Messages

"For young people, interest in Satanism can start with a CD, move onto the Internet. From there, it sometimes develops into home-grown, seemingly harmless things like going to cemeteries but sometimes can lead to murders, as we have seen."

So you are not suppose to go to cemeteries? When did that become a "sin"?

"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said.

hehe interesting way to look at it.  

I find meditating with my eyes open helps me to remain grounded and in the present environment. Meditating with my eyes closed helps with looking within and doing internal things. It depends on what you want to do and what feels right to you.

While I do not try to do rituals of faith, "nature's natural divine flow of energy" (your words) is where I find common ground. What others refer to as god I see as a creative life force or energy that permeates all things, and not necessarily some deity. So find a common ground that you can use in place of god without changing your beliefs.

If the effects in these pictures were produced by a slow shutter speed, it seems to me that in order to get a lot of the pictures the image would have to be a lot more blurry to get the effect.

No, the forums are not dead, but atleast I don't see the same questions asked several times a day that can easily be answered by going to the homepage or with a simple search (usually a few posts down).

National Park Service
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/WebCams/index.htm

Monterey Bay Aquarium
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/cam_menu.asp

The good news is that these laws have almost never been enforced. I guess they are just there to make the insecure people who fear that somewhere at some time someone might be enjoying themselves feel better. The scary thing is that in Texas not too long ago they did arrest two gay men for having sex in the privacy of their own home, though as the article states that law has been shot down. What I always wondered was how they knew they were in their home having sex.

While the forums are not as busy as they were, I would not necessarily say that is a bad thing.  

Oh well, Nay, maybe the tape will turn up some day. I use to live in a house that I have concluded was haunted, atleast there was some odd things that went on there. I did not come to this conclusion until I was moving out though (which had nothing to do with the odd activity) so I did not have an opportunity to experiment. Things usually happened far enough apart so that when something did happen I had forgotten about the last time. Right before I moved out things were happening more frequently and I started thinking about all the events. Nothing happened that was threatening, more just attention getting it seemed.

I knew I would get your attention.  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6620768/

Legislating your sex life
A search of sex laws turns up some surprises

Duane Hoffmann / MSNBC  
By Brian Alexander
Contributor
MSNBC
Updated: 3:12 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2004

News of the illness of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has raised the issue of how President George Bush might change the Supreme Court. What does this have to do sex?

Well, when it comes to sexual expression, a lot of people say, "There oughta be a law!" And politically powerful crusaders are already salivating over the possibilities. Concerned Women for America (CWA), for example, said last year that anal sex ought to be banned: "If we were really compassionate, we would be putting sodomy laws back on the books, not removing them."

In fact, according to a search of state criminal code databases, there are already laws, lots of laws, regulating even private sexual expression. You might find some of them surprising.

Occasionally, the surprises stem from the legislative zeal to be thorough. In Texas, for example, "public lewdness" is against the law. No surprise there. But you can commit public lewdness even in private if you are "reckless about whether another is present who will be offended or alarmed" by, among other things, an "act involving contact between the person's mouth or genitals and the anus or genitals of an animal or fowl." Apparently, as long as nobody's offended or alarmed, Rhode Island Red better watch out.  

What's indecent?
States also have a wide variety of definitions for such things as public indecency. In Indiana, for example, you might be indecent if your male genitals are completely covered but "in a discernibly turgid state."  

As a former adolescent male, this worries me.

If you're traveling with a lover, and you are not married to each other, but feeling in the mood, you'd better not rent a hotel room in North Carolina because "any man and woman found occupying the same bedroom in any hotel, public inn, or boardinghouse for any immoral purpose...shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor."

Sex under those circumstances would absolutely be "immoral" because, like many other states, North Carolina has laws against fornication whether you are in a hotel or just at home: "If any man and woman not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed, and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor."

In Idaho, fornication can get you a $300 fine and six months in jail. But that's a piece of cake compared to the penalty for adultery -- up to a $1,000 fine and three years in the state pen.

If you're a man in Oklahoma, and you tell a virgin female you want to marry her, then you two commit fornication, you had better not change your mind about the marriage, Bub, or else you've committed a felony. You could go to jail for five years. Luckily, if you change your mind back again, and make an honest woman of her, all is forgiven.

