Blogger Bill

In view of the planned withdrawal of US and other troops from Iraq, we will see the way in which a typical Arab country engages in nation-building. I myself, rightly or wrongly, supported the invasion by the USA and allied forces to overturn a brutal dictator. Regardless of whether Saddam Hussein finally possessed chemical and biological weapons, or nuclear weapons, it is certain that he possessed and used the former, and was certainly known to be working toward the latter.

The invasion was a pushover, as expected, but from then on the situation went about as pear-shaped as anything could be. The US thought that the Iraqis would rise to the occasion, embrace freedom, and start to build a civil and democratic society. But they basically trashed the joint, fouled their own nest, and squandered a golden opportunity to build and prosper. A panoply of militant and terrorist groups took over and made sure that the state would remain defunct. (This is what the Palestinians have always done, by the way.)

The situation was not helped by the Americans apparently having no Plan B. They never used enough troops to control the situation properly to the point where utilities were repaired and commerce and industry could recover. Instead the terrorists started to control the situation almost immediately after that famous statue tumbled down, and they concentrated on keeping essential utilities unrepaired. The Americans perpetrated in Iraq one of the biggest fuck-ups in modern history. President Bush and his idiotic, bumbling, lying, pig-headed cronies will go down in history as a phenomenal failure in Iraq. But it may well be that the failure of the Iraqi nation to build from the ruins will be a comparable failure. Time will tell, but I fear for the worst

It always amazes me that some “insult” or other to Muslims, or some excess bloodshed or errors by Western forces toward Muslims brings hundreds of thousands of rent-a-Muslim demonstrators out into the streets of the world. But when the statistics are done, the Muslims for years now have been slaughtering each other in Baghdad and beyond in extraordinary numbers. And it’s indiscriminate. Even now, bombings of markets, mosques, offices, police stations, pilgrims and funeral processions continues daily. There have been thousands of summary shootings and be-headings. They seem to revel in the gore of cut throats, and bodies torn asunder by courtesy of modern explosives. Not just opposing militants, but bystanders, shop-keepers, women, children and the elderly, all helpless in the face of ruthless savagery in the name of Allah. Islam seems to be a death cult.

And now it’s increasing as the time draws near when all that will be there will be the Iraqi police and armed forces- oh! - and their Western trainers. Now is the time when we will see the furious crescendo of bloodshed as the Shiite and the Sunni Muslims fight each-other, the both of them turn against the Kurds, and the Muslims turn on any remaining minority religions. I think that the Shiites will split and migrate to the south and east, next to Shiite Iran, the Sunnis will take the west and part of the north, and the Kurds (who are not Arabs) will try to split off the north. The latter will be especially contentious, because that’s where a lot of the oil wealth is found. There will possibly tens of thousands of deaths, and

After the blood shed there will be mass movements of these two different sects of Islam, who have always hated each-other from the very time of the death of Mohommed. Ever since then They’ve been fighting over the question of succession to the leadership of Islam. Although both sects are found together in all Muslim countries, one or the other is usually predominant. Iran is the centre for Shia Islam, and seeking to dominate the Middle East, with its work on the nuclear bomb. Nearby Saudi Arabia is mainly Sunni Islam, and so are most other Muslim countries, which are very worried by Iran’s search for dominance. The struggle is political, economic, spiritual and also has weird mystical overtones to it when you read up on various aspects of Islamic history.

I am pretty certain that most Iraqis just want to live a peaceful and prosperous life, following the main tenets of Islam in a reasonably civilized manner. They can do that, as do Christians and Jews, by consciously choosing to ignore the various unfortunately cruel, unjust and bloody-minded sections of the scriptures of their religion. In the latter two, at least in modern times, believers can choose whether or not to adhere to particular features of the chosen religous practice, or to choose a different religion, or in fact to have no religion at all.

Not so in Islam. If your parents are Muslim, you’re a Muslim for life. The Koran teaches that the penalty for apostasy (converting to another religion ) is death. It is mandatory, and what’s more, it is carried out in various Muslim countries this very day - especially in Saudi Arabia, where executions are publicly carried out regularly in a sports stadium. So you, see, Iraqis have no choice but to remain Muslims, whether they like it or not. They can’t even change from Shia to Sunni, or vice versa.

Some Muslims regard President Obama as a Muslim, because his father was Muslim and his early education was in an Indonesian Muslim school. He’s now apparently a Christian. For millions of Muslims that means that he’s an apostate and shoud be put to death.

So, regardless of there having been reasonably free and proper elections in Iraq, and the establishment of the essential elements of a democratic state, I am afraid that shortly this will all fall apart. Arab societies are very tribal, and this dynamic runs counter to democracy as we understand it. It is already a kleptocracy, as are all Muslim countries, and I foresee the disintegration of whatever elements of civil society exist. No doubt, from the time of the next election (if we get that far), there will be increading clashes between armed groups, private militias, and the emergent use of advanced weaponry which is already flowing in from Iran.

