Battles are won by iron hearts in wooden ships

- Ernst Junger

Do what you must, but not what you wish.

Jesus was never a carpenter. The confusion stems from an early misinterpretation in translating the scriptures. Jesus was a stone cutter, or mason.
(The word in question was "tekton" which could mean a builder of houses, or a person skilled in working with stone or wood. Only once was Jesus ever refered to as a "Carpenter" in the NT).

Palestine, then and now, has very few trees.

We will pay the piper but who's playing the tune?

I say no bailout unless Main Street gets bailed out too. Cancel all the debts held by the campesinos- cancel Main Streets debts in their entirety.

There is a difference of opinion concerning becoming pen-pals with ones Congress critter. Some people say that your letter goes straight into the trash. Some people think constituents letters do some good.
I know for a fact that if a politician receives thousands of letters on a particular issue in a short time frame, he takes note and often will change his position- he cannot afford to lose several thousand votes in the next election.

If Americans had only scrapped the calluses off their butts and took the time to become informed and then active, the current crisis would not be erupting right now.
Nixon ending the last vestige of the Gold Standard in 1971, and the subsequent unleashing of the derivative speculative bubble followed....leading us to today.

Spending money that doesn't exist has ever been a sound policy for any nation or individual. Common sense does not exist in our economy.

Update: the bailout failed in the House. Market reaction was predictable: the DOW measured a 777 point loss- the highest in history. The bailout was just an ambulance crew, when an economic ER & operating room was necessary. What is the best way to reap a whirlwind?

Whats wrong with a general bankruptcy ?

Or- instead of giving Wall Street about a trillion bucks, why not give every adult citizen a check for several million dollars? Then they could pay their mortgages and credit cards off, and a massive consumer spending spree would boost the economy.

"Fur uns, ist der krieg nie mals vorbei"

-for us, the war is never over

Weimar hyperinflation,1922-3

$700 billion+ to bailout CEO's and shareholders who made bad bets?

Why not take the money and set up a new national bank? Why not use the money to pay the interest on the defaulted mortgages, thus making them whole?

Let the banks go bankrupt. "Derivatives" and unregulated greed are behind this mess. End speculation. Revive the Glass-Steagall Act. Put the crooks in jail.

I think its too late- a total economic collapse seems just around the corner. War in the Middle East, and elsewhere, seems about to accelerate or break out. The Dollar is collapsing, as Russian warships sail toward the Caribbean. The Kremlin wants to put Nuclear missiles back in Cuba. The Bush gang caused the deteriorating relations with Russia- we lecture them on how to run their society and we try to encircle them militarily....

The bad loans that individuals took out for mortgages that they eventually couldn't handle only amount to $61 billion dollars. Why couldn't this be paid off with a smaller bailout and end the mortgage crisis ? Because it's too late to do so... derivative debt bombs are exploding elsewhere.....over $100 trillion in bad bets are outstanding and about to go bust.

The Glass-Steagall Bank Act prevented insurance and Investment firms from getting overly involved with mortgages. Repealing this Act loosened up this prohibition, and the derivative casino-which already was a problem- opened for business 24/7.

The markets should be allowed to fall, then the market can correct itself in about 4-5 years, with the proper regulatory safeguards in place.
Alan Greenspan and his low interest rate- housing bubble are also partly to blame for the mess.

Bailouts=tax slavery for our children, and a further fall in the value of the dollar, which means we will all pay more at the pump and pay more for food.

Has an entity with deep pockets deliberately made short sells and seized up the lines of credit? Trades originating from London and Dubai look very suspicious.

When something is taken away, it must be replaced.

Avarice

What do we want? We want an end to our suffering. How can this be achieved? I think self-observation helps a lot- we must become more self-aware.

We have a conditioned "ego" but we also have an authentic self, buried deep inside. By correct observation, we can reduce the conditioned ego and get at our true self. The ego is poisoned by the tumultous world, thus we make mistakes in our daily decision making. The real self beneath or behind the manufactured ego seeks wholeness. What we choose to do often is just our poisoned mind dictating the terms of the moment to us. Modernity and anomie war against the Paradise we can create in our lives.

Most people are sick. Listen to their conversations, their words. They want to drag you down, make you participate in their defeat. Whenever you are around such a person, and they launch into one of their tiresome tirades, just say to them "I have nothing to say to that." This is a way to put a brake upon their negative process.

I saw Henry Kissinger on the tube yesterday. The only time that guy would ever be able to talk any sense is when he's asleep.

