Christmas 2007

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We shared a most delightful and memorable Christmas, a day of Love and bright, sparkling, warm memories.:) This Christmas was special, a jewel of a moment set in gold.:) We carry its breath-taking moments into the future as a foundation for greater and expanded Love.:) Even on this imperfect little planet, it was a moment of joy to the world.:)
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God Everywhere and the Illusion of "Place"

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In the ultimate analysis, only changes in Mind can create healing; and Love/compassion is a major-- Number 9 on the Francis scale-- alteration of Mind towards the positive!:)

Philosophically, I am in full agreement that darkness has no substantial existence, but is the absence of Something that does-- the Light. These are dramatic as well as "primordial" metaphors," and have served the masters, including Jesus, quite well. "God is Light," said the mystic John, and there is no darkness at all within Him." (1 Jn. 1:5)

Honestly, I do not feel well enough to invite and honor a guest....

Your Love for Shela [pseudonym] has been a high percentage of "God" (Love) in your life for many years. I encourage you to probe deeply into the situation, think about it profoundly, and discuss it several times in detail (with both Shela and others) before simply dropping it. Our God is Love, and, as mystics, we do not ever easily dismiss or deactivate any Love-relationships in our lives. For they are what save us, make us and keep us in enlightenment. Mystics are faithful, loyal, reliable, and dependable Lovers, and make the most excellent friends, because we treasure, value, and even worship Love. To abandon a Love of many years might betray the very matrix and foundation of our philosophy, and could very easily become self-centered or even antiagapic. So, try to walk very carefully here, my friend. For the lower nature has surrounded you with a field of land-mines, and they can "explode," damaging Mind and even Soul, at any time. For fidelity, not abandonment, is the Way of Love, the Way of the true mystic.

Your note refers several times to what "I" want, so you need honestly to examine your heart. For the mystic leaves behind any attempt to live for the desires of the self; instead, she seeks always to serve Love, even at great personal cost, or much personal inconvenience.

Your service of Love having been severely challenged by attempts to love your mother or brother cannot, with good reason or valid Love, be used to explain, or mask, a betrayal of yet another Love-- the greatest in this life. Reference is, of course, to Shela.

All the jewel-like beauties of the Upanishads, and other great and lovely classics of the Enlightenment Tradition, are as nothing-- just words-- if we betray Love, or refuse to follow Love, for selfish reasons. Right now, it is sensed that you are on a rocky and perilous path, in which betrayal of the core or essence of the Way is not out of the question.

So, walk very carefully, my friend. Recall all the sweet Love with which Shela supported your donkey... Know that the enlightened always return Love for Love, and never "run from" an uncomfortable situation.

Arguably, no one on earth has found a "perfect" environment; but this is irrelevant to the Way, whose goal is the "perfect" mental or interior environment. As Dr. Frankl pointed out, exterior environments, even if they are as hideous as concentration camps, become the very "food" that supports enlightenment. And no mere mayic or outer environment can prevent full illumination. Neither can maya in any way decelerate spiritual awareness. Indeed, mystics have proved, over and again, that the most Light emerges in the darkest places.

And, if you are in an environment not conducive to quiet, remind yourself, "Thou art that." It is here, not to prevent your growth, but to stimulate it through the utter demolition of all personal desires.

Thus, your personal desire to live out in the woods might be the first casualty of the Light.

For how much of the quiet, the woods, and the cabin, are mere extensions of fantasy? And by definition, fantasy can be the opposite of truth.

The ancient venerable writers of these great classics were usually dwellers in the forests, it is true. But, back then, the poverty was so immense that they had no other alternatives. Could they but have been provided with a house, obtained honorably by non-greed, they would not have objected. You have idealized the forest or woods to contain more, or better, visions of God than an urban environment.

But this is all artificial, and hence, untrue. For the Lord of Love indwells fully every human mind. And She lives in Mind only-- not in temples, churches, or forests. In seeking a greater realization in the forest, you are subtly abandoning the very principle of the interior Being of Brahman, and replacing it with an erroneous perspective-- that Brahman is "more present" or "easier to find" in the forest than in your own mind. This argument is subtle, and sounds correct, but it actually is at least a piece of the denial of the ubiquity and omnipresence of Mind. It is subtly being misled down the path of maya. And it is sensed that it is leading you into notions of a "real exterior" world-- firmly denied by the Upanishads.

It is only the lower nature that argues that it is "easier" to find God in a forest or quiet area. People are somewhat noisy, but, in the view of oneness, that noise is also to be embraced as the song of God. It is challenging to live a mystical life among people. But it is clearly the will of Love that we live among people, for only among them can Love have its expression. From this view, it is actually selfish to seek a "perfectly quiet and distant" location to seek for Her Who is everywhere.

And the Goddess lives most powerfully of all as Love, for She is Love.
So, she has lived a million times more powerfully through and in Cindy than in a thousand forests. I know that the views presented here are a little different from your own, as you are so enamoured of the cabin and forest. But please carefully consider them. For I sense that your belief in "exterior" environments is blocking your fullest awakening.
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What Year is Coming Up?

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Do you know what year is coming up?
If you said, "Two thousand eight," you're dead wrong!
For any number containing the word "thousand" is a quantity, not a year. If you have "one thousand nine hundred seventy-five" pennies, you have almost twenty dollars. But "one thousand nine hundred seventy-five"
is not a year; it is an amount or quantity. The year is read correctly "nineteen seventy-five."
The same is consistently true of "2008." If you have "two thousand eight" cars on a lot, this tells how many cars that you have; it says nothing about the make or year in which the cars were produced. The only correct or literate way to read the date or year 2008 is "twenty-oh-eight."
Play this game with friends. It is astonishing just how many will get it wrong! Ask, "What year is the year just coming up?" An amazing number of people will illiterately answer, "Two thousand eight."
But the only correct answer, known to all literate people, is "twenty-oh-eight."
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e-Card Warning

Thanks to Tom Gustin.
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Watch For Holiday E-Card Spam, Symantec Warns


Some malware authors have even gone so far as to include the phrases "no worm, no virus" in the e-card's text, as if such an assurance made the message safe.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek

December 4, 2007 04:20 PM

'Tis the season to be wary. Sadly, malware authors are quick to seize on current events to cloak their social engineering attacks -- which typically involve tricking people into clicking on a malicious link or visiting a malicious Web page -- in an aura of legitimacy.

So it is that the holiday season brings a surge in holiday-oriented scams. As security company Cyveillance noted on Monday, phishing attacks jumped by 300% on Thanksgiving Day, compared with the number of attacks seen the previous week.
Another security company, Message Labs, said following Thanksgiving that it was seeing holiday-themed spam coming across its infrastructure at a rate of about 300,000 an hour.

Symantec security researcher Jitender Sarda documented one such attack on Tuesday that uses e-cards.

"These e-cards are purportedly sent from a legitimate source and try to lure the victim to click on the link to view the e-cards, which have underlying tricks to try and infect the computer," said Sarda in a blog post. "With the Xmas bells starting to ring, here is the first incidence where Xmas e-cards have started doing the rounds."
While these e-cards may appear to come from a familiar brand name, the "From:" field is forged. And the spammer responsible, perhaps aware that e-cards have acquired an air of disrepute, has even gone so far as to include the phrase "(no worm, no virus)" in the e-card's text, as if such an assurance made the message safe.
In fact, the link provided attempts to download a file named "sos385.tmp," which is itself a downloader that connects to the Internet and attempts to download other malicious files.

America the Beautiful and America the Terrible

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I grew up in America the Beautiful, a country that was part idealization.

But it was a system that respected international law and order. It was a massive, mighty, many say "blessed," country that would never, under any conditions, stoop to invading a third-world country whose "soldiers" are often twelve-year-olds. And it would never have engaged in this nightmare of mass-murder of women and children for the evils of oil and greed.

I love America. But I do not always love or embrace her behavior under the tyranny of ignorant and greedy men. I do not respond with "shock and awe" to the slaughter and massacre of hundreds of thousands of innocent women, children, and men in a single day. This is the evil twin of America the Beautiful; her name is America the Terrible.

In America the Terrible, it is a place where elections were fixed and dishonest. In both twenty hundred in Florida, and in twenty-oh-four in Ohio, hundreds of thousands of valid votes were disenfranchised-- mostly votes of native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans. Huge boxes of their valid votes were simply thrown away.

Why? Because they did not want the government to be led by men who trashed personal rights and civil liberties. They were rejecting a government that practiced regular torture and mass-murder. They turned away from a government that spied on its own citizens, and took away civil rights and freedoms. In short, they insisted on a simple democracy, which the U.S. claimed to be exporting, while in reality, it was suppressing here at home.

The rulers of America the Terrible were the pygmy-puppets of corporate America. They stood by the greedy and destructive corporations while they ruined the environment, and defended their absolute greed even as they poisoned innocent citizens. And when opportunities arose to help people-- whether senior citizens, children, students, or the common person-- the leaders stood squarely opposed to programs that could assist. This was done not once, but over and over again. America the Terrible believed in war-- even in starting it, and in the defense of pollution; and "anything for a buck" was its guiding philosophy.

In America the Terrible, an unqualified man could, with the aid of his father, "buy" the highest position in the land, and end up in the White House even if the citizens did not want him there. He could buy his way to power by becoming a weak puppet of vast wealth, again, mostly corporate. He could then reverse laws that the wisest people had developed for decades. He could not only start a nightmarish war, but could threaten the beginning of another-- this time, nuclear. By simply ignoring the poor and supporting the rich, he could come dangerously close to eliminating the middle class-- the traditional strength of America the Beautiful. In sum, everything that could go wrong in America the Beautiful did go wrong in America the Terrible.
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"Small" Blessings

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The longer that we remain on this tiny planet, the more we realize that the "small things" are really the great things, and that "small, ordinary" blessings are from the Heart of Love at the Center.:) So, we send a thousand million "small blessings," which add up to healing, joy, friendship, and, most of all, Love.
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The Body in Spirituality

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The body exists within the mind, not the other way 'round.:) The body is only a psychohologram, an aspect of maya. It is a part of spirituality, and is to be acknowledged in a healthy way, but mystics do not focus much on body-consciousness, which we more often regard as a distraction from the spiritual Way. But it is an ego-distraction that, like a pesky fly, keeps coming back, again and again.:)

The chakras (pronounced "chuck-ruhs") can give valuable feedback, especially when we concentrate on the so-called "energy-bodies." But these fields of force are also a part of the mayic world, and so, are not the equivalent of the Christspirit, God, or Reality (cosmic Mind).