The Sunnis will be aided by Wahabis, Al-Qaeda and so on from Saudi Arabia and Syria (next door, to the west), and the Shias will be supported by arms and personnel from Iran (to the east). I think the Americans will not have the stomach for further intervention, and they antagonists will be left to fight it out however they will. Pity the poor average Iraqi, mentioned earlier, who just wants a peaceful and prosperous life, who will be mercilessly sandwiched.

The crunch for the West will be if there is any serious disruption in the flow of crude oil from Iraq. That is critical for us all, even for Australians, and it is in fact equally important for even the most rabidly anti-American Iraqi, because Iraq depends upon the export earnings from the oil-fields.

It’s a serious situation, and a very complex one, but I do fear that much blood will flow, mostly innocent blood.

Saudi Arabian authorities have beheaded and crucified a man convicted of killing an 11-year-old boy and his father.

The Saudis claim to stick to the letter of the Koran for the administration of their pure Islamic state. This is what Islamic jihadis all around the world are fighting to attain. It is a tenet of Islam to try and dominate any society (including ours if they can manage it.) In Islam there is no distinction between religious matters and socio-political matters. Muslims claim that the Koran offers a complete blueprint for any society, including the criminal justice code.

I must say that the prospect disgusts me. Such a process must be fought against tooth and nail.

What an repulsive society is Saudi Arabia! What a religion!

On the other hand it must be said that, for example, the USA has many people still on death row, and many states will have capital punishment on the books. There are some parts of the Bible that are pretty vindictive and bloody

What about the doctrine that the biblical God is a God of love, but also requires the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins? Hence the crucifixion of Jesus. Something not quite right about this distasteful idea, methinks.

But beheading followed by crucifixion sounds so primitive and vindictive, doesn’t it? It kind of doesn’t figure - if you really wanted someone to suffer, why not crucify them first, for maximum agony, followed by beheading if you must.

Uuuurrgh!

Well, it’s been over a month since we arrived home from our 6-week caravan holiday in Central Australia, and it took that long before could no longer withstand the blandishments of television. But that’s not bad, is it? And we only ever watch ABC TV or SBS. But even the latter’s ads are becoming more and more brainless, aren’t they? As bad as commercial TV, which we only ever watch if that nice David Rabbitborough is telling us some more about Nature, of course. Snobs, we are.

In the caravan we have no TV, by choice, and because there’s no room. You can tell, because when you walk around the caravan parks at night you can see the blue glow from within their darkened shells and you know everyone’s watching TV. Probably the usual American drivel loaded with guns, crime, murder and sex. Or some totally brain-dead sitcom where people behave like we are afraid real Americans might really behave.

But at night in our superior caravan we read books. Lots of books. I read one (1) on a scientific study of whether or nor alternative medicine really works, and guess what - it doesn’t. That’s why it’s still “alternative”, because if it worked, everyone would be using it. And I read a deep one (2) about the sociology of Australian culture and politics - or was it the culture of Australian politics and sociology? Doesn’t matter - just so long as I can feel superior. No - just joking - I think…

And I read one (3) about the word of Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, in crap places like Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, DR of Congo, Bosnia, Kosovo, etc. Some of them have been literally crap places, because there are descriptions of the health workers actually paddling around in blood and faeces amidst the refugees. That was really sobering and infuriating. Infuriating that the UN can be so manipulated by the major nations of the world. The USA, Russia, France, Britain, and a horde of Islamic and African nations have a lot to answer for in some court of justice that unfortunately does not exist. Hundreds of thousands of humans suffer and die just because there are political struggles based on religion, or on the fight for ultimate control of territories and future resources such as petroleum and minerals. Very disturbing books, some of these.

In our caravan holidays we have a portable radio which may or may not pick up the local ABC radio stations - commercial is always useless for decent news, and loaded with inane ads and ghastly pop music. We almost never buy newspapers, by choice. We enjoy just talking together about our travel, reading our books, having the occasional chat with fellow travellers, and listening to the radio.

And so when we came home we chose to continue the relatively media-free existence. But we do read The Age daily - Glenyce first, then myself, later in the day. Often I barely bother, because I must confess to missing the internet while I was away. Occasionally I logged on to an internet café, usually to get the weather forecast, which is important when you’re on holiday.

But one major activity we do relish when away is writing our diaries. Every night before bedtime we get out our A4 exercise books and write about our day’s activities. Individually we write about the country we’ve seen, the sights we’ve seen, the people we’ve met, and the way we felt. Each night we write a page or a number of pages, and then when we’ve each finished we swap books and compare notes. It’s aways very interesting to see the differences and similarities of our daily stories. What’s more we find it an excellent exercise for our minds to sit down in this disciplined way and. string sentences together.

In our recent trip I wrote 92 A4 pages in my diary. One day it’s my intention to type it into my web site and together with photos, create an illustrated diary of our journey that might be of interest to others. That would be a big task, but I’ve done it before. In 2001 we did a 3-month caravan tour across to WA, which is illustrated in my web site as Bill Leithhead’s WA Trip Diary.

A whole blog item and no complaints about health or money!