"The illegal we do right away. The unconstitutional takes more time"

"Gringo" is usually a pejorative term, but in Brazil "Gringo" is used to refer to most foreigners, Mexicans and Argentines included, and has no negative connotation in and of itself.

"Smoked Irish" was a term used against the new Irish in America in the 19th century, and was meant to disparage both blacks and Irish.

FDR's 1933 Glass-Steagall bank act created the FDIC and prohibited lending institutions from owning other financial-instrument organizations, which included a ban on assuming iffy mortgages spinning around the Wall Street merry-go-round.

CEO's applied pressure upon Congress, and on November 12, 1999, President Clinton signed the veto-proof legislation that repealed the Glass-Steagall bank act. Republican Senator Phil Gramm was the main sponsor of the bill-the banks then began to branch out into wild speculation. Banks, insurance firms, mortgage companies, mutual fund groups, etc., could all now own each other.The rest is history.


I'm under the impression that no one inside these mega firms has any idea just what each firm owns, and what the actual contractual obligations are...to cope with this sordid mess, Bush is essentially transferring his executive authority over to Treasury Secretary Paulson, who will have absolute power over the details of the "bailout"(?)....Paulson is our new President.

In life, it seems as though there are really only two or three big events, and we spend the rest of our lives responding to them.

12% of all web page addresses (worldwide) are porn sites.

Most porn sites originate in the US- almost 60% (we are 6% of the worlds pop.)

The US state with the highest per capita consumption of internet, satellite, and cable porn? Utah.

The companies most responsible for producing and distributing porn? General Motors, AT&T, and Marriot corp. (Mormon owned).

Marriot hotels offer porn in their rooms...to cut off access, they would lose about $30 million a year. Since Marriots are now franchised, central HQ probably cannot tell all the Marriots what to do anymore.

It's obvious to me that McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden could never find their butts from a hole in the ground with a map, compass, GPS, broad daylight, all hands, and coaching from expert onlookers.

We seem to be doomed, at least for the near term.

Some blame for the latest meltdowns on Wall street and the sub prime mortgage mess have been put on "Liberal Democratic" goon squads forcing lenders to lend to bums off the street. This is baloney- the meltdown was largely caused by a combination of faulty regulations, rampant speculation by the firms in question (derivatives, etc.) and Alan Greenspan's low interest rates, which bubbled the economy. If the rate had never been so low, the idea that one could flip houses and get rich in a few years would have never taken hold.

Exactly why the rules for lending became so absurdly lax, I don't know. But talk radio paints an image of Liberal Democratic mafioso strong arming lenders into lending mortgages to people woefully unqualified to assume such debts...?

So- did goons from Senator Kennedy's office barge into a lenders office and rough up the manager, threatening him with "cement golashes" if he didn't sign over a mortgage loan to a "bum" earning about 40-$50,000 a year?

The recent bailouts involve taxpayers money, money that doesn't really exist- the printingpresses must be seizing up by now.

Rhodesia was a British colony in southern Africa, the population of which was never more than 6% white. Just as Britain was about to relinquish the territory back to black majority control, the governor of Rhodesia, the ever redoubtable Ian Smith, rebelled and declared Rhodesia independent (the UDI proclamation, November, 1965).
(Smith saw combat in WW2, and was once shot down and nearly killed. Within weeks, he had rejoined his unit).

Prime Minister Ian Smith fought a long bush war against the blacks, and the country endured harsh economic sanctions imposed by most of the world. (Smiths son defected so he would not have to serve in the Rhodesian military, and moved to Norway. Despite the betrayal, Ian never rejected his son, and even maintained good relations with him throughout their lives. When international sanctions kept Ian away from his sons wedding in Norway, Ian was deeply disappointed).

Eventually worn down, in 1980 the redoubtable Smith allowed an inclusive national election; and Africans, led by Robert Mugabe, a communist, took power. Smith retired to his ranch in the country...

Mugabe's rule has been an unmitigated disaster for Rhodesia, renamed Zimbabwe. Inflation is higher than in any other country in the world, the currency is valueless, food shortages are chronic and severe. Rhodesia was once known as the breadbasket of the region... what little food that is produced there now is often withheld by the army from regions thought to be unsympathetic to Mugabe. The policy of seizing white owned farms and trying to run them with unemployed youth (thugs?) from the cities has failed miserably.

While out of the country a few years ago, Smith in an interview called Mugabe "seriously mentally deranged" Western reporters lined the tarmac in Harare to witness the returning Smith, anticipating his arrest as he stepped off the plane. But the redoubtable Ian Smith wasn't arrested by Mugabe's goons- no one is quite sure why.
Ian Smith died in 2007, possibly from grief over his sons death from a heart attack about a year and a half earlier.

