Monday, May 31, 2010

Transfigured Night


Two people walk through a bare, cold grove;
The moon races along with them, they look into it.
The moon races over tall oaks,
No cloud obscures the light from the sky,
Into which the black points of the boughs reach.
A woman’s voice speaks:


I’m carrying a child, and not yours,
I walk in sin beside you. I have committed a great offense against myself.
I no longer believed I could be happy
And yet I had a strong yearning
For something to fill my life, for the joys of
Motherhood
And for duty; so I committed an effrontery,
So, shuddering, I allowed my sex
To be embraced by a strange man,
And, on top of that, I blessed myself for it.
Now life has taken its revenge:
Now I have met you, oh, you.


She walks with a clumsy gait,
She looks up; the moon is racing along.
Her dark gaze is drowned in light.
A man’s voice speaks:


May the child you conceived
Be no burden to your soul;
Just see how brightly the universe is gleaming!
There’s a glow around everything;


You are floating with me on a cold ocean,
But a special warmth flickers
From you into me, from me into you.
It will transfigure the strange man’s child.


You will bear the child for me, as if it were mine;
You have brought the glow into me,
You have made me like a child myself.


He grasps her around her ample hips.
Their breath kisses in the breeze.
Two people walk through the lofty, bright night.

This poem was written in 1896 by Richard Dehmel, and served as inspiration for a musical piece for string orchestra by Arnold Schoenberg. Written in chromatic style, complete with "forbidden" 9th chords, it's actually far more listenable and melodic than Schoenberg's notorious trademark 12-tone style. Schoenberg gave it the title Transfigured Night, for the poem had been untitled.


The passions in Dehmel's poem are translated magnificently by the music. Opening in a dark, forboding D-minor, the piece churns moodily through a number of abrupt key changes before making the welcome transition into "transfiguration" - made obvious to the listener by a shift into a soothing key of D-major. Listen to samples before (as the woman confides her sad burden) and after the man triggers the transfiguration through his healing words.

The spiritual content in Transfigured Night shines through quite clearly. I find it makes a great background for meditation, as it speaks to something within on the soul level. It speaks of love, forgiveness, acceptance, and something more - something that evokes a powerful energy from the soul: the Power of Transfiguration.

The complete musical performance can be found here

 

 

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Is The Sky Really Falling? Part 3: Manipulating the Masses


The Mainstream Media (MSM) in our ostensibly free society is tightly controlled; that's the unfortunate conclusion I have arrived at from years of observation.


Back in the day when I was a student, as the cold war raged on, I sometimes would listen to Radio Moscow on my shortwave receiver. It was intriguing to consider their tales of the "worker's paradise" and how their citizens were really more "free" than their Capitalist counterparts.

Of course I realized it was propaganda, but the Voice of America had it's version as well. Our propaganda focused on how many hours Joe Sixpack needed to work for a refrigerator or car as compared to Ivan behind the Iron Curtain.

And of course we were a "free" democratic nation, and didn't need barbed wire fences to keep people in. But was it really so simple as that? I pondered how folks in the Western democracies might be more enslaved than we realize.

On paper, we elect our leaders, and they should therefore be responsive to the will of the people. However, I thought, might there be subtle means employed to keep us enslaved?

Capitalism certainly can be efficient at producing consumer goods and toys, and materialistic greed is one means of enslavement. The endless barrage of consumer advertising certainly has a brainwashing effect.

But how much freedom exists to affect or alter government policy through the electoral process? JFK discovered the hard way that the center of power exists somewhere outside of the Oval Office. Somewhere along the way we've had a coup d’état of sorts but the press failed to report it - that's because the mainstream press was part of it.

My theory is that throughout history, nations have generally been ruled by a powerful elite class. In earlier times no attempt was made to disguise the fact that a king and royal clan pulled the strings.

