More Fun from our Most Favored Nation

It looks like ole General Chang is back to his no-good antics again.

China's Brutal Crackdown on Dissidents

China's Communist Party officials are employing brutal methods in dealing with difficult citizens. The most recent victim of what appears to be government-sanctioned brutality was a farmer who suffered a broken cervical vertebra when he was attacked by thugs.

Fu Xiancai, 47, is a far cry from an enemy of the state, as evidenced by the many portraits of Mao Zedong he displays in his house. However, the mustache-wearing farmer became a difficult citizen when he was forced to leave his village, Maoping, on the banks of the Yangtze River. Fu, like 1.2 million other Chinese, was in the way of a giant project, the construction of China's Three Gorges Dam. The budding superpower hopes to derive much-needed energy by damming the Yangtze.

"We have nothing against the project," Fu has said. "This is a good dam." But he did object to the fact that the relocation compensation he received was substantially lower than the amount he had been promised by the state. Instead of about 20,000 Yuan (€2,000), Fu received only 7,000 (€700). Many other residents of Maoping had the same experience.

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/
international/spiegel/0,1518,423551,00.html

Ok - so I can understand the whole "good for business" thing about working with China. Cheap labor, cheap crap, why pay $70 for a blender that works, when you can get 2 that don't work for only $50?

Despite my anarcho-tribal leanings - I am truly a born-again Capitalist - but there has to be a limit somewhere.

The other day The Dude and I were talking about Walmart and he (a former union delegate and organizer) made the slight comment - "Looks like they are a long way from their "Buy American" past." It occured to me after all these years of Walmart bashing that part of the original Sam Walton vision was to really focus on stocking American goods - rather than their current policy of increasing China's GPD. Completely forgot.

Now I am not saying supporting Walmart helps buy more bullets for ole General Chang, but . . .

Oh wait - I just did.

Learn to swim . . . oh, wait . . . I shouldn't have sold the stock

Yet another asteroid will be missing us soon.

Huge Asteroid to Fly Past Earth July 3

An asteroid possibly as large as a half-mile or more in diameter is rapidly approaching the Earth. There is no need for concern, for no collision is in the offing, but the space rock will make an exceptionally close approach to our planet early on Monday, July 3, passing just beyond the Moon's average distance from Earth.

Astronomers will attempt to get a more accurate assessment of the asteroid's size by “pinging” it with radar.

And skywatchers with good telescopes and some experience just might be able to get a glimpse of this cosmic rock as it streaks rapidly past our planet in the wee hours Monday. The closest approach occurs late Sunday for U.S. West Coast skywatchers.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/
20060626/sc_space/hugeasteroidtoflypastearthjuly3

Oh well, I guess there won't be any comets falling from the sky. My whole plan to sell off all of my assest and invest in Twinkies, Vienna Sausage, and other non-perishables was aparently a bit short-sighted.

This is even more disappointing then 6/6/06 when there wasn't the "dead walking the earth" attack we were all hoping for . . .

Illumination

"Have you seen the light?" - Reverend Cleophus James

I am getting towards the end of John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies and in a lot of ways it is not nearly as scary as I had initially hoped - in other ways in far more frightening than I could ever imagine. The basic premise follows some strange paranormal events that occurred in the Point Pleasant, West Virginia region during 1966-67 - culminating in the collapse and disaster around Silver Bridge.

My initial take on the book was that it would be focused around the paranormal events and cryptozoological oddities that occurred around this region during this time. While the initial focus on these strange creatures was what caused me to pick-up the book, there is actually a much darker and more intense premise to the book.

I had recently read another John Keel book - Our Haunted Planet - that despite its allusions to ghosts and other things that go bump in the night, is actually about the source of paranormal experience, rather that the visual displays we see that are merely the symptoms of a much deeper issue. Keel puts forward the idea that the paranormal experiences we have had since the beginning of recorded time, are the interactions of beings that co-exist with us on the planet, but rather exists on the edge of the visible spectrum of light.

As an aside, in some interviews with a local Austin eccentric, who is a delusional paranoid - thinking that his rural shooting range is bordered by Kennedy-financed witches and warlocks - has put forward his assumption many times that we are all "beings of light" - something eerily similar to Keel's ideas - of which I am sure he has never read.

In either case, the Mothman Prophecies is more or less an earlier version of Our Haunted Planet - Keel reviewing these preternatural theories through the context of the events from the time. Keel assures us that the "UFO phenomenon" is not based on any sort of beings or spacecraft from another planet, but is merely our modern take on events that have been happening for thousands of years. Several places in the Bible mention what can be described as "UFOs" - specifically scenes in Genesis, the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of course, Ezikiel's vision. The Mahatbratta, part of the Braghvada Gita - a Hindu book similar to the Western Bible - also mentions a battle in the heavens that sounds remarkably like a air battle between technically advanced flying machines and culminating in a nuclear war.