References for books if you’re at all interested:-

1. Singh, Simon and Ernst, Edzard, “Trick or Treatment - Alternative Medicine On Trial”, Bantam Press, 2008.
2. Davis, Mark, “The Land of Plenty: Australia In the 2000s”, Melbourne University Press, 2008.
3. Orbinski, James, “An Imperfect Offering: dispatches from the medical frontline”, Text Publishing Melbourne Australia, 2008.

This is not going to win me many friends, but I want to declare my support of the right of the country of Israel to exist in peace. I am not Jewish and there is no family connection with Judaism; rather, I am an atheist with distant family connections to Denmark, Scotland and England.

It was during the last eruption of fighting between the Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel that I took to following the happenings closely, from both sides. Israel has been fighting for its life ever since it was formed in 1948 and is still doing so against potentially 201 million Arabs and other Muslims. It is a democracy with a free press. Its population range from the intensely religious Jews to the mostly more or less secular majority; among its citizens are Arabs and people of many other origins. It has been a place of refuge for millions of Jews who have been persecuted in countries from all over the world, but particularly Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia Africa and the Middle East. I believe that this is just.

I know that tens of thousands of Arabs fled Israel during the fighting after the declaration of nationhood for Israel, but the Arabs from all sides did attack Israel. In later conflicts Israel gained more territory, and Arabs left that, too. There are many web sites that cover all this history, which is complex in the past and still is, today. Of course, there are many injustices that stem from this mess, and I hope things eventually settle down. But I doubt it, because the Arabs, and in particular the Palestinian Arabs, have been cursed with bad leadership. In particular, Yasser Arafat gained nothing for his people and stole hundreds of millions of funds, most of it aid, donated by various countries. The current leadership of Hamas in Gaza and the PLA in the West Bank can do nothing but continue to swear to drive the Israelis into the sea. meantime their people suffer. No doubt these leaders also are kleptomaniacs.

During the last Lebanon conflict I realised that the anti-Israeli movements and forces are very good at manipulating the world media to make things out to be far worse than they are. The effects of bombing and rocketing were continually faked, casualty figures were inflated, damage was exaggerated, and the mainstream press went along with it because there seems to be a bias in favour of the poor, long-suffering Palestinians.

But the Palestinian refugees were tolerated for a while by places like Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon but kept in poverty and herded away into other places. Currently, Hamas in Gaza constantly manipulate the images of suffering which is no worse than any other poor country, even when Israel closes the checkpoints because the Gazans are firing rockets at random at the civilians in Sderot and Ashkelon. But when the Israelis left from Gaza they handed over working farms, glass-houses and industrial plants which the Gazans literally trashed, leaving nothing for themselves to utilize. What stupidity!

It is by no means certain that Israel will win any future conflict. If that happens, then we can be sure that the Arabs will engage in bloody war crimes that the world has hitherto witnessed only in Rwanda. Arabs will not hesitate to use their modern weapons to kill each and every Israeli, man, woman and child.

Hence my support for the nation of Israel. My wish is to see the Palestinian Arabs and Israelis live in peace together, but if it war, then I am on the side of the Jews.

It came to be that last Tuesday I went to the funeral of a trumpet-playing friend of mine, Royce Charlett. Ten days earlier, he had suddenly collapsed at home and died, to be found by his partner Christine, poor girl. He had had no previous symptoms of heart disease, so when she found him dead on the bedroom floor it was a huge shock.

It’s not as if I played regularly with him, but we played some gigs at the Grampians Jazz Festival, 2002, plus a couple of well-paid commercial jobs about the same time, at Xmas luncheons of the Brain Research Institute, at the Austin Hospital. The thing is, I came to realize that it’s not so much how often I play with a musician, or just listen to them, but it’s the fact that a friend or acquaintance is just there, doing their thing in a way that I enjoy or admire. I suppose that even if I dislike someone they still have a part in the warp and weft of my life’s fabric!

His death left a hole in my life. I came to realize that my grasp upon the world I inhabit comprises a matrix of connections with people like Royce. My connections range from intense to casual, from right now to way in the past, or even just some connection from even my earliest years; but each has its place in my being.

Way back about 1999 I formed the first band of my own. Until then, from 1997, I’d been playing with various bands playing what is called, variously, “trad jazz” (traditional jazz), or Dixieland, or New Orleans jazz. Before then I’d just played some solo piano in a few places, and much earlier in my life I’d played the drums for thirty years with my mother’s dance bands - but that’s another story!

My new band was called the Jazz Travellers, to play the style of music called “mainstream”. I was looking for a drummer. Royce at that time was running the Monbulk Jazz Festival, and I phoned him for help to find a drummer. He was very helpful; I did find a drummer and in due course that band played at Monbulk and several other festivals. This year I’m playing with my Jazz Travellers yet again (after some years’ break) at the Grampians.

Trumpeter Royce Charlett playing at Merimbula, June, 2007.

I took the above picture at Merimbula Jazz Festival last June. Like many jazz musicians he plays with his eyes shut. Sometimes I do that while playing the piano here at home, and I don’t quite know where you go to, but it’s somewhere where the good jazz comes from. It must be an altered state of consciousness, because it’s similar to times that I meditate. I don’t meditate enough these days - should do it more often.

