Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
Oh yeah? You and what army?
"The ghoul and vampire army."
Oh, that army. Well, I can't say I think much of it.
But seriously...I could have and did fight off a hundred regular people criminals, and beat them as well, but for spirit people intervening to cheat and interfere on their behalf. The conclusion then I arrive at is that if humanity ever hopes to grapple with the problem of serious crime and evil there is no practical and immediate alternative but to wage a ruthless war of extermination on the empire, including false heaven, of criminal spirit people. For until this or such an approach is adopted, these corrupt, and stupid regular people can always say these spirit people "made" them do it (i.e. whatever crime it was), and that therefore they are not responsible for their own actions. And how can you or anyone refute such an argument?
Respecting this week's recommendation, for those who might want to take an added souvenir home with them, here, by way of amazon.com mp3 downloads, is Tony Bennett singing "Tender is the Night."
This passage from 2nd Peter, ch. 3 is both unusual and interesting as Bible text for the more scientific and cosmological than usual perspective it adopts, and which also is very much in harmony with Stoicism; as if the universe were undergoing the pangs and throes of one, all encompassing purification process.
"3:1 This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you;
"3:2 that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior:
"3:3 knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts,
"3:4 and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.'
"3:5 For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;
"3:6 by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
"3:7 But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
"3:8 But don't forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
"3:9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
"3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
"3:11 Therefore since all these things are thus to be destroyed, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy living and godliness,
"3:12 looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
"3:13 But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.
"3:14 Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without blemish and blameless in his sight.
"3:15 Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you;
"3:16 as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
"3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness."
Religion, as much as anything, is the preventative medicine of the soul; so that to fault it for not stopping evil makes about as much sense as blaming proper dieting and exercise for not warding off a violent head injury. In other words, as much as prayer, charity, and beatific contemplation are desirable you still need to watch and deal with what's going on in (imminent) reality; and which may be neither so very simple or else so very complicated as you think.
Later Note. Naturally, by religion we mean honest religion, and which, of course, is the only kind of religion that is actually worth anything to begin with.
Any image that haunts or that is used to harass may be reduced to insignificance (and therefore got rid of) by categorizing and calling it a "picture" -- so that once seen as only a picture, it need no longer be what it depicts.
"There are innumerable worlds," said Epicurus, "but it is unwise to interest ourselves in them." Or, put differently, we might say there are many things to know yet not all knowledge is worth possessing.
Yet what if one, in addition to knowing all kinds of horrible things that (according to this view) it were better they didn't know, prided themselves on such knowledge? Well, that, in effect and in one sense, is what kind of a person a devil is; that is, someone whose mind is full of garbage in which he delights.
"Rich Dad, Poor Dad"
To say you are a free people is to say you are not owned by someone, and that you can think honestly, openly and rationally for yourself. Why then won't people be free? Because the devil (and other related spirit people), both literally and in effect, comes along and tells them "If you help me kill and oust your betters, I will make you rich and important. Only you must not be overly concerned about being either honest or rational; since those kind of people are the ones we need to remove or eliminate." The stupid and credulous (thinking themselves made privy to higher wisdom) then go along with this proposal; are put in positions of authority (in place of their betters), and honest discussion and reasoning are outlawed and treated as ill advised practices that will only get you killed, ostracized and or impoverished.
Because it costs mundane time, effort, and expense, philosophy is not divine knowledge but the wish for divine knowledge, usually by means of the intellect; yet with occasional glimpses of divine knowledge or understanding possible to those who are upright and sincere, as well as in the process of such seeking itself and which process is ever progressive, evolving, improving.
Respecting the topic of monads and that we raised earlier, one question which will perhaps confuse some (and did me when I was a beginning student of philosophy back in high school and college) is -- are monads divisible? The answer is "yes," with the exception of God being the only monad that isn't divisible. Logically, it seems a contradiction to say that something is one, that is a "monad," and yet be more than one. But in practical experience this, of course, is not at all strange; just as when we think of one dollar but which is made of one hundred pennies, or ten dimes, etc.; so that the single unity posited by the notion of a monad is, in a sense, a fiction of convenience and utility. Otherwise and to the extent it is and can be, something is one or of true oneness only and inasmuch as it partakes of or is God.
Think of an animal as a person without much intelligence but who really can't do any wrong. Is this a correct characterization? Or does the fact that they can do no real wrong (except under extreme duress or human or spirit people instigation) actually show that they have intelligence in its way as good or better than anyone else's?
