Spinning Iraq

When our soldiers in Iraq helped, what appeared to be crowds of Iraqis tear down the statue of Saddam Hussein, I watched and believed. Later there was talk that there were hardly any Iraqis in the square that day, and perhaps, some of what happened was staged. But, after watching the documentary “Control Room” I see that the whole thing was staged for American viewers. I don’t know if anyone else in the world was fooled.

Control Room is a commentary on the early stages of Gulf War II as seen by Al Jazeera reporters, a couple of American reporters and an army press officer. “Their” reporters, I was surprised to note, look, act and even talk like “our” reporters in that they speak English, wear western clothes, with some exceptions for head gear, and try to cover the war as best they can. They smiled, they didn’t talk “jihad”, and seemed like all around normal people.

I was surprised to see “our” reporters disbelieve what they were told by our military briefers, and complaining that control of the press is tighter than in Gulf War I. They also didn’t like all the attention the Jessica Lynch rescue got from the military briefers; they wanted more news of the war. I didn’t hear any of that reported at the time. Then there was the army press officer who seemed sincere in his debate with Al Jazeera reporters about our mission, but suddenly it all sounded so much like spin. Ditto Donald Rumsfeld talking about Al Jazeera’s lies and biased reporting. Talk about spin. And just who was it who spun the tearing down of Saddam’s statue in the square? A reporter from Al Jazeera remarked that he knew the scene in the square was spin because the Iraqis doing the tearing down were all young men with dialects that weren’t from Baghdad. He would know that because he was from Baghdad.

Control Room is a documentary without a narrator, just people talking to the camera, or having conversations with each other. I found myself feeling uncomfortable watching this film. I was embarrassed and ashamed of our government’s actions, and of Americans, who are so ignorant of those actions, ignorant for what is happening in the rest of the world, and for not caring. Oh, we respond when a catastrophe strikes, like the tsunami in Asia. We will send money and goods, but be totally oblivious to how people live, what they think, and how they perceive the world. I didn’t even know where some of the affected countries and islands were.

Perhaps, instead of more computers for classrooms, something our educators tell us will improve our children’s education, we need more history and cultural anthropology books to educate our children, to improve not only their lives, but the quality of lives the world over.

Wayne Dyer's Epiphany

Wayne Dyer is a pretty upbeat guy. His enthusiasm kind of rubs off on you and you want to be as enthused about life as he seems to be.. He says that regardless of anything that happened to us in this life, or a possible past life, we are all responsible for where we are now, for our actions and feelings. We made the decisions that brought us to the place we now occupy and we need to stop blaming the past and others for our situation. The good news is that we can change things

Dyer had an epiphany which brought him to this philosophy. It happened when he forgave his father after years of being mad at this man he had never met. He wants to help others to achieve this same happy state by telling his story of how forgiveness changed him.

In addition to forgiveness intentions matter. If we intend for certain things to happen, those things will come our way.

I’m sure his books and teachings will help some people and I believe him when he says that we need to forgive, but it is annoying when people assume that what worked for them will work for others. They assume it to the extent that they insist that their way is THE way and it will work for everyone. His was such a personal experience, and it almost seems thrust upon him. He had an issue that he faced and overcame and it improved his life. His circumstances are nothing like mine and although we can all generalize the things he says to our own lives, we can’t duplicate them and we aren’t replicates of him.

When we can’t do what the “self-help gurus” tell us we need to do to be happy, we feel like failures, that we will never be able to do anything to improve our lives.
In Dick Robertson’s Control Theory terms, Dyer reorganized his way of perceiving the world. That is what we all could use a bit of – reorganization of our perceptions. It is an individual task that can’t be taught us by others. According to the control theory model one way to reorganize is to make random movements. In other words, do things. Not the same old things, but new things. Anything.

We may all be responsible for where we are now and what we do in the future but how we transcend our problems and limitations is as individual as we are.

Over My Head

Does anyone understand what Stan Tenen is proposing? I enjoy listening to him, but mostly I am not grasping what he says. His message seems to be meaningful and important, but I'm not getting it. Much of what he explained last night is based on the geometric metaphors in Genesis. Even after reading his FAQ I'm not sure what a geometric metaphor is. But, it sure sounds interesting. The whole area of Tenen's research is something I would like to have Mike Heiser's thoughts on.

