"FOREIGN AFFAIRS" (Or, "$AVE MONEY WITH MOVIE MARS!")

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Yes, this is titled “Foreign Affairs”, but, no, this is not the blog bit in which I spill the beans about how I got suckered by that Russian spy chick. I would rather not “disgust” that. Well, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice… that’s twice as nice. (But nice guys don’t kiss and tell… all of America’s secret military secrets buried in secrecy.)
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Nah, this is about Tom Waits’ Foreign Affairs. See, a buddy of mine, DiscConnected, offered to burn a compact disc for me of the Tom Waits songs I like but that I don’t have in the CD format. So I looked through the bloke’s albums that I don’t own and I compiled a list of song titles. But after realizing that I had listed 7 of the 9 songs included on Tom’s ‘FOREIGN AFFAIRS’ album, I knew it made more sense for me to just purchase the entire album.

PROBLEM: My local brick ‘n’ mortar music store didn’t have ‘Foreign Affairs’ and told me that it is out-of-print.

SOLUTION: Order ‘Foreign Affairs’ from MOVIE MARS [http://www.moviemars.com/]. Which I did on July 16.

If you are one of my 2.5 regular readers, then you already KNOW that I would never ever order ANYTHING from Amazon.scum. …Er, I meant, “.com”.

“Hate” is a strong word, but when it comes to my feelings about Amazon.com, like a cup of decaffeinated coffee, it ain’t strong enough.

Besides, in the slightly more than three years since vowing never to buy anything from Amazon.com ever again, I have found that in some ways, Movie Mars is actually a BETTER online source for entertainment products.

For one thing, it is not uncommon for me to find that the Movie Mars price for a new DVD or CD is actually lower than what it’s being offered for at Amazon. Here are just two of many examples I could post:

The ‘Foreign Affairs’ album by Tom Waits which I purchased from Movie Mars was priced at $7.16. In my price comparison, I found that Amazon was asking $10.99 for it.
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Now let’s say that instead of ‘Foreign Affairs’, you’re actually in the market for Ennio Morricone’s great soundtrack to the classic “Spaghetti Western Made In America”, the movie ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ (and really, who wouldn’t be in the market for that?) At this time, at Amazon.scum, they’re axing $7.98, but at Movie Mars, they’re axing $7.52.
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Is that a savings of just forty-six cents? Are you axing for my two cents worth? Yes? Well then, in that case: NO! It’s a savings of a few dollars and forty-six cents. [For a few dollars more, you could probably also buy from Movie Mars ‘For A Few Dollars More’ – although it’s not really a very good movie, in my opinion.] “How so?”, you ask? Because of the shipping savings you just got by ordering from Movie Mars rather than Amazonk.

You see, at Amazon, unless you order at least $25. worth of stuffs, you’re going to pay a shipping charge of a few bucks. But at Movie Mars, the shipping is FREE – my favorite price! So, at Movie Mars, the price you see is the price you pay, even if you’re only ordering a single item.

And I’ll tell ya one mo’ thing about Movie Mars: it has been my experience that they actually listen to their customers (unlike some other online store called Amazon which shall remain nameless).

Ya see, once upon a time – oh, about a year ago – I went to Movie Mars to change my password, but when I discovered that there was no way to do that, I was irked, flummoxed and flabbergasted – which I acknowledge sounds like a very bad law firm. But it could have been worse. At least I wasn’t Lohan, Stewart and Winehouse.

So I sent Movie Mars an Email, explaining and complaining. I told them that all internet security expert dudes recommend changing passwords from time to time, and I added, “So, what up with this?!”

Believe it or not, I soon received an Email from one of their computer programmer I.T. expert geek dudes who said that he was going to go right to work on correcting that oversight on their site. And within just a couple of days – voila! – I found that customers were now able to alter their personal passwords. So, if you axe me, Movie Mars is A-OK.

Now, in the spirit of full disrobing, I ought to say that— Uhm. Wait. Check that. It should read: “in the spirit of full DISCLOSURE, I ought to say that” being a loyal Movie Mars customer, the company Emailed me to say that it would give me a $5. rebate on my last purchase if I wrote at least 3 sentences about my positive experience at MovieMars.com on one of their preferred review or blog sites. And this site happened to be one of them.

