Sunday, December 25, 2011

Archaeology: Digging for the Truth of the Bible

A Creation Challenge to the Chickens of Evolution - www.youtube.com (Whoops) Researchers: Ancient human remains found in Israel - news.yahoo.com Searching for Evolutionists Who will Defend Their Position (DEBATE DODGERS) www.youtube.com Digging Through the Bible: David and Goliath - www.israelnationalnews.com Among biblical figures whose existence has been attested by archaeology or other preserved ancient records are the following: www.ucg.org Influential archeologists in Israel are declaring that archeology has proved "the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on the 12 tribes of Israel," and "the empire of David and Solomon never existed." At the same time, other leading archeologists strongly disagree, assuring us that such claims "are either grossly misleading, illogical, disingenuous or all three." Can the Old Testament be trusted for its historical account and does archeology provide evidence for its accuracy. What does the evidence say? Dr. Patton has personally investigated the claims and presents the evidence in a way that will allow you to draw your own conclusions. Dr. Patton has a broad educational background; four years at Florida College, Temple Terrace, FL (Bible); two years at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN (Geology); two years at Indiana Univ./Purdue Univ., Indianapolis, IN (Geology); two years, Pacific School of Graduate Studies. He has worked as Geologist in US, Canada ...

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes

!±8± Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes

The Elephant Vanishes is Haruki Murakami's first US released collection of short stories. It consists of 15 short stories showing his work at its finest, from magical lands with dancing dwarves, giant elephants, and a man searching for his cat. Every thing is uniquely Murakami though, and every single one of these stories is worthy of your time to read, and some of them to read the novel to which they are attached. Here are some notes I jotted down while reading the collection and some thoughts on his work as a whole.

- Murakami uses a singular human feeling or emotion for each of his stories, then he expands and distorts, contracts, and expands that emotion to his pleasure. Use of loneliness, Hunger, and Tiredness come to mind.

- His concepts on reality are very interesting. He is constantly letting the characters recreate it for themselves, the way they want it. The presence of dual reality is consistent, wherein there lies a layer below actual reality that the character must come to terms with.

- He uses the journal and memory as a common device. The narrator's memory and how it is utilized is consistently brought up and analyzed. His use of a journal repeats as a means of organization and structure in the dynamic and chaotic lives of his protagonists, lending a much more structured manner to their lives

The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday's Women

The first story was really odd. Mainly because it's not actually a story, but the first chapter of his most famous book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. After being unable to find the cat, he travels out into the blocked off alley to look and ends up in the back yard of a young girl sunbathing, where he falls asleep in a lawn chair. A series of inappropriate phone conversations with a stranger, and the weird girl in the alley set up one of his greatest stories in that novel, but here are a little out of place as all you get is the first chapter. In typical Murakami fashion though, any chapter from any of his books could be read stand alone and make sense, as very little tends to happen in the physical reality of his characters. Instead, something more that you feel more than observe occurs here. It heartily establishes the tone for the rest of the book, and sets up the reader for the oddities to come.

The Second Bakery Attack

The second story was odd too, in its execution. The hunger curse is interesting to me in that it seems to be the result of a more psychological problem. His wife is an inherently violent person here and that doesn't seem to make much sense. What purpose is there to her violence? Why is she struck by the curse as well and why has he not felt this hunger otherwise since the time at the bakery. I think it might be that he needs a companion to feel this hunger. His best friend was around the last time it happened, and then he left. Without a conspirator it doesn't matter how he feels. The hunger appears though, only 2 weeks after his marriage, and she takes up the matter quite efficiently. Her apparent knowledge on the subject is interesting though. It rouses suspicion in the narrator. Something that Murakami does in the first story as well. A sort of underlying suspicion from this man towards his wife.

The Kangaroo Communique

The third story was very cool to me. The way he starts it off, completely off topic, explaining his 36 steps of though--which we never actually get to hear--and then goes on, the various tangents in his conversation are brilliant. The man works a horribly boring and depressing job and when he finds a gem in his pile of coal he grasps it without abandon. He wants to talk to this girl. He wants to get to know her. He goes on about his wish to be alive in double state. He wants to exist in two places at once. A desire to overcome the monotony of his life and yet not abandon it at the same time. He's afraid of change and this is his way of dealing with it, by not changing. Thus he records this letter to the girl and tells her things that are probably not appropriate. But they are his other self acting. The reclusive, department store self is put aside and this second self, the self that wants to sleep with her and write her this letter is brought out without fear of consequence.

