Friday, February 27, 2009

The Cosmos of Light

It is hoped that, in time, she will come to love her own body enough to stop smoking; otherwise, she sabotages any real healing process.:( And that is never a good idea.

Still, we are happy, every day, to join our prayers/energysending with yours, for, as the ancient Christian mystic wrote, "The prayer of a good person has much Power."

Now, we are looking forward to Sunday, and the sharing of our celebration of having come to this itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, tiny whiney little nanospeck called "earth.":)

Again, thanks, as always, for bringing such a sweet heart to our sad little world. Every light, including that of your own heart, makes this world, and this universe, brighter, with the promise that, someday, the entire cosmos will be all Light and no darkness.:) (See 1 Jn. 1:5)
*******

Project K: Update

Believe it or not, we do have something like a date for the surgery of Project K. Not really a date, but rather a large time-period, actually. The surgery will occur sometime (we have no idea when) after March 2, Monday. [That is when the donor, Sandi, has her surgery to remove ovarian cysts... But, as operations go, we understand that this is not a major, critical, or extremely serious (lifethreatening) one.:)

Brother Donkey, the body, is showing some peripheral tiredness and lack of energy. We continue regular bloodtests, and regular conferencing with the nephrologist (kidney-specialist) whom we have known now for nearly twenty years.

The last transplant, the donor was a taurus. This time, she is also a taurus, and the doc is also a taurus. Although I am a pisces, I do have a taurusmoon. So, maybe there is a cosmic pattern behind all that is happening; we like to think so, at any rate.:):)

Thank you for your continued interest in this important lifevent, and thanks for asking, dear friend. Thanks also for any silver energy that you can send. (We are requesting this from all our friends.:)

May you have a most beautiful and temperate day as we together prepare for the return of the Goddess of flowers with springtime.:)

Forgiveness

To be unforgiving hurts only the one who does not forgive; it is she who must experience the sleepless nights, the upset stomach and other digestive problems, and all the "bad vibes" that accompany unforgiveness.

So, when we refuse to forgive, we harm only ourselves, supporting a selfcreated hellstate in our own heartminds; we do nothing to "punish" the unforgiven-- very often, the motive behind unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is a failed lifestrategy; it simply never works to our (or anyone else's) advantage.

Perhaps, the way that we are "built," we must begin the forgiveness-process with a selfinvolved motive rather than a loving or othercentered one. This will clearly work better, at any rate, for many, many people.:( That is just the way that this world, and human psychology, are structured.

Let us all pray and work, every day, that we might all be selfblessed by discovering the profound tranquility and humility that arise from forgiveness. Let us try to "get ourselves out of the way," so that the Light of wisdom can shine through, into our dark world.:) We all must move along this path, one microstep at a time.:) We can always support each other in the effort, and our own interior transformation and
selfless forgiveness can serve as a model for others.:)

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Prayers Continue, and Funds on the Way

This is a note to our friend in Kenya:

022509wed

Dear Tom,

Life on this earth brings us some major challenges. If possible, the lower nature of fear would destroy our faith; but we must never give up our belief in our Lord of Love. We continue to pray for you and for the dear and precious orphans in your tender care. You can be sure that Love will richly bless you, no matter what happens, and no matter how great your need might appear.

We are very sorry to hear that tragedy has struck your country (Kenya), and your ministries to the poor. We truly do want to send another donation to Love Ministries of Kenya, to aid the extremely poor orphans, and also to support your fine house-church. But our readers and friends have not yet responded to our latest call for funds, and we are still awaiting the response of Love in their hearts. We have started another fund-collection campaign, and hope that it is successful during the month of March, as it was not in February. So, as soon as we can gather the funds, we will send along a money-order, as soon as possible. I truly wish that we had more funds, but they will come as Love (God) provides.
*******

Please pray

Hello...,
I am doing so well God is on my side, my only request is prayer for the children we are helping, we have began to face avery challenging moments, our country is in avery tough situation of starvation,please do pray.

Pastor T__ S_______,
Love Ministries of Kenya

Damn that Lincoln: Abe's to blame for Jindal

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.
***
Damn that Lincoln: Abe's to blame for Jindal
by Greg Palast


Exclusive to Buzzflash.com by Greg Palast

Damn that Abe Lincoln. When Louisiana and Mississippi seceded from the Union, a sensible president would have sent them a box of chocolates with a note, "Goodbye and good riddance."

Tonight, following Barack Obama's budget presentation to Congress, effectively the president's first State of the Union Address, the Republicans chose to give their party's response, the governor of the state that wanted to leave the Union, to Louisiana's Bobby Jindal.

Jindal's told us that Barack Obama is a terrible President who passed a stimulus bill "larded with wasteful spending." Where's the lard? All week, Jindal has been screeching that Obama wants to require states such as Louisiana to extend unemployment insurance to -- get this -- the unemployed! (Technically, the federal government would pay 100% of the cost of reforming Louisiana's and Mississippi's Scrooge-sized benefit requirements.)

Jindal, and some other Republican governors, notably Haley Barbour of Mississippi, are actually turning down millions in federal funds for their own state's unemployed out of fear that, four years from now, they may have to maintain full unemployment insurance like the rest of America.

Barbour's excuse, parroted by Jindal, is that the Obama payments to the unemployed of their states would mean, when the economy returns to expansion, that their state would have to increase unemployment insurance taxes and payments to the U.S. average, scaring away new employers. "I mean, we want more jobs," says Barbour. Um, this is the Governor of MISSISSIPPI talking. Exactly what new "jobs" is he talking about? Is Microsoft based in Gulfport? Is Genentech opening its new headquarters in Bogalusa?

As an economist, I can tell you that the only industry Mississippi leads in is deep-fried chicken-dog manufacturing. I will admit that Louisiana and Mississippi can boast of growing employment at several casinos and cathouses spilling across what the locals charmingly call the "Coon-ass Riviera." Jindal's Louisiana is, after all, the state that solved its unemployment problem by sending its unemployed to Texas in FEMA trailers.

And it's true that Jindal's and Barbour's states do lead the nation in a few indicators. Such as poverty: Mississippi has America's highest poverty rate. Louisiana is 3rd-worst in America.

How about their commitment to education? Louisiana ranks 5th and Mississippi 2nd worst in school kids' math scores. As Randy Newman notes about the Gulf States' education policies, "good ol' boys... from LSU, went in dumb, come out dumb, too."

Jindal himself is a product of a more advanced culture: His parents are Democrats. The Jindals are Hindus who come from the Punjab in India, a state known for its welfare safety net. Jindal, turning away from the successful example of his parents' politics and culture, has gone native, becoming a born-again Christian Republican who doesn't accept Darwinian evolution nor Keynesian economics. (I hear he may complete his redneck makeover next week by marrying his cousin at a tractor pull.)

For over a century, Louisiana and Mississippi have been trying to attract employers by changing their economy from one based on involuntary servitude to one based on voluntary servitude, selling their citizens to the lowest bidder. The results are blindingly visible: Mississippi and Louisiana have, under the Barbour/Jindal Republican regime, maintained the lowest per-capita incomes in the nation (50th and 46th respectively). Louisiana and Mississippi infant mortality rates (1st and 3rd in deaths in the USA) would shame Costa Rica.

Years back, when I worked as an economic consultant to New Orleans, the Louisiana State Legislature was about to require that schools teach evolution as merely a theory equal to the Bible's literal creation myth. When asked if this would harm big employers' views of the state, I said, "Not at all: most national employers think of Louisiana as a state filled with Bible-thumping, dumb-bell rednecks. You won't have to worry about changing that impression."

OK, it's easy to make jokes about America's own Third World states. And before I get a zillion complaints, I'll be the first one to note that Louisiana has birthed the extraordinary, including the greatest of America's investigative journalists, the late Ron Ridenhour, jazz, Ruth Chris' Steakhouse, and gris-gris. And it was Louisiana that long ago led the nation in social reform, whose governor in 1932 led the national fight to create a program now known as "unemployment insurance." Really.

Nevertheless, Jindal's rejection of funds for his state's own unemployed simply follows a history of local Republican plantation-mentality cruelty. After Hurricane Katrina, I met a young man, Stephen Smith, who was stranded with a family on Highway 10 for four days while George Bush photo-strafed him from overhead. An elderly man with Stephen died of dehydration after giving his grandchildren his last bottle of water.

I investigated the drowning of New Orleans and the "let'm drown" rescue plans of the Bush Administration. What I found was sickening, heartless, and Republican. Marie Antoinette at least offered cake.

Now, once again, the Republican Party, by making Jindal the party's official spokesman, is adopting the Barbourous refusal to reach out a saving hand to Americans drowning in this economy.

So, let me make a suggestion for Governors Jindal and Barbour. If you cannot join America in accepting our President's call to arms against disaster, if you reject our President's State of the Union -- then leave the Union.

As the prescient Phil Ochs sang,

And here's to the government of Mississippi

In the swamp of their bureaucracy they're always bogging down...

...And the speeches of the governor are the ravings of a clown

Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of

Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

Amen.