With the advent of democracy, things became more subtle. The United States was founded by a group of upper-class merchants and former European nobility whose primary common bond was opposition to the British monarchy. It was a courageous act to break away and form an independent nation, but a careful study of early American history shows that this elite class had no intention of sharing power with the commoners. “By the People” meant only a select few. The Senate was patterned after the British House of Lords, with members being appointed rather than elected. The president was selected by congress rather than through elections. In practical terms, the electorate consisted of merchants and landowners. Non-whites and women were completely excluded from power. In effect, the nation was run by a "gentlemen's club", and this was termed a "democratic republic".

Of course, many reforms have since been enacted, and in theory everyone now has an equal vote. Yet since my student years, the idea has continued to pop in my head that we don't need guns and barbed wire to control the population the way the Soviets did, and yet we are controlled anyway. How is it done?

The process is complex and multi-faceted. The short answer is that the people are distracted and anesthetized by the consumer culture, and the MSM effectively steers prevailing thought in such effective manner that no serious challenges arise. And while this is accomplished, we remain in our delusion that we are free!

Many will remark that this viewpoint is conspiracy theory run amok; however, I contend that the plausibility of this theory can be tested and affirmed.

The myth of the free press can be challenged on several fronts. A few examples will be offered here.

JFK assassination

The shooting of the president while riding through Dallas has been studied exhaustively, and most independent researchers conclude overwhelmingly that the "lone nut" & "magic bullet" theory promoted by the Warren Commission is laughable and inadequate in explaining what happened. Shortly before he died, former President (and Warren Commission member) Gerald Ford virtually admitted that the truth was suppressed in the “national interest”.

It is interesting to note the number of witnesses that died under unusual circumstances in the months and years that followed the assassination. It is even more interesting to note that certain young journalists who reported on the assassination rose quickly to the top of their professions, and coincidently never questioned the magic bullet theory along the way. Among them were Bill Moyers and Dan Rather.

I have noted throughout the years, that whenever the topic of the assassination comes up in any journalistic media, none of the major players ever questions the official line, this despite overwhelming evidence that there is much more of the story to be investigated and questioned . The independent researchers that question the official line are marginalized, and I'm not aware of any forum within MSM where they have been given a credible platform to present their views.

9/11 attack

The parallels with JFK are striking, and the official account even more unbelievable than the magic bullet theory. The MSM recently has begun to acknowledge existence of the 9/11 truth movement, but again, they are generally derided and lumped in with the "birthers" and other "wackos". (Check out this previous post.) There are many credentialed scholars who question the official account, but I'm not aware of any being granted coverage by the MSM to explain their views.

UFOs and Paranormal activity

Volumes of material exists on this topic, but again the point is how much objective reporting exists within the MSM. Richard Dolan's book is a comprehensive history of the government cover-up from the earliest stages. He shows how the press has been inhibited from reporting unfiltered data on UFO sightings and crashes, while at the same time resorting to sarcasm and ridicule to discredit the reports that do get out.


One anecdote I came across, (but unfortunately lost track of the link), was told by a reporter who had been working for the New York Times. During the early 90’s, a wave of crop circles were being sighted in upstate New York, and the Times asked this reporter to go out and investigate. He came back with good pictures and eye-witness accounts, but noticed a group of men in dark suits in his editor’s office. When they left, the editor told him that they would not be doing any more stories on crop circles. End of discussion.

This anecdote is plausible in light of the fact that no credible MSM reporting has covered crop circles, despite the amazing complexity and frequency that they appear. Oh sure, Discovery channel and other cable outlets have done their pieces on crop circles, UFOs, Bigfoot, and any other anomalous topic, but they always play up the skeptic’s perspective (drunken students with boards tied on their feet forming the crop circles). If anything, these cable outlets tend to take on the role of the tabloids in discrediting anomalous stories.

TWA 800 crash

I consider this case to be a litmus test of sorts for sorting out who is working for whom.

