...For being AWOL, that is.

I don't have one. It's certainly not because I don't love you all.

But for the moment, I'm back.

I've been reading the reaction to the elections. I don't remember, did we conservatives ever gloat as much as folks like Phylo se Fizer and Kimberley when the Republicans took over the House and Senate back in '94, or when W was finally certified president in '00?

It's also been interesting to read the Bush Bashing from both sides of the aisle here. My only comment is that if what will be IS, and Time is the revelation of what IS to our wondering eyes (my third postulate), then every single one of the 6 billion plus people on the planet is doing exactly what he or she is supposed to do at any given instant. That includes W.

As I've said many times before, the only choice any of us ever has (at our level of existance in tardyon space) is whether we will accept Reality and our places in it--which leads to one set of consequences within the feltwork of existence--or reject Reality and our places in it--which leads to a completely different set of consequences, both personally and for everyone else within our worldspace. And we make that choice every moment of every day, whether we realize it or not.

Nuff said on that subject.

For those of you interested in my novels and eventually my other creative endeavors, I've completely redesigned my main website for ease of navigation. I've added Phoenix Lady's Nest to my blog roll. Check it out from time to time. The novels themselves are under the Phoenix Rising Presents tab. Eventually I plan to add my House of Tomorrow and Village of Tomorrow plan drawings under the House of Tomorrow tab, but that will have to wait for several other things to fall into place. I'll let you know when they're available.

Meanwhile, keep choosing to walk on the Bright Side of the Golden Rule.

...and why you should be interested.

The Wirefly X-Prize Cup webcast, available at Space.com, is history, but highlights are still available.

I would have liked to go this year since last year's expo was a blast, but time and finances made it impossible. Next year...

Why is it important to you? Ultimately, that depends on you. However, the technology that we enjoy and blog with wouldn't exist without the space program. The Tablet PC I'm writing this on wouldn't exist--and be powerful enough to serve as the flight control console for Pixel, the Armadillo Spacecraft entry in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander challenge. To be able to watch history being made in virtual realtime by way of the webcast is awesome.

This year, we saw a specially equipped Lear Jet designed to serve as the pace plane for the Rocket Racing League demonstrate the highway in the sky concept (which was also shown from the ground, as viewers of next year's races will see it on the big screen). Next year we'll see the first rocket race.

Although Pixel didn't win the Lunar Lander Challenge this year, she did beat the DC-X on several key points, the main one being turn around time (plus, of course, she's much smaller and a lot less expensive--about a quarter million dollars as opposed to the $500,000,000 or so for DC-X). She'll be retired after cracking a LOX tank on her aborted return flight after a very successful first leg from one launch pad to the other. But I don't doubt there'll be a much improved successor next year. In engineering, the mantra has always been "build a little, test a little," not to mention learn from all the failures--i.e. results that don't match expectations.

Also of note were the Elevator Games, where teams tried to get solar-powered ribbon climbers to the top of a crane within a minute. No one won that prize this year, either, but a team of high school kids from Westmont, California, captained by the father of one of the students, came the closest, by climbing the ribbon tether in just over 2 minutes. (For those who don't know why this is important to space development, rockets are only one way to get to orbit. The other way is by building a space elevator. For more, check out the Space Lift link on my Sophia Systems blog.)

It was good to see old friends like Dr. Gaubatz, who headed up the DC-X program, Dr. Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-Prize Foundation, Greg Maryniak, one of the commentators and VP of the X-Prize Foundation, and even Dr. Alan Hale, co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp. Sure, I would've loved to be there, but this was almost as good.

Again, next year...

Meanwhile, one thing I learned from the webcast is that the NASA Challenger Prizes have been zeroed out of the budget. I urge everyone who reads this to contact your representatives and senators and ask to have those funds restored. They're such a small part of NASA's budget, yet they're having a very large impact on the problem of encouraging innovation in space technology--and also encouraging kids to work on the hard sciences and math so they can become engineers. And remember, even NASA's entire budget is a drop in the bucket compared to Social Insecurity, Medicare, or any of the other entitlement programs (or even defense appropriations). While I believe NASA should focus on encouraging the research and development process without picking winners (beyond setting the rules to win), I also believe that whoever controls the high ground of space--be it Low Earth Orbit, Geosynchronous Orbit, the Moon, or beyond, will control the future of humankind and the planet as a whole. That makes NASA a major player in our national defense.

China plans to put men on the Moon within 15 years or so, and other nations such as India and Japan aren't far behind. Do we really want China to shape our future? Bad enough they're building their economy on our demand for their cheap products.

But, of course, if the Democrats win this year, and especially if they win in '08, we can pretty well forget about space development because socialists can't bear the thought of anyone (especially us) escaping their clutches.

So work for Republican victories, and educate your Republican (and Democrat) representatives and senators about why space development is of vital importance to you and your kids. (And if you don't think it is, go check out my Sophia Systems blog, especially the space links. Kids are almost as fascinated about becoming astronauts as they are about dinosaurs. At least they've got a chance to become astronauts. The only dinosaurs they'll ever see up close and personal are those flying around their houses.)

In the meantime, Ad Astra per Levitas Nostra!

If you want to watch what's happening at the Wirefly X-Prize Cup, go here right now!

I've been super busy lately.

Among other things, I've been processing all the stuff I read on the Yada Yahweh site (especially Future History). I may get a novel out of it someday, but what I've got so far would never work.

I've also spent a couple of weekends fixing up my website, Phoenix Lady's Nest, available here if you want to check it out. Looks a lot better, doesn't it. Not only that, but it's ready for me to upload information about my other creative endeavors (from jewelry to plan books for my House of Tomorrow designs, etc.). Meanwhile, the novels are easily accessible through the Phoenix Rising Presents link, plus I've added blurbs so you have some idea what you're getting before you actually download them.

