http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/14/1421257

I caught you in an act of plagiarism! You stole lyrics from the group Walela!!

These words in your poetry a few posts ago on this thread are NOT YOUR WORDS:

“We have one more river to cross,
And when we get to the other side,
We are going to put on our wings and fly”.

They belong to the group Walela. And here is where it can be found: WALELA.COM

What a dirt-bag!!

Rolling Stone
The Great Iraq Swindle By Matt Taibbi

How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury

[…] But getting there wasn’t easy. To travel to Iraq, would-be contractors needed permission from the Bush administration, which was far from blind in its appraisal of applicants. In a much-ballyhooed example of favoritism, the White House originally installed a clown named Jim O’Beirne at the relevant evaluation desk in the Department of Defense. O’Beirne proved to be a classic Bush villain, a moron’s moron who judged applicants not on their Arabic skills or their relevant expertise but on their Republican bona fides; he sent a twenty-four-year-old who had never worked in finance to manage the reopening of the Iraqi stock exchange, and appointed a recent graduate of an evangelical university for home-schooled kids who had no accounting experience to manage Iraq’s $13 billion budget. James K. Haveman, who had served as Michigan’s community-health director under a GOP governor, was put in charge of rehabilitating Iraq’s health-care system and decided that what this war-ravaged, malnourished, sanitation-deficient country most urgently needed was . . . an anti-smoking campaign. […]

In short, some $8.8 billion of the $12 billion proved impossible to find. “Who in their right mind would send 360 tons of cash into a war zone?” asked Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee. “But that’s exactly what our government did.”

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle

How the neoliberals stitched up the wealth of nations for themselves

George Monbiot
Tuesday August 28, 2007
The Guardian

A cabal of intellectuals and elitists hijacked the economic debate, and now we are dealing with the catastrophic effects

For the first time the UK’s consumer debt exceeds the total of its gross national product: a new report shows that we owe £1.35 trillion. Inspectors in the United States have discovered that 77,000 road bridges are in the same perilous state as the one which collapsed into the Mississippi. Two years after Hurricane Katrina struck, 120,000 people from New Orleans are still living in trailer homes and temporary lodgings. As runaway climate change approaches, governments refuse to take the necessary action. Booming inequality threatens to create the most divided societies the world has seen since before the first world war. Now a financial crisis caused by unregulated lending could turf hundreds of thousands out of their homes and trigger a cascade of economic troubles.

These problems appear unrelated, but they all have something in common. They arise in large part from a meeting that took place 60 years ago in a Swiss spa resort.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2157199,00.html

Ignore the ESPN.COM link, sorry.

You have been caught in an act of plagiarism!

These words in your poetry above:

“We have one more river to cross,
And when we get to the other side,
We are going to put on our wings and fly” …

are not yours!!

They belong to the group Walela. And here is where it can be found: walela.com/LTwalela.html”

ESPN.COM

Please don’t say that you did not make any claims one way or the other. When you post something and you do not put it in quotes or provide a citation, that means you are telling reader that you wrote it. Except in this case you stole it! I thought I noticed something funny about your style way back, but I shrugged it off and didn’t look into it. Can’t say I’m surprised. What a low life!!

I had more to contribute to this “dialogue”, but it has just come to an end.

A shadow occupies the House of Light
And day seems as night.

Athens, why are you burning?
Oh, children of Jerusalem, must ye bicker like rabid dogs?
See ye not the night sky?
Mars, the mighty-armed, draws nigh.
Dear Mercury, take this, our entreaty,
And Move swiftly:
Have Mercy, We, the children of men,
Who suffer the pangs of fiery passions,
And are subsumed by internal combustion,
Have lost our way.
A shadow occupies of the House of Light
And day seems as night.
We have stumbled in pursuit of the golden calf,
And at the feasting table of the money-changer,
We are made fat.
Spare us, and we a swear a change of heart and mind.
Odin’s dogs bay for blood.
And Huracan sounds his mighty conch.
Hear this, a humble prayer,
A rhythm for a stitch in time,
If you need blood, take mine.
We have one more river to cross,
And when we get to the other side,
We are going to put on our wings and fly.

Daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County,
down by the Green River where paradise lay.
Well I’m sorry my son but you are too late in askin’
Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.

