Walking Back The Illusion

I had Thom Hartman on for a while after Stephanie Miller.  One old alligation that Thom Hartman has made was that William Casey had a "Planet of the Apes" job done on his brain, and that he had brain surgery that took away his faculty for speech right before he was scheduled to testify before some Congressional comittee.  If I'm not wrong, today June 4th is the 25th anniversary of the Tienaman Square massacre or something.  It was the seminal turning point where China made the "decision" NOT to allow liberty for their people, for all time.  And every president after George Bush has accepted and "lived with" this fact.  "Just suck it up and salute" you know.  Yet we had our own Tieniman Square incident, for those willing to believe, in the fall of 1980 when (and if) there was an agreement Ronald Reagan made with the Iranian captors who held out hostages not to release them, as scheduled, and anticipated by "those in the know", which would give Jimmy Carter's campaign a badly needed boost.  Failing that the "five justices in black robes" deciding the results of the 2000 election, is an incident that will serve just as well for our illustration.  People forget that President Reagan sold those TOW missiles to Iran, partially in pursuit of Iran freeing three Hez Ballah hostages in Lebanon.  I’m told after Hez Ballah freed those three, that three more were just captured anyhow.  The notion is that President Reagan sold those missiles to Iran as part of a 1980 deal he “owed on” where Iran agreed to hold our 52 hostages till the moment Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President.   If you are looking for strange coincidences, how about this one.  The money was laundered through Saudi Arabia, and I’m not sure where flooding the streets of America by the CIA comes into the picture.   But it was not just the war powers act that President Reagan was violating but the constitution itself, explicitly.  Because in there it states that funding for wars must come directly from the House of Representatives, and that such funding be only for a two year period.  Jefferson and the other founding fathers did not want standing armies and perpetual wars.   (Selah)  I looked up Pat Tillman because of something Thom said.  It seems in that case they knew all along Tillman was killed by friendly fire and deliberately concealed that information.  They went to far as to burn all evidence of Tillman’s action including destroying his body armor and burning his uniform and also his personal notebook, where he kept thoughts on the war.  People said that even as a football player that Pat Tillman was unusually intellectual and liked to debate with people and had a driving curiosity to keep up with the latest national news.   But there was no major outcry when this fraud by the Bush administration came to light, but was only of interest to a small circle of leftists.  We could contrast both of these events with Bengazi where there was no malfeasance or attempt to conceal or cover up on the Administration’s part, but this distinction doesn’t seem to matter to anybody.  That entire case seems to hinge on prep notes for a Sunday morning news show.  It’s silly.  And of course when Ronald Reagan was asked to account for his actions he said “I don’t remember” and people rallied around saying “Don’t hassle the old man”, as if Alzheimers and general incompetence somehow was an excuse for the President’s actions.  One of the big factors in my deciding to vote for Walter Mondale in 1984 was “I don’t want a nearly 78 year old man in the white house”.    I was in the first half of my thirties at the time- - and 78 to me still seemed very old, at which age most normal people have long since retired.

This case of Bowe Bergdoll isn’t going away, and Shawn Hannity is right on the case.  I watched the noon hour and also most of the two o clock hour, where Hannity had a guest.  It was his “team leader” with firsthand knowledge, along with the entire platoon or whatever, that Bergdoll had deserted.   Later there was chatter on the enemy lines about this guy speaking English who wants to have a meeting with the Talliban.  He had indicated to this team leader, as also with his parents in an E mail, his general disillusion with the military.  His leader just said “We all know what we signed up for when we enlisted”.   One housewife called said something I had general believed (and contrary to the President’s claim) that if you ever get captured as a POW or whatever, you’re on your own and don’t expect to be a part of any deal.  That’s not how the military works”.   The understanding seemed to be that if your life was lost- so be it.  But then strangely there was a major increase and “systematic nature” of the attacks, and suddenly the EID’s became a whole lot accurate exploding right under the convoys.  It is said that at least due to the “distracted nature” of the unit now (out looking for Bergdoll) that it was easier for the enemy to plan and execute the raids.  Also there was some report out in 2010  (this may not be reliable) that Bowe Bergdoll himself instructed the Talliban on weaponry and how to attack more efficiently.  Time Magazine reports that President Obama in his decision to release these five dangerous Talliban from Guantanamo - - overruled both the military and the CIA.  He rammed the request through so quickly that not only Congress but the CIA was unable to do any background check.   And it would seem that administration officials are still lying saying that “any talk about Bergdoll deserting or worse from his unit is idle speculation- - and not to believe anything based on “second or third hand reports”.   But the team leader was never even ASKED what happened with Bergdoll by the Administration so it’s willful ignorance, at the least.