Many simply do not understand that if you care for a child or animal you care for them for their own sake; just as they would want God to look after and respect their own needs. And if we do not view such helpless or dependents in this way, including as well as children and animals the earth and the environment, then how ever could one blame or fault God for not treating them as they think they ought to be treated?
Moses casting up a bronze serpent in the desert signifies that we can cure an illness by its image; but, that is, as long as that image is received in small doses; similar to how if one endures, say, a very small amount of small pox one can be inoculated from a real and in earnest case of the disease.
Over lording and criminal spirit people are not part of nature, indeed they are the very fount and source of everything that is unnatural. From where else does the unnatural spring if not from them? So powerful an effect, therefore, does an evilly disposed and conniving mind have on creation.
(Again) repeat after me: "The most depressing people I ever knew in all my life -- the demonists."
Although I did in fact make mention of it a long, long time back, I wouldn't want some of you (who might otherwise possibly do so) have to go without. Here then, via amazon.com mp3 downloads, now is "Take A Little Trip" by Alabama. (People who work to make a living will understand.)
By nature, we are forced to some extent to block out or exclude from any given point of present consciousness what we otherwise could or might see, know and or think about; and this because our hearts and minds can endure and direct their attention and awareness to only so much of anyone and or anything -- in addition to the limitations of memory (which has its own various kinds and departments for filing and sorting what is and isn't present in our consciousness.) In this way, and again to some extent, we can (and with respect to some things must) choose what does and doesn't exist; most especially so as it pertains to or affects ourselves personally (as opposed to what exists objectively independent of us.) Although of course and obviously, there are times and circumstances when such power is severely curtailed and circumscribed, even so and otherwise, by means of this capacity to include or occlude what does or doesn't exist we in an important extent shape and create the universe we live in, and the more carefully logical we are, and the greater our convictions about what we hold most dear, the greater is this capacity.
These "things" (including people and persons) that exist or don't exist, and which can be known individually, are what are known as monads. As monads, each given thing or potential thing participates in our understandings as phenomena or noumena (Merriam-Webster defines noumenon as "a posited object or event as it appears in itself independent of perception by the senses"); and even if only phenomena, that phenomena is only of lasting relevant inasmuch as it is cleared or validated by and as noumena; which noumena is sustainable insofar as they are consistent with and in conformity to right reason. Mind, therefore, in some measure and in some way determines in the long run what does or doesn't exist (the senses and perceptions, by comparison, less so do this.) God, in one sense then, is the mind and the source of higher reason that controls the greater universe and ourselves, when our minds are in most harmony and unison with his, no other mind need we fear.
In brief, my own (and personally adopted) sense of the matter is that for deepest sounding of the mind and thought go to the Pre-Socratics (including Democritus); for the heart, Christianity and Buddhism; for most ordinary, day to day life, Pragmatism and that is subservient and beholden to the former two.
To our diet of Monster power drink and Claim Jumper tv dinners can now be added Burger King's Angry Whoppers and Angry Tendercrisps.
With all the luster and appeal of some cheap porno website, Chase Bank outlets are popping up all over Seattle like so many Starbucks, and which serves as one more reminder that there is and can be no economic recovery until government is willing and able to confront and deal with spirit person-backed organized crime.
Weird me out why don't you...Although Badfinger's "The Revolution's Here" is included on the original "Magic Christian" LP (which I used to have way back when), I can't seem to find this song anywhere on CD. Until it is and to help remedy this present state of things, I made this ad hoc transfer by way of a YouTube clip from the film, and which you can download in .mp3 (right click save as) here.
31 October 1963
While there is of course no need (though prompted we might be) to necessarily read any cryptic significance into the above photograph (and what it depicts); it does strike one as at least slightly peculiar that such very high profile children as Caroline and John Jr. would be costumed as witches for Halloween. Why such a choice I wonder? Is it possible that someone (perhaps the mother) was paying tribute -- as you know many people routinely and commonly do -- to placate and thereby ward off el diablo by such a gesture? Well if so -- and remember I am only saying "if" -- it obviously didn't much help (as I will and do always remind people with respect to and when it comes to appeasement.)
