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lkwdblds

Crusader
One see's it happening here and feels powerless to stop it.

How Empires Decline (including ours)

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1064.html


It's long but well worth listeing to.

It seems as if all the great societies of Earth go through a rise and fall cycle. In Junior High School, 7th Grade, 1952-53, we studied Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome at a 7th Grade level.

It dawned on me immediately that all those old societies had a birth and growth phase and then decayed and died. The Roman Empire was by far the most powerful and it resisted dying the most but finally it weakened and collapsed.

From my early 50's viewpoint, I thought naively that the United States was special and might be able to not go down this path. First of all, I thought we had several advantages which would prevent it or at least slow it way down. These were as follows:

#1 - We would read history and benefit from past mistakes.
#2 - Our Founding Fathers were a super brilliant group and fashioned a constitution much stronger than anything the ancients had.
#3 - The world was much more modern and telecommunications would aid us.
#4 - The USA was so powerful and so stable financially and militarily that no one could challenge us. I knew the USSR was a threat but thought we were stronger.

I thought that if we were to fall, we would have a run of at least 1,000 years. Just look at how we all united against a common enemy and fought for our freedoms in WWII.

Here we are less than 60 years from that time, and we are already on the brink of a collapse. Those 4 points I thought would save us when I was 12 and 13 have all been breached.

We don't learn from history. Our educational system has been dumbed down so that high school graduates know very little. Our Founding Fathers are thought of in many monied quarters as outmoded and passe. Our modern communications have vastly improved and are used to undermine us more than to fortify us. Irresponsible management from our government and financial institutions have caused our currency and our economy to be collapsed, our space exploration program is considered not worth pursuing with its resources being put more into helping the sick and needy populace, move's are afoot to limit our usage of traditional energy sources, our military is under pressure to be reduced, turning things over to international military orgainizations, etc.

Some of this makes sense, aiding the needy, conserving energy, moving to renewable energies which are environmently friendly. These areas are valid and need to be addressed. Still, if we lose all our freedoms and are dumbed down too far, protecting our environment is not adequate recompense for us living lives of uniform mediocrity as some sort of semi-robots.

One of the few things that is working in the other direction and enabling us to put up a fight is the internet. Mass communications can be sent around the world without being filtered by national and international media dedicated to the collapse of the USA as the world's only superpower.

Its an oversimplification but don't those in power want a one world government based on mediocrity and lack of personal initiative as opposed to one, two or three very strong nations or unions of nations with big militaries and strong currencies who tend to give stability to the group of world governments?
Lakey
 
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Hatshepsut

Crusader
How Empires Decline (including ours)

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1064.html


It's long but well worth listeing to.

That was very interesting Leon. The last five minutes in particular were a shocker to me. :unsure:

I see this danger in the different areas of govt not talking to one another. It's easier not to share info than to invite opposition to your private agenda.
Following the money shows us that it is spread around only so hidden private interests can capitalize on it. Our efforts at socialism are even ambiguous.

I saw a long advertisement on the tv this week. It was a skit which involved young Chinese business people in a corporate convention. It was being explained how they succeeded in taking control of our US assets. All were laughing at how they owned our debt. You did not know til the end of the commercial that it takes place in the future. New sort of commercial. Not good news.

I think we are going to start seeing bolder grabs for power. The military informs us less about what exactly they are doing. The govt informs us less about what special leniency banks are given. Banks in turn have started pushing their weight around getting new laws passed to protect and recoup their losses without the normal days. The populace is going to get national medical enforced whether they want it or not. Nobody is asking any more. This is a trend that says I have enough F you money to make others do what is best for my plans.

Bullies are born out of times like these. He who monopolizes the wealth makes the rules. They always have and they always will.
 
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Ted

Gold Meritorious Patron
How Empires Decline (including ours)

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1064.html


It's long but well worth listeing to.


This ties right into the recent discussion on service facs. Every government, every agency within, is seeking to expand, survive, and dominate to the point where they unilaterally expand their original mandates, and walk all over the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Righteous assertions, domination, and drama will be the death of anything good that holds the society together. The first clue that things have gone wrong comes when politicians tell boldfaced lies. Hubbard said that in order to control people you have to lie to them. I believe he meant manipulate as in Scientology control has a very specific definition which includes a high level ARC. In order to manipulate people, you have to lie to them.
 

RogerB

Crusader
Yes, on this theme of decline of Empire, I came across the quote below this morning. Now I am wondering what the good Mr. Webster would say about the current American circumstance . . .


"…There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. … Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing."

–Daniel Webster, June 1, 1837
 

lkwdblds

Crusader
Really interesting topic, Leon!

Yes, on this theme of decline of Empire, I came across the quote below this morning. Now I am wondering what the good Mr. Webster would say about the current American circumstance . . .


"…There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. … Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing."