Well... anyone who knows me well also knows that I’m no prostitute. Unfortunately, I haven’t the looks for it. And please also notice that I wrote far more than just 3 positive sentences about Movie Mars. That’s because this is an honest testimonial. After having done business with Movie Mars for some years now, and never once having had a bad experience, I can recommend the site with a perfectly clear conscience. Writing this caused me no mental anxiety and it was no trouble at all. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. I mean, how often does one get to write a heartfelt testimonial and get a $5. rebate for doing so? (Meaning that, in reality, my Tom Waits album, ‘Foreign Affairs’, only cost me two dollars and sixteen cents, counting the nonexistent shipping charge.)

And as if that weren’t enough, this deal also gave me the opportunity to kick Amazon.com around some more. A nice little bonus. After all, as Tom Waits observes in his ‘Foreign Affairs’ album, I’m almost at the bottom of my bottle of MD 2020 and I have nothing but my revenge to keep me warm.

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Pre-Postscript Post-Postscript: Just yesterday, August 2nd, I received an Email from a very nice woman at Movie Mars and she invited me to share this "$2. Discount Coupon Code" with y'all. Here's what she wrote:

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"We occasionally run specials on our website with a coupon code for a discount on your next order. Our current code is summer777 (not punctuation, all lower case letters). That code will take $2 off your order. It's a one time use coupon. You are welcome to share this information on your blog if you'd like."

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Make a note of that, Peoples, and save $2. along with the free shipping!

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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Postscript: And the next time you change your account password at Movie Mars, don’t forget that it was Stephen T. McCarthy who made that possible. Send me a full bottle of Mad Dog 2020 and we’ll call it "even Stephen".

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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REINCARNATION & THE HOLY BIBLE [Part 1 Of 4]

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And now for something completely different: something serious for a change.

[From the STMcC archive; 2005, September.]

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"WATCH THAT YOUR KARMA DOESN'T RUN OVER YOUR DOGMA!"
~ Anonymous (The ancient Greek philosopher)

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INTRODUCTION

Before we really dig into the matter of reincarnation in the Bible, I think it would be prudent to say a few words about reincarnation in general because reincarnation is an exceedingly misunderstood subject. Even people who have studied it for many years often develop misconceptions about it. So, let's all get on the same page before we explore its connection with the greatest book on planet Earth, shall we?

WHAT IS "REINCARNATION"?

There once was a Country music supergroup called The Highwaymen (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash & Kris Kristofferson) and the title track from their debut album, ‘Highwayman’, related the story of a soul that was reborn multiple times in a variety of settings. The song concludes with these lyrics:

I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again...
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This illustrates the single greatest misconception there is about reincarnation. What is described in the song 'Highwayman' IS NOT REINCARNATION! It is a separate concept known as Soul Transmigration. Soul Transmigration posits that a soul might return as a human being, an animal such as a dog, a cat, a (sacred) cow, or even as ostensibly inanimate objects such as rocks or raindrops. Reincarnation, on the other hand, implies the soul's return to Earth is strictly in the human form. There is no compelling evidence to support the former theory, and much to support the latter.

WHAT IS "KARMA"?

Karma, which is directly tied into the idea of reincarnation, is another very misunderstood subject. Although the word, which originates with Eastern mystical religions, strikes the average person as being mysterious, there is really nothing mysterious about it. Its equivalent can be found in The Bible in the idea that "whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." (Galatians 6:7) We live in a reciprocal world, and karma simply means that what we do will ultimately be done to us. Our benevolence and our malevolence both return to us in one form or another. Jesus even made the connection in relationship to sin and judgment: "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14,15) "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:1,2)
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Karma simply means that we receive what we give, and we do not receive what we withhold.

WHAT IS "GOOD" AND "BAD" KARMA?

We often hear people speak of acquiring good or bad karma. In the ultimate sense, this is really a misnomer. The entire purpose of karma is to teach us lessons that we are required to learn. If we think of karma in simplistic terms like "good" and "bad" we will fail to comprehend the true spirit in which God created this universal law.

This is illustrated beautifully in The Bible, when the disciples of Jesus asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)

Note that the question alone shows that they had reincarnation and a connection between sin and physical ailments in mind - implying that the blind man may have sinned prior to this particular birth. But the response of Jesus raises the issue from the idea of mere retribution, to the spirit of Love. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him." Jesus then proceeded to heal the man. In essence, Jesus was saying that the situation should be viewed, not as a punishment, but as a lesson, and an opportunity to experience the Grace of God. (Incidentally, this passage is often misused in an attempt to refute reincarnation.)

