[eschatology] six perspectives

1. Aurora puts an interesting scenario and it might also be interesting to combine it with a few others. Hers goes a bit like this:

“UNIFIL kept finding Hezbollah arms and did nothing to stop the flow.” That is, until last month, when the U.N. actually caught them with a truckload of weapons and called for their disarmament. Hizbullah will now begin the takeover of Lebanon’s army in order to march on Israel.

Within Israel:

Tzipi Livni will step in and try to keep the collation together. She will fail and new election will be held. The nation will hold its breath, but I believe that Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu will return as Prime Minister. Thus return Israel to a position of strength.

The 2007 Winograd Commission sent the IDF a clear message. Clean up your act! And the IDF went into action. They went back into training. Today’s IDF is a much different than the one Hezbollah fought in 2006.

On January 20, 2009 Barak Hussein Obama is sworn in a President of the United States. His Middle East advisors are all from the Carter era including Zbigniew Brzezinski and Samantha Power. They start a very pro-Arab, anti-Israel foreign policy starting with the cutting of aid to Israel.

In the summer of 2009 (it can be no earlier than this due to the weather), Hezbollah and Hamas step up attacks on Israel. Israel mobilizes. Hezbollah then instigates another war (kidnapping of a soldier for instance). Israel attacks Lebanon.

Hamas tries a breakout of Gaza (like the one the did in Egypt), Israel finally attacks in full. Iran gets into the act and launches Nuclear attacks on one or more of Israel’s cities. As her cities burn the IAF retaliates and launches their own Nuclear weapons against Iran.

Instead of condemning Iran for lying about its nukes, they fully condemn Israel and a multi-national military force is formed to invade Israel. The US takes the lead and orders its Navy to launch its fighters against Israel. The US Army sends 150,000 troops to invade.

I'd take issue here and bring up the fact that the U.S. is by then effectively the SPPNA under the control of the NAAC by March 2009 and this slowly becomes more visible.

2. Svali's take [supposedly the satanist elite end time view]:

One of the olive branches offered by the UN when it takes over is that they will prevent war in the middle east, and this will be greeted with joy by many. At the same time, guns and funds [are supplied] to both sides to keep the conflict fueled.

There will be continued conflict in the Middle East, with a severe threat of nuclear war being the culmination of these hostilities. An economic collapse that will devastate the economy of the US and Europe, much like the great depression.

[There'll be an induced collapse and ] the government will call in its bonds and loans, and credit card debts will be called in. There will be massive bankruptcies nationwide.

Europe will stabilize first and then Germany, France and England will have the strongest economies, and will institute, through the UN, an international currency. Japan will also pull out, although their economy will be weakened.

3. Uh huh. A glance at the Mayans [take your pick of articles] says basically:

The Mayan calendar shows that as we get closer to 2012, time will start to collapse in on itself. Meaning that from our perception, time will seem to be speeding up. But in fact, we are just doing more things, in a shorter amount of time.

Through the use of the internet, more events are happening simultaniously and closer together. Cell phones allow us to connect to each other more frequently, so simultanious events have more possibility of arising.

So, on this 5th Mayan Day, there's a consciousness change in humans and this 26 000 year cycle ends on December 23rd, 2012.

4. Right. Now to the monotheistic religions - Judaism first:

The Temple Institute, a controversial organization dedicated to preparing for rebuilding a Third Temple in Jerusalem, has been attempting to identify Red Heifer candidates consistent with the requirements of Numbers 19:1-22 and Mishnah Tractate Parah.

In recent years, the Institute identified two candidates, one in 1997 and another in 2002. The Temple Institute had initially declared both kosher, but later found each to be unsuitable.

The theory is that before the Third Temple can be built, a red heifer must be found and sacrificed. The cornerstone can then be laid, something symbolically tried on in 2001, causing:

Earlier in the day, 21 Palestinians were wounded when they clashed with Israeli policemen in protest of the symbolic cornerstone-laying ceremony...

There's little doubt that the laying of the cornerstone and attempt to rebuild the temple would result in the Muslims of all nations attacking in force.

5. The Christian eschatology basically has the following scenario, as far as I can understand it:

There is a falling away of morals and society, conflict proliferates and somehow Jerusalem is encompassed with armies. There are many false prophets and people claiming to be Israel's saviour.

One of them is believed by Israel and makes a covenant with her. He defeats the armies arrayed against Israel but that ushers in the real troubles. Famines, earthquakes and celestial disturbances increase.

Somewhere along the line, maybe three and a half years in, the covenant is broken, the renewed sacrifices in the temple are ended and there is an "abomination of desolation" of the temple - presumably this man setting himself up to be worshipped.

Also along the way is a method of ID where everyone has a chip in either the forehead or right wrist, without which he can neither buy nor sell. This chip is directly connected with this false saviour.

6. The Muslims have it this way:

The Jews will be gathered together. Final battle between Muslims and Jews. Quran also contains a version of the "Gog & Magog" war from the Bible with several differences.

