PS – links no longer work but it’s the content that matters.
Kabbalah 2; Class 5; The Bigger the Obstacle, The Greater Potential Light
The more we resist our reactive behavior, the more happiness and pleasure radiates in our lives. It works like this:
* The bigger the problem in your face, the stronger your urge to react.
* The bigger your reaction, the more resistance you have to apply to stop it.
* The more resistance you apply, the more spiritual Light in your life.
Most people tend to choose the path of least resistance in life. They look for the easy, comfortable situations. We must learn to flee our comfort zones and plunge head first into uncomfortable situations. That is where we can apply the most resistance.
The path of MOST resistance causes a little bit of pain and discomfort for a moment, but it is coupled with long-term fulfillment.
Most people tend to choose the path of least resistance in life.
The path of least resistance produces immediate gratification, coupled with a short-circuit and long-term chaos.
All of which leads us to Rule #7:
THE BIGGER THE OBSTACLE, THE GREATER POTENTIAL LIGHT
Is it any wonder, we haven't found total happiness? We've been conditioned to react to problems since time began. We can no longer be victims. No longer can we gripe or lament over the hardships, problems, and turmoil that confronts us. All those nasty difficulties, roadblocks, and complications that disrupt our path, are there to offer us something rather remarkable — the everlasting Light of fulfillment.
Kabbalah 2; class 4 continued – Focus on Reactions, Not Right and Wrong
FOCUS ON REACTIONS, NOT RIGHT AND WRONG
We expend so much wasted energy always trying to prove that we are right. It becomes so difficult for us to let go of our anger, opinions, frustration, and vindictiveness just because we know we are right – even if we ARE right!! Our reaction should be our sole focus—not whether we are right or wrong. If the other scoundrel is totally and completely wrong and we respond in a reactive mode, we lose any way. Got that? You lose.
If that other nasty person is wrong and we shut down our reaction and behave proactively, we win. Light comes into our lives.
And, if we are wrong, but we stop our reactions, then wow, will we begin to see miracles in our lives. That is how we raise our level of consciousness and begin to perceive a higher truth that lies beyond the logic-based concepts of right and wrong. That higher truth is about unity—dignity—compassion—and sensitivity toward everyone in our life.
The rest of the world — our friends and enemies — are actually our teammates in the Game of Life. Our collective opponent is the Satan.
To help keep us focused on our own reactions, we must always be cognizant of Rule #5:
Never lay blame on other people or external events.
The secret to happiness is to remain focused on our own reactions in every situation we confront. The secret to generating chaos is to remain reactive to our own opinions and our limited view of reality.
Remember, the Opponent likes to play mind-games. He will send us paranoid thoughts, suspicious thoughts, doubts, uncertainties, you name it, and he's broadcasting it in stereo. He makes us second guess and outsmart everyone around us. We become so smart we become foolish.
Kabbalah 2; Class 4 – The Mysteries of the Mind continued
These two streams of thoughts pulsating over the airwaves of the mind express themselves in this way:
* The Opponent's thoughts manifest as our rational, logical mind and ego.
* The Light's signal manifests as intuition, gut instinct, mystical insight, and dreams.
99% of the time we are not in touch with our intuition. In other words, The Opponent rules the airwaves of the mind and plays one particular hit song over and over again — the song called reaction!
He is constantly downloading his reactive music into our brain. We must recognize this powerful fact of life: The Opponent controls the landscape of our mind. 99.999% of the thoughts and sounds that play in our brain belong to him. Consequently, we need to start shutting down his noise and begin cranking up the whispers and melodies that play in the deepest recesses of our beings.
The secret to taking control over our lives is to cut off our Opponent's signal. We can do that the moment we stop our reactions. When we stop our reactive impulses we disrupt his frequency.
This creates a space.
The Light's signal is now free to fill that space. Our decisions and feelings are now rooted in the infinite wisdom of The Light.
Kabbalah 2; Class 4 – The Mysteries of the Mind
……..our thoughts do not originate from the physical matter of the brain. Rather, the brain is likened to an antenna, a receiving station that picks up a signal and then rebroadcasts it into the conscious mind of the individual.
2000 years after the Zohar revealed this rather startling idea, medical science reinforced this ancient kabbalistic view of the mind-brain relationship.
