Twilight Of The Psychopaths

By Dr. Kevin Barrett

8-21-8

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it." ­ John Lennon, before his murder by CIA mind-control subject Mark David Chapman.

When Gandhi was asked his opinion of Western civilization he said it would be a good idea. But that oft-cited quote, is misleading, assuming as it does that civilization is an unmitigated blessing. 

Civilized people, we are told, live peacefully and cooperatively with their fellows, sharing the necessary labour in order to obtain the leisure to develop arts and sciences. And while that would be a good idea, it is not a good description of what has been going on in the so-called advanced cultures during the past 8,000 years. 

Civilization, as we know it, is largely the creation of psychopaths. All civilizations, our own included, have been based on slavery and "warfare." Incidentally, the latter term is a euphemism for mass murder. 

The prevailing recipe for civilization is simple: 
1) Use lies and brainwashing to create an army of controlled, systematic mass murderers; 
2) Use that army to enslave large numbers of people (i.e. seize control of their labour power and its fruits); 
3) Use that slave labour power to improve the brainwashing process (by using the economic surplus to employ scribes, priests, and PR men). Then go back to step one and repeat the process. 

Psychopaths have played a disproportionate role in the development of civilization, because they are hard-wired to lie, kill, injure, and generally inflict great suffering on other humans without feeling any remorse. The inventor of civilization - the first tribal chieftain who successfully brainwashed an army of controlled mass murderers- was almost certainly a genetic psychopath. Since that momentous discovery, psychopaths have enjoyed a significant advantage over non- psychopaths in the struggle for power in civilizational hierarchies - especially military hierarchies.

 

Military institutions are tailor-made for psychopathic killers. The 5% or so of human males who feel no remorse about killing their fellow human beings make the best soldiers. And the 95% who are extremely reluctant to kill make terrible soldiers - unless they are brainwashed with highly sophisticated modern techniques that turn them (temporarily it is hoped) into functional psychopaths. 

In On Killing, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman has re-written military history, to highlight what other histories hide: The fact that military science is less about strategy and technology, than about overcoming the instinctive human reluctance to kill members of our own species. The true "Revolution in Military Affairs" was not Donald Rumsfeld's move to high-tech in 2001, but Brigadier Gen. S.L.A. Marshall's discovery in the 1940s that only 15-20% of World War II soldiers along the line of fire would use their weapons: "Those (80-85%) who did not fire did not run or hide (in many cases they were willing to risk great danger to rescue comrades, get ammunition, or run messages), but they simply would not fire their weapons at the enemy, even when faced with repeated waves of banzai charges" (Grossman, p. 4). 

Marshall's discovery and subsequent research, proved that in all previous wars, a tiny minority of soldiers - the 5% who are natural- born psychopaths, and perhaps a few temporarily-insane imitators-did almost all the killing. Normal men just went through the motions and, if at all possible, refused to take the life of an enemy soldier, even if that meant giving up their own. The implication: Wars are ritualized mass murders by psychopaths of non-psychopaths. (This cannot be good for humanity's genetic endowment!) 

Marshall's work, brought a Copernican revolution to military science. In the past, everyone believed that the soldier willing to kill for his country was the (heroic) norm, while one who refused to fight was a (cowardly) aberration. The truth, as it turned out, was that the normative soldier hailed from the psychopathic five percent. The sane majority, would rather die than fight.

 

The implication, too frightening for even the likes of Marshall and Grossman to fully digest, was that the norms for soldiers' behaviour in battle had been set by psychopaths. That meant that psychopaths were in control of the military as an institution. Worse, it meant that psychopaths were in control of society's perception of military affairs. Evidently, psychopaths exercised an enormous amount of power in seemingly sane, normal society.

How could that be? In Political Ponerology, Andrzej Lobaczewski explains that clinical psychopaths enjoy advantages even in non- violent competitions to climb the ranks of social hierarchies. Because they can lie without remorse (and without the telltale physiological stress that is measured by lie detector tests) psychopaths can always say whatever is necessary to get what they want. In court, for example, psychopaths can tell extreme bald-faced lies in a plausible manner, while their sane opponents are handicapped by an emotional predisposition to remain within hailing distance of the truth. Too often, the judge or jury imagines that the truth must be somewhere in the middle, and then issues decisions that benefit the psychopath. As with judges and juries, so too with those charged with decisions concerning who to promote and who not to promote in corporate, military and governmental hierarchies. The result is that all hierarchies inevitably become top-heavy with psychopaths. 