Major Signs:

1. Gross materialism

2. Women outnumber men

3. Muslims defeat Jews in battle; Muslims and Christians battle unbelievers together, then Muslims defeat Christians in battle.

Minor Signs:

1. Increase in bloodshed and war

2. Contraction of time

3. Religious knowledge decreases

4. Prevalence of the ungodly

Pretty good, huh? So, put it all together, from Aurora to the Muslims and there's a scenario to contemplate.

[football] halting the deterioration of england

Red Mist opines:

Consider the 2-0 defeat to Croatia, the Euro 2004 defeat against Portugal, France in the world cup a few years back, the list goes on.

Why does this occur?

From an early age there is a difference in approach taught in England compared to the rest of 'footballing' Europe and Latin America. It's all about formation, the 4-4-2, being allocated a position and playing there for the next 20 years. There's little time for small pitches, 5-aside and technical training.

When I was at school, 95% of the time was spent playing 11-aside, with a few minutes here and there set aside for some dribbling. The result - drones who only know how to play in one position, with very limited technical ability or tactical awareness. Keeping hold of the ball is just not tought...it's all about scoring goals ASAP.

Soccer Lens says:

For too long have they been hiding inside the bubble of invincibility which they have constructed for themselves. Too long have they surrounded themselves with the air of self-perceived superiority. The sad fact is that England are not as great as they make themselves out to be - I have been telling England supporters this my whole life and none of them listens.

Years ago they employed a Swede by name of Sven-Goran Eriksson. When that decision was made, many derided the English FA for turning to a foreign coach. It was a disgraceful thing to do considering how the English often saw themselves as a football powerhouse. To be sure, the English FA wasn’t too pleased of the decision themselves and vowed that never again would they turn to a foreign coach. Yet 6 years later, the English have, as Britney Spears put it “did it again”.

What about the Premier League? It is the best? Hardly. Let’s look at the the winners of the Champions League for the past 10 years. In a span a decade, the prestigious competition was won by an English club only twice - Manchester United in 1999 and Liverpool in 2005. That’s not too bad you might say considering that Italian clubs have only won it twice as well during that same time span.

I'd like to make a suggestion

In the Australian competition, there was a situation where Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn and one or two others were mopping up all the championships, Carlton being the blue-bloods of the competition.

Starting a couple of decades ago, the powers that be decided to do something about it.

First off was the admission of new clubs from interstate and this then grew into an almost wholly national competition which saw Brisbane and Sydney [non-AFL states] win flags, on top of traditional states like WA and SA.

Secondly, there was a new policy of recruiting brought in, a highly prescriptive policy of National Draft, Pre-Season Draft and Rookie Draft. There is also a trading day. clubs are allocated "picks" according to where they placed in the previous season and can trade these picks as they wish, to maximize benefit to their club.

These picks are highly scrutinized and work to a formula, the end result being that the weaker clubs benefit from good picks and if the off-field process is also well organized, then the club can look forward to some success maybe five years down the track.

There's been criticism of course and it mainly comes from middle placed clubs who get middle value picks and therefore tend to stay in the middle of the competition. What the system has certainly done though is to even up the competition and even overcompensated at one stage.

The Brisbane Lions were a hybrid of the new Brisbane Club and the old Fitzroy Lions, the latter a perennially struggling club. In 2001-3, they won three flags in a row, largely due to a great off-field organization, heaps of money some years earlier enabling them to pick well, the drafting of a great coach and an esprit-de-corps which grew up around the club.

They've had their day and new clubs are now up there - it seems to be a most egalitarian arrangement and has brought into the lexicon the term "window of opportunity", whereby a club finally matures to the point it is ready to win a flag and is able to do so for maybe three years, after which it drops back again, having suffered poorer and poorer draft picks in each successive year.

Another factor is the salary cap. Clubs have X amount of dollars to spend on players and if they can't keep it under the "cap", then either players must accept a cut or be jettisoned - this particularly hit Brisbane.

The English system of relegation is a good one in principle and affords well organized clubs a chance but the sorry truth is that while the Big 4 continue from riches to riches, the others will languish on the middle to lower rungs. Everton is such a club.

[population] food and water will control it

If you were to ask yourself what is the most pressing issue of the next ten to twenty years, you might not say the credit crisis as most think it will be solved in the short term. I say nothing.

§ You might see it as the growing militaristic surveillance society and the huge number of laws which have all but criminalized the average person - try smoking in a pub.

§ You might see it as global warming.

§ You might see it as immigration.

§ I see it as population, food and water. As simple as that.

The sinking ship

And to use an analogy, if a ship is sinking, people are going to be reduced to the survival instinct and will try to clamber aboard the lifeboats, even at the risk of upsetting those very boats and the whole thing sinking to the watery depths.

