A View From Space- Gary Bell, April 28, 2012

TOPICS:

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The One Percent

 This 80-minute documentary focuses on the growing "wealth gap" in America, as seen through the eyes of filmmaker Jamie Johnson, a 27-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. Johnson, who cut his film teeth at NYU and made the Emmy®-nominated 2003 HBO documentary Born Rich, here sets his sights on exploring the political, moral and emotional rationale that enables a tiny percentage of Americans - the one percent - to control nearly half the wealth of the entire United States. The film Includes interviews with Nicole Buffett, Bill Gates Sr., Adnan Khashoggi, Milton Friedman, Robert Reich, Ralph Nader and other luminaries.

http://www.theonepercentdocumentary.com/

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Conspiracy Cafe with George Freund -"Shades of Dorian Google Grey" 2012-04-19

 The James Cameron Conspiracy. Mass arrests another psyops to shut you up. Doisneau Google doodle shades of Dorian grey. Murder, terror intrigue in Paris serial killing. Diana died in MK Ultra hospital. The vaccine angle. Mother shot down in Texas a Northwoods production. Fool's Gold how silver was weaned from the coins of the realm and replaced by worthless steel. IMF Chief Economists says EU prevents competativeness. No shit Sherlock. Inflation and contagion still waiting in the wings. Goldman Sachs is Europe; Europe is Goldman Sachs. World Art Day in Sweden: torture and eat black women. Argentina stands firm nationalizes oil company. UK losses jobs, tax revenue and their very soul selling out to multinationals. Let them watch Big Brother in the dark. Slave labour makes Olympics clothes. Canada gives TWO BILLION DOLLARS Margaritaville to enhance security. Obama's income slides. Romney has Swiss bank account Bermuda registered company. CIA man fesses up in video. You can handle the truth. Happy Hooker brings down the Secret Service. Gun confiscation plot in Summit agenda. Polish troops training in Illinois for the event. There are many shades of Google Dorian Grey on Conspiracy Cafe.

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A View Fom Space, Gary Bell, April 21, 2012

TOPICS:  Fordicidia festival, "Green" movement, Floralia festival, May Day, Tellus & Ceres, Blood sacrifices, deific transliteration, the Circus Maximus et al.

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Conspiracy Cafe with George Freund -"It's your choice" 2012-04-12

 Muybridge Google Doodle war and revelation. Celebrate Schutzenfest 2012. Gun control as a means of 'change'. All roads are leading to a return of the INQUISITION. The face of terror British business couple hounded for States Secrets to hide 9/11 evidence. Zimmerman arrested in Martin shooting after media jihad. NBC faked Zimmerman's 9/11 call. The genocide of Christians in the Sudan. Mercy Ships. New bunker buster 30,000 pounds of fun. Call to eliminate one fourth of the defective seeds. That means you! 5 New Orleans cops get long sentences in Katrina massacre. Afghan massacre had lots of fingers on the trigger. Supreme Court upholds lying under oath. Chinese leader outed for evil. Open trial being kept secret at Fort Hood. 9/11 'mastermind' to be tried in military court. Syria goes down shooting at Turkey. Iran says Israel on the ground already. Chinese insurance company stopping coverage from July. Is that when the war starts? Internet war commenced on China. The spy central for Europe will be GCHQ in Cheltenham. Romney Netanyahu's bum boy will cede middle east policy to Israel. Can you spell Armageddon? Another Sheriff questions Obama's birth certificate. Don't worry Hitler's grandson has one. Pentagon has NO records on Bin Laden raid. If it wasn't a movie, it will be. The end of cash. The Titanic Conspiracy continues. We're moving into the HELIOSPHERE. It a million degree gas cloud. Malaria a weapon of choice on the horizon. It's your choice on Conspiracy Cafe.

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The Hidden History of the Human Race

Hidden Human History : if we look back at History we can see there have been countless advanced civilizations before us. For all we know Atlantis,Lumeria etc could have been old names for our planet.Still astonishes me that we no nothing of our own origins, its open to ridiculous claims, bogus science, sporadic religion & cults . The Hidden History of the Human Race go much further, pushing back the horizons of our amnesia not just 12,000 or 20,000 years, but millions of years into the past, and showing that almost everything we have been taught to believe about the origins and evolution of our species rests on the shaky foundation of academic opinion, and on a highly selective sampling of research results.
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The History of Political Correctness (Complete)

"When dissidents become too annoying, call them fascists, Nazis or anti-Semitic. That association would, repeated often enough, become a reality in public opinion" - Stalin's directive of 1943
With socialism comes censorship, thought control, speech control, dictatorship, state supremacy, show-trial courts, militarism, mass arrests, Eugenics & infanticide on a massive scal, presumption of guilt, mandatory arrest-no-drop prosecution, class privilege and institutionalized injustice. Every they claim to resolve recapitulates tenfold. This is it. Political Correctness is the concerted effort of money interests to destroy Western values. Yea, we've been had.  Free speech is done.

"You can say anything you like, but I have the right to shoot you for it". said Vladimir Lenin
That quote exemplifies one of the common denominators that all Marxist regimes utilize to destroy opponents & kill or brutalize all dissenters who complain or oppose their regimes. Communism is fraught with fallacies that were never intended to be a working economic or social system. It was designed to trigger civil wars, eliminate religion & crush all dissent . Marxism is a fraud.

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A View From Space, April 14, 2012

The Spaceman delves into the mystery of the Titanic and her sister ship the Olympic, their connection to the false Millenium deerived from the Babylonian calendar, and how this is linked to the grand plan of the Illuminati to initiate World War III and institute a New World Order.

Sorry for the delay, 4shared is having server issues.

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Solar Kill Shot in December?

Killshot or Pole Shift? We depart, momentarily, from our usual focus on longwave economics (and the evolution of the Second Depression despite the joys of the latest Jobs report from the government which we will get to in a second) to focus on the latest work from 2012 researcher Patrick Geryl who has given UrbanSurvival exclusive permission (link back required) to report the latest research into the possibility of a large solar event in December of this year. We begin with this note from Patrick:

“Hi George,

After 4 weeks of calculating like crazy… I found some very disturbing facts….

You are the first to know this…. You may publish first…Will be next week on my website… www.howtosurvive2012.com

Enclosed my findings… Need an extra week to check the dates from June to end of the year… But that is not so important…

He was kind enough to extract the highlights of a 36-page report (with diagrams) that he will be posting to his website www.howtosurvive2012.com next week…but you need to visit the site well before then, since the whole 2012 field is hugely complex and there is much to read, much to ponder…and Patrick’s research stands head and shoulders above most of what’s out there on the net.

Now, before we get into Patrick’s research, we need to explore the idea that since we had the Carrington Event of 1859, we may be able to make some inferences by study of planet positions in that period to see if something similar is coming up. As you may know, we’re in the ramp up to the peak of the present solar cycle which will be in peak from late this year into early 2013.

From the Marshall Space Flight Center, where the Solar Prediction teams work for NASA we can see that this solar cycle will be much more modest than its predecessor Cycle 23.

