I won't vote for Ron Paul, he is, ultimately, too extreme. But, I like some of what he has to say. Got this from a list I'm on...
............................................................................................................................................................

4:20 Ron Paul Quote: " It's our policy of preemptive, deliberate invasions of these countries and occupying these countries that has jeopardized our safety. This blow back principle is what caused 9/11 and we have to come to realise it.
If you keep living in this dreamland of saying that they attacked us because we are free and prosperous,
believe me we'll never get a good foreign policy."

Bill O'reilly Panics After Ron Paul Brings Up 1953 Iran Coup by US and UK.flv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m76BOQ_2Hs&feature=related
The Bill Oreilly interviews Ron Paul, he doesn't want to see Ron to tell what the US did in the past in the middle east. Ron Paul wants to put 911 in a historical perspective, but as you might expect from FOX they are not very interested in a discussion on an intellectual level.
Watching Ron Paul vids always gives me the impression that he is trying to explain obvious things to idiots


Ron Paul Interview 1988 A Must See!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfZ0a1irFPk&feature=related

The Most AMAZING video on the internet…2012 Election…a RP revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoP0ItndrAk&feature=related

Ron Paul tells a truth nobody wants to hear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzl7TwnTu5Y&feature=related

Ron Paul vs Michael Moore on Larry King CNN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7myjtY13M8&feature=related

Eat This During Winter to Radically Reduce Your Risk of the Cold and Flu
December 31 2011

Mushrooms contain some of the most powerful natural medicines on the planet, especially for boosting your immunity during cold and flu season
Many medicinal mushrooms having strong anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties
Mushrooms can help slow your aging, boost your immunity, improve your blood flow and cardiovascular health, stabilize blood sugar, increase athletic performance, and even help regenerate your nerves
It is therapeutically important to use a blend of multiple mushroom species, organically grown, rather than just one type

By Dr. Mercola

Some of the most potent immunosupportive agents come from mushrooms, and science is just beginning to tap into this vast natural medicine warehouse.

There are mushrooms that kill viruses, mushrooms that kill bacteria, and even mushrooms that kill yeast—which may surprise you, given they're both fungi.

Some mushrooms destroy cancer cells, and others facilitate nerve regeneration.

Fungi are incredibly resilient, even surviving radioactivity.

They can actually harness radiation to thrive, as was found by a robot sent to map the inside of the entombed Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1999.

The robot found a hardy fungus chowing down on 200 tons of melted radioactive fuel.

In addition to bringing us nutrition and powerful medicine, mushrooms offer great benefits for the planet.

You may be surprised to learn that mushrooms have the following green applications:

Eradication of carpenter ants by producing a pesticide that tricks the ants into eating it
Producing a low carbon footprint type of ethanol
Breaking down the neurotoxins in nerve gas
Producing a fully compostable fungal-based packing material that could potentially replace plastics and styrofoam
Bioremediation: Cleaning up waste from petroleum, toxic chemicals (PCBs, TNT), and bacteria such as E. coli
Of the 140,000 species of mushroom-forming fungi, science is familiar with only 10 percent, according to world-renown mycologist Paul Stamets in "The Most Powerful Medicine in Nature". About 100 species are being studied for their health-promoting benefits. Of those hundred, about a half dozen really stand out for their ability to deliver a tremendous boost to your immune system.

I'd like to share some information with you today about a few of the rock stars of Kingdom Fungi. Some of these were discussed in my interview with Steve Farrar, who has worked and studied mushrooms professionally for the last 30 years. If you missed that informative interview, I highly recommend listening to it as well. But first, you need a little understanding about how mushrooms grow and what makes them so unique.

Mycelium: Mother Nature's Internet
Mushrooms are nature's recycling system. If it weren't for mushrooms, we wouldn't have plants, because mushrooms (and their "parent" mycelium) break down rocks and organic matter, turning them into soil that provides the framework to nourish plants..

Mushrooms are actually only the fruiting body of a more vast fungal form—the mycelium. The mycelium is a fascinating cobweb-like mat that infuses nearly all landscapes. It is through the mycelium that the fungus absorbs nutrients from the environment. When two compatible mycelia combine, the resulting mycelium occasionally forms fruiting bodies called mushrooms. The mushrooms make spores, which fly away to make new mycelial colonies, and the lifecycle is complete.

Mycelial mats can be too small to see or cover vast areas of ground.