After the financiers on board have phoned for a helicopter to quickly airlift the thirteen of them to safety and they're whisked away, the scene down below is not so good.

One woman seated in the centre of one of these boats, clutching her child to her - she's going to have a certain attitude to the hundred people in the water desperately swimming towards the boat she's in, relatively safe and dry.

If there were five or six swimming and space for four left on her boat, well maybe she would not kick up such a fuss. But there aren't five or six - there are literally hundreds, all crying out in anguish, all with varying capacity to reach their goal and effect their rescue.

Meanwhile, the band strikes up on the sinking boat and a group of people of a certain temperament go down with her.

And what of one of the swimmers who is enterprising and has managed to claw his way into the boat? In the water he was all for the rights of the newcomer but now he has suddenly become a conservative himself.

And what of those seated in the boat who shout to the swimmers that the sittees have the right to be there and the swimmers don't? On what grounds? On the grounds that they were there first, they shout back.

One of the swimmers reaches the gunwhale of the boat and in the swiftest of moves, grabs and ejects an elderly woman and takes her place. He is despised by all others there but they're not strong enough to do anything about it until he finally sleeps.

Into this, the Lieutenant at the bow tries to restore order, to apply the precepts of the ship to the lifeboat - the rule of Laura Norder, of immutable truths, of the rules of the sea. He needs a pistol to do it because people are a little removed from abstract concepts at this particular moment.




The lifeboat

So, twelve hours into the escape, hundreds having drowned at the scene of the sinking, there are 25 in a boat for 18, with a further 12 clinging for life to the side. The Lieutenant checks the dried food supplies and visibly blanches, then checks his instruments and realizes that a storm is brewing on the horizon.

He further realizes that this lifeboat, already weighed down to the gunwhales, is going to sink the moment those waves heap up and all will be lost. So he announces that the total numbers in the boat need to be halved to have any hope for survival.

A deep groan goes up to the sky and yet everyone sees the dilemma - they just don't want to be part of it, that's all.

People start to state their cases - the bedraggled businessman, with his cards and water damaged mobile phone, is the best suited to run the economy of the new society in his opinion, the teacher claims she is vital for the children present, the carpenter says his presence is clearly required, the mothers state their cases and add about their ability to create meals from scraps, the pensioner is too ill to say anything.

One lady pipes up and says 'twould be better all went down rather than a "culling process lottery" take place.

The lieutenant says it is the infirm who must go plus the newcomers already over the side. He holds a gun to the heads of several people who do the deed and the boat is rowed on by the strong, away from the luckless who've been jettisoned. One 68 year old humanitarian aid worker gazes after the disappearing lifeboat as she flounders in the water.

The storm temporarily abates and the passengers and crew reflect on what has taken place. Someone starts up a song.


Moral

To kill spirituality and reason, reduce people to survival mode.


Richard Beck speaks to young Americans here, roughly concerning this theme:

H/T Matt [see right sidebar]

Good Music

ANOTHER GUEST POST FROM MATT, OF BUCKEYE THOUGHTS:

I always love when I hear a good song. It´s just I could listen to them over and over and over again.

The first one is one I hadn´t heard before coming to Spain. I have one of her older discs staeside. Her name is Paulina Rubio and she´s from Mexico. Here´s her song "Ni sola una palabra" (Not Even One Word) from 2006. I can´t embed it, unfortunately. It´s worth watching though.

Next up we have Laura Pausini, from Italy. All of her songs are very good. Here´s "Se fue" (He left):





Next we have another oldie but goodie. La Oreja de Van Gogh is from Spain and I´m proud to say I own all of their discs, they only have three out and that might be all they´ll ever make. Word on the street is their lead singer split last year and is trying to go solo. Yeah, that ain´t gonna work. Here´s "La Playa" (The Beach):







I tried looking for it on YouTube but someone hasn´t put it up yet. The song is used in an Herbal Essences commercial, which I saw for the first time three days ago, meaning it´s realtively new and won´t be on YouTube for a while.

Here´s another one from their latest (last?) album, from 2006. The song is "Dulce locura" (Sweet Craziness):







Leona Lewis´s "Bleeding Love". Let´s see, what else? Hmmm...


Ah, yes of course, from 2007! Dalmata´s "Pasarela" (Fashion Show):







Finally, to close it off, let´s go back to the best genre of all time, classic rock! From the ´70s, George Thorogood and the Destroyers´"I drink alone":





I would´ve wrote a post on May 2nd but that´ll have to wait. The place is closing soon and won´t have access tomorrow, as everything shuts down here except for churches and bars. I will also comment on my preminitions about the elections and the NAU, as well. Till next time!

[dipnote] state department blog revisited

Sean McCormack - State Department spokesman

On October 9th, 2007, I ran a tongue in cheek piece on the State Department's latest venture, the Dipnote blog, with such classic pieces as:

The Europeans walk through the lobby of our home for the week, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, in their grays and blacks. The Americans in their shiny lapel pins, power suits, and blackberries. The Africans in their colorful garbs and stylish headdresses.

and:

The No. 1 improvement readers have suggested is to drop the blog's name: "The name DipNote has to go ... the blogosphere can be quite cruel sometimes ... you'll be referred to as Dip and another 4 letter word," writes SD in Washington.