Meanwhile, at work, I've applied for a position as a supervisor, something I've never done before. I had a lot of fun putting the Power Point presentation they asked for together. If it succeeds, I might modify it slightly (to remove company specific info) and share it here or on one of my other blogs. My husband thinks it's funny. Maybe you will, too.

Lots of good things are happening at NSS, particularly with the Space Settlements section. I'm not sure any of it's visible to the public yet, but if not, I'll let you know.

I'll post something a bit more substantive about the state of the world and my take on it (e.g. the NOKO problem, etc.) when I catch up with it. For now, just be assured I haven't forgotten about you all.

Warning: Extremely Long Post. Read at your own risk. 

Several times I have referred to work done by Craig Winn (one of the authors of Tea With Terrorists, which you can find here). As he explains in the preface to that novel, he has actually had tea with terrorists in his efforts to understand them and Islam, at considerable risk to his life and that of his loved ones. You have to take someone like that seriously, at least to the extent of reading his work and examining it within the framework of your own life experience and world view.

As I have explained elsewhere, I was raised in the Unitarian Church (also known as the Unitarian-Universalist Association) rather than any of the Trinitarian denominations (Catholicism and Protestantism). However, I never actually joined the UUA as a practicing member because I recognized then (at the age of 16, mind you, back in the 60s) that the congregation of which my family were founding members was essentially sanctuary for what I now recognize as non-normies of the polar-left persuasion.
 
It was through kids I knew in this congregation that drugs entered into the high school I attended. I never did drugs myself, although at one church youth gathering I inhaled enough second hand pot and cigarette smoke to decide I would never smoke anything again, ever (my eyelids swelled up to the point where I couldn't see anything, and I was absolutely miserable).

The point here is that everyone in the congregation was miserable. Life was hard enough for me (as an outsider with a moderate hearing loss). Why would I want to make it harder by locking myself into that kind of prison?

Fortunately for me, after I graduated from high school, we moved to Dillon, Montana, a small college town with no Unitarian Church. During the one year I formally attended college there (it was a teachers' college and my dad was a professor of education--and I was mostly bored out of my mind with my teachers and classes--except for calculus and band), I met the man who is now my husband. He was a senior and wrote a column for the school newspaper called "Harbinger of Happenings." He also set up a coffeehouse in the basement of the Student Union Building called "The Diet of Worms." There was an actual Diet of Worms; it's the one where Martin Luther (a flaming non-normie if there ever was one) nailed his 95 theses to the door of the cathedral.

Anyway, I met my husband to be at the coffeehouse one cold winter's night on which I was feeling miserable. He reminded me strongly of a character in one of my Star Trek related series (of very badly written and thankfully long lost short stories). Even better, we soon discovered we had an interest in Star Trek in common. We have never stopped talking since. In him, I found my comfort, and he appears to have found his in me.

Whatever you may think of Star Trek, the important thing is that it provides a vision of a generally positive future, something that was very hard to come by during the 60s and 70s, even with the space program and its achievements. I'm one of those kids who grew up learning to duck and cover in the event of a nuclear attack by Russia, especially since I lived just south of the Hanford Atomic Works, one of the likely first targets of any civilization-ending nuclear exchange. I needed something hopeful to cling to as a child and young adult.

The other thing Star Trek did for me (this in high school) was show me the value of logical thinking over emotional reaction--very important to a teenager struggling to deal with the physical and emotional changes of that period in life. I "went Vulcan" in my junior year in high school, even to the point of shaving the ends of my eyebrows and tipping them up like those of a Vulcan. If you don't believe me, look at my class photos in my junior and senior yearbooks.

I soon discovered, however, that repressing my emotions didn't make them go away. Eventually, with some help from my mother, a family counselor, I figured out how to deal with them in a more sensible manner. But that isn't really the point here, save perhaps to show how close I came to becoming a flaming non-normie, and why I consider myself a recovering non-normie.

As I got to know my future husband, I also got to know a true normie, and a conservative thinker. He has a degree in secondary education, double major in English and History, but has never done more than teach as a substitute, partly because the bottom fell out of the market for teachers about the time he graduated (the last of the baby-boomers were going into school about then), and partly because he is a normie and most of the teachers and administrators even then were non-normies.

I also got acquainted with his library of Conservative Book Club books (most of which we still have). Believe me when I say it was like a whole new world. I was especially fascinated by his books on economics, including that by Ludwig von Mises.

When we got married in 1972, because he was working for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and assigned to Detroit, we moved 1800 miles from my family. My mother's advice was to find a congregational church to provide us with a support network. So we did, and thus began my education in the nature of Yahweh, Yahshua, and the nature of Reality as opposed to tiny part of reality we can access with our senses. I was baptized, and I grew an interest in eschatology, the study of the last days.

Given that I was already fascinated by the future, this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. But given the fact that I'd spent several years already developing my ability to think with some degree of critical discernment, it also shouldn't surprise anyone that I refused to say "yes, it will be this way," or "no, it won't be this way." The conclusion I came to is that there is a reason we can't see the future clearly--we're not supposed to because otherwise we wouldn't learn how to trust Yahweh, the Reality of which we are a part, and we wouldn't learn how to make the choice of which side of the Golden Rule to walk on.

Not that I came to that conclusion all at once, of course. Call it a summation of all the conclusions I have come to as a result of reading history, economics, science and technology (particularly geology and cosmology), a variety of biographies, a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and--well, you get the idea. I explore many of my conclusions in my novels as well, so if you're interested, check out Sophia Systems on the blog roll and go to My Novels on that site.

In effect, my life journey has been one of coming to know and walk with Yahshua as a Child of Yahweh. I have not been unaware of these Names, owing largely to my earlier years of bible study and my study of eschatology, but I have used other spellings (which I won't go into here because that would be a subject for a book and this entry is long enough as it is). I still do in my private conversations with the Most High.

