E-activism, Part II

In a previous issue of the uld, we suggested that e-activism, involving sending emails to corporations, congress-people, leaders, and signing petitions, is a valid form of Lovexpression-- particularly for those who cannot be mobile, for some reason.

Some of you felt as if this was not enough. And you were right.

True "e-activism" does not end with forwarding emails or signing petitions. These actions, although good and fine, expressing real concern for human beings and other creatures, are only a good start. But to be maximally meaningful, e-activism must include not only fine ideals, but actions that support those fine ideals.

Every group that supports humanity and animals requires money. So do groups that are striving to maintain a reasonable balance with nature(ecology). So, let us prioritize our limited funds, and support these fine causes, walking our talk.

In one evening, fyi, Love Ministries divided up its Love-donations as follows: A check was written to Mercy Corps, the Humane Society,American Friends,Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,Children International,St. Joseph's School for Native Americans, Amnesty International, the Llamafarm, and Students Against Drunk Driving.

Of course, as all of our friends know, Love Ministries operates on a minimal, "shoestring" budget. This is because Love Ministries almost never receives any Love-donations. There is one wonderful exception, for one of our beloved sisters has donated for years, and on a regular basis, to our Ministries. And we also do have a very few clients who make small but regular donations for counseling. But because we have decided to do all our spiritual work free of charge, free of fees, we do not receive any funds for almost all the work that we do. This includes work connected with the Pneumarium Lightcenter, writing, reading, studying, proofing, rewriting, packagingg, and mailing over twenty books to people open to spiritual development. This ezine (emagazine) together with its "sister" magazine, the ezine Lovelight, which is about twenty pages, and comes out once a month, are also distributed free of all costs.

When performing your e-activism, please do not think that your donations must be large! These charitable orgs are often grateful for donations of as little as $5.
And the checks that we send out are about $5-$20. For it is an undeniable fact that if every group received five or ten dollars from everyone to whom they sent an email, they would be flooded with more money than they could use! So, in a way, small donations can be only symbolic of the things that we really value. But, as the people of Love, we are also the people of compassion. We share a passion to improve the planet! We want life, in fact, improved for every selfaware being!

So, let's not simply talk about these fine ideals. Instead, get yourself on the mailing-lists of any of the excellent causes by responding to their requests, or by sending them $5. For this is an investment in principles in which we all can believe, and, in the end, it is an investment in eternity!
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Odd Speech-activities

There have been dozens of conditions and "syndromes" created to explain an entire plethora of odd and strange linguistic phenomena, ranging from glossolalia (speaking in tongues) to spontaneous words and phrases uttered by children in different languages. People who believe in polybiography (more than one sequential life) have a ready explanation in terms of "karmic" or "Soul-" memory. Regular neuroscience traces these activities to certain brain-areas, but, beyond this, they cannot explain the origins of these atypical behaviors.

One reason is that modern medicine is still very primitive and backward; another is that it insists on the paradigm of the 1600's-- pure materialism, without any "energic" considerations.
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Liberty service Interruption

Thanks to Sandi Grubb

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Dear World:

The United States of America, your quality supplier of ideals of liberty, democracy, and the rule of law, would like to apologize for its 2001-2008 service outage.

The technical fault that led to this eight-year service interruption has been located, and a decision was made on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, to completely replace the faulty apparatus responsible for the problems.

The updated version of the system was placed on line on January 20, 2009, and early tests of the newly-installed components indicated that they are functioning correctly. If you continue to experience any difficulties, please contact us at www.whitehouse.gov to advise us as to your concerns.

We apologize for any inconvenience, destruction, poverty, or deaths caused by the outage, and we look forward to resuming full service -- and also to improving it in the years to come.

Thank you for your patience and understanding,

The USA
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Can your grocer stop the seal hunt?

Urge your grocer to stop selling seafood from Canada -- and help stop the senseless slaughter of seals.

Trouble with links or images? Want to share this email? Use this link:

https://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=30
161342

Just before the holidays, The Fresh Market grocery store chain joined the campaign to stop the cruel Canadian seal hunt -- pledging to shift its seafood purchasing away from Canada until that country ends its seal hunt for good.

With more than 80 stores across 18 states, The Fresh Market joins grocers such as Whole Foods Market, BI-LO Supermarkets, Trader Joe's, Lowe's Food Stores, Harris Teeter, and WinCo Foods in pledging to stop buying seafood produced in Canada.

As we head into the New Year, it is crucial that we maintain this momentum and reach out to grocers -- please print and fill out this comment card for your local grocer -- and urge them to join the rapidly growing list of grocery stores and restaurants joining the ProtectSeals campaign.

What's the connection between your grocery store and the seal hunt? Sealers are actually commercial fishermen who earn only a small fraction of their livelihood from killing baby seals for their fur. The vast majority of the sealers' incomes -- 95% actually -- comes from commercial fishing. About two thirds of Canada's seafood is exported to the United States each year, achieving more than $2.5 billion for the Canadian economy annually. This dwarfs the few million dollars contributed to the Canadian economy by the commercial seal hunt.

By choosing to avoid Canadian seafood, you can give the fishermen who kill seals a clear economic incentive to stop the slaughter. So far, our boycott has resulted in millions of lost revenue for Canadian sealers. But we aren't there yet: As of today Canada still refuses to bow to international pressure, and is readying its sealing vessels for the 2009 slaughter.

That's why we urgently need your help to ask your local grocery store to not buy or sell Canadian seafood until the senseless slaughter of seals comes to an end.

More than 5,000 grocery stores and restaurants are participating in the ProtectSeals boycott of Canadian seafood. Each one has shifted some or all of its seafood purchasing away from Canada until the commercial seal hunt is ended for good. Across the country, dozens of grocery chains are in discussions with our ProtectSeals team about the tremendous good they can do by joining the campaign -- and they have indicated that they'd like to hear from their customers.

So today, ask your local grocery store to step up for seals: Download this customer comment card and give it to your store manager the next time you go grocery shopping.

To view a list of grocery stores in your area that have already joined the boycott, click here.

If you can spare a few minutes after your visit, please provide us with feedback on the store you visited and any conversations you had by sending us an email, to help our ProtectSeals team build upon your efforts.

Thanks to dedicated advocates like you, we are getting closer to the day when baby seals can live in peace without being hunted down and brutally clubbed or shot.

Thank you for all you do for animals.

Sincerely,

Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States


P.S. If you shop at The Fresh Market, please thank the manager for the company's seal-friendly decision the next time you're there, or contact them here.

Leaders and Compassion

Today is the first day of forever! And we, as a country, for a welcome change, are getting off to a good start with Barack. So, let's push compassion to the limit, and demand it in our leaders-- all of them!:)

Notes on Ohio History

Thanks to Barbara Baty.

The following is just part of a chapter from the book, Lost Ohio - More
Travels into Haunted Landscapes, Ghost Towns, and Forgotten Lives.

wamp fascinating! Enjoy!

Travels in the Great Black Swamp
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Nature took twenty-five thousand years to create the Great Black Swamp; and humans took fifty years to strip it. The glacier did the heaviest work, grinding the earth like a bowling ball on an anthill. At Cleveland, the ice was eight thousand feet thick. Retreating fourteen thousand years ago, it dammed a poorly drained area on the eastern end of the Lake Erie basin to form one of the nine ancient lakes, which
eventually dried and left sand ridges in the clay soil the way ridges form on a beach. Along the newer Lake Erie, the lake plains evolved into a larger pear-shaped region in northwest Ohio, black organic matter piled on glacial soil to nurture swampy forests for ten thousand years. It was the ultimate compost heap.