So-called conspiracy theorists, some of whom deserve the pejorative connotation of that much-abused term, often imagine that secret societies of Jews, Jesuits, bankers, communists, Bilderbergers, Muslim extremists, papists, and so on, are secretly controlling history, doing dastardly deeds, and/or threatening to take over the world. As a leading "conspiracy theorist" according to Wikipedia, I feel eminently qualified to offer an alternative conspiracy theory which, like the alternative conspiracy theory of 9/11, is both simpler and more accurate than the prevailing wisdom: The only conspiracy that matters is the conspiracy of the psychopaths against the rest of us.

 

Behind the apparent insanity of contemporary history, is the actual insanity of psychopaths fighting to preserve their disproportionate power. And as that power grows ever-more-threatened, the psychopaths grow ever-more-desperate. We are witnessing the apotheosis of the overworld-the criminal syndicate or overlapping set of syndicates that lurks above ordinary society and law just as the underworld lurks below it. In 9/11 and the 9/11 wars, we are seeing the final desperate power-grab or "endgame" (Alex Jones) of brutal, cunning gangs of CIA drug-runners and President-killers; money-laundering international bankers and their hit-men, economic and otherwise; corrupt military contractors and gung-ho generals; corporate predators and their political enablers; brainwashers and mind-rapists euphemistically known as psy-ops experts and PR specialists-in short, the whole sick crew of certifiable psychopaths running our so- called civilization. And they are running scared. It was their terror of losing control that they projected onto the rest of us by blowing up the Twin Towers and inciting temporary psychopathic terror-rage in the American public. 

Why does the pathocracy fear it is losing control? Because it is threatened by the spread of knowledge. The greatest fear of any psychopath is of being found out. As George H. W. Bush said to journalist Sarah McClendon, December 1992, "If the people knew what we had done, they would chase us down the street and lynch us." Given that Bush is reported to have participated in parties where child prostitutes were sodomized and otherwise abused, among his many other crimes, his statement to McClendon should be taken seriously.

Psychopaths go through life knowing that they are completely different from other people. They quickly learn to hide their lack of empathy, while carefully studying others' emotions so as to mimic normalcy while cold-bloodedly manipulating the normals. 

Today, thanks to new information technologies, we are on the brink of unmasking the psychopaths and building a civilization of, by and for the normal human being - a civilization without war, a civilization based on truth, a civilization in which the saintly few rather than the diabolical few would gravitate to positions of power. We already have the knowledge necessary to diagnose psychopathic personalities and keep them out of power. We have the knowledge necessary to dismantle the institutions in which psychopaths especially flourish - militaries, intelligence agencies, large corporations, and secret societies. We simply need to disseminate this knowledge, and the will to use it, as widely as possible. 

Above all, we need to inform the public about how psychopaths co-opt and corrupt normal human beings. One way they do this, is by manipulating shame and denial - emotions foreign to psychopaths but common and easily-induced among normals. 

Consider how gangs and secret societies (psychopaths' guilds in disguise) recruit new members. Some criminal gangs and satanist covens demand that candidates for admission commit a murder to "earn their stripes." Skull and Bones, the Yale-based secret society that supplies the CIA with drug-runners, mind-rapists, child abusers and professional killers, requires neophytes to lie naked in a coffin and masturbate in front of older members while reciting the candidate's entire sexual history. By forcing the neophyte to engage in ritualized behaviour that would be horrendously shameful in normal society, the psychopaths' guild destroys the candidate's normal personality, assuming he had one in the first place, and turns the individual into a co-opted, corrupt, degraded shadow of his former self - a manufactured psychopath or psychopath's apprentice. 

