[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@... wrote: KARACHI, May 22: Armed militants stormed into a naval airbase here on Sunday night, destroyed three aircraft and killed at least five people four navy personnel and a foreigner whose nationality could not be ascertained. http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/23/terrorists-attack-navy-airbase-in-karachi-destroy-three-aircraft.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13497328 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/world/asia/23pakistan.html?_r=1 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/05/201152218582675282.html You'd think a country with nukes could easily deter others from attacking it, apparently not. Nukes didn't prevent the USA from ignoring Pakistan's sovereignty and killing Osama bin Laden and nukes didn't prevent us from killing innocent Pakistani citizens with drones. Nukes are a horrible blight on the planet. We should destroy every last one of them. But now that militants have breached Pakistan's well-secured navy airbase in Karachi, a possible site for nukes, it would make sense to call for destruction of nukes, but I doubt it. It wouldn't surprise me if the next thing we hear is a scary news story saying Pakistan can't be trusted to keep its nukes from terrorists. I I certainly hope we haven't lost our minds enough to launch an operation to seize Pakistan's nukes. But it's not too much of a stretch to think it's possible since we already have far more CIA agents and special forces operating there than Pakistan wants. American hegemony sucks and it worries me. Should we go back to pretending that Pakistan is our good friend, and that bin Laden is no where to be found, like G. W. Bush had us believing... Or, do you confront a danger and bring it into the sun-light of truth.. Is it better to get out of denial as to what needs to be cleared.. Wouldn't it have been better, if during the time of Nazi Germany, that the evil things being done could have been brought to the light earlier, so that much of the destruction could have been avoided? Denial... Wasn't there a certain amount of 'Denial', when during August of 2001, the White House received a warning that bin Laden was planning an attact on the US mainland... On some level you have to admit, that they sort of let that attack happen with not much response prior to... R.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@ wrote: KARACHI, May 22: Armed militants stormed into a naval airbase here on Sunday night, destroyed three aircraft and killed at least five people four navy personnel and a foreigner whose nationality could not be ascertained. http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/23/terrorists-attack-navy-airbase-in-karachi-destroy-three-aircraft.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13497328 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/world/asia/23pakistan.html?_r=1 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/05/201152218582675282.html You'd think a country with nukes could easily deter others from attacking it, apparently not. Nukes didn't prevent the USA from ignoring Pakistan's sovereignty and killing Osama bin Laden and nukes didn't prevent us from killing innocent Pakistani citizens with drones. Nukes are a horrible blight on the planet. We should destroy every last one of them. But now that militants have breached Pakistan's well-secured navy airbase in Karachi, a possible site for nukes, it would make sense to call for destruction of nukes, but I doubt it. It wouldn't surprise me if the next thing we hear is a scary news story saying Pakistan can't be trusted to keep its nukes from terrorists. I I certainly hope we haven't lost our minds enough to launch an operation to seize Pakistan's nukes. But it's not too much of a stretch to think it's possible since we already have far more CIA agents and special forces operating there than Pakistan wants. American hegemony sucks and it worries me. I guess we're crazier than I thought. The US India axis is trying to outsmart Pakistan and its neighbors by pretending that Pakistan is indeed a partner in its global war against terrorism, while they clandestinely move closer to Pakistan's nuclear weapons bases with an ultimate goal of bringing the nukes under Western control. http://hamsayeh.net/world/732-pakistan-allows-the-use-of-a-major-naval-base-to-peoples-liberation-army-of-china.html http://tinyurl.com/3e9t5l5 So, what's wrong with that? Whose side would you be on? Do you side with the Taliban fighters? Do you consider Pakistan a stable country which can be trusted, Have you considered the intention of bin Laden and his ilk, to bring destruction to the United States and it's allies, without regard for men, woman and children... So, what do you suggest? would be a better policy at present.? R.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. Curtis, you obviously have great talent for writing! :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
History is clear, nations are built on war, with a strong army and war comes prosperity, nation and people thrive, people become sophisticated intellectuals, they then get attracted to Gandhis and MLKS and turn into pacifists and then get overrun by barbarians. So it seems that these die hard liberal pacifists want this country to be overrun by barbarians. I have a better thought, ship these retards to barbarian cultures as a precautionary measure, but somehow I suspect they wouldn't want to so easily give up their American citizenship..LOL.. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Robert babajii_99@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@ wrote: KARACHI, May 22: Armed militants stormed into a naval airbase here on Sunday night, destroyed three aircraft and killed at least five people four navy personnel and a foreigner whose nationality could not be ascertained. http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/23/terrorists-attack-navy-airbase-in-karachi\ -destroy-three-aircraft.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13497328 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/world/asia/23pakistan.html?_r=1 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/05/201152218582675282.html You'd think a country with nukes could easily deter others from attacking it, apparently not. Nukes didn't prevent the USA from ignoring Pakistan's sovereignty and killing Osama bin Laden and nukes didn't prevent us from killing innocent Pakistani citizens with drones. Nukes are a horrible blight on the planet. We should destroy every last one of them. But now that militants have breached Pakistan's well-secured navy airbase in Karachi, a possible site for nukes, it would make sense to call for destruction of nukes, but I doubt it. It wouldn't surprise me if the next thing we hear is a scary news story saying Pakistan can't be trusted to keep its nukes from terrorists. I I certainly hope we haven't lost our minds enough to launch an operation to seize Pakistan's nukes. But it's not too much of a stretch to think it's possible since we already have far more CIA agents and special forces operating there than Pakistan wants. American hegemony sucks and it worries me. Should we go back to pretending that Pakistan is our good friend, and that bin Laden is no where to be found, like G. W. Bush had us believing... Or, do you confront a danger and bring it into the sun-light of truth.. Is it better to get out of denial as to what needs to be cleared.. Wouldn't it have been better, if during the time of Nazi Germany, that the evil things being done could have been brought to the light earlier, so that much of the destruction could have been avoided? Denial... Wasn't there a certain amount of 'Denial', when during August of 2001, the White House received a warning that bin Laden was planning an attact on the US mainland... On some level you have to admit, that they sort of let that attack happen with not much response prior to... R.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. Exactly. She's just riding the same wave trying to get a paycheck for herself, hoping that the Wuss Backlash Factor (These poor people who gave away all their money and houses and everything because some guy told them the world was ending and they alone would be saved are being SO ABUSED in the press) will keep her in writing material for a while. These forwarded URLs are SO predictable. The prob- lem that Judy sees with the failed end of the world prophecies is that people with strong beliefs were *made fun of* for holding those beliefs. NOT that the beliefs involved being so special that they and only they would be saved while everyone who didn't believe the same things they did would burn in eternal hellfire, after having endured a few months of earthly hellfire until October, but that people were laughing at them. Sounds to me a little like someone who is a bit sensitive about believing that bouncing around on her fat butt will save the world resents being laughed at herself. snip But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. Absolutely. Just a due date on the bill and cosmic bill collectors knocking at the door... that's the only difference. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? Well, I think so, but then I think that people who believe that the impact of their butt on foam several times a day is causing world peace to happen, and that it's their day job to do this as long as some rich guy can be conned into paying for it are pretty fuckin' dysfunctional, too. And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. As narcissistic as that fantasy may be. The world *has* to change, to be more like the way *I* want it to be. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! Just think what they imagine being done to the rest of your body. And they're not alone among religious fanatics in believing that Bad Things will happen to those who don't believe the same things they do. Or have you forgotten Nabby's and Ravi's smug assertions of the horrible things that will happen to those who diss saints, or Tom Pall's TM TB (at the time) gloating over Katrina and what all those New Orleans sinners deserved? :-) I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief... Got to pause here to savor the phrase malicious arrogance. That's really it -- the essence of the exclusionary afterlife. ...so we want a little payback. Not me. That would lower me to their level. I just want to exercise my Constitutional right to laugh at such people the way they should be laughed at. They want me burning in eternal hellfire. I just want to laugh at them. Big difference. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. Or just laugh at them, as the dweebs in need of an apocalypse fantasy to get them through the day that they are. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my burrito alfresco with no cheese in a drive-thru, when I get to where I can stop and eat it, I will always find out that my burrito is slimed with that nasty cheese- food-product that doubles the calories on my already guilty meal while presenting my liver with Martin-molecules of fat that makes my liver make that Homer Simpson sound when it tries to oxidize it: Doh! Not to mention their fantasies about Hell. Doncha get the feeling that the walls of these True Believers are lined with Hieronymous Bosch paint- ings of Hell and what'll happen to Everybody But Them? So I get it that spiking the ball is too much... I don't agree. I think that spiking the ball is both
[FairfieldLife] What's the difference between advertising and religion?
Both make claims about their products. Both make money from selling those products. One difference seems to be that advertisers of concrete products are held liable for making false claims about the products, and can be sued in court for making them. Whereas religions are free to claim anything they want about the abstract ideas they are selling, and people who even suggest that they're making false claims or claims they can't prove are accused of intolerance or religious persecution. The other difference is that the makers of products that the advertisers sell have to pay taxes on the profits they make. Religions don't.
[FairfieldLife] One of the flipsides of being a female boxer!
Finnish (Swedish-speaking) boxer Eva Wahlstrom after a match: http://is13.snstatic.fi/kuvat/eva1/img-1288465097422.jpeg
[FairfieldLife] Re: To Vaj- The Magical Puja Placebo
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Yogi raviyogi@... wrote: Perfection is never possible in the outside world, we can say perfection is only possible in the inner world. Inner perfection is nothing but accepting that outer perfection is an impossibility and that the existence is imperfectly perfect, that in fact the existence moves from one perfection to the other. Once this inner state is reached it doesn't imply cold and impersonal behavior. In fact only when this inner acceptance is reached that you can now compassionately indulge in changing outer imperfections. Nice piece. I enjoyed this. (-:
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: To Vaj- The Magical Puja Placebo
On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 4:51 PM, Ravi Yogi raviy...@att.net wrote: I do enjoy your constant projections of peace, happiness and love on to others, I'm sure you make your heroes Gandhi, MLK and the Dalai Lama proud of you !!! Keep it up !!! You're kidding, right? Been to the Southern US lately? Black and whites mix. Go to the same places to eat, lodge in the same places, go to school together. Except of course turn on the local news and wanna guess which race accounts for the crime? As you're being run off the road, as the driver turns left in front of you with no warning and you have to stomp on your brakes, as you're passed by someone doing 80 mpg in a school zone, take a look at the race of the driver. Well, of course the police can't stop these people, as it's racial profiling, you see. And of course America is losing its competitive advantage because of all the quota systems and reverse discrimination in effect. Of course college tuition is so sky high because someone has to pay for the full scholarships for students who don't qualify to go to that school, let alone pass and graduate. MLK had a dream. It was a noble dream. But social engineering doesn't work as well as civil or mechanical engineering. Too many unknown variables and Nature always favors the hidden flaws in your design.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Yogi raviyogi@... wrote: History is clear, nations are built on war, with a strong army and war comes prosperity, nation and people thrive Fascism has a proud and distinguished history. I wish you the best in pursuing its ideals. Fascists promote violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality. Fascists exalt militarism as providing positive transformation in society, in providing spiritual renovation, education, instilling of a will to dominate in people's character, and creating national comradeship through military service.
[FairfieldLife] Re: To Vaj- The Magical Puja Placebo
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Tom Pall thomas.pall@... wrote: On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 4:51 PM, Ravi Yogi raviyogi@... wrote: I do enjoy your constant projections of peace, happiness and love on to others, I'm sure you make your heroes Gandhi, MLK and the Dalai Lama proud of you !!! Keep it up !!! I believe Mr. Yogi was being sarcastic. I was the one lauding non-violent efforts to end a century of Jim Crow and apartheid, and enabling citizens to exercise the rights of citizenship and actually vote. As well as the courage of the Freedom Riders (which MLK was actually resisting) to venture into a deeply racist, violent and inhumane culture and assist in and catalyze its transformation. You're kidding, right? Been to the Southern US lately? ... MLK had a dream. It was a noble dream. But social engineering doesn't work as well as civil or mechanical engineering. Non-violent efforts to end a century of Jim Crow and apartheid, and enabling citizens to exercise the rights of citizenship and actually vote is not social engineering. I am not a huge fan of some (or a lot of) social engineering efforts. I am a huge fan of large and sustained investments in merit-based education at all levels as a foundational solution to many social ills. (And both civil liberties and strong and extensive education I suggest provide a strong foundation for methods of inner transformation to seed, root and flourish.) (And we are far from having such a strong educational system. My hopes lay in distributed, highly scalable digital educational initiatives as a means of providing massive and extension education to anyone who has the will to pursue it, at very low costs. Such a system will not be constrained by x classroom seats or university slots.) Too many unknown variables and Nature always favors the hidden flaws in your design.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Yea agreed-- big, big, big difference between the evangelical crowd and other Christians. This idea expressed by evangelicals that you are damned unless you accept Christ as your savior is antithetical to most Christians. Also the idea popular among evangelicals that all you need to do is click your heels together three times...oh wait, wrong fantasy...all you need to do is accept Jesus as your savior and all your past, present, and future wrongdoing is absolved is also not accepted by mainstream Christianity. Evangelicals often treat their religion as an eternal Get Out Of Jail Free and I Am Better Than You card, whereas serious Christians see Christ as an inspirational and humbling teacher. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: I enjoyed reading this, Curtis, but I'm working on a deadline and have very little time to comment. Wanted to make two main points: --All Christians are taught the Second Coming, but the Rapture belief isn't universal by any means. Maybe that isn't what you meant to suggest by mainstream? It's primarily a belief of Evangelicals. The fringe nature of the recent hoop-te-do had more to do with the idea that it could be so specifically predicted. And even among Evangelicals, there's dizzying variety of understandings about exactly how it all falls out. Some Christian denominations really don't deal with eschatology at all beyond the idea that it's gonna happen some day. --You paint with *way* too broad a brush in suggesting that all Christians hope you go to hell. That kind of malice is actually quite rare, even among the May 21ers. Most of 'em want to *save* you from going to hell. You make some good points, but you miss the boat on these two. Again, I wish I had more time to comment. Oh, and an addendum--for how to remove label residue, see this: http://www.ehow.com/how_2023764_remove-sticky-residue.html Also try lighter fluid. There are also products you can buy that are designed to do the job. One is called Goo Gone: http://www.googone.com/GG-Browse-Products --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief, so we want a little payback. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Thanks Card, I hope it made you laugh a little. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. Curtis, you obviously have great talent for writing! :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: What's the difference between advertising and religion?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: Both make claims about their products. Both make money from selling those products. One has Don Draper, the other Jimmy Swaggart. One difference seems to be that advertisers of concrete products are held liable for making false claims about the products, and can be sued in court for making them. Whereas religions are free to claim anything they want about the abstract ideas they are selling, and people who even suggest that they're making false claims or claims they can't prove are accused of intolerance or religious persecution. The other difference is that the makers of products that the advertisers sell have to pay taxes on the profits they make. Religions don't. More important IMO is truth in advertising in the political process. If a product made claims along the lines of many politicians, they would be heavily fined and possibly thrown in jail. The truth checking sites are a step in the right direction -- but they have little audience and no teeth. Its a freedom of speech issue that has gotten quite distorted from original intent. Blatant manipulative lying for personal and group gain was not the intent of the first amendment. (Nor was, I suggest, the second amendment a free pass to own and carry Uzis.) However, one reason political blatant lying works is that many voters, particularly swing voters (certainly not all) are so uneducated and filled with false information, they will believe much of the many emotionally charge deceitful propaganda campaigns. Large and sustained life-long education (hardly what we have today) is one counter to such. The reincarnation of the means to life-long learning to highly scalable, low cost per unit, digitally based, non-bricks an morter educational platforms have the potential to assist in this transformation.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@ wrote: KARACHI, May 22: Armed militants stormed into a naval airbase here on Sunday night, destroyed three aircraft and killed at least five people four navy personnel and a foreigner whose nationality could not be ascertained. http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/23/terrorists-attack-navy-airbase-in-karachi-destroy-three-aircraft.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13497328 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/world/asia/23pakistan.html?_r=1 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/05/201152218582675282.html You'd think a country with nukes could easily deter others from attacking it, apparently not. Nukes didn't prevent the USA from ignoring Pakistan's sovereignty and killing Osama bin Laden and nukes didn't prevent us from killing innocent Pakistani citizens with drones. Nukes are a horrible blight on the planet. We should destroy every last one of them. But now that militants have breached Pakistan's well-secured navy airbase in Karachi, a possible site for nukes, it would make sense to call for destruction of nukes, but I doubt it. It wouldn't surprise me if the next thing we hear is a scary news story saying Pakistan can't be trusted to keep its nukes from terrorists. I I certainly hope we haven't lost our minds enough to launch an operation to seize Pakistan's nukes. But it's not too much of a stretch to think it's possible since we already have far more CIA agents and special forces operating there than Pakistan wants. American hegemony sucks and it worries me. I guess we're crazier than I thought. The US India axis is trying to outsmart Pakistan and its neighbors by pretending that Pakistan is indeed a partner in its global war against terrorism, while they clandestinely move closer to Pakistan's nuclear weapons bases with an ultimate goal of bringing the nukes under Western control. http://hamsayeh.net/world/732-pakistan-allows-the-use-of-a-major-naval-base-to-peoples-liberation-army-of-china.html http://tinyurl.com/3e9t5l5 China has agreed to deliver 50 combat planes to Pakistan before the end of 2011. In exchange Pakistan will let China take control over the newly built Arabian Sea port facility in Gwadar, Baluchistan financed by China. The port will provide China with a naval base and a means of transporting Middle Eastern oil and natural gas overland to western China. Such a route would circumvent the need to pass through a US-dominated Indian Ocean, with critical chokepoints such as the Straits of Malacca. Pakistan wants to revoke the Singapore Port Authority's right to manage the Gwadar port so that China can take over the port and build a naval base for Pakistan's military which could also provide facilities for Chinese warships. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/paki-m23.shtml
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. Exactly. She's just riding the same wave trying to get a paycheck for herself, hoping that the Wuss Backlash Factor (These poor people who gave away all their money and houses and everything because some guy told them the world was ending and they alone would be saved are being SO ABUSED in the press) will keep her in writing material for a while. Uh, no. She's on staff of the magazine, not a freelancer. She'd been assigned by the editor to do a story for which she'd sit around with believers and chronicle their disappointment, but she chose not to and wrote this instead. These forwarded URLs Forwarded URLs?? are SO predictable. belly laugh The prob- lem that Judy sees with the failed end of the world prophecies is that people with strong beliefs were *made fun of* for holding those beliefs. Ooops. Barry's hallucinating that I expressed an opinion on the subject. NOT that the beliefs involved being so special that they and only they would be saved while everyone who didn't believe the same things they did would burn in eternal hellfire, after having endured a few months of earthly hellfire until October, but that people were laughing at them. Your psychic powers have failed you once again, Barry. Sounds to me a little like someone who is a bit sensitive about believing that bouncing around on her fat butt will save the world resents being laughed at herself. Uh, no. Better sharpen up that mind-reading siddhi. snip And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. As narcissistic as that fantasy may be. The world *has* to change, to be more like the way *I* want it to be. Right, world peace, an end to suffering, how narcissistic! snip ...so we want a little payback. Not me. That would lower me to their level. I just want to exercise my Constitutional right to laugh at such people the way they should be laughed at. Uh, laughing at them is what Curtis means by payback. Funny how Barry brings in the Constitution, as if he were being *denied* his right to laugh. Makes him sound so much more Important, don't it? As if he were being, well, persecuted. snip I don't agree. I think that spiking the ball is both appropriate and warranted. If people made more fun, not less, of those who have been sold a deluded self- importance fantasy for big bucks, fewer charlatans would be able to sell such fantasies. Au contraire. The more they feel they're persecuted, the more firmly they'll believe. ...and I believe most people not trying to fill up media space feel that way too. But lets not forget that for every one of these people there are one hundred, (thousand, hundred thousand???) people who basically believe the same thing without the stop-watch. And who feel that they deserve respect for believing this. There was nothing in either piece I posted about their deserving respect for believing in the Rapture. Barry hallucinated that as well. snip While Harold Camping is nowhere to be found, probably carrying with him the 72 million or so he raked in from stoking such self importance fantasies. Tax free. Since his group is a nonprofit, if he absconds with the funds, he'll be in very big legal trouble. snip You're a better man than I, Curtis. Yes, he is a better man than Barry. But that's not saying much.