- John Prine

Empires in reality are the manifestation of energy regimes. They are composed of the socio-economic institutions implicit in the regimes. A careful reading of “history” shows that as “civilization” has evolved from one regime to the next, the attendant empire has morphed to reflect the new efficiencies. Since the time of Prometheus we have endured (for the infinitesimally small amount of time homo sapiens have wandered on this planet) a series carbon based regimes: wood, coal, steam, fossil fuels (and nuclear).

Each regime establishes a certain threshold of agriculture production and thus defines the structure and distribution of “civilization”. Some are inclined to regard history as a “steady-stream” of progress, others are inclined to conceive of it as a series of plateaus punctuated by a series of sudden and radical change. The first eyeball, the disappearance of dinosaurs or Neanderthals, the first view of earth from space to name but a few. I am of this latter camp. I am also convinced that what we are witness to the transition from a series of carbon-based regimes to a hydrogen-based regime. This marks a beguiling moment of currency in the supreme movement – a defining moment in the unfathomable and timeless struggle between the two titans: chaos and order.

If you look closely and follow the thread of imagination back in time past Virgil and Cicero and Plato and Socrates, past Pythagoras and Nebuchadnezzar and Lao tzu and Confucius to Hesiod and Homer and David and Solomon, you will arrive then at the “point in time” where history begins to emerge from mystery (i.e. order gets a leg up on chaos in human affairs). This movement is symbolized by the Star of David, where we see the two triangles combining, one ascending, one descending. Implicit in the duplicity of this movement has always been the promise: the singularity (Christ consciousness, Buddha consciousness, Krishna consciousness) .

If you behold the Star of David you will see clearly the six points. Note the correspondence with atomic number of carbon? The Seven Wise Men of Greece, of whom the poets spoke, instructed us to “know thyself”. Since that time there has not been one syllable of wisdom added to human understanding that elaborates what is required to “bring forth that which is inside you” (i.e. to extract the essence). Only recitations. To extract the essence is to remove the oil from the olive, with this oil you may be anointed. Perhaps you have heard of the poets and prophets of old speak of the anointed one? Failure to “know thyself” results in i-gnosis – ignorance – the source of suffering and the very thing that causes us to go against the tide, to move against the current, to struggle, to not see (consider the etymology of the word “devil”; to obstruct, to obscure to cast in our path).

At this moment an inspired, self-reliant child is working to extract energy from hydrogen, at precisely the right moment, she will meet with success, and a new energy regime will emerge, and all this fuss about “our empire” will be irrelevant. We will become as one. Note the correspondence with the atomic mass of hydrogen? Energy will be free. There will be no need to struggle and we will come to truly know our selves. This is the age old story, as pronounced by Sophia from her throne and inscribed on the great tome of life. It has always been known and I only recite it here. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, may we open them. If not, hell hath no furry like a woman scorned. Let us sit back and relax as we await the next report from the world tree. Or better yet, let us imagine that we are already free from our dark history.

You said “Concerning my view, I’m interested in consciousness and its transformation through time”.

It is easy to get dizzy traversing the intersecting lines of imminence and transcendence with an undisciplined mind. It paints a beautiful panorama of synesthesia and self intoxication. You must be well read. But what purpose does it serve other than to see how many times you can bang your head against the wall without feeling any pain or making a fool of yourself? My opinion is that since you possess such a critical disability to interpret present and past tenses; facts and reality so poorly, that it is impossible for you to succeed at such a task.

There is a mountain. On one side we have someone who has climbed many mountains in the past and has all the latest equipment. On the other side of the mountain we have someone who is almost completely naked and has no equipment at all. What are the odds?

Thanks

I said I wouldn’t post until the 29th, but I got some free time this morning.

When I asked you what is your opinion of the Vatican’s role in helping Nazis through Peron’s Argentina, the Baath Party, and the Vatican, you said “I try not to hold opinions on things I don’t know anything about. What is your opinion”?

