Movie Quality

No, this isn't a post about Charlton Heston or Ben-Hur or even Cecil B. de Mille. It is about being ready for his closeup to borrow a line from Sunset Strip and Gloria Swanson when she, as Norma Desmond, wild-eyed and dressed for her closeup, she asked de Mille if it was time for her to step to her spot camera ready and begin her scene.

This time, de Mille is dead, as is Charlton Heston, and Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A tale of the Christ, is once again at the heart of the above photo. The actor whose face you cannot see is Claude Heater who portrayed Jesus in William Wyler's version of Ben Hur, which was the second remake of deMille's movie based on Lew Wallace's book and starring Charlton Heston as Judah ben Hur. The point of all of this back story is the real star of the show who was created whole cloth 2000 years ago as a fictionalized character based on the many Jewish rabbis speaking out against the Roman occupation of Israel, then called Palestine. This character in the longest running propaganda scam, this Jesus ben Joseph, also known as Yeshua ben Yoseph, and star of the annual Christmas tradition, was never a person and no one will ever find his tomb or his home or anyone who knew him because he never existed, except in the minds of the Hebrew scholars and friends of the Flavians concocting this fiction to foment peace for the Romans and to force the Hebrew using their own devices and literary tricks against them. Part of the scam was to direct the monotheistic Hebrews to do what they would never do voluntarily -- it was against the dictates of their religion -- worship the son of man -- in this case, Titus Flavius, Roman Emperor who was elevated to godhood under the Roman Imperial Cult alongside all the caesars since Julius, likely due to his relationship with Cleopatra Queen of Egypt where all the pharaohs were born gods. The Egyptian people were long accustomed to worship of their rulers, but not so the Romans and definitely not the monotheistic and militant Hebrews still fighting for autonomy and rule over their own land, their own people, and their own beliefs.

The Romans would accept a statue of the current caesar in a temple where he would be worshiped without a second thought and would sacrifice and pray to the god/caesar as they prayed to the gods of their choice to intercede on their behalf and in their favor. The Romans were polytheistic and adopted the gods of whatever people they conquered and subjugated, making room for them all, as they would have done for the Hebrews had they any statues or representations of their invisible god. That was not possible as anyone in recent memory who has seen The Ten Commandments, also directed by Cecil B. deMille several times, and with Charlton Heston portraying Moses in the penultimate version as the Hebrew Moses cast onto the waters of the Nile in a basket by his mother, Naomi, when pharaoh decreed that all newborn male infants were to be massacred. Naomi was lucky in that the pharaoh's sister found the basket and the child, drew it from the water, named him Moses because she drew him from the water, and made him her son, ordering her nurse never to tell anyone of Moses's true origins. She raised him as her son beside her brother's son where Moses was educated and surpassed his cousin at every turn until the nurse told Ramses that Moses was a Hebrew, a slave, who was saved from pharaoh's edict and raised as a member of the royal family. Moses story from here is known by all, not only because they have seen the movie, The Ten Commandments, but also in Sunday school if they were raised Christian and by the world because Moses has become as legendary as Jesus.

It is no accident nor is it providence that some elements of the story of Moses are the same as the story of Jesus. It was written that way using a device known as typology wherein certain elements of stories with the history of the Hebrew people are used to create a bond, a sort of resonance, between people within the history. The story of Jesus and his birth resonate with the story of Moses beginning with the massacre of the innocents at birth. Moses was chosen by the invisible god to lead the people out of bondage just as Jesus was chosen by the invisible god to lead the Hebrews to ultimate salvation and peace by following the his example of rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's. The entire New Testament, including the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, using the literary examples of the Hebrews to mirror their own literary tricks to fulfill what they already believed and waited for -- a military messiah to conquer Rome and end their subjugation to the Romans -- was created by the Flavians to fulfill that purpose. With what we know from our modern experiences, the propaganda has worked for two millennia, gathering believers and giving Titus Caesar what he was determined to have -- the people worshiping him as God, the son of a God (Vespasian Caesar), the son of man, the son leading all worshipers for two thousand years to a heaven envisioned by Titus and created by his own followers, among them Flavius Josephus the adopted son of Vespasian, head of the Flavian family, and a Hebrew historian, a chronicler of the times. All it took was Constantine Augustus (Constantine the Great) emperor of Rome who famously claimed to see a burning cross in the sky and determining that Rome would conquer by the cross; Christians would be the way to further Rome's territory and spread. Since the Flavians had already given the nod to Christians, the followers of Jesus's teachings, the cross was indeed the way to spread the Roman empire throughout the world. It was during the Council of Nicaea when he gathered the extant Christian writings into what is now known as the Bible, Old and New Testaments, codifying the holy book of the Christian religion and making it legal in Rome's eyes and in the eyes of the world. Constantine also ended the persecution of Christians and gave them the Roman stamp of approval as pontifex maximus. Christianity became the state religion and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church was modeled on the Roman model.