U.S. Shadow Banking System

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.
***

U.S. Shadow Banking System
***

Ironically now it's a battle of psychological as well as economic malaise, because of fear to buy things. We are in a socioeconomic deepfreeze. Now's when we need a confidence builder.... That's why our steller 2 party system needs to cut the [nonsense], and harmonize for a change, instead of willing the new deal stuff to an early death, so they can take the majority in two years! Have they ever just tried to be positively constructive? I mean seriously look[ing] back over the Clinton years; they beat his... brains out everyday--and I guarantee, you do that to someone-- a team, a party, a person-- the sheer negative, constant pounding from within/without will make that person [or] administration fail, and collapse; and whatever happened to "United We Stand"? Or is that only when one party sits, and the other "stands"?...The many "chosen" few caused this... abyss. The poor don't cause global economic meltdowns, wars for profit, power, control of resources in foreign lands. It's usually the rich guys, who just dont have "enough."
***
This was by far the most intelligent, rational, informative discussion I've heard to date, re how we arrived here. I suspected the usual suspects, and am now zeroing in on them,... Greenspan, Robert Rueban, Larry Summers all held high court over these
bizarre, convoluted, greedy, dark market schemes, since early Clinton days, I suspect. I am leary also of "Rambo" [Rom] Emmanuel [although I have] no clear cut evidence as of yet. But their all... sharks, both parties, both houses. Not all Congresspeople, though; we must not paint a broad stroke on all. No, that is not fair, or reasonable....Let's not let these scumbags deflect all the anger back to the victims of the dark side of unbridled capitalism.

go to wamu.org


U.S. Shadow Banking System
http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/09/02/24.php#24937

Completely Wrong-headed Obstructionist, Socially Irresponsible GOP is Killing America

Thanks to Barbara Baty.

Completely Wrong-headed Obstructionist, Socially Irresponsible GOP is
Killing America
*******

For those who are still interested in reading, learning, and maybe even
changing:

Obama needs to realize the truth about [most] Republicans: "Their loyalty is to a fundamentalist Christian ideology, on the one hand, and American exceptionalism of perpetual warfare and hatred and fear of the 'other' on the other hand. Between the neoconservatives and evangelical Religious Right Republicans you have no friends."
--Frank Schaeffer (see below)
***

Blinded by Greed, Oblivious to Need:
How Socially Irresponsible Republicans are Killing America
***
By Dennis Rahkonen
Feb 12 2009
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/20266
***

Most of us aren't old enough to remember the Great Depression.

But "The Grapes of Wrath," stark photographs of pathetically poor folk with life's spark absent from their eyes, and Dust Bowl accounts somberly related by Grandpa have given us grim insight into how hard times were for so many back then.

The elders of my family talked about it often while I was growing up.

What I recall most vividly from those retellings is the contemptuous sneering over Republican President Herbert Hoover's response to the staggering calamity unleashed after Wall Street's 1929 crash.

The impoverished masses were expected to sell apples on street corners to survive!

Under left-wing leadership, the American people angrily rejected such absurdity, mustering sufficient militancy to force FDR's enactment of the broadly beneficial New Deal. They also organized the great industrial unions that gave ordinary citizens the means to attain prosperity and protection on a nationwide scale.

Ever since, conservative Republicans have reached deeply into their rotting bag of depravity to constantly come up with increasingly more selfish schemes to try to undo whatever gains workers have won through necessary, arduous struggle.

One particularly vile effort was "Reaganomics," so destructively thrust upon us during the awful '80s.

Prior to that period, the only poverty I'd ever experienced was in the early '60s, when Eastern mining companies abruptly quit Upper Michigan's once-booming Gogebic Iron Range. Everyone was suddenly jobless, Dad included.

We received welfare assistance for several months, manifested most notably by cans of Kennedy-era USDA mystery meat on Mom's pantry shelves. Our local economy eventually rebounded, but not soon enough to erase my lingering memory of that meat's "unique" taste.

The Reagan recession, though, was much harsher. It affected many millions more.

What's worse, it was deliberately contrived, to break the back of union power and thereby transfer American societal wealth to corporate/financial coffers to a degree that made storied sea piracy seem ethical and paltry in comparison.

Members of my extended family and I were unemployed for an excruciatingly long while. The same could be said for most everyone we knew. Packages of generic macaroni and cheese were supermarket shoppers' first pick, and easily half the passengers on our city buses were down-and-out souls either going to or coming from selling their blood plasma, out of desperate need.

Meanwhile, this country's upper crust -- the primary Republican constituency -- flourished like a fattening pig.

Huge tax breaks for the wealthy, coupled with deregulation of all institutions having direct bearing on the quality of our lives, and our very safety, became the American norm.

Most of us finally went back to work, but at jobs that generally paid much less than those we'd held earlier. Former auto makers became hamburger flippers at fast-food joints.

Rapacious class warfare conducted against America's wage-earning majority -- an open plunder thinly disguised by "trickle down" balderdash -- became thoroughly institutionalized.

Along with all this came the rapid growth of deep, ultimately insoluble contradictions that, in the final quarter of 2008, would make a very compelling case for Karl Marx's famous quote that "capitalists are their own gravediggers."

The entire system collapsed, most spectacularly in its finance sector, but chiefly because American labor had been exploited for so long that workers could no longer afford to buy back what they themselves produced. "Consumer confidence" understandably eroded, and store shelves gathered dust in the uneasy months before their final going-out-of business sales.

Giving Marx credit again where it's definitely due, here is the long-predicted "overproduction crisis" for which private-profit capitalism simply has no solution.

Into this impending catastrophe came Barack Obama, a decent man with ultimate loyalties lying with the common people, by whose status he knows that America's societal health must be measured. Not by how flush and plush things might be with a tiny, superrich minority.

So Obama and the Democrats sought to advance a "stimulus package" to "jump-start" the failing economy.

Never mind that it was too little, too late, or that probably nothing can be done, now, to slow our greased-skid slide to disaster.

Republicans resisted this good-faith effort with all the typical, pro-plutocracy nonsense they could shamefully muster. They wanted even more tax advantages and subsidies for business interests, coupled with demands for less regulation, forgetting that the Bernie Madoff rip-off and the current peanut-butter salmonella scare are two salient examples of deregulation's abject bankruptcy.

Cancer-stricken Ted Kennedy had to return to Washington, since his vote was needed by the Democrats to prevent a Republican senatorial filibuster.

All this completely wrong-headed obstructionism occurred as the unemployment rate soared to record levels and mass hardship was becoming epidemic. Elkhart, Indiana will soon be Everytown, USA.

It happened shortly after one of our community's television stations ran a sobering piece on area homelessness, featuring a man who lived in a scrap-built shelter in the woods, when the wind chill routinely exceeded 30 below!

Where is the "Christianity" of those who greedily devote all their efforts to preserving their privileged, luxurious status, derived by a parasitic sucking of working-class lifeblood?

What manner of "human" can see profit and suffering before him, know that relentless pursuit of the former inevitably causes the latter, and still blithely seek more profit, at the painful expense of public welfare and the common good?

Before our sofas and televisions become evicted furniture out on the sidewalks, we need to rise from our torpor and fight back, like our forebears did in the Rebel '30s, using exactly the same tactics.

Get mad as hell. Unite, organize.

This is our country, and we can't allow traitors loyal only to The Almighty Dollar to destroy America.
_______

About author

Dennis Rahkonen, from Superior, Wisconsin, has been writing progressive commentary with a Heartland perspective for various outlets since the Sixties.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

US-Israeli Interactions

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

US-Israeli Interactions
*******
www.uruknet.info [51986]
***
U.S.-Israel Storm Clouds Ahead?

