The Book. According to Wikipedia, "book refers to people who work with books, such as researchers. Sol Roth is referred to by Thorn as a 'book'. Actual books are rare, and no longer printed."
So, with little juice to power computers, satellites falling from the sky, global-warming disruptions, etc., some analogistics will be creeping back into everyday life. My house is filled with analogistics in the form of books, old magazines, pamphlets, samizdat 'zines, etc., and I'm picking up more all the time. Last Friday night (recycling night in my neighborhood) when walking home from happy hour, I liberated two bound piles of books from someone's recycling pile.
Need to know something? Come see me. I just might have that info you need on how to make a solar cooking oven out of a cardboard box. (Wait, indeed I do: Cooking With the Sun.)
Info on just about anything, plus escapist fiction, to help you the rough times, the future times. The Coming Re-Analoguing.
I want to be The Book.

(Hmm, I've written about "becoming a book," without once metioning Fahrenheit 451.)

What would I do if I knew I could not fail?

2006-04-01T14:28:00.000-05:00

The view of life on your way out is very different than it is on the way in. I’ve looked back at the things I wanted to do and the things I actually did, and I now know what real regret is. John Greenleaf Whittier knew what it was.

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: “It might have been!”

I refuse to say “it might have been!” I fully intend to look back, smile, and I have fought the good fight, I have run the race to win.

I have dedicated my life to the study of science. It’s time I made use of it. I have done what Sir Isaac Newton did – recognize the obvious. Scientist laughingly call time a dimension and yet they say you can’t travel backwards through it. I don’t have the heart to tell them how wrong they are. I have put every fiber of my being into the study of time and trans-dimensional travel. I did not mind sacrificing everything to achieve my goal. You see, I knew I couldn’t fail. Going back in time is as easy as walking through a door if one knows where the door is and how to walk.

I’m going to step through that door now and visit myself when I was young and optimistic. I’m going to tell me how my life ended up. I’m going to teach all those things I now know which I wish I would have known then. It’s said that if one wants to make the world a better place, they should let the change begin with them. I think they’re right so I’m going to go back and change me. Most importantly, I’m going to teach me that at the end of our lives we regret the things we did not do, more than we regret the things we did do.

have been!”

Biblioscopes: Advice for All Sun Signs April 1-7

2006-04-01T11:04:00.000-05:00

Biblioscopes are the union of bibliomancy, divination through opening books to random pages and pondering the meaning of the phrases therein, and horoscopes, in that each sign does share certain commonalities, including planetary transits. Each Saturday I ask the Universe to lead my hands in opening the book to the right page for a week's worth of good advice for each sun sign. My comments are in italics.

After a few weeks of more women’s ish books, I’ve decided to man it up a bit by featuring the classic, “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, translated and with intro by Samuel B. Griffith.

Aries
Chung Yu: To manage a host one must first assign responsibilities to the generals and their assistants, and establish the strengths of the ranks and files…Each is subordinate to the superior and controls the inferior. Each is properly trained. Thus one may manage a host of a million men just as he would host a few. Delegate!

Taurus
When hostilities broke out between Lu and Ch’i, he was anxious to take command of the Lu army, but the Prince hesitated to appoint him because his wife was a native of Ch’i. Wu Ch’I thereupon murdered her to demonstrate his loyalty, and entered upon what proved to be a successful military career. No murders on my account, please. But you may have to sacrifice your relationship on some level to get some work done this week.

Gemini
In war, numbers confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power. Think before you move. Your popularity will not help you.

Cancer
He was terrified, and hurriedly sent an aide with this message: ‘I already know that the General is able to employ troops. Without these two concubines my food will not taste sweet. It is my desire that they not be executed.’ In the rest of the lengthy passage, the King’s concubines do get killed, because the King did not deliver the message himself. Get right “in the face” of issues that really matter to you this week.

Leo
Fight downhill; do not ascend to attack. So much for taking position in mountains. Your advantage may be obvious. Keep with it.

Virgo
When not campaigning, the army labored (as it does in China today) on public projects. A project may be stalled, but be efficient and start on other projects.

