BANNED_FROM_REALITY!!'s topics - tribe.net

Need more nonviolence

2009-12-16T13:39:09Z

I heard some of Obama's Nobel prize acceptance speech, and I was quite offended by it. I maybe misinterpreting the speech, but he made it sound as if violence and warfare are the best way to achieve peace. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I know that violent extremists like Hitler and al Qaida can't be peaceully persuaded to stop their violence. But it's also true that violence in an age of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons has the real potential to turn Earth into a lifeless planet. Therefore, I say it is vital that we find ways to peacefully persuade violent extremists from committing their attrocities. Otherwise, we're ALL going to die. Consider this possibility: If we could figure out how to persuade potential al Qaida members from joining that terrorist group, al Qaida could cease to exist as their membership drops. That's what winning hearts and minds is supposed to be about.

Yes, yes, yes, I know you're going to say I'm wrong. Maybe I am. But I do know that violence in an age of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons can turn Earth into a lifeless planet. And at this point in time, I don't want to be lifeless.

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It's still the unlimited natural resources of outer space, stupid!

2009-12-12T04:45:05Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/us/23helium.html?_r=1&hpw

Apparently there is a shortage of helium 3 which -- among other uses -- is needed in nuclear bomb detectors. But this shortage could be solved if the helium 3 on the moon were mined and shipped to Earth. Just one of numerous examplesof how space exploration BENEFITS the people on Earth.

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Unprofitable war

2009-12-12T04:15:15Z

I often say that the main reason why war happens is because certain people want it to happen. And of course many of these people want it to happen because they're profiting from it. But if it were possible to make war unprofitable, then these individuals would very likely end their support for war and go into another more profitable line of business. It may not end war entirely, but at least it could make war less common. The question of the moment, of course, is how do you make war unprofitable? I don't know. But I do know I can do some thought experinments in this area. For example, what if there were some kind of technology that would render all weapons inoperable? If that were possible, certain people may decide to wage war with sticks and stones and hand-to-hand combat. But whatever the case, I say any reduction in war is a good thing. Therefore, finding a way to make war unprofitable should at least be attempted.

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The People Speak December 13

2009-12-10T19:51:24Z

http://www.history.com/content/people-speak/the-people-speak-story#
Premiering Sunday December 13, 8/7c
The People Speak Story
By Dr. Libby H. O'Connell for HISTORY Magazine

Author, historian, teacher, activist, and now television producer Dr. HowardZinn is a man on a mission. He wants Americans to recognize the power of protest in shaping their country's history. Along with executive producers Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Josh Brolin, and Anthony Arnove, he is moving his message from high schools and college campuses to film and, later this year, to HISTORY.

Zinn, 87, has been a history professor for most of his professional career, and in the lecture hall and in his writings, particularly his very popular A People's History of the United States, he espouses history "from the ground up" in an articulate and engaging way. If our textbooks present the story of America only through the eyes of its generals and presidents, Zinn argues, it gives "a distorted view of the past." Certainly he provides a powerful counterbalance to the hero-centric approach of traditional textbooks. In 2004 Zinn joined with Dr. Anthony Arnove to publish a collection of primary source documents titled Voices of a People's History of the United States, an academic bestseller on college and high school campuses. The materials range across the length of American history and feature letters, petitions, poems, speeches, and songs from "women and slaves, immigrants and youth, soldiers and students."

Zinn and Arnove began to organize public performances of selections from Voices in 2003, before its official release, when A People's History of the United States sold its 1 millionth copy (it has now surpassed the 2 million mark). Today, Voices brings alive the words and emotions of the past with songs and dramatic readings performed by well-established artists. At a presentation this past May celebrating the publication of A Young People's History of the United States in New York City, seven performers gave new life to the words of famous dissenters — such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King Jr. — and lesser known, but equally stirring, voices from the past.

Acclaimed actor Tim Robbins gave a stirring rendition of Eugene Debs' 1918 Canton, Ohio, speech that resonated spectacularly with the audience, who were on their feet cheering. And Shontina Vernon, a transplanted Texan turned Brooklynite, sang "Strange Fruit," originally a 1937 poem by Abel Meeropol titled "Bitter Fruit" and first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. A Bronx schoolteacher, Meeropol had written the poem after seeing the gruesome photograph of two lynched teenagers:

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Vernon's a cappella version was heartrendingly pure, each perfect, round note filled with painful meaning. For many people, it was the first time they had heard these lyrics: not surprisingly, Holiday's record company had refused to release the song.

The evening was introduced and narrated by Dr. Zinn. The enthusiastic audience left hungry for more. They seemed surprised by the level of their own personal engagement and excited by what they had witnessed.

It is performances like this in theaters around the country that inspired the latest incarnation of Zinn's work, The People Speak. Scheduled to air on HISTORY in December 2009, the film weaves archival footage and interviews with performances by actors and artists such as Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Kerry Washington, Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, Marisa Tomei, Bruce Springsteen, and John Legend. The network will also produce more than 24 short videos from The People Speak, available at HISTORY.com and through distributors' video-on-demand platforms.

The performers' commitment to Zinn's message makes this a labor of love. "Change doesn't come from the top, but rather from the bottom," Damon observes. "Without everyday citizens pushing to make a difference, there would be no America." It is Damon who reads the Declaration of Independence, surely one of the great protest documents in history.

Rather than being set in stone, the United States remains a project in formation. The People Speak presents a view of American history in motion, telling the stories of ordinary men and women who have defined democracy through their powerful words and actions. The film traces the stories and experiences of everyday Americans through their own words, emphasizing the idea that democracy is not a spectator sport. It is achieved through the efforts of all citizens who have pushed the nation to live up to promises of the Declaration of Independence.

In the film, actor Morgan Freeman gives a dramatic reading of one of the great speeches in American history — "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," delivered by Frederick Douglass in 1852:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery.

Douglass' words challenged the slave society of antebellum America, and continued to challenge the reality of Jim Crow laws and its legacy for generations. As an activist and reformer, he exemplified the commitment Zinn urges for all Americans — that we participate in the national dialogue and stand up for our beliefs.

Howard Zinn has dedicated his career to engaging Americans of all ages in this conversation. Through books, the stage, his website, his non-profit organization, and now this film on HISTORY, he emphasizes the impact of dissenters and activists who have shaped our nation's story. It took protest and struggle to achieve much of America's social progress. People who are intrinsic to our country's narrative, remind us that protest, in fact, is as American as apple pie.

The People Speak is executive produced by Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Chris Moore, Anthony Arnove, and Howard Zinn. For HISTORY, David McKillop and Russ McCarroll are the executive producers. It is scheduled to air on HISTORY in December. Check your local listings for exact date and time. Dr. Libby H. O'Connell is senior vice president for outreach and chief historian for A&E Television Networks.

© 1996-2009, A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

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mj beneficial for ms; not so psychotic

2009-12-06T20:56:34Z

http://www.physorg.com/news179118127.html
Study confirms that cannabis is beneficial for multiple sclerosis
December 4, 2009

Cannabis can reduce spasticity in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. A systematic review, published in the open access journal BMC Neurology, found that five out six randomized controlled trials reported a reduction in spasticity and an improvement in mobility.

Shaheen Lakhan and Marie Rowland from the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation, Los Angeles, USA, searched for trials evaluating the cannabis extracts delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). According to Lakhan, "We found evidence that combined THC and CBD extracts may provide therapeutic benefit for MS spasticity symptoms".

Spasticity, involuntary muscle tension or contraction, is a common symptom of MS. Many existing therapies for this symptom are ineffective, difficult to obtain, or associated with intolerable side effects. In this study, reported incidence of side effects from cannabis, such as intoxication, varied greatly depending on the amount of cannabis needed to effectively limit spasticity, but the researchers note that side effects were also seen in the placebo groups. They add, "Considering the distress and limitations spasticity brings to individuals with MS, it is important to carefully weigh the potential for side effects with the potential for symptom relief ".

Lakhan concludes, "The therapeutic potential of cannabinoids in MS is comprehensive and should be given considerable attention".

More information: Whole plant cannabis extracts in the treatment of spasticity in multiple sclerosis: a systematic review, Shaheen E Lakhan and Marie Rowland, BMC Neurology (in press), http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcneurol/

Source: BioMed Central (news : web)

http://www.physorg.com/news173420594.html
What proportion of psychotic illness is due to cannabis?
September 29, 2009

In this week's PLoS Medicine, a team of researchers from Australia and the US, led by Louisa Degenhardt at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, makes the case for estimating the role that cannabis has worldwide as a risk factor for psychosis.

This estimation, says the team, will give an idea of how much impact cannabis has upon public health globally. The information in turn could be valuable for guiding health policymakers in deciding about health policies, services, and research.

The global impact of different diseases and risk factors upon population health is estimated by a high profile international research initiative called the Global Burden of Disease Project (http://www.globalburden.org/). Some of the risk factors that the project assesses are smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, and alcohol use. But in the past the project has not examined cannabis as a risk factor, say Degenhardt and colleagues, because of concerns that the evidence linking cannabis use to psychosis is too weak.

Degenhardt and colleagues examine the studies that have shown a link between using cannabis and developing psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. Based on the strength of this evidence, and on the fact that cannabis use is a potentially preventable exposure, they argue that the Global Burden of Disease Project should include cannabis as a risk factor. The authors review lines of evidence which suggest that cannabis may be a particular risk for those vulnerable to developing the illness. They propose to model multiple possible relationships between cannabis and psychosis, including models of poorer outcomes for those who have developed the disorder.

Researchers in Australia, for example, included cannabis in their national study of the impact of risk factors and diseases upon population health. In estimating the impact of cannabis, the researchers assumed that the evidence was good enough to show a link between cannabis use and psychosis, suicide, and car crashes. "Even after assuming that these relationships were causal," say Degenhardt and colleagues, "cannabis was not a major contributor to disease burden in Australia, accounting for 0.2% of all disease burden, which amounted to 10% of the total burden attributable to all illicit drugs."

"These estimates are important for public policy purposes," they say, "because failure to make them allows untested estimates to be offered in public policy debate."

The authors argue that if the international community does not estimate the global impact of cannabis use, there will be important consequences. "There will be a reduced public health, policy, or research imperative, since there will be no estimated burden."

On the other hand, they say that "if we do attempt to estimate burden, future work will examine the accuracy of our estimates and refine them as evidence accumulates. Debates may emerge and (hopefully) improvements made as new evidence supports or challenges the assumptions made.''

More information: Degenhardt L, Hall WD, Lynskey M, McGrath J, McLaren J, et al. (2009) Should Burden of Disease Estimates Include Cannabis Use as a Risk Factor for Psychosis? PLoS Med 6(9): e1000133. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000133

Source: Public Library of Science (news : web)

© PhysOrg.com 2003-2009

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Peaceful Co-Creating Emerging Visions #16 has emerged

2009-10-16T22:56:59Z

Fall into the calm within the storm
Join the merriment of dancers
where love is a whisper
from which each breath expands
for sweet co-creation

Peaceful Co-Creating Emerging Visions visionary art 'zine #16 has emerged

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

share and enjoy

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Ending the War on Drugs

2009-10-04T22:24:56Z

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/ending-the-war-on-drugs-t_b_203768.html

Arianna Huffington

Posted: May 14, 2009 08:18 PM
Ending the War on Drugs: The Moment is Now

When it comes to addressing America's disastrous war on drugs, the Obama administration appears to be moving in the right direction -- albeit very, very cautiously.
On the rhetorical front, all the president's men are saying the right things.

In his first interview since being confirmed, Obama's new drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, said that we need to stop looking at our drug problem as a war. "Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs" or a 'war on product,'" he told the Wall Street Journal, "people see war as a war on them. We're not at war with people in this country."

He also said that it was time to focus more on treatment and less on incarceration.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government would no longer raid and prosecute distributors of medical marijuana who operate in accordance with state law in the 13 states where voters have made it legal.

Holder has also said that his department intends to eliminate the outrageous and prejudicial sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.

And while on the campaign trail, President Obama called for repealing the ban on federal funding for anti-AIDS programs that supply clean needles to drug users.

All positive signs that we are ready to move beyond our failed war on drugs.

But when it comes to putting its rhetoric into action, the Obama administration has faltered.

Just a week after the Attorney General said there would be no more medical marijuana raids, the DEA raided a licensed medical marijuana dispensary in California.

Obama's '09-'10 budget proposes to continue the longstanding ban on federal funding of needle exchange programs.

The current budget is still overwhelmingly skewed in favor of the drug war approach -- indeed, it allocates more to drug enforcement and less to prevention than even George Bush did.

Testifying today in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Holder, in his opening statement, called for a working group to examine federal cocaine sentencing policy: "Based on that review, we will determine what sentencing reforms are appropriate, including making recommendations to Congress on changes to crack and powder cocaine sentencing policy." A working group? Why? As a senator, Obama co-sponsored legislation (introduced by Joe Biden) to end the disparity. What further review is needed?

(To be fair, during questioning, Holder said he and the president both favored doing away with the crack/powder disparity and said that Justice would even consider doing away with mandatory minimums altogether. But why the initial equivocation and the use of the very familiar needs-further-review dodge?)

So the question becomes: is the Obama administration really committed to a fundamental shift in America's approach to drug policy or is this about serving up a kinder, gentler drug war?

And this at a time when the tide is clearly turning. Inspired by the massive budget crises facing many states, and the increase in drug violence both at home and abroad -- leaders on all points across the political spectrum appear more willing to rethink our ruinous drug policies.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for "an open debate" and careful study of proposals to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox has also urged renewing the debate, saying that he isn't convinced taxing and regulating drugs is the answer but "why not discuss it?" Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, pointing to evidence that Mexican drug cartels draw 60 to 80 percent of their revenue from pot, suggested legalization might be an effective tool to combat Mexican drug traffickers and American gangs.

And, in a major shift in the global drug policy debate, a Latin American commission, headed by the former presidents Fernando Cardoso of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, and Cesar Gavaria of Colombia issued a devastating report condemning America's 40-year war on drugs.

"Prohibitionist policies based on eradication, interdiction and criminalization of consumption simply haven't worked," the former presidents wrote in a joint op-ed. "The revision of U.S.-inspired drug policies is urgent in light of the rising levels of violence and corruption associated with narcotics. The alarming power of the drug cartels is leading to a criminalization of politics and a politicization of crime."

They called for "a paradigm shift in drug policies" that begins with "changing the status of addicts from drug buyers in the illegal market to patients cared for by the public health system."

And in Congress, Sen. Jim Webb has introduced legislation, with co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle, to create a blue-ribbon commission to examine criminal justice and drug policies and how they have led to our nation's jam-packed jails -- now filled with tens of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders.

"With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world," Webb wrote in a recent Parade cover story, "there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different--and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter."

I understand that drugs continue to be a political hot potato, fueled by what the Latin American presidents described as "prejudices and fears that sometimes bear little relation to reality." And I can easily picture some on the president's team advising him to keep the issue on the backburner lest it turn into his "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

But the cost of the drug war -- both human and financial -- is far too high to allow politics to dictate the administration's actions. Indeed, with all the budget cutting going on, how can anyone justify spending tens of billions of dollars a year on an unwinnable war against our own people?

Change won't be easy. The prison-industrial complex has a deeply vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Which is why we need to keep the pressure on the president and his team to follow through on their drug policy promises.

As with the regulation of Wall Street, real reform of our nation's drugs policies won't happen without someone in the administration making it a top priority.

The jury is still out on Kerlikowske. His law enforcement background could make him the drug war equivalent of Tim Geithner -- too enmeshed in the system he is tasked with overhauling.

Holder shows more promise. But he'll have to avoid the let's-have-a-working-group-review-decisions-that-have-already-been-decided approach.

As a reminder, I'm planning to send the Attorney General a few copies of This Is Your Country On Drugs, a book out next month on the history of drug use and drug policy in America by our HuffPost Congressional correspondent Ryan Grim. In it, he argues that the goal of U.S. policy should not be to eliminate drugs, but to prevent and treat the addiction and other problems that come with them: "As currently understood and implemented, drug policy attempts to isolate a phenomenon that can't be taken in isolation. Economic policy is drug policy. Healthcare policy is drug policy. Foreign policy, too, is drug policy. When approached in isolation, drug policy almost always leads to unfortunate and unintended consequences."

With three-quarters of the drug offenders clogging our state prisons there for nonviolent offenses -- and a disproportionate number of those young men of color -- the time has come to wage a full-scale war on the war on drugs.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 6 replies

Earthdance for Peace

2009-09-25T20:49:53Z

http://www.earthdancelive.com/

Venus Guide Us to Peace

a meditative poem

Not just sweetness and light
There is a strength; there is conviction --
there is a vibrant dedication to true worth.
If we can but believe again
in all the humane virtues --
Love is sharing,
in kindness, understanding, supportive regard.
Love is forgiving and being forgiven,
when it is clear that malice was not intended
or malice has been exorcised
-- an acceptance of the positive power
of change, of growth in spirit.
Love is the assumption of "we."
We are doing being going having creating
We are able to exchange our labor, knowledge,
possessions, positions
We are able to take in more than I -- to synergize
our fortunes into wealth and integral well being.
Love is not just a song -- a pretty set of symbols
Love is a power and a glory
and an all encompassing truth.
Love is addition and multiplication,
not division or subtraction.
Love enriches and inspires us.
Love is not blind, not foolish.
Love is not denying the self or self interest.
Love is seeing clearly, knowing wisely,
understanding and expanding the self --
expanding outward to take in the universe
of interconnected, interdependent being.
Love sees the ugliness; and loves sees the beauty.
The ugliness saddens; the beauty invigorates.
Love is to peace as music is to harmony.
But how are we to love in a discordant world?
It is within us to pick out the true,
enduring melody
to which our essential selves are tuned --
If we but look to, listen to, open our selves to
Venus, the Goddess of Love,
Peace, Justice, Harmony
as she manifests within us all.

