Tis the season to be silly ... fa la la la (etc)

Christmas Carols for the Disturbed.

(Pinched from elsewhere)

SOQ
1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and.....

6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me

7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle, Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

EOQ

Hope it all goes well for ya'll ... may the best of your 2007 be the worst of your 2008. Cheers !

Yeah yeah, I know ... how does someone who generally comes across as smug and conceited (etc) with his (often longwinded and typically out of the ordinary - ie, "weird") online opinions turn out to be so obviously good looking and presumably and/or correspondingly easy going frood who really knows where his towel is when not stuck behind a keyboard ?

Short answer. "It's the Internet, Stupid". See, there I go again. Smug and conceited.

Outside such pages, I'm actually more amused by life and the many strange ways folk choose to live it to actually really take much seriously at all ... and especially not myself. Generally I feel like I'm merely visiting this planet anyway and for an all too short stay when one really thinks about it.

All the more reason to spend more time laughing and being amused than not, I reckon.

But I'm still not going to turn "comments" on here. Go find another blog if you want to add your own blab to something someone else feels like waffling about. I've already got enough to keep me busy as it is.

Anyway, a Merry Bah Humbug to one and all for the silly season. Laugh lots and love even moreso.

regarDS

Pragmatic uses of Natural Climate Change to achieve Global Domination

So derspatz, you're of the opinion that global warming isn't caused by people, but is the natural warming/cooling of the earth AND God?

Not quite. I'm of the view that this planet was created as a (for all intents and purposes) perfect place with a perfect environment and that at the time of Noah the gradually corrupting/decaying conditions were given a dramatic and speedy shake up that not only brought about speedy and repetative global climate change swings, but also changed our very planetary spin and orbit, probably flipped the poles, gave us our current planetary wobble and changed the number of days to be found in a year.

I'm also of the view that we shall again suffer pole flip (which shall make the stars appear to move from their places) and the rapid arrival of many (largely unexpected for most folk due to their unfortunate indoctrinations in Gradualism and Uniformatarianism) catastrophies that again shall reshape the planet and destroy and kill much and many.

I don't think God worries much about our climate or spends time deliberately influencing it as such, especially seeing how it is ticking along nicely within usual and repeated parameters. Tis all under control and The End shall come just as promised and planned.

Our current climate changes don't bring me any concern at all because I'm of the view that everything that can be observed about our planet's history neatly fits within a time frame of around 6,000 to 10,000 years, with many events some deem to be many millenia apart and taking much time to come about, actually happening around about the same time and very quickly ... which was the main point of my recent links (see previous blog entry) that show even hostile sceptical science has irrevocably discovered that climate change can happen FAST FAST FAST and we can lose massive amounts of ice in a matter of a few years where previously it was thought it would take millenia.

I guess many of the hostile sceptical mob weren't very big on Viking history

And if it is God, to you believe that it's the 'end days' in revelations (as is my understanding of it based on many years of religious studies in school, but perhaps is not yours), or another period such as the great flood to whittle down some human numbers?

I believe that our global climate change is being pragmatically used by certain people in order to fulfil certain dreams (and prophecies) regarding finally establishing a Global Government.

I deem the likes of "Al Gore" to be pretty close to being "the false prophet" described in the prophecies of the Ancient Texts, who is out and about winning converts to his cause (much like Hitler's Brown Shirts), putting pressure on countries to join together in common accord to govern their citizens through the filter of "the sky is falling so we must all make our citizens toe a new line for the good of everyone ... OR ELSE", and we shall end up with a New World Order and government that is going to put Ancient Rome (et al) to shame.

I don't think God is the slightest bit interested in "whittling down" human numbers seeing how we are all gonna die one way or another anyway and get to have our time here judged.

However, the promise is that at the End of Days (before a 1000 years of peace and restoration here on earth before a final total renovation by fire and rebuilding of the heavens and the earth), much mayhem WILL be permitted and inflicted upon the planet in order to sort a few things out, and it WILL involve global climate change of a less than pleasant kind.

I reckon that the "stage of the game" we currently are at prophetically speaking, is the use of Global Climate Change in order to unify the people of the planet and restablish the power and control of the Roman Empire in a way that the ancients could only dream about.

Tis very exciting from my point of view, for I always wondered what sort of method could be use to get so many of the inhabitants of the earth to join up and surrender personal freedoms, especially after such systems previously tried by the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, China, etc.

Who woulda thunk it would have been something as simple as "The Weather" !

