Someone Stop George Lucas

As he continues to violate the corpse of the original trilogy.

via Technoccult

Drug War Economics vol. 1

Found this from a link on Disinfo.com

Obama's "Way-to-Go, Brownie!" Moment?

by Greg Palast
for the Huffington Post

Has Barack Obama forgotten, "Way-to-go, Brownie"? Michael Brown was that guy from the Arabian Horse Association appointed by George Bush to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brownie, not knowing the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain from the south end of a horse, let New Orleans drown. Bush's response was to give his buddy Brownie a "way to go!" thumbs up.

We thought Obama would go a very different way. You'd think the studious Senator from Illinois would avoid repeating the Bush regime's horror show of unqualified appointments, of picking politicos over professionals.
But here we go again. Trial balloons lofted in the Washington Post suggest President-elect Obama is about to select Joel Klein as Secretary of Education. If not Klein, then draft-choice number two is Arne Duncan, Obama's backyard basketball buddy in Chicago.
Say it ain't so, President O.
Let's begin with Joel Klein. Klein is a top notch anti-trust lawyer. What he isn't is an educator.
Klein is as qualified to run the Department of Education as Dick Cheney is to dance in Swan Lake. While I've never seen Cheney in a tutu, I have seen Klein fumble about the stage as Chancellor of the New York City school system.
Klein, who lacks even six minutes experience in the field, was handed management of New York's schools by that political Jack-in-the-Box, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The billionaire mayor is one of those businessmen-turned-politicians who think lawyers and speculators can make school districts operate like businesses.
Klein has indeed run city schools like a business - if the business is General Motors. Klein has flopped. Half the city's kids don't graduate.
Klein is out of control. Not knowing a damn thing about education, rather than rely on those who actually work in the field (only two of his two dozen deputies have degrees in education), Klein relies on high-priced consultants to tell him what to do. He's blown a third of a billion dollars on consultant "accountability" projects plus $80 million for an IBM computer data storage system that doesn't work.
What the heck was the $80 million junk computer software for? Testing. Klein is test crazy. He has swallowed hook, line and sinker George Bush's idea that testing students can replace teaching them. The madly expensive testing program and consultant-fee spree are paid for by yanking teachers from the classroom.
Ironically, though not surprisingly, test scores under Klein have flat-lined. They don't dip only because Klein has "moved the cut line" that is, lowered the level required to pass, notes author Jane Hirshmann. In other words, Klein is cheating on the tests.
But media poobahs have fallen in love with Klein, especially the Republican pundits. The New York Times' David Brooks is championing Klein, hoping that media hype for Klein will push Obama to keep Bush schools policies in place, trumping the electorate's choice for change.
Brooks and other Republicans (hey, didn't those guys lose?) are pushing Klein as a way for Obama to prove he can reach across the aisle to Republicans like Bloomberg. (Oh yes, Bloomberg's no longer in the GOP, having jumped from the party this year when the brand name went sour.)
Choosing Klein, says Brooks, would display Obama's independence from the teacher's union. But after years of Bush kicking teachers in the teeth, appointing a Bush acolyte like Klein would not indicate independence from teachers but their betrayal.
Hoops versus Hope
The anti-union establishment has a second stringer on the bench waiting in case Klein is nixed: Arne Duncan. Duncan, another lawyer playing at education, was appointed by Chicago's Boss Daley to head that city's train-wreck of a school system. Think of Duncan as "Klein Lite."
What's Duncan's connection to the President-elect? Duncan was once captain of Harvard's basketball team and still plays backyard round-ball with his Hyde Park neighbor Obama.
But Michelle has put a limit on their friendship: Obama was one of the only state senators from Chicago to refuse to send his children into Duncan's public schools. My information is that the Obamas sent their daughters to the elite Laboratory School where Klein-Duncan teach-to-the-test pedagogy is dismissed as damaging and nutty.
Mr. Obama, if you can't trust your kids to Arne Duncan, why hand him ours?
Lawyer Duncan is proud to have raised test scores by firing every teacher in low-scoring schools. Which schools? There's Collins High in the Lawndale ghetto with children from homeless shelters and drug-poisoned 'hoods. Surprisingly, they don't test so well. So Chicago fired all the teachers. They brought in new ones - then fired all of them too: the teachers' reward for volunteering to work in a poor neighborhood.
It's no coincidence that the nation's worst school systems are run by non-experts like Klein and Duncan.
Obama certainly knows this. I know he knows because he's chosen, as head of his Education Department transition team, one of the most highly respected educators in the United States: Professor Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University.
So here we have the ludicrous scene of the President-elect asking this recognized authority, Dr. Darling-Hammond, to vet the qualifications of amateurs Klein and Duncan. It's as if Obama were to ask Michael Jordan, "Say, you wouldn't happen to know anyone who can play basketball, would you?"
Classroom Class War
It's not just Klein's and Duncan's empty credentials which scare me: it's the ill philosophy behind the Bush-brand education theories they promote. "Teach-to-the-test" (which goes under such pre-packaged teaching brands as "Success for All") forces teachers to limit classroom time to pounding in rote low-end skills, easily measured on standardized tests. The transparent purpose is to create the future class of worker-drones. Add in some computer training and - voila! - millions trained on the cheap to function, not think. Analytical thinking skills, creative skills, questioning skills will be left to the privileged at the Laboratory School and Phillips Andover Academy.
We hope for better from the daddy of Sasha and Malia.
Educationally, the world is swamping us. The economic and social levees are bursting. We cannot afford another Way-to-go Brownie in charge of rescuing our children.
****************
Greg Palast is the father of school-aged twins and the author of, "No Child's Behind Left," included in his New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse. Palast is a Nation Institute Puffin Foundation Fellow for investigative reporting.
Get a signed copy of Armed Madhouse for the holidays for a tax-deductible contribution to the Palast Investigative Fund at www.PalastInvestigativeFund.org
Subscribe to Palast's reports at www.GregPalast.com
Please re-post this.

Turning Air Into Water

Remember those sweltering summer days when the air was so muggy you could practically drink it? A new home appliance is promising to make that possible by converting outdoor air into nearly 13 quarts of fresh water every day.
Originally envisioned as an antidote to the shortage of clean drinking water in the world, the WaterMill has the look of a futuristic air conditioner and the ability to condense, filter and sterilize water for about 3 cents per quart.
At $1,299, the 45-pound device doesn’t come cheap, and it is neither the first nor the biggest machine to enter the fast-growing field of atmospheric water generators. But by targeting individual households with a self-cleaning, environmentally friendly alternative to bottled water, Kelowna, British Columbia-based Element Four is hoping its WaterMill will become the new must-have appliance of 2009. CONTINUE READING AT MSNBC.COM

(h/t Fortean Times Headlines 12-9-08)

They are not the only company to market such a product. I first heard of this technology in relation to the product now known as WaterMaker.