The brilliant and world-renowned neurosurgeon, Dr. Wilder Penfield, began extensive scientific research into the mind-brain phenomena.
Penfield, who revolutionized the techniques of brain surgery and achieved major breakthroughs in the areas of human cognition, memory and sensation, set out to prove that the mind emerged from the matter of the brain.
He devoted some 40 years of his life to exhaustive research, brain mapping, and medical exploration.
However, Penfield then admitted that he had failed.
In a remarkable book, The Mysteries of the Mind, that detailed his decades of research, Penfield wrote:
“The mind seems to act independently of the brain in the same sense that a programmer acts independently of his computer, how ever much he may depend upon the action of that computer for certain purposes.”
Then there is computer pioneer Norbert Wiener, who was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Lyndon Johnson. Wiener summed it up best when he stated:
“The brain does not secrete thought as the liver does bile.”
According to Kabbalah, there are two cosmic broadcasting stations emitting signals to our brain –The Light and the Opponent. It's a ratings battle for the audience of mind, a bigger and far greater ratings battle than the Neilson company has ever conducted for the major television networks.
The Opponent targets our mind, for that is where we are most vulnerable. The mind is the front lines of war. It is our thoughts that motivate us into action and influence our states of consciousness. Thoughts are the command post. Lose control of the command post and we lose the war. If we could learn how to distinguish which thoughts are from The Light versus which thoughts originate from our clever Adversary, we could reclaim control over our lives.
A good starting point is this: Any thought that is loud, crystal clear, urging you to react to a situation, you can be sure you are hearing the music of the Opponent. Any thought that tells you that you are the architect of your success; that you know better than the next guy; that you’re right and the other person is wrong, well once
again this is the Opponent.If, however, a thought is barely audible, a faint voice emanating from the recesses of your subconscious mind, that is the song of The Light.
“Listen to the inner voice that is on the other side of your ego” – author Unknown
Kabbalah and A Strong Character Arc
From Kabbalah 2; class 3
In Hollywood, an astute film producer always looks for a strong character arc in any new screenplay he considers producing. The character arc is the degree of inner change a character undergoes, from the beginning of the story to the very end.
We all came to this world to achieve the greatest character arc possible—from being just an effect to becoming the actual cause. The amount of true success or chaos one generates in life is relative to the degree of character change one undergoes in life.
2004 Kitchen Remodel
I want to be sure and document all of the things I’ve done to our home so I’m uploading the before and after pics here.
The 2004 remodel was an amazing project. Most of the work was done by me and my significant other at the time. We did hire professionals for the counter top install and to make the Eucalyptus cabinets but we even hung those ourself.
BEFORE
DURING
AFTER
The kitchen ceiling is really high so I wanted to build the cabinets proportionately to the height.
Your tax dollars at work
If you're not angry, you're not paying attention. This article is an eye-opener.
The Black Budget Report: An Investigation into the CIA’s ‘Black Budget’ and the Second Manhattan Project
11/23/2003 (Revised 02/05/04)
© Michael E. Salla, PhD
Center for Global Peace/School of International Service
American University
Washington DC
Tel: 202 885 5987
Email: msalla@american.edu
www.american.edu/salla/Table of Contents
Abstract
About the Author
Introduction
Birth of the Black Budget
Legal and Congressional Efforts to Disclose the CIA’s Black Budget
HUD’s Missing Money, Catherine Fitts, Hamilton Securities and the CIA
The Ultimate Beneficiary fot he CIA ‘Black Budget’: The Intelligence
Community and the Second Manhattan Project
Organized Crime, Drugs, and the CIAEstimating the Size of the CIA’s ‘unofficial’ Black Budget
Table 2. Department of Defense (DoD) – Unsupported Accounting Entries 1998-2003
Conventional Oversight System for the CIA’s and DoD’s Classified Programs
Oversight of the CIA’s ‘Unofficial’ Black Budget & Manhattan II
Conclusion
EndnotesABSTRACT
This report examines the existence of a CIA ‘black budget’ and an extensive network of ‘deep black projects’ that it funds. The report identifies the legal framework established by the US Congress for the creation of a CIA ‘black budget’ from the appropriations earmarked for other federal agencies that are siphoned through the CIA as the sole conduit of black budget funds. The report investigates the legal challenges to the constitutionality of the CIA’s black budget; how the CIA uses its legal authority to extract appropriations from government agencies such as HUD; how the CIA launders non-appropriated money through other federal agencies; and the efforts the CIA goes to prevent these financial transfers from being exposed. Using as a case study the legal difficulties faced by an innovative mortgage finance company, Hamilton Securities, the report will argue that the CIA’s covert role in Hamilton’s demise is compelling evidence that the CIA was involved in funding irregularities in HUD. It will be finally argued that the size of black budget, the secrecy surrounding it, the extent senior officials in Federal agencies go to targeting individuals and companies that threaten to reveal where congressional appropriations are ultimately going, suggest a vast number of ‘deep black projects’ that collectively form a highly classified second Manhattan Project whose existence, goals and budget are kept secret.