[FairfieldLife] Re: What's the difference between advertising and religion?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: Both make claims about their products. Both make money from selling those products. One difference seems to be that advertisers of concrete products are held liable for making false claims about the products, and can be sued in court for making them. Whereas religions are free to claim anything they want about the abstract ideas they are selling, and people who even suggest that they're making false claims or claims they can't prove are accused of intolerance or religious persecution. They are? You sure of that? The other difference is that the makers of products that the advertisers sell have to pay taxes on the profits they make. Religions don't. Actually there's another difference: The profits of religions do not enrich the individuals promoting them. (Or aren't supposed to. There are crooks in any enterprise.) Which is, of course, why religions don't pay taxes.
[FairfieldLife] Re: What's the difference between advertising and religion?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, tartbrain no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@ wrote: Both make claims about their products. Both make money from selling those products. One has Don Draper, the other Jimmy Swaggart. [[evol-superstition.jpg]] [http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/02/13/rise_and_fall_of_bib\ le/md_horiz.jpg] [http://img5.visualizeus.com/thumbs/3d/54/atheism,funny,jesus,poster,rel\ igion,stupid-3d5472d1118af053d3ca5b4f08464d1c_h.jpg]
[FairfieldLife] Re: What's the difference between advertising and religion?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: Both make claims about their products. Both make money from selling those products. One difference seems to be that advertisers of concrete products are held liable for making false claims about the products, and can be sued in court for making them. Whereas religions are free to claim anything they want about the abstract ideas they are selling, and people who even suggest that they're making false claims or claims they can't prove are accused of intolerance or religious persecution. The other difference is that the makers of products that the advertisers sell have to pay taxes on the profits they make. Religions don't. Many fast growing business pay little or no corporate income tax because they are plowing all net profits back into growing the business. As it should be. Salaries and capital gains of employees and owners do get taxed. (OTOH, a contorted tax code with many loopholes for specific businesses, often paid for in political contributional bribes, are not a good thing.) If a non-profit is spending / investing all of profits, reinvesting them in its mission, they would have little or no tax liability even if there were no tax free non-profit status. If they are not plowing all net profits back into growing and refining their mission, IMO, corporate taxes are appropriate. And like businesses, salaries of employees do get taxed.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@... wrote: Yea agreed-- big, big, big difference between the evangelical crowd and other Christians. This idea expressed by evangelicals that you are damned unless you accept Christ as your savior is antithetical to most Christians. Also the idea popular among evangelicals that all you need to do is click your heels together three times...oh wait, wrong fantasy...all you need to do is accept Jesus as your savior and all your past, present, and future wrongdoing is absolved is also not accepted by mainstream Christianity. Evangelicals often treat their religion as an eternal Get Out Of Jail Free and I Am Better Than You card, whereas serious Christians see Christ as an inspirational and humbling teacher. Actually, as the other piece I posted pointed out, many Evangelicals do their best to live up to Christ's teaching by devoting themselves to serving the poor and the sick and the oppressed. They are also increasingly taking up the cause of environmentalism. As the writer notes: It is true that some evangelical theologians focus upon the Armageddon to the neglect of immediate, material problems. But many more have preached that Jesus would prefer to return to a world that deserved himThe threat of Armageddon is not, as the Guardian suggests, the fundamentalist Christian equivalent of the last helicopter out of Saigon. Rather it is a spur to action: a reminder that God is watching what you are doing and that He expects results.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right? There are plenty of those to go around. People getting what they are kinda asking for doesn't give any of our tear ducts too much of a workout, right? So the nice Christians do feel something about my poor choices with regard to their special little savior. They don't want me to reject him, they want me to be just like them. But I am not and that has consequences in their view. And they are OK with that. I don't see them handing their Eternity VIP cards back and saying, If our friend Curtis, who is a decent human despite his lack of godliness can't get his drinks comped while he plays black jack, then we will pay for our drinks too! I don't see them saying Hey wait a second, people who were not born of Christian mothers have a hard time getting down with the JC program. And isn't one of the commandments to honor your father and your mother? What if your parents are Muslim or Atheists and want the same for you? So if you are turning your back on these people for ETERNITY then I don't want any part of this unfair, provincial, ethno-centric, just plain mean charade! I don't see that. Now the kindlier Hindus don't raise a fuss if I don't get enlightened. They just send me back here to work on some more guitar licks. I can dig that. And their hell is reserved by level according to deeds with the lowest one, Patalla (SP?) with the worst suffering reserved for people who insult the guru... Ruh Roh! as Scooby-doo would say. Damn, I am s screwed! And it isn't like I can computer hack my way into the akashic records and erase that little bit about Guru Dev being a homeless guy who won the lottery. And I don't even think I could find and delete all the times I depicted Maharishi rutting his way through his devotees like a rock star's backstage at the Fillmore. How long is eternity again? Anyone here gunna rappel down and give me a hand if it turns out that way? I mean I was really kinda begging for it, wasn't I? So even though if you ask a specific person who doesn't already hate my guts but who believes in some system where the eternal future is guided by our beliefs here on earth, and they say that really is too bad about Curtis, in most religions they are gunna just move on when they get my singed post cards with the shot of Beelzebub reclined on a bed of maidens snuffing his Schwarzenegger sized Cuban (like he is gunna respect the import sanctions!) on my poor ol' head. I had an interesting moment when I was around 10 or 12 and going through the confirmation process. It was the point when you had to understand all the beliefs and accept them. A moment of reckoning whose effects were eternal. I asked a Monsignor a question my class teacher had dodged. She sent me to him to ask it: Does everyone who is not born in a country that is Christan go to hell when they die? All the all the Muslims, and all the Hindus who had never heard of Christ? He was wearing a purple accented robe that Liberace wouldn't have have turned down and was very tall with tiny spectacles balanced on his nose like a professor at Harry Potter's Hogwarts. Yes he said. All of them? I asked with rising incredulity. Yes it is one of the mysteries of our faith. They have to find a way to accept Jesus, 'nobody gets to the father except by me', he quoted the damming line. And billions of camels around the world aren't getting through that needle. I wasn't strong enough to yank off his
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Still way too many generalizations, Curtis, where Protestantism is concerned--different ideas about what it means not to be saved (the no-AC section is only one option); different ideas about what it takes to be saved; different ideas about who's going to be (or has been) saved; different ideas about what it means to be saved. Many Christians are people who think deeply about their beliefs, not people who just swallow them and parrot them back. Generally speaking, which flavor of Christianity you follow is more a matter of what kind of person you are. People don't tend to stick with denominations whose beliefs they find personally repugnant. (And tangentially, while we all love your humor, sometimes there's so much of it that I find it hard to figure out what serious points you're making. Or maybe it's that an excess of humor tends to rob your serious points of nuance, and it begins to feel more like repeatedly being hit over the head than a real discussion. Just a personal reaction.) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right? There are plenty of those to go around. People getting what they are kinda asking for doesn't give any of our tear ducts too much of a workout, right? So the nice Christians do feel something about my poor choices with regard to their special little savior. They don't want me to reject him, they want me to be just like them. But I am not and that has consequences in their view. And they are OK with that. I don't see them handing their Eternity VIP cards back and saying, If our friend Curtis, who is a decent human despite his lack of godliness can't get his drinks comped while he plays black jack, then we will pay for our drinks too! I don't see them saying Hey wait a second, people who were not born of Christian mothers have a hard time getting down with the JC program. And isn't one of the commandments to honor your father and your mother? What if your parents are Muslim or Atheists and want the same for you? So if you are turning your back on these people for ETERNITY then I don't want any part of this unfair, provincial, ethno-centric, just plain mean charade! I don't see that. Now the kindlier Hindus don't raise a fuss if I don't get enlightened. They just send me back here to work on some more guitar licks. I can dig that. And their hell is reserved by level according to deeds with the lowest one, Patalla (SP?) with the worst suffering reserved for people who insult the guru... Ruh Roh! as Scooby-doo would say. Damn, I am s screwed! And it isn't like I can computer hack my way into the akashic records and erase that little bit about Guru Dev being a homeless guy who won the lottery. And I don't even think I could find and delete all the times I depicted Maharishi rutting his way through his devotees like a rock star's backstage at the Fillmore. How long is eternity again? Anyone here gunna rappel down and give me a hand if it turns out that way? I mean I was really kinda begging for it, wasn't I? So even though if you ask a specific person who doesn't already hate my guts but who believes in some system where the eternal future is guided by our beliefs here on earth, and they say that really is too bad about Curtis, in most religions they are gunna just move on when they get my singed post cards with the shot of Beelzebub reclined on a
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
On May 22, 2011, at 10:18 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! Well said Curtis. Not to mention that at the bottom of these deep beliefs is almost inevitably the exact same scenario: Johnny didn't get as big an ice cream bar as Jimmie did when they were five. Boo-hoo. Case closed. Sal
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Great rap, Curtis. I've often theorized that many of the Hindu-wannabees who swung behind the idea of reincarnation did so just so they wouldn't be forced to live with the Judeo-Christian notion of Heaven. I mean, you've got to be *nice* to the other people in Heaven and treat them as your equals, right? If there is no Heaven and the worst that can happen to you is that you get reincarnated into another life, no harm, no foul. You can continue to look down on other people and treat them as badly as you have been doing in this life. Even better, if you buy Maharishi's rap about CC and what happens afterwards, you don't have to worry about other people, period. There is not even a you to be nice to when you Die Enlightened, let alone other people or a manifest universe to be nice to. You're just a drop having merged with the big, cosmic ocean. Oceans don't have to be nice. :-) I've toyed in the past with writing a story about what the Rapture would be like for the people who believe in it. There they'd be, still as uptight as ever, naked as a jaybird around another bunch of equally uptight naked people. And looking around, the Saved will notice that some of these naked guys and gals are the ones they still hate because one Sunday they took their parking place in the Church parking lot. They've seen some of the Saved actually coming out of liquor stores carrying brown sacks full of bottles, and now they're supposed to treat them like their EQUALS? Not gonna happen. It would take less than a week for the Saved to start acting as nasty towards their fellow Saved as they did back on Earth. After a month of this, having to pretend that some of the other Saved are really their equals and not being able to look down on them, many of the Saved would start investigating Maharishi's brand of Hinduism, because the idea of the total annihilation of both self and the manifest world would start to appeal to them. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right? There are plenty of those to go around. People getting what they are kinda asking for doesn't give any of our tear ducts too much of a workout, right? So the nice Christians do feel something about my poor choices with regard to their special little savior. They don't want me to reject him, they want me to be just like them. But I am not and that has consequences in their view. And they are OK with that. I don't see them handing their Eternity VIP cards back and saying, If our friend Curtis, who is a decent human despite his lack of godliness can't get his drinks comped while he plays black jack, then we will pay for our drinks too! I don't see them saying Hey wait a second, people who were not born of Christian mothers have a hard time getting down with the JC program. And isn't one of the commandments to honor your father and your mother? What if your parents are Muslim or Atheists and want the same for you? So if you are turning your back on these people for ETERNITY then I don't want any part of this unfair, provincial, ethno-centric, just plain mean charade! I don't see that. Now the kindlier Hindus don't raise a fuss if I don't get enlightened. They just send me back here to work on some more guitar licks. I can dig that. And their hell is reserved by level according to deeds with the lowest one, Patalla (SP?) with the worst suffering reserved for
[FairfieldLife] Re: Food for thought 'homo bulla'