People Get Ready

James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency (which I am currently reading -- thanks Dad!) has a different, and discomforting vision of the future. Unfortunately it is based in fact. He is definitely a must read for anyone who wants to navigate through the rapids of near-future American life. Here is an excerpt from his most recent blog post:

In the twilight of the Bush days, in the twilight of the twilight season, a consensus has formed that we are headed into a long, dark passage leading we know not where. Even CNBC's Lawrence Kudlow has been reduced to searching for stray "mustard seeds" of hope on hands and knees in a bleak and tortured financial landscape. Half the enterprises in the land are lined up for some kind of relief bailout and a blizzard of pink slips has cut economic visibility to zero.
The broad American public voted for "change" but they thought that meant a "changing of the guard." Out with the feckless Bush; in with the charismatic Obama... and may this American life now continue just as it ever was. The change actually coming will be much more than they bargained for, namely our transition from a wealthy society to a hardship society. The sharp break is a product of our years-long failure to reckon with the energy realities of our time. We're still confused about that, but it's hard, otherwise, to ignore the massive disappearance of capital, asset values, livelihoods, domiciles, comforts, and necessities.


He also has a weekly podcast interview which can be found here, and he appeared on the always zeitgeisty Colbert Report:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

James Howard Kunstler

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Fusion: The Future of Energy (hopefully)

Came across this video of Eric Lerner giving a Google Techtalk. It is pretty technical but the subject is fascinating and the implications are enormous. One of the most startling things he mentions is that the Bush administration withdrew funding from most fusion research shortly after taking office. Yet another reason to despise the Bush regime. Anyway, here is the video:

Chris Floyd on the War Machine

Chris Floyd as usual is right on regarding American foreign policy in the Middle East. In his latest piece he writes about the Obama plan to surge/escalate in Afghanistan. The whole article is good but the part that struck me was his succinct description of the underlying rationale for such insane policies:

Indeed, the entire arc of America's bipartisan policies in the region over the past 40 years can be seen as the elaborate construction of a gargantuan, self-propelled blowback machine, producing an endless effluent of violence, threat, chaos and crime that is now sluicing through the entire world. But blowback, as we all know, is not a design flaw of imperial policy, at least not for the most part; it is a design feature. No War Machine without perpetual war and rumors of war; no war profits – and no war powers – without the War Machine.

The Star Wars Holiday Special !?!?

Yeah, you heard right. Apparently George Lucas sucked long before Episodes 1-3. The evidence is right here courtesy of io9:

Video Link Compilation Sites

Here are a few great sites with links to online videos/documentaries that I like. The biggest and best that I have found (so far) is at Dedroidify. There is also Valis666.net which I found through Eye of the Cyclone. Also, Catherine Austin Fitts has put together a list of recommended documentaries and videos on her Solari.com blog.

Enjoy, I know I will!

* * * *

UPDATE: Just when I thought I was finished I found the Best Online Documentaries site (h/t The Teleomorph)

And Now for Something Completely Different

The Four Pillars and Ten Key Values of the Green Party

Ecological Wisdom

A healthy society cannot exist without a healthy environment---all things are interconnected and interdependent. Both nature and humanity are worthy of respect and freedom from exploitation.

Social Justice

Greens want to replace the worldwide system of poverty and injustice with a world free of all oppression based on class, gender, race, citizenship, age, or sexual orientation.

Grassroots Democracy

Greens believe in direct participation by all people in the environmental, political, and economic decisions that affect their lives. In practice, Greens make decisions by voluntary consensus whenever possible.

Nonviolence

Greens promote nonviolent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and guide our actions toward lasting community and global peace.

Decentralization

Greens support a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system.

Community-Based Economics

Greens seek an economics based upon the natural limits of the Earth which meets the basic needs of everyone on the planet. We value people over profits, when the two conflict.

Feminism

Greens acknowledge the importance of both men and women and their unique capacities. Both sexes are critical to creating a healthy, sustainable society. We actively promote cooperation and participation to further our goals.

Respect for Diversity

Greens believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines.

Personal and Global Responsibility

Greens demonstrate a commitment to global sustainability and international justice through political solidarity and in personal lifestyles of self-sufficiency. We believe in the slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Future Focus/Sustainability

We must counter-balance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that development, technology, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations.

The Green Party's website is here.

Hello World!

I haven't posted in awhile. What have I been up to you ask? Well the usual, trying to be a good husband and father which entails working full time in a good paying job that has the benefit of being something that I rather enjoy doing. Recently I reread (listened to) Jed McKenna's book "Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damndest Thing". Currently I am reading "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein. It is a classic which I had heard about for a long time but never actually read.

I have also spent quite a bit of time trying to wake up, in a "spiritual sense". This has been a rather involved process in which I have the kind guidance of a friend and mentor. Perhaps more on this later, although again I feel restrained as this blog does occassionally get a peek from family members. Although they are all quite aware that my spiritual beliefs (or opinions) are quite unorthodox from their point of view I consider it a point of courtesy not to flaunt it before them. But, then, perhaps that needs a rethink. Indeed perhaps the whole world, including and especially myself, needs a rethink. Of course the word "rethink" implies that any of these complexities have been subjected to thinking in the first place, and that is a bit of a stretch.

I have also resumed study of the martial arts, although I have had to put the specifically Russian studies in a holding pattern due to limited time and monetary resources. In the meantime I have taken up the study of the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat.

Anyhow, more on all this going forward. I simply had to assuage my guilt over not having updated the bloggy in so long.

Just in time for Halloween!

It's John McCain!

21 Reasons to Question the Official 9/11 Story

By David Ray Griffin, courtesy of Global Research:

Note: Although the points are stated briefly, I give in each case the pages in my most recent book---"The New Pearl Harbor Revisited"---where the issue is documented and discussed more extensively.

(1) Although the official account of 9/11 claims that Osama bin Laden ordered the attacks, the FBI does not list 9/11 as one of the terrorist acts for which he is wanted and has admitted that it "has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11" (NPHR 206-11).

(2) Although the official story holds that the four airliners were hijacked by devout Muslims ready to die as martyrs to earn a heavenly reward, Mohamed Atta and the other alleged hijackers regularly drank heavily, went to strip clubs, and paid for sex (NPHR 153-55).