The Tall Whites

Michael Salla and Paola Harris mentioned a name I had never heard before: Charles James Hall. He worked as a weather observer at the Nellis Range, which I assume is Area 51, and had contact with ET's Harris refers to as the Tall Whites. They were up to 8 feet tall, very thin, basically looked like us and lived to be 800 years old. Charles has written about his experiences in a fictional format, but told Paola Harris that it is all true. Both Harris and Salla say he is credible and they believe him. George wants him to take a lie detector test that he, George, will pay for. Paola said that she was sure Charles would do that. According to Paola, Charles is allowed to talk about all of this because the ET's gave their permission, therefore Charles isn't worried about government censure. Charles' first book is Millennial Hospitality and is followed by Millennial Hospitality II and III.

Paola also has a tape of an interview she did with Col. Corso in which he describes his contact. She will play it the next time she is on Coast.

Education in America

John Taylor Gatto www.johntaylorgatto.com was the guest on Coast tonight. He has what at first strikes one as a radical thesis. He thinks our education system does not educate, that its purpose is mind control, to make everyone a conformist who follows orders of the ruling elite of big government, business and industry. Hmm, sounds like some of the conspiracy theorists we hear on Coast. But, wait. We have all gone to school and lived what he is talking about. So, judge for yourself. Read his book, “The Underground History of American Education,” on-line (or download it for free). I got only a short way through the prologue and knew he was right. How depressing. Start reading at http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm

Coast on TV?

Nancy sends news. "I wanted to pass on some information to those who maybe didn’t hear the program with Marc Zicee who wrote the Twilight Zone Companion." Apparently he and Noory are working on a TV program that will be loosely based on the C2C program. They did not give a starting date but said that Fox is behind the project and they were both excited about the new show."

Matthew Alper

On Sunday, Dec. 5 Matthew Alper was a guest on Coast. He has been a guest before and I have listened to his argument that God exists only in our brain. I have written elsewhere just where I think he has gone wrong. http://users.dls.net/~palfano/alper.htm Perhaps someone more clever than I would like to evaluate my rebuttal to Matthew and point out any flaws in my thinking.

Shortwave and Alex Jones

If anyone has a shortwave radio would you see if you can get Alex Jones' program. It is broadcast on shortwave from 11am-1pm on WWCR 9.985 and from 10pm to Midnight on WWCR 3.210. Can I get a low priced shortwave and still get good reception? Is that a silly question?

Heiser, Hoagland et al.

Seems some scientists are worried that germs from Mars may infect Earth. What Richard Hoagland finds interesting is that anyone in the mainstream is finaly admitting that there is life on Mars. Richard talked it over with George during the first half hour on Thursday, Dec. 2.

Mike Heiser followed Richard with a disappointing interview, more like a question and answer period. But, as always, Mike informs.

Also informative was Douglas Mulhall on Tuesday, Nov. 30 during the first half hour of Coast. He thinks that cancer, heart disease, arthritis and a host of other chronic diseases are due to calcification (not due to taking calcium supplements). He has the cure, but me thinks you have to read his book, "Calcium Bomb" to get the whole scoop. But, what he said made a lot of sense. I'm not sure if he was the one, but a recent doc on Coast said that glucosamine really works for arthritis in the knees and back, and actually repairs some of the damage.

Steve Quayle and Doug Hagman scared us again with their gloomy predictions about terrorism and how the terrorists are trying to ruin us economically. I asked my husband Joe, who knows an awful lot about anything financial) about the global economy and if what Quayle and Hagman said about the U.S. economy in particular was true. For instance, they insinuated that it was a bad thing that Russia and China were buying Euros instead of dollars, that the value of the dollar had dropped, and that most of our debt is held by other countries Joe thought most of what the duo said was nonsense. The one thing he did agree with was that if the U.S. went bankrupt, the world would follow. As for whether the terrorists are working to ruin our economy, he didn't have an opinion. Don't ask me to explain what Joe said about the economy as it is all a little beyond me.