Zimbabwe could use another man like Ian Smith right now.

Operation "Highjump"

In December 1946, a flotilla of US warships commanded by Admiral Byrd 'invaded' Antarctica. They were ostensibly on a routine reconnaissance/survey mission, yet after several mishaps and deaths, they 'fled' the south pole six months early, in Feb. 1947...4,700 soldiers took part.

Decades earlier, Germany laid claim to a patch of Antarctica they called 'New Swabia'...Nazi expeditions to the site continued into the war years (World War Two in Europe ended May 7-8, 1945).

There existed factions with Nazism- the Strasser brothers offered a socialist mass action labor program, to be contrasted with Hitlers alliance with Big business (after 1933).

The SA under Ernst Rohm openly talked about a "second revolution." Hitler had Rohm arrested and executed; the SA was either disbanded or merged into Himmler's SS.

Today, there are many descendants to these strains of far-right factions- the National Bolsheviks being just one. They want a racialist socialism and the destruction Usury and monopoly, with an orientation toward the east and protestantism, instead of the West and Catholicism. The National Bolsheviks are today only prominent in Russia- this is ironic, since Russia once bore the brunt of Nazi aggression.

An early proponent of a militant nationalist Germany was Ernst Junger. Junger was a real character- he studied philosophy, marine biology, botany and zoology, and joined the French Foreign Legion, just to see if he could escape from them. He fought in the Great War, and was wounded 14 times...
Ernst used cocaine, hashish, mescaline, and later, LSD, throughout his life, but never became addicted to any substance.

Just after World War One, he published "Storm of Steel," his war diary which seems to have glorified war and the second, and maybe the soon to come third, Reich. This book inspired the dispirited and defeated youth of Germany, helping to create the climate which Hitler used to rise to power. But Junger began to seriously disagree with Nazi doctrine and policy; by the time WW2 broke out, he was almost in Hitlers doghouse.

In 1939, he published "On the Marble Cliffs" a book that urged a unifying peace. Junger was relegated to backwater minor duties...Due to his opposition to Nazi militarism, his reputation survived the aftermath of his country's defeat. Ernst Junger died aged 101, in 1998. President Mitterrand of France eulogized the passing of this German patriot...

Junger today is considered to be Germany's greatest 20th century writer. His political views remain open for interpretation- he disliked democracy, and seems to have belonged to the tradition called "reactionary(radical?) conservatism". His ideal type- the worker/ scholar/ warrior individual,embedded within a wise collectivity... the "Anarch", at war with monolithic modernity, inspires us toward new heights.

John Edwards son was killed by an automobile

Obama's father died in an automobile accident

Bill Clinton's father died in an automobile accident

McCain's first wife was very seriously injured in an automobile accident

Joe Biden's first wife and his daughter were killed in an automobile accident

Al Gore's son was seriously injured in an automobile accident

shocking

We are asleep,or drunk. Automatons, puppets on a string. But not absolutely- 'shocks' can wake us up, and help us lead self-aware lives.

The difference between the Absolute and the self is nil. Escape the matrix with gnosis, to become One.

'Paradox' means that something is wrong; or it is a device to show how something is beyond comprehension.

Images, idols...merely refer to what cannot be adequately thought about...Tillich's God behind God...Meister Eckhart's Godhead beyond God...language fails.

Inner equanimity precludes the need for outer renunciation.

Long ago in central Asia...a woman 'found out'....this was almost 10,000 years ago. The information moved to 'pre-sand' Egypt...the school of Thutmose and Ramses taught Moses...the Christ drama merely 're-enacts' the cosmic play...22 tarot cards correspond to 22 pathways on the Tree of Life, via the Ten powers... as the prana/chi circulates by volition in a circuit, not just upwards. the centers are just benchmarks, or signposts- the terrain and flowing mana is all.

The Earth is caught in the dust of an exploded star, but is now moving out of the subtle and detrimental debris; moving toward cleaner space, or a possible paradise.

At least this is what they want you to think.

For over a year I was at war with several of the wealthiest and most powerful organizations on the planet. They kept threatening me, saying they were going to sue me, etc.
They broke the law in their pursuit of me. Once they did that, I turned the tables on them. One of their lawyers called me from Manhattan and tried to intimidate me... within three minutes, I had him sputtering and choking on the rising bile from his vile past....I cited the exact laws that had been broken, and convinced him that I could prove it. I never heard from this particular organization again.

One of the other entities wrote me many threatening letters. I found the email address for their fearless leader and wrote : " The letter you sent me contained so much baloney I could have made a sandwich out of it" I never heard from them again, either.