Yada Yahweh is a long, detailed study of the oldest available sources for the Torah, the Psalms, and the Prophets, as well as the (re)New(ed) Covenant (generally known as the New Testament). It is available only online, and it is not yet complete. It represents a tremendous amount of research, and I honor Craig for that, because I know I would not have the patience. Clearly this is his calling. I have learned a lot that clarifies what I had earlier learned during my study of eschatology. I look forward to reading the sections he is still working on.

That said, however, I have to say that although I find much of value in his work, I have to sigh over his taking President Bush to task for invading Iraq--which he does at every opportunity. If what Craig has to say about the prophecies inspired by Yahweh is true, specifically that they have all (so far) been realized, then President Bush is doing exactly what he is supposed to do, whether the consequences are good for him or not.

I've said several times here and especially in assorted novels that what will be IS, and Time is the revelation of what IS to our wondering eyes. This is because from Yahweh's point of view, (which is infinite and eternal because Time is the fourth dimension and He is at least the seventh dimension) He IS. All of us are part of Him, in about the same way the quarks that make up the atoms in the molecules of the proteins that fill the cells of our bodies are part of us.

It is because each of us, normie, recovering non-normie, and flaming non-normie alike, is a part of Yahweh--Reality as a whole--that the only choice any of us ever has is which side of the Golden Rule we will walk on, and every single choice we ever make is, at heart, this one choice.

From Yahweh's point of view, everything IS. Choice is non-existent at that level of being, so Yahweh created us able to choose by shaping us such that we are unable to see the future, and therefore the consequences of our choices. Our consciousness resides in the fourth dimension (Time) such that we can only see what lies behind us at the speed of light. Think of yourself at the center of a pair of cones. One contains all of the light reaching our eyes from all points within the physical universe. The further we look into deep space (using all the means we've developed to do so), the further into the past we look. The other cone contains all the light that has not reached us yet, as well as everything we are incapable of perceiving. Think of it as looking out the back of your head.

Another analogy to consider is what the world looks like to you as a kid sitting in the rear-facing seat of one of those Brat pickups driven by your parents. As the Brat trundles down the freeway, the scenery comes into view on either side, then recedes into the distance behind the Brat. Because you are facing away from the direction of motion, you can't see anything that lies ahead of the Brat until it appears to either side and becomes part of your past.

Your mother or father, in the driver's seat, can see what's ahead, and interacts with it as needed to keep you safe. The highway keeps them from wandering all over the countryside by guiding them from where you all were to where you want to be--a new home, a camping trip, or whatever it may be.
 
For purposes of discussion, we will say the highway here represents the timeline of events Yahweh gave to his prophets. Call it prophecy. We can also call the driver of the Brat a prophet because he can see what lies ahead, though the farther away it is, the harder it is to see clearly. And we can call the kids in the rear-facing seats the people of Ysra'el--or us, for that matter. Because the kids can't look ahead and see what's coming, they have to take it on faith that what their parents see is true, and by the time what their parents see comes into the view of the kids, it looks quite different than when it was way down the road ahead.

What Craig tries to do in Yada Yahweh is help us understand the nature of the highway, as well as how the past we can all see (though not very clearly unless it is still close at hand) relates to the present and the future. He also makes an effort to explain why the rules are the rules (i.e. why we kids have to keep our seatbelts on rather than hanging off the back of the pickup like the dogs, or rough-housing with each other).
 
Given that Scripture is essentially the map of our portion of Reality (I often refer to it as a line of Reality because it is effectively the bundled lines of all who have ever lived on Earth, which could be called the Brat pickup in which we are traveling), and it was created beginning 6,000 years ago and ending 2,000 years ago, a lot has been lost in the translation. It would be as if we kids were looking at a really old map, with creases and rips and tears, written in a language we never learned, in hopes of understanding what we're looking at in the countryside around us.

As an aside, this is one reason I read the Roadside Geology books. If you think Scripture is hard to follow as a map to Eternity, you should take a trip through the mountains of Colorado without RG of Colorado to explain how they formed. Sure, you can enjoy the scenery, but I find I enjoy it a lot more when I understand how the scenery came to be as it now is. It's also great mental exercise to apply what you read to places you've been in the past (like Pennsylvania a long time ago) by pulling up the memories and comparing them with the information and maps in the books.

Not only is Scripture a map to Eternity in the sense that it shows the course of history (specifically that of Ysra'el), it is also a plea by Yahweh to us as individuals to come home and be part of His family, like the Prodigal Son. Yahweh, through Yahshua (Yah Saves), covered (and covers) over our excruciatingly painful sense of separation from Him if we are willing to accept His forgiveness and the familial relationship He intended from the Beginning.

As I've said in other posts, my personal belief is that in addition to all the things Craig says the Eden story represents, it also tells the tale of how we developed language and the illusion of separation from Reality (Yahweh). While other creatures have language to varying degrees, we appear to be the only species on Earth that developed language to the degree we did, crafted the illusion of separation from Reality in order to examine it, and went mad as a result of taking the illusion as the reality.

We are told in the Eden story that Yahweh created us, man and woman, in His/Her image (Yahweh is the initiator and His qodesh ruach, or Set-Apart Spirit, is the feminine completor). That means that ideally, we are integrated, as is Yahweh. In other words, we are normies, our Lizard, Monkey, and Angel brains working together as a unified whole, much as is the case with other animals, only on a much higher level as we also are self-aware to a degree far beyond their capacity. As normies, because we are comfortable in relationship to our Father and Mother Yahweh, we radiate that comfort outward onto the rest of the world.

What happened in the Garden is that we named Yahweh, distinguishing him as separate from ourselves, and panicked, because if He were separate from us, we must be separate from him, and that must be impossible and evil. We also became aware of ourselves not only as separate from Yahweh, but separate from each other, which is probably why Adam and Eve covered their different private parts with fig leaves out of embarrassment. Thus was non-normie-ness born.