This manipulation of shame has the added benefit of making psychopathic organizations effectively invisible to normal society. Despite easily available media reports, American voters in 2004 simply refused to see that the two major-party presidential candidates had lain naked in a coffin masturbating in front of older Bonesmen in order to gain admission to Skull and Bones and thus become members of the criminal overworld. Likewise, many Americans have long refused to see that hawkish elements of the overworld, operating through the CIA, had obviously been the murderers of JFK, MLK, RFK, JFK Jr., Malcolm X, ChÈ, AllendÈ, Wellstone, Lumumba, Aguilera, Diem, and countless other relatively non-psychopathic leaders. They refuse to see the continuing murders of millions of people around the world in what amounts to an American holocaust. They refuse to see the evidence that the psychopaths' guilds running America's most powerful institutions use the most horrific forms of sexualized abuse imaginable to induce multiple-personality-disorder in child victims, then use the resulting mind-control slaves as disposable drug-runners, prostitutes, Manchurian candidates, and even diplomatic envoys. And of course they refuse to see that 9/11 was a transparently obvious inside job, and that their own psychopath- dominated military-intelligence apparatus is behind almost every major terrorist outrage of recent decades. 

All of this psychopathic behaviour at the top of the social hierarchy is simply too shameful for ordinary people to see, so they avert their gaze, just as wives of husbands who are sexually abusing their children sometimes refuse to see what is happening in plain view. If deep, deep denial were a river in Egypt, American citizens' wilful blindness would be more like the Marianas Trench. 

But thanks to the power of the internet, people everywhere are waking up. The only obvious non-psychopath among Republican presidential candidates, Ron Paul, also happens to be the only candidate in either party with significant grassroots support. 

If "love" is embedded in the Revolution Ron Paul heralds, that is because Dr. Paul - a kindly, soft-spoken physician who has delivered more than 4,000 babies - implicitly recognizes that government is the invention and tool of psychopaths, and therefore must be strictly limited in scope and subjected to a rigorous system of checks and balances, lest the psychopath's tools, fear and hatred, replace love as the glue that binds society together. 

The decline in militarism since World War II in advanced countries, the spread of literacy and communications technology, and the people's growing demands for a better life, together represent a gathering force that terrifies the pathocracy, (those alternately competing-then-cooperating gangs of psychopaths who have ruled through lies, fear and intimidation since the dawn of so-called civilization). 

Since nuclear weapons have made war obsolete, the pathocracy is terrified that its favourite social control mechanism - ritualized mass slaughter - is increasingly unavailable. And if war was the great human tragedy, the pathocrats' pathetic attempt at a war- substitute - the transparently phoney "war on terror" - is repeating it as sheerest farce. Truly, we are witnessing the twilight of the psychopaths. Whether in their death throes they succeed in pulling down the curtain of eternal night on all of us, or whether we resist them and survive to see the dawn of a civilization worthy of the name, is the great decision in which all of us others, however humbly, are now participating. 


About the writer: Dr. Kevin Barrett, co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance for 9/11 Truth, LINK, has taught English, French, Arabic, American Civilization, Humanities, African Literature, Folklore, and Islam at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay area, Paris, and Madison, Wisconsin. Barrett became a 9/11 truth activist in 2004 after reading David Griffin's The New Pearl Harbor and conducting follow-up research that convinced him Griffin had accurately summarized evidence indicating 9/11 was an inside job. 

In the summer of 2006, Republican state legislators and Fox newscasters demanded that Barrett be fired from his job teaching an introductory Islam class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but the University refused to buckle, and Barrett got high marks from his students. He has appeared in several documentary films, lectures widely on 9/11 and hosts three radio programs on three different patriot networks.

  

 Copyright © 2007 The Canadian. All rights reserved.

Kolam Resapan Sebagai Alternatif Sumur Resapan

Oleh: Helmi Junaidi

Kemarin saya share artikel tentang sumur resapan.  Tapi, ada satu kekurangan dari sumur resapan, yaitu kedalamannya tak boleh sampai air tanah. Kalau kedalamannya sama dengan air tanah, maka nanti airnya keluar. Namanya nanti sumur air biasa, bukan sumur resapan. Karena itu, untuk mengatasi hal ini saya ada desain baru, tapi khusus untuk yang halamannya agak luas, yaitu berupa kolam resapan. Kalau sumur resapan misalnya dalamnya rata-rata 8m dan air yang ditampung sekitar 8m kubik, maka sebagai alternatif kita bisa buat kolam resapan. Kolam resapan dengan luas 2x2 m dengan kedalaman 2m. Kapasitasnya sama juga kan, yaitu 8m kubik. Bisa digunakan untuk di daerah yang air tanahnya dangkal, katakanlah cuma 5 m saja.

