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Cartoon dug up by My Little Bird
A source told me that the one person who's tried to convert me in real life was very traumatised by the experience. Heh heh.
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A common disingenuous trick is to claim that an "impossible" task is telling one that "I M Possible". Of course, such linguistic sleight of hand is never applied to other words (An imperfect item/job tells one that "I M Perfect", so one might as well stop work).
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Joe Dever's Time of Need
by Jonathan Blake
A common aphorism says that a friend in need is a friend indeed. Now is Joe Dever's time of need.
We recently learned that Joe Dever is in need of surgery to remove malignant tumors on both of his kidneys. By the time we publish this issue of the Kai Grand Sentinel, Joe will have already been through a partial nephrectomy on June 8th. When we received his email, we immediately sent a message wishing him well in behalf of everyone involved with Project Aon (that means you).
On July 20th, after recuperation period for the first surgery, he will undergo a radical nephrectomy on his other kidney. We will keep you posted if we hear anything further about Joe's health.
The Lone Wolf MMORPG has posted a heartfelt message from Joe in response to their letter to him:
"I close my eyes. As I turn my head I see rank upon rank of noble Kai standing by my side, battle-armoured, caparisoned, resplendent. Their golden blades gleam in the dawn rays of an early summer's day, their proud faces resolute, steadfast against dark uncertainty. United and defiant we stand afore an implacable foe.
"I open my eyes. The Kai are with me still, strengthening my spirit, steeling my nerve for the fight that I alone must face. My battle, our victory.
"For Sommerlund and the Kai.
"Joe Dever"
Joe, we wish you good health and happiness in the coming days!
<http://www.lonewolf-online.com/>
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THE END OF THE WORLD & THE NEW WORLD ORDER: Black Helicopters, Hong Kong Gurkhas, Global Conspiracies, & The Mark of the Beast (Skeptics Society--Archives)
"Listen to any fundamentalist radio station for a while and you will hear reports of ominous black (i.e. unmarked) helicopters harassing good conservative folks. Supposedly they were hovering over the Branch Davidian compound in Waco just before the tanks went in. People have claimed that the helicopters are often filled with men wearing unusual uniforms, hence the speculation that they are carrying foreign troops and that these are trial runs for the U.N. takeover of the U.S., eventually instituting the world government that will be ruled by the Antichrist. Among the people who claim to have been buzzed and harassed by low-flying black helicopters are Christians who are home-schooling their children to keep them out of the secular school system. Despite the popularity and availability of video cameras and despite reports of repeated harassment, none of these sightings have ever been substantiated. This last minor fact has not reduced the fears concerning the infernal machines in the least. If anything, the ability of the black helicopters to avoid detection has added to their satanic mystique.
... Another horror story of the impending world government is that they have already subverted our money, planting occult symbols on dollar bills that hint at the drive to a globalist dictatorship. This was done during the (infamous) Roosevelt administration. The symbol in question is the pyramid with an eye on the back of the dollar bill. Below it is the Latin inscription Novus Ordo Seculorum, which translates as "New World Order." Or does it?... far from saying "New World Order," Novus Ordo Seclorum reads "New Order of the Ages." Since this symbol and motto are on the back of our country's Great Seal and were put there when the nation was being founded, they represent the revolutionary sentiment that by dispensing with kings, whose rule was autocratic and based on force, and replacing that system with a republic based on reason, balance of powers, and self rule, the founders of our nation were creating a new order for the ages.
Another phrase to be found on the back of the dollar bill, in fact one more prominently displayed than the Latin motto as well as being written in English is: "In God We Trust." For some reason this phrase and its obvious implications seem to be consistently overlooked by conspiracy theorists.
Other excursions into modern monetary subversion involve credit cards, bar codes, and other technologies that could potentially be a modern version of the Mark of the Beast. The most technologically sophisticated of these would be a computer microchip inserted under the skin either in the forehead or the back of the hand. Such technology is actually available and has been used to locate sheep and cattle grazing on range-lands. However, such solid state electronics are extremely vulnerable to electromagnetic fields, such as those generated by television screens. Sitting too near the boob-tube could erase the Mark of the Beast from many a couch potato.
... Official government and international organizations in the supposed conspiracy include the Federal Reserve System (FRS) and, of course, the United Nations, the world government itself. Facts have little credibility in the minds of conspiracy addicts when it comes to the major players in their cherished scenario. That the UN is unable to control or bring into obedience one warlord whose clan controls one section of one third-world city would seem to make it a paper tiger. The same is true of the European Community, the other major contender for the role of Empire of the Antichrist. That the EC was either unable or unwilling to intervene effectively in Bosnia, its own back yard without American assistance, makes it a bit of a dud as the Neo-Roman Empire. Conspiracy theorists counter that the U.N. and the EC are allowing the conditions in Bosnia and Somalia to deteriorate for various reasons of their own, among them being a draconian program of population control. Of course, if either of these two institutions were to intervene effectively, these same theorists would use those events as evidence of the growing power of the UN and the EC. Thus, their belief is confirmed regardless of what happens, a sure sign of intellectual self-deception.