Now, instead of radiating the Light of Yahweh in comfort to our children, we project onto Yahweh our internal dis-integrated triune nature. We seek healing for the agony of our dis-integrated selves in all the wrong places, as Jack Thomas explains on his site.

Craig takes Orthodox Judaism, Christianity in all its flavors, and Islam all to task by relating them to the Babylonian Ba'al worship. Given that all of these religions are hierarchial rather than relational, I think he's made a good case for this. Hierarchies of any kind, religious, political, or economic (e.g. corporations, etc.) are essentially constructs designed to control people--and only non-normies have a need to control those around them (especially normies), lest the non-normie at the top or center of the structure be revealed, like the Emperor, to have no clothes. (That fairy-tale, by the way, is highly instructive in and of itself concerning the nature of non-normies.)
 
Since there are degrees of non-normie-ness, it stands to reason that there are degrees of rigidity within the structures created by them. Those which are religious or political seem to run toward tighter control than those that are strictly economic, probably because people can leave a business more easily than they can leave a country or a religion they grew up in. Also, businesses (in the current era at least) are founded on the desire to serve people. Without customers, they fail. Religions and political structures, on the other hand, are generally founded on the desire to control people. They don't need customers, they need slaves.

That's not to say businesses, especially very large ones, can't become fiefdoms (see The Devil Wears Prada for an example of that), but because they still depend on the good will of individual customers in large numbers, when it comes right down to it, businesses can't wield the scourge of coercion to nearly the extent that religions and governments can.

The reason I bring up this distinction is because one of the things that sets the U.S. apart from just about all the other nations on the planet is that it was founded on what amounts to a business model. The founders recognized that all power vests in the individual because only the individual can choose which side of the Golden Rule he or she will walk on, and only the individual can be responsible for the consequences of his or her choices and actions. This realization came out of the Enlightenment and the recognition by some that Yahweh (regardless of the name used at the time) wanted a personal relationship with each and every one of us. Businesses are started by people who see a need that isn't being filled. Businesses are started by normies who want to help their fellows (normie or not). This is why the flaming non-normies in both the religious establishments and the governmental establishments (even in this country) absolutely hate businesses and do everything they can to bring them under control, either by accusing them of being evil (the religious types) or by taxing them (the governmental types).

This is, of course, also why we see the likes of Hugo Chavez and Amadmaninjihad (sorry, I still can't spell his name right, but I think you know who I'm referring to) calling President Bush the devil (projecting onto him their own internal demons), and by implication accusing all of us citizens of likewise being the devil. The sight of Pelosi and Rangel, non-normies themselves, complaining about this was absolutely hysterical--but not surprising, because non-normies from outside the control structure of a given non-normie are always the enemy.

Which brings us back to Yada Yahweh and Craig's insistence that we of the Philadelphian ecclesia (normies and recovering non-normies) are called to reveal the truth to those who refuse to see the truth. Craig names the Christian Churches, the Orthodox Jewish religious structure, and the Council for Foreign Relations (aka the Trilateral Commission?), along with Islam, as the four major control structures trying to persuade everyone to follow them into perdition rather than walk with Yahshua and Yahweh. As he sees it, we are supposed to speak out and keep speaking out against their lies, no matter what the personal cost (although as he explains, we should also ask Yahweh to keep us safe, and trust Him to do so).

Different people will do this in different ways. I, personally, can't find it in me to castigate President Bush for doing what he believed was and is the right thing to do. After all, everything IS, so he is only doing what he is supposed to do. He appears, from my admittedly distant observing post, to be a recovering non-normie stuck in a very difficult job. So I ask Yahweh to go on working with him and Laura (and indeed everyone within his administration) to make the difficult choices that must be made.

I also can't see that vinegar (which contains acid, after all) is going to persuade very many non-normies that they need to change their way of thinking, because vinegar is what they drink of life (which is why they have no sense of humor). They are sour-pusses because they are miserable, and they are miserable because they never got enough comfort from their parents, much less their siblings or peers. Why else would their mantra boil down to "Life sucks!"?

A little vinegar, or perhaps even a lot under the right circumstances, may be needed to dissolve a hole in the shell crafted by the non-normie to surround his/her screaming child, but then what the non-normie needs is a combination of honey (comfort and acknowledgement of the hurting child) and laughter (which rises out of the process of engaging the Angel brain and regaining perspective). Once a non-normie can come to recognize that he or she has been acting like a 4 year-old in a towering snit--and that it's okay if one is a four year old--it becomes possible for a non-normie to admit he or she does need to grow up, but only in a sufficiently supportive environment. AA, Al-Anon, and Ala-teen are good examples of such environments.

I go into a lot more detail about my view of how to help non-normies recognize their need for help, hope, and comfort in the Starfield Valley Tales, so I'll leave that point for now.

Finally, Craig goes into a lot of detail about the Last Days, which he provides good reason to believe we will see within the next 30 years. In my previous post, I gave the dates he provides for the beginning of the Great Tribulation, the fall of the small asteroid Apothis into the North Atlantic, the Return of Yahshua to end the Battle of Armageddon, and the beginning of His thousand year reign. The link in that post provides even more dates, both past and future, so I won't go into a lot of gory detail here. The key question for me has to do with what has been called the Rapture (harpazo, the removal of all those who know and walk with Yahweh in the twinkling of an eye). This is due to happen some time between now and November of 2026, specifically on the first day of Rosh Hashanah (once known as the Feast of Trumpets) in one of the years between now and then. Craig seems to think the most likely year may actually be 2023, though he hasn't yet explained why.