Hannibal (Pappa T.Stanley)ad portas(!) [:D] Otium si essem consecutus, Iudith (Stein), commodius tibi haec scriberem, quae nunc, ut potero, exponam cogitans esse properandum, quod, ut dicitur, si est homo bulla, eo magis senex. Annus enim octogesimus (merudandam) admonet me ut sarcinas conligam, antequam proficiscar e vita. (Et quoniam, ut aiunt, dei facientes adiuvant, prius invocabo eos, Musas. And since, as told, the gods help those who call upon them, I will first invoke - the Muses) http://tinyurl.com/42agptw Emerging from the thick, nocturnal gloom that surrounds the human figures, a huge winged skeleton directs the infant's wrist as he writes: 'Conceptio Culpa, Nasci Pena, Labor Vita, Necesse Mori' - 'Conception is a sin, Birth is pain, Life is toil, Death a necessity.' http://tinyurl.com/3vrg7zg http://tinyurl.com/3avcg68 Salve --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: From the Telegraph (UK): The Rapture aside, America's evangelical Christians deserve a little respect By Tim Stanley Last week I went to a small evangelical church in West Los Angeles to test the mood pre-Rapture. This particular congregation did not buy the prediction by Christian broadcaster Harold Camping that the End was now, but they shared his feeling that it must be soon. A lady sang an oddly upbeat song about The Dark Times Due and the preacher affirmed that God is on his way. We must live our lives like every day might be our last, he said. We must be prepared to be judged, be prepared to give good account of ourselves. Then he asked each and every one of us if we were ready to meet our maker. Many nodded and shouted yes. Some, like me, looked shamefully at their knees. The only good thing you can say about Hell, said the preacher, is that at least you won't want for company. The Rapture that never was has been treated by many secularists and liberals as a prime piece of proof that American evangelicals are nuts. To be sure, most commentators have stressed that dating the Armageddon is germane to only a handful of churches. But the entire evangelical movement is damned by association with Camping, for they share his faith that the world is on the path to destruction. Stephen Fry called them imbeciles. Others have said the same in a more roundabout way. Paul Brandeis on Huffington Post wrote, people who put their trust in these movements have a sense of powerlessness, and they need to believe in a radical solution to their current situation The followers of Camping and the May 21 movement are largely working-class people who feel that they have less and less of a voice or place in this world. Like buying a lottery ticket, they are placing bets on a instant transformation of their personal situation where the last will become first, and the rich will be sent away empty. That's a classic modernist formulation: that fundamentalist belief is an idiot's way of understanding and expressing economic pain. The Camping misfire, like the Westboro Baptist Church's nonsense, distracts from the innumerable benefits that evangelical culture has brought to American life. America was forged by millenarianism. The Puritans were hardcore Calvinists who shaped American attitudes towards religious tolerance but who also believed that you could tell whether or not someone was going to Hell by the way they dressed. American attitudes towards social egality were likewise shaped by the 18th century's Great Awakening, with its emphasis upon the potential for individual redemption and personal revelation. The eruption of End of the Worldism in the early 1800s provided much of the impetus for social reform and the anti-slavery movement. It is true that some evangelical theologians focus upon the Armageddon to the neglect of immediate, material problems. But many more have preached that Jesus would prefer to return to a world that deserved him. America's greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1753), kept notes on events that suggested the apocalypse was near an earthquake, a fire, even the French introducing a new toll. It wasn't an idle distraction from the practicalities of being a Christian, with its essential commandment to love others actively, but a way of reading signposts to a new order founded on that very principle. The threat of Armageddon is not, as the Guardian suggests, the fundamentalist Christian equivalent of the last helicopter out of Saigon. Rather it is a spur to action: a reminder that God is watching what you are doing and that He expects results. Evangelism is complex and nuanced. There are charismatics and fundamentalists, liberals and conservatives, black and white and racially mixed congregations. Its variation accords well with the free-market ethos of America, where each church is part of a thriving marketplace of ideas. Evangelicalism cannot be summarised in one glib column, or damned by the actions of one misguided branch. And while the federal government
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
I think Camus already did a pretty good job with your idea in No Exit. Hell is other people! I have always thought that this whole getting off the cycle of birth and death deal is kind of life denying. It makes a lot more sense for someone born in Calcutta than someone born in North East Pennsylvania! I would much rather take another crack at life than end up in some bliss state that has more in common with the state they put me in when they did my colonoscopy than how I feel when someone comes up to me after a set and tells me they dig my music. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: Great rap, Curtis. I've often theorized that many of the Hindu-wannabees who swung behind the idea of reincarnation did so just so they wouldn't be forced to live with the Judeo-Christian notion of Heaven. I mean, you've got to be *nice* to the other people in Heaven and treat them as your equals, right? If there is no Heaven and the worst that can happen to you is that you get reincarnated into another life, no harm, no foul. You can continue to look down on other people and treat them as badly as you have been doing in this life. Even better, if you buy Maharishi's rap about CC and what happens afterwards, you don't have to worry about other people, period. There is not even a you to be nice to when you Die Enlightened, let alone other people or a manifest universe to be nice to. You're just a drop having merged with the big, cosmic ocean. Oceans don't have to be nice. :-) I've toyed in the past with writing a story about what the Rapture would be like for the people who believe in it. There they'd be, still as uptight as ever, naked as a jaybird around another bunch of equally uptight naked people. And looking around, the Saved will notice that some of these naked guys and gals are the ones they still hate because one Sunday they took their parking place in the Church parking lot. They've seen some of the Saved actually coming out of liquor stores carrying brown sacks full of bottles, and now they're supposed to treat them like their EQUALS? Not gonna happen. It would take less than a week for the Saved to start acting as nasty towards their fellow Saved as they did back on Earth. After a month of this, having to pretend that some of the other Saved are really their equals and not being able to look down on them, many of the Saved would start investigating Maharishi's brand of Hinduism, because the idea of the total annihilation of both self and the manifest world would start to appeal to them. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right? There are plenty of those to go around. People getting what they are kinda asking for doesn't give any of our tear ducts too much of a workout, right? So the nice Christians do feel something about my poor choices with regard to their special little savior. They don't want me to reject him, they want me to be just like them. But I am not and that has consequences in their view. And they are OK with that. I don't see them handing their Eternity VIP cards back and saying, If our friend Curtis, who is a decent human despite his lack of godliness can't get his drinks comped while he plays black jack, then we will pay for our drinks too! I don't see them saying Hey wait a second,
[FairfieldLife] New Upcoming Interviews Page on Buddha at the Gas Pump
Is this email not displaying correctly? http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5id=8ff7781d8b e=1ad6545c04 View it in your browser. http://batgap.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5i d=fe6e68ee00e=1ad6545c04 I created a new page on Buddha at the Gas Pump listing upcoming interviews. There are many more in in my list which haven't been scheduled yet. If you would like to suggest new people to interview, or would like to send me questions to ask upcoming guests, please email me at r...@batgap.com or leave a comment in the box on http://batgap.com/upcoming-interviews/. http://batgap.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5i d=fe6e68ee00e=1ad6545c04 Copyright C 2011 Buddha at the Gas Pump, All rights reserved. Regular announcement of new interviews posted at http://batgap.com. Our mailing address is: http://batgap.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5i d=fe6e68ee00e=1ad6545c04 Buddha at the Gas Pump http://batgap.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5i d=fe6e68ee00e=1ad6545c04 1108 South B Street http://batgap.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5i d=fe6e68ee00e=1ad6545c04 Fairfield, Iowa 52556 http://batgap.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5i d=fe6e68ee00e=1ad6545c04 Add us to your address book http://batgap.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5i d=fe6e68ee00e=1ad6545c04 http://batgap.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62b7e50ba8598f35e2edf91d5i d=fe6e68ee00e=1ad6545c04
[FairfieldLife] Welcome to America...finally #1 in something
Found this photo and Wiki page the same day I found the article that follows it. Land of the free just doesn't mean the same thing it used to. The Wiki page lists countries ordered by the number of prisoners per population. Spain is #81, France #144, and the Netherlands #145: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate [http://i.imgur.com/v4DaS.png] Supreme Court Upholds Order For California To Cut Prison Population WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Monday endorsed a court order requiring California to cut its prison population by tens of thousands of inmates to improve health care for those who remain behind bars. The court said in a 5-4 decision that the reduction is required by the Constitution to correct longstanding violations of inmates' rights. The order mandates a prison population of no more than 110,000 inmates, still far above the system's designed capacity. There are more than 142,000 inmates in the state's 33 adult prisons, meaning roughly 32,000 inmates will need to be transferred to other jurisdictions or released. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a California native, wrote the majority opinion, in which he included photos of severe overcrowding. The court's four Democratic appointees joined with Kennedy. The violations have persisted for years. They remain uncorrected, Kennedy said. Justice Antonin Scalia said in dissent that the court order is perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation's history. Scalia, reading his dissent aloud Monday, said it would require the release of the staggering number of 46,000 convicted felons. Scalia's number, cited in legal filings, comes from a period in which the prison population was even higher. Justice Clarence Thomas joined Scalia's opinion, while Justice Samuel Alito wrote a separate dissent for himself and Chief Justice John Roberts. The case revolves around inadequate mental and physical health care in a state prison system that in 2009 averaged nearly a death a week that might have been prevented or delayed with better medical care. The facilities were designed to hold about 80,000 inmates. The state has protested a court order to cut the population cut to around 110,000 inmates within two years, but also has taken steps to meet, if not exceed, that target. Earlier this year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would reduce the prison population by about 40,000 inmates by transferring many low-level offenders to county jurisdiction. The state legislature has yet to authorize any money for the transfer. Kennedy said the state could ask for the court order to be modified to allow for up to three additional years to reach the 110,000-inmate target.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
On 05/22/2011 11:50 PM, Ravi Yogi wrote: History is clear, nations are built on war, with a strong army and war comes prosperity, nation and people thrive, people become sophisticated intellectuals, they then get attracted to Gandhis and MLKS and turn into pacifists and then get overrun by barbarians. So it seems that these die hard liberal pacifists want this country to be overrun by barbarians. I have a better thought, ship these retards to barbarian cultures as a precautionary measure, but somehow I suspect they wouldn't want to so easily give up their American citizenship..LOL.. So there is big money in the legal murder business, eh? Apparently so as I watched a new report on RT.com last week that showed a big employment fest back in North Carolina all for the legal murdering business, aka defense contractors. So I guess if you want a job and don't mind blood on your hands then go for a gig at a defense contractor. And don't forget lay off the dope for awhile as they undoubtedly have drug testing. Of course this business all worked well for Rome, the British Empire, Germany, Italy
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
On 05/22/2011 10:56 PM, raunchydog wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydograunchydog@... wrote: KARACHI, May 22: Armed militants stormed into a naval airbase here on Sunday night, destroyed three aircraft and killed at least five people — four navy personnel and a foreigner whose nationality could not be ascertained. http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/23/terrorists-attack-navy-airbase-in-karachi-destroy-three-aircraft.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13497328 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/world/asia/23pakistan.html?_r=1 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/05/201152218582675282.html You'd think a country with nukes could easily deter others from attacking it, apparently not. Nukes didn't prevent the USA from ignoring Pakistan's sovereignty and killing Osama bin Laden and nukes didn't prevent us from killing innocent Pakistani citizens with drones. Nukes are a horrible blight on the planet. We should destroy every last one of them. But now that militants have breached Pakistan's well-secured navy airbase in Karachi, a possible site for nukes, it would make sense to call for destruction of nukes, but I doubt it. It wouldn't surprise me if the next thing we hear is a scary news story saying Pakistan can't be trusted to keep its nukes from terrorists. I I certainly hope we haven't lost our minds enough to launch an operation to seize Pakistan's nukes. But it's not too much of a stretch to think it's possible since we already have far more CIA agents and special forces operating there than Pakistan wants. American hegemony sucks and it worries me. I guess we're crazier than I thought. The US – India axis is trying to outsmart Pakistan and its neighbors by pretending that Pakistan is indeed a partner in its global war against terrorism, while they clandestinely move closer to Pakistan's nuclear weapons bases with an ultimate goal of bringing the nukes under Western control. http://hamsayeh.net/world/732-pakistan-allows-the-use-of-a-major-naval-base-to-peoples-liberation-army-of-china.html http://tinyurl.com/3e9t5l5 Gotta keep that perpetual war going with the rogue country of the week, I guess. Isn't this the century of perpetual wars and bogymen? I guess those of us who don't want to play that game get to be homeless. BTW, did you hear the one that the reason Obama hasn't been seen pinning medals on the SEALs who did the Bin Laden raid was because the helicopter crash that was reported was the copter that came back to take them away after the raid and crashed killing all on board. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: fairfieldlife-dig...@yahoogroups.com fairfieldlife-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: fairfieldlife-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Just very quickly, because you missed my point (I'll get back to the rest later): --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: snip I believe that juxtaposing humor into serious discussions is a form of art's integration that engages more neurology. Oh, I agree. I'm in favor of this, and you often do it very well. What I'm saying is that *sometimes* you get so focused on the humor that it obscures your serious points. On those occasions it feels a bit strained and self-conscious: See how funny I am! It becomes about your ability to do shtick, and the integration you're aiming for gets lost. I understand and approve of what you're trying to do, but it isn't always successful, IMHO, because you sometimes get wrapped up in the humor at the expense of the serious component.
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
do.rflex: Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel's opposition Kadima party, also backed Mr Obama's two-state solution... In reality, it would be a three-state solution: Gaza, West Bank, and Israel. What would you do, build a road with walls on either side to connect the West Bank to Gaza? Go figure. Or, split Jerusalem down the middle with a fence keeping the Jews away from the Western Wall? If you want to return to 1967 borders, why not give the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Jerusalem back to Jordan and make the refugees Jordanians - they have a democracy in Jordan, right?
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Well I'm sure that is true. Sometimes it is a hard balance to strike, especially on a first draft. I appreciate the feedback especially considering the field you are in! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: Just very quickly, because you missed my point (I'll get back to the rest later): --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: snip I believe that juxtaposing humor into serious discussions is a form of art's integration that engages more neurology. Oh, I agree. I'm in favor of this, and you often do it very well. What I'm saying is that *sometimes* you get so focused on the humor that it obscures your serious points. On those occasions it feels a bit strained and self-conscious: See how funny I am! It becomes about your ability to do shtick, and the integration you're aiming for gets lost. I understand and approve of what you're trying to do, but it isn't always successful, IMHO, because you sometimes get wrapped up in the humor at the expense of the serious component.
[FairfieldLife] Re: #5# Think about this - Bruno Barbosa
You sound pretty guilty - of joining a religion - and you're not elite enough from being considered part of the masses! It sounds like you're the one that doesn't understand religious mind control! Bhairitu: What religion would that be? Hinduism. So, what happens to all the money your guru sends over to India? What money? All the money he sends to his wife and kids and all his relatives in India and donations to the leaders of the Hindu Tantra religion in Tamilnad?