Idaho, Indiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas are all conservative "red states." Massachusetts, on the other hand, is the ultimate "blue state," the state Bush accused of being full of "liberals" as if the state were a breeding ground for godless subversives. But it's got some doozy sex laws. Adultery could get you three years in state prison. Sell a dildo, do five years. (I've previously mentioned anti-vibrator laws in Texas.) The state even has a catch-all statute for any "unnatural and lascivious act with another person." The law doesn't say just what is unnatural or lascivious.

Maryland appears to outlaw just about everything except the missionary position between married men and women. The law prescribes 10 years for "any unnatural or perverted sexual practice" like, say, oral sex. Not only that, but, says the law, the state can indict you without naming the particular act it's accusing you of committing or even the manner in which you committed it.

Tough to enforce
For someone like me, who considers himself as law-abiding as any other good citizen, it feels strange to know I have committed felonies in several states, misdemeanors in many others, and that my accumulated jail time under laws I found in the databases is about 250 years.

For someone like me, who considers himself as law-abiding as any other good citizen, it feels strange to know I have committed felonies in several states, misdemeanors in many others, and that my accumulated jail time under laws I found in the databases is about 250 years.

Lucky for me, most of these laws are rarely, if ever, enforced. For one thing enforcement just isn't practical. Not only do the acts usually happen in private, but enforcing the laws would make the United States one vast prison.

As of June 2003, there is also a very real legal reason why the laws are not enforced. A Texas statute says: "A person commits an offense if he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex." (Some other states with such anti-sodomy laws can't bear to name the act. Instead, they use phrases like "the detestable and abominable crime against nature.") When police arrested two gay men having sex in their own home, the men fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court -- which is what got the CWA and other sex prohibitionists all riled up.

The resulting decision, Lawrence v. Texas, struck down the law. At the time, the ruling was considered a major victory for gay rights, but it also means states are, for now, very limited in how they can restrict private sexual behavior between consenting adults, gay or not.

The laws, though, are still on the books, lurking like land mines left over from a war. Why? Well, few legislators are willing to propose repealing them because nobody wants to be seen as "approving" of fornication or adultery or, my goodness, anal sex. Besides, there's no powerful rubberist lobby, or a rich PAC called Married People for Sodomy. But as the new legislative director for CWA has said, "You just don't mess with the conservative right!"

When Arizona decided to repeal some of its archaic sex laws in 2001, one crusading legislator struck back by proposing a law revoking the teaching credentials of any educator found to be a fornicator or to have committed "crimes against nature" like oral sex or anal sex. The governor received thousands of e-mails, most insisting the laws stay. She signed the repeal anyway.

Would-be regulators of sexual expression realize that the Lawrence decision could be reversed, giving those old, unenforced laws new teeth. Justice Antonin Scalia, who voted with the minority in Lawrence, wrote a scathing dissent which made it clear he favored the ability of states to forbid sexual expression they deemed immoral whether the proscribed behavior takes place in private or not. Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas voted with Scalia.  

Bush has said that Thomas and Scalia are his favorites on the court. It's possible that the president will name up to three new justices during his second term. That new court may very well decide that your sex life is the government's business after all.

Nay, I am sure this is a silly question but do you still have the tape?

Meditating while soaking in a hot bath can be nice.

I think that meditating with your eyes open helps you to be more grounded in the present environment while meditating with your eyes closed helps more with looking inward. Or maybe that is just how I do it.

Amazon.com
One might expect The Satanic Bible at least to offer a few prancing demons or a virgin sacrifice, but if you hopped this train expecting a tour of the house of horrors, you're on the wrong ride. Far from a manual for conquering the realms of earth, air, fire, and water, The Satanic Bible is Anton LaVey's manifesto of a new religion separate from the "traditional" Judeo-Christian definitions of Satanism. While LaVey rails against the deceit of the Christian church and white magicians, he busily weaves his own deceptions.
The Satanic Bible claims the heritage of a horde of evil deities--Bile', Dagon, Moloch, and Yao Tzin to name a few--but these ancient gods have no coherent connection between each other or to Satanism, except that all have been categorized by Christianity as "evil." Calling on these ancient names like a magician shouting, "Abracadabra," LaVey attempts to shatter the classical depiction of Satanism as a cult of black mass and child sacrifice. As the smoke clears, he leads us through a surprisingly logical argument in favor of a life focused on self-indulgence. The Satanic Bible is less bible and more philosophy (with a few rituals thrown in to keep us entertained), but this philosophy is the backbone of a religion that, until LaVey entered the scene, was merely a myth of the Christian church. It took LaVey, and The Satanic Bible, to turn this myth into a legitimate public religion. --Brian Patterson