February 20, 2009

After eight years of the closest possible relations, the United States and Israel might be headed for a period of increasing strain, particularly given the likelihood that whatever Israeli government emerges from last week's election will be more hawkish than its predecessor.
While Iran, with which Barack Obama has pledged to engage in a "constructive dialogue," and the future of its nuclear program, will no doubt serve as the greatest source of tension between the two allies, the new president's commitment to achieving real progress on a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict might also provoke serious friction, particularly if a reunified Arab League launches a major new push for its 2002 peace plan.
Last week's election produced a clear majority for right-wing parties led by the Likud Party of former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly declared his opposition to a settlement freeze, territorial concessions, and the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
Even if the more-centrist Kadima leader, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, can patch together a government of national unity, the right-wing parties will be able to effectively block major concessions in any peace talks, in the absence of any external pressure.
"Given the philosophical differences between Kadima and Likud on peace issues, such a unity-government would be hard-pressed to make the historic decisions needed to reach a deal with the Palestinians," wrote former U.S. Mideast peace negotiator, Aaron David Miller, in the Jewish Forward this week.
But Obama and his Mideast special envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, might indeed be willing to exert pressure on Israel, among other things, by tabling their own views about a final peace agreement and how precisely it might be achieved, especially if ongoing Arab efforts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah in a new coalition government succeed.
If all goes well on that front, the Arab League, fortified by a developing rapprochement between Syria and Saudi Arabia, could announce the latest version of its 2002 peace plan at next month's summit in Doha, according to Marc Lynch, a George Washington University specialist on Arab politics. Such a move "could galvanize the situation and put the onus on whatever Israeli government emerges to respond positively," he wrote on his widely read blog on the Foreign Policy Website this week.
"If you have a unified Palestinian government and a unified Arab move for peace," added Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, "then it's much more likely that Obama will step up his own efforts, ideally, working with an Israeli government that's ready to go along with a serious peace process, but, if not, being willing to make his disagreement (with that government) known."
The result could be a serious test between the next Israeli government and its influential advocates here and an administration which clearly believes that real progress toward resolving the 60-year-old conflict is critical both to restoring Washington's credibility among the Arab states and curbing the further radicalization of the region's population, particularly in the wake of Israel's recent military offensive in Gaza.
A more likely source of tension between the U.S. and Israel, however, will be Iran's nuclear program.
"Iran is going to be the most likely issue on which Israel and the United States will have a serious difference of opinion, if not a confrontation, in the next year," warned former U.S. Ambassador Samuel Lewis after the election last week.
Although Netanyahu has been the most outspoken, virtually the entire Israeli political and military establishment has described Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions as an "existential" threat to the Jewish state; [they have] suggested that Israel should be prepared unilaterally to attack Tehran's key nuclear facilities as early as within the next year if it cannot persuade Washington to do so.
Already last year, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked bush for bunker-busting bombs, refueling capacity, and permission to fly over Iraq for an attack on Iran, according to a new book by New York Times correspondent David Sanger, entitled "Inheritance."
That request was strongly opposed by Pentagon chief Robert Gates, who has been retained by Obama, and ultimately rejected by bush. According to bush's former top Middle East aide, Elliott Abrams, bush, who almost never denied the Israelis anything, was worried that any attack on Iran risked destabilizing Iraq.
While the violence in Iraq has continued to decline, U.S. military commanders insist that stability there remains "fragile," so that bush's concerns about the implications for Iraq of a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran are likely to be shared by Obama.
Even more important, however, is the new administration's conviction that Afghanistan and Pakistan, which, like Iraq, also border Iran, constitute the true "central front in the war on terror," an assessment backed up by Obama's announcement this week that he will deploy 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan over the next few months, bringing total U.S. and NATO troop strength there to 80,000.
Top U.S. civilian and military officials dealing with "AfPak," as the new administration has dubbed the two countries, have made clear that they hope to enlist Iran, with which Washington cooperated in ousting the Taliban in 2001, in helping to stabilize Afghanistan.
"It is absolutely clear that Iran plays an important role in Afghanistan," Obama's special "Afpak" envoy, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, said in Kabul earlier this week in an interview during which he pointedly declined to repeat bush administration charges that Tehran was aiding the Taliban. "[Iran has] a legitimate role to play in this region, as do all of Afghanistan's neighbors," he insisted.
Most regional specialists, including Bruce Riedel, who co-chairs the White House's "AfPak" policy review, and John Brennan, Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, have long argued that Iran's cooperation would make Washington's effort to stabilize the region and ultimately defeat al Qaeda markedly easier; conversely, its active opposition, as in Iraq, is likely to make the task considerably more difficult.
That assessment has, if anything, gained strength in just the past few weeks as Washington has scrambled to secure new supplylines into landlocked Afghanistan after a key bridge in Pakistan's Khyber Pass was destroyed by Taliban militants there; and Kyrgyzstan threatened to end Washington's access to its Manas air base.
While U.S. efforts to compensate have focused so far on the overland route through Russia and the Central Asian "Stans," a growing number of voices have noted that a much less costly and more efficient alternative route would run from Iran's southern ports into western Afghanistan.
Although Tehran would no doubt be very reluctant to permit the U.S. military to use its territory at this point, NATO's supreme commander, U.S. Gen. John Craddock, said earlier this month that he had no objection if other NATO members could negotiate an access agreement with Iran.
Of course, it is not yet clear whether U.S. success in "AfPak" and Iran's possible role in securing it, will help trump Washington's concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
But the clear priority [of] stabilizing Southwest Asia is being given by the new administration; and the abrupt change in the rhetoric emanating from Washington about Iran, not to mention abiding concerns regarding Iran's ability to destabilize Iraq, clearly run counter to Israel's efforts to depict Tehran's nuclear program as, in Netanyahu's words, "the greatest challenge facing the leaders of the 21st century."

And it will surely make it more difficult for him or anyone else in the next Israeli government to "harness the U.S. administration to stop the threat."

***
Taken from www.uruknet.info
***
http://ww.uruknet.info?p=m51986
***

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Movie Review: "Black Snake Moan"

This movie is as bizarre and eccentric as its title. It is a story, produced in twenty-oh-seven, of the many ways in which human beings can get lost, and the one Way that we find redemption-- Love. Only when we learn to love and to forgive ourselves and others can we find peace and joy.

The main characters are an African American man and a Caucasian woman. The man is named "Laz," and the woman is called "Rae." She has a terrible reputation as a "slut" or "whore," largely the outworking of her having been abused as a child. Laz has just lost his wife, and is in mourning over it; he heals himself by sincerely attempting to heal Rae. She later redeems her sanity by aiding her boyfriend Ronny. (In the end,she and Ronny are married.)

The bizarre story begins as Laz discovers Rae on the road, drunk and high, where she has been kicked from the car by her latest lover. Laz has no sexual interest in Rae; and he does not become sexually interested in her during the entire movie. Instead, he truly serves her by recognizing-- perhaps, for the first time-- that she is a human being, in need of real help. To keep her from fleeing, Laz wraps a very long chain around Rae. She resents this, and him, with extreme and great bitterness. But later, as she sees his good heart, she abandons her negativity, and begins to love him in her own way-- again, in a sexfree mode!

Laz gets much help, assistance, and practical aid from his friend who is a minister; but this minister is refreshingly human. He is no stuck-up, selfconscious, preachy "Christian." He lives, acts, thinks, and speaks like a "normal" human being, even swearing from time to time.

There is, in fact, quite a bit of swearing in this movie. But it is not used for shock-value or to stun. Instead, it seems to reflect the normal ambience of the people involved, and the atmosphere of their little southern town. It also reflects their deep frustrations with their lives.

The movie is rough and uncultured; the characters are hardly "finished," refined, or polished social products. They are all very human, in ways that all of us can recognize-- in ourselves as well as in others.

But it is in the over-riding transcendental theme that the movie really shines. For its theme is definitely Love, and how we can shine Love, as understanding, patience, and kindness, into each others' hearts and lives.

Love is stronger than associates, stronger than abuse, stronger than the past, stronger than mental or emotional illness. Love is irresistible; it is the greatest Power in the universe!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Refresher Course

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

Refresher Course
*******

[This is written] just to clear up any misunderstandings. I thought I'd forward the Webster's New World Dictionary definitions of a few terms distorted and twisted by the wealthy owners of our public airwaves.

Why would they do that? Because they are greedy. Because they 'fear' someone, or something, will take some of their god away. Therefore, they use the airwaves to scare you about such ideologies and systems of governing. And here are those big scary systems for you to [contemplate[:

Socialism: 1. any of various theories or systems of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of
society or the community sharing in the work and the products. 2. a political movement for establishing such a system. The doctrines, methods,etc of the socialist parties. 3. the stage of society, in Marxist doctrine, coming between the capitalist stage and the communist stage (see COMMUNISM, sense2), in which private ownership of the means of production and distribution has been eliminated.

Fascism: the doctrines, methods, or movement of the fascisti. 2. {sometimes} a system of government characterized by rigid one-party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic
enterprise under centralized governmental control, belligerent nationalism, racism, and militarism, etc.; first instituted in Italy in 1922. 3. a) a political movement based on such doctrines and policies b) fascist behavior See also "Nazi.")

Communism: 1. an economic theory or system based on the ownership of all property by the community as a whole. 2. a hypothetical stage of socialism, as formulated by Marx, Engels, Lenin, and others, to be characterized by a classless and stateless society and the equal distribution of economic goods; to be achieved by revolutionary and dictatorial, rather than gradualistic [evolutionary], means.

One last note: Remember that there are many actual examples of active socialism in our capitalistic society: The Fire Dept., the Police Dept., the military and it's healthcare system, etc.

No one is even being tortured by [these socialistic systems]. Now, see, that wasn't so dark & evil, was it? Now, think about the last eight years: And think which definition these more closely fit, where we have been heading.

A True Christian Community, in the New Testament, [was identified by its possession of the] Mind [and] heart of Jesus [Christ]. [This kind of community] is more closely aligned with socialism, and more evolved modes of communism. But the powerful people want you to fear these systems. And no, they are not perfect either, because of [the hu]man's propensity towards our lowest nature-- greed,etc. But today's Western style capitalism, if you take a good, hard, sober look at the realities of it, well, I'll say [simply] it works extremely well for the wealthiest ten to twenty percent. And below that [small economic demographic,], well, [it doesn't help much.] one more thing to prove that socialism is what we have now for the rich, and so called "free enterprise" for the working class. [This is] proof that socialism will outlive capitalism, because "we the people" have to bail out the [evil and ignorant people] at the top, after their scams and dime-dancing are through, and they've sold us out.

The Illusory Values of Travel

A person who does not like herself very often will seek something to "compensate" for the absence of selflove, or for feeling inadequate (low selfesteem). Very often, she will brag or boast about her "important" or "famous" friends; in essence, she is pathetically begging, "Please pay attention to me and say that I am worthy, good, or important." This is replacing healthy selfesteem with damaging friendesteem.

People do something similar with travel. Just as having "famous or important" friends does nothing to make you a truly "better" person, so, in itself, travel does nott improve you-- mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Historically, people who travel much are no more tender or compassionate generally than are those who never have left home.

The wellknown Chinese mystic who is the founder of Taoism, whose name is Lao Tzu, wrote, "The sage can see the whole world without moving her front gate." For the enlightened have no need for all the "hassles" involved with travel.