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Mad as hell doctors

2009-09-23T20:04:11Z

http://www.madashelldoctors.com/

This is not a campaign. In campaigns, there are spectators. This is a movement.
Everybody plays.

The Plan:
Mad Doctors Hit the Road

On September 8, 2009 a group of dedicated Oregon physicians will take the message of Universal Health Care "on the road" in a wrapped and branded Motor Home headed for Washington D.C. Our cross-country mission: to stop in big cities and whistle stops alike, conducting pre-booked, local and national media appearances for a curious press. Every move we make along the way will be recorded on camera and then edited and uploaded to the internet that same day. This will allow our Mad As Hell Doctors Tour to leverage the edited video segments on social networking web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, et al. In this way, our effort becomes an unprecedented hybrid of reality television and political activism that offers people the opportunity to follow us, in real time, as our story unfolds. The message will be unmistakable: caravan with us to Washington and help make a public demonstration of support for Single Payer Health Care that will be heard around the world.

Imagine...
Thousands of cars pulling into the nation's capital for a protest on the White House lawn. The sidewalks are filled with supporters carrying signs in support of the Mad As Hell Doctors who have captured the imagination and the ignited the passion of their fellow citizens. We wave and honk at the camera crews, as do the endless line of cars behind us, as we wend our way toward the White House. On every antenna, on the backside of every car, and flapping like flags from sidewalk supporters, is the symbol of this new movement: the White Ribbon.

When we arrive, we go directly to the White House Lawn and begin passing out ribbons to the multitude of people waiting for the protest to begin. Politicians, celebrities, entertainers and hand selected citizens stand at the microphone one after the other, offering testimonials and expressing outrage at a corrupted health care system that puts profit before people. Our message to the President and Congress is clear:

Single Payer is the Solution. We Demand it Now.

Listen to the Mad As Hell Doctors Theme Song!

Written and Performed by WICKLINE

Content copyright 2009. Adam Klugman. All rights reserved.

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theoretical economics

2009-09-10T05:56:35Z

Economic theories are about the creation and distribution of desired goods and services for society. Different strategies of motivation include:

capitalism - profit

socialism - enlightened self-interest

communism - morality

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 7 replies

Asteroid mining could help boost the economy

2009-08-24T13:41:57Z

I've been saying that for months, and it looks like I'm not the only one:
http://www.space.com/adastra/060209_adastra_mining.html

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 2 replies

Waste=Food

2009-08-21T17:45:38Z

As we looked at our collapsed world economy, the nations that produced real goods, not just focused on being an information economy, these nations grew strong, but chose to invest in the US, which wasn't producing real things and cooked their books still to this day not revealing the toxic debt.

The question in this video produced by Sundance films is how do you give a billion people in China homes without destroying the world. The answer was that we might recover our world economy, but will humanity survive another waster production world economy.

The answer is Waste=Food. Listen, learn and share.

We could end world hunger & stop population growth if we fed the world, but the elite will not let the food in and lose their power.

WASTE = FOOD

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaVC9C2fMps

Much Love, Who I am, is love.

Thomas Melville Moki Moshe Gallagher

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cubicle diptych

2009-08-18T20:55:29Z

cubicle woman

The moments go by if you forget they're there. Sucking in sweetness, hot sugared coffee, aroma into memory.
It might be a warm, clammy late summer afternoon. Hints of autumn like blackberry spicing the air.
The people here are decent. They smile to make conversation a pleasant bit of business.
They want me to feel safe, cared for. It doesn't matter that we are never more than strangers,
passing faces, smiling. They bring me coffee with sugar and plastic sticks for stirring.
In this moment all of the world turns so skillfully I move along without pause for acknowledgement,
stealthily aware.

Cubicle Woman and me

The minutes move slowly, floating
through non-uniform waves of air
Here is solid, always, interminable
A small, dark woman,
waiflike were she not so clearly lined
from age or weathering
Her movements almost frail,
yet surely determined,
movements like one in a dream
where objects may so easily
transform
Not like this solid place, this
monastery of healing
All in gradations of white,
air almost frigidly white
welcome in the fever
White walls, clarified air
take well to imagery
Vivid primitive paintings
cadmium yellow, vermillion, cobalt blue
flashing, mutating here to there
We are in an old movie
of danger and romance
Silently, without smile or frown,
she stirs sugar from bright white packets
into her curl of steam
hearth and home.

August 10, 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon

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Opponents of space exploration are really anti-Earth

2009-08-14T17:25:22Z

And I'm absolutely certain of that claim -- or at the very least it applies to SOME opponents of space exploration. As we all know, it is the human presence on Earth that is causing pollution and related environmental damage. If there were space colonization, it would be possible to reduce the human population on Earth by sending people to other planets. The less people there are on Earth, the less pollustion they'll cause. And since all other worlds in this solar sytem are lifeless (And please don't tell me there is life on other planets in this solar system when current evidence says there's not), space colonists can create high tech societies without demanging the biospheres of other planets because those other planet have no biospheres!

In other words, opponents of space exploration oppose space exploration because they don't like it. Their claims that space exploration can't help Earth are completely, totally and utter false. Besides, space exploration opponents often contribute to the envirnmental problems of Earth by using pollution-based technologies. If you don't want to damage the Earth's biosphere, then don't live on Earth.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 10 replies

Albert Hoffman writes Steve Jobs, article talks about Burningman too

2009-08-14T12:51:07Z

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-grim/read-the-never-before-pub_b_227887.html

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

My mantra for creating possibility

2009-06-16T15:55:04Z

I developed this mantra during my EST years from 1982 on... I didn’t know what it was or that it was a mantra... My koan... I ended up visiting a Zen center in 1986 and that’s when I figured out what I was doing. I guess growing up with my dad, being a change master, moving over 60 times in my life, it was just part of who I am....

http://www.ipub.com/thomasgall/time.html

I kept saying over the last 20 years...."it’s not what's so, it's so what". Werner’s aphorism gave me these words to chant, to repeat everyday, for the peacefulness of a present mind in all my moments. Every time I worried, it made me peaceful. Every time I had to adjust to another move, it gave me strength to be the new kid on the block again. Every time I was alone, it made me have strength in being alone, the understanding that we are always alone, but we choose to be with other people anyways because it’s all about showing up. All this gave me understand in action without the constraints the past or my beliefs had on my greatest possible futures.

“The truth believed is a lie”, “but if you experience it” (Werner said), that was the truth, I just can't hold onto the perception of truth in my brain, so I must run with my assumptions for now.

My listening & speaking is always my spirit (me), but my actions are my pattern machine, so I must use my speaking in thoughts and words to correct that illusion that my pattern machine is me, the spirit of possibility.

Like my thoughts, my integrity is another thought, I choose to recreate it in the world every moment and I speak a mantra of a perspective of choice rather then decision

I am unconditional love, thank you for listening.

God recreates the world infinitely every moment of time forever and ever, there never was a past or future, only forever now’s, BE DO Have it all now, it’s your choice. My quote is “So choose again, choices don’t run out in life, only your decisions make you run out of choices.”

Tribe: Moki
Facebook: Thomas M Gallagher

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going sane

2009-05-31T01:52:33Z

Achieving Sanity

You try to fool the pain
to plug up inconsistencies
with drugs for the insane
designed to serve the master race,
another layer of slavery
forgetting lesson one
pain is not your enemy
but an alarm to warn of
unhealthy invasion, danger!
Ignoring sage brain chemistry
you sell your soul to strangers
for agreed upon relief.
You are what you eat, breathe, think,
how you behave.
Well thought through techniques you can learn
can save you
with less expense, aggravation,
possible degradation,
harmful habituation
digressions from destination
and other deprivations of your self
guiding you from your goal
of homeostasis
operating
at optimal health

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

Old Japanese Maps On Google Earth Unveil Secrets

2009-05-03T18:48:52Z

my favorite quote: "We tend to think of maps as factual, like a satellite picture, but maps are never neutral, they always have a certain point of view," he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/02/old-japanese-maps-on-goog_n_195277.html
excerpt:
TOKYO — When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused any problems.

But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities.

love all-ways,
mem

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Earth Day recycling

2009-04-22T05:05:17Z

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

Sacred Earth ~ Emerging Visions visionary art ezine #7

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the video i star in

2009-04-21T05:21:47Z

i just found out that for the
past 2 months my pharmacist
made a HUGE mistake
instead of 1 mg of Risperdal
i was getting .5 i'm supposed
to take 2 mg a dday
yyeah i knlow i have the giggles
But i delare a DEFAULT
oh i might of had feelings for some one
BUT i DIDN;T LOVE HIM THE WAY I
DO AND DID ERIC FRANCIS
HE'S WITH ANOTHER WOMAN AND I FEEL JOY
AND HAPPINESS FOR HIM
to show her i bought everything for their sacred union
evevn including the rings,,,
that's love..that's compersion? that's jost me

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Good Friday

2009-04-10T09:05:11Z

Thank God, Good Friday

He came back
And we can worship, believe
Not like everyone else
He did not abandon us
Dying in a far off war, leaving
ashen legacy
never enough
starvation for affectionate attention
pummeling harsh walls with
bloody fists
Banging against the icy windowpane
crying salt, oceanic sorrow
"I tried to be good. I hated hearing
your screams of disappointment
muffling shameful despair
because this was not the life
you bargained for in the
promised land beyond
hot desert wanders"
Desert, resurrected sea
where we all began
Sliding along rocky formations
begetting, begatting, belonging
to the Earth, mud creatures
breathing molecules of air,
baking in the Sun
Ready for sacrifice
carrying crosses along a huge column
era to era
Atlas's and Eves
burdens of responsibility
our sacred contract
broken every time you speak of God
"Take not my Name"
for words have consequence
A cross requires two lines meeting
A Crucifixion
requires juxtapositions of history,
people in bondage
to their own ideas

(c) April 10, 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon

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Oestre

2009-04-06T07:55:57Z

Mother Moon a buttery dance of golden glow
sadly flowing through grimey glass
my window on the world

Without Faith there is no Hope
Without Resurrection there is no Faith
Without Crucifixion there is no Resurrection
Without Jesus there is no Crucifixion
That all has come to pass: Christianity

brought to you by http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

More Christian Dating Fun !

2009-03-31T06:50:33Z

http://weareweirdos.tribe.net/photos/ab98b655-a1c1-43a3-8c9a-276572eb7b3e

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Christians love nipples

2009-03-30T04:56:22Z

http://tribes.tribe.net/thejesustribe/photos/deb47186-ee58-4194-8b09-d423edfe9b15

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Emerging Visions #14 Scrying Phantom Seas has emerged

2009-03-15T06:06:47Z

Welcome the Emergence of "Scrying Phantom Seas" Emerging Visions visionary art ezine #14

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

Listen to the heart of bliss.
On open sand, feel
breeze, vibrance
under oceanic starlight.
Breathing eternity, open
inward to see intricately
expanding visions -- poetry:
thought in magical splendor.
All art is magical; all magic is art.
Yet they are not the same, and part
of a grander landscape, embracing
sky and sea.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

"show me the note"

2009-02-17T22:20:33Z

read whole article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090217/ap_on_re_us/produce_the_note_2

Homeowners' rallying cry: Produce the note

By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer Mitch Stacy, Associated Press Writer

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. – Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork.

And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill.

Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess.

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Metric comics. For real!

2008-12-16T15:09:50Z

As we speak, I'm working on a web comic I call "Good Measures." It's about an organization whose purpose is to effecitvely promote metric use in America. Since I'm at the earliest stages of this comic, I'd like to asked for suggestions for episodes and characters and such. Any and all help will be appreciated. Please help me out here if you can.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 14 replies

stopthedrugwar.org writing campaign

2008-12-12T22:00:10Z

WRITERS: StoptheDrugWar.org is carrying out an ambitious
week-long writing-based campaign dealing with the mainstream
media's coverage of drug issues -- preparatory work is now
underway with the help of volunteers -- and we are seeking to
expand our team of volunteer writers who want to be part of it.
Along with writing skills, volunteers for this project should
have a fairly good understanding of the effects of drug
prohibition -- visit our Site Map page at
http://stopthedrugwar.org/sitemap and scroll down to the
"Consequences of Prohibition" section to get an idea of what we
mean by that. Contact David Borden at borden@drcnet.org or by
replying to a Chronicle email, or by phone at (202) 293-8340
ext. 301, for further information about this very exciting
effort.

For a seven-day period, hopefully in January, we intend to post rewritten versions of every English-language news story about drugs that appears on Google News. The rewriting will not be massive for any given article; in fact in many cases we will only be making slight changes to each sentence. The idea is to make the point about the drug laws being an example of prohibition, like Alcohol Prohibition, and that many of the types of circumstances that are commonly reported on as "drug-related" are really consequences of drug prohibition. "Drug-related shooting" may change to "prohibition-related shooting," for example, "police officers" to "prohibition agents" and so forth. In some cases we will add extra paragraphs to explain things that a simple word change can't fully relate, and we may add in quotes from allies as well.

There will also be types of stories for which we'll have to think how to address prohibition -- e.g., claims that may be inaccurate about the effects of marijuana, for example -- though we do intend to keep the effort focused pretty tightly on prohibition itself, as opposed to the many other ills and injustices and errors in the drug war. (Those many other ills and injustices are extremely important too, but any given campaign needs to have a specific focus to be effective -- perhaps we will do something similar for other aspects of the drug war in future efforts.)

The rationale behind rewriting every drug story during this timeframe, as opposed to merely choosing a representative sample, is three-fold. First, it's a more interesting hook. I believe that more people will take the time to look at what we are doing this way -- a "stunt" sort of. The second reason is that it is a framework for contacting large numbers of reporters, editors, newspaper ombudsmen and others around the country (around the world, really), to let them know that we rewrote their articles, or articles in their papers. This in turn points back to the first reason -- telling a reporter we have rewritten his or her own story is more likely to get their attention than merely saying go look at our web site where we've rewritten a similar story by someone else. Third, we should be able to get our own rewritten copies of articles picked up on Google News itself, which could be seen by a lot of people and further get the attention of reporters when they their own names come up in their Google news alerts.

So, this project is an effort to get the attention of large numbers of reporters who cover drug stories, get them thinking about prohibition and whether they should be talking about prohibition in their own reporting, and making them aware of our web site, newsletter and availability as sources. (Secondarily, we hope to get some media coverage of the campaign itself, though getting very much of it has probably an outside chance.)

Let me know if you are interested in being part of this, and if I so I will put you on the volunteers list. Thanks for expressing interest in volunteering; we are looking forward to working with you.

David Borden, Executive Director

StoptheDrugWar.org

Washington, DC

http://stopthedrugwar.org

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 4 replies

New Tribe Alert: Utopian Flash Fiction

2008-12-07T08:16:40Z

http://tribes.tribe.net/uff

Utopian Flash Fiction Tribe: for the creation of flash fiction stories to create little open doorways into possible solutions to societal problems in concise, entertaining narratives

I envision this group as a furtherance of my once and future project, to find visionaries who will take part in writing a series of flash fiction utopian pieces around an imaginary federation of diverse villages each working out their methods of community life. We can create little dramatic impacts imparting information about how the people of the community involved solve the problems of their collective lives.

A fictional project allows for social activist imaginings outside of the currently "possible" to promote ideas in an easily digestible and enjoyable form, each person involved adding their bits to the overall project. It would be wonderful eventually to publish these stories into an inspirational book, but I am mostly interested to see what kinds of ideas for possible social structures result. I am hoping eventually to see a whole world of ideas created through these short bursts of fiction, little vignettes or as one person suggested, peeks into open doors. There is no set format to fit. What each participant writes would be helping to create the structure itself.

A possible jumping off point would be to write stories based on the scenario:

We are a group of colonizers sent to a new planet, with a variety of skills and knowledge. The core group has been given the job of a sort of council of elders, to develop the new constitution, by-laws, societal structure within which the colony is to operate.

This is only a suggestion. The whole point is: there are no limits

Peace,
libramoon

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

300-mile-a-gallon cars are possible?

2008-11-29T17:39:41Z

It seems that 300-mile-a-gallon cars are possible, and here's one place to find the details for such a claim:
http://mytalktoday.com/solutions/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=464

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Guy & Massey's Scientifical Adventures

2008-11-24T15:51:04Z

"Guy & Massey's Scientifical Adventures" is a new web comic that I'm working on as we speak. It started out as a print comic that I've been trying to complete off and on since 1992. But since it's way cheaper to produce web comics than print comics, I decided to make "Guy & Massey" a web comic. Here are some samples:
http://www.comicspace.com/timelike01/comics.php?action=read&file_id=267255
http://www.comicspace.com/timelike01/comics.php?action=gallery&comic_id=23542

In any event hope you can get into it.