(3) Many people reported having received cell phone calls from loved ones or flight attendants on the airliners, during which they were told that Middle Eastern hijackers had taken over the planes. One recipient, Deena Burnett, was certain that her husband had called her several times on his cell phone because she had recognized his number on her Caller ID. But the calls to Burnett and most of the other reported calls were made when the planes were above 30,000 feet, and evidence presented by the 9/11 truth movement showed that, given the technology of the time, cell phone calls from high-altitude airliners had been impossible. By the time the FBI presented a report on phone calls from the planes at the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui in 2006, it had changed its story, saying that there were only two cell phone calls from the flights, both from United 93 after it had descended to 5,000 feet (NPHR 111-17).

(4) US Solicitor General Ted Olson's claim that his wife, Barbara Olson, phoned him twice from AA 77, reporting that hijackers had taken it over, was also contradicted by this FBI report, which says that the only call attempted by her was "unconnected" and hence lasted "0 seconds" (NPRH 60-62).

(5) Although decisive evidence that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks was reportedly found in Mohamed Atta's luggage---which allegedly failed to get loaded onto Flight 11 from a commuter flight that Atta took to Boston from Portland, Maine, that morning---this story was made up after the FBI's previous story had collapsed. According to that story, the evidence had been found in a Mitsubishi that Atta had left in the Logan Airport parking lot and the trip to Portland was taken by Adnan and Ameer Bukhari. After the FBI learned that neither of the Bukharis had died on September 11, it simply declared that the trip to Portland was made by Atta and another al-Qaeda operative (NPHR 155-62).

(6) The other types of reputed evidence for Muslim hijackers---such as videos of al-Qaeda operatives at airports, passports discovered at the crash sites, and a headband discovered at the crash site of United 93---also show clear signs of having been fabricated (NPHR 170-73).

(7) In addition to the absence of evidence for hijackers on the planes, there is also evidence of their absence: If hijackers had broken into the cockpits, the pilots would have "squawked" the universal hijack code, an act that takes only a couple of seconds. But not one of the eight pilots on the four airliners did this (NPHR 175-79).

(8) Given standard operating procedures between the FAA and the military, according to which planes showing signs of an in-flight emergency are normally intercepted within about 10 minutes, the military's failure to intercept any of the flights implies that something, such as a stand-down order, prevented standard procedures from being carried out (NPHR 1-10, 81-84).

(9) Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta reported an episode in which Vice President Cheney, while in the bunker under the White House, apparently confirmed a stand-down order at about 9:25 AM, which was prior to the strike on the Pentagon. Another man has reported hearing members of LAX Security learn that a stand-down order had come from the "highest level of the White House" (NPHR 94-96).

(10) The 9/11 Commission did not mention Mineta's report, removed it from the Commission's video record of its hearings, and claimed that Cheney did not enter the shelter conference room until almost 10:00, which was at least 40 minutes later than he was really there, according to Mineta and several other witnesses, including Cheney's photographer (NPHR 91-94).

(11) The 9/11 Commission's timeline for Cheney that morning even contradicted what Cheney himself had told Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" September 16, just five days after 9/11 (NPHR 93).

(12) Hani Hanjour, known as a terrible pilot who could not safely fly even a single-engine airplane, could not possibly have executed the amazing trajectory reportedly taken by American Flight 77 in order to hit Wedge 1 of the Pentagon (NPHR 78-80).

(13) Wedge 1 would have been the least likely part of the Pentagon to be targeted by foreign terrorists, for several reasons: It was as far as possible from the offices of Rumsfeld and the top brass, whom Muslim terrorists presumably would have wanted to kill; it was the only part of the Pentagon that had been reinforced; the reconstruction was not finished, so there were relatively few people there; and it was the only part of the Pentagon that would have presented obstacles to a plane's flight path (NPHR 76-78).

(14) Contrary to the claim of Pentagon officials that they did not have the Pentagon evacuated because they had no way of knowing that an aircraft was approaching, a military E-4B---the Air Force's most advanced communications, command, and control airplane---was flying over the White House at the time. Also, although there can be no doubt about the identity of the plane, which was captured on video by CNN and others, the military has denied that it belonged to them (NPHR 96-98).

(15) The Secret Service, after learning that a second World Trade Center building had been attacked---which would have meant that terrorists were going after high-value targets---and that still other planes had apparently been hijacked, allowed President Bush to remain at the school in Sarasota, Florida, for another 30 minutes. It thereby revealed its foreknowledge that Bush would not be a target: If these had really been surprise attacks, the agents, fearing that a hijacked airliner was bearing down on the school, would have hustled Bush away. On the first anniversary of 9/11, the White House started telling a new story, according to which Bush, rather than remaining in the classroom several minutes after Andrew Card whispered in his ear that a second WTC building had been hit, immediately got up and left the room. This lie was told in major newspapers and on MSNBC and ABC television (NPHR 129-31).

(16) Given the fact that the Twin Towers and WTC 7 had steel columns running from their basements to their roofs, they simply could not have come down as they did---straight down at virtually free-fall speed---unless these columns had been sliced by means of explosives. Therefore, the official theory, according to which the buildings came down because of fire plus (in the case of the Twin Towers) the impact of the planes, is scientifically impossible (NPHR 12-25).

(17) The destruction of the Twin Towers had many other features---such as the horizontal ejections of steel beams, the melting of steel, and the sulfidation and thinning of steel---that can be explained only in terms of powerful explosives. For example, the fires could not have come within 1000 degrees Fahrenheit of the temperature needed to melt steel (30-36).

(18) Members of the FDNY (Fire Department of New York) provided oral histories shortly after 9/11 in which one fourth of them testified to having witnessed explosions in the Twin Towers. Explosions in the WTC 7 as well as the towers were also reported by city officials, WTC employees, and journalists (NPHR 27-30, 45-48, 51).

(19) Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Peter Jennings of ABC News that day: "we set up headquarters at 75 Barclay Street . . . , and we were operating out of there when we were told that the World Trade Center was gonna collapse. And it [the South Tower] did collapse before we could actually get out of the building." However, there was no objective basis for expecting the towers to collapse; even the 9/11 Commission admitted that none of the fire chiefs expected them to come down. The FDNY oral histories show that the information that they were going to collapse came from the Office of Emergency Management---Giuliani's own office. How could Giuliani's people have known that the towers were going to come down, unless they knew that the buildings had been laced with explosives? (NPH 40)

(20) NIST, which produced the official reports on the Twin Towers and (recently) WTC 7, has been "fully hijacked from the scientific to the political realm," so that its scientists are little more than "hired guns," a former employee has reported, and the 9/11 Commission was no more independent, being run by Philip Zelikow, who was essentially a member of the Bush White House (NPHR 11, 238-51).

(21) The official story about 9/11 is now rejected by constantly growing numbers of physicists, chemists, architects, engineers, pilots, former military officers, and former intelligence officials (NPHR xi).

