Internet Quips

dwwrmk@teleport.com (One who knows!) wrote: It's so sad that most Americans forget how and why this country was formed.

I don't think it's because they forgot. I believe it is because they were never really told the truth when they were learning about it in grade school and high school. America was founded by religious nutbars like the Puritans who were kicked out of every decent country in Europe. These nutbars were aided and abetted by political malcontents like Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin who didn't like monarchy because they weren't part of the ruling class. Add to this the fact that our first citizens were primarily draft dodgers, criminals, debtors, and other lowlifes that European nations were glad to turn out of their overcrowded prisons and ship to the new world. With a collection like that, it is no wonder we have the highest crime rates coupled with the silliest moral laws in the industrialized world.

All people have the right to see, all that they choose to see, Say what they want to say, and live in harmony with all the peoples of the Earth.

Sez who? The only rights you have are the ones the state allows you to have, or the ones you exercise in spite of the state. Despite what that smooth-tongued anarchist, Tom Jefferson, said, there are no such things as "inalienable rights". The only "right" a person is born with is the right to die, and in this country, their trying to take even that away from us. Ever hear of Jack Kevorkian?

And what if somebody on the planet decides that living in harmony with you is not in their self-interest? I can't see where invoking your rights to "live in harmony with all the peoples of the Earth" is going to do much to help you. Unless you can back up your rights with, say, a carrier task force, or perhaps a couple dozen MIRV'd ICBMs targeted on the political and industrial infrastructure of these people. Don't laugh -- human history is just six thousand years of one group of people trying to persuade everybody else to live in harmony with them. The methods have changed over the millennia, but the object hasn't live in harmony with us, or we'll nuke you to til you glow.

I agree! But you should see what happens when you download pics from this news group!

I give up what does happen when you download pix from this group? ;)

Unless the civil authorities have reason to suspect you of committing a crime, I don't think anything untoward can happen. The only way for anybody to know who downloads what from some news group is if the people running the NNTP host happen to keep a log of NNTP requests, and the people who are running the local host keep a record of which user is on which port at what time.

Civil authorities would have to get hold of both sets of logs in order to identify a particular individual with a specific NNTP request. They can't just demand the logs and grep them for people downloading contraband, because in America, they must have something called probable cause. The fact that one subscribes to and even makes posts in a group known for its contraband traffic is not enough probable cause to warrant invading one's privacy, provided one makes no posts of a contraband nature. It would be as if the cops arrested everybody in a neighborhood simply because they found a crack house in it. If all one does is download and view the images, and nothing else to attract their attention, they have no probable cause. If just surfing these contraband news groups was considered probable cause, and the cops thought they could get a judge to buy off on that idea and issue arrest warrants, believe you me, there would have been mass arrests in this country on a scale that would have made Nazi Germany look like a bastion of democratic freedom.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is don't be too worried about the civil authorities. They have to obey the law just like anybody else. It is somewhat ironic, isn't it, that the most basic laws they are pledged to uphold, the laws embodied in the Bill of Rights, are the very same laws that make their jobs practically impossible. As stupid and as silly as our government is, it is these core laws that make our government tolerable to even a rabid individualist like me.

Meditation can be a very worthwhile way to begin one's day. Ideally, the time should be early enough to allow you to find a quiet place to relax and sit down comfortably. I know that there are many examples in the movies, television and elsewhere of people sitting in a certain position in order to get the most benefit. If this is what you need, by all means, follow what feels right for you.

The same is true for prayer and other practices that people around the world use to seek God or to seek to be closer to God.

Perhaps, though, this may be a good time to suggest, that in the final analysis, it will be the Heart where we will be judged and found to be ready or not ready for greater Light in our lives (it will not be so much the position we assume for meditation or the place, time, or number of prayers we make or even how perfectly we pray, although if these considerations are a part of your beliefs, they may be an important indicator of your willingness to obey that which has been given to you; you will be the best judge of that). Getting back to the subject at hand however, once you are comfortable, you may find it beneficial to place your feet apart on the floor, or ground, depending on where you are, and place your hands, one on the top of each leg. Close your eyes, if outside things tend to be distracting.

Attempt to empty your mind of all thoughts and ideas. It may sound like a difficult task, and it will be until you practice it sufficiently. (This is not an overnight task, nor is the work of making yourself Spiritually enlightened. This may be the work of a lifetime, and more.

The beauty is that you have all the time it takes. That statement should not be taken as a license for you to procrastinate, however. It is presumed that you are either a serious Seeker, or you want to be, otherwise, it is unlikely that you would be here reading this now.)

You may want to try any number of different methods of meditation, but it might help just to think of the mind as a blank slate, and every time that something appears, erase it. Perhaps you may want to consider setting up a practice of meditating each morning before your normal schedule begins. If done with the proper attitude in the Heart, it should not be necessary to meditate more than ten minutes each day at whatever time of day seems best for you.

After a while, you are likely to find that clearing your mind and keeping it relatively clear, are tasks that are no longer so difficult. Once that begins to be a normal part of your meditation, you can just sit quietly in meditation and listen. Still later, you may get to the point where you want to begin your meditation with a question to your Higher Self (not regarding some idle matter, but concerning something that is more meaningful to you at that time). When you have cleared your mind, ask the question, (questions that can be answered by "yes or no" may be the best way to begin) then clear your mind again and listen.

Please.... don't let yourself get in a big hurry about these things. You have a life to live each and every day. Approached properly (with the right Heart), and patiently, ever patiently, perhaps a time will come when meditation, and some of the other aspects of seeking a better life, perhaps even a life of service, will help you to make it through each day a bit more easily. It is hoped that you have found the information here interesting and/or beneficial. If so, you may want to visit the web pages where you will find additional information of a similar nature, although some of it may be more esoterically oriented. The address is:

The term New Age may have much different (and sinister) connotations today than what it meant to the ancients, but the general concepts are similar.

