Review: Saving the Ellcrys

Have you seen the Shannara Chronicles from MTV? I am on my second watching and one thing still bothers me. If the tree knew she was dying since Amberle was born and the race to be Chosen is run every year, why didn't the tree contact Amberle a year before or let Amberle know when she touched the tree as she entered puberty (or whenever) that the Ellcrys was dying and the Forbidding would end as she died? Of course, The Elfstones of Shannara would probably not have been written and yet it seems bad planning for the sake of creating an adventure pretty slim to rely on someone getting to Safehold to bring the Ellcrys seed to the Bloodfire and bring it back while the tree is dying and the demons attacking.

I don't know how far it is from Arborlon to Safehold (San Francisco -- probably the Bay Area Transit System -- but it wouldn't have taken days to get there and back and the tree dying so suddenly without warning was not the best plot. Time is a funny thing in books and especially in movies and series because there is so seldom a mention of how long it takes to get there and back.

I read The Sword of Shannara when it was published, but never delved further into the Shannara series. Instead, I decided to follow The Black Unicorn and dip my toes briefly in Terry Brook's other books and then moved on to other authors and genres and stories that appealed to me more. It has nothing to do with Brooks's writing -- or maybe it did and I didn't realize it at the time. I do remember thinking that the book ended on a somewhat sour note and maybe that is why I didn't follow Brooks's other Shannara books. Or maybe it was because the books didn't come out quickly enough. I doubt that last reason because I have followed George R. R. Martin's Ice and Fire Saga in spite of his delay in publishing the final book of the saga.

My dis-ease may be due to what I saw as flaws in the plot and the finale as I have with the Ellcrys issue in the Shannara Chronicles. I have begun reading The Sword of Shannara again because of the MTV series and still find a sapient tree that has held the demons in the Forbidding for years unable to communicate with the one person born to take their place as the new Ellcrys a bit of a sticking point. I don't mind that the sapient tree with the silver bark and the blood red leaves in the book being turned into an old tree with red leaves and brown bark an issue. How many silver trees with blood red leaves are there in the world? I guess CGI couldn't do the trick or maybe there wasn't enough money in the budget to do a credible job on the screen. Things like that happen all the time. I won't quibble about that.

I won't even quibble about the pronunciation of Allanon's name, even though it sounds like Al-ANON, the Alcoholics Anonymous group for friends and family of alcoholics, instead of ALL-anon, like all anon -- all in good time or all soon. That may be just a personal preference and Brooks instructed the actors and director how to pronounce the druid's name. I don't even mind that Manu Bennett is nowhere near 7 feet tall as the Allanon in the books is. These are tiny gnats compared to the glaring plot hole that is the dying Ellcrys.

At any rate, I do find the series interesting and the relationship between Wil and Amberle and Eretria (another pronunciation quibble for me) interesting enough to keep my attention, though I feel the 10-episode series rushed and a bit slap-dash. The chemistry between the characters/actors is fairly realistic and mostly works. Allanon is not quite as forbidding and close-mouthed as I imagined him, but c'est la vie.

I'd give The Shannara Chronicles a B- overall and look forward to finding out what happens to Amberle, Wil, Eretria, and Bandon -- and even Allanon -- in the next season. I hope for more than 10 episodes, but I'd prefer a 10-episode season to a 22-episode season with huge gaps in the season something I see as devolving from the Lost producers. What happened to the 26-episode season that has a short break between Thanksgiving and New Year's? Just give me the season and let's move on.

I much prefer the way Netflix does their shows: upload the whole series and let users watch the show at their own pace. Even if that pace is all at once in a binge or 3 or 4 times before the next season is uploaded. I can watch the series when they come out or wait a few months until I feel the spirit move me to dig in and watch.

The 12- to 13-episode season is also perfectly fine, especially if the show is like Downton Abbey. The show is nearly a full 60 minutes long and each episode feels timeless, more like a couple of hours. The show flows at a good pace and each nearly hour-long episode is full of drama of all shades. I am a little sad the series ended at Xmas for the UK and has just ended here in the States because it is a classy, well written show full of fascinating characters and talented actors. One could not ask for more . . .  unless it is more of the same for the foreseeable future, like for the next 20 or so years. Downton Abbey never gets old and never disappoints -- except when Matthew Crawley suddenly died on the day his son is born, but I was willing to forgive and forget.

I suppose since I began with The Shannara Chronicles I should end with that.

I am a bit disappointed in the premise of the story and the lack of episodes, but overall I have decided I will continue to follow the series -- if more are made. I'll reserve final judgment for when I've read the book and watched more of the continuing adventures of Wil Ohmsford and Eretria the Rover Girl. I wonder if Cephelo will find a way to avert his death -- again. That would be interesting as well.

Oh, a couple more things. Wil isn't half elf. He is a quarter elf. His father, Shea, was half elf and his mother was all human. Therefore, half of a half is a quarter. Unless his mother had elf blood too (probably not since her ears weren't pointed) and then he'd be still less than half, depending on how much elf blood his mother had. Each generation with each mating of a human would diminish the elf blood so any children Wil had would also be less than half and would in fact be an eighth and their children would be a sixteenth and so on and so on. How much of a mongrel is obviously not the general issue since anyone with Shannara blood would be able to wield the elfstones and any other Shannara magic, but I would imagine that such magic and control would be limited by the amount of Shannara blood running through their veins.

Why didn't Wil call Perk and his Roc instead of taking the trolls' horses? Flying would get them back to Arborlon quicker and they wouldn't have to rely on horses that cannot cross the mountains or need to be fed and rested before continuing. I know it seems like Wil and Amberle mounted the horses and rode a few hours to get to Arborlon on time, but that would mean the trip to Safe Hold/Safehold need not have taken so long or taken the lives of so many elves in the process. There would be no need to go to Pykon or go through the Wilderun. They could've just ridden along the shore and through the woods to Safehold/Safe Hold. I'd call that a big plot hole. Wouldn't you?

Then again, Shannara blood could be a recessive that would not be apparent in every generation, rather the way that blood from other races after so many generations would be either recessive or dominant and yet still not half or full blood. It's a genetic thing and genetic things can be a bit tricky. Just ask a quadroon or octoroon or Commander Spock. Will can only conquer so much. It's not a matter of passing but a matter of magic and belief which is the heart of magic.

That is all. Disperse.

The End of Skid Row

Every city has a Skid Row

Over 20 years ago I got an idea that would save the homeless, reduce crime, and raise property values in areas of the city where businesses once thrived. I pitched the idea to some wealthy investors who had derelict properties and they were enthusiastic -- up to the point where they had to put money into the program. That is when the excuses and apologies came out.

The biggest excuse was that the economy was bad and they didn't have sufficient liquid assets to help out. They said they were cash poor and financially strapped and couldn't contribute, but it was a great idea and good luck with it. No matter who I talked to the result was the same. Great idea, but the economy was too bad for them to be a part of it. Good luck.

Those same people were seen at charity auctions spending conspicuously and were still being driven by chauffeurs surrounded by body guards and people and being seen at the right parties no matter the closing of the Dow Jones that day or month or year, but they couldn't participate or be involved because it wouldn't benefit them sufficiently -- and they wouldn't be in charge. Forget about the tax benefits of turning derelict buildings into communities for the homeless. Forget about cleaning up areas where drug deals and murder and violence flourished. Forget about the decrease in police needed to patrol the area. None of that was enough to change their minds. They'd contribute the buildings and take the tax benefits if someone wanted to purchase the property and turn the warehouses and manufacturing facilities into high end condos and lofts, but not for the homeless or to help get the homeless off the streets and back into the mainstream with job skills and assistance that did not involve Welfare. That is not the way things are done.

I began to see that what was missing wasn't a business plan. I had that. It wasn't a break down of costs. I had that too. It was because the communities built and the buildings repurposed could not be controlled because they were self-sufficient and self-sustaining with a governing board/council made up of the people who lived there. That could not be allowed to happen.

As with so many things, I gave up. That's what they wanted. I had to work and earn a living and forging ahead with the program took a back seat to the necessities of life. My life.

The plan is simple.