Cycle 24 is expecting (picking up from the NASA site) “…Cycle 24 gives a smoothed sunspot number maximum of about 61 in the Spring of 2013. We are currently over three years into Cycle 24. The current predicted size makes this the smallest sunspot cycle in about 100 years. ”

Key point going into the details from Patrick: Small Solar Cycles MAY be correlated to large EMP-like coronal mass ejections (CME’s) suggests Geryl’s work. And armed with this background we’re pleased to share his highlights:

Head Principle for Large Solar Storms;

1. Large solar storms are induced by 3 planets heliocentrically aligned with the Sun. This means that the center of the combined planets has to go through the center of the Sun. A conjunction of 3 planets is the most powerful.

2. Extra strength will be delivered if one, two or three groups of 3 other planets line up with each other. The strongest strength will be delivered if they start to line up in the 3 preceding days before the crucial alignment with the top on the day itself. We call this a Triple Line Up. 3

3. The Conjunctions or Oppositions have to be short in time to deliver strength.

4. Triple Line Ups with Saturn and Jupiter are very powerful. Combinations with Venus or Mercury are needed to have ‘effect’.

Carrington Proton Event – Solar Superstorm.

1 September1859 From August 28, 1859, until September 2, numerous sunspots and solar flares were observed on the sun. Just before noon on September 1, the British astronomer Richard Carrington observed the largest flare,[3] which caused a massive coronal mass ejection (CME) to travel directly toward Earth, taking 17 hours. This is remarkable because such a journey normally takes three to four days. This second CME moved so quickly because the first one had cleared the way of the ambient solar wind plasma.[3] A solar Super Storm of the size and duration of the ‘Carrington Event’ of 1859 will down the world’s power grid infrastructure for years…

Think about that for a minute… No food… water…gasoline…radio…internet…

In short: almost nothing will be left… Hundreds of millions in Europe and the US would surely die. But this is not all… All nuclear reactors will melt down… because the cooling of the reactors fails…. Thus, a Super Solar storm has the potential to cause a Fukushima type accident at every nuclear power plant in the world! And worse… The fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool will melt… Catch fire, and radioactive fission products will be released into the atmosphere… Because there is at least 10 times more spent fuel then in the reactors… The world will be confronted with the equivalent of thousands nuclear reactors melting down…! Will this be the end of human life on earth…?

On August 28, 1859… the final countdown began…

August 28, 1859: Conjunction Mars – Venus and the Sun

August 28, 1859: Conjunction Earth – Mercury and the Sun

August 29, 1859: Conjunction Saturn – Venus and the Sun

August 30 – 31, 1859 Conjunction Saturn – Mars and the Sun Stops early September 1

Solar Superstorm of May 13, 1921

The prelude to this particular storm began with a major sunspot sighted on the limb of the sun vast enough to be seen with the naked eye through smoked glass. The spot was 94,000 miles long and 21,000 miles wide and by May 14th was near the center of the sun in prime location to unleash an earth-directed flare. The 3-degree magnetic bearing change among the five worst events recorded ended all communications traffic from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi.

On May 10, 1921… The Final Countdown Began….

May 10, 1921: Opposition Earth – Mercury across the Sun (weak)

May 12 – 13, 1921: Opposition Venus – Mercury across the Sun

May 13, 1921: Conjunction Mars – Mercury and the Sun starts

May 13, 1921: Triple Line Up: Uranus – Earth – Jupiter. This Triple Line Up must have induced the Solar Storm.

May 14, 1921: Conjunction Mars – Mercury and the Sun

May 14, 1921 (early): Probably biggest CME. The time of the CME is uncertain because there were no astronomical observations of it.

Conclusions

1. Venus was key in the solar superstorms of 1859 and 1921. Saturn and Venus in the one from 1859 and Venus and Mercury in the 1921 superstorm. We see Saturn back at the end of 2012 in an alignment with Venus and Mercury!

2. From the March 7, 2012 date we know that the conjunction Venus – Mercury can be called ‘strong’

3. Outside the extremely strong conjunction Saturn – Venus – Mercury we count 4 other Triple Line Ups… each time Mercury or Venus is involved and in two Jupiter. This should make it a ‘Super’ Superstorm…

These are all the configurations that will (could? G) lead to the pole shift of 2012….

December 15 -16, 2012: Triple Line Up Neptune – Mars – Venus

December 17 – 18, 2012 : Triple Line Up Jupiter – Earth – Mercury

December 17-18, 2012 : Conjunction Venus – Mercury and the Sun

December19, 2012 : Conjunction Saturn – Mercury and the Sun

December 20, 2012: Midpoint Conjunctions Saturn – Venus – Mercury and the Sun

December 21, 2012 : Conjunction Saturn – Venus and the Sun

December20- 21, 2012 : Triple Line Up Neptune- Mars – Mercury

December21 – 22, 2012 : Triple Line Up Jupiter – Earth – Venus”

I’m still digesting this, and like you, I’ll be visiting Patrick’s website for more reading….and remember, next week the whole report (much more detailed, pictures, and so forth will be up.

We start with this story, rather than the jobs report this morning (next) because there is an increasing number of indicators that just keep pointing at the period from 2012 into mid 2013 as a very rocky time.

You might want to ponder “Ure’s Axiom” which sort of fell out of Clif’s ground-breaking work at www.halfpasthuman.com that suggests that the further ahead of a major event, the larger the event may be when it gets here.

Take that over to Google and search “solar kill shot” and you’ll be up to your ears in remote viewer reports, from highly credible people like Major Ed Dames, who see “IT”, but like with predictive linguistics, the “when” is often slippery.

And that’s where Geryl’s work (short summary here, and full details coming on Patrick’s site) is so important: It’s suggests a when and it points to historically conformable details.

The good news, such as it is, is that the December of this year will be when the most direct alignment with the Sun will be over the southern hemisphere.

Why am I so uncomfortable realizing that all those references from Clif’s predictive linguistic “north of 40″ references may mean something very serious this coming fall into winter?

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Multiculturalism's Deadly Outcome For America

By Frosty Wooldridge

In the past two weeks, a Korean man shot up a college in California. In Florida, a Hispanic man killed black Trayvon Martin. Yesterday in Oklahoma, a Native American Indian killed five Hispanics. Two years ago, an Arab-American named Major Nadal Hasan shot up 43 people killing 13. Three years ago, a Korean immigrant shot up Virginia Tech College. In the past 18 months, we suffered the Arabic immigrant Times Square Bomber and Muslim immigrant Zazi attempted to bomb New York subways. A New York Muslim immigrant named Aasiya Z. Hassan beheaded his wife because she asked for a divorce because of his beatings of her, and countless more multicultural violence to come.

In New York, February 16, 2009, FOX News, Joshua Rhett Miller reported, “The estranged wife of a Muslim television executive feared for her life after filing for divorce last month from her abusive husband,” her attorney said — and was found beheaded Thursday in his upstate New York television studio. Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37, was found dead on Thursday at the offices of Bridges TV in Orchard Park, N.Y., near Buffalo. Her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, has reportedly been charged with second-degree murder. “She was very much aware of the potential ramification of her filing for divorce might have,” said attorney Elizabeth DiPirro, whose law firm represented Aasiya Hassan in the divorce proceeding. "But she wanted to proceed despite the potential for it to erupt."

“Immigrants devoted to their own cultures and religions are not influenced by the secular politically correct façade that dominates academia, news-media, entertainment, education, religious and political thinking today,” said James Walsh, former Associate General Counsel of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. “They claim the right not to assimilate, and the day is coming when the question will be how can the United States regulate the defiantly unassimilated cultures, religions and mores of foreign lands? Such immigrants say their traditions trump the U.S. legal system. Balkanization of the United States has begun.”

