If I’d lived my life by what others were thinkin’, the heart inside me would’ve died

I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity

Someone had to reach for the risin’ star, I guess it was up to me

"Up to Me" by Bob Dylan)

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Glen Campbell: Wichita Lineman-excellent live recording

Law: What is It?

Law---I am looking for its root and essence so that I might better understand the truth of this phenomenon.

The problem of evil turns out to be the critical problem in the realm of philosophy but this does not emerge until human culture and civilization achieves a certain "maturity" ---- a fulness of time in which the era is fulfilled, revealed. Then evil is "scoped". Decadence reveals the root of the problem of evil. To see the phenomenon of law is to see the root of evil, and vice-versa, God has no need of law.  Knowledge of evil is an impregnable fortress which Adam must squirrel away east of the gates of eden. Adam does not take a much with him on the flight from the misty beauty of Eden but he has been tinged and plagued with this horrible "knowledge".

Perhaps the horror of the knowledge of this age with its brave new world and systematic medical atrocities, chemtrails, Round-Up landscaping, corporate impersonal "best practices", virtual reality, false prophets such as Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, IBM's Gini Rometty, all wizards of Oz. The horror of the knowledge to have to wake up and see a world so gone stray. This is it---the precise root of the knowledge of good and evil---the fruit and proof of Adam's fall and the evidence that the commander of the air, the prince of Tyre, is having a field day seeing as these so-called gurus of our time are so easily snared in the wiles of satan---the restrainer has fallen and the mad dog is off his leash, rambling about in the open seeking whom he may devour. Cursing and hissing at man, so full of jealousy and condescension. Sniffing out all innocence like a bloodhound bent on murder and deception, so proud of her high IQ, and his self-made lifestyle. Now except for the double agents and mercenaries of the Lord, all churches are caught in the net, all education, all power of every sort. It is not hard to see why the masses are madly wallowing in distraction 24/7---computing in general---and pretending that this digital world is actually work, is actually education, is actually government, is actually friendship (like Facebook). 'Virtual' is the antithesis of actuality and truth, its synonym is 'fake', 'false' or 'illusory'. Hence the picture that the computer gives is better termed: 'false reality' which is of course a contradiction---hence the expression 'virtual reality' is a lie or a deception pure and simple.

The whole world is a lie, save the knowledge of Jesus Christ---all is so clearly and evident folly.
Let me tell you---this was not the case in the 1970s---it is a like a kindergarten criminal in the year 1970----his education, his seven year old worldview (BTW that kid is me). The apocalypse, the fall of babylon is a mere 'possibility'---superviruses and 9/11 are as yet unthinkable, the covert government spraying aerosol chemtrails does not start in earnest until 1995 after the scientists win their Nobel prize for the albedo effect in 1994. You know, you invent a brilliant instrument of death--the drone, Monsanto's seed modification, universal compliance to ethics codes mandatorily enforced by all powers that be so that you "learn how to smile as you kill."  This enforced ignorance is mandated through online training. Now into my 54th year it is all unfolding like clockwork---as if it were "written in my soul." Rip van Winkle am I except I have slept twice as long! I wake up in the year 2017---young people do not play outside anymore, their eyes are locked onto handheld cancer causing microwave device. The neighbor pours yet more toxic herbicide on their lawn. And other drone strike takes out collateral damage, once more not a single bit of evil is touched, more innocent lives are spilled and the military deems the maneuver a success. No one disagrees. For they are blinded to the evil in their own heart which they perpetuate which is curable by only one remedy, the salve of true salvation---Jesus Christ. Oh yeah and this Good News, this Gospel of one's salvation is forbidden from the public sphere and in schools. One can join in a protest where pink ribbons and talk about "making a difference"---until you have ferreted out the root of evil all of the do-gooders have no way of knowing of their best practices are not leading to the destruction of all that is sacred personally to them and their families. Folks get nervous when I talk about satan, the devil but it is OK to spend millions of dollars to create entertainment of murder, rape and betrayal in Hollywood and to blaspheme and use the Lord God's name in vain and to sear this into the eyes of your own relatives and children through HDTV. They will say that satan is "symbolic", a narrative, or myth but not a true actuality---then the grim reaper draws ever closer to their own precious loved ones and they still can't see and if they see cannot name and call out evil as a straightforward factual force that drives every aspect of their own lives, save for some narrow haven that they still possess. Satan indeed is actual, not symbolic, but he deals in symbols and imagery. Why this fetish concerning 'is it live or is it memorex'---so-called "live"TV, "live news", replays and then back to live---who's kidding who?