Things are going badly for Obama

How do I know? When he makes a slip like this:

Oops! Barack Obama says 'my Muslim faith' in interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos

Here is video of it:



This one slip will be enough to fuel all those "secret muslim" rumors until election day. Of course, if he were a Muslim I would still trust him to run this country over McCain, or, GOD FORBID, Palin!

If you want to know the feeling I get from Palin it is summed up in this picture:

Why is Obama sliding?

Dave Lindorff has an article over at Counterpunch (here) that pretty much hits the nail on the head:

But how can I or any progressive vote for a presidential candidate who goes
from opposing a war to saying he not only supports the idea of keeping troops in
Iraq for another five years—the length of the entire WWII!—but who further says
he won’t rule out attacking Iran, even if that country poses no imminent threat
to the US, simply because it develops nuclear weapons—the same weapons that our
putative friends, Pakistan and India, have? How can I vote for a candidate who
wants to expand the military (by 65,000 troops) instead of shrinking this huge,
bloodsucking parasite of an organization which is costing as much as the rest of
the world spends on its armies?

How can I or any progressive vote for a presidential candidate who
cannot state categorically that he will defend the Constitution by reversing all
of President Bush’s abuses of power and who will not promise to prosecute the
president and members of his administration for any crimes committed while in
office?

Olympic Commentator Bloopers

Enjoy!

Here are the top nine comments made by NBC sports commentators so far
during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:

1. Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her
snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.'

2. Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from
personal experience since I once mounted her mother.'

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother
and father.'

4. Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in
boxing, but none of them really that serious.'

5. Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think we can
expect the same thing again.'

6. Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like
it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.'

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC
president is hugging the cox of the British crew.'

8. Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven
Dicks on the field.'

9. Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?

Watchmen Trailer

I am really looking forward to this movie. I just read the graphic novel for the first time and it was really good. One interesting thing is that the climax of the book features a confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union. A few days later the fighting broke out in Georgia. Now we're sending troops to Georgia. Swell!

Anyway here is the trailer:

Pravda says it all

A quote from Pravda that sums up my feelings and those of a lot of Americans regarding our Resident and Commander-in-Thief:

“President Bush,

Why don’t you shut up? In your
statement on Monday regarding the legitimate actions of the Russian Federation
in Georgia, you failed to mention the war crimes perpetrated by Georgian
military forces, which American advisors support, against Russian and Ossetian
civilians

“President Bush,

Why don’t you shut up? Your faithful
ally, Mikhail Saakashvili, was announcing a ceasefire deal while his troops,
with your advisors, were massing on Ossetia’s border, which they crossed under
cover of night and destroyed Tskhinvali, targeting civilian structures just like
your forces did in Iraq.

“President Bush,

Why don’t you shut up?
Your American transport aircraft gave a ride home to thousands of Georgian
soldiers from Iraq directly into the combat zone.

“President Bush,

Why don’t you shut up? How do you account for the fact that among the
Georgian soldiers fleeing the fighting yesterday you could clearly hear officers
using American English giving orders to “Get back inside” and how do you account
for the fact that there are reports of American soldiers among the Georgian
casualties?

“President Bush,

Why don’t you shut up? Do you
really think anyone gives any importance whatsoever to your words after 8 years
of your criminal and murderous regime and policies? Do you really believe you
have any moral ground whatsoever and do you really imagine there is a single
human being anywhere on this planet who does not stick up his middle finger
every time you appear on a TV screen?

Do you really believe you have the
right to give any opinion or advice after Abu Ghraib? After Guantanamo? After
the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens? After the torture by
CIA operatives?

Do you really believe you have any right to make a
statement on any point of international law after your trumped-up charges
against Iraq and the subsequent criminal invasion?

“President Bush,

Why don’t you shut up? Suppose Russia for instance declares that Georgia
has weapons of mass destruction? And that Russia knows where these WMD are,
namely in Tblisi and Poti and north, south, east and west of there? And that it
must be true because there is ‘magnificent foreign intelligenc’ such as
satellite photos of milk powder factories and baby cereals producing chemical
weapons and which are currently being ‘driven around the country in vehicles’?
Suppose Russia declares for instance that ‘Saakashvili stiffed the world’ and it
is ‘time for regime change’?

I found this in the article by Paul Craig Roberts appropriately titled "President Bush, Why Don't You Shut UP?" over at CounterPunch.

Jnana

If you want to know what jnana is, ask him:

Interesting Articles on Gurdjieff

A couple of recent articles on Gurdjieff and his teaching that I have found really interesting:

Gurdjieff and Ecology: The Astral Ecosphere in Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson
by Richard Smoley (formerly of the wonderful magazine, Gnosis)

Gurdjieff as Magus Omissions and Redefinitions of The Work
no author was identified but it was posted by user ccwe at the blog: books, news, reviews

I have also had the good fortune to read Fritz Peters second book about his relationship with Gurdjieff entitled Gurdjieff Remembered. His first book, Boyhood with Gurdjieff, is his account of his adolescent years spent with Gurdjieff at his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. His books are fascinating because they give a look at Gurdjieff from the perspective of someone who wasn't really one of his followers and who was not even an adult when they met. The two books have also been combined under the title My Journeys with a Mystic. I highly recommend both books for anyone interested in Gurdjieff. In fact if I were to make a Gurdjieff reading list it would start with Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous and Fritz Peters book's would be next on the list. If you have a taste for more Gurdjieff after that you can dive into his own books.

JK Rowling's Harvard Commencement Address

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

Harvard University Commencement Address

By JK Rowling, Harvard Gazette Online (2008)

Really a great speech. I found it courtesy of Catherine Austin Fitts' blog at Solari.com

There is YouTube video of it in two parts that you can see below:

Another Communique

Just after my previous post I read this quote from the Sufi poet Hafez:

Just sit there right now.

Don't do a thing.

Just rest.

For your separation from God is the hardest work in the world.

This is from a very good Sufi blog: Inspirations and Creative Thoughts

Inner Vision Calls

I had been getting urges to pick up a certain book in my library for several days. The book is called "Wild Awakening" by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. It is a book that I have never read (I own quite a few of these) and I actually had very little desire to read it. The urging kept coming back and last night it hit me out of the blue and I knew I had to look at it. I opened it up to p. 174 and read the following:

That is the complete realization of Mahamudra mind and of enlightenment. From the point of view of Essence Mahamudra, it is really quite simple. Ultimately speaking, there is nothing on which to meditate because ordinary mind is stainless, luminous emptiness from the beginning. With the blessings of the lineage master, the student awakens to that realization. That is Essence Mahamudra.

Interesting the similarity with the realization and teaching of Adyashanti which has effected me greatly in recent weeks.

As Above, So Below

Great stuff courtesy of Reality Carnival, via Strange Attractor.

Of course the title is drawn from the Emerald Tables of Hermes Trismegistos.

