Movement - The Third Age: a time to RANT & RECKON

Wondering what the hell happend to us?

2005-09-23T13:03:00.000-05:00

Well, we're still alive and kicking. We're just hangin' around somewhere else. Check us out here:

Hill-TV
The Symbol
Third Option Media Network
SpaceFarmer's TUB

What are you waiting for? Get moving!

Two Deaths, Two Messages

2005-04-02T11:57:00.000-05:00

Pope John Paul. Terri Schiavo.

The Pope refuses to go to the hospital, where he'd most likely be put on a respirator and have a feeding tube inserted. His health would degrade until he either dies or ends up in a coma. Instead he chooses to die with dignity.

Terri Schiavo suffers severe cardiac arrest. She is taken to a hospital, put on a repirator and a feeding tube. She is in a persisten vegetative state. She recovers enough to come off the respirator. Her husband begs to have her taken off the feeding tube. Her parents say she's not suffering and so should live.

We know the stories. What's the message?

The message we get from law makers on Terri Schiavo's situation is that euthanising the sick is acceptable. The message we get from the church is that this is wrong.

The message we get from law makers on Pope John Paul II's situation is that he has a right to chose how he dies. The church says this is okay, and makes no attempt to force a feeding tube down his throat while he's unconscious.

The overall message is: If you're old and really sick, go on and die if you want. We don't care. B ut if you're young and vegetative, used to be pretty, can gurgle and lol your head after a balloon, you should live as long as modern medicine can keep you there, unless your spouse is reasonably certain you're brain dead, then you must get the lawyers to call off the media so you can starve to death without anyone ever knowing if you care or even know what's happening.

I can honestly say, I'm not sure I don't disagree at all with some of the stuff they aren't stopping us from hearing.

Even madmen make sense from time to time

2005-03-29T11:05:00.000-05:00

“Wanting people to listen, you can't just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you'll notice you've got their strict attention.”

-Kevin Spacy, Seven

"Remember the Maine!"

2005-03-17T10:20:00.003-05:00

Given that most Americans and Westerners in general have been denied access to truth about the role played by successive US governments in shaping the current global geopolitical climate, and the fact that the "official story" would have us believe that "Muslim terrorists" carried out the WTC attacks, they can be forgiven for thinking that the blame for the present stand off lies squarely at the door of those same "Muslim terrorists". The reality however is that, like so many other regimes throughout the ages, the US government has long recognised the usefulness of religion as a way to manipulate other countries and their populations. Take the Philippines for but one example.

In 1898 the islands, along with Cuba Guam and Puerto Rico were part of the aging Spanish empire, and coveted by the American financial and business elite of the day who recognised that control of the Philippines would put them in a position to stake their claim to the rich emerging markets of China and southeast Asia. Confronted with this situation and realising that they lacked any popular support for an attack, American big business in league with the US government decided that he would simply create it. In 1897 a "fortuitous" outbreak of popular rebellions in Cuba and Philippines against Spanish rule provided the opportunity. In typical fashion that remains their MO to this day, the American media grossly exaggerated the "atrocities" carried out by Spanish soldiers in Cuba and the Philippines.

In one incident "New York Journal" publisher William Randolph Hearst sent the noted artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to provide sketches for American newspaper readers of the revolution. When the disillusioned Remington wired Hearst "Everything quiet. No trouble here. There will be no war. I wish to return." Hearst shot back the notorious reply, "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I will furnish the war."

As one biographer of Hearst noted ironically about his paper's coverage of the Cuban conflict, "The majority of the public found it more exciting to read about the murder of Cuban babies and the rape of Cuban women by the Spaniards than to read conscientious accounts of complicated political problems and injustices on both sides. The hero/villain concept of the war was simple, easy to grasp and satisfying."

Does this sound familiar?

Click the link below to read more:

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs20050316.htm

Everybody Loves a Liar

2005-03-15T10:57:00.000-05:00

Think of all the different ways we have of describing lies. Bullshit, spin, white lies, hyperbole, exaggeration, misstatement, omission of fact, embellishment. The list goes on. Picture if you will, a world without lies. More specifically, picture your day if you could not lie. All questions asked of you would get their proper answers, and you would be left friendless, jobless and maybe in the hospital.

And the more you speak, the more chance there is that you will lie. This is why most wise men remain silent and listen, while most politicians talk constantly. People are reassured by lies. Silence makes them nervous. If you read half of the blogs on this particular service, you'll see mostly lies. Watch the news. Even CNN is filled with lies, in the form of spin and political commentary. Movies are lies. Fiction! An entire type of writing based on lies. We hide in our entertainment world of lies. Gansta Rappers "from the street" who drive Mercedes Benz, have more gold than Fort Knox and can dance like Broadway actors. And we believe this. We believe all of this.

Wouldn't it be scary if some powerful corporation or government figured out that we are a society enamored with bullshit? Why, they could just run our lives. They could draw us out with lies, and turn us back with the boring truth. Here we are now. Entertain us.

Here's the deal: with all the bullshit around, there must be a few fairly large bulls in the near vicinity.