Swamp chestnuts produced millions of nuts that covered the water and ground an choked other young trees. In this dark, wet place, [in ancient times,] armies of spiny hellrats -- flashing their snouts and sharp claws, they resembled weasels -- probed the mulch for nuts. Another nut-eating dinosaur, the American harrack, ate the nuts and the hellrats.

Centuries later, before the arrival of the white man, the Great Black Swamp remained untouched and covered by water nine months a year. Vegetation grew wildly, becoming by the 1700's the largest deciduous forest in north America. Its soil was a black, oozing muck. An early observer describe the swamp as thoroughly impregnated with lime, forming a tough, waxy mud that stuck to wagon wheels.

According to some estimates, the swamp measured 120 miles long and 40 miles wide. The worst part was an area as large as Connecticut, between the Maumee and Auglaize rivers. It had a split personality; just when it appeared to be all wet, dark, and muddy, a prairie would pop up to tantalize visitors. Some scientists believe the swamp stretched from Lake Erie to New Haven, Indiana. Because nature doesn't provide
boundaries like fences, no one knows for certain where the swamp began or ended. Most people agree that it consisted of eight contiguous counties, including Lucas, Wood, Paulding, Hancock, Defiance, and Putnam.

Neighboring counties were swampy enough for many people to consider them Black Swamp territory. They included parts of Van Wert, Seneca, Ottowa, Fulton, Sandusky, Erie, and Henry counties. (I call these places the swamp suburbs.)

Pioneers did not draw much distinction between areas inside and outside the swamp. By more liberal estimates, its murky fingers extended as far south as Allen and Mercer counties, north to Williams and Lucas, east to Hardin, and west to Indiana. (An old surveyor's wall map, which hangs in the study of the Sherman House in Lancaster, shows the Great Black Swamp covering Ohio's entire northwest quarter, all the way to the Indiana border in the west and the Darke County line in the south.) "The perfect uniformity of the soil has given the forest a homogeneous character,"
historian Henry Howe wrote of the swamp in the late 1800's. "The trees are all generally the same height, so that when viewed at a distance through the haze, the forest appears like an immense blue wall stretched across the horizon."

By the time I traveled in the area, everything had changed. I drove for miles without seeing a single tree. Then I'd see clumps of them. I never did find a swamp, and only one marsh. When I visited my wife's family in Van Wert County, I was surprised to learn that their farm -- started by her German immigrant grandfather in the late 1800's-- once stood on the swamp's edge. Nowadays, few people know that a big swamp once existed there, or that their ancestors stripped primeval forests, set up logging and tile-making industries, and later established the former swamp as one of the nation's richest farming areas. They transformed the land, created an agrarian culture, and in the process eliminated the songbird, panthers, bears, and wolves.

Pioneers saw the forest as a challenge to their collective ax. They chopped, sawed, smashed, bumped, banged, and pulled down as many trees as possible. Or they held "burning bees," competitions to burn down the forests. The earliest settlers found 95 percent of Ohio filled with trees -- twenty five million acres of virgin forest. (Today, naturalists identify only about seven hundred Ohio forested acres as virgin.)

Because of the wet conditions, Ohio's nine northwestern counties developed last, from 1850 to 1900. By 1930, they were the most heavily farmed counties in the state. Probably the larges forest left in northwest Ohio is in Paulding County -- three hundred acres of old-growth ask, walnut, basswood, red maple, oak, and hickory.

Seemingly obsessed, the whole state considered tree-cutting its patriotic duty. And in the swamp, where trees were overly abundant, the cutting took on the fervor of a religious ritual.

Soldiers called the swamp their personal hell. Its bad reputation spread throughout the West. Simon Girty, the hated white renegade who led the Indian attack on Fort Henry in 1777, hid in the Black Swamp, thus adding to his -- and its -- sinister image. (Today he would be called a terrorist.)

There in the mud, Mother Nature joined forces with the enemy. When General Anthony Wayne signed the treaty of Greenville wit the Indians in 1795, he generously gave them some of the Black Swamp.

Wayne had found and burned Ottawa cornfields on lowlands of the Maumee and Auglaize. Later, he wrote that he had never "beheld such immense fields of corn, in any part of America, from Canada to Florida."

While standing in the swamp's woods, people couldn't see the sun. This unnerved them. Dark shadows covered everything. The Indians refused to live there; they entered only the river bottoms to hunt and trap. In the early 1800's, the pioneers settled on its edges. Only the fearless chopped down trees and built cabins in the swamp. It was so dense that a hunter got lost only a short distance from Fort Meigs; for three days, he wandered among the trees and wolves, until he accidentally walked into the fort's walls, at which point he did not recognize his wife or children or even know his name. A blacksmith named Jacob Nofziger wasn't so lucky: He tried to go from the Tiffin River to the Maumee and was never seen again. Neither were his oxen, wagon, and belongings. Another settler, Christian Lauber, tried to cross a creek, but his exhausted oxen stopped in the middle and refused to move. Returning the next morning, he and a neighbor found the team frozen in the water. They broke the ice, freed the animals, and slid provisions across the icy creek. When traveler William Woodbridge arrived at Fort Meigs on January 18, 1815, he wrote: "My great terrour, the Black Swamp, is passed. No part of this road seems so very bad as has been presented, but the evil in it is in its perfect sameness; an a moderately wet season it will be generally covered by two or three inches of water and mud nearly a foot, with few exceptions of dry spots."

Such conditions -- and fear of the unknown -- convinced many travelers to bypass the swamp on their way west, although the new route required them to travel hundreds of additional miles by wagon. Most travelers never regretted the inconvenience. Experienced frontiersman William Henry Harrison, who fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, said a couple of trips across the Black Swamp could kill a brigade of packhorses. American army scouts feared the swamp, but troops at Fort Meigs were awed
by its dark wonders. They saw fish so plentiful that their jumping frightened horses on Maumee fords. In keeping with the swamp's larger-than-life reputation, a soldier in Wayne's cavalry company at Fort efiance once claimed he caught a [fish] so large that his entire unit feasted on it.

In late winter, mud and water often stood three feet deep, making passage impossible. The swamp had little natural drainage. Two thirds of it was under water. As late as 1870, brave people ice-skated the thirty-five miles from Paulding to Van Wert. In summer, water stood in big pools, breeding black clouds of gnats. The wet, low environment encouraged hundreds of flora species, including basswood, elm, ironwood, oak, cottonwood, ash, maple, sycamore, poplar, hickory, beech, and black walnut. An early surveyor wrote in his journal, "Water! Water! Water! Tall timber! Deep water! Not a blade of grass growing or a bird to be seen." Added Williams County pioneer George W. Perky: "We read that God divided the land from the water, but here is a place He forgot."

During the War of 1812, American and British generals knew the swamp cut off the western United States from Michigan.

If the Canadians fortified western Lake Erie, they could use the swamp as a buffer and the British navy could control the lake. American scout Robert Lucas, who would become an Ohio governor, realized the swamp's strategic value, so he traveled from the Maumee to the advancing American army to make reports. His journal contained the first reference to the Black Swamp: "Traveled about twenty-five miles, a very rainy day and then encamped in what is called the Black Swamp, had a disagreeable night of wet and mosquitoes."

Disagreeable? Travelers saw dark mists heading toward them -- mosquitoes! They grabbed their napes, and saw blood all over their hands. Animals were bitten so many times, they almost went mad. Malaria-- then called "swamp fever"-- was common; some people contracted it so often that they became immune. But newcomers died from it.

It turned the skin yellow, caused violent chills and high fever, and left the lucky ones exhausted. Only quinine helped relieve the symptoms. When immigrants dug the canal in the early 1840s, they lived in shanties and practically lived on whiskey and quinine.

