Editorial
Financial Illiteracy of Those Who Mock Conspiracy Theorists
From Social Psychological and Personality Science (SPPS), a journal from the independent publisher Sage Publications, comes an article that has predictably seen wide distribution on the Internet. It implies that those who believe in globalist conspiracy theories are illogical – even downright nutty.
The article is entitled "Dead and Alive: Beliefs in Contradictory Conspiracy Theories" and the thesis of the article is that people who believe in conspiracy theories eventually become so immersed in them and so mesmerized that they do not realize they are holding contradictory beliefs.
"Conspiracy theories can form a monological belief system: A self-sustaining worldview comprised of a network of mutually supportive beliefs. The present research shows that even mutually incompatible conspiracy theories are positively correlated in endorsement." (SPPS Abstract)
"Conspiratorialists" become so distrustful of "government" and "authority" that they will impute any and every kind of malevolence to them.
Thus it is that people can claim, on the one hand, that Osama bin Laden is "dead" and died years ago, while simultaneously claiming that bin Laden remains alive and that US and Pakistan government authorities are not being truthful about him and his physical state.
Of course, I've never run into anyone, who claims that bin Laden is ALIVE. But it's true that here at the Daily Bell we've run articles explaining that bin Laden probably died years ago. See, for instance, "Osama bin Laden is Dead Again?"
The SPPS article would likely have you believe this is an outrageous conspiracy theory. But given that FOX news ran a report on bin Laden's death in 2001, and given that Pakistan's former president Benazir Bhutto herself claimed that bin Laden died in the early 2000s (supposedly as the result of an assassination), it doesn't seem so far-fetched to speculate that bin Laden didn't die as the result of a US raid in 2011.
But that's almost minor stuff. Articles like this, despite their scientific patina, are deeply illiterate. Why so? Because invariably such articles won't deal with the bedrock financial illiteracy of current economic and political paradigms.
Imagine if the world were based on lies. Well, unfortunately, that's the truth. The lies go far beyond "who shot JFK" or whether the US government was directly or indirectly involved in 9/11.
When one uses the logical framework of Austrian, free-market analysis to analyze the Way the World Works in the modern age, one inevitably comes to the conclusion that modern society is built around fundamental untruths.
The first one is economic: It is the idea that central bankers can efficiently and effectively set the price of money. They cannot.
Every time central bankers decide on how much money to print or where short interest rates should be, the decisions are "fixing" prices – and price-fixing never works. Price-fixing distorts economies and causes a wealth shift from those who create it to those who don't and may not know what to do with it. Over time, aggressively mis-priced money causes first recessions and then depressions.
The second lie is that laws and regulations are necessary and that they can save society from "anarchy." In fact, anarchy is only the absence of government. That's the real definition. And absence of government does not necessarily imply "chaos." Just as setting interest rates fixes the price of money, so every law and regulation is a price fix as well, preventing someone from doing something within the context of the marketplace. This also constitutes a wealth transfer.
One can have a perfectly adequate and satisfying society without formal government, certainly without the kinds of intrusive and murderous governments we've got today. History is full of examples of societies that flourished with at least minimal government, especially societies where power truly flowed from the bottom up.
The third lie is that government is essential for purposes of defense and defending its citizens. But a quick survey of modern wars shows a disturbing tendency of governments – especially certain Western governments – to foment the very wars that citizens believe they're being protected from.
War is the "health of the state" – the way that those in power consolidate their hold while punishing their enemies using phony pretexts having to do with "treason" and "leaking classified information." Sound familiar?
It is what we call the Internet Reformation that has gradually shed light on the fundamental untruths permeating modern society in both the developed and developing world.
The Internet, like the Gutenberg Press before it, is a revolutionary device that has allowed people access to information that was hitherto denied or covered up, especially in the 20th century when the power elite's control over society was perhaps at its apex.
A conspiracy likely DOES exist. The Internet easily reveals not just facts that illuminate it, but also PATTERNS that show the same command-and-control strategies implemented throughout history, over and over.
It is easy, unfortunately, to mock those who believe in so-called "conspiracy theories" because the truth of what has occurred in this weary world is so extreme and shocking that most people simply cannot believe it. What truly horrifies us becomes a target for mockery. It's a defense mechanism.
Here's the seeming hard truth: A tiny group of Anglosphere banking families controlling most if not all of the world's major central banks have used the trillions to which they have access in order to foment what can be called a "New World Order."
