As the title implies, imagine that the "sticks" are matches [and in fact it is better to try it with matches on the table] and the idea is to move any two matches, only those two matches and create four squares where once there were five, all squares the same size and joined, with no matches left over or sticking out.
Today, someone said that if Obama gets in, there will be war in the Middle-East. That set me thinking because in the Telegraph today, on p19, it says:
“He’s been sent by G-d.” Even by the feverish standards of US politics, the messianic fervour of Obama’s campaign is disquieting.
What follows below was part of a radio programme on CentrExNews.com. [2000] with a supposed Illuminati escapee whom I’ve scoured the net for and have yet to see debunked. The Year 2000 date is quite significant because this scenario was only seen as the ravings of conspiracy theorists back then. Today it seems more plausible. I’m not asking you to accept it, only bear it in mind.
Q: What are the plans of the Illuminati for the Middle East and how will it affect the rest of the world? Will we see WWIII?
A: The conflict in the middle east is only to the advantage of the Illuminists. They HATE Israel, and hope one day to see it destroyed, and are biding their time. 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, the Illuminati covertly supply guns and funds to BOTH sides to keep the conflict fueled. They are very duplicitous people.
They used to funnel guns through the USSR to Palestine, for example, in the name of promoting "friendliness" between the USSR and this state and other arab nations. Then, the US Illuminists would help funnel guns to Israel, for the same reason. These people love the game of chess, and see warfare between nations as creating an order out of chaos.
Want to hear the end of the world scenario the Illuminati taught me? It was cult propaganda, but this is how they believed the New Order would be ushered in:
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.
One reason that our economy continues limping along is the artificial support that the Federal Reserve had given it, manipulating interest rates, etc. But one day, this won't work (or this leverage will be withdrawn on purpose) and the next great depression will hit. 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.
Peacekeeping forces will be sent out by the UN and local bases to prevent riots. The leaders will reveal themselves, and people will be asked to make a pledge of loyalty during a time of chaos and financial devastation. Doesn't sound pleasant, does it? I don't know the exact time frame for all of this, and wouldn't want to even guess. The good news is that if a person is debt-free, owes nothing to the government or credit debt, and can live self sufficiently, they may do better than others. I would invest in gold, not stocks, if I had the income. Gold will once again be the world standard, and dollars will be pretty useless.
Into this, the religious cannot be kept out of consideration of the Middle-East because political stability has heavy religious overtones there. The state of play is that the Zionist extremists [inc. the Temple Institute] are waiting to lay the corner stone of the temple but are constrained by the state from doing so because a red heifer which fulfils all the criteria can’t be found.
In case you think you’re going loopy, that was precisely what I wrote. Here are three articles relating to it – one, two, three.
In summary, when the cornerstone is laid for the rebuilding of the Third Temple, which itself depends on the birth of the red heifer, then the Messiah appears and the era of Israel is ushered in. This would light the tinderbox of the Middle-East, as has nearly happened a few times, for example:
On August 21, 1969 Michael Rohan a non-Jewish tourist from Australia set fire to the Al Aksa Mosque. Firefighters fought the blaze for four hours as an angry Muslim crowd shouted "Down with Israel." The president of the Muslim Council accused the fire brigades of a deliberately slow response. The Arab states blamed Israel for the incident even though Rohan identified himself as a "Church of God" member. The fire destroyed a priceless on thousand year old wood and ivory pulpit (minbar) that had been sent from Aleppo by Saladin.
… and:
Even though the Temple Mount has been regained and is officially part of the State of Israel, it is still being profaned as far as the God of Israel is concerned. When the Mount fell into Jewish hands after the Six Day War, Israel took the Western Wall Area but left administration of the Mount to the Muslim Council of Elders. Israel also banned Jewish worship. The secular Jews did not care and many of the Orthodox Jews believe that the Third Temple would have to await the arrival of the Messiah. These issues remain stalemated to the present day.