They breathed air polluted with malarial effluvia from the swamps, and as a result they caught the fever and ague. On the Maumee River, "the fever spared no one," the Black Swamp pioneer Louis Simonis wrote in 1835. The area was a "forsaken, desolate, ague-smitten, tangled, and inhospitable wilderness where diseases spread with rapidity and with relentless morality." Strangely, the Indians did not seem to come down with malaria and other fevers as often as whites, perhaps because they had developed immunity.

Ague-- a malarial fever with chills -- was so widespread in the swamp that families kept salt, pepper, and quinine on their kitchen tables. Cholera and typhoid struck, too. Pioneers disagreed about the fever's transmission; some said it came from eating swamp fish; other said it came from air poisoned by decaying vegetation. Apparently they did not consider the blood-lusting mosquitoes that attacked in squadrons.

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Transitioning from Fear to Hope

Thanks to Chris Finer.

Transitioning from Fear to Hope
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It occurs to me that there was an ironic parallel of events the other day-- events so symbolically intertwined, yet so completely opposite, that they warrant reflection.

On the same day, george w. bush gave his farewell address, a summation of his take on his "legacy," in which he attempted justification of his actions. [He said that it was] due to [his vigilance that] no subsequent successful attacks on the U.S. after 9/11 [had occurred.]

[Very recently,] a U.S. Airways jet suffered catastrophic damage at the very epicenter of the 9/11 tragedy. I am choosing to view these events as a sign-- a sign of a national and, [we hope,] global transition towards hope, connection, unconditional Love, and support.

Since September 11, 2001, the bush administration circuitously championed fear and hate in an effort to gather and accumulate power, and justify policies and agendas ultimately unrelated to "protecting" the U.S. from terror-- all in the name of "protection of the U.S. homeland." In [following bush,], a majority of our electorate have blindly acquiesced constitutional rights, allowed a misguided and unjust war to be waged, afforded more power and authority to the presidency, and generally accepted the contrived and frequently nonsensical ramblings of a man who is challenged to form a complete and coherent sentence. Why?

Because we, as a nation, allowed fear to guide our analysis. As a result of a tragedy in New York City involving jet airplanes [on 9-11-01], our country has been manipulated by fear for over seven years.

On the same day as bush's [selfcongratulating] address, a miracle occurred involving a [different] jet airplane in New York City. Rather than a tragedy that potentially cost hundreds of innocent lives, a combination of events, circumstances and selfless actions resulted in all lives being saved; and we, as a nation, being inspired to once again ascend to hope, and [to] believe in the power of pulling together in crisis. Why [was this] a "miracle"? The synchronicity at play was overwhelming. The pilot's courage, experience, training and capabilities suited this exact situation. That and a healthy measure of old fashioned luck allowed an almost impossible water landing. The area of the Hudson River in which the plane splashlanded just happened to have the unique quality of being free of maritime obstacles, but many craft in close proximity to aid in the rescue. Anywhere else in that stretch of the river, rescue would have taken far longer and lives would have been lost.
The weather was calm, and there were no real waves on the river. The rear door of the plane refused to open, forcing the evacuation through the front, and avoiding the tragic consequences of the plane sinking quickly. In spite of overwhelming odds and almost certain loss of life, all fell into place.

As I learned of the events of U.S. Airways flight 1549, I was struck by both the congruity and extreme differences with the tragedy of 9/11. While there were many examples of courage and bravery in the 9/11 tragedy, the end result of the treatment of events [were distorted to create only] fear. The hate inspired events of 9/11/01, which ultimately cost us far more than the nearly 3,000 lives lost that day, eventually resulted in fear, hate, and defensiveness. For me, this new and awesome event represents refreshing and inspirational courage, faith, compassion, selflessness, and connection. There are no reports of panic, of cowardice or fear. All were relatively calm and helpful to their compatriots, offering to assist and accommodate as necessary. In the end, by pulling together and utilizing the resources available, all is well.

As I contemplate the potentially catastrophic circumstances our nation and the world face at this time, I choose to view the events of flight 1549 as an auspicious harbinger, as Barack Obama prepares to guide our nation. I choose to use these events as a symbol to embrace the transition, the ascension if you will, from the fear of the last seven years to a new era of hope, of faith, of connectedness and compassionate action. I share these thoughts in the hope that you will join me in this view.

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Retrospeculation on Governor Spitzer

Thanks to Mick Gallagher

Retrospeculation on Governor Spitzer

Phony accusations, the entire tapes will show they took some of his comments out of context 'to fit' their trumped up phoney charges, like Marc Dann, Elliot Spitzer, Clinton...the sex scandals usually work well; maybe they couldn't get him to take the bait, with that angle. Either way, they wanted him out of the way...could it be..he was standing up to Bank of America? In the 'Republic Windows and Door's'- corporate malfeasance nonsense? Remember--they threw 200 people out onto the street, without severance after years of loyal service. Tried to blame it on BOA....while they built a 'non-union' shop in Iowa. Guess we can be glad it wasn't Tijuana. *Spitzer was about to take down some heavy hitters on Wall St., same as M. Dann in here in Ohio...the likes of Bob Noe, etc. Funny how we rush to judgement--just because they saturated our minds with 'their' corp media..mind control.

Two older, but important, stories

Thanks to Mick Gallagher

Two older, but important, stories
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2 stories that are of upmost importance:

The Bruce Ivins Story: The loyal Government scientist they are attempting to scapegoat, even in death..for the 9/11 related anthrax letters. They couldn't take down Dr. Hatfield (he was emotionally stronger than Ivins); NY Times just had a seven-page 'whitewash' piece yesterday...trying to discredit him, denegrate him after the FBI hounded him for almost 2 yrs....invading his house, ransacking it in the middle of the night--essentially terrorizing his family. When you hear neighbors, co-workers at FT. Dettrick speak of him, it is not the profile of a psycho mass murderer.


The Michael Connell Story: May he rest in peace also. Killed Dec. 19th as he flew his single engine piper cub into Akron-Canton airport, an airport he was very familiar with. He lived in Bath Twp., near Solon.

This was on approach, by the way...2 miles out, 9 mile visibility. Now--"who the hell is Mike Connell, you ask"? Just the GOP's IT Guru, who worked for Karl Rove..his companies helped RNC, Bush-Cheney win in 2000, and 2004, allegedly.....he had just been deposed in Fed Court in Col., Nov 3rd...right before the Obama Victory. There were reasons for the timing of his subpoena....I think you know why.

He was also at the center of the 02 mid-term selections....remember Paul Wellstone dies along with his family 11 days before he was expected to win Minnesota.

Mel Carnanhan killed in his campaign plane in Mississippi.....right before he was expected to win there, also. His widow took his senate seat. It was John Ashcrofts.

Connell was threatened by Rove and associates, last June...if he didn't take the fall, for any indictments..Rove's minions would expose Connells wife to Federal charges for illegal lobbying activities, etc. Most of Connell's deposition was sealed for various reasons.....but we do know he explained how he and a 'Mr. Spoonamore' diverted election results in 04...from Ken Blackwell's office to his office (via internet)--to his other office..to flip votes from Kerry to Bush.

Then in the middle of the Night, Blackwell certified them. Let us please keep these 2 vital stories alive. EVIL HAPPENS WHEN GOOD PEOPLE DECIDE TO SAY, DO NOTHING.

THANK YOU

Effective Sex-education

Some minority extremist rightwingers insist that "abstinence only" be taught in schools. Statistics show, however, that this might not be the most effective, efficient system.

Kids are told several dangerous lies during this so-called "education": They are told that condoms do not prevent pregnancy-- and they do; and they are taught that they do not prevent venereal disease-- which they also do.