The body has its own karmic pattern within the overall pattern of the illusionworld (dreamworld). Sometimes, it challenges a certain aspect of mind to grow. But every biological dysfunction need not have deep symbolic meaning. Some states or conditions are meant to challenge our detachment, our faith in Love, or other factors. Thus, a person with foot-problems need not assume that she is "walking down a wrong spiritual path," and a person who temporarily loses her voice need not assume that she is "speaking incorrectly."

Still, the body is an incredibly complex "school" within the general school of earthlife. It is to be loved and respected, like a best friend, and is our "training-instrument" in this life. But heavy bodily emphasis just leads a person into greater selfconsciousness of, and perhaps slavery to, the world of illusion. Only in purest Mind, not in body, can we ever find true and lasting liberation.
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In-sight

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When the interior eye of the mind is opened by Spirit, the enlightened learn from everything and everyone all around them. All are students, all teachers.:)
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Maintenance of Friendship

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Yesterday evening's visit from you was a great and very thoughtful "Christmas gift.":) We got to share-- early-- some of that famous "Christmas spirit." This is, of course, the spirit of Love, generosity, giving, thoughtfulness, kindness, other-centeredness, and other delightful related positivities.

It stuns and somewhat surprises me just how easily even the best of friends can "lose each other" in the busy-ness of everyday life. Emails stop, phone-calls become rare, and visits scarce. Friendship is a living thing. It must be "fed" by fairly regular communications, or else, it can "die on the vine," evaporate, simply vanish. And this can just naturally happen, without anyone's doing anything, even without anyone's wanting it.

You have to do a little fun "work" to keep a friendship going, but it can disappear without any work at all. In fact, it "starves" when neglected.:(

I surely do not want this to happen to our very precious and light-filled, Love-filled friendship. For it is fun, energizing, positive, and life-enhancing. It makes our lives richer and more fun.

A friendship, no matter how strong or how long, can perish through simple neglect. Everyone is in greatest and immediate danger of becoming simply "too busy" to do "maintenance" on a friendship. This delightful friendship-maintenance includes fairly regular communications (emails, phone-calls, snailmails, cards) as well as visits when possible. It might also include, as in the Christmas Holy-day, small gifts as appropriate.

Let us simply think of each other. Let us do this often, and with Love in our hearts. And let us show that we truly love and care for each other. Friendship is the most beautiful gift that we can ever give each other. Construction of friendships is one of the reasons for living on earth. (It is a most common form of Lovexpression.) Investing in friendship is investing in the "ggold" of real spirituality. So, friendship-maintenance is real worship.

Creating, and maintaining, good friendships is one of the very few things that we can do on earth that will affect eternity. For the best friendships can last for millions or billions of years!:) So, friendship is the center-piece of Love, and one of the most important things in our lives. For long after these tiny lives have disappeared, friendship will stand by our side to support us and make us stronger and wiser.

It is rather startling, for example, how easily, and how quickly, the good habit of regular emails can simply die. It appears that even our email communications could follow this troubling path to non-existence.
Again, this letter is written so that this "vaporization" (through forgetting or busy-ness) does not occur in our case.

For we love you and think and speak of you quite often, with both Love and joy in our hearts. And the Season of Love and Light is the perfect time to express these sentiments,together with these caveats. And Love is always, like friendship, Its twin, a two-way communication. So, we look forward, with delight and pleasure, to your response to this email, so that, together, we can "get our friendship back on track.":)
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Deborah Shank Needs Your Help

Seven years ago, a semi-trailer plowed into the driver's side of Deborah Shank's minivan. The 52-year-old Missouri Wal-Mart employee and devoted mother of three suffered permanent brain damage. Today she lives in a nursing home for round-the clock care, unable to walk, feed or dress herself.

As the Wall Street Journal reported on November 20, it's a tragic story - but it gets worse:

"Wal-Mart started out as one of the good guys in this story, paying almost $470,000 of Shank's initial medical bills. But three years after Shank's husband sued and settled with the semi driver's employer, the retail giant changed hats. It demanded every penny back, plus interest and legal fees -- more, in fact, than the $417,477 the settlement had placed in a special trust fund specifically for Shank's future health care expenses."

Wal-Mart sued a permanently brain-damaged woman out of her medical care funds. Thanks to her former employer - the world's largest retailer - Deborah's family is sinking deeper into debt and Deborah will be completely dependent on Medicaid and Social Security for a lifetime of medical care.

Wal-Mart Watch is collecting funds to help Deborah Shank's family with her medical bills.

Will you make a donation?

Wal-Mart's actions are horribly unethical and morally bankrupt, but the company says it's legal - and it's right about that.

As the Wall Street Journal explains:

The reason is a clause in Wal-Mart's health plan that Mrs. Shank didn't notice when she started stocking shelves at a nearby store eight years ago. Like most company health plans, Wal-Mart's reserves the right to recoup the medical expenses it paid for someone's treatment if the person also collects damages in an injury suit.

In cases like the Shanks', where injuries and medical costs are catastrophic, accident victims sometimes can be left with little or none of the money they fight for in court. Company health plans are increasingly adopting language such as Wal-Mart's, which dictates that it is to be paid first out of any settlement, regardless of what remains for the injured person. Moreover, the victim is responsible for all legal costs in pursuing the suit.

Last year the U.S. District Court sided with Wal-Mart over the Shank family - making its ruling just six days before Deborah Shank's 18-year-old son, Jeremy, was killed while serving in Iraq.

The decision has forced Deborah's family to take drastic measures.

Earlier this year, her husband divorced her because of advice from a health care administrator, who said that she would qualify for more public assistance as a single woman.

The Shanks aren't gold-diggers. They are an honest, hard-working American family trying to deal with a catastrophic event, and now they're doing it with an empty wallet - thanks to Wal-Mart.

Please do your part to help the Shank family by making a donation now:
http://action.walmartwatch.com/deborahshank

This holiday season, Wal-Mart rolled out a new slogan: "Save money. Live better."

But who lives better with Wal-Mart's low prices? Clearly, it isn't Wal-Mart employees like Deborah Shank.

Sincerely,
David Nassar
Wal-Mart Watch

Help horses reach finish line -- support stronger laws today

Your support is critical to helping end the export of American horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter and foreign consumption.

In 2007, state laws in Illinois and Texas shuttered the last remaining horse slaughter plants in the United States. But the perpetrators of this grisly industry continue to ship American horses to Mexico and Canada, where the creatures endure long-distance transport and harsh killing methods.

Help us stop the export of America’s majestic horses once and for all.

Please make a special year-end gift to the Humane Society Legislative Fund today.
We've made great strides toward protecting these American icons from ending up on European dinner plates. HSLF has worked to pass state and federal laws to protect America’s horses, and also to defeat lawmakers who were proponents of horse slaughter.

But America’s horses still face the chopping block, and we can’t save them without your help. Please donate today to help us push for federal legislation to outlaw the export of American horses for slaughter.

We will also put your donation to work to pass other animal protection bills, such as: prohibiting dogfighting nationwide and criminalizing attendance at a dogfight; stopping the imports of sport-hunted polar bear trophies; allowing the establishment of trusts to provide lifelong care for pets; halting the imports of dogs from foreign “puppy mills” where they are treated like production machines; and much more!


And with 2008 shaping up to be a critical election year all across America, your support will help HSLF accomplish other important goals like: continuing to get humane candidates elected to office; publishing an online Congressional scorecard, with real-time humane-legislation scores for your federal lawmakers; and continuing to grow HSLF's popular "Party Animals" program for grassroots advocates.

I know we can continue to directly impact the lives of animals by changing laws in our state legislatures and on Capitol Hill. I hope you'll join us by showing your commitment to the HSLF with your special year-end gift today.

On behalf of our staff and many dedicated animal advocates nationwide, I wish you a holiday season filled with joy and compassion. Thank you for all that you do to help animals every day.
Sincerely,

Mike Markarian
President
Humane Society Legislative Fund

Camel No. 9 or Cancer No. 9?

This week we won a victory in our fight against Camel No. 9! R.J.Reynolds announced that they're temporarily suspending all print advertising -- including magazine ads. While they claim that this was a business decision, we find it hard to believe that it has nothing to do with the outrage and protests from people like you.

Since last spring, we've fought R.J. Reynold's marketing of Camel No. 9.
In July, you flooded the offices of Vogue with more than 8,000 e-mails asking the magazine to stop accepting Camel No. 9 ads. Later in August, you sent more than 4,000 thank you e-mails to Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) for taking this issue up in Congress.
Now we have a new web site to help you fight this deadly product. Visit www.CancerNo9.com today!

Don't let RJR fool you, Richard. We still need to keep up the fight. They may have stopped magazine advertising for the moment, but Camel No. 9 is still actively marketed towards young women and girls through direct mail, web sites and events. There's also nothing from stopping R.J. Reynolds from advertising in magazines in the future.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids listened to advocates from across the country, and designed a web site that allows YOU to stand up for young women and girls in YOUR community. CancerNo9.com features:

A petition asking editors of women's magazines to stop running ALL cigarette ads

Fact sheets about women, smoking and health

Media coverage of Camel No. 9

Image gallery of Camel No. 9 magazine ads, postcard promotions and novelty items

Message board to share ideas

Resources page

Thank you for standing up for women and young girls! We hope that you'll visit www.CancerNo9.com and use its resources as R.J. Reynolds continues to lure young women and girls into a lifetime of disease and addiction.


Sincerely,

Carter Headrick
Director, Grassroots
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

P.S. Don't forget to tell your friends and family about www.CancerNo9.com.