-- Yul

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Support Our Troops

2008-11-18T23:54:45Z

Support Our Troops

Bravery?
What if they gave a war
and nobody came?
Marching orders
unstable chemical treaties
break down
crushing frightened innocents
into dust.
We meant to serve our country.
We meant to save lives, shore up
threatened resources,
bulwarks against disaster.
We meant to follow the dreams of
our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers
for a good life:
family, God, country
and a wholesome recompense of fun.
We didn't ask for horror so intense
as to reverberate through what's left
of our lives.
How is this service? Who is served?
Who left in pieces that never heal?
God is on the battle field
Not as general or mascot,
as witness
and gentle minister
of last rites
to shattered souls.

(c) November 16, 2008 Laurie Corzett/libramoon

brought to you by: http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

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Depression on PBS

2008-11-06T07:54:11Z

Have you seen the documentary on Depression currently being aired on PBS? I watched last night and was appalled. Their first line of defense against cognitive/behavioral issues was these dangerous drugs, which they admitted they don't really understand but just experiment patient by patient taking advantage of confusion and misery. They even touted electroshock. Yet, when we saw the results in the lives of the people whose stories they were following, the best result was for a young black man who refused to take drugs and transformed his life by engaging with an older woman activist and working for a community support group, along with talk therapy to work out his early life traumas and resultant ptsd. The white well-off parents of depressed teens talked about how they hated to send their kids away for treatment and now the kids are back home and doing better on daily drug cocktails, but you can see what was destroying these kids was lack of intimacy in their lives so they always felt they had to play a role to be acceptable. Nothing at all was mentioned about complementary or alternative therapies, such as expressive therapies, though it was pointed out that regular exercise helps keep depression at bay. What they did keep emphasizing: "This is a disease and therefore treatable." I may have it wrong, but I didn't know there was treatement for every disease, even postulating these basically faulty software issues to be "disease", but I digress. Of course, the major point was that poppa Psychiatric Association knows best, and what we know is you gotta take your medicines, no matter what the ill-effects, because we have more medicines for those.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 9 replies

~sharing(secret)water~ ev13 has emerged

2008-11-05T08:47:08Z

Raising our glasses in celebration!

Opening fluid connections, ~sharing(secret)water~
Emerging Visions visionary art ezine issue #13 has emerged.

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

Drink deeply.

share and enjoy!

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

toxic economy

2008-10-02T07:44:19Z

Turned from distracting smoke and mirrors, the real problem belongs not to "Wall Street" and those whose game of choice is trading in what they like to call a "free market" but to the neighborhoods of "Main Street" losing credit and credibility to empty, unmaintained properties foreclosed upon in a frenzy of insanity.

These properties are "real" estate. They have value. Not so high as the bubble tried to make us believe, but real value, especially to those who thought of them as "home." A real cure for what ails US economy would encourage the profit motive and sanity, enlist investors (looking desperately for somewhere to put the money they have taken out of karmically challenged investment banks) to buy these properties and work out mortgage or rental arrangements with those who want to live in and maintain them, by-pass the whole evil episode and get back to market trade based on real values that can be easily understood by Main Street and learned through experience by Wall Street.

Congress ought to demand unbundled mortgages be sold at bargain basement prices to local financial institutions and groups then required to work out equitable arrangements with homeowners/residents to keep them in those homes. This is how it should have been, mortgages held by community lenders who have a stake in keeping the community healthy and the authority to work out compromise arrangements with their customers.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 3 replies

The Wall Street Model: Unintelligent Design

2008-09-24T22:10:28Z

The Wall Street Model: Unintelligent Design

By PAM MARTENS

Wall Street is collapsing not because of bad mortgage debt or lack of capital or over-leverage. Those are merely symptoms. Wall Street is collapsing because it deserves to collapse; it needs to collapse in order for America to survive. The economist Joseph Schumpeter called it creative destruction, a system where outdated models collapse to make room for new innovation.

Wall Street of the past decade never really had a business model as much as it had a business creed: greed is good; leveraged greed is even better.

The fact that Wall Street is collapsing is a given. How it survived as long as it did under its corrupted model is the question that will be debated in history books for the next generation.

For example, imagine a business model that bases remuneration to brokers on how much money they make for their Wall Street employer and not one dime for how well their customers' portfolios perform. A Wall Street broker receives remuneration that rises from approximately 30 to 50 per cent of the gross commission based on their cumulative trading commissions with zero regard to how well the clients' accounts have done. There is no acknowledged internal mechanism in any of the major Wall Street firms to gauge the overall success of the accounts the broker is managing.

The industry has been irreconcilably incentivized to corruption just as brokers have been socialized to silence. The reason we are seeing a stampede this week into U.S. Treasury securities is that much of this money belonged there in the first place, not in esoteric mortgage backed securities, junk bonds, commodity funds or annuities backed by AIG. Brokers put their clients "safe money" in these unsuitable investments because their Wall Street employer dangled a seductive financial inducement. A broker receives less than $1,000 in gross commissions ("gross" meaning before their firm takes their 50 to 70 per cent cut) on $100,000 of longer dated Treasuries. Putting that same $100,000 in a junk bond or mortgage-backed security or annuity could generate $3,000 or more. In other words, the financial incentive has created an artificial demand. And, as must inevitably happen, the true state of that demand is just now catching up with the true glut of supply.

What would be the incentive for Wall Street firms to offer higher commissions for some products over others? Because on top of their cut of the brokers commissions, they receive origination and syndication fees for the more esoteric investment products. These firms so despised the low-paying Treasuries that they replaced Treasuries with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae paper in mutual funds bearing the name "U.S. Government Fund." (This misleading practice and the fact that billions of dollars of public money resided in these misnamed funds has certainly played a role in the government's decision to nationalize Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.)

Then there is the insane model of bringing flim-flam new businesses to market. If we look at the people who are at the helm of today's collapsing Wall Street, they have shifted in their chairs, but they are mostly the same conflicted individuals who brought America the NASDAQ bust that began in March 2000 and evaporated $7 trillion of American wealth. There is no longer any incentive on Wall Street to bring about initial public offerings of only companies that will stand the test of time and create new jobs and new markets to make America strong and globally competitive. There is only an incentive to collect the underwriting fee and cash out quickly on private equity stakes.

Next is the corrupted model of housing a trading desk for the firm inside the same company that is supposed to issue unbiased research to the public. For example, let's say that XYZ Brokerage buys a big stake in ABC Company on its proprietary trading desk (the desk that trades for profits for the firm) on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday afternoon, it could almost guarantee profits for itself by issuing a research report upgrading the stock. Conversely, it could short the stock on Wednesday and issue a negative report to drive down the price on Thursday, also guaranteeing itself a profit. Other than a fictional Chinese Wall, there is absolutely nothing to stop this type of public looting.

Now, ask yourself this. With the multitude of other ways that Wall Street has to make money, why are they allowed to have their own trading desk while simultaneously issuing conflicted research to the public. After the NASDAQ scandals that revealed Wall Street issuing biased research for personal profit, why weren't proprietary trading desks and public research issuance shut down at these firms. There are plenty of boutique research firms to fill the void. The only conclusion to be drawn is what Europe is calling "regulatory capture" here in the U.S. That's a phrase similar to what Nancy Pelosi was calling "crony capitalism" on Wednesday, September 17 before she decided to join the crony capitalists at a microphone on Thursday, September 18 to promise bipartisanship on the mother of all bailouts to Wall Street.

This unintelligent design business model would have cracked and imploded long ago but for one saving grace: it came with its own unintelligent design justice system called mandatory arbitration. Gloria Steinem once called mandatory arbitration "McJustice." It's really more like Burger King; Wall Street can have it their way. In a system designed by Wall Street's own attorneys, arbitrators do not have to follow the law, or legal precedent, or write a reasoned decision, or pull arbitrators from a large unbiased pool as is done in jury selection. Industry insiders routinely serve over and over again. Had there been ongoing trials in open, public courtrooms, the magnitude of the leverage, worthless securities, and corrupted business model would have been exposed before it brought America to the financial brink.

That Wall Street and its Washington coterie are stilled embraced in regulatory capture and unintelligent design is most keenly evidenced by the recent merger of Merrill Lynch, the brokerage/investment firm, with Bank of America, the commercial bank and ongoing discussions to merge Morgan Stanley, the brokerage/investment firm with a commercial bank. (Memo to Enemy Combatants Against Taxpayers a/k/a Wall Street/Washington: this new model is the failed model of Citigroup. Why do you hate America?)

Make no mistake that what ever the dollar amount announced next week to funnel into an entity to buy bad debts from banks and Wall Street firms, it won't be enough. It's a Band-Aid on a malignant tumor. That tumor is Credit Default Swaps (CDS) with over $60 trillion now owed through secret contracts in an unregulated market created, financed and owned by the unintelligent design masters, Wall Street firms themselves. (See "How Wall Street Blew Itself Up," CounterPunch, January 21, 2008.)

There is no sincere plan by this administration to help America or Americans. There is only a plan to slow the financial collapse until after the November elections by throwing a politically palatable amount of money at it and a plan to continue to blame it on a housing bust.

If we, the American people, allow this to happen, we're enablers to the unintelligent design model. Before one more penny of our taxes are spent on this ruse, we must demand a seat at the table (I think Ralph Nader should occupy that seat) to discuss breaking up Wall Street, crushing this model, innovating a sensible model that serves the individual investor and deserving businesses, and promises our children a future of more than a banana republic.

Pam Martens worked on Wall Street for 21 years; she has no securities position, long or short, in any company mentioned in this article. She writes on public interest issues from New Hampshire. She can be reached at pamk741@...

http://www.counterpunch.org/martens09202008.html

http://snipurl.com/3snej

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Tyranny on Display at the Republican Convention

2008-09-14T21:25:43Z

see whole article:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080908_tyranny_on_display_at_the_republican_convention/

Tyranny on Display at the Republican Convention

By Chris Hedges

St. Paul is a window into our future. It is a future where, as one protester told me by phone, “people have been pepper-gassed, thrown on the ground by police who had drawn their weapons, had their documents seized and their tattoos photographed before being taken away to jail.” It is a future where illegal house raids are carried out. It is a future where vans containing heavily armed paramilitary units circle and film protesters. It is a future where, as the protester said, “people have been pulled from cars because their license plates were on a database and handcuffed, thrown in the back of a squad car and then watched as their vehicles were ransacked and their personal possessions from computers to literature seized.” It is a future where constitutional rights mean nothing and where lawful dissent is branded a form of terrorism.
* * *

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

Goodbye to You coming soon

2008-08-29T16:22:19Z

Just want to briefly bring up "Goodbye to You." It's a web comic series I'm working on that deals with an organization working to establish a new civilization on Mars so they can get away from the dystopian pseudo-society of Earth. Here's a related link:
http://www.comicspace.com/timelike01/comics.php?action=gallery&comic_id=7693

Anyway, more details should be coming soon. Hope you can get into it by then.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 2 replies

stopthedrugwar.org

2008-08-29T16:20:47Z

http://stopthedrugwar.org/reader_blogs/2008/aug/22/book_review_the_chemical_muse

The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization by D. C.A. Hillman, Ph.D. (2008, St. Martin’s Press)

Dr. Hillman’s Chemical Muse obliterates contemporary drug prohibitionist nonsense by taking the reader on a magical mystery tour to ancient Athens and Rome. There Hillman reveals that recreational drug-taking was the norm for the greatest thinkers of Western civilization.

Hillman exposes a history that until now has been kept under tight wraps. Traditional Classical scholars have been too prudish, too puritanical, or too conscious of modern society’s stigma toward drug users to translate the precise contents of certain ancient Greek and Latin texts into modern languages. With Hillman’s new book, things change.

The written record reveals that the intellectual giants, along with nearly everyone else of the period, used common, not-so-common, and some really strange herbal concoctions to light up their neurocircuits and brain cells like some colossal shopping mall Christmas tree.

Yes, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Democritus, Galen, Pliny, and other luminaries and humanitarians, it turns out, were all major druggies. Potheads. Walking, talking pharmacopeias. The collective brain stimulus achieved by ingesting recreational drugs in Athens coincided with their creation or furtherance of medical science, democracy, the atomic theory, mathematics, formal logic, philosophy, poetry, art, architecture and the theater.

In one example [Hillman, p. 177], we find Plato writing in Phaedrus about drug-induced inspirations:

In reality, the greatest of blessings come to us through mania [effects of psychotropic drugs or madness] when it is sent as a gift from the gods.

And later:

And a third kind of possession and madness comes from the Muses. This takes hold upon a gentle and pure soul, arouses it and inspires it to songs and other poetry, and thus by adorning countless deeds of the ancients educates later generations. But he who without divine madness comes to the doors of the Muses, confident that he will be a good poet by art, meets with no success, and the poetry of the sane man vanishes into nothingness before that of the inspired madmen.

The peaceful and favorable coexistence of recreational drug users together with a healthy and productive society is a vision that modern drug warriors condemn as being wholly unrealistic and potentially disastrous. The Classics tell us that nothing could be less true. The wisdom of the sages provides solid evidence that Athenian and Roman cultures integrated recreational drug use into their cultures with minimal blowback.

No hysterical complaints about drug use and its consequences can be found in the ancient record. No evidence exists of efforts to change a pro-drug culture into one of prohibition-plus-persecution. Rather, prohibition schemes would be put on hold until the 4th-century when some bizarre social priorities emerged in Christian-era Rome.

For drug use to be favorably implicated in the dawn of Western civilization means that a safe and effective system of legal distribution of recreational drugs is not only achievable, but is also likely to be beneficial. Industrialized societies with economies partially based on the creative impulses of their individual citizens could not help but profit. In the U.S., estimates are that about 40-percent of the economy is driven by good old Yankee innovation, and it is common knowledge that recreational drugs play an active role in all types of creativity.

With kudos to Dr. Hillman for yanking the sheets off the Classics, a peaceful coexistence between drug users and the opposition culture has just moved a few degrees closer to the higher realms of reason and justice.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/548/mexico_PRD_legalization

from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #548, 8/22/08

Mexico's PRD May Call for Legalization

According to Mexican press reports this week, Mexico's Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD -- Democratic Revolutionary Party) is preparing to consider legalization of the drug trade as a response to the wave of narco-violence that has swept the country in the last year and a half. Around 5,000 people have been killed in prohibition-related violence since President Felipe Calderon escalated Mexico's long-running drug war by enlisting the military in the fight in December 2006.

PRD presidential candidate Andre Manuel Lopez Obrador came within a handful of votes of winning the presidency in 2006, and the party remains the second strongest political force in the country, behind the ruling Partido de Accion Nacional (PAN -- National Action Party). But because of party infighting since that election, the PRD may drop into third place after this year's midterm elections, behind both the PAN and the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI -- Revolutionary Institutional Party).

According to the Mexico City newspaper El Universal, the PRD's national council is calling on the party's legislators to begin discussing legalization as part of a "grand national accord" to deal with violence and insecurity in the country. The proposal came from the PRD's New Left faction, led by Jesus Zembrano, and was approved unanimously by the national council.

In an interview with Mexico's Televisa TV network, the PRD coordinator in the lower house, Javier Gonzalez Garza, upped the ante, saying legalization should be considered not only in Mexico, but also in the US. "We can't continue thinking that we are going to combat the problem of drug trafficking without more radical measures, and one of them has to be the legalization of drugs in the United States," he said. "After the United States will we continue with Mexico? Of course, or both at the same time... This war, the way it is outlined, is going to be lost, we're all going to lose, it makes no sense and there need to be some changes."

Some 25,000 Mexican army troops are fighting drug traffickers along the border and in a number of major cities and drug-growing areas. Many observers blame the spike in violence -- more people have been killed already this year than in all of last year -- on the aggressive stance of the Calderon government. But the US government is pleased; it recently passed a $1.4 billion, three-year anti-drug assistance package for Mexico, most of which will go to beefing up military and police capabilities.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

a different voice

2008-08-22T13:07:39Z

A Different Voice

"Mommy, don't make me!
Don't keep me and hate me.
Your poisoned womb
tears my soul.
Please let me go."

"Child, it will be alright.
I'll give you to strangers
who have prayed for your life."

"No, Mommy. Don't you see?
I am your destiny.
Please release me. Do what you must.
In this inner voice, put your trust.
Grieving, set my spirit free.
You know this is meant to be.
We know how much you care.
This is your cross to bear."

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 2 replies

Divine Moments of Truth

2008-08-12T09:15:43Z

Please comment and advise if this resonates. I remember asking the sacred spirit to teach me 'how one should go about allowing the telepathic abilities of the heart to be accepted by the mind.' I also remember asking specifically ' How can we spread the One Love vibration through water.' I had been influenced by Drunvalo Melchizedek and Masaru Emoto. Instead of getting straight answers I was taken on a course in 'the nature of reality 101'. Since then I have been introduced to Diamond Water (google that) but I am still working on increasing my psychic abilities...

http://people.tribe.net/knowledgeispower23/blog/9e80f138-e32a-4781-b970-47c0c8e8285b

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

mj decrim bill in Congress

2008-07-31T20:02:28Z

HR 5843, entitled An Act To Remove Federal Penalties for the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults
From NORML.ORG:

Press Advisory: Marijuana Decriminalization Bill in Congress

Monday, July 28, 2008

WHAT:
Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and other Congressional cosponsors will convene a press conference to announce the introduction of legislation to remove federal penalties for personal marijuana use, and take questions from the media.

HR 5843, entitled An Act To Remove Federal Penalties for the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults, would eliminate federal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana, and for the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce of marijuana.

This proposal reflects the basic recommendations of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (aka the Shafer Commission) in their groundbreaking report to Congress in 1972 entitled Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding.

