El Día De Los Muertos

El Día de los Muertos  (Day of the Dead), is a Mexican celebration which begins October 31, and ends on November 2. November 1, All Saints Day, and November 2, All Souls Day are marked throughout Mexico and is common to all.

This is a day to celebrate, remember and prepare special foods in honor of those who have departed. On this day in Mexico, the streets near the cemeteries are filled with decorations of papel picado, flowers, candy calaveras (skeletons and skulls), and parades. It is believed that the spirit of the dead visit their families on October 31 and leave on November 2.

November 1 is set aside for remembrance of deceased infants and children, often referred to as angelitos (little angels). The families make altars and place ofrendas (offerings) of food such as pan de muertos baked in shapes of skulls and figures, candles, incense, yellow marigolds known as cempazuchitl (also spelled zempasuchil) and most importantly a photo of the departed soul is placed on the altar. These include all manner of skeletons and other macabre toys; intricate tissue paper cut-outs called papel picado; elaborate wreaths and crosses decorated with paper or silk flowers; candles and votive lights; and fresh seasonal flowers, particularly cempazuchiles (marigolds) and barro de obispo (cockscomb). Among the edible goodies offered are skulls, coffins and the like made from sugar, chocolate or amaranth seeds and special baked goods, notably sugary sweet rolls called pan de muerto that come in various sizes invariably topped with bits of dough shaped like bones and, in some regions, unadorned dark breads molded into humanoid figures called animas (souls).

Those who have died as adults are honored November 2. Elaborate altars are made in honor of deceased relatives and often include bottles of beer or tequila, cups of atole (corn gruel) or coffee, and fresh water, as well as platters of rice, beans, chicken or meat in mole sauce, candied pumpkin or sweet potatoes and the aforementioned breads. The offering may also include a pack of cigarettes for the after-dinner enjoyment of former smokers. All of these goods are destined for ofrenda de muertos (offering to the dead).

The spirits of the dead are expected to pay a holiday visit home and should be provided with an enticing repast and adequate sustenance for the journey. Frequently a wash basin and clean hand towel are provided so that visiting souls can freshen up before the feast.

It might sound somewhat morbid, but the Mexicans react to death with mourning along with happiness and joy. They do not look at death with fear the same way other cultures do. They reflect their fear by mocking and living alongside death, which means that Mexicans have to learned to accept it within their everyday lives. It is in art and even in children's toys. It is not feared as it is in other cultures.

Children play "funeral" with toys that are made to represent coffins and undertakers. Death is laughed at in its face. We have no qualms about getting up close and personal with death, we chase after it, we mocks it, we even court it.

Many euphemisms are used for death, La calaca (the skeleton), la pelona ("baldy"), la flaca ("skinny"), and la huesada ("bony"). There are refranes, sayings, and poems that are popular with day of the dead. For example the cliche' "La muerte es flaca y no puede conmigo," which loses it's meaning when translated, "Death is skinny/weak and she can't carry me."

In setting up the altar, a designated area of the home is cleared of its normal furnishings. The arrangement often consists of a table and several overturned wooden crates placed in tiers and covered with clean linens. The offerings are then laid out in an artistic and fairly symmetrical fashion. The smell of burning copal (incense) and the light of numerous candles are intended to help the departed find their way.

Meanwhile, at the family burial plot in the local cemetery, relatives spruce up each gravesite. In rural villages this may entail cutting down weeds that have sprouted up during the rainy season, as well as giving tombs a fresh coat of paint after making any needed structural repairs. The graves are then decorated according to local custom. The tomb may be simply adorned by a cross formed of marigold petals or elaborately embellished with colorful coronas (wreaths) and fresh or artificial floral arrangements. In many areas children's graves are festooned with brightly colored paper streamers or other festive adornments.

While death is a topic largely avoided in the USA, the remembrance of deceased ancestors and loved ones is traditional among diverse cultures around the globe, often marked by lighting candles or lamps and laying out offerings of food and drink. Such celebrations can be traced back as far as the glory days of ancient Egypt when departed souls were honored during the great festival of Osiris.

In Mexico the Day of the Dead is a holiday that tends to be a subject of fascination for visitors from abroad. With its rare mix of pre-Hispanic and Roman Catholic rituals, it is also a perfect illustration of the synthesis of pre-Hispanic and Spanish cultures that has come to define the country and its people.