This answer is quite ridiculous, and unacceptable. It would take you less than five minutes to look up Peron’s Argentina. The reason why you won’t answer the question is because you have a selective conscience. You have to save face with those who expect you here on ROS to say and not say certain things, and, in retrospect of this thread, it also drives home the point of The New Testament short circuiting your ability to interpret present and past tense events accurately and honestly. You know that Jews were killed by Nazis [I don’t want to see anybody write “Jews were not the only ones” and Blah Blah Blah with some incongruent Boston vernacular or revisionist history about the Holocaust, etc. Give it a rest!], yes, Jews. I am asking you about how you feel MORALLY about members of the Catholic Clergy who helped Nazis escape through Argentina. I am not asking you about ‘Jews’ in particular – I am asking only about the Catholic Scum who helped the Nazis escape after the war. Can you do it? Or are you not quite the warrior you thought you were?

Though the Spanish conquest interrupted the Mayan tradition of elite literacy and destroyed the large majority of Mayan codices, the stories and traditions of the Maya continued to be handed down to succeeding generations, albeit much influenced and restricted by the influx of European practices and beliefs, Roman Catholicism in particular. The majority of the Maya codices were burned by Europeans like Bishop Diego de Landa during their conquest of Mesoamerica and subsequent efforts to convert the Maya peoples to Christianity.

The maintenance of these traditions can be seen in the relics and products of those centers which flourished during the Post-Classic phase, such as in the northern Yucatán Peninsula, occasionally combined with other influences more characteristic of the Gulf coast and central Mexican regions.

The Maya shared many traditions and rituals with the other civilizations and cultures in the Mesoamerican region, both preceding and contemporary societies, and in general the entire region formed an interrelated mosaic of belief systems and conceptions on the nature of the world and human existence. However, the various Maya peoples over time developed a unique and continuous set of traditions which are particularly associated with their societies, and their achievements. [including an accurate assessment of the age of the universe and the evolutionary “stages” related to the emergence of life and the development of human civilization]

In Maya mythology, Huracan (also Hurakan) was a wind, storm and fire god and one of the creator deities who participated in all three attempts at creating humanity. He also caused the Great Flood. His name is also responsible for the English word hurricane.

Karl Taube and Mary Miller, specialists in Mesoamerican religion, writes that “More than anything Tezcatlipoca [Huracan's name in Aztec] appears to be the embodiment of change through conflict”

-source wikipedia (edited for conciseness)

When Dean (the “9th” strongest hurricane ever recorded) hits the Yucatan Peninsula at precisely the moment anticipated in the “myths” of the Mayan Codices, how should we regard this? Only the simple minded and superstitious would regard this as a deity returning to his temple to declare his intention. What could this possibly portend? Will someone please send Scott Ridder to the White House to extract Cheney from his bunker as quickly as possible, please? Pretty please?

Being the Brain of the most vapid, intellectually shallow president ever creates an apt epitaph for Rove’s tenure at the White House. The Bush administration has never won accolades for its substance. Its best frontman, Colin Powell, self-destructed in front of the U.N. Security Council in February 2003. Powell’s nemesis, Donald Rumsfeld, followed suit shortly thereafter, unable to coherently explain where Saddam Hussein had hidden all those WMD we went to war for, and ultimately telling the average foot soldier to pound sand when it came to the lack of adequate equipment needed to fight and survive in occupied Iraq. Bush’s singular appeal has been the impression of steadfastness in the eye of the storm, even if the storm is for the most part self-created. For this we must look not to “Bush’s Brain,” but instead peer deep into the dark recesses of the White House, where we can glimpse the awful “soul” of the president—Dick Cheney.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070821_why_cheney_really_is_that_bad/

“Scott Ritter has had an extensive and distinguished career in government service. He is an intelligence specialist with a 12-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps including assignments in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. Rising to the rank of Major, Ritter spent several months of the Gulf War serving under General Norman Schwarzkopf with US Central Command headquarters in Saudi Arabia, where he played an instrumental role in formulating and implementing combat operations targeting Iraqi mobile missile launchers which threatened Israel.

In 1991, Ritter joined the United Nations weapons inspections team, or UNSCOM. He participated in 34 inspection missions, 14 of them as chief inspector. Ritter resigned from UNSCOM in August 1998, citing US interference in the work of the inspections.”