One rarely encounters true profundity in song lyrics, but on the album ‘Unforgettable' by Natalie Cole, there is a beautiful song called 'Nature Boy' which contains these words:

The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return
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I've studied The Bible intensely for sixteen years, and I believe that it could be boiled down pretty nicely into the above sentiment. But it must be remembered that "GOD IS LOVE" (1st John 4:8) and so we must learn to Love according to God's definition of Himself; not according to our human conception of love. But if the purpose of karma is simply to teach us this lesson, then in a real sense, ALL acts of karma should be viewed as "good."

WHY ISN'T REINCARNATION VERY EXPLICITLY STATED IN THE BIBLE?
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Reincarnation appears in The Bible in several very real, irrefutable ways. But according to Jesus Himself, it will be acknowledged only by "He who has ears to hear." (Matthew 11:15) The reason it is not specifically spelled out in The Bible is because it is not at all necessary that one believe in it. In fact, for many people who require a sense of urgency in order to compel themselves to live as they should, believing in reincarnation would not be helpful. Believing in reincarnation is certainly no prerequisite for Salvation. It is a universal law that works as other universal laws do, regardless of whether or not the individual has any knowledge of it. When a child throws a ball into the air, the ball comes down again even if he or she has never heard of Isaac Newton. So it works with or without our knowledge.

Furthermore, reincarnation is often transformed into a false god by many spiritually immature seekers. In that case, they would have been better off to have never discovered the law at all! The concept of reincarnation has often been misunderstood and misapplied, turning it into a stumbling block for many.

Understanding how one arrived at their present condition can be valuable if it helps one to turn aside anger and resentment. For that person, reincarnation is an aid to grasping the bigger picture. But what we will choose to do about our present circumstances is far more important than understanding how we arrived in these circumstances in the first place. The act of karma is understood at the soul level, even if it escapes our conscious recognition. For most of us, learning that reincarnation occurs is all we really need. Then it's time to let it go and get on with our living - learning to Love and being Loved in return.

AREN'T REINCARNATION AND THE SALVATION OF CHRIST MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE CONCEPTS?

NO! But because mainstream Christianity finds reincarnation incompatible with traditional Christian dogma, reincarnation is vehemently denounced as a blasphemous idea. We have indeed been saved by Jesus Christ. His magnificent, atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of mankind cannot be overestimated nor overappreciated! Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Holy King, the Savior of the world. He has been given ALL authority in Heaven and on Earth. Thank God! (Matthew 28:18) Jesus removed all "consciousness" of sin for those who accept His gift. (Hebrews, chapters 9 & 10) We have no more reason to hold our sins against us. They have been atoned for and forgiven. And so have our neighbor's sins. We can KNOW that our sins are no longer a barrier between us and God.

So although our old sins should be released from our consciousness (so as not to crucify Jesus over and over again in our minds) this does not eradicate the necessity of our learning to Love as God defines it, because these are two separate issues. What if every believer in Christ immediately gained access to Heaven? We'd have a place full of forgiven people who are still sinning constantly; acting selfishly and egotistically because they still haven't learned to live a life of selfless Love! It wouldn't be ANYBODY'S idea of "Heaven." In fact, it wouldn't be much different from Earth. Make no mistake about it: we HAVE been forgiven our transgressions (past, present and future) through the sinless life and perfect sacrifice of Christ, but every one of us still has an awful lot to learn about Loving before we can all live together peacefully in a "Heavenly" state.

And that's why I call reincarnation, "The patience of God in action." He gives us plenty of opportunities to accept His Son, and learn to live as His Son urged us to. Do I think that we must reincarnate until we live a perfect life? Certainly not! If that were the case, we'd probably never get out of here. But Jesus did it - He lived a perfect life and He overcame the world on our behalf (John 16:33), but we must be living at some standard (determined by God) before we can leave our Earthbound lives behind altogether, and dwell permanently in a spiritual, Heavenly realm.

