30 Day Diary
Secrets of the Bible - more secrets
The signficance of lamb and fish
When the Catholic Church defined the yearly calendar, they timed the beginning of the First Century with the birth of Christ. It was no coincidence that the First Century, in astronomical time, marks the time when the sun drifted from the constellation Aries to the constellation Pisces at the zero hour on the Spring Equinox, March 21. (See The Great Year)
We see the same sequence in the Book of John. In the first chapter, Jesus comes as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world — the world that was to end soon. In the last chapter, we are taken to a scene where the apostles are catching fish — fish represent the believers in the New Age.
The constellation Cetus is reminiscent of Deep, the monster of chaos in Genesis 1:2. Though a different monster from Deep, its presence in this context could be seen to represent the sinful chaos of the Age of Aries..
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:35-36)
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any fish?” They answered him, “No.”
He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish.
That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea.
But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.
This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. (John 21:4-14)
In sum, the gospels tell of the sun's passing from the Age of Aries to the the Age of Pisces. Said another way, the world of Aries was to end, to be replaced by the new world of Pisces. Now we know why, despite 2,000 years of apocalypic predictions, the human race is still here on earth.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20)
Other Matters
The American and European economies are heading into an economic depression on a scale never seen before. How it affects us depends on our personal situations and what we do to protect ourselves. I urge you to read the articles below and the resources on the economics page.
The wrong lesson learned from the 1930s depression is that government spending is the remedy for rescuing capitalism from its excesses. The problem with that argument is that government is the root cause of those excesses. As sure as night follows day, any excess expansion of money and debt is followed by a contraction of money and debt. Secondly, government has to take from the private economy to put back into the private economy. Confusing effect for cause, the feds misallocated resources, making the problem worse. The 30s economy did eventually correct itself, but it was government actions that made the Depression worse than any preceding it.
In the 30s, the American economy had a strong manufacturing base and a relatively small, financially sound government. This time it has none of those. Instead, the long practice of creating money from debt has brought the American economy to a level of debt beyond all means and weakened its manufacturing base, making recovery impossible.
More Americans say they have no religion 3/9
Why inflation will return with a vengence Without exception, in all monetary history, every country that took the path to inflating its currency, didn't stop until they destroyed their currency. 2/15
The federal government runs the monther of all Ponzi Schemes Their debts have gotten so massive that they have to accelerate spending to compensate for the accelerating debt from interest rates. That's why the trillion dollar deficits. 2/15
Sinners in the hands of an angry God Fire and brimstone sermons were common practice in early America. Jonathan Edwards was a leading Puritan minister and Calvinist theologan in New England. This one is as fiery as they come, delivered in 1741. You don't see sermons like this today. But the fearmongering is still embedded in Christian thought, though on a more subtle level. 2/11
Physics has its principles There are a handful of inviolable pinciples like the Law of Casuality that provide the bedrock for understanding the natural universe. All of religion and some parts of modern science violate them. The Big Bang Theory is one of them. The theory assumes something can come from nothing and that something happened without a casual explanation. The idea of a god has the same flaws. 2/1
Whatever happened to real science? This writer is not interested in defending science when it branches out into pseudo forms. Some fields of modern science have strayed from their classical roots into theories so abstract that they cannot be proved or disproved. The philosopher Kark Popper argued that theories must be formed so they can falsified, meaning to be testable. 2/1
'Atlas Shrugged': from fiction to fact in 52 years Rand predicted government interference in the market economy would eventually destroy it. It was the second most influentual book next to the Bible. Its message was never more important than it is today. 1/10
How Deflation Creates Hyperinflation Severe deflation causes a loss of confidence in the currency and investments denominated in that currency. This sets up an enormous pool of money investments desperate to cash in for anything real. It's a guess as to when. Probably not in 2009, but one never knows. Gold and silver are the time honored safe havens. 1/1
The year man-made Global Warming was disproved World temperatures have been dropping, and eminent climate experts have been scorning the "consensus" claim. Thirdly, there has been a growing realization that in a collapsing world economy, the grandiouse schemes for controlling emissions are no longer affordable. And I would add, the collapsing world economy is forcing a reduction of emissions without controls. 12/29
The FDA admits its own incompetence 1. Its scientific base has eroded and its scientific organization structure is weak. 2. Its scientific workforce does not have sufficient capacity and capability. 3. It's information technology infrastructure is inadequate. 4. They need more money [they want their incompetence to be subsidized]. Comment: They should be abolished. All they've done is act as agents for the drug companies in marketing toxic drugs and stifling safe alternative cures. 12/26
Teaching Critical Thinking In contrast to the scientific method, critical thinking directs us to be cognizant of our personal psychology. If we let ourselves fall into the common trap of defending our egos, we tend to block out information that is contrary to our beliefs. Critical thinkers have to be capable of setting aside their egos and engage in a relentless search for missing pieces to the puzzle of their existence. They must be prepared to discard and refine beliefs when more credible information appears, even to the point of changing an entire worldview. Another way to look at this is as a process of mental mapping; sound judgment is dependent on an accurate map of our environment. This is a learned skill that does not come naturally.