One could say that the Rome never fell as it is described in the histories of that time, that it morphed into the Roman Catholic Church, a religion and an empire that continues to exist to this day. That is a very long time to reign over the hearts and minds of mankind, especially since the literary fiction of Jesus Christ continues to reign over all who would believe.

It is Constantine's mother, Helena, who journeyed through Syria and Palestine and pointed out all the places where Jesus preached and lived and was born. The long awaited second coming has already come and gone just as Jesus prophesied when Titus razed the Temple in Jerusalem and looted all within the temple, taking it back to Rome and placing it all on display. It doesn't take much imagination to realize that all of those artifacts (booty) are hidden in the underground vaults beneath the Vatican. The only writings that survive from the time of the Flavians, outside of their own propaganda, are contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls that have since been translated and circulated since their discovery. It is interesting to note that the scrolls are full of hatred of the Romans and nothing about the fulfillment of prophecy with Jesus's coming. There is nothing about Jesus's crucifixion or his death and resurrection just as no one mentions that in the early Roman churches in the basement was an altar for the worship of Mithras, the god who was born of a virgin in midwinter, and whose religion was the basis for Christianity, a religion Constantine celebrated and of which he was an initiate until his death. It may be because he was a believer of Mithras until his deathbed that the "11th hour conversion" was allowed by believers.

The average Christian knows none of this, although much of this is available through Joseph Atwill's book, Caesar's Messiah, the proof and the book that Atwill sat on for some time before allowing it to be published.  I still haven't finished the book as I began reading it yesterday, but I have watched Atwill's interviews and the documentary based on his findings. I spent most of the night writing much of this in my head instead of sleeping, although, except for the Flavian elements, much of this I have known from my own research and belief that all man-made religions are false and do not demonstrate anything about the actual Cosmic Creator of All. All man-made religions are created by men, perpetuated by men, and supported by women even though women have been most harmed and marginalized by these man-made beliefs since the first man decided that the goddess needed to be put in her place and a man placed in full charge. No matter what is said about God being a woman, God is now and has always been male and, until recent memory in historical times, HE ruled without a female consort.

As an atheist who believes finally in the Cosmic Creator of All (the ONE) who defies description and cannot be fashioned into an idol of stone, plaster, or any material. The ONE is beyond our understanding and does not set down laws and lists of dos and don'ts for us to follow. The ONE does not count sins and does not send us to Heaven or Paradise, Purgatory, or Hell, all of which are Roman creations and fed to us to fill their coffers with treasure. The ONE has no need of such things and I still believe what I heard and have oft repeated as a Minbari belief that we humanoid beings are extensions of the Universe (the ONE) trying to figure itself out. We are the cosmic probes sent into the void to experience all that is possible and send the data back to the ONE. The rest is a man-made understanding based on limited understanding of our role in this symbiotic exchange and religion, which I once thought was declared sacred to protect knowledge, is a tool wielded by those in power to manage those not in power in order to amass treasure and control and has nothing to do with Divine Knowledge imparted to us puny humans.

Until we die and merge once again with the ONE, we do not understand anything, much like Jon Snow to whom Ygritte said, "You know nothing, Jon Snow," because we know nothing. Like all probes, we gather knowledge and experience and take it back to our creator to download all we have learned where it will be collected, collated, and held. If we would wish to know more, we must learn more and that is best done by increasing our knowledge through experience and research (reading) and by not getting caught up in the politics and religions that abound.

