Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
You wouldn't believe it but that you saw it with your own ears or heard it with your own eyes. (If, by chance, your PC has the extra sound volume capacity, here's a super opportunity to make the very best possible use of it.)
Later. Now the picture on this next video (another previous posting, btw, though then also as a music track) isn't much -- but the audio clarity is well nigh perfect for what it is.
While far from being always something that is obvious, life ultimately resides in the spirit, and a spirit no less that is of peace and of truth. And if having all the material possessions we seek were really so important as we often think, it is only because we assume we do or will be able to live in the spirit. Yet if one cannot, at last, live in the spirit then their soul will become very ill, if not die, and all the material possessions and privileges in the world can't and won't save them from the God of Pain. A healthy spirit then is like the rock on high ground that saved the man from the flood, and if, like he, one has not taken steps to make their lasting abode there, they risk being swept and carried away into mental and emotional bondage by material forces more powerful than oneself; so that when all is said and done, evil, mendacity, and underhandedness gone unchecked or uncorrected are maladies that result inevitably in madness of heart and darkness of mind.
"No Freakin' Way" Down Through the Ages
from The Life of Greece, pp. 632-633, by Will Durant:
"But when [King] Hieron was dead Syracuse became embroiled with Rome, and
the doughty Marcellus assailed it by land and sea. Though Archimedes was
now (212 B.C.) a man of seventy-five, he superintended the defense on both
fronts. Behind the walls that protected the harbor he set up catapults able to
hurl heavy stones to a considerable distance; their rain of projectiles was so
devastating that Marcellus retreated until he could advance by night. But
when the ships were seen near the shore the sailors were harassed by bowmen
who shot at them through the holes that Archimedes' aides had pierced in
the wall. Moreover, the inventor had arranged within the walls great
cranes which, when the Roman vessels came within reach, were turned by
cranks and pulleys so as to drop upon the ships heavy weights of stone or
lead that sank many of them. Other cranes, armed with gigantic hooks,
grasped vessels, lifted them into the air, dashed them against the rocks, or
plunged them end-foremost into the sea.* Marcellus withdrew his fleet,
and put his hopes in an attack by land. But Archimedes bombarded the
troops with large stones thrown by catapults to such effect that the Romans
fled, saying that they were being opposed by gods; and they refused to advance again.
"* Lucian is our earliest, and not quite reliable, authority for the story that Archimedes set
Roman ships on fire by concentrating the sun's rays upon them through the use of great
concave mirrors."
All of which leads one to suspect that Archimedes, far from being a mere mathematician of supreme genius and brilliant inventor, may in fact have been a sorcerer of extraordinary powers.
As the years have gone by dealing with spirit people, I have arrived at and become more firmly persuaded with respect to the following:
1) The bad spirit people whom I have had contacted with far exceeds any good they do or might have to offer.
2) What good they do have to offer is trivial compared to the costs they demand; such as their asking people to lie and or keep secrets.
3) Their clandestine and underhanded methods, their use of mind control and violent manipulation to achieve their ends only serve to discredit any suggestion of their being benevolent; while at the same time clearly shows them as being in opposition to truthfulness.
4) In looking back on my own experience and analyzing
the effect of spirit people on mankind historically (to the extent that is possible), there is no question in my mind that ninety percent or more of our most egregious calamities and disorders come from or originate with them. And when you read or hear about someone lamenting the travails, woes and angst of life, my perspective offers a decided advantage in that if ninety percent or more comes from spirit people the solution is to a large extent simplified in almost all cases and instances of human dissatisfaction -- and that is get away from or remove these criminal spirit people from out our midst. In my own situation I am and have been put through constant and unbelievable violence, harassment and abuse. Yet to my very practical benefit, I see all this pain as merely theirs and which they unload on me. All that is ultimately necessary for me to do is effect a separation from them. True, their causing various pains, including interfering with my obtaining good, are sources of unhappiness. But far worse is having or being in contact with them. So that in my rejecting and defying them I am making and gaining ground in one day eluding and getting away from them; which for the reason outlined above is one of the highest goods possible to possess.