The gift of Satan is the knowledge of good and evil--thanks to the serpentine lie---what was corrupted in Adam becomes the stock of the world, its "progress" and it grows into this beastly world system we see today. It is not pretty---the humanitarians still want to attribute 'goodness' to human beings while all around them all human progress and technology, medicine, education and government is hung about their necks like a noose as the son of perdition is unrestrained having the time of his life because there are not many hours before the dawn and at the dawn of the global messiah pantocrator it is game over for the devil and his legions and his minions. In that dawn no one will stand all will be on their knees before the returning Lord---even those who pierced him! Game over to the 'digital nervous system' game over for AI, corporations, economic systems, all wealth and luxury. There is absolutely no other obligation for mankind save to surrender and worship the true messiah. No other prayers or gods are required. truth will out in the end. Rebellious mankind has created their own hellish destruction, fulfilling the prophecies. Thanks to technology, science, healthcare, the roll-out of the apocalypse is right on schedule and according to the ethics and best practices which ensure its universal hellishness.

Thank God for the masterful plan to save all mankind from this diabolic panzi scheme which begins with a covenant with Abraham. All through Moses and Isaiah, up until the birth of the messiah 2010 years or so ago.

God chooses to open up the doorway of communication with Abraham, and lo and behold, promises that his offspring will prosper immensely. Through this bloodline the Messiah will be born, the one to redeem and save Israel. Abraham answers the call. God once more walks with a son of adam. It is not the same sort of union with God that Adam and eve enjoyed but it's a start! From thence forward God will work this covenant for the redemption of all mankind and the universe. The Law that God gives to Moses is, dare I say, a corrective and punitive crutch for an out of control people who keep trying to get themselves back under the plow of Egypt. Seeing that human nature seems to crave slavery, they get right back to worshipping the golden calf. There is only one way that this can be pulled off, hit them with the Law! Enter Moses.

 Law is a pretty good thing for invoking a leveller and religion is good at eking out obedience, enough schooling in the laws gets God's people at least acting civil and pointing in the right direction.
You can dress 'em up but you can't take them out.

Nowadays knowledge is seen as a pretty cool thing---so the question arises: how is it that knowledge becomes horrible? The sidewinder's slippery lie embroils the progenitor of our race in a problematic whose consequences must be lived through until the last man. If Jesus Christ, the last man, dies on the cross and is resurrected somewhere near Jerusalem 2000 years ago, then what kind of 'provisional man'  populates this age of the Gentiles.? Who are you? Who am I? Thanks be to God that he extended the salvation worked out within the covenant with Israel to include the Gentiles. The messiah it turns out is global and not one people's private treasure. When you are waiting for a political messiah, you are looking for a cross between Caesar, Hitler, The Beatles, or Barack Obama, even Donald Trump. Who has the courage or humility to see that the emperor wears no clothes---it is better to stay true to your own unique individuality even if it costs your earthly life---than to join the 'greater good' or church or team or party or whatever association purports to speak on behalf of the salvation that is uniquely tailored for only one person---namely you! Ironically the only way to one's true individual essence is to surrender to the son of man. To embrace one's own core which indeed 'seems' puny. One's own nature seems broken---it is fragile, fragmented, emotionally needy, etc. Only love can pierce through one's rightful self hate because I am loved as I am---I am accepted as I am, I am saved as I am! It is more than I could have even given myself or even hoped for.

Thank God that the last man, Jesus Christ, all praise to his holy name. Our bloodline is the same and the consequences of the curse upon the first man radiate self-evidently around, outside us in the news of the world, but even moreso inwardly, the nature of evil is still "squirrelled" in the human heart.

