Grace

I subscribe to the Federalist, a conservative newsletter that is very educational about consititutional issues. Here's a quote from Paul Greenberg which they published, that resonated with me:

"You can tell a lot about an educational system by its vocabulary. When Calvinistic terms like grace and works are replaced by educantisms like self-esteem, you know the system's in trouble. Or is even to think on grace and works now considered a violation of the separation of church and state? The mere mention of a religious idea in public has been known to make some of our more advanced thinkers break out in hives and litigation. As for those of us inclined to sneak a biblical allusion into our prose now and then, we need not fear; our 'educated' classes may no longer recognize it. The theory behind the Cult of Self-Esteem is simple: First get the cart, then put it before the horse. Just feel good about yourself and achievement will follow automatically. It would be too much to call this approach instant gratification; it's really more like pre-gratification... Want to build real self-esteem, the kind that is the fruit of self-respect and not just an inadequate substitute for it? Expect, even insist on, competence. Don't pretend it's there when it isn't. If that sounds too hard, that's the catch with self-respect---it has to be earned. Self-esteem, on the other hand, costs little or nothing. And it's worth just what you pay for it." ---Paul Greenberg

What he doesn't say is that this is a idea mandated by psychiatrists-- yet another example of the unworkability of that entire pseudo-science.

Winter Wonderland

A couple of weeks ago it snowed here on the ranch--here are some photos.

That's our chicken house above.

Our house and hill. Lots of Snow! But it's all gone now.

Rain Rain Rain

It's really raining here on the ranch - about an inch so far today and it shows no signs of stopping.



We bought 23 baby Mallard ducks a couple of months ago from the Grange -- they were only a few weeks old when we got them. We kept them in the barn in a cage for a few weeks, but they smelled so bad when confined that it made our eyes water when we went in the barn, so we put them outside in a horse trailer with a heat lamp suspended in it for a week or two. Then that also began to reek to high heaven and we realized we were ready for them to go to the pond, whether they were ready or not.

We built a duckhouse near the pond for our baby Mallards and put the heat lamp in it, and let them loose. That was a couple of weeks ago. The first night we had a major blow here - we had to right the duck house after it was blown over. It is quite heavy, being made out of plywood, so we didn't think much could happen to it and were surprised when it happened again the next day.

The ducks quickly abandoned the duckhouse for the open pond and its banks, and with all the rain we have had, the duckhouse is now half-immersed by the rising pond.

The ducks swim and dive around it happily, although now only 19 of them remain - whether it was due to predators or accidents we don't know.

We had a great Thanksgiving (the US holiday) here, but it wreaked havoc with my work schedule and now I'm way "behinder" than I was before the start of the holidays.

Isn't that just the way it goes?

Tomatos

The tomatos in our garden are just too pretty. I don't even eat tomatos (allergies) but these are pretty tempting.

New World Records

At the Frankfurt International Book Fair for 2006, Guinness (the World Record people, not the Stout people) gave out certificates for two world records:

1. Worlds most published author - which went to L. Ron Hubbard, with 1084 works published, exceeding the record held by Brazilian author Jose Carlos Ryoki with 1,058.

2. Hubbard also received the World Record for "most translated author" with published works in 75 languages.

Here's the full text of an article about this phenomenal author: L Ron Hubbard earns two world records.

Of course, Hubbard's been dead since 1986, so the awards were presented to his publishing firm, Author Services.

Past Lives?

We've recently had a baby come into our family. He is a healthy, happy baby and his mother delivered with minimal labor - it all seemed to go smooth as glass. We welcomed the baby to the family -- it's been ten years since we've had any newborns around. His mother is a Scientologist, and his father is not.