In every city there is a warehouse district, manufacturing district, high crime district where buildings once bustling with activity and jobs are dark and shadowed areas where pimps and drug dealers and thugs and bullies flourish. The police patrol the areas, but they're smart enough to know that the broken glass and discarded needles and drug paraphernalia -- and bodies -- are dangerous. Buildings where steel was manufactured are decaying and broken down and the homeless and drug addicts and derelict are decaying inside or nearby. When the police don't even want to get too close, maybe it's time to do something about the blight on the city's reputation and bright and shining past.

Owners would donate the buildings and the government would offer tax credits. Builders, architects, lumber yards, electricians, plumbers, and tradesmen and material suppliers would donate their time or help by pitching in to help purchase materials (or gather donations from suppliers) to refurbish and rebuild the properties, turn them into communities with small apartments, community areas (kitchens and administrative offices for starters). The outsides of the building would become gardens for food and for flowers and herbs, even playgrounds and parks for the inhabitants.

The homeless would be offered a chance to get back into the mainstream by working to rehab the buildings and redesign the space for the community, teaching them new skills they can take back into the world and use to obtain jobs. The people living there would have the option of continuing to live in the community and contribute or use it as a spring board to get back into the mainstream.

Once the buildings were remodeled and finished, residents would participate in managing the property and the tenants, governing themselves. Those interested would be taught to manage the property and deal with the day to day issues that crop up. Business owners from the community at large would volunteer a few hours a week to teach and guide the community until it is self-sustaining and provide for itself, but the governing board would be made up of the residents.

Hospitals would provide supplies and medicines that would eventually be destroyed because they were nearing the end of their shelf life. Doctors, nurses, and aides would volunteer a few hours a week to staff the clinics for less severe illnesses and injuries and residents with an interest in medicine and health care would be taught to manage the clinic, dispense and inventory supplies, and provide administrative support.

Food would be grown in the community and would also be donated by businesses in the area. Food that isn't pretty enough to go into grocery stores could be provided for the community and bakers, cooks, chefs, and food workers from the surrounding city would volunteer a few hours to teach residents about nutrition and cooking and baking and turning the food stuffs into nutritious meals for the residents. As with the other services, those among the residents wishing to learn the business of providing and preparing food would be taught by the volunteers. Volunteers would be drawn from businesses as well as concerned citizens with talents they wish to share.

Books that would end up in landfills could be donated to the community's library. Teachers could volunteer their time to help the community set up schools and classrooms for the children and adults where they could learn new skills or how to read and write. Residents could even learn useful skills like sewing, tailoring, repairing clothes, etc. Whatever skill someone wants to learn would be taught by volunteers and eventually by early residents who have graduated and skillful enough to share what they've learned with the community. Every job that is learned by the residents would benefit the community as a whole. Nothing would be wasted and everyone -- especially the city -- would benefit.

Since the properties would no longer provide a safe haven for dirty deals and crime, the police wouldn't need to worry when entering the district. An area teeming with life and purpose would be an asset to the police and provide a deterrent to crime which would raise the property values in the area as more and more properties are turned into thriving communities. There would be no more homeless because they would have a place to live they could call their own with meals they would help prepare among people willing to help them find a better way.

No one would lose, except those unwilling to become involved in the program. The property owners would have property that is worth far more as a community than it was as a derelict building crumbling back into the earth and filth of neglect. The streets would be safer with better lighting and people living in the area taking back their lives. Food and books and clothing and anything that would eventually end up in a landfill would be put to use. Nothing would be wasted: not food, not tools, not material, and not people.

Whatever the community needed would be provided by volunteers and by the community residents as the community grows and prospers. Such a self-sustaining community is a viable alternative to the current situation, offering training, health care, education, and homes to the poor and unfortunate. Residents would be taught how to care for their homes and communities, how to govern themselves, and how to contribute to the community, the city, and to each other. Parents would be taught how to effectively care for their children and day care services would be provided by the residents who wish to care for children and area. Every aspect of family and community life would be taught to those needing help and no one would be alone. There would be neighbors and friends and the community to fall back on.

There are an infinite number of minor details that would need to be addressed, but this is the general outline of the plan. It is an urban version of Michael Tellinger's Ubuntu communities.

In the beginning and because throughout the world money is legal tender, such a project would need money through donations and by residents earning money through a job and donations from the community and individuals. The aim is to set up communities that no longer depend on money.

You will ask how such a community is possible and who would be in control and do the jobs necessary to keep the communities up and running. The fact is that people are by nature creatures that need to work, need something to do to give their lives purpose and direction. The homeless especially want a life that doesn't begin and end with defecating in public or in alleys and they need and want retraining. Anyone whose skills are no longer useful in today's changing society would be retrained and re-educated, providing them with the skills and experience they need to get back into the mainstream world. They would have practical experience through living and working in the community and could do whatever job suits them.

Painters would paint. Artists would draw, sculpt, design and make clothing. Every job that exists has someone who wants to learn and practice. People who want to learn plumbing and work with electricity and sewage and trash removal and recycling would be able to do so. There is no job in existence that does not have someone willing to do it. Whatever is fulfilling to an individual is available. Everyone has a talent or leans toward some job or skill that they want to use. People are always happiest when they do something they really want to do and not just something they do because it makes them money. Money is not a factor in the end, only in the beginning, and there would be people to teach members of the community how to manage their money, how to get the best deal, how to shop, how to save, how to use money to their best advantage. There would be people to make and repair furniture, design technology, cure and treat diseases, teach and take care of children, and the list goes on. There is less chance to misuse one's talents if people are allowed to do what suits them, what they dream of, and what is made available to them. I imagine such an existence would result in fewer unhappy and miserable and dissatisfied individuals and more contentment generally -- and specifically -- that would result in less burnout and frustration and fewer people planning or falling into the desire to go postal.

Entertainers would entertain. Acrobats would still fly through the air or tumble across the ground. Plays and code would be written. Technology would no longer be limited by funding or prejudice. Anything that can be dreamed can become reality.

Yes, it does sound like Utopia -- and it is. Utopia is possible as long as the root of evil, the need for and need to obtain money is taken out of the equation. The lights would still go on with the flick of a switch. Toilets would still flush. Water would still flow. Heat and air conditioning would still run when needed and wanted. Everything that people need would be provided and maintained by the community. Technology would advance. Diseases would be cured. Life would go on and people would thrive.

The elderly would be cared for, not in a drug-controlled haze but within the community as teachers, leaders, and elders. The elderly would be a part of the community as workers and residents, but also as sources of knowledge and in governing the community. People might actually live longer if they have a reason to get up in the morning and contribute. Their experience, expertise, and knowledge would not be wasted. It would be shared with the community. It is a Utopia.

For now ... think about it and check it out. If you have questions, I might have the answers, but I at least know where to guide you to find them.

Just as landfills will no longer be built for the refuse of the world and furnaces will provide heat without being needed to destroy outdated medication and food stuffs and whatever is cast off by the world, people will no longer be forgotten, cast off, and allowed to die alone and unwanted. To everything there is a purpose and that purpose will be realized and nurtured and used. Nothing will be wasted, especially not people. There will be no need to deport the homeless from the streets as Mayor Giuliani did in New York City. This is a better way and everyone wins.

That is all. Disperse.

Pruning the Tree

 

As I was choosing an illustration for this post I vacillated between burning books and the word propaganda on fire or covered by a blindfold. Censorship also briefly suggested images and illustrations, but it is all thread from the same cloth and that cloth is control. 

Knowledge is power and knowledge can be shaped, blotted out, censored, burned, changed, and altered in so many ways. One of the main ways to shape knowledge is to eradicate it and nothing has offered more opportunity and latitude than religion. Oh, you say to yourself, she's one of those. Probably an atheist or a heretic. She wants to control what we think and how we think. 

No, I don't. That is the agenda, the game plan of whoever wants to blot out how many people pay attention to what I say, what I write, how I express myself. Yes, I want to offer you knowledge. I want to change your mind about certain things, some issues, but I do not want to force you to change your mind. I do know want you to unlearn what you know or court a case of amnesia. I want to offer you a choice to believe or not to believe. It's up to you. 