Later Note. It occurs to me that possibly the idea was one of ridicule -- there is, after all and plausibly, a suggestive reference to the magician (i.e. the witch) and "Speelburg/Brukhymer" (the ?) of that day -- in the costumes.
I hate the story of champion chump, and I want no part of it. But of course they make you an offer you can't refuse (a la Don Corleone), and as a result you end up not having any choice unless you kill yourself.
Is it possible for something of itself to be not all that very important and yet have a powerful and important effect? Clearly yes, and there are no end of examples we might think up to illustrate the point. For instance, imagine if you were driving through a wooded area in a storm and a very large tree fell crashing on your car; causing it to halt and then trapping you in the vehicle. Yet but for the storm that caused it to fall (and aside from seeing the tree from a poetic or environmental view point), the tree would otherwise have no great significance.
Now with a tree, it is easy for us to realize that of itself and but for the accident of it being thrown down by high winds, we would not ascribe any unique powers or importance to it. But when it comes to something like trouble making spirit people the matter for most people is not so easy or obvious; not least of which because such spirit people will want to play up impress you with their seeming importance. But really, if we are thinking clearly, we will understand that as powerful as the spirit person is or might be, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are really of such considerable importance but for certain circumstances -- just as with the tree. Yet though we see those circumstances (the storm) with regard to the tree, spirit people, by comparison, are far more difficult to comprehend. So that when they strike at us we, out of ignorance and combined with the spirit person's intended manipulation of us, tend or will be led to attribute major, indeed religious, significance to them. This, needless to say, is a grave error; and what one invariably finds is that as powerful as a given spirit person is, he can only be so due to certain circumstances and certain means of manipulating those circumstances. The excruciating pain he induces may cause us to be in awe of him as a god or else think he deserves damnation for his crime. The mistake here is to misinterpret his effect with his essence. Again, like the tree, his effect may indeed be tremendous, but it doesn't necessarily follow that he of himself is, or that his invading your life is tantamount to a religious event. Yet because of people's common misunderstanding of spirit people and the efforts of some spirit people themselves to dress themselves in raiment of god-hood and thus mislead others, very easily and tragically an error is made creating the illusion that the spirit person is much, much greater consequence than, but for circumstances, they truly are.
So just as with the tree falling on your car, while we would have good reason to be very distressed by the occurrence, it is both unnecessary and ill advised to read cosmic significance into the event, and to do so only makes it that much more traumatic and difficult to deal with than it really, did we know better and think more wisely, needs to be. In sum, yes, some spirit people can be enormously, even astoundingly, powerful, but that is no reason to let yourself unduly magnify their actual stature in the grand scheme of things, and which sort of mistake and foolishness only serves to make things far worse by needlessly and artificially enhancing their sway and influence all the more.
It's pay back time (again!)
No, actually, yesterday I came up with the idea for mine own epitaph, and which is:
"To be honest, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did."
If you haven't heard this in a real, real long time, it will probably blow your mind to do so now. (Thanks someone for reminding of it recently.)
Later Note. Here's another.
Here's another one of those strange business websites, like mindyourownbusiness.com and Celebrity Rants, which rather than make any comment of my own I would be more interested and curious to hear from others on; as I find the thing so bizarre, I (almost) hardly know what to make of it. Take some time to actually go through the site and I think you'll see what I mean.
You think so little of doing these things to others; you can go through them yourself. And you will. After all, what discovery and interest is there to be had in plaguing and tormenting an innocent or mostly innocent? It's been done so many times; it's old hat. Imagine, however, what it would be like for them to do these cruel and horrible things to someone who really deserved it; taking into account both the person's phenomenal guilt and the phenomenal amount of worldly wealth and money they felt themselves entitle to -- and had. So you see, it may be they want you to commit all these brutal and sadistic crimes so that you can have all these same things, and more, done to you one day. True or no, I couldn't quite say; only I for one, and knowing these people as I do, sure wouldn't want to be taking that kind of chance and risk.
It is important to remember that as frightening, intimidating and overwhelming as evil in this world is or might seem, it can all be reduced to and traced back to this childish, full of himself cry baby who felt and feels sorry for himself because he was and is jealous (and, also, he doesn't want those people "having it too good!") Oh yes, he is diabolically clever all right; as long as greater numbers of people are incomprehensibly blind, dull witted, cowardly and irrational -- otherwise, and but for the fact that he is permitted to cheat and get away with murder so much, he is not nearly so intelligent and all powerful as willful illusion and plain stupidity would have you take him to be.