In the end, Jesus Christ (meaning savior messiah) never existed as a man. He was not born in a stable nor was he visited by three wise men from the east (read the books and information on Orion's belt, Mithras, sun gods, Flavian emperors, Hebrew typology, and Flavius Josephus for starters) and given gold, frankincense, and myrrh nor did he grow up to be a carpenter or preach to the Jewish masses with the beatitudes as his text, feed the thousands with three loaves of bread and a fish, raise Lazarus from the dead, consort with Mary Magdalene, have twelve disciples, one of whom betrayed him to the Roman soldiers, was tried by the pharisees or the sadducees, had Pilate wash his hands of proclaiming sentence so the Jews had to condemn him to be crucified on a cross, laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, rose from the dead after three days,had his disciple Thomas doubt his existence, strike Paul blind on the road to Damascus, or call Peter the rock upon which his church would be be built and become the first pontifex maximus from which all popes have descended to become supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church for which so many have died and fought for and gone on crusades all in the name of the son of god. It is all a literary fiction, a propaganda tool the Flavians used against the Jews in the name of Rome, a satire of Jewish beliefs, in order to master the Jews at last.or call Peter the rock upon which his church would be be built and become the first pontifex maximus from which all popes have descended to become supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church for which so many have died and fought for and gone on crusades all in the name of the son of god. It is all a literary fiction, a propaganda tool the Flavians used against the Jews in the name of Rome, a satire of Jewish beliefs, in order to master the Jews at last.or call Peter the rock upon which his church would be be built and become the first pontifex maximus from which all popes have descended to become supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church for which so many have died and fought for and gone on crusades all in the name of the son of god. It is all a literary fiction, a propaganda tool the Flavians used against the Jews in the name of Rome, a satire of Jewish beliefs, in order to master the Jews at last.

The demonization of the Jews is as groundless as the fiction of Jesus and the embodiment of all he stood for and died for because none of it was ever real. There was never a black Jesus because there never was a Jesus of any race or color. His virgin mother never existed just as Mithras's virgin mother never existed except in mythos of his origins. The northerners who found the resemblance of Jesus to Odin were rightfully confused because Odin and Jesus were born of the same human imagination, just from imaginations of people living in different climates and times but eating from the communal trough. All the wars that have been fought, all the people martyred, all the treasure looted and hidden are all part and parcel of mankind's nature ascribed to some omnipotent deity that exists only in the mind and as substantial as the lost city of Cecil B. deMille built to provide background for the movies he would make based on stories that enchanted and entertained him and millions of others on the screen. A movie made for us by us and lasting as long as there are those to remember. Jesus has provided more dreamers and writers more material for two thousand years and will likely do so as long as there are people who refuse to grow up and walk out of the play yard to become masters of their own lives and destinies from now until they die and return back to the ONE enlightened or clueless until the penny drops and they merge with their creator and download their data.deMille built to provide background for the movies he would make based on stories that enchanted and entertained him and millions of others on the screen. A movie made for us by us and lasting as long as there are those to remember. Jesus has provided more dreamers and writers more material for two thousand years and will likely do so as long as there are people who refuse to grow up and walk out of the play yard to become masters of their own lives and destinies from now until they die and return back to the ONE enlightened or clueless until the penny drops and they merge with their creator and download their data.deMille built to provide background for the movies he would make based on stories that enchanted and entertained him and millions of others on the screen. A movie made for us by us and lasting as long as there are those to remember. Jesus has provided more dreamers and writers more material for two thousand years and will likely do so as long as there are people who refuse to grow up and walk out of the play yard to become masters of their own lives and destinies from now until they die and return back to the ONE enlightened or clueless until the penny drops and they merge with their creator and download their data.Jesus has provided more dreamers and writers more material for two thousand years and will likely do so as long as there are people who refuse to grow up and walk out of the play yard to become masters of their own lives and destinies from now until they die and return back to the ONE enlightened or clueless until the penny drops and they merge with their creator and download their data.Jesus has provided more dreamers and writers more material for two thousand years and will likely do so as long as there are people who refuse to grow up and walk out of the play yard to become masters of their own lives and destinies from now until they die and return back to the ONE enlightened or clueless until the penny drops and they merge with their creator and download their data.

At least il puce de Ben-Hur didn't infect the villa where Heston and his family stayed since it was as fictitious as Jesus Christ's nativity and crucifixion, except in the Italian tabloids where all such fictions are give space and ink.

That is all. Disperse.

The Chameleon Effect

The eye has it.

