Feb 11, 2012

James Ray: No Longer Indigent?



As discussed, James Arthur Ray petitioned the court for indigent status in December. Prosecutor Sheila Polk moved swiftly to force the self-proclaimed "millionaire" to prove -- and testify under oath -- that he is destitute. A hearing on the matter was postponed. And now, suddenly, James Ray has announced that he no longer requires relief from court costs. Makes you wonder if he's hiding something... like say, some money. (???) More here:

In December, Ray petitioned Judge Warren Darrow for indigent status, claiming he was more than $11 million in debt, with very few assets on the plus side of the ledger. Nearly half of that claimed debt, however, was for civil settlements paid by his insurers. The financial statement he filed in December, which he also withdrew this week, stated he owed his attorneys $5.6 million.

During an early January hearing, Ray's local attorney, Tom Kelly, said that Ray only wanted the public defender's office to pay for the cost of transcripts that are required for the appeal. Those transcripts, from a four-month criminal trial, will cost around $40,000, and the current motion indicates that other arrangements have been made for payment. Most of the transcripts are already on file with the court of appeals, but an appeal brief has not yet been submitted.


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Feb 9, 2012

Revising Prehistory



A stunning discovery has turned archaeological preconceptions on their heads. The cave paintings at Chauvet are no longer the oldest known art. Paintings found in the Nerja Caves in Andalusia are at least 10,000 years older. More incredible, they were painted not be early humans but by Neanderthals. Graham Hancock's recent work puts some of this into perspective. In Supernatural he explains newer theories that the artwork done by early man is a demonstration of ancient shamanic practices far more profound than the scenes of the hunt long assumed by archaeologists. And in his first foray into fiction, Entangled, he envisions a Neanderthal man far more advanced than is currently believed. Much of this is discussed in this recently posted lecture. That said, this article in the Huffington Post is a great example of the condescending arrogance that we've been subjected to by mainstream archaeologists for years.

What is the oldest painting of, you ask? The pictures appear to be seals; the drawings are not half bad for a caveman!

Yeah. Stupid cavemen.


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Feb 7, 2012

Uphill Struggle for Bishops at Abuse Summit



Last night the four-day "Towards Healing And Renewal" summit at Rome's St. Ignatius kicked off with a lengthy liturgy of penance.

Held tonight at Rome’s Church of St. Igantius, the liturgy was presided over by Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who serves as Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops. His participation was seen as significant, because it implicitly acknowledged that the church’s shortcomings are not limited to priests who committed abuse, but also include bishops who failed to act.

. . .


In his reflections during the liturgy, Ouellet called the crisis “a source of great shame and enormous scandal,” saying that sexual abuse is not only a “crime” but also an “authentic experience of death for the innocent victims.”

The first step towards healing, Ouellet said, is to “listen carefully” to victims and “to believe their painful stories.”

. . .

Ouellet said that in many instances, abusers in the clergy should have been identified and removed much earlier, but instead were left in place.

In a stunning counterpoint, comes a report of statements from the retired Cardinal Edward Egan. Demonstrating a continuing lack of repentance and humility Egan has publically recanted his 2002 apology. What manner of man takes back an apology?

Retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan is facing criticism from representatives of clergy sexual abuse victims for a recent interview in which he said he regretted apologizing for the priest abuse scandal in 2002 when he was bishop of Bridgeport.

In the interview with Connecticut Magazine, Egan said "I don't think we did anything wrong" in handling abuse cases. He said he was not obligated to report abuse claims and maintained he inherited the cases from his predecessor and did not have any cases on his watch, according to the magazine.

Clergy in Connecticut have been required to report abuse claims to authorities since the early 1970s, according to attorneys who represented numerous abuse victims.

"Egan never did so and his failure to do so constitutes a violation of the law," said the attorneys, Jason Tremont, Cindy Robinson and Douglas Mahoney.

Egan's apology was conditional. If they'd erred, he was sorry. But he's convinced now that they "got rid of" those bad actors they could prove were guilty and kept "control" of those they couldn't prove. Wouldn't it have made sense to let the authorities investigate and prove the guilt or innocence of those the church couldn't prove? Egan says he doesn't think Connecticut law requires it even now, despite the fact that it does and did then. He put suspected abusers in treatment, and that was sufficient.

Experts who have treated abusive priests, however, report that the majority of abusers lie.

Priests who rape and molest children lie when confronted with an accusation but victims usually tell the truth, psychologists told Catholic bishops at a symposium Tuesday, advising them to listen first to the victims.

. . .

Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist who for a decade ran a U.S. treatment center for abusive priests, told the conference Tuesday that just like alcoholics or drug addicts, sexually abusive priests often lie when confronted with allegations. They manipulate, they con, they deny, he said.

"There are false allegations to be sure" and it's critical to restore a priest's good name when he has been cleared, Rossetti said in his prepared remarks. "But decades of experience tell us that the vast majority of allegations — over 95 percent — are founded."

This, of course, is the exact opposite of the way church authorities have handled abuse claims through the years, putting their "brothers and sons" ahead of their victims in case after case. Rossetti has no illusions that the culture of the Church is going to change any time soon and the stunning recalcitrance of Cardinal Egan stands as a case in point.

The Vatican backed summit will continue to run through the 9th with workshops focusing on bishop responsibility and psychological toll of sex abuse on victims. They clearly have their work cut out for them.


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Feb 6, 2012

Popular Fallacies of Religion and Atheism

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On a recent episode of Real Time, Bill Maher made one of his more boneheaded comments about the nature of religion -- something about religion not being open to new ideas. I have already addressed the fallacious nature of Maher's approach to religion, but this comment caught me by surprise. How, I thought, could someone who knows Rev. John Shelby Spong, and who had him as a guest on Politically Incorrect numerous times, make such a sweeping generalization about all religion. Perhaps it's because I was raised Episcopalian and was taught by priests who were as scholarly, open-minded, and analytical as Rev. Spong, but I cannot reconcile those men and women with Maher's reductionism. In the same episode, Maher said:

If you believe in a talking snake, I'm sorry, I've got to say, that's silly.

Whenever I hear Maher talk about religion, I can only conclude that he is incapable of grasping metaphor and assumes, therefore, that all religious people are equally incapable. Rev. Spong, however, is capable of grasping both metaphor and new ideas. In this recent post on CNN he puts the Bible under scrutiny and exposes a number of misconceptions held by dogmatists on both sides of the religious/atheist divide. To put it simply, the Bible cannot fairly be read as a literal, historical document. Rather it represents an evolution in the Judeo-Christian conception of God and humanity.

Spong points out, among other things, that the narrative of Jesus's birth, death, and resurrection changed dramatically from the first gospel to the last, becoming increasing mythologized with each iteration, over a span of a hundred years. Likewise, God's very character transforms from a jealous, genocidal, tribal deity, to a universally loving consciousness.

The second major misconception comes from the distorting claim that the Bible is in any literal sense “the word of God.” Only someone who has never read the Bible could make such a claim. The Bible portrays God as hating the Egyptians, stopping the sun in the sky to allow more daylight to enable Joshua to kill more Amorites and ordering King Saul to commit genocide against the Amalekites.

Can these acts of immorality ever be called “the word of God”? The book of Psalms promises happiness to the defeated and exiled Jews only when they can dash the heads of Babylonian children against the rocks! Is this “the word of God? What kind of God would that be?

. . .

It was a long road for human beings and human values to travel between the tribal deity found in the book of Exodus, who orders the death of the firstborn male in every Egyptian household on the night of the Passover, until we reach an understanding of God who commands us to love our enemies.

The entire post is worth reading and considering. Spong, who served as Bishop of Diocese of Newark, NJ, has been a somewhat controversial figure. Personally, I think it speaks to the strength of the Episcopal Church that it endures through dissension and controversy. I'm old enough to remember the fierce debate over ordaining women and have also been fascinated in recent years to see the debate and division over ordaining gay men and women. Mostly, the results have made me proud of the church I grew up in. And it's exactly those shifts and changes that give the lie to Bill Maher's overly general criticisms about all religion. There is not a single sect of Christianity that is the same as it was a thousand or even a hundred years ago. Some have changed through honest self-examination. Some have been hypocritical or in denial, but they've all changed. (Other religions have as well but I can't speak from experience, so I don't.) Religion is as dynamic as any large, institutionalized body can be, and it changes in interrelationship with a greater society that is also resistant to change. But there are many figures who, like Spong, are capable of reasoned analysis as well as the irrational, crazy logic of the compassionate heart.


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Jan 30, 2012

Time Monk Clif High on Big Changes in March



I've listened to this Time Monks Radio Network interview with Clif High a few times. I've found it hard to get through because it is long and much of it is really ponderous. There are some stunning revelations, though. It just isn't immediately obvious because they've buried the lede.