This is the first federal marijuana decriminalization bill to be introduced in Congress since 1978, and reflects the changing public attitudes that no longer support treating responsible marijuana smokers like criminals. According to a nationwide Time/CNN poll, three out of four Americans now favor a fine only, no jail, for adults who possess or use small amounts of marijuana.

Representatives from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana LAWS (NORML), the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) will also participate in this press conference.

WHEN:
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 10:00am.

WHERE:
Room 2220 Rayburn House Office Building

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 202-483-5500:
Ask for NORML Legal Counsel Keith Stroup; keith@norml.org

~@~

The complete text of this legislation read:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no penalty may be imposed under an Act of Congress for the possession of marijuana for personal use, or for the not-for-profit transfer between adults of marijuana for personal use. For the purposes of this section, possession of 100 grams or less of marijuana shall be presumed to be for personal use, as shall the not-for-profit transfer of one ounce or less of marijuana, except that the civil penalty provided in section 405 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 844a) may be imposed for the public use of marijuana if the amount of the penalty does not exceed $100.
Sponsor: Rep Frank, Barney
Cosponsors: Rep Baldwin, Tammy, Rep Blumenauer, Earl , Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy, Rep Lee, Barbara , Rep Lofgren, Zoe, Rep McDermott, Jim, Rep Paul, Ron

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

SpaceShipTwo mothership to be unveiled July 28

2008-07-28T14:55:37Z

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/23/content_8423042.htm

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Jung @ Heart, Emerging Visions #12, has emerged

2008-07-26T20:10:36Z

Celebrate the Jung-star in us all with

Emerging Visions visionary art ezine #12 - "Jung @ Heart"

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

~ share and enjoy ~

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Swimming through apologies

2008-07-17T13:35:37Z

I believe that people should not be forced to apologize. This is because I believe apologies should be completely sincere. And forced apologies are rarely sincere. As such, I'd prefer not to receive an apology than receive a forced apology which is, therefore, a fake apology. Besides, forcing people to apologize is a form of bullying. And since I believe bullying is a counterproductive form of behavior, I'd rather let the person who did me wrong apologize on their own.

I recently came to the conclusion that this view is a form of forgiveness or at least something close to it. Forgiveness, as I understand it, is an important step toward conflict resolution. On the most part, I suck at forgiveness. But hopefully my tolerance toward not receiving apologies might help improve my capacity for forgiveness eventually.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 2 replies

time for some campaigning

2008-07-16T18:51:26Z

http://sendables.jibjab.com/

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Open to the New

2008-07-15T17:16:50Z

Below is from Carrie Hart's blog (used to be called Daily Quados).
It's dated yesterday.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Open to the New

Fear and doubt hold on to the past. They know only what used to be and what was desired. They know what worked before and what did not. They know what other people have done.

What they do not know is how things are right now, what newness is surrounding you, what possibilities are sparkling around you that have never existed before this very moment. On this, they are completely ignorant.

And since life is change and newness, this is exactly what you need to know, to access. Nothing is ever the way it was. What failed yesterday could succeed today. What was a success yesterday could be a failure today. All is change. All is new, every moment creating
the next moment, all flowing out in newness and discovery, in this great adventure of life.

Open to the new. Use the knowledge and wisdom that you have accumulated over the years; use your talents and skills, of course. But leave behind the old views of what is needed to make your way today, for it is not necessarily the same as what worked for others and worked earlier for you.

Go deep, deep into your center. See the flame that burns there, the light of love. Let that light expand and expand, until it clears your body and mind of fear and doubt. Let it glow within you until you feel cleansed and new, until all worry and anxiety are cleared
away from your body and mind.

And now ask: How shall I approach my life today? How shall I approach this particular person, this situation? And be open to the answer, if it comes in words or pictures, in feelings or in a flash of knowing. Write it down, for the impression may fade over time.

Use your intuition and your connection in this way, reaching above and beyond the narrow confines of fear and doubt, into the wider reaches of a deep connection with all that is.

You have the ability to know, at whatever way knowing is communicated to you, all that is at this moment and all that is likely to be. You have guidance and love surrounding you in every moment, waiting for you to pay attention.

So pay attention. Remove the blinders of fear and doubt and look around. Look around at what is. Look around at what is needed and how you can serve. Raise your attention up into your highest levels and access the guidance that is there for you.

Know this: your higher self and the universe are one, and at this level, your success and welfare are deeply desired. Everything you need to reach a state of grace is made available to you in every moment. Everything you are intended to do and be is there surrounding you and deeply within you. Everything is known and you can access all of this knowledge.

Use your intuition. Use your faith. Use your ability to connect through meditation and contemplation. Tap into it all and the steps before you will light up and your path will be made clear.

Then just take a deep breath, fill yourself with love and faith, and step

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Bigalow Aerospace

2008-07-15T14:39:05Z

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow_Aerospace

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

IT'S THE UNLIMITED NATURAL RESOURCES OF OUTER SPACE, STUPID!!!

2008-07-14T16:37:03Z

Like I said before, IT'S THE UNLIMITED NATURAL RESOURCES OF OUTER SPACE, STUPID!!! If you are a regular American who wants to retain the high standard of living you're so used to, the best way to maintain it is to ACCESS THE UNLIMITED NATURAL RESOURCES OF OUTER SPACE, STUPID!!! Earth has limited resources. Accessing those resources here on this LIVING PLANET does damge to the environment on this LIVING PLANET. If you mined for reseources on the moon, which is a DEAD WORLD, you will not be disturbing the life there because the moon has no life. "But the moon hasn't been totally explored. There could life that hasn't been found yet." Yes, that's possible. But the preponderance of availbalbe evidence says there's no life on the moon. There also no evidence of life anywhere else in this solar system. So if you still want to maintain that high standard of living you love so much, you should support accessing THE UNLIMITED NATURAL RESOURCES OF OUTER SPACE, STUPID!!!

I'm of the mind that opposition to the space program is mostly based on the fact that space exploration is currently unpopular. So even though space exploration can provide the people of Earth with THE UNLIMITED NATURAL RESOURCES OF OUTER SPACE (STUPID!!!), many people will still oppose it. And I don't think I'll ever understand why so many people want to shoot themselves in the foot like that. For example, imagine that you are in some region on Earth where food is scarce and you're starving to death, and yet there is a vast supply of food across a small river. You say, "No! We should never cross that river until we solve all the problems on our side of the river. Once we've done that, then we'll cross the river." In other words, certain people hate space exploration so much, they don't want it to be used to SOLVE THE PROBLEMS ON EARTH. Ho ve! Ho ve forever!

What I'd like to see is a person or persons so persuasive and influential that they can popularize space travel. Then finally we won't end up running out of resources, remain trapped in this planet and drown in our own filth. IT'S THE UNLIMITED NATURAL RESOURCES OF OUTER SPACE, STUPID!!! Yup! IT'S THE UNLIMITED NATURAL RESOURCES OF OUTER SPACE, STUPID!!!

Also, here's a web comic I did on the subject:
http://www.100megsfree4.com/outorb/sideways2/resource_splashpage.htm

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 11 replies

The 2nd Amendment and Individual Rights

2008-07-12T13:49:10Z

The 2nd Amendment and Individual Rights

The 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution affirms the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. As the phrase about militia has been discounted by the Supreme Court, this must be a right to property. The 2nd Amendment asserts that the right of citizens to their even dangerous property, such as weapons, is still sacrosanct against government abrogation.

The underlying principle is that we are a free and independent people. We have the natural right to take care of ourselves rather than give over our power to a parental government on which we entirely depend. A further underlying principle is the right to private property for which we are responsible.

What is more personal, private, essential to individuality, property than our own bodies? True freedom and independence is only possible if we have the power over how our bodies are used based on our own values and needs. Thus, I propose that the individual liberty side of such issues as abortion, illicit drugs, assisted suicide, and others of this ilk could well be argued on a 2nd Amendment basis.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

high pitched freaquency - in the head or not?

2008-07-08T07:35:29Z

hiya Banndeees,

sometimes i have an experience where one ear will be overwhelmed by a high pitched sound that will last for about 30 seconds to a minute and a half. i don't think it happens in any particular ear and there seems to be no outter source for this.

i seem to remember reading something about this and it's relation to the changes upon us. as well i have read that tvs and even microwaves may have more sinister purposes than we realize.. ie don't have a tv or at the least, unplug it when not in use.

does anyone have any information regarding this?

thanks,

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 22 replies

Daria and Jane ask, "Are We on Mars Yet?"

2008-07-05T19:23:14Z

Good question:
http://www.comicspace.com/timelike01/comics.php?action=gallery&comic_id=21503

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Cannabis Witch Hunt

2008-06-21T12:22:01Z

http://digitalhemp.com/articles/articles.html

Cannabis Witch Hunt
Most people think that the phrase “Cannabis Witch Hunt” is metaphor, not realizing that the laws against cannabis are religious laws against Witchcraft and that the methods and the laws against cannabis are all based on the church laws and procedures for carrying out a Witch Hunt.

This series of articles is not legal advice, but rather an objective history of the nature of the Cannabis Witch Hunt to help prepare those who use, possess, distribute, and grow cannabis for the depravity of the persecution they will face.

The Witch Hunt against cannabis is an actual literal Witch Hunt, even though many people think the term is mere metaphor.

Growing, processing, transporting, distributing, possessing, and using cannabis is an essential act of Witchcraft. The Christian Bible, Jewish Torah, and Islamic Koran all specifically and unambigiously outlaw Witchcraft with the death penalty. All U.S. federal judges are Christian or Jewish. A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court is Roman Catholic.

Very few Americans realize that the persecution of cannabis is Christian (especially Roman Catholic) persecution of Witchcraft. Very few American cannabis users have any idea that they are engaging in Witchcraft, much less that they are being targetted for Witchcraft.

This series of articles explains how the cannabis Witch Hunt actually works and your possible defenses under federal law.

You will be shocked at how unfairly the system is stacked against innocent Witches. Many of the rights you were taught in school simply don’t exist in the courtrooms. The Witch must establish innocence beyond the unreasonable doubts of Christian judges and must do so following highly biased rules and procedures intended to make it nearly impossible to obtain a fair Witch Trial.

This series of articles explains a kind of Witchcraft known as Am Khent Kemeticism, but includes additional materials that may be useful for tthose who practice some other form of Witchcraft or cannabis religion.

Under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) an innocent Witch must prove in court that the law is unambigiously an establishment of religion, that the law is unambigiously directed at limiting free exercise of religion, that the law serves no possible legitimate government purpose, that cannabis has absolutely no danger, that the Am Khent Witchcraft religion is a religion, that the practitioner is sincere in his or her beliefs, that Am Khent Kemeticism requires the use, possession, transportation, distribution, growing, and preparation of cannabis, and that there are less restrictive ways that the government can take action against cannabis.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 3 replies

Automatic citizenship for legal immigrants?

2008-06-18T22:18:50Z

Here's a proposal that I suspect couldn't actually be done, but I still think it's worth mentioning (and it probably has been mentioned) .That is, if it's true that illegal immigrants should be given amnesty, work visas or other such perks, doesn't that mean that LEGAL immigrants should be given AUTOMATIC CITIZENSHIP? It sounds fair to me.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

The peaceful exploration of space vs. the violence of warfare on Earth

2008-06-18T15:37:55Z

I'm of the mind that some people -- people who claim to be progressive and anti-war -- hate the space program so much that they would prefer 100 years of war in Iraq to the PEACEFUL exploration of the moon and Mars. I, of course, prefer the peaceful exploration of the moon and Mars to 100 years of war in Iraq. But in today's modern dystopia, I'm definitley in the minority here since the space program is extemely unpopular. And as you may know, "society" general hates any and all ideas that are unpopular.

That brings me to Barak Obama's plans for NASA. In short I think these plans are abysmal. As I recall, he wants to take $10 billion out of NASA's budget and use that money to pay for some sort of preschool education program. This will create a delay or even a cancellation of the Constellation program. "But we don't need to return to the moon. We need to solve our problems on Earth first!" That's a very simple-minded and inaccurate view of the situation. Consider this: NASA's budget (at $17.3 billion a year) is LESS THAT ONE PERCENT OF THE TOTAL U.S. FEDERAL BUDGET. Again I say that NASA's budget (at $17.3 billion a year) is LESS THAT ONE PERCENT OF THE TOTAL U.S. FEDERAL BUDGET. If Obama claims that he opposes the U.S. occupation in Iraq, then he should get the withdrawl done immediately if he becomes president. The savings acquired from withdrawing American military forces from Iraq should be enough to pay for BOTH the preschool education program AND the Constellation program. And with the U.S. military budget being as inconceivably massive as it is (at least $500 billion a year), reducing the military budge to, say, half of what it is shouldn't have a negative effect on national security (espeically if the military is used for REAL national defense and NOT to fuel the military-industrial-congressional complex). Even cut in half, the U.S. military budget would still be the largest military budget on Earth.

So why would Obama ignore such an obviously simple way to keep NASA on track without effecting social programs? Could it be that he really supports a massive military? If that's the case, then he's not all that different from John McCain. I also believe this issue is connected with Obama's obsession with pleasing everyone (or more specifically, the majority). With the space program being as unpopular as it is, he knows how popular bashing NASA is and how most of the public would support such bashing.

One of the reasons why I support space exploration is because I believe it is a viable alternative to war. If the energy channeled toward warfare and the misery and suffering that it causes were channeled toward space exploration, life on Earth might be improved in many ways. Things like spin-off technologies and access to the unlimited natural reseources of outer space are some ways the space program could improve the lives of people oin Earth. But since space exploration is very unpopular, I suspect that most people will disagree with me on this. But they wouldn't disagree if the space program were popular. Ho ve!

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 10 replies

Roots of Middle East Terror

2008-06-07T22:16:00Z

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/3/stephen_kinzer_on_the_us_iranian

Stephen Kinzer on US-Iranian Relations, the 1953 CIA Coup in Iran and the Roots of Middle East Terror
As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Iraq for a historic meeting with Iraqi leaders, we turn to former New York Times foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer, author of All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. [includes rush transcript]

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

social investment plan

2008-05-26T06:14:44Z

I am working on the beginning inklings of a theory for a much more rational economic structure. Instead of the current system wherein profit is expected to be maximized due to fiduciary responsibility to investors, we could all become micro-investors in businesses that we believe would improve our communities. Thus, the person/people having the idea for solving a community need would create a business plan with all the pertinent information of exactly what, how, where, who, and how much start-up would cost. They would post their information to a web-site set up for this purpose, where people could shop for where they would like to invest very small sums. Like the online small contributions to political campaigns, small amounts each from large numbers of people would grow into useful capital. The amounts would be so small, that if the business did not make a profit, not much would be lost. If the business happily succeeds, a percentage of the profit would be distributed among the investors based on their individual investment shares. Or is this already being done? If so, please send me the link.

If not, please let me know what you think, in detail. I want to explore, expand, and work out the kinks for this.

Peace,
libramoon

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

defining "dignity"

2008-05-20T04:38:11Z

The usurping of language allows the fundamental concept of dignity to be so degraded as in the first piece below.

What is dignity to you?

http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=d8731cf4-e87b-4d88-b7e7-f5059cd0bfbd

The Stupidity of Dignity
Conservative bioethics' latest, most dangerous ploy.

Steven Pinker, The New Republic Published: Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Here is an organization that better reflects my ideas about dignity:

http://www.humiliationstudies.org/index.php

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Right On, Pastor Wright!

2008-04-26T04:22:09Z

Right On, Pastor Wright

Put down with disdain
for exposing real pain
of folks whose God-given power's
crushed by evil glowers
of corrupt so-called warriors
exulting what's destroying us,
leading us into perdition
disassembled, reconditioned
to hate by their plan
taught not to understand
our own best hope
to not be hooked on their dope
caught up in their fantasies
denying true sanity
to rally 'round a flag.
Watch them give that tail a wag,
pledging hand on heart it's
our job to feed their markets
while tossed out on the street
eating tainted meat
breathing poisoned air.
They may cry like they care
to fool again, to lead us
into foreign wars to bleed us
for their fortunes, wealth expanding
until we understand banding
together, sisters, brothers,
trusting our own truth, not others'.
Pastor, preach and rail,
remind us their jail
can only bind us
when we allow them to blind
and define us.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 11 replies

Change is unavoidable

2008-04-14T15:22:50Z

I'll say now and say later that those who say change is impossible usually say so because they are happy with the way things are. So to reduce the chances that the world can be changed, they promote the false claim that change is impossible. Yes! Saying that change is impossible is a false claim. And though I may be wrong about all my other beliefs, I'm not wrong about my belief that CHANGE IS AN UNAVOIDABLE CONSEQUENCE OF EXISTENCE. Therefore, I also have to assert that changing the world is possible. If changing the world is impossible, it would violate the fact that CHANGE IS AN UNAVOIDABLE CONSEQUENCE OF EXISTENCE. I can't say that enough times.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

Evil Eye

2008-04-11T15:56:24Z

Thought some of you guys might enjoy this:
http://www.threadless.com/submission/158437/Evil_Eye/

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

... the Politics of Dignity

2008-03-24T07:21:15Z

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-fuller/barack-obama-and-the-poli_b_91649.html
Barack Obama and the Politics of Dignity
Posted March 14, 2008 | 06:39 PM (EST)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barack Obama is offering Americans dignity, and they're grabbing it with both hands. Dignity permeates his speeches, informs his policies, and is evident in his manner. Whether he intended to or not, Obama has become a herald of the politics of dignity.