The State Department responded with this in my comments section:

Granted, we're new at this, but just ask that you give the blog a chance. It's an open forum where you can actually discuss foreign policy issues with State Department officials and fellow bloggers. The question of the week this week is "What will life in Cuba be like after Castro?"

If you're willing to give Dipnote a chance, post a comment and see for yourself.

Well ... er ... fair enough, I mumbled at the time and posted an inconsequential follow-up. Now it's clearly time to revisit and see what's going on at Dipnote today. Sean McCormack states that the idea is:

With Dipnote we are going to take you behind the scenes at the State Department and bring you closer to the personalities of the Department. We are going to try and break through some of the jargon and talk about how we operate around the world.

And the title - Dipnote?

It looks like we broke our own rule and used State jargon in our blog title. "Dipnote" refers to a diplomatic note. It is one of the many ways in which governments formally communicate with each other.

The first thing which worries me is that many articles are written by "Dipnote Bloggers". The IDs are in the "About" section - Heath Kern, Tara Foley and Masharika Prejean - but how can one judge from whom a particular post is coming and how much veracity to ascribe to it?

To be fair though, the latest post on Colombia has a name to it - Charles S. Shapiro.

Their blogroll is also interesting and supports my contention about the influence of the CFR on American policy but that was a known known anyway.

Council on Foreign Relations

U.S. Diplomacy

American Diplomacy

Matel in Iraq

GWU Public Diplomacy Institute

... among others. Clearly the State Department has its own line on things and it would be churlish to question that - they are what they are and go in to bat for the State. Logical.

How much editorial independence the Dipnote Bloggers actually have, I wonder and I don't wonder cynically but openly.

There's a section with a photogallery of the Issue of the Day and that's a nice touch.




My own feeling about the blog is that it would be better with a light background, even white, to avoid connotations of Great Satan, that the authors should be more visible on the home page, as Sean McCormack is on his page, that the content is a little thin in places and they'd be better instigating some genuine discussion with a provocative quote or two.

They're getting nibbles but it would be nice to see some really heavy visiting. My own humble blog can pull in a few hundred readers - tops - but it needs the Malkins in the world and maybe the Dales in Britain to make themselves better known.

I wish them well, actually and will add them to my roll, for what that's worth - it's a venture and this little blog supports new ventures.

Good luck.

[blasphemy] another nail in the coffin

Python, Life of Brian, Stoning Scene - script here

Does G-d have a sense of humour? I certainly hope so, otherwise I'm in big, big trouble. If we are made in His image, then it must be so.

So when Ginro reports that Cranmer reports that Gerald Howarth gave his thoughts on the blasphemy bill, a smile played on the lips until I actually started reading:

There was a debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday 6th May about the blasphemy laws, of which the entire debate can be read in Hansard.

This nation has been forged and fashioned down the centuries by its Christian tradition. Every Act of Parliament is prefaced by reference to the support of the Lords temporal and spiritual and the Commons assembled.

That indicates that our Christian faith has played a hugely important part. Therefore, while I have enjoyed the frivolities of this evening’s proceedings, we should be under no illusions that a serious issue is at stake.

I am afraid that I am not interested in the Joint Committee on Human Rights or the European Court of Human Rights; I am interested in my views and beliefs, which are profoundly held and shared by a lot of people in this country.

Those of other religions who have come here down the centuries have done so in the full knowledge that this is a Christian country. One of the reasons why they come here is that our Christian faith is a tolerant faith—one that allows mosques to be built and that allows people to observe their traditions, to bring those traditions with them and to practise them.

It is a mistake that some of them should now assert that, because they have come here in rather large numbers, they should be entitled to overturn centuries of tradition in this country.

The Minister relied, as Ministers of course do, on the assertion of the Government’s new religion, which is discrimination: anything that is discriminatory is to be resisted, if not completely rejected.

Of course the law of blasphemy is discriminatory—but then, as was pointed out to her, so is the fact that the Church of England is the established Church. That discriminates against everybody else ... We are discriminating every day of our lives; we discriminate when we go to the shops.

Furthermore and as has also been pointed out, we have Christian prayers in this place, which you, Mr. Speaker, of course preside over ... Clearly, this is an undisguised attempt at promoting the case for the disestablishment of the Church of England ...

[A] Jewish headmistress, whom I was sitting next to at a lunch ... said, “It is very important to our school that there continues to be an established Church, because it provides some protection to us in the practising of our religion.”

That message must not be forgotten.

It is a time when we desperately need to reassert moral values in this country. The fact that the archbishops have deserted the field is unfortunate, because that again sends out the wrong message, but my simple role in the Church is as a mere church warden.