Keel also touches on the concept of "illumination" - a common thread running throughout secret society and covert organizational lore since the beginning of time. His idea is that some of the lights that come blasting down from these "vehicles" is the source of "illumination" that causes lives to change - for better or worse - and that this has been happening to our best and brightest fellow humans since the beginning of time - whether or not they can consciously remember it as such.

In the Bible, the tentmaker Saul is "converted" on the road to Damascus and forever after becomes St. Paul. Reading that section in the Bible can sound remarkably like a modern UFO contactee story - if read literally and not in the allegorical context of the book. Saul sees the bright light shining on him and then realizes his true purpose in life. Keel gives other similar accounts as well.

But truly the more disturbing part of the book is based on the interference or involvement of the so-called Men in Black - often described as being dark (not black or african-american), oriental in appearance, often wearing neatly pressed overalls, black suits, heavy boots or shoes (found leaving similar tracks to the "moon boots" of the Apollo landings), and often wearing clothes that are either out of date, or not yet in fashion. They travel in dark black cars - out of date, but brand new - and panel trucks, some sporting signs for businesses that don't actually exist.

A precursory read of the description would seem to lend credence to the idea that they are from a government or quasi-governmental agency, often times decried as Air Force or CIA personnel. It would be somewhat comforting to think that they were such, but a deeper look into the descriptions makes it seem like that is anything but possible. My take is not that they are "beings from another planet" but their ability to manipulate folks is alarming at the least. In fact, one of the most haunting features of these beings are their ability to show up unannounced at remote locations, often paying visits to those who have recently witnessed unexplained phenomenon - and the witnesses let the MIBs into their houses!

Maybe this needs to be taken into the context of 1960s rural society, but I can't imagine letting one of these creepy folks into my house - much less not attempting to get some photographic or physical evidence of their visit. I am not sure what has happened recently in the field - and certainly need to do more research here - but it seems like a modern witness would be much more cynical and less likely to believe that such a bizarre person would be a representative of any government. I can only imagine what a late-night visit from a malicious, dark-clad malcontent would bring in our day and age. Ka-boom!

Keel's books are a really interesting take on paranormal phenomenon. Though I think it would be really hard to prove any of his assertions, a lot of them are based on sound scientific ideas and as such could lend itself to some sort of non-biased testing. Unfortunately, we would have to admit as a society that there are things in our world that are beyond comprehension in our 3-dimensional based scientific belief system. I can't even imagine the cost involved in trying to figure out how to test for 4th dimensional light-based beings, but I'd love to see the documentary.

For further reading:

The Mothman Prophecies

Our Haunted Planet

And you thought it only worked against ORKS

I saw this interesting tid-bit in the news this morning:

Canada Police Use Sting in Terror Arrests

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario (AP) - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police itself delivered three tons of potential bomb-making material to a group that authorities said wanted to launch a string of attacks inspired by al-Qaida, according to a news report Sunday.

The Toronto Star said the sting unfolded when investigators delivered the ammonium nitrate to the group of Muslim Canadians, then moved in quickly on what officials called a homegrown terror ring.

The newspaper said that investigators learned of the group's alleged plan to bomb targets around Ontario, then controlled the sale and transport of the fertilizer.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060605/D8I1PIE80.html

I read through the whole article and didn't once find reference to the famed short sword used in the LOTR series. What the hell?

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/tolkien/hobbit.html

In honor of 6-6-06

Ok, sorry for the delay in posting, I blame Satan.

However, in honor of this most fearsome of day, I picked up a small news piece - dealing with the current immigration "crisis" - and of course, the Mark of the Beast.

Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants

Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television on May 16.

Silverman was being interviewed on "Fox & Friends." Responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here," he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it...."

The VeriChip is a very small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag about the size of a large grain of rice. It can be injected directly into the body; a special coating on the casing helps the VeriChip bond with living tissue and stay in place. A special RFID reader broadcasts a signal, and the antenna in the VeriChip draws power from the signal and sends its data. The VeriChip is a passive RFID tag; since it does not require a battery, it has a virtually unlimited life span.

http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/060531_rfid_chips.html

Revelation 13:16-18:
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666."

Remember, a lot of scary policies start with poor people and criminals - and then spread out from there.

Conspiracy theories aside, I was really hoping that the dead was going to rise from their graves today and we'd get to have a big zombie fight . . . sigh.

Better luck next century.