On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning

This is another brilliant story that I couldn't get over. It was short and to the point, offering no plot, or development. Just a very cool series of thought and a seed of doubt left in the reader as to what really happened. Murakami's narrator sees a girl on the street that he knows is perfect for him. Doesn't know how or why, she just is. Love at first sight. He doesn't do anything though. Conjecture develops the ultimately tragic or ultimately romantic story that exists below the surface. If he had told her his story and they got together the reader is left thinking how horribly romantic this is. However since he doesn't talk to her, I'm left to wonder if this story might be true. How horribly sad that would be. This is a story about chances. About taking chances in life and making the most of them. Not letting fate kick your ass. Twice the narrator leaves his 100% perfect girl. Once in his story and once in real life. She will never return to him

Sleep

This is a very interesting story. It tackles a bunch of different little things about her life. She seems to be lost in a world of her own creation. Lost to the arrogance of her husband's family, she has lost everything in her life that made her her. When she stops sleeping she is denying reality to regain that part of her. She is going against her fate that has been constructed and is creating a new reality for herself. In doing so she must confront death and in that ends up meeting it. Her perceptions of reality are skewed completely. In this she creates a new one. One where she maintains her own identity. Not the one that her husband gave her. She is having a mid-life crisis and her way of dealing with it is as such.

The Fall of the Roman Empire, The 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler's Invasion of Poland, and the Realm of Raging Winds

This piece uses key events to mark the narrator's own personal history. It follows a simple day of events for him and marks small normal events as big events with historical metaphor. It's as if he's saying that one's entire life can be marked and remembered by key points and words without all the details. A certain linearity to our lives exists that makes life easier to remember.

Lederhosen

The lederhosen act as a catalyst for her to have stepped back and see the world and her life for what it was. She had to that point built up an illusory world that she lived in. She was unable to step out of it and see how much she didn't want. She was to ensconsed in it to do so. When she finds the guy that looks like her husband but isn't, she is able to view what she has from an outsider POV. This is disturbing to her and because of it she is able to work through her emotions and forget about her husband.

Barn Burning

This is a pretty horrible little story. The man from Africa is either a murderer or a truly horrible person that scared her off. I lean toward the former in the way he described how the barn was calling to be burned. The narrator's closeness to the girl is important here because is counters the man's statement of the barn needing to be burned. His whole idea is that the barn is old and useless and it won't hurt anyone, but this last barn is such that the narrator is the one affected by it. Thus it wasn't harmless. He isn't aware of the correlation though and continues to seek out the barn and the girl. This leading to the dual existence matter again in which he is trying to seek out the literal object that hasn't been burned and inside his mind seeks out the figurative object, the girl that he misses, that has been removed from his life. Very Poe like and quite disturbing.

Little Green Monster

She rebukes love. In doing so, her every move, every bad thought and ill manner hurts the creature. Seems like a metaphor for rejection. She rejects the creatures unrequited love and in so doing destroys him. She sees him only for what he is, a horribly ugly creature, ignoring his love and calm manner. She, instead of figuring out what he wants to say or how to get him to return to his home, destroys him, mercilessly. His passion draws him into her home, unwanted, and because of that her malice is unleashed, almost by reflex. The author seems to be making a statement on women here and how unforgiving they can be for a man's love. Also a statement on the blindness of love and how the male will react without thought and not weight the choices involved.

Family Affair

This story struck me as being fairly laced with subplots and hidden meanings. All of it was done in a very subtle manner, true to Murakami's style and it really struck well, especially at the end, with its blunt, matter-of-fact manner of storytelling. Firstly, the narrator and his sister are just what he says, "partners". Partners in living a pointless lifestyle. She has grown out of it though. In the 5 years they have lived together she has grown and developed a sense of responsibility and place in the world. He however, is still trapped in his own little world, his separate reality. This is demonstrated often by how he says things that don't affect him don't concern him, such as who wins the baseball game. It doesn't matter. "I'm not playing, they are." The differences in the narrator and Noburo Watanabe are extensive. An important thing to point out at first, is the fact that Watanabe has a name at all. Very few, if any characters even receive names in Murakami's stories. This name is important in that it symbolizes a place in reality. His place in reality is marked by his name and he conforms via that name. His sister will become a part of that reality when she takes this manes name. Thus, as the representative of reality, Watanabe begins to destroy the narrator's fantasy world. In the end of the story, after talking to this man and hearing how pathetic his life really is, he first feels the pointlessness of his life. His night out with the girl at the bar is miserable and that is the first mark of the destruction of his fantasy, drawing him into Watanabe's reality.

A Window

There's not much here that I could discern that the author doesn't say straight out. So, I'll just quote the last paragraph.

"Should I have slept with her?

That's the central question of this piece.

The answer is beyond me. Even now, I have no idea. There are lots of
things we never understand, no matter how many years we put on, no matter how
much experience we accumulate. All I can do is look up from the train at the windows in the buildings that might be hers. Every one of them could be her window, it sometimes seems to me, and at other times I think that none of them could be hers. There are simply too many of them."