Our children will not understand if this House says that it is not important, because why then should anything be sacred? That would send a dreadful message to the young people of our country…

“I think that this is no time to be abolishing the law of blasphemy.

When I go to a synagogue, I wear kipar and the prayers are in Hebrew. When I go to a mosque, I dress accordingly and show reverence. When in Rome ...

This dismantling of the rule of law does not really stem from the devout - it stems from Them - the ones this blog has long been railing against. It was so at the Wren Chapel, it was so at Harvard, it is so here. In Robert Bolt's Man for All Seasons, this exchange took place:

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's!

And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

The most fundamental mistake you can make, if you are atheist, agnostic or of another religion, is to think that to go along with this dismantling of a nation's legal and societal underpinning will not rebound on you. I'm talking directly here to fellow libertarians who are anything but Christian.

The most fundamental mistake you can make is to sit back and let this bill go through unchallenged because you disagree with Christianity per se and it's going to come back on you - it is just another nail in the coffin of all our freedoms which the Christian religion has had the decency to allow us in some small measure over the centuries.

The enemy is at the door, his weapon is divide and conquer and far too few realize it.

[when champions age] it's sad to see

It was the MCG in a year I can't even recall. On a visit to Melbourne, my mate had tickets for the Test match with the Windies and we went along on a perfect day for cricket.

The Aussies were batting and the new ball was not given to Malcolm Marshall from the other end, as I'd supposed but to other bowlers. I wanted to see Marshall bowl, recalling the terror he'd inspired from a few years earlier with that whippy action and lethal projectile.

After lunch they threw him the ball and it was a different man. Line and length, medium fast, he was hit away by, at that time, only reasonable Australian top order batsmen. The essential thing I could see was that there was no fear any more in the opposition's eyes.

The Third Umpire sums up Marshall's gifts:

Malcolm Marshall was their finest quick during their 1980s heyday, seriously rapid, hostile and extremely consistent; but he complemented these gifts with subtlety and real cricketing intelligence.

Plus he was a lovely man off-field, by all reports.

Cue Schumacher. As the BBC said in 1996:

The seven-times world champion celebrates his 36th birthday on Monday, but the German said he is confident of continued success.

"I have the odd small ache or pain every now and then but they are only small ones," he said. "I am not getting worn out and especially not psychologically. I still enjoy what I do immensely. "In sport, you can't rest on your past victories. You have to take the challenge again and again."

Ian Botham, Denis Lillee, Michael Jordan, Tyson, Martina Navratilova, Gary Ablett Snr at Geelong - they all started playing smart or not so smart with age. It's truly sad to see a magnificent champion no longer able to cut it when he could have blown away the current opposition on his day.

Yes, they know it one day has to end. Yes, they know they must be a bit more subtle, a bit more roguish these days. They see the writing on the wall. As champions, of course, they'll get over it, come to terms with it [excepting Ablett and Tyson and to an extent - Jordan].

So is that what we're seeing now with Federer, a truly wonderful player, as Sampras was before him? One commenter's thoughts expressed at BBC Online:

It is the SIXTH defeat by six different players in SEVEN tournaments for Federer this season. This also credits all the analysts who clearly previewed the end of unilateral dominance of Federer since last year as all the guys know he is no longer unbeatable.

With this technically very limited backhand,it is obvious that Federer will not win the FO this year again bacause there are better clay-courters like Ferrer, Almagro, Davidenko and Nalbandian who will cause him all sorts of trouble on the surface.

Maybe it would be better for Federer to start thinking now about defending his title in Wimbledon which will be very difficult. I expect many more defeats for Federer to come this season as winning a serious title this year (Master Series or GS) looks so laborious for him.

Martina on aging:

"I did this for the enjoyment of the game and that still is there. I'm pleased with how I'm playing. I can still put it together at this age and not having played for four years. I'm having a great time. It doesn't get any better."

Navratilova said she was moved when she spotted an elderly woman with a walking support who came to watch her play in Eastbourne.

"How honored can you get for people to be making an effort like that to see you play tennis?" she said. "It's a treat and why there will never be any regrets if I don't win."

And a comment all former champions could relate to:

I've been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.

[thought for the day] friday evening

I think I see some light at the end of the tunnel but maybe it's just an oncoming train.

If you haven't yet read it, good messieurs et mesdames, might I suggest this for your bedtime reading tonight?

[st louis ghost train] mystery solved ... perhaps

The legend

One night in the 1920s, a CNR engineer was checking the tracks near St. Louis when he got hit by a train and lost his head. Now, at night a light from a phantom train or lantern appears - it's the engineer looking for his head.

Some people checked it out:

St. Louis Saskatchewan Mayor Emile Lussier, who runs a hotel at the foot of an iron bridge once used by the old trains, did not believe tales of the nightly ghost train. So he once went with his brother-in-law to the crossroads with a somewhat daring plan in mind.