Currently in US politics, Donald Trump is tearing up what should be the usual mud slinging, back biting, and lie fest that is the heart of politics. Every election the politicians parade their platitudes and promises for the people so that voters may make an informed decision, what is seen by the people as a clear choice for change. That rarely happens because the puppet masters will never let that happen. Those few individuals who see the strings and tell people they are being lied to and played will discredit the whistle blower, sometimes to the point where the whistle blower is branded as insane and dangerous, and everything will go on as usual according to the rules of the game. The whistle blower will fade into the background and may shine for a moment in a TV documentary that paints the whistle blower as someone who was honest and truthful and painted black. Viewers will feel bad for the 15 minutes of fame allotted and promptly forget why they cared at all. After all, handling the bills, raising children, preparing food, earning the money to pay for all that life requires -- and what will put them on an equal footing with the Smiths and the Joneses -- takes all their energy. You buys your ticket and takes your chances is the old saying. But there was never a chance. The game was rigged -- is rigged. You never had a snowball's change in a volcano -- and you never even knew it. 

The people most affected by Trump's center ring bombastic display aren't the people or the voters, but the career politicians and the people who have bought and paid for them -- who have always bought and paid for them. Trump will continue to put on a show and will rattle the powerbrokers' and politicians' cages and will do their best to discredit him and, failing that, will put out a contract on him. Men like Trump with plenty of money and a message that could actually change the game must be erased. They must be silenced at any cost. It is worth the risk if killing Donald Trump would not end in making a martyr of him and igniting a holy war but by sending the message to other whistle blowers that the result of being right so publicly and getting so close to ending the game will be death. 

I have called Trump a clown, a side show act, and he is both, but I see now that he is something else. He is the reason that the game was created in the first place. 

No, the game is not about politics or who becomes President of the United States (POTUS). The game is control of knowledge. Control of truth. Control of the mind of the people who don't know that this is all a game and that the real prize is who remembers what and for how long. 

In the past, the game has taken the form of witch hunts and burning witches at the stake -- or by drowning, dismembering, cutting out their tongues, and other methods that end with the destruction and eradication of the witch. 

Did you know that witch is the word that remains, but the original word meant wise woman? Someone who had knowledge. And the someone didn't have to be a woman and was often a man (shaman, witch doctor, healer, teacher, etc.) Is it any wonder that witches are portrayed as comic figures, ugly women with long hooked noses, warts on nose and/or chin or cheek with long hairs growing out of them? Are you surprised that witches were consorts of the Devil, Satan, Lucifer and that they sold their souls for power, for magic, for a way to cheat death? 

But, you will say, there have been beautiful witches and their beauty masked the evil beneath the illusion. Yes, I will answer. They were beautiful on the surface, but vile, hideous, ugly creatures beneath the skin. Their beauty was a mirage created to make sure you continue to look over your shoulder and distrust anyone with a pretty face -- or hard, muscular body -- and perpetuate the fear of magic and power and EVIL because Satan is everywhere and lies until you sell your soul. Fear is a powerful motivator. It has been used since the Creation. 

Didn't Satan lie to Eve and talk her into defying God and eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and didn't she use her feminine charms and pretty face (and sex) to entice Adam into sin by sharing the Forbidden Fruit? That may be the true origin of the evil behind the pretty face and figure and the beginning of Lucifer's evil plot to destroy mankind. This is a game that has been going on longer than anyone thinks. This is the first fruit of the Propaganda Tree. 

The story of Adam and Eve is a cautionary tale that is all about propaganda and lies. There is no truth in the story and religion has been used to hide the truth and perpetuate the lie that underpins all of society. 

There are religious beliefs that aren't about Adam and Eve and First Sin and the punishment visited on all of Mankind because of Adam and Eve's Sin or Lucifer's trickery. There remains a version of the First Sin and women have borne the brunt of the Sin. 

The Greeks passed the baton to Zeus's creation to punish Prometheus for giving fire to Mankind. It wasn't fire Prometheus gave and it was not Pandora's curiosity or opening the box that let loose all the evils into the world, save the bright spark of Hope that was left after evil was unleashed. Zeus orchestrated that First Sin but setting up a game where Pandora, a woman, was bound to follow her nature, the nature Zeus instilled in her when he created her and baited his trap with her to destroy Mankind because they knew too much after Prometheus gave them Fire, rescuing them from ignorance and an existence closer to the beasts from whence they sprang. God wasn't such a friendly and caring Father then and Prometheus was rewarded for his betrayal of Zeus by being chained to a rock in Tartarus (the punishment zone of Hell in Hades's underworld kingdom) where an eagle attacked Prometheus and devoured his liver day after day for eternity. Since Prometheus was immortal, his liver grew back so the eagle could continue to feast on him without end. 

The real point to these stories of First Sin is not the sin because that is a hoax. Part of the reason is to destroy knowledge, to keep Mankind from being more than a beast. Mankind was -- and is -- created in the image of the gods and given the power to determine his own fate and increase his own knowledge by accepting that there is more to know than what is parceled out. 

In a way, the story of Adam and Eve and Pandora and all the other women who have been burdened with atoning for the sin of wanting to know more is the story that I have lived all my life. Born female, I was not allowed to show off my intelligence or make a man or boy feel inferior because I was born to be the weaker sex. I was not meant to rule and I was certainly not meant to use my knowledge to make anyone's life better, especially not my own. If God had wanted me to rule or to lead the way to enlightenment, he would have made sure I was born male. I was born to be punished, to atone for the First Sin for all eternity because I in the guise of Eve enticed a man to share the knowledge I took from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and an eternity of suffering is all I can and should expect for my crime. 

Crime and Sin are useful tools in the Game. People usually tend to have second thoughts about committing the crime of chasing knowledge if they know the result will be punishment. It didn't stop Prometheus, but I would say Prometheus didn't know how Zeus would react and Adam and Eve certainly didn't know that their god would cast them out of the garden and force them to suffer for the rest of their lives. Adam and Eve had been God's favorite children and they were nothing after he cast them out. 

The one thing that God could not take from Adam and Eve -- or their children -- was the knowledge they gained from eating the Forbidden Fruit. That they would keep, little good would it do them. No, they must beg God for his forgiveness, which he would never give because they disobeyed Him and learned for themselves. 

The Audacity of creatures little better than beasts to believe they could possess knowledge -- and use it. How arrogant. How sinful. How evil. 

The Great Lie didn't stop with casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden and it didn't soothe Pandora's heart when she realized that through her evil and death and sin came into the world. Not even shining Hope could change that. She would live her life knowing that she destroyed her fellow beings and condemned them to a life of suffering and death and chaos. 

I doubt the outcome would have been better if Adam or some other nameless, faceless being Pandora called mate had been the sinner. Can't have the male of the species carrying the burden of shame and sorrow since they weren't equipped for suffering, not since it had been declared by their respective gods that they were the strength and power of the world. No, the weaker, more sentimental female was the better choice, especially since the female would never be allowed to lead or control power -- center stage. 

The real point was not to make Mankind suffer, but to destroy the knowledge of good and evil. Parents believe that knowledge in a child is akin to allowing the child to play with matches or use sharp objects. Since Mankind was cast in the role of child of the gods, Mankind cannot be allowed to make use of the knowledge gained without setting limits and erecting boundaries. Too much knowledge could end with Mankind deciding his and her own fate. That cannot be allowed. 

I used to see religion as a means of preserving knowledge that must remain intact. I was wrong. I see religion as a brake on knowledge, a way to decide what knowledge will be sanctioned for use and what knowledge will be suppressed. In order to put the brakes on knowledge that knowledge must be destroyed. Religion provides the perfect means of stopping too much knowledge. Holding back the water by erecting a dam or blowing up enough material to halt the flow of the river or knowledge. 

Throughout history wars have been the means of destroying knowledge. From war came the saying that the winners write the history and it is not far wrong. Sometimes the wrong person won the war, but it didn't matter as long as the accumulated knowledge was destroyed. Books were burned. Libraries were destroyed and pulled down. Possession of books and knowledge was a crime and sinners were tortured and killed. No religion is free of taint in this regard. Religions have pruned the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil throughout the lives of Mankind. 