Kids who are taught "abstinence only" programs can be in danger for their lives if they believe everything that rightwing bigots insist on.

The Armed Services and Bigotry

During the past few years, the armed services of the U.S. have discharged ten thousand men and women accused of homosexuality. This has cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars-- all the while, while the U.S. is involved in a very expensive war that is estimated to have cost three trillion dollars!
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Exciting Solstice Party!

On Sunday, December 21, 2008, from noon till about 4 pm, we all excitedly enjoyed the annual Pneumarium Solstice Party.:) There was much laughter and warmth shared among dear friends in our "extended spiritual family"; the whole place glowed with Love and laughter. And gifts were also kindly, generously, and so-pleasantly exchanged. [Each brought a gift costing about $10; and each left with one (hopefully, not the same one!:)]
We all grew very toasty and warm despite the winter weather. Many candles lent warmth to the room and to the beautiful, fun-filled atmosphere. Cherigene and Jan gave Richard and Adamaria beautiful sweaters made of alpaca, with llamas on them! (Talk about the perfect gift!:) Charles Sides very generously gave us a quartz/infrared heater, which kept us ensconced in warmth later. We shared many great feelings; everyone was in a fantastic mood, and conversations richly, warmly
blossomed and flourished, with a background of Christmas music. Pat, Adamaria, Charles and Jennifer Sides, Albert, Tracey, Dennis, Cherigene, Jan, Jim, Maureen, Jim, Jr., shi, and all the others from the happy Pneumariumfamily send their snow-glowing greetings, with smiles, to the elove family and elovecommunity.:)

Joyful, Happy Love and Light,

the editors of the uld

Wealth and Goodness

The very same inquiry that concerns you also captured the interest of the ancients, including the writers of the Psalms.

They asked, "Why do the wicked prosper and the good so often suffer in poverty?" And why do "the good" often "die young"? Unfortunately, they had no answer, and their god Jehovah also had none.

With spiritual discernment, however, we can see the outworking of karma in every life: Many lives alternate between terrible poverty and great riches. So, if you are "too rich" in one life due to greed, grasping, and craving, you will be born in utter poverty the next time around. And many, especially those who embrace "voluntary holy poverty," are born into a society such as we have in the U.S., where almost everyone possesses the necessities of life.

But a person's material possessions are the least desirable among life's blessings. The very poor, or those who have never had enough, assume that a life of riches solves all major problems, and even brings bliss.

But sudden lottery-winners deny this, as do the wealthy of all history and all cultures: Money cannot buy happiness. The possession of money might not always be any kind of "blessing" from the cosmos, as we so often assume; it might also be a major karmic test or exam.

God is Love, not money. So, the cosmic Mind does not use money as a "reward" for goodness. No, It is much more sophisticated than that shallow illusion. It rewards people with much more profound and lasting "treasures," such as kindness, Love, compassion, goodness, high selfesteem, intelligence, artistic sense of beauty, the gifts of words, and similar interior blessings.

Often, but not always, the spiritual person is, in fact, contrasted, by mysticsages, with the wealthy. For the rich have already found their "god," and have named it "money."

Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a sewing-needle than for a rich person to inherit the Kingdom." He referred to the interior "Kingdom" of Light and Love. Riches are not in themselves bad, but they become bad when they take timenergy away from concern (Love) for other people. To the rich, a dollar is often more important than a life. It is this horrible distortion that the masters of every culture warned against.

But it is undeniably true that the crooked and evil benefit from the world's economic systems. Indeed, their greed is part of their overall evil. Good people, by contrast, often use time to serve others.

The rich like to say, "Time is money." But they are wrong; time is much more valuable than money. It is the "gold" and "platinum" of the universe.

You can say anything that you want about yourself, but it is how you actually spend your time that proves or disproves the quality of your character.

Brother Francis, the famous mysticsaint, went so far as to glorify and recommend "Lady Poverty," for he knew that the rich (including his own bio-father) had not enough time to serve others. So, their loss was great, and terrible.
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Election-related Deaths

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.
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Milton recommends, at OpEdNews:

Check out all these unexpected deaths of people involved with elections

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This story should be huge in the media. It goes straight to the top; but the ruling minority elite have the corp media in a stranglehold. This guy just testified to Fed's in Akron, on Nov. 2nd & 3rd re malfeasance in the stolen elections of twenty hundred, twenty-oh-two, and twenty-oh-four, and also the swiftboating of Kerry in twenty-oh-four. Not to mention the erasure of White House emails over the last several yrs. He was paid $800K by Bush operatives(Rove, Libby) had worked with Jack Abramoff. Was threatened by Rove last June, that if he didn't take the fall for all this, something might happen to him & his family.

Twice over the last 2 months he canceled flights on his plane because it had been tampered with. His friend at the hangar warned him 2-3 times not 2 fly it, and he worried about it, then canceled his flight times.

That was right before he was subpoenaed, before Nov. 4th, and about 1 month before he was to be depositioned by Fed authorities @ the Akron Federal Courthouse. Very deep, and far reaching: [It involves] Rove, Blackwell, Bush-Cheney, Abramoff; he has been a close confidant of the Bush family since the 1980's.

Articles for uld and "Lovelight" Magazine

All that you send is always deeply appreciated. Like everything else in this life, it is enfolded into our learning/education program. But I need to tell you that this audiocyberdevice (talking computer) is rather clumsy in operation, even "user hostile"! So, I cannot check attachments or forwards. I have, unfortunately, access only to the body of an email-- which can be, and is, read without difficulty.

That is why it is so much better to send anything of particular interest to the elovefamily directly in the body of an email, and not as an "attachment," or "forward." For these are inaccessible to me, and must be checked only later, with Adamaria's most kind assistance.

So, if you have anything that you want published in the uld ("Universal Love Digest") or in Lovelight magazine, please send it directly within, or inside, your email itself, and not as an attachment.:)
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Notes on Indian History: the Ruler Ashoka

It is awesome that the Indus Valley civilization can be traced all the way back to c. 2900 BC, while ancient Hebrew tradition, by contrast, goes back to only about 2000 BC. I learned a little about the cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Patina. I also learned about the ruler Chandra-Gupta.

I was very positively impressed by the historical records of Ashoka, a later ruler, a man from whom our current American government could learn several invaluable lessons in compassion. He was a very brilliant supporter and defender of nonviolence; he had learned very much from the terrible and bloody war of Kalinga. He established an entire beautiful political order founded on nonviolence and compassion. He wrote a famous document which became the fore-runner to the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. All human beings, he wisely said, were one family.

He established the first Animal Rights legislation in history, cared for the poor and elderly, and the sick and ill. (India still has one of the oldest animal hospitals in the world.) For the sake of animal-compassion, he officially promoted vegetarianism. He realized that people reveal their true selves with animals, who cannot report them, and cannot seek vengeance. His reign united the known world in
peace, like Solomon the great mystic had done in his own time (c. 1000 BC). He also worked to create peace among many religions. His goal, he said, was to pursue and manifest dharma, the law of all life. (The "Wheel of Ashoka" is the symbol on the modern Indian flag.) He managed to allow to survive the rhino and the porpoise, among many other species.

Tragically, later, in the Middle Ages in India, Buddhism was allowed to die, in the land of its birth.
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A Moderate and Centrist Position

In the modern political struggle, it is easy to fall prey to the idea that we must be either "left" or "right" in our political choices. But Love commands that we listen to all, consider all, before making the choices that support compassion, service, and even spending, for others.

There are many paths open to us who live in a free society. And we should all thank Love for this freedom-- hard-won, over centuries, by countless thousands who gave their lives so that we might celebrate freedom. Those who died for us also walked the Way of Love, even though they might not have spoken about It, and might not have even called It the "Way of Love."