"So far as we knew, nobody had actually walked the tracks. So we did," says Lussier.

They walked about a mile along the old track bed, without seeing anything. Then suddenly, "there was a light right at our heels -- a strong light that cast shadows. When we turned around, it was gone."

Lussier's son and some friends decided to go out to the old track bed to see for themselves. Lussier stayed at the crossroads as the boys hiked off down the old track bed. As he watched them in the distance, something very strange occurred.

"The light lit everyone up. It looked just like a globe -- really bright. And yet, they didn't see a thing."

Lussier points to that episode as an indication the "phantom light", as some people in St. Louis prefer to call it, "appears in two very different ways".

Serge Gareau took some visitors from Alberta one evening for the midnight phenomenon.

"We sat there for about an hour, and nothing was happening," Gareau recalls. "And then all of a sudden we saw this light. It was just like a train coming. A bright light coming at us, with a little red light towards the bottom."

Enthralled, the Gareaus and their friends watched "for a good two hours" as the steady white beam and its crimson companion appeared to approach, but never arrive.

The solution to the mystery is quite possibly in white below.

Click here

All right, that appears to be that. Well, what about this then?

"I don’t think it’s car lights," says Rita Ferland, one of the few people who’ve seen the phantom beam in broad daylight.

... or this?

Scientists on the scene have also confirmed sighting this apparition. They saw the light of the train on the tracks and saw it get closer like the train was travelling forward.

The Ghostlight

Windows Media - Low Quality (3.2 Mb for dial-up connections)
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RealPlayer - Mid Quality (15.1 Mb for faster connections)

Well I've looked at everything available now and the footage is not exactly conclusive. I don't see everything flooded with light although they all report it does sweep around the trees at them. Why not photograph that? If true that it does flood the area in light, can't see how that can be headlights 5.3 miles away. And why not everyday? And how in the middle of the day?

Two teenagers reported their alternator caught on fire. Again - their word. I can see the taillights might be the red lantern but why not two lanterns? The light splitting could be car headlights front on at a dip in the road.

Wish we could see a vid of the whole thing.

[new nationalism] the writing on the wall

There is most definitely a new trend around the world. Actually, the feeling was always there but now it is more articulated at governmental level:

Foreigners go home.

Starting with an extreme example, Burma:

Burma wants supplies but not foreign aid workers, its foreign ministry says, hours after the UN chief urged military leaders to prioritise relief work. Burma was "making strenuous efforts" to get aid to affected areas by itself and was not ready for foreign teams, a statement in a state daily said.

Pleading guilty myself, sitting, eating a Russian breakfast while I posted this weeks ago, there does seem to be a new nationalism afoot, a new withdrawal into the national self. Applying that old chestnut to any country you care to name:

It might be a hopelessly disorganized cesspit but it's OUR cesspit!

So while the whole thrust of the sphere is global - look at the visitors to this site for a start - in RL there is an opposite discernible trend. According to The American Conservative, in a recent piece in the FT , Larry Summers, Clinton's old aide, warns that:

…growth in the global economy encourages the development of stateless elites whose allegiance is to global economic success and their own prosperity rather than the interests of the nation where they are headquartered. As one prominent chief executive put it in Davos this year:

“We will be fine however America does but I hope for its sake that it will cut taxes and reduce regulation and put more pressure on young people to study in the ways that are necessary for it to be able to keep competing successfully.”

The AC goes on:

Similar concerns about the way the “rise of nationalism” frays global economic ties, have been raised by Bob Davis in another anti-business daily, the Wall Street Journal on Monday:

During the long march toward globalization, international borders and trade barriers came down. Communism fell. Protectionist walls in Latin America and elsewhere were dismantled. Governments — long prone to meddling in trade — took a back seat to broader market forces.

In a globalization manifesto, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman declared that the Internet and other planet-spanning technologies were erasing national boundaries. The world, he said in a 2005 best seller, was flat.

No longer. The global economy appears to be entering an epoch in which governments are reasserting their role in the lives of individuals and businesses. Once again, barriers are rising. Call it the new nationalism.

And:

Now borrowers shun the IMF and World Bank. Trade talks are shelved. Barriers to foreign investment are rising around the world. State-owned companies are expanding, particularly in oil and gas. Public support of immigration restrictions is growing in countries from the U.S. to India.

Sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Middle East are now propping up wobbly financial institutions in the U.S. and Europe, and may hunt next for real-estate bargains. All three presidential candidates say they would pass tougher financial-market regulation and would also boost government programs to retrain workers battered by the global economy.

In rich and poor countries alike, immigration has become a powerful political issue, as improved transportation makes it easier for people to move across borders and compete for jobs with locals.

Where does that leave a person who resides outside his own country? I'd like to think it comes down to how deeply integrated he's become in his host country, what roots he's put down and how committed he is to putting back into that host economy. In the end it is how the host country perceives him and his value.