Death held a significant place in the pantheons and rituals of Mexico's ancient civilizations. Among the Aztecs, for example, it was considered a blessing to die in childbirth, battle or human sacrifice, for these assured the victim a desirable destination in the afterlife. The success of the Spaniard's spiritual conquest in Mexico is due in part to their willingness to incorporate certain pre-Hispanic customs into Christian practices.

With the rapid encroachment of U.S. culture, intensified since the enactment of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAU), you are seeing the country's supermarket shelves crammed with plastic pumpkins, witches' hats and rubber masks. This has spurred many citizens to actively pursue the preservation of Mexican traditions.

Most Mexico guidebooks make special mention of Day of the Dead customs, focusing on the celebrated all-night candlelight vigils in cemeteries at Janitzio Island and Mixquic, to the extent that either may draw nearly as many awed observers as celebrants.

Mixquic, once a farming island of the Aztec empire, is now a district of Mexico City that has retained something of a rural village ambiance and its ancient indigenous roots. The area takes on a busy and festive air in the final days of October as merchants set up street stands to hawk their wares for the Day of the Dead. In the cemetery, all family burial plots are elaborately embellished with an array of earthly delights in the hope of luring departed spirits. At 2 p.m. November 1, relatives gather at each tomb to mourn the loss of loved ones with la llorada--the weeping. Later, when dark would normally envelop the graveyard, the glow of thousands of votive candles illuminates the way for the departed.

At Midnight they are called home with the mournful tolling of bells.

Day of the Dead festivities in villages throughout the state of Michoacan have a distinctive flavor reflecting the culture of the area's Purepecha Indians. Having successfully resisted conquest in the pre-Hispanic era, this ethnic group remained immune to outside influences until the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors. As in other parts of Mexico, floral tributes, regional repast and candlelight vigils in each local cemetery are integral to the November 1 and 2 celebrations, but among the Purepechas (or Tarascans, as the Spanish named them) these activities are relegated to women and children. Meanwhile, the male population commemorates the season with other rituals related to the fall harvest.

In my culture, the adults set aside November 2 (All Souls Day) for remembering the adult dead, and contemplating our own deaths. Witches and ghosts, unseen demons and the souls of the dead wandering in the dark were very real to ancient people, and this should not surprise us. Even if it is nothing more than the fear of the unknown, fear of the dark is a common experience today, just as it was in more "primitive" times.

The antidote to darkness is light and the rituals of the ancients at this time of year involved fire.

We all have wall switches that produce instant light in our homes and the glare of halogen street lamps that prevent our cities and towns from ever being completely in the dark (except during a power outage!). Step back for a bit of perspective before you dismiss the quaint and ill-informed customs of the ancients as pagan nonsense. Indeed, as the days grow shorter and the hours of natural light are fewer, we would do well to reflect on the importance of light, literally and figuratively, in our lives.

To shed light on a problem is to move towards a solution. To come out of the darkness into the light is to overcome fear and ignorance.

Even if we are skeptical about witches and demons, we still have to deal with the reality of death--our own, as well as the death of ancestors, family, and friends who have gone before us.

I set aside these days to bring death and the dead into the light: to acknowledge loss and move beyond it; to mourn, but not to despair; to regret what needs to be regretted, but even more to celebrate what needs to be celebrated; to remember the past and have hope for the future; to see life as a gift and death as a new beginning.

Most importantly my friends, remembering that we are all bound together as one, we are all connected in this life as well as in the life to come.

Here is a video explaining how to bake your own sweet breads to offer your dearly departed loved ones.

Here is a recipe for Pan de Muertos

1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup very warm water
2 eggs
2 -3/4 cups flour, unsifted

1. Bring milk to a boil. Remove from heat, then stir in butter, sugar and salt.

2. In a large bowl, mix yeast with warm water until yeast is dissolved. Let stand 5 minutes, then add the milk mixture.

3. Separate the yolk and white of one egg. Add the yolk to the yeast mixture, saving the white for later. Add the other egg, too. Now add the flour to the yeast and egg mixture, blending well until a ball of dough is formed.