The author of this article displays his critical thinking skills in The Skeptic's Dictionary. 12/21
The growing war between modern medicine and the public The reasons for learning to take care of yourself through alternative medicine are growing stronger. 12/14
Wall Street Lays Another Egg This article from Vanity Fair lays out the cause and effect of our monetary crises. It is a long article but well worth the read. 12/6
Citibank collapses! Banking Shutdown Possible Tha banking system is extremely overleveraged and with unemployment scheduled to skyrocket, this is a serious risk. The other megabanks are as insolvent as Citicorp, but have been more cunning at hiding it. If you keep more savings in a bank than you need for regular expenses, you are in danger of losing it. 12/1
Four Bad Bear Markets Compared to stock bear markets of the past, this one is well along the way towards a 90% descent as occured in 1929, estimate no more than two years to reach bottom. 11/29
How the Pilgrims used the Bible to justify the massacre of Indians The Commandment "Thou shall not kill" was conveniently ignored. 11/28
The Real World Order is Chaotic According to the Genesis, God created order out of chaos. In truth, the real world is composed of interrelated chaotic systems that have defeated every attempt to impose top-down order. An understanding of choas is essential to understanding the forces of nature. 11/28
Honest statistics of inflation, money supply, GDP, unemployment and the dollar They're getting scary. 11/19
American atheists getting better organized During the past three years, membership has grown in local and national associations of nonbelievers. Books attacking faith as a delusion shot up best-seller lists. For the first time, the faithless even raised enough funds to hire a congressional lobbyist. 11/19
Corporations verses the market Corporations tend to fear competition, because competition exerts downward pressure on prices and upward pressure on salaries; moreover, success on the market comes with no guarantee of permanency, depending as it does on outdoing other firms at correctly figuring out how best to satisfy forever-changing consumer preferences, and that kind of vulnerability to loss is no picnic.Corporate power depends crucially on government intervention in the marketplace. 11/16
America creeping ominously close to the Marxist ideal A comparison with the ten points in Marx's Communist Manisto. 11/11
Christians Feel a Rapture Coming On For eons, Christians have believed the world is hurling toward oblivion. But with the current economic downturn, the war in Iraq and the likely election of Barack Obama, many think it has picked up speed. Comment: They won't live long enough to see the end of the world. 11/3
A 2,000 year glossery of Christian End Time Predictions When will they end?
How to Bankrupt a Nation The Federal Reserve, the Treasury and Congress are working hard at it. 10/27
Parallels with the decline of the Roman Empire What took the Roman Empire centuries to decline, is moving at a much faster pace in the modern age. 10/26
The Idiots Who Rule America Our oligarchic class is incompetent at governing, managing the economy, coping with natural disasters, educating our young, handling foreign affairs, providing basic services like health care and safeguarding individual rights. 10/23
Economic collapse: the financial death of the US empire To those that are turned off by articles like this, whose lives go on seemingling unaffected, I remind them: there was no flood when Noah built his ark.
Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve A 41 minute primer on the history and nature of money and banking. 10/12
History teaches that bankers and politicians don't learn from history Let's go back to the Middle Ages to other booms and busts caused by bank credit expansion. 10/12
Between the Democrats and Republicans, there is no lesser-of-two-evils choice. A vote for either is a vote for evil.
Obama and the banksters While Obama pretends to be the anti-corporate candidate and the man for the people, 60% of his campaign contributions come from 180,000 corporate sources. 10/11
McCain the make-believe maverick The third generation scion of two admirals rose through the ranks on a flying carpet of priviledge. He has a career history of opportunism, bad temper and immature recklessness. 10/11
The Mother of All Bank Runs? The strains in financial markets are becoming more, rather than less, severe in spite of the nuclear option of a $700 billion package. 10/5
Breakthrough Reached in Negotiations on Bailout "Congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative agreement early Sunday on what may become the largest financial bailout in American history, authorizing the Treasury to purchase $700 billion in troubled debt from ailing firms in an extraordinary intervention to prevent widespread economic collapse."