The following quote from NATO General WESLEY CLARK in this article is most prophetic:

"The common thread there is multiculturalism, the notion that entire populations of different cultures can coexist in reasonable harmony together under a common sovereignty. There is no place in modern Europe for ethnically pure states. That’s a 19th century idea and we are trying to transition into the 21st century, and we are going to do it with multi-ethnic states."

The author then states: “Cultural diversity within a nation causes nothing but trouble—what could be more obvious?”

London Mayor Boris Johnson spoke about the riots that devastated London and other English cities last summer:

“The biggest shock for me from the riots was the sheer sense of nihilism—perhaps I should not have been shocked, but in my view literacy and numeracy are the best places to start. In seven particular boroughs in London one in four children are leaving functionally illiterate. In a few schools it is nearer 50%. We have to intervene at an earlier stage, and I think the mayor can help.”

The New York Times said on Tuesday, March 20, 2012. The subject was the shootings at a school in Toulouse, France, the previous day. The victims were Jewish, but the gunman’s identity was unknown, so the Times defaulted to basic liberal assumptions:

“The political debate around the shootings, and whether the deaths of an instructor and three young children were somehow inspired by anti-immigrant political talk, is likely to continue.…In the middle of a long and heated presidential campaign, with President Nicolas Sarkozy trying to win back disaffected supporters who have drifted to the far-right National Front party, the shootings at Toulouse have raised new questions about the tone and tenor of the debate here about what it is to be French.”

The common thread there is multiculturalism, the notion that entire populations of different cultures can coexist in reasonable harmony together under a common sovereignty.

“Cultural diversity within a nation causes nothing but trouble—what could be more obvious?”

The problem grows that multiculturalism kills countless people in its path.

The London paper reported, “The Mayor of London cannot think the following thought: Last summer’s riots were initially and essentially race riots, with what is left of England’s native underclass only joining in later as scavengers. As for “functionally illiterate,”

“Across the 14 boroughs that make up Inner London, there are 98,000 schoolchildren whose first language is not English, compared to just 79,000 native English speakers.”

Today in America, we find ourselves deluged with illiteracy in every immigrant city in America. Detroit, Michigan leads with a high of 76 percent dropout rates from their high schools. That’s quickly followed by 50 percent rates in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and Denver.

The London report said, “So the dismal educational outcomes the mayor cites were not the cause of the riots. Rather, both London’s mass functional illiteracy and the riots are effects of a common cause: fifty years of insane immigration policies turning the capital into a Tower of Babel. Multiculturalism’s horrible consequences can, this fool mayor tells us, be cured with a little extra algebra.”

The harsh reality grows that multiculturalism in Europe multiplies their strife, conflict, and national instability.

I suspect that historians in the future will report that the smartest nations will be Japan, China, Korea, possibly Finland, Russia and other countries that didn’t immigrate their own languages and cultures out of existence. They won’t have inflicted the multicultural blight upon themselves. As it is, France, UK, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Italy, USA and Germany will have destroyed the foundation of their societies.

The London paper said, “The rest of us will either be dragging ourselves along wearily, towing behind us the millstones of unproductive, unassimilable, low-human-capital subpopulations left over from the Age of Multiculturalism, along with the associated frictions and rancors; or else we shall have broken up in complete ethnic disaggregation, casting off those subpopulations to fend for themselves in mini-states of their own while we join—rejoin, really—the ethno-nationalist march of mankind. Historians of the future will amuse themselves by coming up with theories to explain why European civilization, at the height of its powers, rich with unparalleled achievements in science, music, art, literature, mathematics, and technology, gave up its lands and its treasures to people for whom those achievements were mere hated tokens of oppression or the impious and superfluous productions of infidels.”

In the meantime, America’s and Canada’s multiculturalism most certainly will end their relative peace and tranquility. I hope I’ve checked out before it boils to its final conclusion.

##

In a five minute astoundingly simple yet brilliant video, “Immigration, Poverty, and Gum Balls”, Roy Beck, director of www.numbersusa.ORG, graphically illustrates the impact of overpopulation. Take five minutes to see for yourself:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE&feature=player_embedded

“Immigration by the numbers—off the chart” by Roy Beck

This 10 minute demonstration shows Americans the results of unending mass immigration on the quality of life and sustainability for future generations: in a word “Mind boggling!” www.NumbersUSA.org

www.youtube.com/watch?v=muw22wTePqQ

This is the best website to start: www.numbersusa.org ; watch Roy Beck’s “Immigration by the Numbers” at 14 minutes. Bi-partisan and very effective. Become a faxer of pre-written letters to your reps to make positive change.

Visit www.TheSocialContract.com for the best information on what we face as a civilization as to overpopulation, energy, immigration and much more.

Canada www.immigrationwatchcanada.org ; in Australia www.population.org.au andPublicPopForum@yahoogroups.com; in Great Britain www.populationmatters.org ; and dozens of other sites accessed at www.frostywooldridge.com. In Florida, www.flimen.org .

Must see DVD: "Blind Spot" www.snagfilms.com/films/title/blind_spot/ , This movie illustrates America's future without oil, water and other resources to keep this civilization functioning. It's a brilliant educational movie! www.blindspotdoc.com

Must see: Rapid Population Decline, seven minute video by Dr. Jack Alpert-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTWduFB_RX0

Must see and funny: www.growthbusters.org ; www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXSTrW_dARc
Dave Gardner's Polar Bear in Bedroom:

growthbusters.org/2010/03/save-the-polar-bear-in-your-bedroom ; Dave Gardner, President, Citizen-Powered Media ; Producing the Documentary, GROWTH BUSTERS; presents Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity, Join the cause at www.growthbusters.org ;760 Wycliffe Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 USA; +1 719-576-5565

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How the EU Parliament usurped the control of the central and local governments of the member states

This has been known for a long time, the EU is an even more Utopian enterprise than the Tower of Babel. For at least the Tower of Babel all spoke the same language when they started... The Eurozone is comprised of very different, heterogeneous economies that can hardly be an optimal space for a common currency,Europe has only existed under one flag when it was ruled by a imperialistic Roman empire. The differences within Europe will ultimately rip apart the notion of the EURO, and eventually the EU will dissolve... it will be interesting to see how Europeans treat each other once they are not as economically intertwined.
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Steve Quayle : Apocalypse Now

The word apocalypse in Latin means to reveal. The apocalypse is not the end of the world, but more like the end of the world as we know it now. People need to stop worrying about giant balls of fire coming down to destroy the Earth or giant floods drowning us all. If anything Revelation depicts many events of the author's time or ancestor's past trying to serve as an example for the future. WW I and II, Vietnam, Korea, 2 Gulf Wars, Afganistan, civil wars= Red horse The economic depression=black horse Swine flu= Pale horse There's only one horse left now...???
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100 Things You Should Know About People

100 Things You Should Know About People
#1 — You Have “Inattention Blindness”
#2 — You READ FASTER With a Longer Line Length But PREFER Shorter
#3 — You Can Only Remember 3 to 4 Things At a Time (The Magic Number 3 or 4)
#4 – You Imagine Things From Above And Tilted (The “Canonical Perspective”)
#5 – You Make Most of Your Decisions Unconsciously
#6 – You Reconstruct Your Memories

#7 – You Actually Can’t Multi-Task
#8 – Dopamine Makes You Addicted to Seeking Information
#9 – Blue and Red Together Is Hard on Your Eyes (Chromostereopsis)
#10 - You Want More Choices and Information Than You Can Actually Process
#11 — Why You Can’t Resist Paying Attention to Food, Sex, or Danger

#12 — When It Comes To Technology You Definitely Act Your Age
#13 — Want to Change a Habit? Use Fun, Surprise, and a Crowd

#14 — Reading Text Online Is Not Fun
#15 — If You Use Social Media Without Laughter You Aren’t Being Social
#16 — The Ability to Delay Gratification or Not Starts Young
#17 — Your Unconscious Knows 1st
#18 — What People Look At On A Picture Or Screen Depends On What You Say To Them

#19 — It’s a Myth That All Capital Letters Are Inherently Harder to Read
#20 — Your Attention Is Riveted By Pictures of People
#21 — You Overestimate Your Reactions to Future Events

#22 — Peripheral Vision: Keeping You Alive or Channel Surfing?

