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One gets the impression that there are some people in Washington who believe that Israel or the U.S. can bomb Iran's nuclear reactors, fly home, and it will be mission complete.

It makes you wonder if perhaps there is a virus going around that is gradually making people stupid. If we or Israel attack Iran, we will have a new war on our hands. The Iranians are not going to shrug off an attack and say, "You naughty boys, you."

Consider how much trouble Iraq has given us. Some 4,000 dead and 29,000 wounded, a half a trillion dollars in cost and still climbing, and five years later, we cannot say that the country is pacified.

Iraq is a small country compared with Iran. Iran has about 70 million people. Its western mountains border the Persian Gulf. In other words, its missiles and guns look down on the U.S. ships below it. And it has lots of missiles, from short-range to intermediate-range (around 2,200 kilometers).

More to the point, it has been equipped by Russia with the fastest anti-ship missile on the planet. The SS-N-22 Sunburn can travel at Mach 3 at high altitude and at Mach 2.2 at low altitude. That is faster than anything in our arsenal.

Iran's conventional forces include an army of 540,000 men and 300,000 reserves, including 120,000 Iranian Guards especially trained in unconventional warfare. It has more than 1,600 main battle tanks and 21,000 other armored combat vehicles. It has 3,200 artillery pieces, three submarines, 59 surface warships and 10 amphibious ships.

It's been receiving help in arming itself from China, North Korea and Russia. Unlike Iraq, Iran's forces have not been worn down with bombing, wars and sanctions. It also has a new anti-aircraft defense system from Russia that I've heard is pretty snazzy.

So, if you think we or Israel can attack Iran and not expect retaliation, I'd have to say with regret that you are a moron. If you think we could easily handle Iran in an all-out war, I'd have to promote you to idiot.

Attacking Iran would be folly, but we seem to be living in the Age of Folly. Morons and idiots took us into an unjustified war against Iraq before we had finished the job in Afghanistan. Now we have troops tied down in both countries.

China has a tremendous investment and interest in Iran and would likely see an attack as a threat to its national interests. China could strike a large blow against the U.S. just by dumping the financial paper we have foolishly allowed the Chinese to pile up, thanks to the trade deficit.

For some years now, I've worried that we seem to be more and more like Colonial England – arrogant, racist, overestimating our own capacity and underestimating that of our enemies. As the fate of the British Empire demonstrates, that is a fatal flaw.

The British never dreamed that the "little yellow people" could come ashore by land and take Singapore from the rear or that they would sink the pride of the British fleet, but they did both.

I suppose no one in Washington can imagine the Iranians sinking one of our carriers in the Persian Gulf. How'd you like to be the president who has to tell the American people that we've lost a carrier for the first time since World War II?

Exactly how the Iranians will respond to an attack, I don't know, but they will respond. In keeping with our present policy, our attack on Iran would be illegal, since under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

Who would have thought that we would become the rogue nation committing acts of aggression around the globe?

There are two kinds of courage in war - physical courage and moral courage. Physical courage is very common on the battlefield. Men and women on both sides risk their lives, place their own bodies in harm’s way. Moral courage, however, is quite rare. According to Chris Hedges, the brilliant New York Times war correspondent who survived wars in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans, “I rarely saw moral courage. Moral courage is harder. It requires the bearer to walk away from the warm embrace of comradeship and denounce the myth of war as a fraud, to name it as an enterprise of death and immorality, to condemn himself, and those around him, as killers. It requires the bearer to become an outcast. There are times when taking a moral stance, perhaps the highest form of patriotism, means facing down the community, even the nation.”

More and more U.S. soldiers and Marines, at great cost to their own careers and reputations, are speaking publicly about U.S. atrocities in Iraq, even about the cowardice of their own commanders, who send youth into atrocity-producing situations only to hide from the consequences of their own orders. In 2007, two brilliant war memoirs - ROAD FROM AR RAMADI by Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia, and THE SUTRAS OF ABU GHRAIB by Army Reservist Aidan Delgado - appeared in print. In March 2008, at the Winter Soldier investigation just outside Washington D.C., hard-core U.S. Iraqi veterans, some shaking at the podium, some in tears, unburdened their souls. Jon Michael Turner described the horrific incident in which, on April 28, 2008, he shot an Iraqi boy in front of his father. His commanding officer congratulated him for “the kill.” To a stunned audience, Turner presented a photo of the boy’s skull, and said: “I am sorry for the hate and destruction I have inflicted on innocent people."

The Winter Soldier investigation was followed by the publication of COLLATERAL DAMAGE: AMERICA’S WAR AGAINST IRAQI CIVILIANS, by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. Based on hundreds of hours of taped interviews with Iraqi combat veterans, this pioneering work on the catastrophe in Iraq includes the largest number of eyewitness accounts from U.S. military personnel on record.

We cannot understand the psychological and moral significance of military resistance unless we recognize the social forces that stifle conscience and human individuality in military life. Gwen Dyer, historian of war, writes that ordinarily, “Men will kill under compulsion. Men will do almost anything if they know it is expected of them and they are under strong social pressure to comply.” “Only exceptional people resist atrocity,” writes psychiatrist Robert Lifton.

How much easier it is to surrender to the will of superiors, to merge into the anonymity of the group. It takes uncommon courage to resist military powers of intimidation, peer pressure, and the atmosphere of racism and hate that drives all imperial wars.

War crimes are collective in nature. Especially in wars based on fraud, soldiers are expected to lie - to their country, to their community, even to themselves. The silencing process begins on the battlefield in the presence of officers, power-holders who seek to nullify the perceptions and personal experience of troops under their command.

In his war memoir, Aidan Delgado describes attempts of his commanders to suppress the truth about Abu Ghraib. First his captain says the Army has nothing to hide, Abu Ghraib is just a rumor. But then the captain continues: “We don’t need to air our dirty laundry in public. If you have photos that you’re not supposed to have, get rid of them. Don’t talk about this to anyone, don’t write about it to anyone back home.” In the U.S. military, the truth is seditious.

Two years ago, Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey published his riveting autobiography (written with Natasha Saulnier) in France and Spain. How the Marine Corps - through indoctrination and intimidation - transforms a homeboy from the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina into a professional killer who murders “innocent people for his government” is the subject of Massey’s unsettling, impassioned, Jar-head raunchy, and ultimately uplifting memoir, COWBOYS FROM HELL. (No U.S. publisher has picked up the book. A Marine who speaks truth to power is not without honor save in his own country.) In Chapter 18, Jimmy describes a seemingly minor encounter with his captain. Here Massey gives us a look into the process of human denial in its early phase.

Massey has just participated in a checkpoint massacre of civilians. His sense of decency, his sanity, is still in tact. Like any normal human being, he is distraught. The carnage of the war, the imbalance of power between the biggest war machine in history and a suffering people devoid of tanks and air power - the sheer injustice of it all - begins to take its toll on Massey’s conscience.

In the wake of the horrific events of the day, his captain is cool. He walks up to Massey and asks; “Are you doing all right, Staff Sergeant?” Massey responds: “No, sir. I am not doing O.K. Today was a bad day. We killed a lot of innocent civilians.”

Fully of aware of the civilian carnage, his captain asserts: “No, today was a good day.” Relatives wailing, cars destroyed, blood all over the ground, Marines celebrating, civilians dead, and “it was good day”!

The Massey incident goes beyond the mendacity of military life. It concerns the control, the dehumanization of the psyches of our troops. As one Vietnam veteran put it years ago: “They kept fucking with my mind.”

In 1994 Jonathan Shay, staff psychiatrist in the Department of Veterans Affairs, published a pioneering work on post traumatic stress – Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. According to Shay, who recorded volumes of testimony from Vietnam veterans, commanders routinely try to efface the perceptions and the normal feelings of compassion among American troops. Military necessity, including the ever-present need for political propaganda, determines what is perceived, and how it is perceived, in war.

It was an extremely common experience in Vietnam, Shay writes, to be told by military superiors dealing with crime and trauma: “You didn’t experience it, it never happened, and you don’t know what you know.” And it was fairly common for traumatized soldiers to say to reporters: “It didn’t happen. And besides, they had it coming.” Shay recorded the testimony of one veteran who, in great anger, describes the pressures to alter his perceptions of collective murder.

“Daylight came, and we found out we killed a lot of fishermen and kids...You said to the team, ‘Don’t worry about it. Everything’s fucking fine.’ Because that’s what we were getting from upstairs. The fucking colonel says, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of it. We got body count.’ They’d be handing out fucking medals for killing civilians. So in your mind you’re saying, ‘Ah, fuck it, they’re just gooks.’ I was sick over it, after this happened. I actually puked my guts out...But see, it’s all explained to you by captains and colonels and majors. ‘Fuck it, they was suspects anyways. You guys did a great job. Erase it. It’s yesterday’s fucking news.’”

The collective process of denial on the battlefield eventually extends to the homeland. Returning soldiers, to be sure, are often honored, but only so long as they remain silent about the realities, the pathos, the absurd evils of war. Willful public ignorance is a source of pain for veterans.

