[CTRL] Hell
-Caveat Lector- "The future's here, we're it, we're on our own". John Barlow and Bob Weir, 1982. -- Forwarded message -- Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2003 09:49:53 -0500 From: t Subject: Hell Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 07:14:43 -0700 (PDT) From: x Subject: Hell While walking down the street one day, George "Dubya" Bush is shot by a disgruntled NRA member. His soul arrives in heaven and he is met by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. "Welcome to Heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem: We seldom see a Republican around these parts, so we're not sure what to do with you." "No problem, just let me in; I'm a believer." says Dubya. "I'd like to just let you in, but I have orders from the Man Himself: He says you have to spend one day in Hell and one day in Heaven. Then you must choose where you'll live for eternity." "But, I've already made up my mind; I want to be in Heaven." "I'm sorry, but we have our rules." And with that, St. Peter escorts him to an elevator and he goes down, down, down, all the way to Hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a lush golf course; the sun is shining in a cloudless sky, the temperature a perfect 72 degrees. In the distance is a beautiful clubhouse. Standing in front of it his dad...and thousands of other Republicans who had helped him out over the years.. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Jerry Falwell . The whole of the "Right" was there ... everyone laughing ... happy casually but expensively dressed. They run to greet him, hug him, and reminisce about the good times they had getting rich at expense of the "suckers and peasants". They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster and caviar. The Devil himself comes up to Bush with a frosty drink, "Have a Margarita and relax, Dubya!" "Uh, I can't drink no more, I took a pledge," says Junior, dejectedly. "This is Hell, son: you can drink and eat all you want and not worry, and it just gets better from there!" Dubya takes the drink and finds himself liking the Devil, who he thinks is a really very friendly guy who tells funny jokes and pulls hilarious nasty pranks. kind of like a Yale Skull and Bones brother with real horns. They are having such a great time that, before he realizes it, it's time to go. Everyone gives him a big hug and waves as Bush steps on the elevator and heads upward. When the elevator door reopens, he is in Heaven again and St. Peter is waiting for him. "Now it's time to visit Heaven," the old man says, opening the gate. So for 24 hours Bush is made to hang out with a bunch of honest, good- natured people who enjoy each other's company, talk about things other than money, and treat each other decently. Not a nasty prank or frat boy joke among them; no fancy country clubs and, while the food tastes great, it's not caviar or lobster. And these people are all poor, he doesn't see anybody he knows, and he isn't even treated like someone special! Worst of all, to Dubya, Jesus turns out to be some kind of Jewish hippie with his endless 'peace' and 'do unto others' jive. "Whoa," he says uncomfortably to himself, "Pat Robertson never prepared me for this!" The day done, St. Peter returns and says, "Well, then, you've spent a day in Hell and a day in Heaven. Now choose where you want to live for eternity." With the 'Jeopardy' theme playing softly in the background, Dubya reflects for a minute, then answers: "Well, I would never have thought I'd say this -- I mean, Heaven has been delightful and all -- but I really think I belong in Hell with my friends." So Saint Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down, all the way to Hell. The doors of the elevator open and he is in the middle of a barren scorched earth covered with garbage and toxic industrial waste.. kind of like Houston. He is horrified to see all of his friends, dressed in rags and chained together, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags. They are groaning and moaning in pain, faces and hands black with grime. The Devil comes over to Dubya and puts an arm around his shoulder. "I don't understand," stammers a shocked Dubya, "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a clubhouse and we ate lobster and caviar... drank booze. We screwed around and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and everybody looks miserable!" The Devil looks at him, smiles slyly, and purrs, "Yesterday we were campaigning; today you voted for us." (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om 2">
[CTRL] Hell To Pay
