Thursday, July 30, 2009

Nature or Nurture?

I've often wondered. What do you think?

Is it Real? Feral Children 1/5

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Twilight Zone or Premonition?



That's 3.5 minutes of a Twilight Zone episode entitled "No Time Like the Past" from 1963. Sound familiar?

The Georgia Guide Stones ..... America's Stonehenge?


Have you ever heard of the Georgia Guide Stones? I hadn't until this afternoon.

See them by clicking on the link in my title or here:

Georgie Guide Stones

Designed and paid for in 1979 by someone who wished to remain anonymous, using the pseudonym R. C. Christian, they were erected in 1980 from enormous granite slabs weighing a total of 240,000 pounds. R. C. Christian supposedly indicated that he represented a small group of Americans. That may be rumor, as in fact most stories about him may be purely rumor.


To this day, evidently not much if anything is known about R. C. Christian. The four large upright blocks pointing outward are oriented to the limits of the migration of the moon during the course of the year.

It is said that the monument commands a view to the east and to the west and is within the range of the summer and winter sunrises and sunsets.

In order to retain constant visibility of the North Star, an eye level hole was drilled from the south to the north side of the center gnomon stone. Ostensibly symbolizing orientation and constancy with the forces of nature.

A slot is cut in the middle of the gnomon stone to form a window which aligns with the positions of the rising sun at the Summer and Winter Solstices and at the Equinox, so that the noon sun shines to indicate noon on a curved line.

Here's a brief view of the monument:


This is what is inscribed on the stones in eight languages: English, Russian, Swahili, Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic and Hindi.

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.

Of course there are those Christian (when using the word Christian in this blog I am referring to that radical, verbose, self-righteous Christian element; not the real Christians who believe in a message of love and light) based conspiracy theorists who feel that anything outside their closely held Biblic sphere is heresy. Everything is a conspiracy to "get them" and turn the world "socialist". Hmmmm. WARNING: sarcasm begins here:

First of all ...... the guide towards keeping earth's population down does not suggest KILLING 5.5 billion people. Duh. The way to get the earth's people population under control is to stop producing hordes of progeny! Get ahold of yourselves, people! Hello, Pope, hello African governments, et al ...... advise the use of birth control before before you put us all out of business! But no, that is giving women power and we can't have that, can we? Power over our own bodies ...... power to control the amount of children for which we have the time and money to care. Don't you dare suggest THAT you damn commies!



Then there's that part about nature. God forbids a reverence and care for nature! Doesn't he? Oh wait, no, I don't think that's in the Bible. In fact I think the Bible tends to lean towards care of the environment and the earth's inhabitants. Oh well, minor detail as far as the Christians are concerned.

It's ever so much more convenient to take what suits their purposes from the Bible (those short paraphrases about homosexuality or whatever their current prejudice) and forget those pesky little commandments they don't like. You know the ones. Loving each other, caring for our brothers, not eating the abominable shellfish. Stuff like that.


Add to that the fact that their control is superficially disguised by the 180 degree attempt at telling you that whoever paid to erect these guideposts is the one trying to control you. Not them.

Hmmm again. So ...... Christians are not trying to control the world? If that's true, what are missionaries doing? What are all those Bible thumping preachers doing who tell you it's their way or the highway or worse yet ..... their way or eternal damnation? That's NOT control?

Reminds me of the political party who with regularity accuses the other of doing precisely what they themselves are doing. But I digress.

Check out one of the many conspiracy theory videos and see what you think. Really, I'd like to know. In your opinion are the guideposts evil Illuminati propaganda or are they possibly very good instructions about how to live richly and peacefully on this earth without damaging it beyond repair?



Now that you've gotten to enjoy the right wing Christian conspiracy explanation for these mysterious guide posts, here is the creator's (R. C. Christian) interpretation. His explanatory words, from a book written by and left in a Georgia library by R. C. Christian, are in italics.

* Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
Means the entire human race at its climax level for permanent balance with nature.

* Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
Without going into details as yet undiscovered, this means humanity should apply reason and knowledge to guiding its own reproduction. "Fitness" could be translated as "health." "Diversity" could be translated as "variety".

* Unite humanity with a living new language.
A "living" language grows and changes with advancing knowledge. A "new" language will be developed "de novo" - and need not necessarily be adopted from any languages now in existence.

* Rule Passion - Faith - Tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
"Faith" here may be used in a religious sense. Too often people are ruled by blind faith even when it may be contrary to reason. Reason must be tempered with compassion here - but must prevail.

* Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
Courts must consider justice as well as law.

* Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
Individual nations must be free to develop their own destinies at home as their own people wish - but cannot abuse their neighbors.

* Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
Self explanatory.

* Balance personal rights with social duties.
Individuals have a natural concern for their personal welfare, but man is a social animal and must also be concerned for the group. Failure of society means failure for its individual citizens.

* Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
The infinite here means the supreme being - whose will is manifest in the working of the cosmos - if we will seek for it.

* Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.
In our time, the growth of humanity is destroying the natural conditions of the earth which have fostered all existing life. We must restore reasoned balance.

That all sounds pretty darned good to me and is totally in keeping with my nature based spirituality. Am I going to Hell because I believe we should take care of our Mama Nature? According to the radical Christians who want to tear down this monument, evidently I am.

What do you think?

Monday, July 27, 2009

War and Greed, Not by Tolstoy

"I see in the future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of the war."

Wish I'd said that, but I didn't. Guess who did. Go ahead ........ guess.



- Abraham Lincoln
Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Sunday Mornings

Sunday mornings are great days to sit around, watch the "CBS Sunday Morning" show (the last 2 minutes of nature scenes are my favorite), drink coffee, watch the clouds roll by and share some alone time with my Honey.



Since I'm a multi-tasker, I'm also enjoying youtube. So today I'm going to share with you some fun. Fun for me is often seeing other people have fun. I also adore dancing. Put the two together and it's a win-win.

The Wedding Dancers ..... this guy is good!



You know this isn't easy in a wedding dress .....




And here it is, my all-time favorite. Good thing for my Honey I didn't see this prior to OUR wedding, eh?



Blessings, y'all. Hope you're enjoying your Sunday morning, also.