–Daniel Webster, June 1, 1837

Hats, Ted, Roger - Fantastic Posts!! To look at what's happening through the prism of service Facs in very interesting. Also to realize that Daniel Webster was already onto this theme way back in 1837 when the USA was a frontier society is surprising and offers a different perspective from which to look at what is going on.
Lakey
 

Ted

Gold Meritorious Patron
Yes, on this theme of decline of Empire, I came across the quote below this morning. Now I am wondering what the good Mr. Webster would say about the current American circumstance . . .


"…There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. … Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing."

–Daniel Webster, June 1, 1837


Ouch!

Home schooling and a classical education. These guys were brilliant.
 

Ted

Gold Meritorious Patron
I just put up another post on the FLB thread. This can go on for a number of postings from Wanda. I hope others can use it, Facey's postings, and others to see what the right hand was doing while the left hand of scientology was doing something else.
 
Could lead codices prove ‘the major discovery of Christian history’?
By Chris Lehmann
Wed Mar 30, 11:36 am ET

picture.php


British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus' life. As UK Daily Mail reporter Fiona Macrae writes, some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947.
The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan—a region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The codices are made up of wirebound individual pages, each roughly the size of a credit card. They contain a number of images and textual allusions to the Messiah, as well as some possible references to the crucifixion and resurrection. Some of the codices were sealed, prompting yet more breathless speculation that they could include the sealed book, shown only to the Messiah, mentioned in the Book of Revelation. One of the few sentences translated thus far from the texts, according to the BBC, reads, "I shall walk uprightly"--a phrase that also appears in Revelation. "While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism," BBC writer Robert Pigott notes, "it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection."

But the field of biblical archaeology is also prey to plenty of hoaxes and enterprising fraudsters, so investigators are proceeding with due empirical caution. Initial metallurgical research indicates that the codices are about 2,000 years old--based on the manner of corrosion they have undergone, which, as Macrae writes, "experts believe would be impossible to achieve artificially."

picture.php


Beyond the initial dating tests, however, little is confirmed about the codices or what they contain. And the saga of their discovery has already touched off a battle over ownership rights between Israel and Jordan. As the BBC's Pigott recounts, the cache surfaced when a Jordanian Bedouin saw a menorah—the Jewish religious candleabra—exposed in the wake of a flash flood. But the codices somehow passed into the ownership of an Israeli Bedouin named Hassam Saeda, who claims that they have been in his family's possession for the past 100 years. The Jordanian government has pledged to "exert all efforts at every level" to get the potentially priceless relics returned, Pigott reports.

picture.php


Meanwhile, biblical scholars who have examined the codices point to significant textual evidence suggesting their early Christian origin. Philip Davies, emeritus professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University, told Pigott he was "dumbstruck" at the sight of plates representing a picture map of ancient Jerusalem. "There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city," Davies explained. "There are walls depicted on other pages of these books, too, and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem."

David Elkington, an ancient religion scholar who heads the British research team investigating the find, has likewise pronounced this nothing less than "the major discovery of Christian history." Elkington told the Daily Mail that "it is a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church."


picture.php


Still, other students of early Christian history are urging caution, citing precedents such as the debunked discovery of an ossuary said to contain the bones of Jesus' brother James. New Testament scholar Larry Hurtado observes that since these codices are miniature, they were likely intended for private, rather than liturgical, use. This would likely place their date of origin closer to the 3rd century CE. But only further research and full translation of the codices can fully confirm the nature of the find. The larger lesson here is likely that of Ecclesiastes 3:1—be patient, since "to everything there is a season."

(David Elkington/Rex Features/Rex USA)
Copyright © 2011 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
 
Ouch!

Home schooling and a classical education. These guys were brilliant.

In the 19th century millions had access to 'home schooling'. Few achieved worthwhile educations as a result. If a person could read selected bible texts & sign his name he was considered literate. :eyeroll:

As to a classical education, I'm a firm believer. :thumbsup: I have been all my life. However, d@mn few students have the wherewithal to accomplish the necessaries much less the interest. Further, in contemporary culture few adults see the value of dedicating the effort. The popular vogue is for job training over education, economic expansion over knowledge creation.


Mark A. Baker
 

Ted

Gold Meritorious Patron
In the 19th century millions had access to 'home schooling'. Few achieved worthwhile educations as a result. If a person could read selected bible texts & sign his name he was considered literate. :eyeroll:

As to a classical education, I'm a firm believer. :thumbsup: I have been all my life. However, d@mn few students have the wherewithal to accomplish the necessaries much less the interest. Further, in contemporary culture few adults see the value of dedicating the effort. The popular vogue is for job training over education, economic expansion over knowledge creation.