-Caveat Lector- http://www.antiwar.com/justin/justincol.html June 4, 2003 HELL TO PAY The War Party will get theirs God willing The good news is that, according to one of President Bush's top advisors, "If many more months go by and our troops are still there, the Iraqis are still fighting each other and us, and we still haven't found any WMD, there will be hell to pay." The bad news is that all of us, and not just George W. Bush and the Republican party, will do the paying and not only in terms of shelling out cash, but in the up close and personal sense of losing American lives, breaking up marriages, depriving children of having two parents, and generally wreaking social devastation. For the Iraqis, the human costs of this war are immediately and dramatically devastating, while the effect on the American side that is, on our own troops, and their families is slower-acting but, ultimately, no less destructive of the social order. That's the lesson of how the Spartan Brigade, the top-flight unit credited with winning an early victory for the U.S., is being treated. They won the war and, instead of being sent home as promised, they have been assigned to occupy Fallujah the locus of rising resistance to the U.S. occupation. This Los Angeles Times story is no doubt an example of "liberal bias" in the news, because it focuses on what's really important, and not the grandiose schemes of world-saving ideologues: "They've lived in the mice-ridden desert tents of Kuwait, in their vehicles, in a palace strewn with debris from the bombs of the U.S. Air Force, in a dingy, looted Baath Party complex and, as of this week, at a former amusement park called Dreamland. "Meanwhile, life elsewhere moves on. 'My son turns 3 in July, and I've missed every single birthday,' said Maj. Roger Shuck. Pvt. Clayton Harper said he has been forced to put off his wedding indefinitely. And Staff Sgt. George Jones said he has 'lost a wife and two dogs out of it.' Jones, a lanky, tanned Virginian with sad blue eyes, discovered his house was empty after reaching his wife on her cell phone for a rare call and asking why she wasn't home." How dare anyone put their own petty personal concerns above the demands imposed on us by History! Don't they know there's a war on? How can they complain: they signed up to fight, didn't they? Yet the truth is these guys didn't sign up to conquer the world, but to defend the U.S. against those who would harm us. They were lied to we've all been lied to. Iraq, we were told in the months leading up to the Iraq attack, possesses "weapons of mass destruction" which, the President solemnly assured us, could be used to attack the continental U.S. via drones. He disdained any imperial ambitions, and promised to let the Iraqis determine their own destiny once they had been "liberated." But there's no sign of either Iraqi WMD, or that much-vaunted "liberation" the Iraqis were supposed to be jumping for joy over. The U.S. has decided to bypass the Iraqis and just appoint an "interim government" with no signs of an exit strategy, and more troops headed to Iraq to beef up the occupation. Former Secretary of the Army Thomas White avers that top civilians in the Defense Department "are unwilling to come to grips" with the size and scope of Operation Enduring Occupation: "'This is not what they were selling (before the war),' White said, describing how senior Defense officials downplayed the need for a large occupation force. 'It's almost a question of people not wanting to 'fess up to the notion that we will be there a long time and they might have to set up a rotation and sustain it for the long term.'" When General Eric Shinseki testified before Congress just prior to the commencement of hostilities that "several hundred thousand" troops would be needed to keep Iraq pacified, the War Party went ballistic: when Secretary White agreed with him, Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz forced him out. In the rush to drag us into war, the details were slurred over and Americans were presented with a phony dichotomy: either strike, or be struck. Now we find ourselves being drawn into the Middle East vortex, with the War Party eyeing Iran even as we recognize the enormity of what we've bought into. Our war aims have changed without official acknowledgement, from disarming Saddam Hussein to subjugating much of the Middle East to direct American rule. This is an imperial policy in everything but name. Some, like Niall Ferguson and the bolder neocons, want us to own up to our ambitions. Exhorting us to take up the White Man's Burden, and explicitly model ourselves after our British predecessors, they would make George W. Bush the twenty-first century equivalent of King George III, monarch of the Anglosphere. WMD or no WMD, the conquest of Iraq was always a shill. We successfully contained Saddam for 12 years and could have continued the same policy without incurring any added costs. Why, then, did we go to war?