Others, by contrast, make deals with these people (whether directly or indirectly) and they are permitted to enjoy much of the conventional good any given person aspires to in this life -- home, family, money, social standing. However, they have these things at the price of permitting these spirit people to be a factor and present (actually or potentially) in their lives -- with this arrangement possibly extending into the next life as well as this one. This to me is a very poor bargain. Because the increase of conventional goods cannot erase or protect one from the utterly despicable evil that is part and parcel of what keeps these spirit people in power. In other words, it rarely lack of good or goods as such or of themselves that induces the greater misfortune in life, but rather and much more frequently the prominence of bad. A person who can rid themselves of the bad, with a little intelligence, wisdom and probity of character, can overtime ultimately make up for any good they lack. Yet a person who acquiesces to bad is that much farther behind in ever knowing lasting peace and felicity because they look and answer to these spirit people in order to live their life; and yet if, as I maintain, spirit people account for ninety percent or more of what's bad, what kind of hopeful future can they expect or rely on?
This is and has been my position now for a long time; and not only do I have no cause for regret in this, but with each passing month and year am I and do become even more convinced of the solid basis of my argument -- and life now and being happy are simpler, straightforward and far less puzzling matters than they ever hitherto were or I could ever have possibly conceived they might be. True, warring with spirit people and their henchmen is and can be literal Hell. But at least I have enough sense to reject that Hell; knowing as I do who it actually belongs to, while now and forever refusing it in my own life. Get rid of Hell, and everything else when all is said and done is far easier than you ever thought. If Hell, for example, says no career without their permission, then better no career than a career contingent on their approval. Meanwhile, what, say, I lose out in career I gain in the way of a much more valuable power to my soul (and mental, psychological and emotional immune system) to (when all is said and done) to better contend against and expel the quite unnatural and unnecessary burdens those obnoxious spirit people pose -- and yet which burdens some become so accustomed to that they think them, along with spirit people themselves, a necessary part of life; which in point of fact such burdens most usually are not, but that people, irrational, fearful, and under the influence, foolishly believe them to be so.
Unless in their soul a human being is part of nature, a compassionate and courageous family, and honest truth then they are damned to mere existence. And it is those who are damned to mere existence who say there is no honest truth, there is no upright family, there is no lasting merit to being natural.
"Covey Cub is not someone you want to know."
My own rationale is something along the lines of this. He had this poor cat Covey Cub (among his countless victims and to give you just one sample) starved and then finally strangled to death. Now if Covey Cub who, in addition to being a great kid, never hurt anyone had to suffer that for nothing then what in just proportion should he suffer who is so very guilty who commits such crimes? As far as I'm concerned, he deserves nothing less than the torments of the damned and the death of damnation. If he (and others like him and unrepentant) think so little of doing such things -- they can go through those things themselves -- with extra thrown in as due and fitting punishment. Yet despite this, I -- as one of his victims -- told also him that I would settle for his just getting out of my life (and content himself with making movies and television shows in partnership with his associates) even so.
"In all natural objects there lies some marvel, and if any one despises the contemplation of the lower animals, he must despise himself."
~ Aristotle, from On the Parts of Animals, I, 5.
from The Life of Greece, ch. XXIV, pp. 580-584, by Will Durant:
"The basis of Judaism was religion: the idea of a surveillant and upholding deity entered into every phase and moment of Jewish life. Morals and
manners were ordained by the gerousia in strictness and detail. Entertainments and games were few and restrained. Intermarriage with non-Jews
was forbidden; so were celibacy and infanticide. Hence the Jews bred abundantly, and reared all their children; despite war and famine their
numbers grew throughout antiquity, until in the time of Caesar there were some seven million Jews in the Roman Empire. The bulk of the population, before the Maccabean era, was agricultural. The Jews were not yet a nation of traders; even as late as the first century A.D. Josephus wrote: 'We
are not a commercial people'; the great trading peoples of the age were
the Phoenicians, the Arabs, and the Greeks. Slavery existed in Judea as
elsewhere, but the class war was relatively mild. Art was undeveloped;
only music flourished. The flute, the drum, the cymbal, the 'ram's horn'
or trumpet, the lyre, and the harp were used to accompany the single voice,
the folk song, or the solemn religious antiphons. Jewish religion scorned the
concessions of Greek ritual to popular imagination; it would have nothing
to do with images, oracles, or birds' entrails; it was less anthropomorphic
and superstitious, less colorful and joyful, than the religion of the Greeks.