Many eyewitnesses reported a missile streaking up just before the plane exploded, but the official investigation concluded that an electrical short caused a fuel tank to explode. The fact that a defense contractor had publicly boasted of its role in a missile test off Long Island on the very night of the crash certainly was not well covered by the MSM, particularly after the government got involved.

What makes this case so extraordinary is the degree to which the government went to suppress any independent reporting on the cause of the crash. After reporters had gathered plane debris and found that lab tests confirmed traces of high-explosive warhead material, President Clinton signed an executive order making it illegal for unauthorized persons to gather, touch or photograph debris. My axiom is “nothing to hide, nothing to fear”, so WTF is behind a presidential order?

One very credible documented case of press censorship comes from a reporter named Kristina Borjesson, who published an account in her anthology “Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of the Free Press”

Ms Borjesson was working for CBS News when flight 800 went down and helped produce news stories for Dan Rathers. She was assigned to the flight 800 case and soon found credible sources who were convinced that a missile had shot down the plane. Before long she observed that CBS News was reporting from only “official” sources at the FBI and NTSB and ignoring her own research data for nightly news stories. She pressed for her findings to be reported but met with increasing resistance until the FBI applied pressure to CBS to have her fired.

Ms Borjesson continued her own investigation of the crash after leaving CBS, and taped more interviews with eye-witnesses. She had planned to produce an expose using this material. In one chilling incident that undermines the Myth of the Free Press, her tapes and film were stolen from her car, in a very professional operation that left no sign of entry and left thousands of dollars worth of audio-video equipment untouched. She realized that any common thief would be after the expensive equipment, but whoever it was knew precisely what they were after – her evidence. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon outcome for those who brave the cutting edge in journalism.

The Internet is still free, but…


Prior to the advent of the Internet, suppressing undesirable news was relatively easy.

The “hot rail” topics (UFOs, any hint of conspiracy regarding JFK) were well-respected by news editors, and all it took was a phone call to key editors and TV networks to kill (or plant) any given story.

The Internet, at first glance, appears to be the great equalizer in defense of press freedom. The MSM can be completely bypassed, and thousands of independent reporting channels have appeared.

Not to be undone, the PTB have developed effective countermeasures against the effects of free-flowing information. One of them is disinformation.

A classic example is the case of the MJ-12 files, which were apparently leaked to a Ufologist by someone in a black ops agency. Ufologists still debate the authenticity of the files, which purport to be top-secret documents regarding government interaction with UFOs and ETs.

The likely truth of the matter is that much of the material is genuine, but contain an unknown portion that is deliberately misleading. Since we don’t know which portions are untrue, the entire set of documents must be viewed with suspicion. The agency could have wanted just one important point to be obfuscated, and the remainder could be dead-on accurate. Thus the power of disinformation.

The easy availability of endless material pertaining to any black-ops topic makes it a simple matter to hide any particular truth within the background noise. The cliché “saw it on the Internet” effectively disarms any sensational story from having credibility.

There are a number of self-proclaimed whistleblowers making the rounds on talk shows, eager to spill their guts on whatever areas of black-ops specialty they were exposed to. Many could be legitimate, but I tend to think that the really candid ones with sensitive information don’t live to do an interview or book, or decide to lay low.

How does one cope with this informational barrage? I use a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning that I refer to as “connecting the dots” (hence the subtitle of this blog). Knowing that there are gems of truth to be discerned in an ocean of falsehood makes for a fascinating challenge, the results of which I share in these articles.

An interesting application of connecting the dots: A frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM is Major Ed Dames. He claims to be a former remote viewer working for the CIA’s Project Stargate. He reports on various remote viewing discoveries, ranging from UFOs to upcoming natural and economic disasters.

Much of Maj. Dames material may be true, and some correlates with other remote viewers. However, on a couple of key controversial issues, he has unexpectedly sided with official government pronouncements:

On TWA 800, he reportedly “remote viewed” an electrical spark setting off a fuel tank explosion.