[CTRL] HELL-FIRE FRANCIS
http://www.blather.net/archives3/issue3no1.html HELL-FIRE FRANCIS A few months ago, Blather spent two issues telling the tale of the Irish Hell-Fire Club of the 1730s and 1740s, whilst exploring the available (and often apocryphal) evidence of the alleged 'satanic' behaviour of the ruling classes of the time. We now turn our attention to the English Hell-Fire Club, which operated from the late 1740s and into the 1760s. \ Ironically, this Club never really called itself a Hell-Fire Club - it had various other names dreamt up by its founder, Sir Francis Dashwood (later Lord Le Despencer), such as 'The Knights of St. Francis of Wycombe', or 'The Monks of Medmenham', but seems to have attracted the 'Hell-Fire' label through the organisation's reputation, echoing that of earlier clubs - suppression of 'Hell-Fire Clubs' had been enforced (quietly uselessly, it would seem) since 1721, suggesting that the clubs of later decades were more exclusive, and perhaps a little more pretentious than the early manifestations. As E. Beresford Chancellor quotes from a news-sheet of February 20th, 1720: " The Hell-Fires, you may guess, aim at a more transcendent malignity, deriding the forms of religion as a trifle with them, by a natural progression from the form they turn to the substance; with Lucifer they fly at Divinity. The third person of the Trinity is what they peculiarly attack; by the following specimen you may judge of their good will: i.e., their calling for a Holy-Ghost-pye at the tavern, in which, by the bye, you may still observe the propriety and justice of God's judgement on them that blasts the advantages of their education so as to make this shocking stupidity to be the poignancy of their wit, and the life they lead the sublimity of their genius. Such is their disposition; the next things to be remarked are their education and usual place of conference. Their education then, after the care of tender parents and their initiation into the liberal arts, is proposed to be finished in an academy; (do not mistake me) not a scholastic, schismatical one, but a riding one, where obsceneness, curses, blasphemy, exclamations with revolving regularity meet each curvet of the more rational animal. Their usual place of conference in full council is a diminutive tavern not far from thence, where the master and cook may perhaps in time hear something from a Magistrate for striking in with the rakes' blasphemous jests and supplying them with cards and dice on Sundays." As may be divined from our earlier writings, the Irish Hell-Fires of the 1730s, despite including members of peerage and parliament, seemed to be a wild weird bunch of philandering rakes. The English Hell-Fire club, with which this article is concerned, was a different kettle of fish altogether. They were a small, organised group of select members, with a central core of 13 members, Dashwood - a Member of Parliament being the leader. Other members (or 'apostles') included Lord Sandwich (who at one point commanded the Royal Navy), the famous politician John Wilkes, painter William Hogarth and poets Charles Churchill, Paul Whitehead and Robert Lloyd. American Benjamin Franklin certainly visited Dashwood's family seat and West Wycombe, but doesn't seem to have been at the core of any 'Hell-Fire' activities, despite the more spurious books written about the Club. One of these is Daniel P. Mannix's *The Hell-Fire Club*, which gives away its angle of attack with a tabloidish subtitle: 'Orgies were their pleasure - Politics their pastime'. Mannix's 'account' of the Club's activities reads more like a Denis Wheatley novel than an historical account - we could never trust a book that pertains to tell the truth, grabs quotes from all around and yet has no references or index. However, despite its gleeful horror and emotive claims, this book is a useful guide to the sources of the apocryphal stories surrounding Dashwood and friends. Of the various sources we've come across, the rather rare 1925 *The Lives of The Rakes IV - The Hellfire Club* by E. Beresford Chancellor and *The Dashwoods of West Wycombe* by the current Sir Francis Dashwood seem to be the most sober and apparently reliable texts available. Even today, when 'Hell-Fire Clubs' are mentioned in even the most secular of circles, vague mutterings of 'Satanists, weren't they?' can be heard. The problem is, it's quite difficult to define *what* the practice of 'Satanism' really entails, apart from the writings of Anton Szandor LaVey and the Church of Satan - an organisation which certainly does not conform to the media - and thus public - perception of 'Satanism', e.g. human sacrifice, ritual abuse, etc. Judging by various cases of alleged Satanism in recent years - the mainstream media using the term as if it were synonymous with 'occultism', many of today's 'independent' practitioners seem to doing *what they think Satanism should be*. Of course, there are schools of 'thought' that would