But other factors come into play as well - the new nationalism, the need for governments to be seen to be working in the best interests of its own natives and the lumping in of all "foreigners" together, irrespective of who they are and what their purposes are.

This spills over into the restriction of foreign influences. The Chinese are not the only ones planning to control the net:

A September 25 statement from the Ministry of Information Industry banned “subversive” material—including pornography, criticism of the government, and sensitive topics like Tibet and Taiwan independence—from the country’s computer networks.

Instead, only “healthy, civilized news and information beneficial to the nation” can be posted, the ministry said. It is already a crime in China to defame government agencies, divulge state secrets, or promote separatist movements.

This plus Tibet, in the lead up to an Olympics which is looking increasingly like 1936. The pornography issue is interesting in itself if you can put the moral aspect to one side for the moment and concentrate on the strategy:

While the rest of the net is reeling from crumbling ad revenues, the sex industry has not even taken a hit because its main revenue stream is subscriptions, not advertising.

Yet companies such as Yahoo! are opting out of the porn industry. Given the demand, the big business and the job security,this seems like a mad decision. Why?

Especially as the slavery issue is closely connected to such big business:

It is estimated that 2/3 of women trafficked for prostitution worldwide annually come from Eastern Europe, three-quarters have never worked as prostitutes before. An estimated 500,000 women from Central and Eastern Europe are working in prostitution in the European Union alone

... Sexual slavery in Pakistan is one of the worst in South Asia. Young girls (sometimes as young as 9 years old) are sold by their own fathers to brothels as sex slaves in big cities. Often this happens due to debt accumulated from gambling, whereby the father has no other way to raise the money than to sell his daughters.

Yahoo clearly reads either the force of public reaction to the glut of porn or else it sees a closed market of high stakes and surmises that there are better ways to turn a relatively safe profit or else it knows something and isn't saying.

Maybe that thing it knows is that morality also pays and will increasingly pay as parents and other concerned citizens turn savage and demand better porn filters but when it is seen that these are useless, in steps a regulatory agency offering a two tier internet - one protected and restricted by the agency and the other free and unfettered, eventually to be closed down, once it's served its purpose.

Meanwhile we bloggers blithely type away and post things like this article, eventually read by 2 or 3 hundred people and we feel pleased that we are doing society a favour. Actually we are pretty irrelevant and riding on the back of a game with far higher stakes. That game is the new feudalism:

The new Middle Ages will be worse for most of humanity than the older ones were for the serfs; the latter were at least needed in productive processes and thus received employment and a certain amount of maintenance.

So-called progress in technology and management methods is reducing this need, a fact currently masked by migration of formerly productive employees to service sectors, which, in the long run, are unsustainable.

In general terms, tomorrow's serf will find himself not only sub- or unemployed, but socially excluded from state-of-the-art living, be it in communications, transportation, health care, education, or recreation.

We're moving to a stage now where people are either integrating fully [i.e. citizenship] or else are being repatriated. The days which Martin Kelly refers to are rapidly coming to a close, the same days Tom Paine refers to here:

100% or more of all my contacts with clients (I am a lawyer) are by phone and email, but it's just not conceivable to execute complex deals without spending time together. If those deals are across borders, that involves travel.

I very much feel these days are rapidly drawing to a close and that if we are propertied, hopefully multi-propertied, we'll be part of the "state-of-the-art living" referred to above but if we are in credit-delusion land, we are the new serfs.

I'm already rapidly adjusting my sights and coming to terms with the future. Here is an old post dealing with this.

[thought for the day] thursday evening

As the cow said after attempting to jump the moon and crashing ignominiously to the earth:

The old legs just haven't got that spring in them any more.

[odd one out] all entertainers

Firstly - identify them.

Secondly - who is the odd one out and why? [There could be any reason - female, black, French or whatever but this is an unusual reason.]

Their names, clockwise from the top:

Eva Green, Elvis Presley, Vin Diesel, Michael Jackson

The odd one out?

Michael Jackson - the only one without a twin.

[ve day] victory in europe

Which date was VE Day?

The final document of unconditional surrender was signed at General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims on 7 May. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and King George VI wanted Monday 7 May to be VE Day, but in the event, bowing to American wishes, victory was celebrated on 8 May. The USSR waited an extra day before beginning their formal celebrations. New Zealand also celebrated on May 9th.

In Russia, the Day of Victory is tomorrow and in Victory Park in this town a crowd will gather early tomorrow morning for the service and parade.

As you'd know, this is also Israel's 60th on the 14th and tomorrow, May 9th, is Verlin Martin's birthday - congrats to him too. The first sales of Coca Cola were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886.

Speaking personally, the second worst case scenario was laid out for me today. If I do have to leave in late May, the invitation to return can't be made until mid July. This means that my summer work where I recoup most of my cash disappears and I lose the clients I've built up. I also won't qualify for the summer holiday pay from the university.