I happen to be an atheist. I find no advantage in my life in trying to believe in a non-existent deity, and do not believe that I will exist in any way after my death. But I do know that there is a lot not known or understood about the brain and the mind. I have had many valuable experiences whilst meditating, and I think it’s a healthy thing to do.

Now, I don’t know where my good mate Royce has gone to now, but I’d like to believe that he’s gone to wherever he was when he was playing his beloved trumpet in that picture that I took. That’s a nice idea.

The books in my life have made me who I am. So I’d like to share with you what I’m reading now and very recently. I shall try to be brief, as these are not book reviews.

I’m spending time reading some of these while lying on the bed, practicing my pelvic floor exercises.

Right now I’m reading Richard Dawkins “Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder”, 1998, (336 pp), and loving my frequent dips into his treatments of evolution, genetics, and the sense of coincidences, déjà vu, luck and so on. His discussions of evolution and probability are hard to beat. Always interesting, even when I lose my place.

Bought with a Xmas gift voucher, Jared Diamond’s “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive”, 2005, (575 pp), will keep me busy for months to come, I think. This is a detailed exposition of the factors that cause civilizations to prosper or to self-destruct. I know that Australia is very much involved in that struggle right now. He has a whole chapter on this country, but I am reading the book so that his treatment unfolds in the way that the author wants. It’s a very, very detailed book, but my interest has so far not flagged.

Also bought with a Xmas gift voucher, Richard Dawkins “The God Delusion”, 2006, (406 pp), deals with just that: the topic of belief in God and the consequences of that mental aberration. As a young man, I was a fervent Christian for many years, so I know what it’s like. Now I am irreversible atheist. This book deals with all of the standard proofs on the existence of God/Jaweh/Allah, and dismantles all of them decisively.

He goes on to analyse all of the harm that comes to societies under the destructive influences of religion.

From a quotation in this book: “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it, too?”

On a completely different tack, there is a book on jazz piano that I bought and quickly read several years ago. Now I’m reading it at again at the meal table, and with the wisdom of hind-sight, finding it more helpful. It is Len Lyons, “The Great Jazz Pianists: Speaking of Their Live and Music”, 1983, (321 pp).

Although this is published back in 1983, I find it pertinent to my life right now. He interviews many of the famous jazz piano players about their lives, their styles, experiences, and their struggles and philosophy of the very strange activity of improvising jazz piano on front of audiences.

Because that’s something that I have chosen to do in my life, I find much in this book to encourage me in those times when I feel the lights are going out in my brain and my soul.

It works for me!

This post was first made over a year ago. In recent months it was heavily targeted by spam comments, and so I recently removed it by making it a Draft Document. Now I am releasing it again, but as a new Post. I will be interested to see what the spammers will do with it!

I came across an interesting blog all about Philosophy. It’s called Butterflies and Wheels. So the first bit fits my brain functioning, and on a good day even the second part of the name does!

You can read more about it here.

But I was interested to do a test on Taboos. They have an ethics test that can test how many taboos you have.

I was disturbed to find that I have none at all!!

According to my results in there, I have no inhibitions and will pretty well do anything with anyone! That’s news to me.

Well, no it isn’t! It’s just that I don’t want to get caught doing it!!

But perhaps it means that I ought to get out and meet more people - uninhibited people, just like me. The right kind of people. Heheh! Any suggestions?

I wonder if I can persuade my beloved wife to come with me? Ahhhh … that’s a different story!

Sooo ….. why not try the Taboos Test ?

Then tell us how you went in the section below for comments for this blog item?

Share yourselves with us! How low can you get?

In the last 3 weeks I have been handling two different illnesses of my wife, Glenyce, which put her into two separate hospitals, with only 3 days at home in between. The first was a mystery illness where she collapsed at breakfast in a faint involving twitching of the limbs. Her blood pressure was up in the 160-170 mark, but all tests showed no apparent cause of all that.

I was very unhappy with the poor communication from the doctors. That, together with the anxiety of situation, seemed to cause me to develop various symptoms that could be called psychosis and anxiety. My psychiatrist put me onto an anti-psychotic, Zyprexa, which seemed to help, but slowed my thinking and made my speech hesitant, to the concern of my family. My daughter, Leanne, helped at home and with hospital visits.

I have had a taste of what it feels to be ageing, and I don’t like it. It has resolved me to take steps to get hold of the means of a final exit in a humane and peaceful way. I utterly refuse to allow decisions to be taken by doctors or even my family. I will make documents stating what are my wishes in the event of my being incapacitated and frail. I saw my mother die at the age of 101, and she hated the last few years. And so would I!

I am the market for enough Nembutal to kill me peacefully, much later on in my life - this is not a recent whim, but events have sharpened it for me. It is the drug of choice - reliable and peaceful. Do you know that the Australian government has passed laws where this statement can earn me a jail sentence?

Up yours, John Howard, our lying bastard of a Prime Minister, and his henchman Kevin Andrews, the resident Roman Catholic busybody, who has introduced those laws, no doubt at the behest of the bloody arch-bishop, who no doubt has told Andrews that his soul will burn in hell if he doesn’t get those laws against any discussion methods of suicide; not just in public, but in private, and the possession of such information is a crime.