Family Values

2005-03-06T17:10:00.000-05:00

I think the modern extended family unit is broken.

Today, couples have to face a barrage of controlling behavior surrounding the holiday seasons and well on into other occasions like birthdays and vacations. I’m sure you know what I am talking about… parents, for example, who demand that you be at their house on Christmas instead of your own or your in-laws.

We’ve all been there… some more than others.

I believe this is a relatively recent disorder that is spreading needless stress throughout our society and putting undue pressure on those who should be focusing on maintaining their own happiness and not having to worry about others. My point is this: I don’t think these problems existed when families lived together in a close knit area.

Ranging from the 19th century and back, families lived in clans with little to no distance separating the generations. Now, family units are shattered, or spread, across great distances. I don’t think the psychology has had a chance to catch up. Our parental intellects still demand the basic instincts they are programmed to receive. Children are meant to care for their parents. Parents are meant to provide for the family. Men were supposed to gather and hunt or battle. Women were expected to cook and preserve the breeding cycles.

Obviously, this does not and, by all means, should not translate well into our century. Equality, either through order or requirement, is the name of the game. However, I believe the genetic memories and root systems in our brains have not caught up with the drastic changes the technology revolution and provided us in the past 50 to 100 years. Today, it is almost too simple to pack up and move incredibly far from home.

Take a look at my family. When factoring in both my side and my wife’s side of the family, we have about 50 people spread out across the United States and Canada. Back in the old days, we would likely be spread out across the distance of a single village, town, neighborhood or even less. Only in the case of war, adventure or excursion, would a family unit be stretched out across distances… sometimes great distances… and almost all the time in a temporary fashion.

I live here. I’m not going anywhere. My parents live there. They’re not going anywhere. Same with my sister, my grandmother, my Uncles, cousins, in-law’s, and so on. We don’t depend on each other for survival or defense and, at times, it seems like we don’t even know enough about each other to easily resolve conflicts. This is a modern dilemma

Furthermore, everyone wants their own way and, more often than not, they will not bend or break to consider the thoughts, feelings and schedules of others. Unless the distance between them is so great that it would require several hours in a car or a plane ride, parents often have expectations that can be difficult to meet.

What’s the resolution to this quandary? Either we go back to living in peat-moss huts next to a river while carrying swords and plowshares or we move so far away that the lineage-leash can no longer be tightened.

No, that can’t be it. There has got to be a third option. There has got to be another way.

I’ll let you know what it is when I find it… right after I make my millions from the all-time best seller “How To Deal With The Pressure Of Family and Have A Nice Holiday.”

The clock is still ticking

2005-03-03T09:09:00.000-05:00

Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream.

-Nathaniel Hawthorne

The American Boss

2005-03-01T16:33:00.000-05:00

I’m going to shamelessly complain for a while. I think I’ve earned the right. Maybe you have too? Read on and find out.

Due to the potential for public embarrassment and prosecution, sexual harassment, as it was known in its heyday, is on the decline… rapidly. In its place we have seen the rise of a new demented typical American Boss. He’s ugly. He’s mean. He’s aggressive. He’s everywhere. He is the abuser you have come to know and love.

I have already had several of these bosses in my 10 years of being out in the formal workplace. Oh, lucky me!

The first master of mistreatment took the form of a gruff old shipyard worker turned college painter. He liked to yell and scream and make up excuses for why he couldn’t read. He is only boss I have ever had that I actually thought he might physically abuse me. He didn’t. He chose… wisely. Instead, he took out his excess aggression on his god-knows-how-old partner in crime. That poor bastard ended up with heart disease, cancer and a colostomy bag. He’s probably dead by now. The nice thing was that they had furnished their houses with items and money all stolen from the college itself. Nice touch.

The second was a world-class jerk stuck in the recesses of his failing ego and sexual deprivation. Terrifyingly enough, people actually trusted him with their money. He got off on pretending to yell and swear at people while he had the phone muted. He loved to make fun of me because he knew I had to take it… I had no choice. I needed the money. He actually used to say that to me. Next, I found myself mixed up with a right-wing overweight man whose personal life was crumbling all around him. His terrible demeanor earned him a first class ticket to Divorce Land! At one time, these guys were partners. However, an imp can’t partner with fiend. It’s doomed from the start… as they were.

After those two, there were a series of late-90’s business egomaniacs who, because they had started a company here or a company there and captured some investment dollars from the suckers who bent over and took it like real champions, thought they were the greatest things on Earth. They were really cocky. None of them could see the world past their own noses and they all ended up with a divorce or, no doubt, an STD. I watched their butts get kissed more than a lottery winner on payday. It was sickening.

Soon after that run, I had a repressed homosexual who took out his aggressions by demanding that I complete silly and meaningless tasks. Next, I enjoyed the oversight of a hardcore metrosexual who loved to pick on my apparent lack of fashion sense by insulting me in front of other people. The sad part was that he never understood that you don’t crap on the people that do your work for you... especially when you pay them far below their actual worth. He’ll end up getting pegged in a unisex bathroom a trendy New York nightclub someday. I’d put money on that.

