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May 2008 |
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Thursday, May 1, 2008 Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Repeated three times, "Mayday!" is a universal radio call signifying that a plane or ship is in trouble. It comes from the French phrase for "help me". Since the world has long been used to hearing the French ask for help, the phrase needed no translation for most who heard it. May Day also means that most ships of state are under attack. Though the 1st of May is a date of Communist celebration, it began in the United States, when striking workers, led by anarchists and communists in 1886, called for a massive strike. They were inspired by this sort of literature:
During the ensuing riots, a bomb was thrown, guns were fired, and arrests were made. The American union movement was established, often under the leadership of those devoted to overthrowing the capitalist system. Now, the eight hour workday is established. Every other demand that those workers made, and more that they never thought of, has been long institutionalized. But, the mindset that demands "Change!" is never satisfied. Now, their emphasis has zeroed in on a more subtle form of destruction that's based on environmentalism. "Protecting the environment." provides justification for shutting down everything. So, lots of things are being shut down. People are being hurt as more opportunities for advancement are shuttered, but that's what those in the vanguard of "Change!" desire. On the 1st of May, we may still see that the bomb-throwers are still throwing bombs. That's what those who choose not to love their neighbors do.
Friday, May 2, 2008 A thing that sustains their own lives has become the leftists' enemy. If carbon dioxide were to disappear, every plant and animal would die. We need to have an atmosphere containing at least 250 parts per million of carbon dioxide if we are to stay alive. The Culture of Death, in a desire for control that can only be termed "insane", has decreed that present levels of carbon dioxide (about 380 ppm) are "too high". The amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are measured very precisely at a station on the slopes of Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano. Ten years ago, the levels of carbon dioxide were about 360 ppm. The difference between "safe" levels of carbon dioxide and levels that are "dangerous to life on earth" are, they tell us, 20 parts per million. To visualize what this "extremely worrisome" increase means, we can picture a stack of one million dollar bills. If the stack could be kept from falling over, it would be three thousand feet high. If we put a tiny stack of 20 one dollar bills (an eighth of an inch high?) alongside that 3,000 foot stack, we can see not only the infinitesimally small degree of change that these lost souls elevate to the status of a motivating idol, but also, we are able to quantify the kind of lunacy that unhinges the minds of bitter souls. As their Global Warming fraud unravels, the lies necessary to prop it up become bigger than the lie, itself. It is as if a tall, flawed, and about-to-fall television tower has had a pyramid built around it to hold it up. In fact, their entire beings become occupied with propping up the lie with ever more lies, leading them to greater foolishness that's becoming increasingly obvious to more and more people. A great number of Heaven Credits has been compiled by those who have fought the fraud. There are many who have stood bravely for truth, and God loves them.
Monday, May 5, 2008 The "news" is rarely what we are told. Most of us think of reporters as brave, enlightened souls who intrepidly uncover facts about corruption and evil around them. We thereby prove our gullibility. Reporters are told what to write by editors, who work for publishers. They, in turn, work for, and with, other very rich, powerful people who have a very great interest in becoming richer and more powerful. So, most "reporters" merely re-write press releases from causes and companies favored by owners of media. All over the world, the nightly news is presented by people who have learned to read press releases as if they are believable. They also magnify trivia to replace real news. Teacher strikes, for instance, are always on the news. Nowhere on the news is information about the positive effect that drilling new oil wells would have on every single viewer. "News" is, therefore divided into two categories. "Press releases" promote desired goals, like not supplying increased kinds of energy at lower prices. "Pablum" replaces bigger problems with the silly trivia that makes up most "news" Occasionally, there will be "real news". That includes the occasional bank robbery, fire, murder, or other crime, often with the subtle suggestion that more policemen or firemen should be hired, more laws passed, and various items that the rich and powerful dislike be outlawed.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 The Culture of Looking Beyond. The very worst of people prefer death and doing nothing to protecting life and solving problems. Many of their souls are irretrievably lost. We may picture them as being on toboggans. They coast downhill, often to great fanfare that speeds them on, along the broad paths to destruction. They reach exhilarating speeds. We, who try to get nearer to God, move more slowly along a path despised for being so "straight", and so "narrow". Our progress is more often accompanied by jeers than cheers. The souls gliding downhill, often forever, can be easily identified by many characteristics, one of which is the inevitable and automatic refusal to focus on problems at hand. Instead, they invariably concern themselves with remote issues that have little to do with helping anyone. When confronted with suffering neighbors, they "look beyond", never letting themselves that the lies they tell are preceded by the living lie they have become that makes all their other lies possible. When any possibility of helping other people make their lives better with less expensive food, medicine, or energy arises, the enlightened "look beyond" with amazing speed . "We can do nothing to help you three hundred million people because the polar bears and the ozone layer must be protected. Besides, all of you are using too much energy, anyway, and these shortages will help you cut back. And, 'we' (identifying themselves with some enlightened 'we' is an important part of what they consider 'thinking') all know that there should not be three hundred million people in this country, anyway. We feel there should only be sixty million people. The only way to make things better is for most of you to die, both quickly and without children."
Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Either, or. In the world, we separate cream from milk and wheat from chaff. We are given the opportunity to spend our lives separating what we want from what we don't want to help prepare us for the far greater decision with far more lasting consequences that will be made by God as to whether or not He wants us. When we are judged on how we did in this life, sheep are separated from goats. Those who arrive at the wedding feast with enough oil are always separated from those who didn't. People marked with the seal of God were (or, will be) spared the everlasting pain of those who weren't so identified. Some recognize that each of us, in the most final analysis, is either going to be chosen, or not chosen, by God. Those who fear His rejection follow His directions. We tend to be traditional, conservative, and truthful. Those who base their choices on a Judgementless eternity tend to be modern, liberal, and to lie a lot. It's important to be ready to say at appropriate times to appropriate people, "Many began their pilgrimage with the premise that there is a God who will judge us by our thought, words, and deeds."
Thursday, May 8, 2008
One of the battles below. There's a line in a song from Camelot, "the angels have chosen to fight their battles below." That short line sums up a view of the world that those in favor of death and lies do everything they can to make us forget. Just as the spiritual powers of good are at war with those of evil, so do men and women who love goodness and truth fight to preserve it against those who attack it. As we consider what those around us are doing, it's not hard to see who's on which side. Truth's deadliest enemies promote evil while pretending to do good. A couple of generations ago, the self-righteous used Prohibition as that generation's excuse to pollute and corrupt America's criminal justice system. Today, the world-wide "War on Drugs" gives governments more reasons to grow in power and authority to "help protect the people against the ravages of drugs." As usual, this involves putting more people in more jails than at any earlier time in our history. As a rule of thumb, we can estimate that each two or three people in jail provides one job for those who make a living by putting them there, keeping them there, and monitoring them when they're released. Seven million prisoners provide reasons to force taxpayers to fund the growing staffs of prosecutors, policemen, judges, bailiffs, clerks, wardens, guards, defense attorneys, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, rehabilitators, computer experts to keep track of it all, payroll clerks to pay them, taxing authorities to gather the money to fund the whole operation, parole officers, contractors, unionized builders of jails, bond-issuers who provide the funding, manufacturers of all the equipment required by all those involved in the above occupations, and secretaries, janitors, and building engineers in every single office and building. Powerful forces have powerful personal economic incentives to put more people in more jails. Hence the ever-louder drumbeats to "get tough on crime".
Thursday, May 8, 2008 John Brignell, the smartest man in England. Once in a great while, there is a distillation of wisdom so profound and so elegant that it must be shared. I am compelled to do so, taking from http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/2008%20May.htm "The very basis of modern society depends on the observation of strict rules about what may be openly debated and the media have an excellent record of adherence to that principle. Do we really want the multibillion dollar climate change industry to perish like the South Sea Bubble, leaving thousands unemployed and Al Gore without a private jet? Think of all those environmental editors with wives, families and mortgages to support. How can we expect them to go out to find real work at their time of life, when they are highly trained at passing on pre-digested reports from kosher organisations? How are modern politicians and their parties supposed to operate if irresponsible authors are blowing gigantic holes through the middle of their policies? What will happen to the economy if there is no plausible excuse for continual tax increases? How can we keep the lower classes under control it they get access to energy, convenience and, worst of all, information?" Mr. Brignell is one of those rare spirits with a grasp of truth, of justice, of mathematics, of science, of history, of economics, and of literature. He is not a Roman Catholic, but, if he were, I'd like to think he'd be a Catholic Fundamentalist. He could be called the embodiment of a Renaissance Man, if that phrase were not so limiting.
Friday, May 9, 2008 Identify, understand, and love those who hate us. All of us in the nominally Christian countries are under attack by many groups of people who hate us with varying degrees of virulence. Some of us rejoice. Scripture teaches that we are "part of the Body of Christ". So, we understand that the Body of Christ must always be mocked, scourged, and, whenever possible, crucified. If we're smart enough to want to invest in an eternity of joy, we welcome the abuse we get, thankful to be, in at least some small way, suffering, if only financially, the same slings and arrows as the Saints. As we are impoverished, for instance, from intentionally-induced high prices for everything we buy, and see that there are proven, common-sense solutions to these problems, we understand that their desire to hurt us has overridden their capacity to help. The better we understand, the happier we will be. We are suffering and have been given a wonderful opportunity to love our oppressors. Most of the world's hateful (hate-filled) people have coalesced around "Protecting the Environment". This gives them an opportunity to attack every single person who ever does anything. Most of us have been given the intellectual gifts to understand that the exalted "Environment" is merely another idol in a long line of them. They are allowed to exist so that goats are free to separate themselves from sheep and Shepherd. Understanding that idols unwittingly help in the self-separation of souls that God requires, we may grow in realizing that the most important problem we have is to work to save our enemies' souls. It is easy, for instance to despise those who worship the various idols in the Environmentalists' Temples as we become cognizant of how much their false religion hurts everyone. Nothing they ever say is true, nothing they ever do helps. Their lies are obvious, their greed is overwhelming, and their hatred has become consuming. Their lies have taken the forms they have desired, poverty and death. Lenin once explained that "The essence of Communism is hatred." From the moment that The Virus first put the thought into Cain's mind that he should kill Abel, humanity has been divided into two camps. Those who love God and truth are always attacked by those who hate both. Why do some people hate their neighbors? Some say it's genetic. We read in Malachi 1:2 that God loved Jacob and hated Esau. But, since Christ commanded us to love our neighbors, without distinguishing between Jacob and Esau, going down the road of genetic moral superiority quickly leads us to the damnation of racism. One explanation is that haters are simply possessed by demons. But, those same demons also try to possess the descendants of Jacob. What keeps them out? The Sacraments are a great help. Baptism washes away Original Sin, making it harder for demons to enter and gain control. Confirmation allows The Holy Wireless Connector to let us get through to God and vice versa. Communion and Confession help keep us strong. But, "doing good to those who hurt you" helps all of us to avoid the crippling hate so easy to engender and direct toward those trying to destroy us. That's a battle we can all win, if we're good enough.
Saturday, May 10, 2008 The Burma junta and its American version. Early this week, a Category 3 hurricane struck the nation of Burma. That country is ruled by a military junta that was unprepared, or unwilling, to help cope with the disaster. As many as a hundred thousand people died and a million are homeless. Many nations, especially the United States, offered to help. Their offers of aid were rejected by the Burmese government. The junta preferred to let their suffering people die than to admit they needed help. Many leftists shook their heads sadly. "It's terrible when a government hurts its own people." In the United States, there is a growing crisis caused by a shortage of fuel and energy. The problems could be solved by allowing oil companies to drill wells and by allowing power companies to build nuclear reactors. Our government refuses to allow wells to be drilled or nuclear reactors to be built. Our government, just like that of Burma, would rather people suffer than allow others to help them.
Sunday, May 11, 2008 To a growing number of people, Imaginary Problems are a necessity. What would pseudo-intellectuals do without a steady stream of Imaginary Problems? They have to eat expensive organic food, they need to drive Volvos, and they need to live in a "green" house that costs five times more than a poor person's modular home. Pseudo-intellectuals are fond of vacations, because they help them "grow", "unwind", and "get a new perspective on vital issues". They like large salaries, usually at taxpayer expense, coupled with generous travel allowances. They're so fond of pensions that many professional pseudo-intellectuals get two, three, and even four from various public and semi-public agencies. When we examine what they do to get their lucrative stipends and lush pensions, we find them involved in little, if anything, that provides any real benefit to anyone. They were involved in Global Freezing. When that petered out, they switched to Global Warming. Now, they're comfortably ensconced in Climate Change, much relieved that they no longer have to guess which way to jump. "Finally! Job security!" they congratulate themselves. Many pseudo-intellectuals have found lucrative employment in various food scams. "Organic" food was once thought to be good for people. "Organic" food was urged upon us all until large amounts of coliform bacteria from human fecal material was found to be common in it. They are now very concerned about "distance food" brought in from places like sunny Africa, where it's far cheaper to grow fruits and vegetables than in American and European greenhouses. Cheese is an ongoing concern to pseudo-intellectuals in the food scams. They are genuinely puzzled as to whether or not cheese is good for them. But, they are all generally agreed that cheese does come from milk, that milk does come from cows, and the methane that cows emit is, or "may well be" connected to a worrisome atmospheric methane level of 1.7 parts per million. (In money terms, that's one hundred and seventy pennies out of $1,000,000.00, the sort of fractions that are of great concern to pseudo-intellectuals. "We really don't know how dangerous that is, do we?", they are ever fond of asking. One may reasonably conclude there is a basic law of Catholic Fundamentalsm at work: The smaller the fraction thought to be important, the more pseudo the intellect.) Both sides of the obesity coin are a perennial source of funding for pseudo-intellectuals. Everyone is either too fat or too thin. Therefore, "virtually everyone" is in great need of "additional studies that have to be made" to "help make our diets better" and "improve our lives." There is widespread agreement among pseudo-intellectuals in food-related occupations that few, if any, "really are smart enough" to be able to decide what they should eat. Ways to get a little "central control" over what people are eating is a popular subject at gatherings of pseudo-intellectuals in the world of food-control. They universally believe that some "top-down management" is in order, not only to be sure that "healthful foods" are available, but also, eaten and "eaten properly". Educational institutions attracts pseudo-intellectuals as cow pies do flies. They enjoy buzzing around in places where no one knows what anyone does, and few people, outside the janitorial and secretarial staffs, do anything. No standards for them. Doing what they want, mostly being pretentious, is "how we serve best". As soon as someone gets an advanced degree unaccompanied by the skills to actually do anything, they feel that they are "owed" a job in their field. Politicians are willing to comply. Increased funding is always available for worthy causes. What cause is more worthy than finding pseudo-intellectuals the kind of jobs and salaries they need? One interesting behavior pattern common among the growing number of pseudo-intellectuals is that those in one field support those in other fields. Pseudo-intellectuals in environmentalism, diet, education, medicine and all the others will defend each other against anyone who tells the truth about the uselessness of any part of the pseudo-intellectual world. If they do not, pseudo-intellectuals consider them "enemies", and turn on them with the viciousness that lurks just beneath each leftist's very, very thin skin.
Sunday, May 11, 2008 Missing from photo-op's. Many pictures of Hillary Clinton and her supporters appear in every media. Helping her while she makes her pitches for the Democratic nomination are many familiar faces from the Clinton Administration. Donna Shalala is there. So is Paul Begala. Lanny Davis makes as many appearances as he can. James Carville is ever-ready with a crude, vicious insult. Governor Ed Rendell is an avuncular and oft-called upon defender. Bill Richardson used to be. And, of course, Bill Clinton appears at gathering after gathering, urging, cajoling, pointing, and threatening. But, no Janet Reno. It is as if she's utterly disappeared. Even the Clinton's have some sense of right and wrong.
Monday, May 12, 2008 The bloom is off the rose. Last month was one of the coldest Aprils in the last decades. It followed a cold March, which followed a cold February, which came after a cold January. Global Warmers are quieter than ever. Reality is exposing their lies. The fraud is so obvious that, in England, a comparative conservative just won an election for Mayor of London, defeating "Red Ken", a pro-communist Global Warmer. Hopefully, John McCain will notice.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 West Virginia, the battle of the bitter. Democrats can't win in November if they can't carry West Virginia. Since only Senator Clinton can carry that state and many others similar to it in demographics, Obama's nomination will condemn them to defeat in November. They don't care. Obama has so much money, coming in, much of it filtered from our traditional enemies in the middle-east through a myriad of "helpful" Americans, they think that he'll be able to buy the election. They forget Martha Stewart. Martha, in her heyday, went from nowhere to billionaire with the support of superior and angry-because-their-superiority-wasn't-recognized, upper-middle class women. When she made a public appearance, the audience was filled with Martha Stewart clones. Many wore the same clothes and similar hair-dos. They identified with Martha because she had the success each of them thought would have been theirs, if only things had gone a "little bit differently" for them . Hillary appeals to the same mindset. Those not happy with their lives identify with Hillary, whom they call "the lady in pants suits". Obama appeals to a deeper, more visceral bitterness. He taps into the truly bitter of both sexes and all ages. University professors in the soft, easy subjects, along with others who "want to teach 'em a lesson", are the backbone of Obama's supporters. They are far less sane than the Hillary supporters, and congregate in large, metropolitan areas, or near large state universities, where there's enough tax money rolling in to allow them to make good livings without doing anything more useful than complaining, insulting, and undermining those whose taxes support them. So, Hillary will win in West Virginia. Though hat state lacks the big concentrations of the professionally bitter Obama supporters, it has no shortage of women who see their success in her's.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Do they love to hate and lie? We are made in the image of God. As Catholic Fundamentalists put it, "We are programmed with similarities to The Programmer." That means we have been programmed with an innate affinity for truth and love. The other side hides that, and it hurts the souls of all who ignore that aspect of our nature. The minds of the lost souls, as we see clearly in the Global Warming Fraud, are forced to renounce truth and love. Their feelings turn from loving truth and their neighbors to hating both. Their actions, likewise, must be reversed from helping to hurting. They abandon truth for lies and choose death over life. Denying one's basic nature hurts. So, as they travel farther and farther from God, they must distract themselves with various idols. Those distractions deaden the conscience while making an honest appraisal of what they're doing to themselves increasingly difficult. Every idol leads to greater distance from God, and greater unhappiness. That must be deadened with more distractions, other idols. The downward path of sin may be described by the emptiness of the idol-worshippers' encapsulation of wrong, conscience-deadening desires, "All I want are faster horses, younger women, and more money." Somewhere, deep within, each of them is crying out for love. Paradoxically, they shun the only Being in all creation Who can give it to them. By that willful shunning, they condemn themselves to suffer forever from those evil, evil spirits who show how much they hate by endlessly and agonizingly tormenting the hateful who choose, while on earth, to spend eternity with them.
Being careful. Desires that may, but do not need to, lead to sin are all around us. Businessmen want more factories, increased sales, bigger machines, and profit. Those hungry for power want higher positions and larger staffs. Union leaders want more members. Lots of us want new cars, houses, appliances, clothing, and a host of other things. As long as we obey the laws, both God's and man's, we don't do any harm, and may do a great deal of good, by wanting and getting these things. But, when greed tempts us to get things we can live very well without by hurting our neighbors, we separate ourselves from God. Worse, we may begin to justify doing so. That compounds the sin with lies. As soon as we see that we are justifying doing something wrong, an alarm bell should ring. That alarm bell tells us that we should make every effort to get back on the straight and narrow so that we do not join those sliding down the broad paths to perdition, their hands so busy grasping to hold on to the very things that make it impossible for them to slow, much less stop, their slide down a very slippery slope.
Friday, May 16, 2008 "There are many mansions in My Father's house." John, 14;2 makes it clear that there is a place in Heaven where each soul may attain its maximum joy and fulfillment. We hope we are obedient and faithful enough to get there. We know we cannot get to the place that awaits us in His Kingdom if we lie. If we do so, we renounce our Father in Heaven, and become children of the father of lies. Each of his lies is an idol in the pantheon of fraud. We go through life amidst clouds of lies, each of which is the halo surrounding the idol within. Yesterday, lies about "liberty, equality, and fraternity" enthroned the lie that the men who ran the guillotines were concerned about justice. Today, lies concern a "better, safer world for all." From the polar bears at the North Pole to the ozone hole at the South, those who pretend to care about the environment enshrine their newest idols. The souls who embrace those lies are, in some spiritual way, "de-polarized". They leave truth and light for darkness and pain. There are no mansions in the home to which they go. Only misery and pain awaits those who use their time on earth to hurt others. We hope that our prayer, including "lead us not into temptation" will provide admittance to a mansion, rather than the cheap, vile boarding house run by pain-inflicting maniacs to which we will otherwise be sent.
Saturday, May 17, 2008 Republicans have embraced the lie and lost votes. Senator McCain's chances of being elected took a drop this week. He embraced global warming, and pledged to fight "climate change". This must mean that he's going to bring the solar cycles under control. He's going to have to control the inner workings of the sun. He'll have to be sure there are no more more sunspots. No fewer sunspots. He'll have to make sure there's just the right amount of solar activity. Then, we'll be safe. Millions of truth-loving voters promptly said "No." to Mr. McCain. The only Republicans who will support him, and other Republican "environmentalists" are those who embrace the lie. The rest of us will close our checkbooks. And, we'll be blamed for his, and their, defeat. "If only you had helped us lie, we'd control the White House." And, we'd be as damned to perdition as all those who use the political process for personal gain. It's very revealing that the Party leaders think that we have a duty to like Senator McCain more than our own, immortal souls. "We're willing to sell our souls.", they tell us. "Why won't you sell yours?" II More people seem to be saying there are two kinds of environmentalists, morons and crooks. There's a growing body of opinion that ever more bluntly implies that most of those who worry excessively about The Environment are morons. The bulk of them are increasingly seen as simple, credulous, insecure souls in timid minds. The most pitiful such boobs do as they are told, recycling all manner of garbage in a vain attempt to gain the approval of their masters. The IQ level of those who spend the time and money to drive their carefully sorted garbage to a recycling center is said to be abysmally low, even though, to them, their shiny new Volvo, or whatever other shibboleth indicating that their minds and souls are firmly ensconced among those of greater vanity, leads them to quite the opposite conclusion. The crooks manipulate the morons. The crooks pocket the big bribes eagerly paid by those who profit by forcing people to buy energy from existing suppliers. The most powerful crooks are believed to be piling up countless dozens of millions of dollars in safe, invisible bank accounts in foreign countries, even as they claim to be "helping". Theologically, the question is asked: "After judgment, will the souls of the crooks suffer more than those of the morons?" At first glance, it would appear that the souls of the crooks, as Dante suggests, do end up in a more painful place, specifically the 8th Circle of Hades. But, many morons seem increasingly dissatisfied with the mere crumbs of self-satisfaction they get by spinelessly letting the crooks manipulate them. They would like to be piling up their millions, as well. Since it is only their lack of intellect that keeps them from being successful crooks, rather than a lack of desire, they may end up in the same place. III Americans and Europeans often wonder why our political leaders don't describe the Morons and Crooks who are impoverishing us in such specific terms that describe what they are. Some do, but always in such a way that neither the Morons nor the Crooks are able to recognize it. President Bush last week: "One interesting thing about American politics these days is those who are screaming the loudest for increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people who are fighting the fiercest against domestic exploration, against the development of nuclear power, and against expanding refining capacity." That, translated into the vernacular, means that environmentalists are largely "morons or crooks". Proof of that is that neither the Morons nor the Crooks criticize what he's saying. Let's translate it: "One interesting thing (it's amazing how unbelievably crooked and stupid some people can be while still having any credibility at all) about American politics these days is those who are screaming (hysterical lunatics whipped into a frenzy by profiteers) the loudest (the dumbest and most hysterical morons) for increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people (unbelievably stupid louts) who are fighting the fiercest (they can be made to think, do, and say things that only an unhinged moron could believe to be intelligent) against domestic exploration (deranged fools who keep us from solving the problem with proven technology), against the development of nuclear power (another attack on sanity) and against expanding refining capacity (still another attack on sanity)."
Many have deduced that billions of dollars in bribes are being paid to American and European politicians so that established sources of energy, and the cash that pays for them, are not threatened in any meaningful way. That's why we are made to believe in false idols like "biofuel". Since that has been such an obvious failure, crooks come up with more frauds to keep the morons in line. The latest lie the crooks have made the morons embrace is that "algae fuel" will, in a mere quarter of a century, solve all our problems.
Sunday, May 18, 2008 I. Conspiracy theories for Gain Those mired in the things of creation continually want more of those things. First, they want them for themselves. Then, they want them for their children. They always have reasons to want more. Often, like-minded people get together to influence the political process to help them increase their already swollen assets. When these efforts become visible, or partly so, they fall under the classification of "conspiracy theories". They have been going on since men first began to live in groups. "Let's you and him fight." is the underlying operating principle of all successful conspirators. The oddest thing in all history is the continued existence of the Roman Catholic Church amidst the many, many groups and individuals conspiring to accumulate the things of creation. The Church is largely composed of men who understand that saving souls is the most important work on earth. Those in that "Catholic Conspiracy" have a long history of showing that their underlying motive is to get the largest number of souls possible into Heaven. For that reason, The Church is universally hated by those excessively motivated both by the accumulation of pottage and the power that makes such accumulations possible. Those most prone to engage in conspiracies are among the succeeding generations of wealthy men. They know they lack the drive and ability of those who accumulated the fortune, but do they want to keep it. Oh, how they do want to keep it. So, they do everything they can to influence whatever process, whether its inheritance, election, or appointment, that selects those who make laws. The worst of them are usually successful in getting people who will do their will into political power. The biggest single thing that stands in their way is the command that the Son of God gave when He told us to love our neighbors. It is impossible to simultaneously love and plunder one's neighbor. The knowledge that they are damning themselves by excessive accumulation that leaves their neighbors destitute is knowledge that they do not wish themselves, or their neighbors, to have. Neither do they wish to have the source of that knowledge respected, admired, or existent. So, one indication that a person is involved in a conspiracy is to see if they are involved in the ongoing hostility toward The Church or Her teachings on the sanctity of life, love, and obedience. Hostility toward His Church, while not desired by a Loving God, is one way He tests souls. That seems to be one reason that He provided The Church. If a person thinks, speaks, and acts as if the accumulation of material goods is more important than obeying the teachings of The Church, he moves his soul into the ranks of idol worshippers. Each is free to choose his own goal. If one is bent on accumulation to the destruction of his neighbor, his soul is lost. If one sees the futility of immoral accumulation, he moves toward The Church and Her ongoing teaching that loving one's neighbor is necessary for salvation. II. Conspiracy theories for titillation. Many souls are lost because they gave into a desire for sensory titillation. According to Dante, such souls are in the upper reaches of Hell, where the pain is real, but nowhere near as agonizing as those who commit more damaging acts must eternally suffer. There are many involved in such sins. The higher their place among the souls lost to temporary pleasure, the deeper their place in the pits beyond. Someone who runs a pornographic empire, for instance, receives greater punishment than one who merely opens a centerfold. The various titillators often conspire to get other souls to join them as they slide down the slippery slopes to perdition. Appearing in angry groups of "protest" at those who would limit their ability to destroy themselves, one can but pray that their minds and souls will be enlightened. It does happen. The "Conspiracies of Titillation" are run by those less intelligent than those who run the "Conspiracies for Gain", but the spiritual damage they do to less firmly anchored souls is often much greater. Few are rarely in one conspiracy to the complete exclusion of the other. Most of those who love themselves excessively more than their neighbors are, to varying degrees, in both conspiracies.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Taking pills. Over half of all Americans take at least one pill every day. As we get older, we take more pills. Pills are very profitable. Pill manufacturers have huge profit margins, and do what they can to get more people to take more pills. Many Americans take a half-dozen different kinds of pills several times a day. No one is quite sure what all these pills do, but doctors go on prescribing them. Most doctors listen carefully to pharmaceutical salespeople. Every day, each pharmaceutical salesperson is expected to call on several doctors, and tell them about the latest and greatest scientific breakthrough. Most doctors believe much of what they are told, and obediently begin to prescribe the latest and greatest pills to their patients. Patients like taking pills. Pills give them something to talk about. "I'm taking six different pills." they will tell each other, abashed when someone says, "I'm taking eight." And, pills usually cost them little or nothing. "I have the very best Blue Cross Double Plan. It pays for all my pills.", many oldsters will proudly announce. Those with the "best" insurance generally take the most pills. Pharmaceutical companies know this. That's why they make vast "contributions" to political candidates who understand the "need" for "Universal Health Care". "Universal Health Care" means that more people will be taking more pills, providing vast new profits to pharmaceutical companies, and investing in the election of more public officials who "understand".
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Pills for women. Nearly half the young women in the United States take pills for depression. As long as a doctor prescribes them, these mind-altering chemicals are not thought of as narcotics. Neither the woman nor her physician nor her pharmacist are arrested for being involved in this sort of drug trafficking. Many women take pills to control their weight. These drugs act much the way that uppers or speed do, raising the metabolic rate so that more of the undesired fat, much of which is good for them, is burned away. Sometimes, the complicated chemicals in those two types of drugs do not work well together. When combined with life-destroying birth control pills, bad effects may be multiplied. On top of all those pills, many take "vitamin supplements". They are largely useless, but popular, nonetheless. Some pills raise blood pressure. Others lower blood pressure. Some pills stop diarrhea. Others cause bowels to move. Some work to contain urine, others, to expel it more frequently. Some are designed to put people to sleep, some, to wake them up. Once in a while, people are told to stop taking all medications. Few, if any, get sicker or die without most them. But, that's unusual. And, it's hard for those whose profits are made from pills to tell people to stop taking all of them. The entire medical establishment profits from increased drug use. Endless advertisements in all sorts of media convince many of us that we will be healthier and live longer, happier lives by taking pills. People who have health insurance know that they don't have to pay the full cost of the prescribed chemicals. So, those who have health insurance take lots more pills than people without coverage. Pharmaceutical companies know that. So, they push "Universal" health insurance. It's cheaper to buy pills on line. Many people do that. They do not know who made the pills. Even proprietary shapes, colors, designs, logos, and containers are counterfeited. In one rare test of purity, millions of capsules were found to contain mostly plaster. No one seems to care. Placebos seem to do about as much good as real chemicals, but counterfeit drugs are mostly a concern to manufacturers who see their profit margins being eroded by them. "Universal" health insurance will double the number of people who will be taking pills. Pills for men. Marketing campaigns have convinced tens of millions of men that they should be taking some sort of statin drug to "reduce levels of dangerous cholesterol". This is one of the most profitable marketing campaigns in history. First, doctors were convinced that all kinds of cholesterol levels should be measured. Those who own testing labs are particularly fond of that part of the cholesterol "problem". Then, with a precise laboratory analysis in their doctors' hands, most patients were told "Your cholesterol is a serious problem." Most marketing professionals know that introducing what seems to be "necessary confusion in the name of better understanding" into a marketing plan makes it work better. So, cholesterol was divided into "good cholesterol" and "bad cholesterol". That provided just the right amount of cognitive dissonance to help sell the plan. "What should I do, Doctor?" asked hundreds of millions of people. Few, if any, of those who were prescribed cholesterol drugs were told that cholesterol is a naturally occurring chemical in their own body. Even fewer were informed that cholesterol is produced by their own liver. Hardly anyone knows that statin drugs reduce cholesterol by shutting down the natural functions of the liver. Few are clever enough to ask "Who knows more about how much cholesterol my body needs, my own liver or a drug company?" Nonetheless, millions of men are comforted by the hope that their pills are "helping" them. They will anxiously await the results of their latest blood test, actually worried that their "bad cholesterol" will be up and that their "good cholesterol" will be down.
Thursday, May 22, 2008 An effective New Lie takes on a life of its own. When a great New Lie is conceived, only the depraved soul(s) who thought of it tells it. Most have never heard of the New Lie, are utterly uninterested in it, and would just as soon live their lives without knowing anything about it. During the beginning stages of an important New Lie, it is made clear that vast sums of money will be made from it. The inventor of the New Lie will offer a chance to "get in on the ground floor" to those who will make whatever contributions they can to profit when the New Lie expands. This is the "seed money", without which a New Lie can never be successful. In the vital "start-up" period, the New Lie is first proffered by and offered to people who've proven their ability to support previous New Lies. No New Lie can afford to have people around who might derail it by telling the truth. The New Lie's supporters immediately say the lie is supported by all good "progressives", "idealists", and "activists". That ties them into the experienced network of professional liars. The "start-up" evolves into the beginnings of "Going Public". With outrageous, often shocking, antics, those who have embraced the New Lie make people aware the New Lie and of the fact that the "true progressives", who support the New Lie are superior in every way to the "conservatives", who are "too stupid and selfish to really understand the problem". After defining the New Lie in these terms, those who embrace it are told, "We're glad you're supporting this position. It is for the best." This mechanism encourages people to make a stand with no facts at all. Then, the New Lie goes through its Public Offering. Alarms can be spread to like-minded, willing participants around the world in a matter of days through the usual media mechanisms that have evolved to effectively spread New Lies. Those who embrace the New Lie at this later stage will never make the big profits that go to those who helped with start-up capital in its early days. But, they can get jobs, consulting fees, and surprisingly large amounts of other such crumbs. Embracing each New Lie allows them to firmly cement their positions within the larger New Lie Community. During the New Lie's Public Offering, it will run into public opposition. In these important, early days, arguments against the New Lie are analyzed and run by focus groups. Uncomfortable facts are brought up, prompting a blossoming structure of Support Lies. Explanations and contradictions are introduced into the mix, along with the "new definitions that are necessary to truly understand". For many, these neutralize any "real objections" to the New Lie. As soon as possible, the professional liars will use the phrase, "There are no real objections to our position." and "The science is now settled on this issue." over and over and over again. As the Public Offering progresses, people take sides. Some will support the New Lie. They have supported earlier New Lies, and take perennial satisfaction in being part of a "brave, forward-looking movement". Others will say, "It's a crock." Those who fight against the New Lie have two motivations. One group understands that the New Lie will divert cash flows away from them. Another group, smaller and poorer, is motivated by the quaint notion of thinking it's important to stand up for truth. As it grows, each New Lie quickly divides ever more people into two groups, those who support the New Lie, and those who renounce it. The supporters are said to be "sensitive" and "understanding", along with the ever-popular "progressive". Those who renounce the New Lie are said to be "hide-bound", "reactionary", "selfish", and "ignorant". Next: The successful spin-off. After a New Lie becomes established, support groups begin to profit. Newspaper and TV spots support the New Lie with anecdotes, photographs, often of entirely unrelated phenomena, and estimates of future catastrophes sure to occur if the New Lie is not funded. Many, many books are written. The only buyers for these books are tax-supported libraries. But, the 120,000 + libraries in this country provide the largest, single customer base for books about New Lies. That, many conclude, is the only reason that tax-supported libraries continue to be funded in an increasingly illiterate population, at astronomic costs to taxpayers. Academic studies are invented with amazing speed to get students to invest their usually borrowed at high interest rates tuition money in learning the New Lie. As larger numbers of students are graduated with utterly useless degrees, political pressure mounts to establish bureaus, regulatory authorities, and agencies where they may be employed. Soon, the New Lie is established. Then, it becomes an Old Lie, and is attacked by New Lies that proclaim it to be an "outmoded, antiquated, conservative structure that no longer fits today's needs." A perfect example of this process is the EPA. It began as a new lie, and is now attacked for "not doing enough". When New Lies replace Old Lies, the Old Lie agencies are usually kept in business. They've been investing greatly in fostering and furthering their relationships with taxing authorities, and, once established, that funding tends to go on and on and on. So, a nation's capitol is increasing populated with pyramids of lies. Both New Lie opportunists and Old Lie careerists know that governments can only support a certain percentage of counter-productive liars, and each fights to be able to survive in case of collapse. Automation has allowed more and more people to get into the Lie Business, which does, after all, keep them off the street.
Friday, May 23, 2008 It's the sun, stupid.
It's easy to say that only a moron or a climate-change profiteer willing to sacrifice both truth and logic to getting rich or famous could look at charts like these and conclude that the sun, only 8 or 9 light minutes away, doesn't have a profound effect on planetary temperatures.
Friday, May 23, 2008 Preservation is more important than mere preservation. Nearly every community in America has, or has had, a group of historical activists who are devoted to "Preserving our heritage". When large numbers of driven, middle-class Americans with both time on their hands and a desire to "do something" congregate in such groups, some groups work hard to preserve the occasional barn, museum, movie theater, shop, bridge, farm, place where something important may have happened, or scenic vista. Their motives seem sincere, their aims laudable. Such people have an uncanny instinct for joining others in "community efforts". If they can get past the egoism involved in being, or not being, selected "leader", they quickly begin fund-raising. There are auctions, appeals to wealthy oldsters, friends, neighbors, relatives lotteries, recycling drives, requests from local businesses. All manner of money-generating activity begins. Someone in the group "knows someone" who works at a local media outlet, and is given the job of "public relations" or "community liaison". Local readers and listeners are regaled with the important progress being made. Generally, they raise at least enough money to accomplish some of their goals, but with the inevitable affairs, divorces, transfers, and battles for status within the group after which the losers withdraw to lick their wounds, it never goes as quickly as had been anticipated. "People just don't care enough." is a frequent lament. To date, few, if any, good reasons have been discovered as to why more people should. Nonetheless, such people continue to forge ahead, in community after community after community. The unspoken goal of nearly all is to become so "vital" that "field trips" of helpless schoolchildren will be sent to tour the area, "experiencing the past". Once this has happened a few times, the necessary "appearance of importance" is established. Then, the real goal of the leader becomes obvious. He or she turns out to be "the most qualified applicant" for a paid job "directing" the facility. Plans are put in place for the "heritage site" to be funded by the nearest municipality or county With the help of state or national elected officials, an even more permanent source of funding may be provided by higher levels of government. II. The poor, helpless schoolchildren, bused endlessly to worship at the carefully preserved temples to the past, are subconsciously convinced that the only worthwhile things around them, certainly the only things worthwhile enough for their teachers to take busloads of them to, time and time again, are things that aren't happening anymore. The status and work that their own parents do, and that they, themselves, might be expected to do when they grow up, is subtly demeaned. Modern work is an attack upon the precious planet, upon indigenous people, on helpless animals, and upon their own futures. Only the past becomes worthy of praise and respect. No wonder so many kids have to be ritalinized.
Saturday, May 24, 2008 Schismatics don't do well. As some readers know, elsewhere on this website, some effort is being expended on looking at the Book of Revelations from a Catholic Fundamentalism point of view. It's been, as countless commentators have said, "a relevation". It's the most complicated writing in the Bible, and it's been a joy to examine, re-examine, and continue to do so again and again. There are a lot of historical allegories that have been made about some of the meanings. They require going back to some of the source documents. When reflecting on them, it is reasonable to conclude that the farther people and peoples get from the Catholic Church, the worse they do. There seem to be no exceptions to this rule, though destruction does, sometimes, drag on for centuries.
Sunday, May 25, 2008 Orders, and order, above. None below. Most Christians correctly feel that sin is to be avoided if their souls are to avoid eternal agony. Catholics, as usual, define sin more precisely, dividing it into "Mortal" and "Venal". This division is accompanied by the admonition "Avoid the near occasion of sin." Catholics understand that sin begins with temptation. In those six words, they tell us all we need to avoid it. Catholic Fundamentalism consider sins as spiritual viruses. They are living beings whose depraved mission in life is to corrupt our programs. They try to make us stray from God, The Loving Programmer; Jesus Christ, the Living, Loving Program Who came among us in human form and later will be our Judge; and the Holy Wireless Connector who joins, us, according to how well we ask, with the total forces of Good. The viruses wish to replace the little bits of good that we do with bits of bad, error messages, so that our entry into Heaven may be replaced with our being sent to Hell. Aquinas tells us that there is no hierarchy among the fallen angels. When they chose to fall, they fell from not only grace, but, also from order. The only thing in which they are united is their encouragement for us to sin so completely that they may feast endlessly and ravenously upon our souls. Each fallen spirit may be understood as a virus waiting to attack. Uncounted millions of them live within the words or pictures of usually unopened books, in a lonely state of suspended animation. As soon as sin-encouraging words and images can, they leap from those pages, and ride our optic nerves right our minds. At that second, we may be close to a "near occasion of sin". The virus immediately attempts to pollute our mind, wanting only to infect us with itself so thoroughly that we are brought low. It's goal is to get us to first think about the sin. Then, to think about it, more and more and more. Then, to justify it. Then, to talk about it. Then, to commit it. Each step involves erasing ever more of the Operating Instructions that The Loving Programmer has provided. Our main job on earth is to work very hard to see that doesn't happen.
Monday, May 26, 2008 Memorial Day. Our veterans should be remembered and honored for two reasons. One is that, by fighting and often dying, they have kept us freer than most other countries. The second is that, by their very presence, they have stopped many, many wars from happening.
Monday, May 26, 2008 Enviro Lunacy. Recently, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection came down hard on an Amish school. It had an outhouse, used by 20 students. The waste in the school's outhouse was periodically collected in five gallon buckets and dumped on fields, where it was plowed under and recycled as particularly good fertilizer. This was alleged to "pollute the ground water", and became an object of much concern among those with enough time on their hands to worry about such things. For six or seven thousand years, human waste has been recycled as fertilizer. Chinese farmers fortunate enough to have fields near roadways would build the most comfortable outhouses they could to attract passers-by to use them, willing to make that investment for free fertilizer. Now, centralized sewers simply dispose of all the nutrients in waste. That makes fertilizer companies very happy because they get to sell more fertilizer. It also makes taxing authorities happy. Munincipal budgets are based on being able to impose what is, in essence, a tax upon going to the bathroom. They do not want people to use outhouses and septic tanks, because they can't be easily taxed. The Amish, with their outhouses and recycling of the contents that accumulate therein, are a threat to that funding because they prompt many to say: "If the Amish are able to recycle their waste, why can't we?" To that, of course, there is no logical ans II Numbers. There are about 550,000 cows, 1.2 million pigs, 23 million chickens, and 4 million turkeys in Pennsylvania. They produce 44 billion tons of waste each year, most of which is spread on fields and plowed under to provide a source of nutrients for crops. The 12,000,000 people in Pennsylvania produce another 44 billion tons of waste each year. It is "processed" in sewage treatment plants where its nutrient value is removed. While this 44,000,000,000 tons is wasted, Pennsylvania farmers have to buy 100 million tons of fertilizer every year. The 20,000 Amish in Pennsylvania produce 7,300 tons of outhouse waste each year. The only minds that would see problems with using that for fertilizer have to be wired for lies.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 John McCain or Bob Barr? Most conservatives have not been happy with John McCain. He has embraced a lot of leftist lunacy, and is currently doing so. Most Americans realize that we need more energy. John McCain appeared last night on a scripted broadcast with Sean Hannity. He said we should not drill in the polar wastelands because "it's too pristine". Hannity was not allowed to question him on this, or on McCain's opposition to drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. McCain has embraced the elitist, environmental lies. He said, in the fifteen or twenty seconds on energy that was all the time allowed on the half-hour show to discuss energy and environment, "climate change is an important issue that must be addressed." This is a lie. He also said that the energy shortages would be "solved with new technologies", which was followed the usual pap about "how brilliantly Americans can solve problems." with no words on how to deal with the losses piling up while waiting. On energy issues, Mr. McCain is indistinguishable from Senators Obama and Clinton. All three have embraced environmental lies to a degree that makes them a danger to American prosperity. Bob Barr just won the Libertarian Party nomination for President. He, like McCain, is pro-life. He is also in favor of ending the insane "War on Drugs" that's put more Americans in jail than ever. Mr. Barr is also in favor of drilling more oil wells and building more reactors. I have never considered voting for a Libertarian candidate. This year is different.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 The challenge of Catholic Fundamentalism. Over the past few years, this site, and a few books, have explored the exciting possibilities of using words from our own age, rather than the Iron Age, to define God and the process of Creation. Christianity, which emerged in the Iron Age, replaced the religions of the Stone Ages before it. Christianity also replaced the earlier, Stone Age languages with Latin. In our own lifetimes, we have gone from the Iron Age to the Age of Electron Flow. The Roman Catholic Church, "the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow", does not have Her truths change, but must recognize that fewer and fewer people can speak Iron Age languages. Who among us has ever used a "yoke"? Who fills a lamp with oil every evening? Who grinds grain into flour? Who works by hand in fields? But, most of us use computers and electricity. So, when we consider God as the "Unprogrammed Programmer" and realize that He can program in three dimensions, suddenly the Aquinian wholeness of the Roman Catholic Church begins to be restored. A lot of thought and effort has been devoted into incorporating God-reducing concepts like evolution into our thinking. Catholic Fundamentalism allows us to better see God's awesome power, and realize that His Church is His great gift to us. As we grow in understanding of the concept of God as Programmer of particles, structures, systems, and beings, our faith grows stronger. For many, it's hard to get rid of all these carefully incorporated theories. Once, it was hard to get rid of the complicated theories that mistakenly explained how the earth went around the sun. Telling others about Catholic Fundamentalism's idea of God as "Unprogrammed Programmer" may help them to align their souls with He Who programmed them.
Thursday, May 29, 2008 Animation gives us an idea of God's programming abilities. Ten or so years ago, a popular screensaver had a cartoon fish programmed to swim across the computer screen. Fronds of seaweed moved in the water as the fish swam through them. Catholic Fundamentalists see programmed human animations and conclude, "What human programmers can program in two dimensions, God can program in three. Faster, too." As we get into the habit of looking at man-made notions of reality as cruder depictions of what God has already programmed, we see how great He is. He can not only program actual animals to swim in actual seas, but can program all the things necessary to let them maintain life. By programming what Catholic Fundamentalists call "replicating fractals", God programmed living things with the power to replicate themselves. His Programming brought the sun and stars into being. He programmed all the elements, along with the forces that keep them in His systems. All His programming was done for our benefit. He programmed earth, air, fire, and water for us. Everything there is was programmed because He wanted to give us free will, and use it to choose Him over what He programmed. He gave us neighbors so we could choose to love them or not. Everything there is, is there for every one of us. We should use what He programmed as He intended. We should understand it to help us draw closer to the Loving Programmer Who programmed everything. Simple animations on TV and in movies are a start.
Friday, May 30, 2008 The other side makes truth hard to find, let alone believe in. Those who think they determine reality spend much of their lives attacking and undermining the validity of truth. "Truth doesn't exist. If it did exist, we couldn't prove it." Implicit in their thoughts is that their desires are what matters most. The Roman Catholic Church believes in truth and that man can know it. That's the main reason She is the perpetual target of the Other Side. The second reason is that She tells us to stop worshipping idols. The idol of self, perpetually revered by the Other Side, senses that threat. So, egoists are mobilized against Her. One incontrovertible truth is that the more a person loves himself, the more he hates the Catholic Church. |