In short, it seems possible that Rove, who is no one’s dummy and would not want to be required to “spin” an unnecessary war on Iran, may have lost the battle with Cheney over the merits of a military strike on Iran, and only then decided – or was urged – to spend more time with his family. As for administration spokesperson Tony Snow, it seems equally possible that, before deciding he had to leave the White House to make more money, he concluded that his stomach could not withstand the challenge of conjuring up yet another Snow job to explain why Bush/Cheney needed to attack Iran. There is recent precedent for this kind of thing.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082407L.shtml

Thursday 23 August 2007

French Egypt and American Iraq can be considered bookends on the history of modern imperialism in the Middle East.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174831

You asked “I’m more interested in heresy. Specifically, why certain gospels and doctrines were declared heresy and others became “canon”. I’m especially interested to know under what authority these determinations were made 350 years after the life and crucifixion of the alchemist of Nazareth”.

The rational for this is as follows. In order for the people to ‘believe’, in a God, the God’s appearance on the earthly stage had to have an aura of mystery, or rather an aura of mythological significance: such as the Roman Mithras and Romulus and Remus, etc. The manger, the water, and being raised or cared for by caretakers not biologically related to the “God” to be, all add to mystify the origins and childhood. While Herod was attempting to recapitulate the slayings of the male babies in Egypt, in Bethlehem, no census was taken in that part of the country, to obscure the origins of his human birth and future status as a “God”. The “authority” is the liars and criminals of the early [Pagan] Church who kept the truth of the history of the region from the largely illiterate masses.

I think it is highly interesting that the progeny of Rome are, in disproportionate number to the rest of us, pedophiles, professional criminals, and Mafia types. Is not the leadership structure used by the Italian Mafia today the same as the political hierarchy of the leadership of ancient Rome? Their culture may have disappeared, but they didn’t. It’s kind of ironic how Italians and Jews reunited in America two thousand years later in Nevada building casinos, running drugs and pimping whores. These two losers of the Enlightenment will tear your country apart if you don’t keep an eye on them.

PS: Your last post was excellent, very strong. I will post more in response to it Wednesday, August 29th. And if that date doesn’t pan out, then the following Saturday.

I understand how you may conflate certain references contained in my “scenario” with elements proffered in the New Testament. Yes, there are certain correspondences, but just because a couple of power hungry, pseudo-scholarly, sackcloth clad monks made a deal with a certain Emperor in the middle of the 4th century and appropriated certain mythogems unto themselves, announced a creed and published a book, doesn’t mean they own the material, does it? Sure, it may appear that way to the “faithful” who join the “flock” but you and I know differently. I think we can agree on that, right?

Take the “Apocalypse” for instance, I am interested in the “revealing” only to the degree that it is corollary to other historical mythogems and provides correspondence with observable events. I am suggesting that since 1905, the rate at which “new information” concerning the planet, its history and inhabitants has been revealed at an unprecedented and astonishing rate. Right or wrong? Have you heard very many church fathers (from any church) suggesting the “revealing” began in 1905? Besides, all I really know about the Book of Revelation is that it predicts a bunch of wars, rumors of wars and natural disasters. You are a TV guy, heard any news about wars, rumors of wars or natural disasters lately? Just in case they aren’t covering it on TV, here is a link that arrived in my inbox yesterday. The other little bit that I find interesting is the bit about destroying the world by fire, isn’t that in there somewhere? Been out west lately? Do you have any idea about what is happening out here? Take a look. Also in my inbox yesterday, news concerning Earthquakes in Latin America and floods in Asia.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17746

What roll would you guess technology is playing in the “revealing”? What role might there be in it for nuclear weapons?

Yes there is a bit in the new testament concerning the scenario I was alluding to, but the much more compelling and interesting stuff is being unearthed here in the Americas by scientist. Not coming from the Vatican and men wearing funny hats.

I pay little attention to what Christians “authorities” have to say. I’m more interested in heresy. Specifically, why certain gospels and doctrines were declared heresy and others became “canon”. I’m especially interested to know under what authority these determinations were made 350 years after the life and crucifixion of the alchemist of Nazareth. Also of interest to me is why the “church fathers” felt compelled to send the Roman army forth to eliminate both the texts and adherents pertaining to any persuasion and perspective lacking correspondence with their own. Interesting how the first inquisition resulted in a sort of cannibalization of a significant portion of the “Christian community” and ended in the establishment of a central authority where previously there had been none.