Adam's body has become enlarged, we are Adam's offspring. All destined to die thanks to the slippery  lie.

All redeemed if a member of the body of Christ---the truly human. Yet, this requires a choice---the gift is in evidence, is irrefutably real---Christ's sacrifice has once and for all been made. The historical record of Pontius Pilate amply accords with the true historical facticity of Jesus' innocence before the charges leveled at him in the Roman Praetorium. THE GIFT HAS BEEN DELIVERED AND AWAITS YOU---Is there a Christmas present which you forgot to open? It is still there under the tree.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Chemtrails Documentary: Exposing Aerosol Crimes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxlmNwmxk98

The non-reporting of these phenomena by news media, educators and meteorologists is also a crime---fraudulence.

Trump Rally in Melbourne, Fla. With Lord's Prayer: Impressive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlo3i0KcPSohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlo3i0KcPSo

Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Burt Bachrach and Dionne Warwick: Loneliness Remembers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv62rtEdVAk

This video gives to me an amazing array of memories---yet, I have never heard this tune until it appeared on Youtube. It awakens a sense of 'seventies-ness'---all of it, you can hear this in their tone of voices, playful---a kind of pathos that is forgotten. Dare I call it innocence---the feeling of 'back in the day'.

Specific memories: in the dentist's chair at Dr. Thaler's, I listened carefully to every song on the Muzak radio---this brings back memories of my mother---I can almost see her and to reach out and touch her---it is such a rich tapestry! Flower power. I am amazed at the power of memory---yes---think about it---this power of memory to recall and re-present this world. It is all right there at my fingertips---along this corridor. Do you recall these days, along the ragged alleyways in Duncansville, St. Catherine's old wooden chapel---the Wye Switches?


Global Warming Hoax

Sunday, February 05, 2017

Utter Astonishment

Let’s begin by distinguishing wonder and astonishment. The sense of wonder is indeed the fountain from which authentic philosophy issues---wonder concerning the beauty of a bubbling brook or a raging snowstorm---wonder seems to be aimed at some phenomenon that is present and entails a perplexity which is felt alongside an experience of nature. This human ‘sense’ initiates philosophical inquiry: questioning and thinking.



Astonishment arises not from a specific phenomenon but from the startling, and immediate sense of the total sum of phenomena in the face of nothing.

The artist is amazed at the poetic majesty of the glowing horizon at the end of day or the reflection of the sunset on the surface of the lake---wonder gives forth a question of how this specific manifestation of beauty arises, not only in nature but within her sense. 

Later she is struck all at once with another question---one more disturbing, apparently groundless---but how is it that any of this appears to me at all? And more profoundly---how is it that I am sensing this? How is it that I am? How is it that any of this appears at all including me?

St. Augustine in The Confessions touches on both the sense of wonder and this more radical ‘sense’ of utter astonishment which calls into question the very ground of his own being, his soul: "For then shalt Thou rest in us, as now Thou workest in us; and so shall that be Thy rest through us, as these are Thy works through us. But Thou, Lord, ever workest, and art ever at rest. Nor dost Thou see in time, nor art moved in time, nor restest in a time; and yet Thou makest things seen in time, yea the times themselves, and the rest which results from time (Confessions Book 13).

By “astonishment” I am not referring to any cotidian marvel but the utterly astounding thought which first of all appears as terrible and full of awe. It is not clear how common this experience is, as for myself, I have never met a person who claims to have felt this, save for a few philosophers, and of course the greatest writers---St. Augustine, Heidegger, Dostoevsky. It is absolutely uncanny and springs up all at once---not in the senses but at the root of on’e being. Heidegger calls this ‘Nothing’---‘das Nicht’. Yet, the full sense of terror cannot be grasped by merely reading about this ‘phenomenon’---it must be directly experienced. 