4. Flour a work surface very well and place dough in center. Knead until smooth. Return to the large bowl, cover with a clean dish towel, and let dough rise in a warm place for 90 minutes.

5. Grease a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Turn dough out onto floured surface again and knead once more. Then divide the dough into fourths. Set one fourth aside. Roll the remaining three pieces into ropes, all of about the same length. They should be fairly hefty--not dainty ropes.

6. Pinch three rope ends together and braid. Finish by pinching ends together on opposite side. You should have one long braided loaf. Next, divide the remaining dough in half and shape each half into a bone. Cross the "bones" in an "X" shape and lay them atop the braided loaf.

7. Cover bread with the dish towel again and let it rise for 30 minutes more. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the following:

3 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon anise seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

8. In another bowl, beat egg white slightly. When the bread has finished its 30 minutes of rising, brush top with egg white and sprinkle with the sugar mixture, being careful not to get any on the crossed bones. Bake for 35 minutes, or untildone, at 350 degrees.

They are especially good with a cup of Mexican hot chocolate (be sure to add a pinch of cayenne pepper). Enjoy!

This may all seem morbid and somewhat ghoulish to those who are not part of that culture. But, for Mexicans who believe in the life/death/rebirth continuum, it's all very natural. this is not to say that they treat death lightly.

They don't. It's just that they recognize it, mock it, even defy it. Death is part of life and, as such, it's representative of the Mexican spirit and tradition which says:

"Don't take anything lying down - even death!"

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Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton, Richard Phoenix Barrientos

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Fall of the Republic

Fall Of The Republic documents how an offshore corporate cartel is bankrupting the US economy by design. Leaders are now declaring that world government has arrived and that the dollar will be replaced by a new global currency.

President Obama has brazenly violated Article 1 Section 9 of the US Constitution by seating himself at the head of United Nations' Security Council, thus becoming the first US president to chair the world body. A scientific dictatorship is in its final stages of completion, and laws protecting basic human rights are being abolished worldwide; an iron curtain of high-tech tyranny is now descending over the planet.

A worldwide regime controlled by an unelected corporate elite is implementing a planetary carbon tax system that will dominate all human activity and establish a system of neo-feudal slavery. The image makers have carefully packaged Obama as the world's savior; he is the Trojan Horse manufactured to pacify the people just long enough for the globalists to complete their master plan.

Do you know what the republic is? By definition, a republic is a political unit governed by a charter. Most Americans don't want to know that the republic is no different from the new world order. They don't want to know that "liberty" is a word used to make us give away our freedom. They sure don't want to be told that freedom is the republic's worse enemy.

A Democracy is a government whose prevailing force is always that of the majority. Democracy and Republic are no more alike than an apple and a banana, and yet they are often used interchangeably. The difference between a republic and a democracy lies in the ultimate source of official power. In the case of a republic, it lies with a charter; in a democracy, power lies with the rule of the majority. Yet they are often lumped together. Consider the words to the United States' Pledge of Allegiance, which adds to some of the confusion by proudly touting: "And to the republic for which its stands, one nation under God, indivisible ..."

Adding to the confusion is the fact that there are different types of democracies. A direct democracy is one which is ruled entirely and directly by the people; to decide on an issue, the question is put to the vote of the population and the majority of those votes determine the outcome. In a representative democracy, citizens elect people to represent their interests in the government, and these representatives determine how issues are decided.

In seeking clarification between a democracy and a republic, look no further than the names of American political parties and how they loosely define their boundaries. If nothing else, the names "republican" and "democrat" may be considered to characterize a Republican’s looser view of government and a Democrat’s centralized one. In a republic, people may vote for their representatives, but the state’s responsibilities are limited because they are clearly bound by a charter. Freedom is realized by the willingness of the people to live by the dictates of the charter. The republic’s charter protects the individual’s rights.

People need to stop having allegiance to their political party. They need to have allegiance to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and what has made our Republic so special. The basic human rights and dignity that every citizen of this country inherently has. Not because it's some right given to us by government, because our Bill of Rights and Constitution enshrines that these are our unalienable rights given to us by God. That we inherently have by sentient free conscious beings, but instead the public cheers on the republicans as they win, or cheers on the democrats as they defeat the republicans.