On the 9/11 attack, he “remote viewed” a building in Kandahar, Afghanistan where the plans for the sophisticated attack were supposedly developed (by illiterate turban-wearing militants, no doubt).

Dames also claims to know about the classified military program behind spraying toxic chemtrails in the skies, but refuses to say any more for fear it would be his last public appearance. He claims to not have any ongoing connection with the military or intel agencies, but I’m not convinced of that. His failure of the TWA 800 litmus test calls into question the integrity of his other material, particularly any that might be deemed controversial.

Look at it this way: If there were one or two controversial issues that the PTB dearly wanted to build credibility on, they may not care what other secrets get exposed in the process.

We have not touched on mind control or exotic psychic technology. This is a chilling topic that incorporates pioneering work done by Nazi scientists during WWII, and is best reserved for a separate article.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Is the Sky Really Falling? Pt 2: The Way Things Really work

Now that I've postulated a framework, let's look at how it applies to specific issues.

War

Major events on this planet are tightly controlled, and that would include wars between nations.

On one level, the PTB orchestrates conflicts as they are deemed beneficial to their economic interests and strategic objectives. A study of history from a conspiratorial perspective reveals numerous examples.

Early in the 20th century, the seeds of endless conflict were sown by the PTB (London Bankers, Council on Foreign Relations, et al) by promoting the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and the Zionist movement in Europe and Palestine. The evidence for this is easy to discover; one excellent source is Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs.

WWI achieved removal of the stabilizing influence of the Ottoman Empire and traditional aristocratic classes in Europe in order to create a vacuum for other forces to fill.

WWII resulted from behind-the-scenes promotion of the Nazi movement. Industrialists such as Henry Ford were highly supportive of Nazi ideology, and helped the Germans to build their military-industrial base. Corporate examples include IBM , which developed a database for tracking concentration camp inmates. George W. Bush's grandfather Prescott was implicated in a scheme for providing aid to the Germans even after hostilities broke out.

The PTB only tilted against Hitler after he threatened to subjugate all of Europe and Russia, not to mention northern Africa and the Mideast. The PTB's goal was to redraw the lines of future conflict, not unify much of the world under a single empire. The Nazi military machine was crushed, but the Nazis themselves dispersed and were incorporated into various levels of the global elite. They lost the war but gained a permanent place in the halls of power.

WWII set the stage for the Cold War, and the Jewish Holocaust played into plans for Zionist conflict in Palestine. Most subsequent wars in the 20th century developed along those two fault lines.

Following the "Fall of Communism" (likely engineered by the PTB as well), False Flag terrorism became the replacement catalyst for conflict. The CIA had developed a close working relationship with the Taliban during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, so Bin Laden was tapped as the poster boy to help rally Americans into fighting the "War on Terror".

No more cold war to foment conflict? No problem; we now have Iraq and Afghanistan to consume our resources. (Iran will be next). The false-flag attack of 9/11 opened the door for a new endless conflict.

Opposition to the carnage in Iraq finally grew until the present administration took power, promising to wind down the intervention. Surprise! We have another war to replace it. Sure, this isn't Bush's war, but the same activity has simply been transferred to another country. American troops are being blown into small pieces, the local population is being massacred, and the land is being poisoned for the next 4.2 billion years by radioactive "depleted" uranium (DU). The Democratic politicians who were stalwart opponents of Bush's war are now lined up behind Obama's war. This is not difficult to make sense of if you understand how policy is made and who really makes it. Clue: It's not the folks we elect.

The tragedy of war is that loyal soldiers from both sides march into battle convinced that they are defending their nation's legitimate interests. Their sacrifice seems vastly more tragic when one realizes the insidious, hidden agenda behind the conflicts.

There is another level that war appears to operate on: Spiritual.

In the early days of Christianity, Gnostics believed that discarnate entities known as Archons attempt to influence human behavior. They may be known elsewhere by other names, and there are probably numerous groups and points of origin. Essentially, any being that cuts itself off from Source or denies the existence thereof, can be classified as "dark". They don't represent evil in the biblical sense, but if you don't believe in Source then it follows that continued existence requires stealing energy from other beings.