Astonishment sends one reeling--the Oxford English Dictionary’s first entry for ‘astone; astun’ is “1. To stun; to strike senseless with a blow or partially senseless with a loud noise.” Further meanings are “to daze, to stupefy. strike mute with amazement, overwhelm one’s presence of mind, to confound, astound, astonish (‘Astone’ OED, p.521).” Such a dazzling is not brought about by one’s will. Rather it overcomes the thinker, creeping in and then all at once. Having experienced this one can never forget it. It is unique, primordial and undeniable. Heidegger also calls this ‘falling’ ‘Geworfenheit: thrownness. It is overwhelmingly complete and completely disarms the senses and mind. Leaving one with the most profound question: How is it that I am here and all of the universe besides? It is strange and alienating.
Incidentally, before we leave the etymology, one notices the term 'stone' in the root of 'astonishment'---indeed it is the same root as 'to get stoned'---in Dylan's Rainy Day Women: "everybody must get stoned." Better yet we hear this in Van Morrison's "And it Stoned Me":  And it stoned me to my soul/ It stoned me just like going home/ It stoned me."


Saturday, February 04, 2017

Bob Dylan Project

http://thebobdylanproject.com/http://thebobdylanproject.com/

All the Dylan songs, albums, lyrics and chords free streaming Dylan radio!!


One Percenters in Ancient Times

Much is made of the excessive luxury of billionaires these days---and indeed it is excessive---there is a great divide, even exponential, between us and them. However it should also be noted that there have been days of greater wealth divides---think of the ancient Kings of Israel---what do you think the wealth of King Solomon would be like in terms of current money measurement? I do not think you could actually measure it in trillions of dollars! But this is a false comparison---I mention it just to provoke thought. What do you reckon the pyramid of King Amenhotep or Tutankhamen of ancient Egypt were worth in current dollar measurement? Food for thought!


Jethro Tull Unplugged-Skating Away (On the thin Ice of a New Day)--Beautiful Performance

The second of the two performed songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sotzgSvjZUQ

Sunday, January 29, 2017

President Jimmy Carter: "The U.S. Government is an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery."

This photo of President Jimmy Carter and me along Spruce Creek was taken in 1995. The interview with Jimmy Carter can be found as a video w/ the link below. I want to add to his thesis by saying that the collusion and cronyism which has eroded participative democracy is most evident at the local level!  Not only with the plutocrats.

Oligarchy suggests the conspiracy of billionaires whose broad influence I am not denying. However, even in the shire --- i.e. my home town, the tyranny of petty water authority fiefdoms, and political dynasties---think Shuster---which are linked into the highways, and convention centers in phase one, and later in mammoth multi-million dollar school contracts, the thugs on the ground level who are pawns for their masters, and every member of the school board, etc., etc... Of all the disturbing things in America today---perhaps the most disturbing to me is the futility of its educational system---from top to bottom. And the whole ballgame is wrapped up in the hands of 'petit bourgeois' millionaires. It is better to be a "big fish in a small pond" and I will tell you why: amongst the billionaires or one-percenters there is the prospect of global exploitation of every resource: big fish in a big pond.  And of course there are little fish in a big pond---for example the Clintons. But what really cements the deal---are the big fish in the small pond. I am talking about mayors, the men and women who are on the boards of water authorities, utilities, municipalities, state level supervision and so on. It is at this level that democratic action is a possibility but it will require the awakening of the citizenry to actual political involvement on the level of one's own field of action. It is the schooling first of all which destroyed the sincerity of american political participation and not only in that it masquerades ineffectual ideals and never faces up to the local corruption in the media (WTAJ News, and the Altoona Mirror for example) who report street crime corruption but do not expose the corruption in the very political process of town hall meetings where these fracking projects and these new million dollar school contracts are being launched under the pretence of participative democracy. There are about three families who run Altoona.

The other part of the economy that is corrupt through and through and highly anti-democratic is of course medicine. A huge conglomerate like UPMC runs the state---and there is no democratic process. The AMA and the medical doctors are aloof from street level politics and are the pawns of insurance giants and the Pharma. American medicine demonstrates very little allegiance to the nation and its people.

Above all, Americans do not know what they have in common anymore. Association is the basis of political theory. People with similar religious views bond in associations for their aims. But what do americans have in common anymore---the entertainment is not democratically participative (think of the 60s). It is top down.