 On Days of our Lives it was largely a wasted day with a lot of emoting.  I’m not a bit worried about Gabriel Hernandez sentence.  My guess is that she will either get a two year sentence- where she gets out in six months for good behavior or something, or she won’t serve any time at all, and may not even have a felony conviction on her record for two crimes on the record, and a third that only Marlena knows about.  In fact- - Brady will face more general condemnation by his peers for throwing a punch at John Black, than Gabriel Hernandez will for cold blood ambush murder.  The only question is just how are they going to manage her “totally getting off” into the plot.  But virtually no trials on that soap opera are carried through where the people actually end up doing hard time.  Of course it’s kind of déjà vu of Trayvon Martin.  Just as that was the Trayvon Martin trial, because it felt like it was Trayvon who was on trial, here it’s like Nick Fallon is the one on trial.  If Raphael has any regrets about not “protecting his sister’ this is code words for “I wish I had shot Nick Fallon myself”.   And again, when you have no friends, your life isn’t worth a plug nickel in a place like Salem.  I wouldn’t even trust them to protect me if I were President Obama.

So now we need to "walk back' the greatest illusion, the greatest Lie of them all, the Christian Church.   We learned recently from the sad saga of Nicole Walker, how a lie can get out of control and you're forced to tell other, more detailed and grandios lies lies to cover up the first lie you told, till it gets to a point where it would take someone with the mental capacity of Commander Spock, to be able to keep all of the lies straight in your own mind, and what lie you told to whom.  So right now let's go "back to the future" back, back to that point where Captain Piccard was looking for the origens of that "disturbance in the time and space continuoum" and said "It's not here!"   Let's go back to the first century and the First Jewish War.  This war, with all its sequences and permutations is related by historians in pains taking detail by Josephus.   But one thing you'll never see with a reference to this or that political faction or factions is that there is No Reference At All to the Christians.  And yet Christians never tire of lamenting how the Gospel of Mark was written 'Trying to adapt to the trauma of the First Jewish War".  So not only is there no reference to Jesus in the first century- - even more significant in my mind is there is no reference to Those Who Believed in Him in the first century.  Then we come to Emperor Dometian one of the most repressive Roman Emperors of all time.  (crickets sound effects)  There is not one account of any Christian martyrs here.  We then advance a decade or two and come to Trajan's statement or edict to Pliny the Younger about these people called Christians in this remote region of Turkey where Apolonius of Tyannus was from about AD 110.  Keep in mind that "Christian" is a generic term kind of like "King Maker" for instance, or "Deliveror".  Strangely, I know of no story or account of how the Christian church GOT established in Rome to begin with.  Certainly it isn't found in the Bible.  And every time we hear of a "Heretical" gnostic or whatever, they are invariably wicked charactures, kind of like an Evil Character (usually a woman, by the way) in a Walt Disney movie or something, with no redeeming traits at all but "bad to the core".  And all too often these Gnostic teachers "start off as believers- - but went astray because of some defect in their personality".  Wouldn't it be funny if we learned Gnosticism actually pre-dated Christianity?  Even today you hear sentiments like this echoed in Christian sermons.  We move along to Marcion where - - there is a Gospel of Luke.  But Justin who lived BEFORE Irenius- - does not make the claim that Marcion "Tampered with the book of Luke".  Justin writing in maybe 155 (I have reason to believe it was a bit later than that) doesn't make this Claim about Marcion or even know the name of this or any "Gospel" and normally doesn't even use that term.  We now come to Tatian - maybe 170 AD where we now know that Tatian regarded Four of these gospels as worthy of historic credibility.  