#23 — You Are Hard-Wired For Imitation And Empathy

#24 — You Are Most Affected By Brands And Logos When You Are Sad Or Scared

#25 — Trust Your Gut Or Be Logical? It Depends On Your Mood

#26 — Culture Shapes Our Brains

#27 — We Go Below The Fold

#28 — Things That Are Close Together Seem to Belong Together

#29 — Brand Names Talk To Our “Old” Brains

#30 — Our “Strong Tie” Group Size Is 150 People

#31 — The Desire For Control And Choice Is Built In

#32 — Synchronous Activity Bonds The Group

#33 — Bite-Sized Chunks Of Info Are Best

#34 — Too Much Stress Results In Poor Performance

#35 — People Make Mistakes

#36 — People Are Inherently Lazy

#37 — People Assume It’s You, Not The Situation

#38 — Even The Illusion of Progress Is Motivating

#39 — Your Mind Wanders 30% of the Time

#40 — You’re Easily Influenced, But I’m Not

#41 — Your Most Vivid Memories Are Wrong

#42 — We’ll Spend More Money If You Don’t Mention Money

#43 — People Expect Online Interactions To Follow Social Rules

#44 — When Uncertain, People Look To Others To Decide What To Do

#45 — You Choose And Vote For The First One On The List

#46 — The More Uncertain You Are, The More You Dig In And Defend Your Ideas

#47 — People Value A Product More Highly If It Is Physically In Front Of Them

#48 — What You See Is Not What Your Brain Gets

#49 — The Brain Looks For Simple Patterns

#50 — 9 % of Men And .5% Of Women Are Color Blind

#51 — You React To Colors Based On Your Culture

#52 — People Create Mental Models

#53 — People See Cues About How To Use An Object

#54 — The Average Reading Level In The USA Is Grade 8

#55 — During Sleep You Consolidate Learnings and Memories

#56 — People Process Information Best In Story Form

#57 — There are 4 Types of Creativity

#58 — People See What They Expect To See

#59 — Time Is Relative

#60 — Cognitive Loads Are the Most Expensive

#61 — People Learn Best By Example

#62 — People Love To Categorize

#63 — Group Decision-Making Is Faulty

#64 — Groups Are Swayed By A Dominant Personality

#65 — Seven Emotions Are Universal

#66 — Emotions Are Tied To Muscle Movement

#67 — Anecdotes Persuade More than Data

#68 — Smells Evoke Emotions and Memories

#69 — Your Brain Craves Surprises

#70 — People Are Happier Busy And With A Challenge

#71 — People Like Pastoral Scenes

#72 — Trust Is The Best Predictor Of Happiness

#73 — First Screening About Trusting A Web Site Is Based On The Look And Feel

#74 — Listening To Music Releases Dopamine In The Brain

#75 — The More Difficult Something Is To Attain, The More People Like It

#76 — Anticipation Trumps The Actual Experience

#77 — Not All Mistakes Are Bad

#78 — People Use A Schema To Encode And Remember

#79 — People of Different Ages Have Different Error Strategies

#80 — Behavior Can Be Shaped

#81 — People Are Motivated By Progress And Mastery

#82 — Intrinsic Rewards Trump Extrinsic Rewards

#83 — People Will Use Shortcuts Only If They Are Easy

#84 — Average Time To Form A Habit Is 66 Days

#85 — More People = Less Desire To Compete

#86 — How Much People Lie Depends On The Medium

#87 — Speaker and Listener Brains Sync

#88 — Your Brain Has A Special Response To People You Know

#89 — You Can Tell If A Smile Is Real Or Fake More Accurately With Video

#90 — Recognition Is Easier Than Recall

#91 — Size Matters When It Comes To Fonts

#92 — There Is A Brain Area Dedicated To Perceiving Faces

#93 — Titles Provide Context

#94 — Repetition Changes Your Brain

#95 — People Decide Who And What Is Alive By The Eyes

#96 — Past Experience And Expectations Determine Where People Look

#97 — People Filter Information

#98 — Attention Is Selective

#99 — Well-Practiced Skills Don’t Require Conscious Attention

#100 — Sustained Attention Lasts 10 Minutes

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The NSA's General Didn't Lie To Congress About Spying On Americans — They Hire It Out To The Israelis

Two companies that bugged the U.S. telecommunications network for the National Security Agency (NSA) have extensive links to Israel's intelligence service, as reported by James Bamford at Wired.

NSA's chief General Keith Alexander was called before Congress last week to testify about the $2 billion Utah Spy Center the NSA is currently building, and he said that the NSA does not have the ability to spy on the confidential personal communications of Americans.

It seems that he wasn't lying since the NSA hired secretive contractors with extensive ties to Israel to provide hardware and software for 10 to 20 wiretapping rooms in key telecommunication points throughout the country, according to Wired.

Thus the NSA has gained access to most of the domestic traffic flowing through the U.S. without actually doing it themselves.

From Wired:

"According to a former Verizon employee briefed on the program, Verint, owned by Comverse Technology, taps the communication lines at Verizon...

At AT&T the wiretapping rooms are powered by software and hardware from Narus, now owned by Boeing, a discovery made by AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein in 2004."

Both Verint and Narus were founded in Israel in the 1990s. Both provide monitoring and intercept capabilities to service providers and government organizations, promoting claims that their equipment can access and retain large amounts of information on a vast number of targets.

One of the founders of Verint, Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, is a former Israeli intelligence officer.

In 2007 a former commander of the highly secret Unit 8200 (i.e. Israel’s NSA) told Forbes that the technology of Comverse (i.e. the company that owns Verint) is based on Unit 8200 technology, Wired reported.

A co-founder and former chairmen of Narus, Ori Cohen, told Fortune in 2001 that his partners have done technology work for Israeli intelligence.

Another former chief of Unit 8200 acknowledged to the Israeli paper Ha’artez last year that high-tech firms around the world employ both Unit 8200 equipment and its veteran personnel.

From Wired:

“Cautious estimates indicate that in the past few years... Unit 8200 veterans have set up some 30 to 40 high-tech companies, including 5 to 10 that were floated on Wall Street.” Referred to only as “Brigadier General B,” he added, “This correlation between serving in the intelligence Unit 8200 and starting successful high-tech companies is not coincidental: Many of the technologies in use around the world and developed in Israel were originally military technologies and were developed and improved by Unit veterans.”