Kelebihannya, bagi yang suka memelihara ikan, maksud saya ikan hias saja, kolam tersebut tak perlu ditutup, tapi bisa dibuat seperti kolam hias yang bagus. Airnya tentu jangan diisi penuh, tapi 1/3 atau 1/4 kolam saja. Jadi kalau pas musim hujan tetap bisa menampung curah hujan. Diberi pagar pembatas yang aman bila terbuka seperti itu, supaya bila punya anak kecil tak nyemplung kesana. Atau bagi yang tanahnya lebih luas lagi kolamnya bisa diberi tangga berjenjang sehingga bentuknya bisa landai. Seperti kolam betulan, tapi punya fungsi ganda.

Bagus, kan? Daripada kolam atau sumur resapan yang kaku. Kalau ini bisa ada unsur estetikanya dan berfungsi sebagai kolam hias juga. Kalau memang tak tertarik dengan kolam hias, maka bisa ditutup saja. Tapi, kolam resapan ini tetap ada kelebihannya, yaitu bisa digunakan di daerah yang air tanahnya dangkal.

Silakan segera membuat bagi yang mau. Musim hujan masih lama. Keburu banjir lagi nanti. Atau barangkali ada yang sudah pernah membuat kolam resapan seperti ini? Entah saya tak tahu. Kalau sudah ada ya gak apa-apa. Tapi, ini ide asli saya sendiri. Baru terpikirkan tadi. Kalau kebetulan sudah pernah ada orang lain yang membuat artinya pikiran saya dengan dia nyambung.

Jakarta, 31 Januari 2014

Be careful of Harun Yahya aka Adnan Oktar

The following review was published in Minaret, the magazine of Islamic Center of Southern California, after a glowing book review about Yahya's Evolution Deceit, in Minaret's earlier edition. The real name of Yahya is Adnan Oktar. Unfortunately, most Muslims who pomote Yahya's book have very little knowledge about the theory of evolution and science in general.

Book Review by T.O.Shanavas.

THE EVOLUTION DECEIT: A FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN DECEPTION


The book review titled “The Evolution Deceit Reveals Holes in Theory” by an anonymous author in Minaret [vol. 22: 8] is misleading and deceptive. The Evolution Deceit by Harun Yahya is a fundamentalist Christian deception under the cover of Islamic veil. This book misleads those innocent Muslims who lack overall knowledge of theory of evolution and biology. The author of the book review states: the book “gives necessary answers to the evolutionist propaganda.” The author adds: the book “displays the fraudulence and distortions [by] evolutionist scientists.” NO!!! In fact his book Yahya distorts the honest mainstream scientists by fraudulently manipulating their statements.

This book is a classic carbon copy of fundamentalist Christian arguments of Institute for Creation Research (ICR), San Diego, CA. Yahya cunningly launches the ICR arguments to Muslim community with frequent references to Allah and the Qur’an. Behaving like a good student of the ICR, he transcribed into his book all ICR arguments such as lack of transitional fossils, the impossibility of functioning intermediate forms, the fraud of human evolutions, the unreliability of the dating methods, and the statistical improbability of evolution at the molecular levels.

Following the ICR’s modus operandi, Yahya uses psuedoscience to promote his interpretation of the Qur’an. The references from scientific journals that he cites in the book usually support and defend evolution. But he takes just one sentence out of the article that he thinks might seem to support his arguments and use it as his scientific reference. Like the ICR, he generally distorts a single news item from popular journals to “prove” his conclusion. He conveniently ignores the fact that the rest of the article or other articles in the same issue of the journal that defend and support evolution, even though the Qur’an commands, “…Conceal not evidence…” [Qur’an 2: 283].

These tactics and strategies of Yahya in the book are borrowed from and instructed by his fundamentalist Christian mentors from the ICR such as Duane Gish, Henry Morris, John Morris, etc. Yahya and his organization, Bilim Arastirma Vakfi [BAV]-Scientific Research Foundation, has a long history of association with the ICR since 1992 including receiving assistance from it. Yahya became well acquainted with Duane Gish and Henry Morris during their numerous trips to Turkey in search of Noah’s Ark [Ref: Acts & Facts 1998a, 1998b]. Duane Gish and Henry Morris were participants in a conference on creationism organized by Yahya and BAV in 1992. Then later in April and July 1998 Yahya and BAV organized three “international” conferences in collaboration with the ICR with a theme of “The Collapse of the Theory of Evolution: The Fact of Creation.” Gish and Morris were invited main speakers in the conferences.