Finally, the best was truly saved for last. My latest Boss is a big burly freak of a man. A former hockey player and master of building and destroying small companies, he calls Viagara “The Heat” and looks like a cross between a cokehead and a bulldog. He has a new girlfriend and gets off on having sex with her while her kids are in the house. He treats me like his best friend one minute and his own personal bitch the next (and by bitch, I do mean female dog.) Among his many daily explicit shockers, he has told me the following:

a) He estimates he has spent over $100,000 on prostitutes in the past 17 years. (note: he was married for 17 years.)
b) Several times, he told me that if during sex “you make a woman piss on your face, you own her forever.” That one made me shudder.
c) While married to another woman, he sodomized his neighbor with a flag pole and then had sex with her on the flag itself. God bless America!
d) When he was younger, he used to drink vomit and eat feces for money. I didn’t believe him until he had a friend unequivocally confirm it as true. I’m not sure if I was supposed to be scared or impressed by that one.
e) I could go on and on and on and you simply wouldn’t believe it.

Honestly, I can deal with all of that. Sure, it frustrates me from time to time, but it’s not a big deal to me, personally. What I can’t deal with is being treated like a child… or worse… being treated like someone’s little brother. Now, bear in mind that I know many people who have to deal with this kind of typical garbage or something along the lines of “people acting like idiots in the workplace.” My guess is that, at one time or another, you have dealt with this nonsense too.

You know, I have a pretty sold resume for my amount of education and exposure in the workplace. Funny enough, most of my experience, which is going to help me get a better job and lead me down a (hopefully) successful career path, is owed to these very men. Of course, my wife and family will tell me that everything I have is all because of me, but I know better. All I did was learn how to appease my bosses long enough to get what I wanted. It had its price, but I paid it… and then some.

What I am trying to say is that The American Boss spews out nonsense that we’re expected to arrange into useable pieces of data and instruction and, in turn, we learn how to navigate through the pile of drivel that is the New World Marketplace. I have a borderline useless college degree and yet, I can confidently say that I could run the marketing organization for a $25M to $50M company. I have learned to suck in knowledge faster than a broken hearted teenager swilling booze on a hot summer’s night.

If you hear words like loyalty, trust, raise and bonus being tossed around your office when the door is shut and your boss is talking to you one-on-one (especially if this has happened several times in a row), I would take a long hard look at where you are and think about moving on… soon. In the meantime, get as many free lunches, expensed cocktails and valuable working knowledge as you can and then go get a higher paying job somewhere else. Don’t make a big deal about it. Just learn from the past and move on. After that, call me and let’s get good and drunk.

After all, we deserve it more than they do.

Why? Because, we’re an entire generation of lost souls who are forced to report to soulless losers, and we have seemingly no choice but to keep on keeping on. Well, times are changing and I believe that the revolution we’ve all been waiting for is right on the horizon.

You can see when you close your eyes at night and picture a better life.

Journey to the Center

2005-02-24T08:57:00.000-05:00

In order to recognize our self-image, we can no longer identify with it. In other words, we have to learn how to objectify our own mental processes.

-Matthew Flickstein

The Color Wheel

2005-02-22T11:16:00.000-05:00

A great example to apply to philosophy and to help get a sense of perspective in terms of history is Johannes Itten and his treatise on color theory. Itten stated that all color is derived from the physical, and that no two sets of eyes would perceive color and thus form in the same way due to the complex nature of human psychology and physiology - in fact he abandoned the traditional theory of color and its science in order to produce a more intuitive and modern 'color wheel'. His guide to color and its relationship to human psychology was widely adopted and became the standard for teaching color theory, it is in use to this day.

In a similar manner you can argue that no two people will have the same reaction to or memory of history (either experienced or learned). One can even reason that due to the chemistry (physiology) of memory, the images (along with sounds, sensations, emotions) that we perceive are in a constant state of change (due to their chemical/physical state) and may not accurately reflect the memory object that was originally 'stored'. Too bad we do not have a de-frag or degauss tool for the brain.

Itten's color wheel took into consideration the subjective feeling that's associated with objective color, and the psychic and emotional values of colors. Click the link below to read more:

http://www.dezignare.com/newsletter/Johannes_Itten.html

The wave finally rolled back.

2005-02-21T09:02:00.000-05:00

Raoul Duke: We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Shattered Glass (and the milk it spilled)

2005-02-10T15:03:00.000-05:00

What if what we thought was healthy was actually killing us?

by John Kaminski, February 8, 2005

The only sound in the darkness was the voice of a woman on the phone outlining her plans to awaken a sleeping citizenry with an accurate video version of the crime of the century. But when a man listens to a woman, he often doesn't hear her words, but instead drifts off into the uncharted narrative of his own dreams.

Fifty years ago I stood in the kitchen of my childhood. The giant glass of milk I always consumed before bedtime had accidentally crashed onto the kitchen floor, spewing a white Rorschach blot across the checkered linoleum. I loved milk, I told her. But her voice chided through the line: no adult animal drinks milk; it isn't healthy, because the excess protein putrefies in your digestive tract and catalyzes all manner of debilitating ailments.