[CTRL] 'Hell busting loose' over ballot denial
-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! 'Hell busting loose' over ballot denial Senator seeks defense secretary's help on absentee disqualifications -- -- By Jon E. Dougherty © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has asked Secretary of Defense William Cohen to help ensure that all military absentee ballots be counted in the state of Florida, even as Americans, military members, veterans and other lawmakers express outrage over the disqualification of those ballots in some Florida counties. Following the disqualification of 1,400 military ballots from overseas military members by a few county canvassing boards in Florida, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., in a letter sent Friday to Cohen, called the dismissal of these ballots a "matter of grave concern." "Our service men and women around the world are protecting the very freedom that allowed our nation to proceed with the election on Nov. 7," Warner wrote. "Yet it now appears that some of those service personnel may be denied the right to have their votes count in that election." Sen. John Warner, R-Va. Of particular concern to Warner, the letter said, are county-level decisions by election officials in some Florida counties to throw out absentee ballots "which do not bear postmarks, although these ballots were received in the voter's state by the deadline set by state law." Though Warner admitted that some overseas ballots "regrettably" did not include postmarks -- and that such postmarks are "explicitly required by Department of Defense directives and should have been affixed" -- the Senate armed services chief said the failure to include postmarks on those ballots was the fault "not of the voter but of the military postal clerk" who received and then shipped the ballots. As chairman of the Senate committee, Warner said, "I am deeply distressed that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines may lose their votes through no fault of their own." Specifically, Warner has called on Cohen to observe the provisions of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, 42 USC, 1973ff (et al) under Subchapter I-G, Under those provisions, Warner said -- which express "a strong federal policy to facilitate absentee voting by military personnel" deployed overseas during an election -- "states are required to permit such personnel to use absentee registration procedures and to vote by absentee ballot in federal elections." Warner said the provisions point out that absentee registration and voting procedures include, "if necessary, the use of a uniform federal ballot," and that "such ballots are to be carried in the mail 'expeditiously and free of postage.'" He added that those ballots "may be mailed at post offices established outside the United States, including ... the military postal system (39 USC -- 3406). "In the Act," Warner continued, "Congress recommends that the states assure that absentee ballots are mailed 'to absent uniformed services voters ... at the earliest opportunity' and 'expedite processing of balloting material with respect to absent uniformed services voters.'" Since before the Nov. 7 election, many U.S. military personnel have complained that they did not receive their ballots, even though they had requested them in plenty of time and through the proper channels. After WorldNetDaily's initial stories, Florida Rep. Joe Scarborough called for a congressional probe into whether "something was done to inhibit [the military's] ability to vote." Also, a San Antonio, Texas-based law firm is preparing to file suit in federal court in the western district of Texas on behalf of military personnel who claim they requested absentee ballots for local and national elections but did not receive them. "As Secretary of Defense," Warner said, "you have the principal responsibility for implementing the provisions of the Act. "Clearly the intent of both Congress and the Department of Defense is that every effort shall be made to handle absentee ballots as rapidly as possible and in accordance with the applicable law and regulations," Warner wrote. Though "not all military mail clerks" ensured that ballots were postmarked, the Virginia Republican said, "Capt. E.M. DuCom, USN, the deputy director of the Military Postal Agency, clearly confirms that human error -- as well as time and operational constraints -- results in some mail not being postmarked." Warner said he believed Cohen would agree that "the unique constraints faced by the military, and the failure of some military postal clerks to follow regulations, should not be allowed to disenfranchise members" and their families. "These voters have put themselves in harm's way in the defense of the nation and the rights of its citizens, including the right to vote," Warner wrote. "It would be unfair, unjust if the failure
