For many years I have hung out in Hacienda Heigts, California, to pursue my profession with a company that happened to be located close to this rather uninteresting and dull city.

And I never knew that just up the street was a huge Chinese-Buddhist temple - five minutes away from where I usually got on the freeway when going home to the center of all cuture - Hollywood.

A few days ago I was invited by a friend to go to this Buddhist Temple she had discovered for herself and that was really working well for her in terms of prayers being heard - and not only heard in the sense of “Oh year, thanks, got it!” but in the sense of being acted upon and fullfilled.

So, one Monday we got on the road and headed towards Hacienda Heights and when we off the freeway at Hacienda Blvd. heading south I got rather curious because I thought I knew the area but was absolutely not aware of a temple. But I had to admit that I had never followed Hacienda Blvd up that far.

And then suddenly there it was, totally mis-placed in the suburan area, this huge temple - the Hsi Lai Temple.

We did all the things you usually do in a temple like this and it felt good. I was reminded of a visit to a Buddhist temple in Berlin, Germany, many years ago that had a lasting impact on me. I don’t remember much of that visit, especially where in Berlin that temple was but after some research I have concluded that it might have been “das Buddhistische Haus” in Berlin-Frohnau. I remember that we took the S-Bahn very far north in West-Berlin, but the pictures on the web site do not match what I remember.

But what I certainly remember was the total mental silence that filled the place and was instantly noticable right after stepping through the gate from the street. I remember that this silence was so unnerving to my friend who had taken me there, that he needed body contact to be able to stand it.

Back to the Hsi Lai Temple - it did not have that intense silence permeating it, but it is certainly a place where you can spend some time reflecting and gathering energy.

On leaving we passed a little stand where you could get a Dharma Word for a donation of one dollar. I certainly had to do this. I got one little plastic ball with no way to open, but right next to the dispenser of the plastic ball was a plastic ball crusher. You put your newly aquired plastic ball into this crusher, banged down the handle and so now I can share what I found in the sphere…

Dharma Word

When our mind overcomes all temptations, every day is a happy day. When illusory thoughts do not arise, every place is a peaceful place. When the mind is still and all thoughts cease, that is true wealth. When selfish desires terminate, that is the true field of merit.

Posted by Merlin - August 21st, 2008

I just browsed through some comic strips of Calvin and Hobbes and found one that was very interesting when compared to my experience with the government in general and the IRS in particular.

I would love to post the whole strip here but I am afraid the copyright owner would not like that, so I leave it to your imagination and just give you the text.

Dialog between Calvin and the bully in the school yard:

Bully: I want that truck, Twinky

Calvin: It’s mine, Moe. I brought it from home.

Bully: I said, give me the truck.

Calvin: Moe, you can’t just take things from people because you’re bigger!

Bully: I’m not taking it. You’re giving it to me because we’ll be so much happier that way. (grabbing Calvin’s collar and clenching his first.)

Calvin (by himself): How touching…

Calvin (a bit later): Moe, give me my truck back. It’s not yours.

Bully: It’s now. You gave it to me.

Calvin: I didn’t have much choice, didn’t I!? It was either give up the truck or get punched!

Bully: So?

Calvin: So I only ‘gave’ it to you because you are bigger and meaner than me!

Bully: Yeah? So?

Calvin: The forensic marvel has reduced my logic to shambles.

Bully: You’re saying you changed your mind about getting punched?

So, honestly, does that remind you of any interactions with the Infernal Revenue Service?

I am working on some spiritual solution for that problem at a site that will help to get rid of fear of the IRS. Join me there and help spread the word. The site and program are still in the construction phase but you can help getting it off the ground and - - - be a guinea pig.

Posted by Merlin - August 18th, 2008

Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong — a premise he supports with intriguing research, and explains in his accessible and unexpectedly.

Thus is the introduction to an article about the “scientific proof” that the current crop of gurus is right, that…

• We create our own reality;
• we attract to us what we put our attention on

I put together two interesting talks from TED in the article Synthetic Happiness on the Universal Serenity site.