The Archons supposedly manipulate human emotions to stir violent passions, and then harvest the resulting energy. I believe that this explains much of the irrational behavior in the world.

The ruling PTB appear to be somewhat integrated with the darker spiritual realms. There is evidence that arcane religious practices take place within the halls of power and at the highest levels of government. We are not talking your garden-variety Masonic temple here; Some of the deities worshipped would be totally unfamiliar to the average person. More information can be found here and here. One Nation Under God, right?

I also believe that Satanic Ritual Abuse of children is a widespread practice among the ruling class; there is an intriguing amount of evidence for this, such as the “Finders” story that surfaced a few years ago. Another connecting dot is found in a Roman Catholic priest named Malachi Martin, who wrote a “fact-based” novel about ritual abuse in the Church.

There are entities, both light and dark, involved with influencing reality on Earth. There is also a mystical connection between the realm of spirit and physical events. This is somewhat due to the fact that souls incarnate here with an agenda to learn through experience, and the extreme level of polarization in this world makes it somewhat attractive as an advanced (as in difficult) training ground.

One fascinating glimpse of this is found in the book “Cosmic Explorers” by Courtney Brown. He led a remote viewing exercise that targeted the North Korean society. Brown has developed a remote viewing technique that sees into the spiritual dimension as well as the physical. He discovered that the North Korean people tend to reincarnate from the same soul group, and there appears to be an extraordinary degree of connection and oversight between physical life and souls on the Other Side. This does not mean that North Korean souls come here with a destiny to wage war upon their southern brethren, but it does offer some insight into the behavior of that particular group of people.

I would expand upon that insight by suggesting that we all are connected and influenced by spiritual forces on the Other Side, and understanding this is a key to understanding life. Our souls enter this world with an agenda that our human ego-based personalities may not grasp. Major events are planned into our life scripts, and our contracts with other souls determines a great deal of our life’s course.

War is simply one form of drama on this stage among many. My goal is to understand the determining causes behind it, and then we are freed to choose our role with it based on knowledge and insight, rather than blind emotion.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Is the Sky Really Falling?


This blog purports to discuss news events within the context of the spiritual shift currently underway. However, the tone of some articles may strike the reader as a bit gloomy and dark, and unfortunately this may increase in coming months.


I thought it an opportune time to explain my philosophical context. I can assure everyone that my personal outlook is anything but doom and gloom. I view this as an exciting time to be alive, and we have all chosen to be here at this time.

One major question throughout my life has been how to explain the apparent existence of so much evil in the world. How does one begin to sort out the good guys from the bad?

For too long, I relied on the highly polarized perspective of Christianity to explain the dichotomy of Good and Evil. I found simplistic but unambiguous answers, and the good and bad guys were conveniently labled for me.

Eventually, Christian theology's inability to square the concept of evil with an omnipotent God, persuaded me to expand my thinking beyond the confines of dogma. Either God is not in control of everything, or He's playing a two-faced game with us, and neither of these explanations is acceptable.


Now my worldview incorporates the concept of a single consciousness pervading everything. There is no intrinsic evil as such, but there is plenty of drama being played out in this physical dimension that includes realistic "bad guy" roles. To be clear, when use the terms "evil" and "darkness", the context is always the perceived, illusory polarity that our dramas incorporate so effectively.

Many spiritually-minded people resist open discussion of "negative" topics, out of concern that only positive thoughts must be engaged in order to produce positive outcomes. Certainly, I'm a huge believer in positive thinking, and in fact hold to the theory that all reality is created by conscious thought.