This has left me in something of a quandry. I would, of course, love to be among those taken out of the world in the twinkling of an eye--but I'm working to encourage the exploration, development, and settlement of space, with the emphasis on encouraging normies and recovering non-normies to work with me on this huge project so as to leave the flaming non-normies behind on Earth.
 
If I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, as is everyone else, what does this mean? Does it mean I'm not going to be among those taken out of the world in the twinkling of an eye, even though I know the Name of Yahweh and have accepted His forgiveness through the atonement of Yahshua on my behalf? Working for space development by mortals could be defined as attempting to be self-reliant rather than trusting in Yahweh for everything.
 
On the other hand, we are asked to walk with Yahweh and be in a family relationship with Him--and the science and technology we have developed would not have been possible were it not for the Enlightenment, which is represented in the Revelation to John by the letter to the Philadelphians. I believe Yahweh wants us to use the illusion of separation as a tool to explore His creation so that we can truly be His Children and share His Joy.
 
I could be wrong, of course. Certainly my understanding is limited at best because I am limited by nature (and you'll never hear a non-normie admit such a thing, because it is far too threatening to their fragile egos).

I would be very interested to see what you, my readers, think. Should I go on working for space development, or should I drop the whole idea and focus on encouraging non-normies to wake up and begin the road to recovery in hopes of being taken out of the world in the twinkling of an eye sometime in the next 20 years?

Or should I go on doing both?

...are nearly upon us.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've been studying a website called Yada Yahweh, available here. While I won't commit at this point to agreeing with everything Craig Winn says (he's co-author of Tea With Terrorists, which I recommended earlier), he has clarified a great deal about Scripture and Prophecy for me (I'll comment more fully on that in another post later). The important thing about his reading of prophecy concerning the last days is that he gives dates for the beginning of the Great Tribulation (November 14, 2026), the strike of the small asteroid Apothis in the North Atlantic (April 13, 2029), the return of Yahshua to end the Battle of Armaggedon (October 3, 2033), and the beginning of the Millennium (October 8, 2033).

He doesn't give a specific date for what is mistakenly called the Rapture (harpazo, the taking out of those who know Yahweh's Name and are found doing His Work), but it will happen on the first day of what is now called Rosh Hashanah (but used to be called the Feast of Trumpets) sometime between now and 2026.

What I find interesting is something the Lady Logician (check out Ladies Logic on the Blog Roll) found at the following link.

http://www.worldthreats.com/general_information/Islam%20Plan%20to%20Take%20Over%20USA.htm

The most interesting thing is that this is a 20 year plan (is it just coincidence?), and the question is "what are we supposed to do about it?"

The answer is found at non-normie.com, under Combatting Non-Normies, and boils down to the following:

1.) Identify them (i.e. watch and listen to them, because they will identify themselves by their words and actions, if you've educated yourself about what to look and listen for on this site).

2.) Control them (before they control you).

Jack Thomas also provides the 5 step plan for controlling them. It is as follows:

1. First you identify them, and their opinion, as being non-normie, using the information you gleaned from this site.
2. Then, confidently label their argument as non-normie. If they know what non-normie means, it will cause them to go somewhat insane. So be prepared for a savage attack against you, personally. If they don't know, graciously refer them to non-normie.com to learn what it means.
3. Verbally assault their argument as being non-normie and, therefore, invalid. If they persist:
4. Ridicule them. This is hard for normies to do, being decent people. But, like in war, normies have to do things that they wouldn't do under other circumstances.
5. Marginalize them and their arguments (just like polar-right was marginalized by polar-left). This is the process of invalidating all polar-left non-normie opinions, on their face, simply because they came from a non-normie (illogical and emotional) perspective.

For more about how to do this, click here. Then start applying these principles on the non-normies in your personal spheres of influence. Also, check the Non-Normie blog on my blog roll for the latest Non-Normie of the day, especially if you need a good laugh, or a better understanding of a Non-Normie in the news (his latest is Hugo Chavez).

If you test yourself, discover you are a non-normie and want to learn how to recover, find a 12-step program in your area. While non-normie-ness may be incurable, there is still help, hope, and comfort for the agony inside.

If you test yourself and determine that you are a normie (or a recovering non-normie like me), great! Find and work with other normies and recovering non-normies to provide help, hope, and comfort to each other and your family and friends--and to combat the non-normies who refuse to recognize that they are their own worst enemies.

Finally, if you have children, do whatever you can to provide them with help, hope, and comfort lest they become non-normies through failure to learn how to grieve properly for any loss.

If you do all these things, you will find yourself choosing to walk on the Bright Side of the Golden Rule and into the Light of Yahweh with Yashua. Again, more on that in a separate post.

...knew exactly what he was doing and why. Not so much because he was inspired by God (he wasn't speaking Ex Cathedra) but because he let the Muslims reveal for the rest of the world that nothing has changed since the 7th Century in terms of what they believe. At the same time, he let the polar-left Non-Normies (see my previous post for the link to Non-Normies.com) reveal just how sick they are.

I'm not Catholic, but I admire the Pope for putting his neck on the line to tell the cold, hard truth about these people.

I did test myself at Non-Normie.com and as long as I'm taking my anti-depressant, I test mid-range normie (normal). Given that major depression runs in my family (we've traced it back at least four generations on my mother's side), that's probably a major accomplishment. Without my meds, I'd probably be in the non-normie range, and since I really don't like going there (having done so way too many times in the past) I think I'll stay on my meds.

The interesting thing about that site is that it explains a lot about why I write my novels the way I do. As a person who has bouts with non-normie-ness (anxiety and depression), I try to show myself (and maybe others) how we need to help and comfort each other--especially our children--in the face of loss, so that they learn it is okay to mourn or grieve. Otherwise they will bury their anger at the loss--or the lack of comfort over the loss--and eventually become dysfunctional as described on the site.