This should all come as no surprise to anyone familiar with self-similarity in complex systems or to students of the cosmology of Gurdjieff.

Adyashanti - True Meditation

True Meditation

True meditation has no direction, goals, or method. All methods aim at achieving a certain state of mind. All states are limited, impermanent and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True meditation is abidance as primordial consciousness.
True meditation appears in consciousness spontaneously when awareness is not fixated on objects of perception. When you first start to meditate, you notice that awareness is always focused on some object: on thoughts, bodily sensations, emotions, memories, sounds, etc. This is because the mind is conditioned to focus and contract upon objects. Then the mind compulsively interprets what it is aware of (the object) in a mechanical and distorted way. It begins to draw conclusions and make assumptions according to past conditioning.

In true meditation all objects are left to their natural functioning. This means that no effort should be made to manipulate or suppress any object of awareness. In true meditation the emphasis is on being awareness; not on being aware of objects, but on resting as primordial awareness itself. Primordial awareness (consciousness) is the source in which all objects arise and subside.

As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind's compulsive contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come more clearly into consciousness as a welcoming to rest and abide. An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural condition.

Silence and stillness are not states and therefore cannot be produced or created. Silence is the non-state in which all states arise and subside. Silence, stillness and awareness are not states and can never be perceived in their totality as objects. Silence is itself the eternal witness without form or attributes.

As you rest more profoundly as the witness, all objects take on their natural functionality, and awareness becomes free of the mind's compulsive contractions and identifications. It returns to its natural non-state of Presence.

The simple yet profound question "Who Am I?" can then reveal one's self not to be the endless tyranny of the ego-personality, but objectless Freedom of Being -- Primordial Consciousness in which all states and all objects come and go as manifestations of the Eternal Unborn Self that YOU ARE.

© 1999 Adyashanti. All rights reserved.

Stove Gallery - Albuquerque

Well, my friends down at the Stove Gallery in Albuquerque are hard at work changing the world. I found a couple of good articles about their work online, here and here. They also have their own home page (which needs some search engine optimization). I have also added a link to them in my links section. If you are ever in Albuquerque be sure to stop by and tell them John sent you.

An Old Dream

I had mentioned in a previous post that a lot had been happening for me "spiritually" lately. I won't go into much detail but what is happening now makes me think of a dream I had a long time ago. It was one of those dreams that was so vivid and meaningful that it sticks with you and becomes part of the story of your life.

The dream itself was no more than an image. In the dream a grey robed and hooded figure stood half leaning back against a long wooden table. His face, if it was there at all, left no trace in memory. The table he was leaning on was covered with stacks and stacks of mostly very large, hard bound books. The room itself was small and rustic. Stacks of books similar to those on the table crowded every corner of the small room. The only other remarkable feature about the room was a fireplace in which a fire was blazing. The fireplace was to the left of the table and was clearly visible despite the large stacks of books.

In his right hand the hooded figure held a book upright and open facing me. Across both pages was inscribed a single word: JNANA. With his left hand he pointed to the book.

Who is Jed McKenna?

I don't know for certain but my best bet is that Jed McKenna is another name for the teacher known as Adyashanti. Either that or Jed McKenna is Adyashanti's evil twin brother. Anyway even though the works of Jed McKenna are fictional the similarities in their teachings, their realizations, and their lives are difficult to miss. I highly recommend both teachers. The great thing about Adya is that even if he is not Jed McKenna he sure fills in a lot of the blanks. Here is a taste of Adya:

Some reading . . .

Well it has been an interesting few months, to put it mildly. A lot of things happening in my life on the spiritual and personal fronts.

I just finished reading two books my wife bought me for my birthday. The first was Into the Wild. I had previously seen the movie which I enjoyed. The book added some more depth to the story. The real mystery in my mind was whether, if he had lived, Christopher McCandless would have been able to enter into a more mature relationship with his parents and thus with the rest of society. I say with the rest of society because so much of how he dealt with others was a result of his relationship with his parents. He left home mainly to escape what he saw as their stultifying and dead-end existence. But I guess that is the way most young people see their parents as they hold down jobs and do all the mundane things necessary to live in the world and to provide for their children the best way they know how.

The other thing that struck me was that he was ready to walk out of the wilderness, and quite possibly begin mending those relationships. But due to various, mostly accidental, events he died alone in the wilderness. He had run so far away from home and when it seemed he was finally able to begin his emotional return he died. It is a tragic and ironic story.

* * **

The other book she bought me was The Last American Man. I can't remember the author at the moment (Elizabeth . .. ?) and I don't have the book in front of me. The book itself is the story of Eustace Conway, a modern mountain man and the founder of the Turtle Island Presevere. His life story is fascinating and filled with amazing adventures and reminded me in many ways of Tom Brown, Jr. I have to wonder if those two have ever met. I enjoyed reading it so much that I stayed up way too light last night to finish it.

It is an interesting book because it is written by a woman and she does recount his amazing adventures but she also paints an honest portrait of a man who is so driven and consumed by his sense of personal destiny that he has difficulty maintaining personal relationships. His life is consumed by his work, and though he desires a family deeply it seems he is unable to compromise his life and work even an iota to achieve that desire. If he didn't want a family it would be different, but the fact that he wants one and wants one so badly is very sad. When I finished the book I said a little prayer for him that he would find what he was looking for.

The book is well written and insightful. The author is an admirer but also a woman. As with most women she has a deeper understanding of relationships in her pinky finger than he has in his whole body. Her insight into his childhood, and particularly the influence of his father is illuminating. In the end you see a person both amazingly accomplished and sadly inept. A person who knows that there is something wrong with him and even has an idea where the problem lies, but hasn't a clue how to fix it. I can certainly sympathize with him there.

AVP 2 -- Movie Rules

Well, I saw some of Alien vs. Predator 2 this weekend. It was truly an awful movie. Of course I knew this even before the god awful ending. You might be wondering how. Well, I'll tell you. This movie violated one of my cardinal rules for determining how good a movie is. I call it the "Go! Go! Go!" Rule.

This rule is simple. Any movie in which a line of dialogue consists entirely of a character shouting "Go! Go! Go!" is generally a bad movie. This movie contained that gem of screenwriting not once but twice. Thus confirming its place in my heart as a BAD movie.

Google Reader Update

Well it turns out that Google Reader does allow you to share more than just your shared items. In Google Reader you have another option to "Star" stories. Starred stories also have their own RSS feed which you can make public.

In addition you can sort your feeds using various tags (folders). You can then share these folders as well. Each shared folder will have its own RSS feed. Sharing folders does not give you the ability to self-select the stories but it is one more way to aggregate a bunch of news feeds together.