Their extreme tenacity makes the soil spongy and able to support 30,000 times its weight. A single cubic inch of soil can contain 8 miles of mycelium cells. The largest living organism on Earth is a mycelium in Eastern Oregon that covers 2,200 acres, is ONE cell wall thick and 2,000 years old.

Paul Stamets believes fungal mycelia and the intricate, branching network they form function as "the Earth's Internet," a complex communication highway that is sort of Mother Nature's neural net. In some ways, mycelia are "sentient" and seem to demonstrate learning. If one pathway is broken, it develops an alternate path. According to Stamets, when you step on it, it knows you're there and "leaps up" in the aftermath of your footstep, trying to grab debris. The mycelia—not JUST the mushrooms—contain many of the healing agents for which mushrooms are revered.

Hanging with Fungi Increases Your Odds of Survival
We're more closely related to fungi than we are to any other kingdom. We share the same pathogens, meaning bacteria and viruses. As a defense against bacterial invasion, fungi have developed strong antibiotics, which also happen to be effective for us humans. Penicillin, streptomycin, and tetracycline all come from fungal extracts.

The predominant mushrooms displaying antiviral activities are the polypores, sometimes called bracket fungi or woody conks, tough and fibrous fungi characterized by many tiny holes on the underside of their caps. Polypores have been dubbed the "frontier" of new medicines and are thought to be the ancestors to most of the gilled mushrooms. Interestingly, there are no known poisonous polypores, whereas there are more than one hundred poisonous gilled mushrooms.

Paul Stamets recently discovered that a very rare polypore called Agaricon is effective against the poxviruses—including smallpox. This has the Department of Defense very interested, as smallpox is one of the most feared bioterrorism agents. Agaricon was also found to be effective against flu viruses.

History tells us that living in cooperation with fungi will increase our odds of survival. After major extinction events, it was the fungi that thrived because they didn't need light and lived on dead organic matter. Organisms pairing with fungi flourished, and those that didn't fared poorly.

Many of the mushrooms valued for strong medicinal properties grow on trees, as opposed to the ground dwellers you've likely seen.

These tree fungi concentrate the unique elements that the host tree has absorbed over its lifetime, which may be ten or twenty or even HUNDREDS of years. Many of these mushroom species are long-term residents of Old Growth Forests and play an essential role in nutrient recycling by decomposing old trees. The mushroom wraps itself around these special nutrients, capturing them in the fruiting body of the organism and turning it into a little medicinal powerhouse. Maybe it's time for us to embrace the mushroom and harness it's medicine the way the Asians have done for thousands of years.

Blends of Mushrooms are More Effective Than any One Mushroom Alone
It is therapeutically best to utilize a blend of several mushroom species, because "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." For one thing, it is easier for pathogens in your body to adapt and become resistant to one mushroom than to several. Secondly, each mushroom species has a unique arsenal of anti-infective and immunomodulating agents.

These special agents include:

Polysaccharides
Glycoproteins
Ergosterols (steroid-like compounds that create vitamin D in sunlight)
Triterpenoids
You might have heard the term "beta glucans." The agents listed above are precursors to the more complex compounds, beta glucans. It is the synergism between ALL of these elements that makes mushrooms so medicinally powerful when consumed as a whole food—mycelium included.

Because mushrooms have such powerful immune-boosting effects, it isn't surprising that some have great potential for battling cancer. Mushrooms with anti-tumor activity appear to increase the number and activity of killer T and natural killer (NK) lymphocytes, with no toxicity to healthy cells. Cancer cells are notorious for "hiding" from chemo agents. New research has shown that certain mushroom extracts help chemotherapy drugs better locate and identify cancer cells by "uncloaking them," thereby making chemo more effective.

This is getting some open-minded oncologists very excited! Medicinal mushrooms also strengthen your immune system if you are undergoing chemo, so cancer patients get a double benefit. The list of health benefits science is revealing to us about mushrooms is still growing, but thus far includes the following:

Increased longevity Improved blood flow Cholesterol and blood sugar normalization
Liver protection, including protection from adverse effects of alcohol consumption Kidney support Antiviral (including HIV), antibacterial, and antifungal properties
Destruction of cancer cells; improved outcomes for people receiving chemo and radiation Improved respiratory illnesses, including asthma Reduced risk for heart disease, decreased platelet aggregation and improved blood flow
Nerve regeneration (Lion's Mane mushroom) Improved skin and hair Increased sexual function and athletic ability


It's important to eat ONLY organically grown mushrooms. Remember, what makes mushrooms so potent is that they absorb and concentrate whatever they grow in—good OR bad. Mushrooms are known to concentrate heavy metals, and air and water pollutants.