So there is a Jewish preparation to rebuild the Temple which would immediately create war across the Muslim world, which in turn would drag in the western powers. If the heifer can be found, then the only other precondition is the Messiah.
Here is where we switch to Christian eschatology. There is much disagreement, especially between pre-tribulationists and post-tribulationists. remember, at this point, that no one is asking you to accept any of the above or what follows, just to note it.
What is generally agreed by Christians is that these things will happen in the end times, whenever they are:
1. There is a “falling away” of belief, a time when parent is against parent, brother is against sister and iniquity is everywhere. All the old ways have fallen away.
2. There is a one currency system and the “mark of the beast” either on the forehead or in the right “hand”, in order to “buy or sell”. No one eats without this.
3. The Jewish Temple will be rebuilt.
4. A seven year period begins, the Tribulation, which culminates, halfway along, with the “desolation of abomination”. This is generally held to mean that someone purports to be the Jewish Messiah and says he will defend Israel against the hostile elements besieging it. Instead he goes into the Temple Inner Sanctum and says that the sacrifice need no longer be. He puts something in there “which should not be”. Then the Jews will know they’ve been tricked but it is too late.
5. The conflagration of the world really picks up and Christians are hunted down and persecuted as “insurgents” at this time. Almost everyone turns them in to the authorities because of the deep unpopularity whipped up by the powers that be.
6. Somewhere in there are the ten Northern Nations, whoever they are and an army of 200 million coming “from the east”. This army apparently crosses two great rivers.
7. It ends with the true believers taken up to Heaven and the rest of the place burns. Scripture says you can never tell the time this is all going to happen.
If you put all the above post together then, to the Telegraph article on Obama’s Messianic mission, long on rhetoric and short on detail, can be added the notion of the Black Nobility, although how Obama comes into this, originating in Kenya, remains a mystery.
What do I think of all this? I don’t know but I do think that we are in strange days. We are certainly witnessing the rise of a possible president in the mould of a Kennedy. Tomorrow will tell.
The pic is just a screenshot but if you click here, which takes you to the Melbourne Age, you can hear the whole spoof of Sarah Palin by two Canadian pranksters and it is kinda nice actually. Pity she cut him off at the end when he admitted he was playing the prank.
UPDATE: It's been brought to my attention that I may have been in error in running this post above. It was pointed out that Jeremy Clarkson probably made this programme months ahead and so couldn't control when this particular one went to air.
That was the decision of the highly paid producers and so it is the BBC I should be asking the question of, not Jeremy Clarkson.
I dropped off to sleep about midnight but about 2:30 a.m., woke up in a sweat and had this idea I'd best check comments. Turned on the Mac and checked. Nope - nothing unusual. Thought I'd check Ordo and Halls of Macadamia.
Now why would I do that? Well, because they're good blogs, I know but I think you understand.
Ordo had a meme up he'd been tagged with. Oh how I detest memes but he's an interesting guy and when I saw "four places I have lived", I thought hmmm - interesting. Got to the end and what do you know? He's tagged me among four people. Well, Ordo, your wish is my command.
Four jobs I've had
1. Radio DJ 2. Gardener 3. Storeman 4. Lecturer
Four films I can watch over and over
1. Daniel Craig Bond films 2. Jason Bourne films 3. Snatch 4. Lord of the Rings Goblin Version
Four places I've lived
1. Britain 2. Australia 3. Russia 4. Sicily
Four TV shows I love
1. Hard Talk 2. Travel shows 3. Antiques Roadshow 4. Various music from classical to rock
Four places Ive been on holiday
1. San Clemente 2. Vancouver 3. River Sai Yok 4. Reykjavik
Four of my favourite meals
1. Almost anything Italian 2. Almost anything Russian 3. Almost anything South-East Asian 4. Almost anything Northern British
Four websites I visit daily
1. Bloghounds members 2. Rest of my personal roll 3. Various news sources 4. Jobsites
Four places I'd like to be right now
1. Northern England 2. Russia 3. France 4. Italy, Canada, Australia , U.S.A. [sorry]
[There were seventeen I wanted to tag straight away but the rules were strict and so this is where the pin stabbed. Sorry to two close friends but felt I shouldn't give you away by tagging you.]