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Well I'm sure that is true. Sometimes it is a hard balance to strike, especially on a first draft. I appreciate the feedback especially considering the field you are in! I come up against this in my school shows often. I learn more in every show I do. I had a bit that I used to do where I have a stack of really big pictures of the blues men and women on an easel so the kids can see whose songs I am playing. On the top is a caricature drawing of me done by a really fine artist so it is more portrait than caricature. I used to do a bit where I would go up to my picture covering the others and say who is that handsome man? the kids would scream it's you! It worked so well I started using it as a running gag where I would announce that I was showing them a picture of Memphis Minnie and then I would shuffle the pictures so my face was on top again. Again with the who is... Even bigger reaction. Then the humbling blowback. When I held up Memphis Minnie's picture they would laugh at her too! I had trained them to laugh at the pictures so instead of paying homage to my heroes in the blues I was training them to goof on their appearance! Shit! Recalibrate. Now I get the first laugh and then drop the routine so they can pay respect to the picture of the artists I love. So I get your point and it is a good one to keep in mind. I will always be in some stage of going too far and pulling back according to feedback. It is part of the humbling process. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: Just very quickly, because you missed my point (I'll get back to the rest later): --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: snip I believe that juxtaposing humor into serious discussions is a form of art's integration that engages more neurology. Oh, I agree. I'm in favor of this, and you often do it very well. What I'm saying is that *sometimes* you get so focused on the humor that it obscures your serious points. On those occasions it feels a bit strained and self-conscious: See how funny I am! It becomes about your ability to do shtick, and the integration you're aiming for gets lost. I understand and approve of what you're trying to do, but it isn't always successful, IMHO, because you sometimes get wrapped up in the humor at the expense of the serious component.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards...! Sal: Well said Curtis Don't you just hate those Milanarians and dooms-day fanatics! Less than 10 years. That, Gore warns, is all the time that leading scientists say we may have before we cross a point of no return -- unless we make a really good start toward dramatic changes to combat global warming http://tinyurl.com/3gpt9aq In politics, millenarianism is often, but by no means always, linked to radical ideologies that share a similar belief in a transformation of society. These can be based in secular or religious ideas. In this way millenarianism is closely linked to Apocalypticism... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millenarianism
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: Still way too many generalizations, Curtis, where Protestantism is concerned--different ideas about what it means not to be saved (the no-AC section is only one option); different ideas about what it takes to be saved; different ideas about who's going to be (or has been) saved; different ideas about what it means to be saved. Many Christians are people who think deeply about their beliefs, not people who just swallow them and parrot them back. By the numbers, I'll bet there is more consensus than disagreement about what happens to unsaved people, however they define it. Catholics are the largest group with 1.2 billion. I don't know what group you are talking about with no hell for unbelievers but I'll bet it is in the extreme minority. And although there are certainly some Christians who think deeply about their beliefs it has not been in my experience that they are in the majority. Without the tools of philosophical thinking being taught in schools, most people's ability to discuss ideas is pretty limited. It becomes an emotional, personal thing pretty quickly for most people. Look at how many of discussions here degrade into that, and this crew is a lot more philosophical than most people I meet. Generally speaking, which flavor of Christianity you follow is more a matter of what kind of person you are. People don't tend to stick with denominations whose beliefs they find personally repugnant. Most Catholics were born that way. It has a lot to do with what you were brought up with. But more people are swapping religions these days, 44% by one estimation. Most people just ignore the parts of religion they oppose. Just look at the gay issue. Although a very high number of people are not against it politically, how few churches allow openly gay priests? So they support discrimination in their religion even when in their lives they don't support it. (And tangentially, while we all love your humor, I already know you are not a fan! sometimes there's so much of it that I find it hard to figure out what serious points you're making. That surprises me, but I'll take your word for it. Or maybe it's that an excess of humor tends to rob your serious points of nuance, and it begins to feel more like repeatedly being hit over the head than a real discussion. Just a personal reaction.) Well as we have discussed before, you and I don't really connect on a humor level. I don't write that for you. I am writing it for other people who are more interested in that than the philosophy. For me the humor is actually intertwined with the philosophy. It is how my creativity flows when discussing ideas. That it is disrupts the seriousness of a discussion for you, I understand that. It has more to do with the nature of who reads what we write here. If we were discussing this in an email I would curtail the shenanigans. (And would probably lose interest pretty soon.) I am always aware that I am not just speaking to you. Believe it or not I spend part of each day writing educational ventriloquist dialogues (it sounds like a Woody Allen joke but it is actually true!) so my brain is constantly looking for ways to twist my language into comedy. I am constantly looking for more ways to help my mind be more creative with humor and FFL is a great place for that. But I understand, not for you! I believe that juxtaposing humor into serious discussions is a form of art's integration that engages more neurology. It has a deeper value for my educational shows than getting a laugh. It turns on the right brain which opens up creativity. So it isn't just a lark for me, it is closer to my religion! Seriously. Sorry it doesn't work for you, I hope you can see beyond it to the degree the ideas shared are interesting for you. I consider myself an entertainer first and a musician and writer second. So my personal mix will probably always not be your preference. I do enjoy the opportunity though so I hope there is enough to interest you to continue discussions. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: #5# Think about this - Bruno Barbosa
On 05/23/2011 09:24 AM, WillyTex wrote: You sound pretty guilty - of joining a religion - and you're not elite enough from being considered part of the masses! It sounds like you're the one that doesn't understand religious mind control! Bhairitu: What religion would that be? Hinduism. Better brush up on reading the Gita again Willy. MMY explains there that Hinduism isn't a religion but a philosophy known as Sanatana Dharma. But you probably thought he was talking about a rock group. So, what happens to all the money your guru sends over to India? What money? All the money he sends to his wife and kids and all his relatives in India and donations to the leaders of the Hindu Tantra religion in Tamilnad? Why do you believe he does that? Have you asked him?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
On 05/23/2011 09:13 AM, WillyTex wrote: do.rflex: Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel's opposition Kadima party, also backed Mr Obama's two-state solution... In reality, it would be a three-state solution: Gaza, West Bank, and Israel. What would you do, build a road with walls on either side to connect the West Bank to Gaza? Go figure. Or, split Jerusalem down the middle with a fence keeping the Jews away from the Western Wall? If you want to return to 1967 borders, why not give the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Jerusalem back to Jordan and make the refugees Jordanians - they have a democracy in Jordan, right? You do know that before Israel was founded that Jews and Palestinians lived side by side in peace?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
Bhairitu: BTW, did you hear the one that the reason Obama hasn't been seen pinning medals on the SEALs... Why pin medals on people if you are going to charge the same outfit with torture for getting the information that bin Laden was in Pakiistan, leading to his killing by U.S. Forces? Everyone knows that Obama is going to face murder charges for invading Pakistan and killing civilians without declaring in congress a state of war. In addition, a senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News investigative producer Robert Windrem that both Mohammed, who was repeatedly waterboarded by the CIA, and al Libi, who was aggressively interrogated but not waterboarded, provided the nom de guerre of the courier... MSNBC: http://tinyurl.com/6f9p7nh
[FairfieldLife] Re: #5# Think about this - Bruno Barbosa
What religion would that be? Hinduism. Bhairitu: Better brush up on reading the Gita again... Cut the bullshit - everyone knows that Hinduism is a religion and tantra is a Hindu cult. You're guilty - just admit it! What money? All the money he sends to his wife and kids and all his relatives in India and donations to the leaders of the Hindu Tantra religion in Tamilnad? Why do you believe he does that? Have you asked him? Maybe your guru has no wife and no children, and no relatives, and no religious friends in India?
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@... wrote: On 05/23/2011 09:13 AM, WillyTex wrote: do.rflex: Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel's opposition Kadima party, also backed Mr Obama's two-state solution... In reality, it would be a three-state solution: Gaza, West Bank, and Israel. What would you do, build a road with walls on either side to connect the West Bank to Gaza? Go figure. Or, split Jerusalem down the middle with a fence keeping the Jews away from the Western Wall? If you want to return to 1967 borders, why not give the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Jerusalem back to Jordan and make the refugees Jordanians - they have a democracy in Jordan, right? You do know that before Israel was founded that Jews and Palestinians lived side by side in peace? In any case, nobody has suggested returning to the 1967 borders as a solution. That's just a blatant, deliberate falsehood.
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
If you want to return to 1967 borders, why not give the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Jerusalem back to Jordan... You do know that before Israel was founded that Jews and Palestinians lived side by side in peace? authfriend: In any case, nobody has suggested returning to the 1967 borders as a solution. That's just a blatant, deliberate falsehood. President Obama was right to stick by his call for Israel's 1967 boundaries as a starting point for peace negotiations with the Palestinians... Baltimore Sun May 23, 2011 http://tinyurl.com/3tanw9c
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Well I'm sure that is true. Sometimes it is a hard balance to strike, especially on a first draft. Not surprising. Humor can be tricky, especially in the context of a sensitive subject. Just for one thing, I'd imagine the humor part is more fun to write, which could lead to shortchanging the serious parts, or just not making them as clear. The reader may even get the sense, if the humor is laid on too thick, that you're resorting to humor because you're uncomfortable dealing with the serious stuff. Also have to balance the degree of nuance. If the humor is very broad, it's more difficult to get across nuance in the serious parts. I appreciate the feedback especially considering the field you are in! I'm glad the redo came across more clearly. I think my saying it was a personal reaction threw you off, because it was really as much an editorial perception as a personal one. I come up against this in my school shows often. I learn more in every show I do. I had a bit that I used to do where I have a stack of really big pictures of the blues men and women on an easel so the kids can see whose songs I am playing. On the top is a caricature drawing of me done by a really fine artist so it is more portrait than caricature. I used to do a bit where I would go up to my picture covering the others and say who is that handsome man? the kids would scream it's you! It worked so well I started using it as a running gag where I would announce that I was showing them a picture of Memphis Minnie and then I would shuffle the pictures so my face was on top again. Again with the who is... Even bigger reaction. Then the humbling blowback. When I held up Memphis Minnie's picture they would laugh at her too! I had trained them to laugh at the pictures so instead of paying homage to my heroes in the blues I was training them to goof on their appearance! Shit! Recalibrate. Now I get the first laugh and then drop the routine so they can pay respect to the picture of the artists I love. So I get your point and it is a good one to keep in mind. I will always be in some stage of going too far and pulling back according to feedback. It is part of the humbling process. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: Just very quickly, because you missed my point (I'll get back to the rest later): --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: snip I believe that juxtaposing humor into serious discussions is a form of art's integration that engages more neurology. Oh, I agree. I'm in favor of this, and you often do it very well. What I'm saying is that *sometimes* you get so focused on the humor that it obscures your serious points. On those occasions it feels a bit strained and self-conscious: See how funny I am! It becomes about your ability to do shtick, and the integration you're aiming for gets lost. I understand and approve of what you're trying to do, but it isn't always successful, IMHO, because you sometimes get wrapped up in the humor at the expense of the serious component.
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, WillyTex willytex@... wrote: If you want to return to 1967 borders, why not give the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Jerusalem back to Jordan... You do know that before Israel was founded that Jews and Palestinians lived side by side in peace? authfriend: In any case, nobody has suggested returning to the 1967 borders as a solution. That's just a blatant, deliberate falsehood. President Obama was right to stick by his call for Israel's 1967 boundaries as a starting point for peace negotiations with the Palestinians... That's right, as a *starting point*, not a solution. So if you knew that, why did you lie about it? Baltimore Sun May 23, 2011 http://tinyurl.com/3tanw9c
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
In reality, it would be a three-state solution: Gaza, West Bank, and Israel. What would you do, build a road with walls on either side to connect the West Bank to Gaza? Go figure. Or, split Jerusalem down the middle with a fence keeping the Jews away from the Western Wall? If you want to return to 1967 borders, why not give the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Jerusalem back to Jordan and make the refugees Jordanians - they have a democracy in Jordan, right? Bhairitu: You do know that before Israel was founded that Jews and Palestinians lived side by side in peace? There are no 'Palestinians' - there are Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian refugees. But, why can't 'Jews' be 'Palestinians', since they obviously live there? Didn't Jordan, Egypt, and Syria join the Axis powers in WW II against the Allies? From what I've read, all Muslims hate Jews - always have.
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
In any case, nobody has suggested returning to the 1967 borders as a solution. That's just a blatant, deliberate falsehood. President Obama was right to stick by his call for Israel's 1967 boundaries as a starting point for peace negotiations with the Palestinians... authfriend: That's right, as a *starting point*, not a solution. So if you knew that, why did you lie about it? No, it's a solution proposed by your Dem President, and I think you knew that. But, there is no way you can make Gaza contiguous with the West Bank. And, no way Israel is going to give back the Golan Heights to Syria, and no way the Israelis are going to give up visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem. So, as a starter it's really and non-solution. The first thing that has to happen is Hamas is going to have to recognize the state of Israel, otherwise there will be only one terrorist state - Gaza - no Israel. There has been an understanding for years that what was to be negotiated was a treaty based on the '67 borders with [land] swaps, said Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. So I wasn't surprised by his statement, though he is the first U.S. president to spell it out... Los Angeles Times: http://tinyurl.com/3dkaq59 Baltimore Sun May 23, 2011 http://tinyurl.com/3tanw9c
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, WillyTex willytex@... wrote: In any case, nobody has suggested returning to the 1967 borders as a solution. That's just a blatant, deliberate falsehood. President Obama was right to stick by his call for Israel's 1967 boundaries as a starting point for peace negotiations with the Palestinians... authfriend: That's right, as a *starting point*, not a solution. So if you knew that, why did you lie about it? No, it's a solution proposed by your Dem President, and I think you knew that. No, it's a starting point proposed by Obama, not a solution. And we know you knew that. So why are you continuing to lie about it?
[FairfieldLife] Guru Purnima 2011
http://www.globalcountrycourses.com/events/calendar.html ~ jai guru dev ~
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Glad to hear it - I am working off a small sample from experience only, transforming that into a bias. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@ wrote: Yea agreed-- big, big, big difference between the evangelical crowd and other Christians. This idea expressed by evangelicals that you are damned unless you accept Christ as your savior is antithetical to most Christians. Also the idea popular among evangelicals that all you need to do is click your heels together three times...oh wait, wrong fantasy...all you need to do is accept Jesus as your savior and all your past, present, and future wrongdoing is absolved is also not accepted by mainstream Christianity. Evangelicals often treat their religion as an eternal Get Out Of Jail Free and I Am Better Than You card, whereas serious Christians see Christ as an inspirational and humbling teacher. Actually, as the other piece I posted pointed out, many Evangelicals do their best to live up to Christ's teaching by devoting themselves to serving the poor and the sick and the oppressed. They are also increasingly taking up the cause of environmentalism. As the writer notes: It is true that some evangelical theologians focus upon the Armageddon to the neglect of immediate, material problems. But many more have preached that Jesus would prefer to return to a world that deserved himThe threat of Armageddon is not, as the Guardian suggests, the fundamentalist Christian equivalent of the last helicopter out of Saigon. Rather it is a spur to action: a reminder that God is watching what you are doing and that He expects results.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Welcome to America...finally #1 in something