I strongly urge everyone here to take a look at this site because it explains why so many people, both Muslims and Hate America First-ers are the way they are. More to the point, it gives us specific things we can do to combat them on the local level, particularly in the school systems, which have essentially been taken over by polar-left non-normies. If we can implement some of these suggestions, we might have a chance to help our children avoid the traps of non-normie-ness.

I'd like to take a minute here to thank Just a Thought for the kind remarks about A Little Bit of Heaven. With respect to the matter of royalty, which some people may have a problem with, since each of us is a unique part of Reality (a Child of God, if you will), as we accept our place with and in Reality, we are all royalty (this is where the idea of being a King's Kid may be helpful). This is not to say any of us is any better or worse than anyone else, only that if we were to treat each other as if we really were royalty, (i.e. with respect and reverence as unique and wonderful), perhaps we would be able to learn how to stop thinking less of ourselves than we have any right to do.

As one who must constantly battle the urge to think less of myself than I have any right to (because we learn very early that being "smart" is going to get you a load of insults from the envious--especially if you're a girl and you make the boys look bad), I have fallen far short of accomplishing what my broad array of talents suggest I could have accomplished. I am by no means the only one. In fact, it's my belief that humanity as a whole could have accomplished far more in the last 10,000 years than we have were it not for our essential self-hatred, passed on from generation to generation.

Perhaps the primary reason I test normal at non-normie.com is because my mother and father made a serious effort when I was a child to avoid passing on to me, my sister, and my brother the non-normie behaviour patterns they grew up with. It couldn't have been easy, given that alcoholism afflicted (and eventually killed) one of my uncles, and that my mother's mother very nearly committed suicide at least twice (and almost killed my mother and sister as babies, who were saved only by her sister intervening in time). We were encouraged to develop our cognitive abilities as children, and we were comforted in our losses. That has made a tremendous difference in the course of our lives.

The point is, no matter how bad your life may have been as a child, and even though non-normie-ness may be incurable, it is still possible to keep it within bounds and to avoid passing it on to your children. That's what I try to communicate through my novels (although I've never had children of my own). That's also what I try to communicate here. The key is to realize that we all need comfort and be willing to reach out to others both to ask for it when you need it and to offer it when you see a need. Grown up though we may be, we are still children at heart.

If we don't make the effort to comfort each other and especially our children, we will get more hurting people like those who believe the lies of Islam or the Hate America First crowd. We, normies and recovering non-normies alike, need to stand up like Pope Benedict and tell the rest of the non-normies that they need to grow up. If they don't, we will take action against them in self-defense. What that action will be depends entirely on them, but they won't like the results.

And when they refuse to grow up--as all too many of them will--we need to follow through and take action. We are allowed--no, required--to defend ourselves, our children, and all we hold dear against those who would destroy us out of their own self-hatred.

We'd better get used to the idea.

Check out this website to find out.

http://www.non-normie.com/index.php

I haven't actually tested myself yet. But I will.

Jack Thomas also has a blog here, which I'm adding to my Blog Roll because I think it will help us understand people like John McCain (his non-normie of the day for 9/19/06).

It's been busy at work, and I've also been working hard on The Gordian Knot. I can now report that I've completed the first draft. Now it goes into the cooler for a couple of months before I take it out, read it again, and see what needs to be fixed. I also want to do some illustrations. I'll let you know when it's ready for download from my website, but at a guess, I'd say probably around Christmas. Call it my Christmas present to all of you who have provided the inspiration for it.

In other news, the Space Settlement Advocacy Committee of the National Space Society has finally decided that blogging is an excellent means of educating everyone about how space exploration, development, and settlement can provide new answers to the age-old problems we debate here (and elsewhere across the blogosphere). To that end, I'll be doing some research over the next few days to see who's out there blogging about space development, then add them to my blog roll after reviewing their sites for your information.

Now it's time for me to dive back into the columns and commentary I've missed this last week. Later...

...about Islam--and then some!

I stayed up till 2:30 a.m. this morning because I couldn't stop reading Tea With Terrorists, a novel by Craig Winn and Ken Power.

If you love Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler novels, you'll love this one. In fact, there are some similarities (though nothing that should be construed as plagerism) between this novel and Clancy's Executive Decision. Along the way, Winn and Power rip the veils off Islam--using its own words--as well as the power hunger of the socialists and communists in this country and around the world.

In fact, I'm so impressed that I may refer to this novel in my current novel in progress, The Gordian Knot.

The only thing that I could complain about is that the end of the novel left me hanging--and wondering if the authors have a sequel in the works--like Clancy always does.

I'm not much for reviewing at length. All I can say is you won't be sorry you read this.

Dennis Prager always has thoughtful columns. Read his latest here.

The following is the comment I posted there.

Thank you, MOnline, for posting your responses so as to clarify your position, even though many here don't agree with it.

Thanks also to ScooterNYC for posting his response in a civilized fashion.

And thanks to Patriot 1 for reminding us all that there's a big difference between faith (which is the relationship between you and Reality, by whatever name you call it) and religion (which is a man-created structure designed to either a.) control people or b.) provide a way for people to learn how to accept the reality of their relationship with Reality).

Whether a person chooses to accept that he or she is part of Reality or not determines which side of the Golden Rule he or she will walk on most of the time.

A person who chooses to accept his or her place as part of Reality will generally choose to walk on the bright side of the Golden Rule and treat all others with respect, as equals, unless attacked.

A person who chooses to reject his or her place as part of Reality will generally choose to walk on the dark side of the Golden Rule and treat all others with disrespect, as contemptible subhumans. Such a person will attack at will and claim self-defense.

The Golden Rule, stated as "You do to others what you expect them to do to you (consciously or subconsciously) is a well known law of human nature--the law of projection. That is, we project outward onto everyone around us our own internal states of being and our own motivations.