Throughout this episode of my life, I never had a moment of doubt. I was in the right, and I was going to prevail.

No-thing or no-one is more powerful than you unless you consent to this idea.

In 1955 Sloan Wilson published "The Man in the grey flannel suit" a book that sorta captured the self-analytical zeitgeist of the 1950's corporate idea...it was promply made into a successful movie.

I knew Sloan Wilson. I remember him complaining about how his houseboat had been damaged by lightning...he was a real curmudgeon and direct, truthful soul.
His advice to me was to go out into the world and do things,to have experiences, to take risks, and write about what I know.

Sloan died in 2003, in Colonial Beach, Virginia

One time I was returning to the states...inside the airport I was a bit confused, being tired from my trip and a bit flu-ish....I was lugging around a big carrying case and way too much luggage overall...I staggered through two swinging doors, like you see in upscale restaurant kitchens....I knocked into a mass of tightly packed people, all dressed in green, some carrying guns...turbans went flying, flashbulbs from cameras were popping like the forth of July. I had stumbled into the bodyguards and entourage of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh (K. Zia) ....I almost knocked her over... everything was scattered on the floor, there was pandamonium as her guards tried to figure out if this was a moment to go King Kong on me or not...since the press was there to witness everything, I escaped with my life.

Solvent

Half of the time I'm in my 'wolfs lair' but tonight I will go up into my 'eagles nest'... its a sort of garret, where I watch the tube sometimes, and look down upon the park below. I found some monster flick from the 40's in the thrift store this morning....driving in the hard rain...lets see, Albert Camus 1942 "The Stranger"...now that's an odd yet great book- the main character never thinks, never retrospects...he has no goal. Those around him desperately want him to show remorse for his crime, but he just is. He is a blank slate of sorts, a 20th century everyman...Camus wants us to learn that life has no meaning, that it is absurd. After we reach a certain point, then I guess that itself becomes our meaning? No matter how hard we look, no matter how hard we struggle....we imagine that its all suppose to add up to something...should we just 'Be'? Are we worrying too much? Do we make artificial demands upon ourselves? A short story by Ray Bradbury put it well.... the title escapes me just now...

Last week I was on my porch-after midnight some girls and a guy burst out of the bar a block from me. In front of the park, the girls opened the iron gate and went in. They relieved themselves in front of me- (between the porch and the low wall there is only 35 feet, and the Moon was shining bright)...I thought they might be drunk, but they did not carry on the way youngsters do when intoxicated- the girls did not show any concern that they might be observed, half waving at me as they took care of business...If they cared about my opinion, then that would have made the action bad. Since they did not care, they did nothing improper.

I hurt my arm about four months ago. Around the elbow... for weeks I could not even move it. Muscle rubs did not help...I ended up getting some special industrial solvent to use for the soreness. The stuff burns. It scalds the skin, leaving a rude welt, but finally the ripped muscle has healed.

Up into my tower I will go- cracking open a tin of Octopus meat in olive oil. Do you find that strange? Most Americans are very provincial in their food selections-with their burgers and fries and shakes...Most Americans wont eat anchovies either. But I think this is changing- we are becoming a little bit more cosmopolitan, in certain sectors.

Did the Buddha really discover a peculiar bliss? Or did he merely tire of it all, and adopt the dignified repose that we associate with the southern planter on his veranda, sipping a mint julip, gazing into the far off treeline as the red sun melts into a kindly dusk? Is the quest a trick? Am I already in Nirvana, as i watch the creature dart toward his doom on the TV screen, as i witness the telling of a story when scripts were still good and craftsmanship in film gave us a window into the world as it might be?

The Hummus is especially tasty...I think its time for some wine.

'Naturally' is the way I am....I am naturally involved with bliss, but is it peculiar, or from this plane? Do you know what I'm talking about? Do we need to read it in a book, a spiritual manual, do we need a guide, a guru, a prayer that must be sung just the right way to be effective, as the ancient vedic practitioners claimed? Who told the original guide? where does this 'stuff' come from? What is the source-God?

I need a mint julip, but will settle a for a shot of vodka.

biscuits...

There doesn't seem to be any candidate for president. McGoob wants to bomb Iran and trigger a world war that will almost certainly end civilization...because he's a slave to the Israeli lobby, AIPAC.
Obama is a slave too- he kowtowed to AIPAC awhile back. He also wants a new welfare program to siphon money away from the upper middle class, and direct it into the ghetto and the villages of the third world.
Instead, the US air force should drop copies of Ayn Rand's books, boot straps, and serenity prayer coins on top of third world villages..
I say we should bulldoze the ghettos, and ban rap music. We need a ministry of music- if it does not contain enough of the elements of music, it's not music ( rhythm, harmony, melody...with thematic lyrics).