This tiny group of intergenerational plotters and their enablers and associates have apparently built a seamless matrix of control around the entire globe to implement their schemes. They are building world government and are putting in place its building blocks.
What is it about the UN, IMF, World Bank, International Criminal Court, World Health Organization and hundreds of others lesser known globalist facilities that people who deny or decry modern "conspiracy theory" don't understand?
An entire gamut of globalist entities has been superimposed on the world in the past 75 years. Most recently − only this past week, in fact − the US military held a formal exercise over the skies of Los Angeles using the same black helicopters that conspiracy theorists were mocked for mentioning not a decade ago.
But the biggest issue by far – bigger than even the establishment of the facilities of the New World Order – is the fundamental illiteracy of those who choose to support modern society as it is today and as it has evolved over the past 100 years.
While human societies have always been based on fairly bizarre rituals, it is safe to say that the current crop of behind-the-scenes leaders have raised statist insanity to a new level.
Every part of modern society, from its basic economic building blocks to its liturgical belief in dysfunctional "laws and regulations" to its deep-seated reverence for the manipulated destruction of war, is questionable on a factual basis.
The reality of modern society is increasingly pathological – and the ones with the pathology are those who lead the rest of us along using paradigms that are evidently and obviously dishonest and dysfunctional.
Articles that mock the looniness of "conspiratorialists" need to deal with the fundamental economic and sociopolitical dishonesty of their own assumptions. They should begin by admitting the evident and obvious logical fallacies of the "modern" society they celebrate.
I'm not holding my breath.
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Posted by speedygonzales on 01/29/12 03:21 PM
One night, probably in 1880, John Swinton, then the preeminent New York journalist, was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it."
"There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty_four hours my occupation would be gone."
"The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?"
"We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
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Posted by speedygonzales on 01/29/12 03:04 PM
9/11 Predicted on The Lone Gunman
Click to view link
Operation Mockingbird: Also in the 1950s to '70s, the C.I.A. paid a number of well-known domestic and foreign journalists (from big-name media outlets such as Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CBS, and others) to publish C.I.A. propaganda. The C.I.A. also reportedly funded at least one movie, the animated Animal Farm, based on the novel by George Orwell. The Church Committee finally exposed these activities in 1975.
In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America's leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA.
Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past 25 years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. Some of these journalists' relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were explicit. There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap. Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services -- from simple intelligence-gathering to serving as go-betweens with spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters who considered themselves ambassadors without portfolio for their country. Most were less exalted: foreign correspondents who found that their association with the Agency helped their work; stringers and freelancers who were as interested in the derring-do of the spy business as in filing articles; and, the smallest category, full-time CIA employees masquerading as journalists abroad. In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America's leading news organizations.
The history of the CIA's involvement with the American press continues to be shrouded by an official policy of obfuscation and deception for the following principal reasons:
The use of journalists has been among the most productive means of intelligence-gathering employed by the CIA. Although the agency has cut back sharply on the use of reporters since 1973 (primarily as a result of pressure from the media), some journalists are still posted abroad.
Further investigation into the matter, CIA officials say, would inevitably reveal a series of embarrassing relationships in the 1950's and 1960's with some of the most powerful organizations and individuals in American journalism.
Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were William Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Time Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the Louisville Courier-Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Services. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald-Tribune.
By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc.
Appropriately, the CIA uses the term 'reporting' to describe much of what cooperating journalists did for the Agency. "We would ask them, 'Will you do us a favor?'" said a senior CIA official. "'We understand you're going to be in Yugoslavia. Have they paved all the streets? Where did you see planes? Were there any signs of military presence? How many Soviets did you see? If you happen to meet a Soviet, get his name and spell it right... .Can you set up a meeting for us? Or arrange a message?'" Many CIA officials regarded these helpful journalists as operatives: the journalists tended to see themselves as trusted friends of the Agency who performed occasional favors -- usually without pay -- in the national interest.
Two of the Agency's most valuable relationships in the 1960's, according to CIA officials, were with reporters who covered Latin America -- Jerry O'Leary of the Washington Star and Hal Hendrix of Miami News, a Pulitzer Prize winner who became a high official of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. Hendrix was extremely helpful to the Agency in providing information about individuals in Miami's Cuban exile community.