So we learn what we thought was essential to our well-being may in reality be a recipe for needless misery, not to mention serious injury. This passing thought, this shattered glass in my memory, got me thinking about what we once learned was good and life-giving can with the right information lead to the realization that we are killing ourselves because we remain ignorant of basic facts.

This evolving image coalesced in my mind as she talked about the need to convince people that 9/11 was really an inside job inflicted on the American people by our own leaders. Hence this thought: what we thought was good and pure can, without accurate information, actually be a poison that we eagerly and happily guzzle down.

Read the full article here: The Shattered Glass

A man can convince anyone he's somebody else, but never himself.

2005-02-10T13:20:00.000-05:00

Verbal: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

Smells Like Someone Took a Wisdom

2005-02-09T16:04:00.000-05:00

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius

Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
Juvenal

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
Walter Lippmann

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?
Friedrich Nietzsche

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Bertrand Russell

Society's Silent Assassin

2005-02-09T15:28:00.000-05:00

“Fear is the mind killer.”
- Frank Herbert

We live in a culture of fear. We are paralyzed by it. Corporations design advertisements that show us how we should look, how we should dress and what we should eat. The implied message is that if we don’t buy, we’ll be less than those around us. Does a person need a large plasma TV if they can see the screen on the current one just fine? No, but commercials subtly imply that every important person has one.

The government uses fear to rally support. The news media use fear to boost ratings. Social groups and businesses use fear to influence and motivate. Families use fear to control behaviors and interactions. Every corner of our lives is filled with it.

There’s always talk about reducing stress. The root of stress is fear. Fear of failure. Fear of humiliation. Fear of not being loved. We should be talking about reducing fear. Some would have us believe that bravery conquers fear. No. A brave person is one who is afraid, but continues on in the face of that fear. That is one way to continue on. Bravery, like all virtues, is only attained through practice. We are not all brave, but we could all practice bravery. Even still, some would never achieve it.

It is our firm belief that all people deserve to live free of fear. Since we cannot all become brave, another solution is called for. So, in order to eliminate fear, we must find the root of fear.

In the past, people struggled to meet their basic needs: food, shelter and safety. This sort of fear is instinctive and necessary. If you are starving, or out in the cold, or in physical danger, your primary focus needs to be on meeting the basic needs.

Once the basic needs are met, other more complicated needs arise. The needs for friendship, love, acceptance and fulfillment are all relevant to our happiness. The attainment of friendship, love, acceptance and fulfillment occupies most of our thoughts. Sometimes, we even act rashly or recklessly in order to have these things. And other times, we are downright vicious and cruel in the name of love, friendship, acceptance and fulfillment. These are powerful needs.

When our needs are not met, we become desperate. That’s when we fear. We fear that these needs will not be met unless we act! Any action, even a devious or hurtful one is better than doing nothing. If we do nothing, it will slip away, right? Well, consider for a moment that you are not the only one that knows you act desperate when you are afraid. They know. The use it to use you all the time! Their solution? Buy it, vote for it, work for it, worship it or kill for it. So, you do. And afterward you’re still no closer to your goal.

What’s our solution? First, realize there is no action necessary to attain that level of friendship, love, acceptance or fulfillment. Chances are, you already have it.

Quick story: A friend of ours wanted to be in a romantic relationship with a particular person. He was already friends with her. He wanted so badly to be with her, that he didn’t realize that he was already with her. He was so caught up in making her fall in love with him, that he forgot to do all the things that make women fall in love with men. Things like making her laugh, or politely complimenting her, or even just listening to her. These were all the things he imagined himself doing with her, but he didn’t realize that all he had to do was do them and enjoy them! He was too busy wallowing in fear of never having that special relationship to build that relationship. All he had to do was to continue doing the things that made them friends in the first place. Even if they had never become intimate, at least he would have enjoyed every aspect of her that he could have. But even more than that… There were probably fifteen girls at the time that did want to have a romantic relationship with him. No. He wouldn’t even give them a chance. It’s a shame, one of them might have been his future wife, but he was blinded by the fear of losing that particular girl.

The moral is that we are usually given what we need. When we aren’t, we find the strength to get what we can and survive without the rest. Every human being should be able to boil their desires down to one sentence. You’d be surprised how similar all our sentences would be if we did. Once we have a good handle on our desires, our fear will lessen. Without needless desires, there are no more needless worries. Eliminate needless desire. Write the one sentence that defines your needs and ignore the rest of the bullshit. You’ll find that what you really need is neither bought nor sold, neither legislated nor fought for nor worked for etc. Realizing this is the end to needless fear.

Picture fear as a lever. You are standing on the low end of a seesaw, and they are going to push down on the high end to launch you off. You can clutch at the ground or hang on to your end for dear life. Perhaps, you could just step off the seesaw. Once their lever is gone, they have no way of moving you. Once they no longer can move you, you will move yourself. That leap off is the first step. It’s the only step.