In my view: one of the things that sets Scientology apart from mainstream religions is its recognition that each individual is an immortal spirit -- a "thetan" in our vernacular. With that concept comes a recognition that we have lived before, that we were alive during past epochs -- we just don't remember much of it. The "past lives" we have all lived, and the decisions we have made about ourselves and others during those past lives continue to shape our lives today. Yes, we believe that what we think about something shapes our world, both as a group, and individually. Knocking off the rough edges of these, we call these thoughts about the way things are "considerations" and "postulates". Considerations are "continuing postulates" usually below the level of direct awareness.

For example, you would probably consider (knowingly) that the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" or "Scarface" is too violent and bloody for a small child to watch. You'd think about it (be aware of it) and decide "It wouldn't be good for them". That's a "knowing consideration". But you may have "unknown" considerations that you yourself made about many things, considerations that are now below that level of being aware that you ever made that decision.

From my own experience; in my youth I was terrified of swimming in a river, even though I was a fairly good, relaxed and competent swimmer. My considerations about this sprang from experiences in past lives. Putting my attention on that particular consideration, I was able to look for and recall the incidents (in past lives) that caused me to think swimming in rivers was terrifying. Spotting them exactly, they stopped having any effect. Now I can swim in rivers all I like, without the terror. While I wouldn't swim in a river known to be filled with crocodiles, I would have no trouble swimming in the Columbia, say, or the local rivers here (where there are no predators!).

I'm not talking about Karma and Reincarnation here - just simply being born, living, dying, and being born. There's no great system of judgment -- just your own considerations about what you should be, what you should do, and what you should have.

That's my observation as a practicing Scientologist for 35 years. I don't speak in any official capacity for the Church of Scientology, just for myself.

The Truth about Tom Cruise

This article about Tom Cruise has the ring of truth to it.

Sickness.

There's an old Japanese Proverb - "Yamai wa ki kara", which means "sickness is a thing of the spirit." I'm not an expert on things oriental, but that appears to be an accepted piece of folk wisdom in Japan, along the line of "many hands make light work" or "a stitch in time saves nine" here in the West.

That bit of wisdom has been independently incorporated into the Creed of the Church of Scientology in these lines: "And we of the Church believe that the spirit can be saved and that the spirit alone may save or heal the body."

Having been sick myself plenty of times over the years (mainly with the flu and various other bugs), I find that Scientology assist (particularly a touch assist or nerve asssit) helps me greatly in getting over them quickly and regaining my footing in life. These assists help my body heal up faster. It's not so much "mind over matter" -- which, by the way isn't a datum that came from Scientology, we would phrase that more along the line of a "spirit being cause over matter" -- as it is similar to the chiropractic principle that a body "knows" how to heal itself and will heal itself if it allowed to to so. What prevents it from regaining good health? Aside from bugs and viruses that can usually be singled out and killed with antibiotics or other medicines, there are thoughts, mental masses and such things, mental phenomenon, that can prevent a body from doing its job correctly. That's what I've experienced, anyway. YMMV. I've delivered many hours of assists on other people, usually short sessions that always end with a smile, an understanding of some kind. Giving others assists -- being willing to help others -- is a basic part of being a Scientologist. Help is something we are not ashamed of giving, or receiving.

Barbie Rivera & HELP Miami

Barbie Rivera has been running a tutoring center in Miami that has produced many thousands of hours of effective tutoring over the last few years. She sends out a riotously funny newsletter every week that is full of her viewpoint about helping children learn to read, helping keep them off psychiatric drugs and helping them sort out the false mis-labeling the psychiatrists have applied to them; ADHD, ADD, math disorder, dyslexia, and the like. She's expanding, opening another center in California this year. The center in Miami has achieved international press for the HELP Miami center (part of the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project). I just want to wish Barbie good luck! We need more people like her in the trenches teaching children how to read--especially the ones that the psychs have given up on and labeled so they can be drugged for profit, and that the schools don't know what to do with. These kids are often problematic and a real handful at first. Wouldn't you be, if you'd been determined to be uneducatable and consigned to second or third class status by an uncaring educational institution? The main thing that comes through Barbie's newsletters (aside from how she manages to get people to help her help kids) is the incredibly high level of actual care she (and her staff) give to these kids. There are no easy answers - sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and just do the work, wade in and ask the kid what's going on. And you have to have a technology of education that actually works, not the busted-ass, non-functional, over-priced, uncaring and sometimes crippling educational system that exists in our schools today. Sure, individual teachers try, and of course they care. But without the right tools to help, their care and "help" becomes betrayal when the kids start being labeled and drugged, instead of educated.