It's an endless staged gladiatorial event. Special interest own both parties, and they project this false left right paradigm up, like a movie screen, and behind that, behind the throne, the establishment is able to control our society and turn it into a police state.

The American people now want to pick themselves up and dust them off, and start again as if nothing happened. Find another job, continue paying their inflated mortgages, working probably two jobs to pay for the inflated mortgage. Never ever owning the illusion they are working so hard to pay for.

If you try to let the financial people who created the crisis, turn around and say they are the doctors who will get you out of the crisis, they will dig you deeper and deeper into the bottomless abyss of world economic depression, financial collapse and disentegration.

President Obama has done far more for the Financial Instutions than the Republicans ever have in history.

"America is targeted for destruction, and unless good people everywhere stand up for her, the last vestiges of true freedom will be destroyed."

America never stood for freedom. America stood for lots of war, and even more debt. That's what this precious Republic is. It was founded on blood, to create the debt that enslaved the whole world to the banks. Nothing changed, and nothing will change, so long as there are idiots willing to follow other idiots to their own destruction instead of thinking for themselves.

The precious revolution did not change anything. They stage a new one every couple generations, and nothing has ever changed before. People say they want change....People are NOT ready for CHANGE...they are too lazy, digusting, nasty, vile, aggressive, competitive, and a capitalistic society that drives on accumulation of materialistic wealth and greed, which is then topped with power.

Why would you do the exact same things that have always been done before and somehow think this time would be any different?

This film reveals the architecture of the New World Order and what the power elite have in store for humanity. More importantly it communicates how We The People can retake control of our government, turn the criminal tide and bring the tyrants to justice.

I agree with Alex Jones, that the American people have lost their dignity.  The American people are being used as pawns against each other.  Divide and conquer!  Don't you see this!?  They - the government - the Elite... know that the only way they can take us down is if they divide us...and they are winning.  President Bush's administration has driven a wedge between all races here in America and even abroad.  Now the elite has put a black man, who has single handily put the nation in the worst financial destruction the world has ever seen.  Guess what...it's increasing the wedge between blacks and everyone else. 

The scientific dictatorship understands what makes human beings tick. They understand our pyschology. They have studied it and they are using it against us. The miniute the public awakens to the fact that there is an agenda to manipulate them and the second the public realizes that they are being conditioned and controlled, the establishment begins to loose that edge they got over people.

United we Stand - Divided we Fall

Parents come home each day and don't even talk to their children.  They let them sit there in front of the TV and take in all those corporate lies and deception.

"Let's stop the ignorance...yes, Obama is the Trojan Horse, but let's not be stupid about this...ALL of the Presidents have been Wolves in Sheeps clothing, the other's were assassinated. "

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It All Goes Back In the Box

Take it from someone who has been there, and who has come to the understanding that the fact of the matter is that all the stuff we accumulate in this world will never satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts. All the possessions we can buy and all the experiences we can purchase will never fill the great empty hole at the end waiting to swallow us up - it resides in every person’s soul.

I was listening to The Zeitgeist Movement Weekly Report with Peter Joseph which I highly recommend listening to, which can be done by clicking on the radio button located on the left hand column of this page. The BlogTalkRadio player will default to the latest blog.

Peter's weekly blog opens with Pastor John Ortberg giving his popular sermon about growing up playing Monopoly with his grandmother, Golda Hall. It quickly reminded me of his book that I reviewed of the title, 'When the Game is Over, it all goes back in the box'. I did not end up purchasing the book because I did not enjoy the heavy religous overtones of the book.  However, I did very much appreciate the underlying message, which in my opinion outweighs the religous theme, and can be integrated into any person's world view.

His grandmother taught him the finer points of playing board games. He explained that when he first started playing Monopoly, he always wanted to hang on to his money as long as possible, because you never know what the Chance card might turn up next. We all know that the board can be risky. I'm sure he held onto all his money as long as he could....that's usually how beginners play.

But his grandmother knew how to play the game. She understood that you don’t win without risk, and she didn’t play for second place. We all know how to play Monopoly, we all know she would have to spend every dollar she got. She would have to buy every piece of property she landed on, and she would have to mortgage every property she owned to the hilt in order to buy everything else on the board.