”In the New Testament there is scarcely a mention of a Roman presence in Judaea. Sure there is a centurion here and a guard there, but it is absolutely DEVOID of the REALITY of life, Jewish life, in Judaea during Jesus’ time. In other words your problem, Flow, stems from what the New Testament has NOT taught you in terms of how you view the world. You see the world through rose colored glasses because you only got HALF of the story, HALF of the REALITY, from The Monkeys of the Danube. As a result, you see REALITY as fiction and fiction as REALITY. The mind is a terrible thing to waste. Pun intended!!

Yeah, I think it is pretty interesting that a hippie in the backwater of the Roman Empire could make the splash he did. I think it is worth noting that he seems to have barely showed up on anybodies radar screen during his lifetime. Concerning boots on the ground and what is required to keep the ass end of the empire in line, I defer to your expertise. You can take that up with the scholarship concerned with such things. My understanding is that as long as the local boys squelched dissent and paid tribute they could pretty keep the rest of the spoils for themselves. Concerning my view, I’m interested in consciousness and its transformation through time. If you care to discuss that I suggest you begin by going back to my prior post and addressing the questions posted at the end.

”Think there’s a connection between how the [Catholic] Church protects and hides pedophile priests from justice, and how they hid the REALITY of the occupation of Judaea from the people? Answer the question!”

probably.

”Think there’s a connection between the Pope and the Mufti so far as money from Italy is pouring into Iraq to Support the Baath Party, responsible for many American deaths? Answer the question!”

I don’t know. I don’t concern myself with the cash flow and accounting practices of the Vatican, the mob, the Baathtub party, the CIA, the CPA, KBR, Blackwater, Dynacorp, the Pentagon or any other of the related parties. What do you think?

”What is your opinion of the Vatican’s role in helping Nazis through Peron’s Argentina? Answer the question!”

I try not to hold opinions on things I don’t know anything about. What is your opinion?

”And last but not least what is your opinion of the Vatican being one of the world’s top ten money laundering destinations? Answer the question! Too much REALITY flow?”

Well, I don’t really have an opinion, but I can say from my personal experience, ya gotta do laundry somewhere!

This inability of yours to acknowledge reality is quite common. It comes from the New Testament. Huh? Yes – the New Testament. In the New Testament there is scarcely a mention of a Roman presence in Judaea. Sure there is a centurion here and a guard there, but it is absolutely DEVOID of the REALITY of life, Jewish life, in Judaea during Jesus’ time. In other words your problem, Flow, stems from what the New Testament has NOT taught you in terms of how you view the world. You see the world through rose colored glasses because you only got HALF of the story, HALF of the REALITY, from The Monkeys of the Danube. As a result, you see REALITY as fiction and fiction as REALITY. The mind is a terrible thing to waste. Pun intended!!

Think there’s a connection between how the [Catholic] Church protects and hides pedophile priests from justice, and how they hid the REALITY of the occupation of Judaea from the people? Answer the question! Think there’s a connection between the Pope and the Mufti so far as money from Italy is pouring into Iraq to Support the Baath Party, responsible for many American deaths? Answer the question! What is your opinion of the Vatican’s role in helping Nazis through Peron’s Argentina? Answer the question! And last but not least what is your opinion of the Vatican being one of the world’s top ten money laundering destinations? Answer the question! Too much REALITY flow?

You know what you can do with your lies and your poison, right?!!

Sorry, I forgot something.

You said in an earlier post, in reference to your own intolerance to accept other people’s point of view and lack of understanding of global events, “I am condemning the sin, not the sinner”.

To that I say – if worshiping a dead Jew on a stick prevents you from eating my flesh – who am I to complain?

Thanks again

You said “I raise the issue only because it represents an instance of sublime irony that at the very moment anticipated so precisely by indigenous cultures (the 5th night of the ninth Aeon) so many centuries ago, The Bush Administration is threatening escalation in the Middle East”.

You’ll need to recuperate your faculties by getting some more rest to stay sane during the encore.