The point is, whether you ascribe to any religion or none at all, you still have only one choice at any given moment--will you accept or deny your place as part of Reality. Will you accept responsibility for your choices and actions or will you reject it and blame everyone else for your choices and actions.

That's really what this whole discussion is about.

The reason I'm including this answer in a post is because I'd like to expand on it. Not so much in the sense of answering the other posters as in exploring what kinds of things lead people to choose one way or the other.

(BTW, MOnline describes himself as a moderate Muslim, and provides a very interesting take on Islam, particularly as practiced in the Middle East. I recommend reading his comments, whether you agree with them or not. You may also want to read my earlier post "A Different Take on Islam.")

So, why do people choose to walk on one side or the other of the Golden Rule?
 
It usually goes back to earliest childhood. If you were reared in a home with parents willing to protect, defend, and comfort your physical and emotional hurts, you will tend to follow their lead in choosing to walk on the bright side of the Golden Rule, whether you ever grow to understand this or not.

On the other hand, if you were reared in a home with parents who failed to protect, defend, or comfort your physical and emotional hurts, you will tend to follow their lead in choosing to walk on the dark side of the Golden Rule, again, whether you ever realize this or not.

These are usually extremes, of course. In between lie the rest of us. It's typical that most of us will walk a winding path, sometimes on the bright side, sometimes on the dark side, usually without even noticing the real choice underlying the apparent choices presented to us every day, from the simple choice to smile or frown in response to something said to you to the more complex choice of whether to eat that cookie you know isn't good for you (I usually choose to eat it, but I try to avoid the temptation whenever possible), to the even more complicated choice of whether to respond to a verbal attack with civility or not.

In other words, the underlying choice is always "Am I going to be responsible (response-able) to the Reality of which I am a part--or not?"

This is what Jesus tried to explain to us, particularly when he told his parables, and when he told us not to judge others lest we be judged (this makes more sense when you reverse it--i.e. you judge others with the judgment you have passed on yourself), as well as when he reminded us the two Great Commandments are "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself."

You can't love the Lord your God if you refuse to accept the fact that you're part of Reality (for Christians, a Child of God or even a King's Kid). And you can't love your neighbor as yourself if you don't first accept yourself as worthy to be loved. That can't happen until and unless you accept your place within Reality.

It is possible to walk largely on the bright side of the Golden Rule out of habit engrained in childhood by parents who also walked on the bright side, as witness the student Mr. Prager uses as an example at the beginning of his essay. But it's like dancing or riding a bike; once you start thinking about it, you start stumbling. What everyone really needs to do is chill, then realize that underneath everything they've learned and studied and practiced, it still comes down to this simple choice. Do I accept that Reality exists and I am a part of it, or do I choose to believe Reality does not exist and I am all there is?

If Reality exists and you are part of it, your treasure--all the positive interactions you've ever had with others--is in Heaven, and therefore, so are you.

If Reality doesn't exist and you are all there is, you will have no treasure, only trash, and it will be in Hell right along with you.

It's your choice.

The following is a comment posted in response to my entry "Citizenship Redefined."

groundedinreality writes:	Sunday, September, 03, 2006 4:22 PM
Citizenship volksreich
I'm sure this will be the exact response you were fishing for, but here goes anyway...you're blog entry made Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler look up from whatever horror they were doubtlessly enduring and enjoy a rare smile. Really. I'd hate to visit for an instant the burning hatred that must consume your psyche. The idea you had for your "Arbeit macht frei" citizenship bile-spasm was frightening enough.

He later apologized as he thought I had copied someone else's post. I explained that no, it was my post, and my idea, and thanked him for his response. As I mentioned in that comment, it never occurred to me that what I saw as a reasonable response to the problem of illegal aliens, the Hate America First crowd, and so on would be taken as a hate-filled screed. And I asked Grounded in Reality if he had a problem with swearing allegiance to the constitution.

The only reason I bring this up now is that this person's response to my proposal has made it into the novel I'm working on (and mentioned in the post). Again, I have to thank everyone whose comments and posts I've read over the last couple of months (gee, have I really been posting that long?) as they have all played a part in the development of this novel.

Whether anyone besides me will ever read it, I have no idea, but I'm sure having fun writing it. If you do decide you want to read it when I finish it and post it on my other website, you may want to prepare yourself by reading the other novels in the Starfield Valley Tales.

It's never a good idea to dump on a writer. You might end up entombed in a novel, possibly in a way you don't appreciate. But then, I seriously doubt Grounded in Reality will ever bother to read anything I write. His loss (assuming he is a he), not mine.

...with the economy.

I just read Larry Kudlow's latest (click here) and the commentary. The following is my response

"Problem: Companies who want to hire legally must pay the minimum wage, which has priced a lot of unskilled American kids out of the job market. Companies (or individuals) who want to get the job done but can't afford (or choose not) to pay the minimum wage, much less the SS and Medicare employer share, will hire anyone under the table and pay in cash.

"Solution: Get rid of the minimum wage, along with SS and Medicare (privatizing both), plus exchange the income tax for a consumption tax (not as easy as it sounds, but doable), and the problem melts away over time."

This is just the short form. Let's look at the problem in a bit more detail, because it's a LOT more complicated (I could write several books about it--and have, in the form of novels).

Problem #1: Minimum wage laws cut the bottom rungs off the ladder of opportunity. Those whose skill sets are limited or non-existent, i.e. all they can do is "plain digging," either because they aren't capable of learning how to do anything more or they haven't been able to learn any kind of skill, are not going to be worth paying the minimum wage as it is now, let alone next time it actually gets increased. After all, to an employer, the minimum wage isn't just $5.15 per hour, it is also whatever the employer share of S.S. and Medicare is, which puts the actual minimum wage substantially higher.