The big news is that dramatic happenings are anticipated for March of this year. This looks to be the long anticipated "hard wall" of the "data gap" which coincides with something High is calling a "breakthrough" point. There is an extended period of alternating release language and building tension language that ends with nothing but release language as far as the eye can see. This points to a fundamental change in the nature of society and possibly of reality itself. Whether or not High is aware of it, there are intimations of the kinds of changes the airy-fairiest of lightworkers have been talking about for some time. Of course it could also mean something cataclysmic and hideously destructive. And of course, it could go both ways. Within the lighworker paradigm, that dichotomy should be familiar. As light increases and the dark is disrupted, the purging process is awful. And I've found it to be axiomatic that whenever Karen Bishop, for instance, signaled a positive expansion, the fallout was horrible. It got to where I used to brace myself for the coming misery whenever she gave her sunniest predictions. To put that in more pedestrian terms, for something new to be built, whatever's in it's way has to be destroyed. And it could well be that in this case, what is set for demolition is the world as we know it.

In her last energy update, Lauren Gorgo announced that it was... wait for it... her last energy update. The reason? We're there. Gorgo, whose last 5 or 6 updates have been stunningly on the money for me, personally, says that we've reached the "promised land."

This is the year when all the proposed solutions to bringing our planetary systems to the next level will be met with great cosmic support, and all those who have sustained the visions of the future and held the pristine memories of home will be given the divine flow of perpetual grace to physicalize those visions of LOVE.  This year we begin to live our purpose (out loud) and finally make manifest the creations we have envisaged for what seems like forever.

So, it makes sense that we might see some rather dramatic expressions of change in the material world, some of which could get really uncomfortable. Gorgo says as much.

We will continue to exist between worlds (3D & 5D) for a while, using the 4th dimension as the bridge between the two, so the Pleiadians suggest a need to be more discerning with our energy & opportunities in order to maintain a sense of equilibrium during a potentially stressful time on the planet, especially for those (4D) bridgers working with more of the masses and those people yet to choose LOVE.

There is a fairly direct comparison to be made between that vision and High's explanation of the infinitely extended release language period he sees ahead. He explains, as he has before, that release language periods can be either good or bad in terms of experience. It can be like a giant keg party where the majority of the conversation is in release even though a few exchanges in the mix are building tension. It can also be people reacting to learning that they're about to be exterminated in a holocaust. The language pattern would look the same in his data. But here's what he says about the immediate future at around an hour and forty minutes into the interview.

I would hope that we're a smart enough species that when pushed to the brink -- because we're basically lazy butts and we don't do anything until we're forced to -- that we will get off our lazy butts, stop these idiots, and go right into perpetual, exponential renaissance, which I think of as giant party, where we all agree we're adults now. We grant ourselves the freedom to interact with universe the way we need to. We get out from under these parental institutions in a kind and gentle way -- because we wanna rehabilitate these poor souls -- and grab all the cool stuff and start go out and start inventing our future in a giant party mode. Because I sure don't want to live in the alternative.

After this period in March of a "crocodile teeth" pattern alternating and between release and building tension language, it's all release except for some very small subsets of building tension language which look to be amongst the "powers that be" and may have to do with solar flares. (Right around the 41 minute mark.)

High, for his part, seems ecstatic in this interview. He is very excited at the possibility that the game is afoot. I think this is the first time I've ever heard him sound upbeat and positive. He seems to be very much of the opinion that something truly huge is coming and that whatever it is, it will dramatically change the power dynamics on the planet. This looks to be the point at which the "powers that be" become, as he has been calling them for some time, "the powers that were." But, he says, this is a moment for decisive action.

"Truly, we are at a point of commitment. If you are not taking action to thwart the powers that be in February and March of this year, there may not be a point to it in April or May."

High is still unclear -- though he engages in some wild speculation -- as to what causes the data gap. This is the time period that has shown up in report after report where-in his system is no longer able to gather data for these reports from the internet. Whether that means the internet will go down, the power grid will go down in a Carrington event, or we'll all lose our mental faculties, is anyone's guess. That there may be a mental component to this is bolstered by High's contention, at about an hour and a half in, that Russian parapsychologists are anticipating a "consciousness event" early in 2012.

In the first ten minutes of the interview, High postulates that our mental state (much like our electronics) is being affected by the changes on the sun. He also described in a number of interviews (and about the 43 minute mark in this interview) a mental state in which people just shut down and are basically standing in the middle of the street, drooling on themselves. I noticed that Denise LeFay has noted a similar phenomenon associated with the increasing solar flares and says she's seen the beginning stages of it.

This morning (Nov. 28, 2011) I had to go to two stores to grocery shop and it was as usual physically and psychologically painful, but there was something different that happened and that’s why I’m writing this. What I saw today while shopping was an eye-opener for me and gave me a sense of what 2012 is probably going to be like for many, many, people.