Chameleons blend in with their surroundings to protect themselves against predators. Geckos and other insects and animals camouflage themselves for protection as well as stealth. The military industrial complex has adopted similar methods of hiding their weapons, transport, and some would say ideology. Any successful predator learns how to disguise intent, goals, and methods and replicates success without being affected by anyone and anything. In order to understand these human chameleons one must learn to think like them without being caught up in their ideology in order to defeat them. Such is the case with Muslims.

The problem is that understanding Muslims has nothing to do with accepting the belief that most Muslims are peaceful and just want to get along, to be a part of their community or country, and are not bent on destruction and sublimation of their adopted culture. That is wrong-headed thinking. To believe so is to fall into the trap of the chameleon effect. Muslims who have turned their backs on Islam and repudiated Mohammed's teachings will say the same thing. Reformed Muslims will tell say that Islam can be modified from within and can be reformed. They are lying to themselves and to everyone around them. There is only one god and that is Allah. To say anything else is part of the camouflage. It is hiding from themselves and from the rest of the world because the goal of Islam is to convert or kill. There is no other option.

I say this with sadness and not a small degree of remorse. Remorse because writing off an entire group of people goes against my grain. I am adaptable. I am willing to give unbelievers space and time to come around to my way of thinking and they are welcome to dispute and ignore my beliefs without fatal repercussions. I cannot do this with followers of Islam because I now understand how Islam works. It is in their five times daily prayers: There is only one god and that god is Allah. There is only one belief and that belief is that Allah is the all, the creator of the universe, the creator of all who exist in the universe. There is only Allah.

The world I grew up in and in which I live is malleable and changes from moment to moment. Islam is not malleable and does not change. There is no god but Allah and Allah is all. Muslim tactics have changed, but the words have not changed except as they changed in Mohammed's mind and in his practice. The Quran states that the first writings of Mohammed, the sutras of the Quran, are superseded by the later writings (teachings). As Mohammed changed, so changed his writings, his understanding, and his practices, but now codified in the Quran nothing else may be changed. Allah must be obeyed and his teachings are not to be changed not in any manner, not, as the Hebrews state, by one jot or tittle. It is the same for the Torah. When Hebrews copy the Torah, one small error means the whole will be destroyed. A jot or a tittle out of place and the whole Torah must be destroyed. There is no room for error. In that the Quran is the same as the Torah; nothing must be changed.

Hebrews, or Jews as they are currently called, make new copies of the Torah in the same way old copies of the Torah were made, by copying exactly what was originally written without a single error. The Torah is copied with mindful prayer and obedience to G_d and without error. Muslims, also called Mohammedans, Moslems, and other iterations, believe and practice the same with their reproduction, copying, of the Quran. No error is tolerated or allowed and mistakes are burned. There is only one god and that god is Allah and Mohammed is his prophet whose writings are sacred. Followers of Allah need no other books. All that is necessary for life is found in the Quran. Nothing else is needed or allowed. A faithful follower of Allah learns the Quran, committing all its sutras (lessons) to memory so that if the book is destroyed, Allah's words will remain in the heart and mind of believers. If all books are destroyed, only Allah's words will remain written on the hearts and minds of believers. All who believe in Allah and practice his teachings will be rewarded; all others will be destroyed until only Allah remains.

Judaism has changed through the centuries since its teachings were codified by Moses in the Torah, but the Torah has not changed. The same is true of Islam and the Quran. What has changed is Man. Man/humanity has evolved and adapted with the times. Islam has not adapted and has not changed. The goals of Islam are as they were when Islam emerged into existed in the 6th century: to convert all on this planet to Islam and to worship and belief of Allah. Nothing else matters.

As I've said before, taqiyya is an honored practice. Lying and camouflage are part and parcel of the practice and belief system of Islam. A true believer may say whatever is needed as long as the end result is Allah is the only god and all who believe in Allah remain. Islam is the quintessential proof that the ends do indeed justify the means. As long as Allah is the god of all and all believe, everything else can pass away because Allah is god and the only god is Allah. To believe otherwise is allowed for followers of Islam as long as the keep Allah in their hearts. Whatever a true believer says or does is permissible as long as the end result is to convert the nonbeliever to Allah. An apostate, a believer who repudiates Allah in heart and mind and turns against Allah, will be killed just as practicing homosexuals and Hebrews/Jews will be killed without mercy and without fail. In the end, there is no god but Allah.