Templars, Freemasons & the Dreaded Illuminati
It is understandable that those who see the world as rushing to its final doom are likely to see any group urging international cooperation as being an instrument of the Antichrist. Instead of seeing the CFR and the Trilateral Commission as idealistic and somewhat elitist brain trusts, millenarians see them as a network of semi-secret societies wielding power illegitimately, not merely to influence but to control sovereign national governments...
But were the Illuminati really such radicals? Indeed they were, and they were justly considered a threat by virtually every government in Europe. And what were the Illuminist beliefs that were so threatening to the governments of Weishaupt's day? Among them were such dangerous ideas as universal suffrage, equality of the sexes, and complete freedom of religion... Are the Illuminati still active? Are they the unifying power behind the CFR, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, and the Club of Rome? Are they the secret masters of worldwide Free masonry? For the most part the Illuminati were absorbed into other revolutionary groups. No doubt many joined the French Revolution or shifted in the 19th century from utopian socialism to Marxism. There is no evidence that they exist today.
... But children also need to exercise their minds. And here is the rub. People can only be taught to think for themselves by questioning the validity of ideas. People who question invariably start questioning the Bible or at least how their parents and other authorities interpret it. Since children who question things may end up questioning their parents' premillennial beliefs, fundamentalists, when it comes right down to it, really do not want their kids to think.
... In his book The Mind of the Bible-Believer, Edmund D. Cohen points out that it was extremely fortunate that the Soviet Union was run by atheists. Since they did not view the world as being fulfilled in an apocalyptic vision and did not believe that they had immortal souls that would survive a nuclear armageddon, they had a built-in reason to avoid an atomic war."
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Why Marriage Has Become a Raw Deal for Men
"This writing seeks to educate men about the realities of what he may be getting himself into when he marries. An informed decision is less likely to be one that is later regretted. The intent is not to dissuade men from marrying, but to encourage them in communicating frankly their concerns and expectations of marriage with their potential spouses. The aim of this writing is to also enlighten women with some of the reasons why increasing numbers of successful eligible unmarried men, who otherwise prefer monogamous long-term relationships, are turning their backs on marriage.
Society automatically paints a stereotype on men who hesitate, delay, or elect not to marry. They are labelled as:
a) womanizers who are unable to participate in a long term relationship, or
b) Selfish/childish/irresponsible men who can not take care of themselves or another person.
No other explanation is ever explored."
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Just give me that old-time atheism!
"Not believing in God is no excuse for being virulently anti-religious or naïvely pro-science," says Dylan Evans, a professor of robotics at the University of West England in Bristol.
Evans has written an article for the Guardian of London deriding the old-fashioned, "19th-century" atheism of such prominent thinkers as Richard Dawkins and Jonathan Miller, instead proposing a new, modern atheism which "values religion, treats science as simply a means to an end and finds the meaning of life in art."
Indeed, he says, religion itself is to be understood as "a kind of art, which only a child could mistake for reality and which only a child would reject for being false."
... "To see religion as "a kind of art," as Evans rather sweetly proposes, is possible only when the religion is dead or when, like the Church of England, it has become a set of polite rituals.
The old Greek religion lives on as mythology, the old Norse religion has left us the Norse myths and, yes, now we can read them as literature.
The Bible contains much great literature, too, but the literalist voices of Christianity grow ever louder, and one doubts that they would welcome Evans' child's storybook approach."
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Know your art from your elbow - "Does art civilise? Obvious points are made: Hitler was arguably the greatest art-collector in history, and John Paul Getty's repulsive views - a "saloon-bar fascist" self-ennobled by a fetishistic interest in art - are gleefully quoted."
Telling Lies for God - "Plimer says that the speed of light, according to creationists, was 200 billion times faster than now to allow everything to have happened in 6000 years. That would have made everything somewhat more energetic. "...if Adam lovingly lit a fire for Eve, than the energy released would have been equivalent to a 50-megaton atomic blast. Adam and Eve produced two children and the energy released during each of the two necessary acts of procreation would be equivalent to an explosion of 500 tons of TNT. This is clearly the origin of the expression 'Did the Earth move for you also, darling?', or perhaps it could be interpreted as the creationist big bang theory." pp. 33-34"