Scientology tax victory in UK

The Telegraph reported a Scientology tax victory in UK - where Scientologists have been being discriminated against since the 60's. I'm in it. I'm telling you right here and now, I'm a Scientologist. It's my religion, not a hobby. I've been a practicing minister since 1976, performing funeral services and the occasional wedding, and ministering to others in our community. We have churches all over England, the US, and the world, for that matter. That should be all that's needed to prove it to anyone that it's a religion. It should be tax-exempt if other religions are tax exempt -- else it is just discrimination based on some sort of favoritism. Should a Shinto temple have tax exemption? What about a Buddhist monastery? A mosque? A Christian Science reading room? A non-denominational backwoods Christian church with only 10 members, meeting in someone's trailer? A Hopi tribal congregation? Absolutely, to all. That's the only view that makes any sense if you're giving tax exemption for being a religious institution. Now the VAT Tribunal has ruled that UK Revenue & Customs has to pay at least £4.1m in past payments to the Church of Scientology of England. This is very good news for all those who have had taxes collected by an "inept and inadequate" Revenue & Customs, which has clearly overstepped its bounds since that first, obviously mistaken ruling nearly 30 years ago that Scientologists had to pay VAT, while the other churches in England didn't. It's our money, they've held it for far too long, and I, for one, am glad that we have it back where it will do some good, funding projects to increase literacy in England, to help get people off drugs, and to educate people about morality.

Recent photos of the ranch

Here are some recent photos from around the ranch, showing logging and some work that was done restoring fish habitats on our creek.

This first picture is some logging being done on one 40-acre parcel in the remotest part of the ranch. They took out mostly Douglas fir, White fir and some alder. Even some red cedar. The baby trees (less than 10 years old) you see in the adjacent lots (left and right of our logging operation) belong to the BLM. We want our replanting to look like that! It's much harder than you'd think to achieve.



Next are some photos of logs placed in the creek by a Stream Restoration expert -- they were dragging around trees, rootwads and all, and putting them in the creek. In the winter the creek can get to be 6-8 feet deep at times, and a lot of water moves through it. If there are no trees in the streambed, then it scours the sand and rocks away and leaves only "boulders and bedrock", which is what much of our creek was liike. This was a result of forest management practices of the mid 20th Century - when old time foresters and Fish & Wildlife people were telling us to clean out the creeks of all trees. That was done, and the result was fewer fish. They need the gravel that builds up behind the fallen trees, to spawn and spend their first months of life hiding from predators. There are more fish in the creek now than we have seen for many years, as a result of some work that was done like this in other areas of the creek in the last few years. These trees will be half-buried in rocks and gravel by this time next year, and we'll have even more fish.




And here are some red elderberries -- they grow everywhere here and are large plants 15-20 feet high, 10-15 feet in diameter. I've cut one down to a stump and had it be 10 feet tall the next year - that's one year's growth. We've heard these can be eaten if boiled first, but they smell so nasty when you pick them it hardly seems worth the effort. Even the birds leave them alone. They are pretty, though!