To choose a political position can be a task rife with hidden perils. For if we go too far to the left, we can end up identified with neoretrohippy environmentalists, and even Communists; and if we go too far to the right, we can end up identified with the destructive neo-nazis or "Identity Christianity," which would be equally tragic.

Let us then, together, embrace a position near the middle of the spectrum, mirroring the "middle Way" recommended by the Buddha. We are then free to lean as far to the left, or as far to the right, as we want to, with individual issues. We can declare that the only things that are important to us are honesty, compassion, transparency, accountability, oversight, and other matters of common sense. This keeps us from being caught in the swift rapids of currents that pull too far to the right or the left. The path of Centrist Compassion calls to us all. May we all have the brains and the hearts to respond.

Exchange of Political Views

Thanks to Pat Fields and to Adamaria Francis:

Dear loving Friends of the Heart,

In a recent issue, Boone Posey wrote about some minority political feelings. We feel that we owe it to our readers to give both sides of a controversial issue; but we also owe them a response to every serious inquiry, or any serious challenge.

Thus, we have written the following letter to you, our peace-loving
friends:

[NOTE:] We will place the original letter in quotation marks, and our responses will be outside the marks:

"Dear Barbara,

Over the past few months, I have read your contribution to this newsletter, and I have a few comments. I wish that this type of political comment were a part of this newsletter, as it was intended, I believe, to be a forum for positive and more spiritual banter and good information."

Yes, we do work hard and consistently to keep the uld ["Universal Love Digest"] spiritually relevant. Spirituality implies positivity, but our real world is not some "Pollyannish" dream without negativity. Exposing negativity is a part of the positive path.

The areas that appear political, on first glance, are really not about mere politics at all, but about spiritual principles. We know that the shame and greed of foolish leaders is against not only our country, but crimes against ecology and humanity. They are truly spiritual concerns.

They need to be exposed. And spiritually educated people need to be introduced to these lies, crimes, and acts of horrible violence. Exposing lies and liars has always been a part of truth-teaching. [Jesus set a good example in Matthew 23.]

"I believe it has been used as a political 'soap box' for too many things."

We have tried hard to "cut down" the number of articles that we share with you, our beloved efamily, with the public, and with other friends. We have had much to say about the interfaces between politics and compassion-- especially when the never-elected administration has broken all the rules of decency, resulting in the deaths of four thousand American girls and boys, and perhaps, a million others, including women and children.

You say that "too many things" have been considered in the ezine. But, actually, in the tens of millions of books written about politics and morality, we have considered only one subject: The failure of the present administration, which claims to be "Christian," to live up to simple and clear guidelines of compassion, and to serve greed. That is not many, but only one subject!

For us to keep silent about these issues would make us appear as apathetic, or even supportive of evil-- which we will never be!

"And most of these political statements is to trash our President."

He might well be your president, but he is not mine. I have had no president since the year twenty-hundred.

And those sound and solid, fact-based criticisms were elicited by his behavior. Very few have turned against bush because they simply don't like the man. Instead, he has become the primary representative of greed, of corporation-rule (a definition of "fascism"), division, murder, and general hatred. His policies have made America the most feared country in the world, according to 71% of Europeans. The Europeans and other foreign people have come to hate America, once the "light upon a hill" to the world. For the U.S., under bush, has actually invaded a third-world country, and a very poor one, to steal its oil for a few rich bush-cronies. Do gallons of oil really cost gallons of blood?

"I admit that he made some mistakes and is not one of the best leaders we
have had,..."

It is good as a reality-test that you can at least create some agreement in your heart about this. Jimmy Carter expressed the shared thought of tens of millions of Americans when he said that bush was "the worst president in history."

From the beginning, he was a man unfit for leadership. He has proved beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt that he is incompetent, inept, and woefully ignorant.

"but I think he deserves some respect in the fact that he still is our President and the office alone deserves some consideration and respect."

Until this monstrous administration began to ruin the environment, give corporate welfare to giant corporations, and to murder American children for oil, I would have agreed one hundred percent with you.

This is a common, and tired, old argument: "If you don't respect the man, at least respect the office." But this is a very fine, and often impossible, distinction. For, during any administration, the officer is the office, for all practical terms. As I was growing up, I went to a public school; in that school, we were drilled thoroughly to be patriotic, to love and respect our country. We were taught to honor the office of president above all. And I did greatly honor it, until it was
revealed that a rich daddy could buy the office for mere bucks, and then, lie it in the lap of an uneducated, ignorant, and foolish son. Any office that can be "bought" does not deserve our respect-- much less, the profound respect that virtually everyone used to share for this high office. And when the office becomes the source of policies and laws that are anti-ecological, anti-economic, and anti-middle class, it is no longer possible to respect that office.

"I don't agree with war as a solution to any problem..."

Well, then, once again, we are in agreement. But can you not see that by supporting a "war-president," you are in fact supporting all the blood, agony, and torture, rape, and starvation that inevitably comes with any war?

"...but he did what he did because of the advisors around him,..."

What a false and manufactured argument! Bush has grandiosely reminded us, more than once, that he is "the decider." You are, for some reason, trying to clear the record of this man, who is more criminal and thief than president. He himself brags continuously about how he personally made all the important decisions. He sees some of his most horrible mistakes as a "legacy," about which he is very concerned. And he should be! Although he is parading around the country, blowing his own trumpet, boasting of what a "great president" he was, no one is really taking this blow-hard seriously. He has worked hard to cultivate the worst record in history; every time that he could have made a major error, by making the wrong decision, he did make that wrong decision.

"and so we are into two wars."

Yes, this is part of the bush legacy. He has made it clear that he would be doing just fine if we entered a third war, in Iran. The man is psychopathic. (He does not have a conscience.) When five hundred thousand women, children, and innocent men die agonizing deaths, they are just numbers on a report to george. His anti-ecology proves that he has no respect for life, and his eagerness for war proves that he does not know the value of human life either!

"The original war, with Afghanistan, was to retaliate for the attack on 9-11,..."

Maybe. But the bin Laden family had close economic arrangements interwoven with bush's own bank account. One of bush's companies even made fire-arms, making war profitable for both him and Cheney (big-buck connections with Halliburton). War was a delightful win-win! Except for all those inconvenient dead bodies. But they really didn't matter; they were "only" bad guys, "only" Muslims.

So, bush, for money, refused to attack the Middle Eastern country responsible for 9-11, which was Saudi Arabia. No, too many bucks from bush and company's personal bank accounts. But to appear "tough," he attacked a pitifully puny country with a rag-tag "army" whose "soldiers" were sometimes twelve-year-olds!

"and the Iraq war, was to keep the spread of support for Al-Quaida (sp?)..."

When george was told, by a reporter, that Al Queda (Al Chaida) was not even in the entire country of Iraq until the U.S. Invasion, do you know what he nefariously said? He said, "So what?"

"For all the wrong decisions he made, he still has keep the terrorists on the run, and they have not been able to launch another attack on our soil, since 9-11."

This is a tired and wearisome argument, but it says absolutely nothing about bush's competence or incompetence. It is a medal to be pinned, not on george's chest, but on all the hundreds of thousands of women and men in law-enforcement and national protection-- people who carefully did their jobs, often while george slept, or went on another of his interminable vacations to Crawford, TX.

"Now, the future Obama administration has already said that they will slacken up on the security of this country, by not tapping anyone's phones, or keeping a close eye on suspected terrorists groups in this country."