Face to face with the naive polytheism of Hellenic cults, the rabbis chanted
the sonorous refrain still heard in every Jewish synagogue: Shammai Israel,
Adonai eleenu, Adonai echod 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the
Lord is one.'
"Into this simple and puritan life the invading Greeks brought all the distractions and temptations of a refined and epicurean civilization. Around
Judea was a ring of Greek settlements and cities: Samaria, Neapolis
(Shechem), Gaza, Ascalon, Azotus (Ashdod), Joppa (Jaffa), Apollonia,
Doris, Sycamina, Polis (Haifa), and Acco (Acre). Just across the Jordan
was a leagued decapolis of Greek cities: Damascus, Gadara, Gerasa, Dium,
Philadelphia, Pella, Raphia, Hippo, Scythopolis, and Canetha. Each of
these had Greek institutions and established temples to Greek gods
and goddesses, schools and academies, gymnasiums and palaestras, and nude
games. From such cities, and from Alexandria, Antioch, Delos, and
Rhodes, Greeks and Jews came to Jerusalem, bringing the infection of
a Hellenism devoted to science and philosophy, art and literature, beauty
and pleasure, song and dance, drinking and feasting, athletics and courtesans and handsome boys, along with a gay sophistication that questioned
all morals, and an urbane skepticism that undermined all supernatural belief. How could Jewish youth resist these invitations to delight, this easy
liberation from a thousand irksome restraints? Young wits among the
Jews began to laugh at the priests as money grubbers, and at their pious
followers as fools who allowed old age to come upon them without having
ever known the pleasures, luxuries, and subtleties of life. Rich Jews were
also won over, for they could afford to yield to temptation. Jews who
sought appointment from Greek officials felt it the part of policy to speak
the Greek language, to live in the Greek way, even to say a few kind
words to the Greek gods.
"Against this powerful assault upon both the intellect and the senses three
forces defended the Jews: the persecution under Antiochus IV, the protection of Rome, and the power and prestige of a Law believed to be
divinely revealed. Like antibodies gathering to attack an infection, the more religious among the Jews formed themselves into a sect called Chasidim the Pious. They began (about 300 B.C.) with a simple pledge to avoid wine for a given period; later, by the inevitable psychology of war, they went
to the extremes of Puritanism, and frowned upon all physical pleasure as a
surrender to Satan and the Greeks. The Greeks marveled at them, and
classified them with the strange 'gymnosophists,' or nude ascetic philosophers, whom Alexander's army had come upon in India. Even the common
Jew deprecated the severe religiosity of the Chasidim, and sought for some
middle way. Perhaps a compromise would have been reached had it not
been for the attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes to force Hellenism upon
Judea by persuasion of the sword.
"In 198 B.C. Antiochus III defeated Ptolemy V, and made Judea a part of
the Seleucid Empire. Tired of the Egyptian yoke, the Jews supported
Antiochus, and welcomed his capture of Jerusalem as a liberation. But
his successor, Antiochus IV, thought of Judea as a source of revenue; he
was planning great campaigns, and needed funds. He ordered the Jews
to pay in taxes one third of their grain crops and one half of the fruit of
their trees. Ignoring the usual inheritance of the office, he appointed as
high priest the sycophantic Jason, who represented the Hellenizing party
in Jerusalem and sought permission to establish Greek institutions in Judea.
Antiochus heard him gladly, for he was disturbed by the diversity and
persistence of Oriental cults in Greek Asia, and dreamed of unifying his
polyglot empire through one law and one faith. When Jason went about
these matters with insufficient haste Antiochus replaced him with Menelaus,
who gave him larger promises and a fatter bribe. Under Menelaus Yahweh
was identified with Zeus, Temple vessels were sold to raise funds, and in
some Jewish communities sacrifices were offered to Hellenic deities. A
gymnasium was opened in Jerusalem, and Jewish youths, even priests, took
part, naked, in athletic games; some young Jews, in the ardor of their Hellenism, underwent operations to remedy the physiological shortcomings
that might reveal their race.
