The Hellfire Club

Benjamin Franklin, the Occult and The Elite Infowars.com January 11, 2005 A mason, Benjamin Franklin's links to occult secret societies have long been known. In the clip below, the History Channel talks about his involvement in the Hellfire Club, a secret society that conducted black masses and orgies. These bizarre, occult practices are still going on today in secret societies like the Bohemian club (Alex Jones infilitrated the Bohemian Grove and caught one of their rituals on tape -- click here to go see the video). In 1998, workmen restoring Franklin's London home dug up the remains of six children and four adults hidden below the home. The London Times reported on February 11, 1998: "Initial estimates are that the bones are about 200 years old and were buried at the time Franklin was living in the house, which was his home from 1757 to 1762, and from 1764 to 1775. Most of the bones show signs of having been dissected, sawn or cut. One skull has been drilled with several holes. Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, said yesterday: "I cannot totally discount the possibility of a crime. There is still a possibility that I may have to hold an inquest." (Scroll down to read the entire article) The elite's fascination with the occult is hidden in plain view everywhere you look. Movies like National Treasure openly remind us of this fascination, while prominent members of society, like Pat Robertson, use public venues and publications to signal their illuminati allegiance. (In the photo to the left, Robertson uses the masonic Lion's Paw sign) History Channel Clip Discussing Benjamin Franklin's Occult Elite Involvement Remains of ten bodies at Ben Franklin's home The Sunday Times |February 11, 1998 WORKMEN have dug up the remains of ten bodies hidden beneath the former London home of Benjamin Franklin, the founding father of American independence.

Oasis of Art

An Oasis of Art in the Egyptian Desert

U. of I. team discovers rock art, but source remains a mystery

When Douglas Brewer ventured deep into the Egyptian desert this year, he expected to find possibly 100 examples of “rock art”—evidence of ancient civilization. What he actually found were well over 1,000 examples—a treasure trove of rock art. The desert art, which was pecked or sometimes incised into large rock faces, depicted elephants, ostriches, giraffes, and many hunting scenes. But perhaps strangest of all was the abundance of boats depicted in the art. After all, this area was far from any body of water, says Brewer, a University of Illinois professor of archaeology and director of the Spurlock Museum in Urbana. According to Brewer, this find may have raised more questions than it answered. “I went out to demonstrate the existence of the desert culture in ancient Egypt,” he says. But after preliminary evaluation of the rock art, it is hard to tell whether it is the work of an independent desert culture.

The two photos on gray rock are both part of a large scene about 50 feet up a mountain side. Many boats were depicted, and the location is presently 200 km from any source of water. The other rock art shows a multitude of critters and people in perfect stylized form as seen on early pottery.

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Dangerous Drugs

In Case I Disappear

WilliamPitt

In Case I Disappear

I have been told a thousand times at least, in the years I have spent reporting on the astonishing and repugnant abuses, lies and failures of the Bush administration, to watch my back. "Be careful," people always tell me. "These people are capable of anything. Stay off small planes, make sure you aren't being followed." A running joke between my mother and me is that she has a "safe room" set up for me in her cabin in the woods, in the event I have to flee because of something I wrote or said.

I always laughed and shook my head whenever I heard this stuff. Extreme paranoia wrapped in the tinfoil of conspiracy, I thought. This is still America, and these Bush fools will soon pass into history, I thought. I am a citizen, and the First Amendment hasn't yet been red-lined, I thought.

Matters are different now.

It seems, perhaps, that the people who warned me were not so paranoid. It seems, perhaps, that I was not paranoid enough. Legislation passed by the Republican House and Senate, legislation now marching up to the Republican White House for signature, has shattered a number of bedrock legal protections for suspects, prisoners, and pretty much anyone else George W. Bush deems to be an enemy.

Ill-Conceived Domain Names

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company… www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales: www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website: www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at www.gotahoe.com

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Via Independent Sources and Growabrain and Corpus Mmothra

A Family Outing

blame mikey

Seventh Level of Hell

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!

The wretched King Minos has decided your fate. His tale wraps around his body 7 times.

The sweet light no longer strikes against your eyes. Your shade has been banished to... the Seventh Level of Hell!

Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Seventh Level of Hell

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Guarded by the Minotaur, who snarls in fury, and encircled within the river Phlegethon, filled with boiling blood, is the Seventh Level of Hell. The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering. This level is also home to the wood of the suicides- stunted and gnarled trees with twisting branches and poisoned fruit. At the time of final judgement, their bodies will hang from their branches. In those branches the Harpies, foul birdlike creatures with human faces, make their nests. Beyond the wood is scorching sand where those who committed violence against God and nature are showered with flakes of fire that rain down against their naked bodies. Blasphemers and sodomites writhe in pain, their tongues more loosed to lamentation, and out of their eyes gushes forth their woe. Usurers, who followed neither nature nor art, also share company in the Seventh Level.

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Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Liar, Stupid, or Both

Condi Rice: Liar, Stupid, or Both?

by
Larry C Johnson

When it comes to the 9-11 blame game, Condi Rice is either a liar or stupid. No other logical possibility accounts for her delusional claim to the New York Post that, "We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda." Rice was responding to President Clinton, who told Chris Wallace last week that his Adminstration left the Bush Administration with a plan for dealing with the Al Qaeda threat.