Friendship

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There is no better use of time on this planet than to offer assistance to a friend.:)

Christmas Words

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Our poor, ravaged little tiny planet needs all the words of Love and healing possible, as it has always been torn asunder by fools, fakes, and simply misguided people. Let us use Christmas as the Season to multiply positive words of joy, Love, and healing.:)

Christmasthoughts

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The very old Soul never meets a true "stranger," but encounters those who have been, and are still, beloved, from the vast and immense past.

Yes, let us ignore and reject the coldness and cynicism that mark the materialists and the Jehovah's Witnesses during this blessed, warm, sparkling Season of Love and Light. This is the time to enjoy the universe through the soft, gentle, Love-filled eyes of idealism. Let us try to see each other not as we appear, but as we are-- parts of the sweet, joyful, Love-overflowing Mind.:)

Abortion and Spiritual Freedom

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The Bible does not use the word "abortion"-- not a single time. If the Bible was intended as a life-guiding set of regulations, it leaves this important decision to the individual adult conscience.

When people are spiritual children, they must have every possible event listed, together with its "correct response." But, as people approach adulthood, they allow Love to move into their hearts and lives, and to guide their God-given conscience. Also, spiritual adults do not try to control other adults.

It is wrong, then, for ministers, priests, and pastors -- most of whom are
male -- to try to force women to conform to their notions of what is "right" and "wrong." Women, like men, must grow to be able to hear the voice of Goddess deep in their hearts.

God-- or Goddess-- is Love. People of Love view it as a sad and very regrettable tragedy when an abortion must occur. But we do not live, have never lived, in a simple world: Very few events are totally "black" or totally "white." There are many shades of "gray" in all human behaviors.

The so-called "pro-life" people are misnamed; this title implies that those who differ are "anti-life." But actually, anti-abortion" is also inaccurate, as it implies that others are "pro-abortion."

Probably no one is literally "pro-abortion." No one celebrates abortion, delighting in its occurrence. Abortion is a tragic nightmare that rips lives to pieces, creating great sadness and loss for everyone. So, I agree that the most accurate title for these people is "pro-choice."

For their enemies are truly "anti-choice." This is an anti-freedom stance that rips away a woman's freedom as an adult to choose. It places all grown, mature, wise women in the position of little girls, who must be "told" how to live. And who tells them? Not God or Holy Spirit, but men-- males who are so arrogant and full of themselves that they dare to invade a woman's most private and personal areas of life, thumping their Bibles.

Abortion, then, is really about a different issue entirely-- freedom of adult women to guide and form their own lives. Sometimes, abortion is even necessary for the survival of the mother.

Nature itself "aborts" millions through miscarriages. A fundamental question, very often ignored, is tied in with this issue, and that is the nature of biological life. Biological life is energized when a nonphysical Soul enters a physical body. Souls who cannot enter a body due to abortion are not destroyed or killed; they simply find a different, alternative, biological body. If it is their karma to enter our material world, they come here through (in) that body instead.

Freedom-- including life's most intimate ones-- is the gift of God (Love). No one has the right to take away this freedom, although the history of the orthodox church is largely a sad and terrible one of this invalid attempt. Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (Jn. 8:32( The core-truth of the cosmos is God (Love) Itself, which said through Jesus, "I am... the truth."

No one should ever take away this gift of divine freedom. It is more precious than even political freedom, for which so many have given up their lives and fortunes.
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Love

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What makes people "decent" is the Presence of a Lovemind or Love-nature deep within the (unconscious) mind. So, it is Love that is the root of decent behavior, decency being the flower of Love. Could a hypothetically loveless being-- totally without Love -- behave decently?

I do not think so. For one important consideration, she would lack the motivation, provided by Love.

This, of course, defines "Love" in its broadest and most universal definition, as intrinsic compassion, producing empathy, for the self and for all others. I should clarify that, when referring to "Love" in a conversation such as ours, I mean the Love that is universal, unconditional, and consistent. This is the cosmic Love that is God itself, a very special and widely vast Love that swallows, and includes, many subsystems within it, including decency, kindness, goodness, empathy, sympathy, tolerance, and dozens of other factors.

Deep within the Mind-- at a level so deep that it is collective (shared)-- there exists the Lovemind. This is the "mind of God." Unifying with It is a powerful healing (wholing) experience, and the reason that we were created (emanated) as "separate" Souls.

You may choose, of course, to define "Love" differently, and that is, of course, your right. But if so, then, we are on very different "pages," my friend. For if "Love" is defined as a lesser reality, then it is not the Love that is ultimate, supreme Reality ("truth" or God). And, to be honest, I have little to no interest in discussing this "lesser Love."

The Love to which we refer is the very highest expression of mind and heart. It is very vast and immense, and includes many lesser subsystems.

This is the glory of the human condition; indeed, it is the glory of the cosmos!

Lovethoughts

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Enlightenment is not an achievement, but a discovery. It can dawn only now, and now. All things, in vast diversity, are but one Mind. That Mind is Love, and that Love is guidance. It leads higher and higher until the high and low disappear. When all disappears, your true Mind appears, alone and solo; it is all minds. It is bliss, ecstasy, and deep tranquility. This, the gold and jewels of the Way, can go on without end, without limitation.

Goddesses

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We do indeed have much for which to be grateful. We place good, kind, loyal friends at the top of that list!:) Friends, especially those who last, and who stay in your life, are the "emeralds" of life. In so many ways, the cultivation of friendship is what this life is all about. For it is a very common pattern that Love takes in our lives.:)

We are "surrounded by goddesses." For I have the most delightful female friends in the whole world. Shining jewels, every one!:) I do, of course, have some male friends, but have always preferred female companionship, for I have found women to be deeper, more emotionally complex, more tender and loving, than males generally. They strike one as more artistic and poetic, more open to the matters of the heart.

Also, generally, they are more spiritual. All very, very good things!:)
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Communication

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Even strong, good friendships tend to break up, or break down, and vanish when they are not supported (fed) by regular communications.:(

It is very sad when this happens, for one of the main reasons for life on earth is the skillful, loving cultivation of friendships (expressing a special kind of Love).
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Cultic Counterfeits of Spirituality

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No, my friend, I do not know, or know of, the man whom you mentioned, Himavat Ishaya. But I think that you are very wise to respond to your intuitive feelings about him. Sadly, the metaphysical and "spiritual" communities have always been special havens for lunatics, phonies, fakes, and charlatans. When a person makes a claim to be on a spiritual path -- and especially if she or he claims to be a "teacher"-- one should be able to see at least some of the Spirit working through her, as Love, joy, peace, or egolessness. The latter implies material simplicity and the total absence of greed. Anyone who talks too much about himself, his "famous" or "numerous" students, his money, or his personal spirituality is a phony. Also, anyone who over-charges for seminars, lectures, etc, is also a fake.

These bogus-teachers are rampant throughout the vulnerable "spiritual" community, because spiritual people are more open than most to non-traditional views. And, in some psyches, this fine openmindedness slips over the line, and becomes simple gullibility.
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What Really Matters

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Under the worst conditions, and even on the worst planet (and it can, at times, seem to be earth), you have been tempered by life to a solid, non-wimpish state of courage, Love, strength, wisdom, and active service.


There is a pop-phrase that comes to mind: "That which does not kill me, makes me stronger." Agreed, but I would expand it to: "Even that which kills me will make me stronger." For death is an incredibly empowering experience!:)

The storms of life are so great at highlighting the things that really, truly matter in life. And you know what? There aren't a whole lot of things that truly count. There are Love, friendship, giving, relationship, spirituality, and a few other things. Beyond these, as the great mystic Solomon said, "All is vanity."
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Love and Karma

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It is because we took our lessons seriously that we have found what blessings can be squeezed out of this life.:) You asked, "What were we thinking when we incarnated on earth?"

The Soul level of Mind is always and only thinking of creating karmic balance in the cosmos. To create this perfect equilibrium, we must make mistakes. Happily, however, these mistakes are only processing-errors, built into the system in order to teach us. The ancient Greek word for "sin" was the term used by archers for "missing a target." This was not a voluntary or deliberate act, but an imperfection. So, "sin" was not "evil," but imperfection.

Imperfections and errors create no negative karma, for we simply do not have the processing-capacity to act outside their influences. Only deliberate, voluntary acts create karma. The rest are covered by a wide and wise forgiveness. In fact, early Christians were famous for the phrase, "All our sins are forgiven."

With karma, no one is spying on you or reporting you. Karma is a law, just like gravity. No one has to "enforce gravity" upon you; it is simply a natural law.

We come to earth as often as it takes in order to learn the great lessons of Love, forgiveness, detachment, remorse, recompensation, and regret. As we learn greater Love, we are also able to receive greater Love. This is what Jesus meant when he said, "If you forgive men their trespasses, your Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive them, neither will your Father forgive you." This makes the entire cosmos a kind of mirror, sending back lessons, both easy and (usually) more difficult.

Love is greater than even that massive karma. This means that we can be forgiven for even "sins" for which we cannot forgive ourselves, for the Love-fountain at the Center of the cosmos is infinite.
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A Holy Day

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Christmas is coming. It is a "holiday," a contraction of "holy-day." It is arguably the "most holy" day of the year. Of course, to the spiritual, each and every day is holy; in a sense, every day is "Christmas." For each day gives us opportunities to express our Love. And our Love is the "interior Spirit of Christ," expressing in our little world.

Some rigid literalists reject Christmas. They argue that Jesus was not born on December 25. And this is likely true. No one really knows the exact day when Jesus was born.

But it is a good, healthy, helpful practice to celebrate Love in many forms. For it is not simply the birth of the human Jesus that is most commemorated by Christmas. It is instead the birth of the Christ-nature within our hearts. (This is the Lovemind.)

For this is the deeper, and more spiritual, meaning of Christmas. Love includes, and is powerfully expressed by, generosity. And that is why we give gifts. Christmas is not all about materialism, or gifts. But despite the commercial cynicism that has contaminated the holi-day, it is about giving, generosity, kindness, charity, and goodness. Cynics who refuse to celebrate it are often concerned more with their bank-account than with the happiness of the people around them. This might be the
real, deeper reason that some reject Christmas.