You see, John’s grandmother understood what he did not – that accumulating is the name of the game in Monopoly, that money is how you keep score, and that the race goes to the swift. She played with skill, passion, and reckless abandon. Inevitably, she would become Master of the Board. I can imagine that John would land on Boardwalk one time too many, and he would hand over to her all that was left of his money and put his little race car marker away.

When John was ten, he spent a summer playing Monopoly every day with a kid named Steve who lived kitty-corner from him. Gradually it dawned on John that the only way to win the game was to make a total commitment to acquisition. No mercy. No fear. What his grandmother had been showing him for so long finally sank in. By the fall, when they sat down to play, John was more ruthless than his grandmother was. His palms were sweaty. He was twitching with excitement. And he would play without softness or caution. Slowly, cunningly, he exposed the soft underbelly of his grandmother’s vulnerability, and relentlessly he drove her off the board.

From this old widowed lady who had taught him how to play the game, he would take everything she had. He destroyed her, and he watched her give up her last dollar and quit in utter defeat. It was the greatest moment of his young life. He had won. He was the Master of the Board!

But then his grandmother had one more lesson to teach him. The greatest lesson came at the end of the game. It was when she said, “Now John, it’s time to put it all back in the box.” All the houses and hotels, all the property – Boardwalk and Park Place, the railroads, the utility companies went back in the box. All the thousands of dollars, they all went back in the box. You see, when the game is over, it all goes back in the box.

John didn’t want it to go back in the box. He wanted to leave it out as a perpetual memorial to his skill in playing the game so well. He wanted to bronze it so others could admire his tenacity and ability. But it was not to be. After the game, it all goes back in the box.

So it is with life, my friends. When you and I come to the end of our days, all the things we’ve purchased, all the trips we’ve taken, all the material possessions which have dominated our time and attention to buy and maintain and repair – it all goes back in the box. We will take none of it with us.

If you look around, you'll see that left to our own devices, we seek all the worldly things – possessions, money, good looks, power – because we think they will bring us fulfillment. I'm here to tell you that it's a Illusion. They are all just props, and when we check out of this life, we have to give them all back to the great Illusionist. They are just on loan. They’re not ours. They all go back in the box.

Human beings are the only creatures on the planet whose frontal lobes are so developed that they know the game will end. This is our glory, our curse, our warning, and our opportunity.

In Jerusalem, hundreds of synagogues have been built by Jews from around the world. One was built by a group from Budapest and according to their ancient custom, they had a coffin built right into the wall. There isn’t a body in it, they explain to visitors.

"It is simply present as a silent witness to remind us that it all goes back in the box."

Jesus said the object of life is not to accumulate great wealth by the world’s standards but instead to be rich toward God (Luke 12:21).

Don’t spend your life trying to be Master of the Board. It’s a sucker’s game. You can’t beat the house, but you can have wealth through the abundance of source. 

Hollywood stars, school janitors, Hip Hop singers, and Mexican gardeners – It will not matter.

"The message I received from this sermon, and the book had me questioning my priorities in life."

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The Extraterrestrial UFO Disclosure

We need to begin thinking about a future which includes the existence of extraterrestrial life forms, and the early stages of inter-planetary relations.

The immediate implications of a disclosure on the existence of extraterrestrial life forms can range from geopolitical to the philosophical altering the fundamental paradigm of how we view ourselves, the world of humanity and the universe carry along like a backpack, the realization that we are really all ONE people here on earth, among many worlds inhabited by other intelligent life.

As the global community contemplates the immediate and future reality of earth coming into contact with other advanced civilizations, all of the usual preoccupations with the endless wars among nations and peoples on earth will suddenly no longer be relevant. The differences and conflicts between various racial, religious, ethnic and national identities will be seen in a new light as we begin to contemplate the reality of earth evolving into an inter-planetary civilization. The world will rapidly quicken the pace of a New World Order and integration into a functional, peaceful civilization.

There is so much chatter out there in digital land about fearing the NWO. I do not approach life with fear, so my perspective is much different. We must come to the realization, especially in light of our current state of affairs - externally, and internally -- that there MUST be CHANGE, we can not just get up and dust ourselves off. We must change everything we do. We must reexamine our values and needs as a society and create a new society that is free of all the old supersitions, incarcerations, prisons, police, bankers, advertising....because yesterday is NO LONGER RELEVENT!

