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25 Apr 2007 @ 20:12, by a-d. Spirituality
s it time to grow our souls? /// by Grace Lee Boggs ///
[link]
Easter Sunday morning I heard a fascinating talk on Spirituality by Karen Armstrong on CSPAN.
Karen Armstrong, often called “the runaway nun,” left the convent in her early 20s, turning her back on the “narrow gate” of religion. Fifteen years later, while working on a film on Jerusalem, she started investigating the origins of Judaism. This led to her studying and writing readable books on the history of different religions.
I discovered her work after 9/11 when I wanted to know more about Islam.
In her latest book, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, Armstrong explains how the great faiths (Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, the Upanishads, the Hebrew Prophets) emerged during the 700 years from 900-200 B.C. in countries like China and India, This was a period, sometimes called the ”Axial Age,” when societies on the Eurasian continent were undergoing a great transition: from tribalism, in which individuals were submerged in the community, to urban ways of living which challenged individuals to figure things out for themselves. More >
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 25 Apr 2007 @ 18:05, by Unknown. Recreation, Fun
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25 Apr 2007 @ 14:17, by ming. Science
PhysicsWeb. I'm not sure I understand it well, but the scientific discussion seems to be on whether there are hidden variables in the universe that make reality exist in a consistent way, even when nobody's looking at it. And whether the universe is basically local or non-local. "Local" would mean that one can separate events completely from each other, so that they can't instantenously influence other events.Markus Aspelmeyer, Anton Zeilinger and colleagues from the University of Vienna, however, have now shown that realism is more of a problem than locality in the quantum world. They devised an experiment that violates a different inequality proposed by physicist Anthony Leggett in 2003 that relies only on realism, and relaxes the reliance on locality. To do this, rather than taking measurements along just one plane of polarization, the Austrian team took measurements in additional, perpendicular planes to check for elliptical polarization.
They found that, just as in the realizations of Bell's thought experiment, Leggett's inequality is violated – thus stressing the quantum-mechanical assertion that reality does not exist when we're not observing it. "Our study shows that 'just' giving up the concept of locality would not be enough to obtain a more complete description of quantum mechanics," Aspelmeyer told Physics Web. "You would also have to give up certain intuitive features of realism." Sounds like they're saying that experiements really do confirm that reality isn't real unless somebody's looking at it, and that everything is instantanously connected with everything else, so you can't isolate any piece of anything and claim that it has a real existence, separate from everything else, and seperate from who's observing it. I sort of figured as much, but it sounds good if they're rocking the boat a bit by proving it. More >
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 25 Apr 2007 @ 09:53, by jazzolog. Politics
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands … is the definition of tyranny.
---James Madison
I know something which is known to few but is not a secret. Karl Rove is not a believer, and he doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but when asked, he answers quite honestly. I think the way he puts it is, “I’m not fortunate enough to be a person of faith.”
---Christopher Hitchens
Rove was asked whose idea it was to start a pre-emptive war in Iraq.
"I think it was Osama bin Laden's", Rove replied.
---The Akron Beacon Journal, 4/19/07 [link]
You won't get an argument from me about the man's brilliance. I do confess wonder at how someone can enjoy the intense level of hatred expressed toward him. I've never had the control on my own anger levels enough to laugh at a person who responds extremely to my taunting. I'm uncomfortable in such a situation, but I understand there are those who love to create that tension. There must be people who adore him, such as those who come to his speeches. Does he have a family or anything like that?
Maybe we'll find out as announcement comes from the White House of the unleashing of an internal investigation by Special Counsel Scott Bloch of Mr. Rove's political shenanigans. My heart leapt with the news...at first. Then I began to wonder. More >
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24 Apr 2007 @ 04:48, by vaxen. Altered States
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” --- 1st Baron Lytton
The Legend of the Nine Unknown Men
by Manuel Sancho
Edited, for clarity, by RA
The Legend of the Nine Unknown Men
(based in Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier writings)
This legend goes back to the time of the Emperor Asoka, who reigned in India from 273 B.C. He was the grandson of Chandragupta who was the first to unify India.
Ambitious like his ancestor whose achievements he was anxious to complete, he conquered the region of Kalinga which lay between what is now Calcutta and Madras. The Kalingans resisted and lost 100,000 men in the battle.
At the sight of this massacre Asoka was overcome. Forever after he experienced a horror of war. He renounced the idea of trying to integrate the rebellious people, declaring that the only true conquest was to win men's hearts by observance of the laws of duty and piety, because the Sacred Majesty desired that all living creatures should enjoy security, peace and happiness and be free to live as they pleased.
A convert to Buddhism, Asoka, by his own virtuous example, spread this religion throughout India and his entire empire which included Malaya, Ceylon and Indonesia. Later Buddhism penetrated to Nepal, Tibet, China and Mongolia. Asoka nevertheless respected all religious sects.
