I think that what we saw in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece was one of the most powerful messages pointing to a change in human history.
The message was full of symbols. Personally, the first one was a feeling I had weeks before, thinking that this is the last Olympic Games we will see in our current lifetime.
The way the water appeared and disappeared inside the stadium forming this huge lake was another symbol of planetary changes. There was no water, it was dry (droughts?), within minutes the water appeared out of the blue creating this huge mass of water and disappearing as another symbol (for me)
The impeccable parade of 3,000 years of human history, to the most overwhelming image of the pregnant women with a lit womb walking on the waters of the lake while on top of her head the spiral of DNA was whirling in light, was one touching vision.
Another important moment was the changes in the protocol in that, for the first time, the western alphabet was not used at the entrance of the stadium by the countries and their representatives' delegations, and instead of it, the Greek one was used, which we know starts with the letter ALPHA and ends with the letter OMEGA.
"I am the ALPHA and the OMEGA, the beginning and the end." We all know who said these words.
The gods of mythology were present flying above the stadium, symbols that are used in many disciplines and areas such as psychology, as a way to interpret human behavior through the myth and the hidden meaning of the psyche.
A relevant moment before the Olympic torch was lit up, was a race performed by an athlete carrying the flag with the branch of olives on it, running and cutting ribbons that were placed across. Each one of the ribbons meant one year, one country and one Olympic Game that we have lived through history. Each year and place was named loud and clear with each ribbon that fall on the floor cut in two parts.
There were two touching moments in which the athlete fell on the floor; one was when the speaker mentioned World War I and then he fel again at the mentioning of World War II.
I would like to add my comment to this very impressive moment.
It is about the "Mala," the Hindu string of beads that is used to recite mantras, as Christians have the Rosary and Arabs the Masbahah.
The "Mala" has 108 beads to recite the mantras, and those who use or have used the "Mala" know that there is one bead that we cannot cross to go on with the recitation, and that is the 109th bead, from which we turn the "Mala" back on go on backwards in the recitation and so on as we reach again the next 108th bead.
There are many meanings about why we cannot cross the 109th bead, but one is to acknowledge that in this 3D world, we have certain limits, that there are doors that cannot be opened and places we should not go in, because there is no return from them. My Teacher Mataji, said that the 109th bead of the "Mala" was the Jordan River.
108 years, 108 ribbons were crossed, two falls for humankind represented by two World Wars during that period of time. 108 normal beads has the "Mala or "JapaMala".
If we would fall for the third time in the race, it would represent the bead that we should not cross and we all know that a third fall would be a World War with no return.
Maybe, it's my imagination, but I feel the need to share it.
The entire presentation was full of many other messages to watch at. One that I think is the worst it to mention. It is something I learned while I was reading a book that talks a lot about symbology (The Da Vinci Code).
The five intertwined circles represent Venus (morning and evening star) which traces a perfect pentacle across the sky every eight years. To the ancients, observing this phenomena, Venus became the symbol of perfection and beauty, qualities prized in athletes' bodies. As a tribute to Venus, the Greeks used her 8 year cycle to organize their Olympic Games.
The four-year schedule of the Olympics follows Venus' half-cycle. The five pointed star of Venus (pentacle) almost became the official Olympic seal but the five points were exchanged for five intersecting rings to reflect the spirit of inclusion and harmony (Venus' qualities) within the games and also the five continents.
The Olympics this year are held during a Mercury retrograde. Therefore the outcome of the Olympics in general and the athletes in particular will be unexpected.
Any relationship with the Mayan sayings about the Venus cycles we have heard since January 2004?
The use of the five platonic solids projected on top of the huge body that was inside the water are the symbols and basis of Sacred Geometry
And Sacred Geometry is the pattern on which our planet is built. The five geometric patterns of the Merkaba field, which is the electromagnetic body of each living being as well as the electromagnetic body from the planet earth. That was present too.
If this was done intentionally or not it doesn't matter, since the message was there for all of us.
All that has a particular or single meaning reaches the collective and I believe that we saw clearly portrayed the representation of a cycle of humanity; one that is ending, another one that is starting.