The NSA, whose official mission is to spy on foreign communications, began eavesdropping on the international communications of Americans after President Bush secretly authorized the practice in 2002 — without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying — to search for evidence of terrorist activity.

The highly secret U.S. eavesdropping net, code-named Stellar Wind, has not stopped expanding since President Bush gave the initial executive order.

Wired has reported on the numerous new NSA facilities:

• The $358 million CAPT Joseph J. Rochefort Building at NSA Hawaii was dedicated in January.
• The 604,000-square-foot John Whitelaw Building at NSA Georgia was dedicated in March.
• The NSA’s giant satellite listening post in Yorkshire, England — which has 33 giant dome-covered eavesdropping dishes — is expanding to accommodate a generator plant to provide power for new supercomputers (at $68 million) and a growing number of employees (many of whom are also employed by Lockhead Martin and Northrop Grumman).
• In May Fort Meade will undertake a $2 billion, 1.8-million-square-foot expansion of NSA headquarters that will include a cybercommand complex and a new supercomputer.
• Next year the NSA will open its 1-million-square-foot, $2 billion Utah Data Center that will be a code-breaking hub as well as a "cloud" that stores the trillions of millions of intercepted phone calls, e-mails and data trails so they can be analyzed from long distances over highly encrypted fiber-optic links.

In response to the reports, the NSA told Wired that the agency is "proud of the work we do to protect the nation, and allegations implying that there is inappropriate monitoring of American communications are a disservice to the American public and to the NSA civilian and military personnel who are dedicated to serving their country.”

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A View From Space, April 7, 2012

TOPICS: The year 2012 - the year of Goddess worship - its history, and the implications for us all.

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Research shows male testosterone levels are plummeting across the board

Testosterone Levels Fall Worldwide

Men’s testosterone levels across all age groups have been plummeting over the last couple of decades, probably due to environmental factors. As Reuters reported in 2006:

A new study has found a “substantial” drop in U.S. men’s testosterone levels since the 1980s, but the reasons for the decline remain unclear. This trend also does not appear to be related to age.

The average levels of the male hormone dropped by 1 percent a year, Dr. Thomas Travison and colleagues from the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts, found. This means that, for example, a 65-year-old man in 2002 would have testosterone levels 15 percent lower than those of a 65-year-old in 1987. This also means that a greater proportion of men in 2002 would have had below-normal testosterone levels than in 1987.

“The entire population is shifting somewhat downward we think,” Travison told Reuters Health. “We’re counting on other studies to confirm this.”

Travison and his team analyzed data from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, a long-term investigation of aging in about 1,700 Boston-area men. Data from the men were collected for three time intervals: 1987-1989, 1995-1997, and 2002-2004.

***

The researchers observed a speedier decline in average testosterone levels than would have been expected with aging alone.

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It’s likely that some sort of environmental exposure is responsible for the testosterone decline, Travison said, although he said attempting to explain what this might be based on the current findings would be “pure conjecture.”

Men’s Health wrote in 2007:

In the summer of 2006, Travison attended an Endocrine Society meeting where another researcher, Antti Perheentupa M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Turku, in Finland, presented evidence of a similar decline. The Finnish results suggested the change was happening among younger men, too. A man born in 1970 had about 20 percent less testosterone at age 35 than a man of his father’s generation at the same age. “When I saw another group reproducing our results,” says Travison, “that was convincing to me that we were seeing a true biological change over time, as opposed to just some measurement error.”

***

Mitch Harman M.D., Ph.D., an endocrinologist at the University of Arizona college of medicine and the director of the Kronos Longevity Research Institute, sees the shadow of Silent Spring. Back in 1962, when Rachel Carson published her environmental classic, estrogen-like substances in the insecticide DDT were making eggshells so thin that they were crushed by nesting parents; populations of eagles and other large birds plummeted. And today? Dr. Harman says, “I’m concerned that we’re just pouring chemicals out into our environment that are endocrine-suppressing, estrogen-like compounds,” possibly causing similar disruptions in human reproduction. The authors of a recent article in the Medical Journal of Australia likewise suggest that from early fetal life onward, male hormonal and reproductive functions are under “xenobiotic attack,” meaning chemicals not naturally found in the body appear to be disrupting normal biological development.

For instance, 90 percent of American men have evidence of chlorpyrifos in their urine. This shouldn’t be surprising, since up to 19 million pounds of the stuff was distributed across the United States in 1999 alone, much of it in household products like tick-and-flea powder for pets, lawn treatments, and common insecticides. Though residential use is now restricted, chlorpyrifos is still common in agriculture, as well as in some professional applications; for most people, diet is now the main source of exposure. In a recent Harvard study, men with the highest chlorpyrifos exposure typically had 20 percent less testosterone than those with the lowest exposure.

Carbaryl is another possible culprit. Detectable levels turn up in 75 percent of American men, and having it in your urine appears to be associated with reduced sperm count and liveliness, or motility, as well as increased DNA damage. And yet we still apply carbaryl to lawns and gardens at a rate of up to 4 million pounds a year, mostly by way of an insecticide known as Sevin. There should be a bumper sticker: Honey, the lawn shrunk my testicles.

Phthalates are also everywhere, almost certainly including your own body. Manufacturers use them in colognes and cosmetics and as softeners in plastics. Baby bottles now come “phthalate-free,” but hospital intravenous bags generally don’t. And yet some phthalates seem to have all of carbaryl’s unpleasant associations with reproductive health. And not just in men: Last year Greenpeace issued a warning against the danger of phthalates in your girlfriend’s sex toys. Then the Danish Environmental Protection Agency came riding to the rescue, declaring such toys safe—as long as she keeps it to an hour or less a day.

Scientists can’t say that any of the suspect chemicals actually cause the reproductive effects that are occurring. They can only point out troubling associations. But these associations seem to be proliferating. About 50 new chemicals come onto the market weekly, says Dr. Harman, and while testing for carcinogenicity is required, “there’s no systematized testing for subtle endocrine effects.”

We’re not likely to have good answers anytime soon. The reproductive problems of human males will remain understudied, says Dr. Harman, in part because federal research dollars are being diverted to issues like biological warfare and terrorism. “We might just wind up disappearing from the planet quietly,” he says, “because we were too busy fighting wars to figure out that our reproductive systems were going south.”

Moreover, as noted by the The Internet Journal of Urology in 2004:

There have been a number of studies over the past 15-20 years … which suggest that sperm counts in man are on the decline. Since these changes are recent and appear to have occurred internationally, it has been presumed that they reflect adverse effects of environmental or lifestyle factors on the male rather than, for example, genetic changes in susceptibility. If the decrease in sperm counts were to continue at the rate that it is then in a few years we will witness widespread male infertility.

Studies published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the journal Diabetes Care, the journal Heart and other major medical journals show that low testosterone levels not only lead to obesity, loss of muscle, weak bones and depression, but also increase the odds of heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimers and other major health problems.

In addition, low testosterone levels are correlated with decreased confidence, drive, ability to concentrate, and cognitive abilities.

The bottom line: Most men – and especially those over 30, fathers, or men who have been exposed to toxic chemicals or potent medications – need to maintain their testosterone levels to keep their health, power and confidence.

How to Boost Your Testosterone Level

There are numerous ways to boost your testosterone (we’ll call it “T”) level. Choose what works for you, depending on your health, finances, time and temperament.