On 05/23/2011 08:49 AM, turquoiseb wrote: Found this photo and Wiki page the same day I found the article that follows it. Land of the free just doesn't mean the same thing it used to. The Wiki page lists countries ordered by the number of prisoners per population. Spain is #81, France #144, and the Netherlands #145: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate [http://i.imgur.com/v4DaS.png] Supreme Court Upholds Order For California To Cut Prison Population WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday endorsed a court order requiring California to cut its prison population by tens of thousands of inmates to improve health care for those who remain behind bars. The court said in a 5-4 decision that the reduction is required by the Constitution to correct longstanding violations of inmates' rights. The order mandates a prison population of no more than 110,000 inmates, still far above the system's designed capacity. There are more than 142,000 inmates in the state's 33 adult prisons, meaning roughly 32,000 inmates will need to be transferred to other jurisdictions or released. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a California native, wrote the majority opinion, in which he included photos of severe overcrowding. The court's four Democratic appointees joined with Kennedy. The violations have persisted for years. They remain uncorrected, Kennedy said. Justice Antonin Scalia said in dissent that the court order is perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation's history. Scalia, reading his dissent aloud Monday, said it would require the release of the staggering number of 46,000 convicted felons. Scalia's number, cited in legal filings, comes from a period in which the prison population was even higher. Justice Clarence Thomas joined Scalia's opinion, while Justice Samuel Alito wrote a separate dissent for himself and Chief Justice John Roberts. The case revolves around inadequate mental and physical health care in a state prison system that in 2009 averaged nearly a death a week that might have been prevented or delayed with better medical care. The facilities were designed to hold about 80,000 inmates. The state has protested a court order to cut the population cut to around 110,000 inmates within two years, but also has taken steps to meet, if not exceed, that target. Earlier this year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would reduce the prison population by about 40,000 inmates by transferring many low-level offenders to county jurisdiction. The state legislature has yet to authorize any money for the transfer. Kennedy said the state could ask for the court order to be modified to allow for up to three additional years to reach the 110,000-inmate target. First off get rid of all the drug offenders, those who were using not dealing. But then we could free up a lot of space by making all recreational drugs legal which is what an intelligent society would do but we never seem to get such a society just one of idiots. Then forget about incarcerating people who download MP3s and movies. That's a silly waste of tax money. Better to throw the record company and movie execs into prison for foistering bad content. Then get rid of the Prison Guard Union which lobbies for more offenses to be felonies so they have more customers. That's about as bad as a country that believes the way to solve their economic problems is to maintain perpetual war. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: fairfieldlife-dig...@yahoogroups.com fairfieldlife-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: fairfieldlife-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
I recognize that I was stating some pretty wide assumptions. I also understand 1)there is no one size that fits all, and 2) no one gets out of here alive. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right? There are plenty of those to go around. People getting what they are kinda asking for doesn't give any of our tear ducts too much of a workout, right? So the nice Christians do feel something about my poor choices with regard to their special little savior. They don't want me to reject him, they want me to be just like them. But I am not and that has consequences in their view. And they are OK with that. I don't see them handing their Eternity VIP cards back and saying, If our friend Curtis, who is a decent human despite his lack of godliness can't get his drinks comped while he plays black jack, then we will pay for our drinks too! I don't see them saying Hey wait a second, people who were not born of Christian mothers have a hard time getting down with the JC program. And isn't one of the commandments to honor your father and your mother? What if your parents are Muslim or Atheists and want the same for you? So if you are turning your back on these people for ETERNITY then I don't want any part of this unfair, provincial, ethno-centric, just plain mean charade! I don't see that. Now the kindlier Hindus don't raise a fuss if I don't get enlightened. They just send me back here to work on some more guitar licks. I can dig that. And their hell is reserved by level according to deeds with the lowest one, Patalla (SP?) with the worst suffering reserved for people who insult the guru... Ruh Roh! as Scooby-doo would say. Damn, I am s screwed! And it isn't like I can computer hack my way into the akashic records and erase that little bit about Guru Dev being a homeless guy who won the lottery. And I don't even think I could find and delete all the times I depicted Maharishi rutting his way through his devotees like a rock star's backstage at the Fillmore. How long is eternity again? Anyone here gunna rappel down and give me a hand if it turns out that way? I mean I was really kinda begging for it, wasn't I? So even though if you ask a specific person who doesn't already hate my guts but who believes in some system where the eternal future is guided by our beliefs here on earth, and they say that really is too bad about Curtis, in most religions they are gunna just move on when they get my singed post cards with the shot of Beelzebub reclined on a bed of maidens snuffing his Schwarzenegger sized Cuban (like he is gunna respect the import sanctions!) on my poor ol' head. I had an interesting moment when I was around 10 or 12 and going through the confirmation process. It was the point when you had to understand all the beliefs and accept them. A moment of reckoning whose effects were eternal. I asked a Monsignor a question my class teacher had dodged. She sent me to him to ask it: Does everyone who is not born in a country that is Christan go to hell when they die? All the all the Muslims, and all the Hindus who had never heard of Christ? He was wearing a purple accented robe that Liberace wouldn't have have turned down and was very tall with tiny spectacles balanced on his nose like a professor at Harry Potter's Hogwarts. Yes he said. All of them? I
[FairfieldLife] Camping Rapture disappoints
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110523/ts_yblog_thelookout/doomsday-prophet-followers-flabbergasted-world-didnt-end
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Reincarnation and heaven are not realities opposed to each other. Its just the fantasy that one spends one's afterlife in either heaven or hell *eternally* that is opposed to reincarnation. Also, the self and manifest world don't vanish with Self Realization. Maharishi said the EXACT OPPOSITE to that - A person lives 200% of life; 100% relative and 100% absolute. You taught TM so I am curious how you got this so screwed up in your mind? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: Great rap, Curtis. I've often theorized that many of the Hindu-wannabees who swung behind the idea of reincarnation did so just so they wouldn't be forced to live with the Judeo-Christian notion of Heaven. I mean, you've got to be *nice* to the other people in Heaven and treat them as your equals, right? If there is no Heaven and the worst that can happen to you is that you get reincarnated into another life, no harm, no foul. You can continue to look down on other people and treat them as badly as you have been doing in this life. Even better, if you buy Maharishi's rap about CC and what happens afterwards, you don't have to worry about other people, period. There is not even a you to be nice to when you Die Enlightened, let alone other people or a manifest universe to be nice to. You're just a drop having merged with the big, cosmic ocean. Oceans don't have to be nice. :-) I've toyed in the past with writing a story about what the Rapture would be like for the people who believe in it. There they'd be, still as uptight as ever, naked as a jaybird around another bunch of equally uptight naked people. And looking around, the Saved will notice that some of these naked guys and gals are the ones they still hate because one Sunday they took their parking place in the Church parking lot. They've seen some of the Saved actually coming out of liquor stores carrying brown sacks full of bottles, and now they're supposed to treat them like their EQUALS? Not gonna happen. It would take less than a week for the Saved to start acting as nasty towards their fellow Saved as they did back on Earth. After a month of this, having to pretend that some of the other Saved are really their equals and not being able to look down on them, many of the Saved would start investigating Maharishi's brand of Hinduism, because the idea of the total annihilation of both self and the manifest world would start to appeal to them. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right? There are plenty of those to go around. People getting what they are kinda asking for doesn't give any of our tear ducts too much of a workout, right? So the nice Christians do feel something about my poor choices with regard to their special little savior. They don't want me to reject him, they want me to be just like them. But I am not and that has consequences in their view. And they are OK with that. I don't see them handing their Eternity VIP cards back and saying, If our friend Curtis, who is a decent human despite his lack of godliness can't get his drinks comped while he plays black jack, then we will pay for our drinks too! I don't see them saying Hey wait a second, people who were not born of Christian mothers have a hard time getting down with the JC program. And isn't one of
[FairfieldLife] Re: When Prophecy Fails
Dear Rick, I just got this alert of a comment on FF Life that I refused to share the data on the Israel Study. Please respond with a note that this data is posted on my website. It is available to anyone. It is under the heading Data Sharing, which describes the situation in which that false allegation arose. The following is the URL http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/SocietalEffects/Critics-Rebuttals/index.cfm#Fales_and_Markovsky Thanks, David David W. Orme-Johnson, PhD 191 Dalton Dr. Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32458 (850) 231-2866 (Home) (850) 830-5847 (Mobile) Skype: davidoj108 davi...@earthlink.net www.TruthAboutTM.com www.Orme-JohnsonPaintings.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Apple fans react to computers like religion: BBC
On 05/22/2011 06:06 AM, Tom Pall wrote: I posted this URL days before it was discovered and received the status of a separate post, as though then and only then did it achieve the status of something etched in stone tablets just like the 10 Suggestions. My hate for Apple goes back to when we had an Apple something at work and had to do graphics on it. Wanted to change the font? Well, just memorize which path you needed to go through the n**n layers of toolbar options before you got to fonts. Colour? Same thing. It kind of reminds me of the improvements people are making in their websites, GMail included, by adding more features but keeping the clutter down by hiding options. Now you don't have separate select all, select none, deselect control. You have a single control which, when you click on it shows all, none, some. And the check box which shows the many hidden choices single check mark is different shades of black and white. Hiding things behind context is so cool. And so dumb and confusing. I've said this before. Real computing was when you wrote an entire regional hospital's inventory of patients, symptoms, attending physicians, orders, interfaced with lab equipment and Pharmacy in 64K. On a mainframe. Bill Gates was right. Who would ever need more than 10 times 64K of RAM? Real computing was also assembling and disassembling your own code to/from octal or hex. Things made so much sense then. First two bits said if it was register to register, register to memory, memory to memory, memory to register. Next two bits said if the first operand was an indirect address, second bit the second operand was an indirect address. Then an bits for offset and bits for operation. Getting code into the computer? That's what the switch register was for. Finally Lisp came along. Try coding up a complex decision tree as a series of (function argument 1 argument 2 argument 3). Just like programming PLCs, only the exact opposite. Wimps. Try programming in microcode on a VIC-20 which is what I was doing back in 1983. Yesterday I dug out an old 486 machine from 1992 I had around here to find some old source code. Fortunately the old code was the but the system didn't seem to want to see the floppy drive for me to transfer the file so I had to take the hard drive and first try it on an IDE to USB adapter which didn't work but then put it on an old Windows 98 machine which did see it and had a Ethernet card so moved the file to this machine that way. The funny thing was the old Omni Key 101 keyboard and what a solid device it is. I'd forgotten how good keyboards used to be.
Re: [FairfieldLife] And another bite...
Kinda reminds me of the story of Noah. Building an enormous boat, laboring day after day, the local people laughed and cursed Noah as a fool and an idiot. Then the rain came. He who laughed lastnot that Noah laughed at the destruction of the world, if it really happened. Most Christians who believe in the rapture of the church, know that no man or angel, not even Christ, knows the day or hour, only God the Father. However, Christ was asked about the end time and he said know the parable of the fig tree. Know that when the fig tree(Israel) begins to bud, May 1948, that generation will not die out before all these things must come to pass. Israel has been the missing ingredient of this prophesy until now. Who knows, maybe some baby-boomer will live to a hundred and fifty and piss everybody off. By the way, the rapture and Armageddon are two different events. The rapture is meant to keep the church *out* of the tribulation and Armageddon comes at he end of it when Christ returns to earth with those that were raptured to rule. More food for thought,could the rapture actually be an individual event of natural death and not coming back till the end times have ended ,not needing to experience that karma?Prophecy tells us what is going to happen, not necessarily how. From: authfriend jst...@panix.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 5:41:34 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] And another bite... From Too Much Judgment: The media's shameful, cruel obsession with those awaiting the rapture by Tiffany Stanley, in The New Republic: ...Laughing at religious fanatics is nothing new. And, at some level, there's nothing wrong with it. But this story didn't just take off in popularity because people wanted a quick laugh or some insight into a quirky subset of our country. There's a cruelty underlying our desire to laugh at this story—a desire to see people humiliated and to revel in our own superiority and rationality—even though the people in question are pretty tragic characters, who either have serious problems themselves or perhaps are being taken advantage of, or both. Sure, it's an interesting story when a fringe group decides the world is ending tomorrow. But it's also a small story. Come Sunday morning, as news articles flood in about the disillusioned end-timers, and those articles instantly become some of the most popular on the web—as they surely will—we might want to ask ourselves not what is wrong with this sad group of apocalyptic believers, but rather what is wrong with a society that takes such pleasure in their dysfunction. Read more: http://www.tnr.com/article/88803/rapture-judgement-day-may-21-media-obsession http://tinyurl.com/3gudl9a
[FairfieldLife] Re: Welcome to America...finally #1 in something
Earlier this year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would reduce the prison population by about 40,000 inmates by transferring many low-level offenders to county jurisdiction. Bhairitu: First off get rid of all the drug offenders, those who were using not dealing. But then we could free up a lot of space by making all recreational drugs legal which is what an intelligent society would do but we never seem to get such a society just one of idiots... So, you agree with Ron Paul, but you disagree with your elected governor and your president? So, why did you vote for them? Go figure.
[FairfieldLife] Re: To Vaj- The Magical Puja Placebo
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, seventhray1 steve.sundur@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Yogi raviyogi@ wrote: Perfection is never possible in the outside world, we can say perfection is only possible in the inner world. Inner perfection is nothing but accepting that outer perfection is an impossibility and that the existence is imperfectly perfect, that in fact the existence moves from one perfection to the other. Once this inner state is reached it doesn't imply cold and impersonal behavior. In fact only when this inner acceptance is reached that you can now compassionately indulge in changing outer imperfections. Nice piece. I enjoyed this. (-: Thanks Steve.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Curtis, it's not just Christians that say you're going to hell, it's Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims as well. Christianity is the only one that claims a *get- out of- jail* card. Your beef is not with Christ or his teaching, it's with people who are passionate about their beliefs but can't articulate their point of view any better. The world is evolving, we used to burn heretics and witches at the stake. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 8:18:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief, so we want a little payback. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my burrito alfresco with no cheese in a drive-thru, when I get to where I can stop and eat it, I will always find out that my burrito is slimed with that nasty cheese-food-product that doubles the calories on my already guilty meal while presenting my liver with Martin-molecules of fat that makes my liver make that Homer Simpson sound when it tries to oxidize it: Doh! So I get it that spiking the ball is too much and I believe most people not trying to fill up media space feel that way too. But lets not forget that for every one of these people there are one hundred, (thousand, hundred thousand???) people who basically believe the same thing without the stop-watch. And some of them are making political/ecological decisions about our custodianship of a planet that they believe is their launching pad, and disposable. So for me, it is a virtue to call BS on such claims when we can. I only wish the media could grow a pair and connect this with all the other slo-mo rapture believers. In fact I would like to see an article pointing out that while this small fringe was eating their crow (here is a case where that crappy cheese might help the taste) millions of Christians had re-affirmed their faith that morning in churches, believing equally nutty things about their own specialness. And they don't get a pass because they think it will all happen after we die. They still want me to have an eternity tying to use my thumb to get off that sticky crap that every sticker leaves on every damn kitchen item we buy today. I use my nail and I scratch the surface, I use my finger back and forth and it leaves that weird square film. God help you if you break
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Comes from Jerry Jarvis. (statement to me in 1973, I was in his office one day when he said emphatically that after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. ... I'm planning on writing Jerry, asking him about this dogma. ... Yes, it seems to contradict the 200% of life orientation, doesn't it? Looks like Jerry has some explaining to do, imo. http://www.fantasygallery.net/caldwell/art_4_cc03.html --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@... wrote: Reincarnation and heaven are not realities opposed to each other. Its just the fantasy that one spends one's afterlife in either heaven or hell *eternally* that is opposed to reincarnation. Also, the self and manifest world don't vanish with Self Realization. Maharishi said the EXACT OPPOSITE to that - A person lives 200% of life; 100% relative and 100% absolute. You taught TM so I am curious how you got this so screwed up in your mind? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@ wrote: Great rap, Curtis. I've often theorized that many of the Hindu-wannabees who swung behind the idea of reincarnation did so just so they wouldn't be forced to live with the Judeo-Christian notion of Heaven. I mean, you've got to be *nice* to the other people in Heaven and treat them as your equals, right? If there is no Heaven and the worst that can happen to you is that you get reincarnated into another life, no harm, no foul. You can continue to look down on other people and treat them as badly as you have been doing in this life. Even better, if you buy Maharishi's rap about CC and what happens afterwards, you don't have to worry about other people, period. There is not even a you to be nice to when you Die Enlightened, let alone other people or a manifest universe to be nice to. You're just a drop having merged with the big, cosmic ocean. Oceans don't have to be nice. :-) I've toyed in the past with writing a story about what the Rapture would be like for the people who believe in it. There they'd be, still as uptight as ever, naked as a jaybird around another bunch of equally uptight naked people. And looking around, the Saved will notice that some of these naked guys and gals are the ones they still hate because one Sunday they took their parking place in the Church parking lot. They've seen some of the Saved actually coming out of liquor stores carrying brown sacks full of bottles, and now they're supposed to treat them like their EQUALS? Not gonna happen. It would take less than a week for the Saved to start acting as nasty towards their fellow Saved as they did back on Earth. After a month of this, having to pretend that some of the other Saved are really their equals and not being able to look down on them, many of the Saved would start investigating Maharishi's brand of Hinduism, because the idea of the total annihilation of both self and the manifest world would start to appeal to them. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right?
