Without going outside, you may know the whole world
Without Looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven
The farther you go, the less you know

Thus the sage knows without traveling;
He sees without looking;
He works without doing.

Tao Te Ching (Ch-47)

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects

Will Rogers*

Jonnienohands  contacted me concerning a new blog. He noted that there is a new conspiracy theory out there combining all the things we love best in the repub philosophy; libel, slander, misinformation, conjecture and just plain animosity. Ha! Consider this then, a joint post but do not fault Jonnie overly much. Ha!!

There has always been a small percentage of the public who are more prescient than others.  There was, of course, the Oracle at Delphi.

Delphi, was and is a special island, part of the Ancient Greek States.  But by special appointment, rulers and dignitaries and of course rich folks would visit the Oracle, known as Pythia in her mysterious cave. Supposedly, the name of the eerie damsel came from the original name for her island.  By the by we get our word 'pithy' from the lady;  which is supposed to mean terse. But the Greek root means 'to rot'.  Hahahahaha!!!

There were rules of course and my take was that the rules not only varied over several centuries but that the rules might vary according to how powerful the visitor was and perhaps how big his entourage was.

The Oracle was probably on some drug which would help create the trance effect. Although there are theories that somehow gases were naturally present in the cave that caused the strange behavior of the Oracle; and give her enough guts to confront the visitor.


 
 File:John Collier - Priestess of Delphi.jpg

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgSyB5xSo2U

A little background music would not hurt during the session of course.  There were many humorous anecdotes relating to this Seer and her predictions:

Croesus who appears as a main character in Heroditus as well as Thucydides came to Pythia seeking some advice in the sixth century BC.  He asked her if it might be a good idea to attack the Persians. Basically this was the Oracle's answer:

If Croecus would make war upon the Persians, a mighty empire would fall.

And it sure did. I mean Croecus' empire went right down the shitter.

In a more modern vein, we had an oracle of our own by the name of Edgar Cayce. He has his own web site: 

http://www.edgarcayce.org/historychannel/cayce7prophecies.asp

Here are a few of Cayce's predictions:

1.    Cayce Foresees the Stock Market Crash of 1929 
2.    World War II
3.    The Shifting of the Earth's Poles Has Begun (Edgar Cayce prediction from 1936)
4.    Convergence of Communications Companies
5.    There Was a Community of People Called the Essenes

Of course some would argue that his site only includes the 'predictions' that came true.  I mean how do I know that sometime in 1928 old Edgar wasn't taking a steam bath with the elite and that one drunken stockbroker present did not say:

                       HEY THIS IS NOT GOING TO LAST FOREVER

And of course, why shouldn't Europe be caught up in another war as it had for every single century following the death of the Christ. I mean the real surprise is that Europe--at least Western Europe--gave up on war really; 64 years and counting. Now THAT is impressive.
But, still, we must take a look at the TRACK RECORD of our modern day Oracles before putting much trust in them. Do you not think?

There is another LIVING Oracle out there, one whom we must heed. This has just come to my attention:

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who is currently one of the leading opponents of health care reform as the head of FreedomWorks, is not above telling lies in his quest to derail President Obama's reform efforts. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Armey went further than usual, positing a paranoid conspiracy theory about how Obama will push reform through Congress:
Mr Armey, 69, predicted that the "grassroots" backlash against what he called Mr Obama's "hostile government takeover of a sixth of the US economy" would cause the reform to fail spectacularly. But he predicted that supporters of reform would attempt to win over the "bed-wetters caucus" - a group of wavering lawmakers who spanned both parties, he said - with a fear campaign in the autumn.

"In September or October there will be a hyped up outbreak of the swine flu which they'll say is as bad as the bubonic plague to scare the bed-wetters to vote for healthcare reform," said Mr Armey. "That is the only way they can push something on to the American people that the American people don't want."

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/18/armey-flu-bed-wetters/

All righty then. Let us try to translate this prophesy.

Sometime in the next month or so, we will all be notified by the liberal communist HHS that there is a new plague on the masses. Go into your bomb shelters for three months or run down and get your flu shots. Of course, you cannot get your flu shots unless and until the new Health Care Legislation has been signed sealed and delivered.

But the Tea-Baggers (Not those girls at the free sites idiots, the right wing protesters with the AK-17s) are being warned about all this hype and will refuse to get the shots which, to their minds carry a plague anyway.  Takes you back to the old fluoridated water does it not?

BREAKING NEWS: December 8, 2009
(AP) NEW FLU BREAKOUT

A massive outbreak of Swine Flu has experts baffled. Some two million people have come down with this newest version of influenza; a number not predicted following a massive attempt at inoculation following passage of the Health Care Legislation Part One.

The new outbreak is centered south of the Mason/Dixon line and a new study already demonstrates that it's prominent in gun owners. It appears that the 'teabaggers' were shunning the antidote to the virus on the same grounds that their grand parents were shunning fluoridated water.

Dick Armey, former Majority Leader in the House of Representatives was quoted as saying:

                 It's a damn shame. That's all I can say. A damn shame.

Here is our oracle. But we must take a look at this man's track record as far as other assessments and predictions:

Hillary Clinton bothers me a lot. I realized the other day that her thoughts sound a lot like Karl Marx. She hangs around a lot of Marxists. All her friends are Marxists.

I don't believe America will justifiably make an unprovoked attack on another nation. It would not be consistent with what we have been as a nation or what we should be as a nation.

My own view would be to let Saddam bluster, let him rant and rave all he wants. As long as he behaves himself within his own borders, we should not be addressing any attack or resources against him.

 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dickarmey143217.html

Well, personally, I think Hillary is and was a bit more conservative than My President, but if she is a Marxist, well......

And dicky armey really had this Iraqi thing all figured out, I mean he knew Iraq and he knew his president w and all. No way w would just take us to war like that.

At any rate, let us all join together and sing the Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Blues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMnWJ5FGBHQ

*http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/will_rogers_2.html