Sprint

The International Journal of Sports Medicine found that, in young men, a six-second bout of sprinting increased serum total testosterone levels. Levels remained elevated during recovery.

Lift

Numerous studies have shown that resistance training is a powerful stimulant for testosterone production. So – if you are physically able – be sure to lift heavy things every now and again.

The rest intervals between sets can also stimulate different hormonal responses. A study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research found that resting 90 seconds between squat and bench press sets boosted post-workout T-levels the most.

Snooze

The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that lack of sleep dramatically lowers testosterone in healthy young men. Peak testosterone levels coincide with rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep onset. Getting 7-8 hours sleep a night – to make sure you get your REM sleep – will boost your T levels.

Chill Out

As shown by studies published in the the Journal of Hormones and Behavior, the European Journal of Applied Physiology and elsewhere, prolonged stress produces cortisol, which reduces T levels.

So take breaks and play sports, go for a walk, meditate, do yoga or do whatever else de-stresses you.

Get Excited

Newsweek reported in 2009:

Monkeys that see sexually active females register as much as a 400 percent jump in testosterone (nature’s own performance-enhancing drug) promoting lean muscle and quick recovery times, according to the Yerkes Center for Primate Research at Emory University. In humans, German researchershave found that just having an erection is enough to spur testosterone levels. it makes no difference whether a man is watching sex on a screen or having it in real life, his testosterone levels will go up. Just having an erection, in fact, is enough to spur production.

Such findings, along with work that shows family life to be a drain on testosterone levels, prompted Rutgers University sex researcher Helen Fisher to advise this month that males in the “captivity situation”-her term for married with kids-”go on the Internet and look at porn” as a kind of hormone-replacement therapy. “[Porn] drives up dopamine levels, which drives up your testosterone,” she tells NEWSWEEK, while kissing your wife or hugging your kids drives it down.

Indeed, marriage and fatherhood have both been shown to decrease testosterone levels.

(This post concentrates on science, not objectification of women, relationships, ethics, or addictions … all important things to reflect on. I am an ethical, happily-married man with kids, and I value all of those things tremendously. But I also know that if I didn’t have a strong sex drive, my T levels would be lower.)

Keep Your Vitamin D Levels Up

Vitamin D positively correlates with testosterone levels in men, according to the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and researchers at the Medical University of Graz in Austria.

So make sure you get enough vitamin D.

Magnesium

The Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis reports that magnesium levels correlate with T.

Calcium

Biological Trace Element Research notes that calcium levels correlate with T, at least in people who exercise a lot.

Zinc

The Journal Nutrition reports that a zinc deficiency predicts lowered testosterone in men.

But don’t take extra … supplementary doses of the mineral don’t boost T levels beyond normal in men with adequate dietary intake.

Eat Monounsaturated and Saturated Fat

We’ve previously documented that fats have gotten a bad rap, and that they are essential for our health. See this, this and this.

The Journal Lipids reports that olive oil – a monosaturated fat – converts cholesterol more easily into testosterone. So use raw olive oil on salads and in other dishes. (Coconut oil – a saturated fat – does the same thing, but to a lesser extent.)

While cholesterol has gotten the worst rap:

Cholesterol is actually a vital precursor to vitamin D, and to basic hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, and adrenaline. If we don’t have enough cholesterol in our body, we will be sickly, impotent and depressed.

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism reports that a low-fat, high-fiber diet reduced T levels in middle-aged men. The Journal of Applied Physiology reports:

Preexercise T was significantly positively correlated with percent energy fat, SFA [saturated fatty acids] and MUFA [monounsaturated fatty acids] ….

(Click image above for larger picture.)

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These data are consistent with the findings of several other investigations that have reported a decrease in T in individuals consuming a diet containing ∼20% fat compared with a diet containing ∼40% fat ….

The results from several investigations strongly suggest that dietary fat has a significant impact on T concentrations; however, the influence of different types of lipids on T is not as clear. In the present investigation, dietary fat, SFA, and MUFA were the best predictors of resting T concentrations. Interestingly, Tegelman et al. observed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.76) between percent energy fat and T in young athletic men, which is very similar to the correlation (r = 0.72) obtained in this study. Also, Adlercreutz et al. reported significant positive correlations between T and dietary fat, SFA, MUFA, and cholesterol in postmenopausal women. The same nutrients were positively correlated with T in the present investigation except for cholesterol, which showed a correlation of r = 0.53 (P = 0.07) with T. In contrast to the results obtained in this study, Key et al. reported a significant positive correlation (r = 0.37) between PUFA and T in male vegetarians and omnivores. Our results showed a nonsignificant correlation between PUFA and T and a significant negative correlation between the PUFA/SFA ratio and T. Thus dietary lipids appear to have a significant influence on resting T concentrations; however, the effect of different types of lipids on T regulation and metabolism is complicated and most likely influenced by a complex interaction of several nutritional and metabolic factors. This complexity is illustrated by the findings of Sebokova et al., who reported that alteration in the testicular plasma membrane and changes in the responsiveness of Leydig cells and subsequent T synthesis occur as a result of ingestion of different compositions of lipids.

Avoid Foods that Spike Blood Sugar Levels

Researchers found that 75 grams of pure glucose – and the resultant spike in blood sugar – was enough to drop T levels by as much as 25% in a random grouping of healthy, prediabetic, and diabetic men.

The glycemic index measures how much of a food converts into blood glucose. Because refined carbs have a higher glycemic index than even candy, you should watch the refined carbs.

Get Enough Antioxidants

Oxidative stress may decrease T. So get enough antioxidants, which protect against oxidative stress.

Herbs

Numerous herbs and other substances have been shown to boost T (at least in rats):

• Ginseng has been shown to boost testosterone levels and ramp up sex drive in rats.

• Ashwagandha – an ancient Indian Ayurvedic herb. See this and this (but don’t take too much – high doses backfire and actually reduce T levels)

• Freshly-squeezed onion juice (but it’s possible that only girls from Transylvania will want to kiss you after drinking onion juice).

• A cocktail containing high doses of selenium and the amino acid N-acetyl-cysteine

• Pomegranate juice

• D-aspartic acid- a derivative of an amino acid found in the body

• Nettles (by freeing up T in the body from being bound into other compounds)

• Saw palmetto extract (works the same as nettles)

• The amino acid derived supplement L-carnitineL-tartrate (by freeing up testosterone receptors)

• Quercetin

• Resveratrol

• Velvet bean

• African pepper

• SAM-e, a compound produced by the liver (see this, this and this)

Note: I’m not a medical professional, and this should not be taken as medical – or marital – advice.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/04/man-up-boost-your-testosterone-level-for-health-power-and-confidence.html

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The Dark Side of Tattoos

Today it's fashionable to get as much permanent ink on your skin as possible. Is this a healthy trend?

I had never given the subject of tattoos much thought other than occasionally to regret getting mine—until my wife, Janet, and I were ministering in New Zealand in 2003. New Zealand was settled more than 1,000 years ago by a primitive Polynesian people called the Maori. They were headhunters and cannibals who worshiped demon gods. The Maori tattoo most of their bodies, including their faces, which they carve flesh from as a wood carver would etch wood to create a design. Then they apply ink.

On a day off we went sightseeing with a local pastor. He took us to a Maori village. Inside the entrance of the village was a meeting house, and above the entrance was a statue of a demon, the face of which was carved with the same pattern as the men’s faces. I immediately came to the realization that these people had carved their faces to look like the deity they worshiped.