A note about Hendrix - he was the one who Seth Kantor, reporting on the JFK assassination, was told to call for 'background' on Oswald after Oswald's arrest. Hendrix, from Miami, had all the info on Oswald's pro-Castro leafleting activities in New Orleans, details about Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union, etc.
Only years later did Kantor realize the significance of a guy like Hendrix, CIA, having so much info on Oswald so soon after the assassination.
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media."
--William Colby, former CIA Director, quoted by Dave Mcgowan, Derailing Democracy
"You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month."
--CIA operative, discussing the availability and prices of journalists willing to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories. Katherine the Great, by Deborah Davis
"There is quite an incredible spread of relationships. You don't need to manipulate Time magazine, for example, because there are [Central Intelligence] Agency people at the management level."
--William B. Bader, former CIA intelligence officer, briefing members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, The CIA and the Media, by Carl Bernstein
"The Agency's relationship with [The New York] Times was by far its most valuable among newspapers, according to CIA officials. [It was] general Times policy ... to provide assistance to the CIA whenever possible."
--The CIA and the Media, by Carl Bernstein
Who's really care about what they say?
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Posted by markghansel on 01/29/12 02:53 PM
Yes, Canada's genocide hidden from the public. The systematic abuse put in place by Church and State against the natives of Canada. Genocide has been committed and the crimes have been covered up. Thousands of children were killed by priests and nuns in religious residential schools. Church and State have worked together to cover these up, issuing a so-called "apology" for the abuse committed to natives, however no one has been incarcerated. Thousands of children were buried in unmarked graves of these religious institutions but the Church and State do nothing about it, hoping that the issue would just go away by making it appear to the masses that this was part of history and now the natives are in a healing and reconciliation. How can there be healing if the criminals remain walking free? How can there be healing if justice has not been served. Instead, the Church and State continue abusing these innocent people by continuing to publish lies and working hard to silence the scandal just like they have all throughout history. Bill Squire of the Mohawk Nation who speaks out against the horrific genocide committed in Canada by both the Church and State - one which they have worked hard to cover up.
The Vatican Crimes Exposed Organization (Click to view link) is honored to continue exposing the crimes implemented by the evil men and women who utilize the name of God to gain trust and commit evil. These religions have used God's name to gain power and control and gain immunity around the world - however, their end is near since justice will be served.
To see irrefutable evidence of the Canadian Genocide, visit:Click to view link or Click to view link
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Posted by speedygonzales on 01/29/12 02:45 PM
Few days ago France declared Armenian genocide denial as crime. This genocide was caused by Donmeh from spain.
Click to view link
http://www.aze.az/eng.php?id=53013
Click to view link
The good news is that France is gonna declare the same about Canadian holocaust. Click to view link
Slovakia 1.27 Click to view link
Poland 1.26 Click to view link
Romania Click to view link
There is signs of real fear of elites.
Click to view link
Elites loox like they are OK. No, they are not. They are scared to bones.
Operation Trojan Horse
Click to view link
Click to view link
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Posted by markghansel on 01/29/12 02:41 PM
What people really are seeing is the wide distribution on the Internet of mainstream media propaganda and government conspiracy theories, From the phony war on terror to seeing government putting forth a police state with the NDAA laws, to 'The destruction of our basic liberties, the overthrow of our Republic, and basic protections, and checks and balances no longer in place. The government in Washington is a failed terrorist state. It can no longer manage American public opinion, its violations of international law are resented by many nations, and it has failed to psychologically dominate the world by unleashing terror at home and abroad on it's own citizen's. To put it simply, nations are not afraid of America because it has military strength combined with political vision, rather, they are afraid because America's leaders are insane and self-destructive. In other words, they are afraid of a failed terrorist state, not a global superpower. The elitist manipulators of human destiny and human history know that they have lost the trust of the people of the planet, but they're confident that an authoritarian global government will solve all their problems. They speak of a 'new age' and a 'new world order' and they plan to start World War III by attacking Iran which would mark the end of this dead age. As for these so called Conspiracy Theorists, look no further then your own governments and the minions who think people are just plain stupid and willfully ignorant to not be able to see what is the truth from fiction that is peddled as news worthy news stories put out by people who think they know better then anyone else.
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Posted by finninsweden on 01/29/12 01:06 PM
But how many of the 9/11 truth sites that you visited were in fact authentic? You see,if I had been behind the attacs on 9/11
and saw that there were some truth seekers out there in cyberspace,I would ask myself; what to do? And Bingo!