The best analogy that can be drawn is that of a school. We Earthlings are all in the same class - sixth grade perhaps. Just like in any classroom, some students are excelling and progressing faster than others. Those individuals can help tutor some of the slower learners, but we all have one teacher: Jesus Christ. Having fully mastered the curriculum Himself, Jesus is qualified to show us The Way, and if we follow His examples we are sure to learn the lessons. The Holy Bible is the class textbook. Karma is the grade on our tests. It is not necessary that the students score 100% on every test, but they must exhibit an overall understanding of the material taught in the course before they can graduate to the next grade.

Now that we're all on the same page with the word "reincarnation", we can explore references to it in our textbook, The Holy Bible.

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

Continued below in “Reincarnation & The Holy Bible [Part 2]”

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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REINCARNATION & THE HOLY BIBLE [Part 2 Of 4]

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[From the STMcC archive; 2005, September.]

Continued From Part 1 . . .

REINCARNATION IN THE HOLY BIBLE

It is often charged that reincarnation was once featured prominently in The Bible, but that it was excised by the church leaders at the Council of Constantinople in 553, or possibly earlier when one of the previous Ecumenical Councils convened. Not only is there not a bit of real evidence to support this, but there are good reasons to dispute it. The Dead Sea Scrolls for one. Although the Dead Sea Scrolls (dated from about 50 to 250 B.C.) did contain non-canonized manuscripts, the ancient scrolls of Old Testament text were found to be remarkably consistent with what appears in our Bibles today. This proves the great care, dedication and precision that ancient scribes employed in copying these sacred texts over and over again down through the ages.
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No, there was never any more reincarnation in The Bible than there is right now. But there's so much of it now, that if an earlier church council really had tried to remove it, one could only conclude that the council did an astoundingly poor job of it!

Reincarnation appears in The Bible in three different forms: 1) By direct reference. 2) By allusion. 3) By karmic law.

All Bible passages that follow are quoted from the New King James version. I have chosen this version because it is well-respected and commonly used in Christian churches, but you'll find no significant differences in any of the other mainstream translations. Wherever you encounter a word entirely capitalized, that represents my own emphasis.

DIRECT REFERENCES TO REINCARNATION IN THE BIBLE

There is only one direct reference to reincarnation in The Bible, but it comes from no less an authority than Jesus Christ Himself, who states that John The Baptist was the Old Testament prophet Elijah reincarnated:

* MATTHEW 11:11-15 and MATTHEW 17:1-13

The Old Testament closes with a prophecy from God in Malachi 4:5 in which He states, "BEHOLD, I WILL SEND YOU ELIJAH THE PROPHET BEFORE THE COMING OF THE GREAT AND DREADFUL DAY OF THE LORD..." Approximately 400 years later, Jesus (Yeshua) was born and began his Messianic ministry.

When Yeshua's disciples became aware that He was alluding to Himself as the prophesied Messiah, they questioned Him as to why Elijah had not preceded Him, as foretold in Malachi 4:5. Jesus responds, "...I SAY TO YOU THAT ELIJAH HAS COME ALREADY, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW HIM BUT DID TO HIM WHATEVER THEY WISHED." (Referring here to the beheading of John The Baptist, who had been put to death at the command of Herod.) The Bible informs us that "THEN THE DISCIPLES UNDERSTOOD THAT HE SPOKE TO THEM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST."

(*Note: The reason these passages are worded oddly and seem to imply that Elijah had come, but was still yet to come, is because Elijah/John The Baptist is also one of the two witnesses - along with Moses - who will arrive on the Earth just prior to the return of Jesus, as described in the 11th chapter of Revelation.)

Jesus made it abundantly clear that Elijah had reincarnated in the form of John The Baptist, AND HIS DISCIPLES UNDERSTOOD THIS!

Christians cannot accept this as it would force them to reconfigure their carefully designed dogmas. So how do they skirt around it? They rely on the verse in Luke 1:17 which refers to John The Baptist coming in the "spirit and power" of Elijah, as though this satisfied the Malachi prophecy without Elijah actually being bodily present. But of course, if John was the same soul as Elijah, naturally he would appear with commensurate "spirit and power." Christians also correctly point out that John denied being Elijah. (John 1:19-21) However, just because it had not been revealed to John The Baptist that he was previously Elijah, does not mean that he wasn't. After all, Jesus said, "...He IS Elijah..." (Matthew 11:14)

Furthermore, it must be remembered that even John The Baptist came to doubt that Jesus was the true Messiah. (Matthew 11:2-6) And so, although John was a great, Holy Spirit-filled prophet, his ability to spiritually discern the full scope of the prophesied time must be seriously called into question. As to whether or not he was Elijah reincarnated, it is his word against the word of Christ! Whom should we believe?