The Lord spoke very clearly to me to study every people group, not just the Maori, and then write a book. As a result, I spent nearly two years researching the origins and history of tattoos and piercing. I studied Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, Europeans, Mid-Easterners, Asians and Africans in my research.

MARKED BY GOD "Yes, I have tattoos. Please don't judge me before you know why I wear them."- Aaron Cannistraci Read the counter argument to this article here.

I discovered that all primitive pagan cultures throughout history and on every

continent subscribed to some form of body modification or mutilation, usually involving tattoos and/or piercing. In most cases the practice was a part of demon worship. Many groups such as the Maori tattooed themselves to look like the demons to gain acceptance and power from them.

In 1991 hikers in Europe found the frozen, well-preserved body of an “Alpine Iceman.” More than 5,000 years old, he is the oldest frozen mummy ever discovered. He was found with a grass cape, a copper axe, a quiver full of arrows, flint for making fire, and numerous tattoos on his body, including a cross on the inside of the left knee. (It was not a so-called “Christian tattoo.”) He had six straight lines 15 centimeters long above the kidneys, and numerous parallel lines on the ankles.

Subsequent X-rays of his body revealed chronic degeneration of bone and cartilage in the spine and arthritic wear and tear of the knees and ankles. Presumably these tattoos were done by a shaman or medicine man who was invoking the gods on behalf of this man to rid his body of pain.

In 1891, archaeologists discovered the 4,000-year-old mummy of an Egyptian priestess of Hathor—the Egyptian goddess of love. She had parallel lines tattooed on her arms and thighs as well as an elliptical design below her navel. The tattoo below her navel is believed to have had sexual connotations linked to fertility.

Headhunters such as the Maori from the Philippines, Taiwan and other Pacific islands tattooed themselves to appease the gods before the headhunt and to commemorate their success afterward. South American headhunters also used tattoos as part of their rituals. The Hawaiians have actual tattoo gods they consult before doing a tattoo. The Chinese and Japanese used tattoos to ward off evil spirits, to appease different gods and, like the Romans, to identify or “brand” criminals. Roman slaves were tattooed as a sign of ownership, often marked, “Tax Paid.”

Native Americans tattooed themselves and their captives. The Inuit tattooed themselves upon arriving in the cold arctic regions to appease the gods so they would allow them to settle there and survive in the harsh climate.

In the Mideast, Babylonian and Canaanite and Hebrew shrine prostitutes tattooed themselves as part of their worship. Baal worshipers wore tattoos on their hands to gain power from Baal. In India, shrine prostitutes tattooed themselves to look like the various gods they worshiped. In primitive areas of India the wife of the village sorcerer is the tattoo artist.

Because of their dark skin, black Africans didn’t use tattoos as much as they used scarification. This involves cutting the skin with a sharp instrument and then rubbing it with ashes or caustic plant juices that form permanent blisters. Dark pigments, such as charcoal or gunpowder, are then rubbed into the wound to provide emphasis. The wounds are periodically reopened to enhance the raised scar effect.

Other African traditions involve extreme forms of body piercing. Lips and ears are pierced and objects implanted inside, causing the lip or ear tissue to elongate and conform to the shape of the object. Ethiopian women wear a lip plate, which causes the mouth to protrude to resemble the beak of the spoonbill, a creature they worship.

The letting of blood and body modification have always been associated with pagan worship and witchcraft. Pagans and Christians alike know there is power in the blood. In spite of the current interest in tattoos even in the church, all research points to one conclusion: The root of tattooing never changes; it is, and always has been, a pagan spiritual activity.

SHOULD YOU TATTOO? Some Christians say it’s OK to have tattoos. What do you think? Should Christians get tattoos? Join the very controversial debate.

Your Body Is a Temple

During the last 11 years Janet and I have been heavily involved in the ministry of deliverance. We have ministered to multiplied thousands of people in individual and group settings. We have dealt with people from all walks of life, from many different nations and races. We have ministered to the depressed, the oppressed and even the possessed. We have seen countless people who have been negatively impacted by the spirit realm as a result of things they have done or things that have happened to them.

The goal of our deliverance teaching is always to impart a greater understanding of the spirit realm. Believers need to know how it affects them and to be aware that everything we do in the natural has a spiritual consequence, including the marking or piercing of our bodies.

It’s not surprising that Satan and his demon spirits are doing what they have always done, trying to gain man’s attention, affection and worship. In my research I found that in every culture tattoos were used as a means of invoking, appeasing or glorifying demon gods. Satan is still seeking to take man’s focus off God and direct it to himself.

Today in our culture and society we see an explosion of fads such as tattoos and piercings. Though I don’t fully understand it, Satan is attempting to mark as many people as he can through these means. Perhaps on the day of judgment the accuser of the brethren, the devil, will stand before God and try to claim those so marked as his own.

Or perhaps Satan is encouraging people of all cultures to mar their bodies through some form of mutilation because he knows we are made in God’s image, and he hates God and anything that resembles God.

When I minister, I often ask people if they have ever played Monopoly. If they have, I ask whether they have ever gotten into a family feud while playing and have had to get out the rule book. People laugh as they recall digging out the rules.

God has given us a rule book, a set of rules to play by that enables us to win this game of life. We call it the Bible. The Bible was given to us to help us and to protect us from harm. It clearly teaches us the wiles and schemes of the devil.

Leviticus 19:28 gives us the “rule” for tattoos. It says, “‘“You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the Lord”’” (NKJV).

When God first gave this command to the Israelites, He was drawing a line of demarcation between His chosen people and the Egyptians, whose land they had just left, and the Canaanites, whose land they were about to enter. Both of these cultures were steeped in witchcraft and the occult. Both openly worshiped and served demon gods, and both used tattoos as part of their idolatry and pagan worship. God was trying to protect the Israelites from opening themselves up to demonic influence.

We too are God’s people, and He wants us to “‘come out from among them’” (2 Cor. 6:17). He wants us to separate ourselves from the world and the world’s fads. When we do that, we will avoid doing things to our bodies that God never intended us to do—and that includes getting tattoos.

Let me make it clear that there is absolutely no such thing as a Christian tattoo. In fact, the mere term “Christian tattoo” is an oxymoron! A tattoo may be a religious symbol, but there is nothing Christian about it.

If we truly belong to Christ, we should know and understand that our bodies are not our own. Engaging in the practice of body modification indicates that we believe the opposite. Yet the Bible clearly tells us: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Rolling Stone magazine quoted famous tattoo artist Paul Booth as saying that while he is tattooing people, “he allows his clients’ demons to help guide the needle.” I pray this article will prevent you or someone you know from further defiling these earthen temples we call our bodies. I pray it has given you a greater understanding of the unseen world, as well as insight into what’s behind the ink.

If you already have a tattoo or piercing and are wondering what to do now that you know the truth, here are some steps you can take. First, repent to God for violating Scripture and for bloodletting, which is witchcraft. Also, repent for defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Then renounce the spirits behind the tattoo or piercing. Witchcraft and rebellion are a given, but many tattoos have images that need to be addressed. Sexual tattoos may invite a spirit of perversion, a skull and cross bones a spirit of death, a religious tattoo a spirit of religion and so on. If you have a piercing in other than an ear lobe, remove it and repent for defiling your temple. And whether it’s a tattoo or a piercing, anoint it with oil and break any assignment of the enemy that came in through the modification of your body.