With assets inaccessible in my homeland [won't go into that], I would then need to stay outside Russia [where?] for a month and a half on tea money whilst my flat here requires it's monthly payments. Wonderfully black joke. I'll find some country to visit and live on the beach I suppose.

Also troubling was looking for evidence that Britain plans any celebrations for VE Day and came up with this. However I did find a 2007 reference to Gordon Brown suggesting the new Britain Day where he could "reclaim the flag from the right".

Anyone or anything I've missed on this day?

[caption time] everything's just fine

[lizard queen] damaged but still dangerous

Everyone and his dog is commenting on this so why should I be any different?

It's over for her. Here are the reasons: There really is no mathematical chance for her to win; her campaign is virtually out of money - and it will be difficult for her to raise significant amounts of money after last night; not enough happened last night to give her any hope, so continuing would only give the appearance of wanting to damage Mr Obama.

... and yet ... and yet:

She is a Clinton and the Clintons do not have the word "lose" in their playbook. A down and out Komodo is a dangerous creature. All sorts of deals are going to be struck now and there is still the pro-woman factor and the anti-black, right through till the end.

Today I read this:

So far she has received endorsements from 271 superdelegates, to Mr Obama's 256, with 270 still undecided, according to the Associated Press.

Many super-delegates say they will vote for the candidate chosen in the primary of their home state.

This looks like a good analysis, written before the latest primaries but predicting them well.

Can anyone tell me what sort of tally that works out to overall?

[id cards] gordon's subterfuge

Not happening, you believe? More here.

I try but can see no flaw in his reasoning.

[eco-misery] the search for a sustainable solution

You silly moo

[Chesterton, in the] 1910 What's Wrong with the World ... advocated a view called "Distributism" that is best summed up by his expression that every man ought to be allowed to own "three acres and a cow."

The economic pillar of this distributist idea entailed:

Private property

Under such a system, most people would be able to earn a living without having to rely on the use of the property of others to do so. Examples of people earning a living in this way would be farmers who own their own land and related machinery ... [and] the "co-operative" approach ... recognise[ing] that such property and equipment may be "co-owned" by local communities larger than a family, e.g. partners in a business.

Guild system

The kind of economic order envisioned by the early distributist thinkers would involve the return to some sort of guild system. The ... existence of labor unions promotes class interests, whereas Guilds are employers and employees cooperating for mutual benefit.

Banks

Distributism ... eliminates ... the current private bank system, or in any case, its profit-making basis. This does not necessarily entail nationalization.

The fine detail, unfortunately, still involves government or social coercion in a plethora of legislation but at least it appreciates the great social dilemma - given the ideal that a free market needs to be also a fair market, that private property should be recognized for all members of society and that the system favours people of enterprise, nevertheless the system will always tends towards monopolization and cartels.



Would you not agree that a healthy society is one in which a man and/or woman can labour to produce direct betterment of their condition, in a climate where this is not swamped by prices driven up by price fixing?

Eliminate the banks and the cost of a house would sooner or later become "affordable" for the average family and would require no borrowing. It is the borrowing which is the problem. To borrow to improve your condition is one thing - it involves usury - and yet to legislate against usury is again state coercion.

At base level though, with no borrowing whatsoever, the cost of a basic house should still be affordable on the mean wage and this needs to be somehow enshrined in society.

So it's a pretty problem.

It also fails to take into account two other things - the mushrooming population, with its consequent strain on natural resources plus greed and evil in high places [Ephesians 6:12].

I keep quoting that verse and argue that it very much must be taken into consideration in developing any sustainable economic theory and yet most economists, by nature, would reject the notion. Therein lies the potential failure of any social order - from capitalism to communism - if you won't accept the existence of some sort of malicious cynicism up top.

The system must, therefore, necessarily fail because it does not recognize "malice" as a factor, as a motive. Not just "incompetence", not just "selfishness", not just "greed" but actual malice in high places.

Well all right, let's call it instead "deep cynicism".

It knows that certain policies such as sub-prime lending and the inevitable effect of credit availability for the masses, leading to skyrocketing costs, must inevitably also lead to crunches, crashes and war, which devastate the masses and in fact criminalizes the ordinary citizen. However, for a certain class - it turns an obscene profit.

It's this profiting from human misery, under the banner "business is business", which is the most troublesome in my mind, a mind which, in principle, embraces the Coolidge maxim that the business of the state is business.

Small government, therefore, needs to run four things:

1. defence; 2. social security for the truly needy; 3. facilitation of enterprise within its borders; 4. anti-cartel, anti-monopoly legislation and anti-price fixing.

But who will do Point 4? The people who rise to the top of government, by definition, meet the old money and are seduced by the elite ideals. I was on my way to this at one time in the distant past. Which is worse - state slavery or business cartel slavery?

Choose your flavour.

How can we devise a system which will actually work and yet does not involve government in any but those four areas?

The problem or the solution?