The Roman Catholic church destroyed the writings of the people they conquered and suppressed the knowledge by murdering priests and teachers. Death by Jesuit priests. Oh, you thought the Jesuits were teachers and advanced knowledge. They did, but only knowledge that they deemed safe. The Vatican vaults contain knowledge that has been suppressed since Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the State Religion in the 4th century. 

Islam destroys any books and knowledge that is not the Quran and the writings of Mohammed's followers. Nothing else in their estimation is worth reading or knowing and is certainly not worth saving from the cleansing fire. At least the Roman Catholic church saved the books and knowledge even though they denied it to the world at large. 

Protestant Christianity continued the war on knowledge through witch trials while promoting the publishing of the Bible so that the average man who didn't know Latin or Greek could read Jesus's words for himself. Wise women -- and men -- were murdered in order to promote the Protestant version of religion. I should say versions since there are as many versions as there are Protestants that see the Bible and its teachings in light of their own conscience and beliefs. All those who do not accept their versions will be hanged or burned at the stake, but destroyed to prune the Tree of Knowledge. 

Those same Christians in the newly minted United States of America pruned the Tree by destroying the knowledge the savages had and by removing their children, taking away their culture, cutting their hair, making the wearing of native dress illegal, and forcing the children to learn the ways of the civilized world in the name of Religion. 

The Nazis burned books and murdered rabbis and priests and anyone who didn't accept the Nazi Party Line. The Mongols were supposed to have destroyed libraries and books and teachers in their wars against the Chinese. Every change in the Chinese dynasties was heralded with the destruction of the writings and teachings of the dynasty they destroyed. The Chinese often rewrote the knowledge to reflect their control and power. Every continent, every country, every people on this planet has warred on the neighbors and pruned the Tree of Knowledge. Nothing remains of the Truth -- or at least very little remains. 

The Smithsonian destroyed evidence of the giants in the Americas and giants became evil cannibals whose sole purpose was to destroy Mankind. The Smithsonian took their booty and sank it to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Like the Vatican, they keep some artifacts and some knowledge hidden deep in their underground vaults. 

The Tree of Knowledge has been assaulted innumerable times during the existence of Mankind as soon as people learned enough to question their gods and chose to decide their own destiny. No one is immune to participation in the game. All have played a part either as the victim or the power broker exerting control. The Tree of Knowledge is no longer recognizable in its original form because I doubt anyone exists that ever saw it. The knowledge of the power brokers is as fractured by the rats gnawing at the roots and pruning as the rest of Mankind is. We are all diminished no matter how we struggle to find the Truth. 

Every Dark Age, every Age of Deceit, every perversion of innocence, and every Lie and Sin committed against the Tree of Knowledge begins with Religion. Every technological marvel has been stolen and hidden and kept from the hands of the gods' children so they don't hurt themselves and it has been a very long and very painful childhood that never ends. And it will never end until the Destroyers of Knowledge are seen for who and what they are and they are stopped. It's no wonder that the old saying is that in order for the child to reach adulthood that child must kill the parent. How else are we to learn. 

That is all. Disperse.

The Quality of Truth & Lies

I've been watching Cosmic Disclosure with Corey Goode and David Wilcock. Goode is purportedly someone who was chosen for the Secret Space Program when he was 6 years old because he is an intuitive empath and David Wilcock is a best selling author writing about esoteric and occult subjects who has a half-hour show on Gaiam TV network.

As I watched the last program available, Corey Goode was talking about his visit to the Hollow Earth (aka Honeycomb Earth because it resembles a honeycomb) and to the Library and Hall of Records, which were beehives of activity. One of the humanoid beings, a priestess, told Goode that Sitchin's books were all lies and that he wrote what he was told by the Cabal, our financial overseers, what to write. His version of what was contained in the Sumerian tablets is part fact and mostly fantasy out of his very active imagination and is designed to keep humanity enslaved and believing what the Cabal wants the world to believe to promote their agenda of continued enslavement to money so that the world remains in their control. This is despite the agenda of the Sphere Being Alliance, the Blue Avians, the Draco beings, the Secret Space Program, and various other alliances and groups inside the Earth and from planets and groups throughout space. The priestess from Inner Earth did tell Goode that by reading the accurate translation of the Sumerian tablets and their histories the truth would be found, but it would not be found by reading Sitchin.

Goode said he spent some time on the Internet searching out sites like SitchinIsWrong and various sites claiming that Zechariah Sitchin's books are way off base. I've seen some of the same sites and read criticisms of Sitchin's work over the past couple of decades. Some of my friends have also called Sitchin's books and views alternative or fringe history, but then isn't everything fringe and alternative history when we get right down to it? History has been perverted by groups with agendas that do not include accuracy, truth, or history in order to guide, control, and otherwise keep the truth of our origins and the happenings on this planet for millennia, often through religion, but also through destruction of anything and everything that goes against their plans for humanity and their control over humanity's thoughts and memories and questions.

The first thing I checked out was the SitchinIsWrong website and I began reading with the link to the 12th Planet. Let me say that I have found some inaccuracies and discrepancies in Sitchin's work from the beginning, but find it difficult to discount everything he wrote. In short, he made mistakes.

In the criticism of Sitchin's book The 12th Planet, the writer, Dr. Michael S. Heiser, pointed out that the visitors/colonists that came to Earth over 450,000 years ago (let's call them Engineers) did not know more than the first five planets of this solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. The other planets in his solar system were a mystery to them. Contained in the criticism is mention of a Sumerian tablet that spoke of Saturn. Unless the Sumerians considered Saturn one of the 5 planets already mentioned that they could see from the top of their ziggurats, that would mean that either Dr. Heiser's profound knowledge of the Sumerians and cuneiform was off or he made a mistake and translated the text correctly, which means that the Sumerians knew about Saturn. That would be 6 planets by my count in the solar system and not 5 and discounts his criticism and proof right off the bat.

People are fallible. Sitchin was not a dedicated linguist, but someone who was fascinated by history and determined to find the answers to questions he had asked as a child. He was gifted and had researched and learned a lot, but he did make mistakes, as many talented amateurs do. Dr. Heiser who is a noted historian, lecturer, and has a PhD is no talented amateur but a professional. Here is what it says on the website:

Mike Heiser earned an M.A. (1998) and Ph.D. (2004) in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  His dissertation was entitled, "The Divine Council in Late Canonical and Non-Canonical Second Temple Jewish Literature" (English translation: the dissertation dealt with the presence of a pantheon in the Hebrew Bible and the binitarian nature of ancient Israelite religion and Judaism, a backdrop for the the belief in the deity of Christ in the New Testament).  Before going to the UW-Madison, Mike also earned an M.A. in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania (1992; major fields, Ancient Syria-Palestine and Egyptology).  Mike can do translation work in roughly a dozen ancient languages, among them Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Greek, Aramaic, Syriac, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Phoenician, Moabite, and Ugaritic cuneiform.  He has also studied Akkadian and Sumerian independently. 

His scholarship is unquestioned -- as much as scholarship can be questioned -- and he knows his subjects well. He is part of the same academic community that has denied the existence of a history that is different from that taught in universities, colleges, and schools, part of the establishment disseminating the same old stories with very little new information, the same academia that maintains that history is as it has been published in the accepted literature. I don't know how much his position or views have changed as more and more information is revealed about the hoax that has been perpetrated by academia and the established histories we have all been fed, but I have to wonder about his veracity and his motives. 

About the cylinder seal discussed in his criticism of the 12 planets in our solar system, I will give him that the explanation of the symbols on the seal seem accurate and it is likely that Sitchin's explanation is flawed. However, that does not change the fact that Saturn was known by the Sumerians -- and mentioned in Dr. Heiser's proof against Sitchin's claims -- and that Sitchin's work is not solely based on one clay cylinder seal. I will discuss my views and take on Dr. Heiser's further criticisms and proof in future posts. The point is that a flawed criticism is no proof that Sitchin was 100% wrong, just that he was wrong about his explanation of that cylinder seal. 