Now that you have the overview, let's take a look at a few of my favorite health-enhancing mushroom species. We'll start with a delicious little mushroom you have probably seen on your dinner plate or at your local market—the shiitake.

Shiitake (Lentinula edodes)
Shiitake is a popular culinary mushroom used in dishes around the world. It contains a number of health-stimulating agents, including lentinan, the polysaccharide for which it was named. Lentinan has been isolated and used to treat stomach and other cancers due to its antitumor properties, but has also been found to protect your liver, relieve other stomach ailments (hyperacidity, gallstones, ulcers), anemia, ascites, and pleural effusion.

One of the more remarkable scientific studies demonstrating shiitake's antitumor effect was a Japanese animal study, where mice suffering from sarcoma were given shiitake extract. Six of 10 mice had complete tumor regression, and with slightly higher concentrations, all ten mice showed complete tumor regression.

Shiitake mushrooms also demonstrate antiviral (including HIV, hepatitis, and the "common cold"), antibacterial, and antifungal effects; blood sugar stabilization; reduced platelet aggregation; and reduced atherosclerosis. Shiitake also contains eritadenine, which has strong cholesterol-lowering properties.

Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)
Reishi is known as Lingzhi in China, or "spirit plant." It's also been called "Mushroom of Immortality"—a nickname that kind of says it all. Reishi has been used medicinally in Asia for thousands of years. One of its more useful compounds is ganoderic acid (a triterpenoid), which is being used to treat lung cancer, leukemia and other cancers. The list of Reishi's health benefits includes the following

Antibacterial, antiviral (Herpes, Epstein-Barr), antifungal (including Candida) properties
Antiinflammatory, useful for reducing symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis
Immune system up-regulation
Normalization of blood cholesterol levels and blood pressure
Reduction of prostate-related urinary symptoms in men
Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris)
Cordyceps, also called caterpillar fungus or Tochukasu, is a favorite of athletes because it increases ATP production, strength and endurance, and has anti-aging effects. This parasitic mushroom is unique because, in the wild, it grows out of an insect host instead of a plant host. Cordyceps has an enduring history in both traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine.

Cordyceps has hypoglycemic and possible antidepressant effects, protects your liver and kidneys, increases blood flow, helps normalize your cholesterol levels, and has been used to treat Hepatitis B. It has antitumor properties as well.

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor)
Turkey Tail is also known as Coriolis, or "cloud mushroom." Science is showing that Turkey Tail mushroom holds an arsenal of cancer-blasting compounds. Two polysaccharide complexes in Turkey Tail are getting a great deal of scientific attention, PSK (or "Kreskin") and PSP, making it the most extensively researched of all medicinal mushrooms with large scale clinical trials.

A seven-year, $2 million NIH-funded clinical study in 2011 found that Turkey Tail mycelium improves immune function when dosed daily to women with stage I–III breast cancer. Immune response was dose-dependent, with no adverse effects.

In addition to breast cancer, Turkey Tail has been found to hold promise for other cancers, including stomach, colorectal, lung, esophageal, nasopharyngeal, cervical, and uterine. PSP has been shown to significantly enhance immune status in 70 to 97 percent of cancer patients. Turkey tail is also being used to treat many different infections, including aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, E. coli, HIV, Herpes, and streptococcus pneumonia, and is hepatoprotective. It may also be useful for CFIDS.

Himematsutake (Agaricus blazei)
The last mushroom I'd like to mention is the newcomer on the block: Himematsutake, also called Royal Sun Agaricus, a relative of the common button mushroom. Himematsutake was not cultivated in the East until fairly recently but is now a very popular natural medicine, used by almost a half million Japanese.

Himematsutake mushroom is attracting many scientists worldwide due to its remarkable anticancer properties related to six special polysaccharides. Like many other medicinal mushrooms, this fungus can also protect you from the damaging effects of radiation and chemotherapy. But its benefits don't stop there—Himematsutake can also decrease insulin resistance in diabetics, normalize your cholesterol, improve your hair and skin, and even treat polio.

There are many more mushrooms deserving mention—far too many to include here. But at least you can begin to appreciate the scope of benefits mushrooms have to offer, based on the handful of examples above.