Since my high school and college days, I have always been curious to explain major events in the world, which often seem shaped by unseen forces. What are those forces and who are the "powers that be" (PTB) that appear to pull the strings from behind the curtain? My quest led to the realization that a dark underbelly lies beneath the facade of civilization. I feel an imperative to be brutally candid if necessary, to avoid the alternative of slipping back into the anesthetized state of denial that many find appealing. Truth is an ally in our attempt to understand the massive shift we are about to experience.

In essence, darkness is simply the absence of light, just as fear is born from the absence of love. We are loving beings of light that choose to incarnate into a world that can be cold, dark, and frightening. By some miracle, we are actually able to forget who we really are, and immerse ourselves completely into our dramatic roles. We actually think that the illusory reality that we weave is actually the rock-solid, baseline reality of the universe. What a farce!

Forgetting the light and living in fear can cause humans to conclude that the only way of getting one's needs met is to control others and take it by force. This is a necessary ingredient in the drama of human incarnation, and produces a challenging environment for brave souls to stage ambitious lessons and spiritual growth.

In the history of the Earth, there have always been some souls that identify with "darkness", perhaps encouraged or misled by higher-dimensional entities choosing the dark orientation. Civilizations have waxed and waned through cycles of spiritual enlightenment, with oppressive periods of blindness and ignorance in between.

Generally, there is always an organized cadre of dark-oriented humans (abetted in various degrees by certain non-humans), which feel that they "own" the planet and must control it. Major events in history do not occur by random chance, and understanding this is essential for grasping the larger picture.

Cycles of civilization have waxed and waned, partly due to built-in limits that the angelic realm places on our development. When physical knowledge advances to the point where our soul's incarnational environment is threatened, a "reboot" program is executed, if the civilization doesn't do the job first by blowing up everything. The legend of Atlantis refers to such a scenario.

Our civilization is now nearing one of the "reboot" points, as foretold by many religious and esoteric traditions. However, this time around, it has been decided to attempt a jump into a higher level of physical density, to move directly from the Age of Iron to a Golden Age instead of returning to the Stone Age. Sources indicate that this is an immense undertaking, and has drawn the avid attention of the surrounding galaxy and beyond. Apparently nothing like this has been attempted before, and the ascended masters that are guiding it are not even certain about the outcome.

Thus we have...The Shift. It is already underway, as many of us will attest to being aware of the effects. Unfortunately, the dark powers-that-be (PTB) are also aware of it, if only dimly so. They are afraid of the changes that have begun, and are desperate to maintain control. Their grip on humanity is being threatened as never before. The "secrets revealed" meme detected by HPH is one indication of light flooding in to expose the darkness.

Thus the stage is set for the ultimate drama. The key is to understand the drama without being drawn into it. We must learn to surf on the waves of chaos rather than be swamped by them. The events unfolding now must be understood in light of this insight.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Tension Grows


Recent financial headlines shouted "Fear Rules" as the Greek crisis took its toll on the markets.

As economists speculate whether the European meltdown will cause a renewed recession in the US, several other stories add tension to the mix.

The Gulf oil spill has potential to have a HUGE impact that could spread around the globe. The predictive linguistics work at Half Past Human had mentioned an "ocean sickness" and "blue flu" that causes a "big stink", so this unfolding catastrophe could be a major predicitive hit for them. The potential for destruction of sea life is staggering, and the ill effects could be felt inland as toxic fumes spread. HPH has targeted July 8 as an important shiftng point, and November 8-11 later this year as marking a major "release of building tensions".

This is also a story of corporate greed run amok, as one of the surviving crewmen from the drilling platform tells of the representitive from BP ordering the crew to disregard safety and speed up operations because of cost concerns. It appears that the oil well blowout was caused by the blatantly dangerous decision to press forward despite clear indication that the wellhead had been damaged. Afterthe blowout, the chief of BP had the audacity to tell the press that the drilling contractor was in charge of the operation, so it couldn't be BP's fault. Look for a major congressional inquisition to follow on this one. The oil still gushes unabated, and it's anyone's guess when it will be stopped.