Life has many possibilities. The simple place of her window is such that it could be anywhere, or perhaps even nowhere at all.


Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes

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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Who Was Siddhartha Gautama?

!±8± Who Was Siddhartha Gautama?

Most people have heard of both the religion known as Buddhism and its founder, Buddha - but who was Siddhārtha Gautama and how did he become the Buddha?

Who was Siddhārtha Gautama? Gautama is the man that Buddhists recognize as the founder of Buddhism, and the Supreme Buddha of our age. It is believed that Siddhārtha Gautama lived between 563 BCE and 483 BCE, but since there are no accurate records of his birth and death, other scholars have suggested that he might have died around 410 BCE. Siddhārtha Gautama was also known as "Shakyamuni", which translates to "sage of the Shakyas".

Gautama's teachings and rules for monastic living were followed closely by his sangha, or community, and were passed down as oral tradition for over 400 years before they were eventually written down as Buddhist texts. It is said that Buddha (Gautama) was born in around the year 563 BCE in what is now modern-day Nepal. This day is celebrated in Theraveda Buddhism as Vesak. Guatama was born to his mother, Queen Maha Maya, and father King Suddhodana, underneath a sol tree as the queen was returning home to give birth.

At the age of 16, Prince Siddhārtha Gautama was married to his cousin who was the same age, who eventually bore him a child. Gautama spent the first 29 years of his life living in several palaces throughout Nepal, with a very comfortable and materially wealthy existence. When he turned 29, Gautama decided to go out among his people and see what the common life was like. For the first time, Gautama saw sick and elderly people, and realized that all humans were destined to become old and die.

Afraid of dying himself, Gautama decided to live the life of an ascetic in order to meditate on the problems of sickness and dying. He took his meditations and living to such a meager and austere level that he nearly collapsed. While undertaking this spiritual journey, Gautama eventually decided to sit underneath a pipal tree (now known as the Bodhi Tree) until he could understand the Truth about life. After meditating for 49 days underneath the tree with no food or water, Gautama reached Enlightenment and became the Buddha.

When Buddha became Enlightened, he decided to reach out and teach others his beliefs and doctrine. The sangha, a community of followers, was formed by people that heard his teachings. Buddha also decided to spend the rest of his life, 45 years, reaching out to people from all classes and walks of life in order to help them achieve Enlightenment.

Who was Siddhārtha Gautama? Gautama was a man who started out as just an ordinary, overly wealthy prince who through meditation and the shunning of worldly goods, achieved Enlightenment and became the Buddha.


Who Was Siddhartha Gautama?

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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Michael Moore - "The Dumbest People on the Face of the Earth"

!±8± Michael Moore - "The Dumbest People on the Face of the Earth"

"Fahrenheit 9/11" auteur Michael Moore recently fueled the epidemic of hatred for America by denouncing his own country and his own people to the foreign press. The UK's Mirror printed Mr. Moore's observation of Americans: "They are the dumbest people on the face of the earth...in thrall to conniving, thieving, smug pricks...We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing." (1)

That's right. We are. In fact, we're stupid enough to believe that we have a great country. Why? Let's look at the facts...

In 2002, the US Census Bureau estimated that 32.5 million people, from places Moore claims our children can't find on a map, lived in the United States, the largest foreign-born population in America since we started keeping records in 1850. (2) Why are all these people risking drowning, hardships, cultural barriers and possible contamination by our laziness, aggression and arrogance, incompetence, shallowness, and sexually explicit media? Why do people such as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger come here, entertain, take advantage of opportunity, and enrich our economy through business and philanthropy?

Shock time: Americans are not nearly as despised as Al-Jazeera would have you believe. In fact, the PEW Global Attitudes Project reports that in its 2004 survey, roughly half the respondents in Russia, Turkey and Morocco say people who have moved to the U.S. have a better life (natives of Germany, France and Britain who responded to the survey disagreed, but that's hardly a surprise, even though Britain has always been a friend).3

None of the usual pat phrases such as "land of opportunity," "let freedom ring," and "democracy, democracy, democracy," seem to explain why Elian Gonzalez' mother died to bring him to America.

But perhaps we as Americans are stupid enough to believe that those phrases actually mean something. Perhaps we are the dumbest people on the face of the earth. "Dumb" in this case can mean "naïve," generally meant as an insult, as in "Don't be so naïve about why al-Qa'eda hates us so much."

These days, anyone who doesn't adopt the de rigueur attitude of boredom and yawning in the face of just about everything is called naïve. But Americans have always been known for innocence and openness.

