One day we’ll look back and gawk at the strange police state we’re living in. For the record, I kind of hate smoking pot. Calls attention to my – and everyone else’s – weird insecurities. Smoked a lot when I was 15, the feeling hasn’t left me. Maybe I’ll get over that in a thousand years.
Put this on my old blog back in the day, but this song pretty much rules.
I don’t have any great beef with the Mormon church. Despite some strangeness and incongruity in their beliefs (Jesus visiting America), they’re mainly relegated to Utah. Mitt Romney isn’t going anywhere. I looked up Mormon and horses and turns out there’s some controversy with horses in the Book of Mormon:
The Book of Mormon mentions horses, yet these animals seem not to have been known to native Americans who greeted the Spaniards upon their arrival in the New World in the sixteenth century. Moreover, archaeological evidence for the presence of the horse in the pre-Columbian Americas is presently scant and inconclusive. How can this be explained?
Could it also be about these guys?
Found this interesting interview about the Mormon perspective on the Apocalypse.
What is your religion’s classical interpretation (if any) of the Apocalypse?
ANSWER: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that there will be a Second Coming of Christ (also known as the Millennium) to the earth and that the earth will be cleansed at that time. We also believe that a resurrection of souls to their physical bodies will occur. The resurrection will bring souls and bodies back together but our bodies will then be immortal or without blood. The Millennium was prophesied in the Old Testament, and as its name specifies, will last one-thousand years. During the Millennium, LDS belief is that the earth will be cleansed from its current telestial state to a celestial state (this will be at the end of the Millennium). The degrees/kingdoms of glory are a large subject and full descriptions of all three (telestial, terrestrial and celestial) degrees can be found in the Doctrine and Covenants section 76, verses 81-113. Also, we believe there will be more than one resurrection at that time. We also believe that the Millennium will be a time of peace when Christ is on the earth. Events leading up to His coming, will not be peaceful.
Currently reading:
Quantum Psychology- Robert Anton Wilson
Next, I’m going to take a look at:
Quantum Consciousness: The Guide to Experiencing Quantum Psychology – Stephen Wolinsky
From my inbox, via Youtube:
Hey there, Friend !
I have a question for you, a serious question, and please,
think about it seriously…Do you know that after you die, you will have to spend the
ETERNITY in Heaven or HELL ?
There is no other place…What if you die today, or tomorrow ?
Have you ever think about this ?Please make the right decision and take this matter
seriously…Please take a look at this:
I hope you will choose right !!!
Thank you very much, and once again, be careful, this is no laughing matter !
It’s about your ETERNITY !… and don’t forget:
Only Jesus Christ can save you !!!-Repent (Forsake your sins) and start a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ and you will be saved !!!-
Her experience is actually interesting and parallels the abduction phenomenon, except through a different lens. Which makes me sound like some other kind of fundamentalist, but there are interesting open questions about how the brain processes mystical/alien/near death/etc. experiences. And there’s a similarity between many of these stories throughout history, as read here:
Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds
More Alex Jones madness – again linked by the Drudge Report, which I find interesting because Jones is such a rabid Bush-hater.
It was 2017. Clans were governing America.
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.
The dollar had collapsed as world reserve currency in 2012 when the worsening economic depression made it clear to Washington’s creditors that the federal budget deficit was too large to be financed except by the printing of money.
Keeps going…
Also interesting because it’s written by this guy:
Paul Craig Roberts is a former editor and columnist for both the Wall Street Journal and Business Week. He worked as the Assistant Secretary to the Treasury under the Reagan administration, but has since disavowed both the Republicans and Democrats.
Haven’t read the book so I don’t know how much vitriol he directs towards the Reagan Revolution, which deserves a lot. Given his serious credentials, this Kevin Costner movie scenario is even stranger. The man has credibility. He’s a conservative, but a level-headed one:
Paul Craig Roberts: In recent years there has been a redistribution of power in the US from government to private. The US now resembles an oligarchy of private interests. The most powerful ones are Wall Street, AIPAC, the military/security complex, the oil industry, agri-business, insurance and pharmaceuticals. These private interests control economic and foreign policy, write the legislation that Congress passes and the President signs, and have achieved the monopolization of the US economy by large-scale commercial organizations. As far as I can tell, traditional conservatives scarcely exist in the US today. They have been eliminated by the neoconservatives, essentially militarists committed to US world hegemony….
In my experience with libertarians, especially during my tenure as Distinguished Scholar at the Cato Institute during the 1990s, I have encountered an ideological inflexibility, dogma if you will, that turns blind eyes to analytical and empirical evidence. Many, most likely most, libertarians regard jobs off-shoring as the beneficial workings of free trade. Those, such as myself, who present the clear facts of the case are demonized as “protectionists,” which means that libertarians do not have to examine the facts and encounter the empirical evidence.
Daily Bell: You mentioned one of your books. Can you update our audience on some of your other writing?