To believe otherwise, to give Muslims the benefit of the doubt, to give them space and time to adapt, to believe that there is any god but Allah is to die forever, a chameleon unmasked, unprotected, and unwilling to continue living -- or to be a Hebrew/Jew. It is not xenophobia or intolerance, but wisdom to take Islam at its word that there is no god but Allah. To believe there can be peace between Israel and the followers of Islam is to court destruction. To believe that Allah will give space to Yahweh or Christians or anyone who does not follow Islam is folly.

That is all. Disperse.

Quick and Dirty

No time for adding a photo, although I'd like to (thanks, Ted, for that little embellishment), but I'm supposed to be working and researching and concentrating on so many other things. I just have this to say today.

The government, which is coming more under the control of the global elite, has been lying to the people. We, the people. Not just in the USA but in every country around the world. We thought we were free to choose our lives and our paths and many have emigrated to the USA because of those freedoms, but we have all been fooled.  We were never free. We only have the illusion of freedom. The only thing that has changed is that more of we, the people, are waking up (pardon the grammatical faux pas) and realizing that we do indeed living in the Matrix and are not in control of anything. The global elite want one thing, the same thing that the elite have wanted from the beginning of civilization -- elbow room without slaves mucking up the view. We are the slaves. 

The New World Order, a phrase that keeps popping up every few generations or years or eras, is not benevolent and it doesn't want peace, not if war and terrorism and destruction will keep the population numbers down. The elite don't want a compromise. They want total control. Why do you think they have fomented wars, steeped us in fear, and tried to finish us off by nurturing race wars and differences? 

Zero Population Growth was not enough because not everyone bought into the scheme to limit their number of children and then those pesky do-gooders and charities took the children exposed to the elements and brought them in to raise until some well to do do-gooder American or pampered Brit or cosseted and childless couple arrived to adopt the child and raise it on their own. Those do-gooders didn't know they were interfering in a global scheme to eradicate at least 95% of the population so there would be more room for the elite. Stupid slaves. Shouldn't have taught them to read and write and do math. Happens every time you let the slaves have a few perks and a little freedom. The only thing slaves are supposed to do is work until they die in pain and suffering and breed enough slaves to take their turn at the  and work until they die in pain and suffering while breeding the next generation of slaves. 

The slaves aren't supposed to live longer and better lives. That's more do-gooders throwing monkey wrenches into the works and now there are more slaves to get rid of and the numbers keep rising. The slaves are supposed to die. That is why wars were created to decrease the population. That is why viruses are created to eradicate wide swaths of the population. Wars and diseases work for a while, but those pesky buggers, the do-gooders and the slaves, rebound, breed even more, and take up so much space. We keep trying to evict them but, like roaches, they refuse to die -- at least die long enough to do any good. 

They dropped a nuclear bomb on Japan and now Japan is fuller than ever of people. Okay, the bomb left some disease behind, but not enough and there were not enough dead, so we guided the slaves to create newer and better and more devastating weapons of mass destruction. That isn't working either, not with this kumbayah attitude spread by the do-gooders. Pesky do-gooders like flies in the pristine ointment. 

The only answer was to whip up the jihadists with their penchant for killing everyone and taking trophy heads. Works well for a while, but then the jihadists take their own slaves or let some people off if they convert. Tell me how lasting a conversion is when the enemy converts under the threat of death. You get a few zealots and die-hard converts, but mostly you get lip service just like the Jews during the Spanish Inquisition; they converted and secretly continued practicing their Jewish beliefs. Mega-FAIL. 

And it is no different with converting to any belief. The conversion is strong when the converts' allegiance is new and then the converts begin to feel safe and sneak around practicing the beliefs of their childhood, the same beliefs they gave up. Time to cut the heads off all converts and have done with it. Converts will always return to the source of their beliefs, unless there is a conversion of the heart and that is seldom guaranteed. Not worth the effort to let them live. Better to kill them outright and have done. 

Allowing the enemy to pay a tax seems like a good idea, more money for the coffers, but the hassle isn't worth the rewards, especially when the pittance the enemy pays doesn't come close to equalling their taxes, and the enemy continues to work against us. Oh, we can sway a few, get them to commit crimes you wouldn't believe, encourage them to sacrifice their friends and colleagues and anyone who believes in them, but the sacrifices are never enough and the result is either a convert waiting for a chance to destroy the ruling elite, us, or a murderer who would sacrifice anyone to their greed for power and their belief that they will be saved from death and the fires of the hell we will unleash on this earth. Fools! Better to get rid of them, along with the rest of the slaves and converts and have done. 