Aquinas’ ontological dualism and the question of “free will” were not tested until two hundred and fifty years after his death. And then finally straightened out after another two hundred and fifty years with the existential discovery of immanence. Therefore, when you say “Sublime irony” and “5th nights” or whatever, and refer to me in a previous post as “Delightfully primitive and tribal” – I must remind myself that if you wait long enough some people will eventually accuse others of what they themselves are guilty of, in this case, ‘primitive thinking’: by suggesting that there is a relationship between two events, in two different locations, at two different times. Or even between two simultaneous events. What the uneducated and unenlightened mind does not comprehend it blames on the motions of stars and planets … it doggerels, it rhymes and it dashes, it beckons and enthralls – like a monkey in a Church, in Rome.

Have a nice day.

You said “I am simply conveying that which I am compelled by my nature to say”.

My condolences. And little did you know that you would someday be plagiarizing the concept (oh wait, there are no laws pursuant to Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law specifying that “a concept cannot be plagiarized”, only that there is no such thing). You’re safe. However, “There’s always trouble waiting when you leave your own backyard”. Hawkwind. Just leave the poison at home. You wouldn’t want to turn into A Pillar of Salt now, would you?

I’m beginning to get the impression that you love to hear yourself talk. We connected momentarily a couple of posts ago, and then you started to hallucinate, again. It is an escape mechanism against reality.

You said “I do not intend this to disturb or frighten, you need not even take it seriously, it is just food for thought”.

Yes but, in yesterdays post you forgot the quotes. Anyway, it would be presumptuous of me to deny that cosmic patterns exist. More on this later. But as I opened my mind to the words you reformulated I realized something. If I were uneducated and superstitious, or educated and superstitious (the latter of which in my view is a much, much bigger problem) I might think you were on to something; or perhaps trying to manipulate a certain set of base tropes and emotions. Thank you for reminding me that they are there, but I must turn down this “free membership”, of sorts, not only because I am convinced for over a decade now that it is the *wrong language* and that it doesn’t work, but also because I chose to accept reality for what it is – and to not be victimized by some crude Religio Romana, or for that matter by some washed up mercenary from Ur – who doesn’t take no for an answer. Burn them both!

In an earlier post you wrote, “When the preaching of gloom and doom is combined with a classic rebellion against authority – wrapped in a hazy neurotic mist of attempted prophecy, it makes for a seductive concoction of defensive thinking that self centered and hedonistic people are attracted to” so it is with apology that I offer what I deduce you may find as an unpalatable communiqué and scenario.

The prologue is complete, we stand poised for the crescendo. The previous six years (in retrospective) will prove only the prelude. The crescendo will take the form of massive conflict and be characterized by a force so destructive it challenges the rational mind to comprehend it. It will begin in earnest before the nights begin again to grow to short (winter solstice). Its destruction will be on a scale so massive it is difficult to imagine, in terms of magnitude it will be greater than any of the 8 prior cataclysmic destructions, but its duration will be relatively short (several months or a couple of years at best). Historically, it will be known as the ascent of the morning star, the final movement of Lucifer, the light bringer. When the dust settles and calm is restored a great melancholy will befall us collectively. And this will act as the agent of change (the catalyst) at the collective level of consciousness. The events that are to follow will be noted and regarded as history, but their effect will be collective, the affect personal. That which obstructs will be dissolved, Anthropos will be resurrected, and the Anointed One’s reign will arise spontaneously as if inscribed indelibly on the hearts of man. Where before six billion stood confused and conflicted, there will be only one, and we will know again the fruits of wisdom, of wise-dominion. There be a thousand years of peace and time for healing. The waters will be restored, the earth replenished and we will dwell in an unimaginable abundance, together as one, in a garden of earthly delights.

Of course the conflicted part could be avoided, but the out come is pre-determined. In order to avoid the conflict it would require something like the square root of 1% of the world’s human population to imagine simultaneously the desired eventuality as if it exists a priori. Just as there are many paths for a river to choose in its descent to the sea, we indeed are bound for appointment with destiny. The path we choose in order to arrive there will be determined by our free agency (i.e. a function of free will), but the place and time of arrival is foreordained in the script each of us is acting out.

I do not intend this to disturb or frighten, you need not even take it seriously, it is just food for thought. I am simply conveying that which I am compelled by my nature to say. For a further discussion on the subject (for anyone interested) please see The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness by Dr. Carl Calleman. Just as the Mayans accurately predicted, or one may say prophesied, the arrival of the Europeans, the industrial revolution, WW I and WW II, so too did they predict WW III. For a further discussion on this see Ian Lundgold’s DVD presentation The Condor Flies to the Eagle or any of the Hopi prophesies.