Now, if Al Gore really is the foretold "False Prophet", I wonder who the Anti-Christ will be. The one whom the false prophet helps get into power as president of Rome Reborn which is going to be the biggest super-power humans have yet to come up with.

BTW, I'm also of the view that the generation who saw Israel reborn in 1948 will not die out before the promised final 7 year tribulation time happens, Armageddon, and Yeshua returns.

Yet another reason I support and urge others to support Israel in nearly all things, and certainly with your charity dollar. Tis the best way to help the planet get past all of its ails and woes.

regarDS

On the topic of Rapid Climate Change ...

"By the 20th century, scientists (DS: some, but not all) had rejected old tales of world catastrophe, and were convinced that global climate could change only gradually over many tens of thousands of years. But in the 1950s, a few scientists found evidence that some changes in the past had taken only a few thousand years. During the 1960s and 1970s other data, supported by new theories and new attitudes about human influences, reduced the time a change might require to hundreds of years. Many doubted that such a rapid shift could have befallen the planet as a whole. The 1980s and 1990s brought proof (chiefly from studies of ancient ice) that the global climate could indeed shift, radically and catastrophically, within a century — perhaps even within a decade."

See: http://www.aip.org/history/climate/rapid.htm for the rest of where that quote was lifted from, plus such things as:

"Swings of temperature that scientists in the 1950s believed to take tens of thousands of years, in the 1970s to take thousands of years, and in the 1980s to take hundreds of years, were now found to take only decades. Ice core analysis by Dansgaard's group, confirmed by the Americans' parallel hole, showed rapid oscillations of temperature repeatedly at irregular intervals throughout the last glacial period. Greenland had sometimes warmed a shocking 7°C within a span of less than 50 years. For one group of American scientists on the ice in Greenland, the "moment of truth” struck on a single day in midsummer 1992 as they analyzed a cylinder of ice, recently emerged from the drill hole, that came from the last years of the Younger Dryas. They saw an obvious change in the ice, visible within three snow layers, that is, scarcely three years!"

and

"The first strong consensus statement had come in 1995 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, representing the considered views of nearly all the world's climate scientists. The report included a notice that climate "surprises" were possible — "Future unexpected, large, and rapid climate system changes (as have occurred in the past)." The report’s authors did not emphasize the point, however, and the press seldom mentioned it."

and

"Asked about the discovery of abrupt climate change, many climate experts today would put their finger on one moment: the day they read the 1993 report of the analysis of Greenland ice cores. Before that, nobody confidently believed that the climate could change massively within a decade or two; after the report, nobody felt sure that it could not."

Then turn to page 4 of Friday December 14th "The West Australian" and read about how much the Arctic ice has melted in less than 30 years and how little of the sun's radiation is being reflected away because of the melt, which in turn causes even faster melting.

Tis all Good News AFAIC. Just ask folk in Greenland.

regarDS

where the streets have no name

This entry is mainly just a bit of a test for the "imbed a video link" that apparently is possible. Let's see if it works ...



Okay, you should see a not all that exciting or probably even remotely interesting slideshow (with an excellent U2 song as a soundtrack) of drivable machinery I used to have on a property I also used to have before "love turned to rust". The tractor is an old International B250, and the Z car at the beginning was done up for a street parade. Supposed to be a robotic santa and sleigh (shrug). The trucks are Leyland, and the Ute is a 1954 Hillman. No seatbelts. The Bus is an old 5-pot Daimler which I used to spend quite a lot of time in towards the end of my marriage. Sad to leave it all behind (including the house I personally spent many years building with my own hands ...)

Another case of "Gimel Zayin Yud" ? ("This Too Shall Pass")

Pardon me for the mood potentially conveyed by the display of aged and rusty vehicles, but I can get a bit maudlin and machine-like around about this time of year due to some very exciting yet particularly sad and disappointing news I received back on the 16th of December, 1999. Those who know, know, and those who don't, can't (but no, it was nothing to do with my marriage.)

Oh, obviously I get somewhat enigmatic around about this time of year too. (smile)

regarDS

WWJVF ? (Who Would Jesus Vote For ?)

In a political discussion the other day, the line "I know who Jesus would vote for" was tossed into the pot for a bit of fun. You may be surprised, but it wasn't actually me who said it, and nor was it offered as some sort of heavenly endorsement of the Coalition. Far from it.