After the conference Morris described the presence of the ICR in the conferences in Turkey as an “effort to bring Turks to Christ.” [Ref: ICR publication, Impact # 318 December 1999]. In another article, titled, “Creation, Christmas, and the Qur’an” Henry Morris hopes, “the Muslims influenced by the ICR will come to know Christ.” [Ref: ICR publication: “Back to Genesis” December 1998, page 120]. Similar hope is expressed by John Morris, the current director of the ICR, in an article titled “creationist Evangelism.” [Ref: the ICR publication: “Acts & Facts” 1998, 27:9].

In page 222 of Yahya’s book, he presents Duane Gish as “World-renowned evolution expert.” This is another fraudulent claim by Yahya. There is not a single article published by Gish in any of the known peer-reviewed journals in the last 25 years. Of course, he has published many articles in Christian publications. Gish is one of the founding fathers of Christian Fundamentalist organization, the ICR. Gish is a biochemist who has done no paleo-anthropological research himself. One of Gish's tactics is to malign the credibility of the anthropologists in general who study human evolution by citing examples of their mistakes, especially misidentified fossils. One of the protocols of a good scientist is that a person who makes a claim bears the burden of documenting it. But Yahya’s “World-renowned” Gish refuses to follow this protocol after he made a statement that humans are closer to frogs based upon data for amino acid sequence in some proteins in frogs and human. [Ref: PBS science program Nova in 1982]. Gish repeatedly promised to produce the documentation of his claim, but did not. He violated the protocol of a good scientist when he said it was the evolutionists’ job to ferret out the information. [Ref: Eve, Raymond A. & Harrold, Francis B.1990. “The Creationist Movement in America” Boston: Twayne Publishers. Page 83]. Duane Gish’s conduct in this instance shows that he does not fit the mold of a “world-renowned scientist.”

Who are Harun Yahya's other mentors? Henry Morris and John Morris! The father-son combination!! Henry Morris is not a biologist or paleontologist. He is a hydraulic engineer. The best way to introduce him is by his own words so that the readers can make their own judgments. His opinion about science: “It is precisely because Bible revelation is absolutely authoritative and perspicuous that the scientific facts, rightly interpreted, will give the testimony as that of Scripture. There is not a slightest possibility that the facts of science can contradict the Bible.”[Ref: Morris, Henry M., ed. 1974. “Scientific creationism” (public school edition). San Diego: Creation-Life Pubs.].

Henry Morris states about the age of the earth: “In the Bible, which is the Word of God, He has told us everything we need to know about the Creation and earth’s primeval history.”[Ref: Morris, Henry., 1967. “Evolution and the Modern Christian.” Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co.]

"The only way we can determine the true age of the earth is from God to tell us what it is. And Since He has told us, very plainly, in the Holy Scriptures that it is several thousand years in age, and no more, that ought to settle all basic questions terrestrial chronology."

[Ref: The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth by Henry Morris. Minneapolis, Minn.

Dimension Books.1972. page.94.]. Henry Morris states again in another publication “that the earth almost certainly was created less than 10,000 years ago.”[Ref: Morris, Henry., 1977. “The scientific Case for Creationism.” San Diego: Creation-Life Pub.].

Finally, Henry M. Morris--John Morris's father, Duane Gish's boss, the founder of the Institute for Creation Research--apparently suspects Muhammed [pbuh] of trafficking with the devil? I quote: "Muhammed himself, with his presumed visions and revelations, was something of a mystic, and there is legitimate reason to wonder whether or not his 'angelic' revelations were really from God...The 'revelations' received by Mohammed from his visiting spiritual entities, while stressing the supremacy of Allah, presented a vastly different portrait of God's character and purposes than those inspired by the Holy Spirit through the prophets and apostles of both Old and New Testaments. It is all but impossible that they could have been from the same source." (Henry M. Morris, The Long War Against God, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House 1989, pp. 229-30).

John Morris holds same opinion as his father regarding the age of the earth and probably about Prophet [pbuh]. Otherwise, he would not be the director of the ICR. Anyone holding such views regarding the age of the earth cannot be called "famous geologist" as Yahya venerate him. He can be recognized as a "geologist of the Bible or a biblical scholar" but definitely not as “famous geologist.”