Volunteer Minister gets results

David Dempster, a Scientology Volunteer Minister from Clearwater, Florida, recently published this report:

This weekend I handled a 20-year-old girl who had ended up in hospital in a coma. The doctor said if she didn't wake up within 12 hours she wouldn't wake up at all. I was called in after she had been in a coma for about 8 hours. I gave her assists for handling unconscious persons and after about 2 hours she woke up. I gave her more assists on the following days and also coached her aunt on handling the hospital staff so the girl wouldn't be given drugs. This included handling a psychiatrist and a psych-oriented nurse.
The other nurses were ... supportive. One of them said "Don't go away - you're doing her good." She originated that the assists did not in any way interfere with the medical handling they were doing. She now has her own copy of the [assists] booklet.
The girl is back home on a program of vitamins and is ... doing great.
It's a pleasure and privilege to be applying L. Ron Hubbard's Technology.

Psych Abuse is Perfectly Legal in Australia

I'm not making this up... Here's an article matter-of-factly reporting from Queensland that based on an anonymous complaint, the psychs have the right to force their way into homes in Australia and intimidate people with personal questions to determine if they are crazy, in the opinion of the examining psych. And it's all "perfectly legal". The psychs tried to get legislation like this passed in the USA back in the 1950's -- it was nicknamed the "Siberia Bill" because it meant to set up in the USA psychiatric detention camps like the Russians had in Siberia, where millions of dissidents were kept in gulags as slave labor. There was considerable uproar about it at the time, and the bill was killed then due in part to the Scientologists who stood up against it. It's part of the creed of the Code of a Scientologist

4. To decry and do all I can to abolish any and all abuses against life and mankind.
5. To expose and help abolish any and all physically damaging practices in the field of mental health.
6. to help clean up and keep clean the field of mental health.
7. To bring about an atmosphere of safety and security in the field of mental health by eradicating its abuses and brutality.

Scientologists have been working in this field now for over 50 years, and we sometimes seem to be the only ones doing anything to prevent the psychiatrists from drugging, evaluating for, and locking up anyone they damn well want -- at least that's how it looks to me. Where is the public outrage that millions of kids in this country are being drugged for profit with dangerous and addictive drugs pushed on them by the psychiatric industry? Where is your outrage?

Wild Roses

We have some wild roses that bloom this time of year on our ranch, along Charlie Rock road. I have to remember exactly where these are so I can pick the rose hips in the early fall, before they turn mushy with the fall rains.

More flowers today

Today I only had time for a short walk, and a few pictures from our garden and from the road to the top of the hill. Here they are:

Tiger Lily -- we have a million of these blooming right now on the ranch.


Rhododendron


June-Bearing Blackberry - these are creeping everywhere along the ground. These are Oregon's native blackberry; the big aggressive climbing blackberries are feral.


Broccoli from our garden. These should be ready to eat soon!


Blueberries - we have half a dozen blueberry bushes in our garden. The first berries of the season are turning blue -- these will be ready any day now.

Which one holds the bee?

Coastal Oregon this time of year is wonderful. The air is clean, the days are still cool, and we have been enjoying occasional showers for the last couple of weeks so the plant life is exploding. Suddenly grass is four feet tall. The rhododendrons are blooming out my window. So are the foxgloves, wild roses and a bazillion daisies and buttercups. I took a walk a couple of days ago in mid-afternoon, and took a few shots of one foxglove.



The top flower in the last picture has a bee in it - you can see his shadow.

Dianetics Sponsors NASCAR Driver

It's gratifying to see the LA Times (a most unlikely source if you are aware of their history of anti-religious bias) has put up a mostly favorable article about the sponsorship of NASCAR driver Kenton Gray. Of course they go for the bloated controversy and innuendo -- "NASCAR monitors sponsorship and advertising closely, but has no objection to the 'Dianetics' entry, said NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter." More "Dianetics" is a book, published by L. Ron Hubbard in 1950. It became a bestseller, people paired up and ran Dianetics on each other in droves. They still do, 56 years later.
Dianetics involves a person looking at his own mental image pictures with the help of an "auditor", someone who asks questions, directs the session, and listens and acknowledges the person doing the looking. There's an exact procedure for doing this outlined in the book "Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health." It's not difficult to learn and it is (from my personal experience) fun, educational, and spiritually rewarding to do Dianetics.
Over the early 1950's, Hubbard evolved and expanded the technology greatly. When they realized that what they were dealing with was the human spirit (after all, who was making and looking at all those mental image pictures?) several practitioners incorporated a church in California, and the religion was called "Scientology". It's not Christianity, Islam, nor Buddhism, but it IS a religion in its own right.