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William M. Sudduth Sr. is president of Righteous Acts Ministries (ramministry.org). He and his wife, Janet, host seminars on spiritual growth, deliverance training and restoring innocence as well as holding revival meetings. He is the author of What’s Behind the Ink?, a book about the spiritual aspects of tattooing, piercing and other fads.

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SHOULD YOU TATTOO?

Some Christians say it’s OK to have tattoos. What do you think? Should Christians get tattoos? Join the very controversial debate.

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Parenting in the Digital Age

The pressure comes from everywhere. Television, movies, and music are constantly breaking new ground for promiscuity and moral decay. Experts talk incessantly about self-esteem and self-actualization. Neighbors and acquaintances frown on traditional values. All around, influence peddlers are hawking their wares, and their wares seem tailor-made to unravel America’s moral fabric. And now social media and text messaging pervade every minute of our lives.

We tend to assume these pressures are just aimed at children when in reality, parents struggle just as fiercely. The manipulative voices are cacophonous: a February, 2010, Pew Research Study found that 93 percent of teens go online, 75 percent have access to a cell phone, 72 percent have social media profiles, and 66 percent send text messages. In essence, it is not a matter of if a child becomes exposed to the billions of ideas floating around social media sites; it is a matter of when. How can parents possibly break through the noise and get a child’s attention?

The cause for concern is magnified when we take even a casual look at the trends and movements targeting children through social media. Since the dawn of the Internet, there has been ready access to pornography. That alone is terrifying. Add to that recent incidents of teens caught sending nude photos of themselves via text message, posting Am I Pretty videos on YouTube, uploading nude or semi-nude images for Hot or Not websites, scheduling hook-ups with strangers or online friends, and sexting and the case for caution is airtight.

And the threats are not just sexual in nature, though those do get the most notoriety. When teens access social media, they become the congregation absorbing the sermons of millions of preachers. Want to teach your child traditional Judeo-Christian values and ethics? You will have to be louder than all the voices out there telling them those ideals are antiquated, judgmental, and absurd. Hard work, respect for authority, the value of education – anything you attempt to teach your child will be resisted by strong forces and anonymous voices.

All this amounts to a seemingly unwinnable battle, but parents cannot just abdicate their role in their children’s lives. Children cannot be allowed to raise themselves, or worse— to be raised by the social media wolves. Short of taking phones away and cancelling the Internet access, what are some practical ways to be heard amidst the hundreds of texts, tweets, and status updates?

First, be courageous. It’s startling how many parents actually seem afraid of their children. The stakes are too high. The balance between allowing children to fight for their independence and requiring them to remain under parental authority needs to be preserved. The battle to hold “the line” between acceptable and unacceptable must be won by the parents.

USA Today tells a particularly pathetic story about a mother and daughter’s social media involvement, in which Jenifer Lippincott had her post deleted from her daughter’s Facebook wall because it broke the rules her sixteen-year-old daughter set up for her. Her daughter, Tess, only agreed to friend her mother if she promised not to write on her wall or “friend” her friends. And her mother agreed to these stipulations.

This level of submission of parent to child is unhealthy and rooted in fear. What if she gets mad at me? What if she says she hates me? What if she’s ashamed of me? Parents, banish these fearful thoughts. Your calling isn’t coolness; it’s leadership. Don’t lose the fight to fear and risk allowing your children to suffer unnecessarily.

Once your loins are girded, so to speak, start the conversation. Keep in mind, of course, that you’re not at war with your children; you’re at war for them. You’re battling to preserve their innocence and do your part to ensure their future success. But that does require erecting some fortifications. Permit me an analogy: the military puts its thickest, most impregnable walls around its most sensitive information and important people. To the best of their ability, they regulate who and what comes and goes in those high security areas. I’m not suggesting you wall your yard or subject your family to military discipline, but erect some walls of protection. Know and control – to the best of your ability – what influences are coming and going.

It’s not wrong, unfair, unconstitutional, unloving, or mean to snoop. Consider knowing their email password and check it periodically, check their social media profiles, and read their text messages.

I know it seems unfathomable – intrusive even. But if the need for oversight exists, meet that need. Of course, not all children are the same, so tailor your approach accordingly, but make sure you know what’s lurking in the dark corners of their lives.

Some other tips to help avoid the perils of social media are to keep all computers and televisions in public areas, declare certain times “social media/texting free” such as dinner and family game night, and be involved in their relationships. Know their friends. Be able to identify the voices coming out of your child’s mouth.

At the end of the day, however, there is a limit to the amount of control parents can exert. Even if parents could maintain total control for eighteen years, that is not the ultimate goal. It is far more important to influence children’s hearts than control their actions. The most important step parents can take in protecting their children from damaging influences is to model the beauty and joy of living for higher pursuits. How much freer and fuller is a life spent pursuing God and family than pursuing cheap thrills and rebellion? Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear about a generation of teens looking forward to finding a career or trade, starting a family, and living right? Contrast that with depictions of the current crop of adolescents living to party and riot.

Children will not be convinced by words alone, but they will notice a sincere way of life. A parent cannot convince a child to observe a faith that is a burden or drudgery. Why would any child willingly pursue a faith that isn’t life giving and joyous? Why would anyone? Connection with God is the driving force from which all other values derive their meaning.

Parents, is your home and family fun? Yes, it has many other functions, but so many families just lack fun. Dad’s too tired; mom’s too frazzled. No one smiles or laughs. No games are played. No practical jokes or day trips. No parties or quiet family movie nights. The kids’ friends don’t feel welcomed, so they stay away, causing the kids to leave too.

Create a fun home. Maintain appropriate structure and discipline, but don’t be a slave to it. Don’t miss small opportunities to create lasting memories. One of my most significant childhood memories were the times we would get Little Caesar’s pizza and watch this awful, independent family movie called “Lost in the Barrens.” Could we have been doing chores or homework? Sure, but instead we were sitting with our parents making a memory. It was fun. I had a friend whose parents hosted a taco night every Friday night and all the friends were invited. What fun! Moments like that show caring and affection and go a long way towards creating a bond that will stand up against all the other influences vying for a child’s attention.

Discover what your children are passionate about. What are their gifts? What lights their fire? Embrace that. Encourage them to pursue it. Be their biggest cheerleader. They’re going to gravitate towards the people who celebrate them. What a shame to lose your child because you were too busy to go to a game or attend a musical. How tragic for your child to pursue approval by flaunting his misdeeds on Facebook because you’re unwilling to make small sacrifices to equip him for his passions.

There are no sure answers. Unfortunately, children aren’t entirely programmable. Parents can go to every length imaginable to protect their children, but ultimately, the child will decide how he or she wants to live. That is why the heart is so important. It is from the heart that decisions will emanate. As parents, pray that God will capture your child’s heart. Make influencing their heart your main pursuit in the effort to protect them against a world that wants to destroy them—a world ever more prevalent since the birth of social media.

To all the parents working hard to shelter their children from these dangers, I applaud you. Be encouraged, and remain focused. First, be courageous. Love your children fiercely and genuinely. Second, demonstrate the beauty of pursuing things higher than sex, alcohol, parties, and mischief. Third, build an appropriate fortress. Protect your children – against their will if necessary – from the dangers they can’t discern yet.

They will thank you for it one day.

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