Libra
Generally, in battle, use the normal force to engage; use the extraordinary force to win. You will have to fight harder than you thought to get what you want. Think: “no holds barred.”

Scorpio
The crossbow, a Chinese invention of the early fourth century B.C. fired heavy arrows which would have made collanders of Greek or Macedonian shields. Innovation will help you win the day.

Sagittarius
When a feudal lord fights in his own territory, he is in dispersive ground. Ts’ao Ts’ao: Here officers and men long to return to their nearby homes. For morale’s sake, you may have to give people a little time off.

Capricorn
Ground to which access is constricted, where the way out is tortuous, and where a small enemy force can strike my larger one is called ‘encircled’. Tu Mu:… Here it is easy to lay ambushes and one can be utterly defeated. Don’t let anyone back you into a corner this week—and look to see if you can back someone else into a corner as well.

Aquarius
‘When the thunderclap comes, there is no time to cover ears.’ Whatever your project is, take the step now, now, now!!!

Pisces
The enemy will surely entrench, will not venture either to advance or retire. Whereupon raise your banners and pennons, march out of the mountainous country and encamp. The enemy will certainly be apprehensive. Provoke him with your chariots and allow him no rest. You don’t have to really do damage to emerge victorious. Be confident, and all will go your way.

Good Grief! A Simply Irresistible Music Conspiracy!

2006-04-01T09:17:00.000-05:00

As a musicologist, I sometimes have to assess things in a forensic capacity.

About ten years ago, while teaching a popular music course at one of New York’s fine colleges, I played the video of the Robert Palmer song “Simply Irresistible.” The next day, three fourths of my students reported having nightmares about it, and wanted to know why.

Repeated calls to Palmer (who was still alive at the time) were never answered, so I decided to track down his past. Because of the generous salary typically paid by most schools to adjunct faculty, I was able to fly first-class to Malta, the rock star’s native land, and examine records of his life. His birth certificate, grammar school records and other documents seemed, at first glance, to be in order. But something about them struck me as odd. I asked one of the local notaries about this and he told me that it was perfectly normal in Malta to fill out official government documents in red crayon.

I eventually found some ne’er-do-well relatives of Palmer’s in the Yellow Pages under “Leeches.” I thought about knocking on their door and asking if Bob had been by that day, but decided against it. According to ancient Maltese superstition, if Americans knock on your door, it’s because they want to invade your house and secure all the rights to your olive oil.

Instead, I deployed some equipment given to me many years earlier by famed telephone hacker Capn’n Crunch, and monitored the calls to all the numbers listed in the phone book. I noticed a lot of traffic going to and from Sebastopol, California.

The next day, I rented a twin-engine Cessna from the Maltese National Air Guard and flew directly to the Golden State, where I found, arguably, the biggest cover-up in the history of rock and roll: the late Robert Palmer was, in fact, Linus Van Pelt, formerly of Peanuts fame.

(Fig. 1: Linus Van Pelt, alias Robert Palmer)

This was a difficult conspiracy to uncover, naturally, since Linus was a two-dimensional figure. Anyone who has ever been to one of his concerts can certainly attest to the fact that Robert Palmer was not two-dimensional. He only sounded that way. Sure, as a young kid with blanket in tow, Linus had only height and width. But never-before published results of a Little League investigation have revealed that Van Pelt had used anabolic steroids when playing second base for Charlie Brown’s team, and had thus bulked up somewhat. Snoopy was the first teammate to notice something amiss when Linus lined a single through the box so hard that opposing pitcher Peppermint Patty quit baseball for awhile, and took up hopscotch. By the next season, Van Pelt had gained one full dimension.

(Fig. 2: Van Pelt/Palmer after the steroid scandal)

The “Simply Irresistible” video contained a number of subliminal clues alluding to the performer’s dual identity. First of all, there were the facial and cranial features. Both Palmer and Van Pelt had a slightly pear-shaped head that was wider at the bottom than at the top. But the parenthetical creases surrounding Linus’ eyes, a Van Pelt family trait (Van Pelt’s younger brother, Rerun, has them as well) are a dead giveaway. In the undoctored photo above, you will note that upon reaching adulthood Van Pelt/Palmer used pasty white makeup to conceal them.