"Shocked by these developments, and feeling their religion challenged in its very existence, the majority of the Jewish people went over to the side
and view of the Chasidim. When Antiochus IV was expelled from Egypt by Popilius (168 B.C.), the news reached Jerusalem in the form of a report that
he had been killed. The rejoicing Jews deposed his appointees, massacred
the leaders of the Hellenizing party, and cleansed the Temple of what they
felt to be pagan abominations. Antiochus, not dead but humiliated, moneyless, and convinced that the Jews had obstructed his campaign against
Egypt and were conspiring to return Judea to the Ptolemies, marched up
to Jerusalem, slaughtered Jews of either sex by the thousand, desecrated
and looted the Temple, appropriated for the royal coffers its golden altar,
its vessels, and its treasuries, restored Menelaus to supreme power, and
gave orders for the compulsory Hellenization of all Jews (167). He
commanded that the Temple be rededicated as a shrine to Zeus, that a
Greek altar be built over the old one, and that the usual sacrifices be replaced with a sacrifice of swine. He forbade the keeping of the Sabbath or
the Jewish festivals, and made circumcision a capital crime. Throughout
Judea the old religion and its rites were interdicted, and the Greek ritual
was made compulsory on pain of death. Every Jew who refused to eat
pork, or who was found possessing the Book of the Law, was to be jailed
or killed, and the Book wherever found was to be burned. Jerusalem itself
was put to the flames, its walls were destroyed, and its Jewish population
was sold into slavery. Foreign peoples were brought in to resettle the site,
a new fortress was built upon Mt. Zion, and a garrison of troops was left
in it to rule the city in the name of the King. At times, it seems, Antiochus
thought of establishing and requiring the worship of himself as a god.
"The orgy of persecution became intensified as its proceeded. There is
always, in any society, a minority whose instincts rejoice in the permission
to persecute; it is a release from civilization. The agents of Antiochus,
having put an end to all visible expression of Judaism in Jerusalem, passed
like a searching fire into the towns and villages. Everywhere they gave
the people a choice between death and participation in Hellenic worship,
which included the eating of sacrificial swine. All synagogues and Jewish schools were closed. Those who refused to work on the Sabbath were
outlawed as rebels. On the day of the Bacchanalia the Jews were compelled to deck themselves with ivy like the Greeks, to take part in the
processions, and to sing wild songs in honor of Dionysus. Many Jews
conformed to the demands, waiting for the storm to pass. Many others
fled into caves or mountain retreats, lived on clandestine gleanings from
the fields, and resolutely carried on the ordinances of Jewish life. The
Chasidim circulated among them, preaching courage and resistance. A
detachment of royal troops, coming upon some caves in which thousands
of Jews men, women, and children were hiding, ordered them to come
forth. The Jews refused; and because it was the Sabbath, they would not
move the stones that might have blocked the entrance to the caves. The
soldiers attacked with fire and sword, killing many of the refugees and
asphyxiating the remainder with smoke. Women who had circumcised
their newborn sons were cast with their infants over the city walls to
death. The Greeks were surprised to find the strength of the old faith;
not for centuries had they seen such loyalty to an idea. The stories of
martyrdom went from mouth to mouth, filled books like the First and
Second Maccabees, and gave to Christianity the prototypes of its martyrs
and its martyrology. Judaism, which had been near assimilation, became
intensified in religious and national consciousness, and withdrew into a
protective isolation.
"Among the Jews who in those days fled from Jerusalem were Mattathias
of the family of Hasmonai, of the tribe of Aaron and his five sons
Johannan Caddis, Simon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan. When Apelles, an
agent of Antiochus, came to Modin, where these six had sought refuge,
he summoned the inhabitants to repudiate the Law and sacrifice to Zeus.
The aged Mattathias came forward with his sons and said: 'Even should
all the people in the kingdom obey the order to depart from the faith of
their fathers, I and my sons will abide by the Covenant of our ancestors.'
As one of the Jews approached the altar to make the required sacrifice
Mattathias slew him, and slew also the King's commissioner. Then he said to the people: 'Whoever is zealous for the Law, and wishes to support the
Covenant, let him follow me.' Many of the villagers retired with him and
his sons to the mountains of Ephraim; and there they were joined by a
small band of young rebels, and by such of the Chasidim as were still alive.