The body of Sitchin's work is far reaching and covers many disciplines within archaeology and history, including archaeoastronomy and dating ancient stone megaliths as well as his version of the Enuma Elish, the Sumerian/Akkadian genesis/origin story. I've found Sitchin's version engaging and entertaining if not always accurate, but how accurate can anyone be when they are 14,000-5000 years beyond the time the information was encoded in cuneiform and the various languages and writers that come between? At least Sitchin was working from a larger body of work than a few broken bits of pottery and the kinds of active imaginations that gave us the current version of history that has been published and republished in the past 600+ years from men and women who were bored landowners in search of proof that the Bible was fact and not mythology, as all other religions predating Christianity and Judaism were branded? Archaeologists -- might as well call them talented amateurs looking for fame and fortune and to mold the story of mankind -- have thrown away, destroyed, and hidden whatever they have found that didn't fit with their reconstruction and version of history. Rather the pots calling the kettles black. 

Academics coming up with different data that called the earlier accepted version into question found themselves in an academic cul de sac from which there was no reprieve. Their careers were ruined and their livelihood destroyed. They were relegated to the fringes and their work unpublishable and untaught. They moved into other fields or braved the censure of the academic establishment to be called crackpots, liars, fantasists, crazy, etc. Most of their work was destroyed or hidden and always criticized and denied until they either gave up or washed ashore on the Island of Misfit Academics to languish unknown and unheard of while what work remained undestroyed found shelter on the dusty shelves of out of the way colleges or museums or hidden in some moldering box in the bowels among forgotten crackpot theorists. 

Anyone who breaks from the established agenda was either destroyed or discounted. That is how academia deals with rebels and those willing to speak out -- even wrongly and with errors -- to control the mind of mankind. So, while I still question some of Sitchin's work, the bulk of it rings true -- at least to me. 

I have found from personal experience that liars that want to sway public opinion invariably call anyone that challenges them -- or calls them liars -- have already had their honesty questioned and their proofs destroyed as the liars painted them liars before they could tell their stories. 

That may also be the case with Goode's Inner Earth priestess's story about Sitchin's motives and the agenda behind why he wrote the books he did the way he did, especially if the priestess is doing her part in claiming their version of things is the truth and untainted by private agenda. We have only Corey Goode's testimony since he has shown no concrete evidence of his version of what he saw and did among the factions living in the inner Earth, and even that is called into question since his visit was by astral projection or a similar mode of transport. He gives no coordinates or photographic evidence or documents of what he says he experienced and relies only on his word. It comes down to whether or not one believes that Goode's words are accurate and his travels real. 

As much as I would like to believe him, I have seen very little verifiable proof and know very little about Corey Goode or David Wilcock. Their body language is open, although there is an element of hiding or protecting themselves in their postures and gestures. 

They brought in Michael Tellinger for a segment and at least Tellinger has some credibility with his published works and his very visible work in South Africa among the ancient relics and remains of ancient civilizations. He provides photographic evidence and verifiable proof to illustrate his beliefs and theories. Tellinger also uses some of Sitchin's writings and proofs in his own work and as a stepping stone along his own journey. 

I am reluctant to take the view that Sitchin lied about everything. I am aware that some of his theories and explanations fall short of the mark, but I knew that all along. I have spent many decades researching on my own and I have my own theories -- many of which I have explained here and elsewhere over the past nearly 2 decades. For now, I will keep an open mind and do what I have always done, research for myself and look behind the stories and various criticisms until I get closer to the truth. 

I also find Dr. Heiser's conclusions questionable when a new planet currently traveling through our solar system can be seen -- and has been known and its effects written about since the 1950s. If we with our inferior technology knew about a 12th planet coming into our solar system, a planet that has been documented in what has been called mythology by historians, it would seem that the Engineers also knew about this 12th planet (often called Planet X and more recently a brown dwarf star) while humanity was still evolving and Sitchin was actually right, however wrong he was in decoding a Sumerian cylinder seal. Say what you will, but there is more verifiable evidence than there is verifiable criticism against Sitchin's work. Keep an open mind, but you decide for yourself. 

That is all. Disperse. 

Pulling Out The Roots

"For the love of money is the root of all evil."

It is not money itself but the love of money that is the root of all evil. I've been saying that wrong for decades.

It is said that without money and the need to earn money the world would descend into chaos and sloth. I guess no one has looked around lately because we are in the midst of chaos and sloth already and we have money to chase.

The human is created in such a way that without a job or challenge or something to get up for every day we are not happy or fulfilled. We need employment and I don't mean just a job, but employment that offers challenge and fulfillment. A reason to get up every day.

Have you ever seen someone who has retired from work? They don't just stop. They don't lie around and do nothing, unless there is a serious illness and immobility involved. Retirees keep working -- in the garden, in the garage, in the house, and even in the work place. Retirees travel and invent and take on jobs at Walmart as greeters, pushing carts and answering questions and guiding shoppers to the right aisle (at least at Walmart men ask for directions -- and give them). Retirees check out all kinds of things they had no time for when they were working and chasing the almighty dollar -- and contributing to social security.

A recent movie, The Intern, starring Robert DeNiro is about a retiree who goes to work for a garment company in the factory where he was once middle management as an intern (that means without pay) and changes the life and the way the business worked. He had traveled and taken Tai Chi and done all the usual retiree things, but he wanted to get back to work and realized that being an intern (if he could get chosen) was his only option. No one would pay for his experience and expertise, but they would use him as an intern for free if he could be chosen.

The point is not that he found a way to become an intern or the changes he helped make, but that a man who had worked his whole life for a paycheck was willing to work for free to keep working. To be useful. To fulfill his life. People -- humans -- need employment to be fulfilled and to satisfy the needs of their personalities and souls -- and hearts. Even without money or the lure of money, people would continue to work and they would work at what makes them happiest and the most fulfilled, the calling of their hearts and souls.

Once the yoke of money is released there would be partying and excess because the slaves have been set free. Yes, money does make slaves of us all. That is the point of money, to enslave us, to chain us to someone else's agenda, to chain us to the grist mill of the economic wheel. I think of an old Star Trek episode where Bones, Spock, and Kirk are under cover on a planet where Llandrew rules.

The trio land just before the annual festival, the Day of Llandrew, where once a year the rules are gone and the people (usually the young people) are allowed to indulge all manner of excess. For one day they rape, cavort, get drunk, riot, murder, assault, and get into every kind of mischief. The Day of Llandrew is a kind of safety valve for their society, a time to let off steam when there are no rules and all perversions and devilry are allowed. A friend told me last night that it's like a new movie called The Purge and it certainly reminds me of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and stories and movies in the same vein where there are no rules but the rule of the mob.

Once there is no more money and no need for money and the traces are kicked over, there will be a time of no rules, except the rule of the mob, and the safety valve will be in full use. And just like the day after the Day of Llandrew, people will wake up and see what carnage and destruction they have wrought. There will be tears and regrets and everyone will go about their lives picking up the pieces and the real work will begin.

People need challenges. People need goals to work towards. People need work and adventure and employment and people will get to work.

Without money and the lash of money to keep them running after the carrot on the stick, people will dig in and do what makes them happy, what fulfills them. Those who have been forced into servitude for money will find ways to fit into the new society in other ways. Those who once dreamed of painting and sculpting and baking and sewing and gardening will dig in. They will fumble at first until they find their dusty skills and clean them off. They will be awkward and even throw a tantrum or two when they find they cannot perform with their old skills, but they will keep moving forward and practice, practice, practice until they begin to see the old glimmers of skill and artistry come to life and wink at them out of the darkness.

Not everyone wanted to be an artist or a seamstress or a baker. Some wanted to be furniture makers and architects and organizers. Some wanted to be farmers and drive trucks and work on railroads. Some liked digging ditches and repairing things. Some wanted to teach and sing and clean. Everyone is different. Dreams are as individual as the people and everyone would find their level, find their occupation. Things would shift about, but soon everyone would have a new direction and a new job. Yes, there are even those who enjoy picking up trash and cleaning up after others because they like to see order.

New communities would spring up and people would be drawn together to create new towns and new communities. People would step up to take over child care and teaching the young -- and the old. People would step up to help organize everyone and everything into the community. There are jobs for everyone and everyone would have a job. People would get down to the business of living, of creating communities, of moving into a very different and brighter future. There would be enough for all and little would be wasted after things settle down.