Posted by Merlin - August 14th, 2008

There has been plenty of rumors, opinions, ideas and conspiracy theories that our government is not quite as honest with us as it could be. There is even the theory that the whole moon landing coverage was shot on a sound stage somewhere on good old earth.

But all this aside, let’s assume all our ventures out into space and to other planets is actually true, then this fascinating image of our Earth-Moon system as seen from Mars (actually from one of our space crafts up there) is in fact authentic.

But unfortunately it is totally misleading. It tries to create this feeling of being this small twin system out there in the void - alone but still the moon so close that we can identify with it.

Still, let’s still assume that this image is not photoshopped, then it uses the treacheries of three dimensions to mislead us. The moon must be either much closer to the observer - the little green Martian - or much further away.

How come?

Let’s do some simple math. The Earth diameter is about 12000 km (OK, I think in metric - so what?) and the distance of Earth and Moon is about 360000 km, that would put the Moon at the distance of about 30 Earth radii. In the NASA image the distance seems to be 6 Earth radii - pretty big difference, don’t you think?

If we - or the Martians - would look at our system at a time when the real distance of the two heavenly bodies in one image would be shown, we would see two specs of light without any awe-inspiring effect.

What do you think with they do this manipulation?

Posted by Merlin - June 9th, 2008

I want to pass on a story I have heard/read before at least once but maybe more. I am sure that it is on the internet many time. As a matter of fact, just let me check…

… hmmm, it’s actually less than I thought, Google only found about 200 instances of the story. But then again, Google eliminates duplicates and so there will be more. I just checked Yahoo and then find about twenty thousand instances of a key phrase of the story I’m about to give you - that’s more like it.

But before I get into any ranting and philosophizing, here’s the story…

Jerry is the manager of a restaurant. He is always in a good mood.

When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs, so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant.

Why?

Because Jerry was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him: “I don’t get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood.

I always choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always choose the positive side of life.”

“But it’s not always that easy,” I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk every situation is a choice.

You choose how you react to situations.
You choose how people will affect your mood.
You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.
It’s your choice how you live your life.”

Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business. He left the back door of his restaurant open.

And then ???

In the morning, he was robbed by three armed men.

They want?

#123*+!@$%&*~

While Jerry trying to open the safe box, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Want to see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared?” I asked.

Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the expression on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’

Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.

I learned from him that every day you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it. The only thing that is truly yours - that no one can control or take from you - is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.

OK, that’s the story! Obviously I like it, otherwise I would not have posted here on this site together with 20,000 other versions of it. The email in which I got it then continued on to indicate that now I had two choices as well, either to delete the message or pass it on. Mostly I don’t like to pass on email messages like this because, even though well intentioned, they add to the spam and interruption of my work flow. If I want to share I put it up on a blog and everybody interested in what I want to say is welcome to subscribe to the RSS feed for MerlinSilk.com.

If the unsolicited message is small and just contains a little story, then, in my eyes, it’s excusable to send, but many of the mails I get contain megabytes of video attached. It does not matter, time-wise, as I am lucky enough to be on a fast internet connection, but it is still wasted of band-width, as pretty much all those videos are on YouTube or any other video sharing site and a link to that video would suffice. All these extra bytes transferred just wear out the tubes of the internet and they might need replacing much earlier.

But now back to the subject at hand: why, if there are thousands of people posting this story on the internet (guess I am the 20,001st), are there so few practicing what this story suggest? I mean, I am throwing with stones here while sitting in a glass house. I was rather poopy with my loved once the other day. So this question is a real one, not rhetoric.

What do you do to keep up the good mood and don’t react to negativity in kind fashion?

Posted by Merlin Silk - April 23rd, 2008

“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you: Ask what you can do for your country.” (John F. Kennedy)

And he is not the only one who tries to pass on the idea that a person’s value is measured by the service he can give others. When looking into the world around me I can not help asking, if this is really correct.

Let’s first look at the money side. In this arena this certainly does not seem to be true. Here we often see the brutal and ruthless with the most wealth. I’m thinking about your local drug dealer, who certainly delivers a service, but it is not really a service that serves the recipient well in the long run. The boss of the that local drug dealer is the one that has the big car, and maybe the yacht in the next harbor down at the beach.