After Glenyce came out of the first hospital, she was weak, sleepy, and quite unwell. After 3 days she developed severe diarrhoea. After half a day of this we had her taken to a private hospital where she was put onto a saline drip to replace lost fluids. X-Rays showed bowel inflammation. But no bed was available, so she was carted off to another private hospital where they diagnosed a Streptococcal infection of the blood.

And so, after 3L of normal saline, and courses of Vancomycin, Ampicillin and Gentomycin, my darling wife is home with me again. She is weak, and sleeping in bed for some time during the day, which is something she has never done before. That 2 weeks in hospital really knocked her, and of course the toxins from the bacteria (an Enterococcus, they say now) have knocked her around physiologically in a way that I have never seen before.

I am grateful for the availability of modern medicine in all of its aspects:-

* blood tests in the microbiological labs to identify bacteria, biochemical measurement technology to check a host of substances in her blood, urine and faeces.

* electrocardiographs (ECG) to measure her heart functioning: her heart is healthy

* electroencephalographs (EEG) to measure her brain waves: she is free of epilepsy

* Doppler ultrasound to make images of her heart valves and chambers, and of her carotid arteries: she is excellent on all points.

* private health insurance for which we pay almost $3000 per annum: enabled us to get into a good hospital of our choice, ambulance transport, and anything necessary to deal with the situation, with no waiting lists.

Glenyce is home with me, recovering, and I am still pretty screwed up!

At the end of it all, as a firm sceptic, I wonder what on earth the homeopaths, naturopaths, Ayervedic and bio-dynamic, Reiki and other assorted “alternative” people would make of the whole thing. I am sure that they would offer up various glib globs of gabbled gobbledygook.

No thank you! If it had been up to them, here would be no antibiotics, and Glenyce would be dead!
And in a Third World Country she would most likely to be dead, too.

And my opinion is that that is a blight on our whole civilisation!

This piece illustrates one of many internet journeys I had just by following interesting links.

Over the last two years I have been casually dipping into Steven Pinker’s book “How the Mind Works“. It lends itself to casual browsing. The last chapter is called “The Meaning of Life”, where he has a section on religion, subtitled “The inquisitive in pursuit of the inconceivable”.

I had been thinking of text-scanning it in for my web site, but rather than breach copyright, I Googled on elements of the subtitle, hoping to link into some site where that has already been done!

Googling on:- inquisitive pursuit inconceivable

That yielded a first link as:-

http://www.drmillslmu.com/EVOLPSYC/fall99/PANEL11.HTM

This is in a web site from Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles) class in Evolutionary Psychology, in Fall, 1999. The students had studied Pinker and other writers’ work on these subjects. They were required to publish their analyses and discussions on the internet, hence the quotation.

Exploring further, I found that their Professor of Psychology, Dr Michael Mills, has quite a nice site there, including some nice personal material.

In there, I read a Mark Twain quotation that I rather liked. -

“Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain

Following my “Enough” blog last Thursday night in a well of depressive feelings, I had had some nourishing personal experiences, such as from my friend Gaye, and from my wife Glenyce. Also, the light of day and the effect of a modestly restful sleep had lifted my mood to a more optimistic level.

I thought of a couple of photos of me as a hopeful little boy, and joined one of them with the quotation. It took some time to get the layout right with embedded CSS code, but I was pleased with the result, which I called “Voyaging“.

In writing that, I thought I might search for the origin of the Mark Twain quote, so I Googled again.

Googling on:- Explore. Dream. Discover.

which yielded as the first link:-

The Philosopher’s Notes: Explore. Dream. Discover.

Now, that is a very interesting site, which I tucked away into my Philosophy Favorites, and as is my habit, I looked more closely at the root site:-

thinkarete - seize your potential

That page had a link to this next site, under the title of Multiple Intelligences, which interested me, so I went to:-

Intelligences: Discover YOUR Genius!

Now, again, that site had an ad at the bottom of the page referring to something called White Powder Gold! Being a trained chemist, I had never heard of this material, which was also described as being “monatomic” gold produced by no less than “serious alchemy”.

As I considered all gold as monatomic anyway, and alchemy was discredited aome 200 years ago, I became curious. So I went to this site:-

White Powder Gold

Paydirt! This site really screams out loudly and clearly: “Scam!”

Loaded with gobbledy-gook, it comes with the usual vague testimonials, from people for whom no names or addresses are given. It makes all sorts of health claims, couched in language that is pseudoscientific in the extreme. It shows bottles of a vaguely milky liquid at an outrageous price. This is claimed to be some sort of gold suspension.

But that’s not all! You can buy a similar concoction of platinum, or silver, or mixtures of two or three of these. I’ll leave you to read the way-out blurb.

But notice at the very bottom of the page a total disclaimer for all use of these products!

And take a look at this animated graphic near the bottom of the page! Called arkcov.gif, it shows what looks like an electrical discharge in the Biblical Ark of the Covenant where, according to the Old Testament dwells no less a personage than Jehovah!