Asia Needs Deal to Prevent Panic Selling of U.S. Debt, Yu Says It was reckless borrowing from foreigners that contributed to the debt criss. So what does Congress do? They borrow to bail out the borrowers. I cannot read the mind of foreigners, but if any of them have a smidgen of common sense, they'll start dumping their dollar holdings as soon as the market opens on Asia Sunday night. At minimum, they are not likely to finance the $700 billion the Treasury needs to finance the bailout. That leaves the Federal Reserve to create the money to buy the bonds foreigners won't buy. This is why the Fed had to resort to exchanging every bad debt it can get its hands in exchange for money and why Washington has to keep expanding their spending. Whatever the exact timeline, the dollar is destined to collapse bringing financial assets down with it, and prices to go to new highs. 9/28
Is your bank at risk of failure? Go to page 20.
Adjusted Monetary Base The general price level cannot rise unless the money supply first expands. Said another way, prices rise because there is too much money in circulation. The latest Federal Reserve statistics warn of massive price increases between one to two years from now should they continue.That's about the time it takes for new money to work its way up to the consumer price level. Massive increases in spending, declining tax revenues and the growing reluctance and inability of foreigners to finance American exploding debt make it a near certainly that the Monetary Base will continue to explode. 9/27
Throwing money at the problem follows the same script that every other nation in economic history has tried and failed. It was excess money and debt that brought us to this state of affairs, and excess money and debt that will destroy what value is left of the dollar. We are not long from the time when even the federal government will not be able to pay its debts. It ends with a hyperinflationary blowoff. Are you prepared? 9/21/08
The government is not promoting stability The actions taken by Washington are accelerating the demise of financial markets and the dollar. They didn't know what they were doing when they made this mess and they don't know how to get out of it. Would you trust a doctor who botched an operation? A plumber who flooded your basement? A mechanic who made your car unsafe? These people are putting a wrecking ball to the American economy. Voting is not going to change anything except the faces on the wrecking ball. 9/22
Government Failure Proponents of government intervention blame laissez-faire capitalism when the American economy is highly taxed and regulated. 9/21
Credit Default Swaps (derivatives) 101 An insurance policy for credit defaults turned into a vehicle for massive speculation on bad credit without regards to risk and the insurors' ability to pay. 9/20
Over half of Americans believe in guardian angels Many claim to have experiences. 9/20
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function The compounding effect of arithmetic growth rates imposes imposes natural limits to those growth rates.. This is an eight part video, about 70 minutes total. 9/20
The exponential function applied to inflation forebodes hyperinflation in the near future 9/20
A short video of the above two explaining why growth cannot be sustained. 9/20
A page of primer articles on our money and energy problems 9/20
Hard numbers: the economy is worse than you know Trusting government statistics is like trusting a fox to guard your chickens. 9/20
Comrade Bernanke Does it Again AIG was in effect, nationalized, stolen from the stockholders. The money was spent without approval from Congress. This action sets a precedent for any arbitary nationalization. 9/18
AIG’s Dangerous Collapse & A Credit Derivatives Risk Primer The $62 trillion dollar credit derivatives market is 50 times the size of the subprime mortgage derivatives market, and is indeed larger than the entire global economy. 9/18
Bloomberg warns of possible 'next wave' crisis There is great risk that foreign entities will stop buying US debt. In my opinion, it is a matter of when, not if. Say good-bye to the dollar. 9/18
Federal Reserve buys majority stake in A.I.G. for $85 billion They call it a loan, but don't kid yourself. There is no way can A.I.G pay the Fed back. The question is who paid for it? Yep. You guessed it. You the taxpayer. With more too-big-to fail companies waiting in the breadline, the Federal Reserve has taking the path of least resistance. It will suck the life out of the economy and the dollar to maintain the pretense that all is well. 9/16
Fed Expands Lending Facilities in bid for stability In plain English it means that the Federal Reserve is now in the business of accepting stocks as collateral for loans (bad debt). It's another step towards the socializing of capital markets. This is illegal but that matters little to these banksters. It means that the Federal Government is directly exposed to losses in the stock market. It means that those loses will be transferred to the population at large - you. 9/15
Lehman fies for biggest bankruptcy as suitors balk Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank. 9/15
Bank of America to buy Merril Lynch That leaves Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs the last two investment banks standing ... for now. 9/15
Derivatives the new 'ticking bomb' What is behind this frantic effort to save these falling companies? The deratives maket is so tightly linked that a failure anywhere could trigger an unstoppable chain reaction of collapsing securities.
The Subprime Primer Try this if you still don't understand what derivatives are.
U.S. Foreclosures Hit Record in August as Housing Prices Fell This avalanche is still gaining momentum. 9/14
Ticking Time Bomb Explodes, Public is Shocked The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exposes the bankruptcy of government social engineering. F & F subsidies raised the price of housing till they were unaffordable. 9/14