Final Thoughts
A carefully designed blend of medicinal fungi can deliver a powerful therapeutic punch, whether you just wish to help protect yourself from seasonal colds or flu, or you have a more serious condition such as cancer. Either way, these special mushrooms can be an excellent adjunct to a healthful diet and lifestyle to improve your immune health. If you are interested in more information about medicinal mushrooms, you might consider visiting the following sites:

Healing-Mushrooms.net is an encyclopedia of medicinal mushrooms with a searchable database, abundant resources and fungi photos
MedicalMushrooms.net is another encyclopedic database with information about many of the medicinal mushrooms
MushroomExpert.com can help you with mushroom identification
Paul Stamets' YouTube video channel has about 30 videos of wild mushroom hunts and all sorts of informational videos, including mushroom identification and cultivation

References:
Mushroom-Appreciation.com
Cosmos Magazine
TED with Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic? July 2010
"The Most Powerful Medicine in Nature," an interview with David Wolfe (Booklet, 2009)
Polypore Primer
GreenMedInfo
J Cancer Research 1970
J Nutrition August 1995
MedicalMushrooms.net
Life Sci December 2006
Am J Chin. Med. 2010
Fungi Perfecti LLC
Mico Nutri
Altern Med Rev 2000
SB3.com

Related Links:
New Study—Cost of Cancer Rapidly Becoming Unaffordable

Is this Simple Sugar a Major Factor in the Failure of the War on Cancer?

One Vitamin that May Stop Flu in Its Tracks

© Copyright 1997-2011 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.gotopless.org is run by those nutty Raelians, but I like their idea, which is scheduled for
Aug 26, 2012.

Hindu Religion : It's Different

HINDU WISDOM
The beauty of being a Hindu lies in your freedom to be who you want to be. Nobody can tell you what to do, or what not to do. There is no central authority, no single leader of the faith. No one can pass an order to excommunicate you, or like in some countries, pass a decree that orders your death by stoning for walking with a strange man.

We don't appreciate our freedom because we can't feel the plight of others who aren't free. Many religions have a central authority with awesome power over the individual. They have a clear chain of command, from the lowliest local priest to the highest central leader. Hinduism somehow escaped from such central authority, and the Hindu has miraculously managed to hold on to his freedom through the ages. How did this happen?

Vedanta is the answer. When the writers of Vedanta emerged, around 1500 BC, they faced an organised religion of orthodox Hinduism. This was the post Vedic age, where ritualism was practiced, and the masses had no choice but to follow. It was a coercive atmosphere.

The writers of Vedanta rebelled against this authority and moved away from society into forests. This was how the 'Aranyakas' were written, literally meaning 'writings from the forest'. These later paved the way for the Upanishads, and Vedanta eventually caught the imagination of the masses. It emerged triumphant, bearing with it the clear voice of personal freedom.

This democracy of religious thought, so intrinsic to Vedantic intelligence, sank into the mindset of every Indian. Most couldn't fathom the deep wisdom it contained, but this much was very clear. They understood that faith was an expression of personal freedom, and one could believe at will. That's why Hinduism saw an explosion of Gods. There was a God for every need and every creed. If you wanted to build your muscles, you worshiped a God with fabulous muscles. If you wanted to pursue education, there was a Goddess of Learning. If it was wealth you were looking for, then you looked up to the Goddess of wealth with gold coins coming out of her hands. If you wanted to live happily as a family, you worshiped Gods who specially blessed families. When you grew old and faced oncoming death, you spent time in contemplating a God whose business it was to dissolve everything, from an individual to the entire Universe.

Everywhere, divinity appeared in the manner and form you wanted it to appear, and when its use was over, you quietly discarded that form of divinity and looked at new forms of the divine that was currently of use to you. 'Yad Bhavam, tad Bhavati' what you choose to believe becomes your personal truth, and freedom to believe is always more important than belief itself.

Behind all this was the silent Vedantic wisdom that Gods are but figments of human imagination. As the Kena Upanishad says, "Brahma ha devebhyo vijigye, All Gods are mere subjects of the Self. It implies that it is far better that God serves Man than Men serve God. Because Men never really serve God they only obey the dictates of a religious head who speaks for that God, who can turn them into slaves in God's name.

Hindus have therefore never tried to convert anyone. Never waged war in the name of religion. The average Hindu happily makes Gods serve him as per his needs. He discards Gods when he has no use for them. And new Gods emerge all the time in response to market needs. In this tumult, no central authority could survive. No single prophet could emerge and hold sway, no chain of command could be established.