People keep saying they want change, but they really are not prepared for anything of the sort, they live in their million dollar homes, drive their 2 cars, hire their mexican gardeners, and complain on youtube, facebook, myspace about how the mexicans are taking their jobs, and how much it costs for gas, and how their homes were devalued by half due to the recession, all while collecting unemployment, all while drinking their Coka Cola, eating a snickers bar, that was purchased fromWal-mart. People there MUST be a NEW WORLD ORDER.

For example, the Venus Project.

Thus far our government has been in koohoots with Hollywood producing these fear based movies regarding ET's. Once full disclosure occurs, we must no longer demonize or deifying these extraterrestrial entities.

The realization we are forced to come to grips with is the reality of an extraterrestrial presence that will fundamentally change the way we evolve our moral, spiritual, psychological and physical capacity to meet the challenges of the situation. So the immediate impact will include the rapid development of a functional global capability. No single nation can act on behalf of the entire world to the early challenges of inter-planetary relations. This, then, will provide both the practical and philosophical setting for the development of a world civilization, thus emerging from the ashes, a New World Order, a world without religion, A world without rules and controls. Without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you. Your Life, Your Choice. The Time is Now.

We will retain our various national, ethnic and religious identities, but our interconnectedness will be that of our new identity - "Earthling". Beyond this, an awareness will grow that, indeed, all conscious, intelligent life forms have in common the intangible but real link of awareness, of consciousness, and the early stages of universal "citizenship" will dawn. This is an interpretation of one of the latest crop circles to appear. That of the Phoenix, which is synonymous with Arising from the Ashes. The Mayan Calendar also is about renewal - the evolution of consciousness. That is, we will experience, first inwardly and later in practical life, the awareness of the universality of life.

Governments around the world will immediately be affected. There will be a demand for examination of previously unacknowledged "black" projects that officially "do not exist" and as such constitute a serious threat to governmental integrity, especially in constitutional democracies such as the United States.

A disclosure will set in motion governmental and social pressures to restore constitutional chain of command and control over this matter, and senior government leaders will no longer be able to avoid responsibility for this issue by claiming "plausible deniability."

In an academic sense, no field of study will be untouched by such a disclosure: history, anthropology, philosophy, geopolitics, exo-biology, theology, the arts, sciences and technology. The profound implications inherent to the fact that we are not alone in the universe, and are already being visited by advanced extraterrestrial life forms will indeed be of unparalleled significance in the history of the human species.

World's religions and religious leaders and followers will have to come to terms with a universe in which humans are no longer the only intelligent, sentient children of God. Let me make this clear, I am not religious, and am merely referring to concepts of God, in regards to creation/life. From the ashes will emerge a "universalization" of God.

The Religious sector will automatically react with a predictable sentiment linking the disclosure to an eschatological paradigm. Like I said, Hollywood and the mass media either demonize or deify these extraterrestrial visitors. Who knows, there may be no place for religion in the NWO, or maybe the world's religions will adopt an understanding of intelligent life and the interconnectedness in all, which is universal. For all the Christians out there, God's glory will not be confined to Earth.

The disturbing side to this is the realization that our government has had a long history using every breakthrough in technology to build a better war machine. The proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction should give us some pause as we contemplate what the destructive uses have been. The veil will undoubtedily be lifted.

The first step will be honest disclosure. Unless we change directions, we are likely to end up where we are going. The evolution of a sustainable global civilization, and the further development of the capacity to become an inter-planetary civilization, is dependent on an honest disclosure regarding the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, and our development into a peaceful world civilization. Only then can we enter an era of sustainable technology, a sustainable economy, and a lasting culture, and take our place among the stars as member of a growing universal civilization.

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Addicting Congress

Drug Companies' Lobbying Bribes

The prescription drug industry, using its connections and campaign cash, has deployed of an army of lobbyists making huge contributions to congressional members, and already have succeeded in blocking a comprehensive Medicare drug benefit that would have reined in sky-high drug costs.