There are two reasons why God might have withheld this information from John - one good and one great:

Very few people have any conscious knowledge of past lives and for good reason: Most of us are already overburdened with the mental and emotional baggage of our current life. Does it make sense to add the emotional strain of previous experiences to our conscious recall? Would it improve our lives to have full realization of atrocious sins we may have committed in times past? Don't we have enough to deal with in just this one 70 to 90 year span? It's usually best to leave the past in the past (recognized only at the soul level) and move forward. (And this is another reason we must be careful about our judgments against others. How are we to know that we ourselves have not committed the same sins we witness others committing? Is it not possible that we have similar transgressions in our past, which we are simply not now cognizant of?)

But it was especially important that John The Baptist not realize that he had been Elijah 900 years earlier because the Jews were looking for Elijah's return. They were well aware of the prophecy in Malachi 4:5 and knew that the return of Elijah would herald the appearance of the long-awaited Messiah. What if John knew he was Elijah reincarnated and said so? And what if that fact had come to be accepted? Then Jesus might have been embraced as the promised Messiah and the crucifixion might never have occurred.

But the crucifixion was a major component of the Messiah's mission. He chose to take mankind's sins to the cross to be washed clean in His perfect Blood. This was so important that JESUS ORCHESTRATED THE CRUCIFIXION HIMSELF! The killing of the Messiah had been prophesied in the ancient writings (DANIEL 9:26 and ISAIAH 53) It was part of the Divine Plan that Jesus be crucified as the voluntary sacrifice to absolve us of our sins, and it would not have been advantageous to have His cousin, John The Baptist, truthfully proclaiming himself to be Elijah, the Messiah's forerunner. The knowledge of John's past life was not revealed to him so that he could deny being Elijah and Jesus could be crucified.

Incidentally, we can look for the return of Elijah/John The Baptist because God has promised to send him before His Son twice: "Before the coming of the great AND dreadful day of the Lord." (Malachi 4:5) The appearance of Jesus 2000 years ago was the "Great" day because He saved us from our sins. His return will be a "Dreadful" day for a lot of people who are deliberately living sinfully and apart from the knowledge of God.

To refute reincarnation in general, Christians often quote Hebrews 9:27 which reads, "...it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment." But a careful study of this passage in context and correlated with the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis, and with Matthew 8:22, reveals that it is a spiritual death (a perception of being cut off from true Life, which IS God) to which it refers, NOT a physical death. The very first reference to death in The Bible’s historical timeline occurs in Genesis (2:17), when Adam is warned by God that he will suffer death for eating from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But notice that although Adam and Eve transgressed against God’s commandment, and ate from the tree, they did not die in a physical way; they died in a spiritual sense. All of mankind has suffered a seemingly spiritual death and our lives being worked out now in this earthly incarnation is a form of judgment.

In order to deal with the literal connection Jesus made between John The Baptist and Elijah, some contemporary Christians twist the scripture, interpreting it in a theologically hypocritical fashion. For example: In his otherwise very good book, ‘Learn The Bible In 24 Hours’ (I recommend you buy it!), Chuck Missler commits this intellectually dishonest act. In one place he writes, "I believe that (God) says what He means and means what He says." And in another place he states, "...I don't believe the words, 'God' and 'approximate' should be in the same sentence."
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And yet, in explaining the Malachi prophecy, Missler resorts to writing, "(Jesus) would be announced in advance by an ELIJAH-TYPE herald."

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But read Malachi 4:5 for yourself. God does not say anything about sending a "type" or a "substitute"; He says, "I will send you Elijah the prophet." Plain and simple! The bottom line is this: if John The Baptist was NOT Elijah reincarnated, then either Jesus was not the Messiah, or else God lied and Jesus was mistaken. Both of these options I have determined to be impossibilities.

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

Continued below in “Reincarnation & The Holy Bible [Part 3]”

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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REINCARNATION & THE HOLY BIBLE [Part 3 Of 4]

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[From the STMcC archive; 2005, September.]

Continued From Part 2 . . .