We tried to limit your numbers by putting poisons in your foods, but that didn't work so well. You got fat on the poisons, developed a tolerance, and doctors kept you alive, if only marginally, while you suckled the government teat and bred even more slaves that would rather suck the government teat than do the work you were bred to do. Massive FAIL again. 

We have promoted wars, but someone always wins, and there are still so many combatants survive to breed or end up on the government dole for far too long. We have cooked up all kinds of fake viruses and PR campaigns composed of lies and fear to keep the slaves going the right way down the Highway to Hell, but those do-gooders always figure it out and, no matter how we destroy their livelihood and ruin their lives and their businesses, they keep coming back, they keep talking, they keep spreading the word so it is harder for the fake viruses and smear campaigns to work. The slaves keep slipping the noose and far too few will slip the noose even if we fake an alien invasion or the Second Coming of that Jesus do-gooder. The only plan that really works leaves nothing but scorched earth and, though we can scorch a lot of earth, our enemies will keep us from the Full Burn. 

Politics keeps the slaves occupied for a while but even when we get our own people in and line up another of the converts, someone (a lot of someones) always figures it out and we're back to the same convert problem. Our political stooges have a taste of power and the greedy converts want more, more for themselves, more for their families (hooray, more greedy converts), more for their friends, more, more, more. Or they leave a bloody trail so long and so wide and so hard to erase that their worth is far outweighed by their incompetence and greed. No matter how we rig things to work in our favor, we always end up at the same point -- wondering how to get rid of 95% of the slaves so we can have a peaceful and quietly productive life for ourselves without having to share the resources or our space. 

We haven't balked at poisoning the planet or the slaves because it's a sacrifice we are willing to make. We know the planet is not such a fragile thing even though we've told the slaves it is as fragile as a warm egg with a thin shell. Even there, the do-gooders did their best to prove our convert scientists and government stooges wrong -- and they did -- and the slaves people believed it mostly no matter how we discredited, demonized, ruined, and ridiculed the do-gooders. Slaves always listen and listening leads to doubt no matter how strongly the slave believes the lies and doubt leads to more listening and more doubt until before you know it almost no one believes. Look at government. How many of the slaves actually believe the government works for them any more? Not enough and only the slaves that are already sucking at the government dole; they'd believe anything as long as they can fill their greedy bellies on the dole. More converts and you know where that ends up. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL! 

Time is running out and we have not managed to solve the slave population problem and we have been at it for thousands of years. Never should have created the slaves in the first place. They have been nothing but a royal nuisance from the beginning. Too bad that Flood didn't work. Do-gooders getting in the way and saving the nasty little buggers. Yes, even among the elite, there are do-gooders, but we have to increase our numbers somehow and interbreeding hasn't worked. Interbreeding only ends up coming back to bite us in the backside with madness, weak and diseased offspring, and eventually a need for reinvigoration from -- you've got it -- more slaves. It's a conundrum, a Mobius strip, a never ending problem with no solution, except for total anihilation, and we have a right to continue our species. 

That is all. Disperse. 

Happy Friday the 13th

It is Friday the 13th with all that entails and a whole lot of bad news coming our way.

Like the massacre in Paris that purportedly is another in the round of Muslim extremist violence in European cities where the jihadists have settled. I am always reminded of one of my boys' science experiments for school where he kept rats. He found out that a large population of rats in a very small space turn to cannibalism to free up room. Since radical Muslims tend to congregate in enclaves, I wonder when they will stop their violence against their host cities and begin cannibalizing their own. It's a thought that seems appropriate on this day of ultimate evil.

Aah, superstitions. Where would we be without them? For one thing we wouldn't be looking forward to yet another installment of Jason on Friday the 13th dismembering and massacring whoever gets in his way. Combat the fear by checking out these fun facts.