But this ain't a case of "He said, She said". There is a documentary record and it is unambiguous. In fact there are two documents. First, is the strategy itself. Comprehensive and straightforward. Second, is the memo from Clarke to Rice. For folks unaccustomed to the intricacies of bureaucracy, this memo, which was given to Rice on 25 Janaury 2001, is the equivalent of a smoking mushroom cloud. This is truly damning because it provides the road map for the actions the Bush team should have taken but didn't.

The first thing Clarke warns Rice about is the need for a comprehensive strategy to deal with Al Qaeda:

As we noted in our briefings for you, al Qida is not some narrow, little terrorist issue . . .Rather, several of our regional policies need to address centrally the transnational challenge to the US and our interests posed by the al Qida network. By proceeding with separate policy reviews on Central Asia, the GCC, North Africa, etc. we would deal inadequately with the need for a comprehensive multi-regional policy on al Qida.

Clarke then proceeds to lay out the history of Al Qaeda, why it is a threat, and highlights some key issues that the Clinton Administration had not solved. But he does not stop there. He does what any good soldier would do, he asked for specific guidance in four areas:

I recommend that you have a Principals discussion of al Qida soon and address the following issues:

1. Threat Magnitude: Do the Principals agree that the al Qida network poses a first order threat to US interesting a number or regions, or is this analysis a “chicken little” over reaching and can we proceed without major new initiatives and by handling this issue in a more routine manner?
2. Strategy: If it is a first order issue, how should the existing strategy be modified or strengthened? . . . .
3. FY02 Budget: Should we continue the funding increase into FY02 for State and CIA programs designed to implement the al Qida strategy?
4. Immediate CIA Decisions: Should we initiate CIA funding to the Northern Alliance and to the Uzbek’s?

Please let us know if you would like such a decision/discussion paper or any modifications to the background paper.

So, did Condi immediately convene a meeting of the Principals (i.e., President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, etc)? NO. She waited until September 4, 2001.

Did the Bush Administration adopt the position that "al Qida network poses a first order threat"? NO. Did Condi immediately decide on whether to modify or strengthen the "existing strategy" for taking on Al Qaeda? NO. Condi kicked the can down the road.

Condi can play all of the lawyerly word games she likes, but the cold facts expose her dissembling. Dealing with Al Qaeda did not become a priority for the Bush Administration until the morning of September 11, 2001. No effort to retaliate against Al Qaeda for the USS Cole bombing was made until after 9-11. The real irony is that the Bush Administration, in the wake of 9-11, implemented a plan/strategy very similar to the one Dick Clarke gave Condi in January 2001. So, Condi? Liar or stupid? You decide.

Posted by Larry Johnson @ No Quarter

Lessons of Shame

09.28.2006

Janis Karpinski The Lessons of Shame Bio

READ MORE: Iraq, Saddam Hussein @ HuffPo

Stand proud for true patriotism and hold a screening of Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers during Profits Over Patriotism week.

One of the questions I am asked most often in speaking at locations in the US and international locations relates to complacency. The question cuts across all ethical, religious, age, sex and income brackets.

People want to know why Americans accept the way things are and the direction this country is moving - why aren't Americans living up to the right to free speech and the right to disagree? Our history is replete with incidents of famous, infamous and anonymous Americans speaking up and speaking out against opinions, decisions and laws especially those affecting the way we live and think. Why not now?

I am asked this question often and repeatedly and I hear the frustration and fear in Americans' voices. I am never really sure if they want the answer because it is all too obvious to me. We are complacent because we are afraid and we are ashamed. Our actions, this administration's actions, raped Iraq of every chance of freedom and democracy. We are the invaders. We are the occupiers. We are the torturers. And we are ashamed.

Borat

The End

The end is at hand by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News Sept. 25, 2006

This week's madness lies in trying to absorb the news on the climate.

Factually, there is nothing really new here, at least for me personally, except for a growing awareness in the population at large of the immensity of the changes that are taking place. I have been following climate science for a couple of decades. For me, and many thoughtful observers I suspect, it has been like watching a tsunami gathering height in the distance as the waters edge raced away from my spot on the beach. What is different,

and maddening now, is the emotional contagion from the crowd as it too, suddenly, becomes aware of its peril.

Who did not expect that pumping vast quantities of carbon dioxide, methane and other infrared absorbing gasses into the atmosphere wouldn't have vast and probably cataclysmic consequences? Apparently a lot of people, including all the major decision makers on the planet. So now we have to adjust to the fact that, as the disheveled man with the sandwich board on the corner proclaims, the end is really, truly at hand, at least for modern technological culture. The good times are over. The age of massive, mindless self indulgence for the few is coming to an end. The rapid, and accelerating onset of climactic changes around the world, some of which are evident to even the least involved, begin to make it clear that it is really all over, except for the shouting of course.

Don't get me wrong. It is more important than ever to take remedial action, to reduce patterns of consumption to the barest minimums in every way possible. Whereas the evidence points to a tipping point having been passed, we can not be so sure about this as to advocate taking no action to mitigate the consequences of run away industrial technology. Maybe we do have a small window left, perhaps ten years or so, as some argue, in which to take decisive action to reverse climate change. The fact that the current world situation seems to indicate that effective action is unlikely to be taken is no excuse for not trying. Sometimes a Hail Mary pass really does win the game.

The power elite seem to be responding in character. Across the world, but especially in the US, we see a rush to more primitive interactions between the haves and the have lesses. Civil standards enshrined in history as far back as the Magna Carta are being abandoned pell mell.

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With the outlines of this fate in their minds, it is understandable that those in privileged situations would indulge in fantasies of using their accumulated wealth to survive while most of the rest of humanity perishes.