He preached vegetarianism, abolished alcohol and the slaughter of animals. H.G. Wells, in his abridged version of his _Outline Of World History_ wrote: "Among the tens of thousands of names of monarchs accumulated in the files of history, the name of Asoka shines almost alone, like a star."
It is said that the Emperor Asoka, aware of the horrors of war, wished to forbid men ever to put their intelligence to evil uses. During his reign natural science, past and present, was vowed to secrecy. Henceforward, and for the next 2,000 years, all researches, ranging from the structure of matter to the techniques employed in collective psychology, were to be hidden behind the mystical mask of a people commonly believed to be exclusively concerned with ectasy and supernatural phenomena. Asoka founded the most powerful secret society on earth: that of the Nine Unknown Men.
It is still thought that the great men responsible fro the destiny of modern India, and scientists like Bose and Ram believe in the existence of the Nine, and even receive advice and messages from them. One can imagine the extraordinary importance of secret knowledge in the hands of nine men benefiting directly from experiments, studies and documents accumulated over a period of more than 2,000 years.
What can have been the aim of these men?
Not to allow methods of destruction to fall into the hands of unqualified persons and to pursue knowledge which would benefit mankind. More >
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23 Apr 2007 @ 14:06, by redstar. Environment, Ecology
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
[link]
In a time when concerned activists and ecologists continually point to mankind's progressively selfish destruction of the planet, the thoughtless eradication of countless species, and the decadent waste of vital resources, it would now appear that mobile phone users have shifted into the spotlight of criticism where impending doom is concerned.More specifically, certain scientific quarters are suggesting that the proliferation of the mobile phone could pave the way to huge food shortages caused by failing harvests around the world, reports the Belfast Telegraph.Although April 01 has already passed, the worrying theory offered up by scientists is no prank, and it points out that the levels of radiation emitted by mobile phones could well be a defining influence in the sudden decline of crop-pollinating honeybees. Odd as it may sound, the swift disappearance of the honeybee has spread from the U.S. through to mainland Europe, and is now also said to be having an impact on the United Kingdom.Scientists, armed with compelling evidence, are now implying that the massive amounts of radiation produced by mobile phone use is actually frying the usually razor-sharp navigational skills of the honeybees and preventing them from returning back to their hives.
[link] More >
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 23 Apr 2007 @ 06:39, by skookum. Ideas, Creativity
as they are the yin and yang of Asian tradition... More >
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23 Apr 2007 @ 05:20, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
FUNNY MONEY
Americans are living in what is called the richest nation on earth, yet they seem to always
be short of money. Wives are working in unprecedented numbers, husbands hope for overtime
hours to earn more, or take part-time jobs evenings and weekends, and children look for odd
jobs for spending money. The family debt climbs ever higher and many Americans live from
paycheck to paycheck or live only by borrowing on credit cards. Psychologists say one of the
biggest causes of family quarrels and breakups is caused by 'arguments over money.' Much of
this trouble can be traced to our present "debt-money' system. We have all seen the
devastaion done by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The primary reason that the death toll
was over 1000 is because those people did not even have enough money to get bus
transportation out of the city to save their lives. The state and federal government also
failed to help them so they just literally "drowned in debt."
ALL of our money has been created and issued by an illegal method that will eventually
destroy the United States if it is not changed. Prior to 1913, America was a prosperous,
powerful, and growing nation, at peace with its neighbors and the envy of the world. But, in
December of 1913, Congress, with many members away for the Christmas holidays, passed what
has since been known as the FEDERAL RESERVE ACT. Omitting the gruesome details, it simply
authorized the establishment of a Federal Reserve Corporation, with a Board of Directors
(The Federal Reserve Board) to run it, and the United States was divided into 12 Federal
Reserve "Districts."
This simple, but terrible, law completely removed from Congress the right to "create" money
or to have any control over its "creation," and gave that function to the Federal Reserve
Corporation. This was done with appropriate fanfare and propaganda that this would "remove
money from politics" (they didn't say "and therefore from the people's control") and prevent
"Boom and Bust" from hurting our citizens. The people were not told then, and most still
do not know today, that the Federal Reserve Corporation is a private corporation controlled
by bankers and therefore is operated for the financial gain of the bankers over the people
rather than for the good of the people. The word "Federal" was used only to deceive the
people.
Since that "day of infamy," more disastrous to us than Pearl Harbor, the small group of
"privileged" people who lend us "our' money have accrued to themselves all of the profits of
printing our money -- and more! Since 1913 they have "created" tens of billions of dollars
in money and credit, which, as their own personal property, they then lend to our government
and our people with high interest. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" had become
the secret policy of our National Government.
This section of the Outlaws website will show you the process of "money creation" and then
its conversion into the people's "debt". The knowledge you obtain here will help you to keep
your head above water.