As Francis said, It is in giving that we receive. So, to give generously during Christmas is a special opportunity to serve God (Love) by giving gifts to others. For the only Way to love God is by loving others. And our giving should be a pleasure, not a task, job, or assignment. So, let us celebrate our special and very spiritual Christmas. Let us remind each other that we care. Let us touch bases with old friends, often neglected during ordinary days.

Let us abandon hard cynicism. Let us dare to believe-- in Love, in goodness, in generosity. Let us give the greatest gift of all-- our time and attention-- to accompany the merely material gifts. Let us shine the Love of the heart upon each other, in friendliness, in friendship, in forgiveness, abandoning old hurts and healing our friendship-circles. For this is the true meaning of Christmas, and this is what Love is all about.
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Loving God

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The main "command" of Jesus was to love each other. This applied, he made it clear, to not only friends but "enemies" as well.

To "love Jesus" or to "love God" is not simply to do legalistic things (obeying laws) or mechanical things (work) or spouting Scriptures. None of these, lacking Love, will ever serve God. And none, by itself, demonstrates a real Love for God.

The bottom line: The only Way to "love Jesus" is to love other human beings. So, Love must not become an abstract or academic teaching, but must become a real and active part of our day-to-day living.
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"Lovelight" magazine

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We truly, deeply appreciate any ideas for our monthly Lovelight magazine. However, it is a magazine of high spirituality. That is, it is not a magazine of religion. (The same is true of the uld, this present infosheet, the "Universal Love Digest." This is its "sister magazine" online.) We are very interested in the presentation of great truths. But we are not at all interested in the doctrines (dogma) of any
particular church or denomination.

Thus, we use, and are open to, texts from the Bible. But, if these are too numerous, they start to get a bit overwhelming; worse, they start to look like religion (dogma and doctrine) rather than purest spirituality-- which is the practice of universal, unconditional, and consistent Love.

So, please feel free to send in anything, any time, if the piece feels more spiritual than religious.
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First and Second Corinthians

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First Corinthians is considered one of the great written classics of Christian spirituality. It begins, in chapter 2, with correcting the "errors" in the church.
There is a warning against factionalism, against "following men."

Spiritual people are encouraged to agree with each other, not because of centralized dogma or doctrine, but because they all receive from the same Source, and God wants peace, not disputations and disagreements. The church was factionalizing, fragmenting due to human selfstyled "leaders," each getting a following. This is analogous to the formation of cults, in which people receive "new understandings," and break away from, and disagree with, all others. But "Christ" (God, Love) should be the only "leader."! Even Paul did not want people to follow him. God's message
is not intellectual. From that view, it looks "foolish."

The Gospel was rejected by the Jews because it did not have the "proper authority." God does not use merely human wisdom. The "Holy Spirit" teaches spiritual people directly.

We are God's "living building." It is built upon Christ (God, Love). No human leader is to be followed, but you are to follow only the "Word" of God. This is not only the Bible, but the living Word, which is God Itself. (Jn. 1:1) Christians should avoid intimate association with people who are openly sinning. Our bodies are the temple of God. We should not abuse them through fornication.

Both marriage and the single state are acceptable to the Lord of Love. Paul implores Christians to support his ministry via charitable giving. Yet he refused to be "hired" for "payment." As the people of Love (God), we are unified through Communion.

Next, Paul supplies the famous and important principle, "All things are lawful." That is, everything which does not resist or destroy Love is not forbidden by God. Next, Paul betrays some chauvinism no doubt picked up during his days as a Pharisee, and commands that women symbolically cover their heads when praying. Paul then gives advice re the ceremony of Communion (Eucharist). Paul then examines the famous analogy of the Church as a "body," unified although it contains many "parts." God gives spiritual gifts and Love-gifts. This is where we find the famous "Canticle of Love," in First Corinthians chapter thirteen. Paul also has much to say about "glossolalia," or speaking in foreign languages. Again, Paul's old bigotry slips through into his words, and he prohibits women to teach in the public church. Paul closes with what has been called the "Gospel of the Resurrection," in chapter fifteen. He says that everyone who has a physical body also has a spiritual one designed for "heaven" (perfect Mindworld of Love). The "resurrection" is a fundamental tenet of true spirituality, and is associated with several other important ideas. As we reflect the nature of "dusty" man, Adam, so we must also reflect the nature of heavenly Spirit, Christ. We will not all die; some of us will be "translated" into our heavenly bodies.
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2 Corinthians summary


The truth is only hidden from those who do not hear the call to believe
(4:1-6)
The weakness of the suffering apostle demonstrates the glory of god which
we will share in the resurrection (4:7-5:10)
the apostle is even willing to suffer to bring people to Christ (6:1-13;
7:2-4)
Holiness is separation from the "world" (material order]. (6:14-7:1),
possibly non-Pauline]
Against the "super-apostles" (chapters 10-13)
Do not be led astray by their flattery (11:1-6)
True sign of an apostle is God’s power manifested in suffering and
weakness (11:16-12:13)
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Polybiography and "hell" in the Scriptures

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Paul set forth a cosmic principle at Galatians 6:7, when he said, "Whatsoever a man sows, that he must also reap." On earth, in agriculture, you cannot plant beans and get corn. You do not plant acorns and get apple-trees. There is a direct cause-and-effect sequence in nature. Like causes like, and this law cannot be violated.

Paul is suggesting that, in the moral or spiritual universe, there also exists this same cause-and-effect sequence. Goodness produces goodness, and evil, evil. But the problem is, this principle does not work onearth. On earth, the good often suffer, and the evil often enjoy great "blessings." So, since Paul was not talking about the earth and our lives here, he must have been discussing a larger, or cosmic, principle.

He was. For this simple statement is pregnant with profound meaning. For in this simple sentence, he summarized the entire Law of Karma, with all its millions of variations and other complexities.

It is not mere coincidence that he stated the law of karma. In his time, and it is still true today, most of the population of our world believed in "polybiography," or reincarnation. (Many times, people are turned off by this word, and so, we can also use the other word, "polybiography," to mean the exact same thing.)

Either what Paul said was true, or it was false. Paul was a wise, smart, even inspired, man of God. I believe that what he wrote was truth, even though it is not true in our visible, physical world. For it is a spiritual truth. There is no larger explanation of the sowing-reaping principle than the law of karma.

Besides, there is some evidence, as from the ancient Nag Hammadi Library, that almost all early Christians believed; they taught that Jesus taught polybiography.

Right before stating the karmic principle, Paul gave this warning, in the same verse: "Do not be misled." What factors must we beware of, that could "mislead" us? The entire material, visible world does not itself "prove" polybiography, as it is a spiritual, not a physical, principle. So, it is the entire material world against which we are being warned, lest it "mislead" us.

Paul follows this by a second warning: "God is not to be mocked." This means that many people would like to believe that they can "get away with" harmful behavior, and somehow "God will not notice." But this is "mocking" God. For nothing can ever escape God's notice. In other words,the rule of karma is perfect; it perfectly matches every deliberate word, action, and thought.

Where does forgiveness enter? Anything that is a true mistake, a genuine error, an imperfection, or an action which lacks understanding, does not create any karma. Karma is created by only those actions that are deliberate, voluntary, and willful. So, all true mistakes are forgiven, but all purposeful actions do create karma.

Polybiography was a very common belief in Jesus' day, among even the Jews. This is proved by John 1:21, where the people mistook Jesus for either "Elijah" or "the prophet." So, it was a common misunderstanding to see an especially blessed person as the possible reincarnation or rebirth of Elijah or another respected prophet.

But the Christian Scriptures, although denying that Jesus was Elijah, did say that Elijah had returned, in the body of John the Baptizer. In Luke 1:17, it was prophesied that he would have the "spirit and power of Elijah." So, John had the Soul of the ancient prophet. Jesus and his disciples fully believed this, and took it for granted. In Matthew 11:14, Jesus confirmed that John was in fact Elijah.

Jesus was a mystery to the public. When he asked his disciples what people were saying about him, they said, "Some people think that you are John the Baptizer, Jeremiah or Elijah or another of the [great, historical] prophets." (Mt. 16:14) So, the people all around them were believing in polybiography. This makes it even more likely that Jesus and the disciples also accepted it.

In the Jewish Bible, there is at least one crystal-clear reference to Polybiography. The character named "Job," the text says, was an "Asian." As an Asian, he was likely influenced by beliefs similar to polybiography, which by even his time were ancient already. It was Job who said the mysterious words, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there." This clear statement is found at Job 1:21.

The fact that Jesus and his disciples believed in polybiography is proved by the text of John 9:1, 2:"He saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, 'Master, who sinned, this man, or his parents, so that he was born blind?'" This proves that the man could have "sinned" before birth. It also proves that, in some cases, problems such as blindness can arise from previous activities, even before you are born. In this case, the man had not "sinned" at all, but was born blind in order to bring glory to God, Jesus explained. But the very fact that the disciples thought that perhaps the man had sinned before he was born is yet another clear statement of karma; for without karma, that question could have made no sense whatsoever.

Re hell: Let us not forget the matrix-principle underlying all enlightenment, and that is, "God is Love." (1 Jn. 4:8,16) If God is Love, then he, like Jesus, is a fountain of the richest forgiveness. This occurs, not because we are good, but because God is good; it all occurs because of grace.

A God of Love and forgiveness would never fry a person for ten billion billion years because she "messed up" a single tiny life on earth. It is a principle of all legal justice that the punishment should fit the crime-- or, in this case, the "sin." So, in order to be punished forever, a person would have to have sinned forever. And no one can ever sin forever.

An eternal hellfire is not taught anywhere in the Scriptures. You cannot, for example, "prove" the literal existence of hellfire by the use of a parable, such as the one at Luke 16:23. For a parable is, by its very nature and definition, symbolic: Situations symbolize or represent other situations.

For the same reason, you cannot use the Book of Revelation to prove anything literal, for the entire book is a book of symbols.