Why don't we scrap these elections? The outcome can only be a disaster. If McGoob wins, it will unleash a 50 year war between the towel-heads and the golf-club rambo's...most of the world will become a smoking pile of radioactive cinders...
...If Obama narrowly loses by just the electoral votes in one state, blacks near me will riot and burn down my local McDonald's, and then I won't be able to get my morning dollar- menu sausage biscuit and orange juice.

I vote for Richard Nixon- lets go into his grave and get some DNA and clone him. Why not? he reconciled us with China and Russia once- he can do it again. Our best scientists should be on the case, and find a way to clone Nixon, and then accelerate the growth of little Richard so he can be sworn in by next January. And to have appeal to women voters, he should be given a sex-change operation..

Destiny

Studies suggest that before we decide to do anything, the brain has already electro-chemically 'fired,' about seven seconds before we are conscious of our decision...other studies suggest that the more one tends to believe that one does not possess 'free will', the more likely one will behave in a less than moral manner.

The evidence shows that belief in 'free will' or freedom of choice tends to make us more moral, yet the evidence suggests that this 'free will' does not exist.

I have always been dubious about the concept of free will. If I know someone well enough, I know how they will behave in any given situation. Are they then free to choose, if I have prescience over them?

If human volition is an illusion, then no-one can ever be blamed for their failings; and no-one can ever be praised for their accomplishments.

Homes use to have 'parlors'...people would entertain guests here, and also display for viewing the recently deceased. Sometime in the 20th century, the parlor got renamed 'living room,' to help break its association with morbidity.

"Every man a king"

Huey P. Long was the colorful, populist Governor of Louisiana (1928-1932) during the early stages of the Great Depression, becoming a US senator in 1932-he was assassinated three years later, age 42.

He ran a 'Share our wealth' campaign, and made good on his promises. Long built roads, schools, medical clinics, and was generally a hero to the working man.

Naturally, his rival plan to the New Deal created enemies- his impeachment was basically orchestrated by Standard Oil, when they objected to his proposed windfall tax on their obscene profits. The impeachment effort failed, and caused Huey to turn autocratic.

Huey Pierce Long has always been my favorite 20th century American statesman.

McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his VP effectively outflanks Obama- Baruch's refusal to put a party -unifying Hillary on the ticket may cause his defeat in the fall.

Any and all rumors of scandal involving Palin will probably wash off her back like a duck- since over 85% of female voters are non-ideological, most women will identify or sympathize with Palin- seeing her as the best chance to put a woman in the Presidency, as a Baruch win could keep him there for eight years; while a McCain win will almost certainly guarantee that Palin will be the first female President, and very soon.

Any hint of drug use or sexual wrongdoing by Palin- or her daughters- will be answered with an (eventual) almost total female solidarity by America's women- unless the charge is actual very serious, or the media stubbornly refuses to let up... her daughters situation won't become a real issue, and rightly so.

As we age, damaged proteins clog up up our cells (oxidation). Scientists can now add a gene to mice, reversing this buildup of toxins in the (liver) cells. The mouses liver is young again.

Mills Godwin?

last night's dream...

i was in a classroom at my old church...everything was dark...a piece of chalk was magically lifted into the air...a sprit or ghost was at work...on the chalkboard, the ghost wrote "Mills Godwin"

when I woke up, I thought, what in the world...Mills Godwin?

I wiipedia'd it...'Mills Godwin' was a governor from the 1970's....and a High School named after him...I suppose I had heard of him before, but when I woke up I did not know who he was. Mills Godwin? Why on Earth would i dream about the ghost of Mills Godwin? Someone so obscure-I had never given him a moments thought in my entire life....
Also- I have never been near the High School in question, nor has the High school ever come up in conversion in my life.....

Massacre

In 1950, South Korea, assisted by American army officers, rousted at least 100,000 prisoners out of their jail cells, and in the course of about three weeks, these prisoners were executed. Most the slain had never been formally charged. Some estimates put the number of the massacred at about 200,000. Many women and children were among he murdered.

1-200,000 mostly innocent civilians murdered in a matter of days, with American military assistance. The motive? It was thought that they might be communist sympathizers, and might link up with the Red armies prowling the Korean peninsula.

The most amazing thing about this event is not that the atrocity happened, but that no-one talked. We did not know about this for decades, proving that the government can keep a secret.

(source from ABC news, AP, May 19, 2008)