By indulging in this kind of thinking the elite have been reduced to the status of village idiots, to be pitied rather than hated, because of their pathetic delusions.

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-more

Manifesto

Manifesto by The American Insurgent, Unknown News Aug. 22, 2006

Any good insurgent cell worth its weight in salt peter and ammonium nitrites will proffer a sound "manifesto." After all, manifesto writes the songs that makes the whole world sigh. The American Insurgent is no exception.

A sound manifesto contains the fundamental "core values" and beliefs that drive any productive insurgency. The American Insurgent firmly embraces the bottom line, and productivity is only as profitable as what the budding American insurgent puts into the equation. Without those "core values" and solid beliefs, The American Insurgent is just another knee-jerk reaction to political histrionics and of course, talk radio.

The primary tenet of The American Insurgent manifesto is rooted in the Old Testament value found in Exodus 20:13. "Thou shall NOT kill!" It's quick, conceptual, and it's plainly simple. There's no need for explanation, revision, spin, hyperbole, commentary, hysterics, or distraction. It's as clear as the writing on the wall so to speak. The "thou" part seems massively expansive, and the "not" part seems comprehensively understandable. The bottom line here? Don't do it — the killing thingy. "Thou shall NOT means not me, not you, not us, not them, not George Bush, not Ehud Olmert, not America, not Israel, not the U.K., not Hamas, not Hezbollah, and really it's mostly simple. Not in any conditional sort of fashion, no, it would be more like in a knock that crap off sort of manner. Thou shall not, so don't!

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In a manifesto, one would want to sprinkle in the wisdom of Douglas Adams and thanks for all the fish.

Add the wisdom of the Dalai Llama, Mohandas Gandhi, Huey Newton, a dash of George Carlin, and the well rounded American insurgent can never be too overly literate.

Literacy, not war, will be the savior of America.

So you see, a "manifesto" can seem much scarier in the theoretical than in actual propaganda or practice.

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October Surprise

Fear the October Surprise
comment

Bob Moriarty
Archives
September 27, 2006

For those who wonder what purpose was served by one of the first official acts of George the 2nd when he issued an executive order classifying the official records from the Reagan-Bush years, we now know. George 1st (Bush Sr) participated in a behind the scenes negotiation with Iran in October of 1980 to gain the promise of the release of the 52 American Embassy hostages. Bush's October Surprise was sufficient to gain Reagan the presidency and the humiliating defeat of Jimmy Carter. And as promised, the Iranians released the hostages on inauguration day in exchange for American arms. The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree.

Private citizens running for public office and conducting arms deals with foreign countries who hold Americans hostage is pretty close to treason. If Prescott Bush could be caught Trading with the Enemy with his Nazi pals during WW II, why shouldn't George 1st carry on the tradition? It runs in the family.

Today we have a presidency coming unglued with a civil war in all but name on a horrific scale in Iraq, the Taliban back in control of most of Afghanistan and Israel goading the US into the Mother of All War Crimes by demanding we attack Iran with nuclear weapons. It's clear that George 2nd lost the first election to Al Gore and was appointed into office by the Supreme Court. And it's also become pretty obvious that Karl Rove managed to steal another election in the Presidential elections of 2004. With two separate court decisions which have determined George 2nd to have violated the law both with his treatment of prisoners in Cuba and illegal wiretapping in the US, George 2nd faces not only impeachment but possible imprisonment should all of the details of 911 be revealed.

Look for an October Surprise.

Fear the October Surprise, it's coming your way soon.

Bushplug

Bushplug

Because he wants to find out as much about you as possible and to get inside your most personal business, we figured we would offer you the opportunity to show him where the sun don’t shine. I’ve had our skilled craftsmen in the secret Fukn.us labs create the “George W. Bush Buttplug”

This President will really f*** you up the butt. You’re already familiar with the sensation, so why not REALLY FEEL IT with our exclusive Presidential Pooper Plug. Invade an Iraqi, an Afghani, or at even an Iranian when you want. With this fat headed, huge stub of a plug no ass is safe anywhere.

Made of 100% silicone with 4” of useable length and a head 1-1/2” in diameter, this butt plug will issue a 110% American ass drubbing. A 2-3/4” base prevents the little prick from digging in without a timetable for withdrawal.

Great gag gift for Log Cabin Republicans. Use as a dashboard ornament, mantelpiece or uncomfortable conversation piece. Get one now before we get killed!

As always, remember to play safe, play clean and never ever go through airport security with this gag tucked away.

At this stage, we are in limited production and orders should arrive within 6-8 weeks. I am told that W. will be comfortable on a shelf if you prefer to simply have him tapping your wires instead of tapping your…ahem…, however, I want to stress that he is fully functional although for legal reasons he is sold as a novelty item only. Buy them today for all your Republican friends. $52.00 plus S/H

Just Enough Information To Make You Dangerous

FUKN acronym. Future Uncertain Kiss Now

Saddam's Suzerainty

SADDAM’S MUCH-MISSED SUZERAINTY

September 26, 2006 @ FMNN

Ilana Mercer

You’d think that, now that Iraq is irrevocably broken, warbot conservatives would show a little more humility. Nothing of the kind. It’s not uncommon for me to receive scathing and scornful letters from this contingent: “What are ya gonna do?” they’ll thunder. “Let’s be pragmatic. What’s done is done, so, unless you have something constructive to say, shut up and let us get on with the job in Iraq.”