Paul Craig Roberts: I regard all of my books as important. In my latest book, How The Economy Was Lost, I explain why off-shoring is not free trade. I also explain why the two necessary conditions set out by David Ricardo for the principle of comparative advantage, the basis for free trade, no longer exist. I further explain that when a country moves the production of goods and services that it consumes offshore, GDP growth and consumer incomes are moved offshore as well. Jobs off-shoring or “globalism” is a way to convert US labor income into executive bonuses and capital gains to shareholders. This is the explanation for the rising income inequality in the US.
Daily Bell: And also for rising unemployment?
Paul Craig Roberts: Since 2008 the lowest interest rates and largest federal budget deficits in US history have been unable to stop the rise in US unemployment, much less to call the unemployed back to work. There are no jobs to which to call workers back.
Puts the science fictional fear-mongering in context.
New interview with me at the Kindle Author blog. For some reason, this escaped me in other interviews, but it’s true.
The plot came about in a dream—no kidding. The book’s in part about a writer working on a novel who starts dreaming about people who turn out to be real. In the dreams he’ll see a scene and then a voice will tell him, “This is John Doe, he lives at…” This actually happened—I had a dream where I was told a name. I have no idea what that name is and I never looked it up. More, I woke up thinking this was a possible plot for a novel, which is the same thing the writer thinks in the book.
This sounds made up, but it happened.
Not mentioned there, the rest of the plot came to me in a mad rush in the nights after working at a terrible job on the Santa Monica Promenade, full of nubiles and L.A. consumers. Panicked, I thought, I need to do something with my life, so an office job on the Promenade isn’t my whole future. So I mapped out the story. My future is still to be determined.
A depiction – from the Promenade – about what it felt like to conceive this book:
A confession – I have only read pieces of the Left Behind books. I still might try to absorb the whole thing, but there’s something about the prose that’s just asking me not to read it. The emptiness is so thick I find it hard to pay attention. There’s bad prose and then there’s bad prose.
This excerpt is taken from this post:
A man looking not much younger than Kenny stood. “Sir, if I may argue our side of the issue –”
“Your side? You are accursed! Or are you a believer, confident you shall live past your hundreth birthday?”
“It merely happens that I respectfully disagree –”
“Respectfully? You are fortunate you remain on this Earth, for God willed that your young compatriots become examples for the rest of this nation.”
“But, sir, that is precisely our point. What kind of a loving God is so capricious that He would –”
“Demolish this building!” Tison roared. “Rebuild it as a temple to the Lord. Delight in His ways. Seek His face. Follow His statutes. Never again disobey His commands. And henceforth this land shall be known as Osaze, `loved by God.’ Lest you fear that his wrath evidences something other than His love, imagine what He could have done in the face of this ultimate insult.”
“Now we His servants shall travel throughout Osaze, teaching the whole counsel of God to the wicked and the undecided and the unbelieving. Woe to anyone who attempts to hamper this effort! While the Lord has not told us when He will restore the life-giving waters, He hereby confirms His immediate judgment of sin. There shall be no more even temporary tolerance of disbelief. Those who choose their own way will continue to perish by their hundreth birthdays, and anyone who dares blaspheme before that shall immeidately surely die.”
As Rayford followed Tsion and the others out, the entire auditorium was filled with weeping and men and women pleading for forgiveness and mercy.
It’s amazing how singularly fucking dangerous this is. It’s God as fascist dictator. The Left Behind series is a holocaust fantasy about persecuting non-Christians. No wonder fundamentalist Christians protest mosques or want to go to war with Iran. Non-Christians don’t deserve to live.
Even people who like the books see that it has very little in it about the Christian faith:
Although the main characters in the book become Christians, very little is said about actually following Christ in life. Little is said about any real conversion with regard to living lives of love and service. Nothing is said in this series about embracing the way of the cross as those who are left behind face the years of Tribulation. To be sure, there is some discussion of martyrdom, but it is along the vein of soldiers in Afghanistan giving their lives to the cause. Instead of leading lives that are renewed in daily following Christ, these so-called believers seethe with anger and wish constantly for the privilege of being able to kill the Antichrist.
In other words, this is a book about war, not peace. Meanwhile, Tim LaHaye gets a seat at the table with potential presidential candidates.
The message that I don’t understand is this – why on earth is LaHaye upset that Obama is ushering in the Apocalypse? No End Times means no Second Coming. The same problem occurs in the books. The Tribulation Force tries to stop the rise of Nicolae Carpathia, the Anti-Christ. Why stop the Anti-Christ if he’s a necessary part of the Revelation story? Furthermore, why fear that Obama’s the Anti-Christ – same issue. It’s adding a whole new layer of stupidity to this death cult.
Plainly, the Left Behind series has no common sense. And it’s 70-million strong.
Ah, sure, ‘Revolution’ . There were two versions of that song but the underground left only picked up on the one that said ‘count me out’. The original version which ends up on the LP said ‘count me in’ too; I put in both because I wasn’t sure. There was a third version that was just abstract, musique concrete, kind of loops and that, people screaming. I thought I was painting in sound a picture of revolution–but I made a mistake, you know. The mistake was that it was anti-revolution.