Problem #2: Our public schools are deliberately dumbing down the skills taught to our children in favor of indoctrination into the socialist belief structure that holds that all individuals must be cogs of the state (run by the elites, who know what is best for everyone else). Our youth come out of the school system and into the job market unable to read, write, or do simple arithmetic, all requirements for any job better than "plain digging," which they won't do because it's demeaning to their self-esteem. They've been taught they're just fine the way they are, so why bother to learn anything new--especially what might be necessary to hold down a job.

Problem #3: Our government at all levels has taken on far too much in the way of responsibilities that should have been left to the people as individuals. This is partly the fault of the people themselves, as they allowed themselves to be persuaded that they should let someone else take care of them, or of the poor, or whatever the initial problem was. This is also partly the fault of the socialists and elites who believe they are the only ones who can possibly run the world because everyone else is too stupid to take care of himself.

This is, of course, painting with an extremely broad brush, but at this level of discourse, that's the only thing we can do. The solutions will be painted with essentially the same broad brush, so let's take a look at them.

Solution #1: Set the minimum wage to zero. Decertify all the labor unions. Request that all states become Right to Work states.

Solution #2: Declare the NEA and any other teachers unions illegal (decertified), as was done to the Air Traffic Controllers Union under Reagan. Also request that the states declare all public schools be privatized as soon as possible and that all school districts be dissolved (so as to remove their ability to raise taxes to fund education). Finally, eliminate the Department of Education and request that the states eliminate public funding for education as soon as possible. Parents are responsible for the education of their children, not the state (in any form). Parents can get together with other parents to create private schools, do home-schooling, or whatever they decide to do about educating their children.

Solution #3: Go over the Constitution with a fine toothed comb and a narrow interpretation of what is meant by "the common defense" and so on. Repeal the 16th Amendment (providing for the Income Tax), eliminate the IRS, S.S., Medicare, and all other entitlement programs. Sell all public lands to the highest bidders and use that income during the transition. Devolve all power to the lowest possible level, the individual. Encourage all individuals to become proficient at self-defense, and to develop defensive capabilities at the neighborhood level and up. Setup a definition of citizenship that requires everyone in the country to swear the oath of renunciation and allegiance to the Constitution (after going through the citizenship course so they know what they're responsible for in making the oath). And require them to live up to that oath on pain of being called to account for treason, for which the penalty is death in lieu of repentance. With all functions of governance funded through voluntary contributions (i.e. paid for by those using the services provided by their fellows), all citizens serving as representatives of their family and neighborhood groups to higher levels of governance (city, state, and nation) will be compensated directly by those whom they represent (or out of their own pocket). This will ensure that they are truly representative, and that the city councils, legislatures, and houses of Congress become places where problems and disputes between groups are worked out. No level of governance shall have the power to tax. All funds must be paid voluntarily by those using the services at any level. That means those offering the services must convince those able to pay for them that the services are worth paying for.

In other words, "All power to the people" is really "All power to the individual," and it also means "All responsibility to the individual."

Is it going to happen? Probably not, because it would require everyone to grow up--and sadly, very few people want to because it costs too much. Why grow up when there are so many people willing to take the burden of responsibility for your choices and actions off your shoulders for the price of your vote? But, of course, you can't really give up your burden of responsibility, because the consequences of trying to do so will come back to bite you--and your children and grandchildren--big time, as we're already seeing in this country (and even more so in Europe and Japan).

Still, although I'm a pessimist about the future, I'd love to be proven wrong.

(This is a copy of a post on Jeff's blog "A Critique of Pure Unreason." You can find it on my blog roll.)

I propose (in my current novel in progress) that there be a constitutional amendment removing birthright citizenship and replacing it with citizenship at age 25 only on completion of the citizenship course, meeting all current requirements for citizenship (English, no communicable diseases, etc.), and taking the oath of renunciation and allegiance. On completion of this process, you get a non-transferable, non-counterfeitable smart card citizenship certificate. You lose it, you repeat the course and the oath. Without it, you can't do anything that requires a license or id (e.g. drink, drive, get married, or vote).

If you are willing to serve your country beginning at age 18, and you pass the citizenship course and swear the oath as part of basic training, you get a provisional certificate that allows you to do everything a full certificate does, because you know the meaning of responsibility.

If you're over the age of 25 and refuse to take the course, fail to meet the health requirements, and/or refuse to swear the oath, you have 30 days to go back to whatever country you came from or, if you were born here, find another country willing to accept you as an immigrant.

If you can't swear because you are physically or mentally incompetent, either your parents or your guardian, assuming they have sworn, will be responsible for you. Children under the age of 25 (18 if they choose to serve the nation) and incompetents with guardians are issued cards stating that they are not citizens and are under the guardianship of someone who is. Only their guardians can access any services on their behalf; they themselves are not allowed to drink, drive, or vote (or do anything else of like nature, such as marry).

It will be considered treason to do any of the following:

1.) Remain in the country more than 30 days after the end of the 6 month transition period (to allow everyone to take the citizenship course and be vetted for the health standards) if you have not sworn the oath of renunciation and allegience and received your citizenship card, or been issued an alternate status card (child, incompetent).

2.) Fail to present the citizenship card on request by any other citizen in any economic or other transaction (e.g. applying for a job, or buying liquor or anything else).

3.) Attempt to counterfeit the citizenship card.

4.) Steal or otherwise attempt to use someone else's citizenship card. (This includes children or incompetents attempting to use the cards of their guardians.)

5.) Execute any actions that contradict the oath (such as swear allegiance to any other country, or act in a manner that indicates you have foresworn your oath).

The penalty for treason is death if the actions are not sincerely repented of. If you choose to repent of your violations, you must take the citizenship course, meet the health requirements, and swear the oath (again, if need be).

Sure, it's from a novel in progress, but I'd be interested to see what people think of the idea in terms of whether there's any chance it could be enacted--and what the effects might be on the Hate America First crowd (along with all the illegal aliens)--and especially the Democrats and Socialists.