Why not create 10 "truther sites" with some unbelievable stuff in them,like; it was the aliens! It was a super secret death ray!
Get the picture? That could cause some truth seeking people to turn cold on even some "legitimate " truth seekers as for example architects and engineers for 9/11 truth...
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Posted by MetaCynic on 01/29/12 12:11 PM
My dictionary defines "conspiracy" as "an agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful or subversive act." Isn't that what government is all about? Isn't that what people in government are always doing when they are acting to expand their powers without attracting attention from us?
Is it, for example, a conspiracy or a clerical error that the 300+ page Patriot Act legislation landing on lawmakers desks for the first time just hours before it was voted into law, making it impossible for anyone to read much less debate? Was it a conspiracy or shoddy intelligence that provided the impetus for war with Iraq? What was behind the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, conspiracy or mistaken identity? Was it conspiracy or lack of attention that kept interceptor fighter planes grounded at Andrews Air Force Base on 9/11 as a plane was flown into the Pentagon just eleven miles away? To even ask such questions is to already know the answers.
People who can act openly to get what they want have no need to conspire to get it. Those who cannot, must lie, manipulate, misinform and cover up in order to get their way. If asked, wars and dictatorships are not what the masses want. Ordinary people have to be convinced by conspirators that death, destruction and slavery are in their self interest.
So, let's face it, "Government" is just a fancy name for conspiracy. Conspiracies are, everywhere on planet Earth, a 24/7 phenomenon. Those who mock "conspiracy theories" are like the person who can't find any trees because he's lost in a forest.
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Posted by RF on 01/29/12 11:53 AM
Anarchy ,thru history, only forms another government- The Bolshevik Revolution,( the 1980's end of the Soviet Union), Chairman Mao's Revolution, the American Revolution, The French Revolution, and current shifts in power in the Middle Eastern, "Arab Spring"----- in this 21st century , the volume of population limits options... Eliminate the population and start over?? thats scary for all... .when the dust settles, I'll bet they form another government...
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Posted by dave jr on 01/29/12 10:16 AM
Hey SPPS, talk about contradictory thinking.
To theorize is to keep an open mind, to consider new evidence and explaination. It is to hold off on any particular belief in order to allow fact or data to be collected. It is a practical method for seeking truth when the offical narratives carry contradictions.
To believe is to close the mind, to reject further evidence and explaination. It is to lend faith to others. It is to surrender the mind to authority.
To believe without fact of sound evidence is blind faith. THIS is not just "nutty", but irresponsible and dangerous to society at large. It seems "belief systems" have plagued mankind since the beginning of recorded history. It is also the foundation of institutions.
It is the State that wages war against other States and/or belief systems. It requires people to surrendered their mind, to support and fight for the institution. And it is the people, all people who are harmed.
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Posted by Bischoff on 01/29/12 03:14 AM
Government can secure your liberty, or it can rob you of it.
Who or what is government... ??? Government are the politicians "We the People" elect to make laws, and the administrations "We the People" elect to enforce those laws.
Politicians deal in power. "We the People" give them that power with our votes.
To ask, "what happend to our country", indicates a mindset which implies that the questioner had nothing to do with the terrible state into which the politicians have plunged us.
Being part of the electorate, the question should have been, "how could "We the People" have been so careless to elect politicians who would rob us of our liberty, and our material wealth."
If we now loose the little of our liberty left, we the electorate is to blame and no one else. This is not the time to bemoan mistakes of the past. This is the time to wake up and to refuse to let someone else tell you for whom to vote.
To choose a politician is actually quite simple. When you are confronted with a choice for whom to cast your vote, ask yourself a question, "would I share a foxhole with that person, would I trust him with my life?" If you have any doubt, don't give that politician your vote, whatever you do.
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Posted by SwifterMan on 01/29/12 03:14 AM
Exactly the same as in Germany right after the war - hardly any government - Germany needed an extra 5 Million "Gastarbeiter" (workers from all over Europe).
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Conclusion:
Our problems come from TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT !
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Posted by SwifterMan on 01/29/12 03:05 AM
. . .
Great article - should be reprinted at least once a week . . .
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The mother of all government-lies: Man is bad !
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The truth is the opposite: Man is basically good !
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It is only 2 or 3 percent of us, that have become criminals - those the government should fend off - instead they sometimes end up as president . . .