John Morris, current director of ICR, is a geological engineer, not geologist, who is not engaged currently in geological work. John Morris, Yahya's mentor, after attending the conferences organized by BAV and Harun Yahya, wrote: "As a group [BAV of Turkey], they have access to more than adequate financial resources, as well as to the media, are able to blanket the country with creation information. They choose to invite international creationists for their publicity value, but especially welcome Christian creationists in the ICR mold rather than those who those who hold merely an anti-Darwinian stance."

[Ref: Morris, John. "Creationist Evangelism in Turkey." Acts & Facts 1998; 27:9.]

To conclude, Yahya’s mentors are fundamentalist Christians. Yahya’s tactics and strategies are those practiced by the fundamentalist Christians. Yahya even fraudulently venerate Duane Gish, Morris, etc., as “World-renowned” scientists and evolution experts. Therefore, Yahya’s book, The Evolution Deceit, is a fundamentalist Christian fraud, under the cover of Islamic veil, that misrepresents Islam and the Qur’an. Those Muslims, that promote Yahya’s book as savior of Muslims from the theory of evolution, must look for some other source than Yahya’s book.

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The Sermon on the Mount

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them.

The Beatitudes

He said:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and Light

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

The Fulfillment of the Law

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Murder

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,^[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²² But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister^[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’^[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
²³ “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
²⁵ “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. ²⁶ Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Adultery

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’^{[e] 28} But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Divorce

³¹ “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’^{[f] 32} But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Oaths

³³ “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ ³⁴ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.^[g]

Eye for Eye

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’^{[h] 39} But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. ⁴¹ If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. ⁴² Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Love for Enemies

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor^[i] and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Giving to the Needy

6 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

² “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Prayer

⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,^[j]
    but deliver us from the evil one.^[k]’

¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Fasting

¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,^[l] your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eyes are unhealthy,^[m] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[n]?
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Judging Others

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
⁶ “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

The Narrow and Wide Gates

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

True and False Prophets

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

True and False Disciples

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

The Wise and Foolish Builders

²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

²⁸ When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

Footnotes:

 

1. Matthew 5:21 Exodus 20:13
2. Matthew 5:22 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a fellow disciple, whether man or woman; also in verse 23.
3. Matthew 5:22 Some manuscripts brother or sister without cause
4. Matthew 5:22 An Aramaic term of contempt
5. Matthew 5:27 Exodus 20:14
6. Matthew 5:31 Deut. 24:1
7. Matthew 5:37 Or from evil
8. Matthew 5:38 Exodus 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21
9. Matthew 5:43 Lev. 19:18
10. Matthew 6:13 The Greek for temptation can also mean testing.
11. Matthew 6:13 Or from evil; some late manuscripts one, / for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
12. Matthew 6:22 The Greek for healthy here implies generous.
13. Matthew 6:23 The Greek for unhealthy here implies stingy.
14. Matthew 6:27 Or single cubit to your height

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New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

By Amiram Barkat    

From: Haaretz | Oct. 12, 2004 | 12:00 AM | 16

 

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.

On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.

Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days.

But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something.

"When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" he asks.

According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country."

Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.

There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday."I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday," he says.

Former adviser to the mayor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as "a huge disgrace." He says most of the instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the Christian religion with disdain.

"I'm sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it," he says.

Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the Jewish quarter, near his home. "A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched."

Jerusalem municipal officials said they are aware of the problem but it has to be dealt with by the police. Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said they had only two complaints from Christians in the past two years. He said that, in both cases, the culprits were caught and punished.

He said the police deploy an inordinately high number of patrols and special technology in the Old City and its surroundings in an attempt to keep order.

Teknologi Touchscreen Ternyata Berasal dari Tegal !!

Konon, pada suatu ketika Steve Job berkunjung ke Indonesia dan makan siang di warteg.  Steve Job diam-diam mengamati cara pemesanan makanan di warteg tersebut.

Setiap pengunjung yang datang selalu ditanya oleh pelayan warteg.

Pelayan: “Makan pakai apa?”

Pengunjung tidak menjawab, namun menempelkan jarinya ke kaca (menunjuk makanan di baliknya)

Pelayan: “Makan pakai apa lagi?”