Time is the "gold" of the cosmos. It takes quite a bit of time to invest in yourself, and in your friends or community. And it takes time to reinforce your spirituality-- reading, discussion, meditation, etc. The person who travels too much actually is putting her spirituality in danger; she is exactly like the materialistic or greedy person, who simply "does not have time" for spiritual concerns. Travel takes much timenergy-- so much that you no longer have time for God (Love) or truth. The genuine Way is lost to you simply because you have not taken the time to study, learn, and meditate.

People who do not like themselves often use travel to hide feelings of unworthiness, believing the illusion (lie) that travel itself somehow makes you "more important" or a "better person." But it does not; the truth is that, historically, many fools have traveled all their lives, every day or every week. And, because they spent all their time in travel, at the end of their lives, they died in their ignorance and foolishness. For an entire life spent in travel, and its many arrangements, cannot be spent in the pursuit of wisdom, peace, joy, or
Love.

Thus, as the people of Love and enlightenment, we must find the wisdom and courage to turn away from the illusion-laden, and glittering, promise of travel. All that glitters... Travel offers distractions to the average person, but has very limited value to the person of Spirit. (Her Journey is interior, and infinite.) Thus, the person of wisdom is not impressed by travel, and she does not encourage this unhealthy form or expression of illusion in her friends.

She might enjoy some moderate travel, and might even discuss this; but she does not support the unhealthy illusion that travel is important in itself. For travel itself is not therapeutic; and too much of it can harm your selfesteem, your family, your friends, or even your community. (For you cannot and do not usually serve anyone when you are always "gone.")

Like everything else, travel is good in moderation, but too much can have a negative effect on your psychology or even your psychospirituality. It can make you feel, subconsciously, unstable, that you have no "solid base" or strong foundation, no firm footing. It can make you feel as if you were walking on quicksand, and its effect can be troubling and unsettling.

It also costs not only much timenergy, but money. The wise would be better served, and truly improved, by taking this timenergy and money to improve her own home.

For the goal of the enlightened is to create a home so beautifully attractive that she does not have to leave it in order to enjoy her time. For the "travel-bug" can also "infect" people who secretly hate their homes. These homes can be greatly improved energy-wise (as in feng shui), by the addition of color, candles, fountains, mirrors, music, chimes, hard floors instead of carpet, and by the complete eradication of all "junk" and clutter. Try to minimize argumentation, disagreements, quarreling, shouting, loud talk, dissonant music, and similar negative
behaviors in the home.

If you "sweeten" the home, it will no longer seem dreary or boring; then, you will not need to "run away from," or "escape," your home. A happy home creates much in the happy life.
*******

Saturday, February 21, 2009

We've Created a Frankenstein Monster

Thanks to Barbara Baty.

We've Created a Frankenstein Monster
*******

Steve Cyester wrote this in 1996:

It has all the "rights" of human beings, but few of the limitations. It has the world's resources at its disposal, and is unencumbered by borders, states, or nations. Granted immortality by its creators, it amasses wealth and power beyond the capabilities of human beings. It corrupts schools, governments, and imposes its will throughout our society. It controls most of our access to food, housing, energy, and other important resources. By manipulating the news in all forms of media, it determines what is the "truth" in the eyes of most people. If we have the audacity to fight back against its tyranny, we find ourselves the object of harassment, lawsuits, firings and sometimes even murder.

Are we speaking of a malevolent God of some sort? In a sense, we are. We are describing the corporation. How have we allowed our own creation to turn into a
Frankenstein with such immense power over our world?

In the early days of our country, corporations were created to perform tasks that might not be done otherwise. Building toll bridges or roads was a typical purpose for which people allowed a corporation to exist. Their existence was authorized by a charter, a license to operate which could be revoked at any time
if the corporation caused harm to the people. This country's founders were well aware of the potential threats of corporations. Thomas Jefferson spoke of the need "to crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

Corporations were kept under tight citizen control. In almost all states, these restrictions applied:

-- Corporations' activities were strictly limited to the purpose for which they were created.
-- Charters were granted for a limited time, after which the corporation's charter would expire unless it was decided that the people's interests would be serve to extend it.
-- Corporations were explicitly chartered to serve the public interest. Profit for shareholders was a secondary consideration.
-- Corporations could be terminated if they engaged in activities not specifically permitted in their charters or if they were considered not to be serving society's interests.
-- Charters did not prevent owners or managers from being prosecuted for criminal acts.
-- Corporations were prohibited from making any political or "charitable" contributions.
-- Corporations could not own stock in other corporations, and could not own any property not essential to their task.

Most of this important history is unmentioned today, and our children go through school without ever questioning corporate-dominated society. Through gradual corruption of our government and our courts, corporations have abandoned their proper role as tools for improving the lives of real people. So thoroughly
have our laws been perverted that corporations are now considered "natural persons" in our courts, and given "Bill of Rights" protections. Thus, our courts now permit exactly what the Bill of Rights was created to prevent: domination of public thought, discussion and policy. Corporations corrupt our schools, media, and government, and we know it! However, we continue to let power concentrate in the hands of corporations, even while their impacts become increasingly destructive to our freedom and prosperity.

Every day, there are people around the world fighting oppression of women, the poor and minorities. Others struggle to stop environmental destruction or the corruption of their governments. All these problems, and more, have roots in uncontrolled corporate power. We must attack at the roots to halt corporate corruption, and to put corporations back in their rightful place as servants, not masters of the people. In almost every state, corporate charters give citizens
the right to fight back against corporations that are harming them. It is up to us to re-educate ourselves, enforce these laws, and take further action to
regain control from the corporate Frankenstein.

*******
_______________________________

Spiritual Pre-schoolers

Most of us spiritual seekers are not, and have never claimed to be, Jews. The same is very probably true of the fundy lady you mention. But fundies are just not programmed to think these matters through. In fact, their "training" (programming) does not usually teach them even to think independently at all. And, usually, they are "proud" of this absence of thought!

But because we are not members of the Jewish faith, Jewish laws do not restrict mystics in general, or Christians (followers of Jesus). The early Christian Church, in fact, had to struggle long and hard with this issue. Paul, in Galatians as elsewhere, makes it plain that Christians are not "under the Law" or the Mosaic or Levitical codes. Christ has freed us from all the laws of the Hebrew Scriptures ("Old Testament"). Christians, and other free spiritual people, are free from the necessity of studying or obeying the laws of ancient Israel. But Christian fundies, who always vacillate in confusion on this point, are woefully inconsistent on this matter; for they say that they must "obey the laws of Jehovah" in the old Jewish Bible, but then, ignore "Jehovah's laws" about sacrificing animals for sins, and many other Levitical provisions.

As far as Christianity is concerned, there is only one reference to astrology in the Christian Scriptures, and that is when the famous magi came to visit the Christ-child. An angel appeared to them, and they followed his advice. In short, they are not presented as "bad guys," but as heeding the direction of God, and following it. They were the only ones in the world who knew what was going on when Jesus was born. This presents astrology in the most positive light imaginable, and is the
opposite of fundy criticism and condemnation. And it is no mere coincidence that Jesus chose twelve apostles; for he wanted his apostles to represent all persons, and so, chose one for each sign of the zodiac.

Fundy "Christians" are Love-challenged. Their dogmas have blinded them to whatever Love they might have otherwise felt. You, in knowing with certainty that your friend is "in heaven," are blessed with a much greater, and more healing, faith; and congratulations on that!:)

Until this whole world grows up, we will always be burdened with the terrible ignorance and pride of fundies of various kinds. They help us, because they test our patience and Love. But it helps greatly to realize that what they think is irrelevant to how the universe actually works: God, happily, is completely unaffected by, independent of, what people say about God!:) So, in time, all this fundy nonsense will perish utterly, and be totally forgotten. It is just a minor "blip" that, in the one Mind, is quickly and quietly forgotten. So, let us not "give it power" by becoming upset about spiritual "pre-schoolers.":)
*******

Dare to Dream!

Every argument-- including those which express truth or reality-- has two sides. The flipside of the arguments that you and I have discussed is the idealistic. Few people have the courage or the vision to see what can be, as opposed to what is. We do need both, in order to be balanced in this life.

So, no one should ever take away from you your ability to dream. Dreams are not always "logical," but can express something far beyond mere "logic." They can express the yearnings and hungers of the Soul.

If your interior "calling" is of this type, it is a sacred heartreasure. It is of enormous value.

I know, because, when I was eighteen, I was "called" to Guatemala. Everyone thought it impossible, or at least, implausible.

We would buy parts for our step-van, which we were reconstructing into a selfsustaining type of "camper." On the bills, the clerk would always write, "Mission: Impossible."

We bought a stepvan for $245, and I replaced all the modular parts accessible in the six-cylinder ("straight six") engine, including the carburetor, water-pump, fuel-pump, radiator, electrical wiring, fuel lines, and much, much more. When I started, I knew nothing about engines, their structure or function.

This trip, well over three thousand miles, could have been a disaster. We all knew that going in. In fact, in many ways, it was. But I would not trade the lifexperience obtained for anything; I married the Love of my life, Adamaria, in Guatemala City. Establishing our first home in a land of great beauty (it was called "the land of eternal spring" or el pais de la primavera eterna), surrounded by dire and extreme poverty, gave both of us values of nonmaterialism and nongreed which are still imprinted on our hearts. That adventure/journey still enriches our heartminds with memories that are irreplaceable.

I am glad that we did not listen to the "overly cautious" but older people around us.