While in these two stores grocery shopping this morning (Nov. 28, 2011) my Mom and I kept running into other shoppers in the isles which is normal, BUT, every one of these people was totally unaware, confused, dazed, incapable of responding with any sort of normal reaction to their being in the way of other shoppers and so on. The first few times this happened I ignored it and pushed on past them all. But isle after isle we kept encountering this same mentally dazed, brain-dead, zombie-like state in 99% of all the shoppers...

These shoppers were not all seniors either but a good mix of society both in age and sex so this can’t all be blamed on the old people having a senior moment. Isle after isle we kept running into small groups of shoppers behaving like zombies who’d gotten themselves—and everyone else who came upon them—stuck in a zombie cluster-fuck traffic jam pile-up where none of them could even figure out how to solve the problem and escape the congestion. It really was unbelievable.

At about the 30 minute mark, High discusses psychic predictions that an off-planet entity may prevent a nuclear holocaust here on earth. After discounting much of it as a "savior myth," High allows that that doesn't mean it isn't true. There may be off-world entities that would prevent that because the damage would affect more than our planet but severely impact the rest of the solar system or farther out into the galaxy. I'd just like to point out that this is precisely what Bashar claimed in the eponymous channeled book. After first explaining that there was collective agreement not to destroy ourselves at some point in the early 1980s, he goes on to explain that we would never have been allowed to do so by nuclear means anyway.

Because you have made that decision, we can also tell you the following: that you never would have been allowed to annihilate yourselves through nuclear means anyway. It is your world: you can do with it what you will . . .  as long as what you do remains in your own back yard! Nuclear annihilation would have torn through the dimensional fabric of other space/time continuums, and affected other civilizations that have nothing to do with you. That is not allowed.

Another curious possible correlation to some of the more out there predictions I've heard through the years comes about the 2 hour and 17 minute mark. He describes a change in the "photonics" in which we begin to perceive colors that we didn't previously perceive. He suggests this may be due to changes in the magnetosphere and which affect our consciousness. This is something I remember Drunvalo Melchizedek talking about years ago regarding the pole shift -- that we would suddenly see colors that never existed in nature before.

I do think the entire interview is worth listening to, even though it's long and lacks narrative structure. I've tried to pinpoint the juicy bits by noting the times. Also, in the player below is a set of clips some helpful soul collected.

Also of note: High's newest report was just posted on High's site but it comes with some important caveats.

Future Recent History:2020 is specifically NOT a Shape of Things to Come report, although it has some element similarities. However, there are no immediacy, nor shorter term values used, thus much of the Shape report is not there, and a huge unreliability factor is present.




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Jan 27, 2012

Vatican Scandal



And it's not... You know...

Money. This time it's money.

The Vatican was shaken by a corruption scandal Thursday after an Italian television investigation said a former top official had been transferred against his will after complaining about irregularities in awarding contracts.

. . .


Vigano, currently the Vatican's ambassador in Washington, said in the letters that when he took the job in 2009 he discovered a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts to outside companies at inflated prices.

In one letter, Vigano tells the pope of a smear campaign against him (Vigano) by other Vatican officials who wanted him transferred because they were upset that he had taken drastic steps to save the Vatican money by cleaning up its procedures.

For his crime of trying to bring the Vatican's spending into integrity, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano was "promoted" to a figurative Siberia: Washington DC, where he now serves as the papal nuncio.

Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, insisted on the show that Vigano’s transfer to Washington wasn’t a punishment for exposing wrongdoing or stepping on too many toes. He noted that Vigano had been in the Vatican’s diplomatic service for years and said he was being promoted to the Holy See’s most important overseas post.

“He wasn’t sent away. He was made the pope’s representative in Washington!” Vian said.

Letters revealed in Wednesday's broadcast show that Vigano was quite clear that he was being forced out of a position he was supposed to hold until 2014 because he was being all correct and stuff by demanding proper bidding for contracts.

Vigano's transfer may point to deeper rifts within the Vatican.


Marco Politi, a Vatican correspondent for the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano and the author of a book about the pope, said in an interview that there were signs that “discontent is growing” with Cardinal Bertone’s administration. 

“This shows once again that Bertone does not know how to manage the Vatican machine,” Mr. Politi said. “It also shows that there is tension within the Curia, because that’s how the letters got out.”

Officially, the Vatican is putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the media, expressing "disappointment," and threatening litigation over the public revelation of its internal communication.