Notice how silly it would be to use literalism to understand Revelation 20:14, where it says that "hell [the lake of fire] was cast into the lake of fire." Does this mean that hell goes to hell,and that hell is tormented forever? This is what you must believe if you think that hell is a literal reference.

And the traditional "hell" is for only the bad people. Yet the text of the Christian Scriptures imply that Jesus also went there: Acts 2:27 says, "You will not leave my Soul in hell, or allow your loyal one to see corruption." And in 2:31, it says that "christ" was not "forsaken in hell." This kind of "forsaking" implies that he was already there.

Spiritually, "hell" is a mental state in which you believe that you are separated from Love, and "Christ" comes to this "hell" to rescue those who seem stuck there.

There are yet many more texts that have not been considered here, but these are the ones that truly stand out. If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to write or call [the number here is (513-)737-LOVE (5683).]
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A Spiritual View of Death

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The spiritual being is not morbidly or chronically obsessed with death. She does not yearn or long for it. She does not fantasize about it. Nor is she always speaking or thinking of it. But, realistically, neither can it be ignored, nor can anyone successfully flee from it. And she does accept it as a natural part of every life-cycle. It is as natural as the sun-kissed dew upon the dawn rose.

Some are so terrified of death that they lie to themselves. They claim that their physical bodies will never die! Others are fanatics of nutrition and exercise, seeking to prolong biological life. These people are living in sheerest fantasy, rejected by the spiritually enlightened. Instead, she seeks to cultivate an accepting view of death. Although it is clearly an apparent "enemy" to biological creatures, it can be a "friend" to spiritual beings. For it leads to a life, or "afterlife," of beautiful and wonderful freedom, a life without pain, suffering, agony, or frustration.

Birth has always been a guarantee of death. Every creature ever born has died. So, death is not some "unnatural" or "astonishing" tragedy. It is an aspect of natural life, its final "crown" or glory. Those who have actually died have, for the first time in human history, been resuscitated by the thousands by biotechnology. They tell a surprisingly beautiful story of death as a survivable experience.

And those who remember anything at all tell essentially the same story: And all agree that, amazingly and contrary to philosophy and expectations of so many, the mind (consciousness or awareness) does survive after the physical death of the body.

However, spiritual beings are compassionate. We do not laugh at funerals, but cry with those who cry-- for their sakes. We are also partly biological, and we too feel the enormous, immense, vast sense of pain and loss (to our world) when any beautiful living creature leaves our world.

But the accounts of survival, brought back by those who have actually died, are just another verification of what spiritual people have taught for centuries, from Jesus to the Buddha.

So, the spiritually wise seek to embrace death in their "all-embracing" mind. They erase all fear of death, and hatred of death. In embracing God as the "all good," without negativity, they seek to expand even their Love, a gift of God's grace, to encircle even death. In this "Love of death," they can lead more peaceful and trusting lives. Jesus tells his followers to live as the birds, flowers, and nursing infants-- none of whom ever worry about, or fear, personal death.

Spiritually, as Jesus demonstrated, death is the release from this current highly imperfect, often terribly painful, life. With it, the mind soars into immeasurable freedom-- free from worry, anxiety, tension, guilt, fear, and the many assorted agonies caused by biological bodies. That deep subconscious aspect of the Mind that lived before this life, and that survives afterward, is called the "Soul," "Soul-level," or "Soulmind." Non-biological, It lives in a world of pure Mind-- of much greater beauty, balance, tranquility, bliss, and ecstasy. When we leave this world, our real life has just only begun!
*******

Bush and the Environment

Thanks to Chris Finer.

Last Friday, Martin McGuiness, special assistant to the president for legislative affairs proclaimed "This administration has done more for the environment and addressing energy security and climate change than any other in history."

While the claim that George Bush has done more to address climate change than any administration seems ridiculous, we should always be willing to welcome converts to our movement. If this administration has final come around on the climate crisis, then now is the time for them to take action.

Let's join together and demand the Bush Administration commit to an international treaty that would cut CO2 by 90%.

Send George Bush a message today by visiting:
http://algore.com/talkingpoints

"I'm not a genius. I'm just passionately curious."........Einstein

Wine Notes

Thanks to Nate Merritt.

HITLER or JESUS? Which brand of wine do YOU prefer?

Hitler Wines Seized In Italy
Posted Sep 28th 2007 11:02AM by Deidre Woollard
Filed under: Wine

An Italian company which specializes in labeling their wine with the pictures of infamous historical figures is in trouble again. Decanter reports that Italian police have confiscated bottles of wine with labels depicting Hitler and other Nazis. The wines from Vini Lundardelli is part of their 'Der Führer' line which feature a variety of labels portraying various figures associated with Nazi Germany. The bottles were seized because they represent a "glorification of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity," according to the Agence France Presse.

Decanter has a quote from Andrea Lunardelli, marketing and distribution director, who says that the move was a marketing strategy (other labels include Che Guevara, Napoleon and Mussolini) and that the Hitler labels were requested by customers in Germany and Austria. The Hitler wines are still for sale through the Vini Lundarelli website and the case is currently with the company's lawyers.

This is far from the first time the wines have caused controversy. There was a major outcry in 2003 at which time Alessandro Lunardelli said that the Hitler wines were the most popular in the series, selling around 30,000 bottles a year.

Using a cute rabbit or a kangaroo to sell wine is old news. Last week I mentioned wines with Hitler on the label; this week comes news of a wine importer going in a completely opposite direction -- it has Jesus on the label. The Grapes of Galilee is a new Israeli wine label aimed at American Christians. The grapes are grown in the region where Jesus Christ is said to have lived, and they are irrigated with water from the Jordan River, where he was baptized. Wine from Israel is nothing new, but most of the Israeli wine sold in the U.S. has previously been to Jewish consumers. In fact, the Grapes of Galilee wine comes from an existing Israeli winery, only the Jesus-themed label is new. As Ad Age reports, the importer, Pini Haroz, sees the chardonnay, merlot and cabernet sauvignon wines as being perfect for holidays and he is marketing it in areas with high concentrations of Catholics. The wine sells for $13.99 a bottle online.

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Dubya Attacks Millions of American Children

Thanks to Nate Merritt.

DUBYA ATTACKS MILLIONS OF AMERICAN CHILDREN!

With one stroke of his pen yesterday, bush vetoed the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) reauthorization bill that would have provided health insurance for 10 million children.

Families USA, a partner of the Campaign for Children's Health Care, released a new ad about the veto. It features real kids who need health insurance and could benefit from CHIP reauthorization.

Click here to view the video.

You're one of the first to see this ad. We need your help so that as many other people as possible see it, too. Please forward it to your friends and family, and ask them to do the same.

Second, please sign Families USA's petition urging Congress to fight back and overturn bush's veto. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't get the last word. We do.

In the coming days, the bill will return to Congress for a vote to override his veto. At last count, we were still about two dozen votes short of the amount needed to defeat the veto in the House of Representatives.

The majority of American voters support an expansion of children's health coverage according to recent polls-including voters in Republican-held districts. So why do some members of Congress continue to ignore their constituents and stand by the president to block children's health? The answer is greed; they fear to spend money for kids, and would rather use it to kill innocents.

Click here to view the video.
Families USA: Home

We want voters in every Congressional district in the country to see this ad and tell their Representatives to support kids.

Ten million children are waiting for us to take action on their behalf.

Let's not let them down the way bush and his allies in Congress have.
Thank you,
Ron Pollack, Executive Director
Families USA
Partner of the Campaign for Children's Health Care

When Life is "No Fun"

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Many activities, people, events, and even things can contribute to joy. But nothing can "make us happy" if we are subconsciously "refusing delivery" on joy, if we reject it. Psychologists have even described a very serious condition called "anhedonia." This is the catastrophic, tragic inability to enjoy anything.

There can be several contributing factors to the inability to enjoy events, things, and people. If we seriously ignore our spiritual needs-- never read anything spiritual, never meditate, never practice Love or compassion, that can and will lead to anhedonia. So, continually be reaching out to others, multiplying friends and acquaintances! The only way to "love God" is by loving people!

But there is another, related, cause of which people rarely think. This is the absence of forgiveness. For forgiveness is the interior "door to joy" in our hearts. Forgiveness is the factor that allows joy to be planted within the heartmind, and to grow, and to thrive.

So, if we are failing, or refusing (out of pride) to forgive anyone, we are cutting way back on our internal joy. In fact, we are helping to create depression-- in its most serious case, anhedonia.

This is an act of ignorance and real selfhatred. So, the heartmind punishes itself by creating interior "hellstates"-- conditions of agony, suffering, and pain-- when we refuse to forgive ourselves or others.

What can we do? One thing that can be done immediately: Take an honest and thorough interior inventory. Scan and search through the "records" of your memory. If you have found that there is someone from your past that you have never forgiven, immediately email or phone that person, and make sincere, honest peace with her/him.

This will have an immediate and palpable healing effect on both your body and your mind. It will make you feel renewed, refreshed, and rejuvenated! So, don't think about it too long, and do not put it on a "back shelf" in your head! Do it now! You will be very glad that you did!
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Ministry and Bucks

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It is an obscenity with what facility greed can manifest even among
"spiritual" pursuits. Many "ministries," and "teachers," are "in the
biz" of spirituality for the sake of greed and fame.

These are invalid reasons, and no one should ever present herself as a
loving, selfless being who has a "service" or "ministry" whose true goal
is money. Spirituality is holy, and is not a mere "commodity," to be
sold like beans or oranges.

Spirituality is priceless. No price can ever be set on a good teaching.
The truly great masters of history, Jesus and the Buddha, never charged,
in any historical record, for any of their sermons.

This does not imply that a modern spiritual teacher cannot receive
Love-donations. But it does imply that any attempt to put a price on, or
to sell, spiritual wisdom is immoral. Spiritual teachers, if they are
the real thing, must and should always be willing to give freely of their
time and energy. Time is a gift from the cosmos, and to try to "profit"
on selling time is a simple absurdity. So-called "spiritual teachers"
who charge for their time are trying to rip off people-- often, those in
most need.