Mark A. Baker


Too busy working the factories in the cities before child labor laws. And too busy planting and picking cotton, 'taters, and the like out on the farm. Getting the work done had priority over edumucations. In many respects it still does.
 

Hatshepsut

Crusader
picture.php


Still, other students of early Christian history are urging caution, citing precedents such as the debunked discovery of an ossuary said to contain the bones of Jesus' brother James. New Testament scholar Larry Hurtado observes that since these codices are miniature, they were likely intended for private, rather than liturgical, use. This would likely place their date of origin closer to the 3rd century CE. But only further research and full translation of the codices can fully confirm the nature of the find. The larger lesson here is likely that of Ecclesiastes 3:1—be patient, since "to everything there is a season."

(David Elkington/Rex Features/Rex USA)
Copyright © 2011 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

I'm floored. I've never seen codices in lead before. Strange how the circular binds are on all sides encasing the miniature document within.

Those private copies tend to differ greatly and have intrigued me. Some in delicate Coptic are only a few inches in size. There was something going on back then. There were groups who seemed to be involved in mysteries of transmutation. Not just the changing of the satus of the soul but that of the body. While some Gnostics regarded themselves as diving sparks trapped in a body in a matrix ruled by the archons and plotted against....others did not hold this view.
http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ir/tt/tt-ch9.htm



One of my favorite quotations from the Book of Thomas :

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gth_pat_rob.htm
29) Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit,
it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the
body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this
great wealth has made its home in this poverty."
 

FoTi

Crusader
Could lead codices prove ‘the major discovery of Christian history’?
By Chris Lehmann
Wed Mar 30, 11:36 am ET

picture.php


British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus' life. As UK Daily Mail reporter Fiona Macrae writes, some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947.
The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan—a region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The codices are made up of wirebound individual pages, each roughly the size of a credit card. They contain a number of images and textual allusions to the Messiah, as well as some possible references to the crucifixion and resurrection. Some of the codices were sealed, prompting yet more breathless speculation that they could include the sealed book, shown only to the Messiah, mentioned in the Book of Revelation. One of the few sentences translated thus far from the texts, according to the BBC, reads, "I shall walk uprightly"--a phrase that also appears in Revelation. "While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism," BBC writer Robert Pigott notes, "it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection."

But the field of biblical archaeology is also prey to plenty of hoaxes and enterprising fraudsters, so investigators are proceeding with due empirical caution. Initial metallurgical research indicates that the codices are about 2,000 years old--based on the manner of corrosion they have undergone, which, as Macrae writes, "experts believe would be impossible to achieve artificially."

picture.php


Beyond the initial dating tests, however, little is confirmed about the codices or what they contain. And the saga of their discovery has already touched off a battle over ownership rights between Israel and Jordan. As the BBC's Pigott recounts, the cache surfaced when a Jordanian Bedouin saw a menorah—the Jewish religious candleabra—exposed in the wake of a flash flood. But the codices somehow passed into the ownership of an Israeli Bedouin named Hassam Saeda, who claims that they have been in his family's possession for the past 100 years. The Jordanian government has pledged to "exert all efforts at every level" to get the potentially priceless relics returned, Pigott reports.

picture.php


Meanwhile, biblical scholars who have examined the codices point to significant textual evidence suggesting their early Christian origin. Philip Davies, emeritus professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University, told Pigott he was "dumbstruck" at the sight of plates representing a picture map of ancient Jerusalem. "There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city," Davies explained. "There are walls depicted on other pages of these books, too, and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem."

David Elkington, an ancient religion scholar who heads the British research team investigating the find, has likewise pronounced this nothing less than "the major discovery of Christian history." Elkington told the Daily Mail that "it is a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church."


picture.php


Still, other students of early Christian history are urging caution, citing precedents such as the debunked discovery of an ossuary said to contain the bones of Jesus' brother James. New Testament scholar Larry Hurtado observes that since these codices are miniature, they were likely intended for private, rather than liturgical, use. This would likely place their date of origin closer to the 3rd century CE. But only further research and full translation of the codices can fully confirm the nature of the find. The larger lesson here is likely that of Ecclesiastes 3:1—be patient, since "to everything there is a season."

(David Elkington/Rex Features/Rex USA)
Copyright © 2011 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Carmelo, you come up with some of the most interesting stuff. I looked at these little volumes of lead which were bound on all sides and it kind of reminded me of Scientology putting all their data on titanium discs and burying them underground to preserve the tech for the future. I wonder if this is something of that sort and that's why they were bound on all sides, to preserve whatever is in the middle. It will be really interesting when the experts figure out what they say inside or what they were for.
 

Leon

Gold Meritorious Patron
As regards that post I made - one must bear in mind that predictions of Americs'a impending doom have been commonplace all my life long, so one needs to keep a sense of perspective on this.