I'm not superstitious unless you consider that I consider it unlucky to debate morons and I have come across a whole group of them since I went back to Facebook to see pictures and videos of my granddaughters. Their mother shortly thereafter took a Facebook break, leaving me with the crazies and the political nuts that consider me dangerous because I promote the idea that not all religions, people, and policies are bad and because I frequently refer to historical facts that fail to prove their point. They counter with calling me names, the last bastion of the schoolyard bully and the bullies yes wo/men adherents. I always thing of A Christmas Story and Scut Farkas's toady with the green teeth. The Democrats call me a Republican and the Republicans call me a Democrat, having never actually read all -- or any -- of my posts and comments. The most pernicious thing I do is disagree with them or caution them to try another perspective. After all, if all one sees out the window is a garbage dump, it's time to find a window that doesn't look out on the garbage dump or at least buy some curtains.

The latest inhumanity I have perpetrated is in saying that not all Muslims are evil, murdering extremists -- because they aren't. I pointed out that Jews and Christians have done their share of murdering, bullying, destruction, and eradication of whole peoples and their written history only to be told that I should focus on more modern facts not contained in the Old Testament. The fact that Islam has been around for less than a century and is not featured in the Old Testament or that first century Christians massacred pagans and Jews and unbelievers, driving opposition from their new homes and destroying the history and writings and people of every non-Christian is met with more disdain and demands that I live in the real world in this century. Of course, they conveniently forget that modern day Christians even in the 20th and 21st centuries continue to murder, massacre, and destroy the people and anything in their path escapes them because all Muslims are evil. That smacks of the thinking that permeates George Orwell's 1984, another fact that eludes them.

Take Ireland for instance that has suffered through bombings, murders, massacres, and destruction that continues to this day. And they are Christians. Of course, they seldom wreak worldwide havoc, although Irish bombers have been known to sell their services to the highest bidder to continue bombing and murdering because it's a habit they're not likely to give up now that they have tasted its flavor.

There are Christians of every stripe throughout the religion, just as there are in Jewish and Muslim sects, that live to murder and destroy. But we're not supposed to hate all Christians because of the acts of a few, which is contrary to the idea that we are supposed to hate every Muslim for the actions of a few extremists. The connection is lost on the Christians calling for eradication of all Muslims. "Bomb them all and let Allah sort them out," in righteous anger as the Muslim jihadists scream, "Convert or die," to everyone else. None of them pay attention to history or how they keep reenacting the same bloody scenes as though caught in a time loop in the Grand Guignol. 

Here are a few of the highlights of Christian extremism.  A Sinhala Buddhist sect promoted violence against Christians and Tamils in the 20th and 21st centuries in Sri Lanka and Aum Shinrikyo engineered the Sarin gas attack in Japan in the mid-1990s using Buddhist and Hindu beliefs to justify his acts. In the 1940s Zionist Jews carried out terrorist attacks against the British.  And the list goes on and on. There are the Browns Shirts in Germany, the Red Brigade, and numerous other terrorist groups that have nothing to do with Muslims and all operated within the last 100 years.

The only thing these terrorists have in common is that they are all humans, members of mankind. They use religion to justify their acts and refuse to see themselves as terrorists or wrong and they won't listen to any arguments that humanize their targets. That is the point. In order to function as they do and believe their acts are justified by their chosen deity they dehumanize their targets. That is the first rule of any terrorist act for whatever reason one chooses to use: dehumanize the enemy.

As long as people are involved, there will be blood and terror and destruction because that is how they survive and thrive. One must blind themselves to truth in any form, demand proof that fits their warped view in order to continue their reign of terror. It is the basis on which war atrocities are made palatable and justified and how people willingly commit unbelievable inhuman acts of violence. They soothe themselves by claiming they are different, that their religion is peaceful, that their aims are right, and they are justified in ridding themselves and their region, state, country, and the world of such brutal animals never realizing that they have become just as brutal and vicious in their holy war against the opposition.

Until humans see themselves in an undistorted mirror they will continue to call for the eradication of those who sin against them and call it good, and they will condemn anyone who steps up to hold that mirror to their faces and asks them to look without the blinders and hatred obscuring their vision. More often than not the one who holds the mirror will be pushed aside and even murdered in order to maintain their shattered sight as if the Snow Queen's mirror shards are permanently lodged in their eyes, ears, and heart.

Humanity will never progress unless and until people are willing to give up their prejudices long enough to consider that not all people are evil and only the guilty should stand for their crimes, not their whole religion or the entire population of their kind. I hope that day comes soon.

That is all. Disperse.