Vedanta had injected an organised chaos into Hinduism, and that's the way it has been from the last thirty five centuries. Vedanta is also responsible, by default, for sustaining democracy. When the British left India, it was assumed that the nation would soon break up. Nothing of that kind has happened. The pundits of doom forgot that the Indian had been used to religious freedom from thousands of years. When he got political freedom, he grabbed it naturally. After all, when you can discard Gods why can't you discard leaders? Leaders, like Gods, are completely expendable to the Indian mindset. They are tolerated as long as they serve the people, and are replaced when needs change. It's the triumph of people over their leaders, and in this tumult, no dictator can ever take over and rule us. Strange how the thoughts of a few men living in forests, thirty five centuries ago, can echo inside the heart of every Indian. That's a tribute to the resurgent power of India, and the fearlessness of its free thinking people.

Have a Great Day!

With warm regards,

Lt Col (Retd) V K Mishra

Hi there -

If you're looking for some "light" reading to do, please take a look at my new
essay -

http://freethoughtnation.com/contributing-writers/63-acharya-s/614-please-respect-my-religion.html

You may find my essay amusing and/or instructive. Feel free to pass it around if you wish
or to use it in a debate in which religionists pull out the "respect everybody's
religion" card.

Just tit for tat, fighting fire with fire, what's good for the goose is good for the
gander, and all that jazz.

Enjoy.

Acharya S/D.M. Murdock
Author, "The Christ Conspiracy," "Suns of God," "Who Was
Jesus?," "Christ in Egypt," "The Gospel According to Acharya S"
and "The Astrotheology Calendar" series
http://TruthBeKnown.com
http://StellarHousePublishing.com
http://TBKNews.blogspot.com
http://FreethoughtNation.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-17009-Freethought-Examiner

Also in 1996, my friend/other girlfriend/friendwithbenefits, Linda, had a yurt for camping. It was quite something to see, once it was setup. She actually had a raised bed in it that was very comfortable, in it.
Here's some pics.

She used a small trailer to cart it around. She eventually gave it to a friend of hers. Not sure what he did with it, he may've rebuilt it into something a bit more permanent. It was nice while it lasted, tho.

So, I scanned some pictures into my computer. The pics are from 1996, when I read, Dancing With Dragons, by D.J. Conway. I happen to like dragons, I see them as powerful elementals. The cool thing is, you can contact them and they're quite willing to work with you and be a companion, almost a pet. In the book, she says that dragons like the energy that a spiral generates/resonates and that a stone spiral in a backyard will attract them. I asked my roomie/landlady Kathy if we could do that. Kathy has an MFA in sculpture and she loved the idea. Then she said, "But, how will you cut the grass around all of those stones"? I didn't have an answer for that one. A few weeks later, still wishing I had an answer, I realized that the stones don't have to sit _on_ the ground...they could be set _into_ the ground. Then the lawnmower can buzz right over them.
A few days later, we packed up a large bushel basket and two large pails and went to the beach, where the stones are free ( we live close to Lake Michigan). We set up our spiral and it looked like this
The final photo is what it looked like after passing the dreaded lawnmower test.
The spiral is still there, altho Mother Nature has covered it up a bit. Once in awhile, I use the weedwhacker to uncover it. I've not seen or sensed any dragons lurking around, either, dammit. Still, it's cool to have it there, and I use it for an ocassional ceremony.

From : Acharya S <acharya_s@yahoo.com>


Subject : Was John the Baptist an Egyptian myth?


Hi there -

I'm happy to announce that my artist friend Scott Burdick has put together a 5-minute
clip from my new DVD.

In this video clip, I discuss the similarities between the Christian figure of John the
Baptist and the Egyptian god Anubis the Purifier. I think you will find it quite
interesting - be sure to watch the surprise at the very end!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6INLqHgEFoM

If you would like to know more about my new DVD, from which this excerpted video is
taken, please go here:

http://freethoughtnation.com/contributing-writers/63-acharya-s/584-dm-murdockacharya-s-on-dvd.html

Enjoy!

Acharya S/D.M. Murdock
Author, "The Christ Conspiracy," "Suns of God," "Who Was
Jesus?," "Christ in Egypt," "The Gospel According to Acharya S"
and "The Astrotheology Calendar" series
http://TruthBeKnown.com
http://StellarHousePublishing.com
http://TBKNews.blogspot.com
http://FreethoughtNation.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-17009-Freethought-Examiner

P.S. Don't forget my new "2012 Astrotheology Calendar" - there's an audio clip
there as well:

http://stellarhousepublishing.com/2012calendar.html