Some "spiritual teachers" are angry because Love Ministries does not
charge anything for its educational work. All lectures, seminars, and
personal consultations of Love Ministries are always given freely, or for
a Love-donation. Other ministries might not like this, because they feel
"criticized" by this policy. Indeed, some of them are operating out of
greed.

But it is not our intent to criticize. It is our intent simply to follow
the best examples possible-- Jesus and the Buddha, and other great
spiritual giants, who did not charge for their spiritual work. We must
follow their lead wherever it takes us, no matter what other "spiritual
teachers" say or do!
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Elaboration on Face-reading

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Several people have shown a great interest in the Chinese art of face-reading since it was discussed in the uld. To elaborate and clarify: A cleft in the chin includes any kind of indentation, from slight to a "hole." (The more pronounced, the stronger the quality.)

A cleft in the chin does not imply that a person is evil or dishonest. The Chinese say, instead, that it might imply a lack of tenacity in the formation of a reliable, dependable lifedesign. A person with a cleft can make a wonderful and beautiful friend, but might not have the tenacity for the "long haul."

A person should never be judged, or pre-judged (the root of "prejudice") on the basis of physiognomy alone. If she is to be evaluated, it must be on the basis of the totality of her past actions.

The Chinese philosophers held that a person's karma often expressed itself in the face. This is very similar to the palmists' suggestion that the palms of the hand contain a "road-map" to a life even before that life is lived.

Earth is an unpredictable, sometimes scary, place. Due to this, spiritual people welcome all the data that can be obtained about, and from, others. They might use palmistry, astropsychology, and face-reading, for example, to help them better adapt to people in their environment.
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The Four Gospels

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Mark is the oldest of the canonical Gospels (those included in the "official" Bible). It goes back, some say, all the way to 80 or 70 CE. Parts of the Gospel of Thomas, not in our modern Bible, go all the way back to about 50, and so, it might be even older, more closely reflecting the teachings of the actual Jesus Christ.

Matthew was written specifically for an audience of mostly Hebrew people, and so, its author (who was not Matthew), or, more probably, authors, highlighted the Jewish texts and tried to fit them into the life of Jesus as "fulfilled prophecies."

Luke was written for a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan audience, and so, does not have all the Scriptural "hedging" and continuous referencing of Matthew. It was written for a Greek audience, of mostly more educated and less Biblical readers.

Finally, the latest official Gospel, John, is traced to about 100. It was written for mystically inclined Christians-- the gnostics-- and emphasizes the spiritual nature of Jesus as a model for followers. It tells of his preincarnational life as the Logos, or "Word," the reasoning Power of God, and emphasizes his oneness with God. (Compare 10:30).

The Gospel-writers were not exacting regarding matters of history. In their writings, it is probable that they mixed symbolic material with literal descriptions. So, the Gospels might be part allegory and part history. (Our modern idea of "historical accuracy" did not then exist.)

The four recognized Gospels are thought to be derived from a more ancient collection of Jesus' teachings and sayings called the "Q" Document. It was similar, in style and age, to the Gospel of Thomas, and was regarded as a very reliable reflection of the original teachings of Jesus.
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The Book of Job

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The Book of Job is unique. The ancient text identifies Job as an "Asian," or, in older translations, "an Oriental." So, Job was not a Hebrew. He might have been Chinese. At any rate, he is famous for his profound wisdom, and Job is a classic in spirituality. Unlike the other books of the "Hebrew Scriptures," it is not simply a product of Hebrew culture.

As an Asian, if he was spiritual-- and he must have been-- it was probably a spirituality more along the lines of Taoism or Buddhism rather than Judaism. These faiths are famous for their strengthening the Soul against suffering and loss. Some varieties are almost fatalistic in their acceptance of suffering. But, at any rate, unlike the Hebrew faith, these Asian Ways do have a valid and fair explanation for suffering.

Job proves that a man can conduct his life in purity and justice even if the universe seems to be unjust. Of course, the cosmos is never unjust, being under the guidance of Love (God). But the working out of karma can make the cosmos appear ruthless, unjust, and unfeeling. Life on earth can seem to be hell.

Job, in challenging Jehovah, actually proves himself more aware of more factors, actually confusing Jehovah, and backing him into a kind of corner. Jehovah ends up "defending" himself with the last-resort argument, "How dare you question me?" Jehovah really has no satisfactory answers to all the suffering on earth-- as indeed the Hebrew faith did not understand why human beings have to suffer so much. For the Hebrew religion made mo room for karma, and hence, had not a clue.

Job is almost Buddhist in its concentration on suffering and its meaning. It is the one book in the Hebrew Scriptures that asks the truly profound questions about this difficult life on earth. I have read it several times, and it is well worth reading and rereading.
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Responses to Karen and Joe

Karen and Joe made some comments re some recent articles in the uld.
Here are responses:

Dear Karen,

The ancient art of Chinese physiognomy (face-reading) is based upon the study of thousands of faces over many centuries. We need not be dogmatic and claim that it cannot be wrong, that it is always correct, but it is generally a reliable system. If we discover contradictions to its principles, or exceptions, we are free, of course, to believe that the entire system is flawed, or that it does not work. Or, in some cases, we might simply need more knowledge, or a more objective perspective. At any rate, it is a very fascinating system that increases understanding of our fellow human beings.

To Joe:

Dear Joe,

Yes, my friend, we must admit that evil really does exist in our world. For ours is a world of illusion and duality. Evil does not exist absolutely-- that is, in the perfect Mind of the Absolute, the Supreme, the Ultimate. But in this world, it is a very real factor. It is really an educational guideline, for its avoidance helps the human mind clarify the meaning of the good, by contrast. We can see how hideous, how
horrible, is evil, and that impels us away from it, keeping us more firmly on the path of goodness. To deny the absolute existence of evil is not to deny the existence of evil. It does exist, and is very real, within the context of a world that itself has only a secondary reality.

An ancient mystic wrote, "God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him." (1 Jn. 1:5) So, in the perfect Mind of God, which is stainless purity, "evil" has no reality; most of what we call "evil" might be the outworking of a perfectly good, and educational, karma. This is the spiritual explanation of suffering.

Always Double-check!

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If you looked up the word Elohim, I congratulate you. It is always good and wise to double-check our sources. It is always possible that I can be in error.

But in this case, I am not wrong. The Hebrew word elohim is definitely a plural word. It does NOT mean "God," even though much tradition, based on the King James Version, supports this falsehood. The word definitely means "gods."

What was the name of the reference-work in which you looked the word up? For fundy churches have produced an entire library of false "reference" works that are unreliable, and it is possible that you used one of these.

Always remember this very valuable principle: Just because a statement appears in a book, that alone does not guarantee that it is correct. In the history of religion, especially, tens of thousands of falsehoods and errors have appeared in print, in books. Still, you are very wise to question everything that I say, and also, that everyone else says.

Thanks for staying "on your guard," and double-checking on this. This is precisely what a good student should do!
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America Tortures its POWs

Thanks to Nate Merritt.

AMERICA TORTURES ITS POWS former president Carter reveals


America Tortures Prisoners, Carter Says
CNN
Posted: 2007-10-10 20:01:44
Filed Under: Politics News, World News
WASHINGTON (Oct. 10) -- The United States tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Carter said Wednesday.


Photo Gallery: Former President on the Offensive
Alfred de Montesquiou, AP
Former President Jimmy Carter, seen here in the Darfur region of Sudan last week, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that the U.S. tortures prisoners captured in the war on terror. "I don't think it. I know it," Carter said.


"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused."

Carter also said President Bush creates his own definition of human rights.

Carter's comments come on the heels of an October 4 article in The New York Times disclosing the existence of secret Justice Department memorandums supporting the use of "harsh interrogation techniques." These include "head-slapping, simulated drowning, and frigid temperatures," according to the Times.

The White House last week confirmed the existence of the documents but would not make them public.

Responding to the newspaper report Friday, bush defended the techniques used, saying, "This government does not torture people."

Asked about bush's comments, Carter said, "That's not an accurate statement if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored -- certainly in the last 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.

"But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don't violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don't violate them."

...Carter also criticized some of the 2008 Republican presidential candidates, calling former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani "foolish" for his contention the United States should be open to use force on Iran.

"I hope that he doesn't become president and try to impose his conviction that we need to go to war with Iran," Carter said.

CNN was attempting to get a response from the Giuliani campaign.

The former president didn't spare the rest of the GOP field either.

"They all seem to be outdoing each other in who wants to go to war first with Iran, who wants to keep Guantanamo open longer and expand its capacity -- things of that kind," Carter said.

"They're competing with each other to appeal to the ultra-right-wing, war-mongering element in our country, which I think is the minority of our total population."

Carter declined to say which Republican candidate he feared the most. (I would too. -NJM)

"If I condemn one of them, it might escalate him to the top position in the Republican ranks," he said. (Sounds exactly like the way the hawks think! -NJM)

Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois also drew Carter's criticism for refusing recently to pledge to withdraw all troops from Iraq by the end of their first terms if they win the presidency in 2008.

"I disagree with their basic premise that we'll still be there; I think the American people want out," Carter said. "If there is an unforeseen development where Iraqi people request American presence over a period of time, I think that would possibly be acceptable, but that's not my personal preference."

CNN's Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.

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The article below details the little known truth regarding the Fascist Nazi interests of George W Bush's Grandfather, Prescott Bush, as he and others attempted to overthrow the US government in the 1930s in order to install a fascist dictatorship. This is important in order to understand the true motivations behind The Bush Family and why they need to be stopped.
http://republican.meetup.com/boards/view/viewthread?thread=3317707

Richard Gage presentation: "How the Towers Fell".
This is one of the most well presented, clear cut, honest and compelling presentations regarding evidence as to the Controlled Demolition of the World Trade Center. Please watch if you have any doubts that the Towers were taken down by explosives.
http://911blogger.com/node/10025
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Love (God) Calls to Love

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Religion has taught people, for so many centuries, that "understanding the Bible" is what spirituality is all about. But, in history, people who were "experts" at understanding and explaining the Bible have been pedophiles, thieves, liars, political manipulators, warriors, rapists, and murderers (such as those who murdered Jesus).