Beverly West quoted actress Alicia Silverstone in Culinarytherapy. Ms. Silverstone, perhaps channeling President Abraham Lincoln's optimism, once remarked, "Like when I'm in the bathroom looking at my toilet paper I'm like 'Wow! That's toilet paper!' I don't know if we appreciate how much we have." (p. 184)

The idea of anything-therapy and the overuse of "like" appear to the global audience to be authentically American, impressed with our own coolness in one breath and cheerfully mangling the English language in the next, not to mention taking the words of a nubile young Hollywood actress (who starred, interestingly, in a contemporary remake of Jane Austen's satire on manners Emma) as wisdom. Being excited about toilet paper seems, in this high-tech age, a little backward and disingenuous.

Yet all major religions, particularly the Judeo-Christian tradition on which America as we know it was founded, emphasize gratitude as part of spiritual consciousness. Gratitude for the simplest of things, like toilet paper. The great composer Aaron Copeland based his "Appalachian Spring" symphony on the Shaker song of gratitude, "Simple Gifts."

"Simple" is often a synonym for "dumb." Yet if simplicity means stupidity, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were prize idiots. Both of these quintessential American philosophers emphasized simplicity.

In a land of high-speed Internet, 500 channels, strip malls, and coffee companies proliferating like WMD, simplicity seems a foreign concept. Yet in America, we're "simple" enough to believe that we live in a land of liberty, that (political correctness aside) we can pray, say, or sing whatever we want. We're simple enough to believe that there still is a personal God, no matter what name we praise; that our kids have the right to attend church, despite the brouhaha over "one nation under God" in the Declaration of Independence; and that (reality shows and a 50 percent divorce rate aside) saying "till death do us part" still means something.

We're naïve and open enough to believe that, "conniving, thieving, smug" CEOs notwithstanding, we can work hard, start businesses, take care of our families, and create a life that we can be proud of when we leave this world. Even the much-vilified Martha Stewart is admired as a self-made American success story, someone who has used traditional homemaking arts to build a worldwide brand that emphasizes the good life. So much for the idea that Americans are a land of instant macaroni-and-cheese and fast-food eaters. Yes, people sue McDonald's over getting fat, but the majority of Americans work hard, try to eat well (often together as a family), and pride themselves on playing fair and upholding the law.

Despite celebrity trials, racial prejudices, judicial snafus, serial killers and publicity-hungry lawyers, we still think that "the little guy" still gets a day in court and a fair trial by jury. There is still a sense of personal responsibility for oneself, one's fellow citizens, and one's children.

Despite increasing pressures that erode childhood, our kids still have faith in parents to set limits, to be an example, and to lay the foundation for a good life. Certainly many of the young men and women we have seen interviewed in Operation Iraqi Freedom represent the best and the brightest. Our children exhibit the unique dedication to serving others that so many of our leaders, from President Kennedy to Eleanor Roosevelt to Colin Powell, extol. Ms. Stewart advocated teaching disadvantaged women how to start their own businesses. In America, even some of our high-profile so-called criminals want to improve life for others.

We're simpleminded enough to believe we can make a difference abroad and in our own communities. We have a strong commitment to preserving the earth for future generations. From Thoreau to Rachel Carson to the eco-friendly celebrity spokesperson of the week, Americans show a love for the natural beauty of the earth, a beauty that we celebrate in our own homeland. Many of our citizens support recycling, controls on pollution, wilderness/rainforest conservation, and wildlife preservation. As the riots at the 1999 WTO Summit in Seattle show, Americans can be quite over-zealous when supporting their causes. In short: Americans care.

This should come as no surprise. Our ancestors banded together to secede from British rule. Even in our fight for liberty, we held opposing views, contrarian views amongst ourselves. The Whigs who supported the Revolution and the Tories who supported England clashed with the fervor of their descendants, demonstrators with opposing views on wars from Vietnam to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

This passion for ideas, this devotion, may seem to undermine the unity we boast of. We're naïve enough to protect the free expression of ideas, even sometimes seemingly at great cost. You don't see death squads breaking into antiwar protesters' homes. For all the controversy over the Patriot Act, people who disagree with the US government do not simply disappear without a trace. Case in point: "Fahrenheit 9/11." It has made over million (the first documentary to do so), yet people coming out of movie theaters don't get dragged into unmarked cars and interrogated. You can't be more critical of the government than Mr. Moore, and yet he won an Oscar for "Bowling For Columbine." Unlike Soviet artists who criticized Communism, Americans are not forced to flee their homeland--the rest of us won't stand for it.

Lest we forget, it was recently-deceased and much-praised former President Ronald Reagan who uttered the famous phrase, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." His administration was hardly free of controversy, and yet "the Gipper" maintained a cheerful optimism, an openness to the "Evil Empire," and yes, a naïve belief that America was "a shining city on a hill." Reagan was actually dumb enough to believe that America would prosper long after he left office. From this standpoint, "the Gipper" personifies Mr. Moore's idea of American idiocy.