At the time, I opted not to make mention of the unlikelyness of Jesus to favour political parties that support and promote such things as abortion, homosexuality (and the right for homosexuals to adopt children), stem cell research, public education systems dedicated to teaching much that is far less than the truth, and policies dedicated to the eroding and replacement of tried and true family/traditional values with some sort of "Bill of Rights" that trample responsiblities and righteousness into the ground and then drive back'n'forth over the top a couple of times for good measure.

Instead, I took a more light-hearted approach to how Jesus tackled such things as Public Service bloat by calling a tax-collector away from his appointed task. I could have added that Jesus helped create a new job in the fishing trade by calling Peter away from his boat and nets to fish for souls instead of Sole, but thought better of it considering the potential welfare dependents created out of that job change.

Anyway, this "I know who Jesus would have voted for" line has had me thinking for the last couple of days, so I've decided to explore the idea of "WWJVF" (Who Would Jesus Vote For) in the context of a particularly contentious issue at the moment. That being:

The Unionism/Collectivism of the ALP vs the Individual Work Place Agreements ala AWAs of the Coalition.

Would Jesus vote for a party that favours unionism/collectivism ? Would He join a union ? Or would He vote for a party that promotes individual reward and responsibilites ?

Well, who better to give a view here than Jesus Himself. In Matthew chapter 20, Jesus has the following comparison to make regarding the Kingdom of Heaven and a particular workplace. It follows on from the "Eye of the Needle" parable in chapter 19, and is given in response to Peter's question about what are the rewards for giving up everything to follow God.

SOQ
"The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just'. So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise.

Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.'

When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.'

When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage.

And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.'

He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?

Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?'

Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."
EOQ

What have we got here ?

(1) An employer who negotiates one on one with potential employees. AWA 1, Collectivism 0.

(2) Employees who are happy to turn up for what the employer was offering. AWA 2, Collectivism 0.

(3) Other employees who were happy to turn up based on a mere promise of "I will pay you what is just". AWA 3, Collectivism 0.

(4) An employer who was even happy enough to take on employees that no one else seemed to want - why else where they left in the public labour market place all day ? No change in score.

(5) At the end of the working day and the agreed upon wages distributed as per the Individual Work Place Agreements, some employees suddenly thought they should get more than what they had formerly agreed to. That sounds like the kind of attitudes (i.e. greed, envy and jealousy) often associated with certain modern Trade Unions kicked in, thereby showing a common contrast between Collectivism and Individual Workplace agreements. Thus, AWA 4, Collectivism 0.

(6) An employer who calls the employees "my friend" and reminds them that as per the agreement, they were not being cheated. Demonstrating again that Collectivism was in no way a part of these workplace arrangements. AWA 5, Collectivism 0.

Well, based on that, I think I know who Jesus might vote for too ...

It is also interesting to note that Jesus appears to be saying that "The Kingdom of Heaven" is similar to this kind of arrangement. In context, obviously "Eternal Life" is part of the common wage He was referring to - bestowed almost gift like by the employer regardless of the worth or actual efforts of the individual.

Some get it and all they did is merely turn up when asked, whereas others choose to slave their day away for the same reward.

Ah, NOW we are starting to sound like Collectivism ... (smile)

regarDS

Woe minority me ... (grin)

Well folks, it looks like I'm going to be the member of a minority for the next three years.

Who wants to be the first to persecute me ?

Before I ramble on, I must say "Well done Mr Howard" and "Congratulations Prime Minister Rudd."

I got more or less what I expected with this Federal Election result as this following message posted elsewhere earlier in the week shows. I also got at least one unexpected bonus.

StartOfQuote (SOQ)
"You voted for all sorts of right wing parties and religious nut jobs; Why did you leave One Nation out?"

Because I didn't vote for extreme right wing parties and religious nut jobs. I voted for what I believe is best for Oz citizens as based upon historical knowledge of "what works" and nearly always so.

"One nation" isn't (best for Oz citizens). Which is why they are down so far on my list, along with the "Socialists" and the "Citizen Electoral Council" (the Larouche mob who hijacked the "Global Warming Hoax" thing on TV the other month) and But Of Course, the "Climate Change Coalition".

"One other question, how on Earth do you honestly think that voting in such a way would lead to "an Oz Government that isn't too much one way or another." ?"

Because despite the majority views of 64% of Oz citizens who claim to be "Christian", coupled with a few more % points of folk of other monotheistic religions, I believe that tall-poppy syndrome among other things is going to see a swing against the Coalition.

A swing that might even be enough to see a change of Government.