Product Description:


Called "The Black Pope" by many of his followers, Anton La Vey began the road to High Priesthood of the (lurch of Satan when he was only 16 years old and an organ player in a carnival:


"On Saturday night I would see men lusting after halfnaked girls dancing at the carnival, and on Sunday morning when I was playing the organ for tent-show evangelists at the other end of the carnival lot, I would see these same men sitting in the pews with their wives and children, asking God to forgive them and purge them of carnal desires. And the next Saturday night they'd be back at The carnival or some other place of indulgence.

"I knew then that the Christian Church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man's carnal nature will out!"


From that time early in his life his path was clear. Finally, on the last night of April, 1966 -- Walpurgisnacht, the most important festival of the believers in witchcraft -- LaVey shaved his head in the tradition of Ancient executioners and announced the formation of The Church Of Satan. He had seen the need for a church that would recapture man's body and his carnal desires as objects of celebration. "Since worship of fleshly things produces pleasure," he said, "there would then be a temple of glorious indulgence . . ."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380015390/qid=1101822066/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-1868820-9220168?v=glance&s=books&n=507846



I have not read this yet but plan to some day. Having not read it I cannot really comment on it, but I will say that those I have talked to who have read it give it much praise. From what I have gathered it is better taken as a philosophy rather than a religion.

The goal is really to be still and uncluttered within. Outward it is not necessary but it does help. If you do not have your own space and live with noisy messy people then you might be wasting your energy in constantly trying to change this shared environment. First I would suggest finding some place where you can get away to meditate, such as going to a park or out in the woods if possible. This may not be very practical this time of year depending on where you live. Second, do what you can and feel you need to do with the area that you have, but do not stress over that which you cannot effect. Relax and go with the flow. While being in a noisy environment is not considered ideal for meditation it does have an advantage in that you will have to work harder at it, but through hard situations we grow and develop more.

There is something you might want to try, if you don't think the spirits would mind. Get a tape recorder and try recording them. Even if you cannot hear them the recorder might be able to pick them up. You might even be able to communicate with them like this.

http://www.mcmsys.com/~brammer/evpfilepage2.htm

We can hope, Nick, though sadly that in vain part seems most likely.

And the US shows no signs of even trying to reduce the deficit.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/19/congress.spending.debt.ap/index.html

WHY MOVE TO CANADA?

8. The United Nations has ranked Canada the best country to live in for eight consecutive years.



http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/11/15/canadian.welcome.ap/index.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4170152

Canada is the only G7 country to run seven consecutive surplus budgets. It has not run a federal deficit since 1996-97. The United States deficit is expected to reach $422 billion in 2004.


Obtained from http://www.canadianalternative.com/gettoknow/whycanada.cfm

What is this ActiveX junk and how can I stop my browser from constantly telling me that my security settings do not allow it? Here at work we use IE   and apparently they have it set to not allow ActiveX, which apparently is a security risk. But on most websites I go to I keep getting a warning that my settings do not allow it and the website may not display correctly (never had a problem with this). This pops up EVERY FREAKING TIME I go to these sites and usually several times on the site. It is freaking annoying! Maybe I just need to talk to them about using Firefox.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2004/11/15/glaucoma-screen041115.html

I totally agree, but there are people who want to rule or want to be ruled over. It seems that Earth is to teach us about polarity. Most humans want this polarity, either consciously or not. I just don't see extremism going away any time soon. We can hope though.

I have come to the conclusion that there are no set rules or guide lines for relationships. It all depends on those involved and what they want. I think the only thing needed is for those involved to want to be in the relationship and to make it work.