So, here we have monetary reward for rather destructive activity.

Next we can look at politics. Which is the most successful politician - the one who works for self determination of the people or the one who makes promises that he could never keep in order to gain personal power? Looking at the current situation where Ron Paul was the only voice that tried to get us back to some sanity and who was boycotted by the media urges me to assume that also in this arena the good service to the fellow man is not the one that’s rewarded.

Last point I want to look at is wooing. Yes, I know, it’s a bit weird, but I think it’s interesting to investigate this. Take two guys, one is the really nice guy, polite, considerate, opening-the-door kind of guy. The other is the athlete, totally in love with himself, self-centered and usually not very smart. Which one of those two gets the girl?

Do I come to the conclusion that the idea that serving others is of greatest value is plain wrong and only perpetrated by those who want to leech on those that believe this story?

No, I don’t think so. Despite all the examples I can observe outside of me, when I look inside and observe my feeling when I have done something nice for another person without any hidden agenda, it is no question where the real values are. Furthermore, it is often that we miss doing the good deed because of consideration that others might view us as week, opportunistic or worse. Once we get over that and really enjoy the true reward of the good deed, all that does not matter.

What we have gained, and that is the most valuable, is our freedom to choose, independent of the opinion of others, critical as well as supportive.

An in this spirit I present a picture showing service that is reward in itself, no need for an external gratification.

(Thanks, HD, for a little view into your daily life!)

Posted by Merlin Silk - March 18th, 2008

I read about an interesting study that was conducted to find out why Americans are so fat - uh - I think I have to say obese in order to be politically correct, ja? - while French are more predominantly slim and trim. (Is that true, Flemming?)

The result was surprising but simple. The two people react to different clues when to stop eating:

• French stop eating when they are full
• Americans stop eating when the plate is empty

It’s that simple!

Oh, yes, and here is another reason…

Posted by Merlin Silk - February 24th, 2008

I reported on the little video

They are Made out of Meat

before and once in a while I go there and enjoy it again. Today I ran into the text of that story and can’t help but to leave it here on this site as well.

Terry Bisson
They’re Made out of Meat

“They’re made out of meat.”

“Meat?”

“Meat. They’re made out of meat.”

“Meat?”

“There’s no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They’re completely meat.”

“That’s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?”

“They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don’t come from them. The signals come from machines.”

“So who made the machines? That’s who we want to contact.”

“They made the machines. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.”

“That’s ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You’re asking me to believe in sentient meat.”

“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they’re made out of meat.”

“Maybe they’re like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage.”

“Nope. They’re born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn’t take long. Do you have any idea what’s the life span of meat?”

“Spare me. Okay, maybe they’re only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside.”

“Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They’re meat all the way through.”

“No brain?”

“Oh, there’s a brain all right. It’s just that the brain is made out of meat! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“So … what does the thinking?”

“You’re not understanding, are you? You’re refusing to deal with what I’m telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat.”

“Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”

“Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?”

“Omigod. You’re serious then. They’re made out of meat.”

“Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they’ve been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.”

“Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?”

“First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual.”

“We’re supposed to talk to meat.”

“That’s the idea. That’s the message they’re sending out by radio. ‘Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.’ That sort of thing.”

“They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?”

“Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat.”

“I thought you just told me they used radio.”

“They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.”

“Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?”

“Officially or unofficially?”

“Both.”

“Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing.”

“I was hoping you would say that.”

“It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?”

“I agree one hundred percent. What’s there to say? ‘Hello, meat. How’s it going?’ But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?”

“Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can’t live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact.”

“So we just pretend there’s no one home in the Universe.”

“That’s it.”

“Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You’re sure they won’t remember?”

“They’ll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we’re just a dream to them.”

“A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat’s dream.”

“And we marked the entire sector unoccupied.”

“Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?”

“Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again.”

“They always come around.”

“And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone …”

the end

This story originally appeared in Omni April 1991 and was nominated for the Nebula Award. It is taken from the collection ‘Bears Discover Fire’, available at Amazon. You can find out more about Terry Bisson on his website.