Ernest Hemingway’s brilliant short story, Soldier’s Home, published in 1925 after World War I, gives us insight into the reluctance of civilians to address the psychic needs of soldiers back from war.

The simply told story is about a young man named Krebs who returns to his home in Oklahoma. At first Krebs does not want to talk about the war. But soon he feels the need to speak - to his family, his neighbors and friends. But as Hemingway tells us, “Nobody wanted to hear about it.” His town did not want to learn about atrocities, and “Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie.”

There’s the rub. His ability to assimilate into civilian life depended on his willingness to fabricate stories about the war. Soldiers are not only expected to lie on behalf of the military during the course of war, they are also expected to participate in homecoming rituals that preserve the civilian fantasy of war’s nobility.

In Hemingway’s story, the pressure to lie is so powerful, Krebs begins to manufacture stories about his experiences in battle - just to get along, just be able to lead a normal life. Repression, however, is a major cause of mental illness and loneliness. Krebs morale deteriorates. He sleeps late in bed. He loses interest in work. He withdraws into himself.

That’s all Hemingway tells us. It’s a quietly told story, all the more powerful for its understatement.

There is a connection between Hemingway’s war-informed fiction and real life. As Shay notes, there is a tension between a soldier’s need to communalize shame and grief and the unwillingness of civilians to listen to troops whom they sent into battle. One Vietnam veteran told the following story:

“I had just come back from Vietnam and my first wife’s parents gave a dinner for me and my parents and her brothers and their wives. And after dinner we were all sitting in the living room and her father said: ‘So, tell us what it was like.’ And I started to tell them, and I told them. And do you know that within five minutes the room was empty. They were all gone, except my wife. After that I didn’t tell anybody what I had seen in Vietnam.” Welcome home, soldier. Now shut up.

Notwithstanding clichés and pieties about support for troops, those who promote war are often the least likely to share the burdens and memories of war when soldiers return. When Ron Kovic, who was paralyzed from the chest down during the war in Vietnam, steered his wheelchair down the aisle of the Republican National Convention in 1972, the delegates spat on him and cheered for Nixon - “Four more years.”

W.D. Erhart, Vietnam veteran and author of Passing Time, never forgot the horrific episodes of his tour in Vietnam. In his first autobiography, he tells a friend about his speech at a Rotary Club. “I even put on a coat and tie and went to the Rotary Club. The Rotary Club, for chrissake. I laid it all out for ‘em. I told ‘em about search and destroy missions, harassment and interdiction fire, winning hearts and minds, all that stuff...Was I ever sharp that day.

“Now listen. You won’t believe this. I got done and nobody said a word. No applause. Nothing. Then this skinny old fart shaped like a cold chisel gets up and says he’s a retired colonel, and he thinks we should keep on pounding those little yellow bastards until they do what we say or we kill ‘em all, and he tells me I can’t be a real veteran because a real veteran wouldn’t go around badmouthing the good old U.S. of A., and the whole place erupts in thunderous applause.” Welcome home, soldier. Now shut up.

Today Georgia Stillwell is a mother of a 21-year-old Iraqi war veteran. Her son is now homeless, unemployed, and despondent. Early one morning he drove his car over an embankment. She says that her son is a mere physical shell of himself. “My son’s spirit and soul must still be wandering the streets of Iraq.” It is not simply what happened in Iraq, but how veterans are treated at home when they seek to unburden their souls, that reinforces post-traumatic stress. On the night he drove the car off the road, he was crying, talking about the war. “His friends tell me he talks about the war. They describe it as ‘crazy talk.’ He wants the blood of the Iraqis he killed off his hands.”

“Each generation,” writes Chris Hedges, “discovers its own disillusionment, often at a terrible price. And the war in Iraq has begun to produce legions of the lost and the damned.” For our morally courageous veterans - for all of us, really, who seek forgiveness - only the truth can heal.

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Paul Rockwell, is a writer living in the Bay Area. He is also a columnist for In Motion Magazine. Click here to reach Mr. Rockwell.

NOTE from Ron: Because so many, even in the metaphysical community, still buy into the current goeverment propaganda that Islam is responsible for terrorism, I post this imporatant viewpoint. Yes, I know that manuy are SO CONVINCED by the divide and conquer tactics of the establishment, which is the TRUE enemy of Truth, that they will not believe it. Still, I want the truth out there for those willing to look and see.

Since the days when Roman Emperors threw Christians to the lions, the relations between the emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many changes.

Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the year 306--exactly 1700 years ago--encouraged the practice of Christianity in the empire, which included Palestine. Centuries later, the church split into an Eastern (Orthodox) and a Western (Catholic) part. In the West, the Bishop of Rome, who acquired the title of Pope, demanded that the Emperor accept his superiority.

The struggle between the Emperors and the Popes played a central role in European history and divided the peoples. It knew ups and downs. Some Emperors dismissed or expelled a Pope, some Popes dismissed or excommunicated an Emperor. One of the Emperors, Henry IV, "walked to Canossa", standing for three days barefoot in the snow in front of the Pope's castle, until the Pope deigned to annul his excommunication.

But there were times when Emperors and Popes lived in peace with each other. We are witnessing such a period today. Between the present Pope, Benedict XVI, and the present Emperor, George Bush II, there exists a wonderful harmony. Last week's speech by the Pope, which aroused a world-wide storm, went well with Bush's crusade against "Islamofascism", in the context of the "Clash of Civilizations".

In his lecture at a German university, the 265th Pope described what he sees as a huge difference between Christianity and Islam: while Christianity is based on reason, Islam denies it. While Christians see the logic of God's actions, Muslims deny that there is any such logic in the actions of Allah.

As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the fray of this debate. It is much beyond my humble abilities to understand the logic of the Pope. But I cannot overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as an Israeli living near the fault-line of this "war of civilizations".

In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam, the Pope asserts that the prophet Muhammad ordered his followers to spread their religion by the sword. According to the Pope, that is unreasonable, because faith is born of the soul, not of the body. How can the sword influence the soul?

To support his case, the Pope quoted--of all people--a Byzantine Emperor, who belonged, of course, to the competing Eastern Church. At the end of the 14th century, the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus told of a debate he had--or so he said (its occurrence is in doubt)--with an unnamed Persian Muslim scholar. In the heat of the argument, the Emperor (according to himself) flung the following words at his adversary:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

These words give rise to three questions: (a) Why did the Emperor say them? (b) Are they true? (c) Why did the present Pope quote them?

When Manuel II wrote his treatise, he was the head of a dying empire. He assumed power in 1391, when only a few provinces of the once illustrious empire remained. These, too, were already under Turkish threat.

At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had reached the banks of the Danube. They had conquered Bulgaria and the north of Greece, and had twice defeated relieving armies sent by Europe to save the Eastern Empire. In 1453, only a few years after Manuel's death, his capital, Constantinople (the present Istanbul) fell to the Turks, putting an end to the Empire that had lasted for more than a thousand years.

During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of the capitals of Europe in an attempt to drum up support. He promised to reunite the church. There is no doubt that he wrote his religious treatise in order to incite the Christian countries against the Turks and convince them to start a new crusade. The aim was practical, theology was serving politics.

In this sense, the quote serves exactly the requirements of the present Emperor, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the Christian world against the mainly Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover, the Turks are again knocking on the doors of Europe, this time peacefully. It is well known that the Pope supports the forces that object to the entry of Turkey into the European Union.

The pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a serious and renowned theologian, he could not afford to falsify written texts. Therefore, he admitted that the Qur'an specifically forbade the spreading of the faith by force. He quoted the second Sura, verse 256 (strangely fallible, for a pope, he meant verse 257) which says: "There must be no coercion in matters of faith".

How can one ignore such an unequivocal statement? The Pope simply argues that this commandment was laid down by the prophet when he was at the beginning of his career, still weak and powerless, but that later on he ordered the use of the sword in the service of the faith. Such an order does not exist in the Qur'an. True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword in his war against opposing tribes--Christian, Jewish and others--in Arabia, when he was building his state. But that was a political act, not a religious one; basically a fight for territory, not for the spreading of the faith.

Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their fruits." The treatment of other religions by Islam must be judged by a simple test: How did the Muslim rulers behave for more than a thousand years, when they had the power to "spread the faith by the sword"?

For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did the Greeks become Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamize them? On the contrary, Christian Greeks held the highest positions in the Ottoman administration. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and other European nations lived at one time or another under Ottoman rule and clung to their Christian faith. Nobody compelled them to become Muslims and all of them remained devoutly Christian.

True, the Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did the Bosniaks. But nobody argues that they did this under duress. They adopted Islam in order to become favorites of the government and enjoy the fruits.

In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At that time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine by the Muslims, Christians were still the majority in the country. Throughout this long period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them. Only after the expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the majority of the inhabitants start to adopt the Arabic language and the Muslim faith--and they were the forefathers of most of today's Palestinians.