This is a powerful combination of the pseudoscientific, the esoteric and the alchemical, with Biblical spirituality thrown in for good measure.

But, wait! There’s more!

I was interested in what M-State Plant Research entails:-

M-State Walnuts

It seems to involve magic walnut trees, that grow to give whopper walnuts! It shows pictures of walnuts 6 cm across. That happens because the plants are fed “reduced salt C-11 from Pacific Ocean water“. No further details given about C-11, except that only 2 cups of it seem to have been used!! No analyses, no real info on application systems, etc.

You might be bothered Googling on C-11 if you like. It is explained elsewhere under the heading of David Hudson, who dug up some strange gold from his Arizona field and started all of this off.

Oh, I did Google on C-11 and found along the way that there is a Finnish site showing some very strange-looking modern chairs.

Anyway, if you like nuts, just keep on reading!

Cutting back to the root domain of the giant walnuts site above, we find:-

Subtle Energies: Articles and Art

I’ll leave you to explore that if you will. You can explore Ormus, which will keep you busy for quite a long time, but the other links fail, (including the mysterious Queer Spirituality link).

ORMUS Index

That should keep you happily occupied for a fair while. There you can read about David Radius Hudson, who has patents on these things in many countries, including Australia. The links in here are amazing. He gives directions for making the white powdered gold and so on. Read them if you have nothing much to do.

Ormus can also be investigated back through the links in the White Powder Gold site.

And then you can look at the web site of Laurence Gardner.

This really starts to get interesting, with a heavily esoteric and mystical tone, referring to the bloodline of Jesus Christ and many other things.

Here’s another one that is jam-packed with goodies. It is really worth while exploring. I have put it into my Favorites, but unsure whether it is Science, Religion, or Alternatives and Scepticism. Very hard to classify!

Alchemy Index

And another from in there is Brian’s Annex, where the going gets very, very Biblical mystical!

Note: This is hosted by the USA angelfire site - that hosting site always gives annoying pop-ups!

But the finest link to pretty interesting and quite weird topics is this on leading to Halexandria:-

Halexandria

That site is truly amazing!!

There is virtually no esoteric stone left unturned. It’s got the lot - religion, pyramids, beings from outer space, string theory, and so on. The diagram is based on the Esoteric Jewish Kabbalah, and there is an enormous number of links to follow up - you could spend hours in here!!

There’s a useful index here:-

Website Road Map – Halexandria.org

(The foreign names, Malkuth, Yesod, etc., near the top list are from the Kabbalah, which I have studied at one point in my life.)

And so you see, this is the internet - a maze of complex, interacting web sites. Anyone with an inquisitive mind can easily spend days and weeks of life by doing what I did in this search.

I shared this with you because it is a good example of the journey.

Happy combing of the internet Labyrinth!

Former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld has weighed into the debate about the glaringly obvious short-comings of the Indonesian justice system. here is a news item from the ABC (the emphases are mine):-

“Former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld says it is impossible to understand the difference between the sentences handed to convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby and radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for his role behind the Bali bombing.

Bashir’s 30-month sentence has been reduced by four months as part of an automatic review of Indonesian prison terms.

The former judge is president of Australian Legal Resources International, which has been helping train judges in Indonesia.

He says the Indonesian legal system has improved in recent times but is still far from perfect.

“I’m not defending Corby but the disproportion between a sentence for a marijuana crime, as opposed to the Bashir intervention is very obvious and completely impossible to understand,” he said.

Schapelle Corby was convicted of trafficking four kilograms of marijuana inside her boogie-board bag, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.”

This just supports my remarks in the previous blog item, doesn’t it?

Original Blog post at this time point called Faking It! has been shifted to the Pages (full articles) as seen at top right —–>

You can also go there by clicking here.

In relation to my previous posting, “Religions Are Dangerous“, I came across a Bible verse during my current reading of “How the Mind Works“, by psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker. In a section dealing with the tension between the family and other social forces, he quotes Matthew 10:34-37, where Jesus is reported to have said:

“Think not that I am come send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword. for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

Steven Pinker here adds the following:

“When Jesus said ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me’, he was saying that they should not go unto their parents.”

food for thought indeed!

I caught the religion bug at age 14, got saved, got filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, and for over 13 years belonged to all sorts of Christian groups which graded down in fervour until I finished up in the comparatively anodyne Uniting Church.

Then I fell off that particular band-wagon, got unsaved, as it were, and see the whole thing from a different perspective. In particular, I can see the damage done by religions to myself, to millions of others, and indeed, to whole societies or even whole countries, by their meddlesome and controlling activities.

Here in state of Victoria, where I live, the social zealots in the Labor Government brought in the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001, which attempts to prohibit religious “vilification”. At the moment, no other Australian state government will touch this area with a barge-pole!

There has been an infamous case brought against two fundamentalist “Christian pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot ]who] yesterday vowed to go to jail rather than paying $68,690 for public apologies for vilifying Muslims”.

And so it came to pass that I found myself in the unexpected position of being on the side of the two fundamentalist pastors!