But dignity for whom? For blacks and whites, for men and women, for gays and straights, for young and old, for rich and poor, and for immigrants and the native-born. Obama also reaches out to both sides of the aisle -- liberals and conservatives -- and to other nations and their leaders. Americans, eager to move beyond the fractiousness of identity politics and to end the standoff between libertarian and egalitarian ideologies, are lining up in support. They are ready for a leader committed to building a world of dignity for all.

What exactly is the dignity that people crave? It's more than good manners, respect, and civility. It's the absence of indignity. The American people know that indignities inflicted on the world have diminished America's stature. They know that the indignities they and their fellow citizens are suffering at home are sapping the American spirit.

Barack Obama's campaign has been called a "phenomenon," one with the potential to swell into a movement. But to realize its promise, a movement must evolve from a call for change to a plan for removing the obstacles that stand in the way of that change. How can the energy that has crystallized around Obama's candidacy be effectively focused to fight the indignities of everyday life?

As the history of the women's movement shows, a movement can't deliver without identifying what it's against. The introduction of the word "sexism" provided the lens that brought gender inequity into focus and made it indefensible.

To fight back against indignity, we need to root out what causes it. The cause of indignity is not power, nor is it power differences. It is rather the abuse of power. To oppose indignity, we do not have to eliminate differences in power, nor the differences in rank that merely reflect them.

Rank is a useful tool of organization. When it's exercised with proper regard for the dignity of subordinates, we not only accept rank differences, we celebrate the people whose accomplishments have earned our respect. No one is more admired or loved than someone of high rank who treats everyone, regardless of rank, with dignity.

But, abuses of rank have no place in a dignitarian world and must go. Taking a page from the women's movement, if we are to combat such abuses effectively, we must first give them a name. Fortunately, there's a word at hand. By analogy with racism, sexism, and ageism, abuse of the power inherent in rank is rankism. Once named, you see it everywhere.

The outrage over corrupt executives is indignation over rankism. Sexual abuse by clergy is rankism. Elder abuse in life care facilities is rankism. The power of lobbyists to subvert the people's will is rankism. Photos of the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners gave the world a look at rankism's arrogant face. Hurricane Katrina made visible rankism's most common victims -- the sick, the elderly, the poor.

Like racism, rankism has its most debilitating impact on those lacking the protections of social rank -- the poor. And nowhere is rankism more dangerous than in foreign relations. International terrorism has multiple, complex causes, but one factor we can address is rankism between nations. There is no fury like that borne of chronic humiliation. Senator Obama understands that a vital part of a strong defense is not giving offense in the first place.

Rankism distorts personal relationships, erodes the will to learn, taxes economic productivity, and stokes international enmities. The effects on its victims are like those of racism and sexism on minorities and women. But, unlike these better-known isms, rankism knows no limits and plays no favorites. So long as anyone's dignity is at risk, everyone's is. With its inclusiveness, Obama's politics of dignity has struck a chord.

Before they'll march for justice, people will stand up for dignity. Obama has got them on their feet, and that's a start. The next step--building a dignitarian society -- is the work of several generations, but the hopes for a peaceful and prosperous twenty-first century rest on our taking it.

Robert W. Fuller is the author of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (2006). He is co-author, with Pamela Gerloff, of Dignity for All: Rankism Unmasked (forthcoming, Spring 2008).

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

A certain environmental solution

2008-03-11T14:28:48Z

Some say that if global warming isn't effectly dealt with within the next few years, it will be irreversable. To that I say, is that entirely true? I ask because of the concept known as terraforming: The theoretical process of converting the hostile environment of another planet to Earth-like conditions. For example, the planets Venus and Mars -- which are incapable of supporting human life, can -- over a number of centuries -- be given hospitible environents. Yes, it's true that we humans have unfortunately done a lot of damage ot the Earth's environment. But even so, Earth is still livable. Therefore, it should be much easier to repair the Earth's environment than it would be to give Venus or Mars Earth-like environments.

In other words, fixing the Earth's environment won't be easy, but it should be possible.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Conspiracy History compilation DVDs torrents

2008-03-06T15:49:23Z

**************************************************

Greetings to all my relations.

This is the last step of our project History Watch. If History is
defined and known by the texts, we can now add to this definition the
recorded events of the filmed archives. Animated images are harder to
deny than printed words. Our objective is to spread out freely some of
the little broadcast, even hidden informations about our collective
History.

We put online a collection of 391 documentaries and other selected and
recut videos, to offer to a wide public the best of the infos
available on the net in english and in french. If you are interested,
you have the time, the right equipment and connection, all you have to
do is open the joint document and decompress it if needed (but normaly
your system should do it automaticaly). You'll find therein nine links
that will open the torrents for the nine DVDs we compiled (around 4.6
Gig each, for a total of a little over 41 G, being over 100 hours of
videos).

Otherwise, you can go directly to btjunkie.com and search for these titles.

11 Septembre 2001 - 9-11
Bush family & friends
Capitalist & Communist regimes
Capitalist conspiracy
Mind Kontrol - Secret Programs
New World Order - Secret Societies
Secret services - cover up - covert ops
Secret weapons - UFO
Terrorism Theories propaganda

Torrents are a system of peer to peer data transfer. The more people
download a torrent, the faster it spreads and the longer it stays on
the net. If you don't have a bittorrent software, we suggest that you
download uTorrent on utorrent.com. If you want to participate in
facilitating the diffusion of these infos about our collective
History, download these torrents on as many computers as possible,
whether it is in cybercafes. It takes one or two minutes to open up
the links and the downloading will keep proceeding on its own.

Please spread this out, take part in this action for social education
on a planetary scale. Thanks.

For more info: watch.history@gmail.com History Watch

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

reality.

2008-02-15T21:49:34Z

there are two worlds, the psyche, and the material. it is possible to live in darkness, and light is to develop an understanding of the material, the psych must be employed to explore the universe, and accept a reality beyond itself. this is how gods are born from imagination, because they are imagined to live outside the psyche. imagination is a system that understands the material.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 27 replies

mj news, eh?

2008-02-06T03:24:11Z

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/story.html?id=d8b859d8-ffe4-44dd-b4af-b9dbfdc24389&k=60787

Pot-smoking teens function better

Reuters

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

A study of more than 5,000 youngsters in Switzerland has found those who smoked marijuana do as well or better in some areas as those who don't, researchers said Monday.

But the same was not true for those who used both tobacco and marijuana, who tended to be heavier users of the drug, said the report from J.C. Suris and colleagues at the University of Lausanne.

The study did not confirm the hypothesis that those who abstained from marijuana and tobacco functioned better overall, the authors said.

In fact, those who used only marijuana were "more socially driven ... significantly more likely to practise sports and they have a better relationship with their peers" than abstainers, it said.

"Moreover, even though they are more likely to skip class, they have the same level of good grades; and although they have a worse relationship with their parents, they are not more likely to be depressed" than abstainers, it added.

The study, published in the November issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was based on a 2002 survey of 5,263 Swiss students age 16 to 20, of whom 455 smoked marijuana only, 1,703 used both marijuana and tobacco, and 3,105 abstained from both.

The report said while marijuana use has declined among U.S. adolescents, it has increased in recent years among the same age group in Switzerland and other European countries.

The study said while one theory holds that using legal drugs like nicotine and alcohol opens the door to marijuana and other illegal drug use, recent research also has found marijuana may come first and it "may reinforce cigarette smoking or lead to nicotine addiction."

In the study, about half of the tobacco and marijuana group had used the latter drug 10 times or more in the previous month vs. 56 per cent in the marijuana-only group who had used the drug only once or twice in the same time period.

Those who use only marijuana were less likely to have started using that drug before 15 compared with tobacco users, and the tobacco-marijuana group was more likely to have abused alcohol, the study said

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=838bae24-e3be-4fe9-80d9-2f8ad75d2bd0

'Bliss' compound in pot may treat depression

Reuters

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

CREDIT:
A drug that boosts levels of the brain's own "bliss" chemical can help reverse symptoms of depression in rats, U.S. and Italian researchers reported on Monday. The drug helps maintain high levels of a compound called anandamide, named after the Sanskrit word for "bliss," which is chemically similar to the active ingredient in marijuana. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

WASHINGTON - A drug that boosts levels of the brain's own "bliss" chemical can help reverse symptoms of depression in rats, U.S. and Italian researchers reported on Monday.

The drug helps maintain high levels of a compound called anandamide, named after the Sanskrit word for "bliss," which is chemically similar to the active ingredient in marijuana.

"These findings raise the hope that the mood-elevating properties of marijuana can be harnessed to treat depression," said Daniele Piomelli, director of the Center for Drug Discovery at the University of California, Irvine, who led the study.

"Marijuana itself has shown no clinical use for depression. However, specific drugs that amplify the actions of natural marijuana-like transmitters in the brain are showing great promise," he added in a statement.

Piomelli's team used a drug patented this year, called URB597. It interferes with another compound called fatty acid amide hydrolase or FAAH, which in turn breaks down anandamide.

Dialing back FAAH makes more anandamide available in the brain, Piomelli said.

Writing in the journal Biological Psychiatry, Piomelli and colleagues said they gave URB597 to chronically stressed rats, which act in a way similar to depressed people.

After five weeks of treatment, treated rats acted more like unstressed rats, Piomelli's team said.

Piomelli, who patented URB597 with colleagues at the Universities of Urbino and Parma in Italy, licensed the drug to European drugmaker Organon BioSciences. He said Organon will begin clinical studies on the drug in 2008.

Organon is a unit of Dutch chemical group Akzo Nobel, which is in the process of selling it to Schering-Plough Corp.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; editing by Julie Steenhuysen)

© Reuters 2007

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 13 replies

UFOs: The Real History

2008-02-04T21:54:42Z

According to this, "unexplained" UFOs are mostly secret military craft. I had a feel that would be the case:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1490021EFsydNG4&source=embedVideo

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Teenage Rebellion Has Become a Mental Illness

2008-01-30T08:16:13Z

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/75081/

How Teenage Rebellion Has Become a Mental Illness

By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet
Posted on January 28, 2008, Printed on January 29, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/75081/

For a generation now, disruptive young Americans who rebel against authority figures have been increasingly diagnosed with mental illnesses and medicated with psychiatric (psychotropic) drugs.

Disruptive young people who are medicated with Ritalin, Adderall and other amphetamines routinely report that these drugs make them "care less" about their boredom, resentments and other negative emotions, thus making them more compliant and manageable. And so-called atypical antipsychotics such as Risperdal and Zyprexa -- powerful tranquilizing drugs -- are increasingly prescribed to disruptive young Americans, even though in most cases they are not displaying any psychotic symptoms.

Many talk show hosts think I'm kidding when I mention oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). After I assure them that ODD is in fact an official mental illness -- an increasingly popular diagnosis for children and teenagers -- they often guess that ODD is simply a new term for juvenile delinquency. But that is not the case.

Young people diagnosed with ODD, by definition, are doing nothing illegal (illegal behaviors are a symptom of another mental illness called conduct disorder). In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) created oppositional defiant disorder, defining it as "a pattern of negativistic, hostile and defiant behavior." The official symptoms of ODD include "often actively defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules" and "often argues with adults." While ODD-diagnosed young people are obnoxious with adults they don't respect, these kids can be a delight with adults they do respect; yet many of them are medicated with psychotropic drugs.

An even more common reaction to oppressive authorities than overt defiance is some type of passive defiance.

John Holt, the late school critic, described passive-aggressive strategies employed by prisoners in concentration camps and slaves on plantations, as well as some children in classrooms. Holt pointed out that subjects may attempt to appease their rulers while still satisfying some part of their own desire for dignity "by putting on a mask, by acting much more stupid and incompetent than they really are, by denying their rulers the full use of their intelligence and ability, by declaring their minds and spirits free of their enslaved bodies."

Holt observed that by "going stupid" in a classroom, children frustrate authorities through withdrawing the most intelligent and creative parts of their minds from the scene, thus achieving some sense of potency.

Going stupid -- or passive aggression -- is one of many nondisease explanations for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Studies show that virtually all ADHD-diagnosed children will pay attention to activities that they enjoy or that they have chosen. In other words, when ADHD-labeled kids are having a good time and in control, the "disease" goes away.

There are other passive rebellions against authority that have been medicalized by mental health authorities. I have talked to many people who earlier in their lives had been diagnosed with substance abuse, depression and even schizophrenia but believe that their "symptoms" had in fact been a kind of resistance to the demands of an oppressive environment. Some of these people now call themselves psychiatric survivors.

While there are several reasons for behavioral disruptiveness and emotional difficulties, rebellion against an oppressive environment is one common reason that is routinely not even considered by many mental health professionals. Why? It is my experience that many mental health professionals are unaware of how extremely obedient they are to authorities. Acceptance into medical school and graduate school and achieving a Ph.D. or M.D. means jumping through many meaningless hoops, all of which require much behavioral, attentional and emotional compliance to authorities -- even disrespected ones. When compliant M.D.s and Ph.D.s begin seeing noncompliant patients, many of these doctors become anxious, sometimes even ashamed of their own excessive compliance, and this anxiety and shame can be fuel for diseasing normal human reactions.

Two ways of subduing defiance are to criminalize it and to pathologize it, and U.S. history is replete with examples of both. In the same era that John Adams' Sedition Act criminalized criticism of U.S. governmental policy, Dr. Benjamin Rush, the father of American psychiatry (his image adorns the APA seal), pathologized anti-authoritarianism. Rush diagnosed those rebelling against a centralized federal authority as having an "excess of the passion for liberty" that "constituted a form of insanity." He labeled this illness "anarchia."

Throughout American history, both direct and indirect resistance to authority has been diseased. In an 1851 article in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, Louisiana physician Samuel Cartwright reported his discovery of "drapetomania," the disease that caused slaves to flee captivity. Cartwright also reported his discovery of "dysaesthesia aethiopis," the disease that caused slaves to pay insufficient attention to the master's needs. Early versions of ODD and ADHD?

In Rush's lifetime, few Americans took anarchia seriously, nor was drapetomania or dysaesthesia aethiopis taken seriously in Cartwright's lifetime. But these were eras before the diseasing of defiance had a powerful financial ally in Big Pharma.

In every generation there will be authoritarians. There will also be the "bohemian bourgeois" who may enjoy anti-authoritarian books, music, and movies but don't act on them. And there will be genuine anti-authoritarians, who are so pained by exploitive hierarchies that they take action. Only occasionally in American history do these genuine anti-authoritarians actually take effective direct action that inspires others to successfully revolt, but every once in a while a Tom Paine comes along. So authoritarians take no chances, and the state-corporate partnership criminalizes anti-authoritarianism, pathologizes it, markets drugs to "cure" it and financially intimidates those who might buck the system.

It would certainly be a dream of Big Pharma and those who favor an authoritarian society if every would-be Tom Paine -- or Crazy Horse, Tecumseh, Emma Goldman or Malcolm X -- were diagnosed as a youngster with mental illness and quieted with a lifelong regimen of chill pills. The question is: Has this dream become reality?

Bruce E. Levine, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and author of Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy (Chelsea Green, 2007).

© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/75081/

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

essays on drugs and religion

2008-01-21T20:10:16Z

Brave New Pharm

I have discovered something disturbing, yet so ordinary, mundane, I don't now what to do with it. It is a norm to interpret creative discontent as psychological illness, in need of medicating into quietude. Is this about a need to manage society as garden, pulling out perceived weeds, pruning overgrowth, discouraging unplanned for standing out of individual flowers? Is this fear of disharmony that would surely result from unplanned diversity? Surely, that is, if there are no experimental choirs to find alternate harmonies to the expected norm. Is this what the super-drugging for any and all describable symptomology stems from? We can't be allowed to sit with our pain and learn its vital messages. We must instead agree to a variety of unpleasant to debilitating remedies, our systems experimental labs for the drugs to mitigate the side-effects of drugs in infinite regression. It's not so much about greed and capitalistic drives to outpacing competition without regret, as I had been concluding. We want our drugs, our neighbors drugged, our children tractable and unobtrusive. Life is far too complicated and grim. We don't want to be reminded of other options, other ways of living. We don't have the time.

Or, is time the only thing we have? Don't our lives consist of what we do with the time given? How do we get so caught up in locked steps and perceived obligations that we would rather spend our time drugged into submission? We can learn, if we take the time, take charge of our lives. to move our own actions more in line with what we want to be, how we want to live, if we take the time to figure out just what that is. Then, we can choose what drugs to use and when for our own purposes. We can live lives we create rather than twisting ourselves to fit a one size fits all garden society.

Conflict and Conversation

The United States was created with due attention to individual rights and diversity of opinions. For most of its history, this has been integral to the US's proud heritage. Lately, apparently Christian Conservatives, as they constantly accuse the Fundamental Muslims, have gone all apocalyptic. They are feeding on the koolaid with the particular poison which presents as xenophobic rage.

I can't say that reason works against rage. They light up different regions of the brain. Rage against rage just builds the conflagration. That old hackneyed song about love conquering all is problematic as well. Just what does "love" mean? Tough love confrontations necessitate power on the part of the tough lover over the tough loved. Feeding nutritive soup, binding wounds, gently covering against the cold night would do as all good. It does not seem a practical way to convince the righteous of the fundamental good of protecting and encouraging our great diversity of views. Maybe the best any of us can do is to keep talking, keep an open conversation of diverse voices sharing that brave human blend of thought and feeling. Working out ways and means to all be heard, respected, learned from and about has to be a highly prioritized value, I tend to think.