There is no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to impose Islam on the Jews. As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our time. Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in Arabic, as did the great Maimonides. In Muslim Spain, Jews were ministers, poets, scientists. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together and translated the ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age. How would this have been possible, had the Prophet decreed the "spreading of the faith by the sword"?

What happened afterwards is even more telling. When the Catholics re-conquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. The Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews settled all over the Muslim world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in the south. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up to the Holocaust.

WHY? Because Islam expressly prohibited any persecution of the "peoples of the book". In Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews and Christians. They did not enjoy completely equal rights, but almost. They had to pay a special poll-tax, but were exempted from military service--a trade-off that was quite welcome to many Jews. It has been said that Muslim rulers frowned upon any attempt to convert Jews to Islam even by gentle persuasion--because it entailed the loss of taxes.

Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty generations, while the Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried many times "by the sword" to get them to abandon their faith.

The story about "spreading the faith by the sword" is an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims--the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.

There is no escape from viewing them against the background of the new Crusade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with his slogans of "Islamofascism" and the "Global War on Terrorism"--when "terrorism" has become a synonym for Muslims. For Bush's handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify the domination of the world's oil resources. Not for the first time in history, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic interests; not for the first time, a robbers' expedition becomes a Crusade.

The speech of the Pope blends into this effort. Who can foretell the dire consequences?

Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is one of the writers featured in The Other Israel: Voices of Dissent and Refusal. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's hot new book The Politics of Anti-Semitism. www.counterpunch.org/avnery09262006.html

Washington has become Versailles. We are ruled, entertained and informed by courtiers. The popular media are courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are courtiers. Our pundits and experts are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games. We are being had.

The past week was a good one if you were a courtier. We were instructed by the high priests on television over the past few days to mourn a Sunday morning talk show host, who made $5 million a year and who gave a platform to the powerful and the famous so they could spin, equivocate and lie to the nation. We were repeatedly told by these television courtiers, people like Tom Brokaw and Wolf Blitzer, that this talk show host was one of our nation’s greatest journalists, as if sitting in a studio, putting on makeup and chatting with Dick Cheney or George W. Bush have much to do with journalism.

No journalist makes $5 million a year. No journalist has a comfortable, cozy relationship with the powerful. No journalist believes that acting as a conduit, or a stenographer, for the powerful is a primary part of his or her calling. Those in power fear and dislike real journalists. Ask Seymour Hersh and Amy Goodman how often Bush or Cheney has invited them to dinner at the White House or offered them an interview.

All governments lie, as I.F. Stone pointed out, and it is the job of the journalist to do the hard, tedious reporting to shine a light on these lies. It is the job of courtiers, those on television playing the role of journalists, to feed off the scraps tossed to them by the powerful and never question the system. In the slang of the profession, these television courtiers are “throats.” These courtiers, including the late Tim Russert, never gave a voice to credible critics in the buildup to the war against Iraq. They were too busy playing their roles as red-blooded American patriots. They never fought back in their public forums against the steady erosion of our civil liberties and the trashing of our Constitution. These courtiers blindly accept the administration’s current propaganda to justify an attack on Iran. They parrot this propaganda. They dare not defy the corporate state. The corporations that employ them make them famous and rich. It is their Faustian pact. No class of courtiers, from the eunuchs behind Manchus in the 19th century to the Baghdad caliphs of the Abbasid caliphate, has ever transformed itself into a responsible elite. Courtiers are hedonists of power.

Our Versailles was busy this past week. The Democrats passed the FISA bill, which provides immunity for the telecoms that cooperated with the National Security Agency’s illegal surveillance over the past six years. This bill, which when signed means we will never know the extent of the Bush White House’s violation of our civil liberties, is expected to be adopted by the Senate. Barack Obama has promised to sign it in the name of national security. The bill gives the U.S. government a license to eavesdrop on our phone calls and e-mails. It demolishes our right to privacy. It endangers the work of journalists, human rights workers, crusading lawyers and whistle-blowers who attempt to expose abuses the government seeks to hide. These private communications can be stored indefinitely and disseminated, not just to the U.S. government but to other governments as well. The bill, once signed into law, will make it possible for those in power to identify and silence anyone who dares to make public information that defies the official narrative.

Being a courtier, and Obama is one of the best, requires agility and eloquence. The most talented of them can be lauded as persuasive actors. They entertain us. They make us feel good. They convince us they are our friends. We would like to have dinner with them. They are the smiley faces of a corporate state that has hijacked the government and is raping the nation. When the corporations make their iron demands, these courtiers drop to their knees, whether to placate the telecommunications companies that fund their campaigns and want to be protected from lawsuits, or to permit oil and gas companies to rake in obscene profits and keep in place the vast subsidies of corporate welfare doled out by the state.

We cannot differentiate between illusion and reality. We trust courtiers wearing face powder who deceive us in the name of journalism. We trust courtiers in our political parties who promise to fight for our interests and then pass bill after bill to further corporate fraud and abuse. We confuse how we feel about courtiers like Obama and Russert with real information, facts and knowledge. We chant in unison with Obama that we want change, we yell “yes we can,” and then stand dumbly by as he coldly votes away our civil liberties. The Democratic Party, including Obama, continues to fund the war. It refuses to impeach Bush and Cheney. It allows the government to spy on us without warrants or cause. And then it tells us it is our salvation. This is a form of collective domestic abuse. And, as so often happens in the weird pathology of victim and victimizer, we keep coming back for more.

Chris Hedges, who was a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times, says he will vote for Ralph Nader for president.

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SILVER, GOLD AND THE IRS

By Derry Brownfield
June 15, 2008
NewsWithViews.com

I began a recent presentation before a large group of cattle producers (R-CALFUSA) by showing a paper dollar bill and a silver coin. The words “one dollar” is inscribed on both the coin and the paper, yet the paper dollar will only pay for about one quart of gasoline at today’s prices, while the silver dollar will pay for well over five gallons. I explained to my audience that consumer prices are not high – the paper dollar has lost most of its value. It makes no difference how high the price of gasoline goes, a silver dollar will continue to buy gas for 20 cents a gallon, exactly the price gas was during the Great Depression. Based on 1940 prices, a paper dollar is worth about two pennies.

Today in America, we are being systematically robbed of our property because we have allowed the Federal Reserve to flood our banks with fiat, worthless paper money. There is actually a law against paper money but nobody seems to know about it. The Supreme law of the land is the US Constitution, which stated in Article I Section 10: Individual states are “not allowed to make any things but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.” The Constitution also states that “Congress has the power to COIN money and regulate the value thereof.” Our Founding Fathers knew how a central bank printing paper money would collapse our economy. Had we followed the US Constitution to the full letter of the law, gasoline would still be 20 cents a gallon. As the dollar continues to lose value we say our currency has lost its purchasing power. It should be more properly referred to as embezzlement by the banking industry.

Robert Kahre owns a family business and instead of using paper money he paid his workers with gold and silver coins minted by the United States government. He paid them based on the “face value” of the coins. If he paid a worker a dollar an hour he paid with a silver dollar, which states on the coin that it is “one dollar” regardless of today’s value. His wages were so low that he didn’t have to file W-2 income tax forms or withhold taxes or pay workman’s comp. This upset the IRS, which charged him and his family with 161 federal tax crimes.

The case which was tried before a Las Vegas jury in a Federal Court, heard testimony for almost four months. Defendants believed they had no legal obligation to withhold, pay income taxes or report anything to the government because the “face value” of the gold and silver coins is so small as to fall beneath the reporting thresholds set by the Internal Revenue Code. The government argued that the payments in gold and silver US coins must be considered at their bullion, full-market value when considering the worth of the wages for purposes of the IRS code. The essence of the argument is that Congress is obligated by law to mint and circulate such coins as demand requires, and must establish the value of coins as they are used as legal tender, but a coin’s market value is a distinct, separate attribute of such coins and is of no legal consequence if the coins are used as legal tender. If a worker is paid with such coins, his taxable income can only be the face value indicated on the coin. “A coin dollar is worth no more for the purposes of tender in payment of an ordinary debt than a note dollar. The law has not made the note a standard of value anymore than coin. It is true that in the market, as an article of merchandise, one is of greater value than the other; but as money, as a medium of exchange, the law knows no difference between them.”

On September 17, the jury returned its verdict refusing to convict all nine defendants of any of the 161 federal tax crimes they had been charged with. One would think, “we the tax payers would want to hear that the IRS was defeated by the use of the true money.” To my knowledge, the results of this trial were never printed or broadcast by any of the major news media. Three days after the trial’s conclusion, the Las Vegas Review Journal ran its first and last story about the outcome and then only because of public pressure from interested parties who attended the trial.

The Department of Justice prosecutors know that justice was done and that if this information was made available to the general public their house of cards would come tumbling down. All federal agencies have a great fear of the truth and only by controlling the news media can they keep the world from caving in on their heads.

(After typing this article, Beth (my secretary) has now surrendered the raise that she has yet to receive, contingent on me agreeing to pay her in gold & silver coins; see the truth does hurt.)