About the Author
Dr. Michael E. Salla has held academic appointments in the School of International Service, American University, Washington DC (1996-2001), and the Department of Political Science, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (1994-96). He taught as an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University, Washington DC., in 2002. He is currently researching methods of Transformational Peace as a ‘Researcher in Residence’ at the Center for Global Peace/School of International Service, American University (2001-2004), and directing the Center’s Peace Ambassador Program. He has a PhD in Government from the University of Queensland, Australia, and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of The Hero’s Journey Toward a Second American Century (Greenwood Press, 2002); co-editor of Why the Cold War Ended (Greenwood Press, 1995) and Essays on Peace (Central Queensland University Press, 1995); and authored more than seventy articles, chapters, and book reviews on peace, ethnic conflict and conflict resolution. He has conducted research and fieldwork in the ethnic conflicts in East Timor, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Sri Lanka. He has organized a number of international workshops involving mid to high level participants from these conflicts. He has a website at www.american.edu/salla/.
Voting – a fundamental right is being violated
Ohio: A Crime Against Democracy
Stuart Comstock-Gay
December 21, 2004
The Bush electors in Ohio have cast their votes, even though the bitterly contested ballots that allegedly gave them standing as electors have not been recounted. When asked, the mainstream media will admit that there were rampant problems with this election. But there's no juicy story for them to cover because they don't believe a recount would change the outcome of the election. Thus, they neglect what's happening in Ohio. Here Comstock-Gay explains why it matters. For the best of TomPaine.com's coverage of the problems with election 2004, click here.
Stuart Comstock-Gay is executive director of the National Voting Rights Institute.
Electoral votes have been submitted by all states and the national news media has moved on, but a test of U.S. voting rights continues in Ohio. After the Ohio delegation to the Electoral College cast its votes for President Bush last week, election officials in Ohio counties began the recount of votes cast in the election. Concerns about the integrity of the 2004 election continue to surface. Something's wrong with this picture.
We at the National Voting Rights Institute—on behalf of Green Party Candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik—are providing legal representation in the recount effort. We also want to find out what went wrong. Because clearly things went wrong. And whether in the end they are serious enough to change the outcome of the election, they create a cloud over the elections of 2004.
Too many commentators continue to claim the recount effort is the result of bad losers. Some have even gone so far as to say that if the Republicans lost, there would be no recount—that Republicans “play fair.” In fact, concern about “fairness” is in part what is driving the recount. These commentators overlook the fact that this effort is not only about verifying the outcome of the vote. More importantly, it’s about ensuring accountability of a highly fallible elections process.
As long as any votes are miscounted, misplaced or misdirected, our elections cannot be said to be properly working. And with an electoral system that provides no consistency in how votes are counted—and some election officials hostile to a full accounting— there remains work to be done to restore voters' faith in the system.
What Went Wrong On Nov. 2
The number of complaints in Ohio numbers thousands upon thousands—lines into the hours at polling places; shortages of poll workers and machines; electronic voting machines that malfunctioned; voters being required to show identification even though they were not first-time mail-in registrants; erroneous purges of voters from the voter rolls; and voters who requested absentee ballots but never received them and were nevertheless barred from voting in person. In one precinct in Franklin County, Ohio, an electronic voting system gave George W. Bush 3,893 extra votes out of a total of 638 votes cast. In addition, approximately 93,000 ballots were not counted and Ohio election officials may have improperly disqualified thousands of 155,000 provisional ballots cast.