What job, pray tell? Does it not occur to this lot that sometimes things have simply been irreparably rubbished? Do they really think we can solve the problem of Iraq? Are there no limits to hubristic and delusional thinking? Is there no end to the defiance of the laws of nature? Central planning has never worked; freedom must rise from the roots, it cannot be imposed from the tree tops. Violate rules a school child learns on the playground, and you’ll come up short—always. It is not worth losing one more American life to the Iraq Moloch. The Right value fetuses. How about showing some consideration for the thousands of fully grown human beings, hobbling about on prosthetic limbs, their lives ruined forever.

Cicero said, “The first law of history is to tell the truth.” According to the UN, “Nearly 6,600 civilians were killed in Iraq in two months.” The fans of the Iraq adventure ought to quit their Hussein-equals-Hitler inanities and admit that, while he was by no means a pleasant fellow, Saddam kept Iraq as together as it will ever be. I take that back: What a shame it’s too late to beg him to take us back and restore law and order to Iraq. We’d promise solemnly never to mess with him again, so long as he kept his mitts off nukes. Secretly, that’s what anyone with a heart and a head would wish for. (This Iraqi boy does; read about what a day in his life looks like.)

Ibn Saud said: “It may be accepted as an incontrovertible fact that it will be impossible to manage the people of Iraq except by strong means and military force,” a prescription Saddam had mastered. Indeed the Sultan of Najd (born in 1876; died in 1953) knew of what he spoke.

Under Saddam’s suzerainty, the trains ran on time and Shia and Sunni lived in relative peace—in the same neighborhoods. There was no civil war (or “civil strife,” as the preferred euphemism goes). In fact, the Iraqis I had met before the war were generally well-educated and centered individuals. That simple thing comes from having an infrastructure: law and order, schools, universities, electricity, potable water, hospitals. Mark my words: this war, over which I am constantly castigated, will be responsible for the loss of a generation of young Iraqis. In a few years time, the lost Iraqi generation will be the topic for discussion among the talking titmice.

Ilana Mercer

www.ilanamercer.com
Author: "Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Culture"

View all articles by Ilana Mercer

Crazy Wisdom

Crazy Wisdom

To remain whole, be twisted.
To become straight, let yourself be bent.
To become full, be hollow.

—Tao Te Ching

A special kind of wisdom is loose in the world. This wisdom is difficult to codify or categorize and it refuses to be institutionalized. It is called crazy widom. And so it is, both crazy, and wisdom.

Crazy wisdom is the wisdom of the saint, the Zen master, the poet, the mad scientist, and the fool. Crazy wisdom sees that we live in a world of many illusions, that the Emperor has no clothes, and that much of human belief and behavior is ritualized nonsense. Crazy wisdom understands antimatter and old Sufi poetry; loves paradox and puns and pie fights and laughing at politicians. Crazy wisdom flips the world upside down and backward until everything becomes perfectly clear.

You will find crazy wisdom flowing through all of human history, bubbling up here and there, now and then, pointing out different ways of looking at things, reminding people to take it easy, and providing a necessary counterpoint to self-righteousness. From the Taoists to the Dadaists; from the Book of Ecclesiastes to Mark Twain's Letters to the Earth; in the parables of Chung Tzu and the Baal Shem Tov; out of the cyclonic whirl of Rumi's dervish poetry and the profound nonsense of Samuel Beckett's confused characters; lurking beneath the unruly hair of Albert Einstein and between the busy eyebrows of Groucho Marx, inside the howly voice of Allen Ginsburg and from behind the rags of Lilly Tomlin's bag lady: Whatever tone it speaks in and whatever disguise it wears, crazy wisdom arises again and again to expose us to ourselves and to remind us of the strange impossible nature of our enterprise here on earth: life.

—Wes "Scoop" Nisker, Crazy Wisdom

The Pollution Within

National Geographic

By David Ewing Duncan	Photographs by Peter Essick
Modern chemistry keeps insects from ravaging crops, lifts stains from carpets, and saves lives. But the ubiquity of chemicals is taking a toll. Many of the compounds absorbed by the body stay there for years—and fears about their health effects are growing.

My journalist-as-guinea-pig experiment is taking a disturbing turn. A Swedish chemist is on the phone, talking about flame retardants, chemicals added for safety to just about any product that can burn. Found in mattresses, carpets, the plastic casing of televisions, electronic circuit boards, and automobiles, flame retardants save hundreds of lives a year in the United States alone. These, however, are where they should not be: inside my body.

Åke Bergman of Stockholm University tells me he has received the results of a chemical analysis of my blood, which measured levels of flame-retarding compounds called polybrominated diphenyl ethers. In mice and rats, high doses of PBDEs interfere with thyroid function, cause reproductive and neurological problems, and hamper neurological development. Little is known about their impact on human health.

"I hope you are not nervous, but this concentration is very high," Bergman says with a light Swedish accent. My blood level of one particularly toxic PBDE, found primarily in U.S.-made products, is 10 times the average found in a small study of U.S. residents and more than 200 times the average in Sweden. The news about another PBDE variant—also toxic to animals—is nearly as bad. My levels would be high even if I were a worker in a factory making the stuff, Bergman says.

In fact I'm a writer engaged in a journey of chemical self-discovery. Last fall I had myself tested for 320 chemicals I might have picked up from food, drink, the air I breathe, and the products that touch my skin—my own secret stash of compounds acquired by merely living. It includes older chemicals that I might have been exposed to decades ago, such as DDT and PCBs; pollutants like lead, mercury, and dioxins; newer pesticides and plastic ingredients; and the near-miraculous compounds that lurk just beneath the surface of modern life, making shampoos fragrant, pans nonstick, and fabrics water-resistant and fire-safe.