Meanwhile, tensions are building on the Korean penninsula. Many are unaware that a state of war still officially exists, and how quickly the bloody conflict broke out 60 years ago. It's difficult to conceive how "Dear Leader" Kim, as deranged as he may appear, could pull the trigger on another conflagration. No strategic purpose would be served, particularly if the North fired off a nuke, since it's well understood that the US forces in the South rely on tactical battlefield nukes for deterrence. An attack on the South could result in a huge radioactive crater north of the DMZ, since that would be the only practical defense of Seoul, due to it's proximity to the border and the sheer size of the North Korean forces.

Is Kim really so deranged as to tempt fate? Evidence suggests that the sinking of the South Korean ship was the result of chest-pounding machinations by a North Korean general, and tacitly supported by Kim because it helped solidify his grip on the military. Of course, giving in to South Korean demands for an apology would be tantamount to suicide. A war could conceivably result from ego-fueled miscalculation, just as road rage sometimes leads to escalating acts of violence.

I just read up on Korean war history, and have an uneasy feeling that more news is going to originate in that part of the globe soon. Wars and economic depressions seem to run in cycles, and we could be due for both.




Friday, May 7, 2010

The Myth of Electoral Choice


News item: Minnesota Republicans endorse Tom Emmer for Governor.

The coming gubernatorial race in Minnesota will likely be the most polarizing and divisive ever. The Democrats had already endorsed Margaret Anderson Keliher, one of the most liberal candidates in recent memory.

Emmer is endorsed by Sarah Palin and Tea Party activists. His extreme right-wing positions almost make governor Pawlenty seem liberal by comparison, despite the latter's recent pandering to national Republican activists in preparation for an expected presidential run.

Now that the state supreme court has ruled Pawlenty's unilateral budget "unallotments" illegal, the fun can really begin as the legislature grapples with an urgent multi-billion dollar deficit.

Emmer's solution the budget dilemma is simple: slash and burn. Aid to cities and counties? Toast - let 'em shutter libraries and go without police and fire protection. Education? Fire so many teachers that classes will need to be held in gymnasiums. Health care for the poor? Cut it all and hope that private charity fills the hole.

This is not to suggest that the traditional liberal solutions are a no-brainer; raising taxes can only go so far in a shrinking economy, and becomes akin to squeezing blood from turnips. The problems are complex and solutions may require totally new thinking.

The remarkable thing about all of this is the degree of rancorous polarization taking place throughout politics. The tedious health care reform debate in congress was just the beginning; expect things to really heat up by the fall elections.

Republicans claim to offer a clear choice for better solutions, but really don't. Both parties are enmeshed within the corrupt corptocracy that our system has become. For example, Republicans claim to defend freedom, but how many of them have worked toward repeal of the Patriot Act? Where are the voices raised against the gulag at Guantanamo Bay, intrusive surveilance of citizenry, or the illegal & brutal war in Afghanistan? Those issues are part of my litmus test for politicians who truly care about defending liberty, but the number who pass are vanishingly small.

Republicans attack Obama's spending policies, but memories are apparently too short to recall Reagan's tripling of the national debt, or Bush Jr. conducting a needless war charged to the national credit card. In fact, the heinous bailouts that have energized the Tea Party activists were originated under Bush's watch. Dare we mention that Clinton presided over a balanced budget?

The point of this commentary is to suggest that the system appears to be breaking down, as would be expected during any major shift - And shifting we are.

The revolution meme foreseen by the predictive linguistics at Half Past Human appears to be taking hold. Their crystal ball holds more dark possibilities over the next several years, but this is not so much "doom and gloom" as may appear. They also see elements of a new social structure forming to replace the old, consistent with a vision of an enlightened new age.

This is an exciting but potentially scary time to be alive. Those who remain here must have chosen to do so.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Another Candidate for the Hall of Shame


News item: Evangelist Franklin Graham is peeved after being disinvited to the Pentagon Prayer Day observance.