The 202 delegations of all countries inside the stadium created a huge and symbolic planetary flag. No country stayed outside, since the Olympic Committee paid for even the poorest countries to be present, this has also no precedent in the history of the Olympics Games and to end, the most applauded delegation was the Iraqi one.
It's up to us to have a last thought about this event.
This is an interesting quiz from the online New Yorker.
The Thirteenth Hundred Days
by Paul Slansky
Issue of 2004-08-30
Posted 2004-08-23
1. Three of these statements were made by George W. Bush. Which one was made by Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.)?
(a) “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
(b) “Tribal sovereignty means that it’s sovereign. You’re a—you’ve been given sovereignty and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity.”
(c) “Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilize their country, and we will help them rid Iraq of these killers.”
(d) “Isn’t that the ultimate homeland security—standing up and defending marriage?”
Who’s who?
2. Alberto Gonzales.
3. Tony Robinson.
4. Steven Galson.
5. Thomas B. Griffith.
6. Devon Largio.
7. Terry Holt.
(a) The Bush federal-appeals-court nominee who practiced law in Utah for four years without a state license.
(b) The college student whose honors thesis found that the Bush Administration offered twenty-three different rationales for the Iraq war.
(c) The federal drug official who rejected the 23-4 recommendation of an advisory panel and refused to allow a morning-after birth-control pill to be sold over the counter.
(d) The former Army interrogation instructor who said of the Abu Ghraib prison photographs, “Frat hazing is worse than this.”
(e) The author of the 2002 memo to George W. Bush which said that the war on terrorism “renders quaint” certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions.
(f) The Bush campaign official who referred to stem-cell researchers who oppose restrictions on their work as “mad scientists out of control.”
8. Complete George W. Bush’s statement: “The reason ______________.”
(a) I can’t stop saying ‘the American people are safer’ [is] because the American people are safer
(b) I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and Al Qaeda [is] because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda
(c) people all over the world think the United States government authorized torture [is] because the United States government did authorize torture
(d) Jenna stuck her tongue out at those reporters [is] those reporters deserved to have their tongues stuck out at
9. What caused Dick Cheney to say to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), “Fuck yourself”?
(a) Leahy had said, “So, Dick, you didn’t think you needed to check with the boss before ordering planes full of civilians to be shot down?”
(b) Leahy had made a comment comparing Cheney’s “quintuple-deferment war record” with John Kerry’s heroics.
(c) Leahy had pointed out how many no-bid contracts had gone to Halliburton.
(d) Leahy had said, “Cheney’s turned into a James Bond villain.”
10. Three of these statements describe Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Which one describes his boss, Donald Rumsfeld?
(a) He publicly understated the number of deaths of United States soldiers in Iraq by more than two hundred at a congressional hearing.
(b) He scoffed at the notion that prisoners’“quality of life” was compromised at Abu Ghraib, saying, “Whether they have a PX or a good restaurant is not the issue.”
(c) He told a House committee hearing that so many negative stories are coming out of Iraq because reporters are “afraid to travel very much, so they sit in Baghdad and they publish rumors.”
(d) He conceded, after a good deal of questioning by a Senate committee, that putting a bag over someone’s head for seventy-two hours was “not humane.”
11. In May, the White House announced that George W. Bush would deliver five weekly speeches intended to shore up support for his Iraq policies. How many of the five did he deliver before abandoning the effort?
(a) One. (c) Three.
(b) Two. (d) Four.
12. Which statement did Ron Reagan not make?
(a) “Dad . . . never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians: wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage.”
(b) “My father didn’t know George W. Bush from Adam.”
(c) “Cheney brought my mother up to the casket . . . she has glaucoma and has trouble seeing. There were steps, and he left her there. He just stood there, letting her flounder. I don’t think he’s a mindful human being.”
(d) “My father wouldn’t have had to prove how macho he was by waving around Saddam’s gun.”
13. Where was the Cheney rally at which people were refused admission unless they signed this statement: “I, (full name) . . . do herby [sic] endorse George W. Bush for re-election of the United States”?
(a) Missouri. (c) Nevada.