The tests are too expensive for most individuals—National Geographic paid for mine, which would normally cost around $15,000—and only a few labs have the technical expertise to detect the trace amounts involved. I ran the tests to learn what substances build up in a typical American over a lifetime, and where they might come from. I was also searching for a way to think about risks, benefits, and uncertainty—the complex trade-offs embodied in the chemical "body burden" that swirls around inside all of us.

Now I'm learning more than I really want to know...

Static Logic...Kinetic Reality

What Is the Relationship Between a Moving Reality and the Static Constructions of Logic?

Western science and philosophy have always been dominated by non-process thought. This 'historical record' or being model of reality has been with us since Parmenides, and his student Zeno of Elea, and is known as the Eleatic model (c500 BCE). Zeno gave us the first insights into the inherent problems of comprehending motion, a problem long forgotten by conventional non-process physics, but finally explained by process physics.

The becoming or processing model of reality dates back to Heraclitus of Ephesus (540-480 BCE) who argued that common sense is mistaken in thinking that the world consists of stable things; rather the world is in a state of flux. The appearances of 'things' depend upon this flux for their continuity and identity. What needs to be explained, Heraclitus argued, is not change, but the appearance of stability. With process physics western science and philosophy is now able to move beyond the moribund non-process mindset. While it was the work of Gödel who demonstrated beyond any doubt that the non-process system of thought had fundamental limitations; implicit in his work is that the whole reductionist mindset that goes back to Thales of Miletus could not offer, in the end, an effective account of reality. However the notion that there were limits to syntactical or symbolic encoding is actually very old. Priest [25] has given an account of that history. However in the East the Buddhists in particular were amazingly advanced in their analysis and comprehension of reality. Stcherbatsky [26], writing about the extraordinary achievements of Buddhist logic in the C6 and C7th CE, noted that

Reality according to Buddhists is kinetic, not static, but logic, on the other hand, imagines a reality stabilized in concepts and names. The ultimate aim of Buddhist logic is to explain the relation between a moving reality and the static constructions of logic.

In theWest the process system approach to reality was developed, much later, by such process philosophers as Peirce, James, Bergson and Whitehead to name a few, although their achievements were very limited and substantially flawed, limited as they were by the physical phenomena known to them. A collection of their writings is available in [2]. Perhaps a quote from Charles Peirce [2], writing in 1891, gives the sense of their thinking;

The one intelligible theory of the universe is that of objective idealism, that matter is effete mind, inveterate habits becoming physical laws. But before this can be accepted it must show itself capable of explaining the tridimensionalty of space, the laws of motion, and the general characteristics of the universe, with mathematical clearness and precision; for no less should be demanded of every philosophy.

With process physics we have almost achieved this end, and Wheeler has already expressed this notion of inveterate habits as "law without law" [27]. As the reader will note the self-referentially limited neural network model, that underpins process physics, is remarkably akin to Peirce's effete mind. It is the limitations of syntax, and the need for intrinsic or semantic information 'within' reality and at all levels, that reality is not imposed, that drives us to this approach. Einstein, the modern day eleatic thinker, realised all too well the limitations of non-process thinking but was unable to move out of the non-process realm that the West had created for itself, for according to Carnap [28];

Once Einstein said that the problem of the Now worried him seriously. He explained that the experience of the Now means something special for man, something essentially different from the past and the future, but that this important difference does not and cannot occur within physics. That this experience cannot be grasped by science seems to him a matter of painful but inevitable resignation. I remarked that all that occurs objectively can be described in science: on the one hand the temporal sequence of events is described in physics; and, on the other hand, the peculiarities of man's experiences with respect to time, including his different attitude toward past, present and future, can be described and (in principle) explained in psychology. But Einstein thought that scientific descriptions cannot possibly satisfy our human needs; that there is something essential about the Now which is just outside of the realm of science.

It was the Einsteins error in rejecting absolute motion that trapped twentieth century physics in the non-process or no now mindest. As is shown here experiments that could detect absolute motion did so, and those that could not not do so in principle of course did not detect absolute motion. Nevertheless all of these later experiments were claimed to have confirmed the SR and GR formalism which is fundamentally based an the absence of absolute motion as an aspect of reality.

—Reginald T. Cahill, Process Physics: From Information Theory to Quantum Space and Matter

The Fifth Aeon

The Fifth Aeon, Techno-Shamanism, Is on Its Way

Humanity has evolved through four major states of consciousness, or aeons, and a fifth is on the horizon. This first aeon comes out of the mists of time. It was an age of Shamanism and Magic when the rulers of men had a firm grasp of the psychic forces. Such forces conferred a high survival value on puny naked man living in intimate communion with the dangers of a hostile environment. This form of consciousness has left its mark in the various underground traditions of witchcraft and sorcery. It has also survived in the hands of several aboriginal cultures in which the powers were used to enforce social conformity.

The second Pagan aeon arose with a more settled way of life as agriculture and city dwelling began. As more complex forms of thought arose and men moved further away from nature, the knowledge of psychic forces became confused. Gods, spirits, and superstitution uneasily filled the gaps created by loss of natural knowledge and man's expanding awareness of his own mind.