You can read more about it in ‘’The Herald-Sun’, ‘The Age’ and here, and so on.

There has been much discussion about this matter in local newspapers, but I was particularly struck by a letter yesterday to the editor of The Age, Melbourne. It is in response to a previous Opinion piece by a strong proponent of the law (Helen Szoke, CEO of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission) and I think it summarizes my views on the general topic, so here it is:-

i couldn’t agree more!

Yesterday I wrote an essay where I tried to untease my feelings and ruminations about the Corby trial and so I put it this blog as a whole Page essay headed “Why Am I So Angry About Schapelle Corby’s Jailing in Bali?”

Then I discovered that a software hiccup doesn’t yet allow Comments on Page items. I have found a software change that will do that, but until I tinker gingerly with the PHP code required, I have decided to put the sub-headings from that essay into this post, which should thus be read in conjunction with that 2,200 word essay.

Here are the sub-headings in the essay:-

• A History of Bloodyminded Indonesian Behaviour
• Distrust of Islam and Resentment of Islamic Preachiness
• Bali is a Country I See as Occupied By Indonesian Invaders
• The Corrupt and Inhumane Prison Conditions
• Indonesian Hypocrisy and Self-righteousness
• The Peculiar Conduct of the Trial and Strange Behaviour of the Judges
• Comparison with Holland
• Disproportionality of the Sentence
• Relative Harmlessness of Cannabis as a Drug
• Corruption and Crime Amongst Airline Staff in Australia

Yes, I am no doubt woefully ignorant about history, sociology, religion and politics. yes, I know I will hurt someone and be extremely annoying to others.

Don’t ask me why! I don’t know the answer to that - and believe me, I do think about it!

You tell me!!

Have you noticed that Schapelle Corby seems to be kept in the same cell as the men? What the hell is that all about?? Can you imagine the furore that would ensue if we did that here in our prisons?

And you have to buy your own food in prison! Again, what the hell is that all about? But, no matter, it seems that the guards are so easily bribed in that greatly religious culture that the food problem is easily overcome, and for those with money, inconveniences are easily overcome. So much for Allah’s rules.

It seems that nothing will keep people from taking advantage of the ghastly predicament in which Schapelle has found herself. Not only has she become entangled in a corrupt, primitive unbelievably flimsy court case in that wonderful example of civilized society, Indonesia, but she has now been baptized as a Christian, in jail, and apparently finding some solace in reading the Bible.

This is reported here in the Daily Telegraph, which gives details of her situation. On Friday she faces this pig-headed merciless bloody-minded judge, and it doesn’t look good for her.

I’d be reading the Bible, too and showing all the outwards signs of contrition if it got me any consideration from the the chief judge, whom I note is also a devout (whatever that means) Christian, who is praying for Divine guidance (what a joke!).

This, from a bastard who insolently read books while listening to the case. And this also from a man who boasts of never having acquitted anyone on 500 cases, or so I read somewhere.

I hold that man in contempt. I hold that country in contempt, too. If I was God or Allah, I’d give ‘em a few more earthquakes.

What a joke is such a system of justice, and what a joke is that lousy country, run by one of the most corrupt bunches of thugs on earth, as well as having a corrupt and bloodthirsty armed forces.

And they have the gall to parade their Muslim religiosity in all its pompous piety and ignoring the rottenness at its core. That makes me sick!

What is it about religions that can make people so cruel and merciless?

The recent hoohah over the now unsubstantiated rumour that the Yanks had tortured Guantanamo prisoners by flushing the Koran down the dunny led to riots and deaths in some Muslim countries. What’s new about death in those places? I posted earlier about that.

I now see a juicy item in an interesting US political blog that appears to stir the pot more vigorously than ever. We read that:-

This week Newsweek published a controversial article in which an anonymous source is quoted who claims that White House officials had a life size blow up doll of Allah delivered to the Oval Office where it was repeatedly sodomized time and time again by President Bush and his staff while pictures were taken.

If that isn’t designed to stir up those Muslim ant’s nests of nonthinking automatons who purport to be intelligent human beings, then I’ll go he!

Let me hasten to add that I have nothing against the millions of intelligent and thoughtful men and women who follow Islam in a balanced and humane way. If people feel impelled to have a one-way love affair with an imaginary friend, then good luck to them providing they don’t force it on everyone else. Unfortunately, that compulsion seems to be inbuilt into the monotheistic “desert” religions, and that’s when they come to regard people like me as their inferior, and consequently as their enemy!

Thanks for nothin’, bishops, popes, mullahs, ayotollahs and their fellow travellers!! I’m perfectly happy to be goin’ to Hell, Hades or Gehenna rather have to put up with you lot for eternity.

In a delicious follow-on to the above Blowup Allah Doll article the fascinating web site called The Mad Guerilla Brigade continues on with the fun. I wonder how many Muslim crazies will so irony-challenged that they once more foam at their snaggle-toothed mouths and kill even more innocent human beings.

Not that crazy Muslims are the only ones doing that - the Yanks and their subservient states like our own fair country, Australia, have become pretty good at that, too, in their own blundering way.