ALLUSIONS TO REINCARNATION IN THE BIBLE
The following passages cannot be fully comprehended until the principle of reincarnation is applied to them.

* JOB 1:21
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there."
Obviously we don't RETURN to the womb unless it is for the purpose of rebirth. But since this statement comes from Job, a man whose understanding of God's Ways was very limited, this verse cannot stand alone.

* ZECHARIAH 12:10
"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced."
Having been written about 540 years before the birth of Jesus, this is both a prophecy about the coming Messiah and His death on the cross, as well as a reference to reincarnation. Note that those who crucified Jesus will be living on the Earth to witness His Second Coming.

* MATTHEW 23:31-35 
"You are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your father's guilt...that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah...whom YOU murdered between the temple and the altar."
God is clear in The Bible that each man is accountable for his own sin, and that the sins of the fathers are NOT imputed to the sons. (See 2 Chronicles 25:4 amongst others. This incidentally, is also instructive when considering contemporary Christianity's understanding of Adam and Eve's "Original Sin." But we won't go there now.) Jesus is saying that the generation to whom He spoke included the individuals who had murdered the Old Testament prophets.

* MARK, Chapter 13
"Take heed that no one deceives YOU. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and will deceive many . . . And what I say to YOU, I say to all: Watch!"

In this chapter, we find Jesus explaining to His disciples, Peter, James, John, and Andrew, the signs that will be prevalent on the Earth at the time of His Second Coming, and the things that His followers will endure. But notice how often He uses the word "YOU" in this passage. (Get your Bible and read the ENTIRE chapter for yourself.) He is clearly saying to His Disciples that they will have been reborn and present on Earth at the time of His Return! Beyond the reincarnation aspect of it, this is a VERY IMPORTANT chapter that EVERYONE had better understand thoroughly or else they will be setting themselves up for terrible judgment (which I believe is right around the corner).

* JOHN 21:21-23
"If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me."
Here Jesus implies that John will continually reincarnate to promote the Gospel until Jesus’ Second Coming.

* ROMANS 7:9 
"I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died."

Saint Paul may be implying that he lived on Earth prior to The Law of God being delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai, because obviously "The Law of Moses" had been known and practiced for many hundreds of years before the birth of Paul. It should also be remembered that Paul also said to the early Christians, "...we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing."

(See HEBREWS 5, a chapter that speaks directly about Jesus and His prior lifetime on the Earth as Melchizedek, the High Priest. Unless Jesus had been Melchizedek, He would be a priest of “the Order of Melchizedek” but He wouldn't actually be the High Priest of the Order. And that would be inconsistent with the New Testament’s view of Jesus’ place in the spiritual hierarchy.)

Incidentally, I have discovered a couple of other Biblical verses that seem to imply that Jesus himself had lived one prior earthly incarnation (or more) in which he was “born of a woman”. However, this “stuffs” about our own reincarnating is probably difficult enough for many to accept, without me actually exploring the subject as it relates even to our Master, Jesus. I’ll save that one for another year . . . or decade.

* REVELATION 3:12 
"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more."
That's a quote from Jesus. If it doesn't mean that the person who overcomes the impulses of the brutish, "natural" man of the Earth, and learns to live the life of Love that God commands, will not be required to reincarnate further, then I have no idea what it means. And I doubt that anyone else does either. In my opinion, a person would have to be pretty doggedly determined NOT to see reincarnation in The Bible in order to deny that this passage refers to a cessation of reincarnating on the Earth.

KARMIC LAW THAT IMPLIES REINCARNATION IN THE BIBLE

* PROVERBS 22:16
"He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty."
You don't need me to prove to you that many people throughout history have gained riches by unethical and immoral means, and yet died with their great wealth. This statement from God then MUST imply that the poverty will sometimes come upon the individual in a subsequent lifetime. Otherwise, God is mistaken. And God has NEVER been mistaken!

* ISAIAH 33:1
"Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; and you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you! When you cease plundering, you will be plundered; when you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you."
The same idea as above. We know that not all who have plundered in ONE lifetime have themselves been plundered in that SAME lifetime.