"Soon afterward Mattathias died, having designated as captain of his band his son Judas, called Maccabee.* Judas was a warrior whose courage
equaled his piety; before every battle he prayed like a saint, but in the hour
of battle 'he was like a lion in his rage.' The little army 'lived in the mountains after the manner of beasts, feeding on herbs.' Every now and
then it descended upon a neighboring village, killed backsliders, pulled
down pagan altars, and "what children soever they found uncircumcised,
those they circumcised valiantly.' These things being reported to Antiochus, he sent an army of Syrian Greeks to destroy the Maccabean force.
Judas met them in the pass of Emmaus; and though the Greeks were
trained mercenaries fully armed, and Judas' band was poorly armed and
clad, the Jews won a complete victory (166). Antiochus sent a larger
force, whose general was so confident that he brought slave merchants
with him to buy the Jews whom he expected to capture, and posted in
the towns the prices that he would ask. Judas defeated these troops at Mizpah, and so decisively that Jerusalem fell into his hands without resistance. He removed all pagan altars and ornaments from the Temple, cleansed and rededicated it, and restored the ancient service amid the acclaim of the returning orthodox Jews (164).**
"As the regent Lysias advanced with a new army to recapture the capital, the news came this time true that Antiochus was dead (163). Desiring to be free for action elsewhere, Lysias offered the Jews full religious
freedom on condition that they lay down their arms. The Chasidim consented, the Maccabeans refused; Judas announced that Judea, to be safe
from further persecutions, must achieve political as well as religious liberty. Intoxicated with power, the Maccabeans now took their turn at persecution, pursuing the Hellenizing faction vengefully not only in Jerusalem but in the cities that bordered the frontier. In 161 Judas defeated Nicanor at Adasa, and strengthened himself by making an alliance with Rome; but in the same year, fighting against great odds at Elasa, he was slain. His brother Jonathan carried on the war bravely, but was himself killed at Acco (143). The only surviving brother, Simon, supported
by Rome, won from Demetrius II, in 142, an acknowledgment of Judean
independence. By popular decree Simon was appointed both high priest and general; and as these offices were made hereditary in his family, he
became the founder of the Hasmonean dynasty. The first year of his reign was counted as the beginning of a new era, and an issue of coinage
proclaimed the heroic rebirth of the Jewish state.
"* Usually but uncertainly interpreted as 'The Hammer.'
**The anniversary of this Re-dedication (Hanukkah) is still celebrated in nearly every
Jewish home."
First AOL Hometown, and now, thanks to Yahoo, Geocities and its many personal websites is shutting down. For those grassroots, creative sorts and who see beyond the ordinary person's internet consisting of merely "My Space" for "Twit(ter)s," this comes as bad news. Oh well, enjoy it while it lasts. Until then, here's Jean Michel Jarre with "Equinoxe 4."
The way I see it you can kill us and kill yourself but we never, in either case, see it working for you. It's like you believe this strange and at the same time poor doctrine that leads to this sharply and continually negative result; so that for obvious reasons I am a) not interested, and b) reject any suggestion you have a right to force such an absurd belief on me, and which belief makes mayhem of life, health, peace, efficiency, productivity, competitiveness, creativity and well being. Now if, after years of our enduring your affronts and batteries, you refuse to desist despite repeated entreaty then we consider ourselves of right to shoot you on sight -- were that in our power to effect it, at any rate. Yet whether or not such could be effected, we can and do always disown and reject such belief as some manner of sickness which obviously has not worked towards your own better interests. And had you sense, you would treat this arch teaching as one big mistake, and otherwise view your condition as being fundamentally of a medical character -- brought on by those same nefarious persons who contracted it to you and yet whom you foolishly and quite madly persist in listening and answering to. In the meantime and in sum: "I will not allow that machine to be used for criminal purposes" -- Q.E.D. Pray for peace. M.Y.O.B.
Top three reasons why people don't want the government attacking corporately situated organized crime:
a) Because they fear, and don't think the government can protect them against it.
b) They profit directly or indirectly from participation with it.
c) To attempt to extirpate such organized crime would be self-righteous on our (the people's) part.