Narconon Great Lakes

Narconon Great Lakes is one of the newer Narconon groups, going strong in the Chicagoland area. They are a 501(C)3 charitable group, a non-profit dedicated to getting rid of the scourge of drugs from the Chicago area, one addict at a time. If you can help them, send a donation -- for books used in putting drug users through the Narconon program. Make donations via PayPal to: narconongreatlakes@sbcglobal.net.

This Marijuana video created by Narconon is suitable for drug education in the classroom, and details what happens to someone who smokes pot regularly. It's a shame, really, I've known a few people who smoked pot with regularity, and they pretty much all became dedicated slackers. One lovely girl, a family friend, was too lazy and bored to get a job and work, herself, and couldn't be bothered to make the money to buy her own damn drugs. She turned into a criminal who stole money from her friends (and lied to their faces about it and tried to blame others) to finance her pot addiction. And yes, marijuana IS addictive, no matter what the pro-pot guys try to tell you about it. It got its hooks into me as a teen (even through I was a geek and a straight-A student), and it can do the same to your teenager. Get the video and do some preventive education before it's too late. (Was that sufficiently lurid?)

SAGE club

My friend Barbara Ayash of the Set A Good Example Club recently sent me some pictures of murals that were put together by juvenile inmates of a correctional facility in California. These kids were participants in the "Set a Good Example" program that Barbara founded. So far more than 12 million kids representing more than 12,600 schools in all 50 US states have participated in the Set a Good Example program. The SAGE club is the result of a proven moral education program used by teachers and students (with parental approval) in schools across the United States. The word SAGE, of course, is an acronym for "Set a Good Example". Barbara is the creator of this program and has spearheaded applying the moral code it is built upon (The Way to Happiness) in helping clean up gang violence in Los Angeles, in prisons, and in schools. The Sage club is unique in the field of moral education in that it teaches 21 commonly accepted virtues and values based strictly on common sense. It is completely non-religious. 88% of students involved in the club want to participate again, which is pretty amazing.

Principal Vanessa Barbour of the Lockeland Middle School in Nashville, Tennessee, saw her school turn around after implementing the program.

"We have decreased violence by 70%-80% over the school year. We have decreased disrespectful attitudes toward teachers, decreased vulgar language and gestures... You name it, it's better."

Here's a photo of one of several murals painted by youth between 12 and 17 detained by Juvenile Justice Authorities. This mural depicts two of the precepts from The Way to Happiness: "Don't harm a person of goodwill" and "Be worthy of trust."

The Way to Happiness book itself explains and gives simple examples of why it is important to have these points as part of one's own moral code. It makes sense to kids and their parents both. Hard to argue with that kind of common sense.

Kelly Preston

Kelly Preston is one of those gorgeous Hollywood women with everything going for them. Looking at her, you'd think she'd never had anything go wrong in her life, but that's not so. Now she is married to John Travolta, has lovely children and a successful film career. Who could forget Kelly seducing the Governator in "Twins"? and punching Tom Cruise in the face in "Jerry Maquire"? But her life wasn't always in such good shape.

Before Narconon helped her kick her drug habit, she was doing every drug she could get her hands on.

But Narconon did help her, and now she's one of their spokespeople, actively helping educate parents and kids on the pitfalls of drug abuse. As one who has been there, she knows what it is like. Recently she's been in Hawaii, teaching parents from her new DVD, "Keeping Your Kids Drug-Free: What Parents Need To Know". Narconon plans to open a center on Oahu soon.