Now the problems are escalating. In Hocking County, Ohio, Deputy Elections Director Sherole Eaton describes a troubling incident on December 10, three days before the recount was to begin. An employee of the Tri Ad company came into the office to check out the tabulator and computer and prepare voting officials for the recount, so that “the count would come out perfect and we wouldn’t have to do a full hand recount of the county.” He asked which precincts would be recounted, and made sure to focus on them. Voting machine expert Doug Jones from the University of Iowa believes this threatens the integrity of the entire recount. Now Congressman John Conyers has asked the FBI to investigate this incident.
What’s Going Wrong With The Recount
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. With the recount underway, we learn that counties are handling the process in different ways, depending on the whims of county officials. Every county was instructed by the Secretary of State to do a recount of 3 percent of the votes, followed by a hand recount of every vote if there any discrepancy appears. Some counties, however, have said they would do their recounts by machine only, and not by hand. Some have made space for observers, and allowed them to review voting polls and other materials. Some counties have kept observers—whether from the Green Party, Libertarian Party, DNC or Republican Party—out of the counting rooms entirely.
And this only after some elections officials tried to stop the recount in its tracks. Delaware County sued NVRI, Cobb and Badnarik, seeking to stop the recount, even though the law was followed. He said the recount was too expensive and frivolous. Delaware County has finally decided to conduct a recount, but only after a series of hearings.
On January 5, Congress will receive the votes of the electoral college votes and the election—for all intents and purposes—will be considered concluded.
Meanwhile the Ohio recount will continue well into January. As of this writing, results are not in, but we expect full recounts in most counties.
It is shocking that the cherished right to vote, which should be a major issue in this country, has become an invisible one. Even in the Ukraine, there will be a new election because of widespread irregularities in the presidential election. As the Supreme Court stated over a century ago, the right to vote is “a fundamental political right, because preservative of all rights.” Now, more than ever, we must fight for this right.
And this is who we call "President"?????
From the Sacramento Bee
Editorial: Bush-speak
To all the faithful, joyful and triumphant
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Visions of sugar plums must dance through his head. President Bush was masterful in presenting a glittery world of fantasy at his Monday press conference.
He said he will “provide every tool and resource for our military.” Yet troops are scrounging scrap metal in landfills for armor. The Iraq effort remains plagued by insufficient troops for the post-invasion period. The military is even calling up 70-year-olds to keep the ranks filled. He seems to believe Iraqi resistance will one day miraculously disappear or that existing U.S. forces can carry on indefinitely without relief.
Bush said he will “maintain strict discipline in the spending of tax dollars.” Yet under Bush, the United States has had the highest deficits in American history. He's also racking up record-high national debt. The higher the debt, the higher the interest payments. In 2004, interest payments on the debt were the third largest item in the federal budget. His borrow-and-spend profligacy is crowding out other national priorities.
Bush said he believes Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is “doing a really fine job.” Yet Rumsfeld's performance can be summed up in his remark to the troops that “You go to war with the Army you have.” Rumsfeld seems to have forgotten that Iraq was a war of choice, not one that came to the United States as a surprise. All voices calling for better preparation and more troops in the post-invasion period were, and continue to be, squelched. Rumsfeld has held no one in higher command accountable for ongoing torture and abuse of prisoners of war, undermining U.S. credibility worldwide.
Bush dodged questions about plans for Social Security, saying such questions were merely attempts to “get me to negotiate with myself in public; to say, you know, what's this mean, Mr. President, what's that mean. I'm not going to do that.” In short, don't bother to ask the president to explain his policy.
He won't even address the basic issue of how diverting a certain percentage of money to personal investment accounts does anything but undermine Social Security. More important, he has yet to explain how a personal investment account is an improvement on the guaranteed benefit that Social Security currently provides all American workers. Bush takes as an article of faith that personal accounts will gain a rate of return “more substantial than the rate of return now being earned” in the Social Security trust fund. But what if workers happen to retire during a slump period? Since 1900, the United States has had three 20-year periods of zero or negative return on the stock market: 1901-1921, 1928-1948 and 1962-1982.
Bush may have a candy-coated view of the world that he wants to sell us, but a dose of reality is in order. Just because Bush says it doesn't make it so.