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
In any case, nobody has suggested returning to the 1967 borders as a solution. That's just a blatant, deliberate falsehood. President Obama was right to stick by his call for Israel's 1967 boundaries as a starting point for peace negotiations with the Palestinians... That's right, as a *starting point*, not a solution. So if you knew that, why did you lie about it? authfriend: No, it's a solution proposed by your Dem President, and I think you knew that. No, it's a starting point proposed by Obama, not a solution. And we know you knew that. So why are you continuing to lie about it? Nope, it's a non-starter, and it's not going to happen, and you know that, so stop the lying. I said that the United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps -- (applause) -- so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state. - Barack Obama Posted by John Hindraker Powerline, May 23, 2011 http://tinyurl.com/3arres9
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
In any case, nobody has suggested returning to the 1967 borders as a solution. That's just a blatant, deliberate falsehood. President Obama was right to stick by his call for Israel's 1967 boundaries as a starting point for peace negotiations with the Palestinians... That's right, as a *starting point*, not a solution. So if you knew that, why did you lie about it? No, it's a solution proposed by your Dem President, and I think you knew that. authfriend: No, it's a starting point proposed by Obama, not a solution. And we know you knew that. So why are you continuing to lie about it? Nope, it's a non-starter, and it's not going to happen, and you know that, so stop the lying. I said that the United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps -- (applause) -- so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state. - Barack Obama Posted by John Hindraker Powerline, May 23, 2011 http://tinyurl.com/3arres9
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
There is no confusion if the words of Master's aren't taken literally. They create the idea of specialness understanding the greedy goal-oriented nature of the human mind that feels a need to be special. They then promise followers eternal bliss in heaven, and they create a sense of urgency by predicting future doom. Its all a tool to enable seekers to make the leap into the unknown, they ultimately know that it's love and faith that transforms. So when Jesus promises eternal bliss in heaven, it's just a candy to entice, may be Prophet promised 72 virgins in heaven, it was yet another candy or when MMY promised World peace for butt bouncing it was yet another device. Retards confuse candies for sweetness..LOL.. So people who take words too literally miss the point - they either end up as religious fanatics creating institutions around dead Gurus, creating dead scriptures and rituals OR they end up like FFL pimps (intellectuals) who spend rest of their denouncing masters, their teachings and their believers and engaging in meaningless never ending discussions. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right? There are plenty of those to go around. People getting what they are kinda asking for doesn't give any of our tear ducts too much of a workout, right? So the nice Christians do feel something about my poor choices with regard to their special little savior. They don't want me to reject him, they want me to be just like them. But I am not and that has consequences in their view. And they are OK with that. I don't see them handing their Eternity VIP cards back and saying, If our friend Curtis, who is a decent human despite his lack of godliness can't get his drinks comped while he plays black jack, then we will pay for our drinks too! I don't see them saying Hey wait a second, people who were not born of Christian mothers have a hard time getting down with the JC program. And isn't one of the commandments to honor your father and your mother? What if your parents are Muslim or Atheists and want the same for you? So if you are turning your back on these people for ETERNITY then I don't want any part of this unfair, provincial, ethno-centric, just plain mean charade! I don't see that. Now the kindlier Hindus don't raise a fuss if I don't get enlightened. They just send me back here to work on some more guitar licks. I can dig that. And their hell is reserved by level according to deeds with the lowest one, Patalla (SP?) with the worst suffering reserved for people who insult the guru... Ruh Roh! as Scooby-doo would say. Damn, I am s screwed! And it isn't like I can computer hack my way into the akashic records and erase that little bit about Guru Dev being a homeless guy who won the lottery. And I don't even think I could find and delete all the times I depicted Maharishi rutting his way through his devotees like a rock star's backstage at the Fillmore. How long is eternity again? Anyone here gunna rappel down and give me a hand if it turns out that way? I mean I was really kinda begging for it, wasn't I? So even though if you ask a specific person who doesn't already hate my guts but who believes in some system where the eternal future is guided by our beliefs here on earth, and they say that really is too bad about Curtis, in most religions they are gunna just move on when they get my singed post cards with the shot of Beelzebub reclined on a bed of maidens snuffing his
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Yogi raviyogi@... wrote: There is no confusion if the words of Master's aren't taken literally. They create the idea of specialness understanding the greedy goal-oriented nature of the human mind that feels a need to be special. They then promise followers eternal bliss in heaven, and they create a sense of urgency by predicting future doom. Its all a tool to enable seekers to make the leap into the unknown, they ultimately know that it's love and faith that transforms. So when Jesus promises eternal bliss in heaven, it's just a candy to entice, may be Prophet promised 72 virgins in heaven, it was yet another candy or when MMY promised World peace for butt bouncing it was yet another device. Retards confuse candies for sweetness..LOL.. Oops..that didn't come out right, let's say candy wrappers. So people who take words too literally miss the point - they either end up as religious fanatics creating institutions around dead Gurus, creating dead scriptures and rituals OR they end up like FFL pimps (intellectuals) who spend rest of their denouncing masters, their teachings and their believers and engaging in meaningless never ending discussions. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Judy makes a good distinction between the rapture belief and non evangelical ones, but after death I still get seated in the section with no AC in most (all?) of them. Catholicism is really clear. Even being a Catholic isn't enough, you have to punch a lot of time clocks to make it into eternal first class. (Can the misses and I please have another Mimosa?) I don't know to what degree Protestant religions uphold or renounce the doctrine of hell for non-believers. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to sit next to a Muslim for eternity in the afterlife jet.(Excuse me Miss, I believe there has been a seating mistake, I specifically reserved non hookah seating.) So there is still a dark underbelly beneath the tight smiles and the we really wish you believed as we do. Her second point is also good in that it is wrong to say that they WANT me to go to hell. I know plenty of people who are Christians and super nice people and I'm sure they don't WANT me to spend eternity there. But they are OK if that is how it ends up due to my lack of acceptance of their beliefs. I don't see them petitioning heaven on my behalf. I think it is close to that thing we do when we hear that an acquaintance who is into hard drugs ends up in jail or dead from Hep C. Not being too close to them and figuring that it seemed like a pretty obvious outcome from their behavior, we move one. Pretty quickly. I mean if I am gunna take up an advocacy case it would be one of the innocents, right? There are plenty of those to go around. People getting what they are kinda asking for doesn't give any of our tear ducts too much of a workout, right? So the nice Christians do feel something about my poor choices with regard to their special little savior. They don't want me to reject him, they want me to be just like them. But I am not and that has consequences in their view. And they are OK with that. I don't see them handing their Eternity VIP cards back and saying, If our friend Curtis, who is a decent human despite his lack of godliness can't get his drinks comped while he plays black jack, then we will pay for our drinks too! I don't see them saying Hey wait a second, people who were not born of Christian mothers have a hard time getting down with the JC program. And isn't one of the commandments to honor your father and your mother? What if your parents are Muslim or Atheists and want the same for you? So if you are turning your back on these people for ETERNITY then I don't want any part of this unfair, provincial, ethno-centric, just plain mean charade! I don't see that. Now the kindlier Hindus don't raise a fuss if I don't get enlightened. They just send me back here to work on some more guitar licks. I can dig that. And their hell is reserved by level according to deeds with the lowest one, Patalla (SP?) with the worst suffering reserved for people who insult the guru... Ruh Roh! as Scooby-doo would say. Damn, I am s screwed! And it isn't like I can computer hack my way into the akashic records and erase that little bit about Guru Dev being a homeless guy who won the lottery. And I don't even think I could find and delete all the times I depicted Maharishi rutting his way through his devotees like a rock star's backstage at the Fillmore. How long is eternity again? Anyone here gunna rappel down and give me a hand if it turns out that way? I mean I was really kinda begging for it, wasn't I? So even though if you ask a specific person who doesn't already hate my guts but who believes in some system where the eternal future is guided by our beliefs here on
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
So, evangelicals don't see Christ as an inspirational and humbling teacher? Where did that come from? As I posted to Curtis earlier, Christianity is not the only religion that teaches that you are bound for hell. However, it's the only one that teaches that God became man, lived a perfect life and offered it as a sacrifice for the redemption of sin to keep one out of hell. Is this your real grievance? From: whynotnow7 whynotn...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Mon, May 23, 2011 6:37:48 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Yea agreed-- big, big, big difference between the evangelical crowd and other Christians. This idea expressed by evangelicals that you are damned unless you accept Christ as your savior is antithetical to most Christians. Also the idea popular among evangelicals that all you need to do is click your heels together three times...oh wait, wrong fantasy...all you need to do is accept Jesus as your savior and all your past, present, and future wrongdoing is absolved is also not accepted by mainstream Christianity. Evangelicals often treat their religion as an eternal Get Out Of Jail Free and I Am Better Than You card, whereas serious Christians see Christ as an inspirational and humbling teacher. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: I enjoyed reading this, Curtis, but I'm working on a deadline and have very little time to comment. Wanted to make two main points: --All Christians are taught the Second Coming, but the Rapture belief isn't universal by any means. Maybe that isn't what you meant to suggest by mainstream? It's primarily a belief of Evangelicals. The fringe nature of the recent hoop-te-do had more to do with the idea that it could be so specifically predicted. And even among Evangelicals, there's dizzying variety of understandings about exactly how it all falls out. Some Christian denominations really don't deal with eschatology at all beyond the idea that it's gonna happen some day. --You paint with *way* too broad a brush in suggesting that all Christians hope you go to hell. That kind of malice is actually quite rare, even among the May 21ers. Most of 'em want to *save* you from going to hell. You make some good points, but you miss the boat on these two. Again, I wish I had more time to comment. Oh, and an addendum--for how to remove label residue, see this: http://www.ehow.com/how_2023764_remove-sticky-residue.html Also try lighter fluid. There are also products you can buy that are designed to do the job. One is called Goo Gone: http://www.googone.com/GG-Browse-Products --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a
[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, tartbrain no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Yogi raviyogi@ wrote: History is clear, nations are built on war, with a strong army and war comes prosperity, nation and people thrive Fascism has a proud and distinguished history. I wish you the best in pursuing its ideals. Fascists promote violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality. Fascists exalt militarism as providing positive transformation in society, in providing spiritual renovation, education, instilling of a will to dominate in people's character, and creating national comradeship through military service. I'm not surprised that you associate war with fascism. So you must be in favor of the citizen exchange program that I proposed in the past now that you have declared this country as fascist?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@... wrote: On 05/22/2011 11:50 PM, Ravi Yogi wrote: History is clear, nations are built on war, with a strong army and war comes prosperity, nation and people thrive, people become sophisticated intellectuals, they then get attracted to Gandhis and MLKS and turn into pacifists and then get overrun by barbarians. So it seems that these die hard liberal pacifists want this country to be overrun by barbarians. I have a better thought, ship these retards to barbarian cultures as a precautionary measure, but somehow I suspect they wouldn't want to so easily give up their American citizenship..LOL.. So there is big money in the legal murder business, eh? Apparently so as I watched a new report on RT.com last week that showed a big employment fest back in North Carolina all for the legal murdering business, aka defense contractors. So I guess if you want a job and don't mind blood on your hands then go for a gig at a defense contractor. And don't forget lay off the dope for awhile as they undoubtedly have drug testing. Of course this business all worked well for Rome, the British Empire, Germany, Italy I'm not talking of the war excesses here, I'm well aware of it all. However at the same time I'm not stupid enough to project a war free nation because then you can kiss goodbye to your temples, meditation practices, your art, literature, music and dance as you get overrun by barbarians. It has happened to India in the past, you might want to check it out when you have some time.
[FairfieldLife] the ME effect
ROTFLOL: Orme-Johnson DW, Oates RM. A field-theoretic view of consciousness: reply to critics. Journal of Scientific Exploration 2008 23(2):139-166. pdf of the paper AbstractThis paper replies to a critique (Fales Markovsky, 1997) of a study reporting that group practice of the Transcendental Meditation program had a measurable effect on objective measures of the quality of life in Israel and the war in Lebanon (Orme-Johnson et al., 1988). The critics proposed various cultural/political events as alternative explanations for the results. These events could not explain the results, as indicated by (1) simple inspection of the pub¬lished data; (2) statistical analyses controlling for these events; (3) analyses of reduced data sets that completely eliminated the days of the events from the analyses; and (4) analyses of six random samples of 50% of the data. Although some of the cultural/political events suggested did have a significant effect on a composite index of crime, traffi c accidents, fires, war intensity, stock market, and national mood, the effects of these events were independent of the effect of the meditators and could not explain it. We argue that Maharishi's theory of col¬lective consciousness provides a unifying framework that explains these results through a logical structure of clearly defi ned, operationalized terms grounded in physiological and behavioral research, which makes specific quantifiable and socially important predictions that have been extensively replicated.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
on getting out of Hell: actually, once one is in Hell according to both Evangelical and Catholicism, there's no provision for getting out. But a Hellish fate (or not) is determined for Evangelicals solely on the basis of one's faith/belief during physical life. Then the judgement. ... otoh, for Catholics, the theology is similar since there's no getting out of Hell. Purgatory is for those not fated for Hell, and allows for a progression and possibility for Heaven. ... Buddhism recognizes the existences of Hell's as realms along the lines of Dante (special ingenious Hells perfectly appropriate for the crimes); apart from the various claims that any non-Enlightenment is a form of Hell. In other words, various Hellish realms. ... However, I see no indication that entities are stuck there forever. On the contrary, various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas proclaim that such entities can be rescued and ultimately resume their progression on the Path to Enlightenenment. ... In view of these considerations, I see the Buddhist options as superior to the all or nothing dismal fate of Hell-bound unbelievers in Jesus. ... http://www.fantasygallery.net/morill/art_3_galadriel.html --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dixon mdixon.6569@... wrote: Curtis, it's not just Christians that say you're going to hell, it's Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims as well. Christianity is the only one that claims a *get- out of- jail* card. Your beef is not with Christ or his teaching, it's with people who are passionate about their beliefs but can't articulate their point of view any better. The world is evolving, we used to burn heretics and witches at the stake. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 8:18:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Â Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief, so we want a little payback. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my burrito alfresco with no cheese in a drive-thru, when I get to where I can stop and eat it, I will always find out that my burrito is slimed with that nasty cheese-food-product that doubles the calories on my already guilty meal while presenting my liver with Martin-molecules of fat that makes my liver make that Homer
[FairfieldLife] Hmmm... udumbala?
The funeral hymn of Rgveda is X 14. Its 12th stanza starts like this: uruuNasaav, asutRpaa, udumbalau, Yamasya duutau carato janaaM anu; Before I read Macdonell's comment, thought (something like): Wha? udumbala?? ['udumbalau' is nominative *dual*]. What a strange word! Like a loan word from some African language?? Sez Macdonell: [...]. udumbalau: this word occurs here only, and there is no means of throwing any light on its sense; (According to Monier-Williams, Saayana* seems to think that's corrupt[?] for 'uru-bala', but it seems IMO highly unlikely...) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana * Brother of Maadhava-vidyaaraNya
[FairfieldLife] Re: Hmmm... udumbala?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister no_reply@... wrote: The funeral hymn of Rgveda is X 14. Its 12th stanza starts like this: uruuNasaav, asutRpaa, udumbalau, Yamasya duutau carato janaaM anu; Before I read Macdonell's comment, thought (something like): Wha? udumbala?? ['udumbalau' is nominative *dual*]. What a strange word! Like a loan word from some African language?? Sez Macdonell: [...]. udumbalau: this word occurs here only, and there is no means of throwing any light on its sense; (According to Monier-Williams, Saayana* seems to think that's corrupt[?] for 'uru-bala', but it seems IMO highly unlikely...) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana Speed of light in Rgveda?? http://alishekh.blogspot.com/2009/05/speed-of-light-in-rig-veda.html Whoa!? :o * Brother of Maadhava-vidyaaraNya
[FairfieldLife] Re: Hmmm... udumbala?
Yellow Jambhala, Buddhist counterpart of Kubera, the God of Wealth: http://www.dari-rulai-temple.org/picts/yellow%20Jambhala.JPG --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister no_reply@... wrote: The funeral hymn of Rgveda is X 14. Its 12th stanza starts like this: uruuNasaav, asutRpaa, udumbalau, Yamasya duutau carato janaaM anu; Before I read Macdonell's comment, thought (something like): Wha? udumbala?? ['udumbalau' is nominative *dual*]. What a strange word! Like a loan word from some African language?? Sez Macdonell: [...]. udumbalau: this word occurs here only, and there is no means of throwing any light on its sense; (According to Monier-Williams, Saayana* seems to think that's corrupt[?] for 'uru-bala', but it seems IMO highly unlikely...) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana * Brother of Maadhava-vidyaaraNya
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
do.rflex: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama... Not a very proud day for America with Obama throwing Israel under the bus! Everyone knows that the Hamas regularly preach hatred of Israel as well as Jews as a people. [Palestinian culture is] the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It is not about the '67 lines. And until Israel's enemies come to terms with this reality, a true peace will be impossible If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state... Read more: Eric Cantor Gives AIPAC Delegates a Lesson on which Political Party Really Supports Israel and America's Alliance with the Jewish state: http://tinyurl.com/3vx5u89
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
On 05/23/2011 01:47 PM, Ravi Yogi wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitunoozguru@... wrote: On 05/22/2011 11:50 PM, Ravi Yogi wrote: History is clear, nations are built on war, with a strong army and war comes prosperity, nation and people thrive, people become sophisticated intellectuals, they then get attracted to Gandhis and MLKS and turn into pacifists and then get overrun by barbarians. So it seems that these die hard liberal pacifists want this country to be overrun by barbarians. I have a better thought, ship these retards to barbarian cultures as a precautionary measure, but somehow I suspect they wouldn't want to so easily give up their American citizenship..LOL.. So there is big money in the legal murder business, eh? Apparently so as I watched a new report on RT.com last week that showed a big employment fest back in North Carolina all for the legal murdering business, aka defense contractors. So I guess if you want a job and don't mind blood on your hands then go for a gig at a defense contractor. And don't forget lay off the dope for awhile as they undoubtedly have drug testing. Of course this business all worked well for Rome, the British Empire, Germany, Italy I'm not talking of the war excesses here, I'm well aware of it all. However at the same time I'm not stupid enough to project a war free nation because then you can kiss goodbye to your temples, meditation practices, your art, literature, music and dance as you get overrun by barbarians. It has happened to India in the past, you might want to check it out when you have some time. Somewhere around 900 AD if I recall right. But those were different more primitive times. Drugs, sex and rock'n roll seems to be a good weapon nowadays to reduce threats though I think the Bush administration forgot about it. Seemed to help topple the USSR. ;-)
[FairfieldLife] yagyas
Full moon eclipse next month. P. 17 a real monkey shows up to accept the banana offerings. This is a particularly good sign. http://puja.net/Newsletters/2011/May/May2011News.pdf
[FairfieldLife] Re: Militants Attack Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@... wrote: On 05/23/2011 01:47 PM, Ravi Yogi wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitunoozguru@ wrote: On 05/22/2011 11:50 PM, Ravi Yogi wrote: History is clear, nations are built on war, with a strong army and war comes prosperity, nation and people thrive, people become sophisticated intellectuals, they then get attracted to Gandhis and MLKS and turn into pacifists and then get overrun by barbarians. So it seems that these die hard liberal pacifists want this country to be overrun by barbarians. I have a better thought, ship these retards to barbarian cultures as a precautionary measure, but somehow I suspect they wouldn't want to so easily give up their American citizenship..LOL.. So there is big money in the legal murder business, eh? Apparently so as I watched a new report on RT.com last week that showed a big employment fest back in North Carolina all for the legal murdering business, aka defense contractors. So I guess if you want a job and don't mind blood on your hands then go for a gig at a defense contractor. And don't forget lay off the dope for awhile as they undoubtedly have drug testing. Of course this business all worked well for Rome, the British Empire, Germany, Italy I'm not talking of the war excesses here, I'm well aware of it all. However at the same time I'm not stupid enough to project a war free nation because then you can kiss goodbye to your temples, meditation practices, your art, literature, music and dance as you get overrun by barbarians. It has happened to India in the past, you might want to check it out when you have some time. Somewhere around 900 AD if I recall right. But those were different more primitive times. Drugs, sex and rock'n roll seems to be a good weapon nowadays to reduce threats though I think the Bush administration forgot about it. Seemed to help topple the USSR. ;-) Well I don't agree that it only applies to primitive times. I feel indebted to a civilized sophisticated culture that let's me focus my energies on spirituality and enlightenment and that would include any wars that the country has to indulge so I'm not beheaded like the Sufis in the middle east who said Anaal Haqor I'm God and would be butchered by barbarians. So may be the barbarians are now sophisticated terrorists with nukes in rogue nations like Pakistan and I support all efforts to get them while I have fun at the FFL pub making fun of people hell bent on destroying my fun.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. I think you added the part In other words In UC there is no experience of the body as a separate identity as it is experienced prior to that state. It doesn't mean it stops being used as a vehicle for evolution and experience, just that it is no longer identified on the inside as me (of course to pretend such a thing externally only leads to confusion). Nothing odd about that. What IS odd is those here who believe that enlightenment creates more boundaries than it dissolves; can't reincarnate, can't take a body. What a complete and utter misunderstanding. This is the view of enlightenment from ignorance and identification. No wonder Barry got it ass-backwards. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@... wrote: Comes from Jerry Jarvis. (statement to me in 1973, I was in his office one day when he said emphatically that after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. ... I'm planning on writing Jerry, asking him about this dogma. ... Yes, it seems to contradict the 200% of life orientation, doesn't it? Looks like Jerry has some explaining to do, imo. http://www.fantasygallery.net/caldwell/art_4_cc03.html --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@ wrote: Reincarnation and heaven are not realities opposed to each other. Its just the fantasy that one spends one's afterlife in either heaven or hell *eternally* that is opposed to reincarnation. Also, the self and manifest world don't vanish with Self Realization. Maharishi said the EXACT OPPOSITE to that - A person lives 200% of life; 100% relative and 100% absolute. You taught TM so I am curious how you got this so screwed up in your mind?