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Das Deutsche Wirtschafts-Wunder (economic miracle) happened, when Germany was without government ! The Nazi-government had been shut down by the allies )
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Posted by c.martel on 01/29/12 01:52 AM
Good points for the most part! But where we diverge is on the topic of the necessity of government. Abusive, over-reaching and misguided government is one thing ... no-government is quite another. The Holy Bible, the highest authority on the subject, states specifically that government is a God-ordained institution. Its purpose ... to maintain law and order. Without it ... chaos, as in before the flood.
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Posted by gamma ray on 01/29/12 01:06 AM
Excellent summary by Mr. Wile and nice deconstruction by memehunter.
I'll go one further and ask how does one accurately define a conspiracy theorist? Is a government investigator who works RICO cases a conspiracy theorist? Would the terms corruption analyst or praxeologist sound more agreeable even though the basic process of research and analyzing patterns is essentially the same course of action taken by conspiracy sleuths?
Everyday there are countless conspiracies around the globe large and small. This is basic human nature. We are also hard wired to be creatures of habit. Hence, criminal conspiracies are typically investigated by looking at patterns of behavior and these patterns are frequently presented in courtrooms as supporting evidence of criminal misconduct. Instances of egregious criminal activity by government officials also reveals clear patterns of behavior with false flags being one of the most consistent examples. There is nothing irrational about this process of examining known facts and analyzing them with an understanding of motive, means, and opportunity but the TPTB have gone out of their way to make sure that the word conspiracy is subconsciously paired with images of disheveled schizophrenics and hysterics of all kinds, especially UFO watchers. I remember when the NY Post ran an article on Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne with a photograph of Bryne and a flying saucer just above his head, this was at the height of Bryne's fight against naked short sellers who were targeting his company. On his blog, Byrne, who has a PhD in Philosophy from Stanford, had written about regulatory capture of the SEC and, in general, the history of government regulatory capture.
If conspiracy theorists are so fundamentally irrational, then why all the fuss in the MSM and why should Cass Sunstein help the Obama administration develop a program of "cognitive infiltration" to specifically go after 9/11 truthers? If conspiracy theorists truly were just a bunch of nuts with too much time on their hands, the light of day would be the only thing needed to disinfect the whole lot. Clearly, what TPTB fear is the truth. Thankfully, David Ray Griffin dealt a lethal blow to the intellectual dishonesty of Sunstein and his ilk in Griffin's book Cognitive Infiltration.
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Posted by piolenc on 01/29/12 01:02 AM
Unfortunately, the quoted remark IS true of at least some conspiracy buffs. I used to visit the "9/11 truth" sites and see mutually contradictory claims discussed with equal fervency and credulity. More significantly, I was never able to find a coherent "theory of the crime," something that tied verifiable facts to plausible motivations to possible conspirators. The essence of skepticism is not to disbelieve everything, nor even to doubt everything. It is to require proof, and this forces the skeptic to discount the official story if it is at variance with known fact, but also to discount dissident claims if they fail the same test.
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Posted by Steve Campbell on 01/28/12 11:56 PM
Corbett Report Radio 050 - Deconstructing Pearl Harbor with Robert Stinnett
Click to view link
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Posted by pjmauigirl1 on 01/28/12 10:41 PM
"dispense money to households"?
this social credit stuff sounds like magical thinking: create something from nothing.
I for one really like working for my money. I also prefer not to share it with those that want money for nothing...
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Posted by pjmauigirl1 on 01/28/12 10:11 PM
Perhaps Newt isn't so far off the mark with his space colony ideas. I know it got me kind of excited.
Legends Of The Fall with Anthony Hopkins is a sad movie about the end of our frontier.
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Posted by GranMed on 01/28/12 10:08 PM
Traditionally--unlike in the "modern" scientific-materialist world--it was understood that many levels of awareness are real, not just this material waking plane. Those who have passed into other planes of existence, including the saints and sages and great yogis, know these levels well and have explained them to us. Certain people who seem to be getting away with murder---like some very wealthy captains of industry---are in some real sense building up karmas for themselves that are in this world unseen. I'm saying that from what we read and hear from these Great Ones, these characters who seem to be getting big rewards in this life will pay dearly in future lives. This I can feel in my heart as true. No one gets away with anything. It's the Law (capital "L").
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Posted by flying_pig on 01/28/12 10:07 PM
You are on to something. I'd been wondering why the UN was interested in mental health.
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