* GENESIS 9:6
"Whoever sheds man's blood, by man HIS blood shall be shed."
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* MATTHEW 26:52
"Put your sword in its place, for ALL who take the sword will perish by the sword."
God couldn't have been more clear in the verse from Genesis. It's a reciprocal world we live in. In the passage from Matthew, we find Jesus warning Peter not to kill the servant of the high priest or else it was guaranteed that he, Peter, would suffer the same fate. Jesus was reminding him of God's karmic law established in Genesis 9:6. Now we ALL know that millions of people have murdered human beings throughout history and yet a great many of the killers did not perish from this Earth by violent means. A famous example is the gangster Mickey Cohen. He was a triggerman or "hit man" for the mob who acknowledged having murdered men: "I have killed no men that in the first place didn't deserve killing." And yet Cohen did not die by violence; he passed away in his sleep in 1976 as a result of stomach cancer.

Many murderers have even escaped capture and imprisonment. They seemingly have gotten away with murder. But "GOD IS NOT MOCKED; FOR WHATEVER A MAN SOWS, THAT HE WILL ALSO REAP" (Galatians 6:7), and His Law polices itself perfectly. Sometimes the karmic consequences do not manifest until a life (or lives) later, but God's law is perfect! All lessons will be taught according to God's own timetable. But if the verses in GENESIS 9:6 and MATTHEW 26:52 do not imply reincarnation, then surely it would be correct to assume that some individuals have gotten away with murder, and that both God and Jesus were wrong.

Even if there were no other references to reincarnation in the entire Bible, these two verses ALONE would be sufficient for us to determine that reincarnation is a Biblical concept!

* REVELATION 13:10
"He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword MUST be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints."

The same idea yet again. God has established a reciprocal world in which we are meant to learn our lessons through a "Cause and Effect" dynamic.

CONCLUSION

There are other references to reincarnation in The Holy Bible, but these will be more than adequate to convince "he who has ears to hear" that reincarnation is a Biblically sound concept.

But now that we see reincarnation is a fundamental part of God's plan, is there any reason to read more about it? Certainly it would not hurt to (CAUTIOUSLY) read a few books on the subject in order to gain a greater appreciation for it. But to continue reading title after title will not serve any purpose other than to simply reconfirm what you have already found. Merely understanding how reincarnation works will NOT make you a better person.

I contend that once reincarnation has been accepted, it is time to simply go on with our Living, Loving, and Learning. We don't need to dwell on a Law that God maintains with or without our conscious knowledge. If reincarnation helps you to accept certain circumstances in your life that otherwise would seem unfair on the surface, then for you it is quite helpful. But STILL, what you will do from this moment on is preeminent, and THAT is where your heart and mind should be focused.

Now that we understand that there is a cause behind every effect in our lives, let's vow not to be like that dog in Proverbs:

"As a dog returns to his own vomit,
so a fool repeats his folly." ~ PROVERBS 26:11
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Let's not dwell on nor repeat our past mistakes, but go forward boldly in our faith with a conviction that - with the help of God's Son - we can live the life of Love that we have been called to.

Sure, many people will feel compelled to try to explain away these references to reincarnation, but until they can answer ALL of them in a very REASONABLE way that is consistent with the overall message of The Bible, they would be better off to simply accept the Ways of God . . . For "His mercy endures FOREVER." (Psalm 136)

Still, each person should be free to follow the path of their own conscience.

I sincerely hope that I did not convey a condescending attitude toward contemporary Christians in this guide. That certainly was not my intention. I love my Christian Brothers and Sisters, and I have learned a great deal about Jesus and The Bible from many of the Christian writers whom I have read over the years. I simply feel that much of contemporary Christian theology is not entirely Biblically sound, and does not correlate with what I have been taught by The Spirit. But beyond a theological dispute, I have no animosity toward Christians whatsoever.
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In fact, I refer to myself as a "Maverick Mystic" but my beliefs are more closely aligned with modern Christianity than they are to most of the "New Age" teachings, much of which I consider to be occultic and exceedingly dangerous.

Bless And Be Blessed! (Get it? Karmic law.)

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"TAKE UP [YOUR] CROSS AND FOLLOW ME . . . I AM THE WAY."
~ Jesus (Matthew 16:24 & John 14:6)

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
Continued below in “Reincarnation & The Holy Bible: 2010 Addendum [Part 4]”

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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REINCARNATION & THE HOLY BIBLE: 2010 ADDENDUM [Part 4 Of 4]

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[July, 2010 Addendum to ‘Reincarnation & The Holy Bible’.]

