Today I got my little taste of Black Friday when a friend of mine took me first to the bank, so I could make a deposit to prevent a check from bouncing- - -and the bank was busier than I'd seen it in a long time, and then to Wall Mart for coffee and you had to hunt to even find a parking spot. It was much more crowded inside and notable was the large number of small children in there. I got my coffee, which had not gone up in price. Those of you who are reading this blog on your I Pads while in traffic or whatever trying to get home, you have my condolences. I have had a harrowing day I may go into later. But of course you know stores used to garner sales advantage by opening up at Six AM, and then it was moved to Four AM, and from there to Midnight. While Midnight is OK for many stores, there is a trend to start black Friday sales at Eight PM on Thanksgiving ruining family gatherings by having one of the members have to rush off for work. Of course this is not at all volentary, and they say they will fire you if you miss this one day. At least Ebonezer Scrooge felt compelled to grand Bob Crachet "the whole Day off" on Christmas. Today we have gone beyond that. I've had one brother who for years now has "had to work on Thanksgiving" and we have all had to alter our plans to accomodate him. Of course now Wall Mart has these starvation wages of fifteen thousand dollars a year, which won't support one person for a year, let along a whole family. These people are denied full time status but fall just short of it, because it keeps the corporation from having to conform to certain standards. The Wall Mart employees are unhappy. And then you have Hostess where the media blames the Union for sinking the company driving it into bankrupsey, when in reality it is greedy management along the lines of Bane Capital where the rich fat cats give themselves raises while abusing and short changing their workers. It totally sucks, and if Mitt Romney had become President we would see a lot more of it. It turns out that President Obama got 51 percent of the popular vote, and that 47 percent Romney dreaded, is what HE got in the way of the popular vote. Hence the President's margin of victory has grown from two percent to four on final tallying. Alan West finally conceded in his Florida House race yesterday, when a recount of St. Lucia county or whatever- show that West lost by even more votes than we thought. Meanwhile Nicole Sandler (who was pushing for the recount they eventually did) states that the 29 year old victor, in fact is a "blue dog" democrat, and his vote won't be that reliable, anyhow.
In other news Elmo of Seseme Street got accused of two sexual molestation charges of a sixteen year old and a fifteen year old teenage boy. How do you explain to our children that he is "just the voice of Elmo" and not really Elmo in "real life"? I guess it goes to show people who work on kid's shows have certain natural "proclivities". They say that people who adopt children sometimes do so for the purpose of molesting them. I hope they have adequate psychological screening tests for that. Meanwhile in Santa Monica the grinch who stole Christmas reigns supreme as a Judge ruled that a Nativity Scene would not be erected as it has been for the past sixty years. People who have little "faith" may still have emotional attachments to such nativity scenes as a pleasent part of their childhoods. I am one of theese. My rule is that s symbol or inanimate object cannot "Indoctrinate" you. I would argue that the "freedom FROM religion amendment- - guarentees freedom from government propaganda and indoctrination (hence oppression) but does not prohibit the "free exercise" of a cultural tradition. To me the distinction is like night and day. Money is an object with me now and Dr. Messina just asked me to participate in some "drug research program" because he thought I was a "good candidate to have my scitzophrenic symptums observed and scrutenized by others. And they would try out various drugs on me that haven't been approved by the FDA. When informed I'd be paid $75.00 a visit for my troubles I asked "What's in it for them". And Dr. Messina just said "Oh these pharmasutical companies always do stuff like this. It's how they get business". I've watched enough Homer Simpson episodes to know that certain things just aren't worth it - no matter how much you get paid.