Also in the video, between the breakdown and the last round of choruses, Palmer leans to his right at about a forty-five degree angle, with his hands behind his back, a tendency that Van Pelt amply displayed in numerous Schultz panels.

What disturbed my students, to the point where they had nightmares, were the accompanying models in the background. These women--all tall, raven-haired, heavily made up, and sporting identical coiffures--were obviously manifestations of Palmer’s sister, Lucy Van Pelt. Their oddly sensual movements therefore suggested an incestuous desire on Palmer’s part. The 75% of students who experienced nightmares all had siblings of the opposite sex. Since the relationship between Palmer and the models is subliminal, the “ICK!” factor registered only in the unconscious mind, hence the nightmares. Of the remaining 25% (ten students in all), three were gay, and thus immune to this particular depiction of flaming heterosexual perversion; two had same sex siblings; four were only children; and one simply fell asleep at the start of the class, so he missed the video’s showing.

Despite the fact that I traced the Palmer/Van Pelt connection, I’ve since wondered if my students were putting me on about the nightmares. After all, the date on which they reported the dreams was April 1st. Do you think they might have been pulling my leg?

"The Dog That Did Not Bark"

2006-03-31T15:04:00.000-05:00

Andrew Card's resignation a few days ago from the Bush Regime reminded me of all these aspects of 9/11.
"The Secret Service should be in that video, but they are not. It is clear from their inaction that they KNEW FOR A FACT THAT THE PRESIDENT WAS NOT A TARGET OF ONE OF THE HIJACKED PLANES. The intended targets of the planes had to have been known. The dog did not bark because the criminal was its master."

Monsterama

2006-03-31T12:39:00.000-05:00

Haven't had a "monster" post in quite a while, so here's a site of "Cute Creeps From Popular Culture." Lots of wacky images. What I find interesting about the pic to the right (from the site) is that the last time I saw Boris Karloff and a little girl together, the girl ended up dead in a lake.

Not Enough Stupid People

2006-03-31T09:47:00.000-05:00

I’m currently re-reading Harry Braverman’s 1974 book Labor and Monopoly Capitol (New York: Monthly Review Press). Braverman made a number of astute observations about the changing relationship between owners and workers over the course of the Twentieth Century. What’s of particular interest to me, however, is that this book sowed the seeds of a notion later referred to by sociologists and industrial psychologists as ‘de-skilling.’

When eighteenth- and nineteenth-century industrialists wanted to manufacture a product, they had to rely on skilled tradesmen to make it for them. The tradesman made all the decisions about how the product was produced, for he alone knew (a) the raw materials needed for a task, and where to get the best; (b) the amount of time needed to create a product; and (c) how to make a quality product.

In the above scenario, the boss really can’t tell the tradesman how to do his job, and thus loses control over the product. If the tradesman doesn’t like how the boss does business, the boss cannot stop the employee from finding another, more amenable superior. The employee, therefore, always had his expertise as a bargaining chip.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, employers, wanting to control the production process, began to assess their manufacturing as a whole, and then break it down into its constituent parts. So instead of one skilled tradesman with a vast knowledge of how your widget is put together, you hire a bunch of people who know one aspect of the process, but nothing else. The tendency to divide labor into steps ultimately culminated in the assembly-line manufacturing that we’re familiar with today. But, as Braverman pointed out, something else came along during the latter decades of the 1800s that was even more important to the reorganization of labor than the assembly line.

Think about all the different jobs it takes to bring a widget to market: (1) designing the damn thing; (2) procuring materials; (3) organizing the work pool so that you have your best workers doing the harder tasks, (4) putting the product together; (5) distributing the product; and (6) marketing the product. In the 1880s, Fredrick Winslow Taylor developed a theory of management whereby all of the tasks of production were broken down into two categories. The first category, putting the product together, became the province of workers, who constituted the bulk of your employees. The other tasks, which required more abstract reasoning than dexterity, required fewer employees, who were answerable to senior management, and thus lumped together into a second category called management.