It can, even now, be discouraging to think of the absence of support among older people, whom I once had regarded as "friends." They spoke of caution in the name of Love; and, no doubt, they were sincere. But I had to learn to love them all over again.

In an enterprise such as this one, people are quite skeptical. But you still have the courage and the vision to dream, and dream you should. It is your life, and your inalienable right. So, reach for the stars, go for the highest. Reach beyond the dull and "safe" borders of the doubters. Reach, and keep reaching; you will never regret the capacity to dream large.

This is the valid "flipside" of the discussions that we have already had. Both sides are true, and both sides have value. Please try to stretch your mind in order to encompass both. You will always be glad that you did!:)

Passion

We are still having Pneumarium-gatherings every two weeks, where we celebrate together our shared spiritual passion, and you enjoy a continuous invitation that does not expire. Our next sweet gathering of the family will be on March 1, then March 15, and then, every two weeks after.:) We also have over four hundred tapes from the radioprogram "Heartmind" if you are interested; they are all listed on our website, loveministries.org

Re passion: Passion can, of course, rise from the ego. But it can also arise from the Soul, or even the Spirit-- very deep areas of Mind indeed.

The word "passion" itself has no intrinsic connection with sexuality, although that is one of many uses of the word.

Passion is the joyful enthusiasm that makes life worth living, and anything worth doing. A life without passion is not fully alive. A person must commit her life to something greater than herself, and this is, by definition, a "passion." It might be her work, her art, her feelings, intellect, career, or spirituality. Most lives do not have the capacity to include more than one great passion, so we should carefully choose our passions.

But it is not always a matter of egochoice. Some of the greatest and most passionate people of history said that their passion chose them, rather than the other way around. The spirituality of Jesus or of Francis are two examples of great passions.

A passion is a concern that over-rides all other concerns. It is always Number One. It is first to make use of our time-- the "gold" of the cosmos.

Passion is positive, healthy "obsession"-- a great, consuming, demanding call from deep within. It becomes the very Center and nucleus of our lives.

And blessed are you if your passion is Love-spirituality, for there is none better or richer.:)

Many do not know what their passion is, or should be. The interior "voice" of the deepest Mind has grown weak and feeble, and can barely be heard.

To discover your passion, you need to ask yourself, "What do I really, really like?" Through positive spiritual will (desire), we can be magnetically drawn to our passion. But we must approach the subject fully and completely ready to give all our timenergy to its pursuit; half-measures, or part-time pursuits, will never qualify as a true "passion."

Art, writing, religion, and politics are common passions. But spirituality is the best investment of timenergy, for it lasts forever and has huge "dividends."
*******

The "Will of God" and Personal Desires

The "will of God" is not at all complex. Doing the "will of God" is living out the "desires of Love." This is the greatest possible discovery for a human being. And doing this will is the greatest "achievement" possible, although it is selfless in the sense that, at its apex, the ego disappears into a galactic pool of Lovemind.

Not surprisingly, doing the "will of God" is never imposed by any external Source or authority. By definition, when we grow into our Godself, or Goddessself, it is what we want to do. For "God's will" has become my will and your will.

We do it not because we must, or "should," but because we want to maximize the fun and joy, peace and tranquility, of our own lives. This path might well begin selfishly, but ends up in selfless surrender to Love. This, again, is not a "duty," but a pleasure and delight.

Doing the "will of God" is not a blanket life-event. Instead, it involves the moment-by-moment yielding to Love. In every circumstance, as we grow, we ask not, "What do I want?"-- the older self, but, "What does Love want?"-- the newer or higher Self.

Every time we do an act of constructive or healing Love, whether expressed to our grandchildren, our pets, our friends or family, or other living creatures, we are "in" the "will of God." We are actively "doing" Her will.

To maximize this sweet condition or state of mind, we must simplify the mind, minimizing all personal desires that differ from, or conflict with, the will of Love. So, we must give up selfishness, egocentricity, greed, clinging, attachment, craving, etc., as is emphasized in Buddhism. These are all "roads to hell" that are selfcreated; in other words, they lead to only states of misery and unhappiness [what the Buddha called "suffering" (dukha in Sanskrit).]

Personal desires cannot ever be completely fulfilled. This insatiability is the reason that we cannot and do not find happiness or peace through the fulfillment of personal desires. Even if we spend a billion bucks trying, we can never create happiness by the fulfillment of personal desires, for this is a completely selfish path, and Love calls us to a much higher pursuit. It calls us, in fact, to become an "incarnation of Love."

This is nothing less than a transformation of identity. The ego-- the person named on our birth-certificates and driver's licenses-- is not our true Self. For our truest nature, or interior Self-- the "higher" or deeper Self-- is the Christnature or Buddhanature. In that deep Mind, each of us is a "daughter or son" of the One, of the Mind (Tao or Spirit). We are the "children" (creations, emanations, dreams,
expressions, or masks) of Love. When we awaken to this higher identity, the identity of the ego is seen as nothing but a complex mask or game, a role being played by the Soul. It is abandoned as illusion; and, as illusion, it can never lead us to real or genuine happiness. (It was never designed to; it exists for only our education.)

This realization is utter and final liberation, and takes many lives to discover and live out; but we should not forget that some of us have been on this path for centuries already. So, we need not become discouraged if the transformation does not apparently occur overnight.

We must turn deeply inward, in profound introspection, and discover or feel for this Self. When we contact It, we must then turn over all personal desires, remembering that, although they promise everything good, personal desires actually keep us in selfcreated hellstates. When we have totally let go of the final traces of personal desire, we have discovered liberation-- and it is an awesome, breath-taking experience of utter beauty and overwhelming Love. The mysticsaints and mastersages
call this state "bliss," or "ecstasy."
*******

Love-Taoism

I am a practicing Taoist, and I teach much Taoism, although not exclusively.(For we also study, at the Pneumarium, gnosticism, kabbalism, sufism, Buddhism, Hinduism, nature-faiths, etc.)

But the "purest" Taoism cannot be recommended. For in its purest form, Taoism recommends that one never interfere with the Flow of events as they are. But Love-Taoism is a little different, although it recommends the same great "faith" as regular Taoism.

Love-Taoism teaches that we should cooperate with the Flow of events as we find them, except when Love tells us to do otherwise. For example, the purest Taoist might sit by while her alcoholic friend ordered a whiskey. But the Love-Taoist could not remain unmoved or inactive.

Sometimes, Love orders (or commands) us to do something! And now! A Love-Taoist is committed to obeying or following the interior direction of the deep Lovemind at the Cennter of all minds, in the Core of the collective Unconscious.

Thus, a Love-Taoist is not as strictly limited to wu-wei, or non-interference, as is the purist Taoist. For the same reasons, Love often moves us to social actions as well as more personal actions of Love-service.

I have also taught, "Never give any advice unless it is requested." But this "request" for advice need not be a literal or verbal request. It can be a simple question, directed at an entire group of friends, or a generic call for aid or assistance.

At any rate, you must be aware of several factors: 1) It is never my intention to discourage you. 2) I never recommend following fear. 3) Any decision that you make you will make as a full adult, and it will be yours alone, as it should be.

As your friend, my only motive is for you to make all important decisions with crystal-clarity, and having taken the time to consider all the relevant factors involved. Sometimes, spontaneous, impulsive decisions turn out to be right, spot on; at other times, they do not.

Karma and Intention

In a just universe, the Soul is never held responsible for any choice that it does not deliberately and voluntarily make. So, the Buddha pointed out that karma resulted, not from the results of our actions, but rather from our intentions. For the Soul can choose its intentions; it cannot "choose" the effects of its actions.

A good example is Jesus. Within a couple of centuries, his "followers," orthodox Christians, were cutting each others' throats. But Jesus received no karma for this, because he taught a message of Love, and he did so with a pure intention. For his intention was to plant and nourish the seeds of Love in the human heart. The fact that, in this complex cosmos, that did not work out, was not the responsibility of Jesus, and so, his Soul received no karma.

It is due to this principle that we do not have to live a "perfect" or flawless life to escape negative karma. We have only to live in pure intention.

This means that, if we intend to harm others, and end up helping them, we still receive negative karma. On the other hand, if we intend to help others, and our message is distorted by human nature, and people are hurt, we still receive the positive and beneficial "good" karma.

No karma results from the results of our actions. This is a serious misunderstanding we must clear up if we are to understand karma. For karma comes from only intentions, not just actions. And the Soul can always choose to live with good intentions, and thus, reap the rewards of good karma.

In this complex universe, there is actually very little that we can control; in fact, the entire mystical system of Taoism is founded on this single fact. But we are responsible for the one thing that we can control, and that is our intention.

We are not responsible for all of our own thoughtfeelings, for we cannot always control each and every microresponse. We are never responsible for the thoughts, words, or actions of others. We are not responsible for the physical world or its conditions; we are not responsible for even the condition of our local body. For the element of control is absent in every case, and where there is no control, there can be no responsibility.

Thus, the Soul is responsible for only its responses. (Easy to remember, for "responsibility" and "responses" share a root.)

Thus, the words of Jesus: "My load is easy, and My burden is light." The path of good moral judgment and good intention is much easier than that of "perfection." For, as imperfect human beings, the path of perfection is impossible for us. And, if karma resulted from the negative flowering of our behaviors, the situation would be hopeless.