To share your starred items or tagged folders just go to Settings in Reader and then to the Tags tab. Beside each folder (including Starred Items) there is a little broadcast/rss icon. Just click on that and then click the View Public Page link that will appear next to the icon. This will bring up the public web page which will then have a link to its RSS feed along the right hand side of the window.

Interview with a Banker

This interview was first published in Punch magazine on April 3, 1957. I first read it in the book "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin. This book opened my eyes to the way "money" really works. The interview stuck with me as well because it is not only extremely enlightening but is really funny as well.

Here is the interview. The person answering the questions is, of course, a banker:

Q: What are banks for?
A: To make money.

Q: For the customers?
A: For the banks.

Q: Why doesn't bank advertising mention this?
A: It would not be in good taste. But it is mentioned byimplication in references to reserves of $249,000,000 or thereabouts. Thatis the money that they have made.

Q: Out of customers?
A: I suppose so.

Q: They also mention Assets of $500,000,000 or thereabouts. Have they madethat too?
A: Not exactly. That is the money they use to make money.

Q: I see. And they keep it in a safe somewhere?
A: Not at all. They lend it to customers.

Q: Then they haven't got it?
A: No.

Q: Then how is it Assets?
A: They maintain that it would be if they got it back.

Q: But they must have some money in a safe somewhere?
A: Yes, usually $500,000 or thereabouts. This is calledLiabilities.

Q: But if they've got it, how can they be liable for it?
A: Because it isn't theirs.

Q: Then why do they have it?
A: It has been lent to them by customers.

Q: You mean customers lend banks money?
A: In effect. They put money into their accounts, so it is reallylent to the banks.

Q: And what do the banks do with it?
A: Lend it to other customers.

Q: But you said that money they lent to other people was Assets?
A: Yes.

Q: Then Assets and Liabilities must be the same thing?
A: You can't really say that.

Q: But you've just said it. If I put $100.00 into my account the bank isliable to have to pay it back, so it's Liabilities. But they go and lend itto someone else, and he is liable to have to pay it back, so it's Assets.It's the same $100.00, isn't it?
A: Yes, But...

Q: Then it cancels out. It means, doesn't it, that banks haven't really anymoney at all?
A: Theoretically....

Q: Never mind theoretically. And if they haven't any money, where do theyget their Reserves of $249,000,000 or thereabouts?
A: I told you. That is the money they have made.

Q: How?
A: Well, when they lend your $100.00 to someone they charge himinterest.

Q: How much?
A: It depends on the Bank Rate. Say five and a-half per cent.That's their profit.

Q: Why isn't it my profit? Isn't it my money?
A: It's the theory of banking practice that......

Q: When I lend them my $100.00 why don't I charge them interest?
A: You do.

Q: You don't say. How much?
A: It depends on the Bank Rate. Say half a per cent.

Q: Grasping of me, rather?
A: But that's only if you're not going to draw the money out again.

Q: But of course, I'm going to draw it out again. If I hadn't wanted todraw it out again I could have buried it in the garden, couldn't I?
A: They wouldn't like you to draw it out again.

Q: Why not? If I keep it there you say it's a Liability. Wouldn't they beglad if I reduced their Liabilities by removing it?
A: No. Because if you remove it they can't lend it to anyone else.

Q: But if I wanted to remove it they'd have to let me?
A: Certainly.

Q: But suppose they've already lent it to another customer?
A: Then they'll let you have someone else's money.

Q: But suppose he wants his too...and they've let me have it?
A: You're being purposely obtuse.

Q: I think I'm being acute. What if everyone wanted their money at once?
A: It's the theory of banking practice that they never would.

Q: So what banks bank on is not having to meet their commitments?
A: I wouldn't say that.

Q: Naturally. Well, if there's nothing else you think you can tell me...?
A: Quite so. Now you can go off and open a banking account.

Q: Just one last question.
A: Of course.

Q: Wouldn't I do better to go off and open up a bank?

Jack Johnson

A little music from one of my favorites. I will always be grateful to my brother Mike for getting me his first album. Here is one of my favorite songs of his:

And here is Jack Johnson doing another one of my favorites with his friend (and fellow great musician) Ben Harper:

THE FAMILY (and more)

NOT THAT ONE!

Well we've been hearing for awhile about Obama's pastor and all those nasty-nasty, verboten, things he said about Our Homeland the US of A. What you might not have been hearing about are Hilary Clinton's associations with the Christian power cult known as The Family. I just learned about this recently and find it very disturbing. I had no illusions that Hilary was anything more than a closet right winger but this article on her relationship with the Family disturbed me more than a little bit. Harper's magazine also did an exellent piece on The Family a couple of years back. You can find it here.

And then of course we have John McCain who it seems actively sought and received the support of the televangelist Jon Hagee. This is even scarier than the Family because he is one of the Christian types that wants to fulfill (his version of) Bible prophecy by kicking off World War III in the middle east. Unfortunately you can see him almost any time you want on TV.

Here's a taste of Hagee from last year's AIPAC conference:

I also read an interesting blog post on the emerging political philosophy of Pan-Eurasianism (aka Neo-Eurasianism). Think of it as the counter point to PNAC's Pax Americana. It seems that this philosophy may be informing the actions of Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders.

Ideas have consequences.

Being Bodies

The idea or effort for self-remembering or waking up seems to begin in the head -- the intellectual center. I have noticed that if the idea or practice stays in the head it isn't very stable. However, if we anchor this sense of being awake in the body via sensation (moving/instinctive center) then it becomes much deeper and more dynamic. This observation springs not only from my own experience but from what I have read about the practices of the Gurdjieff Foundation as well as other traditions.

This then points the way to another aspect of Gurdjieff's teaching which is as important as self remembering and that is self-observation. My understanding is that self-observation begins with distinguishing the work of the three levels of our being: intellectual, emotional, and moving/instinctive. Initially you practice just to be able to tell the difference between them. Later you shoot for getting a sense of the relationships between the three functional centers in dynamic life situations. I get the sense that it is almost like taking pictures of oneself. Once you have enough of these pictures you begin to understand your habitual mental/emotional/physical postures (egoplastikoori).

But what is the point of this really? Self-knowledge, sure, but to what end? This then brings us to the question of Aim or Wish. Why are we doing this? What is the goal? I think this is essential to the task. I think the answer is unique to each individual. I am still struggling to begin to integrate this. The Aim or Wish is "the big one".

For me the Aim that I defined was "To Be Free". It was very vague at first and only recently have I begun to try to understand what I mean by being free. For me the idea of being free has come to mean being able to control my actions. In fact the inability to control my actions was the reason that Gurdjieff (particularly In Search of the Miraculous) was such a revelation for me. This was a person who was talking about the world of people AS IT WAS. He was coming at it from a postion of observation and honesty and his conclusions were devastating and yet had the feel of Great Truth.