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
below: can't reincarnate, can't take a body; that's because in the MMY/Jarvis model (from Shankara?); there are no bodies. The elements making up those bodies completely disintegrate at death, among those in CC higher; again, with no options. Conventional bodies of course exist, case in point: the cancer that ate up Ramana's arm and extinguished his physical life. ... Jim - I don't believe anybody is faulting you personally (or maybe they are). I'm not anyway...just saying that this model of existence is the official TMO party line. ... wrt the statement ...there is no experience of the body as a separate entity. True; but there is the experience of bodily sensations, conventionally; otherwise Ramana Maharshi would not have commented on the fact that insects scarred his flesh while he was meditating in the Patala Lingam; and also the fact that he was stung by a bee, and then apologized to the bees for stirring them up. ... Nobody is calling into question nonduality. The question pertains solely to maintaining bodies...for some purpose. Not having any would be a no-brainer as far as options go, yes? Ramana said that he maintained 20 of them in different dimensions.. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@... wrote: after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. I think you added the part In other words In UC there is no experience of the body as a separate identity as it is experienced prior to that state. It doesn't mean it stops being used as a vehicle for evolution and experience, just that it is no longer identified on the inside as me (of course to pretend such a thing externally only leads to confusion). Nothing odd about that. What IS odd is those here who believe that enlightenment creates more boundaries than it dissolves; can't reincarnate, can't take a body. What a complete and utter misunderstanding. This is the view of enlightenment from ignorance and identification. No wonder Barry got it ass-backwards. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@ wrote: Comes from Jerry Jarvis. (statement to me in 1973, I was in his office one day when he said emphatically that after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. ... I'm planning on writing Jerry, asking him about this dogma. ... Yes, it seems to contradict the 200% of life orientation, doesn't it? Looks like Jerry has some explaining to do, imo. http://www.fantasygallery.net/caldwell/art_4_cc03.html --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@ wrote: Reincarnation and heaven are not realities opposed to each other. Its just the fantasy that one spends one's afterlife in either heaven or hell *eternally* that is opposed to reincarnation. Also, the self and manifest world don't vanish with Self Realization. Maharishi said the EXACT OPPOSITE to that - A person lives 200% of life; 100% relative and 100% absolute. You taught TM so I am curious how you got this so screwed up in your mind?
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Does it help that I hold all their pretensions about knowing what happens after death in equal contempt? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dixon mdixon.6569@... wrote: Curtis, it's not just Christians that say you're going to hell, it's Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims as well. Christianity is the only one that claims a *get- out of- jail* card. Your beef is not with Christ or his teaching, it's with people who are passionate about their beliefs but can't articulate their point of view any better. The world is evolving, we used to burn heretics and witches at the stake. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 8:18:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Â Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief, so we want a little payback. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my burrito alfresco with no cheese in a drive-thru, when I get to where I can stop and eat it, I will always find out that my burrito is slimed with that nasty cheese-food-product that doubles the calories on my already guilty meal while presenting my liver with Martin-molecules of fat that makes my liver make that Homer Simpson sound when it tries to oxidize it: Doh! So I get it that spiking the ball is too much and I believe most people not trying to fill up media space feel that way too. But lets not forget that for every one of these people there are one hundred, (thousand, hundred thousand???) people who basically believe the same thing without the stop-watch. And some of them are making political/ecological decisions about our custodianship of a planet that they believe is their launching pad, and disposable. So for me, it is a virtue to call BS on such claims when we can. I only wish the media could grow a pair and connect this with all the other slo-mo rapture believers. In fact I would like to see an article pointing out that while this small fringe was eating their crow (here is a case where that crappy cheese might help the taste) millions of Christians had re-affirmed their faith that morning in churches, believing equally nutty things about their own specialness. And they don't get a pass because they think it will all happen after
[FairfieldLife] Post Count
Fairfield Life Post Counter === Start Date (UTC): Sat May 21 00:00:00 2011 End Date (UTC): Sat May 28 00:00:00 2011 319 messages as of (UTC) Tue May 24 00:00:29 2011 34 authfriend jst...@panix.com 30 tartbrain no_re...@yahoogroups.com 29 Yifu yifux...@yahoo.com 27 Buck dhamiltony...@yahoo.com 24 WillyTex willy...@yahoo.com 20 turquoiseb no_re...@yahoogroups.com 17 whynotnow7 whynotn...@yahoo.com 17 seventhray1 steve.sun...@sbcglobal.net 17 Bhairitu noozg...@sbcglobal.net 16 Ravi Yogi raviy...@att.net 13 raunchydog raunchy...@yahoo.com 10 curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com 9 cardemaister no_re...@yahoogroups.com 7 Mike Dixon mdixon.6...@yahoo.com 5 Vaj vajradh...@earthlink.net 5 Robert babajii...@yahoo.com 4 Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartax...@yahoo.com 4 Tom Pall thomas.p...@gmail.com 3 nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com 3 merudanda no_re...@yahoogroups.com 3 emptybill emptyb...@yahoo.com 3 Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com 2 merlin vedamer...@yahoo.de 2 Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@lisco.com 2 PaliGap compost...@yahoo.co.uk 2 Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com 2 do.rflex do.rf...@yahoo.com 1 sparaig lengli...@cox.net 1 seekliberation seekliberat...@yahoo.com 1 richardnelson108 richardnelson...@yahoo.com 1 marekreavis reavisma...@sbcglobal.net 1 jpgillam jpgil...@yahoo.com 1 azgrey no_re...@yahoogroups.com 1 Peter drpetersutp...@yahoo.com 1 Paulo Barbosa tprob...@terra.com.br 1 John jr_...@yahoo.com Posters: 36 Saturday Morning 00:00 UTC Rollover Times = Daylight Saving Time (Summer): US Friday evening: PDT 5 PM - MDT 6 PM - CDT 7 PM - EDT 8 PM Europe Saturday: BST 1 AM CEST 2 AM EEST 3 AM Standard Time (Winter): US Friday evening: PST 4 PM - MST 5 PM - CST 6 PM - EST 7 PM Europe Saturday: GMT 12 AM CET 1 AM EET 2 AM For more information on Time Zones: www.worldtimezone.com
[FairfieldLife] Re: On Israel - A Proud Day for Obama
Yep, Muslim peace. How hallowed We are of Peace. Think of it. Mussalmen and Jews sitting around the camp fire singing kumbaya. It makes me weep with gratitude knowing this has been ordained by YHVH as he finally shakes hands with Allah. But perhaps you actually mean the peace that enveloped the shores of Europe for about 10 miles inland from Iceland to Italy. It was very peaceful because no one could live there. All the villages were abandoned. It was the Muslim Peace created by all of the Muslim slavers. Over 1.5 million Europeans were raided, enslaved and sold between 1500 and 1800 AD. Give us your Dhimmitude, O' Israel. We are of Peace. .. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@... wrote: On 05/23/2011 09:13 AM, WillyTex wrote: do.rflex: Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel's opposition Kadima party, also backed Mr Obama's two-state solution... In reality, it would be a three-state solution: Gaza, West Bank, and Israel. What would you do, build a road with walls on either side to connect the West Bank to Gaza? Go figure. Or, split Jerusalem down the middle with a fence keeping the Jews away from the Western Wall? If you want to return to 1967 borders, why not give the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Jerusalem back to Jordan and make the refugees Jordanians - they have a democracy in Jordan, right? You do know that before Israel was founded that Jews and Palestinians lived side by side in peace?
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Go read Shankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutra-s. He says if you want to reside in Brahma-loka you may do so - that is until everything is dissolved at the cosmic pralaya. If you want to play around and enjoy cosmic siddhi-s you may also do that. He also says that you may even be called back after dissolution by Ishvara if he wishes to give you a special adhikara i.e. a mission to do some specific activity or fulfill some specific role. Sometimes the speculation here on FFL is comical. Read it and weep. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@... wrote: below: can't reincarnate, can't take a body; that's because in the MMY/Jarvis model (from Shankara?); there are no bodies. The elements making up those bodies completely disintegrate at death, among those in CC higher; again, with no options. Conventional bodies of course exist, case in point: the cancer that ate up Ramana's arm and extinguished his physical life. ... Jim - I don't believe anybody is faulting you personally (or maybe they are). I'm not anyway...just saying that this model of existence is the official TMO party line. ... wrt the statement ...there is no experience of the body as a separate entity. True; but there is the experience of bodily sensations, conventionally; otherwise Ramana Maharshi would not have commented on the fact that insects scarred his flesh while he was meditating in the Patala Lingam; and also the fact that he was stung by a bee, and then apologized to the bees for stirring them up. ... Nobody is calling into question nonduality. The question pertains solely to maintaining bodies...for some purpose. Not having any would be a no-brainer as far as options go, yes? Ramana said that he maintained 20 of them in different dimensions.. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@ wrote: after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. I think you added the part In other words In UC there is no experience of the body as a separate identity as it is experienced prior to that state. It doesn't mean it stops being used as a vehicle for evolution and experience, just that it is no longer identified on the inside as me (of course to pretend such a thing externally only leads to confusion). Nothing odd about that. What IS odd is those here who believe that enlightenment creates more boundaries than it dissolves; can't reincarnate, can't take a body. What a complete and utter misunderstanding. This is the view of enlightenment from ignorance and identification. No wonder Barry got it ass-backwards. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@ wrote: Comes from Jerry Jarvis. (statement to me in 1973, I was in his office one day when he said emphatically that after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. ... I'm planning on writing Jerry, asking him about this dogma. ... Yes, it seems to contradict the 200% of life orientation, doesn't it? Looks like Jerry has some explaining to do, imo. http://www.fantasygallery.net/caldwell/art_4_cc03.html --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@ wrote: Reincarnation and heaven are not realities opposed to each other. Its just the fantasy that one spends one's afterlife in either heaven or hell *eternally* that is opposed to reincarnation. Also, the self and manifest world don't vanish with Self Realization. Maharishi said the EXACT OPPOSITE to that - A person lives 200% of life; 100% relative and 100% absolute. You taught TM so I am curious how you got this so screwed up in your mind?
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
It would be more helpful if you would hold your own pretensions in equal contempt. . --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Does it help that I hold all their pretensions about knowing what happens after death in equal contempt? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dixon mdixon.6569@ wrote: Curtis, it's not just Christians that say you're going to hell, it's Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims as well. Christianity is the only one that claims a *get- out of- jail* card. Your beef is not with Christ or his teaching, it's with people who are passionate about their beliefs but can't articulate their point of view any better. The world is evolving, we used to burn heretics and witches at the stake. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 8:18:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Â Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief, so we want a little payback. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my burrito alfresco with no cheese in a drive-thru, when I get to where I can stop and eat it, I will always find out that my burrito is slimed with that nasty cheese-food-product that doubles the calories on my already guilty meal while presenting my liver with Martin-molecules of fat that makes my liver make that Homer Simpson sound when it tries to oxidize it: Doh! So I get it that spiking the ball is too much and I believe most people not trying to fill up media space feel that way too. But lets not forget that for every one of these people there are one hundred, (thousand, hundred thousand???) people who basically believe the same thing without the stop-watch. And some of them are making political/ecological decisions about our custodianship of a planet that they believe is their launching pad, and disposable. So for me, it is a virtue to call BS on such claims when we can. I only wish the media could grow a pair and connect this with all the other slo-mo rapture believers. In fact I would like to see an article pointing out that while this small fringe was eating their crow (here is a case where that crappy cheese might help the taste) millions of Christians had re-affirmed their faith that morning in
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@... wrote: It would be more helpful if you would hold your own pretensions in equal contempt. So are you going to list what you think they are or should I put this in my you are a poopy pants file? . --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Does it help that I hold all their pretensions about knowing what happens after death in equal contempt? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dixon mdixon.6569@ wrote: Curtis, it's not just Christians that say you're going to hell, it's Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims as well. Christianity is the only one that claims a *get- out of- jail* card. Your beef is not with Christ or his teaching, it's with people who are passionate about their beliefs but can't articulate their point of view any better. The world is evolving, we used to burn heretics and witches at the stake. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 8:18:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Â Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief, so we want a little payback. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my burrito alfresco with no cheese in a drive-thru, when I get to where I can stop and eat it, I will always find out that my burrito is slimed with that nasty cheese-food-product that doubles the calories on my already guilty meal while presenting my liver with Martin-molecules of fat that makes my liver make that Homer Simpson sound when it tries to oxidize it: Doh! So I get it that spiking the ball is too much and I believe most people not trying to fill up media space feel that way too. But lets not forget that for every one of these people there are one hundred, (thousand, hundred thousand???) people who basically believe the same thing without the stop-watch. And some of them are making political/ecological decisions about our custodianship of a planet that they believe is their launching pad, and disposable. So for me, it is a virtue to call BS on such claims when we can. I only wish the media could
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Sometimes the speculation here on FFL is comical. Agreed!...especially what's written underneath Go read Shankara's commentary...; but thanks anyway; I'll pass on Shankara. http://www.fantasygallery.net/beauvais/art_14_Dragon-at-the-Djinn.html --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@... wrote: Go read Shankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutra-s. He says if you want to reside in Brahma-loka you may do so - that is until everything is dissolved at the cosmic pralaya. If you want to play around and enjoy cosmic siddhi-s you may also do that. He also says that you may even be called back after dissolution by Ishvara if he wishes to give you a special adhikara i.e. a mission to do some specific activity or fulfill some specific role. Sometimes the speculation here on FFL is comical. Read it and weep. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@ wrote: below: can't reincarnate, can't take a body; that's because in the MMY/Jarvis model (from Shankara?); there are no bodies. The elements making up those bodies completely disintegrate at death, among those in CC higher; again, with no options. Conventional bodies of course exist, case in point: the cancer that ate up Ramana's arm and extinguished his physical life. ... Jim - I don't believe anybody is faulting you personally (or maybe they are). I'm not anyway...just saying that this model of existence is the official TMO party line. ... wrt the statement ...there is no experience of the body as a separate entity. True; but there is the experience of bodily sensations, conventionally; otherwise Ramana Maharshi would not have commented on the fact that insects scarred his flesh while he was meditating in the Patala Lingam; and also the fact that he was stung by a bee, and then apologized to the bees for stirring them up. ... Nobody is calling into question nonduality. The question pertains solely to maintaining bodies...for some purpose. Not having any would be a no-brainer as far as options go, yes? Ramana said that he maintained 20 of them in different dimensions.. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@ wrote: after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. I think you added the part In other words In UC there is no experience of the body as a separate identity as it is experienced prior to that state. It doesn't mean it stops being used as a vehicle for evolution and experience, just that it is no longer identified on the inside as me (of course to pretend such a thing externally only leads to confusion). Nothing odd about that. What IS odd is those here who believe that enlightenment creates more boundaries than it dissolves; can't reincarnate, can't take a body. What a complete and utter misunderstanding. This is the view of enlightenment from ignorance and identification. No wonder Barry got it ass-backwards. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@ wrote: Comes from Jerry Jarvis. (statement to me in 1973, I was in his office one day when he said emphatically that after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. ... I'm planning on writing Jerry, asking him about this dogma. ... Yes, it seems to contradict the 200% of life orientation, doesn't it? Looks like Jerry has some explaining to do, imo. http://www.fantasygallery.net/caldwell/art_4_cc03.html --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@ wrote: Reincarnation and heaven are not realities opposed to each other. Its just the fantasy that one spends one's afterlife in either heaven or hell *eternally* that is opposed to reincarnation. Also, the self and manifest world don't vanish with Self Realization. Maharishi said the EXACT OPPOSITE to that - A person lives 200% of life; 100% relative and 100% absolute. You taught TM so I am curious how you got this so screwed up in your mind?