Lagi-lagi pengunjung menempelkan jarinya ke kaca.  Sehingga selanjutnya pelayan tidak lagi bertanya, melainkan hanya memperhatikan gerak telunjuk pengunjung di kaca.

Dan beberapa detik kemudian makanan yang diinginkan pun sudah siap tersaji.  Steve Job sampai melongo terkagum-kagum dengan teknologi pemesanan makanan tersebut. Ternyata teknologi di Indonesia luar biasa majunya. Tak ayal lagi Steve Job pun terinspirasi  teknologi kaca sentuh (touch glass) tersebut, sehingga tak lama  berselang dunia pun mengenal teknologi layar sentuh (touch screen)…… yang idenya ternyata berasal dari Tegal !! 

Sumber: Copas sana sini. LOL

Ike's Warning Of Military Expansion, 50 Years Later

by NPR Staff

January 17, 2011 5:28 AM

 

 

On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors and the armed forces.
Eisenhower, a retired five-star Army general, the man who led the allies on D-Day, made the remarks in his farewell speech from the White House.
As NPR's Tom Bowman tells Morning Edition co-host Renee Montagne, Eisenhower used the speech to warn about "the immense military establishment" that had joined with "a large arms industry."
Here's an excerpt:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist."

Since then, the phrase has become a rallying cry for opponents of military expansion.

YouTube

Eisenhower gave the address after completing two terms in office; it was just days before the new president, John F. Kennedy, would be sworn in.
Eisenhower was worried about the costs of an arms race with the Soviet Union, and the resources it would take from other areas — such as building hospitals and schools.
Bowman says that in the speech, Eisenhower also spoke as someone who had seen the horror and lingering sadness of war, saying that "we must learn how to compose differences not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose."
Another concern, Bowman says, was the possibility that as the military and the arms industry gained power, they would be a threat to democracy, with civilians losing control of the military-industrial complex.
In his remarks, Eisenhower also explained how the situation had developed:

"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of ploughshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions."

The difference, Bowman says, is that before the late 1950s, companies such as Ford built everything from jeeps to bombers — then went back to building cars. But that changed after the Korean War.
Bowman says that it's important to note that during the Cold War, the U.S. military didn't draw down its troops like it did after World War II.
"It kept a large standing army after the Korean War," he says.
America's new reliance on sophisticated weapons technology also helped bring about what Bowman calls "a technology race with the Soviets."
And that meant that weapons manufacturing became more specialized.
"So [for] a company like Ford, going from cars to jeeps is one thing; cars to missiles is quite another," Bowman says.
In an effort to control the expansion of the military-industrial complex, Eisenhower consistently sought to cut the Pentagon's budget.
The former general wanted a budget the country could afford, Bowman says. He upset all the military services with his budget cuts, especially the Air Force.
Citing another quote from Eisenhower — this one from another speech on military spending — Bowman says, "The jet plane that roars overhead costs three quarters of a million dollars. That’s more than a man will make in his lifetime. What world can afford this kind of thing for long?"
In today's government, Eisenhower has a fan in his fellow Kansan Secretary of Defense Robert Gates — who keeps a portrait of the former general in his office at the Pentagon, Bowman says.
Speaking at the Eisenhower Library last year, Gates talked about America's insatiable appetite for more and more weapons:

"Does the number of warships we have, and are building, really put America at risk, when the U.S. battle fleet is larger than the next 13 navies combined — 11 of which are our partners and allies?
Is it a dire threat that by 2020, the United States will have only 20 times more advanced stealth fighters than China?
These are the kinds of questions Eisenhower asked as commander-in-chief. They are the kinds of questions I believe he would ask today."

But, Bowman says, it has only become more difficult to control the size of the nation's military industry.
First, "there are only a handful of defense giants," he says, "which means you can't shop around for a better price."
And companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are also adept at both lobbying and marketing to promote their interests.
Bowman says, "they also spread the jobs around the country, to lock in political support."
Gates has also discussed the difficulty of cutting military spending:

"What it takes is the political will and willingness, as Eisenhower possessed, to make hard choices — choices that will displease powerful people both inside the Pentagon, and out."

Bowman says that some industry observers believe that "the one thing that could create that political will is the nation's huge deficit." Only that might force cuts in the overall defense budget.

Source: www.npr.org