Continued From Part 3 . . .

NO PARTIALITY WITH GOD

God tells us repeatedly in His Holy Bible that “there is no partiality with Him.” (Ephesians 6:9, et al.) In other words, all men and women are valued equally and treated fairly by God.

Well, unless one entertains the concept of reincarnation, it seems to me that’s a bit hard to accept. One look around will show us that some persons are born into fabulous wealth, while others live an entire life in abject poverty; some persons come into this world with tremendous gifts and amazing talent, while others have no attention-getting special qualities to speak of and live out rather “ordinary” lives; some persons come into this world quite healthy, while others are born with illnesses or terrible, and sometimes even freakish, deformities. Is this REALLY anybody’s idea of equal and fair treatment?
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[David Rockefeller]
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[Joseph Merrick, aka “The Elephant Man”]

Only if we view these things from the reincarnation perspective, considering all gifts and talents and illnesses and deformities as karmic repercussions spilling over from a previous lifetime and intended to teach us our necessary lessons about love – circumstances meant to enlighten us about our cause and effect universe – are we then really able to accept that these situations might well exist in conjunction with the existence of a just and loving God.

Wonderful “gifts” might well be talents that were developed in a prior incarnation and carried over into the present life. An individual who persecuted a certain group or type of people may need to reincarnate as that type or within that group in order to learn, at the subconscious level, with first-hand experience, just how wrong their judgments were.

Yes, I DO believe God when he says that there is no partiality with Him. And it is understanding cause and effect relationships and karmic consequences of our God-designed system that allows me to hold that belief while all around me a superficially false appearance of inequality would otherwise seem to be the way of “this world”.

MARTIN BRUMER
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Sunday, July 18th, 2010, was the 21st anniversary of the death of my dear friend Marty Brumer.

I have related this story to you previously on this STUFFS blog, but I would now like to share with you a thought I have often had about Marty’s death and how I believe it illustrates the soundness of a belief in reincarnation.

When he was twenty-eight years old, Marty was killed in Los Angeles when a guy who had stolen a car and was being pursued at high speeds by the police, ran a red light and plowed into Marty’s automobile as my friend was driving through the intersection, himself having the green light. My buddy, a professional actor, was killed instantly.

Marty was one of the very greatest friends I’ve ever had. He was honest, thoughtful and generous. He was also born into a Jewish family, and subsequently he did not hold any strong belief about the importance of the life of Jesus and the Atonement for sins acquired through the Savior’s selfless, sinless Sacrifice on the Cross.

According to the generally accepted current “orthodox” Christian dogma, Marty, being an unbeliever at the time of his death, was denied entrance into Heaven and consigned to the devil for an eternity in hell.

I certainly don’t mean to insult anyone, so please pardon my honesty when I tell you that I find this sort of widely accepted Christian theology to be infantile. I mean that in the literal sense: it is an extremely underdeveloped theology. Yes, being an ardent student of The Bible, I know very well which Biblical verses the contemporary Christian would use in an attempt to defend that theology. My response is that much is lost in a misinterpretation that does not take into account the larger spiritual picture.

There are two primary points I wish to raise in connection with Marty’s unbelief. For one thing, being born into the Jewish tradition, in a sense, the deck was stacked against his coming to a full understanding of the mission of The Christ anytime real soon. In order to see and accept the Savior’s gift, Marty was going to have to buck the tradition he was raised with and be willing to deal with any disruptions in family life and unity that might occur as a result.

Secondly, Marty died at the age of 28. I myself did not come to understand the mission of the Christ and accept Jesus as my Holy King and Savior until I reached the age of 35 – that’s seven years longer than Marty was allowed to live. Had God permitted me to be killed by a car thief in a Los Angeles intersection when I was 28 – the same age that Marty died – I myself would not have been (as Christians call it) “saved”; I would have died an “unbeliever” and also destined for an eternity in hell. There but for the gift of extra years and the luck not to be in a bad place at the wrong time, I would have been banished to eternal torment (according to mainstream Christian beliefs).

How is it fair to send my good friend Marty to hell when he was born into a tradition predisposed not to understand the true identity of Jesus and not to accept the importance of His sacrifice, and when my friend was given only 28 years to overcome that start before some other person stole his life from him? