Orgasmic VancouverWe Are What We Pay Attention To2007-03-28T05:36:55ZUser 335http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/OrgSpace NewsLogThe Tyee - Vancouver's Online NewspaperThe Tyee is Vancouver's online daily newspaper, that is an alternative to Canwest the neo-conservative mainstream. Vancouver has the biggest media monopoly in North America. The Tyee was started a few years ago, it has content that is applicable to local politics, and each article has a comments ...Introduction in an article called Blogged Out
The sociology of cyberspace. Damn but I used to enjoy those type of discussions. Started out over at Utne Cafe about ten years ago. The Motet software they used was/is great, it had a lot of navigation and organizational features that reduced the cognitive overhead; for example it would keep track of what you had already read and not clutter the screen with it, and you could construct enumerated lists of posts after the fact that allowed you to extract individual threads from the chaff, and it just had that "flow" that enabled multiple in-depth discussions.
I've found that the significant discussions often take a few hundred, sometimes a few thousand posts to ferret out the taboo, and then that is when the interesting discussion starts. The trolls attempt to confuse the issue before the taboo can be identified. It is nice to have software and moderators that enable the discussion to progress to the crux.
So why am I here? Mainly because this is a local board, and there are people here that I might hook up with out in the real world to work on various causes. I've been at Tyee for a couple of weeks, dropped in a few times over the years but always got frustrated by the limitations of the software, and I'm not sure how long I'll stick around. Good chance I'll be here for awhile, but only hanging out in the threads that particularly interest me.
I'm not sure what label I am, probably an anti-neo-con for the short definition and much much longer to define what I am for. For the most part I think that Left and Right are the good cop bad cop of Empire, the former wants to control the people by making them comfortably numb on dependence, whereas the right prefers to control through fear and intimidation, but neither has any interest in empowering the grassroots. I've very rarely met an anarchist that didn't come across as a self indulgent yahoo with no appreciation for order or obligation. The magnitude of their impact however makes them a lesser evil than the capitalists with their psychopathic idolatry of the dollar. I guess I just have a problem with Western Civilization in general. Chavez inspires me and gives me hope.
When six billion people allow ten thousand to control them they get what they deserve, which isn't to say that it isn't too late to change that condition. We need to rid ourselves of this "individualistic" bill of goods that we've been sold so that we can unite to engage collectively in the larger issues and challenges. The biggest obstacle to this is the propaganda machine of the main stream media which is owned and controlled by the elites.
Blogs don't have the solidarity required, and groups seem to be either isolated or co-opted. I'm hoping that perhaps a cultural evolution arising from an emergent mythology might do the trick.
If you want an education you can get one for free at the library. If you want to be credentialized so that you can get a high paying job in the priesthood of aristocracy then you have to shell out the money. The degree isn't so much to indicate that you have competent knowledge, since the half life is getting so short that most of that will be obsolete within a few years of graduation, but rather to simplify the hiring process and to provide some ensurance to the employer that you can endure at least four years of bullshit without quitting.
Backing off a bit from that extreme position I will acknowledge that there are minimum requirements for most professions. However, it isn't intelligence, competence or knowledge that is the limiting factor, but rather maintaining a scarcity so as to keep the wages high, particularly in the professions of law and medicine. Ask yourself how come a tiny country like Cuba can educate tens of thousands of competent doctors, and yet North America is plagued with malpractice suits. Or how come almost every lawyer that is admitted to law school graduates.
Personally I think that if you want to go through the McJob Factory you should have to pay full cost since you are buying an investment, however if you are taking a liberal arts program for the betterment of society then that should be like a job, with free tuition and a "salary" of ten grand a year, and if you can't maintain a B average you're fired. Required courses would include critical thinking, history, and how to do independent research. Also, that any knowledge produced in a university should belong to the public domain, and that corporations shouldn't be allowed to have patents on this knowledge; which is how it used to be just a few decades ago before the learning institutions were usurped by big business.
I think another alternative that should be investigated is reinstating the guild system upgraded to our modern requirements.
Thanks for the positive feedback. I was offline for most of yesterday, and probably today as well. A lot of these divergent threads have been coming together however and I'll try to sum up some thoughts, which I think qualify as syncronicities of the noosphere, or if that is too woo woo for you, indicators of an implicate order as described by the physicist David Bohm.
I got the Steve Jobs link from a website on spiritual inspiration that gets an average of three new links a day and it arrived the same day I posted it here. A couple of days ago on another site I found a link to this MadTV parody on Jobs. I'm not a Steve groupie, never owned a Mac, find the touch pads infuriating to use, and have a general aversion to how he caters to the cult of cool at an extreme cost premium. I give him begrudging respect for being a bona fide capitalist, unlike some of the poseurs on this site, whom I suspect confuse capital with money, and capitalism with managerialism; the terms described in John Ralston Saul's "The Collapse of Globalism: and the reinvention of the world", which I'm two thirds of the way through and which was overdue at the library as of yesterday. Not that I'm giving capitalism a free ride here, aligning more with anarcho and GWest, but capitalism is not the same animal as the cancerous consumerism combined with neo-liberal economics that has emerged over the last few decades, which more people would be aware of if we had been truly educated rather than indoctrinated.
Both Lynn and The Brain commented on the significance of how The "less sure about everything" periods of one's life, in retrospect, are often such a real gift. About a week ago I syncronicitcly came across this graduate thesis from a Chicago Business school on Social Origins of Good Ideas which provided some sociological context to this thought. People that occupy positions in the overlap of two or more organizations are more likely to have creative ideas and have those ideas acted upon by the management. These are sometimes called "loose connections", or "structural holes" because they allow information to leak out of, and also into, what would otherwise be a homogeneous group. This source of creativity isn't based on deep intellectual ability, but rather on creativity as an import-export business, where the value is determined by the recipient rather than the source. Page 7 has some good quotes on the importance of contact with persons dissimilar to yourself, and how without le vide the emptiness of concept, there is no unexpected things and no creation. The more control the less creation. I think these were benifits that were recognized in the research done by SharingIsGood.
I think the true capitalists are also recognizing social capital as being the wellspring of the knowledge age, and that they will take a stand against the managerialists gorging on the seed corn to satisfy their addiction to total control. Capitalism has yet to be given a fair trial within a knowledge based economy because managerialism came to dominate around the same time that knowledge succeeded manufacturing. Maybe I'm a dreamer but I see hope here.
To conclude this post I'll address the point that Moat raised about the importance of face to face interaction in education, the going beyond the library, by linking to a couple of blog posts I wrote a few years ago. The first is on a Critique of Debate which along with its more civil cousin of "discussion" is behavior that spans the spectrum for online interaction. The second is on Dialogue and behaviors that support dialogue such as: suspension of judgement when listening and speaking, respect for differences, role and status suspension, balancing inquiry and advocacy, and to focus on learning. Extremely difficult and enough to try the patience of a saint. To come full circle David Bohm & Dialogue.]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000138.htm2007-03-28T05:36:55Z2007-03-28T05:41:17ZTips for a Powerful Chinese New YearThese tips for a powerful Chinese New Year arrived in my email this morning and after reading them through I thought that I should refer back to them often. So I'm pasting them here where I won't lose them.
Chinese New Year is a big theme in Vancouver. I started taking Tai Chi lessons last mon...1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.
3. Buy a TIVO, tape your late night shows, and get more sleep.
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement: My purpose is to___________ today.
5. Live with the 3 E's: Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy.
6. Watch more movies, play more games, and read more books than you did in 2006.
7. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, tai chi, qigong, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend more time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less foods that are manufactured in plants.
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water and eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds, and walnuts.
12. Try to make at least 3 people smile each day.
13. Clear your clutter from your house, your car, your desk, and let new and flowing energy into your life.
14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts, or things you cannot control. Instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the energy vampires away.
18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Y our friends will. Stay in touch.
32. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or joyful.
33. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
34. The best is yet to come.
35. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.
36. Do the right thing.
37. Call your mother and father often.
38. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished____________.
39. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
40. Enjoy the ride. Remember that this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass.]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000137.htm2007-02-22T18:11:12Z2007-02-22T18:58:36ZBack OnlineLast summer my computer fritzed out. Seems the power bar I've had since my very first computer had lost all its power to protect. I took it as a sign to take a break and disconnected. Last week I got my new (second hand) ThinkPad laptop, and a connection to the internet once again. Over the next f...Last summer my computer fritzed out. Seems the power bar I've had since my very first computer had lost all its power to protect. I took it as a sign to take a break and disconnected. Last week I got my new (second hand) ThinkPad laptop, and a connection to the internet once again. Over the next few weeks I'll be cleaning up this log, and then trying to get into a regular routine.
Not sure what is happening in the rest of the world, but this city has taken on a new level of magic since around the start of December. Hence the title change, but still in keeping with the Vancouver and OV themes.]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000136.htm2007-02-21T05:19:47Z2007-02-21T05:21:19ZGazan GulagWatching the Gazan Fiasco
The Shame of It All
By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN
A great charade is taking place in front of the world media in the Gaza Strip. It is the staged evacuation of 8000 Jewish settlers from their illegal settlement homes, and it has been carefully designed to create imagery ...
Watching the Gazan Fiasco
The Shame of It All
By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN
A great charade is taking place in front of the world media in the Gaza Strip. It is the staged evacuation of 8000 Jewish settlers from their illegal settlement homes, and it has been carefully designed to create imagery to support Israel's US-backed takeover of the West Bank and cantonization of the Palestinians.
There was never the slightest reason for Israel to send in the army to remove these settlers. The entire operation could have been managed, without the melodrama necessary for a media frenzy, by providing them with a fixed date on which the IDF would withdraw from inside the Gaza Strip. A week before, all the settlers will quietly have left with no TV cameras, no weeping girls, no anguished soldiers, no commentators asking cloying questions of how Jews could remove other Jews from their homes, and no more trauma about their terrible suffering, the world's victims, who therefore have to be helped to kick the Palestinians out of the West Bank.
The settlers will relocate to other parts of Israel and in some cases to other illegal settlements in the West Bank handsomely compensated for their inconvenience. Indeed, each Jewish family leaving the Gaza Strip will receive between $140,000 and $400,000 just for the cost of the home they leave behind. But these details are rarely mentioned in the tempest of reporting on the "great confrontation" and "historical moment" brought to us by Sharon and the thieving, murderous settler-culture he helped create.
On ABC's Nightline Monday night, a reporter interviewed a young, sympathetic Israeli woman from the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim - a girl with sincerity in her voice, holding back tears. She doesn't view the soldiers as her enemy, she says, and doesn't want violence. She will leave even though to do so is causing her great pain. She talked about the tree she planted in front of her home with her brother when she was three; about growing up in the house they were now leaving, the memories, and knowing she could never return; that even if she did, everything she knew would be gone from the scene. The camera then panned to her elderly parents sitting somberly amid boxed-up goods, surveying the scene, looking forlorn and resigned. Her mother was a kindergarten teacher, we are told. She knew just about all of the children who grew up here near the sea.
In the 5 years of Israel's brutal suppression of the Palestinian uprising against the occupation, I never once saw or heard a segment as long and with as much sentimental, human detail as I did here; never once remember a reporter allowing a sympathetic young Palestinian woman, whose home was just bulldozed and who lost everything she owned, tell of her pain and sorrow, of her memories and her family's memories; never got to listen to her reflect on where she would go now and how she would live. And yet in Gaza alone more than 23,000 people have lost their homes to Israeli bulldozers and bombs since September 2000 -- often at a moment's notice on the grounds that they "threatened Israel's security." The vast majority of the destroyed homes were located too close to an IDF military outpost or illegal settlement to be allowed to continue standing. The victims received no compensation for their losses and had no place waiting for them to relocate. Most ended up in temporary UNRWA tent-cities until they could find shelter elsewhere in the densely overcrowded Strip, a quarter of whose best land was inhabited by the 1% of the population that was Jewish and occupying the land at their expense.
Where were the cameramen in May 2004 in Rafah when refugees twice over lost their homes again in a single night's raid, able to retrieve nothing of what they owned? Where were they when bulldozers and tanks tore up paved streets with steel blades, wrecked the sewage and water pipes, cut electricity lines, and demolished a park and a zoo; when snipers shot two children, a brother and sister, feeding their pigeons on the roof of their home? When the occupying army fired a tank shell into a group of peaceful demonstrators killing 14 of them including two children? Where have they been for the past five years when the summer heat of Rafah makes life so unbearable it is all one can do to sit quietly in the shade of one's corrugated tin roof -- because s/he is forbidden to go to the sea, ten minutes' walking distance from the city center? Or because if they ventured to the more open spaces they became walking human targets? And when their citizens resisted, where were the accolades and the admiring media to comment on the "pluck," the "will" and "audacity" of these "young people"?
On Tuesday, 16 August, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that more than 900 journalists from Israel and around the world are covering the events in Gaza, and that hundreds of others are in cities and towns in Israel to cover local reactions. Were there ever that many journalists in one place during the past 5 years to cover the Palestinian Intifada?
Where were the 900 international journalists in April 2002 after the Jenin refugee camp was laid to waste in the matter of a week in a show of pure Israeli hubris and sadism? Where were the 900 international journalists last fall when the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza lay under an Israeli siege and more than 100 civilians were killed? Where were they for five years while the entire physical infrastructure of the Gaza Strip was being destroyed? Which one of them reported that every crime of the Israeli occupation from home demolitions, targeted assassinations and total closures to the murder of civilians and the wanton destruction of commercial and public property- increased significantly in Gaza after Sharon's "Disengagement" Plan - that great step toward peace - was announced?
Where are the hundreds of journalists who should be covering the many non-violent protests by Palestinians and Israelis against the Apartheid Wall? Non-violent protesters met with violence and humiliation by Israeli armed forces? Where are the hundreds of journalists who should be reporting on the economic and geographic encirclement of Palestinian East Jerusalem and of the bisection of the West Bank and the subdivision of each region into dozens of isolated mini-prisons? Why aren't we being barraged by outraged reports about the Jewish-only bypass roads? About the hundreds of pointless internal checkpoints? About the countless untried executions and maimings? About the torture and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons?
Where were these hundreds of journalists when each of the 680 Palestinian children shot to death by Israeli soldiers over the last 5 years was laid to rest by grief-stricken family members? The shame of it all defies words.
Now instead report after report announces the "end to the 38 year old occupation" of the Gaza Strip, a "turning point for peace" and the news that "it is now illegal for Israelis to live in Gaza." Is this some kind of joke?
Yes, it is "illegal for Israelis to live in the Gaza Strip" as colonizers from another land. It has been illegal for 38 years. (If they wish to move there and live as equals with the Palestinians and not as Israeli citizens they may do so.)
Sharon's unilateral "Disengagement" plan is not ending the occupation of Gaza. The Israelis are not relinquishing control over the Strip. They are retaining control of all land, air and sea borders including the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza/Egypt border where the Egyptians may be allowed to patrol under Israel's watchful eye and according to Israel's strictest terms. The 1.4 million inhabitants of Gaza remain prisoners in a giant penal colony, despite what their partisan leaders are attempting to claim. The IDF is merely redeploying outside the Gaza Strip, which is surrounded by electrical and concrete fences, barbed wire, watchtowers, armed guards and motion censors, and it will retain the authority to invade Gaza on a whim. Eight thousand Palestinian workers working in Israel for slave wages will soon be banned from returning to work. Another 3,200 Palestinians who worked in the settlements for a sub-minimum-wage have been summarily dismissed without recourse to severance pay or other forms of compensation. Still others will lose their livelihoods when the Israelis move the Gaza Industrial Zone from Erez to somewhere in the Negev desert.
The World Bank reported in December 2004 that both poverty and unemployment will rise following the "Disengagement" even under the best of circumstances because Israel will retain full control over the movement of goods in and out of Gaza, will maintain an enforced separation of the West Bank and Gaza preventing the residents of each from visiting one another, and will draw up separate customs agreements with each zone severing their already shattered economies-- and yet we are forced to listen day in and day out to news about this historic peace initiative, this great turning point in the career of Ariel Sharon, this story of national trauma for the brothers and sisters who have had to carry out the painful orders of their wise and besieged leader.
What will it take to get the truth across to people? To the young woman of Neve Dekalim who can speak her words without batting an eyelash of embarrassment or shame? As the cameras zoom in on angry settlers poignantly clashing with their "brothers and sisters" in the Israeli army, who will be concerned about their other brothers and sisters in Gaza? When will the Palestinian history of 1948 and 1967, and of each passing day under the violence of dispossession and dehumanization, get a headline in our papers?
I am reminded of an interview I had this summer in Beirut with Hussein Nabulsi of Hizbullah an organization that has had nothing to do with the movement for Palestinian national liberation whatsoever, but one that has become allied with those it sees as the real victims of US and Israeli policies and lies. I remember his tightly shut eyes and his clenched fists as he asked how long Arabs and Muslims were supposed to accept the accusations that they are the victimizers and the terrorists. "It hurts," he said in a whispered ardor. "It hurts so much to watch this injustice every day." And he went on to explain to me why the Americans and the Israelis with their monstrous military arsenals will never be victorious.
Jennifer Loewenstein will be a viisiting Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University beginning this fall. She can be reached: amadea311@earthlink.net
CounterPunch]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000135.htm2005-08-18T20:01:59Z2005-08-18T20:01:59ZSteven Wright Witticisms
1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize .
2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.
3 - Half the people you know are below average.
4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5 - 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6 - A conscience is what hurts wh... 1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize .
2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.
3 - Half the people you know are below average.
4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5 - 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign ! of a bad memory.
8 - If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
9 - All those who believe in psycho-kinesis, raise my hand.
10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
11 - I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.
12 - OK, so what's the speed of dark?
13 - How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
14 - If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked
something.
15 - Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
16 - When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
17 - Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
18 - Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.
19 - I intend to live forever -- so far, so good.
20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
23 - My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your
horn louder."
24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
25 - If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
27 - Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
28 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
29 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is
research.
30 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
31 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
32 - The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
33 - Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film. ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000132.htm2005-01-28T22:46:56Z2005-02-03T10:20:47ZAluna JoyThis is the latest message from - Aluna Joy Yaxk'in - http://www.1spirit.com/alunajoy
She gives assurance that the everything is unfolding according to plan and maybe even a little ahead of schedule. Nuclear war would put too much of a crimp in the plan and it will not be allowed to happen. Th...Over the last decade the Star Elders have been sharing stories with me. Many of their stories talk about the changing times we are in. They told me over and over that it's going to be confusing, and it could get messy as we tear down the old structures to make room for the new ones. They say Earth changes and shifts, a natural occurring event, will be significantly less dangerous or life threatening than predicted, and unequivocally, without a doubt, no nuclear war will take place. Divine intervention will stop any government, or terrorist from dropping a nuclear bomb anywhere on earth again. We are being watched over and many attacks have already be averted.
WHY they say no more nukes. Nuclear bombs crack souls. Cracked souls don't evolve normally. They are highly susceptible to an entity attack, psychic attack, and can be used by dark forces as pawns for their controlling and disempowering agendas. No matter how hard these cracked souls try, they can't seem to heal their problems. Most of their lifetime is spent struggling between trying to fix the problem, and justifying it. They feel out of control and lost. Cracked souls can take hundreds of Earth years to heal. If it is not healed, the cracked soul will reincarnated over and over again and have uncountable difficult lives and hurt a lot of people in the process.
I have had personal experience with a cracked soul. It was my father. He lived a tortured life that he could never make resolution with. As a child I felt compelled to try to help him. In my dreams I could see a strange black animal attacking him. I would wake from these dreams crying in a cold sweat. I spent a lot of time trying to fix my dad. When I got older I finally gave up. I didn't understand what I was dealing with. It left me with a great sense of failure. I began to think that it was just a childish dream, until the day he passed. This was the day I was able to dislodge and clear the dark being from him, and help send my dad to a place where his soul could be healed. His next life will be a blissful one. He deserves it.
The Star Elders shared two ways souls can become cracked. A nuclear bomb, as I've already shared, and also the misuse of certain types of technology. During the times of Atlantis they had the use of this technology, and they were misusing it. This misuse caused the fall. It cracked an unaccountable number of souls, many of which are reincarnating today. I'm sure there are a lot of healers that have clients that they can't seem to help. The biggest problem with a person incarnating with a cracked soul is that you can't fix the soul while they're alive. The soul can only be healed after they have crossed over. Once the person drops the body we can ask that they be taken to the place that heals cracked souls. It's a huge undertaking and a hard process, but it is not impossible.
This is why the Star Elders say there will be Divine Intervention if a nuclear bomb is to be dropped again on this earth. We will not be destroyed by a nuclear blast. We will not be allowed to wipe ourselves out in this way. Things might get pretty messy as we begin to rebuild a new world, but there are greater forces at hand than our own. They will not let us crack souls ever again. There is a divine plan even though it looks bad at the moment.
The Star Elders share that it is really important that we don't go into fear at this time of change. Fear is the fastest and most efficient way to disconnect ourselves from our own personal truth, light, and power within. When we are in fear, we can not access spirit, and we can not access truth. We simply freeze up and can become fair game for those that would like to control the world.
Buddhist monks practice non-permanence. With non-permanence it is very hard to go into fear. You do not worry about your physical body or your material possessions because you understand they are impermanent. Negative future predictions can be faced in a neutral way, since there is no attachment. You become a powerful and clear witness to the material world around you, and you can make your choices from that clear place.
Many people are beginning to report going into a void place that I perceive is a bridge between this world and the next. When there, you may feel disconnected from most of life as it is now. You might lose your motivation, inspiration, passion, your Mo-Jo and feel fuzzed out. At first glance, we might think this is a negative. As many people are going through this at the same time, we begin to realize the awesome truth; we are heading through that prophesied doorway into a new world. It's happening. We are not just practicing non-permanence. We are actually living it by letting go of our worldly attachments. The more we let go of our attachments, the easier it will be to enter that New World.
In the wake of the worse tsunami disaster that we have seen in recorded history, we have to wonder why thousands and thousands of Buddhists, who practice non-permanence, have crossed over. Having taken the Bodhisattva vow to be of service to humanity, are they helping us now by building a bridge for humanity to this new world? Are they giving us a reason to forget our differences and finally have peace?
The Star Elders say that what we're about to do has never been done before. We have had dress rehearsals in ages past, but this is the time that we will actually shift into a New Age in a physical body and become spiritually aware. The Star Elders say this is why the Earth is so crowded with so many souls at this time. Not only is this the most amazing time that Earth has ever experienced, but it is also an unparalleled evolutionary jump for the soul, for those that choose to shift with the planet. Nearing the time of the final shift, the Star Elders will be with us once again. They tell me that they are not going to let us have all the fun. : )
Now about those beings wanting to control you and the world around you, the Star Elders have this to say. Any person in a place of authority that is misusing his/her power will discover all that was misused, will come back a hundredfold to set things right. The wolves of the world will be stripped of their sheep's clothing. Old ways will began to die away to make room for new ways. World powers are on a course of self-destruction. All we have to do is to stand back out of the way, and watch the darkness fall away. What an absolute blast it will be to watch Universal Justice in action.
Many are being called to help ones in need. We are beginning to gather the warriors of light. It is the gathering of the Eagles. We are all taking our positions and setting things into place. We will be in the right place, at the right time, for what we have to offer. Isn't this amazing?!
The Star Elders, the Great White Brotherhood, Lord Meru and the Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, and all the other master buddies, are speaking strongly these days. There's no time or space left for humanity to go into fear. Our senses can deceive us. What we see with our eyes can deceive us. What we read can deceive us. What we hear can deceive us. Listen to the truth within. I can't say this strongly enough. The Star Elders say that we will be Victorious! Did you hear that? We will be Victorious! So quit worrying about the multitude of negative predictions and accelerated earth events out there.
When we know that fear cuts us off from our inner truth, wouldn't the control mongers of the world know this to! Wouldn't they use this knowledge and try to control us by projecting fearful predictions? Did it ever occur to you that negative predictions, conspiracy theories, and all the other fearful things we hear about might be put into place for the simple reason to shut us down, so we can't access our truth? Remember the outer world can confuse us at this time. Listen within.
When we let go of fear, we can access our truth. In the coming months and years ahead, as we enter a time that is miraculous, amazing, a little strange, and so very new, don't worry; be happy. Or as they say here in the Southwest, don't worry; be Hopi. Know that we/you/us will be victorious, and the truth within is the only truth to listen to as the rest will fade into an illusion.
So here below is a link to the web site that shares the Tibetan Monks‚ vision that validates all that I have said above. I hope you take into your hearts this positive message from yet another source. Read it here at this link ... http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/12-26-04.asp]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000130.htm2005-01-23T23:56:11Z2005-01-24T05:43:33ZBush DeconstructedThere is such a difference between what a person says and what they really mean as deduced in hindsight. It's difficult at the best of times to understand George's incoherent ramblings, and even though he was not the author of his 2005 Inaugural Address, the editors at Signs of the Times thought i...Mirror, mirror, on the wall...
On this day marked by flagrant and unnecessary excess, and while the people of Iraq continue to suffer and die by our hand, we celebrate the material trappings that define our culture. I am grateful for the rigged voting machines of Diebold, the spin doctors in the media, and the Machiavellian tactics of my handler Karl Rove; and with a specious mandate, I'm determined to spend my political capital, now free to do whatever I damn well please.
Our duties are not defined by these words written for me, but by the reality that I alone create. For half a century, America has imposed it's will on any third world government that refused to capitulate to it's totalitarian demands. After Communism, there appeared to be years of relative quiet, while our secret undercover intelligence operatives staged successful coup-d'état's and political assassinations, installing ruthless puppet dictators in poorer countries so that we could exploit their people and resources. After years of this tactic, we got tired of operating in secret, and decided to bring the show out into the open by deliberately staging our own day of fire.
We have taken advantage of our vulnerable citizenry - by exploiting the source of their deepest fears. For as long as recalcitrant regions of the world refuse to bend to America's will - we will accuse them of resentment and tyranny - we will use our agents in the media to endlessly repeat lies about their ideologies of hatred and murder - and the imaginary spectre of a mortal threat - all the while using our own violence and destructive power against them. There is no force in history that can break our reign of fear-mongering and intimidation, nor one that can expose the pretensions of tyrants like myself and my neocon cabinet. We will dash the rewards and hopes of the decent and tolerant, knowing full well that people will choose slavery as long as we can convince them that they are free.
We are led by dark and malicious forces that we barely comprehend, but whose conclusions we will blindly follow to the bitter end. The survival and success of their nefarious agenda increasingly depends on continued invasion and occupation of other lands. The best hope for all out apocalyptic war in our world is the relentless expansion of American hegemony in all the world.
The interests of the neocon/Zionist alliance, now in control in America, in manipulating the deepest fears of the populace are now one. From the day of our founding, we have prattled on about rights, freedoms and dignity, while at the same time acting to ensure that nothing of the sort should ever become reality. We invoke the name of Jehovah/Yahweh at every opportunity so that the faceless multitudes should cower and tremble upon hearing his name. We peddle the lie of self-government while we wholly govern everything about you, we take it upon ourselves to become your masters because you so willingly agree to become our slaves. Advancing the interests of the wealthy and ruling elite is the mission that created our nation, paid for by the blood and sweat of your fathers. Once again we invoke the illusion of security so that you may all offer your sons and daughters as cannon fodder in the upcoming war to end all wars. It is the urgent calling of our time.
Watch out Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and all you other Middle Eastern nations, what is happening in Iraq will soon be happening to you. It is the ultimate goal of spreading American tyranny throughout your land, and inevitably engaging the entire world.
This is primarily a task of arms, as in testing the latest warfare technology on innocent civilians in developing nations, and we will use this force of arms indiscriminately and without provocation while saying that we are acting in our own defense. Freedom, by it's nature, must be believed by those we wish to enslave, they must believe that they choose it willingly, and thus can be easily coerced into defending their slavery, even at the cost of their own lives. And when a nation, or more accurately a nation's leader, doesn't have a soul, it's institutions, customs and traditions will reflect this absence. America has always imposed it's own style of totalitarianism, especially on the unwilling. It's goal is to plunder and decimate their people and resources, quell the voice of dissent, help other nations attain their own slavery, and imprison and kill those who would speak the truth or stand in it's way.
The ruling elite know full well that the implementation of global tyranny is the work of many generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for publicizing it, for it's success is dependent on it's secrecy. Now that I have been given a second mandate, America's influence is practically unlimited, which is fortunate for us, but most unfortunate for the world's oppressed, because our version of freedom, as seen in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, is about to be imposed on the world at large.
My most solemn duty is to disguise my true intentions, and keep repeating blatant lies about further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to question my fundamentalist belief system and found it to be rigid and dogmatic.
I always speak in simplistic dualisms, like either you are with us or against us. And I mean it when I say every ruler and every nation better heed my words because the runaway freight train of American-style democracy will soon be battering down your doors. The American government will spare no effort to ensure that all dissidents, foreign and domestic, will end up in chains, and that the soldiers in my army will inflict the maximum amount of humiliation and servitude upon any men and women unfortunate enough to be labeled as enemy combatants - because when you strip away my facade of kindness and compassion, I am nothing more than an arrogant bully.
We will continue to propagate whatever lies we like about other governments and how they treat their own people in order to justify future military action. America's contempt for human dignity will continue to guide our policies, and we will only grudgingly pay lip-service to the notion of "rights" because we must hide the fact that we are really a bunch of petty dictators; our fear of dissent is only matched by our overwhelming scorn for the people we govern. And as long as I'm in power, there will be no justice, no freedom, no human rights, and no human liberty.
Some, I know, have questioned my psychopathic rantings, though as Adolf Hitler, my mentor in history, used to say: A good dictator can never allow any sort of doubt. Americans, of all people, are not likely to wake up to the bubble of illusion that I have surrounded them with. Even though fascism will emerge right before their eyes, they will not accept the truth of my permanent tyranny and the high probability of their permanent slavery. For pain and suffering will come to those who fear it most and are aware of it least.
Today, America spouts the same tired rhetoric to the peoples of the world: All who live in fear of my tyranny shall be filled with hopelessness: the United States will augment your oppression, facilitate your oppressors. When you try to stand up for your liberty, we will shoot you down like dogs and label you "insurgents".
Democratic reformers who are repressed, in prison or in exile can know for certain: America sees what you are trying to do: and our future leaders will make sure you stay that way.
The rulers of nations that we define as outlaw regimes can know that we will quote from any dead former President if it serves our ends. Even though the words of Abraham Lincoln apply more to us than any other country, it won't stop us from seeing this sick and twisted charade to its final conclusion.
The leaders of governments who desire to emulate America's long habit of control need to know: To serve your people you must first capitulate to our will. Start on this journey of fear-mongering and intimidation and America will walk behind you with a smile on it's face and a knife at your back. And all the allies of the United States can know: your subservience will be rewarded, and even though we don't give a whit about your counsel and help, stick with us long enough and you may share in the spoils of our campaign of terror. Divide and conquer is our modus operandi. The unilateral effort of the world's greatest superpower will snuff out any chance of true democracy, and ensure whoever we label as an enemy will ultimately be defeated.
Today, I also regurgitate the same tired rhetoric to my loyal serfs and chattel: From all of you I have demanded your total obedience and unwavering sacrifice of your young in the name of national security, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has waged an unnecessary, illegal and immoral war half a world away, whose obligations become more and more difficult to fulfill. But despite the ever-growing number of dead, and because I declare that it would be dishonourable to abandon this task, we may need to reinstate the military draft in the near future. Yet because the lives of the common folk are so insignificant to our plans for global domination, tens of millions have achieved a premature exit from this earthly plane. And if all goes according to plan, tens of millions more will be sacrificed before my bloodlust is satiated. By the efforts of a powerful and sinister few, we have lit the entire world on fire, a fire we hope will engulf every nation and every person in its all-consuming wrath. It warms the fireplaces of my heavily guarded fortress, it burns to a cinder everyone else who is unfortunate enough not to be me, and one day this untamed fire of my God's aggression will encompass all four corners of the globe.
A few American and Israeli secret service agents have accepted the hardest duties in this cause - in the quiet work of intelligence and black-ops ... the undercover work of creating the most spectacular false-flag operation in all of history ... the stupendous feat of undertaking a new Pearl Harbour ... infiltrating and bypassing the most fortified defenses in the world by hijacking four jumbo jets and crashing them into buildings on September 11, 2001 ... and to top it all off, blaming the entire operation on a group of cave dwelling radicals in a country we had already planned to invade years earlier. They have shown their devotion to the ruling elite by sacrificing the lives of 3,000 innocent people, and shall be honoured their whole lives - and my masters will always be grateful, for none of this would have been possible without them.
Thanks to the media, all Americans were witness to this horrible spectacle, most for the umpteenth time. I ask our youngest citizens to unquestioningly believe the "official version" even if the evidence contradicts their very eyes. You have seen the lengths of depravity we will go to ensure that our agenda is finally realized. You have seen that life is fragile, believed that the illusion is real, and ensured that evil triumphs. You've blindly made the default choice to serve a cause antithetical to the truth, a choice that favours entropy, one that is at odds with the higher part of yourself - and in these last days you will add not just to the demise of your country, but indeed to revealing its true character.
America depends on illusory idealism and rabid nationalism, because there is still much work to be done at home - the unfinished work of preparing the hypnotized populace for economic meltdown and the imposition of martial law. In a world moving toward greater polarization, myself and the powers that be are determined to use your unwavering faith in our "high moral character" to show the real world effects of giving away your free will to small group of greedy psychopathic madmen.
In the American version of freedom and democracy, citizens find great comfort and security in these lofty ideals, content with the material trifles of fast food and electronic gadgets, falsely believing themselves to be economically independent, all the while their entire financial system is on the verge of collapse. While the majority remains sleepily content and thinks freedom is being able to choose between different brands of carbonated sugar water, my government can then enact such draconian laws as the Homeland Security and Patriot Acts without a whisper of protest. My latest tour-de-force is to pilfer what is left of Social Security under the guise of "reform" in order to fuel my insatiable war machine. I will continue to feed you lies about having a stake in the future of our country, the high standards of our schools, and about building an ownership society. I will distract your attention away from the carnage in Iraq by talking about retirement savings, health insurance and a free society, all the while putting your sons and daughters on the battlefield in harms way with outdated equipment, and cutting their benefits when they return home either maimed or in a box. By convincing every citizen that they are indeed a master of their own destiny, when exactly the opposite is true, by motivating them with fear, bread and circuses, bankrupting society, lining my own pockets, and spouting trite slogans about prosperity, justice and equality, we will fill our fellow Americans with pride when they willingly sacrifice themselves for the fatherland, all the while dreaming that they are free.
In America's illusory ideal of freedom, the private interest depends entirely on the suggestibility of the public - on the false integrity of their egos coupled with a deep intolerance towards others, and their willingness to be ruled by those in positions of authority. We will continue to govern and control you by repeating the lie that you in fact govern yourselves. I will invoke the names of all three monotheistic religions to give the appearance of fairness, but we all know which one I've been talking to directly, which of course is the only one true God. Americans continue to stagnate in every generation, repeating the same mistakes of the those who came before - ignoring the truth of a grand inter-generational conspiracy which ensures that the keeper of my DNA will always be the one to sit upon the throne, while your descendants continue to live in squalor and do my dirty work. This is the true reality of justice in America as it was the same yesterday, today, and forever.
In America's illusory ideal of freedom, the only rights the weak have is to do service for those in power. The only mercy I will show, like I did when executing people as governor of Texas, will indeed be a reflection of the true nature of my heart. Liberty for all is another hypnotic phrase which is essentially meaningless given the reality of our disparate social positions, and talk of interdependence, the worthiness of the unwanted and neighbourly love are designed specifically to manipulate your emotions and direct away from the fact that judging by my past behaviour, deep down inside, I am racist and a bigot too.
I can say whatever meaningless gobbledygook my speechwriters put on these cards as long as it has the words "freedom" and "character" in it, knowing the sheeple will lap it up.
I am a uniter and all terrorists are dividers. I am a great healer for the wound that was inflicted upon us, because of my special relationship with that booming authoritarian voice in my head. I put my hand over my heart in a symbolic act of false piety, hopefully engendering feelings of pride and unity in my subordinates. Again, I'll make subtle reference to 9/11, and those poor victims of our deliberate attack upon ourselves, so as to remind all my slavish supporters that them evil terrorists are now on every street corner and under every bed. I'll throw in a couple more "freedoms" and "justice" because it looks like I'm getting near the end of this speech.
I am now confident with my Texan swagger and direct connection to the Almighty that I can wage war indiscriminately and with abandon, as the Good Lord has promised me a heavenly reward should I fulfill His mandate of wiping out all the brown-skinned people who stand in His way on the path to absolute and total dominion over this dark planet. God has chosen ME to usher in these end times, to fill up the hole in His blackest of souls, to feed the hunger that gnaws at His gut. I'm George W. Bush, and I am on a mission for the Author of this reality. This is my destiny. Better throw in a couple more "liberty's" and freedoms", just to be sure.
By invoking the sentimentality of American history ingrained into each citizen by repeated indoctrination in the education system, once again I reaffirm by explicit intentions to bomb the hell out of any country that so much as looks at me the wrong way. Amen.
...who's the most evil of them all.]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000129.htm2005-01-21T23:26:35Z2005-01-21T23:41:20ZAn Alter Ant
this herd won't get burned again by fantasy
they desire and demand what is in it for us
so harmonic convergence rising up in ectasy
a choir inspired from this continual chorus
alternet which falters not the sacred trust
persists and prevails in a cause we're just
ants tap-dancing on the el... this herd won't get burned again by fantasy
]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000124.htm2004-12-22T20:39:17Z2007-03-28T05:53:04ZNew Dawn MagazineNew Dawn Magazine lists itself as a journal of alternative news & information: for a new consciousness, a new humanity, a new era!
It has a 190 articles on the site under the following categories:
• New World Order • Ancient Egypt
• Mind Control • UFO/Alien Phenomenon
•...New Dawn Magazine lists itself as a journal of alternative news & information: for a new consciousness, a new humanity, a new era!
It has a 190 articles on the site under the following categories:
• New World Order • Ancient Egypt • Mind Control • UFO/Alien Phenomenon • Looking into the Future • Esoteric/Metaphysics • Behind the News • Mysteries • Big Brother • Health • Political / Economics • Middle East • Ancient Civilisation • Miscellaneous
Now I haven't checked out all of these, but they do sound like the type of thing that might interest some of the people that hang out here at NCN. :-)]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000123.htm2004-11-16T07:14:13Z2004-12-04T13:02:21ZThe PNAC OppositionThe Project for the New American Century (PNAC) is the white paper that outlines the Neo Conservative agenda for a Pax Americana and full spectrum dominance on all fronts, in short the blue print for world domination. This Document is to the Neo-Conservatives as Mein Kampf was to Hitler.
The P...The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) is the white paper that outlines the Neo Conservative agenda for a Pax Americana and full spectrum dominance on all fronts, in short the blue print for world domination. This Document is to the Neo-Conservatives as Mein Kampf was to Hitler.
The Project for the Old American Century (POAC) is a grassroots liberal news site that analyzes the PNAC document, and tracks the latest actions of the Neo-Conservatives. It is a well organized site with lots of information and much more than a Bush bash. Some of the articles go into detail, and others are formatted to be printed and distributed. Lots of good pictures, many of which are reminiscent of the WWII recruitment posters, and they don't mind if you use them. There is also background information on the prime suspects and ring leaders. They also have discussion sites, which are considered enough of a threat that the right wing crashes them once in awhile, but they don't stay down for long. All in all a most excellent site that is updated on a daily basis with the latest breaking stories from around the web.]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v335/__show_article/_a000335-000122.htm2004-11-14T08:40:49Z2004-11-14T08:44:13Z
Introduction in an article called Blogged Out
New Dawn Magazine lists itself as a journal of alternative news & information: for a new consciousness, a new humanity, a new era!
The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) is the white paper that outlines the Neo Conservative agenda for a Pax Americana and full spectrum dominance on all fronts, in short the blue print for world domination. This Document is to the Neo-Conservatives as Mein Kampf was to Hitler.