Yes, I believe in Utopia and I believe people are ready for it. It will take time for the culture shock to wear off, but the new world would be full of promise and opportunities and plenty for all to do.

Job satisfaction would go up because people would be doing what they want to do, what makes them happy and fulfills their heart's yearnings. There would be less ennui, less unhappiness, and fewer needs to go postal. Production would soar because it wouldn't be tied to quotas and piece rate but to satisfaction with the job to be done. Quality would increase because people would be making and doing what they are proud to do and the product of their work would be a source of pride, a gift of their talents and abilities and skills.

There would likely be less need for psychotherapy and psychiatrists and even medications to dull the pain of living because living would be a pleasure once a person finds his/her niche. Doctors and therapists who wanted to contribute would find other ways to contribute, other ways to heal the body and the mind. The mentally ill would be taken care of and there would be less need to medicate to treat because there would be fewer ills to treat. And there would be those who would fulfill their own dreams of working with and healing the mentally ill. There would be enough: enough people to do the jobs that needed to be done and enough food and shelter and people to tend to them. A job for everyone and everyone in a job they chose and looked forward to doing.

There would be runs on banks as it will take time for people to realize that the need for money is gone. There will be those unwilling to believe that money is no longer necessary and they would riot and want to break into banks, except the banks' doors would be open and people could come in and take out all the money they want. There would be scuffles over who gets more until people let it sink in that money no longer has a place in the world and is useful only as material for starting and maintaining fires and the coins could become jewelry or ornaments because they have no value outside of the metal that could be fashioned into more useful tools and objets d'art. Soon the rioting and hoarding would give way to other uses for the paper and metal leashes that chained us all to the grist mill of economic enslavement.

People might look at the way things had been done in the past and seek a new direction. Younger people are more suited physically to bear children. Young women are stronger and more full of life and promise when they are young and fresh, but young women might not be as ready to be mothers and raise children. Women find as they get older that the ability to be a good parent grows with time as does the desire to nurture children. Young women would give birth to children and the children would be placed in creches, nurseries to the uninitiated, and there would be men and women to care for the children. More mature women ready to be parents would go to the creche to choose children to raise and would take them home. All would be babies so there would be no need to warehouse the children, although the nurseries would be set up to nurture children until they are ready to be on their own, and they would be taken care of until they grew up enough to want to and were able to do things for themselves. At that point, they would be trained and their abilities and talents would be nurtured as well as they moved to the calling of their hearts and souls.

Growing children would be able to try out whatever interests them until they find what makes them happy. No pressure. No expectations except for the expectation that they would find their own personal niche. No vocation would be off limits and each individual would be given the opportunity to learn about and experience what each job would entail. No one would be forced to do anything that did not suit or fit with the individual's personality and talents. Soon they too would find their place and begin a life of their own with all the tools and support needed to help them on their way.

A woman who prefers to have children later in life would do so, but children born to younger women in the fullness of their fertility would be biologically preferable to the dangers to mother and fetus later in life. All possibilities would be explored for older and younger women who are still fertile. There would be no need to wait until they could afford children because there is no money involved and no need to make money. Builders would build houses and people would move into the houses that suited them best. Houses wouldn't be a status symbol or a function of caste or class, just a place to live, and all tastes and all designs would be accommodated.

It will take at least a generation or two to find and settle into the new world, and there would be growing pains, but eventually humanity will find a way. Humanity is adaptable and resilient and a world full of possibilities and hope will make the transition easier. We will find our way and the world will be better for it.

I look forward to the new world where there is enough for all and everyone has a place that is safe and comfortable where people are happier and more fulfilled.

That is all. Disperse.

Planet X Rising

Planet X, Nibiru, whatever it is being called these days is visible in the skies and has been since December 2015. So much for hiding the truth. It's easy to call the people who believe in Nibiru, Planet X, whatever crackpots and lunatics or religious fanatics, but when the evidence is visible in the skies and being reported -- finally -- on mainstream news, and not just Fox TV, the crackpot angle crumbles.

No, Nibiru is not going to crash into the Earth. No, it will not destroy us or our solar system because it has been rising every 3600 years or so for hundred of thousands of years, sometimes with actual people living and breathing on the surface before and after it comes into a solar system. It is doubtful its effects would devastate the planet since it has come and gone so many times before.

The planet is visible because it is within the solar system, but not close enough to loom over us or blot out the sun. It is being called a brown dwarf star, but that would, as far as we poor average people are concerned, not be possible. Living on a star? Even a brown dwarf star? Wouldn't that be too hot? No uninhabitable? We don't know because we know less than the average 10-year old kid just beginning his scientific journey.

Basically, a brown dwarf is a failed star, a star unable to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion and are about 10-100 times the size of Jupiter. No, Jupiter is not a brown dwarf, just a gas giant. A brown dwarf would be at least 10x the size of Jupiter and pretty hot. The planet that is now visible (Nibiru) is only 5-10x the size of Earth, so not a brown dwarf as some news sources are calling it. It's a planet, one bigger than Earth and dimmer than the sun, but not a brown dwarf. It is not nor ever has been a star, not with people living on it according to what has been written about Nibiru.

I guess it's easier to call it a brown dwarf and speculate about its collision with Earth and our ELE (extinction level event, our looming demise) to spark up the news, but more disinformation after 40 years of lies is not helpful.

The planet was first seen on infrared telescope (IRAS) in the 1980s and likely farther back than that (~1970s) and President Reagan, and likely a couple of presidents before Reagan, knew about it. Guessing from the more recent news about gold reserves and covert Black Ops projects in the government, that was probably when Nixon took the USA off the gold standard and gold reserves went missing. Suggests the possibility that Goldfinger actually got control of the nation's gold reserves at Fort Knox after all, though it wasn't by turning the entire gold reserve radioactive or by trucking the gold bars out of the vaults. It was likely far more mundane, moving the gold to secure underground bunkers or facilities. Whether that was to protect the gold or just hide it away for future use in case of a disaster is unknown.

At any rate, about 40 or so years ago, the US government became aware of a planet 5-10 times the size of Earth hurtling toward the center of the solar system just like the stone and clay tablets said. There had always been stories of a Destroyer and the attendant fear of comets and other objects in the sky proclaiming danger and a time of weeping and gnashing of teeth. I guess they read a different version of events than I did, and it is certain the media is way off base about the danger. At least the danger of destruction and devastation.

Nibiru, or Planet X, have been regularly visiting this solar system across the ecliptic since before the Earth was flung into its current position between Venus and Mars. The planet has been visiting our remote neck of the universe's woods for hundreds of thousands of years, and more likely billions of years. Now, the sightings bring a mixture of fear from the general population -- and those that listen to and read the media -- and celebration for those who have believed in and studied the ancient documents about the Planet of the Crossing (that is what Nibiru means - Planet of the Crossing). This is what Sitchin wrote about and what Obama and the environmental fear mongers have been mistaking for cow farts and man made climate change. This is the reason for the changes and upheaveals in the weather and the earthquakes and the warming temperatures and likely the drop in water table levels in the Middle East. It has always been the reason and the cause for all the shifts because as the planet nears us off the beaten track in the back of the universe's beyond its considerable size and gravitational forces (mass) is pulling harder on Earth and shaking things up, hence the historical claims of the Great Red Dragon and Wormwood and Nemesis warning us of danger. It's gravitational effects are responsible for the Great Flood at the end of the last Ice Age that sent Noah and his small family to gather up pairs of animals and herd them into a big black box to weather the coming storm and survive the flood until the water receded sufficiently to step back onto the Earth.

According to the story in the Bible, God saved Noah and his little family because Noah was a righteous man beloved of God and saved while the rest of the planet drowned. Not so. It's a pretty story, but not accurate.

God, at least the Commander of Planet Earth, Enlil, knew of the coming flood because Nibiru was nearing and because the ice sheet over Antarctica was resting on slushy ground. Nibiru's gravitational pull would provide the force necessary to dislodge the ice sheet all at once and sent it into the surrounding ocean that would create a tidal wave that would engulf the planet, or at least most of the planet, and certainly every habitation in the Middle Eastern region around the Mediterranean and everywhere there were settlements of people. Enlil considered the people far too noisy rather like a cranky old lady in a neighborhood surrounded by families with small children complaining that the kids were too loud as they played ball and went about their kid activities while she was trying to enjoy the quiet when school was out. Probably why school was invented as a place to send noisy children so the neighborhood would be quiet during the day -- at least until late afternoon when they got out of school.