The third, or Monotheistic, aeon arose inside of the pagan civilizations and swept their old form of consciousness away. The experiment was begun once in Egypt but failed. It really came into its own with Judaism and later with Christianity and Islam, which were offshoots of this. In the East, Buddhism was the form it took. In the monotheistic aeon men worshipped a singular, idealized form of themselves.

The Atheistic aeon arose within Western monotheistic cultures and began to spread throughout the world, although the process is far from complete. It is far from being a mere negation of monotheistic ideas. It contains the radical and positive notions that the universe can be understood and manipulated by careful observation of the behavior of material things. The existence of spiritual beings is considered to be a question without any real meaning. Men look toward their emotional experience as the only real ground of meaning.

. . . The evolution of consciousness is cyclic in the form of an upward spiral. The fifth aeon represents a return to the consciousness of the first aeon but in a higher form.

Chaoist philosophy will again become a dominant intellectual and moral force. Psychic powers will increasingly be looked to for solutions to man's problems. A series of general and specific prophecies may be extrapolated from current trends to show how this will come about, and what role the Illuminati will play in it.

Decades, possibly centuries, of warfare lie ahead. The remnants of monotheism are collapsing fast, despite the odd revival, before secular humanism and consumerism. The technological, atheist super-states are trying for a stranglehold on human consciousness. . .

. . . The medieval religions murdered millions to protect their own hegemony. Innumerable crusades, jihads, burnings, and massacres were committed. In the end no level of persecution could stave off the inevitable ascendency of Atheism.

Now it is the atheist super-states which are supplying the arms and dropping the bombs in support of the hegemony of consumer capitalism or consumer communism. And this is only the beginning. . . . There may be a breakdown of society which may take the form of an anti-technological jihad. These will not resolve the contradictions of the system but merely introduce a new dark age and slow the changes down.

—Peter J. Carroll, Liber Null & Psychonaut

Universal Matrix

Holism in Mind, Body, and the Universe

Throughout mankind's cultural history there has existed the metaphysical concept that man and cosmos are interconnected by a ubiquitous, all-pervasive sea of energy that undergirds, and is manifest in, all phenomena. This pre-scientific concept of a cosmic energy goes by many names in many traditions, such as ch'i, ki or qi (Taoism), prana (yoga), mana (Kahuna), barakah (Sufi), élan vital (Bergsonian metaphysics), and so forth.

Complementary to the above metaphysical concept, contemporary physics similarly posits an all-pervasive energetic field called quantum vacuum energy, or zero-point energy, a random, ambient fluctuating energy that exists even in so-called empty space. (The adjective zero-point means that such energy or activity exists even at a temperature of absolute zero where no thermal agitation effects remain.) Thus, even in the absence of matter, in the modern view empty space or vacuum is never truly particle or field free, but rather is the seat of continuous virtual particle-pair creation and annihilation processes, as well as so-called zero-point fluctuations of such fields as the electromagnetic field. Originally thought to be of significance only for such esoteric concerns as small corrections in atomic emission processes (e.g., the Lamb shift), it is now understood that vacuum fluctuation effects play a central role in large-scale phenomena of interest to technologists as well, such as the enhancement or inhibition of the spontaneous emission of light in atomic processes, the generation of short-range attractive forces between closely-spaced materials, and the possibility of extracting useful energy from vacuum fluctuations, the "Holy Grail" of energy research.

Should we further consider the possibility that such random vacuum energy might be subject to influence by consciousness or intention, then, given that it is well understood by physicists that a restructuring or "cohering" of vacuum energy would have physical consequences for matter, animate or inanimate, such could provide a rational basis for healing or other processes that are part and parcel of the pre-scientific view. In such fashion the similarities, differences and possible synthesis of the prescientific and modern concepts of an all-pervasive energy field can be considered.

As a physicist specializing in fundamental quantum physics and yet interested in these issues, I have an abiding interest in "pushing the envelope" with regard to the present scientific paradigm. This includes the issue as to whether what we know of the life process itself can find rapprochement with modern quantum physics, or whether and how it needs to be extended. Given my own earlier decade-plus background as Director of the Cognitive Sciences program at SRI Intern'l in the '70's and early '80's, investigating remote viewing and other so-called "paranormal" phenomena, the life-science data I have to integrate all by themselves push the envelope . . .

Unfortunately, as it now stands, mainstream physics reductionism is leading to an evermore complex picture of nature involving a proliferation of particles, the possibility of yet more "fundamental" forces, the implications of incorporating additional dimensions as in superstring theory, and so forth. Thus, in spite of efforts to develop a grand unified theory to simplify our picture of nature, the actual day-to-day work on this effort is complexifying faster than the hoped-for simplification. Therefore, not only are we missing holism on the grand scale, but a gratifying holism just for the physical sciences alone appears to be a rapidly accelerating goal post.

—Hal Puthoff, Searching for the Universal Matrix in Metaphysics (.pdf)

Afghan Opium

Who benefits from the Afghan Opium Trade? by Michel Chossudovsky

September 21, 2006

GlobalResearch.ca

The United Nations has announced that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has soared and is expected to increase by 59% in 2006. The production of opium is estimated to have increased by 49% in relation to 2005. The Western media in chorus blame the Taliban and the warlords. The Bush administration is said to be committed to curbing the Afghan drug trade: "The US is the main backer of a huge drive to rid Afghanistan of opium... " Yet in a bitter irony, US military presence has served to restore rather than eradicate the drug trade. What the reports fail to acknowledge is that the Taliban government was instrumental in implementing a successful drug eradication program, with the support and collaboration of the UN. Implemented in 2000-2001, the Taliban's drug eradication program led to a 94 percent decline in opium cultivation. In 2001, according to UN figures, opium production had fallen to 185 tons. Immediately following the October 2001 US led invasion, production increased dramatically, regaining its historical levels...

Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan

Year Cultivation in hectares Production (tons)

1994 71,470 3,400
1995 53,759 2,300
1996 56,824 2,200
1997 58,416 2,800
1998 63,674 2,700
1999 90,983 4,600
2000 82,172 3,300
2001 7,606 185
2002 74,000 3400
2003 80,000 3600
2004 131,000 4200
2005 104,000 3800
2006 165,000** 6100**

Source: United Nations,
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/afg/afghanistan_opium_survey_2004.pdf,

** estimates.

Legal Business and Illicit Trade are Intertwined

There are powerful business and financial interests behind narcotics. From this standpoint, geopolitical and military control over the drug routes is as strategic as oil and oil pipelines.

Moreover, the above figures including those on money laundering, confirm that the bulk of the revenues associated with the global trade in narcotics are not appropriated by terrorist groups and warlords, as suggested by the UNODC report. In the case of Afghanistan, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that a mere 2.7 billion accrues as revenue within Afghanistan. According to the US State department "Afghanistan drug profits support the Taliban and their terrorism efforts against the United States, its allies and the Afghan government." (statement, the House Appropriations foreign operations, export financing and related programs subcommittee. September 12, 2006)

However, what distinguishes narcotics from legal commodity trade is that narcotics constitutes a major source of wealth formation not only for organized crime but also for the US intelligence apparatus, which increasingly constitutes a powerful actor in the spheres of finance and banking. This relationship has been documented by several studies including the writings of Alfred McCoy. (Drug Fallout: the CIA's Forty Year Complicity in the Narcotics Trade. The Progressive, 1 August 1997).

In other words, intelligence agencies, powerful business, drug traders and organized crime are competing for the strategic control over the heroin routes. A large share of this multi-billion dollar revenues of narcotics are deposited in the Western banking system. Most of the large international banks together with their affiliates in the offshore banking havens launder large amounts of narco-dollars.

This trade can only prosper if the main actors involved in narcotics have "political friends in high places." Legal and illegal undertakings are increasingly intertwined, the dividing line between "businesspeople" and criminals is blurred. In turn, the relationship among criminals, politicians and members of the intelligence establishment has tainted the structures of the state and the role of its institutions including the Military.

Related Article: The Spoils of War: Afghanistan's Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade, by Michel Chossudovsky, July 2005

Gas Masters

Professional Farters

Posted by Alan Bellows @ Damn Interesting

Joseph Pujol, a man of singular talent, was born in Marseilles, France in 1857. In his early youth it became clear that he was a natural entertainer, singing, dancing, and performing for his parents' house guests. He had a love for music, and over the years he became handy with a trombone, but it was a different wind instrument that led to his eventual fame and fortune.

Young Joseph became alarmed one day when he was swimming in the sea, and took a deep breath before submerging. As he inhaled, he felt icy cold water entering through his rear end. He immediately returned to shore, and was astonished to see a great deal of seawater pouring from his backside. A doctor assured him that this was nothing to be concerned about, and it seems that Joseph took this advice to heart, exploring his strange new ability with a healthy curiosity.

He soon found that with a little abdominal control, he could deliberately suck water in through his anus, and project it back out with impressive force, creating a spout of several meters. Further experimentation led him to discover that he could also suck in large amounts of air if he contorted himself properly, which he could let out at will. He was also able to use varying pressures to produce distinct notes, allowing him to reproduce simple tunes. Needless to say, he became very popular at school as a result. But little did he know that this unique talent would one day make him the most well-known and most highly paid entertainer in all of France.

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America On Drugs

When Admitting Failure Is Forbidden

America On Drugs

Pierre Tristam/Daytona Beach News-Journal, August 22, 2006

David Murray, a drug policy analyst for the Bush administration, was asked recently about cocaine cultivation in Colombia, where the United States is fighting an expensive, low-grade war against coca growers since 2000. “This is a trade whose days are numbered,” Murray told The New York Times. The phrase rang of Vice President Dick Cheney’s evaluation of the Iraqi civil war in May 2005: “I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” Someone should find out what these Bush types are, if you will, smoking.

Iraqis are now getting killed at a rate of 40,000 a year, more than three times the average annual kill-rate of the Saddam years. Even the most friendly kind of reporting coming out of Iraq — the military embed kind designed to make reporters sound like Cheney cracking softballs on “Larry King Live” — can’t mask the region’s approximation of a Sam Peckinpah movie (think “The Wild Bunch” in fast-forward). Coverage of the war is declining as the certainty of American defeat is increasing. At least the debate over the Iraq catastrophe goes on. The same can’t be said about that other futility warped by official lies, public indifference and $40 billion a year in wasted taxpayer dollars — the war on drugs.

That one was lost soon after Richard Nixon declared it almost 40 years ago. But it’s been every president’s and governor’s pet boondoggle since. It doesn’t matter how useless it’s been — how many lives have been ruined by its lock-up first, treat-rarely approach; how many people have been killed, through turf and gang wars, by its criminalization of a vice less harmful in almost every regard than alcohol; how many billions of dollars wasted on a strategy as obviously pointless as standing watch over a civil war. (The simile is appropriate in the drug war’s case: It is America’s civil war, and minorities are its overwhelmingly targeted victims.) Too bad reforming failing government initiatives is such an ideologically tainted cudgel. Ten years ago today, President Clinton signed welfare reform into law, ending “welfare as we know it.” If a government program ever needed reform, the “war on drugs” is it.