(b) Michigan. (d) New Mexico.
14. How did George W. Bush pronounce the name of Abu Ghraib prison, the site of the abuses that he claimed to have been “disgusted of” and “disgraced about”?
(a) “Abugah-rayp.”
(b) “Abu-gareff.”
(c) “Abu-garon” and “Abu-garah.”
(d) All of the above.
Answers:
(1) d, (2) e, (3) d, (4) c, (5) a, (6) b, (7) f, (8) b, (9) c, (10) b, (11) a, (12) d, (13) d, (14) d.
Juan Cole has some words about Geo. W. Bush:
Bush's Superficial Wounds in the Vietnam Era
The debate that a handful of Texas multi-millionnaires close to the Bush family have cleverly manufactured over John Kerry's war record is absurd in every way. The charges that they have put some vets up to making against Kerry are false and can be demonstrated by the historical record to be false. Most of those making the charges have even flip-flopped, contradicting themselves. Or they weren't eyewitnesses and are just lying.
But to address the substance of this Big Lie is to risk falling into its logic. The true absurdity of the entire situation is easily appreciated when we consider that George W. Bush never showed any bravery at all at any point in his life. He has never lived in a war zone. If some of John Kerry's wounds were superficial, Bush received no wounds. (And, a piece of shrapnel in the forearm that caused only a minor wound would have killed had it hit an eye and gone into the brain; the shrapnel being in your body demonstrates you were in mortal danger and didn't absent yourself from it. That is the logic of the medal). Kerry saved a man's life while under fire. Bush did no such thing.
What was Bush doing with his youth? He was drinking. He was drinking like a fish, every night, into the wee hours. For decades. He gave no service to anyone, risked nothing, and did not even slack off efficiently. At what point he became addicted to cocaine, in addition to demon rum, is unclear.
The history of alcoholism and cocaine use is a key issue because it not only speaks to Bush's character as an addictive personality, but tells us something about his erratic and alarming actions as president. His explosive temper probably provoked the disastrous siege of Fallujah last spring, killing 600 Iraqis, most of them women and children, in revenge for the deaths of 4 civilian mercenaries, one of them a South African. (Newsweek reported that Bush commanded his cabinet, "Let heads roll!") That temper is only one problem. Bush has a sadistic streak. He clearly enjoyed, as governor, watching executions. His delight in killing people became a campaign issue in 2000 when he seemed, in one debate, to enjoy the prospect of executing wrong-doers a little too much. He has clearly gone on enjoying killing people on a large scale in Iraq. Cocaine use permanently affects the ability of the person to feel deep emotions like empathy. Two decades of pickling his nervous system in various highly toxic substances have left Bush damaged goods. That he managed to get on the wagon (though with that pretzel incident, you wonder how firmly) is laudable. But he suffers the severe effects of the aftermath, and we are all suffering along with him now, since he is the most powerful man in the world.
We all know by now that Bush did not even do his full service with the Texas Air National Guard, absenting himself to work on the Alabama senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount. Whether he was actually AWOL during this stint is unclear. But it is clear that not only did Bush slack off on his National Guard service, but he also slacked off from his campaign work.
This little-noted interview with Blount's nephew Murph Archibald, which appeared on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered on March 30, 2004, gives a devastating insight into what it was like to have to suffer through Bush in that period.
"All Things Considered (8:00 PM ET) - NPR
March 30, 2004 Tuesday
This campaign season, there have been questions about whether George W. Bush fulfilled his obligations to the National Guard as a young lieutenant in the early 1970s. For weeks, reporters scoured Alabama in search of pilots or anyone who might have remembered seeing Mr. Bush at the time he was serving in the National Guard there. There is one place in Alabama where Mr. Bush was present nearly every day: the headquarters in Montgomery of US Senate candidate Winton "Red" Blount. President Bush has always said that working for Blount was the reason he transferred to the Alabama Air National Guard. NPR's Wade Goodwyn has this report about Mr. Bush's time on that campaign.