In that case, the countless mourners, including children too young to have heard of President Reagan, who streamed by the casket in the Capitol Rotunda and at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library all suffer from a collective lobotomy. For that matter, so do the world's most famous figures, including Mr. Gorbachev and Dame Margaret Thatcher, who all responded to President Reagan's uniquely American character.

At this rate we'll be a nation of Forrest Gumps, which wouldn't be all bad if it meant we could have his decency and kindness (not to mention Tom Hanks' sense of history).

Oh wait...maybe we do. Perhaps that's what Mr. Moore means when he calls us "the dumbest people on the face of the earth." By that standard, we're an entire nation of "Jeopardy" champions.

So the next time people here or abroad say, "You Americans are the world's dumbest people," we can say with pride, "Yes, we are. God Bless America!"

Postscript: Michael Moore's IMDB.com entry includes this quote: "I like America to some extent. Take the Japanese for instance. They are complicated and tend to be reserved in expressing themselves. Sometimes, it is difficult for me to understand them. Americans are simple and clear. They are charming people. You will understand how good an individual American is. What I am not satisfied with America is that the nation cannot control the government and economy. Only a handful of people have the power to control the country." He also reportedly liked Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ," since he has stated in DUDE, WHERE'S MY COUNTRY that the left has a "hoity-toity view of religion"--we give the devil his due.

1 June 26, 2004, http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/6/26/103545.shtml

2 http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0073.html

3 http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=206


Michael Moore - "The Dumbest People on the Face of the Earth"

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Truth About George W. Bush

!±8± The Truth About George W. Bush

We, the people, of these United States have the responsibility to ask questions (see "Does Anything Make Any Sense Anymore?"). Is our president, the leader of the free world, turning the executive branch into an imperialistic presidency by expanding his powers, we must ask, "How did this man become president, and what is he trying to do, and how do we stop him from destroying America any further?

We all know that GWB got into Yale University after attending Phillips Academy
(where his father attended). However, he was accepted with a 1206 combined SAT
score, which is far lower than the average score of the students accepted at Yale.
Why was he accepted to Yale? Was it because he father and grandfather went there?

While at Yale, he maintained just a 'C' average. His transcript reveals that he
received a '71' in Political Science, barely passing,' and a course vital to national
public office. In another Poly Sci course he opted for a 'P' for pass, rather than a
number grade. In City Planning, he received a '75.' In Economics, he earned just a
'72.' In Science 2, he got a '69,' and in Sociology he received a '70.' Again barely
passing. And in English, he earned just a '75' and a '76.' So the question one must
ask is, "With grades like that, how in the world did George W. Bush, a low average
student, get accepted to Harvard Graduate School?

Has this deception been part of this family dynasty from the beginning? Is honesty
not in the family vocabulary?

Below is a reprint from Wikopedia, the online encyclopedia. After reading it, you may
understand better, and agree with the majority of Americans, that this man is not fit
to be president of the United States. His actions, and his family's actions, speak for
itself. The problem is that if our Congress doesn't do something immediately, the
Bush family will continue this subversion of our democratic government, alienating
us from the rest of the world, and endangering our country even more. Something
must be done NOW, especially since all the polls taken show that 70% of Americans
no longer believe in this president, and when asked, non-Americans feel he is more
of a threat than Saddam Hussein was. It is time to save America and regain our
worldwide respect.

(From Wikipedia)

The Bush family conspiracy theory is an umbrella term used to describe various
conspiracy theory allegations directed towards the family of President George W.
Bush, including the President's brothers; Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Marvin Bush,
and Neil Bush; their father and former President George H. W. Bush; grandfather
Prescott Bush; and great-grandfather George Herbert Walker.

Background

Proponents of these conspiracy theories sometimes refer to the alleged secret
organization with pejorative terms: Bush League, Bush Buddies, Texas Taliban, Bush
Criminal Empire (BCE), or Bush family evil empire. The first is a pun on the baseball
term "bush league"-- minor league amateurs.

As the Bush family has provided the last two Republican presidents, there may be a
confusion of family conspiracy with what is actually normal political maneuvering.
(Similarly, the Kennedy and Roosevelt families have produced a number of political
and public figures). Additionally, members of the Bush family are politically and
economically prominent, so it is natural that they have connections to other major
political and business figures, some of whom have unsavory reputations.

A number of allegations have been made about different members of the Bush
family at different times: it is not reasonable to discuss these allegations as a whole.
Listed below are assorted allegations and rebuttals, but any serious consideration of
these allegations should be made on a strictly individual basis. Some allegations
have received considerable mainstream attention and debate; others are generally
regarded as specious and unsubstantiated.

Various allegations and conspiracy theories

Oil dealings and the Middle East

The Bushes support the oil industry to enhance their own financial interests in the
industry.

Ayatollah Khomeini dealt with George H.W. Bush and/or his operatives to arrange
the Iran-Contra deal and allegedly the October surprise conspiracy, on behalf of U.S.
Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan.

While Vice President, George H.W. Bush was responsible for Saddam Hussein's
acquisition of weapons and funding during the Iran-Iraq War.

Osama bin Laden, then a Mujahedeen leader in Afghanistan, is reputed to have been
a CIA agent who made use of CIA resources and U.S.-funds to bolster the morale of
radical Islamists after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Further, the Bush family,
through its ties to the bin Laden family and other connections, otherwise aided bin
Laden's rise.

The September 11, 2001 attacks was planned or sanctioned by the Bush
administration, to secure oil pipeline routes through Afghanistan in preparation for
Peak Oil.

Marvin Bush was in charge of security at the World Trade Center in the months just
prior to the 9-11-01 attacks.

The threat of WMDs and terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks were
political cover for the 2003 implementation of PNAC founders Cheney and
Rumsfeld's 1998 plan for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, originally
presented to President Clinton.

The assassination of Olof Palme may have been related to his knowledge of Iran-
Contra.

George HW Bush Sr. was a CIA agent since the late 1950's. He was the agent in
charge of the failed "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba in 1961. Bush's presence in this
event can be proven by the names of the boats used in the operation. The boats
were named the "Houston", after Bush's adopted home town, the "Zapata", after his
company Zapata Oil, and the "Barbara", after his wife.

CIA agent Bush was in Dallas TX on November 22, 1963, but he claims he "can't
remember what he was doing" when President Kennedy was assassinated. George
HW Bush would claim in a letter to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that he had
overheard a Texas Young Republican by the name of James Parrot threatening the
President. Two CIA agents, E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis were briefly held for
questioning in the JFK shooting, but were released after the arrest of Lee Harvey
Oswald. Hunt and Sturgis were in the "grassy knoll" area, where many experts
believe the fatal gunshot was fired from. Lee Harvey Oswald's journal, currently on
display in Washington at the National Archives, contains the name and phone
number for George H.W. Bush.

Consolidation of political power

Prescott Bush supported the Nazis. These claims stem from investments he held in
Nazi Germany.

While George H.W. Bush was head of the CIA, he may have been involved in the
1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier. Bush remains silent on this issue, and the
CIA refuses to release many of the internal documents which could shed some light
on it. There was an organized conspiracy between Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, the
U.S. Supreme Court, and ChoicePoint to rig the American presidential election in
2000.

Certain members of the Bush Administration, the United States Supreme Court, and
the Republican Party disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters in the 2000 and
2004 elections via voter purging lists, poll harassments, rigged electronic voting
machines (see Diebold Election Systems), and fake absentee ballots.

Through legislation and actions which extend executive powers and reduce
oversight as justified by the War on Terrorism, the Bush administration is working
toward establishing a totalitarian state.

In the Bush administration's ambitions to expand the Texas Medication Algorithm
Project to the entire U.S., mandating "mental health" screening of every American
and possibly forcing treatments on the "ill", is suspected a range of issues from
mere pharmochemical-industry collusion up to a new version of Hitlerian control,
demonisation, or eradication of dissidents and mental defectives

Other

The Bush family supports crime and Satanism through the Skull and Bones Society--
only their involvement in the organization is actually known.

Conspiracy of Silence is a 56 minute Discovery Channel documentary film, detailing
an alleged Lawrence King child sex scandal that involved many children from
Nebraska institution, Boys Town. The organized child sex parties implicated the
Reagan and Bush White House during the 1980s.

The Bush family--especially Neil and Jeb Bush--profited from the Savings and Loan
crisis of the 1980s.

Jonathan Bush was involved in banking tomfoolery with Riggs Bank.

The Bush family is actually part of a vast bloodline shared by many European royal
families of alien/inhuman Reptoid blood, asserted by David Icke, among others.

The Bush family is related to Rev. George Bush (biblical scholar) (1796-1859) a
leading 19th-century Hebrew scholar, Presbyterian minister and professor who
wrote "The Life of Mohammed" (1830 (Bush geneological chart included in the
edition published by The Book Tree)), an anti-Muslim polemic. According to one
theory, George W. Bush's foreign policy towards Islamic nations is an attempt to
engage in a religious war that has been planned for generations.

Known history

The following are the parts of known history which have led people (see references)
to make further claims (see allegations above).
Businesses associated with Prescott Bush, such as the Union Banking Corporation,
were shut down in November, 1942 -- nearly one year after America's entrance into
World War II -- under the Trading With the Enemy Act for working with Nazis.

George H.W. Bush, Prescott Bush, and George W. Bush were members of the Skull
and Bones secret society, along with John Kerry. (Bush's membership in the Skull
and Bones society was the subject of several Doonesbury cartoons.)

George H.W. Bush was head of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976-77.

Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr is the son of one of George
H.W. Bush's better supporters in his campaign against Reagan; the Hinckleys'
Vanderbilt Energy was threatened with a -million fine the morning of the
assassination attempt; Scott Hinckley and Neil Bush had a dinner appointment for
the next day.[8]

George W. Bush has sealed the presidential records of both himself and his father.

Saddam Hussein was provided with weapons and funding during the Iran-Iraq War
in the 1980s during the Reagan administration, when George H.W. Bush was Vice
President. In addition, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush
was the Special Envoy to the Middle East in this period, appointed by President
Reagan. He met personally with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.

Dick Cheney was G.H.W. Bush's Defense Secretary, and is currently G.W. Bush's Vice-
President. Cheney is the former President and CEO of Halliburton Company which
has been given an exclusive and unbidded contract in postwar Iraq. In addition,
Halliburton's accounting firm was Arthur Andersen, which has been convicted of
obstruction of justice, and allegedly committed fraud.

The Carlyle Group is an investment group which includes members of the Bush
family and the bin Laden family (one of the richest in Saudi Arabia). George H. W.
Bush and bin Ladens were at a Carlyle meeting in a DC hotel the morning of 9/11.
George Bush's private plane landed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the morning of
9/11. While private flights were grounded after 9/11, permission was granted to fly
several bin Ladens to a gathering location. They left the U.S. before air traffic
resumed. In total, four planes were allowed to leave the U.S. with Saudi citizens
when the American airspace was closed.

George W. Bush and Salem bin Laden were coinvestors/business partners in Arbusto
Energy.

The 2000 Presidential Election was won by George W. Bush in Florida, the governor
of which was his brother, Jeb Bush, after a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The
court decision was divided 5-4.

During Election Night of the 2000 Presidential Election, John Prescott Ellis, a full
cousin of George W. Bush, was a consultant to Fox News, analyzing data from the
Voter News Service. He regularly contacted Jeb and George Bush by phone that
evening.

The Project for the New American Century, which in 1990s advocated the invasion of
Iraq for reasons of geopolitical strategy, included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,
Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and John R. Bolton, all of whom subsequently held
influential positions in the Bush administration.

The Bush administration does not accept the International Criminal Court's authority
over American citizens, and members of the administration have questioned the
usefulness of the United Nations. George W. Bush appointed John R. Bolton to a
recess appointment as Ambassador to the United Nations although Bolton had
previously made disparaging remarks about the U.N.

The George W. Bush administration pushed for the USA PATRIOT Act and has used
the new powers in a variety of cases.

George W. Bush, during the 2003 State of the Union Address, said that British
intelligence had learned Iraq had been attempting to purchase uranium from Africa.
That claim was based on information which the CIA said it could not verify, and CIA
head George Tenet accepted responsibility for failing to remove the assertion from
the speech in the fact-checking stage. An earlier document specifically documenting
a supposed buy from Niger was known to be a forgery and was not referred to in
any Bush speech.

George W. Bush has made remarks suggesting that he saw footage of the first 9/11
impact on network television, even though that crash was not broadcast until hours
later.

Bush plans to have nuclear waste stored at the volcanic Yucca Mountain facility.

Bush has made the following statements:
"I told all four [congressional leaders] that there were going to be some times where
we don't agree with each other. But that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a
heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." December 18, 2000

Answering a repeated reporter question about the anti-Bush gwbush.com, "But how
far should these guys go?", Bush replied "There ought to be limits to freedom. We're
aware of the site, and this guy is just a garbage man, that's all he is. Of course I
don't appreciate it. And you wouldn't, either." May 21, 1999

When the White House had released a copy of a National Guard Bureau document,
Aeronautical Orders Number 87, September 29, 1972, they inked out James R.
Bath's name (which was revealed by comparing it to a 2000 release of the same
document, Bath's name uncensored). The allegation is that the White House was
afraid of drawing attention to George W. Bush's relationship with James R. Bath, who
managed funds for members of the Bin Laden family, and was the Director of BCCI.

The following is a reprint from AOL News. It is the f'inal nail in the coffin.'

BUSH SPENDING

(April 3) - Federal spending is outstripping economic growth at a rate unseen in
more than half a century, provoking some conservatives to complain that
government under Republican control has gotten too big.

The federal government is currently spending 20.8 cents of every the economy
generates, up from 18.5 cents in 2001, White House budget documents show.
That's the most rapid growth during one administration since Franklin Roosevelt.
There are no signs that the trend is about to turn around. The House Budget
Committee last week rejected a proposal that would require spending hikes to be
offset by cuts in other spending or by tax increases.

This week, the House is scheduled to debate the .8 trillion budget for 2007,
which projects an additional trillion of debt in the next five years.
The Sept. 11 attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Gulf Coast hurricanes
account for only part of the increased spending.

Other factors: the biggest military buildup in decades, domestic spending, and the
rise of benefits for the elderly, poor and disabled.

"You take anything, and we've grown it big," says Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a leading
critic of the spending spurt. "When you're in control of the presidency and both
houses of Congress, there's just no stop on it. There's no brake."

Examples:

-- Spending for President Bush's military buildup, which began before 9/11, has
risen nearly 50% above inflation in five years.

-- Medicare's new prescription-drug coverage is projected to cost an average of
billion a year over the next decade, adding nearly 20% to the health care
program's annual price tag.

-- Spending on social programs, from education to veterans health care, has risen
faster than at any time since the 1960s.

"Budgeting is about making choices, and this period is one that shows a complete
absence of that," says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican who stepped down last
year as director of the Congressional Budget Office.

The White House points to recent domestic cuts and the elimination of scores of
small programs. It says Bush has led efforts to trim Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid.

"By far the bulk of new funding - 75% of it - has been to restore the hollowed-out
military the president inherited, strengthen homeland defenses after 9/11, and fight
the war on terror," says Scott Milburn, spokesman for the Office of Management and
Budget. "These are essential investments that were required ... to protect our
nation."

The spending spike contrasts with the mid-1990s, when Republicans gained control
of Congress and compromised with President Clinton on spending cuts that led to a
6 billion budget surplus in 2000.

"Republicans have gotten the sense that they're going to get elected by passing out
money to people," says former Republican House Budget Committee chairman John
Kasich.

Can it be any clearer what we must do?

We must come together and take back our country.


The Truth About George W. Bush

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Tax Jokes and Quotes

!±8± Tax Jokes and Quotes

Do you realize that some tax forms ask you to check a box if
you are BLIND?

Quote: "Two years ago it was impossible to get through on
the phone to the IRS. Now it's just hard to get through.
That's progress."
-Charles Rossotti, former IRS Commissioner

Disappointed that you never had time to write the great
American novel? Don't fret, just go dig out your past tax
returns.

Quote: "The Eiffel Tower is the Empire State Building after
taxes."

Under the Freedom of Information Act, a man with a small
business sent a request to the IRS asking if they had a file
on him. The IRS wrote back, "There is now."

Quote: "It would be nice if we could all pay our taxes with
a smile, but normally cash is required."

Q: Who audits IRS agents?

Quote: "Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is quite
as satisfying as an income tax refund."

Q: How do you drive a CPA insane?

A: Fill out Form 1040EZ.

Quote: "The government deficit is the difference between the
amount of money the government spends and the amount it has
the nerve to collect."

Why is it that when the IRS loses a tax return, it is
considered a mistake, but when you lose a receipt, it is
considered tax evasion?

Quote: "The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes
are taken out, it's just sort of a tired feeling."

Q: How do you humble a person that flaunts their wealth?

A: Have them fill out a tax return.

Quote: "Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you
don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a
martyr."

Q: Why is a tax audit like a tornado?

A: There's a lot of screaming and you end up losing your house.

Quote: "When are we going to be allowed to list the
government as a dependent?"

People often say death and taxes are the same, but this
is wrong. Death is a taxable event, but taxes never
die.


Tax Jokes and Quotes

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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

17. Education and Literacy

Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts (HIST 251) Professor Wrightson begins by assessing the state of education in the late medieval period and then discusses the two cultural forces (Renaissance humanism and the Reformation) which lay behind the educational expansion of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While there were distinct hierarchies of learning in the period (with women and the lower orders having far fewer educational opportunities open to them than other members of the social order), this was genuinely a revolutionary period in terms of education. Attendance at the universities and the Inns of Court expanded exponentially, educational ideals for the elite were transformed, standards of clerical education reached unprecedented heights, grammar schools and petty schools were founded across the country and, by the end of the period, literacy levels in the population were much higher. England was now a partially literate society and was well on its way to achieving mass literacy. A threshold had been crossed, and this shift had far-reaching cultural and political effects. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Education: Cultural Influences Underlying an Increase in Schooling 09:33 - Chapter 2. Elite Education 21:03 - Chapter 3. Clerical Education 22:42 - Chapter 4. Education for Commoners 26:16 - Chapter 5. Limits in the Educational Revolution 30:41 - Chapter 6. Literacy 36:59 - Chapter 7. Gender 40:18 - Chapter 8. Conclusions ...

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