In view of that likely swing, I have given my vote to ensure that the pendulum doesn't swing too far the wrong way.

Thus, I'll be happy with either a tiny win for the Coalition or a tiny loss (but preferably a win) but I certainly don't want the Coalition to win by a landslide ... or any other party.

I'm hoping for a balanced and Centrist kind of Government, and all extremists and extremist parties given the public snubbing they deserve.
EOQ

As per a "politics test" result that you can take here: http://www.politicalcompass.org/test I am revealed to be near enough to "Centrist".

Which is in fact the result this election has just delivered. A somewhat Centrist Labor government which hasn't won by all that much, leaving things around about to the centre.

The unexpected bonus for me is the fact that the Oz Demoncrats are all but exinct as a party and soon to be no more. Hallelujah.

Now if only the same can be managed for the Evil Extreme Greens then my dreams will have come true. Maybe next election (when the Coalition will probably be returned by the many Oz citizens who will be impatient to correct the mistake they made today), huh ?

Lots of Postal and Early Votes still to be counted so it will be a little while before the dust settles and we get to see what sort of Senate we have now. I expect certain Independents will have a degree of control despite the unfortunate presence of the Evil Extreme Greens.

It appears that Prime Minister Rudd's new cabinet will be up against a hostile Senate until at least the middle of 2008 anyway. I wonder if by then the long knives will have come out to depose Too-Right'n'Nice-To-Be-Labor Prime Minister Rudd for the likes of "That Gillard Woman" or worse.

It was both fascinating and scary to see all the fists being thrust into the air when Prime Minister Rudd made a comment in his acceptance speech about Trade Unions. Yup, I can see the unions soon living up to the "We're coming back" promise, with the more lazy and thuggish of them (both officials and members) soon spoiling things for everyone in Oz, and spoiling Oz in terms of its place in the World Market.

Aside from that, it is like a weight lifted from my shoulders as I realise that I am on a holiday from any kind of blame as to what happens to our country over the next three years.

So THIS is what it is like to be part of a minority !

Wow, I'm surprised more folk don't make such a choice (re: joining a minority). Oh the freedom to be able to merely shrug and say, "Don't blame me, I didn't vote for them" and "You've made your bed, now lay in it" and "Since you weren't prepared to listen, perhaps you will learn by your mistake instead and seek to correct it at first opportunity and never repeat it again." and other such smug and sanctimonious and annoying statements. (grin)

Ah, I think I'm going to enjoy this little break.

I wonder how many days it will be before the first "I told you so" will be warranted, and months before the first corruption type scandal will be making headlines ?

regarDS

"Baby Boomers", Natural Climate Change and the Extreme Greens

"... is this why the baby boomers appear to worship greed and don't seem to give a frig about climate change? It's all your problem kids, we won't be around for it."

My response to such a question is:

No, it is more a case of a majority of "baby boomers" having a better upbringing and education and being able to see straight through much of the propaganda regarding the fear campaign in relation to what in fact is natural climate change.

It also follows that the majority of "baby boomers" have also been better equipped to realise that lefty minority groups are prepared to lie about the natural and mostly beneficial process of climate change in insidious attempts to swing undeserved power their way so they can stamp their control and extremist policies upon the rest of the world.

Just like they are always trying to do.

The Greens are the worst kind of political extremists because essentially they lack any tried and true foundation to their morality and thus their policies. They are their own slaves to the subjective morality they choose to live by and unfortunately also fanatically fundamentalist enough to deem such a bankrupt approach to morals and ethics as something EVERYONE should be living by and so campaign and policy build accordingly.

Thus, the likes of The Greens prove themselves to not only be the enemies of humankind but also poisoners of innocence, and thus arguably the very soul of humanity.

regarDS

Public Education vs Private Education

"why is it that all the promised education spending seems focused at private schools, and why is that when Howard was on TV at a school it was one of those catholic type private schools?"

My response to such a question ?

Because more and more of the more decent parents are getting sick of teaching and bringing up their kids one way, only to have it totally undermined and poisoned by the atheistic ultra left wing permissive and anti Judaism, Christianity, and Islamic, public school system.

With more and more caring and decent parents opting for private systems, that must also mean that a government elected by the majority of people for the people, must allocate funds according to majority wishes as well as what is best for the nation now, the future and what has proven best for the nation in the past.

While the public education system remains hijacked and an enclave of lefty ideology it will continue to be shunned as parents vote against the system with their wallets.