Enlil complained about the noise and about the sin. The sin amounted to the men in his command and from his planet taking the women as wives and sex partners instead of sticking to their own kind. Since females from their own planet were not as numerous as the men, it is no wonder the men began looking at the human females with sex on their minds. Some of the men took the human females as wives and married them. Fornicating with them was one thing, but marrying them? Think of how that went down in the South when white men fornicated with and married black slaves.

Enlil wanted to stop the men from sinning and get rid of the clamor of human voices and ordered his brother, Enki, not to tell anyone that the world was going to be destroyed by flood. Enki was fond of the humans since he was the reason they existed. He helped create them and some of the humans were his own offspring. Enki was one of Enlil's kind who had a problem with keeping it in his pants and often had sex with the humans who ended up having babies and raising them. Unlike foreign soldiers in distant lands, he knew which of the humans were his own offspring and cared what happened to them. He wasn't about to leave them to perish in the flood.

Since he had promised his brother, the Command of the Planet, not to tell the humans about the coming flood, he devised a way to tell them without telling them directly. He stood outside Ziusudra's chamber in the night (we call him Noah) and told the wall what was coming. He even provided plans for how to build the ark that would save Ziusudra and his family and some of his relatives. Enki also provided a protected container of DNA (seeds) from plants and animals that would also perish in the flood.

When Enlil and his people left the planet, he expected to watch the flood from space and return when the land was dry enough to walk upon. I would bet Enlil watched through the view ports at the beginning of the flood and checked it once in a while, or just listened to the reports from his science officers, while he waited out the flood. Imagine his shock and surprise when they came back to the planet to find there were noisy humans roasting meat on the spit and planting gardens for food. They were fishing and building temporary shelters and making more noise because they were glad to be alive. Enlil had not gotten rid of the noisy humans and was not happy as his people mingled with the humans and rejoiced over finding some of their friends and lovers among the group.

Who told? Enki, of course. He and Ninharsag, the doctor and geneticist who helped give life to the humans, were glad the humans had been saved from the flood and were probably happy that they wouldn't have to eat ship's rations. With the smell of roasting meat and fish and vegetables cooking over the fire, Enki confessed what he had done. Enlil wasn't happy since the objects of sin were still alive and his people taking advantage of their sojourn in space, but he would promise not to destroy the world by flood again.

Nibiru rising before the sun, Hawaii 2016

It would take a worldwide ice age to create the circumstances that led to the first Great Flood, so that was an easy promise to make, especially since he really had no control over how Nibiru's crossing would affect the planet. It was a no-brainer as we would say.

Just like Enlil's plan to rid himself and this planet of the noisy humans, it has been our government's plan to save the wealthy and the politicians when Nibiru crosses into our solar system again. They have been planning for the intrusion for about 40 years. Most people will end up like those outside of Noah, or Ziusudra's ark when the Great Flood began -- outside the underground shelters. Some will die along the coasts and the Mississippi River as earthquakes change the landscape and tsunamis from underwater volcanic eruptions and earthquakes and Nibiru's gravitational forces shake things up. The rest will be safe farther inland and in the mountains.

The rationale is that there will be less panic and fewer economic dangers if the people don't know and continue to live in coastal areas and along the Mississippi when Nibiru gets close enough to be noticed by the man on the ground. Better they don't begin stampeding away from the coastal regions and overload the resources and the land in the interior. Besides, what's the death of a few million people? Life is hard and there will be natural disasters. That's life. C'est la vie.

Besides, no need to leave the country open to attack along the coast when the people move to a safer place inland or in the mountains. It's for the best.

Instead, let's blame the visible effects of Planet X's gravity on global warming. We can blame the wars and the marauding Muslims raping and murdering and pillaging across the planet on manmade climate change. We can blame the earthquakes on fracking and man raping the resources. Let's get rid of a few of the sinners with some well placed propaganda and get the people fighting each other over resources and who is causing or not causing global warming. Keep them busy enough and they won't need to know until Planet X is blotting out the sun for a few days or a couple dozen hours. By then, it will be too late. The important people will be safe and the rest will have to fend for themselves. You know, God's will and all.

By now, you're probably convinced I'm a religious nut or worse yet -- a conspiracy nut, but a nut all the same. Denying man made global warming? Believing the US government has been hiding gold and building underground shelters while planning to leave the rest of the planet to die? I must be drinking some seriously toxic Kool-Aid. Don't look me directly in the eyes or I'll cast my spell over you too.

Obama has not been around 40 years mucking things up. He came in on the tail end of this latest debacle. He's making use of the facts, twisting them, and forcing people to do things his way. None of what he is doing has any basis in fact, scientific or any other kind of fact.

This planet is beginning to see and feel the results of Planet X's gravitational pull. It is the result of the tug-of-war between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Yes, the Earth moves, but Planet X is an unstoppable force that has been coming our way for a few billion years and we are still here. We bear the scars of the encounters, but humans have lived through these encounters before and we are still here. Earth will not be destroyed, although the tidal/gravitational forces have been affecting the people and the planet, hence the warnings of Wormwood and Nemesis and The Great Red Dragon in the sky. You know how writers of religious warnings are. They love hyperbole and poetic renderings that are supposed to stick in the mind while the rest of the people guess at and make up mythologies to explain away the details.

Planet X is coming and is in the neighborhood and will be for some time to come like relatives showing up on the doorstep that have come to visit and plan to stay for a while. It will take longer than 3 days for this kettle of fish to begin to stink and will take a while to wash out of the sheets and the stink is long gone. We can see Planet X in the day time and before the rising of the sun. We could see Halley's comet clearly day and night, although better at night, and it was never in danger of crashing on Earth and taking out the human race. Planet X will come and will go and will come and go again in 3600 years.

And that is what bothers me. The last time Planet X arrived and left was about 600 B.C.E. Even using the kind of government math that results in trillion-dollar federal deficits, depleted Social Security funds, and maps where an inch equal 100 miles, the 3600 years have not yet passed. We have about a thousand years to go, which brings me to another point: the defeat of Satan after the Second Coming and his imprisonment for 1000 years. Until later...

That is all. Disperse.

I Believe

As we grow up and reach puberty the world opens up and everything becomes possible. With youth comes the belief that a world where everyone has enough and money is not an issue. It's a simple formula. Everything that needs to exist or can exist needs only vision and workers. No one needs to be a slave because we are all together. We are all humanity together.

It isn't until we come face to face with bureaucracy and costs and the brick wall of the haves and have nots that the terrible truth sinks in that the cost is higher than imagined. Politicians learn this lesson quickly and they compromise faster than a drugged out whore needing money for a fix. Down to their knees they go. Let the bargaining begin.

Some politicians decide to try another path. They will compromise but only long enough to get enough power and money and backing to force the system to its knees where they are in charge and all others must obey. Take that!

Instead of fixing the system or finding a way to eradicate the system so the utopian dream becomes reality, other paths call to us and like a fat wo/man every method - new or old or simply reworked - promises the end result of the perfect body and no more problems with weight loss. The dream of building and living in Utopia is the siren call that ends with dead dreams, anger, frustration, and the descent into madness and compromise.

Some find solace and a safe place in writing and reading books set on fantastic worlds and universes where Utopia becomes possible again. It's all an escape. If we can't have it in our own reality we will find a reality where it exists and to hell with the world where roses have thorns and carry poison in its glorious aroma.

And then there are drugs, the ultimate escapism. Sex falls into that realm.

The point is that Utopia is real and it is obtainable, but first we must throw off the masters enslaving us with bureaucracy, broken promises, and the ultimate carrot on a stick -- wealth.