[CTRL] Hell to Pay : The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton
-Caveat Lector- A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/" /A -Cui Bono?- from; http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895262746/qid=948731246/sr=1-2/002-931 4670-5153832 Click Here: A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895262746/qid=948731246/sr=1-2/0 02-9314670-5153832"Amazon.com: buying info: Hell to Pay : The Unfo /A - Hell to Pay : The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Barbara Olson Shopping with us is 100% safe. Guaranteed. (We'll set one up for you) View my Wish List List Price: $27.95 Our Price: $19.57 You Save: $8.38 (30%) Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. See larger photo Hardcover - 380 pages 1 edition (November 1999) Regnery Pub; ISBN: 0895262746 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.22 x 9.23 x 6.38 Amazon.com Sales Rank: 53 Popular in: Fayetteville, AR (#17) , Prescott, AZ (#3) . See more Avg. Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 112 Write an online review and share your thoughts with other readers! Customers who bought this book also bought: * Betrayal : How the Clinton Administration Undermined American Security; Bill Gertz * No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton; Christopher Hitchens * Bill and Hillary : The Marriage; Christopher P. Andersen * The First Partner : Hillary Rodham Clinton; Joyce Milton Click here for more suggestions... Auctions and zShops sellers and our other stores recommend: * Book CLINTON CONFIDENTIAL biography President Bill Hillary politics political (Current bid: $9.99) * It Takes A Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton;HARDBACK LIKE NEW (Current bid: $5.00) * Timperlake, Edward / Triplett : Year of the Rat : How Bill Clinton Compromised U (Price: $18.00) Reviews Editorial Reviews (5) Customer Reviews (112) Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Hell to Pay is yet another book on Hillary Rodham Clinton, this time from a conservative lawyer who served as the Republican chief counsel for the congressional committee investigating the Clintons' involvement in "Travelgate" and "Filegate." Barbara Olson traces the now familiar biographies of the president and first lady, contending that Mrs. Clinton is someone with dangerously liberal, even radical, political beliefs who "now seeks to foment revolutionary changes from the uniform of a pink suit." (Olson plays the theme heavily: each chapter of Hell to Pay begins with quotes from Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, which influenced the young Hillary Rodham.) There are some interesting new tidbits scattered throughout the book, like the fact that after law school Hillary Rodham tried to become a Marine Corps officer but was turned down; or that she told her high school paper her ambition after high school was "to marry a senator and settle down in Georgetown." Olson, attempting to dissect the mystery of the Clinton partnership, writes, "Most self-respecting women would have left" after Clinton's repeated infidelities. "Hillary chose to stay. She behaves as both a desperate lover, and like a frantic campaign manager protecting a flawed candidate Hillary, it seems, long ago accepted Bill Clinton as someone who could advance her goals, as a necessary complement to her intellectual cold-blooded pursuit of power." As the Clinton presidency draws to a close, that pursuit has taken her beyond the White House toward a bid for her own U.S. Senate seat. Olson predicts the Senate won't be enough, just the next step toward becoming the first woman president: "Hillary Clinton seeks nothing less than an office that will give her a platform from which to exercise real power and real world leadership." While Olson admits that "Bill Clinton has always excited the greatest passion not among his supporters, but among his detractors," the same could certainly be said of his wife--whose supporters will probably consider Hell to Pay a rehash of a too-familiar story, but whose detractors will no doubt savor every page. --Linda Killian Book Description In Accomplice , Olson separates fact from fiction and shows us Hilllary's often disturbing complicity in her husband's affairs. read more The author, Khris Price , January 18, 2000 HELP! I cannot find this book ANYWHERE! I am frantically searching for your book "Hell to Pay". My father is very ill and would like to read it. Can I get the book directly from you? read more The author, Barbara Olson , September 29, 1999 A book about the politics of Hillary Rodham Clinton This is a book about the politics of Hillary Clinton -- from her early days as a "Goldwater Girl" to her current candidacy for the United States Senate -- and beyond. Hillary Clinton is as complex a person politically as she is personally. As we are introduced to her as a national candidate, I believe it is important to understand who she is and what she intends to do if elected. Thank you and I hope you enjoy "Hell