Jesus made it plain that the cosmos, and the cosmic Mind behind it, are filled with forgiveness, mercy, and other aids for us. The cosmos is pro-human, giving us the benefit of every doubt; God always leans toward the side of mercy and forgiveness. The early Christian mystics wrote, "Mercy exults triumphantly over justice." So, the mercy of the One is even greater than Her perfect sense of karmic justice and balance. And we can all, and always, be very grateful for this.:)
*******

Genesis Mysteries

The story of Genesis is often called the "Fall from grace." But no Soul can ever "fall" from the state of grace, granted by the irresistible and invincible Love of God; but while nothing can change the state of grace, Souls can "fall" from the realization of grace. When this happens, a Soul comes to see itself as only an animal or a mechanism, rather than as the spiritual and immaterial daughter or son of God (Love).

Genesis was written as an allegory before the rest of the Jewish Bible (Hebrew Scriptures) were compiled. This pre-Hebraic document is traced back to the "people of the stars," or "people of the sky," in other words, the gods (extraterrestrials?).

Like the Book of Revelation, with which it is symmetric, it is the story of an individual Soul. Like Revelation, Genesis is written in symbols. (In fact, some are the very same used in Revelation. Fmi, please see The Apocalypse of Love: Mystical Symbolism in Revelation. Genesis speaks of the Soul's coming into a world of ignorance. The "fall" revealed is also a part of the divine will; for without it, Souls would not have an opportunity to learn from the "school of earth."

Genesis refers to many allegorical symbols, such as trees, serpent, fruit, and also makes use of one of the most ancient and universal symbols of God and truth (reality). That is light. A later mystic would write, "God is Light, and there is no darkness at all in Him." (1 Jn. 1:5)
So, when God says, in Genesis, "Let there be light," it is a symbol of the world coming into conscious awareness. For "light" is an ancient and almost universal symbol of conscious awareness-- and here, things move from the Creator/Unconscious into the conscious (aware) mind. This is what the creation of "light" means in the ancient allegory.

All awareness is from the One, or the Mind. It all comes from the single Mind of which we are all a part, the "Mind of God" or "Godmind." We know that all "light" (awareness) arises from the One, for there is no other possible source.

Genesis is the story of the activities of the Elohim. This Hebrew word was deliberately mistranslated "God" in English translations (such as the King James Version of 1611), but the actual meaning of the word is "gods"-- plural, not singular. The authors believed in a plethora of Godexpressions, each symbolically a "god" or "goddess." So, Genesis 1:1 is usually mistranslated as, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Its more accurate translation is, "In the beginning, the gods created the heavens and the earth." God enjoys a pantheon of expressions, as recognized by the ancient Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, Romans, and others.

God and the "word" (the Greek logos) are identical. The Word is indivisible from God Itself/Herself/Himself. For the "Word" is the divine expression; it is the cosmos as the spontaneous dream of the One, of the Mind (Tao). We need not think in limited human terms, asking which came first, God or God's expression. Since "the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1), we can see the wisdom of the simultaneity of their rising; they are identical. Neither has a "beginning," but have existed always.

The "Word" can exist through the human mind, but it is not in any way dependent upon human minds to exist; it exists quite apart, and independent, from human minds.

Modern evolutionary theory has absolutely nothing to do with the primitive, often backwards, speculations of Darwin; today, his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, is regarded as only a "seed." It is woefully incomplete, primitive, and backwards. Only fundies think that "Darwin" is synonymous with "evolution." He has been hopelessly outdated for over a century. His ideas were not particularly brilliant, and not a one was original. He just appeared at the "right time" in history, to refute the strict and maniacally backwards Victorian Church.

For, in his time (this work was published in 1859), the science of genetics-- the key to everything in evolution-- did not even exist. Human beings share 97.4% of their dna with chimps. We can easily speak of the parts of a simian form (legs, eyes, ears, fingers, even nails) because they are, for all anatomical purposes, almost identical with our own.
If the earth was the "biolab" of the elohim, and if they were very advanced extraterrestrials, it only makes sense that they would use the template of organisms that already existed, instead of creating anew ("from scratch") each new species. There exist huge gaps in the fossil record; it by no means demonstrates the clear evolutionary flow that is the fantasy of some "true believers" (for whom "evolutionism" is a religion). Instead, there appear "quantum leaps" in the paleontological record. Were these times when the elohim returned to check on the
progress of their biolab, and when they introduced small but significant changes in the dna?

Adam and Eve are symbols of the two orientations of the Soul-- the logical, linear, sense-based "male" aspect and the intuitionbased, right-brained, deeper and more spiritual (loving) part-- the "female." All of us are, biologically, both male and female. We express one sex or the other due to hormonal factors present in the body before birth.
Interestingly, in the allegory of Genesis, God gives to Adam and Eve "all green plants" to sustain them. God does not teach them to hunt, or to abuse other life-forms; instead, they live in perfect peace and total harmony with all other creatures. It is not until the expulsion from Eden (which means "pleasure") that people begin to murder other life-forms in bloody violence. The very structure of the human body still reveals, with some clarity, that it has the anatomy and physiology of a vegetarian-- from the acidity and chemical structure of saliva and
stomach acid to the structure of the teeth, and the length of the digestive tract. Biology has created us in a clearly vegetarian pattern; we compare very favorably with other vegetarian forms-- some of the strongest creatures on earth, and we are very unlike the carnivores such as cats.

Obviously, no human being actually "saw" the creation. So, the story was not that of an eye-witness, but one of revelation from a higher (deeper) Mind. And that Mind was the Source of all life and matter; it was and is omniscient, knowing everything about everything. A "material" cosmos was never created at some time in the past; instead, it is being created (dreamed into being) every second of time. It is being dreamed into being at this precise second. The writers of Genesis received the account from the elohim themselves, whether in a dreamstate or some other altered state of consciousness.

Much, much more could be said about any or all of these very profound inquiries. But that will have to await another time. Hope that this helps. Btw, there is nothing "special" or "supernatural" about the Hebrew Scriptures; they were thirty-nine small books written by biased, often bigoted, and ignorant human beings. They were not "channeled" or produced during dreamstates.
*******

Permission to Die in Peace

The following is only one potential, possible model for a document, to be kept with your "Living Will," that declares your declaration of your right to die with dignity. It states that you do not want to be kept alive indefinitely in a vegetative state.

***
I have cultivated, over many years, a most firm and reliable, dependable belief in the continued existence of the Soul (as Soulmind) after biological death. This is based on the teachings of Jesus, Gautama Siddhartha, and other wise mastersages.
I believe that the essence of life, and life-quality, are matters of mind, not the body alone. And, while deeply intertwined and related, the mindsystem and bodysystem are not identical. Nor does the mindsystem depend on the biocontinuity of the bodysystem, but exists independently of it. Thus, the mind can and does continue living, and creating quality of life, after the body is dead—even long afterwards. Therefore, this document is created in order clearly to express my desire not to be maintained in a biostate of "life" indefinitely when the bodymind systems have become vegetative or irreversibly unproductive.
The mind does not depend on the body, although the brain does. (The relationship between brain and mind is very complex; but as mind can exist without body, it can also exist independently of any brainsystem, and it does.
I hereby express my free-will decision, being of sound mind and body, without any restraint, influence, or pressure of any kind, the following:

This body, the body of _____________________ [your name], is not to be kept "alive" biologically in continuity, preserved as only a biological unit. If, at any time during this life, this body loses the ability meaningfully to cognize, recognize, think, create, write, speak, or any other valuable mode of expression, the body is to be terminated with my expressed approval and full permission. I believe that the quality of a life is more significant than is the biological maintenance or continuity of a life. Therefore, it follows that, should any factor(s) significantly compromise this quality of life, especially by cutting off meaningful, regular intercommunications with others; or if biological life steals away selfrespect, dignity, selfawareness, compassion, or Love, then, this life will be of little to no value to me.
And I order that this biological life be terminated.
This can occur through an overdose of oxycodon, hydrocodon, codeine, morphine, or any other sedative, euphoric, or relaxant drug.

Signed,­­­_________________________________________________
in the presence of these witnesses:

­_______________________________________________

_____________________________________________

on this ______ day of ____________, 20____.
*******

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Movie Review: "Save Me"

This wonderfully touching story, produced in twenty-oh-seven, is a deep, tender, and honest psychological and psychospiritual study. It concerns a couple, Ted and Gail, who have opened a "half-way house" for male homosexuals. They call their project by the elegant Greek name "Genesis."
Ted and especially Gail are traditional Christians. Therefore, they make the serious but ubiquitous error of mistaking the ancient Hebrew god Jehovah/Yahweh for the Christian God of pure Love. This virtually ruins any chance of real success: They see male-homosexuals as having a "disease," and in need of a "cure."
Ted seems to have, and to express, more Love; but Gail is still too hung up on laws, legalism, and prohibitions found in the Hebrew Scriptures really to allow herself to love. A choice is presented throughout this movie: We all must choose either Love or religion; Gail makes the wrong choice.
Because of this ignorance, she had kicked her own gay son out of her house; and that was the last she saw of him; he died shortly thereafter. But even this death did not penetrate the thick ignorance that caused Gail to continue to judge.
In one tragic scene, the father of one gay man is on his deathbed. His final words were those of Leviticus in the Hebrew Scriptures, condemning homosexuality. He had never managed to "forgive" his gay son, breaking the son's heart. But later, a gay man points out that many of the laws of the Hebrew Scriptures are ignored, including the approved stoning (tortuous murder) of rebellious children.
So, this man ended his life with damnation rather than Love. Sure enough, he quoted the Hebrew Scriptures as the basis for this absence of human feeling. His Biblical legalism had transformed this man into a heartless monster.
Two of the gay men fall deeply in Love. While nongay people might never be able to understand fully gay-psychology, we can at least permit them to love in their own way, without the obstacles and tribulations of added burdens of damnation. As one of the gays points out, Jesus said nothing about gays; and the other main character read the Canticle of Love from First Corinthians 13.
This is a very moving and touching movie, especially for anyone from a traditional "Christian" background. It relentlessly begs for understanding, acceptance, and non-judgment in this matter. It has many valuable lessons to teach our society and our world.
*******