[link]
Excerpted:
These money-lenders, the Rosthchilds, for example, say to themselves: If we lend a hundred millions sterling to the queen and parliament of England, it will enable them to murder twenty, fifty, or a hundred thousand people in England, Ireland, or India; and the terror inspired by such wholesale slaughter, will enable them to keep the whole people of those countries in subjection for twenty, or perhaps fifty, years to come; to control all their trade and industry; and to extort from them large amounts of money, under the name of taxes; and from the wealth thus extorted from them, they (the queen and parliament) can afford to pay us a higher rate of interest for our money than we can get in any other way. Or, if we lend this sum to the emperor of Austria, it will enable him to murder so many of his people as to strike terror into the rest, and thus enable him to keep them in subjection, and extort money from them, for twenty or fifty years to come. And they say the same in regard to the emperor of Russia, the king of Prussia, the emperor of France, or any other ruler, so called, who, in their judgment, will be able, by murdering a reasonable portion of his people, to keep the rest in subjection, and extort money from them, for a long time to come, to pay the interest and the principal of the money lent him.
This business of lending blood-money is one of the most thoroughly sordid, cold-blooded, and criminal that was ever carried on, to any considerable extent, amongst human beings. It is like lending money to slave traders, or to common robbers and pirates, to be repaid out of their plunder. And the men who loan money to governments, so called, for the purpose of enabling the latter to rob, enslave, and murder their people, are among the greatest villains that the world has ever seen. And they as much deserve to be hunted and killed (if they cannot otherwise be got rid of) as any slave traders, robbers, or pirates that ever lived.
In addition to paying the interest on their bonds, they perhaps grant to the holders of them great monopolies in banking, like the Banks of England, of France, and of Vienna; with the agreement that these banks shall furnish money whenever, in sudden emergencies, it may be necessary to shoot down more of their people. Perhaps also, by means of tariffs on competing imports, they give great monopolies to certain branches of industry, in which these lenders of blood-money are engaged. They also, by unequal taxation, exempt wholly or partially the property of these loan-mongers, and throw corresponding burdens upon those who are too poor and weak to resist.
Thus it is evident that all these men, who call themselves by the high-sounding names of Emperors, Kings, Sovereigns, Monarchs, Most Christian Majesties, Most Catholic Majesties, High Mightinesses, Most Serene and Potent Princes, and the like, and who claim to rule "by the grace of God," by "Divine Right" -- that is, by special authority from Heaven -- are intrinsically not only the merest miscreants and wretches, engaged solely in plundering, enslaving, and murdering their fellow men, but that they are also the merest hangers on, the servile, obsequious, fawning dependents and tools of these blood-money loan-mongers, on whom they rely for the means to carry on their crimes. These loan-mongers, like the Rothschilds, laugh in their sleeves, and say to themselves: These despicable creatures, who call themselves emperors, and kings, and majesties, and most serene and potent princes; who profess to wear crowns, and sit on thrones; who deck themselves with ribbons, and feathers, and jewels; and surround themselves with hired flatterers and lickspittles; and whom we suffer to strut around, and palm themselves off, upon fools and slaves, as sovereigns and lawgivers specially appointed by Almighty God; and to hold themselves out as the sole fountains of honors, and dignities, and wealth, and power -- all these miscreants and imposters know that we make them, and use them; that in us they live, move, and have their being; that we require them (as the price of their positions) to take upon themselves all the labor, all the danger, and all the odium of all the crimes they commit for our profit; and that we will unmake them, strip them of their gewgaws, and send them out into the world as beggars, or give them over to the vengeance of the people they have enslaved, the moment they refuse to commit any crime we require of them, or to pay over to us such share of the proceeds of their robberies as we see fit to demand.
APPENDIX.
Inasmuch as the Constitution was never signed, nor agreed to, by anybody, as a contract, and therefore never bound anybody, and is now binding upon nobody; and is, moreover, such an one as no people can ever hereafter be expected to consent to, except as they may be forced to do so at the point of the bayonet, it is perhaps of no importance what its true legal meaning, as a contract, is. Nevertheless, the writer thinks it proper to say that, in his opinion, the Constitution is no such instrument as it has generally been assumed to be; but that by false interpretations, and naked usurpations, the government has been made in practice a very widely, and almost wholly, different thing from what the Constitution itself purports to authorize. He has heretofore written much, and could write much more, to prove that such is the truth. But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain -- that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
[link] More >
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22 Apr 2007 @ 07:00, by skookum. Environment, Ecology
At the close of the day... my thoughts creep into my mind when the house is quiet. More >
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22 Apr 2007 @ 00:43, by a-d. Communities
Be amazed!The way the Money Mongers /,Mortgage companies are treating people -not least here in America, this new found inspiration of building in harmony with Nature will nothing but grow. (see this is the thing those Dorks can never really do anything about: The Bird Phoenix; a higher, more life - sustaining /life-loving consciousness always arises from even the worst of disasters!
[link] More >
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