It's not so much the situation you find yourself in which is important but how you feel about it. If you have internal comfort, you are calm. If you are calm, you can be happy. If you are happy, you make others happy and they return the compliment. In the direst of societal situations, it is still possible to be happy.
I really like this site - it has some great shots of Russia.
Some very interesting posts from the Quiet Man just now but this one I particularly liked:
So women are actually designed to be cold. But while they moan about it incessantly, their ability to survive cold is significantly greater than men's, because the body of women retains its warmth in the inner torso, and hence the extremities are always cold. And the skin generally, too, and hence the woman will also feel cold (kind of like how alcohol makes one feel warm by the warmth rushing into the skin, without the body getting warmer). And that is so for when the woman gets pregnant, and the foetus can be warmed.
I've noticed something too and was talking to a lady a few days back about it - why is it that women shy away from hats in the winter but they'll wear gloves early, whereas the man will get his cap on early and go to gloves last?
The age-old tradition of feasting the dead has been maintained by Russian populations for well over five centuries. Graveyards hold a special place both in traditional Orthodox faith and in the lives of Russians and others.
The tradition of feasting the dead for three, nine and forty days after death, can be traced unbroken to pre-Christian Rus’. Details may vary, but always the soul of the deceased must battle its way out of the body and then spend time in both heaven and hell. While this journey is occurring, the living must remember the dead, helping their souls during this period of travail.
Even a final feast one year after the death of the individual does not end the relationship between the living and the deceased, for the graves are still visited on a regular basis as a sign of respect to the dead, who are potential saints in the Russian Orthodox tradition.
This ‘saintly’ land — Russian graves — defines homeland and roots the population to a new area. By examining the importance of graveyards to Russians, to the ethnic Komi of Northern Russia, and other Eastern Europeans, a sense of place is maintained in these rituals of daily life.
Of course, we also revere our departed family and I'm not downplaying that in any way but for the Russian, it is something just a little bit more. i experienced this during two deaths of people close to people close to me. One was my best mate's father and the other my girlfriend's grandfather who'd gone well over the odds, age wise.
The essential thing is that money does not matter in choosing the headstone and the best thing to buy is marble. This takes quite a bit of decision making at a traumatic time but it must be done properly. Then a photo must be found that will live in perpetuity. In my mate's case, it was his father in uniform as a younger man and in the gf's, it had to have a particular helicopter emblazoned behind it, as that had been his life's work, designing systems for those.
The ceremony we'll now skip over and move to the nine day feast and the forty day feast. It absolutely must be and the interesting thing is that you are not supposed to weep and gnash the teeth but really get into the food and converse. There are speeches and toasts and this way, you are assuring G-d, presumably, that the man was much loved. Or maybe it is just tradition.
Now, when you visit the cemetery on special days, it is the done thing to visit before midday apparently and there is a ritual to that too. On one occasion, I went with my mate and he formally introduced me to his father, the photo engraved picture in the marble headstone actually looking out at me, a stern figure but I'm sure he was present and said hello back.
One slightly amusing aspect is that the closer you are buried to the cemetery entrance, the more you are an important person [were] in the community. So I couldn't help noticing figures like the one in the photo above [sorry about the writing across it] and some of them were dressed in shell suits and t shirts.
It might be much closer than people have thought. McCain is better on the back foot:
"I respect and admire my opponent, he has motivated millions of people around the world, around the nation, and has secured the nomination of his party against some pretty formidable opposition," McCain said.
The generous remarks fit with what advisors said weeks ago -- that McCain is intent on going out, win or lose, on something of a high note.
He might just get a surge back to him and then the only question is whether it is in crucial areas.
I really like this site - it has some great shots of Russia.
It might be much closer than people have thought. McCain is better on the back foot:
