Previous Postings from William Thomas Sherman Info Page

*********************************************************************************************************** Conversant Spirit People and the Massacre at Wounded Knee

"In October of 1890, about a year later, Sitting Bull sent for a Minneconjou Sioux from the Cheyenne River agency called Kicking Bear to hear of the prophecy of the Fish Eaters' (Paiutes) prophet, Wovoka. In 1889, during a solar eclipse, Wovoka had been taken off into a trance where he saw the buffalo return by the millions, the earth made fresh and new, and the white man was no longer. During his vision he saw Christ who told him the Native American could never wage war again. They could achieve the fulfillment of the vision by a slow dance that he taught him.

"After this, Kicking Bear traveled to Pyramid Lake in Nevada where he attended a congregation of hundreds of Native Americans from many different tribes. They were assembled to meet Jesus who was to appear to them. After Jesus appeared, they were surprised to see Him as a red man. They asked Him of this. He told them that in the beginning God made the earth. Then He sent Christ to teach the white man, but the white man had treated Him badly leaving scars on His body, so He ascended back to heaven. Now He was returning to earth as an Indian to renew the earth and make it like it was. He told them that the dead would be raised again, the buffalo would appear on the earth, the grass would be high again. The Native Americans who believed would be suspended high above the earth as the new world would be created below them, then, afterwards, they would settle back to the earth to be with their resurrected ancestors on the new earth. Christ, as a red man, taught them a dance to celebrate all these things. The white men feared the dance. When they asked the Native Americans what they were doing, they were told they were celebrating the resurrection of their dead, so the whites called it the Ghost Dance.

"The white man had no reason to fear, for Christ gave the Native Americans some rules to live by. The rules were very simple: 'submit yourselves to the white man, he cannot hurt you, do not steal, do not drink alcohol, do not hurt anybody or do any harm to anyone. Do always right.' The doctrine called for nonviolence and brotherly love. The doctrine called for them to only dance and sing, celebrating these events about to take place.

"When Kicking Bear told Sitting Bull of the vision, he made a fatal embellishment by adding that this was to be a glorious victory for the Native Americans. He said that in the war the Native Americans' clothes would turn to iron and the white man's weapons would not hurt them. This would prove to be a disastrous addition to what could have been a peaceful victory. The Indians, if there were any retaliation, he said, would be protected by holy garments."

That is the Sioux Indians were told that if they wore the special clothing the bullets of the white soldiers would not harm them.

[above quoted text taken from "Native Americans, The Last Battle: Wounded Knee," see http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/1/indian5.htm]

And now who, after all that happened, had profited from "Jesus'" intervention? The Indians? The United States government? Christianity? The American people?

If the "Jesus" Wovoka heard from was an actual spirit person, then you can easily see this is consistent with what else I have been writing here and elsewhere about the character of conversant spirit people.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ The Age Accursed

Would that I died ten years ago
than to have seen what I have seen.
Such betrayal, such baseness,
such falseness, such cruelty!
Of good, there was very much and more.
But the stink, and rot of indifference
that ate and eats its way
into most everyone and everything --
Would that I'd died ten years ago
than to have known what I have known!
How blessed and at peace must it be
to have been spared this vile age!
The dead no more need remorse.
But Lord pity us who lived!

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ One thing I have noticed of just about all the many spirit persons I have seen or heard from, except perhaps for some of the little folk (and they keep to themselves), is that they are the most childish, petty, and immature people in the world. As is sometimes the case with regular people, the most cowardly, irresponsible, and slave minded are put in the highest or most powerful positions, while those with sense are kept down or out of things altogether, only with spirit people the tendency to do this is more pronounced and obvious.

The effect of such misrule (among regular people) can be such as to make some want to go off to a war somewhere and get themselves killed. And that's no doubt what many in the past did. Because for some, and during such times, natural nobility has no home, and death or glory seem the only way out.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ A Ghost for All Seasons

"Oh wow, it's like how it must be in St. Peter's square on some holy occasion -- only right in my very own back yard! Praise the Lord!"

Chump! Those are the exact same people who the monster people listen to -- and not whom you think. True, he well might believe himself to be what you mistakenly think he is. But that still doesn't change the fact.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ I confess, I continue to be baffled. Why all this cruelty? Why all this horror?

Because the lawyer, the priest, the police officer, the university professor, the artist, in the moment of truth, is incapable of being honest and rational. As a result, Hell just comes in carries out its tortures, and usually, though not always, in secret.

My question then is for Hell. What makes you think your life is worth all the suffering and misery you cause? You show me gods and angels, but those people -- in light of what demands you've been making of our loved ones and ourselves -- are to me no better than pollution or a disease. How then do you justify yourself?

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ One of the favorite things these people have liked to do is mock me. Yet they came after me. I never cared about them. They had all the money and people possible. I've been poor and have had absolutely no one to talk to, let alone take my part. On top of which they made me physically handicapped (putting a brain torture device in my head, ala the doings of the "Head of the Family" which we spoke of earlier.) And what cheaters! Yet I still beat them and their whole army these past 12 years by surviving all this. They try to excuse themselves by saying I am or will be rich and famous. Yet personally the only riches I seek is the well beinga and safety of those I care about, and, second, getting away from them -- the great ones.

I know I've mostly said all this before. But as long as this goes on, I'll certainly be saying it again.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ I was having some witchy-poo type things being done to me. So I said:

"By the Power of Chandu, I command you to drop those damnable powers of sorcery and go down to the nether regions: never to return ever again (to cause any trouble.) Forswear that frenzy and deranged lunacy! You can't win with demonistic belief!"

Now with false God or fool angels, you might simply say something like, "beat it, get lost, I'm not interested," and "being as great as you are, you certainly don't need me, now do you?"

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ So let's review.

Why is evil so hard to get rid of? Here are some of the key factors deserving mention.

Probably the main reason evil is so pervasive and entrenched a force over our lives, socially speaking, is because, as a practical matter, it invariably consists of spirit people teaming up with regular people to attack everyone else. Good people, otherwise and more typically, have only themselves, each other, and moral tradition (including its acceptance), in which to find safety and protection.

These spirit people in their desperation are or can be incomprehensibly vicious and determined: persevering in wrong doing in manner which those unfamiliar with them could not begin to understand or fathom. This of itself throws many people, and is perhaps why, more than any other reason, bad spirit people have as much clout and influence as they do. Quite simply, they are relinquishing real love and real happiness for material wealth and power.

They can feign being religious, worldly wise, other-worldly wise, or indeed anyone or anything depending on what sort of regular (or flesh and blood) people they are trying to fool. Thus they can be made to seem as supporters or upholders of the law, the church, business, the arts, education, representing anyone and anything to the unwary and unthinking.

They have no scruple resorting to various kinds of strong arm and bully boy tactics to get their way, and, if need be, the most vile kind of evil and depraved violence. In addition they can deceive and dazzle with an arsenal of mind control tricks and shows.

While good people (except perhaps in rare or unusual circumstances) would not want to seem evil, evil people always find it to their advantage to seem as if they are good, in fact much more often than the reverse.

Two basic types of regular people who side with the spirit persons are henchmen and dupes.

The henchmen are people got to do evil, while the dupes are used as accomplices. The idea is to get people to engage in evil and or get them to be indifferent to it. Both types are led to believe secrecy, lying, casual irrationality are proper modes of conduct and part of the ordinary course of things. Together they keep the "good" people out of position of power and money, either by blackballing, bribery, smear tactics, and political assassination. All the while they might think of themselves as the good people (at least some of them.) I don't mean to suggest by this that the world is simply divided into “black” and “white,” for of course we have various shades taking part in all this who may be got to tilt or lean one way or the other.

For many, if not most, the existence of these spirit people is usually denied, and if not, objective and intelligent discussion of them is (we often see this with the church for example.)

Probably the best defense against those who draw from evil is truth, courage, and reason. Yet judge for yourself how well those things are held in esteem. If people select Barabus over Jesus, it is because spirit persons (directly or -- more usually -- by way of intermediaries) are telling them that that is the safer choice.

They will predictably say this or that is the problem. But the real or more serious problem is these bad spirit people and if we got rid of them everything else will fall into place. What problems remaining after that would likely be so relatively minor and trivial as to hardly need making a fuss over. The typical reaction of a henchmen or dupe is to claim such a view absolves regular people of responsibility. This argument is at best a great distortion or red herring, and is used to disguise and deny the enormous influence and control spirit people in point of fact have.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ "You hurt the ones
that I loved best,
then covered up
the truth with lies,
one day you'll be in ditch,
flies buzzing around your eyes,
blood on the saddle."

~ "Idiot Wind," Bob Dylan

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ In most society's the poor are shut out from social and political participation. Yet, in fairness, if anyone should be shut out it should be those who cooperate with the enemy. Yet those who cooperate with the enemy are paid highly, and as a result they get to participate, even control things. As a result, often times the ones who get to participate are those with ties to the enemy, but not those, who even though poor, are one of ourselves. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ "The amazing powers of being interesting are supposed to be interesting, Mr. Sherman! Amazing lights, and movies -- created extemporaneously, a rock concert with colored stars swirling in your head, or seeing a heavenly host on high in a light suffused, cloudy sky. You don't think this is being interesting, Mr. Sherman?"

I'm sorry but at these prices I can hardly say I'm at all interested. Indeed, you must be joking or completely out of your mind. If you're so interesting, what do you keep bothering me for? You seem to need me, but it's never been the other way around. Go be with your own! The plain fact is I never wanted to have anything to do with you people. Not before, not now, not ever! And don't you ever forget it!

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Think of very serious or heinous crimes as a charade to shock the unwitting or else a real-life movie orchestrated by a director (and producer) and I think you'll get the idea. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ You feel badly. If so, then say to yourself "I will not believe this feeling or that it has authority over me." Because although the feeling may not be a matter of choice, belief always and ultimately is. And while this may not rid you of the unwanted feeling it can certainly help you to combat and lessen it. This principle, incidentally, in a large degree is what my Peithology converges on, philosophically speaking. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ An Odd Coincidence?

Though I haven't actually seen it, in browsing a DVD catalog I came across this fairly recent movie titled "Head of the Family" which, as described, bears an uncanny resemblance to these spirit people I write you about, at least if we view these spirit people and their humanoid henchmen in a certain light.

One of the Amazon.com reviwers of this film states:

"Let's face it, people, if you want to enjoy yourself and watch these movies you need a great sense of humor, a willingness to overlook flawed material, and a good stiff drink. Otherwise, you're wasting your time. This ain't Oscar material. This is sit back with your friends, crank up the sound, relax and get ready to laugh your butt off. That's what bad movies are all about. This one will do just fine, thank you."

Another describes the plot and film's characters this way:

"This movie is about people backmailling a family of freaks who do brain operations on people. These poor blackmailers do not know what they got themselves in for. If you like B horror movies then you will like this one. No one in this movie is normal."

Which makes me to think that someday a detective-like historian or scientific analyst will have to do close research and attempt to uncover the real-life (historical) people on which fictional families or groups like the Munsters, the Addams Family, and "Head of the Family" are essentially based. For rest assured -- if you don't know already -- no one just completely makes these things up. And from my own experience -- and unfortunately perhaps some of you(?) -- I know such characters as are portrayed to be grounded in actual fact. Oh yes, and as they say, "follow the money."

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Think of the very saddest thing you can think of, or that ever happened. Now, assuming it is a person or persons is at fault, who do you think is most responsible for bringing that tragedy about? As probably as not it was Hoodlum the Angel and Knee-Slapper the Magician (or else persons very like them.) And yet who will be blamed? Everyone else but those two most sly heroes of might and magic. And were you to take them to task for it, they would tell you that they don't think it really matters. Why? Because "they know about these things a certain way." ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ How do you fight a 500 foot tall giant wreaking havoc on family, society, culture, who refuses to change his diapers after many years, and yet whom most everybody seems to be oblivious to or else deny he even exists? ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Try to understand something. To say that because a person has or offers halos implies that they are good, just, or wise, is as much as saying because they have great financial wealth they are good, just or wise. The former does not necessarily at all imply the others, and indeed may actually mean exactly the opposite. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ "Do you mean to suggest your lord and master is greater and more powerful than the Evil One? You know you dare not honestly say so, for as much as you try to have it both or all different ways, that is whom you serve, and that is whom you are a limb and appendage of." ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ One of the characteristics that upon reflection do I notice about many of the spirit people, in fact probably most, I have met, is that they appear to have gone through their lives without having really understood or known what happened, only to have ended up as baffled, spirit people somewhere. This would seem to give us all the more reason to take to heart the dicta "know thyself" and "the unexamined life is not worth living." To which we might add, if you are not your own person then you will most assuredly be someone else's. The question then becomes simply one of "whose?" ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ "The Hound of Heaven"

Earlier today the glorious power of O.A.F. was shining it’s “divine” light in my life, revealing angels and glowing lights making clouds shimmer in beauty, when I was once again vividly reminded of what I am up against, viz. there actually is this false God and false Heaven which people take to be the real thing.

Well, let's then look in the balance between their view of Christianity versus my own.

In my understanding of Christianity, people of that persuasion are essentially or mostly (in rarer instances entirely) honest, decent, rational, great of heart, and sometimes also great of mind as well. Where once, in all the years I have dealt with these people and their accomplices, have I seen someone who actually matches this description? With O.A.F., great heart and great mind are completely absent (unless you take cunning and trickery as palpable manifestations of the latter.)

They have some nice, charitable people, but usually of the timid and fair weather kind.

Yes, they have some pretty girls, but give me a million dollars and I or just about anyone could do just as well in that department.

They can change the weather, cause earthquakes, predict events. But give Bill Nye the Science Guy (let alone the Evil One) a billion dollars and I am sure he could figure out how to do the same things, and soon have any number of people taken in (were he so inclined.)

My Jesus is like a hero, cool and courageous, yet a humble and caring person. He -- all alone -- fought the demons and sprites, who then starved and strangled him. But no one cared or came to help when he died.

Their Jesus glows like and angel, can make you feel his power for miles around, yet who for all of that has the presence of Count Dracula (angry when people won't do his bidding.) And oh yes, and likely as not, he acted as technical advisor on “The Passion of the Christ.”

The great rich man on high, the great mansion, the great mausoleum in the sky, for my money and my for my life you can keep all of them. For there is not a single hero or freeman there or with them to be found.

Now those who believe these people, I do not judge or condemn. It is simply not for me to do, nor do I feel the need or care to. So that I have no reason to think that just because someone is taken in by these people that they cannot or won’t be saved. I say no such thing. For I also have no reason to think that when all is said and done, God will not finally come to do their rescue and redemption, and the truth finally revealed.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ There is no thing bad without an assumption of some sort being made, so that without an assumption actually being made there is no bad at all. If then you think something is bad look to see what assumption of assumptions make it so. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ If you go on acting like Hell, ultimately, if not sooner, your reward and fate will be Hell. Now what is so hard to figure out and understand about this? And if you don't believe there's Hell, why just turn on the television on just about any given channel, on just about any given day or evening. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Evil would not hold such sway in the world were it not so financially profitable. How many great fortunes depend on it! But what good does it actually do? And yet some people act as if it were one of life's necessities. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Is it evil to be indifferent to evil? Not necessarily. However, it is easy to see that a person who continues to allow themselves to be lapsed into such will finally end of being the slave of someone who is. And even if they are finally able to escape the dominion of the latter, it will only be after much pain, hardship, and grief. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Over time I have grown to become extremely skeptical as to the purpose and virtue of traditionally so-called angels. Leave aside angels in the more noetic, transcendental sense (i.e. angels as embodiments or manifestation of moral and or intellectual principle, such as Mamonides and St. Thomas Aquinas speak of), or as used by poets, what actual angel ever showed great heart or great mind? As far as I can tell most, if not all, angels are a kind of ghost that glows, with perhaps the surface appearance of youth, and the capacity for small wit. And while they are perhaps in a given instance physically attractive, I have yet to encounter one, among the many I have seen and witnessed, who displayed much in the way of real heart and mind. Rather they seem like so many mindless drones, and (ultimately voiceless) followers of some great political power – characteristics which, after all, free people, should not want to encourage.

And yet people do and have looked to angels as if they were necessarily signs of the divine, as if they foreshadowed new and or superior life. This view it seems to me, and I say this as a Christian, needs to be taken with great caution and skepticism, and we are perhaps just as well as seeing “angels” as people who have a problem, much sooner than to out of hand, ascribe to them properly religious or virtuous qualities. And even granting I am somehow mistaken or mistaken in part about this, I believe the potential dangers angels pose of leading people into false and irrational beliefs warrants taking such a view on very down to earth, and life-saving practical grounds.

One of the reasons further I state this is that there have been times these people have tried to excuse the tortures others close to me and I myself have gone through by showing me “heavenly” and angel or angel-like things and people, when frankly, upon reflection, I found in those things more to exacerbate my pain and grief rather than console me, and what is attempted to be passed off as enlightenment, radiant feelings, or beaming rays of heaven are really no more than so much (and kind of) drugs and feel-good phony baloney. Perhaps not bad of themselves, but things which are very superficial, and hardly begin to reveal the depth and wonder of what true life is and has to offer.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ As academics are to police, lawyers are to church people. In both comparisons, the former can choose not to. The latter (if they really are what they say they are) can't. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ My Fond Dream

"Ye demons, ye sprites, ye poorer ghosts, ye nymphs, ye little folk -- step aside! Stand clear! For now we are going to once and for all blast this Mental Patient the Magician, Hoodlum the Angel, and Bearded Lord Oaf, I say again, once and for all --- into oblivion!"

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ If you are so appalled by the state of things as to feel like giving up and not bothering, who could blame you?
What presumption! What ignorance! What arrogance! What cruelty! What irrationality! What hypocrisy! What dullness!
You feel like you are living in a world of blind and deaf people. Lords over the animals indeed!
"Not men, but blocks of wood, stones!"
Is no one fair? Honest? Just?
Yes, there are only, and unless you are somehow fortunate, these won't let you see or talk to them --
almost as if we who are actually alive in heart and mind are buried under so many blocks of wood and stones.
~~~~~~*~~~~~~ I believe I've figured out why this ghost Goomerton, and those like him, never sleep. Imagine if you were him, and after a long, peaceful rest, woke up, only to come to realize what you'd done, and (as a result)-- horror of horrors -- what you were!

(I concede that this is, and some will think, a bit of a cheap shot. But weighing the matter in the balance, I think its value as moral instruction outweighs its harshness otherwise. Worth noting, in passing, is that they themselves will have pulled pranks on their own people based around this same idea. Here I merely remark on the fact.)

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ "The will can always triumph over matter during the early stages of a nervous disability, particularly when that disability is only fear."
- Maj. Mick Mannock, World War I British fighter pilot.

If you are ever frightened, try if possible, and as best you're able, to describe the physical state you are in. Ask yourself if you are feeling any different physically then you do or would normally (than when not fearful.) If so how specifically and in what way? For often times fear is the result, in whole or in part, of physical forces working on us from without, but which then can affect us mentally and emotionally. By identifying and discerning what you are feeling physically when fear arises, it is much easier then to order your thoughts, and then in turn to deal with who or whatever it is that threatens, by discerning better who or what they are, and what real, if any, lasting harm they can do. Of course this all assumes that you are able to think rationally.

Earlier today I had an "angel" or else some shining, radioactive spirit person pay me a visit, and for the first time in some while I felt a bit frightened. Yet when I analyzed more closely what was going on, I realized he doing something to unnerve me physically, causing a certain tension in my back and neck, and it was this, along with his persistence, that had actually triggered the unanticipated fear. Once I realized that that is all it really was I was then able to treat and deal with him like anybody else.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Just to show you the kind of thing I do and have had to put up with: I was last night informed by a spirit person that Daniel, one of the cats who was stolen from me (see my "Narrative"), was still alive. However he couldn't stand these S-g people who were supposed to be taking care of him and consequently didn't want to live anymore. Thanks a lot O.A.F people and those who have assistaed them with your silence and indifference. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Yes we want this nice thing or that wonderful thing, but may we be properly good and duly considerate of others first before having it. If not we risk ruining whatever it is, and possibility even our very lives and those we love as well. For there is no greater Hell than indulging ourselves in pleasures and (erstwhile) joys in the hour of evil -- it ultimately both ruins the pleasure and sets us up for sorrow at the hands of others. Get your priorities straight then, and say "Lord make us good, keep us from foolishness!" Else, like this ghost who at present presumably runs Hollywood, you will never really be happy. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ In my weekend Bible reading (of two chapters or more), I came across these passages which I thought were of particular interest:

Rom. 8:26 "In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will."

Rom. 8:33 "It is God who acquits us. Who will condemn?"

This, among other things, reminds us that when something is bad, it is deemed bad, and hence a judgment is made. And whose judgment is superior to God's? We should seek therefore to make our judgments more just and truthful that they may be more in accord with his.

Rom. 8:38 "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

By life he apparently means this life, and as for angels these, logically, must be such that are bad.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ With all the terrible problems there are going on in this often cruel, violent, and ridiculous world being an elderly pope (or Holy Father) must be one of the most difficult and demanding jobs there is, with people thinking the person cannot be up to the task due to his age (and maybe in the given instance he isn't), with perhaps others meanwhile wishing him gone so someone younger can take his place. For these and other reasons, and short of some gross misconduct or flagrant acts of irresponsibility on his part, or something similar, I think that the person, whoever they may be, who sits in Peter's chair should always be seen as deserving the highest respect and support.

In the news of late we hear that John Paul II may be suffering from a terminal illness. Given his advanced years this should perhaps not be surprising, and so I hope that those who do pray will pray for him. One of my most very favorite prayers is something he himself, over the years, has typically enjoined us -- "pray for peace." I tell these devils (who for years have been giving me a hard time) to do this, while reminding myself to do the same. And, if followed and practiced regularly, such petitions work to make our lives easier.

So how ever bad or however good things are -- pray for peace. And may we always behave ourselves as well, comporting ourselves morally and rightly as we can and God gives us to, as it is hard to conceive of the one (i.e. peace) without the other taking place.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ "The great guns of an armed ship have blocks of wood, called tompions, painted black, inserted in their muzzles, to keep out the spray of the sea. These tompions slip in and out very handily, like covers to butter firkins.

"By advice of a friend, Lemsford, alarmed for the fate of his box of poetry, had latterly made use of a particular gun on the main- deck, in the tube of which he thrust his manuscripts, by simply crawling partly out of the porthole, removing the tompion, inserting his papers, tightly rolled, and making all snug again.

"Breakfast over, he and I were reclining in the main-top--where, by permission of my noble master, Jack Chase, I had invited him-- when, of a sudden, we heard a cannonading. It was our own ship.

"'Ah!' said a top-man, 'returning the shore salute they gave us yesterday.'

"'O Lord!' cried Lemsford, 'my Songs of the Sirens!' and he ran down the rigging to the batteries; but just as he touched the gun-deck, gun No. 20--his literary strong-box--went off with a terrific report.

"'Well, my after-guard Virgil,' said Jack Chase to him, as he slowly returned up the rigging, 'did you get it? You need not answer; I see you were too late. But never mind, my boy: no printer could do the business for you better. That's the way to publish, White-Jacket," turning to me--'fire it right into 'em; every canto a twenty-four-pound shot; hull the blockheads, whether they will or no. And mind you, Lemsford, when your shot does the most execution, your hear the least from the foe. A killed man cannot even lisp.'

"'Glorious Jack!' cried Lemsford, running up and snatching him by the hand, 'say that again, Jack! look me in the eyes. By all the Homers, Jack, you have made my soul mount like a balloon! Jack, I'm a poor devil of a poet. Not two months before I shipped aboard here, I published a volume of poems, very aggressive on the world, Jack. Heaven knows what it cost me. I published it, Jack, and the cursed publisher sued me for damages; my friends looked sheepish; one or two who liked it were non-committal; and as for the addle-pated mob and rabble, they thought they had found out a fool. Blast them, Jack, what they call the public is a monster, like the idol we saw in Owhyhee, with the head of a jackass, the body of a baboon, and the tail of a scorpion!'

"'I don't like that,' said Jack; 'when I'm ashore, I myself am part of the public.'

"'Your pardon, Jack; you are not, you are then a part of the people, just as you are aboard the frigate here. The public is one thing, Jack, and the people another.'

"'You are right,' said Jack; 'right as this leg. Virgil, you are a trump; you are a jewel, my boy. The public and the people! Ay, ay, my lads, let us hate the one and cleave to the other.'"

-- from White Jacket, ch. 45, by Herman Melville.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ The Old Demonist, or the Price of Celebrity

Secretary: Here's that list you requested Mr. Oafmore of people and animals murdered in the last decade, with an attachment of reputations and careers ruined as well. [Leaves.]

Gretchen: I'm not sure I understand. Does our strength and power ultimately lie in that we are victorious or in that we are deserving of the greatest pity?

Oafmore: Don't be so cynical. I acquired all this fantastic wealth and honors of life for you, for us. Now what then shall we live for?

Gretchen: Oh I don't know...peace, justice, freedom?

Oafmore: Not possible. It'd ruin business. Think of something else.

Gretchen: What? (pauses) I have to go. [She leaves. Oafmore sits down rubbing his head, holding the papers his secretary had handed him. Goomerton appears behind him. Oafmore, without looking at the other, glances at the list.]

Oafmore: It will be all right for these people won't it? Like you said.

Goomerton: You have my solemn assurance that they went to heaven. And if not, don't worry yourself. It doesn't matter anyway. After all if it did then that's where they would have gone wouldn't they?

Oafmore: I see what you're saying.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ "If talk is cheap, how come you have to spend so much time and money suppressing it?" ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ If an innocent suffer we rightly mourn or feel outrage, but if that same innocent grows up, then those feelings can change, or certainly some people's feelings change. If the conduct of the aforesaid innocent does not qualify them as having morally lapsed, well we assume they have moved away from their innocence by the mere passing of years, mere contact with human society, or else they've must have enjoyed enough of life to be able to die like everybody else, i.e. of those who do die. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ He waxes wroth at frivolous griefs as excessively as he does over justified ones. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ I can't help but wonder...if we weren't fallen, would we otherwise and normally be ambidextrous? If so this would provide a possibly useful physiological measure of what it means to be fallen. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ An Attempt at Apocrypha

A:I am jealous or else you don't value me enough, so I will wage war on you.

B:If you don't like the way I live and act just go.

A: No, I will have my revenge!

[He has his revenge, and evil comes into the world.]

B: Now I will most certainly not have anything to do with you.

A: Ah ha! See I was right! There is evil in the world because now I am shut off from goodness!

B: There is room for you in eternity, only not with me.

A: Then neither shall these others be with you. You have it too good!

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Have you ever seen that eye in the triangle on the back of a dollar bill?

I am here to tell you there actually is such a thing, though I myself do not think it proves anything, and am inclined to think it something foolish, if taken too seriously.

Now are you the happier, more wise, or better off that such a thing exists (i.e. given the prominence it has received?)

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Old Herod with worms, you shimmer the sky with the beams and stirrings that God, through nature, gives freely but which you can control and pay for, for your frivolous use, with the blood of others! You say I -- who am happy but for you -- suffer these things now in order to get that glorious and munificent deal from you one day. I say, you are no friend of mine, and rather I suffer these things so that one day finally, and once and for all, I can be be rid of you and your view of things.

So you see it is not at all the same thing.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ If one is holy it is assumed one is loved. The next obvious question is (to paraphrase Telly Savalas) "who loves them?" We can and do love God, but ours nor anyone else's, can make him holy, because any holiness springs from him which, naturally, and in turn, is the same thing as his love. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ To a Devil

You may get off the hook for crucifying people, but be warned. You do not better your situation or make yourself more likable by conducting yourself so. Indeed out of the time you waste persecuting others you become a mome lost in the void, and who then ever seeks attention for merit and worth you do not really possess.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Note to myself: What exactly qualifies something as a disease? How are they to be distinguished from other life? Whence do, and did they originate? Do different diseases share similar traits and patterns, though on the surface seem extremely unlike? ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ People are like different musical instruments, if not well coordinated (or else resting quietly) cacophony results. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ There are angels and spirit people who honestly believe they are in, ot at least working for, heaven -- with "God," "Jesus," effulgent white robes, sky suffusing light, or whatever persons and trappings of heaven you might mention -- but who in point of fact are mistaken, and have been sold something false. Such naturally deserve our kindness, but by no means suffer their presumption lightly, for, by definition, "they know not what they do."

For all the time that I have spent with these more powerful spirit people -- that is the ones giving the orders and who chained me to a rock in order to feed a vulture -- my memory of them will (short of their reforming) always be as cheaters, bullies, hoodlums, dishonorable, for which reason you can see I could hardly consider them to be representative of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or other honest, sincere and respectable faiths.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ There are those who do no care about being rational, and in fact are frank about being so (and any time they feel like it!) But what such people fatally fail to appreciate is that by more frequently insisting that some conclusion, proposal or belief we might adopt or assume, be rationally validated, the more we are easily able to rid ourselves of false, bad, and potentially very harmful ideas and beliefs, which otherwise might, in a given circumstance, make an undue and ultimately unwelcome impression on us, perhaps even destroy us. Reason is not everything, rather it saves us from losing everything, while helping to make possible new things. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ More often than you might think, along the common path, there is an undiscovered jewel if we but have an eye for it. Nature then proves that one need not therefore be a social aristocrat in order to be truly great. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ In an article/interview about the book, The Da Vinci Code, posted at the Zenit or Vatican news site, we find the following: ---

"But how can such a bunch of wild claims [such as are contained in The Da Vinci code] attract 17 million readers?

[answer:] This is a complicated question, to be examined from a sociological point of view. While leaving a more detailed discussion of this question for my forthcoming book on the subject (in Italian), I would simply suggest here that The Da Vinci Code brings together two types of social «tastes» which appear to be quite widespread: on the one hand, the notion of «conspiracies» and secret societies that dominate the world; and on the other hand, an increasingly unashamed and virulent anti-Catholicism." ----

While I will not presume to say why certain people believe conspiracy theories, the fact is that Hell, and the powers who rule and promote Hell, itself is a conspiracy against humanity, including the church. And a person who denies this fact is either not a Christian or else a false or fooled Christian. Hell does not take over in a society so much or only because people voted for Hell. Rather people are tricked into receiving Hell, and on this basis Hell is accepted. And no one is tricked into receiving Hell unless there is a conspiracy or plot on the part of someone to bring this about. Why then categorically brush aside the potential reality of conspiracy as a notion so utterly preposterous or improbable?

Because Hell itself is the ultimate conspiracy, and it is Hell -- not conspiracies as such -- that some "educated" people can't accept or really deal with, hence their dismissing the notion altogether as something not to be taken seriously.

Having said this I do not mean to suggest that I support the idea of a conspiracy as posed by The Da Vinci Code, since I didn't read the book, nor do I care to. Rather I make the above remarks in regard to the plausibility of the notion of "conspiracy" generally, which after all as history tells us, and along with lying, is a fundamental and essential means by which tyrannies come to power and maintain their regimes.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ "If this Satan person or what ever you call him really is a demonist, then yes, I am most definitely against him also. I don't care who the person is, I won't put up with it." ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ As gold is to a certain kind of miser, so the lights, winds, and wonders of angels are to a certain kind of misguided religious. Neither knows the right worth of things, and both risk being led to their downfall by someone quite intentionally using their weakness to seriously trip them up. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Ask yourself this question:

Can what I love ever be greater then it is?

~~~~~~*~~~~~~ It has gotten so bad that in order to qualify for human rights protection you need to be a member of the party. So we're back to the same old problem. No party membership, no money. No money, no rights. And even some with great wealth can have their basic rights transgressed lightly (or their person and character wantonly abused) if need be. I used to be able to speak out for animal rights. These days (and for some time now) it seems few or no one even cares about human rights, except in the abstract or for purposes of propaganda or posturing.

If fear is the father of cruelty, as James K. Paulding has said, what accounts for the appalling cruelty and acts of degradation, of various kinds, we have seen in recent decades, such as that displayed routinely on some television talk shows, including also some children's shows, or else reported in the news?

People from the Middle East and Afghanistan? Or (before that) the militia groups? Or (before that) the drug lords? No, to judge by the level of cruelty we have seen in various quarters, there is and has been something in our midst far greater to be feared than these purported foreign terrorists, etc.

So the question then is, if not really these foreign terrorists and all the rest, what actually are people afraid of?

The answer is, it is (whether directly or indirectly) these spirit people and their flesh-and-blood henchmen, such as I write about. Yet people can or will not discuss this topic, and as a result the government, media, police, academics, et. al. have been off waging war on phantoms or secondary dangers because they cannot deal with the real threat.

I don't quite know what to call what we have gone through this last thirty plus odd years. A plague? A war? A famine? A Stalinist purge? Genocide?

Well whatever it is, you will rarely find people who are willing or are able to discuss it, since they fear those in power, or else those in power continue to stifle their voice.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

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