Driving around the country I have seen vast fields where a house sits abandoned, windows broken, and the detritus of years of abandonment piled up in the corners and empty rooms where drifts, hoboes, and transients squatted for an hour or a day or a few weeks. A way station on the road to nowhere from nowhere in particular. I often thought that the empty house was a waste left to rot and return to the earth from whence it came. Why not let whoever want to maintain the house live there? Who would it hurt? So what if they planted a garden or harvested a few bushels of food from the land (although one might consider not doing that since Monsanto and various poisons meant to help plants grow and kill weeds and vermin were likely used and every bushel comes with a death sentence) and live happily in peace. Water and electricity could be provided, the water by a well and the electricity to run the pump to move the water could be provided by tapping into the utility poles and taking what one needs. Solar panels could provide electricity too. The house wouldn't rot and return to the earth and the rooms would be filled with people living their lives instead of providing a place to shoot up and tune out.

Is it really all that difficult to create a society where no one has to steal from anyone else to live? The wealthy would not have to give up their wealth because there would be no banks and no coins and no money exchanged anywhere. Buildings would still be planned and go up. Services like phones, power, water, food, clothing, and everything else needed would still be available. People would still work and do what they did before the need for money was tied to the stick as the carrot to motivate people to keep moving forward. No one would enslave anyone else and doctors and medicine and professionals of every stripe and class would continue to do what they chose to do. The only thing we wouldn't have is a master -- anywhere.

It wouldn't be like an all-you-can-eat buffet where people eat too much to take advantage of the deal because it doesn't last. In a world where everyone has enough it wouldn't be necessary to take more than you need because you might not ever have the chance again.

I had watched a movie where people could go into huge warehouses and take what they needed without checking out or paying anything. Walk in. Get what you want and need. Walk out. The inventory would be replenished and more would be available for the next person(s). The goods would still be manufactured and distributed and taken and the engine of the world would continue to work. People would still sweep the floors, stock the shelves, and remove the products from the shipping containers, disposing of the packaging. Food would not be wasted. People would continue to work. People would continue to pick up what they needed and garbage men would dispose of the trash. No one would need to advertise their product over anyone else's product. Quality would be maintained and no bureaucracy would need to exist to make sure no one tampered with things. Less waste would need to be disposed of because no more advertising or fancy packaging would exist. The world would be simple. People would still go into every kind of business from building and sewer and garbage to preparing and producing food. Once there was no need to compete for money and the only goal is making the product or service the best it can be, there would be no need for bureaucracies or people deciding what does and does not need to be done. The only competition would be within ourselves.

Builders would build houses. Resources would be provided to build the houses. Workers with the special skills needed to build the houses would still show up to work. People would show up to move into the house and movers would help them move. Those who wished to keep house, scrub floors, take care of children, babysit, plan parties, and everything else would be available to do the work because there are those who choose that form of work, not for a paycheck but because it is how they want to participate. There is a job for everyone and everyone gets a job. There is room for people to try different jobs until they find the job that fits.

Philosophers and artists and artisans and protectors would still exist because people would still need guidance and help with figuring things out. Nothing would change except greed and shaming and bullying. None of that would be needed. Admittedly, it would take time to get to the point where the nastier facets of personality would fade and disappear, but it's worth working through to get to a better place.

It seems naive, but it's really a simple way of life. Some people would take advantage at first as they learned that their struggles and fight to have everything would diminish with time. It isn't necessary to gather up everything when so much less is needed. So what if you don't have the latest model car or boat or plane or clothes when what you get is the best that can be made and manufactured? When there is no need to hedge the bets and cut corners to lower costs since there is no cost, the need to get the best deal fades with time because every deal is the best. Made by the best. Offered to everyone without restriction and made to last.

There would be no need for socialism or governments stealing from the rich to give to the poor because there would be no poor. Everything is available to everyone without restriction. Without cost. It would be Star Trek without replicator technology. Everything possible is made possible by someone with a dream and someone willing to make it happen.

That is the world we all want to live in an its the world we dreamed of when we were younger before we sold out or were forced to realize that even a piece of a dream will cost our souls and our integrity because compromise and money are the name of the game. I don't know about you, but I would prefer the world wake up and realize it is within our reach as soon as we decide that money is not the obstacle. What stands in our way is learning to cooperate. Not compromise, but cooperate so each person can have their dream and help someone else have theirs. When no one loses, there is no longer any need to step on anyone else to get ahead.

That is all. Disperse.

Of Mice and Men

While checking stats on my blog I noticed that I get a lot of traffic from Russia which reminded me of something a Russian told me. "You write like John Steinbeck. He's very popular in Russia." At the time it seemed appropos of nothing. I admire Steinbeck and have read most of his books, even some of the lesser known books. Steinbeck wrote about the everyman from people displaced from the once fertile middle of the USA that became the Dust Bowl and spawned black hurricanes and a black death unlike anything that came out of the coal mines to privileged brothers brought up by their father when their mother ran off and either became a whore or returned to prostitution, and wealthy in her own right. East of Eden was Steinbeck's version of Cain and Abel and very effective, stirring up quite a brouhaha because of the sex and violence and shattering of middle class morals.

As I looked for a picture of Steinbeck I was arrested by the way he reminded me of Ward Bond, a famous actor that starred in several movies directed by John Ford and a close friend of Marion Michael Morrison AKA John Wayne. Bond left Wayne his shotgun in his will.

Looking for photos of Ward Bond made me aware of something I didn't realize growing up. He purses his lips a lot, rather like Betty Boop or some pinup girl but with a rougher, tougher, more masculine purse. (No, I do NOT mean a man purse. A manly purse -- of the lips.) 

I could not find a good photo of Bond with a mustache, but the similarity is obvious -- at least to me. Steinbeck was rough and tough without the pursed lips. Bond and Steinbeck were contemporaries and were some of my idols growing up.

It's flattering to be compared to Steinbeck, even from Russians. I do like his clear, straight forward prose and the way he handles writing. I even enjoy his form of rabble rousing and the thread of brutal truth that runs through his stories. You don't get much more brutal than a mentally retarded behemoth who likes to kill rabbits guided by a much smarter and smaller man that keeps his feeble friend out of the worst of trouble while they drift from place to place eking out enough to live on during the Great Depression. Of Mice and Men was a subtle and brutal picture that could almost happen nowadays, except without the gloss and glitter of technology in the background. Life for drifters and bums and alcoholics and the detritus of society was lived in a more rural landscape and often far away from the concrete alleys of Skid Row and downtown New York City before Giuliani got rid of the homeless -- or at least off the streets.

Every society has its homeless, people who can't or won't fit in, feeble-minded no one wants to take care of (not even the state), addicts and alcoholics, and the budding serial killer or soul drawn to the gritty reality of taking life, be it animal or human. It's in the DNA and probably bred in the bone by some outside force of the ever spinning roulette wheel of genetic legacy. We were not all born to be peas in Mendel's garden -- or the unfortunate souls caught up in Mengele's grasp.  Steinbeck saw it all and carved out his landscapes and people them with those from different walks of life in all their brutal and angelic and commonplace glory.

When I think of Steinbeck I remember something his wife said about the look he got in his eyes sometimes when he stared at her. It was a 50-mile stare where he didn't seem to see her except as a character in one of his books. She said she felt like he was dissecting her and putting her back togeter in very different ways, memorizing looks and gestures, and not seeing her at all except as a tool for his books. Most writers get that look and it usually means something is beginning to boil to the top of the stew constantly fermenting in the mind. I'm sure I have it, though I try to be more circumspect when vivisecting people for stories or remembering them to jot down later in my paper journals where I can sprawl and conjecture and let off the brakes of grammar and rules and styles just to let the words flow from an oft opened vein. I've always been that way so it wouldn't do to quantify my habits because they are as much a part of me as the color of my eyes and thick ankles. They are born in the bone.

Even though Ward Bond pursed his lips to appear however he wanted to appear or give in to the tics and twitches so few of us are aware of or feed the mirror the latest look in progress, I still see him as the everyman, a tool for writers to guide and use to give life to their words. Whether he was a wagon train master or a village priest hip deep in the rushing waters of a stream hunting trout, he was -- and is -- the kind of man I grew up believing was the norm. John Steinbeck put the words in Bond's and other actors' mouths and fashioned a window for the everyman to see himself at his best and worst, vulnerable and unguarded, and for that I am indeed flattered to be seen in his shadow and reaching someone out among the masses fashioning new windows.

That is all. Disperse.