What do you say?

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

kids on drugs

2008-01-14T07:33:44Z

any composers want to co-create an anthem?

Kids on Drugs
(a walk on the child's side)

Janey just wants to be good,
to do as we all know she should,
to glow in our smiles and hugs.
And we try to fix her with drugs.

Johnny can't think and move well,
living in his chemical haze hell.
His outbursts caused such consternation;
we must keep him on his medication.

Children must be bound by rules.
We can't afford disruption in our schools,
or real help to sort out what's wrong,
or room for free expressive dance and song.

Maggie died so quietly, so young
her life unlived, her brilliant song unsung.
All the drugs, taunts, disappointed sighs
overwhelmed her instinct to survive.

(c) January 13, 2008 Laurie Corzett/libramoon

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

a moment of clarity

2008-01-05T08:35:12Z

As absolute as the world is real, like the stars that fade into distance,
Ever expanding, ever reaching away, gone as knowledge pondered with earthly desire.
Gone as the silent stone, the rock of faith from which the world is born,
And from all of our empty callings passed away.

Out of the secrets which call us apart from one another, out of the darkness of the fateful earth, as whispers into the unknown world my mind sits alone, becoming.

And out of the silence a voice is born, her voice carries me away, her inspiration is my own, and into this nothingness I place my reality, so that it is born from incomprehension.

This single birth will give rise to an entire world, so speaks my mind, but in truth it is as fading as the stars.
And still I do not understand.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

Real life flying cars -- again!

2007-12-31T20:10:48Z

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw&feature=related

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

the other world.

2007-12-27T09:28:34Z

Lead me into the other world.

Lead me into the other world, spirits too scared to be called sacred,
Take me neatly away, wrap me up and give me something greater.

Hell falls over twice before me, yet on the third time it always rises again,
And all of the natural world is screaming for rebellion.

Like love on the wind that blows every which way,
Noone can turn away their strong steady gaze.

Lead me into the other world, where words so sick and fallen have meaning,
Where ritual has been cast astray, and light up the mind.

In all my whispers there is noone who can see who I am,
my soul is black even unto myself, what need have I for worldly ambition.

Take me to my hearts desire, take me to where I belong,
Lead me to the other world.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

The war against creativity

2007-12-23T16:58:11Z

This might explain why many so-called "creative" people lack creative tendencies:
http://www.commarts .com/ca/colad/ ernS_342. html

Not only that, but I've been aware of the attacks on creativity for
many years. For example, a number of people have told me that all
ideas have been used up and therefore no new ideas exist. Of course
that sort of statment often comes from people who assume that their
limited understanding of things applies to everyone. And then there's
the rapid rejection of anything new or uncommon. When I proposed a
wild and radical idea, the response I often get is "It won't work, so
don't bother." But even if it doesn't work, that doesn't mean you
can't get it to work eventually (unless it really can't work.)

Image if Thomas Edison were discoraged from inventing because so many
people kept telling him that is notions could never become practical.
Of coure in this age of spectacular mediocrity, you are expected to
never create and never image because you job in life is to be boring,
bland, stupid and useless. Yet these same folks who attack creativity
and innovation neglect to realize that the iPods they love so much
were created by people who used creativity and innovation. Ho ve! Ho
ve forever!

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 10 replies

A 20 percent chance that we're living in a matrix

2007-12-17T22:22:33Z

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P43BarPAL5I

And if it's true that we're all computer-generated characters, couldn't it also be true that the folks who created the simulated world we're living in are also in a simulated world? Likewise, Those other folks could also be computer-generated and so-on and so-forth and whatnot. There could be massive layers of matrices that constitute what we think is reality. And who knows? Maybe actual reality is inaccessible.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 5 replies

WHAT is REALity?

2007-12-17T01:53:29Z

so what does this word mean to you?
and do you think you are able to consciously CREATE whatever reality you desire?

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 9 replies

Reclaiming space history

2007-11-13T21:54:10Z

I think it would be very productive and very necessary for someone to write a book that contains the most massive amount of evidence disputing all moon landing hoax theories. And if no one else is up to that effort, I might just do it myself.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 3 replies

realpolitik musings

2007-11-04T21:16:22Z

The US President seems like he has been treating his administration as a game, scoring points for his side by hook or by crook. This might be more charming if there were not so many deaths resulting from his strategies. All those soldiers destroyed as if mere game pieces. I guess, though, it's ok if you believe they are going to a better place. Like the suicide bombers are said to believe, so that all this bitterly painful destruction on Earth gets to better populate the respective Heavens. Who benefits? Well, who is getting all those 100s of billions of dollars we keep appropriating at the expense of our future and our sovereign state? Yet we were told that it would be a surgical operation, easy in and out. It would be over in a few months, and cost very little. We would be greeted as saviors and repaid in oil. We had the intelligence, the technology, and the high moral ground, remember? Way back in the winter of '03.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

Homegrown Terrorism Prevention

2007-10-26T02:29:38Z

http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=4682

House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill
10-25-2007
www.roguegovernment.com
Lee Rogers

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.
First let’s take a look at the definitions of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism as defined in Section 899A of the bill.

The definition of violent radicalization uses vague language to define this term of promoting any belief system that the government considers to be an extremist agenda. Since the bill doesn’t specifically define what an extremist belief system is, it is entirely up to the interpretation of the government. Considering how much the government has done to destroy the Constitution they could even define Ron Paul supporters as promoting an extremist belief system. Literally, the government according to this definition can define whatever they want as an extremist belief system. Essentially they have defined violent radicalization as thought crime. The definition as defined in the bill is shown below.

`(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term `violent radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.

The definition of homegrown terrorism uses equally vague language to further define thought crime. The bill includes the planned use of force or violence as homegrown terrorism which could be interpreted as thinking about using force or violence. Not only that but the definition is so vaguely defined, that petty crimes could even fall into the category of homegrown terrorism. The definition as defined in the bill is shown below.

`(3) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM- The term `homegrown terrorism' means the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

Section 899B of the bill goes over the findings of Congress as it pertains to homegrown terrorism. Particularly alarming is that the bill mentions the Internet as a main source for terrorist propaganda. The bill even mentions streams in obvious reference to many of the patriot and pro-constitution Internet radio networks that have been formed. It also mentions that homegrown terrorists span all ages and races indicating that the Congress is stating that everyone is a potential terrorist. Even worse is that Congress states in their findings that they should look at draconian police states like Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom as models to defeat homegrown terrorists. Literally, these findings of Congress fall right in line with the growing patriot community.

The biggest joke of all is that this section also says that any measure to prevent violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism should not violate the constitutional rights of citizens. However, the definition of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism as they are defined in section 899A are themselves unconstitutional. The Constitution does not allow the government to arrest people for thought crimes, so any promises not to violate the constitutional rights of citizens are already broken by their own definitions.

`SEC. 899B. FINDINGS.

`The Congress finds the following:

`(1) The development and implementation of methods and processes that can be utilized to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States is critical to combating domestic terrorism.

`(2) The promotion of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence exists in the United States and poses a threat to homeland security.

`(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.

`(4) While the United States must continue its vigilant efforts to combat international terrorism, it must also strengthen efforts to combat the threat posed by homegrown terrorists based and operating within the United States.

`(5) Understanding the motivational factors that lead to violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence is a vital step toward eradicating these threats in the United States.

`(6) The potential rise of self radicalized, unaffiliated terrorists domestically cannot be easily prevented through traditional Federal intelligence or law enforcement efforts, and requires the incorporation of State and local solutions.

`(7) Individuals prone to violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence span all races, ethnicities, and religious beliefs, and individuals should not be targeted based solely on race, ethnicity, or religion.

`(8) Any measure taken to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism in the United States should not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights and civil liberties of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.

`(9) Certain governments, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have significant experience with homegrown terrorism and the United States can benefit from lessons learned by those nations.

Section 899C calls for a commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence. The commission will consist of ten members appointed by various individuals that hold different positions in government. Essentially, this is a commission that will examine and report on how they are going to deal with violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism. So basically, the commission is being formed specifically on how to deal with thought criminals in the United States. The bill requires that the commission submit their final report 18 months following the commission’s first meeting as well as submit interim reports every 6 months leading up to the final report. Below is the bill’s defined purpose of the commission. Amazingly they even define one of the purposes of the commission to determine the causes of lone wolf violent radicalization.

(b) Purpose- The purposes of the Commission are the following:

`(1) Examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States, including United States connections to non-United States persons and networks, violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in prison, individual or `lone wolf' violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence, and other faces of the phenomena of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence that the Commission considers important.

`(2) Build upon and bring together the work of other entities and avoid unnecessary duplication, by reviewing the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of--

`(A) the Center of Excellence established or designated under section 899D, and other academic work, as appropriate;

`(B) Federal, State, local, or tribal studies of, reviews of, and experiences with violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence; and

`(C) foreign government studies of, reviews of, and experiences with violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence.

Section 899D of the bill establishes a Center of Excellence for the Study of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States. Essentially, this will be a Department of Homeland Security affiliated institution that will study and determine how to defeat thought criminals.

Section 899E of the bill discusses how the government is going to defeat violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism through international cooperation. As stated in the findings section earlier in the legislation, they will unquestionably seek the advice of countries with draconian police states like the United Kingdom to determine how to deal with this growing threat of thought crime.

Possibly the most ridiculous section of the bill is Section 899F which states how they plan on protecting civil rights and civil liberties while preventing ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism. Here is what the section says.

`SEC. 899F. PROTECTING CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES WHILE PREVENTING IDEOLOGICALLY-BASED VIOLENCE AND HOMEGROWN TERRORISM.

`(a) In General- The Department of Homeland Security's efforts to prevent ideologically-based violence and homegrown terrorism as described herein shall not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights, and civil liberties of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.

`(b) Commitment to Racial Neutrality- The Secretary shall ensure that the activities and operations of the entities created by this subtitle are in compliance with the Department of Homeland Security's commitment to racial neutrality.

`(c) Auditing Mechanism- The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer of the Department of Homeland Security will develop and implement an auditing mechanism to ensure that compliance with this subtitle does not result in a disproportionate impact, without a rational basis, on any particular race, ethnicity, or religion and include the results of its audit in its annual report to Congress required under section 705.'.

(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of contents in section 1(b) of such Act is amended by inserting at the end of the items relating to title VIII the following:

It states in the first subsection that in general the efforts to defeat thought crime shall not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights and civil liberties of the United States citizens and lawful permanent residents. How does this protect constitutional rights if they use vague language such as in general that prefaces the statement? This means that the Department of Homeland Security does not have to abide by the Constitution in their attempts to prevent so called homegrown terrorism.

This bill is completely insane. It literally allows the government to define any and all crimes including thought crime as violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism. Obviously, this legislation is unconstitutional on a number of levels and it is clear that all 404 representatives who voted in favor of this bill are traitors and should be removed from office immediately. The treason spans both political parties and it shows us all that there is no difference between them. The bill will go on to the Senate and will likely be passed and signed into the law by George W. Bush. Considering that draconian legislation like the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act have already been passed, there seems little question that this one will get passed as well. This is more proof that our country has been completely sold out by a group of traitors at all levels of government.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

TRAPPED IN THE PRESENT!!!!

2007-10-21T02:17:47Z

I've noticed that a lot of people seem to be trapped in the present. That of course means that such people don't recognize the past nor the future. But since I'm not trapped in the present, I think being trapped in the present is a bad thing. Consider this: A few years ago, I mentioned on another tribe a column by Molly Ivins that I didn't like. One repsonse I got said something like, "Why are you complaining about a Molly Ivins column from all those years ago? That has nothing to do with what's going on now." But if that person is correct, then it also means that no one should mention World War II since it happened even further in the past than the Molly Ivins column.

Like I said, I think being trapped in the present is a bad thing. So I'm not going to ignore that Molly Ivins column nor am I going to ignore World War II. We live in a universe of causilty, and the world as we know it wouldn't exist if there was no past. If you prefer to be trapped in the present, I guess there's nothing I can do about that. But I don't expect you to trap me in the present with you.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 6 replies

American Freedom Campaign

2007-10-16T17:31:20Z

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/american-tears_b_68141.html

http://www.americanfreedomcampaign.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=63

About AFC
The Constitution protects American Freedom. With checks and balances, and basic legal rights, it has prevented tyranny and safeguarded our liberty. Yet today, under the pretense of the "war on terror," the White House is dismantling the Constitution, concentrating power in the President and undermining the rule of law. THIS IS UN-AMERICAN. The American Freedom Campaign is dedicated to confronting and correcting these abuses of our America.

The mission of the American Freedom Campaign (AFC) is threefold. Our initial goal is to educate American citizens about the current Constitutional crisis in this country, about their individual rights, and about our Founders’ vision. As we educate, our secondary goal is to motivate and inspire individuals in order to build a grassroots citizens’ democracy movement. Finally, with the strength of this grassroots movement at our side, the American Freedom Campaign – through its advocacy arm, the American Freedom Campaign Action Fund – will push for the enactment of statutes that would end the infringement of fundamental rights by the executive and restore the Constitution’s hallowed system of checks and balances.

The American Freedom Campaign Agenda will work to restore the roles of Congress and the federal judiciary to protect against injustice and prevent abuses of executive power.

Americans’ support for restoring checks and balances and protections against the abuse of power transcends partisanship. In advancing the American Freedom Campaign Agenda, we are neither Conservative nor Liberal; neither Republican nor Democrat. We are above all Americans who cherish the Constitution. Thus, we call on Americans across the political spectrum to join us. The enactment of the American Freedom Campaign Agenda would mark one of America’s finest Constitutional hours and restore the core rights of our citizens while making the nation safer.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

Resting Naturally

2007-09-27T10:58:04Z

a poem http://people.tribe.net/knowledgeispower23/blog?topicid=45251795-6bb0-4bbd-93ee-6b296b31c9ef

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Banned from reality?

2007-09-27T03:01:27Z

How can we be banned from reality, when it is our own creation?

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 16 replies

Mindful Design, EV9, has emerged

2007-09-18T04:17:57Z

Hey Visionaries,

Our Mindful Design, Issue #9 Emerging Visions visionary art ezine is now up online:

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com/

Share and Enjoy

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

will you be Earthdancing this weekend?

2007-09-13T21:27:02Z

http://www.earthdance.org/

The Global Webcast will broadcast from

10am - 10pm
Pacific Daylight Time
Saturday, September 15, 2007

CHECK BACK ON THIS PAGE ON SATURDAY!

Click here to find the start time
(10am PST) in your TIMEZONE

>> Stay tuned for a list of participating locations <<

Earthdance was conceived in 1996 by artist/musician Chris Deckker, as a vision to unite the whole world through the universal platform of dance and music. Earthdance has now become the largest global synchronized dance event in the world.

What began in 1997, with 22 cities in 18 countries has now occurred in over 360 locations with 340 locations in 57 countries participating in 2006 alone! Rising out of the global electronic music scene, Earthdance has now grown to include a diverse cross-section of musical genres including world music, jazz, conscious hip-hop, folk and reggae.

Earthdance has shown how the potent combination of music, dance and technology can be harnessed for positive and humanitarian aims. For one night all around the globe, people join together to dance as one global community, united with a common vision for peace and humanitarian aims.

Every year, Earthdance continues to grow in volume and scope. This year we are gearing up to include as many people on the planet as possible through a number of new initiatives and by making the Prayer for Peace track available to everyone.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

August Follies

2007-08-31T22:12:39Z

brought to you by Emerging Visions visionary art ezine

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

got mindful designs?

my faults are exactly those needed to make me who I am right now. Thank you, faults, for helping me to be myself so perfectly.
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not so much into black. my favorite color is a shade of green variously called forest, sage, moss, some others I don't instantly remember -- it happens to be the color of my eyes.
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Heart strings
playing in the sunshine
nobility
out standing in the sublime
ability to set a heart in tune
Caressing
a simple aria of blessing
the air is gold with sunshine
singing pure and true
Golden notes pouring through
the shade
a melody, a glade of golden hue
that's how I think of you.