Rove not Covered by Executive Privilege

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

Exclusive: Rove not Covered by Executive Privilege in Political
Prosecution Case, Lawyer Says
*******

Rove won't take the Fifth if he testifies. Representatives of the bush White House are no longer advising former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove that he is protected by executive privilege as regards testimony about the alleged political prosecution of an Alabama governor.
In an exchange with "Raw Story," Rove's Washington, D.C. attorney, Robert Luskin, also said Rove won't invoke his Fifth Amendment right to protect himself from self-incrimination, if and when he testifies about the firing of nine US Attorneys and the prosecution of the former governor.
There's been speculation that he would.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Lawyer_Rove_wont_take_Fifth_if_0216.html

This also holds true with the election fraud case using Ohio's tough RICO laws.
*******

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Movie Review: "Premonition"

This movie, made in twenty-oh-seven, is an intuitionbased study of some kind of flaw in spacetime, or in mind, or both. Its rather confusing theme is far from clear, and it bounces between realities in a somewhat baffling way.
In it, the character Jim Hanson apparently dies, and the effect on his wife Linda of the traumatic death-experience is the nucleus of the rest of the movie. For, each time that she sleeps, Linda seems to "shift" universes, perhaps entering a parallel universe in which Jim has not died. Or, it is also possible that she remains in this universe, but time-travels back to the time before his death.
A psychiatrist cannot explain what is happening, nor can a religious leader; it is quite beyond their comprehension.
Linda finally sees this as an opportunity to prevent the death of Jim. So, she goes back to the place and time of the accident, connects with Jim over cellphone, tells him to turn around, and ends up actually causing the accident that killed him.
This is a story about the Power of Love. But it also teaches that you cannot avoid your destiny: At least, there do exist events in the "future" that you cannot change. A subplot is that Jim is planning to have an affair with a lady at work, which would have blasted the marriage between him and Linda into nonexistence. But, at the last minute, he changes his mind, and wants sincerely to repair his marriage with Linda.
The ending might not be "happily ever after," but so few are, in real life.
*******

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Movie Review: "Bringing Out the Dead"

This movie (1999) is not as metaphysical or spiritual as are some others. It is really more of a psychological study. Its focus is Frank, an e.m.s driver, and his companion-drivers, who are often eccentric to the point of semisanity.
In fact, "semisanity" might well describe the state of the whole movie. It seems quite surrealistic in places, and it is not at all helped by a soundtrack that can be intrusive, disconcerting, abrasive, and out-of-place.
But if you can follow it, the general story-line is an excellent one. It studies the mind of Frank, as he goes through various stages of speculation about the afterlife, disappointment and guilt about a girl whom he was unable to revive, exhaustion, drug-intoxication (one scene is psychedelic), overstress, anxiety, tenacity, determination, and many other states of mind. This is a "rollercoaster" of a movie-- disjointed, quick-moving, and abrupt. A subtheme of the movie is Patrick Burke--a man who is in the process of dying, and whom Frank finally "lets go," to the relief and gratitude of all-- most of all, Patrick himself and his daughter Mary, with whom Frank has a semipassionate and semiromantic relationship.
This movie is very difficult to place into convenient categories. In this way, it is like real life. It is quite realistic, and so, uses some rather strong language, and that, rather frequently. At one point, Frank is recalling his successes, which make him feel like "God," and his failures, which make him feel like "the god of hellfire." Frank is a very sensitive guy, a specimen of the real but usually unsung heroes who man ambulances, and who keep people alive, including "drunks, whores, and other unworthies."
The film does criticize what people often do to themselves. It takes place in New York, where one must be quite strong to survive. From beginning til the end, Frank is haunted by a young girl named Rose, whom he sees, at times, everywhere.
She appears on the face of Mary, and on several strangers' faces. He explains to her, with deep sincerity, that he was unable to save her, but he did his very best, and seems to find final forgiveness. Despite its absence of many metaphysical or spiritual themes, this film is worth seeing, if for nothing else, then for its revelations of the troubled and stressful minds of ems-drivers.
*******

Unbelievable! Unconscionable!

Thanks to Barbara Baty.


Talk about corrupt! [This banking crisis] is the epitome! These guys should be charged with treason and looting the treasury and treasonous, treacherous acts against American citizens, and economic terrorism! (I just made that up; but [I] think it's now time for that category to be included on the high crimes list)

These Merrill execs gave themselves $3.6 BILLION in bonuses on the eve of reporting a more than $15 billion fourth-quarter loss. Bank of America was complicit in the move to award bonuses before Merrill's fourth-quarter loss was announced; and both could face charges of securities fraud. (Wanna bet?) Four executives at Merrill alone received bonuses totaling $121 million. Nearly 700 employees received a bonus of at least $1 million (as they posted record losses and massive business failure!) Sick!


Read the whole thing if you are interested.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_bi_ge/merrill_lynch_bonuses
*******

Movie Review: "Waking the Dead"

This touching film was made way back in the year twenty hundred. It is at once a deep psychophilosophic study and a profound Love-story. The main character, Fielding Pierce, apparently loses his young girlfriend, Sarah Williams, through a rightwing terror attack. But the question that is the nucleus of the entire film is, "Is she really dead?"
The question is never really clearly answered. The film becomes a little "feliniesque" in areas, dodging a direct answer. But her influence upon Fielding is so very strong that he cannot shake memories of her, or her influence. (She was a bit leftwing, and he is struggling to "make it" in American politics.) He wants to be a spokesperson for the common, average American, and does some of his work in Illinois. (The movie might have been a bit precognizant of the success of Barack.)
He does pay attention to, and gets letters from, many average Americans. He is not at all interested in the horrendous nightmare of a "government" that has haunted our country for the past eight years.
A message of this film is that "Love is stronger than even death." The film examines the effect of an honest politician on her/his personal life; in one scene, Fielding "betrays" even his own brother. But his Love for Sarah remains the jewel at the center of his life and heart.
Yes, Love is greater than even politics; she influences him to the end.
This film has a most excellent message; but it is not for children. It contains some very strong language, and some indirect presentations of sex. But, for any adult, the flick is well worth seeing. With its message of undying, inconquerable Love, it is an expression/manifestation of what Love can accomplish in even a world as imperfect as ours. Every political leader should see it.
*******

Friday, February 13, 2009

Friday the Thirteenth

Happy Friday the thirteenth. In Goddesscentered cultures, thirteen was the number of the Love-goddess, and Friday was her day. It is still regarded in Latin languages
(Spanish, Italian, French) as the "day of Venus.":) In Spanish, the day is called viernes, and in Italian, venerdi.

So, to counter it as a day of Love and celebration, the orthodox Church, which disliked almost everybody, declared the day "unlucky," based upon a superstition that if it was "lucky" for Goddess-people, who "worshipped Satan," it must be "unlucky" for "good people" (Christians, who "alone" worshipped God). So, the "unluckiness" of Friday the thirteenth was a product of bigotry.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bread

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

Bread
*******

While waiting in line at the only open bakery he could find, Gaza resident Mohammed Salman said, "I'm going to buy something that my family can keep for only two days because there is no electricity and no refrigerator.

We cannot keep anything longer than that." This was in January of last year.

Today, many Gazan bakeries are closed because, like Mohammed's family, they
don't have power either. Some don't have even flour. The Israeli blockade of Gaza had already made it impossible for Palestinians to live in dignity and have access to the barest of essentials: bread, clean water, medical supplies, or electricity.

[Take action here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1814]

This is no coincidence. This is official policy. In a moment of candor, Dov
Weissglas, a top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was quoted as saying, "The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but [they] won't die."

His prediction was true. Last April, UNICEF reported that more than 50% of
children under five in Gaza are anemic, and that many children are stunted due to a lack of vitamins. And now?
As Gaza is smoldering from the siege that killed 1,285 people - nearly 70%
of them civilians, destroyed at least 4,000 homes, and sent more than 50,000 people to temporary shelters, the Israeli blockade has not been lifted. A tenuous cease fire is now in place. Humanitarian aid is starting to pour in.
But the civilian infrastructure is crippled. The borders of Gaza remain controlled by Israel. And just as Gazans could not leave during the siege to escape the bombing and shelling, they cannot leave now to get food and fuel.
There is not enough electricity for the bakeries that are left standing to produce bread, or for families that still have homes to refrigerate food. Palestinians cannot even feed their children with the fish from the nearby sea. Israeli gunboats offshore have been enforcing the blockade with rounds of cannon and bursts of heavy machine-gun fire, to keep Gaza fishermen out of the sea.