[FairfieldLife] Re: When Prophecy Fails
Glad he piped up to correct the record. Xeno, sorry for misleading you in part. Apparently, according to O-J, his team and Markovsky had not gotten together prior to Markovsky's interviews badmouthing the ME study, contrary to what I was told. On the other hand, for Markovsky to say they had refused to give him the data is barely a half- truth if O-J's account is accurate. And I don't know how what you overheard him say fits into this. Again, though, Markovsky would undoubtedly have his own version of what happened. At least now we have O-J's version rather than hearsay. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer rick@... wrote: Dear Rick, I just got this alert of a comment on FF Life that I refused to share the data on the Israel Study. Please respond with a note that this data is posted on my website. It is available to anyone. It is under the heading Data Sharing, which describes the situation in which that false allegation arose. The following is the URL http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/SocietalEffects/Critics-Rebuttals/index.cfm#Fales_and_Markovsky Thanks, David David W. Orme-Johnson, PhD 191 Dalton Dr. Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32458 (850) 231-2866 (Home) (850) 830-5847 (Mobile) Skype: davidoj108 davidoj@... www.TruthAboutTM.com www.Orme-JohnsonPaintings.com
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Sounds to me as if Maharishi should have read Shankara's commentary. :-) We're very aware that there are different theories about all of this, empt. What you seem unaware of is what MMY's stance was. It was intractable; in the famous talks being referred to here questioners went on for some minutes asking him whether there was some other option other than drop merging with the ocean after dying in CC. He kept saying No. They asked him whether that didn't seem odd to him, because it would mean that the person who died in CC had lost forever the ability to attain GC and UC, and he kept saying, That's just the way it is. Personally I think that MMY was just not a terribly rigor- ous thinker, and probably got this notion into his head early in life and then spouted it out without really thinking it through. But that WAS his stance, and a fundamental part of the TM dogma. I'm not surprised that Jimbo doesn't know this, because he has the intel- lectual depth of a turnip, but I'm surprised you don't know it. As the Judester says from time to time, what we're talking here is not whether Maharishi was right -- I certainly don't think he was -- just what it was that he taught. What he taught was that when you die after CC there is no more incarnation, period. No other option. Somebody here who gives a shit can probably remember the actual name and date of the famous lectures in which he said all this on tape; they're probably still out there somewhere. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@... wrote: Go read Shankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutra-s. He says if you want to reside in Brahma-loka you may do so - that is until everything is dissolved at the cosmic pralaya. If you want to play around and enjoy cosmic siddhi-s you may also do that. He also says that you may even be called back after dissolution by Ishvara if he wishes to give you a special adhikara i.e. a mission to do some specific activity or fulfill some specific role. Sometimes the speculation here on FFL is comical. Read it and weep. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@ wrote: below: can't reincarnate, can't take a body; that's because in the MMY/Jarvis model (from Shankara?); there are no bodies. The elements making up those bodies completely disintegrate at death, among those in CC higher; again, with no options. Conventional bodies of course exist, case in point: the cancer that ate up Ramana's arm and extinguished his physical life. ... Jim - I don't believe anybody is faulting you personally (or maybe they are). I'm not anyway...just saying that this model of existence is the official TMO party line. ... wrt the statement ...there is no experience of the body as a separate entity. True; but there is the experience of bodily sensations, conventionally; otherwise Ramana Maharshi would not have commented on the fact that insects scarred his flesh while he was meditating in the Patala Lingam; and also the fact that he was stung by a bee, and then apologized to the bees for stirring them up. ... Nobody is calling into question nonduality. The question pertains solely to maintaining bodies...for some purpose. Not having any would be a no-brainer as far as options go, yes? Ramana said that he maintained 20 of them in different dimensions.. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, whynotnow7 whynotnow7@ wrote: after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to report on that fact. I think you added the part In other words In UC there is no experience of the body as a separate identity as it is experienced prior to that state. It doesn't mean it stops being used as a vehicle for evolution and experience, just that it is no longer identified on the inside as me (of course to pretend such a thing externally only leads to confusion). Nothing odd about that. What IS odd is those here who believe that enlightenment creates more boundaries than it dissolves; can't reincarnate, can't take a body. What a complete and utter misunderstanding. This is the view of enlightenment from ignorance and identification. No wonder Barry got it ass-backwards. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@ wrote: Comes from Jerry Jarvis. (statement to me in 1973, I was in his office one day when he said emphatically that after reaching Unity, the only fate is annihiliation of existence, relatively speaking; since the supposed purpose of evolution has been fulfilled and there's nothing else to do). In other words, total extinction of all bodies, gross and subtle; but the Self remains, of course, without any bodies able to
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
On May 23, 2011, at 9:10 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@... wrote: It would be more helpful if you would hold your own pretensions in equal contempt. So are you going to list what you think they are or should I put this in my you are a poopy pants file? I'd just go ahead and put it in the poopy pants file folder and CC the Divine Catholic Mother over him. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: snip Ignoring the fact that someone who claims to be Maharishi-enlightened is ignorant of one of MMY's most controversial teachings, it's a pretty contro- versial teaching. Yes, one of his most controversial, in fact. giggle I love it when Barry lets his rhetoric get away from him. snip Me, I didn't believe it when I was in the room when Maharishi said it, and I don't believe it now. Wiser teachers have presented more balanced views of the situation. And they certainly should know! snip I completely agree with Curtis that the desire to get off the wheel and no longer incarnate is kinda low vibe and life denying. I think it's something that only someone who has missed the whole *point* of Unity and still lives in duality would think up. How could anyone who has begun to perceive that there is no difference between Absolute and relative in UC come to believe that not reincarnating would be preferable to or higher than just simply reincarnating again. There is no difference between Absolute and relative; where can the concept of better or higher enter into it? Maybe it's not a matter of higher or better but simply that one is done, fully baked, no longer any need to come back. Or, probably more likely, it could be that one who is not in permanent Unity simply has no hope of comprehending the situation and is just uselessly flapping his or her dualistic gums. I think Maharishi didn't think much of life and living. He *always* managed to look down on anything relative as being lower than the transcendent, or the pure subjective experience of the Absolute. Sure, that's why he always talked about 200 percent of life, 100 percent relative and 100 percent Absolute, because he thought only the Absolute 100 percent was worthwhile. Right? Jeez.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Camping Rapture disappoints
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@... wrote: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110523/ts_yblog_thelookout/doomsday-prophet-followers-flabbergasted-world-didnt-end Interesting: 'It has been a really tough weekend,' Camping said Sunday, after emerging from his Alameda, California home for the first time to talk to a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle. 'I'm looking for answers ... But now I have nothing else to say,' he said, adding that he would make a full statement today Evans, Camping's PR aide, told NPR he hopes Family Radio will reimburse followers who spent their savings in anticipation of the rapture, but that he can't guarantee it. Well, at any rate, it appears that Camping didn't abscond with the funds after all. Do you think that might possibly be causing Barry just a little bit of cognitive dissonance? Harold Camping should be grateful because now he can just disappear with the 72 million in donations he's collected as a result of this scam. Can you say 'vacation in Rio?' I think you can. OOpsie... (And he's still putting question marks *inside* the close quotes.)
[FairfieldLife] Derry's NDE: meeting Jesus in the Heavenly Garden
Says she met Jesus who gave her a choice to stay in Heaven or return to the earth. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/triggers13.html
[FairfieldLife] Emanuel Swedenborg's Near Death Experiences
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/triggers14.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@ wrote: It would be more helpful if you would hold your own pretensions in equal contempt. So are you going to list what you think they are or should I put this in my you are a poopy pants file? I'll take a stab at it, you are like a kitty with a ball of yarn - it's very cute, the writing is awesome, but you spin quite a yarn and end up going nowhere. Thanks for the entertainment though..:-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@... wrote: On May 23, 2011, at 9:10 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@ wrote: It would be more helpful if you would hold your own pretensions in equal contempt. So are you going to list what you think they are or should I put this in my you are a poopy pants file? I'd just go ahead and put it in the poopy pants file folder and CC the Divine Catholic Mother over him. :-) Umm..not funny Uncle Vaj, go back to your choking on the parroted vomit routine, the daily Vakragita discourses, funny and entertaining as hell..LOL..
[FairfieldLife] Graphic representationof Swedenborg's Cosmology
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/triggers141.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: Camping Rapture disappoints
For those curious--Curtis, you in particular might want to read this post, at least--HuffPo has a live blog of a Camping press conference, now concluded. He doesn't appear to be inclined to give any money back, unfortunately. Here's the live blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/23/harold-camping-speaks_n_865867.html#30_has-camping-hurt-the-credibility-of-religion-and-why-keep-predicting-the-end http://tinyurl.com/44v6lrp HuffPo also had a pretty good interview with him right before May 21: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/harold-camping-judgment-day-may-21_n_864507.html http://tinyurl.com/3ex5u6c Among other interesting points, he doesn't believe in hell; he thinks the unsaved will never have conscious existence again...That person himself will not know anything about it, they are dead. He also does not know whether he himself will be saved. He believes that has been predetermined by God. And in the live blog, he says one doesn't have to be a Christian to be saved. Those last three ideas don't quite jibe with the way Camping and his ilk have been portrayed here. (He does say some other things that are pretty objectionable, in particular about gays, however.) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Yifu yifuxero@ wrote: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110523/ts_yblog_thelookout/doomsday-prophet-followers-flabbergasted-world-didnt-end Interesting: 'It has been a really tough weekend,' Camping said Sunday, after emerging from his Alameda, California home for the first time to talk to a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle. 'I'm looking for answers ... But now I have nothing else to say,' he said, adding that he would make a full statement today Evans, Camping's PR aide, told NPR he hopes Family Radio will reimburse followers who spent their savings in anticipation of the rapture, but that he can't guarantee it. Well, at any rate, it appears that Camping didn't abscond with the funds after all. Do you think that might possibly be causing Barry just a little bit of cognitive dissonance? Harold Camping should be grateful because now he can just disappear with the 72 million in donations he's collected as a result of this scam. Can you say 'vacation in Rio?' I think you can. OOpsie... (And he's still putting question marks *inside* the close quotes.)
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
Ah Curtis, strike some balance! You hate them because you think they hate you, and this makes them, more frustrated and determined to save your soul and on and on and on. Brake the cycle. Just *forgive* them for they not not what they do, if that's what you think. Forgive, letting go of the mantra, aren't they the same? Letting go. Don't hang on to toxins.Let them go. Letting go of the mantra is the process of transcending, forgiving is the outward expression of expanding love. One should lead to the other. So getting caught up in contempt should be off your game. But hey, I'm jus sayin' From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Mon, May 23, 2011 5:00:29 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Does it help that I hold all their pretensions about knowing what happens after death in equal contempt? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dixon mdixon.6569@... wrote: Curtis, it's not just Christians that say you're going to hell, it's Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims as well. Christianity is the only one that claims a *get- out of- jail* card. Your beef is not with Christ or his teaching, it's with people who are passionate about their beliefs but can't articulate their point of view any better. The world is evolving, we used to burn heretics and witches at the stake. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 8:18:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Â Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief, so we want a little payback. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my burrito alfresco with no cheese in a drive-thru, when I get to where I can stop and eat it, I will always find out that my burrito is slimed with that nasty cheese-food-product that doubles the calories on my already guilty meal while presenting my liver with Martin-molecules of fat that makes my liver make that Homer Simpson sound when it tries to oxidize it: Doh! So I get it that spiking the ball is too much and I believe most people not trying to fill up media space feel that way too. But lets not forget that for every one of these people there are one hundred,
[FairfieldLife] Imagine
Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one
[FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite...
One of the values held by monastics is to maintain vigilant attention upon your own failings and ignore and forget the failings of other. Ignore means not to hold them in mind at all - even as a place in memory. You were previously saying your experience was equal to the practice of monasticism. Thus, you already know this. Remember? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@ wrote: It would be more helpful if you would hold your own pretensions in equal contempt. So are you going to list what you think they are or should I put this in my you are a poopy pants file? . --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Does it help that I hold all their pretensions about knowing what happens after death in equal contempt? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dixon mdixon.6569@ wrote: Curtis, it's not just Christians that say you're going to hell, it's Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims as well. Christianity is the only one that claims a *get- out of- jail* card. Your beef is not with Christ or his teaching, it's with people who are passionate about their beliefs but can't articulate their point of view any better. The world is evolving, we used to burn heretics and witches at the stake. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 8:18:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And another bite... Â Excellent find Judy. The follow-up comments are really interesting too. This really made me think about my own emotions about this group. Although she is getting some play from her original take, she is still cashing in on the story like everyone else. But that is not the most interesting thing for me. I remember when I first drove past a van on a street in my neighborhood with this rapture date claim on the side. It got me thinking and I fantasized going to this house with a sign on the day after that said counter-evidence is a bitch isn't it? or something equally snarky. As the days got closer and I saw some media coverage I realized that I didn't need my hat in the ring. I had a private party gig Saturday and considered putting empty clothes in front of my set-up as if someone had raptured in front of me. The party I was playing for was DC, well-off, hip-enough, nice folks who threw in a few references to the time of the event and chuckled a bit. I didn't sense any malice or the kind of put down this writer seems to be objecting to. I'm not sure the press's need for a story really reflects how we all think about it all. Mixed with the snark was some genuine bafflement, how could someone buy in to this? But here is where is gets even more interesting for me. Even though this event was a compressed example put into a falsifiable form, the rapture is not a fringe belief. It is mainstream Christianity. And if you drop the date all the other beliefs are there. So this writer is basically saying that we should all pity all of those Christians who believe all the same stuff without the specific date. Should we think of them as having a dysfunction for such beliefs? And here is where it gets in my craw a bit. More than the belief that sitting in a dome doing Maharishi's sidhis creates world peace, by a long shot. In their fantasy they are not satisfied with creating a ideal society like TMers. Although I bristle a bit when people lay an I am intrinsically more WHATEVER than you are and understand life in a way you cannot this is not even close to what these people are laying on me. They want my head on a pike for eternity! Bastards! I think that is what gets people not in their group pissed, the malicious arrogance of their belief, so we want a little payback. We can't get if from the smug ill-wishing Christians who basically believe the same thing. With this group we get the satisfaction we will never get after death with the mainstream Christians to say, Neeener nner nner. I mean that is not so high on the malicious scale as their wishing I will spend an eternity in a place where whenever I order my burrito alfresco with no cheese in a drive-thru, when I get to where I can stop and eat it, I will always find out that my burrito is slimed with that nasty cheese-food-product that doubles the calories on my already guilty meal while presenting my liver with Martin-molecules of fat that makes my liver make that Homer Simpson sound when it tries to oxidize it: Doh! So I get it