Love of money is the root of all evil, yes. Another root is the technocracy. Technological "culture" itself is highly undemocratic---compare a Bill Gates or a Zuckerberg to Thoreau or Franklin. Even a techie saint like Steve Jobs constructed a programmed fascism---democracy cannot be digital--the addition of apps and trinkets cannot assist in the fundamental citizen duty to be autonomous and educated in truth.

https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/

Bill Moyers: Donald Trump's Demolition Derby

My brother explained to me that a man named Schumpeter, an economist, came up with the view that "creative destruction" is what drives the american economy(build to destroy to build again)---the following essay is a good example:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/donald_trumps_demolition_derby_20170128

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Someday Baby lyrics and chords (alternate version)

Tell Tale Signs Version

Capo 1st fret (sounding key: E flat major)
Chords:
Cadd9     x30030 or x35533
                      D            
I don't care what you do, don't care what you say
                     Cadd9 G                 D
don't care where you go      or how long you stay
             A                G                D
Someday baby,  you ain't gon' worry po' me any more

Cadd9   G   D
You take my money and you turn me out
You fill me up with self doubt
Someday baby, you ain't gon' worry po' me any more
You made me eat a ton of dust
You're potentially dangerous, and not worthy of trust
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more
[Instrumental verse]
Little by little, bit by bit
Every day I'm becoming more of a hypocrite
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more
You've got my mind tied up in knots
I just keep recycling the same old thoughts
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more
When I heard you was cold, I bought you a coat and hat
I think you must have forgotten about that
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more
[Instrumental verse]
Gonna blow out your mind, and make you pure
I've taken about as much of this as I can endure
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more
You put me down from the upper creek
That's all right, to you I turn the other cheek
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more
[Instrumental verse]
You say you need me, how would I know?
You say you love me, but it can't be so
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more
I don't want to brag, but I'll wring your neck
When all else fails, I'll make it a matter of self-respect
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more
[Instrumental verse]
Living this way ain't a natural thing to do
Why was I born to love you?
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry poor me any more

A Complex Case: That Time I Turned a Routine Traffic Ticket into the Constitutional Trial of the Century

This is a complex case but I could cite many more!

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/01/18093/

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Woody Allen and Billy Graham

Please enjoy this video: Personally, I think that Billy Graham comes out as the stronger thinker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=194zJ55LcVk


Saturday, January 14, 2017

My Current Teaching Assignment: Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy

But is it Ethical?--NY Times Article

Head of Ethics Office Speaks Out. Some Republicans Ask, Was It Ethical?


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/us/politics/walter-shaub-ethics-oversight-jason-chaffetz.html?_r=0

AS a veteran instructor of ethics, I see the irony in this title! I wonder what qualifies this "Head of Ethics" to lead this task---did he practice turning the cheek more than the other guy, or did practice the Golden Rule in season and out of season, or perhaps he studied 'ethics'? In any case, I fear that he will be unable to determine "was it ethical?" Not only in this case, but in any case. By what measure will he determine this, evaluate it---what will be his measuring stick?

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Truthdig: Chris Hedges on the So-called Intelligence Assessment of Russian Cyberhacking

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_real_purpose_of_the_us_governments_report_on_alleged_hacking_by_russi

I agree with Hedges' view on this amateur intelligence report which demonstrates exactly how intelligent the CIA, FBI and NSA are---not very!

Moreover, I agree that when you see a document this flimsy with absolutely no evidence cited, you must ask yourself why these agencies are stretching out their necks in this manner. It reveals pernicious intention of the highest degree.

What exactly is the premise: that voters for Clinton were inexplicably compelled by this "influence" to change their minds and vote for Donald Trump? Yes, I am sure that happened. Not. And if not this, then what exactly did the influence accomplish? Nothing. If it accomplished nothing then why waste the agents valuable time on such an assessment.

I have not seen such dubious intelligence since the CIA Attempted to discredit Benjamin Franklin as a "liability" (click below).  Such intelligence gurus are really a disappointment. I guess what they mean by 'intelligence' is the ability to paranoiacally project bizarre narratives which begin with 'what if?'---the dreaded subjunctive hypothetical. Question: What if worms had machine guns? Answer: Robins would not mess with them!