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THE DAWN OF AMERICAN AND WORLD FREEDOM IS CLOSe

By Benjamin Fulford
Exclusive to Rense.com
5-31-8

Recent trends in world events make it clear we are truly on the verge of a new dawn for civilization. We now have in our hands the chance to permanently end war, environmental destruction and poverty. We will also witness the release of long suppressed technology that will enable all humans to live like billionaires if they so wish. It will be, indeed, be a Golden Age.

This is not wishful thinking. Events are unfolding as we speak that will create a change far bigger than the collapse of the Berlin wall. We have witnessed the arrival of an extraordinary global coalition uniting all countries of the planet in opposition to the secret governments of the US and Israel.

These two countries have been under the secret control of a cabal of financiers led by David Rockefeller, George Bush Senior and their assorted allies and minions. Throughout the 20th century, they started wars, slaughtered hundreds of millions of people, spread diseases, murdered heads of state who tried to oppose them and systematically brainwashed the people of Israel and the United States. Their long term plan was to enslave the majority of humanity and carry out genocide in order to create paradise for a small, self-selected elite.

The events of 911 were supposed to trigger a period of permanent fear and war that would culminate in an artificially created end of times scenario. It was designed to so traumatize the survivors as to get them to agree to permanent slavery in exchange for the right to survival.

Their plans began to unravel thanks to the spontaneous appearance of a global coalition of enlightened people who connected with each other through the internet. Suspicions about the truth of 911 started as a small trickle and gradually turned into a torrent. Citizen investigators from around the world uncovered the monstrous conspiracy behind 911 and soon governments around the world also learned the truth.

The final nail in the coffin for the conspirators was the realization by an Asian secret society that George Bush's government created and disseminated SARS as an artificial disease agent designed to wipe out most of the world's non-Caucasian peoples.

Although the society has a membership of 6 million, including 1.8 million gangsters and 100,000 professional killers, they decided to fight the conspiracy using peaceful means.

Government leaders around the world, who knew about the conspiracy but were too afraid to speak out, were offered protection and information. As a result, we now have an alliance that includes India, Russia, China, Japan, ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations), UNOSUR (the nations of South America), the free Islamic countries and now, it appears even the EU has joined the bandwagon. Even the mainstream news wires are reporting this extraordinary change although the full implications have yet to seep through into the Western public consciousness.

The recent signing of a treaty between Russia and the EU and opposition by the EU to offering membership in NATO to Georgia, for example, is a clear sign of a split between the EU and the US.

The United States Federal Reserve Board meanwhile, is headed for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy sounds horrible but it will actually be a very good thing for the American people. It will mean a period of turbulence that will nonetheless be much less chaotic than the fall of the Soviet Union. After that, Americans will experience prosperity such as they have not experienced in decades.

The Pentagon will be transformed from an instrument of terror and mass-murder into the greatest force for good in the history of the human race. The incredible secret technologies they possess will be made public and used to benefit the human race and the natural world of this planet.

It will be possible to terra-form the planet Earth. New energy technology will make it possible to turn the Sahara, Australian and Gobi deserts into vast green paradises. The vast dead zones in the oceans will be seeded with nutrients, resulting in a 10-fold increase in the amount of fish. Arctic regions will become habitable thanks to the new energy technology.

Furthermore, humanity will finally be free to head into space and truly explore the universe.

Within a few decades all humans will be offered the choice of immortality and genetic enhancement.

To start off this wonderful new era, a Marshall Plan for the planet earth will be required. The planet is seriously ill. The Oceans are being depleted of life at a far faster rate than they can they can replenish themselves, creatures are going extinct at a rate not seen since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago and billions of humans are either starving or being prevented from developing their full potential. We have the capability and the technology to permanently put an end to these horrors within 3 years. All we require is the political will.

The coming months will be crucial to making sure the transformation is a smooth one.

Last year, when I wrote the article [found HERE], a representative of the Western Secret Government made some promises to me. They said George Bush would not be allowed to complete his term. They said Al Gore would be made an interim President. They also promised an Autumn surprise that never really came. In return, I promised that a global coalition would emerge. That coalition is now a fact.

It is clear there was a campaign to promote Al Gore. He was given an Oscar, a Nobel Prize and a highly promoted movie. He also has a $300 million PR war-chest. But George Bush and his cabal of genocidal murderers are still in power. My guess is that the people in the EU tried their best to promote Al Gore but were stopped by David Rockefeller and George Bush Senior, et al.

Here is one more appeal to David Rockefeller. David, you know I could have had you eliminated. Instead, I offered you a chance to appear in history as a Wizard of OZ type figure who tried to do his best for the people of the world. All I asked in return is that you prepare a fake Armageddon as a fitting way to inaugurate the new age you so much wished for.

So, how about it David, why not hire all of Hollywood and all of NATO and put together what will be known as the greatest show in history? The original plan you were born and raised to fulfill was based on false science and racism. You have the chance to set things right before you go to heaven. Please, to all members of the US secret government, help save the planet earth.

Benjamin Fulford
090-3439-5558
See http://www.rense.com/Datapages/fulfdat.htm for complete Fulford archive.

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THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER: TREASONS AND ASSASINATIONS, TREACHERY AND WAR

Summary: More on what Ted told Obama, Hillary exposes her Freudian Slip for all to see, real threats to security and stability, the neocons intentions to stay in power, new theatres of war, the fall of Rome and other great civilizations

In a recent issue, we outlined how Barack Obama was told by Ted Kennedy not to take Hillary Clinton on as a running mate and gave some of the background behind that recommendation. Basically, Ted knows that the Clinton and Bush crime families, who have reeked their reign of terror on the citizens of the US in the Bush-Clinton-Bush triple whammy, were most likely behind the assassination of JFK, Jr., or if you prefer, the "accidental" plane crash that took him out of contention as a potential presidential candidate for the 2000 election year. The "accident" took place in 1999 while Clinton was finishing his second and final term as President and the candidates for the office of President for the 2000 election year were being lined up. JFK, Jr. could probably have beaten Dubya hands down if he had taken the Democratic nomination away from Al Gore, who in fact later won the election, but for the fraud in Florida voting counts where brother Jeb took care of things for brother George. Al Gore, under pressure from the Bush crime family, who were in the process of "influencing" the US Supreme Court, was promised a special hat trick in connection with a movie about global warming disinformation he was asked to create and promote by upper tier Illuminists. Hence, the piece of cinematic garbage, "An Inconvenient Truth," which brought Gore an Emmy, an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize as payola for giving up the Presidency to Caligula.

Ted also has to know that the Clinton's have left behind scores of dead bodies in the wake of their notorious political careers and would not hesitate to take Obama out to push Hillary into the Presidency. He also has to know that both the Bush and Clinton crime families were major players in the neocon setup of the phony "War on Terror" and the dastardly 911 mass murder the beginnings of which were well underway during the Clinton Administration, which saw both the First World Trade Center Bombing in 1993 followed by the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. So clearly Senator Obama is taking on some extremely dangerous, hardcore sociopaths, as is Ron Paul for that matter. And Ted knows they would not hesitate to take Obama out to put the Queen of Marxism, often referred to as the "Womanoid," into the Oval Office, if Obama was foolish enough to make her his running mate and then was to win the Presidential election against the Bush Clone, McCain, aka the "Albino Chipmunk."

So now, a couple weeks after our original comment about Ted's recommendation to Obama, when Hillary Clinton is asked why she is not conceding the nomination to Obama despite being hopelessly behind in the delegate count, she reminds the reporter about the Robert Kennedy assassination in June of 1968. Nice little "Freudian slip" there, eh! You mean when the frontrunner was assassinated? Her statement seems more like a thinly veiled threat to us. Later we are told that she was simply referring to the fact that the nomination was still being contended in June of that election year, but come on, what does that have to do with the facts and circumstances of this election and whether she should concede or not. If Obama takes the Democratic nomination and then makes the mistake of selecting the Queen B as his running mate, he is inviting an assassination attempt, ala Gerald Ford and Rockefeller's attempt to take him out, twice, or he will be compromised and disgraced like Richard Nixon, ala Rockefeller's revenge on Nixon for naming Ford as his Vice President over Rockefeller to avoid the inevitable assassin's bullet (Nixon was indeed a reprobate, but a smart one).

Did you really think that Watergate was about Nixon getting caught in the cover-up and about seeking truth, justice and the American way? Please, spare us. No one gets caught, unless the elitists want them to be caught. Ask Elliot Spitzer.

Watergate was all about taking Nixon out to make way for elitist Rockefeller to become President. The arrangement to propel S&M Master, Nelson Rockefeller, into the Presidency, came complete with a full pardon for Nixon in exchange for dupe Gerald Ford's ascendency to the Presidency, to be followed by Rockefeller's subsequent appointment as Vice President (which required a Constitutional amendment that Rockefeller had made mighty efforts to pass beforehand so he could step into the Vice Presidency without being voted in by the US public who hated his perverted guts), and then Gerald Ford's assassination to put the King of Perverts (Rocky) in the White House. This all followed Vice President Agnew's elitist-arranged removal through exposure of certain of his income tax "problems" so Nixon could appoint Rocky as his Vice President. As we said, Nixon appointed Ford instead to avoid assassination at the hands of the Prince of Darkness (Rocky).