Another aspect of freedom that I have begun to think about is in relation to death. If we don't KNOW what will happen to us how can we ever be free? Obviously it is not possible to know the future absolutely but when it comes to death we don't even know the first thing. It is a great unknown. It is likely entering a wilderness with no preparation and no knowledge of the local flora and fauna. You might survive but if you had a bit of knowledge and training you might be able to do more than merely survive.

* * * *

It appears I have really started to blather in earnest. God help you!

Other (non-podcast) Audio Sources

I love podcasts. I drive a lot for work and it is so much better than listening to the radio. I can listen to people talk about the things that interest me. For a taste of my tastes there is a Podcast Mix section just below My News Feed on the right (my babies!)

Anyway, despite the growing popularity and utility of RSS feeds and podcasting there are still some sites out there that have great audio content but do not have a podcast feed. Here are a few of my favorites:

- the Binary Research Institute does a monthly hour-long podcast called The Cosmic Influence. This podcast, and the Institutes's Research, revolve around what is most commonly known as the Yuga cycle. They are also the organizers of the now yearly Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge. To their credit they are on iTunes but do not have a generic RSS feed.
- Future-Hi is pretty static but features downloads of people like Terrence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson.
- Project Camelot has MP3 versions of its video interviews with a variety of people focussed on the subject of UFOs, ETs, and the "Spirit of the Age". They have interviews with people like Richard Hoagland, David Wilcock, Gary McKinnon and others. They have a definite track they are working down with regard to the UFO question but their interviews are fascinating no matter what stand you take.
- Rupert Sheldrake has a collection of Trialogues available. Unfortunately they are streaming audio and not available for download, but still they are thought provoking and well worth the listening

Another great resource is LibriVox. It is basically a community of people volunteering to record audio versions of public domain books. They have a lot of interesting titles although being in the public domain many of the English translations have a bit of a King James feel to them. But hey, they're free!

Google Reader vs. Newsgator Online

On a whim I signed up for Newsgator's online RSS Reader service. I thought it was time to check out other RSS Readers. I was mostly curious as to the features other readers might offer. The one feature that I was looking for was the ability to create multiple new RSS Feeds from items I selected (ala My News Feed to the right).

Sure enough Newsgator has that capability with its News Clipping functionality. I was very excited at first, but the more I used Newsgator the more I pined for the simplicity and reliability (and features) of Google Reader. Here are some of the problems I ran into with Newsgator:

- I found the overall appearance not as pleasing as Google Reader. This is a personal judgement and others may prefer the Newsgator interface
- the News Clipping service feed would only feed 20 items -- the same as Google Reader. And what's worse for me was that the feed did not seem to update as regularly as the Shared Items feed in Google Reader. I like my news feed to be "hot and fresh" so this bothered me
- it turned out that I didn't have a lot of use currently for the ability to do another self selected feed. I spend WAY too much time on the one I have as it is. I admit that sometimes I can't even make time to read some of the items I share because I have to take so much time going through them. Adding one more to the mix would only increase the load and, well, I already have a full-time job.
- Newsgator's interface had bugs! The most annoying of which would not allow me to look at the items in any of my subfolders if all of the items were read. It would default to some other screen. This was really frustrating when I was trying to download my podcasts. It was also slower to refresh feeds and performed slower in general than Google Reader
- Google Reader also has another feature that I have come to enjoy and that is that it will recommend new feeds for you based on what you already have. I know, I know, Total Information Awareness anyone? But I have found a few good new feeds that way and so in that way I appreciate it.

Also, did I say that the Google Reader interface is simpler and easier to look at than Newsgator's?

In short Google Reader is better than Newsgator Online.

Being

I said when I started this thing that I would talk about "spiritual work", of course I can't say that I have posted a thing at all on this subject. It is difficult to write about because it is so personal. I am still not totally comfortable putting myself out there in a public format. I am also uncomfortable that some of my family might read this. If feels like it is time to put something down and see where it takes me.

I don't particularly "do" any spiritual work, at least in the external sense. I don't meditate or pray, I don't dance or sing, or go to church. Perhaps I should. What I do is to try to BE, as much as I remember to. I think that is why Gurdjieff called it Self Remembering because you have to remember to do it. Remembering to do it is the real trick.

Being is simply the sensation of "I AM" without the words. Almost everyone takes this for granted and it is easy to see why. If you ask someone if they are aware of themselves they will say "Yes, of course!" and they will be - for that moment. It is only when you make a concerted effort to sustain this awareness that you realize that most of the time you literally, ARE NOT.

Another word for Being is Awake. A friend was kind enough to give me some advice on the matter that helped clarify things for me. Here's how the conversation went:

"How do you know if you are awake?"
Me: SHRUG
"You ask yourself"

So I did, intensively, for several weeks. During that time I experienced several instances of what I would call being Awake (or being closer to it). The sense of Being or Awakening was accompanied by a sudden intensification or amplification of the senses. Nothing supernatural here, just that everything seemed more REAL.

(Gurdjieff's third book title: "Life is Only Real When 'I AM' ")

My use of this practice lost momentum as all mechanical processes do and eventually it died off. But it left its mark. I began to see that I had so exposed myself to the literature of awakening that I was being reminded by association several times a day that I should try to BE AWAKE. I would experience moments of awakening more frequently but without the sensory fireworks. I was becoming more used to the experience. My ability to remember now goes up and down but it hasn't gone away completely since that talk.

Gurdjieff once defined the path to awakening as follows:

"To Wish, To Be Able, To Be"

I think I am becoming able.

More Winter Soldier

For more you can go to the website of the Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Obama vs. the Neo-right

On one side we have Barack Obama's speech from yesterday. If you haven't seen it yet you must. I am cynical about politicians but this speech truly does give me hope, and not the kind that fits in a sound bite:

For the wrong side of the debate I give you Mitt Romney's concession speech, or at least blogger and journalist Chris Floyd's translation of it:

If you would like to see just how sick the American elite really is – how morally depraved, how intellectually diseased, how addicted to the taste of human flesh, the scent of human blood, and the sight of human suffering – then you need go no further than the speech given by Mitt Romney to the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 7, 2008.

Now you might say that Mitt Romney is old news. After all, this was the very speech where he declared he was quitting the presidential race. He's toast, he's over, the fork has been stuck into his well-roasted hide; who cares what he says? This is of course the witless "horse-race" view that dominates political discourse in America: who's up, who's down, who's getting the column inches, who's on TV? But in reality, the American elite – or the Establishment, or the power structure, call it what you will (as long as you don't call it what it really is: the ruling class) – is like an iceberg: most of its vast bulk exists unseen, it plows on beneath the surface, unperturbed by the media storms that rage around the small bit of exposed material at the summit.