Posted by Merlin Silk - February 21st, 2008

Today I got an email claiming that John Hopkins changed his mind about cancer treatment.

First of all this email talked about John Hopkins, implying that it was taking about the John Hopkins University and its medical and cancer center - but notice it did not say that, so it could be any John Ignatius Hopkins living in Idaho.

So, let’s see first - here is that email…

News from John Hopkins

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY (TRY BEING THE KEY WORD) AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHN HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY.

Cancer Update from John Hopkins:

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have m ultiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime.
3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
12. CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
    • Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s amino or sea salt.
    • Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.
    • Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a litt le chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
    • A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
    • Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water- it is best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
13. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.
14. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
15. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor ssence,Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
16. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
17. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

PLEASE READ ON

1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has already sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.

Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin.

So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons. Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

So, there you have it!

If you are aware of bad things in your environment, this might resonate with you and you will feel relieved that John Hopkins - whoever that may be - is finally coming to his senses and sees the light.

Only problem here is that this is a hoax. It feeds on the inability of many people to question something they like. Easy to reject something you dislike, sure, but something you wish was true…

Thanks to the internet I can now take my trusty Google and search for a phrase of this email and see what comes up. Wow, nearly 14000 matches for “Cancer Update from John Hopkins” with wild discussions about the subject on some of those sites. I guess not many have confirmed with the alleged originator of that article.

If you do you will find the following statement of the John Hopkins Cancer Center…

HEADLINE: Email Hoax Regarding Cancer

Lohns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center
Office of Public Affairs
March 2007

EMAIL HOAX REGARDING CANCER

An email falsely attributed to Johns Hopkins describing properties of cancer cells and suggesting prevention strategies has begun circulating the Internet. Johns Hopkins did not publish the email, entitled “Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins,” nor do we endorse its contents. For more information about cancer, please read the information on our web site or visit the National Cancer Institute’s web site at www.cancer.gov.

Another hoax email that has been circulating since 2004 regarding plastic containers, bottles, wrap claiming that heat releases dioxins which cause cancer also was not published by Johns Hopkins.

-JHM-

I think many of the points in the hoax email are very valid, but it does a great dis-service by trying to appear something it is not. It’s the old ‘cry wolf’ story. When you find out that the email lied about the origin, then the rest must be a lie too, right?

I myself fell for something like this before and it took me years to recover. You might have seen that email that claims that canola oil is better used as a machine oil than as food. I took this at face value and was for years surprised that Whole Food Markets sells so many products with canola oil. I was about to write to them and ask why the heck don’t they do some research into this before they sell it. Fortunately I did the research myself before I wrote this letter and so spared me a deep embarrassment - because that letter was a hoax as well.

I learned a very good lesson that also good news need to be verified, so I don’t complain that I fell for that letter initially.

Posted by Merlin Silk - January 28th, 2008

With the battle for the presidential nomination raging it is interesting to gather some opinions about those who strive to be our rulers, those who want us to vote for them so that they then may tell us what to do and think.

Yoko Ono, late John Lennon’s wife has a great website Imagine Peace. On it I found the following video…

It struck me as fascinating how John Lennon assessed the situation with government and politicians - The people are the government, they have the power.

And isn’t he right?!

I might have mentioned once or twice on this blog (yeah, right - once or twice!) that I am working on the understanding of “The World IS as I see it.” Thus John Lennon’s statment was right on the money for me. He described the only one little thing that needs to happen to change the world, and that is seeing it differently - namely realizing that we do have the power. A requirement for this realization would be to stop blaming others for non-optimal situations.

A nice exercise on the way to reach that goal is to play ‘pretend.’ Thanks to Larken Rose I have a nice example for that. If we take back all the power we think we have given to the government, we can easily imagine what he describes in one of his latest letters to his mailing list.