Incidentally, Ford was in on the Warren Commission's cover-up of JFK, Sr.'s treasonous assassination, and was a dupe for the elitists from the beginning. For his services to the Illuminati, Gerald Ford received the Presidency for what, apparently unbeknownst to him, was supposed to be a very short period of time that was supposed to end with each of the two assassination attempts. Had he been assassinated, considering his actions while on the Warren Commission, it would have been a nice piece of poetic justice. But that would mean that elitist scumbag, Nelson Rockefeller, would have become President and taken us into World War III, so we're glad that Ford survived.

We are called the greatest nation on earth, yet this is how our politics are conducted. What a sham. What a disgrace. We predict that if Obama makes Clinton his running mate, and then beats McCain, he will not make it through his first term in office. He will be either assassinated or disgraced out of office so the evil Marxist Womanoid can become President. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.

Of course, this all assumes we have an election in November, which is in substantial doubt. Because of the treasonous actions and mass murder of 911, the neocons must stay in power to continue the cover-up of their actions. This is why we had voter fraud during the 2004 election, this time in Ohio instead of Florida, to ensure a Bush victory. A loss would mean the loss of control over the CIA and the military and the potential for a real investigation into 911, into the phony "War on Terror", into the lies about Saddam Hussein and Iraqi WMD's to justify our entry into Iraq, into torture and other war crimes and into the mountain of corruption in connection with military and civilian no-bid contracts, payments for non-performance and missing cash and weapons, to name but a few.

The neocons are quaking in terror at the prospect of leaving their seats of power and at the potential for being exposed to endless inquiries and recriminations which might lead them to the gallows, which is where they all belong. So all this adds up to the potential for another 911-type false-flag attack, this time to keep the neocons in power so they can continue the cover-up of their misdeeds during a period of martial law to be declared under the auspices of the Patriot Acts and the Military Commissions Act. As a bonus, this type of situation would be intended to draw our attention away from the intentional and malevolent destruction of our economy, which was enabled by the Illuminist, privately-owned Fed and which occurred primarily during the era of unparalleled debauchery which we refer to as the Bush-Clinton-Bush triple whammy. The non-stop rise of oil prices may be reflecting some insider knowledge about such a false-flag attack or about the creation of a new theater of war in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Kosovo and/or Georgia to distract attention away from the failings of our incumbent miscreants with respect to the handling of our economy (not included among the miscreant incumbents is of course, Ron Paul, one of the few remaining true patriots left in our corrupt government). Bush, Sr. has picked up some remote land in Paraguay as a new potential criminal family compound in order to hedge his bets.

The ongoing destruction of our economy and the free trade agenda were energized during the period of the Bush-Clinton-Bush triple whammy of Presidential Administrations, and all of their nefarious dealings were assisted by Reagan's Executive Order creating the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, also known as the PPT. The PPT has been used to manipulate markets to assure insider-trading profits for elitists on Wall Street, in corporate America and in our government, and also to hide the destruction of our economy by preventing our markets from reflecting the truth about underlying fundamentals. Our markets are not free, and many decisions are made based on economic statistics that are more related to opium and mushroom induced pipe-dreams of the fiction writers at the Bureau of Lying Statistics than they are to any financial realities. This is why our markets have become counterintuitive. And if you try to trade based on truth instead of on elitist lies about the economy, you are destroyed by nonsensical, schizophrenic market action brought about by the PPT to cover up the nefarious dealings of the Illuminati. Charts, graphs and software programs are useless under these circumstances and cartel knowledge of what these methods predict is actually used against those who cling to them for a crutch.

Our entire society, from its citizens, to its corporations, to its government, is one big monumental cluster-you-know-what, and will only be changed when the people of our nation are made to feel the full impact of the destructive forces unleashed by the Illuminati and which the people of our nation, by their sluggish, doltish and oafish inaction, have allowed to happen. Yes indeed, you get the kind of government you deserve, and our disgusting and revolting government, which has now succeeded in utterly destroying the US economy, could not be more richly deserved by our ignorant, complacent, narcissistic and hedonistic citizens. The Fall of Rome will no longer be discussed. The Fall of the United States of America will take its place.

If we get a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton quadruple whammy, it's all over but the crying. If this monumentally disastrous event occurs, you should immediately remove yourself and as many of your family members as possible from the US. If you can't leave, be sure to accumulate weapons, ammunition and freeze-dried food by the truckload and get ready to rumble. A new Clinton Administration means that the epic battle of Armageddon approaches. Anything she does will increase the destructive power of our current debacle by an order of magnitude. The fact that so many of our citizens are head-over-heels about the Womanoid's candidacy tells you all you need to know about the intellect of average American citizens, who now appear to have I.Q.'s that can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The public's current disinterest in gold and silver is an equally good indicator of America's cretinism. The stupidity of our citizens is probably the scariest thought of all. How do you work your way out of a crisis when everyone around you is an idiot?

http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Treasons_and_Assasinations_Treachery_and_War

Who is Bob Chapman?

Mr. Chapman is 72 years old. He was born in Boston, MA and attended Northeastern University majoring in business management. He spent three years in the U. S. Army Counterintelligence, mostly in Europe. He speaks German and French and is conversant in Spanish. He lived in Europe for six years, off and on, three years in Africa, a year in Canada and a year in the Bahamas.

Mr. Chapman became a stockbroker in 1960 and retired in 1988. For 18 of those years he owned his own brokerage firm. He was probably the largest gold and silver stockbroker in the world during that period. When he retired he had over 6,000 clients.

From 1962 through 1976 he specialized in South African gold shares. He and his family lived in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) and Johannesburg, South Africa from 1970 to 1973. During that time he did a great deal of further study into the South African mining industry.

Mr. Chapman belonged to The Traders Association for 25 years. He did all his own trading. During his South African years some was done directly through Johannesburg, but 95% was done through London brokerage firms. Hence, he has extensive contacts, both in London and on the Continent.

Starting in 1967 Mr. Chapman began writing articles on business, finance, economics and politics having been printed and reprinted over the years in over 200 publications. He owned and wrote the Gary Allen Report, which had 30,000 subscribers. He currently is owner and editor of The International Forecaster, a compendium of information on business, finance, economics and social and political issues worldwide, which reaches 10,000 investors and brokers monthly directly, and parts of his publication are picked up by 60 different websites weekly exposing his ideas to over 10 million investors a week.

In 1976, after the Soweto riots, Mr. Chapman began buying North American shares exclusively for his clients. Up to that point only a handful of American and Canadian issues interested him, due to the high dividends the South African shares had paid out over the years. Between 1976 and 1988 his business surged from 1,000 to 6,000 clients, so the bulk of his business ended up being Vancouver Stock Exchange issues. For this reason he is very conversant with the quality of management, geologists, properties and traders on today’s North American scene. He is well known.

From 1976 to present he has spoke and given workshops at over 200 business conferences worldwide, and has been on radio and TV hundreds of times. Until his retirement he was always judged by the attendees to be one of the top three speakers and never once was lower than first in workshops due to his vast knowledge of the mining business and his grasp of worldwide financial markets and political scenes.

In June of 1991, at the request of business associates, and due to retirement boredom, he began writing the International Forecaster.

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SPIRITUAL WORLD GOVERNANCE WILL BECOME THE NORM

We're in a 3D and 4D world. The third dimension and forth dimensions can be thought of as frequencies. Third dimension is equal measures of Light and dark. The forth dimension is a shift towards Light. The fifth dimension is a dimension of only Light, as are very likely the ones thereafter. Mother earth is transitioning to the fifth dimension.

All inhabitants of mother earth will transit to the fifth dimension or be taken to their next suitable placement on another planet. Perhaps they are ignoring the signs of a cleansing mother earth....continents are slowly shifting, and yet people are still buying real estate along coastlines and creating cities on islands. Spiritual world governanace will become the norm.

Satanic governments of the world like Canada's consist of dark wizards and witches at the top of the pyramid. They push uranium bombs and power on the world. They allow the military to spray the air with chemtrails. They encourage the masses to poison themselves, spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally and pretend to have healthy balanced intentions. Reptilian-worshipping humans do not acknowledge everyone as being children of God; therefore, they are no longer useful to humanity as running this planet and our societies. It's true, the governments put fluoride in the water so that everyone's third eye would become clouded and unhealthy, and when that happens, one's intuition is greatly reduced, thus putting more reliance on government lies. Put your energy around true spiritual energies by knowing Universal Law and the Laws of Creation, which can be found at http://www.fourwinds10.com/journals If you haven't read the Phoenix Journals before, check them out.