I raise the issue only because it represents an instance of sublime irony that at the very moment anticipated so precisely by indigenous cultures (the 5th night of the ninth Aeon) so many centuries ago, The Bush Administration is threatening escalation in the middle east. The very spot predicted as the location of the initial “flare up” that is expected to become global in scope. Under this hypothesis, the Apocalypse (which literally means “a revealing” or “the revealing”) began in earnest in 1905 the very year Einstein published his paper on the particulate nature of light, and lords knows a bunch as been “revealed” to us since then. Right? And we all know what follows the Apocalypse. Thanks again, GodzillaVsBambi, I’ve truly enjoyed our dialogue. I will leave it with this final question, how did the Mayans know the exact age of the universe (since the Big Bang) so many centuries ago? And is it pure coincidence that their creation story is composed of seven days too? Peace.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1654188,00.html

When you claim to “See beyond” those subtleties I mentioned, I say, great. Someone has to do that stuff because I’m not very good at it.

Did you ever notice that in most debates people talk past each other? Do you know why? It is because some people chose not to recognize the other guy’s perception of reality as being real, to him. When people disagree with one another it is rude to give off the impression that someone else’s view of reality doesn’t exist. On the internet where people can stay safe and avoid physical contact, they say all kinds of things they would never say in person. I appreciate the fact that at least you acknowledge that my reality exists! You say it is “Shallow”, and that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with that. You acknowledge that my reality is in fact ‘there’, and that it is real, not only to me, but also objectively. I know that your reality is also real. I don’t just know it intellectually either. I used to be a liberal. I used to think along these lines and even poetically like you do. So I know how the other half thinks.

Like I used to tell Jazzman here on ROS, poetic thinking does not work in all contexts. This is not to say that it cannot be applied in all contexts. It is good for religion, music, creative writing, meditation, women, or poetry itself, but surly not within the context of maintaining the Empire, at least not contemporaneously. One can always look back at Rome and romanticize and write a poem about it. Or one can pick up a copy of some old James Baldwin book on the street for two dollars and quickly become very impressed at how he wields the power of the cosmological poet, with those rhymes and chimes, and then reminds White people what hypocrites they are because he doesn’t understand their reality. I’ve been through it all before. I live in NY, and there’s plenty of that crap around here. Moreover, with regard to timing … what I mean is that the reality of our contemporary Empire requires immediate attention. It requires pro-active hands on approach. Poetry does not work in this context. It is too generic and non-descript for the precise and a posteriori responsibilities of running an Empire.

I am the first to admit that the two sides (liberal and conservative) need each other to survive. They balance each other as positive and negative forces in nature. And since people are products of nature, those forces manifest in our thoughts and behavior.

Thanks

All I am saying is that when those who are clearly unqualified on a subject – no matter what walk of life they are from – who attempt to wing it with pseudo cohesion and other such decontextualized vagrancies of English, it just looks funny. I think even you would admit that. Right Flow?

Right. And this brings us to the crux of discrepancy between our respective points of view. It is not that I fail to see the “subtleties of the geopolitical struggle for natural resources, military expansionism, and conflict ideology” it is that I see beyond them. What is plainly, clearly, even blatantly obvious from the language you use to characterize “the world” is your paradigm. Your paradigm is rooted in, and informed by the perception of competition. And this indeed reflects reality at a certain superficial level, and to a certain shallow degree. However, it misses the deeper thing, the essential thing, the quintessence, the absolute, undeniable reality of the interconnectedness of all being. What we can not see we are condemned to ignore, thus the manifest ignorance of your POV. It is not wrong, it is superficial. For those that have eyes to see let them see. For those that have ears to hear, let them hear. What you have done unto the least of these you have done unto me. As long as we look externally for reality, we will be ignorant of that which animates our being. Look deep inside, and tell me what you see? Your paradigm is rooted in the concepts of scarcity and competition, and so ultimately in the fear of death. How delightfully primitive and tribal. You suggest “our world” is “changing”. When was “our world” not changing? You are unreconciled to the ultimate reality. I am condemning the sin, not the sinner. I like you GodzillaVsBambi, even your screen name is entertaining. Fear not, we are all here to ascend the learning curve and surf the waves of changes, this may be difficult to imagine while stranded inside the walls of your empire – free your mind and paradigm will follow. Some see us and them, some creation and destruction, some light and dark, look beyond death and tell me what you see? Would you care to trade your empire for a kingdom? Then embrace the advice of the seers and sages of all ages, and harmonize with the glorious chorus that resonates everywhere with the same resounding tone. Be at one. Seek at-one-ment. Look within, give up your rational and find it all. Tell Godzilla and Bambi to chill out. Send them to their corners, or over to my place for a cream soda. Cheers, my brother!