Yet in Tatians gospell - one of the most famous scripture passages- - in the Christmas story about the Roman Cencus and Mary and Joseph riding by donkey to Bethlehem and "no room in the Inn" and all- - none of that is There.  This would strengthen the idea that the Luke which Marcion and Tatian both knew about Did Not Contain This Christmas Story as it appears today.  This is as late as 170 AD.  We then come to Irenius of 180 or later.  Now we hear of this famous martyr Christian Polycarp- - which the earlier Justin seems to know nothing about even though they lived at the same time.  This venerated "historic link to the Apostles".  Note how the history gets more detailed the farther out we get.  John, in his Gospel- - adds in that Judas was a thief and stealing from the money the disciples collected.  This alligation lacks credibility because how was Judas going to ever spend this money he allegedly pilfered without the others knowing?  After all they all slept and ate and traveled together.  (Selah)  In other words they "were all poor together".   The resurrection stories also grow- - and now Jesus is eating fish.  But then there are other gospels that perport to relate conversations between Pontious Pilate and Claudius and Pilate is witnessing to Claudius or something.  Moving out still further, as we reported a few weeks back, the concept of the Trinity- - was invented, even though it was formerly declared Hericy by the church to believe in it!  Then we come to Eusebius, who is in my book "The bullshitter in chief" because he perports to have fantastic detailed Histories about Church fathers and notible Saints that nobody before him ever Heard of!   In fact one thing is that the Church accepts certain "holy texts" today- - but when you go back to the third century and people THEN quote from these same texts- - - there are all sorts of details and statements they seem completely ignorant of- in maybe AD 200 or so, which by 500 AD or so is established "fact" by the Catholic Church.  (Selah)

3 When we were infants, we were held under the elements of the cosmos. 
4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, 
5 To ransom them that were under the law, that we might receive sonship. 
6 And because ye are sons, he hath sent forth his Spirit into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 
8 Since indeed then ye were in bondage to those [who] not by nature are gods . 
9 But now, having known God, or rather being known by God, how do ye turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which again anew ye desire to be in bondage? 
10 Days ye observe, and months and times and years ( and sabbaths, so I suppose, meagre suppers, and fasts and high days). 
11 I am afraid of you, lest somehow in vain I have labored unto you. 

THIS IS THE WAY THE ORIGINAL

 VERSION OF LUKE ENDED

30 And it came to pass, as he reclined with them,
he took the bread and blessed it,
and brake, and gave to them.
31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him;
and he became invisible to them.
32 And they said one to another,
Was not our heart burning within us,
[-32c] while he talked with us in the way? 

33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem.
And they found the eleven gathered together,
and them that were with them, saying,
34 The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
35 And they rehearsed the things that happened in the way,
and how he became known to them
in the breaking of the bread. 

Finale

36 And as they spake these things,
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them,
and saith unto them,
Peace be unto you. 

37 But they were terrified and affrighted,
and supposed that they had beheld a phantom.
38 And he said unto them,
Why are ye troubled?
and wherefore do reasonings arise in your hearts?
39 Behold my hands and my feet, that I am myself:
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 

[-40]

41 And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered,
he said unto them,
Have ye here anything eatable?
42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish,
and of an honeycomb.
43 And he took it, and ate before them. 

44 And he said unto them,
[ -45 ] These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,
46 that thus it was neccessary for the Christ to suffer,
and to rise again from the dead the third day:
47 And that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name among all nations.