Furthermore, and I hope this doesn't sound too overtly racist - it is a matter of historical record that the European white tribe/culture/civilization/whatever is the only one on earth that has successfully reinvented itself periodically. We had Roman militarism, church dark ages, feudalism, renaissance, age of enlightenment, ruler kings and their demise, democracy, big money and now once more militarism, and we persisted and flourished as a people throughout all of this. Some of these changes were absolutely fundamental, for example the way power is exercised in society - who holds the power to govern, how it is used, etc. These have shifted radically at various times and, importantly, the changes occurred from within society itself. They were not imposed on us by an outside influence.

No other people/culture/civilization has done this. Ever. Those that changed either went into a complete decline and stagnation until a new, though similar, power structure took over the reins, OR - as in recent times with coutries like Japan, India and China, they changed by adopting the European/American way of doing things as a result of pressure applied from outside.

So what all this means is that I have high hopes for the continued survival and prosperity of us all. Not to say they might not be some trouble ahead - The USA may well implode (taking the global financial system down with it), there may well be a nuclear kerfuffle between the US and China, the Muslim people's may try to assert themselves more strongly, and so on. All of these are possibilities.

But all in all I reckon us honkies will come out OK. Hell, even in my own country South Africa they changed direction completely, and that was entirely the result of the governing group recognising that they were heading nowhere.
 

Hatshepsut

Crusader
Originally posted by Leon

snipped

Furthermore, and I hope this doesn't sound too overtly racist - it is a matter of historical record that the European white tribe/culture/civilization/whatever is the only one on earth that has successfully reinvented itself periodically. We had Roman militarism, church dark ages, feudalism, renaissance, age of enlightenment, ruler kings and their demise, democracy, big money and now once more militarism, and we persisted and flourished as a people throughout all of this. Some of these changes were absolutely fundamental, for example the way power is exercised in society - who holds the power to govern, how it is used, etc. These have shifted radically at various times and, importantly, the changes occurred from within society itself. They were not imposed on us by an outside influence.

No other people/culture/civilization has done this. Ever. Those that changed either went into a complete decline and stagnation until a new, though similar, power structure took over the reins, OR - as in recent times with coutries like Japan, India and China, they changed by adopting the European/American way of doing things as a result of pressure applied from outside.
It would be socially and politically incorrect to change certain things which are railroading us into decline. And right now its all about the economy. Once upon a time we used to joke about there being certain diseases doctors were not allowed to cure as it would upset the natural balance of things. Now there are certain issues that have to pass the DC Center for Budget Priorities...and you are not allowed to doctor these things. Sometimes an artificial balance is created out of natural imbalance... just the opposite in some cases. Like the GREEN money giveaways. Hell, I never produced any smog. I don't even drive. Where's my check? :grouch:
 
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Carmelo, you come up with some of the most interesting stuff. I looked at these little volumes of lead which were bound on all sides and it kind of reminded me of Scientology putting all their data on titanium discs and burying them underground to preserve the tech for the future. I wonder if this is something of that sort and that's why they were bound on all sides, to preserve whatever is in the middle. It will be really interesting when the experts figure out what they say inside or what they were for.
It reminded me of the Scientology info on metal plates too.
 
This is from a buddy of mine who still works at PC World. I got on his private list and he sent it yesterday.

It's a real deal. I just got on the site but I'm sure it'll be overloaded once this gets around. DON'T pass it around, okay?

**This message was forwarded by Steve Bass...

From: "scott spanbauer"
To: "'Steve Bass'" ,
"Dan Tynan"
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2011 14:38:44 -0700

I guess it's deadline time. Anyway, I just got this from a friend who lives in Chapel Hill, so I guess you'll be able to find this where you are too, DT.

-----Original Message-----
From: Zullena Doylle [ mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2011 1:19 PM
To: Tharpa Doylle
Subject: Free Beer

Oh Yeah!

Begin forwarded message:
Subject: Free Beer

>Gentlemen....I stopped by the Kroger last Friday and the store manager was
>there talking to a new distributor for Caricacell beer (it's an Italian beer,
>pretty good. They had a tasting last Thursday I was told). Anyway, he said
>it's also good at Vons and Ralphs, and gave me their web site address, they
>have a promotion now through April 20th where they are giving a coupon
>for a free case of beer. The coupon is good anywhere in the U.S. and is
>valid for a year. All you need to do is go to their web site and click on the
>"special promotion" on the left side and print the coupon. That's it. I
>redeemed my coupon & picked up my free case of beer on my way home
>last night. Here is the web address:

http://snipurl.com/CaricacellBeerPromo

Tom De Baldo
Option Partners, LLC
188 Green Oak Road
Suite 100
South Park, Michigan 48004
PH: 224-555-5048 Ext. 32
Fax: 224-555-5103
Mobile: 244-555-7572

-------------end of message------------

__._,_.___
 
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