Before we start to use the word 'intelligence', we should make an effort to define the term.

 http://franklinjunto.blogspot.com/2015/04/franklin-accused-afresh-in-cia-diclosure.html

Saturday, January 07, 2017

An excerpt from the epic: Setting out for America

Setting out for America (excerpt)
What kind of artistry is equal to the silver glisten on a river, or a sunset, or lightening in the sky?
What kind of man’s artistry can compare to the great artistry of creation?

What, indeed, could compare with the silver glistening on this white iron lake?
The poet is only an echo of what he sees and hears.
A transmitter, a go-between.
Little wavelets lap this rock on which I sit.
Having been refreshed by a swim, a cool swim, 
the poet has a prerogative to swim in whatever fresh water he sees fit to swim in anywhere in America.
That’s the poet’s prerogative to bathe in nature.
It’s his primary right to do so.
No law can touch this.
This water is like a tea, like in Black Moshannan, brown cola-colored like the intertidal pool of the Missouri River.

The hard granite I sit upon, moss covered, rather lichen.
The wonderful green of lichen, and beneath it this pink granite.
This very hot and dry evening in May.
And the van, a stone’s throw away behind the little trees hidden beyond the rushes from the water.
And the calm fluttering in the elm and birch.
The little leaves amidst the steady ever-present roar of the waterfall over which Route, highway number 1 passes.
The little leaves are spindling around, waving as if in a game, then pausing for just a millisecond, standing there and then starting again, waving, teetering, now calm, now still.
And the blue sky emerges.
Then they begin their fluttering again and the sky disappears.
They come to the center of the stage and clamor for attention.
Some type of sign language I am as yet unable to read, but I know intuitively what it speaks to me.
As God speaks through these little things in nature, nothing grandiose, it’s all in the details.
Only with man do we find the ambitions to overcome and dominate the world, to rise above, to be higher than the world.
But it’s all here.
And in Minnesota, north.

Great calm.
After so many miles.
And I admit my weariness.
This road is very long, indeed.
And I’ve still got a very long way to go.
But knowing that poets like Dylan and Whitman have gone before me gives me courage and strength to move on, to carry on, not knowing where I’m headed, not lonely, but somehow disjointed, out of sorts.
We thank God for this beautiful day and we ask God to continue to bless our work and to bless Bob Dylan and to honor poets everywhere, especially those on the road.

There’s a Ptarmigan, or some such forest-type bird, poking around and stamping loudly like an angry squirrel.

By Lake La Moyant I see an ant running across this white lichen-covered stone.
This ant achieves his goal.
or if there is an obstacle in his path, he turns and finds another way.
The ant is a lowly, small creature but very diligent and hard working as the book of Proverbs says.
But there’s always two sides to every story.

Went through Ely.
The Chamber of Commerce there has the website: www.ely.org.
Look it up!

The scent of the forest is truly wondrous, dry perfume.
There is a beautiful Monarch butterfly impaled right into the center of my hood ornament.
Yellow and black wings with  one wing having 3 blue windows and behind it, an orange window, like stained glass.
Smashed, broken butterfly.
Ornament on my car.
Symbol of resurrection.
What was once larval state,
died, rose again, chrysalis, then in its colorful, beaming, radiant, beautiful, resurrected body.

And as I drive away, I see five more perfect yellow butterflies, two together and then three together.
And I notice that the name of the lake where I was swimming was Birch Lake.

Oh, Lord, I have sought to escape you, fleeing on the highways and byways, speeding down the road, all over America from state to state, county to county.
Fleeing.
We are trying to hold onto some liquid before it races erases from my fingers.
I cannot hold onto it all the same.
And now I stand empty-handed.
You, God, are working your work in me.
I’m your putty and I’m your man, Lord, and I’ll stand by.
I will stand by you.
Restore me, oh Lord, even if it means losing my voice and my poetry and my music.
If it means losing my house and my family.
If it means losing all of my possessions, my love.
You are first.

You are the Lord, most high, Jesus Christ.