Society is cleansing itself of manmade illusions

Notice how suddenly it's as if the world is collapsing upon itself? This is no accident, this is a plan to enslave humanity. Each human soul can do the rest of humanity as BIG favour, and learn how to not live in fear. Fear is normalized within societies, and fear emits energy that perpetrates war, greed and inequality of the world. Example of the creation of needless fear moments are numerous for example, "Buying a house insurance policy" (Fear of God), "Food shortages" (Can we all not put seed to water and feed ourselves?"), "Flu pandemics" (Manmade viruses are not currently spreading on our planet), "Global Warming", (How convenient for your mass medias to leave the biggest major factor THE SUN out of their equations), "Always rushing around" (Relaxation is a state of being). "Coffee in the morning", (When you feel sluggish it's because you are craving LIGHT, not coffee...coffee is the downward spiral if it's not a respectful situation of mode ration), "Canadian bill c-51" (Any government that tries to make St John's Wort illegal, should be discarded and replaced with spiritually aware Lightworkers and this can happen FAST!).

Your role at this time

Your role at this time is to purify yourself so that the Light can flow through you easily on all dimensions. Reclaim selfhood through all societal, family and planetary customs, normals, behaviours, so that you can truly reveal your magnificance to Self and the Universe. Repair your third eye by detoxifying body, balancing pH, bathing yourself in live foods, outdoor air, and the ions of rainfall, waterfalls, windy days along salt water, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda. Your health is really important at this time!

Some are going to the fifth dimension and some are comfortable in the third dimension

Some of us are heading upwards to the Light, and some are choosing to hang around longer in the Light and dark of the third dimension. Each situation is blessed as all have all eternity to make their journey. However as we've all stumbled while walking, isn't it lovely to have each other to help get back firmly planted on solid ground for the path of our individual and collective choosing?

How to get back firmly planted on solid ground?

Your path is firmly grounded in the Light, therefore to access your path, you must seek out the Light in all aspects of life....from diet, education, governance, clothing, shelter, water, choices in technology. Bless each situation so that the darkness within it, can be transmuted. Cleanse your existance at all levels, spend much time in the sun, drinking blessed magnetized water, bathe in the beauty of the sky visitations of the sky spirits and cloudships, which can be seen on many blue sky days, transmuting the chemtrails on behalf of humanity, and making their presence known. You can see many videos and images of miracle visitations in the canadian sky by first visiting http://youtube.com/indianinthemachine

We are in a brief time of inconvenience

Messages from off-planet say that as our mother earth cleanses herself, that it can mean for changes in weather patterns (which are also greatly influenced by government these days). You may wish to prepare yourself for basic societal inconveniences in the energy of Love. Patience and preseverance are some of your gifts of self-mastery....keep on mastering Self with the blessings and support of the entire Universe. http://snoedel.punt.nl

In the great spirit of Love,
Dieter
Indian in the machine

See also: NORTH AMERICAN PILGRIMAGE 2008 TO LITTLE MANITOU LAKE, SK CANADA - Great Spirit Manitou at http://www.indianinthemachine.com/greatspiritmanitou.html
and: IS CANADA MAKING FOOD ILLEGAL? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu3Aga7n-88

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THE FENCE

Do you ever feel as if you are one of the few people who can actually see what's going on? Have you ever carried on a conversation with an American who thinks they're in a democracy, the government deserves their taxes, they live in a free country, and policemen are their friend?

Have you attempted to live your life as a responsible, sovereign individual, only to be ridiculed by a high school graduate who can't spell sovereign and doesn't know what it means? Have you at least had a taste of freedom or an insatiable inner knowing of what it should be? Do you feel alone, surrounded by a herd that is contentedly grazing right up to the gates of slaughter?

Who are these huddling, witless masses of humanity and why won't they look around themselves and see the obvious? The easy answer is: the fence.

Many of us who see what's going on around us have learned how to live outside the fence, at least part of the time. Some have become rather adept at living on both sides of the fence. And a few sovereign souls have chosen the path of living completely free of any enclosure.

But the present-day “fence” is all encompassing, from horizon to horizon, with cross-fences at every juncture, and corrals, round pens and loading chutes for complete herd management.

And the herd of humanity is well managed. So well managed, that they either look dumb-founded whenever you mention what it's like on the other side of the fence, or they get angry.

“How dare you tell us we don't need all those taxes, laws, or the government to protect us! What do you mean there are all kinds of wild herbs growing free outside the fence that heal and nourish; that they taste better than hay and grain and make veterinarians obsolete? You must be crazy to think you can live free and be responsible for yourself,” say the angry ones in the herd.

Understanding the fence can help freedom-lovers live amongst the clueless without succumbing to their fate. Perhaps, on a good day, we might even inspire one of the herd to look up and begin the process of putting the clues together. And that might eventually lead to another individual who can both understand and spell sovereign.

Where does the fence begin?

Born unable to walk, control our bowels, or utter much more than a cry, we begin the adventure of life very moldable. You might think of it as being in a marsupial condition without the benefit of a pouch. A parent or parents must dedicate considerable effort or the newly formed member of humanity won't survive.

The considerable effort required to raise up a young human has a trade benefit: The parent has the opportunity to mould the future of humanity. And that's no small responsibility.

After the first few years of parenting, comes the transitional phase. Except for young humans with parents who choose home-schooling or private education, the public side of the fence begins with the government indoctrination day-camps we call public school.

The opportunity and responsibility for molding the future of humanity, begun by the parents, is gradually taken over by government and it's commercial cousins. In Latin, it's called In Loco Parentis: In the place of the parent. Parents who do not find alternatives to the status quo become replaced by public educators, TV, video games, commercials, music producers, legislators and policemen.

It begins and ends in the mind. Horses are a good example. Countless times, I have stretched electric fence ribbon around new pasture. A horse who has experienced the momentary zap of 10,000 volts a few times, learns to stay away from the fence. Eventually you can turn off the fence and they will stay within its boundaries. The memory of the shock, and the sight of the fence are enough to keep most horses in. Some become so docile that just tying a single rope chest high will keep them in. They like the fence.

The fence was built in the horse's minds. If we want to be free, we first need to remove the fence from our minds, like those errant*, free-thinking horses who touch a whisker to the electric fence to see if it's on, and then walk on through whenever they don't feel a little zap.

The best laid fence

The best laid fence is one that isn't seen and gives benefits instead barbed wire cuts. You can get more out of a horse by the things you do for it and with it, than by the things you do to it. Sometimes you need barbed wire or 10,000 volts, but feed, grain and a friendly talking to are more likely to produce the desired result.

In the good old days, when ranches had plenty of room between them, the fence was the barn. The horses and cattle enjoyed some free range, but they knew where home was. Food and security kept them “in.” They could forage “out” for the day, but they would be “in” at night and during winter.

Now-a-days, things are more crowded. The animals on the farm never leave the fence. Each farm is fenced where it buts up against another, jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so-to-speak. Like a government that keeps on growing, when does a farmer ever take down a fence, once it's been put up? And with all that seemingly green pasture, what creature would want to take the fence down?

People aren't much different. Government and its allies in commerce know this. The fence around you is well made and designed to make you like it. And it's about making a trade – trading your freedom, rights and responsibilities for the security, convenience and comfort of the fence.

The media fence

Media is the great fence maker of our times. It creates the borders in our mind. The well-honed science of media has created a fence so tight, that most people can't see the other side.

That's why they think the pasture inside the fence looks so green. They've never been allowed to see any other pasture, and they are constantly reminded how green it is.

In the one sided fence of media, people never really get to say what they want. But media tells the politicians what the people say they want, while politicians tell the media what the people say they want – more laws and regulations to protect us from the outlaws outside the fence – and a tax cut. And what is the result? More outlaws are created inside the fence by more laws and regulations, which require more taxes.

The fallacies of the fence

Do policemen prevent crime when the majority of “crimes“ have no victim and weren't a crime until the police arrived? Do judges promote justice with controlled juries, bar regulated attorneys, self-adopted court rules and judicially controlled, self-disciplining review agencies?

Do we really have a Constitution and Bill of Rights anymore, when almost everything government does is against the Constitution and people are routinely imprisoned for exercising their rights?

When we live inside the fence, we live at the permission of the government. Everything from travel, to our homes, water, food, health, finances, even the air we breathe is regulated. Can regulations make us safe from bureaucrats?

Do we “make money” when money, by definition, can only be a coin and a “one dollar Federal Reserve Note” is issued by a private bank, which isn't federal, doesn't really have “reserves,” and isn't a note because it can't be redeemed? And it isn't a “dollar” because a dollar is 371.25 grains of silver, not paper.

For the errant freedom lover with eyes to see and ears to hear, almost everything inside the fence can be shown to be false, a fraud and corrupted. For the tamed herd, it's all green fields, as far as the blinded eye can see. It all depends on which side of the fence you're on.

The fence chewers

This leads us to an interesting phenomena. One would think that leading the herd to real freedom would be very popular in a land known for its freedom. But quite the opposite is true. We errant folks are often ridiculed and demonized by the herd for our notions of freedom, and especially by the managers of the herd – the media.