The drug industry is spending vast sums on lobbying to hire well-connected former members of Congress and key staff to promote its financial interests before Congress. The American Congress has sold their soul to the devil....pure Greed. Overall, the drug industry spent $400 million from 1997 to 2009 to lobby officials in Congress and the executive branch. This amount does not include tens of millions more spent on television, radio and newspaper ads, direct mailings and telemarketing efforts. Tthe equivalent of one lobbyist for every two members of Congress, an astonishing rate of coverage.

One of the most powerful players in health care is a group called the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA. It represents just 32 brand-name drug companies, but it has so much influence that when Congress passes a bill, PhRMA almost always gets its way. One big reason why: PhRMA and its members have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress as lawmakers work to overhaul health care.

PhRMA and its member companies spent $40 million lobbying Congress. That's more than $3 million each week.

And PhRMA's CEO, the former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, has been out there touting the consortium's support for a health care overhaul. Did you just read that? Do you know what that is saying? A Congressman, which helped pass these bills, is now the CEO of PhRMA's. Outrageous! This is completely unethical.

When American colonists declared independence from England in 1776, they also freed themselves from control by English corporations that extracted their wealth and dominated trade. After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country's founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society.

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end. [read more]

It's not surprising to learn this, because the pharmaceutical industry for years has been one of the most effective and powerful lobbying outfits in Washington, and it explains why we have a lot of drug policies in the U.S. that don't look like drug policies in any other industrialized country.

If your familiar with Medicare, then you understand that today the government is empowered to negotiate how much it pays doctors, hospitals, laboratories. Anyone except pharmaceutical companies.

There's something else drug companies bought with that $40 million: People

Most of the drug companies that belong to PhRMA are running their own lobby shops as well, plus the biggest ones have also hired dozens of D.C. lobbying firms.

So think about it this way: There are far more people in Washington representing one party of the debate — the big drug companies — than there are members of Congress working on the health care bill.

Let me make my position clear so I don't get flooded with nasty emails or comments. I do not pass judgment on the merits of PhRMA's arguments, quite frankly, I do not understand enough to make a judgement, but rather to show just how much money and lobbying is going on behind the veil — Evidence....look at the winning streak in Congress and big pharma.

More than four out of five Americans think drug companies have too much influence over the Food and Drug Administration, and 84 percent believe that advertisements for prescription drugs with safety concerns should be outlawed. I wonder how many of these people use prescription drugs? I imagine all 84%...just stand in line at the pharmacy in a Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid....America is on drugs.

The scientific community have made a major step forward in demonstrating that the immune system can be harnessed in the fight against cancer using a new drug. I think the scientific community sincerely believed that this was going to be the beginning of a new era in medicine...Two years later still not approved, WHY NOT? FDA!

The FDA is now so clearly the regulatory puppet of Big Pharma that it has proven itself unable to reform from within. It’s time for the U.S. public and its legislative representatives to revoke the power of authority over drug safety that has been granted to the FDA in monopoly fashion. It’s time to put the power of drug safety into the hands of people who actually care about safety, not those who benefit from drug sales. And it’s time to end the oppressive, Dark Ages reign of the U.S. Fraud and Drug Administration which is not only complicit in the deaths of literally hundreds of thousands of Americans, but which seems determined to continue its campaign of power and corruption, no matter what the cost in the American lives.

The FDA has also faced a series of scandals involving its failure to enforce many federal laws because it would negatively affect the profits of the wealthy companies that pay it hundreds of millions of dollars in “fees.” The appalling negligence has even been documented in a scathing congressional report that confirms the FDA allows companies that annually pay it more than $400 million in fees to compromise public safety. [source]

"China executed it's top FDA Official for accepting bribes, which is what Lobbyist do....Here is America we offer them bonuses, contributions....BRIBES - The FDA is fundamentally enept."

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The High Cost of Low Price

"Why is it that a corporation that in 2003 had an outstanding $240 billion in sales will not provide a livable wage and affordable health care for their employees? There's no where around that there's a company that makes this much money and still turns around and makes their associates go to the state for aid."

The film presents an unfavorable picture of Wal-Mart's business practices through interviews with former employees, small business owners, and footage of Wal-Mart executives. The film intersperses statistics between the interviews to provide large-scale examinations beyond personal opinions. [excerpt from wikipedia]

The film features the deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to survive in a Wal-Mart world. It's an emotional journey that will challenge the way you think, feel... and shop.

