The other day a most interesting post was made to our modest little guestbook/forum as follows:

First of all, congratulations on your site - your work is admirable. Lately I have found on it one more piece of a puzzle I have been trying to put together for years.

The basic question goes like this: why does it seem necessary for the powers of the week to put down women to such an extent? An urgent sub-question is: why is George W. Bush so hellbent on taking away not only women's rights generally, especially reproductive rights?

Now, we already know some of the rather self-evident answers: a state oriented towards war and domination NEEDS babies, most of all babies born from poor and uneducated families, in order to have a) people willing to enlist in the army and b) cheap wage workers - it will be very important to have a lot of them when comes the time to remove unions and worker's rights. And you cannot get a high birth rate in a society where women are free to choose not to have babies. But then, that explanation is not enough.

SmokingMirrors: And Down Will Come Baby, Cradle and All.

Reading the above linked blog nearly made me cry. Why? Well, because I have heard the same frustration and despair expressed by other sincere activists for World Peace in the past couple of weeks. The despair of the front line is setting in. Yes, it looks like COINTELPRO is winning. The depression is spreading among those who have been keeping up the good fight for so long; we are succumbing to the disease. But is that really true?

Perhaps with understanding we can find a remedy, a Bridge Over Troubled Water.

When you're weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all. I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough and friends just can't be found, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. When you're down and out, when you're on the street, when evening falls so hard, I'll comfort you. I'll take your part, oh, when darkness comes and pain is all around, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.

Sail on silver girl, sail on by. Your time has come to shine, All your dreams are on their way. See how they shine, oh and when you need a friend, I'm sailing right behind Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind. [© 1969 Paul Simon]

"Conspiracy theory" is usually used as a pejorative label, meaning paranoid, nutty, marginal, and certainly untrue. The power of this pejorative is that it discounts a theory by attacking the motivations and mental competence of those who advocate the theory. By labeling an explanation of events "conspiracy theory," evidence and argument are dismissed because they come from a mentally or morally deficient personality, not because they have been shown to be incorrect. Calling an explanation of events "conspiracy theory" means, in effect, "We don't like you, and no one should listen to your explanation."

In earlier eras other pejorative labels, such as "heresy," "witchery," and "communism" also worked like this. The charge of "conspiracy theory" is not so severe as these other labels, but in its way is many times worse. Heresy, witchcraft, and communism at least retain some sense of potency. They designate ideas to be feared. "Conspiracy theory" implies that the ideas and their advocates are simple-minded or insane.

All such labels implicitly define a community of orthodox believers and try to banish or shun people who challenge orthodox beliefs. Members of the community who are sympathetic to new thoughts might shy away from the new thoughts and join in the shunning due to fear of being tainted by the pejorative label.

The concept of reincarnation seems to offer one of the most attractive explanations of man's origin and destiny. There is an increasing interest in this topic today, sustained especially by books and magazines, TV broadcasts, movies and conferences. Most of them are related to the world of esoterical wisdom and occult phenomena. Reincarnation is a hot topic also on the Internet, as you may have already noticed. Not only adherents of Eastern religions or New Age spirituality accept it currently, but also many who don't share such esoteric interests and convictions.

Reincarnation seems to give hope for continuing one's existence in further lives and thus having a better chance to attain liberation. This is a source of great comfort, especially for those who seek liberation on the exclusive basis of their inner resources. On the other hand, reincarnation is a way of rejecting the Christian teaching of the soul's final judgment by a holy God, with the possible result of being eternally condemned to suffer in hell. Another major reason for accepting reincarnation by so many people today is the fact that it allegedly explains the differences that exist between people. Some are healthy, others are tormented their whole life by physical handicaps. Some are rich, others at the brink of starvation. Some have success without being religious; others are constant losers, despite their religious dedication. Eastern religions explain these differences as a result of previous lives, good or bad, which bear their fruits into the present one through the action of karma. Therefore reincarnation seems to be a perfect way of punishing or rewarding one's deeds, without the need of accepting a personal God as Ultimate Reality.

On one occasion, at one of these meetings, someone asked [Gurdjieff] about the possibility of reincarnation, and whether it was possible to believe in cases of communication with the dead.

At one of the following meetings of the group, G. continued, in reply to a question, to develop the ideas given by him before on reincarnation and the future life. The talk began by one of those present asking:

"Can it be said that man possesses immortality?"

Recently we have quoted from Martha Stout's book The Sociopath Next Door. This book should be required reading for every normal human being. We also reccommend Predators: Pedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders by Anna C. Salter Ph.D., for everyone, particularly women and parents. What you don't know CAN hurt you and most particularly, your children. Save a life TODAY: Knowledge Protects!

Today, we would also like to bring to the attention of our readers another book by Dr. Stout. It is entitled The Myth of Sanity. The Myth of Sanity is about survivors of trauma including being traumatized by psychopaths or other pathological elements of our reality. Below are excerpts that we believe will serve as an introduction to further reading and research and even work on the self, with or without therapeutic intervention. It seems that the survivors of trauma have a lot to teach the rest of us about LIVING.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a widely used class of antidepressant drugs that include Celexa, Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft, boost nerve fiber growth in key parts of the brain, according to a study with rats.

The elaborate esoteric philosophy exposed in Gnosis (by Boris Mouravieff) is the transposition of some of the parables, images and events found in the New Testament, into our modern rational language. This transposition should have taken place in a gradual way over the past 2000 years, in order to conform to the mounting rational mentality, which rather favours the deductive method. As to induction, that is to say, the direct grasping of the Truth without need for proofs, it was and still is generally rejected by agnostic reason.

We cannot imagine how late we are: we have reached the end of the Second millennium and the transmutation of the milk doctrine, only good for children, into a doctrine adequate for adults has scarcely been undertaken. This state of affairs has driven the author of Gnosis to take the risk of providing solid food to children only used to milk.

What is meant by solid food and why should its exposition implicate a risk? Our reader is now fully aware that solid food is the unveiled deep meaning of the obscure texts of the bible.

From recent news reports, it has come to our attention that smoking is a vice that "leaders" around the world are determined to stamp out. But why? The official story is that our ever benevolent governments wish to prevent "we the people" from damaging our health, and that of others (if you believe the "second hand smoke" fable. Those of a more cynical disposition claim that the truth has more to do government aims of cutting back on public health expenditure for preventable diseases like lung cancer.

Yet this explanation is relevant only for those few countries where public health care is free and is also contingent on the, as yet, missing evidence that smoking really is the number one cause of cancer, rather than the many other pollutants that we all inhale every day.

Given what we know of the contempt in which The Powers That Be hold most of humanity, and the lack of convincing evidence that even moderate smoking really is a risk to public health, we are forced to look for another reason for the increasingly world-wide witch hunt on smoking and smokers.