You seem to be missing the entire point that people are willing to sacrifice their rights in order to feel safe. But, in sacrificing their human rights, they also sacrifice mine. Ben Franklin said that if one were willing to give up her freedom in order to be "safe," then she deserved neither safety nor freedom. Bush has voluntarily and deliberately trashed even the most sacred political document in our
history, the Constitution, only because it was convenient. His profile is one of a dictator, not an elected president. He got away with an administration polluted and corrupted with scandal, bribery, dishonesty of many kinds, and a general attitude that the common person did not even matter. All who mattered were his "crony-buddies," the oil-billionaires, plus the billion--dollar corporations. In all of his legislative history, bush never once stood up for the common man, but did so
repeatedly for the corporations. Far from being "a man of the people," he was the perfect "corporation man."

"He [Obama] will be putting us in more danger by doing this and he doesn't think it is a bad decision."

First of all, you have no proof that Obama is adopting, or considering, any legislation, or any action, that will make the common person less secure. If Obama can raise our level of respect as Americans, if he can open diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern countries, then Americans will be safer than ever-- on their own soil, and around the world! For bush has made it clear that he hates all Middle Eastern peoples, and all Muslims, and so they naturally despise him. A president whose middle name is "Hussein" might do wonders for American International politics. The texture of the geopolitical map is going to change; and it is so pitiably ugly, destructive, anti-human, and irrational that it almost has to get better!

"He has also chosen a man to head up the CIA that has no experience in this type of responsibility, and would probably mess it up worse than it was when the Clintons were in the White House."

Not everybody agrees that the FBI was in worse shape when Clinton was in the White House; many say that it became worse, and weaker, under the lawless attitudes of bush and co. At any rate, when it comes to appointments, let's please keep in mind two principles: 1) Almost never is it possible to "hook up the perfect person wit the perfect job." Everyone is imperfect; everyone lacks education and/or experience in some areas. And 2) You can never please all the people all the time. Even the very best of presidents will, from time to time, have less than ideal people working for her. This is where the art of forgiveness interfaces with politics. In time, we all must learn to forgive even george.

"I hope and pray that the new President will succeed in leading this country on a peaceful path, and show great leadership in solving our economic crisis."

We are in fullest agreement here, my friend. Obama has been left a huge pile of unsolved problems; the stacks of paper are ten feet tall!

"I want him to have every success and hope he governs like he said he would in his campaign, by reaching across the aisle to show cooperation with both parties in Congress."

His history in working with Congress is very promising.

"But, I think he has already made some bad decisions in his choices for his cabinet, and this has shown that he may be in for some long and hard confirmations from the Congress."

Congress is notoriously difficult to please, as it should be, in a polycultural society. But Obama has a fine way with words, and has even written a couple of books. If you have not read them, they do come highly recommended!

"I could be wrong about this, but I think there will be some controversy about the new cabinet and how well they can perform their duties."

No doubt; every new cabinet in history has stirred controversy-- often, not surprisingly, from the losing party. There has never existed a "perfect president," "perfect Congress," or "perfect cabinet." But Obama is, so far, surrounding himself with people largely of wisdom, well-educated, and with shining reputations for integrity. There are no perfect people on this planet, so let us be careful not to demand perfection! But when an honest cabinet replaces the likes of Cheney and Rice, that very honesty can lift our country together into a new feeling
of hope and optimism.

"As you can probably tell from all I have said, I lean toward the republican side of the political spectrum."

Yes, your lean to the right is a part of your pattern of selfexpression. But beware the tendency of rightwingers to see only themselves as right, and to paint all disagreement as "unpatriotic or even "evil."

"I did vote for McCain/Palin, as I thought they had a better chance of achieving the change in Washington that we needed."

Unfortunately, and a bit amusingly, John McCAin stole the theme of "change" from Obama. Johnny, you will remember, first ran on a ticket of "experience," until the inexperienced and comical Palin got on board!

"I hope that Obama will do a good job, as I have said before, and I will support him in his efforts where I can."

I think that this is a healthy and rational decision.

"I also hope that any decisions made about our national security will be made with the utmost of care and that we don't end up fighting the terrorists on our soil and possibly having a major conflict right here in our own back yard."

I am certain that Obama shares this concern, as do the hundreds of thousands trained in emergency-management, law-enforcement, military strategy-- in other words, the large ocean of people who will still be carefully guarding Americans against fanatics and crooks.

"A lot more Americans will be in danger and we will suffer more losses than we ever did on 9-11."

Yes, that would be true; but, at the moment, this is nothing but science-fiction. So, let's keep our heads, and not panic! Terrorists have their reasons for attacking America; but so far, the reasons not to attack have been stronger and more valid. (This has almost nothing to do with who is president, btw.)

"I hope you and your supporters have given this some thought."

Of course we have. We are not idiots! My friends, if anything, are more intelligent, educated, and observant of the world-situation than are average people.

"Fighting on our own soil will change the whole picture of this 'war on terror'"

Yes, but let's always remember that it has not happened. It is the negative illusion, the favorite scare-tactic, of some rightwingers-- nothing more.

"I just hope that the liberals won't do away with gun ownership before this happens."

This is another matrix-threat of the right. They have an almost "armageddonish" approach to the future, bathed in blood and horror. In this scenario, everyone grabs as many dried bananas as she can, and shoots with her handy little machine-gun anyone who threatens her bananas. And there are always "hordes" of mobs trying to get her bananas! It's all just bad science-fiction.

"I have carried on long enough, but wanted to reply to your comments, both the recent ones and the past ones. I feel this country is one of the best in the
world to live in."

I, and most of my friends, might surprise you when we agree with you. We also love America. The right has no monopoly on this, whatever they tell you about those "evil liberals who hate our country." This is sheerest nonsense, and anyone who is a "liberal" or who has "liberal" friends will deny this false accusation. In fact, it can be strongly argued that we progressives care more for our country than those who care only for dollars. For those on the right, anything can be justified-- war and ecological ruin, for example-- if it brings in enough dollars. This utter consumption by materialism and bucks is a major disease that severely infects the Republican Party. Until they relax a little, and loosen up, they will continue to drive away the young, and anyone else with a conscience. (Did you notice that almost everyone in the McCain/Palin crowds were white and old? There's a reason for this!:)

Anyway, we progressives are not from another planet. We share the strongest values with most Americans. We believe in the sacredness of life; kids should not be murdered out of greed for gold, nor should others.

We are delighted with the great blessings of this country; in fact, the way that we celebrate that freedom is by speaking our minds. Those who celebrate freedom, and yet, would like for the progressive side to shut up and sit down are mere hypocrites. For the founding fathers and mothers of our country were often "radical liberals," from the vantage point of the Crown. And, at any rate, they lived-- and died-- so that all voices could be heard.

We love and treasure our country so much that we work every day to preserve laws that guarantee liberty. We also work to save our country-- its ecology, clean air, and pure water. There are no better ways to love one's country.

Joy and Peace,

the staff of the uld

A Lady Named Irena Sendler

Thanks to Mark Franzen.

There recently occurred the death of a 98-year-old lady named Irena Sendler.

During WW2, Irena got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist.

She had an ulterior motive: She KNEW what the nazis' plans were for the Jews, (being German). Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of her tool box. And she also carried in the back of her truck a Burlap sack, (for larger kids).

She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog, and the barking covered the kids'/infants' noises.

She managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs and arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents who might have survived it, and reunited the families.