Every 2,000 years or so, due to a precessing movement of the Earth's axis, our Sun finds itself in the sign which precedes it. This is called the precession of the equinoxes, and the ancients determined that this grand cycle establishes the general overtones for the next 2,000 years, taking on aspects and characteristics of that particular sign. At this point in time, the cycle is at the cusp between Pisces and its preceding sign, Aquarius. Thus, it is said that the world is entering into a 'New Age.'

Incidentally, in case you haven't guessed already, this precession movement necessarily means that the sign that you were born under wasn't actually the one you thought it was, but actually the sign which precedes it. In other words, all you stubborn and plodding Taureans out there had better start acting like the impulsive and quick-witted Arians you really are. All you proud and fierce Leonine types, well, you're all actually temperate Cancerian homebodies. Shame on you, strutting around like that, you silly frauds. Now get off your soapboxes, pedestals, etc., and go home and help your wife with the vacuuming and dishes like she asked you to. Tsk, tsk.

Yet I digress - again. In any case, there seems to be a vast difference between the mindsets of ancient and modern astrologers as to what the advent of these New Ages actually herald. To modern astrologers, and other adherents of New Age philosophy, who have proclaimed themselves as being the world's leading authorities and experts on the subject, and who have had the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, the Piscean Age represented nothing more than a murky, dark and violent period highlighted by blind religious faith, notably traditional Christianity, which they seem to personally blame for every form of misery experienced by humanity in the last 2,000 years.

That there was a great deal of misery and suffering in this period, no one can honestly dispute. And a good part of it WAS due to religious intolerance, superstition and ignorance by those who professed to be followers of Jesus Christ. There have been more persecutions and wars perpetrated in Christ's name than in any other. No argument. But what these New Agers insist on ignoring is that there's a huge historical difference between a religious faith and those who claim to profess that faith. While Christ Himself said that those who take up the sword shall die by the sword, many of His so-called followers ignored that particular warning, and many, many others. Does that mean Jesus Christ, His true and faithful followers, and the Way ought to bear personal responsibility for every single outrageous act committed by these false followers of His, then as now? When the prophet Muhammad was establishing the tenets of the Islamic faith, he was an outspoken advocate of women's rights and liberties, and yet, those leaders who succeeded him in later years decided to ignore him, and sentenced all females to a life of miserable subservience and impotence, which the vast majority are suffering even today. As well, Muhammad's idea of Heaven was far different from the debauchery described by Muslims today, which they deem to be a drunken bacchanalic orgy, with an endless supply (to the men, of course) of young virginal nymphs for their eternal pleasure. Furthermore, Muhammad's Islam was meant to reflect tolerance and even observance of other faiths, especially Judaism and Christianity. Today, the Islamic faith has become a vehicle for hate-filled extremists who believe it the Will of Allah to utterly destroy the nations and followers adhering to all non-Islamic faiths, especially Judaism and Christianity. Shall Muhammad and what he intended Islam to become be condemned due to the outrageous acts done in his name, and in the name of Allah?

According to devotees of the New Age, the answer is a resounding yes. For them, the real enemies of humanity are fundamentalists, defined generally as those adhering to the fundamentals of the traditional religions, especially Judaism, Christianity and Islam. By pointing to the acts committed by the false followers of those faiths, who are hypocrites of the worst kind, they have also painted the true and faithful with the same brush. They're all to blame for holding mankind from reaching its real potential, they say. They are the ones who have desecrated the Earth, and they must all be dealt with. In the few remaining years leading up to the New Age, the planet must be cleansed of such types, or else both Earth and man will be no more.

Cleansing the Earth of these fundamentalists is a necessary prerequisite for humanity's spiritual progression in the coming Age of Aquarius, according to the Ascended Masters, spiritual entities who have ascended through the seven planes of existence to the highest echelons of spiritual evolution, and who have returned to help humanity through this difficult transitionary period. They assure the New Age faithful that the newly cleansed fundamentalist soul will pass on to another spiritual plane, where their spirits will be taught and corrected of their evil ways, and that hopefully, someday they will return to Earth and get it right next time.

The Ascended Masters will guide the New Age faithful in conducting this cleansing' process in the next few years, by sending other ascended beings, known as spirit guides,' down to personally indwell the souls of the faithful, who will show them how to proceed. Many fundamentalists will, of course, quickly see the errors of their ways, and renounce their archaic and spiritually stunted beliefs; some will even join the enlightened in their glorious mission. But, the Ascended Masters warn, there will remain some stubborn souls who won't wish to renounce their bloodthirsty and backward faiths, or be cleansed from this particular plane. Not to worry, your spirit guide will enlighten you as to how to ease their transition.

And who are the New Age faithful? Chances are, you are one yourself and you don't even realize it. They are in the boardrooms of multi-national corporations, the corridors of political power, manning the pulpits, as well as holding the keys and launch codes for ICBM's. They are your next door neighbor, your brother, and your best friend. They are literally everywhere, and because they have not put on the armor of God's Truth, and allowed His Holy Spirit to indwell them, to protect and guide them through life, they have left open the doors to other spirits to enter, and they WILL do just that very soon, if they haven't done so already. Whether you believe this will happen or not, whether you want it to happen or not, has absolutely no relevance. It was prophesied to happen, and it will happen, according to the Word of our Lord.

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. - Matthew 10:21-23 NIV)

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him I will confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. - (Matthew 10:32-39 KJV)

Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:5-12 NIV)

He who has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints." (Revelation 13:9-10 NIV)

He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. (Matthew 12:30 KJV)

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit---fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. that is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: "They hated me without reason." When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. - (John 15:12-27 NIV)