Unless we end the blockade, long after the world's attention has shifted to
some other crisis, some 1.5 million Gazans will still be under-nourished, without proper medical care, fuel and water, and trapped. Israelis too, who live in the south, will be even less safe from the threat of Hamas' Qassam rockets falling on their heads.
Lasting peace and stability in the region are simply an impossible dream while
Palestinians in Gaza are denied the right to protect their children, feed their
families, and expand their worlds beyond the few feet in front of their homes--or, for many, tents.

Please ask your friends to speak out and tell Obama: "Lift the blockade."

Sincerely,
Cecilie

Abandoning the GOP?

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

Abandoning the GOP?
*******
A detailed story in this morning's Post-Gazette examines that large group of Pennsylvanian citizens who switched allegiance last year from Republican to Democrat.
***

Pa. voters abandon GOP for Dems in droves
Moderates cite Bush, Iraq war for causing switch


Saturday, February 07, 2009
By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Recent Republican losses in Pennsylvania have been spurred by defections from among the party's more affluent and better-educated voters.

One of the strongest recent currents in Pennsylvania politics has been a shift of registered voters from Republican to Democrat. A new survey suggests that this change has been led disproportionately by some of the GOP's more upscale members, estranged by the Bush administration and the unpopular war in Iraq.

Muhlenberg College's Institute of Public Opinion looked at a sample of the hundreds of thousands of former Republicans who have swelled the ranks of Democrats over the last two federal election cycles.

In May 2006, just months before an election in which the GOP lost four House seats along with Rick Santorum's Senate seat, Democrats held a registration lead of roughly 550,000. By last November, as President Barack Obama was carrying the state by the widest margin of any White House contender in decades, the Democratic advantage had grown to 1.2 million voters.

The Democratic registration tide was swelled by the unprecedented grass-roots organization put together by the Obama campaign. But the Muhlenberg findings suggest that it also reflected a longer-term reaction against Republican policies.

A majority, 53 percent, of those who left the GOP had been members of the party for at least 20 years. Most described themselves as moderate, 37 percent, or liberal, 27 percent -- an obvious contrast to a party overwhelmingly composed of voters who describe themselves as conservative.

A strong majority of the switchers, 67 percent, also described themselves as in favor of abortion rights.

They also were more likely to characterize their decision to leave the GOP as the result of changes in the party's positions, rather than changes in their own political views -- 37 percent to 21 percent. By a wide margin, 67 percent, the respondents cited former President Bush as a "very important" catalyst for their decision to leave the party. Fifty-four percent cited the Iraq war. When asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements about the GOP, 53 percent said the party had "become too extreme in its positions."

Forty-six percent said they were closer to the Democratic Party on taxes, and 38 percent said they were closer to the Democratic Party's position on issues such as gay marriage and abortion and roughly a third agreed with the statement, "The influence of the religious right on the Republican Party's social positions led me to leave the party."

Of those who made that ideological journey, 25 percent said their incomes exceeded $100,000 and another 26 percent said they made between $60,000 and $100,000. Just 26 percent said they made less than $40,000.

Twenty-four percent said they had a graduate degree, 25 percent had graduated from college, and another 29 percent said they had at least some post-high school education.

Chris Borick, the Muhlenberg political scientist who directed the survey, said that, "Among the troubling signs [for the state GOP] is that you're losing pretty long-term loyal Republicans. They're suburban, like those around Philadelphia. They're better educated, wealthier individuals.''

Only 22 percent of the former Republicans said they were likely to change their registration again in the next five years. But Mr. Borick pointed out that some of the bigger influences prompting the shifts -- the Iraq war and the Bush presidency -- now present lower profiles on the political horizon.

"That poses some opportunities," he said. But he added that, for many of the former party members, "There are more systemic issues -- a lot of these people are the moderates and the more liberal Republicans."
James O'Toole can be reached at jotoole@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1562.
First published on February 7, 2009 at 12:00 am

Movie Review: "City of Angels"

Movie Review: "City of Angels"
*******

This movie, made way back in 1998, contains some timeless and perennial truths. It is based on the very popular fantasy that "angels" are quite humanoid beings who care very much, and deeply, about the activities on earth-- despite the fact that earth is only a tiny dust-mote circling a small spark called "the sun." Still, even if you do not believe in the pleasant mythology of these angels, this movie will probably make you want to believe!
The movie draws much dramatic content from death and its survival, intact, by the Soul; in fact, its main character, Maggie Rice, is a surgeon who often feels both responsible and guilty for the death of surgical patients. She is the kind of doc who is a true healer, who has a heart.
The being that falls in Love with her is male, but is not a deceased Soul from earth; he is an angel, and so, is totally ignorant of the delights and pleasures of the "dreamworld" that is earth. He knows nothing of the "garden of earthly delights." This part is a little difficult to swallow; and the story might have been richer if he were a Soul who had experienced earthly life and senses, rather than an "angel" to whom human experiences seemed alien.
This is a touching and moving Love-story. Those who know me know how easily and readily I can be brought to tears, and this flick did so several times.
This story symbolically portrays what we all must go through and give up to come to earth-- often, for Love. While the ending could have been happier, it reflected life itself in its many uncontrollable, unpredictable changes, and was, overall, a "happily ever after" film.
*******

Ministries and Greed; Sincere thanks

We truly want to thank you not only for your gracious and grace-filled generosity, but for your patience. For you and a few others have been tenacity in action re the need for Love Ministries to "take care of business" re finances. This is an area which, quite frankly, is the most troubling to me, for I have seen ministries go very wrong here, trying to turn spirituality into a "market commodity," like beans. And I must make absolutely sure that Love Ministries has "clean hands" relative to this spiritual "crime."

We never will permit the Ministries to become involved in "money-grubbing." As you know, we prefer to err on the side of caution here, and so, have not, in the past, given sufficient attention to this real aspect of the Ministries. Your awareness has compensated for our lack, counterbalancing our ultracautious approach with a realistic awareness of material needs.

Still, we are determined never to become careless in this matter; so, we will stay alert and, when necessary, hypervigilant, so as never to allow greed to contaminate our work or our words. But please let us take this moment to thank you sincerely and personally for your endurance and tenacity in dealing with what can be a rather thick-skulled approach.:):)
We do very much appreciate your kindness as well as your responsiveness
to our needs. Color us grateful.:)
*******

Two e-magazines

No, we no longer do the radioshow, and, at times, it is really missed with passion! But we are writing these days virtually nonstop, with over twenty books published, and seven more "waiting in the wings," for selfpublication can get very expensive, and we never charge for any of our spiritual work-- teaching, advising, lectures, seminars, working with clients, students, and friends. We are supported entirely by voluntary Love-donations. The great Tao has provided up until now, and will continue to make our work possible as long as it is needed; and, right at the moment, our poor little planet is "starving" for good spirituality, although we have loads of religion!:) Btw, we have two ezines: One is the uld ("Universal Love Digest"), and it comes out about two or three times a week; each issue contains from one to five articles, each of which is from one to five paragraphs; it's a quick read. Then, we have Lovelight magazine, of about twenty pages. It comes out once a month, and contains personal philosophy, humor, practical tips, and wordplay.

Both are free; if you would like one or both, just please let me know.:)
*******

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Movie Review: "Ghostown"

This moving and touching movie, made in twenty-oh-eight, is the story of a misanthropic dentist named "Pincus," who hates almost everybody-- at least, in the beginning. But about three-quarters of the way through, he follows the advice of a fellow dentist who is Hindu, and takes a second look at his life. By then, he is already falling in Love, and so, this is the story of a miserable man who discovers the Power of, and turns to, Love to find meaning and joy in life.
The story is unique because Pincus has the ability to see souls who have departed this life, but still have strong glue-like connections with this world. Only after Pincus helps them "tie up loose ends" are they surrounded by a golden Light,, and move on to final liberation from all earthly concerns. In short, this film is highly recommended, and contains the seeds of some great truths.
*******

"Old Age"

No one becomes an "old lady" until she gives up. No one really "gets old" until she stops playing. Some people are "born old," and some are "old" at age twenty; for she who cannot, or forgets to, laugh is "old" in both her body and mind.

Letter from Cathy

Dearest Friends of the Heart,

I know that some of you have been a bit anxious recently re Love Ministries, and specifically, you are concerned that the Ministries are running out of money.
In this world, this is always a necessary concern. And it is true that Love Ministries' funds have been depleted. For example, we have several books "waiting in the wings" to be published. The manuscripts are finished and completed, but funds are not there for publishing, which can be very expensive.
Thus, in view of this, Adamaria and I were very pleased and delighted to receive the following letter from Cathy Moullton of South Dakota. It suggests an idea that, we must admit, would never have occurred to us!
Anyway, here is the letter:

Dear Maria and Richard,

We thought this would be a fun idea. We would like to put out a fundraising challenge to friends and family who would help contribute to your book-publishing mission. We will match each person who donates $20-$250. If you would like to post this information on the "[Universal] Love Digest,"and/or send out an email about this, it would probably help to "jumpstart" people to make a contribution to this worthy cause. We're sending a check of our own... to start things up again in getting
your gbooks published. Take care of yourselves and be well.

Love,

Cathy and Boone [Posey]

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

They Just Don't Get It!

I heard on the news the other day that the unemployment rate for last month was 7.8% in the Dayton Area. I look around and see a lot of businesses closing. Sadly, it looks like Forbes Magazine was correct a couple of months ago when they said Dayton, Ohio is one of the fastest dying cities in the U.S.

~Barbara