The herd doesn't like fence chewers. Most people are quite happy to live in their illusions. We have to remember, it was all green and growing for them until we came along and made it look like charred grass.

They thought they owned a house, but if the government can take it for taxes, who owns it? It used to be their car, until we showed them how the government stole the title when they registered it. They thought they were successfully running a business, until we enlightened them about how many regulations prevent their options for success. And when we told them they worked over half the year just to pay their taxes, their illusionary green field went up in smoke.

That's why the herd doesn't like anyone who chews holes in the fence. It means they would have to face things the way they really are. It would require them to become responsibile. There would be no more semi-free rides on the back of the welfare nanny-state.

The sovereign's fence

What would a free state, outside the fence of government look like? No more collective herd management in a common enclosure. Each sovereign would be free to choose how much fence they want to put up on their own place. The common ground would be free range and the fence would only contain government.

Government's only duties will be to build roads, deliver mail, defend our borders, mint coins, and register patents on our ingenuity. A sovereign people would be free to engage in commerce with substance. A 371.25-grain silver dollar today, will still be a 371.25-grain silver dollar tomorrow. No more imaginary wealth. What you own, will remain your own, until you choose otherwise. Property would be held in allodium, untaxed.

Imagine a government that provides a bona fide, accountable, judicial forum to resolve conflicts between sovereign citizens and only passed “laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

With almost no taxes, we can afford to privately educate our children and contribute to any charities we choose. “Welfare,” would be how well we fare from our own responsible, sovereign efforts, outside the fence.

To make this a reality, each of us needs to free our minds from our former keeper's programming and learn to live outside the fence. Be an example, even if it means you have to eat a little barbed wire. If we each chew our part, it'll be free range for everyone – whether they like it or not.

proliberty.com/observer/20030711.htm

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THE MOBS TAKE TO THE STREET....AGAIN

"Let me tell you this," said Tiberius, quietly. "Venal Caesars, power-mad Caesars, never seize power, never destroy law and their country. Their power is forced on them by an evil and despicable people, a selfish and cowardly people. Where are the guardians of the people's liberty then? You are silent, you are slaves in spirit, you are thieves and cowards. But a people deserve their lawmakers." Quote from the book, Dear and Glorious Physician, The Story of St. Luke, by one of the most prolific, magnificent writers of modern times, the late Taylor Caldwell.

"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves." Dresden Jameson

On July 6, 2002 , I gave a speech in Sunnyvale, California. This is a short excerpt from that speech. History does repeat itself, but we the people have the power to stop the total annihilation of this country if there is enough courage and fire in the belly of those who truly want to be free from oppressive government. The alternative is hell.

"Ladies and gentlemen. These are indeed dangerous and serious times in which we live and not just from mad-dog terrorists from third world countries who hate us.

"We find ourselves in the same position as those who tried to save the Republic of Rome. I would like to open with a quote from the book, Dear and Glorious Physician, The Story of St. Luke, by one of the most prolific, magnificent writers of modern times, the late Taylor Caldwell.

"Published in 1959, this book spent 60 weeks on the NY Times bestseller list with more than 1,000,000 copies in print at the time.

"This is the character Diodorus speaking:

"In this very Senate, not many years ago, a senator was done to death because he spoke the truth. Not by knife or sword or spear was he murdered, and not by honest stones. No honorable hand struck him down, for there was no honorable hand here. He spoke of Rome. He cried out that Rome was no longer a republic, and that she had become a bloodthirsty empire, ruled not by men of wisdom and not by law, but by Caesar and his legions, and his generals and his rapacious freedmen and his palace politicians.

"The senator stood on this very podium and he wept for the Republic. He wept that emperors were not elected by the people, but by infamous legions and the idle and ravenous mobs who wished only to devour the fruits of the granaries and the treasures, and to be amused by charlatans and mountebanks and actors and singers and gladiators and pugilists – at public expense.

"For greed, that young senator cried to you, the mobs in this city supported evil Caesars, who lusted only for power, because those Caesars promised them loot from the public treasuries. Venal senators supported those Caesars, for profit and power.

"The lying Caesars spoke to the mobs and told them that our country could not defend itself against barbarians without allies, who must endlessly be bought and cajoled and flattered. And the traitorous Caesars plotted against their nation, mad with the lust to be gilded like gods by the whole world, and to be acclaimed by millions of thieves and beggars and wrestlers and freedmen and the cowardly, who never felt a pulse of patriotism in their vultures hearts!

"Let me move your hearts!" he cried. "It is not yet too late!"

"The course of empire leads only to death. Senators, look at me! Listen with your hearts, and not with your evil minds. Turn back to liberty, to frugality, to morality to peace, to Rome. Think no longer of those who appoint you, those whose bellies demand to be satisfied by the very blood of Rome, the very flesh of Rome, the hard-earned gold of Rome. Bow no longer to false Caesars, who, defying our very Constitution, issue mandates against the welfare of Rome and place themselves above the law which our fathers formulated, and for which they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

"Rome was conceived in good faith and in justice, and in the worship of God, and in the name of the manhood of man. Return our country to the rule of law and strike down the rule by men.

"Restore the treasuries. Withdraw our legions from foreign lands which hate us, and will destroy us at a moment's notice when it serves their interests. Repeal the taxes which crush those who work hard and industriously.

"Tell your multitudes that they must work or they shall starve. Drive from the Palatine itself the masses of toadies and self-seekers and thieves! Drive from the Palatine the puny freedmen who say 'Yes, yes!' to Caesar, and bow before him as though he were a god and not human flesh. Cleanse this chamber of rascals and mountebanks and demagogues who declaim in rounded phrases that the welfare of the people is close to their hearts, but who really mean that they will do the will of the mob in exchange for vile plaudits and power, and bribery!

"Romans! In the name of God, in the name of Cincinnatus, the Father of this Country, in the name of heroism and peace and manliness and freedom and justice, I beg of you to restore yourselves as the guardians of Rome, to cast out the usurper of the powers which rightfully belong to you, to impeach and to punish those who seized those powers in order to pervert the laws of our fathers! Let your Roman hearts speak and your Roman spirits cry out against the expedient and the corrupt, against the vainglorious and the traitors, against Caesars who anoint themselves as gods and hold court for the depraved and the ambitious and those who would dissipate the strength of our people, our Constitution, and our traditions! If you turn from your country, then she will die, and a thousand thousand legions shall not save her and a thousand bloody Caesars will vainly blow to the winds."

"Tiberius, the Caesar of the time, responded to this attack:

"I am a soldier. I am surrounded by sycophants and liars, and in that Diodorus speaks truth. What is lavish and uncomprehending praise given out of self-seeking and fear?

"What is flattery if lips that speak it only fawn, and in that fawning profit? The dull ear is servant to a duller tongue. As a I solider I prefer men of simple truth and without complexities who speak in honor and of patriotism. But where are men today in Rome?

"Let me tell you this," said Tiberius, quietly. "Venal Caesars, power-mad Caesars, never seize power, never destroy law and their country. Their power is forced on them by an evil and despicable people, a selfish and cowardly people. Where are the guardians of the people's liberty then? You are silent, you are slaves in spirit, you are thieves and cowards. But a people deserve their lawmakers.

"Rome!" he said. "Do I recognize this Rome of polyglot slaves, of Scythians, Britons, Gauls, barbarians, Greeks, Assyrians, Egyptians, and the scum of a whole world? Where are the Romans? They have lost their identity. They have lost their tongues, their minds, their souls, their virility. What have I to do with such a Rome? I am not an honorable man! I am what my people have made me. I am their captive, not their Emperor. Here is no escaping the evil of a debased people.

"I am here only to do the filthy will of a nation obstinately determined to commit suicide. If I break the law and the Constitution in their greedy behalf, they applaud me. If I have given up my hope of restoring the Treasury, they praise me for having their welfare at heart. Their welfare! Dogs and jackals!" End of quote.

The mobs are on the move again today with rallies to support illegal aliens smuggling themselves into our country and demanding an end to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids on employers for breaking the law and a free ride to citizenship. They chant "equal rights for all" under democracy. Of course, in their ignorance, these rabble rousers have no idea America is NOT a democracy and that our Founding Fathers hated democracy. The largest number of these illegal aliens come from Mexico and using the worst of profanity, claim we stole their land. Ignorance is rampant among these lawbreakers. Their own government ceded over half of their territory the U.S. When a Colorado legislator called them illiterate peasants a little over a week ago, another empty headed female serving in office went ballistic because the truth burned her politically correct ears.

What the fabulous Taylor Caldwell wrote in her book, and she was a meticulous, gifted writer, has all but overtaken our country. We are in the throes of the total decline of this once great republic. Our elected public officials have been bought and paid for by the mob. Elected officials at all levels of government no longer care for their state constitutions or the U.S. Constitution. They care only for power given to them by voters. Most are cowards because they don't have the guts to stand up to the powerful king makers behind the scenes or their brains are completely rotted from the mental illness called political correctness. Make no mistake: political correctness is a malignant cancer that invaded this country and beat common sense to death.