The two final fears to be conquered are the fear of death and the fear of the unknown. Those fears are quite different and are not within the scope of this article. Suffice to say that fearing death or the unknown prepares you for neither. Unknown things will happen, and we can prepare for them by training our minds and our bodies. Death is, as of yet, unavoidable. We prepare for death first by accepting our temporary nature, then by training our soul.

The culture of fear we live in can only be overcome by constant vigilance on our part. Whenever we feel anxious, we must first remember what it is we really need, and then slowly realize that our anxiety is not related to those true needs, but usually something insignificant. We must remind ourselves that ‘sweating the small stuff’ literally saps our energy to deal with true crises. Not only does our anxiety make us feel bad in the present, but it leaves us under prepared and over tired in the future. Focus on your true needs. Write down that sentence again and again until you really get it. It is only when we conquer fear that the true part of our work in this life can begin.

Protocols of the Elders of Zion

2005-02-09T11:51:00.000-05:00

Hitler and his fellow Nazis used a preposterous forgery from late-19th-century Russia as a brutal weapon of propaganda against the Jewish people. An agent of the Imperial Russian secret police had devised the Protocols in the 1890s both to demonize Jews and to target Russia's minister of finance, Sergei Witte, whose policies threatened many conservative Russians. The Protocols link Witte with a Jewish conspiracy to destabilize governments and take over the world, a mission supposedly plotted at a clandestine meeting among Jewish leaders in Basel, Switzerland in 1897.

The Protocols, the "minutes" from this fictitious meeting, were first published in full in Russia in 1905, but tens of thousands of copies soon spread throughout Europe and the U.S. In August 1921, the London Times exposed the Protocols as a forgery, but this didn't stop Hitler and other anti-Semites from using it as fuel in their war of hatred. Joseph Goebbels, who helped orchestrate the Nazi propaganda campaign, had the Protocols translated into many languages and widely distributed.

Even today, the infamous forgery remains in circulation among the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, and it continues to inflame anti-Semitism around the world proving, once again, that people will believe anything a figure of authority gives them.

Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?

2005-02-08T10:30:00.000-05:00

Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist?

by Robert Scheer of the LA Times

To even raise the question amid all the officially inspired hysteria is heretical, especially in the context of the U.S. media's supine acceptance of administration claims relating to national security. Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by one of Britain's leading documentary filmmakers systematically challenges this and many other accepted articles of faith in the so-called war on terror.

"The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear," a three-hour historical film by Adam Curtis recently aired by the British Broadcasting Corp., argues coherently that much of what we have been told about the threat of international terrorism "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media."

Stern stuff, indeed. But consider just a few of the many questions the program poses along the way:

• If Osama bin Laden does, in fact, head a vast international terrorist organization with trained operatives in more than 40 countries, as claimed by Bush, why, despite torture of prisoners, has this administration failed to produce hard evidence of it?

• How can it be that in Britain since 9/11, 664 people have been detained on suspicion of terrorism but only 17 have been found guilty, most of them with no connection to Islamist groups and none who were proven members of Al Qaeda?

• Why have we heard so much frightening talk about "dirty bombs" when experts say it is panic rather than radioactivity that would kill people?

• Why did Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claim on "Meet the Press" in 2001 that Al Qaeda controlled massive high-tech cave complexes in Afghanistan, when British and U.S. military forces later found no such thing?

Of course, the documentary does not doubt that an embittered, well-connected and wealthy Saudi man named Osama bin Laden helped finance various affinity groups of Islamist fanatics that have engaged in terror, including the 9/11 attacks. Nor does it challenge the notion that a terrifying version of fundamentalist Islam has led to gruesome spates of violence throughout the world. But the film, both more sober and more deeply provocative than Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," directly challenges the conventional wisdom by making a powerful case that the Bush administration, led by a tight-knit cabal of Machiavellian neoconservatives, has seized upon the false image of a unified international terrorist threat to replace the expired Soviet empire in order to push a political agenda.

Terrorism is deeply threatening, but it appears to be a much more fragmented and complex phenomenon than the octopus-network image of Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden as its head, would suggest.

While the BBC documentary acknowledges that the threat of terrorism is both real and growing, it disagrees that the threat is centralized:

"There are dangerous and fanatical individuals and groups around the world who have been inspired by extreme Islamist ideas and who will use the techniques of mass terror — the attacks on America and Madrid make this only too clear. But the nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organization waiting to strike our societies is an illusion. Wherever one looks for this Al Qaeda organization, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the 'sleeper cells' in America, the British and Americans are chasing a phantom enemy."

The fact is, despite the efforts of several government commissions and a vast army of investigators, we still do not have a credible narrative of a "war on terror" that is being fought in the shadows.

Consider, for example, that neither the 9/11 commission nor any court of law has been able to directly take evidence from the key post-9/11 terror detainees held by the United States.

Everything we know comes from two sides that both have a great stake in exaggerating the threat posed by Al Qaeda: the terrorists themselves and the military and intelligence agencies that have a vested interest in maintaining the facade of an overwhelmingly dangerous enemy.

Such a state of national ignorance about an endless war is, as "The Power of Nightmares" makes clear, simply unacceptable in a functioning democracy.