(c) July 31, 2007 Laurie Corzett/libramoon
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enchanting uplifting
scaling sacred antiqual hills
through Galileo's lens
at starlight
sinking slowly over
mystic seas
as starlight's image
merges into ocean
I wept with you in Greece
and again in Istanbul
yet the pleasure
is newly mine

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You know a very important part of a successful career in the rock industry is business acumen. Learn the music business while you are learning the music, and you'll be better off all the way around.
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If we really wanted good jobs generally for Americans, showing respect for individual abilities and realities, we would do that necessary to demote the importance of international mega-corporations. So much can be done so much more effectively on a local or networked level. The current ideas of business modeling need to upgrade for the 21st century.
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The role of government is to do the work of the people, building and maintaining infrastructure, providing a competent and fair legal system, generally acting for the benefit of the community. These goods we expect from our representatives have been undermined, even forgotten, in a race toward fascistic usurpation of power. We must do better.
Education and health care, like the legal system and the roadways, are the infrastructural mandate that is the true purpose of government. Somehow, we have come to a society in which the fundamentals are ill-treated in favor of a mad rush to pay into the mega-corp interests, interests by their very nature opposed to the common welfare.
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I've read of the psycho-social condition of depression being referred to as the "black dog." In a liminal musing it occurred to me that the black dog is a true and loyal servant to Hekate. Depression, if interpreted well, can be a process to bring us to our dark goddess sacred sister who we may learn from, infuse with, to find our true self and purpose. Depression is often seen to be a reaction to deep, often irrational, guilt and shame imbued in a cognitive cycle of belief that one deserves no better is not good enough is in some sense socially unacceptable, which bleeds off the energy that might have been used to good purpose. The lesson is that society as we know it is unacceptable to us, does not recognize our off the main path way. It is not that we are not living up to some social norm or goal, but that way lies madness. An affiliation with Hekate helps us to understand our perhaps solitary, but none the less vital path, to reclaim our selves and our energy/lifeforce and engage with our most vitalizing passions.
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Be very honest and compassionate. If you are feeling overwhelmed or angered, they know it. Bringing these emotions into the open gives opportunity to work with them positively. Depression is in a lot of ways like an addiction. To move beyond it, the person needs to have the knowledge that is possible and something better to work towards. Often depression overwhelms one with feelings of guilt and defeat. One believes there is nothing better and one deserves no better. There is also a deep shame component -- feeling incompetent to be part of the community because of feeling like a failure. So, honesty is not just about your feelings and their feelings, but about the real steps that can be taken, bit by bit, nonthreatening, and very rewarding in the sense of the depressed person learning to feel gently more competent. Compassion, too, is not just your feeling for them, but self-compassion, giving yourself permission for whatever you are feeling and for finding within this relationship your own expansion of understanding and expression.
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This New Moon exactly conjuncts my natal 8th House Pluto. I have been reading that this involves a new relationship with Plutonic energies. I have been feeling strongly the presence of Hekate as an internalized sister figure who I am learning to access as the potent psychic awareness of my own personal power.
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Black dog, black dog
take me to your master
take me to your leader
take me to the depths of
the land where I must meet her
Sorrow, horror,
can't go farther
Have to see my master
Have to see my leader
Have to know there's someone
to give it all a reason
Tell me, tell me
shake me to the core
'til I have no more
reason, rationale
'til I know I've gone to Hell
Know, you, all, I wish you well
I wish, I wish, a wishing well
that I might drown.
I wish I may, I wish I might
I wish it all turns out alright
I find my will is burning bright
I find my shining inner sight
stunned by the profound delight
I find I am allowed.

(c) August 13, 2007
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If the goal of the "punishment" is to protect others from the bad behavior of some, perhaps isolation of some sort is necessary. If it is revenge, then I think taunting would be good, even severe physical taunting in the case of severe violent crimes. However, I believe prevention when possible to be the best method of protection, and leaves no need for revenge. An idea which I believe would help in this regard is having regular community centers which combine recreational facilities and on-hand trained counselors, self-help groups and mediation exchanges to nip disagreements in the bud before they escalate into some level of war.
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In some species males only exist to help the female procreate. Not saying this is not an obviously vital function, but rather limited. From what is known of humans, there is a much vaster difference between individuals than between genders on any scale of traits. Most importantly, what might be considered superior under some circumstances would be decidedly inferior under others.
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I think that part of the pleasure/pain of creating artwork is offering challenges to myself and seeing how I work them out.
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I have been having a series of dreams (not recurrent dreams) depicting relatively large bodies of water -- lakes, rivers, large ponds, often in resort type places, often with recreational swimmers and such, very inviting water. I have also been working (waking) with imagery of wells, cavernous lakes fed by underground springs, developing gills to become amphibious -- as metaphors for diving into Neptunian creativity. (Btw, have been having much in the way of Plutonian and Neptunian transit activity to my natal chart, including this past New Moon conjuncting my natal 8H Pluto.)
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My Progressed Asc. is at 29 degrees 59 minutes of Aquarius. Coincidentally, my Progressed Moon is at 29 plus degrees of Libra. Further coincidentally, transiting Neptune is opposing my Natal Pluto, while transiting Pluto is conjunct my natal Asc. My natal chart is predominantly air signs. My Progressed chart will now be predominantly water. I am curious as to where this submergence will lead ...
I hear water when there's no one there and have no trouble dreaming. If I get any more unfocused I'll need a seeing eye dog. I have always lived under the gleaming vision of Neptune, so perhaps I will naturally take as a fish to water. I'm hoping that getting back to a Jupiter ruled Asc. after all these years of Saturn-ruled will prove, well, expansive ...
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I am starting to think that all those stories about Caps doing so much better in later life is about their Pisces progression, learning to let go and flow.

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Air giving way to water
Arid emptiness to be filled with
joyful abundance
emotional sailing on vast
and turbulent (and/or) calming seas.
The desert is so fragrant
so exotic, mystically inviting.
Arid lands of wilding sands
stoic creatures
surprising brilliant life
The desert in forms me,
creates crannies of secret
delight throughout my soul.
A no-man's land where I
can hear inspiration
blowing through and encompassing
my mind.
I will not leave the desert.
I will merge with its becoming,
allowing imminent floods
soaking through my pores
turning sand squishy, unsettling
into ocean floor.

Ride with me.
Open raft beneath the stars
Unguided, unplanned, unafraid
Changing winds have always been my home.

(c) August 24, 2007 Laurie Corzett/libramoon
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So I've been all caught up in the Pluto transit of my Asc. conj. Chiron, along with Saturn's previous transit of my natal Pluto, still being opposed by Neptune, all this Plutonian stuff apparently clearing me out in preparation for some major transforming. Now I'm getting into noticing the progression thing, my progressed Asc. about to move into Pisces, while my p moon is about to move into Scorpio -- so, moving into a more watery perception, getting out of my head and into a more metaphysical realm of feeling. And the water dreams have been flowing, and I've been better about letting go and trusting intuition, and I've had this now fairly long-term metaphor about dwelling on the threshold, wondering about going over into that vast unknown ocean of experience. Saturn's no longer holding back the flood, and I feel gills sprouting. But now I am just noticing, yeah transiting Pluto sitting still on my Chiron, while transiting Chiron is conjuncting my natal Mars. Is this a Chironic transformation from wounded to healed? There is a quietly powerful excitement bubbling in my psyche.
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I discovered my natal Chiron (which is about a degree from my natal Asc.) is conjunct Chiron's discovery Asc., conjunct the Galactic Center. Where is this transformation going?

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Art may well be the Hope in Pandora’s box. It tips the balance toward the humane side of humanity, keeps us questioning, keeps us aware of possibilities, compassion, beauty. The doorway to a better world is imagination, communicated as art it moves metaphoric mountains.
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We perceive that we have free will, thus, ontologically, we do. Of course there are a vast universe of experiences over which we obviously have no control at all. Yet, within that context, we have absolutely as much free will as we will to be free. Whatever the associated physical processes (neurobiology and all), that is how we as the beings we are work. The processes do not cause the will or lack of it, nor are they the will themselves. Our will is, however, expressed in our physical actions both conscious and unconscious.
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I open my heart and Tao breaks liquid onto my tongue
peace and ecstasy
so delicious
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Some people seem to exude archetypal signatures related to their sun sign to me. However, that is just some people, certainly not all. I especially notice the Aries ramlike forehead, Cancerian crablike hands, Scorpios seem somehow hyper-real, Caps often seem to have hornlike images in the way their hair falls, Virgos often seem to have hawklike beaks, Geminis are often birdlike or have monkeylike heads, Leos have that regal lion thing, Pisceans sometimes have a hulking gate or really otherworldly eyes like looking through a translucent veil, Aquarians often look like foxes. Am I missing anyone?
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I was randomly watching that _Chicken Soup for the Soul_ guy on PBS talking about the Secret, Law of Attraction. He was saying something about focusing on what you want and not accepting others' definitions when I realized that what he was talking about was accepting one's own power and focusing will/intent, casting spells.
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It's not a failure, but a lesson. Each mistake, each misstep, each false start or unfinish or giving in to obstacles -- Saturnian, isn't it. It's not about "you are bad" but "you have much to learn." Of course words have power! Our society has a depression obsession, far too many people defeated by being treated as failures instead of forgers ahead into creative solutions to dissolve the obstacles, by everyone and ourselves. Running the maze, faster and faster, with more and more obstacles pushed onto your blind path, is not the meaning of life. It's not a failure, but an invitation to find a more joyful path.

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So, the most important thing is to make sure that those who are suffering the ill-health effects of obesity know it is (if not all) their fault. Obviously, we must continue to heap guilt and shame on the already probably most uselessly guilty and shame-filled among us. Depression, which can lead to poor eating habits, low energy, lack of interest in exercising, is thought by many to be a reaction to inappropriate guilt and shame. Then, of course, there are the incredibly overly busy lifestyles that many of us feel we must pursue (because we are hard-working, responsible, expected to take on more than we really can) which leave little time for effectively healthy lifestyle requirements. I am on my way to believing that relieving all the useless guilt and shame is the underlying requirement for health, mental and physical.
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I was conversing with an e-friend who is studying nutrition recently in regard to all the big pharm "mental health" drugging taking over our schools and lives. She indicated that probably a lot of these illnesses are due to poor nutrition and decried how even when we think we are feeding ourselves and our children well, so many of the foods presented in the supermarkets really are not as nutritious as we think. So many crops are full of pesticides, grown in depleted soil necessitating chemical fertilizers, even genetically engineered to be different from the original food crop, often for commercial reasons. Then there are the big agribusiness animal husbandry practices which are both cruel and dangerous to our health. It is so sickening on so many levels.
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I hadn't seen the earlier parts, but watched last night's chapter of the CNN series on religion. What stood out for me was the inherent understanding among these Christian groups of the truth of polytheism. They are protective of their God and His culture, despite the convoluted logic involved in their stated beliefs. To this end, as in the "Dark Ages" the rank and file are brainwashed from birth while the higher ups use their support for power seeking ends. It really is quite frightening how easily people devolve into a slavery of hate and fear.

I've been watching some of CNN's special on "God's Warriors" this
evening. There was much talk about the sacredness/holiness of
Jerusalem to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. However, the way the
people seem to show their respect at this holy site is to murder each
other, foment warfare and hate, and generally act much more as I would
assume worshippers of an evil deity than a good one.

While some seem to believe they are called on by a great, good, merciful god to destroy, murder and foment hatred, it is the simple acts of appreciation that show the true meaning of living a holy life of grace. It is holiness that is in the details of a well-lived life; the devils prey on the hubris of those who would be instruments of horror and revenge.
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I've been thinking about terrorists. Terrorists are neither new nor particularly special. The modern era of terrorism, I mean after the WW II resistance and of course the Nazi stormtroopers and such, seems to go through all those US anti-Asian country episodes with the 3rd World attackees using "terrorist" techniques to defend against 1st world troops and weapons. Then there was all that 60s era anti-administration "guerrilla theater" that morphed to some extent when in the hands of more radical groups (often instigated by the FBI or CIA). Gang warfare, inner city style, is terrorism. Timothy McVeigh was a homegrown terrorist, as are most of the Arab terrorists in Europe. Terrorism is not a people or an ideology, but a tactic. Some of the most nasty terrorists in this country have been such supremacist groups as KKK, American Nazis, all those folks who bombed churches to kill children and hung teenagers as warnings against uppitiness. Then there are the rapists, of course. I don't think the child-molesting priests are terrorists -- if indeed for them it is more about sex than power. But then, if it's not about power, why children? Obviously, I could go on and on for quite awhile, and will if you don't get the idea yet. They've been part of who we are for millennia.
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On South Park Mr./Ms. Garrison always wants to "kill the Mexicans" -- easy targets I guess. Sometimes its the gooks, or spics or kikes or those other words for people we decided to hate because they were easy targets. Fat folks are great targets, and gays. Then there's the working poor who keep their tenement apts dirty and don't look after their kids right, you know, petri dishes for criminals. More likely violent crime has more to do with ripples of hate going around and around, picking up speed and dust globules till they're lethal.
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Did you know about the stories of Arabs in North Africa and Europe during WWII who saved persecuted Jews in their communities? Everyone talks like Arab/Jew = cat/dog. Then, I've known many a cat and dog pair who got along just fine, best of friends. It's not because you are Arab or Jewish or Christian or Zoroastrian -- either you promote hate or you don't.

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the word "conservative" has been coopted by a quite radical bunch. Real conservatives believe in conserving what is good; living conservatively, i.e., without ostentation or profligacy; protecting the environment; keeping out of others' business and taking care of one's own; having old fashioned values such as kindness, compassion, helpfulness, along with thrift and a strong work ethic. Real conservatives believe in small government that takes care of the infrastructure, international treaties, arbitrating disputes, but has no interest in telling anyone how to live so long as they are not harming others. Real conservatives know the high costs of war so that it could only ever be thought of as a very last resort for protection of our land and citizens. Real conservatives think these faux "conservatives" are full of something which does not need to be conserved.
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It often amazes me how much people want to be led. Even in simple social situations, people love to congregate around someone who comes up with easy ideas for fun and encourages participation. So many sad situations in the world, community by community, can be seen as failures of leadership.
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I think Obama was totally right on Pakistan and nuclear weapons. I think it is Hillary who shows a naive disregard for real world opinion, or at least an overwhelming need to show "balls" at the expense of diplomacy. I do agree the Democrats have made poor showing for their reconfigured Congress opportunity. They blither, natter, and crumble as if playing for time. Yet the Republican "hopefuls" don't appear to have anything to offer, while Democrats at least promise universal healthcare of one sort or another. Kucinich and Gravel show real ideas and courage, but of course are far too "unpresidential" to get elected, despite being white men.
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pulsing, riveting, train whistle rising through
sheer bluff imagery
tacking, tasting, reemerging
oh to feel the slapping breeze
regain momentum
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we are all eco-systems, part of greater eco-systems, part of greater solar systems, galaxies, and everything between.
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eclipse prayer

Neptunian Moon [Grandmother Moon]
unveil my deepest sorrow
Give me the power, the words and the way
Oh, Goddess, dance with me
Spinning in trance into your mystery
Smiling sunshine into my heart
Grant me the wisdom and grace
to translate Your perfect Face
Your living radiance
that all may understand
the necessity of peace

War Profiteers Profit from War; Everyone Profits from Peace

War Kills. Peace Mends & Grows

Blowing Ourselves Apart, Or Working Together Toward Common Wealth

Stewards or Destroyers

Joyous Assemblage or Hate-Filled Mob

Good Neighbors or Armed Camps

Why not have faith that we are, all of us, here for a purpose; and at least
part of that purpose is to get along. Why not set our minds to
the world beat of peace?

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

So You Want to be Free

2007-08-29T01:47:07Z

So you want to be free? Then become free! All the freedom is yours which you are able to seize! How do you seize freedom? By avoiding, evading, escaping, discouraging, overpowering, destroying, or otherwise frustrating anyone who initiates force, fraud, or the threat of force against you.

Do you beg for freedom? - "But the oppressors ignore my pleas for freedom," you complain. Do you expect them to set you free? (Graffiti in a Las Vegas shopping mall: SLAVES NEED MASTERS.)

As you yourself point out, your oppressors have the morals which would shame a beast of the forests. As long as you obey their rules, no matter how onerous, and pay their taxes, no matter how burdensome - why should they set you free? - why should they relinquish the easy life of a parasite?

"And the oppressors dupe my neighbors who are confused, unaware, and apathetic," you protest. Do you expect them not to deceive? - not to tame their flocks? The herdsman can milk only tame cows; the shearer can shear only submissive sheep; the tyrant can drive only obedient slaves...

"We must overturn the oppressors," some of you proclaim, "and rule wisely and justly in their place." Then go do it - if you can! But don't be surprised when the oppressors stampede their bewildered subjects against you.

"We must educate - teach increasing numbers our values and ideas," others shout, "And some day truth will prevail and evil will be banished from the earth." But as even you admit in your more reflective moments, this will take time - much time. So how shall you live the only life you will ever have? And how many followers can you attract and hold if you offer only visions of a paradise for their great grandchildren?

"I do want freedom," you cry, "But there is no way to get it now - no chance to elect, no means to revolt, and no place to go." I reply: If you want freedom, seize it.

"But my oppressors are organized into a powerful government, an omnipotent state - their laws shackle me," you object, "And they have thousands of agents and millions of police." I reply: However, each of their minions has only the same two eyes, the same two hands, and usually not as much brains as you or I. They are individuals. They cannot be everywhere. They cannot see everything. They cannot understand everything. They cannot do everything. You do not have to obey them.

"But they collect a tax on my earnings before I even see it," you protest. Only if you are so craven as to hand it over. Discover ways to avoid their extortions: Get your earnings under your own control; trade with those who practise freedom; or be a Gypsy who sells - and flees!

"But they will confiscate my property," you quaver. Only if you are so foolish as to lead them to it. Convert your wealth into forms you can conceal. Put it where they can't get at it. And rent your shops and homes - or mortgage them to the hilt.

"But they will throw me in jail," you object. Only if you are so careless as to stumble over them - they who have trouble apprehending morons and psychopaths. Make yourself difficult to find.

"But that is too much trouble," you complain, "I would rather follow their rules and pay their taxes - lick their boots and hone their axes - do everything they demand - and maybe, oh maybe, they will leave me alone just a little." Then tag along with the sheep to slaughter, you who expect freedom on a silver platter. For how long can you appease the tyrant who will demand more and more, until he owns you completely?

And what do we know of this libertarian utopia that some of you dream of? In every land of which we hear, there are some who covet the lives and creations of others - predators who rob and enslave the weak, the foolish, and the cowardly. And when have they failed to recruit millions to vote for them, finance them, and work for them as humble agents and police?