Firstly, a prayer observance at the national warmonger headquarters? WTF? What are they planning to pray for, world peace? Or maybe something a little less noble?

Anyway, Graham vented his spleen to the right wing bunch at Newsmax.com, claiming that Obama's actions and words favor Islam over Christianity, and his own disinvitation was a "slap at all Evangelical Christians".

Graham has worked hard to earn his notoriety, taking a much more blustering tone than his famous father in attacking other religions. Billy Graham's son and successor doesn't get banned from a national prayer observance for trivial reasons.

The irony is, that Graham's ideal world vision of an American Theocracy closely mirrors that of fundamentalist Islam. In a classic case of projection and transferance, whatever evils Graham finds in Islam likely also exist in Christianity. Now consider the fact that both faiths claim to worship the same God (as do the Jews, which are scorned by both). Maybe this is one reason so many enlightened souls are shunning religion in any form and exploring the spiritual path.

Speaking of religious intolerance, Ross Douthat recently wrote in the New York Times that the popular Comedy Central series "South Park" has finally taken on one taboo too many. They added the prophet Mohammed to the league of religious icon superheroes as having "the powers of flame". Oops! The resulting death threats were taken seriously, and the offending episode was removed from distribution and any other reference to the Prophet in other episodes was bleeped out.

Douthat ponders what this suggests about the state of our institutions, since everything sacred but Islam is fair game for ridicule and mockery. He concludes that "if a violent fringe is capable of inspiring so much cowardice and self-censorship, it suggests that there's enough rot in our institutions that a stronger foe might be able to bring them crashing down."

The true irony is that the Western tradition of religious tolerance is challenged by a religion that many find distasteful due to its own intolerance. Reverend Graham and radical Islamic mullahs all concur on one major point: Religious tolerance is a bad thing when practiced on anyone but their own. They should get together and do lunch over an open Qur'an, and see what else they might have in common.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

A Nasty Mess


The oil continues to gush out of control. It might take days or weeks to plug the leak, and could eventually affect the Atlantic coast. This could become the major story of the year, with unthinkable damage to fishing and wildlife.

No word yet on what caused the explosion and failure of anti-blowout valves. Rush Limbaugh suggested that "environmentalist wackos" had sabotaged the rig to commemorate Earth Day. Of course, Rush is the real wacko here, but he may have subliminally (and accidently) picked up on something relevant; my senses tell me that sabotage is a real possibility.

Many, including Gerald Celente's Trends Research Journal have been predicting that the PTB (Powers That Be) would soon launch a major war to divert the populace from the sad state of the economy. To justify it and to build public support, another false-flag terrorist event on the scale of 9/11 would first be needed.

Celente predicts the coming terrorist event, but it’s anyone’s guess when or where it would happen. Today’s bomb scare in Times Square could have been a failed attempt at such an event.

This may be really reaching out there, but I would not be too surprised if we begin to see rumor circulate that evidence was found of sabotage on the oil rig, followed by official announcement that an Iranian terrorist cell has been linked to the explosion. Of course, the Iranians likely would have had nothing to do with it, or perhaps some Iranians in CIA employ might surface with some clumsily planted “evidence”. (Recall the alleged 9/11 hijackers conveniently leaving their plans behind in rental cars).

Far fetched? Well, we do know that the drumbeat has been building for “getting tough” on Iran, and recent reports surfaced of “bunker buster” warheads being shipped to the naval base at Diego Garcia. After harshly condemning new Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, the Administration seems to be toning it down and focusing more on the Iranian issue.

I could be completely wrong on this, but it these events pan out, it would track well with Bush’s Iraq strategy. Few could have conceived of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq without 9/11 first setting the stage.

Unfortunately, Gerald Celente’s prediction is plausible, and it’s only a matter of speculation as to where and when.

The American electorate thought regime change was the solution to the Bush nightware. Unfortunately, that nightmare may have been simply the opening scene of a multi-act major drama.