Dear Subscriber,

This message needs a very prominent disclaimer. This is because the federal control freaks and their hired thugs, who don’t hesitate to resort to overt oppression and violence themselves, are scared to death that one day their victims will decide to do a little “enforcement” of their own. You see, “government” folk can kick down doors, taser people, drag people away, shoot people, imprison people, steal property, and otherwise harass and intimidate the peasantry as often as they like, but if you happen to make some comment about the purpose of the Second Amendment, well then, you’re a TERRORIST! (The feds accusing someone of being a “terrorist” is a little like Hitler calling someone an anti-semite.) So I want to make this perfectly clear, so that even a hired federal goon or a judge can understand it: I am NOT advocating the following scenario. Far from it. I am pointing out how irrational and thug-minded the feds’ method of “debate” is, by seeing what their rationale would look like in the other direction. So, with that being said, imagine the following story appearing in “Domestic Terrorist Weekly”:

---

TAX EXTREMIST APPREHENDED
April 15, 2010
(c)2010 Associated Militant Press - Washington, DC

This week the Militia Department of Justice announced the arrest of another in a long line of “freedom protestors” who have been thumbing their noses at the American public, duping people into handing over money they didn’t owe. “This should send a strong message to any other freedom protestors that their lawlessness will not be tolerated,” said Militia Attorney General Trooth D. Fender, after the arrest of so-called “district judge” Powe R. Happee, adding that “These scam artists are duping the public and defrauding innocent people, and must be held accountable.

Last month Common Law Court Justice B. Dunn issued an injunction, barring an extremist cult publication called “The New York Times” from printing any more tax-related articles. “This abusive extortion scheme is an affront to all law-abiding citizens,” said Judge Dunn in his ruling, before imposing a ten-year prison sentence on David Cay Johnston, the leader and head guru of the “freedom deniers” sect at the “New York Times” cult.

“If you tell Americans that they owe the tax, you can expect to be forcibly silenced,” said tax expert Ikan Reed. “Even the few judges and IRS agents who have been found not guilty of fraud have had all their money stolen and their houses burned to the ground, as a warning to others who might be considering taking their advice.” Mr. Reed also added, “I mean, if we all owe the tax like they claim, why do these guys keep getting captured and locked up?”

Commissioner of Liberty, Propper T. Wrights, said that he is asking the Militia Congress for more powers to fight against the freedom protestors, including the ability to impose more severe fines and penalties against the promoters of the “61 fraud scheme”–a frivolous argument in which proponents claim that Section 61 of the Internal Revenue Code means that all income is taxable for all Americans. “These frivolous scams must be stopped at all costs, to protect the innocent,” said Mr. Wrights.

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Aside from a little pointless “turnabout-is-fair-play” daydreaming, what’s the point here? It is this:

Would kidnapping a few dozen IRS bureaucrats prove that we don’t owe the tax? No. Would hanging a judge or two prove us right? No. Would forcibly silencing opposing views show the validity of our position? No. What proves someone right is EVIDENCE and LOGIC. Any bozo should be able to understand that.

So why is it that the government, and its lapdog media, constantly harp on how much the feds have HURT people who say “861″? (And they’re hoping to do the same to Wesley Snipes.) What kind of moron thinks that THAT is proof that the 861 evidence is invalid? “Hey, we locked some people up, stole lots of money and property, and silenced a bunch of web sites. See? We told you they were wrong!” Nice mentality.

Luckily, most of us outgrew this outlook on life at about age three, when we realized that smacking our sibling in the head didn’t actually prove that we were in the right. Trouble is, neither federal judges nor IRS and DOJ thugs have figured that out yet. They still think locking people up, issuing injunctions and swiping property is an adequate substitute for rational discussion. Or rather, they think it’s okay for THEM to use violence instead of words; but if they even suspect for a second that WE might resort to violence, they run crying to the nearest armed federal thug. What a bunch of hypocritical, spineless cowards.

Sincerely,
Larken Rose

What I want for Larken is that he will take more John Lennon’s viewpoint. I can understand his grudge against the government that put him in jail for a year, but I think once he succeeds in owning this fact as his own creation, all this will go away. We might lose his sharp pen, which I enjoy a lot, but this will be worth the price to pay for his peace and happiness.

Posted by Merlin Silk - January 24th, 2008

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