Fat chance. The country is addicted to the bureaucracy of the war. It keeps prisons in business. It keeps police departments fattening up their ranks. It lets politicians on the stump freebase on tough-sounding rhetoric, cost-free. It is the law-enforcement establishment’s bottomless welfare plan, with more dire results than social welfare ever caused those on the dole. For all its “welfare queen” myths and admitted failures, social welfare programs had their millions of successes, keeping people out of poverty or helping them through bad patches. The drug war is a legacy of victims. Its only true winners are its enablers and dependents — government and law enforcement — who, experiencing its futility first-hand, should have been leading the charge for reform decades ago. But they’re too addicted to 12-step their way out of it.

Rather, the quagmire worsens, implicating America’s already tattered foreign policy along the way...

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via: Candide's Notebooks
NEWS • COMMENTARY • CULTURE • A DAILY PORTAL TO MINDS WITHOUT BORDERS

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"The contemporary World War on Drugs is nothing more nor less than the modern manifestation of the millennial struggle between state power and individual freedom; between the proselytizers of purely symbolic simulacra of religion - propagandists of what Blake called "pale religious lechery" - and the practitioners of the real thing - for religion is an experience, not merely a "social activity with mild ethical rules." This War on Drugs originally started as a War on Religious Experiences, and it is nothing new..."
—Jonathan Ott

Fish Inside Duck's Egg

Fish Inside Duck's Egg

During a field trip to the French Alps, University of Manchester biologists found a duck egg in a small pond. Noticing movement inside the egg, the group cracked open the shell and found three live minnows living inside it. The researchers are "baffled" by the find as the egg appeared to be sealed with no visible breaks. Read more at BBC News.

The Seventh Sense

The Seventh Sense

Posted by Zack Jordan @ Damn Interesting

From childhood, we are taught that the human body has five senses. I'm sure we can all recite them: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. This list has remained unchanged since the time of Aristotle. To most people, a "sixth sense" refers either to one outside the realm of the scientific, or one that simply does not exist in most humans.

However, ask a neurologist how many senses the human body has, and you might get a surprising answer. Many identify nine or more senses- some listing as many as twenty-one. The first category of senses is the "special" senses, including the familiar sight, hearing, taste, and smell. The second category is made up of the somatic senses, which we usually lump under "touch"- including our perception of pressure, heat, and pain. The third category, however, is not nearly as well-known. These are the interoceptive senses- those that deal with data originating in the body itself.

It is fairly obvious what happens to a person when a sense fails. Many members of society are missing one or more senses. It is common knowledge that blindness is the absence of sight. Deafness, of hearing. Everyone knows what it's like to lose taste and smell as well; this loss accompanies every head cold. But what happens when the body loses knowledge of itself is a far stranger occurrence.

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Concealed Atrocities Exposed

Prisoner Abuse By Special Forces Units Goes Unreported, Unprosecuted...

A TIMES INVESTIGATION

Secrets in the Mountains of Afghanistan

The concealed deaths of two detainees at Gardez paints a troubling picture of abuse by U.S. Special Forces units there.

By Kevin Sack and Craig Pyes
Special to The Times

September 24, 2006

First of two parts

GARDEZ, Afghanistan — After completing their deployment to this remote firebase, the Green Berets of ODA 2021 left for home covered in glory.

The 10-member Special Forces team, part of the Alabama National Guard, returned to their families in the spring of 2003 with tales to tell of frenzied firefights and narrow escapes.

Its commander had nominated each of his men — as well as himself — for medals for valor. The team's performance was heralded as evidence that the Guard could play as equals with the regular Army in the war on terrorism.

But the team also had come home with secrets.

Apparently unknown to Army officials, two detainees had died in the team's custody in separate incidents during the unit's final month in eastern Afghanistan. Several other detainees allege that they were badly beaten or tortured while held at the base in Gardez.

One victim, an unarmed peasant, was shot to death while being held for questioning after a fierce firefight. The other, an 18-year-old Afghan army recruit, died after being interrogated at the firebase. Descriptions of his injuries were consistent with severe beatings and other abuse.

A member of the Special Forces team told The Times his unit held a meeting after the teen's death to coordinate their stories should an investigation arise.

"Everybody on the team had knowledge of it," the soldier said, insisting on anonymity. "You just don't talk about that stuff in the Special Forces community. What happens downrange stays downrange.... Nobody wants to get anybody in trouble. Just sit back, and hope it will go away."

What distinguishes these two fatalities from scores of other questionable deaths in U.S. custody is that they were successfully concealed — not just from the American public but from the military's chain of command and legal authorities.

-more

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Who is Bush kidding, we don't torture? America is sacrificing its soul over this boondoggle. Pathetic. Anyone who isn't shamed has no patriotism. -Ib

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Two Deaths Were a 'Clue That Something's Wrong'

A Special Forces team in Afghanistan failed to alert its superiors. Witnesses tell of torture.

By Craig Pyes and Kevin Sack, Special to The Times
6:51 PM PDT, September 24, 2006

Second of two parts

America Never Learns

America Should Have Stayed Home - Churchill

"America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn't entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all of these 'isms' wouldn't today be sweeping the continent and breaking down parliamentary government, and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American and other lives."

-- Winston Churchill, 1936