Those kids she helped were placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Religion and Mysticism

I am in fullest agreement with what [your friend] has to say. I am a bit notorious for my statement, oft repeated, that "religion is the worst idea in the history of the world, but spirituality is the best." Your friend sadly, but understandably, misuses the word "mysticism," as a counterpoint to "reality." But Reality is precisely the very subject around which pure mysticism ennucleates! (Older writers called "reality" simply "truth.") [Your friend] is a man of refreshing passion. But when it comes to mysticism-- a subject that I have carefully studied for well over thirty years, and about which I have written more than twenty books-- he is a little confused. For true "mysticism" is, more often than not, the nemesis of religion-- especially in its orthodox forms. There is a galaxy of difference, as you know, between spirituality and
religion. And mysticism is squarely and consistently on the side of spirituality, even when it (as it often does) must speak against divisive religions.
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Love Ministries Support

Thank you for staying "spot on" with the uld, and especially for your awareness of the needs of Love Ministries. We do want our friends to be alerted to our real needs in this materialistic world; but we must make absolutely certain that we do not become materialistic (greedy or money-hungry) during this task. We have seen this tragedy occur to several ministries, and "ministers" or "spiritual teachers." It is so very common, in fact, that the Ministry which does not devolve into a money-grubbing, endless request for funds is the shining exception! So, we almost never mention money; everyone knows that publishing is very expensive, don't they? (If they are relatively educated, they should!:) Postage is also a major expense.

The Ministries radically consume time, which is given freely. I do not believe that a true servant of the people should be "paid" for spiritual work; let her/him earn money from other sources. We are highly distressed by the tendency for ministries and ministers to try to turn spiritual education into a mere "market commodity," like potatoes or beans. For pure spirituality should ideally be a gift, heart-to-heart, not one of the "things bought at the market today."

So, we refuse to follow others in endlessly, repeatedly "begging" for donations. To keep you informed, we do publish, in the uld, regular reports for the Love Ministries Federation, and, of course, you can always donate through this. But a ministry should exist to teach and to share; if it starts to exist only to gather funds, it is already corrupted with greed, which our Eastern sisters and brothers identify as a "gateway to hell.":)

Other teachers sometimes complain bitterly because we have always done all our spiritual work for Love-donations alone; we do not ever charge fees. We have no record that Jesus or the Buddha ever set up a toll-booth.:)

So, let's always work to stay as far from that as life will permit us!

Thanks for your continuing interest in, and support of, Love Ministries as we strive to teach the Message of Love.
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Virus Alert!

Thanks to Cheri Slaughter.

Please pass on to everyone in your address book.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/obamaspeech.asp


This email came from a source at the Secret Service, so please be aware of any mails with the subject line below.

THERE IS AN EMAIL WITH SUBJECT LINE OBAMA ACCEPTANCE SPEECH FLOATING AROUND WITH A TROJAN HORSE ATTACHMENT. DO NOT OPEN FOR ANY REASON. DELETE IMMEDIATELY. THE TROJAN STEALS ALL PASSWORDS AND USER IDS. SPREAD THE WORD.

Do not open "Obama Acceptance Speech"!

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The Bailouts Are Doomed - All of Them

Thanks to Barbara Baty.

The Bailouts Are Doomed - All of Them
by Alan Geik

A confession: I am fascinated by scams and frauds. Give me a National Geographic TV segment with Interpol following an art forger across Europe and I am a captive, even through the commercial breaks.

I anticipate years of television shows exploring the still smoldering Mortgage Meltdown. Indictments, law suits, and exposes of the criminality embedded in this travesty will intrigue me with the same frisson as do WWII spy documentaries or reenactments of The Brink's Job.

I have written here before about the two simultaneous bailouts engineered by bank lobbyists in the 1980s. The first bailout scam came "out of the blue" in 1982 when Mexico defaulted on its multi-billion dollar loans, some of the dozens made by New York banks to corrupt Third World governments in the 1970s.

The US Congress needed a public relations hook to vote against any regulation of those loans to military juntas. The lobbyists were happy to give it to them: the loans would "improve the standard of living of the developing countries." How could anyone want to stop that? Not a dime ever served that purpose of course.

After Mexico, then Brazil, Argentina and other countries defaulted. The money centers turned their pockets inside out and said "we never expected governments to default and so we never kept sufficient reserves." Then came the familiar "if Congress doesn't bail us out, the banking system will crash."

I was in Havana in 1985 at Fidel Castro's Third World Debt Repudiation Conference. Both Castro, and his unlikely literary ally in this matter, the National Review, correctly predicted massive government bailouts for the third world debt bubble as well as for the even bigger money center bank created scam, The S&L fraud. I wrote about this last year as Paulson and his banking buddies were readying the still-fast-asleep Congress into signing off on this current mother of all bailouts.

Incidentally, the hook for Congress to keep their hands off of the 1980s' S&L fraud was "banks are loaning to small businesses all over the nation without all of those cumbersome regulations." That too sounded great, didn't it?

The current bailout scam began with the same lobbyists slapping congressional hands away from predatory loan regulation, while crafting the new theme; "these loans are to help minority and working class families buy houses and live the American Dream." Simple, easy to understand, and of course, self serving. They were ably assisted by the Bushes, a family that has loved every unfettered giveaway they could get their hands around. (Two of the Bush boys were responsible for $1.5 billion in government payouts to their friends and associates in the S&L fraud.)

In 2006, some (myself included) wrote about the massive fraud expected from the bailouts to come. I imagined that, during a decade without any oversight, some mortgage "packagers" must have slid the same sure-to-default mortgage into as many packages as they could. Who would ever know if the same mortgage was in an Oslo fireman's pension fund and in a boutique Tokyo bank's portfolio?

Whatever regulators were still around had been lulled to sleep with visions of $1 million a year private sector jobs (SEC attorneys cost a little more). While this particular scam has not yet been uncovered, dozens of similar ones are already percolating to the surface.

This is why the bailouts will do little except to enrich those who can get their fingerprints on the funds. Simply put; who is going to provide oversight?
Three Quotes That Tell Us the Bailouts Are Doomed

1. "The air was sucked out of the room." (Senator Christopher Dodd)

On an evening in September, members of Congress came out of a meeting with Bernanke and Paulson, during which they were given "grim news" about the state of the economy. Paulson, despite his supposed ideological opposition to government intervention, had unfurled a $700 billion bailout bomb. Contemptuous of his hapless prey he even insisted that Congress deal themselves out of oversight of the funds.

Sen. Chris Dodd, who gets my vote for congress' biggest dolt, offered the tired cliche; "when we heard about the actual state of the economy the air was sucked out of the room." Really? Where was this Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee for the past 8 years?

Why should he be "shocked?" Why should the air have been "sucked out of the room;" a room filled with so many participants in the previous two bailouts!

My quick count of a US Congressional seniority roster indicates that 38 current members of the Senate had signed off on one or both of the 1980s bailouts, and the several fundings of the Resolution Trust Corporation that, when its doors finally closed in 1995, had left billions unaccounted for.

Were any of these senators, or the 163 (!!!) members of the House of Representatives (out of 435),who were there for those role calls, not aware that another bailout was being cued up by the same lobbyists using "the banking system will crash if we don't....." sound bites? Or did they really believe up until that Grim Meeting that the economy was "fundamentally sound" as Bush and McCain kept repeating, right up until the huge bailout request was made?

Didn't the retreaded sound bite from the 80s; "a bailout now will cost less than it will cost later without a bailout" sound familiar to any of them? Will they be "disappointed" and "angry" this time around when the initial bailout estimates once again prove to be vastly understated and the funds once again untraceable.

2. "We need to get this bailout approved by Monday morning before the Asian markets open." Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson

In this one simple sentence Paulson expressed his low esteem for the Congresspeople sitting across the table from him. Similar perhaps to an auto salesman telling a customer that his manager will get a monthly bonus with just one more closing and so they will give him/her a "special deal" if a sale is made immediately. The Asian markets? Who cares about the Asian markets? So what if the Shanghai stock market went down for the day, or week? Yet this preoccupation was repeated several times by the legislators as a consideration in their hasty deliberations.