They have announced a peace in the mideast as a Cease Fire accord has been agreed upon by both sides brokered by Hillary Clinton in what may be one of her final acts in office. It is pointed out that Arab getting along with Jew is not news and they co exist wonderfully all the time in the Holy Land, as even Lacude types like Dr. Levy point out when he travels there. He said his wife might not go on vacation with him if the violence kept up. So the Peace is good news for marital harmony. But the thing is that Islam and Judaism and Christianity are all austensively religions of Peace and not war, and unless you're a Neil Savedra type out there - - Peace is by far the preferred, ideal state that is to be striven after. Fine. But of course there are extremes of all three religions on their own political right where five factors are held in common by all three. One is religious exclusivity- - believing God has chosen Them and only Them and everybody else can - -and Does go to Hell. Dr. Levy has come out against such exclusivity. He much prefers the "Whatever works for you" notion. But the next tennant of these three are Violence to solve their problems rather than discussion and negotiation. People like Gingrich and Romney believe that since Islam is the devil incarnate and out to kill you at the slightest pretence, you can't trust them as far as you can throw a bowling ball. The third tennant is Homophobia. You know all about that. The fourth tennant is their oppressive view of Women. And the fifth is like unto it. There is a general hang-up on Sexual Things- - and if these things involve a woman's sexual hygene or health- - the hang-up only intensifies. I guess it was George Burnes as God who said 'Shame is a horrible thing. I don't know why I created it". (Selah) So the lesson we can take away from this paragraph is Vox Populai - - or the common people know best- - and not those who would be their overlords. (Selah) I think there is an evolutionary push forward. It may be slow but it is inexerable and will not be halted but in the end will eventually win out. In this we should hope.
. Before we get into our "final movement" - we have the following song and dance for you from yesterday. The reading if worth your while or I wouldn't have it here. I went for coffee in the courtyard and got two cups and again we had
bread pudding from Dora. I had a little
“Live and local” on. Earlier the radio
had been off. We had sloppy Joes for
lunch and French fries and catsup, and the coffee at lunch was better. We had fruit.
We had seconds on sloppy Joes. I
had Randy Rhodes on at noon and watched the soap opera at one. Marlena may have been cleverly out-manuvered
by Christine on the soap opera if she did indeed hire those muggers. That is suspicious because it was am amazing
stroke of coincidence that first a bright woman like Christine would put
herself at risk by being mugged in a secluded place, and that Brady would just
“happen” to see it, and this mugger would just “happen” to come with a back up
with a baseball bat. Also there was
something about the first mugger’s verbalization that sounded suspicious that a
real mugger wouldn’t bother with. Real
thieves prize the element of stealth and time, and making a fast escape. This guy would have flunked mugging 101. The big with John’s phone didn’t help
Marlena’s case any- - - but if I were she I wouldn’t want to be crucified on
the basis of a minor “strategic mis-step”, if you know what I mean. Why can’t John accept that certain offenses
are so grevious that to compel forgiveness is to only imperil the relationship
with said person, and if that happens to be your wife, that isn’t a good thing,
particularly if Christine had her way you wouldn’t have your marriage, in fact
you would not even be alive. Raphael was
told about Gabriel’s being pregnant and Samantha made a good job of selling her
case. I agree with everything Samantha
said, but I could have not laid it out as well as she did. They took out the green picnic bench down
stairs and I’m wondering why.