Often times the problem with God and religion is one of mistaking one's own idea of something versus the thing itself, or else one's own idea of something versus a better and more accurate version of that notion. For example, this person says life ails them. But is it really life, or is rather something IN life that perhaps ought not be there? A person can become confused even to tears of having an idea of something and that something yes did, in a meaningful sense, originate with God. However, what typically happens in such instances is that they fail to make the distinction between their idea of that something and what it actually is -- and with their not unusually being a devil or other trickster spirit person around to promulgate or encourage the misrepresentation then is that much harder to get rid of. To give you one illustration of what I mean -- God in the book of Job is on one level just a character in a story, and as character in a story useful in that role. Yet is God in Job literally God? Of course not. God as delineated in that work falls incalculably short of what God is in reality. Yet you can see what misunderstanding might arise when a story character or metaphor is taken as a literal person. Similarly, dreadful pain and suffering exist; God is the source of all existence; therefore God is the cause of the suffering. In a sense, yes, this is true. Yet in another sense it isn't true, to use an example, if the pain a person suffers is caused by someone violently attacking them. On the level of the event, it is the assailant, for practical purposes, that is the immediate cause, and person who looks to God as the cause without taking the assailant into account is both foolish and a poor, albeit well meaning and in part correct, reasoner. So that if due qualifications and distinctions are not made when we form our idea of something this, quite naturally, can lead to harmful and potentially dangerous error.
People in secular history are, except in our romantic imaginations, generally strangers or at best tentative friends, while the Bible -- or other bona fide religious tradition -- makes it seem as we ourselves are part of what went on in history beyond mere race and recent culture. And for Christians, through Christ we are part of this both godly and natural family. Godly because it is moral and insists on due justice (and mercy.) Natural because it survives physically in sacred or most beloved scripture, but that, even so, is only a shadowbox or private theater of the divine. And granted, let's say it is not a scientific vision but only a wishful one. But what more could be wished but that with life we could be (at least for more efficiency and pragmatic purposes if nothing else) brothers and sisters, fathers mothers, sons and daughter? Secular brotherhood by comparison reaches it nadir in arts and in warfare but ultimately these will not hold when we are not actual brothers and sisters. And even if we lose a lot of the Bible's details, it is still and as more important to imbibe and retain its spirit of devotion an continuity. The words of the Bible itself are just words or better than words for only so long (at least for the greater majority of people at large) -- until those words are brought together in the deeds of Christ -- which deed transcends all scripture and scientific history (or if it does not then no history can be trusted for much.) But a Christ who is and of the truth, and no other, and which apodeictically implies honesty, forthrightness, and sincerity.
Of course, this higher understanding in turn has a major bearing on how you treat someone royally, and that is what you are supposed to do if you love (as opposed to use) someone. And on such a basis all manner of nobles and aristocracies (including such as are possible to conceive of for and in the plant, animal, geological, and celestial realms) can be created -- yet only such as are consistent with the love, sincerity and trustworthiness of a Christlike person; that is to say a person of deeds that are above all humane, truthful and courageous. And similarly, with other religions, when they have a viable vision that is aesthetic, upright, graceful and heart supported (and which heart is persevering in these things) then I can adopt and be beholden to and respectful of that vision as well.
In eternity? I'm doing just fine. It's here that I am having problems.
He sold the cow for some magic beans, yet I'm just about the only one it seems who thought of making use of the resulting beanstalk. Now then, are you with me in getting that goose and harp, or do must we resigned ourselves to see this country continue on its way to the poor house (and junk culture, junk justice, junk leadership, junk education, junk news, etc., etc.?)
Over 87,000 Iraqis have been reported as killed in the war since 2005 -- and what not no very dissimilar death and misery statistics might we hear of happening elsewhere? In World War One, for instance, 5,000 men a day were lost on average; and then just yesterday I learned that a child dies from hunger in this world every 4 minutes.
All of these kinds of problems stem as much as anything from crookedness and dishonesty; people not dealing with what is going on in reality; their being secretive; and their seeking expedient and irrational solutions to very serious problems. All of which latter can be traced back to criminal spirit people and those among us who make partnership with them. For who but Satan could demand such suffering -- and get what he demands?
