Monday, May 12, 2008

[cultures meet] heartstopping moment


Really fascinating little piece on a Californian finding himself in the Emirates and asked two simple questions in the street - where are you from and what is your religion.

Gulp. My heart was in my mouth. Read it here.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

[thought for the day] sunday evening


"In order to keep a true perspective of one’s importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him."

[Dereke Bruce]

[country quiz] five more to send you mental



1. More women than men are currently enrolled in the universities, it's slightly more than twice the size of Oregon, accepting a second serving is one of the best ways to show appreciation to the cook, was under Muslim domination from 711 to the mid 11th century, introduced the batata.

2. The country's name means "big village", the head of the government was born in Port-au-Prince and worked with shelters for battered women, there was a controversy in 2005 over a visit to one of its sikh gurdwaras, it's third language is Chinese.

3. It's largest city has dengue fever, it has four time zones, a lawless tri-border area, the world largest hydroelectric power plant by energy generation, high mortality, the German speakers are largely the Hunsrückisch, has only 150 000 Jews but the largest Japanese population outside Japan.

4. Average area of home 97.6 sq. m, 74 times smaller than the USA, its top university once had rules that specifically forbade students from bringing bows and arrows to class. Appearing in the shape of horses, mules, or dogs, the Gytrash haunt solitary ways and lead people astray in the north of the country.

5. Not strictly a country, it once formed a part of Raetia. In 1806 it threw off its feudal lord, it has one of the world's highest standards of living, in 2007 Dr. Bruce S. Allen and Mr. Leodis C. Matthews were appointed its first two consuls and it is a double landlocked country.


Answers

Spain, Canada, Brazil, England, Liechtenstein

[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]