Christians are forever touting some "True Blue Faith" or "Original Church" or "Original Gospell" that was never there to begin with. Yet in Acts they throw a sop to this form is naustalgic idealism in saying that in olden times they held "Love Feasts" and "The believers held all property in common" and loved each other and met each other's need without reservation. In the book of Revelation is even says that God would remove any church "whose love has gone cold". That's indicative of the seriousness by which God takes this idea of "Love one another, as I have loved you". (Selah) But in contrast to this "True Faith" the heriticks are generally regarded as "Gnostic Sects". Interestingly one of the earliest herecies is that "Christ never physically existed. It was all just a projection or a revelation to the faithful" or something- - and since Christ has no substance he could not truely bear our pain or ever hope to truely become as we are. (Selah) When this writer refers to Gnosticism - - the reference is most always to Marcionism- - which is an offshoot of Pythagarean Gnosticism. We have told you in dept what they believe - in the past and how the central focus of their faith is "The One". (Selah) But there is another form of Gnosticism that most readers think of when they see the word, and that is Valentinian Gnosticism. This is very different. It's kind of an elaborate Greek or at times almost Hindu sounding patheon of creation stories and images and personifications of emotions such as Sophia or wisdom, spoken of in the feminine gender. There are four male creative forces and four female creative forces all done in this diagram. Next is the worship of the number "Thirty" which is the sum of all numbers- - - up to eight- - but excluding six, the Satanic number because there "Is" no "sixth letter" in the Greek alphabet, or else one that they don't use. As you know in our own Federation writings we refer to the Aries "Mu" s as the thirteenth brightest star in Aries, even though Mu is only the twelth Greek letter. Capish? Also Valentinus had a desciple named Marcus, who I don't take my blogger name after- - and he had his own group like unto Valentinius. He brought in the idea of mystic power of letters, and even the letters used in the word NAMES for the letters- - as also giving their own attributes to the rout letter. Also in Valentinism there is a three part baptism, which may have helped spawned the trinitarian formula used in all "orthodox' Christian baptisms. The third branch of Gnosticism is the Knights Templer, but also inter-connects a lot of disperate elements. For instance the worship of the skull of John the Baptist (Skull and Bones) and the Masons of Midevil Europe, and also an early Coptic myth about Christ, or Crestus, being alive and in Rome as late as fifty AD. And perhaps the upside down "Satanic" cross symbolizes the "distress' symbol or a wrongful death by crucifiction. This is because one of the varient Gospell of Judas, where Jesus "becomes" Judas, when he is scourged and crucified. As you know there are three variant versions of how Crestus escaped Roman Justice. One version says that though his troops lost the battle that Crestus escaped their hands and fled to Egypt. In another version Crestus pleaded insanity before Pilate, and he let him go as "just a harmless mad man" and in the other version- - - somewhere between the taunting by the Roman troops, and the searious business of what they call the "Roman half-death" scourging- - Jesus became Judas, and it was Judas who died on the cross. This is the version Stewart Sutcliffe alias "Bones" is an exponent of. We now move on to number four in our Gnostic patheon, which is Sol Invictus and Mithraism. This is the one that takes all of the ancient birth and resurrection myths as well as worship of Apollo as the "Unconquered Sun" with a "U" and Roman Legions were attracted to this particular faith and hence it was one form of Gnosticism that was legally sanctioned by the State as kosher for its citizens to practice. The fifth in this panthion is Nazorean or Nazarite Christianity. In its original form- - - there was a prohibition against inbibing alcohol and also of eating meat- - or of cutting your hair- - and a belief that "If a woman could become like a Man - - then she could be saved". So the kicker here is maybe Jesus admired Mary Magdolane because she "had the potential within her to become like a man", which raises other questions like in 'Marryanne" by Alice Cooper. And a prohibition of marriage or at least its discouragement- - - was a feature of this group. Now Tatian was a desciple of Justin, the Martyr. Tatian has his own "Gospell" which he called "Through four" or someone points out more accurately "Out of Four". This would mean that Dianetics translates as "Out of the Mind' rather than "Through the Mind" as I had been told it did. This Gospell contains some telling- - Omissions. For instance the story of Jesus forgiving the Adulterous woman- - story is omitted. One source argues that the line "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" is not in the most ancient texts of Luke. I could not trace this one down myself because the text became garbled after chapter 29. But more telling is the fact that there WAS no Roman Cencus by Agustus Ceaser which means Joseph and Mary were not "homeless" and were not turned away because there was no room in the Inn. Neither were their Animals present at the birth of Jesus, and no less than the Pope agrees with this himself. Interestingly this form of Christianity took rout in Syria, and Tatian is called "Tatian the Assyrian" rather than identifying him as a Roman. Like Justin, whom he admired- - Tatian was impressed with their uplifting moral living, but also like Justin, saw himself in the tradition of the Greek Philosopher. So here are the five branches of Gnosticism. We at the Federation would call this Centaurian Christianity because the Branch abides in the tree- - and not cutting your hair symbolizes a connection of us - - to the Tree.