Re: [CTRL] Hell to Pay : The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton
-Caveat Lector- A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/" /A -Cui Bono?- Barbara Olson was chief investigator for Congressman Dan Burton's COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM AND OVERSIGHT. She is married to attorney Theodore Olson. According to LaRouche, these two were running a "salon" in which they planned the framing of Clinton in the Paula Jones caper. Ted Olson and Kenneth Starr were apparently old buddies who worked together at some time. My guess is that this book isn't the most unbiased account you could find about Hillary. See http://www.larouchepub.com/olson_starr_salon.html Her questioning of various witnesses regarding the filegate affair is interesting, and can be found at http://www.house.gov/reform/oversight/finance/depolist/aldrich.htm http://www.house.gov/reform/oversight/finance/depolist/living96-09-24.htm http://www.house.gov/reform/oversight/finance/depolist/seidman.htm Linda Minor -Original Message- From: Kris Millegan [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Monday, January 24, 2000 10:32 AM Subject: [CTRL] Hell to Pay : The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton -Caveat Lector- A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/" /A -Cui Bono?- from; http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895262746/qid=948731246/sr=1-2/002- 931 4670-5153832 Click Here: A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895262746/qid=948731246/sr=1- 2/0 02-9314670-5153832"Amazon.com: buying info: Hell to Pay : The Unfo /A - Hell to Pay : The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Barbara Olson Shopping with us is 100% safe. Guaranteed. (We'll set one up for you) View my Wish List List Price: $27.95 Our Price: $19.57 You Save: $8.38 (30%) Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. See larger photo Hardcover - 380 pages 1 edition (November 1999) Regnery Pub; ISBN: 0895262746 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.22 x 9.23 x 6.38 Amazon.com Sales Rank: 53 Popular in: Fayetteville, AR (#17) , Prescott, AZ (#3) . See more Avg. Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 112 Write an online review and share your thoughts with other readers! Customers who bought this book also bought: * Betrayal : How the Clinton Administration Undermined American Security; Bill Gertz * No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton; Christopher Hitchens * Bill and Hillary : The Marriage; Christopher P. Andersen * The First Partner : Hillary Rodham Clinton; Joyce Milton Click here for more suggestions... Auctions and zShops sellers and our other stores recommend: * Book CLINTON CONFIDENTIAL biography President Bill Hillary politics political (Current bid: $9.99) * It Takes A Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton;HARDBACK LIKE NEW (Current bid: $5.00) * Timperlake, Edward / Triplett : Year of the Rat : How Bill Clinton Compromised U (Price: $18.00) Reviews Editorial Reviews (5) Customer Reviews (112) Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Hell to Pay is yet another book on Hillary Rodham Clinton, this time from a conservative lawyer who served as the Republican chief counsel for the congressional committee investigating the Clintons' involvement in "Travelgate" and "Filegate." Barbara Olson traces the now familiar biographies of the president and first lady, contending that Mrs. Clinton is someone with dangerously liberal, even radical, political beliefs who "now seeks to foment revolutionary changes from the uniform of a pink suit." (Olson plays the theme heavily: each chapter of Hell to Pay begins with quotes from Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, which influenced the young Hillary Rodham.) There are some interesting new tidbits scattered throughout the book, like the fact that after law school Hillary Rodham tried to become a Marine Corps officer but was turned down; or that she told her high school paper her ambition after high school was "to marry a senator and settle down in Georgetown." Olson, attempting to dissect the mystery of the Clinton partnership, writes, "Most self-respecting women would have left" after Clinton's repeated infidelities. "Hillary chose to stay. She behaves as both a desperate lover, and like a frantic campaign manager protecting a flawed candidate Hillary, it seems, long ago accepted Bill Clinton as someone who could advance her goals, as a necessary complement to her intellectual cold-blooded pursuit of power." As the Clinton presidency draws to a close, that pursuit has taken her beyond the White House toward a bid for her own U.S. Senate seat. Olson predicts the Senate won't be enough, just the next step toward becoming the first woman president: "Hillary Clinton seeks nothing less than an office that will give her a platform from which to exercise real power and real world leadership