The Vatican also warned that it could take legal action against a TV show that reported on the case. The Italian investigative news program, "The Untouchables," showed letters from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano to Pope Benedict XVI begging not to be transferred after exposing corruption costing the Vatican millions of euros (dollars).


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Jan 26, 2012

Robot Baby Weirds People Out



The wriggling, the squirming, the Moro reflex-induced jump... If you want proof that artificial intelligence is thriving, look no further than this robotic -- and yes, somewhat creepy -- baby.

. . .

Many bloggers and online commenters have called the animatronic baby "creepy" and "freaky" -- Technabob even ran a post about the clip with the headline "Skinless Robot Baby is the Stuff Nightmares Are Made Of." But, whether you are horrified or fascinated, there is no denying that Clarke's tiny robots serve an important purpose -- keeping real infants safe.

Sure, it's cute. But, do I really need to point out where this kind of thing can lead? Here?




Or maybe even here?




Things to bear in mind.


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Jan 23, 2012

Huckabee, Mormons, and Blood Libel?



I will give a dollar to the first person who can explain to me why Mike Huckabee made this bizarre allusion to blood libel in his discussion of Mitt Romney's Mormon problem... because I'm flabbergasted.

"I'd like to believe that's not the issue," Huckabee told Fox Business host Neil Cavuto. "Four years ago, I was accused of making it an issue. It wasn't for me then, it isn't for me now. I would no more not vote for someone because they were Mormon than I would vote for somebody like Al Gore because he's a Baptist, for heaven's sake. I think that's a ridiculous reason to vote or not vote for someone, unless they've done something that's so wacky — like mix the blood of little children together in a public ceremony."

If you, like Sarah Palin, are unfamiliar with the meaning of "blood libel," here's a quick tutorial. Once upon a time, Jews were rumored to kill little Christian children and use their blood to make their matzo. Such tales served as a justification for pogroms and other anti-Jewish violence. Okay, Jews were not the only religious minority ever accused of killing children to use their blood in rituals, but this is the first time I've ever heard this even tangentially tied to Mormonism.

So what on earth was Huckabee on about? He reached for a random example of weird religion and pulled out blood libel? Who does that?!

And why has there been near silence about this bizarre and extremely provocative statement? The only mention I've seen to date is this one in the Arkansas Times.


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Graham Hancock on UFOs, Faeries, and Shamans



One of the most fascinating theories explored in Graham Hancock's Supernatural is that there is a some correlation between UFO abductions, faerie lore, and shamanic experiences. In this lecture he discusses some of the overlapping elements and addresses the use of hallucinogens in shamanic practice which may date back to the paleolithic era. Brilliant!


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Jan 16, 2012

More William Henry: 2012 and Sion



In this very recent Red Ice Radio interview, William Henry discusses his increasing discomfort with some of the factually challenged hype around 2012. He is also becoming more outspoken in his challenge of conspiracy theories about "the illuminati" and the like.

The major takeaway from this interview is Henry's illustrative tale of how the "the gods" hid the great mysteries from humanity.

The body is absolutely the machine. And that's the diversion to me. Because if you're lookin' for a machine out here -- I mean everybody's lookin' for the Ark of the Covenant. Where's the Ark of the Covenant? Is it in Ethiopia? Or is it? Where is it? Well, according to this tradition, the Ark of the Covenant is your first three chakras. And the reason why archaeologists can never find the Ark of the Covenant is 'cause they're always sitting on it. I mean, that's the old joke isn't it? Oh, the gods got together. They have this secret. They wanna hide this secret from humanity. Should we bury it in the ocean? No. They'll create a submarine. They'll be able to find it. Well, let's put it high up on a mountain. Oh, no, no. They'll be able to climb that mountain. Well, we should bury it in the desert. No. Someone will find it. Oh, I know. Let's put it inside them. They'll never think to look there.

If there is a "dark side of the illuminati," the biggest psych op they're running is planting conspiracy theories that demonize the very information that could set us free. As Henry points out, we're told that there are secret technologies that only the elite have access to, when the human body itself is the technology. We've just forgotten how to use it. And the key symbols and archetypes that serve as a reminder of how to activate that technology -- such as the "all seeing eye" -- are inverted and recast as symbols of oppression.


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Jan 10, 2012

William Henry Talks Sun Worship, 2012, and More



I have not been and will not be doing much blogging until I get some computer problems resolved. Don't ask. It's been a rough few months on many levels. But, in the meantime, I've managed to catch some good new YouTube vids and this Coast to Coast interview from November is an excellent reminder of how much more advanced the ancients were than our current tech dependent civilization. George Noory's interview with William Henry begins a little before the 40 minute mark.


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