"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
-Thomas Jefferson (Notes on Virginia, 1782)
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
-Thomas Jefferson (letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800)
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."
-Thomas Jefferson (letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814)
"What is it men cannot be made to believe!"
-Thomas Jefferson (letter to Richard Henry Lee, April 22, 1786)
Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind.
"Naturally, the common people don't want war. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism."
—Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief
"All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself. The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."
—Adolf Hitler, President of the Reichstag and Reich Chancellor, Nazi Party
"First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.... The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism, ownership of the government by the individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
"We stare at TV screens and try to comprehend the suffering in the aftermath of terrorism. At the same time, we're witnessing an onslaught of media deception. Silence, rigorously selective, pervades the media coverage of recent days. ABC News analyst Vincent Cannistraro helped to put it all in perspective for millions of TV viewers. Cannistraro was in charge of the CIA's covert aid to Afghan guerrillas. In other words, Cannistraro has a long history of assisting terrorists -- first, contra soldiers who routinely killed Nicaraguan civilians; then, mujahedeen rebels in Afghanistan ... like Osama bin Laden. How can a longtime associate of terrorists now be credibly denouncing "terrorism?" It's easy. All that's required is for media coverage to remain in a kind of history-free zone that has no use for any facets of reality."
I was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, 39°54'0" North, 79°43'28" West, on February 12, 1948, shortly before 6:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5). This was Lincoln's birthday. One of my friends was born on Washington's birthday. At Christmastime, one of my relatives made the mistake of trying to give me a dollar bill, and I wanted nothing to do with it, since it didn't have Lincoln's picture on it. It became something of a family joke, and everyone gave me five dollar bills at every opportunity.
During my lifetime, my father owned and operated the most successful mobile home sales and service corporation in southwestern Pennsylvania. He was a dealer for the American Coach Company of Cassopolis, Michigan, and also handled Marlettes and Westwoods. He had grown up on a farm in Jefferson County, Missouri. One of his family jokes was "me grandmother was a Kelly. She was only three-quarters German."
I was asked to submit my statements within a week, if possible, and
that has not been possible. I am a disabled person, and I have a very
few hours each day when I am capable of composing statements online.
My wife is disabled in a different way, and our five year old son,
who was already developmentally disabled, recently contracted a virus
which initially attacked his digestive system and then his nervous
system, leaving him temporarily near-vegetative. He has regained the
ability to sit up and to walk. His ability to think is clearly impaired
beyond what it was already, and he lost the abiltity to grasp
objects or to talk, although those skills are gradually coming back. He
used to say "Daddy fat" and laugh. He can't do that any more. He can
now say "A" and "ball" with great effort. We are currently attempting
to get him the best treatment we can given the limitations of our
insurance coverage and fixed income, which takes additional time.
* 21.2 Autobiographical.
I have worked primarily as a public welfare worker, a proofreader,
an English teacher, a computer programmer and a systems analyst. I am
married with four children by my current wife and two from a previous
marriage. My older daughter is a sophomore at U.C. Berkeley and my
oldest son is a senior at Chatsworth High School (Los Angeles County).
I grew up in Pennsylvania, by the way, where a high degree of prestige
was accorded to Quakers, who did something in church they called
meditation.
* 21.3 Regarding Prem Rawat
In 1973, while I was working in public welfare, I met a worker from
another county who felt that her ability to work effectively had been
greatly enhanced by Transcendental Meditation. I was starting to save
up my money when I received a piece of mail advertising not one, but
four meditation techniques for free. This wound up being a kind of
bait-and-switch promotion during which I experienced sleep deprivation,
drastic dietary changes and exposure to sales techniques known to have
been derived from Korean War brainwashing research. During two weeks
of indoctrination, I reached the point where I was willing to serve
the guru forever without being taught to meditate, at which point I was
immediately found ready to learn the meditation. I was told to practice
one of the techniques during all waking hours, and when I asked, was
told that no, this was not self-hypnosis. After I started, I was given
reasons to keep "meditating," as well as other information which had
been withheld previously. While thus "not hypnotized," I was told that
Guru Maharah Ji Prem Rawat was God, that this was The Second
Coming, that the mind was Satan, that 24/7 meditation was necessary,
that I had to give the Guru all of my money and that I had to live
communally with other devotees and give up most of my possessions
to the Guru's resale store. I was asked to resign my job, of course.
By November 8 of that year, I believed that 144,000 of us would be
in the Astrodome that week when a large mothership would appear over
Houston and whisk us all off the planet, Astrodome and all, as a massive
earthquake destroyed New York City along a newly discovered fault line.
My family subsequently had me deprogrammed, so that the experience
only cost me about a year of my life. I spend most of my online time
at an ex-premie website trying to help others who spent between 10
and 35 years believing the guru was God, until some accidental
encounter snapped them out of it.
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