So, "understanding the Bible," or particular teachings, is not what true "Christianity" is all about.

No, instead, Christianity is about living with as much Love as possible. Jesus himself said that his true followers would be marked (identified) by only Love. (Jn. 13:34,35). Jesus was not an expert on the Bible; for our modern Bible did not even exist during his lifetime.

No, pleasing God is not about understanding everything, or even understanding many ideas, concepts, teachings, or doctrines. It is all about Love.

A very simple man (let us use the parable of a mentally arrested person) who truly showed kindness and gentleness to all, who did the very best that he knew how, but never picked up a Bible, would fare better at Judgment than A Bible-expert who was a "walking encyclopedia," but who did not "have time" for others.

God does not care if we learn much about dogmas and teachings. People are always arguing over the Bible precisely because it is not clear in these matters. If God really cared about intellectual teachings, he would have written a ten-volume encyclopedia, explaining everything.

God uses the earth, not a church, as our "school." The church should energize us to remember the holiness of Love, and it should encourage the activities of Love.

Every act of Love is an act of worship.

And there is no "small" act of Love.

All involve God, Who is Love.

God could not care less about our intellect or our beliefs. He cares about only our Love, and Jesus always encourages Love-- mostly, through non-judgment (never saying that any Soul has no good), and endless forgiveness.

To please God, you do not have to belong to the "right" church. Jesus and the apostles did not belong to any of the modern churches-- neither Catholic nor Protestant. They did not exist in those days. So, we must do what Jesus did-- according to our limited ability. We cannot cure the sick, but we can perform acts of loving-kindness everywhere that we go. Sometimes, a simple smile can change a whole day; sometimes, you can help by doing errands; sometimes, you can listen on the phone; sometimes, you can write emails or snailmails. A kind word can help a person through a tough day.

Every action of Love is an act of service to God.

The only Way to "love God" is to love human beings and other creatures.

God wants us to love ourselves and to help (aid, assist, give to) each other. Our world needs a billion acts of Love every day. It is better to lay a single brick than to dream of a thousand palaces. An act of Love is worth a thousand sermons. So, do something "small," some small acts of kindness, every day. For kindness is Love; kindness is true religion. Forget about all the complicated ideas of religion. They can be interesting, but, when they become a burden, drop them and lay them down. But never stop loving!
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Freelance Spirituality (Independence)

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You have made the smart and reasonable move, in avoiding entanglement in the cult called the "School of Metaphysics." Your Soul is very glad that you "missed a bullet."

Yes, it does seem that gurus are always trying to take sexual advantage of students. This is both deplorable and despicable, but it is also very powerfully human. So, our best bet is genuinely to forgive them, pray for them, and move on with our lives.

As you know so well, the path of the spiritual free-lancer is followed here. There is no "belonging" to any group, organized religion, cult, or denomination. It is attempted to be a Christian, but not only a "Christian." And this is not the historical, or orthodox, Christian, but a gnostic Christian. The path is that of the "Jesus-Christian."

There are still goodness and integrity in our world, my friend. If you look around, you can find them. But be careful to expect people-- even the best-- to be spiritual only, and not perfect. For all human beings are imperfect, rather poorly constructed by a very complex karma. But the truly "good" ones are those who are doing their honest best; no one can do more, and we dare not demand more!
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Gifts of the Spirit

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The Pentecostal Movement (including the "Assemblies of God") are very "charismatic." This means that they emphasize, much more than other denominations, the element called "charisma." In the Biblical sense, this word implies not a stimulating personality, but the supernormal, supernatural "gifts of the Spirit."

These include healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, and other spiritual gifts.
In your note, you mention others:
1. saving, 2. sanctification, and 3. speaking in tongues.

Re the first, when it comes to salvation, no human being can ever "save" another. No church, cult, denomination, or teaching can ever "save" anyone. This is God's job, His responsibility, and His pleasure. All salvation -- bar none-- comes from grace only, and this is the Love that can come, and does come, from only God. No human being, no human church, can "give grace."

"Sanctification" means "making holy." This is a state that also comes from grace. A person is "sanctified" when she is forgiven from sins, and lives in a state of graceful purity. This does not occur because she works harder, or knows more, than others. It occurs in her heart because she has fully recognized herself as a sinner," and has cast herself upon the mercy of God. She surrenders entirely to His will. She is then forgiven by grace.

Speaking in tongues can occur because, in a past life, a person spoke another language. But, in a church-setting, it is seen as evidence of the blessing of the Holy Spirit. In some cases, it probably is; in others, it probably is not. This all depends upon the Presence of Love in all other areas of the person's life. This special gift is called "glossolalia," and can be either spiritual, a gift of grace, or paranormal (it has occurred in hypnosis and other non-religious contexts).
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Safire and St. Francis

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I know that your world has been rocked by all the changes. If I may assist in any way,it is perhaps by pointing out and highlighting the Changeless and Immutable within you. This Lovemind has infinite opportunities to love, and just because a person removes himself temporarily from the Love-process does not have any effect on this great, immense, vast Lovemind.

It sounds as if you are in the full swing of psychospiritual recovery! That is excellent!:) Keep up the fine work!

Love keeps you as liberated as you can possibly be.:) Real Love never binds, but shatters the shackles and breaks the chains!

My friend Safire the llama has left our planet today. He left in utter tranquility and deep peace. This was an especially auspicious day to exit; did you know that October 5 is the Day of Brother St. Francis? (It was on this day, in 1988, that we legally changed our surname to "Francis," in honor of the beautiful man. But we found out only later that it was the special Day of the critterlover.)
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The Evil Clown

*******

If Dr. Frank Burns, the notorious dysfunctional doc of M*A*S*H*, combined personalities with Alfred E. Newman, of Mad magazine fame, the result would be hilarious! It would be a clown of immense, hysterical proportions! But this kind of caricature, guiding the world's most powerful and destructive army, is not funny!

As a caricature of incompetence, george bush has transformed the world's most beautiful experiment in democracy into a hideous nightmare bristling with murder, torture, and ghastly weapons, including nuclear. America, the hope of the world, has become the horror of the world. This transformation occurred because the world's greatest, and only, superpower offensively and violently attacked a third-world country whose "soldiers" are often twelve-year-old boys!

And why? Bush tried to lie, and say that it was all about terrorism. But the entire world saw through this transparent tissue of lies. Everyone now knows that the war was always about oil-- getting an ocean of free oil because the U.S. "owned" the land under which it lay.

This naive and simplistic notion had bush and billionaire-buddies laughing and lapping up all the free oil that they wanted, and then, selling it for huge profits. But this occurred only in twisted imaginations. Their great, greedy dream never materialized.

Also, another real reason for this despicable war is that bush's father had a price on his head, threatened by Saddam due to the previous war. To accomplish their dark, evil task, bush and buddies were willing to sell out the environment. And they did, ignoring sound ecological laws that went back decades, and even reversing them, giving us all a blacker and bleaker world.

Today, it is not as easy to breathe in the U.S. as it was in twenty hundred. And Americans are suffering from bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma in record numbers-- a bonanza for bush's buddies in the pharmacology industry! For bush's pocketbook, ecological Armageddon is a win-win!

For this incompetent and sociopathic man suffers from the belief that he is Caesar or Napoleon, when in actuality, a village in Texas is missing its resident idiot! This one regime has done more damage than any of America's enemies. His war has been solely and singly responsible for the death of over three thousand American girls and boys, and for an estimated over one million Middle Eastern men, women, and children. Many young Americans have died, and will never again give anything to their country-- or to their horrified husbands, wives, or kids, still, and permanently, shell-shocked!

His "Shock and Awe" campaign, which rained down fire and terror from the skies, had the surrealistic feeling of a video-game being played by a madman. One has the compelling intuition that these dead and ruined Americans are just numbers in the "score-card" of bush's calculating, frigid mind. He refused even to attend the sad funerals of most.

Bush seems personally untouched by the death of thousands, or by the ruination of tens of thousands of irreversibly ruined American lives. (These were survivors who lost eyes, brains, arms, and legs.)

It is time that, as a people, we worked to restore America as a shining land of peace-- not the world's greatest terrorist organization or bloodiest "empire." It is time that we called murderous greed to task, recognizing that unleashed greed has terrible --often, irreversible-- consequences. It has already irrevocably ruined lives; and it threatens to ruin our planet.
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Energy- and Face-reading

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You can indeed learn the "feel" of negative energy; and, in time, you can cultivate this perception into an "early warning system" that is fairly accurate. (Perhaps no intuition is one hundred percent, but many are reliable. Some women, for example, famously saved themselves from mass-murderers because these guys just did not "feel right" to these fortunate ladies.) So, although we do not need to be dogmatic about the "rightness" of our intuitions, we can generally trust them, as they rise from a deeper level of mind.

The Chinese and native American wisdom agree that you can tell things about a person by reading her eyes, famously the "windows to the Soul." Native Americans say never to trust a person with "dead eyes."

And the Chinese have developed an entire system of "face-reading," called "physiognomy." One little tidbit that has proved true repeatedly in our experience: They say that you can never really trust a person with that little "butt" in the chin.:)
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Correct Use of Words

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I have always known, as a parapsychological phenomenologist, the singular to be "phenomenon," and the plural, "phenomena." I believe that, outside of some rather extraordinary poetic or prosaic usages, this is still the rule that applies in ordinary (everyday) English writing.

Re the quotes at the end of sentences, I am aware that, literally, a period, for example, might not be technically a part of a quote. But for me, it looks, and feels, so much better to include the punctuation within the quotes. The jws teach that the Kingdom returned 'invisibly' in 1914." is somehow so much more satisfying than, "The jws teach that the kingdom returned 'invisibly' in 1914". With the period on the outside, it as if the sentence is hanging there, waiting to be wrapped up; no
closure. The inclusion of punctuation is general standard usage in many, if not most, books and articles.

I guess that this proves that we can't all, or always, be literalists!:) But my main pet peeve, since we are discussing correctness, is the virtually ubiquitous mispronunciation of "processes."