Three stories which outline why the political climate is totally fucked.
Glenn Beck’s Incendiary Angst Is Dangerously Close to Having a Body Count
On his Monday radio show, Glenn Beck highlighted claims that before he started targeting a little-known, left-leaning organization called the Tides Foundation on his Fox News TV show, “nobody knew” what the non-profit was.
Indeed, for more than a year Beck has been portraying the progressive organization as a central player in a larger, nefarious cabal of Marxist/socialist/Nazi Obama-loving outlets determined to destroy democracy in America…
So yes, Beck has done all he can to scare the hell out of people about the Tides Foundation and “turn the light of day” onto an organization that actually facilitates non-profit giving.
And guess what? Everybody in America would have found out about the Tides Foundation last week if Byron Williams had had his way. He’s the right-wing, government-hating, gun-toting nut who strapped on his body armor, stocked a pickup truck with guns and ammo, and set off up the California coast to San Francisco in order to start killing employees at the previously obscure Tides Foundation in hopes of sparking a political revolution.
Meanwhile…
The American people are hurting. As a result of the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, millions of Americans have lost their jobs, homes, life savings and their ability to get a higher education. Today, some 22 percent of our children live in poverty, and millions more have become dependent on food stamps for their food….
But, not everybody is hurting….The 400 richest families in America, who saw their wealth increase by some $400 billion during the Bush years, have now accumulated $1.27 trillion in wealth. Four hundred families! During the last fifteen years, while these enormously rich people became much richer their effective tax rates were slashed almost in half. While the highest-paid 400 Americans had an average income of $345 million in 2007, as a result of Bush tax policy they now pay an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest on record….
The United States must not become an oligarchy in which a handful of wealthy and powerful families control the destiny of our nation. Too many people, from the inception of this country, have struggled and died to maintain our democratic vision. We owe it to them and to our children to maintain it.
So while anti-government zealots are attacking a charitable organization, the lack of government oversight is what’s tearing apart the country. But the teabagging masses don’t realize this and don’t care that corporations are becoming as big as governments.
Remember, this was the French Revolution:
Economic factors included widespread famine and malnutrition, due to rising bread prices (from a normal 8 sous for a 4-pound loaf to 12 sous by the end of 1789), which increased the likelihood of disease and death, and intentional starvation in the most destitute segments of the population in the months immediately before the Revolution. The famine extended even to other parts of Europe, and was not helped by a poor transportation infrastructure for bulk foods.
Another cause was France’s near bankruptcy as a result of the many wars fought by Louis XV as well as financial strain caused by French participation in the American Revolutionary War. The national debt amounted to almost two billion livres. The social burdens caused by war included the huge war debt, made worse by the monarchy’s military failures and ineptitude, and the lack of social services for war veterans. The inefficient and antiquated financial system was unable to manage the national debt, something which was both caused and exacerbated by the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation. Meanwhile the conspicuous consumption of the noble class, especially the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette at Versailles continued despite the financial burden on the populace.
Sounds a little bit familiar. I’m sort of with John Lennon – “When you talk about destruction you can count me out (in).” He had it both ways. Sometimes revolution is what it takes. But the Beckmasters of the world are inspiring revolution against those groups that are actively trying to help people and not the corporatocracy that’s stripping people of wealth.
Here are the richest people in America – including four from Wal-Mart, which has ripped apart entire communities.
1 William Gates III 50,000 Million (Microsoft)
2 Warren Buffett 40,000 Million (Birkshire Hathaway)
3 Lawrence Ellison 27,000 Million (Oracle)
4 Christy Walton & family 21,500 Million (Wal-Mart)
5 Jim C. Walton 19,600 Million (Wal-Mart)
6 Alice Walton 19,300 Million (Wal-Mart)
7 S. Robson Walton 19,000 Million (Wal-Mart)
8 Michael Bloomberg 17,500 Million (Bloomberg)
9 Charles Koch 16,000 Million (Energy, FreedomWorks, finances Tea Parties)
9 David Koch 16,000 Million (Energy, FreedomWorks, finances Tea Parties)
11 Sergey Brin 15,300 Million (Google)
I still don’t get why someone would want to game the system so that they have 19 billion dollars instead of 18. Really, at that level, what’s the difference?
Meanwhile…
Gingrich to blast Obama’s ‘willful blindless’ in security speech
Never one to shy away from his somewhat professorial reputation, Gingrich plans to draw on “the lessons of Camus and Orwell” to explain “the dangers of a wartime government that uses language and misleading labels to obscure reality.”
The whole purpose of the right wing machine seems to be to accuse Obama and the left of everything it does itself. So casting Obama as an Orwellian despot is…Orwellian. Obama’s doing the bidding of what the right wants – we are still in Afghanistan, the clusterfuck, continuing our perpetual war. Obama’s not left wing, and the Tides Foundation or ACLU are not communist organizations. So long as that’s the perception though, the country can be pulled ever rightward, so corporations make endless money, the middle class doesn’t, and wars never end. For the far right, that’s utopia.