For more information, click here: http://www.911truthmovement.org/

The Black Box Is Empty

2005-02-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

Cos': Pollution. Crime. Drugs, poverty, disease, hunger, despair - we throw GOBS of money at them and problems only get worse. Why is that? Because money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it. There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information! The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons.

Where do we go from here?

2005-02-08T09:07:00.000-05:00

MIRROR NEURONS and imitation learning as the driving force behind "the great leap forward" in human evolution.

The World Of Tomorrow

2005-02-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The creator of Dolly the sheep has been granted a license to clone human embryos for medical research, authorities in London have announced.

Professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh and a team from King's College, London plan to clone embryos to study motor neuron disease.

Don't just forget... QUESTION

2005-02-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

Strike On The Pentagon

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.

2005-02-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
-Calvin Coolidge

The Ghost Of Tom Joad

2005-02-03T15:02:00.000-05:00

Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks
Goin' someplace there's no goin' back
Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretchin' round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest
No home no job no peace no rest

The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

He pulls prayer book out of his sleeping bag
Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag
Waitin' for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass
Got a one-way ticket to the promised land
You got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand
Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock
Bathin' in the city aqueduct

The highway is alive tonight
But where it's headed everybody knows
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad

Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me.

The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' downhere in the campfire light
With the ghost of old Tom Joad

Advice from the imaginary Mr. Gekko

2005-02-02T13:25:00.000-05:00

The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons... it's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth.

Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.

The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of it's forms - greed for life, for money, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind...

Read Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought.

Please pass the red stapler.

2005-01-27T13:28:00.000-05:00

Peter: Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements.

Anything is possible.

2005-01-27T11:12:00.000-05:00

History Is Written by the Victors.

Evolution isn’t a force, it’s a chemical reaction.

2005-01-27T09:27:00.000-05:00

If the fundamental forces of the universe are, in fact, intricately connected… as in the theory G=M(S+W+EM) where M is Mass or Matter… then can we dare to imagine that we are connected as one great entity with untapped powers and abilities to manipulate our surroundings beyond our current capabilities?

“I think therefore I am,” is more like “I think therefore I can.”

What did you not say?

2005-01-26T15:57:00.000-05:00

Sometimes when you talk to a person, you can get a better reading on what they’re thinking by what they’re NOT saying. The information that is left out becomes almost a negative image which, when reversed or flipped upside down or whatever, makes a complete picture.

One example is History. If you consider the great technological advances in History, it’s surprising how few of them are accompanied by explanations of how they were first conceived, accomplished and made practical. Take the example of iron. Iron does not come in large usable chunks. It must be collected, smelted and shaped. The process of smelting is simple as far as labor and material goes, but where did the idea to initiate the process come from?

To give a simple example of the process, you must first find pieces of iron ore. Essentially, these come in the form of reddish brown to black rocks. You must also have a flux, like sand, or glass, or sea shells. Then, you must light a big fire in an enclosed oven (for lack of a simpler term) and keep it stoked by pushing air through with a bellows. Next, you throw in the ingredients, being careful not to overheat or undercook. You must continue to feed and air the fire for several hours and then let it air cool. What results is a “bloom” of iron. In order to make use of this, you must reheat the bloom and pound it into shape, again, being careful not to overheat. Voila! Iron.

There is NO RECORD of who, when or where this process started, but we can estimate that it happened sometime just before the great Egyptian civilizations. Some would argue sooner, some later, but let’s assume that it was after the time that writing appeared. Would not the scholars of such a time feel obligated to record who and by what means this happened?

Okay, a freak act of God, Humans and Nature. How about the Great Pyramids of Egypt? There are no detailed records of HOW these architectural monstrosities were constructed. There are, however, details of the harvest down to the last bushel.

Okay, what about aspirin? It comes from a plant. Yup. Uh huh. Gotcha. It kills pain. Mmmmm. Good good. How’s it work? Not a single chemist or biologist has a clue. Who were the first people to use it? Natives. How’d they know to use that plant? They say their gods told them, but probably by trial and error.

Trial and error. So, we’re to believe that all these ancient discoveries were by trial and error. Didn’t anyone have any hunting and/or gathering to do back then? Over the top. Sorry.

Point is, even most of our modern discoveries (i.e. radio, silicon chips, the rotary engine, Kevlar) have no easy explanation as to how they came about. Through the process of gradual accumulation of knowledge over centuries, small advances can be made. But more often than not, human kind has made gigantic leaps forward with no precedent and no accurate and public record of how or even why. It’s one thing to assume that nobody cared to write it down. It’s another thing to recognize that for almost every great breakthrough humans have know, there is no available explanation of how and why it happened.

That’s not to say you can’t find out how these things work. You can have that. You cannot, however, find out what exactly triggered the first inspiration for such an idea. In some cases, all you can do is guess. How were radio waves discovered? Look it up. I did. There’s no mention of what sparked Maxwell’s imaginations when working over Ampere’s equations. Did he just guess there were radio waves? No, he was deliberately looking for them, though.