Some predators prowl alone or in small gangs, slinking about as criminals. So the Free Sovereign Individuals go about like tigers - armed and ready for self-defense.

Some predators join together, masquerading and strutting about as "rulers." So the Free Sovereign Individuals go about like foxes - inconspicuous and ready to hide.

In almost every land, those with the courage to assert their freedom seldom need to fight or hide - for the predators live off the easy prey.

Now, at last, I have the key -
The elixir of liberty -
For the first time in history -
And once sufficient numbers see...

Well, maybe... but in the meantime, all the freedom is yours which you are able to seize.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 6 replies

comments?

2007-08-19T04:07:10Z

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=471106&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Smoking just one cannabis joint raises danger of mental illness by 40%
By FIONA MACRAE and EMILY ANDREWS

There are great risks in smoking cannabis, a new report has revealed
A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent, a disturbing study warns.

The Government-commissioned report has also found that taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness.

Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports.

The grim statistics - the latest to link teenage cannabis use with mental illness in later life - come only days after Gordon Brown ordered a review of the decision to downgrade cannabis to class C, the least serious category.

The Prime Minister is said to have a 'personal instinct' that the change should be reversed, with more arrests and stiffer penalties for users.

Cannabis has been implicated in a string of vicious killings, including the recent stabbing of fashion designer Lucy Braham.

The authors of the latest study, the most comprehensive of its kind and commissioned by the Department of Health, said: 'Policymakers need to provide the public with advice about this widely-used drug.

'We believe there is now enough evidence to inform people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life.'

The analysis does not look at the age at which schizophrenia is likely to develop. However, previous studies have shown that smoking the drug as a teenager raises the risk of developing schizophrenia in one's twenties or thirties.

The researchers, from four British universities, analysed the results of 35 studies into cannabis use from around the world. This suggested that trying cannabis only once was enough to raise the risk of schizophrenia by 41 per cent.

At greatest risk, however, were heavy users, with those who took cannabis over 100 times having more than double the risk of those who never touched the drug.

With up to 40 per cent of teenagers and young adults in the UK believed to have tried cannabis, the researchers estimate that the drug could be behind 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.

'Although individual lifetime risk of chronic psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, even in people who use cannabis regularly, is likely to be low - less than three per cent - cannabis use can be expected to have a substantial effect on psychotic disorders at a population level because exposure to this drug is so common.'

Cardiff University researcher Dr Stanley Zammit added: 'Even if cannabis does cause an increased risk of developing psychosis, most people who use cannabis will not develop such an illness.

'Nevertheless, we would still advise people to avoid or limit their use of this drug, especially if they start to develop any mental health symptoms, or if they have relatives with psychotic illnesses.'

In an accompanying editorial in the Lancet, Dutch psychiatrists said the focus on heroin, cocaine and other Class A drugs meant the dangers of cannabis had been overlooked.

'In the public debate, cannabis has been considered a more or less harmless drug compared with alcohol, central stimulants and opioids.

'However, the potential long-term hazardous effects of cannabis with regard to psychosis seem to have been overlooked, and there is a need to warn the public of these dangers, as well as to establish a treatment to help young frequent cannabis users.'

Previous studies have shown a clear link between cannabis use in the teenage years and mental illness in later life.

Research completed by leading psychiatrist Professor Robin Murray in 2005 showed that those who smoked the drug regularly at 18 were 1.6 times more likely to suffer serious psychiatric problems, including schizophrenia, by their mid-20s.

For those who were regular users at 15, the stakes were even higher, with their risk of mental illness by the age of 26 being 4.5 times greater than normal.

It is thought that, used during teenage years, the drug can cause permanent damage to the developing brain.

Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, warned yesterday that the risks were likely to be heightened by the increasing use of powerful skunk cannabis.

'My own experience suggest to me that the risk with skunk is higher. Therefore their estimate that 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia in the UK are due to cannabis is now probably an understatement.'

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: 'This analysis should act as a serious warning of the dangers of regular or heavy cannabis use, doubling the risk of developing schizophrenia - a condition in which a person may hear voices and experience strange thoughts and paranoid delusions.

'The debate about classification should not founder on statistics but take into account the potential damage to hundreds of people who without cannabis would not develop mental illness.

'While the majority can take the drug with no mind-altering effects, it is estimated that 10 per cent are at risk.

'You only need to see one person whose mind has been altered and life irreparably damaged, or talk to their family, to realise that the headlines are not scaremongering but reflect a daily, and preventable, tragedy.'

However, others questioned the link, pointing out there has been little change in rates of schizophrenia in recent years despite the rise in cannabis use and the increasing strength of the drug. _____________________________________________________________________

Three heavy drug users and their horrific killings:

Prolific cannabis user and killer: William Jaggs
William Jaggs, a 23-year-old Oxford University student and prolific cannabis user, stabbed fashion designer Lucy Braham 66 times at her home near Harrow, the public school in North-West London.

The paranoid schizophrenic was found covered in blood beside Lucy's body, having plunged the knife into his own chest last September.

The former Harrow pupil, whose father is a teacher at the school, started using drugs when he was 14, moving on from cannabis to cocaine.

He was sent to Broadmoor secure hospital this month for an unlimited period after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Drug-crazed killer: Richard Cazaly

Drug-crazed drifter Richard Cazaly is believed to have stabbed pregnant Abigail Witchalls in Surrey, in April 2005.

Cazaly, 23, who killed himself five days after the stabbing, had a history of heavy drug use dating back at least four years.

His girlfriend, Vanessa MacKenzie, told police both she and Cazaly were regular cannabis users, smoking 'a couple of joints a day'.

Surrey police said Cazaly became psychotic and violent as a result of long-term abuse of drugs and the alcohol he had consumed on the day of the random stabbing.

Miraculously, Mrs Witchalls and her unborn baby survived the attack. Her young son - who she was pushing in a pram when she was set upon by Cazaly - was unhurt.

Mind warped by smoking skunk: Thomas Palmer

Son of a nurse at Broadmoor Thomas Palmer butchered two of his friends during a woodland walk after his mind was warped by smoking skunk - a particularly potent form of cannabis.

Then aged 18, he virtually beheaded 16-year-old Steven Bayliss and repeatedly stabbed Nuttawut Nadauld, 14, near their homes in Wokingham, Berkshire in September 2005.

Palmer had started using the drug at 14. He told doctors he had not been smoking on the day of the killings but admitted to using skunk regularly in the weeks before the brutal attack.

In March this year, he was given a minimum 20 years in prison for the double murder.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 9 replies

"Pacemaker" for the brain

2007-08-09T09:10:15Z

It looks like brain damage isn't always permanent:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/08/02/implants_offer_hope_in_brain_injury_cases

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 2 replies

War Posters ( A way to end war)

2007-08-04T16:28:01Z

I made this video a couple of days ago and would like to share it here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7cszTjO0uo

The message that accompanied it on my blog was this:

I remember being paralyzed back over 15 years ago. For awhile it was incredibly painful as my spinal chord was bruised (not broken) and my arms became like a first degree burn condition. If you breathed on them from 5 ft away it felt like you were jabbing a knife in my arm

I was watching tv and there was a scene from world war 1and all these bodies were strewn across a field and I started to weep and weep and I'll never forget the realization I had in that moment. Most of those bodies at some point were wounded and in as much pain as I was but they had no one to care for them. No hospital. No morphine. No nurses. No protection from further pain.

I couldn't comprehend being in the state I was and then being left in a field to die….and for what? For what?

And I thought about all the war movies, the war books, the war models, the war comics and the war games i had played with and had become addicted to as a child.

Now that I am older and have learned a bit more of the world I have come to the conclusion that there is no justifiable reason for war and in fact that all wars are manufactured by small groups of people that benefit from having that war. At the end of the line it is the financiers of the war that are the cause.

Everyone once in a while when you really reflect on things you realize that the human condition has an ability to let things slide. To realize something deeply but then to continue with our lives and forget things that are important to us. Especially if we have food, water and shelter. Yet I believe its important for those people who are in a position of privilege to devote some of their time to helping those less fortunate.

We in Canada are incredible blessed with peace and an abundance of resources. Its easy to forget this.

I made this video because I wanted to at least say something in regards to the general idea of war and how much of a scam I believe it to be. It also links to a larger plan I've been working on to bring those people together who really have sustainable solutions that might not have received the resources or promotion that they need.

If you agree with me, please pass this video through your network. Impossible things can happen with strong group intentions. This is just another little message to go with all the other wonderful work being done by small groups across the planet.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Wal-Mart To Test Bible Action Figures

2007-07-27T08:21:33Z

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200707171211DOWJONESDJONLINE000491_FORTUNE5.htm

Wal-Mart To Test Bible Action Figures In 425 Stores

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) said Tuesday it will test sales in some stores of biblical action figures whose makers say they are aimed at Christian parents who prefer their children play with Samson, David or Noah rather than with a comic book character or Bratz doll.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said the toys made by One2believe, a Valencia, Calif., company, will be offered in 425 of Wal-Mart's 3,376 discount stores and Supercenters.

One2believe Chief Executive David Socha said his products were part of a " battle for the toy box" with dolls and figures that he said carry negative messages.

"If you're very religious, it's a battle for your children's minds and what they're playing with and pretending. There are remakes out there of Satan and evil things," Socha said.

Wal-Mart's O'Brien said the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer believes there is demand for faith-based toys.

The toy line will be on some Wal-Mart shelves starting in August, mainly in the Midwest and South but also in California and as far northeast as Pennsylvania, O'Brien said.

"It is a test. It's not a national rollout," O'Brien said.

The toys, based on biblical stories, include a 3-inch figure of Daniel in the lion's den, a 12-inch talking Jesus doll and 13-inch Samson action figure.

Wal-Mart has always carried some faith products, mainly stationery, books and music, but this is the first line of toys with a faith theme, O'Brien said.

"I think there is an interest in faith-based toys and we are testing it in our stores," O'Brien said.

It is a leap in scale for One2believe, which so far has mainly sold its figures directly to churches and ministries and through its Web site, Socha said.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-17-07 1211ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 11 replies

Hero Rats

2007-07-23T02:59:27Z

For the past seven years, Bart Weetjens has been running a unique lab in Tanzania, where he trains rats to sniff out deadly unexploded land mines -- the legacy of countless bloody conflicts. Although dogs have traditionally been used to help humans detect mines, Weetjens realized that rats are lighter, cheaper to maintain and less susceptible to tropical disease. “I’ve always felt a very strong bonding with rodents,” he says.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/tanzania605/

Yay!! Rats!!

love all-ways,
mem

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

The Darfur crisis might be resolved, in part, through space technology

2007-07-22T14:29:45Z

Here's something I found elsewhere on the Internet that further demonstrates the

need to continue space exploration:

A recent discovery made from space is about to have a major,
positive impact for many of those who claim that we should not waste
time an resources on space when we need to focus on earthly, human
issues. Space and earth are not seperate places.
The earthbound mode of thinking needs to be dropped.

The recent discovery made from space is the discovery of a large
underground lake in the Darfur region of Sudan. Political and social
activists, the kind of folks who are known to traditionally complain
about the NASA budget, have been righteously concerned about the
murderous conflict between black African farmers and Islamic
elements in Darfur. The shortage of water in Darfur has been the
root cause of many of the violent confrontations in Darfur,
according to reports from that region. Plans are underway to drill
at least 1000 wells in Darfur. The newly discovered water will help
bring peace and new prosperity to the peoples there.

The slaughter of innocents in Darfur, where more than 200,000 have
been killed over the last four years, may very well subside now that
an ample supply of fresh water has been identified by earth resource
satellites over Darfur. That water supply is estimated to be as
large as the 10th largest water supply in the world, North America's
lake Erie.

The discovery of this ample supply of water under Darfur was led by
Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote
Sensing. Farouk El-Baz is the same Farouk El-Baz who was one of the
Apollo lunar scientist back in the 1960s and 70s. Once again, the
dollars invested in Apollo have paid off in a bigway. The essential
connection bewteen earth and space has been demonstrated once again.

- Jim McDade

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 2 replies

War and Emotion

2007-07-21T09:42:28Z

read whole article:

http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/scheff/51.html

War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life.

If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life.

A.J. Muste (1970)

War and Emotion: Hypermasculine Violence as a Social System

Thomas Scheff

Abstract

Many would agree that war is an outcome of a certain way of life. But there is no consensus as to what that way of life is. This essay proposes that it is hidden in plain sight in the world of emotions and relationships. Modern societies seem to deny and ignore the emotional/relational world. Qualitative studies are needed to help break the silence that surrounds it. The qualitative work of Helen Lewis and others on shame is crucial because it proposes that although shame plays a central role in human behavior, it is usually outside of awareness. That is, in modern societies there is a taboo on shame. I propose that a particular way of managing shame and relationships leads to the “silence/violence pattern.” Although the most visible part of this pattern typically occurs in males, it may be produced by our whole society. Silence/violence may be generated by the way in which the emotional/relational configurations of hypermales and hyperfemales are opposite and complementary. The cult of masculinity seems to involve isolation from others, suppressing fear, and acting out anger. The cult of femininity would be the reciprocal, engulfment with others, suppressing anger, and acting out fear. Many kinds of studies are needed if these hypotheses are to be tested. However, unless they are investigated further and discussed, they have no chance of being tested even if they are true.

Unnecessary violence at the interpersonal and collective levels is a puzzle. For example, it is clear that the current war against Iraq is completely gratuitous. It was obvious even before the attack began that the link between 911 and Iraq was a fabrication. Why did the public accept it? Perhaps the management of emotional responses can explain the link to war in a way that is not at all obvious

The approach offered here first points toward a highly visible pattern, hypermasculinity. Much less apparent is the kind of emotion management involved in this pattern, and the way that it is produced by the social system. Before going into detail, it will be necessary to discuss a very general issue in current social/behavioral studies: can emotions and relationships play a role in the causation of behavior?

* * *

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

another look at US healthcare

2007-07-18T22:27:45Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAWZrfYXs-c

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Reality Sandwich

2007-06-26T23:30:31Z

Just got directed to this site from an e-quaintance on another venue. Any interest?

http://www.realitysandwich.com/

Reality Sandwich is a web magazine for this time of intense transformation. Our subjects run the gamut from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, remixing media to re-imagining community, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies. We hope to spark debate and engagement by offering a forum for voices ranging from the ecologically pragmatic to the wildly visionary (which, to our delight, sometimes turn out to be the one and the same). Counteracting the doom-and-gloom of the daily news, Reality Sandwich is a platform for voices conveying a different vision of the transformations we face. Our goal is to inspire psychic evolution and a kind of earth alchemy.

For the launch of the site, we've assembled dozens of regular contributors who will post a variety of content, including thought pieces and essays, short news stories, video clips, and audio podcasts.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 1 reply

More Whiners pages

2007-06-16T20:16:15Z

I just uploaded more Whiners pages.
http://www.comicspace.com/timelike01/comics.php?action=gallery&comic_id=7333
For those who don't know (and that's most of you), Whiners is a web comic miniseries I creatred that deals with a small group of whiny cats and their human friend as they travel to other universes in search of a world where cat persecution doesn't exist. After all, cat persecution is one of the most prominent and obscene cliches in history. Whiners represents a more creative view of the cat bashing cliche in that it regards that mess as the mess that it is. Very rare in today's modern dystopia.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 2 replies

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

2007-06-03T22:40:40Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNfQ0ORwSDM&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtK33C-KrQ&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnob1BOf7Y0&mode=related&search=

<tee hee>

love all-ways,
mem

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 0 replies

Sayings you'd like to see on those office inspirational posters...

2007-06-03T04:07:08Z

If you do a good job and work hard, you may get a job with a better company someday.

The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts.

Sure, you may not like working here, but we pay your rent.

If you think we're a bad firm, you should see our rivals!

Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them.

A person who smiles in the face of adversity... probably has a scapegoat.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!

We make great money! We have great benefits! We do no work! We are union members!

2 days without a Human Rights Violation!

If at first you don't succeed, try management.

It's only unethical if you get caught.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.

Never quit until you have another job.

Work harder slaves!

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

If you can read this, you're not working!

Hang in there, retirement is only thirty years away!

Go the extra mile, it makes your boss look like an incompetent slacker.

Pride, commitment, teamwork - words we use to get you to work for free.

Succeed in spite of management.

Work - it isn't just for sleeping anymore.

There are two kinds of people in life: people who like their jobs, and people who don't work here anymore.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 3 replies

Why I Don't Vote

2007-05-25T19:03:40Z

Voting is not only the act of choosing which PERSON or PARTY I wish to represent me. It is also saying that I as an individual wish to be governed. That I consent to relinquishing my own power of self determination.

The greatest measure of freedom of a society is whether or not you are free to leave it. This does not mean to leave it physically.

A society is defined as "a number of people joined
through mutual consent to deliberate, determine and act for a
common goal."

Do you honestly believe that those who sacrificed during Two World
Wars did so in order to give us the oppressive, invasive and
unaccountable governments we now have?

I dont either.

It is desireable that we all obey the same rules---but only when they are serving all of us. Do you think they are?

I dont either.

The governments’ right to govern (their power) comes from the consent of the governed..
I remove my consent.

This is not about a militant revolution. It is about reclaiming our own power over our own lives with compassion and integrity.

You are free to choose. Just my point of view.

posted in BANNED_FROM_REALITY!! - 33 replies