You asked “Are the Chinese serious? Is this something we should concern ourselves with”?

I have no comment on the Chinese at this time other than to say that a Chinese transition to a free market economy is impossible given their current political structure.

You said “What in your opinion is the reasonable, logical thing to do concerning Iraq”? To listen to young people who are coming of age during this time, and how what they have to say to the rest of us may influence the way we view the future. Since 2004 most of the retired upper military brass that you see on CNN and Fox News have been saying that we will be in Iraq (or for the sake of argument let’s say a military presence in the Middle East) for at least a generation. Others murmur even longer. Henry Kissinger has echoed these same sentiments, and Ted Koppel continued the theme with a report entitled Our Children’s Children’s War back in March of this year for the Discovery Channel. It is not I who made it this way. Nor did I design the geographical vortex in Central Asia. ‘Tis not ‘my’ head that you want my Lord, but this is the reality on the ground. Don’t shoot the messenger! You can pound your fists until they bleed, but our world is changing. And most of us who live in the midst of it do not recognize it for what it is. It is neither good nor bad. It is what it is. Like Joseph Campbell used to say … you can “Follow your bliss”, or you can sit back and complain about it from the safety of your living room. You have the freedom to do either, or perhaps both. Isn’t that priceless?

You asked if I “Refer to a classic rebellion against authority are you referring to the American revolutionaries rising up against the British “authority”? Or something else”?

I didn’t think this would require clarification, but here goes. I am referring to people who use inaccurate analogies to “illustrate a point”, as you have here. I am referring to people who pontificate about (as I have said on ROS months ago) ‘things they know nothing about’. I am referring to the far left mindset that believes that the personal privacy of one individual outweighs the safety and security of an entire country. I am referring to those who have not as yet come of age intellectually who have lots of creative things to say that do not match the context of the debate. And last but not least I am referring to people who fall through the cracks of our system and end up in places not to their choosing. I don’t pass judgment on any of these people. All I am saying is that when those who are clearly unqualified on a subject – no matter what walk of life they are from – who attempt to wing it with pseudo cohesion and other such decontextualized vagrancies of English, it just looks funny. I think even you would admit that. Right Flow?

You said, in reference to The Whores of Baghdad, “Is this indicative of the economics of empire? Or is this better characterized as an example of the liberal democracy and freedom the USA is exporting to Iraq”? Forget about democracy for a minute. As I said right here on ROS months ago ‘we are in Iraq to prevent Putin from signing oil contracts with the fickle Arab regimes’, and, to prevent Russian and Chinese expansionism from infiltrating the southern portion of the Middle East, and, so all that history we grew up with (you know, the birth place of Jesus and the New Testament and all that) does not fall into the hands of communists and atheists, and, by doing so we get to keep food on the plate. What could be clearer than this? The Russians and Chinese support Syria and Iran from the north, and we support Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait from the south. Saddam Hussein was in debt to Putin for over 9 billion dollars during the first gulf war when Russia supplied the Iraqis with satellite jamming equipment and anti-tank weaponry. Saddam was once upon a time on our payroll and then all of a sudden he decided to go it alone by invading Kuwait and threatening to “Burn half of Israel”. Gee … I wonder why we set up shop in Iraq. Yeah, I wonder. Maybe one day I’ll get it. But for now I’ll just continue sleepwalking my way through reality.

Read the debate between myself and J Kaw on this thread as background to the military occupation of Iraq being an exception to the question of Empire, ‘before’ you attempt to tackle the subtleties of the geopolitical struggle for natural resources, military expansionism, and conflict ideology.

Take a deep breath and relax before you hurt yourself. Do a little yoga maybe.