WADE GOODWYN reporting:
In 1972, Baba Groom was a smart, funny young woman smack-dab in the middle of an exciting US Senate campaign. Groom was Republican Red Blount's scheduler, and in that job, she was the hub in the campaign wheel. Ask her about the handsome young man from Texas, and she remembers him 32 years later like it was yesterday.
Ms. BABA GROOM (Former Campaign Worker): He would wear khaki trousers and some old jacket. He was always ready to go out on the road. On the phone, you could hear his accent. It was a Texas accent. But he just melded with everybody.
GOODWYN: The candidate Mr. Bush was working for, Red Blount, had gotten rich in Alabama in the construction business. Prominent Southern Republicans were something of a rare breed in those days. Blount's support of the party led him to be appointed Richard Nixon's postmaster general. In Washington, Blount became friends and tennis partners with Mr. Bush's father, then Congressman Bush. That was how 26-year-old Lieutenant Bush came to Montgomery, at his father's urging . . .
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There's more of the NPR interview and Juan's comments at http://juancole.com/
You know Karl Rove is running scared when Bob Dole comes out with his blatant accusation that Kerry's purple heart may be fraudulent, that it may have been awarded for superficial wounds...
DailyKos has some info for those with dancing fingers:
Senator Dole can be contacted through his phone number and email address at the law firm of Alston & Burd, where he is special counsel:
Senator Bob Dole
Alston & Bird LLP
601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
North Building, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20004-2601 USA
Phone: 202-654-4848
Fax: 202-654-4850
bdole@alston.com
I suggest that we inform Senator Dole that we are outraged at his hyper-partisan and ill-informed attack on a fellow veteran.
I also suggest we contact Senator Dole's boss, the managing partner at Alston & Bird, and tell him that one of his senior attorneys is telling brazen lies to the American people:
Ben F. Johnson III
Alston & Bird LLP
One Atlantic Center
1201 West Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30309-3424 USA
Phone: 404-881-7297
Fax: 404-881-7777
bjohnson@alston.com
Feh!!!
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Go get 'em! People Power... BLUE power...
Namaste
WV,
I meant to get back to you re your comments on the last thread about Kerry and the nation in general... couldn't agree with you more... just don't see any solution to getting Dubya and Neocons out except to vote for Kerry...
Thanks for the link on depleted uranium... we cannot be reminded enough with regard to what harm we as a nation have done to our mother, the earth, along with so many of her children... we will pay dearly for this.
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To all,
tMerc Rx is said to be a time for review... and it appears the nation has had its attention turned from the quagmire in Iraq to the Viet Nam War which the Neocons have never forgiven us for 'losing'... I see the smear attack on Kerry as long held hostility venting itself on the candidate and the anti-war movement against the invasion of Iraq... Got an email this a.m. from a progressive movement with the following comments on "Bubba" and his long-seething hatred of 'peaceniks'... these are the words of any angry 'Peacenik' ... I share them with you... for we too are entitled to anger.
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"On the one hand we have the "Bubba Patriots" ("my country right or wrong") who decidedly do believe in the privilige which is accorded to those who can steal the mostest, the firstest. Bubba Thurlow (from the essay above)has the same machoman bigot mentality which conducted genocide on the Indians,fought to preserve slavery and then later to keep the "niggers" in their place, stole Indian, Mexican, and Spanish land, was proud to serve in dozens of marine occupations of Central America for New York monopolists, who
was suckered into World War I to preserve the British Empire, finally came into his own with World II to defeat fascism, and then spoiled the good karma by rampaging in one of history's most murderous episodes through the forests of Vietnam. He obviously is also "one" in standing tall with Bubba Bush as ignorant soldiers progressively engineer the Tragedy of Iraq into a
version of the Lebanon Shoot-out of the 1970's and early 1980's, which more or less left not a building standing. It is the same mentality. The same man.
For this crowd, no lie was nor is too big to tell. They still tell all the old timey lies of the 19th century without blinking their eyes. On the other hand, we have those who are struggling to cleanse the soul of America from this violent, filthy mentality and the sociopathic culture which it has engendered. We are still fighting the War In Vietnam because we have not succeeded in defeating the arrogant use of any form of
violence, lying, and manipulation in the WILL to dominate and control "the gooks" of the world."