Here is an update on my recent blog item, Muslims Flushed at Koran Flush.

It now seems that, owing to an error by a reporter, the killing and destruction by Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan was a mistake.

It was reported today that the news item telling the world that Americans trying to extract information from jailed Muslim terrorists in Guantanamo had resorted to threatening to flush the Koran down the toilet, or threatening to do same, was in fact an error.

As the news spreads around the world that this was an error, can we assume that the bloody mad fanatics and their blood-thirsty Mad Mullahs will repent and make amends.

Possibly not, if the past is anything to go by, because in the ghastly, nasty world of Islam, it will presumably be regarded as the will of Allah. Life is cheap in Muslim countries.

What will the next Muslim atrocity be? I am quite sure that we won’t have long to wait!

Wait until a few more of these disgusting countries have nuclear weapons, and then we’ll see how destructive and vicious can be the behaviour of humans with their minds contorted and twisted by religious dogma.

They might even out-do the crazy and distorted behaviour of the current nation whose leaders have their minds distorted by religious, economic and political dogma - the United States of America, where the Christian fundamentalists are on the ascendency.

The web site of White House has drawn attention to some remarks by Lyn Cheney on the Illinois salt-stained virgin shrine happening upon which I have previously remarked in this highly-esteemed Blog.

The copywriter in The Whitehouse has a fine turn of phrase, and I recommend that that whole site, The White House (not the bushy White House) deserves a firm place in your Favorites/Humour and/or /Politics folder.

I particularly enjoy such purple (or is it pink) prose as the following.

As a lifelong Christian, and a writer of vulvacentric historical fiction, I never thought for a moment that I would ever get the opportunity to stand so close to the eye-poppingly cavernous opening of Jesus’ mom’s moist, clammy ladyhole! And yet here I am, like most of you, reveling in touching the pouting lips of Mary’s womanhood with my fingertips, running my trembling index finger lovingly along the hirsute periphery of her succulent labia majora virgo, building up courage to probe deeper, deeper and deeper still and – finally – having my photo snapped next to the coy dilation of the holiest of hoo-hoos!

Oh dear!

I’ve got to go and have a drink of water - and relieve myself………..

Religious Delusions Yet Again Kill More People

Indonesian Muslims join Koran ‘abuse’ protests

“Hundreds of people have gathered at a mosque in Indonesia to express outrage over a report that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba desecrated the Koran.

US-based Newsweek magazine recently reported that investigators probing abuses at the US military prison in Cuba had found interrogators “had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet”.

The report sparked violent protests in Afghanistan that have killed three people and drawn harsh words from Pakistan.

Muslims, mostly from small radical groups in Indonesia, gathered peacefully at a mosque in Jakarta and read a joint statement condemning the US over the reported abuses.

Indonesia’s Government also voiced its concerns over the report, saying the perpetrators must receive a “deserved punishment” for their “immoral” action.

However, Indonesia’s largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, urged all sides to remain calm, saying they had faith the US would adequately investigate the report.”

From: ABC News, Sat 14th May, 2005.

Since then a total of 10 people have been killed. Read more details in here.

Blogger Bill says:-

Now, no doubt this, like most Muslim violence under the guise of religious sensibilities, is a mixture of manipulation by clerics and terrorists, and sheer superstitious ignorance by the Muslims in the street.

But I am always amazed at how Muslims do not realise that by reacting like this to the simple act of someone (reportedly) placing some lumps of paper with squiggles on them in some undesirable place, then they become stupid puppets of their own superstition.

To me, if Muslims really believe that there is an all-powerful being called Allah, then surely it follows that He is powerful enough to look after Himself. If Muslims have to defend Him, then He is obviously not omnipotent!!

This applies to Christians and Jews about blasphemy, too. If their God is really omnipotent, then He doesn’t need help from puny, sinful mortal followers!

If Muslims, Jews and Christians react defensively to an imagined slight to their chosen object of superstition, then they are admittimg that ther God is not truly all-powerful.

Of course, clearer thinkers, unblinded by the delusion of a one-way love affair with some preposterous Supreme Being, can perhaps see that these followers are reacting unconsciously to their own neurotic doubts and feelings of vulnerability in a threatening world.

I came across this wonderful site Raving Atheist Blog, and have added it to my goodies.

I’ve categorized this as Religion, but it’s actually an excellent site exposing the stupidities of religion, and Christianity in particular.

Note that there is right now a main page article in there on a water stain in the wall of a freeway in Illinois that looks like an image of the Virgin Mary!! This hokum has been going for weeks now. Read all about it in there, and look at the following image, reproduced here. (Catholics remove your hats and kneel in prayer! Ding-a-ling!)

Ignorant idiots imagining that the salt-stain in a concrete wall is an
image of the Virgin Mary when any fool can see that it’s just her
holy vulva! Perhaps it’s the stain on the Virgin’s holy nickers!!
There’s not a lot of water for washing in the Middle East, and
that would beat the shit out of the Shroud of Turin!

STOP PRESS: An informant has alerted me to an even more deliciously offensive article at The Whitehouse on the same phenomenon!