Because of technology and training, most aspects of assemblage became simpler, and thus required fewer skilled workers. By the 1930s, virtually all factory tasks were mechanized, routinized, and automated to the point where the education and intellectual acumen needed to manufacture a product wasn’t all that much.

Hence, the term ‘de-skilling.’

By the 1960s, office workers began to face de-skilling as well. Traditionally, office workers were, at the very least, high school graduates, and many had attended college. In the 1950s, a person working as a clerk was expected to possess some kind of intelligence. But with the 1960s came an explosion of college-educated Americans, who by 1969 were looking at job markets that required only a fraction of their intellectual capacity and erudition. Even worse, they often earned less than their blue-collar counterparts.

By 1970, a crisis had developed. Workers had become more and more dissatisfied with their jobs, and this led to records in absenteeism, poor job performance evaluations, and employee turnover. As one (deliberately) anonymous job design consultant from Case Western Reserve University put it, “We may have created too many dumb jobs for the number of dumb people to fill them.”

Americans, nowadays, often talk about the “dumbing down” of their fellow citizens. I’m not sure that this is the case, or that this is restricted to the US alone. I think it is safe to say, however, that my countrypersons and I live in a society where there is a greater expectancy of compliance to authority, especially on the job, and an increased unwillingness to exercise personal judgment when the rules and the training manual don’t readily apply. (How often have you heard a clerk say, “Well, speak to the manager,” or customers/clients ask to speak to “someone in charge” of the department?) In effect, we’ve become more like children, dependant upon the parental figure to tell us what is right and what is wrong. Whatever way you look at it, there are people who have an interest in developing a more stupid citizenry.

Killing the Buddha

2006-03-31T09:24:00.000-05:00

A friend sent me a link to this website Ktb: Killing the Buddha

I've been exploring, reading articles that offer thought-provoking and moody flavor. I've identified with some, found my brow wrinkling with others. A lot of these pieces would be right at home in my favorite magazine, The SUN: Personal. Political. Provocative. Ad-free.

I'd read about the phrase "killing the Buddha" before but had forgotten what it meant. I'd heard the words recently murmured in the creepy, atmospheric Two Gods, a song from Dante's Kitchen by Attrition. (There's an MP3 of the song on their site here Attrition ) Killing the Buddha looks to be updated fairly often. I'll go back. Knew it when I read the manifesto. Here are a couple of sections to grab your interest.

Killing the Buddha is a religion magazine for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the "spirituality" section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God. It is for people who somehow want to be religious, who want to know what it means to know the divine, but for good reasons are not and do not. If the religious have come to own religious discourse it is because they alone have had places where religious language could be spoken and understood. Now there is a forum for the supposedly non-religious to think and talk about what religion is, is not and might be. Killing the Buddha is it.

Why Killing the Buddha ? For our purposes, killing the Buddha is a metaphor for moving past the complacency of belief, for struggling honestly with the idea of God. As people who take faith seriously, we are endlessly amazed and enraged that religious discourse has become so bloodless, parochial and boring. Any God worth the name is none of these things. Yet when people talk about God they are talking mainly about the Buddha they meet. For fear of seeming intolerant or uncertain, or just for lack of thinking, they talk about a God too small to be God.

Philip K. Nixon

2006-03-30T16:57:00.000-05:00

Got this from Frequency 23:

Philip K. Nixon Body of Work

Ataraxia at Freq 23 says: "The Philip K. Nixon cuts are a serious of magical and hallucinatory audio cutups designed to induce altered states of consciousness and to spread desired information contagions."

I'll have to listen to these...somehow.

Officially Sanctioned Human Sacrifice, Or What?

2006-03-30T13:17:00.000-05:00

I don't think the Mayans and Aztecs and many other civilizations had a corner on the human sacrifice game--I think we need to look closer to home.

Traffic Circles Are Hell

2006-03-30T11:11:00.000-05:00

And, apparently, in Washington DC, they are the points of the sign of the Beast:
http://www.cuttingedge.org/n1040.html

Now we really know who threw the 2004 election!