Walmart pulls in billions every year but barely pays its workers a living wage. Not only that but they’ve aggressively resisted efforts among workers to unionize. Walmart’s slogan is Save Money, Live Better. As Vikki Gill, a former Walmart store manager in Illinois says, the company is saving money and living better at the associate’s expense. In this documentary from Walmart Workers for Change, employees discuss their fight for a living wage, union representation, and decent benefits. Walmart’s union busting tactics are notorious but Union Federation Change to Win has been turning up the heat lately and says efforts to unionize are underway at over 100 stores[source]

Families, churches, schools, and small busineses owners have screened the film over 10,000 times and the world is taking notice. [source]

The closest Wal-Mart to me is about 20 miles away, and there isn't another within 50 miles. The prices at this particular Wal-Mart are about .45 - .55 cents higher than a Food Lion, or Piggy Wiggly, and even Wal-Mart that is in Charleston. I'm a smart shopper, so I can notice price changes within different grocery stores off the top. I went into town one weekend and we stopped at Wal-Mart, that is when I noticed the price of Lysol there was $6.25...the price for Lysol at any other store is always 4.99 to 5.25, and could be found at a dollar store for 3.99. Where are the savings? Are they screwing the poor, uneducated?

This reminds me of the "Pickle" story. The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost.

A gallon-sized jar of whole pickles is something to behold. The jar is the size of a small aquarium. The fat green pickles, floating in swampy juice, look reptilian, their shapes exaggerated by the glass. It weighs 12 pounds, too big to carry with one hand. The gallon jar of pickles is a display of abundance and excess; it is entrancing, and also vaguely unsettling. This is the product that Wal-Mart fell in love with: Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles.

Wal-Mart priced it at $2.97--a year's supply of pickles for less than $3! "They were using it as a 'statement' item," says Pat Hunn, who calls himself the "mad scientist" of Vlasic's gallon jar. "Wal-Mart was putting it before consumers, saying, This represents what Wal-Mart's about. You can buy a stinkin' gallon of pickles for $2.97. And it's the nation's number-one brand."

Therein lies the basic conundrum of doing business with the world's largest retailer. By selling a gallon of kosher dills for less than most grocers sell a quart, Wal-Mart may have provided a ser-vice for its customers. But what did it do for Vlasic? The pickle maker had spent decades convincing customers that they should pay a premium for its brand. Now Wal-Mart was practically giving them away. Vlasic has never been able to recover from the losses coupled by the fevered buying spree that resulted. This distorted every aspect of Vlasic's operations, from farm field to factory to financial statement.

Indeed, as Vlasic discovered, the real story of Wal-Mart, the story that never gets told, is the story of the pressure the biggest retailer relentlessly applies to its suppliers in the name of bringing us "every day low prices." It's the story of what that pressure does to the companies Wal-Mart does business with, to U.S. manufacturing, and to the economy as a whole. That story can be found floating in a gallon jar of pickles at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale can be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. "Clearly," says Edward Fox, head of Southern Methodist University's J.C. Penney Center for Retailing Excellence, "Wal-Mart is more powerful than any retailer has ever been." It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to have become an entirely different order of corporate being. [continue reading]

There is also the recent story regarding the parents that had film developed. Let's say you take some pics of your kids (ages 1½, 4, and 5) at bath time, and then you go have them developed at Walmart.

The Walmart employee sees the pics and calls the cops on you for child porn. Your kids are taken away and you don't regain custody for a month.

That's exactly what Lisa and Anthony "A.J." Demaree of Arizona say happened to them ... and now they are suing Walmart.

Richard Treon, the Demarees' attorney, said the seven to eight bath- and playtime photos of the girls were only part of the 144 photographs from the family's vacation in San Diego.

"There was nothing sexual about it," Treon told WTOP "This is a parent's worst nightmare." [continue reading]

"I find Wal-Mart to be very dirty, understocked, with low quality food, and the last time I shopped at Wal-Mart I purchased a dozen eggs and found that a few were covered with a fecal matter.  Plus, it's a breeding ground for bacteria and germs"

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