You can read the rest here and you really should. This guy is one of my favorite writers and his analysis of the subtext of Romney's speech is devastating. It really highlights the subtle bigotry of the neo-right as we have come to know them in the last 14 or so years.

Winter Soldier -- Preview

Changes

Well I am not sure exactly how it happened but I have begun to treat my body a lot better. It has only been about a week but here is what I am doing:

- FlowFit 3x weekly; -- 14 minutes of the 2nd flow
- IntuFlow (Intermediate) 3x weekly; alternating days with FlowFit -- Sundays are off days
- on FlowFit days I also do the Ryabko Systema physical/breath work. Doing this then 14 minutes of FlowFit really pushes me to the my threshold of discomfort, particularly in my legs it also gets my breathing going quite nicely
- I have also changed my diet and am following a simple version of the Zone diet.

The simplified Zone diet worked great for me a few years ago and I stuck with it for months. Unfortunately I started having an adverse broccoli reaction that was so bad that the only way I could get rid of it was to return to my old, abysmal, eating habits. I like the modified Zone diet because I am a pretty simple guy and you can make a quick meal of raw vegetables and a decent protein without having to be too picky. The Zone also stresses the timing of the meals so you have to plan ahead a little bit, but not much. In one of his books the creator of the Zone diet says that food should be treated like medicine and taken in appropriate doses on a regular schedule. I say Amen. I love this diet and have been trying to get back to it for awhile but my old habits got in the way. I am not sure what tipped the scale this time but I know that I was not happy with the way I was feeling, or looking. One of the great things about this diet is that your energy level will go up almost immediately. It may not be all that noticeable if you are already eating healthy but if you ate like I did you will quickly notice the difference.

Another good thing about this diet is that it is pretty much in line with the dietary recommendations of Edgar Cayce regarding food combining. The important thing for me is not to get too caught up in the details, and thus the "modified" version that I mentioned. Basically, if I don't have low fat protein available I will substitute whatever protein I can get. With carbohydrates I still prefer raw vegetables but can substitute smaller portions of grains etc. I would rather substitute for the protein because the fruits and vegetables tend to be more filling than other types of carbohydrates.

The Zone diet also recommends a small amount of monounsaturated (or is it poly?) with each meal. This is stuff like olive oil etc. I have found a novel solution to this by taking fish oil capsules with my meals. Almonds, avocadoes etc also qualify.

In short I am going in a positive direction in regards to my physical body. My goals are to:

- feel better (this is already happening but I have to keep reminding myself that what I want is long term feel good, not the short term high that I get from my high sugar/high fat/high caffeine diet)
- look better - I'll know I am succeeding here if I can get some of my old pants to fit a bit better
- be more healthy - normal range for cholesterol and blood pressure. This is for me and my family

YHVH

This one makes you think:

What happens when the Hebrew letters for God's name (YHVH) are written top to bottom?

Fortean Times news:

Psychic medium contacts Natalie Wells' dead brother
Japanese model gets off thanks to large breasts
New twist in Hobbit-human debate
Go with your gut - intuition more than just a hunch, says research
Pollution helps birds sing better
Black fungus found in Chernobyl eats harmful radiation
NASA baffled by unexplained force acting on space probes
Cemetery full, mayor tells locals not to die
Boriska, boy from Mars, says that all humans live eternally
Herb Charles II used to keep mistresses in shape could help fight obesity epidemic

Daily Grail News:


Intuition more than just a hunch, says research. You know? Somehow, deep inside I already knew that ;-)

Psychologist and Dog Expert, Dr. Stanley Coren says dogs are intelligent, but NOT telepathic.

You & your dog can hear the entire interview here.

Mind-reading machine knows what the eye sees. I hereby propose they call it… The Randitron!! ;-)

The British Astrology Plot against Hitler.

Happiness is partly inherited, according to study. Yo, eggheads! It’s called trust fund, stupids.

World can 'afford' to solve its environmental woes: OECD.

Foggy wars: Over Washington, big industries are embarking in a big lobbying effort to block new, tougher limits on air pollution.

Are the birds on their side? Pollution help birds sing better, studio says. Wouldn’t that be a ‘swan song’ of sorts?

Well, in any case, we can always replace them! Robotic bird makes first flight.

Always two steps ahead: 2,200 Japanese homes run on fuel cell systems now. Goal is one-fourth by 2020.

First Godzilla, now it’s blood-thirsty leeches what’s threatening Japan.

Black Fungus Found in Chernobyl Eats Harmful Radiation. But what about the man-size worm?

Sure, ‘10,000 B.C.’ looks like an awesome flick, but are the paleo-monsters depicted in it based on real science, or mere Tinseltown exaggeration?

Loren Coleman & Henry Stokes (creator of the incredible blog ‘I Love the Yeti’) explore the evolution of the Yeti in popular culture throughout the decades.

What New World?? Primate Fossil discovered in North America may be even older than the ones already found in Europe.

Shackleton Crater: The New Tranquility Base?

Move over shuttle! And make way for Europe’s cargo ship, ‘Jules Verne’.

Those damn aliens and their juvenile pranks! NASA Baffled by Unexplained Force Acting on Space Probes.

Alien graffiti! New alleged Video of Stephenville UFO leaked to the web. You be the judge. More info about this video at Linda Moulton Howe’s Earthfiles, here.

Possible Photo of the Texas UFO, taken by a police officer with his patrol cam?

How lame! British man makes hoax of UFO sighting by using a 13-year-old Mexican photo —which is probably a hoax to begin with. Do your homework you NOOB!

‘Only Fools & Goatsuckers’: The adventures of Jonathan Downes, Graham Inglis & a film crew in Puerto Rico, Mexico & Miami in early 1998 (Thx to Nick Redfern & UFO Mystic for the link).

Say Hello to my little friend! A Goliath Sniper Rifle May Take Some of the Physics Out of War. Well, you know there was this young chap named David…

Great in theory, flawed in practice: 'Virtual Fence' along border to be delayed.

Oh s**t! Quick, act casual! US seeks terrorists in web worlds.

Butterflies Remember What They Learned as Caterpillars. Man, I don’t even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday! (Note to Self: turn vegan).

Let’s spark the controversy: Norwegian whaling lobby alleges that whale hunting is greener than farming livestock.

Don’t have a cow, man? Go get one! California cows start passing gas to the grid. Here in Mexico, we pass cows… to the grill ;-)

On ‘Beyond the Blog‘, Anthony North writes about Cannibalism, and helps us prepare for the day when beef becomes too damn expensive. Mmm… Soylent Green! ;-)

Learn about the ‘Magic Teapot Cult‘, at Cabinet of Wonders.

It has come to this: The tale of a French village where dying… is illegal!