[CTRL] HELL
-Caveat Lector- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/ 1999-08/29/001r-082999-idx.html Early Jews believed dead people, good and bad, all descended to the same destination, a nondescript underworld called Sheol. "There is no concrete Jewish vision of the afterlife..." HELL ON EARTH The scorched rockwalls of a valley below Jerusalem are saturated with the blood of untold abominations. This is the pit, the root of our worst fears. By Edwin Black Special to The Washington Post Sunday, August 29, 1999; Page F01 Below the Old City walls in Jerusalem there is a ravine that begins as a gentle, grassy separation between hills, then quickly descends south into the rocky earth. Eventually the ravine becomes a steep, craggy depth, scarred on its far side by shallow caves and pits pocked by hollowed-out chambers and narrow crypts. Everywhere you see scorches and smolder from trash fires. Rivulets of urine trickle down from open sewers at the cliffs above, watering thorn bushes, weeds and unexpected clumps of grass among the outcroppings. You smell the stench of decaying offal, the congealed stink of putrefied garbage and the absorbed reek of incinerated substances seared into the rock face. Crows circle low. Worms and maggots slither throughout. Listen. Imagine. Some cannot help but hear the tormented screams of babies being burned alive, the macabre incantations of the idolatrous in gruesome celebration, the agonized cries of helpless victims, and so many echoes of death and disconsolation that dwell here so pervasively not even the centuries can silence them. Welcome to Hell. Some say the real Hell -- or at least one of the central prototypes for our modern concept of that horrific place. This is Jerusalem's Gei Ben Hinnom, the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom. The valley was named for an alien nonsemitic family, the Hinnom clan that predated the First Temple period a thousand years before the Christian era, and established the locale as a place of abomination. Gei Ben Hinnom became Ge Hinnom (Valley of Hinnom), and eventually Gehenna in English or Gehennem in Arabic and Hebrew. Those who walked through the biblical Valley of the Shadow of Death walked here. Hellish images of unending torture and fire as punishment for a life of evil owe much to this hideous acreage, just a short walk from the path of righteousness that leads to the Temple Mount. Hellish Sacrifice Perhaps it is fitting that the path to Hell begins delightfully. In recent years, the northern and inoffensive length of the valley has become a zone of chic Israeli gentrification: exquisite town homes, landscaped parks, a concert bowl at the Sultan's Pool and movie theaters. But, as the ravine carves deeper and deeper between the rocky hills, and as it rounds the corners of Mount Zion into East Jerusalem en route to the Arab village of Silwan, Gei Ben Hinnom conjoins with the Valley of Kidron. Here it traverses a stretch that has become a sort of urban no-man's-land in the struggle between Arab and Israeli. As land that defies political peace, this is the only part of the valley that Arabs cannot improve and that Jews dare not. Therefore, little has changed here for centuries. Still visible are the original, deep angular cuts into the flat scorched stone that held the infamous Tophet, pagan altars created hundreds of years before Christ. Tophet altars are said to be named for the noisy drum that devotees of the mysterious dark god Molech would beat to drown out the ghastly cries of children immolated in sacrifice in front of their own willing parents. In the black rapture of their faith, mothers and fathers not only witnessed the sacrifice, but glorified the act. Beneath the ancient Tophet altars, one can still see foreboding square entryways barely big enough for a human torso to squeeze through. Within those depths lay a complex of carved-out crypts, as well as chambers for ritual preparation of the sacrificial victims. Little is known about Molech. Some archaeologists speculate that the Molech idol in Gei Ben Hinnom was equipped with outstretched, cantilevered arms that extended a small platform upon which the innocent baby was tied. Slowly the platform would swivel toward the consuming flames as the baby shrieked in helpless agony. No wonder this most hideous place is the focus of so much biblical wrath: "He defiled Tophet, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech" (II Kings 23:10). "Therefore the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter" (Jeremiah 19:16). The Hinges of Hades But how did a very authentic site of pagan abomination help define the concept of eternal punishment we call Hell? Two separate dynamics have been