The sensible thing is to move as much of education as possible into the private sector and create a user pays system that financially contributing parents can have more control than is possible in the lefty pinko social, civil, and cultural disaster public schools that are more of a hindrance than a help to our civilisation and future.

It seems to me that the standard lefty is all about having their minority (and usually selfish) view stamped upon the rest of humanity, always bleating for "rights" rather than actually going out and applying personal responsibility as a way of earning respect, and usually ends up all bitter and twisted as every day they are reminded that the majority is just not interested and nor is ever likely to be.

I would also suggest that the average lefty just hates that fact that most Oz private schools provide a nice shield against typical lefty ideologies sanctioned in state schools.

Parents are voting with their wallets for a less hijackable private system over a plainly failed public system and But Of Course any reasonable "Government for the people by the people" is obliged to further support the former over the latter even if a price to pay is a few more bitter and twisted snarly faced Jo Valentine look-alikes.

What with lefties losing influence left right and centre (respect having never actually ever been gained, let alone lost), it is no small wonder that they have been reduced to choosing a new thing to try and control us all regarding.

The climate.

I'd suggest that most Environtologists and their Church of Environtology would be of lefty ilk, with the handy thing for them and their new religion is that regardless of where climate goes, they will remain reasonably isolated from blame or accountablity.

Unlike than with our failed public education system.

Does that answer the question ?

regarDS

Values Checklist published in "The Weekend Australian"

The following chart was published in "The Weekend Australian" for the weekend of the 17th and 18th of November, the week before the Oz Federal Election.

http://derspatz.googlepages.com/07valus1.pdf

And here is a follow up document that expands on each of the questions/views and why each party was marked as it was.

http://derspatz.googlepages.com/07valus2.pdf

What is glaringly clear from the chart published in "The Weekend Australian" and well supported by the followup document, is just how bad and hostile the likes of "The Australian Demoncrats" and "The Greens" are in relation to not only the standard family unit, decency/standard morality, and both the general and spiritual welfare of the majority of Australians, but also how bad and hostile they are towards what are probably the majority views of the entire planet on such things.

Did I say "bad" ? By bad I mean "evil". :-)

It would appear the the Demoncrats and Greens want to have public funded IVF for singles and homosexuals whilst allowing them to change their minds and abort the children at will (again on public coin), give non-elected laywers and judges authority over laws put together by Governments elected by the people for the people in order to lock in "rights" re: IVF, etc, make it harder for families to send their children to schools that teach values which are at odds with their plainly luciferic left wing ideaologies and make it harder for schools they disagree with to discriminate against teaching job applicants who are clearly unsuitable on moral and spiritual grounds, make it easier for one and all to be exposed and inundated with pornography and to continue with a herion addiction (no need for injecting rooms if naltrexone was administered to all addicts anyway), and to "top it off" (and since they are all about killing off the yet to be born who don't actually want to be painfully killed), legalise the "voluntary" killing off of our aged and sick, etc, oh, and get lots of babies gestating so they can be aborted and used for research and cellular spare parts.

The policies, goals and aims of the Oz Demoncrats and The Greens parties are plainly evil, evil, evil, for they stand directly opposed to virtually everything held as typically holy to "The People of the Book" (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) as well as many other religions.

Thus, the Oz Demoncrats and Greens show who they really are working for and whose kingdom they are about trying to establish, and it is quite plain that it isn't a civilisation that wil be known for such things as righteousness, love, charity and the traditional family unit with traditional family values that all through history have proven time and time again to be a major key to the success and prosperity of a people and culture.

No, what the Oz Demoncrats and Greens are about is speeding our nation even faster into ruin and degradation and creating a people to whom the only thing is sacred is their right to do anything they please whenever they please to whomever they please ... particularly when it comes to the unborn or old and infirm.

And the sad thing is that Labor isn't all that different to the Oz Demons n Greens when it comes to the aforementioned concerns.

Please keep that in mind when you go to vote on the 24th of November.

regarDS

"what was, what now is, and what is to come"

When I was an early teenager, it would be an understatement to say I was somewhat morose and angry ... this not being something all that foreign to most early teenagers one would think. I didn't think much of most of the human content of our world, nor what we were doing to the place, and I wondered if things were ever going to get any better.

My search led me to "the bible", something I prefer to call the "ancient texts" and will refer to as "AT" (as opposed to "OT" and "NT") from here-on. I set about reading it from cover to cover (something I've now done a number of times) but I must admit that most of it wasn't all that exciting or appealing to me as an early teenager. All those begats, strange sounding names, and tales of war and bloodshed, didn't lend much to my wondering of whether things were ever going to get better.

What I ended up doing in that first "cover to cover" project, was basically tear out every page of the AT that I thought showed some sort of promise or hope or indication about our future, and throwing in the rubbish the rest of that particular version/collection/translation of the AT.

Obviously I was no book-worshipper back then, nor am I now. A book is just another thing after all, and I for one deem book-worshipping to merely be another form of idolatry and fail to see the need for outright perfection in any original or translation of the AT (Ancient Texts.)

The torn out collection I was left with basically consisted of pages from the likes of Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Matthew, Thessalonians and Revelation, all in no particular order and with probably a few other AT book names thrown in. Thus, my first exposure and interest in prophecy as it relates to the people of the covenant (people of direct Jewish decent) and the Gentile nations (the rest of us) was born.

Trying to understand and apply those AT prophecies to what was, what now is, and what is to come, has been a consistent interest with me ever since ... which would be around 30 years now.

At least half that time ago, I discovered an excellent resource that helped put all those collection of words I ripped out of the AT, into a more visual representation. A picture painting a thousand words and all that.

It was the collection of "charts" by the late Clarence Larkin, as found in his book "Dispensational Truths". The descriptions found in Daniel, Ezekiel, Revelation (et al), became so much easier to follow when presented in a pictorial format and so it became even clearer to me as to "what was, what now is, and what is to come", and all that.

The good news is that Clarence Larkin's pictorial representations of prophecy (and a lot more besides) have now come into the public domain and can now be accessed for free by anyone who chooses to do so via the Internet.

So rather than rip and tear apart whatever copy of the AT (Ancient Texts) you happen to have collecting dust on your shelf like I did some 30 years ago, head over to the following links and get the basic gist regarding the prophecies in well drawn pictures instead.

I've included one link which you can use to temper against Larkin's work too, for I wouldn't want it to be thought that one should ever rely upon a single person's views when it comes to determining "The Truth" in these matters.

Nor am I of the view that Clarence Larkin has got it completely right in all these matters either.

http://web.mountain.net/morton/charts.htm
http://www.ebccnet.com/lcharts/Clarence-Larkin-Album
http://www.geocities.com/christian_crusade/faq_antichrist.html

regarDS

Where the hell is Matt ?

SBS television in Oz (Australia) used to regularly screen the "Deep Forest" song/clip called "Sweet Lullaby" as a bit of a filler between foreign news. That was back in around 2000 before SBS went advertisment happy like every other commercial channel. They used to complete the clip with a little graphic of the world and a voice-over that said "The World Is An Amazing Place".

I never managed to catch a complete recording of that clip before they changed the filler to Neil Finn and Yothu Yindi performing in the "Dots on the shell" clip which (although is also very good) never has had the same sort of inpact with me as "Sweet Lullaby".

Thank goodness for Youtube ! At last there are many versions of the Sweet Lullaby clip to be found freely online. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvnVdMpgQOk is but one version.

Then along came Matt Harding. Who the hell is Matt ? Matt Harding is one cool frood who really knows where his towel is (thank you Douglas Adams), that's who !

If you have not already heard of him, he is someone who not only has brought a whole new level of entertainment to the "Sweet Lullaby" clip, but also someone who has used his travels, that song, and internet facilities to bring a wonderfully positive, entertaining, amusing, and family friendly phenomena to the WWW.

His contributions in this regard are worth promoting, so here is the all important link in that regard, or you can always just go to youtube.com and search for "where the hell is matt ?" to view his original works as well as the many amusing spin-offs. Enjoy !

See: http://wherethehellismatt.com for the originals, news, and out-takes. Cheers and good on ya Matt !

regarDS

In memory of Nikola Tesla

derspatz standing next to a statue of Nikola Tesla that the USofA has got hidden away on Goat island in Niagara near the falls.

The photo was taken around mid 2003, but an additional memorial was established in memory of Tesla's enormous contributions to our present understanding and use of electricity, in July 2006 on the Canadian side and is in full view of where most of the public are to be found rather than hidden away on an island.

See: www.teslasociety.com/victoria.htm for more info on Tesla and plenty of pictures regarding the new memorial.

regarDS

... and so it begins.

My first post to my first blog, so (But Of Course) it isn't going to resemble much more than a boring test ... and there you have it.