Where do the ideas come from? No one’s saying. *wink*

The Door & The Figure

2005-01-26T10:51:00.000-05:00

What do you see?

The Maze

2005-01-26T09:48:00.000-05:00

Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you.
-Marsha Norman

O Brother... I know where you are.

2005-01-26T09:46:00.000-05:00

Blind Seer: You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. But first... first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril... You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell... I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the obstacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation.

Society Falls Ill! Tune in at Eleven.

2005-01-25T13:46:00.000-05:00

Society is sick, possibly dying. Every human being can sense this somewhere deep in his/her soul. Everywhere I look people are scrambling to fit in and finding it hard. Religion, mass media, the government and even the workplace provide many avenues of escape, but no one truly gets away. New age movements promise clarity at a price, but their courses and seminars only enlighten the wallet.

How many people wake up in the middle of the night and count how many more precious hours they have left to sleep? It’s a sure sign something is wrong when we prefer sleep over everyday living. We should be looking forward to the day ahead, shouldn’t we? Very few people do. And when we return home, it’s television, or a video game, or music, or alcohol. Whatever works to forget the day for a while. We work long hours for money that we spend on thing that help us avoid the thought of how many long ours we’ve worked.

Some would say this is an American problem. Ridiculous. America is charm school compared to the rest of the world. Europe and Asia don’t have immigration problems. Everyone who wants a better life than miscellaneous country X comes here. I’ve heard of beggars and widow washers in Boston that make thirty grand a year. If you don’t believe me, try it. One hundred dollars a day tax free if you’re persistent.

No, it’s not just an American problem. People are disillusioned, pigeon holed, oppressed, repressed, depressed, medicated, bought and sold, marketed to, lied to, and it’s killing them slowly. Worst of all, it’s killing them from the mind and soul outward. .

What I’ve seen happening over the past five years worries me. There are fewer people that love their families and care for their friends. Most people have become hurtful and self centered, not out of conceitedness, but out of fear. Everyone is looking out for themselves. It’s like a colony of wounded animals with their backs to the wall. It’s a relief when I meet someone who is honest and concerned for others. Most are in self preservation mode. That’s as sure a sign as any that we’re dying.

I’ve read the majority of the self help books and quite a few of the new age offerings as well. They offer two basic solutions: Ignore the material world so that you can better focus on X, or become master of your inner world and the outer world will follow. Bullshit. First off, if the solution was as easy as reading a book or watching an infomercial, it would be working. Life is too complex to be summed up and solved in three hundred pages.

Have I read the Bible? Yes. Cover to cover. It took six years. As a brief aside, every Christian should be forced to do so. Not just the good parts either. Deuteronomy, Numbers, Leviticus, Maccabees, the whole thing. Enjoy the Psalms while you’re their. I recommend Psalm 94. It’s a great one for firing yourself up to hate people you’ve never spent one hour with. Just remember, God made human beings, human beings made books. Which of the two do you think He would entrust with his sacred message? God loves people, not words.

So, what is the solution to this crisis? There is none. There will be none. Accept it, and prepare yourself. How? Strengthen your body. Sharpen your mind. Cleanse your soul. The Third Age has begun. You are temporary. Those who have ears to hear, let them listen.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

2005-01-25T13:05:00.000-05:00

Is a resident of the cave (a prisoner, as it were) likely to want to make the ascent to the outer world? Why or why not? What does the sun symbolize in the allegory? And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:--Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?
Yes, he said.

And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

Very true.

And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

No question, he replied.

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

That is certain.

And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision,--what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them,--will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?

Far truer.

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?

True, he said.

And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

Not all in a moment, he said.

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?
Certainly.

Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.

Certainly.

He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?

Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.

And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

Certainly, he would.

And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer, Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner

Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.

Imagine once more, I said, such a one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?

To be sure, he said.

And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable), would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went, and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.

No question, he said.

This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed--whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, Here Plato describes his notion of God in a way that was influence profoundly Christian theologians. and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.

I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.

Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted.

Yes, very natural.

And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conception of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?

Anything but surprising, he replied.

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den.

That, he said, is a very just distinction.

But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.

They undoubtedly say this, he replied.

Whereas our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.

Your move, Chief.

2005-01-24T11:46:00.000-05:00

Will: Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll give it a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. So I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never had a problem with get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Send in the marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number was called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some guy from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes home to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile my buddy from Southie realizes the only reason he was over there was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish to scare up oil prices so they could turn a quick buck. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And naturally they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what do I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. Why not just shoot my buddy, take his job and give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.

Translation of The Symbol

2005-01-21T13:02:00.000-05:00

“Through inaction, you shed light on an opening by fire which shall cause pain and limitations. A gift through partnerships will create joy and illumination and open the gateway to a new beginning. Be protective and travel together towards the secret message. Chaos will follow a disruption and shattering of illusions requiring strength to continue past the water and achieve victory. Wealth is a barrier to perfection. A renewal by overcoming these barriers leads to the beginning. Follow the sun back to the home, the hearth.”