Here we are six years after I made that speech. We are drowning in destructive, unconstitutional "laws" while America's very livelihood is being sucked out this country by greedy cowards and rank crooks serving in Congress and one White House "winner" after another. The people respond by demanding government "do something," instead of doing everything humanly possible to throw their backsides out of office and put true leaders with some brains in our state legislatures and Congress. As the economy worsens, the cries for mother government will drown a free nation.

This invasion of illegal aliens who have NO constitutional rights because they are NOT citizens, have choked this country with their demands for free health care, free education and welfare. Let's not forget the astronomical cost of incarcerating the ones who continue to slaughter Americans on our roads and highways, rob, steal and murder. Let's not forget the growing number of illegal aliens who are sexual predators, raping and killing America's children. Foreigners who come to this country shouting their demands that we change our culture, our history and our laws to suit their so-called religion. Can one not see what Taylor Caldwell wrote oozing across this land while millions engage in trivial pursuits like sports, violent video games and shopping?

"Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide." John Adams

"A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way." [1] "The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness [excessive license] which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty." [2] Fisher Ames who authored House Language for the First Amendment

While it pains me to say this, tens of millions of Americans have also taken up the mob mentality. Under "our democracy" they continue to demand mother government, with the sweat off your back, provide them with health care, child care, jobs and more "entitlements." In response to these demands from desperate Americans, these poltroons in Congress will be only to happy to oblige. Remember Jameson's quote above. Americans are being pitted against each other in this battle. Those who live the creed of the brilliant, courageous men who birthed this nation are self reliant, determined, masters of our own destiny. We refuse to lay down our rights and freedoms in favor of the heavy hand of government stealing the fruits of our labor to reward invaders, corrupt politicians and fund foreign interests. We are up against those who are accepting the communitarian ( communist morality) doctrine, walking into the trap created by Congress and the state legislatures. Instead of holding them accountable, under mobocracy, the legions continue to vote for corrupt scoundrels in public office who break what doesn't need fixing and then steal from the public purse under the guise of "fixing it."

The mobs of democracy are stomping our republic into the ground while cowardly, degenerate politicians grovel for their votes. Democracy underground or above ground is still the same thing: disaster and a bastardization of our legal form of government. The results of pursuing such a path is glaring us in the face from coast to coast, border to border. Trying to shove democracy down the throat of foreign countries like Iraq is nothing short of insanity.

The Founding Fathers, men like Patrick Henry and young Master Nathan Hale, were called radicals and extremists because they disagreed with the loyalists, subjects of the British Crown who wished to remain under the control of a tyrant out of fear or because they benefited financially. In Mel Gibson's movie, The Patriot, he had a great line in the beginning of the movie, "Would you rather have one tyrant 3,000 miles away or 3,000 tyrants one mile away?"

I've been called a radical for the past 18 years because I refuse to get on my knees and live my life under a tyrannical government. Patrick Henry and those who spilled their blood and gave up all their material possessions to birth this republic were called radicals. I am proud to wear that label. Eighteen years ago I gave up the good times to share what I've learned and what I'm still learning. I became an activist instead of an observer. Where do you stand? I hope you'll catch my next column, Do you have a Plan? Time is slipping by and Americans need to grasp that things are not going to be the same for a long, long time. Despite the bald faced lies coming out of Washington, the worst is yet to come.

Footnotes:

1, Fisher Ames, Works of Fisher Ames (Boston: T. B. Wait & Co., 1809), p. 24, Speech on Biennial Elections, delivered January, 1788
2, Ames, Works, p. 384, "The Dangers of American Liberty," February 1805

Information links:

1 - America is NOT a democracy Learn the difference
2 - Americans committing national suicide
3 - Illegals Protest in Sacramento; Photos and Propaganda
4 - Hide What's in Your Heart Today
5 - They Died For "Cheap" Labor
6 - We Have Got to Eliminate The Gringo
7 - Excellent legal site

Books:

1 - The Case Against Immigration by Roy Beck (free on line)
2 - The Death of the West by Patrick J. Buchanan
3 - Political Correctness by David Thibodaus, [see book # 14]
4 - The Cloning of The American Mind by Beverly Eakman
5 - The Diversity Myth by David O. Sacks & Peter Thiel

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THE POTENTIAL POWER OF THE PURIFIED MIND

By Michael Goodspeed and Michael Armstrong

AUTHORS' NOTE: This article has no copyright. It is intended for duplication and re-distribution, so long as credit is given, and so long as no alterations are made to the contents herein including the authors' bylines and all hyperlinks and cited URL's.

Most spiritual aspirants have some familiarity with the concept of acceptance. The word permeates much of the spiritual literature as a corollary to the themes of "surrender" and "forgiveness." The popular prayer/adage "I must accept what I cannot change and change what I cannot accept" seems a noble and reasonable policy in this tumultuous and/or indifferent Universe. Bad things happen to good people and we accept it because, we tell ourselves, it's all part of God's great plan, it's "for our own good," and in any event, we don't have any other choice.

Acceptance is surely a valid mental exercise insofar as it helps one experience life in a manner that is more lighthearted and friendly. We can't change other people, we can't undo the past, and we can't predict every trial and travail looming over the horizon. But what if man's tacit "acceptance" of his general helplessness and victim hood in a dangerous, troubled world is itself a major barrier to doing something about it?

From the day we are born, we are taught to accept the unacceptable as a matter of course. We all learn quickly that illness, disease, injuries, pain, trauma, aging, loss, and finally death are a fair price to pay for the privilege of "living." And neither scientific, nor most religious or spiritual literature ever contradicts these expectations. Mainstream biology and medicine tell us that we are mechanistic organisms born by chance and destined to die in a hostile, disconnected universe.

And both institutional religions and most spiritual philosophies treat "spirituality" as a mere anesthetic to the unavoidable human outcomes of suffering and death. If you view suffering and dying as a problem, you are supposed to be comforted by the promise of an afterlife in which one will be free from the endless heartaches and sorrows endemic to an earthly existence. Indeed, many religious and "spiritual" thought systems glorify suffering as a purifying force and/or badge of honor that will only increase the rewards one reaps in the eternal hereafter.

So where can one turn if one is unable or unwilling to "accept" these seemingly immutable premises that define and limit the human condition? Improbable as it may seem, it can be said that NONE of the institutions, either secular or religious, that exist mainly to relieve human suffering have ever proposed how man may be uplifted from his damaged, limited state to one of true empowerment. Although the word empower is used casually in political discourse, most often to describe the government's dispensation of "civil rights" to certain individuals, to be truly empowered means literally to have absolute authority over one's own destiny. It is commonly accepted that such a thing is not plausible, possible, or even desirable for mere human beings. In fact, both religious and governmental authorities relentlessly command us to acquiesce personal authority in favor of submission to some "higher power," be it earthly or "divine," for our own best interests. And since our helplessness seems confirmed in every facet of human experience, this call to submit goes largely unchallenged.

In a highly religious world, those who aren't satisfied with their personal reality or the reality of the world frequently turn to God for an answer. People pray for everything from personal health to the safety of loved ones to financial prosperity to world peace. But in a world dominated by warfare, poverty, disease, and every conceivable form of injustice, it seems that these "prayers" are rarely if ever answered. The only logical conclusion one can come to is either A) prayers are never answered because no creator nor agency exists to hear them; or B) the practice of prayer by most human beings is misguided, because they are working with incorrect concepts of "God."

So far – in the history of the world – the world’s religions have neither been able to inspire their god to do anything substantive about the “human condition”, nor have they done much of any significance themselves – except to offer “coping” mechanisms! The “positive” coping mechanisms offered in the English speaking western world consist of 4 or 5 things: Temporary mystical experience, quasi-fellowship, quasi-miracles, prayer and meditation, some time oriented structure to their lives, and finally promises and hope. One is reminded of the popular axiom, “Hope makes a good breakfast but a lousy dinner”.

Down through the ages into our time, religions have also promulgated every unflattering and insulting concept of god in the spectrum of the highest human value system. Right along side of being merciful, loving and gracious, God has been portrayed as inconsistent, mean, petty, vengeful, violent, vicious, unforgiving, dominating, demanding, unreasonable, alien (“who can know thy ways” and “thy ways are past understanding), and cruel (he will be burning humans for ever and ever in some literal fiery hell). Books have been written to show that this is even an unwarranted interpretation of New Testament passages. The God of religion has in fact come to represent everything that could be characterized as anti-God. So pervasive are these imageries of God that, throughout much of the world, the phrase "Holy Warrior" goes unrecognized as an oxymoron. Countless millions of devotees have been willing to burn themselves and others at the stake in concordance with what they view as directives from God. Due to this overt and seemingly endless lunacy, more human beings today than ever before are skeptical of religion. ("Religion has made atheists of many honest men" – David R. Hawkins).

Yet many choose not to abandon their inner call to spirit, seeking instead a spiritual thought system that is more benevolent and constructive to life. In the United Sta