The word is simply pronounced "pros-esses," with a short "O," exactly as it looks. But there is this pseudo-intellectuallism that is quite popular that renders it "pros-eseez," as if it were pluralized in the same way as "crisis," "diagnosis," etc. The word does not fall into this category. This displays, not erudition, but ignorance.

Also, bitch number 2: If "2007" is a number (quantity), it is "two thousand seven." You can have "two thousand seven cars on a lot, and no one might know the year-models." For, as a date, 2007 is correctly read "twenty-oh-seven." How our grandchildren are going to get a good laugh out of this one!

Meanwhile, these traversities make a logophile grimace, and then laugh. Human communication is so very flawed at its best!
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The Blind Sage

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In the account of Paul, while on a famous journey to Damascus, he had a mystical experience. As so many mystical experiences do, this one produced light- and energy-phenomena. In fact, the text said that a bright light glowed all around him. This energy apparently affected his physical eyes, and produced blindness.

This blindness was actually a great spiritual gift. For Paul was, in his life as Saul, a rather famous student of a famous teacher named Gamaliel. Pride was one of his greatest natural weaknesses. Nothing increases humility like helplessness, and so, God gave him the gift of helplessness, so that he might also cultivate the spiritual jewel of humility.

Later, this blindness apparently served its purpose, and, at the hands of another Christian, "scales" fell from Paul's eyes, and he could see again. But most scholars believe that he never saw "perfectly" again. His vision was forever after poor; in one epistle, he comments on what large writing he creates, so that he can read it. This poor vision was likely the "thorn in his side" about which he prayed so fervently to God for its removal. But God did not cure him; he simply told him, "In thy weaknesss shall My strength be made complete."
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Stories from Alternative News

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

thepeoplesvoice.org Newsletter
092107

A Fed Panic and a Massive Bailout of American Banks Paid For by the Entire World - Rodrigue Tremblay

"Manias, panics, and crashes are the consequence of an economic environment that cultivates cupidity, chicanery, and rapaciousness rather than a devout belief in the Golden Rule." - Peter L. Bernstein, Foreword to Manias, Panics, and Crashes (4th ed.) by C. P. Kindleberger

"In a crisis, discount and discount heavily." - Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), British economist

AMERICA, THE ONCE FREE - Peter Fisk

I have grown sick, embarrassed and, ultimately disillusioned with what
has happened to my country. The United States of America- at one time
those five magical words mesmerized both citizens and foreigners alike.

ORB Survey And 1.2 Million Iraq Deaths Ignored By Australian And Anglo-American Media - Dr Gideon Polya, Countercurrents

In February 2007, as we approached the Fourth Anniversary of the US-UK-Australian invasion of Iraq, I published an article in Countercurrents entitled "US Iraqi Holocaust and 1 million Excess Deaths". I detailed and documented the following horrendous circumstances in Occupied Iraq:

"as of February 2007:
(a) the accrual cost has been $2.3 trillion;
(b) there are 3.7 million Iraqi refugees;
(c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.0 million (ONE MILLION);
(d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total .6 million;
(e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War;
(f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War; and
(g) Coalition deaths total about 3,360."

It is now September 2007. And after a further SEVEN months of US-UK-Australian war and occupation, the horrendous human and economic cost has inevitably increased.

George W. Bush's Thug Nation - Robert Parry, Consortium News

It's said that over time, Presidents-- especially two-termers-- imbue the nation with their personalities and priorities, for good or ill. If that's true, it could help explain the small-minded, mean-spiritedness that seems to be pervading the behavior of the United States these days, both at home and abroad. On a global level, the world reads about trigger-happy Blackwater Security contractors mowing down civilians in Baghdad, the U.S. military killing unarmed people under loose rules of engagement in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and the CIA rendering suspected Islamists to secret prisons or to third-country dungeons where torture is practiced. Inside the United States, too, a police-state mentality is taking hold.

ACTION ALERT: Stop the Unconstitutional 'Protect America' Act - Michael Boldin

The single largest anti-Constitutional contribution to the Bush Regime by the Protect America Act (PAA) is its effective cancellation of legislative and judicial oversight on warrantless wiretapping. It authorizes open-ended surveillance of Americans' overseas phone calls and emails without a warrant. When this bill was signed into law on 08-05-07, legislative and judicial power in the executive branch instantly grew by several orders of magnitude. The Constitution's separation-of-powers principle had its arms ripped off.

09/20/07

Condoleezza Rice: saleswoman of lies - Palestinian Information Centre, From Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

Condoleezza Rice, the unglamorous American Secretary of State, arrived in Occupied Palestine on Wednesday to promote the putative American-proposed peace conference, slated to take place in November. Rice will meet with Zionist political and military leaders in an effort to convince them to show some flexibility vis--vis the so-called core issues that define the Palestinian question. These include, inter alia, ending the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 as well as finding a solution to the plight of nearly five million Palestinian refugees brutally uprooted from their homes by Zionist terror when Israel was created six decades ago.

Bush Speech on Iraq and Democrats on Impeachment - Stephen Crockett

Since George W. Bush is completely ignoring the views of both the vast majority of American citizens and the majority of the members of Congress concerning the ending of the Iraq War, impeachment hearings should be started. Bush will not conform to democratic norms. He will not respect public opinion or democracy. There are plenty of reasons to hold immediate joint impeachment hearings for both bush and cheney.

THE END OF AMERICA - THE POLICE STATE IS RIGHT HERE - RIGHT NOW - Carolyn Baker

As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air--however slight-- lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness. - Justice William O. Douglas

Wolf's just-published book, The End Of America: Letter Of Warning To A Young Patriot,... offers an even fuller picture-- a succinct and engaging explanation of how our civil liberties have been hijacked in the past decade. It is the most poignant, powerful, genuinely patriotic piece of literature I have encountered since Thomas Paine's Common Sense. No wonder then, that the book's cover greatly resembles that 46-page tract by Paine written in 1775-- as well it should.

Bush Nominates 9-11 Zionist Judge as Attorney General - Christopher Bollyn, Truth Seeker / Rumor Mill News

It is widely reported that george w. bush will nominate former Manhattan federal Judge Michael [Bernard] Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general. With the fraudulent "War on Terror" in full swing and with 9-11 cases in legal limbo, this is a critical appointment at a crucial time. As I had expected, bush has appointed a radical Zionist with close ties to the State of Israel. Mukasey, if confirmed as U.S. Attorney General, will protect the Zionist state and its agents who are suspected of involvement in the false-flag terror attacks of 9-11.

The Crushing of Fallujah - James Petras, Global Research

The mass propaganda media has taught the US public to believe that the extermination of thousands of Iraqi citizens is in their best interests: they can sleep sound, as long as 'our boys' kill them 'over there'. Almost the entire population of Iraq is opposed to the US military and its puppet regime--yet the media refer to the patriots defending their country from the imperial invaders as "insurgents," minimizing the significance of a nation-wide patriotic liberation movement.

I am reading William Shirer's Berlin Diary, a journalist's account of Nazi political propaganda during the 1930's, as I watch the US 'news' reports of the violent assault on Fallujah. The US mass media 'reports', the style, content, and especially the language, echo their Nazi predecessor of 70 years ago to an uncanny degree. Coincidence? Of course! In both instances, we have imperialist armies conquering
countries, leveling cities, and slaughtering civilians-- and the mass media, private in form, state appendages in practice, disseminate the most outrageous lies, in defense and praise of the conquering 'storm troopers. Call them SS or Marines. Both in Nazi Germany and the contemporary US, we are told by the mass media that the invading armies are "freeing the country" of "foreign fighters", "armed terrorists", who are preventing "the people" from going about their everyday lives. Yet we know that of the 1,000 prisoners there are only 4 foreigners (3 Iranians and 1 Arab); Iraqi hospitals report less than 10% of foreign fighters. In other words, over 90% of the fighters are Iraqis--most of whom were born, educated, and raised families in the cities in which they are fighting.

Bush, Iran, and Israel's hidden hand - Kathleen and Bill Christison, Redress Nuclear hypocrisy in the Middle East

Former CIA analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison argue that a US and/or Israeli attack on Iran to bring about regime change and strengthen US and Israeli dominion over the Middle East is likely to take place before the Bush administration leaves office unless a concerted effort is made to impeach bush and cheney. The internet is loaded these days with reports of the inevitability of a US, or a US-Israeli, attack on Iran. Some writers allege that the attack is imminent. Others, including the writers of this article, argue only that the attack will happen sometime before January 2009, when the bush administration leaves office. Many of these stories have by now been picked up by the mainstream media. In fact, it is probably safe to say that today, a majority of the traditionally cautious and so-called respectable foreign policy experts in the US think it is at least possible that bush will attack Iran before he leaves office.

Palestinian Propaganda Prize for Israel- Nicola Nasser

The inter-Palestinian war of words and the mutual violations of the freedom of press and expression by the Hamas - led government of Ismael Haniyyeh in the Gaza Strip and the Fatah-led government of Salam Fayyad in the West Bank have presented Israel with its biggest propaganda prize that is overshadowing the violations of human rights committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Nablus Fierce Battle Killed & Injured Israeli State Terrorist Unit - Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice

Gaza City September 18 2007: Invading Israeli State Terrorist units launched wide scale attacks into the Al-'Ayn refugee camp in Nablus in two stages on Tuesday morning. In the first incursion, more than fifty Israeli armed vehicles stormed the camp just before dawn, and imposed a curfew. Members of the Israeli State Terrorists units seized four Palestinians and blasted through the walls in the alleys between the buildings, trespassed through Palestinian territorial land - and stationed themselves inside Palestinian homes.

George W. Bush: The Quiet Dictator - Irregular Times

As of this week, the bush administration's descent into totalitarian depravity has reached a new low so despicable that even a few Republicans are beginning to criticize it. It was revealed this week that the bush administration is planning to keep people as prisoners for their entire lives, even though there is no evidence that those people have committed any crime against the United States. The lack of evidence against these people is so striking that the American government does not even have enough grounds to bring them before a form of military tribunal that has been set up by George W. Bush precisely for the purpose of evading the standards of justice set by the United States Constitution.