Paulson, and all of the CEOs appearing before congress, understand that government bureaucrats are no match for corporate accountants, lawyers, and lobbyists who have spent years sidestepping regulations, evading taxes and when challenged, mounting overwhelming defenses to whatever agency manifests a bit of curiosity.

Even a more benign view of the relationship between congress and bankers would have to take into account that the RTC (which is now being seen as a model for bailout oversight) had in 1991 over 8,000 employees. Many of them were drawn from the FDIC. They were from the beginning overwhelmed by their own inability to evaluate existing deals and often couldn't determine which branch of the RTC had authority to manage a specific "resolution."

Into what monstrous size and shape will this New Age RTC have to morph in order to administer bailouts of $$ trillions, instead of $$ billions?

Management of current bailout funds will have even more difficult challenges; instead of selling off just S&L assets, this new bureaucracy will have to unravel thousands of deals between investment banks,central banks, mortgage bankers, and also contracts of the auto manufacturers with their legions of vendors, and of course any other industries whose lobbyists can extract funds this year.

Who will judge the appropriateness of a now all-but-bankrupt bank's short position in the gold futures market, for instance? Or the purchase of a foreign auto plant by one of our home grown Big Three dead whales? Barney Frank? He sadly waddles after the Treasury, trying to extract "oversight" provisions after he signs off on deals.

3. "We wanted to change some of the credit card regulations but the credit card industry strongly objected." Senator Christopher Dodd

Yes, Senator Dolt, a truth you must bravely confront is that the "credit card industry," i.e. their lobbyists, are supposed to object strongly to proposals that will negatively affect their clients' business models. That, Senator, is exactly what they are paid to do.

You however are paid to withstand their objections and to proceed with legislation that protects the public. Even you lifers in congress, who have been wined and dined by every lobbyist in Washington, should consider at some point attempting to rise to the occasion.

Every attempt to manage the bailout funds will be fought by recipients emboldened by the simple fact that the money is already in their pockets. Congress and their appointed watchdogs will be shown, once again, to be as hapless and as outflanked as ever. Sad, isn't it?

It is clear that corporate America has learned how to improve the bailout scam with each successful application far better than befuddled Congress has ever learned how to prevent it.

Priority is Everything

It does sound as if the "material" world is rushing upon you, and perhaps cornering you, from all sides. God does indeed give us infinite time, endless, but not on earth. So, we are constantly being challenge to prioritize. If we do this successfully, spirituality will be Number One, at the top of the list.:)
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Project K and Support of Ministries

We are prepping this morning [Sunday, January 4] for a Pneumarium-gathering, which we have every two weeks on Sunday. (Usually between five and twenty-some friends show up.:)

Re your note: The final medical appointment, so far, for the donkey [body] is this Tuesday, the sixth. At least, that is the last medical appointment scheduled at present. Sometime after that, we should be able to set the date for the transplant. Our dear friend Sandi, the donor, has also finished with all her tests.

Barring yet another obstacle or detour, we should be ready to set a date pretty soon.:) But life wisely teaches us to live as free of expectations as possible, so,time will tell, and we shall see.:)

Re your other question: We have several books "waiting in the wings" right now, which we cannot afford to publish. There is a four-volume set: One is an intro to the Way of Love, emphasizing its intercultural history; one is about Judaism (largely Kabbalah); one is about Christianity (early history and gnosticism); and one is about Sufism (the poetic tradition within Muslim culture). Another book still waiting is Love and the Cosmos: Seven Thousand Spiritual Verses. This is a collection of selections from the "Universal Love Digest" since its founding, many years ago. And the last "waiting book-to-be" is A Happier Person: How to Become One, a simple and small book which explains many of the practical principles of deeper spirituality, emphasizing "agapology" (the psychology of Love).

Thank you so much for your continued interest in the practical survival of our Love Ministries. We receive donations from practically no one, although there is a very kind Irish family who helps, and another anonymous donor who likes, because she is so beautiful, to remain anonymous. Other than these two or three, no one else has donated to our Ministries regularly enough to be reliable. We have been able to
publish so far because of a real-estate sale made a few years ago, but
now, that fund has been entirely used up. Still, the resources of the cosmos are endless and bottomless, and Love will accomplish Her will, in one way or another-- on that, you can rely!:):)
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A Loud, Collective Angry Howl

Thanks to Barbara Baty.


New York Times Article
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The article is 100% correct and, sickeningly, doesn't ever cover all of the stupid mistakes of this arrogant swaggering punk. I hope [that george bush's] remaining life is one of misery. I hope the so-easily duped public who voted for this fool have learned something from it and never again vote for a dolt like Bush or believe the massive unfounded campaign of lies from the likes of a Bush/Cheney team.-- Steve

GOODBYE TO BUSH 43
A loud, collective angry howl

Top 10 Hubble Space Telescope Photos

Thanks to Cheri Slaughter.

Amazing and wonderful
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Astronomers Select Top Ten Most Amazing Pictures Taken by Hubble Space Telescope in Last 16 Years

After correcting an initial problem with the lens, when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched in 1990, the floating astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth, incredible snapshots of the 'final frontier' it was perusing.


Recently, astronauts voted on the top 10 photographs taken by Hubble in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos 'illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but
also almost impossibly beautiful.'

Enjoy!
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Hubble Telescope's top ten greatest space photographs. Awesome!!!

The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - Was voted the best picture takenby the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance it has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes... The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.

In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called 'Eskimo' because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.

At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula.

The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a 'pinched-in-the-middle' look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the center.

In sixth place is the Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon).

The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.

Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.

The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation. (Imagine the collision of two galaxies! Makes me feel insignificant. SPW)

The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born.
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The Abyss

Movie Review: "The Abyss(1989)

This startling and beautiful movie is like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." It is a deeply spiritual and hyperaquarian vision of humanity's first contact with extraterrestrial life. It is an extremely positive account, interwoven with a Love-story. It is deeply stirring and uplifting, and triggers some rather awesome tears despite the fact that this film is rather old. The aliens are portrayed in beautiful colors and semi-angelic contexts combined with the traditional and archetypal
"grays." In the end, in a hypnotic and mesmerizing climax, they save both themselves and humanity from a terribly destructive nuclear event. This is one of those rare films that can, without reservation, be given an unqualified seal of approval. It stirs both memories and Soul.
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War and the Israelis

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.


War and the Israelis

http://whatreallyhappened.com/

Israel is about to send ground troops and tanks into Gaza. The American Corporate media are so pro-Israel that it just astounds me. The Kasam rockets never seem to hit populated areas. Why would the Palestinians risk such blowback from the far superior Western-backed and -financed killing machine, with "U.S". all over their rockets, missiles, and bombs?

4 Israeli's have died; 427 Palestinians, including many infants, children, and elderly. They have nothing but suicide bombs and cheap mortars. It is their land. Get out, and give it back! I just heard the nephew of Bibi Netanyhu (who is the chief murderer of the Likud Party). His nephew is a pacifist, peacemaker, who is a Colonel in the 1st rate IDF/Air Force. He is a pilot. He said, and I quote:

"The American Media is a joke; they have caved into the Israeli Lobby, with it's massive sums of $$.--AIPAC, and so forth. At least, in Israel, there is a fair [and] open discussion of the right wing hard line offensives".

He continued: " American's, Jews, Christians, doesn't matter, you should not accept all of Israel's policies...they are not always honorable. We Jews criticize our own Government, constantly. I will say [it] again: What is amazing, as in [the] U.S. is that the majority of the citizens want all this killing to stop, but the hard liners-- and my uncle is one of the leaders of this-- ignore this."

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