Weathering Time Itself

2005-01-19T17:17:00.000-05:00

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.
-Paul Valery

"My powers are getting stronger."

2005-01-19T17:05:00.000-05:00

We have been in agreement for years that something is happening. Perhaps we've been waiting for an external event when all along we should have been looking internally.

I think we missed something and I think it has been right in front of us the whole time. More and more these days I realize what I believe in comes to be. If I think it, it happens. How does this happen? What does that mean?

My mind is all over the road trying to figure out what I want and where I want to be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years and so on. I know the answer. In fact, I seem to know too many answers. My problem is that, like you, anything I take seriously, I could accomplish. That leaves me with far too many options and leads to confusion, disorder and chaos. You know... The Movement. Yet, here I am working a wonderful job that I don't even want with little or no clue as to what's going to happen next. Yet, in this economy, shouldn't be happy that I am employed at all? I guess so.

There's got to be more than this for me, for you, for us. There just has to be. We can have all the conversations, meeting and emails we want, but we'll still get nowhere. Why? Because we have too much to focus on and we're waiting for someone or something to force us in a single direction. I fear that arrow, so to speak, will never hit its mark.

People keep telling me that "hey, you're only 29, don't worry! You're young! I didn't know what I wanted until I was at least 35." Now, bear in mind that this is coming from people that deep down inside hate their lives. I also have to keep in mind the example set by my brother. Granted, it's an extreme example, but still all of his amazing talents, strong work ethics and great ideas eventually led to him rotting away in a federal prison with little or no chance at leading a good life once he's out. However, you never really know what's going to happen, do you? I don't.

At this point, I find myself admiring people whose powers are stronger than mine. I mean, people who can think of something, control how it is manifested in reality and then hang on to the process from start to finish. I can't do that. Well, I probably can, but I'm not willing to do that yet. Or maybe I just can't do that. Again, I don't know. I know that at one point in time I was able to do that and the reminders are still there day after day. Yet, when we met a while back and worked on a new project, in just one sitting we accomplished more than we had in years. So, assemble the right team and combine it with a good idea and we can do it.

Seems kind of basic, right? Well, it is.

Tyler Durden: I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

"The Sleeper must awaken!"

2005-01-19T16:33:00.000-05:00

Dogma: it's a good point.

2005-01-19T16:22:00.000-05:00

Nun: You don't believe in God because of Alice in Wonderland?

Loki: No, "Through the Looking Glass". That poem, "The Walrus and the Carpenter" that's an indictment of organized religion. The walrus, with his girth and his good nature, he obviously represents either Buddha, or... or with his tusk, the Hindu elephant god, Lord Ganesha. That takes care of your Eastern religions. Now the carpenter, which is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ, who was raised a carpenter's son, he represents the Western religions. Now in the poem, what do they do... what do they do? They... They dupe all these oysters into following them and then proceed to shuck and devour the helpless creatures en masse. I don't know what that says to you, but to me it says that following these faiths based on mythological figures ensure the destruction of one's inner-being. Organized religion destroys who we are by inhibiting our actions... by inhibiting our decisions, out of... out of fear of some... some intangible parent figure who... who shakes a finger at us from thousands of years ago and says... and says, "Do it - Do it and I'll fuckin' spank you. "

Some words from the past

2005-01-19T13:19:00.000-05:00

When I consider the events of the past decade, I keep analyzing what I have learned about human nature. I have found that it is exceedingly difficult to trust, predict, or even understand almost anyone to any great extent. This simple fact has triggered countless complications and caused a circle of friends to be pitted against each other. Now, I know that competition breed's invention, but it also fosters animosity that continues to build more and more hostility. Yet, by analyzing the sum of our parts, we can strengthen each individual piece.

As our influence grows and we continue to develop the message… the movement… we intend on spreading, we need to learn how to use competition as a means for spreading unity. Would you agree that the human race could advance itself much farther if we could find a way to focus on the preservation of culture and the prevention of overall corruption? Would you also agree that this would be triggered or come about by one of two things, either a great triumph or a massive tragedy?

We always seem to come together and forget our differences when we are backed into a corner. That goes for us all in general and ourselves as individuals. If you really take a hard look at some of the events from your own life, you will see that time and time again you too have forgotten your differences with others in order to reach a common yet beneficial goal in the face of adversity. There is no doubt that we will stumble and fall as we attempt to fly. But, fear not, together we will soar higher than you can possibly imagine.

I believe that when opportunity and acceptance meet sheer determination, all you are left with is success. The best opportunities to shape our future can be found as we combine our ambitions with our values. That is what makes us who we are. I am certain that we are finally on the right road. I am positive that it is only a matter of time before we truly are in control of our future… and perhaps our past.

I am convinced that our fate is not an element of destiny, but a choice made by us... a long time from now. There is no bandwagon to jump on, my friends, because we're already on board. Batten down the hatches; hold onto to your reigns, the Reckoning is here.

"The Future Is Now"

2005-01-19T11:58:00.000-05:00

So begins The Third Age of The Movement.

Stay tuned for the rants and reckonings of Chris & Graeme.