Much also is made about spirit people generally, be they ghost or angels, and while I certainly don't think it right to be prejudice and unfair towards spirit people, I will say that in all my contact with them these many years now, I find little or nothing so especially beautiful, wonderful or attractive -- let alone heavenly -- about them; nor do they in the least (or else only in the very least and superficially) reflect what I know in life to be truly divine, and desirable -- indeed, I have a far higher opinion of animals than any and all the spirit people I have even met or known. They seem heavenly in famous European paintings, but in palpable reality their appeal can be likened to that of an over-rated, billion dollar movie career -- full of slaves, vampires, propaganda, and razzle-dazzle, and with very little actual merit and praiseworthy moral character to be found among them. In a word, they are phony, and puppets and tools of the previously mentioned great hoodlum and tyrant of old.
God is an inexhaustible fount or reservoir of peace and strength to those to seek to live rightly and in truth. But if one doesn't seek to live rightly or in truth, no, they would not know what I am referring to. Yet this is not to say, however, that those who seek to live rightly and in truth do not suffer (rest assured the devil will see that they do suffer), but they at least have in their souls a place where that suffering can ultimately (if not always and as soon as we would wish) be laid to rest and dispelled.
Unless perhaps you are someone who enjoys searching for and spotting real life ghosts as a hobby or enthusiasm (say, not so very unlike how some people like to search for and spot whales or rare birds) and or the scientific benefits to be possibly gained from such, it is a safe assumption that a person doesn't really need a ghost or spirit person per see for anything; and anything a spirit person can or could provide that was desirable, you can get the same or something else as good or better from someone or somewhere else.
Now if this is true, why would those who do so listen to spirit people as authority rather than just and honest rational argument?
Without exception, such persons invariably are being bullied, behaviorally directed, "mind controlled," or otherwise frightened into believing that spirit people are superior to just reasoning; as part of which they are in addition led to think that if they want more valuable things in life they will have to secure the approbation of spirit people in order to have them. So that at the end of the day, people who listen to spirit people are being prompted in their actions and decisions by spirit people who use a carrot and stick approach. When it is possible to do so, a spirit person uses the carrot; when that won't work then the stick. A person so manipulated then comes to develop a perspective of the world that sees the obtaining of good and the shunning of bad as depending on the good graces of spirit people -- with not unusually lunatic and or even tragic results.
The plain fact is and as a matter of practical experience, the worst bad most always derives from spirit people, and, as we started out saying, any good spirit people do have to offer you can get the same or just as good or better elsewhere (assuming, at least, there is no criminal or unnatural and artificial interference to your doing so.) The real solution then is to oust over-lording spirit people from the picture entirely; but this last can only be effected through courage, objective fairness, and honest, rational judgment; it is therefore imperative for authoritarian and presuming ghosts, angels, and their henchman people to downplay, discourage, trivialize, or reduce to puerile fantasy both moral virtue (including courage and heroism) and honest truth and wisdom; and this is why (for example) we see this kind of thing routinely done in what these days passes for mass media culture; namely, of course, to make us (including top government officials and society's "giants") their puppets and slaves.
The following headlines appear at Yahoo news this morning, 20 July 2009:
I think it would be ill advised for them to making plans to go to Mars when they can't yet make it over to Ballard. And look also at this -- kids IQ scores have dropped -- I presume this in tandem with adult scores across the general spectrum doing the same. But where, I submit, can society expect to get to when it can't or will not deal seriously or scientifically with either the joint issues of brain torture radios and or spirit people? If what I claim is true (and it is), what absurdity to attempt to achieve great things or solve serious problems by ignoring and running away from reality. And if what I assert isn't reality, prove me wrong -- as I have publicly challenged now in letters, phone calls, in person solicitations, and at this website now these past many years.
Honestly, if they can't or won't properly refute me, they ought just as well be sending a gangster, a buccaneer, a sorcerer, a movie producer, and a serial killer as astronauts on any prospective Mars mission -- because that, if you look into these matters, is about almost how recklessly and negligently (not to mention madly) some in high and or important places are acting; or are being too easily persuaded by someone else that it is o.k. to act and be that way; such that the degree of corruption and incompetence that surrounds us is even more scary, and no less a threat to public safety, health and welfare, than real life vampires and the ghoulish magician.
A free but illogical people.
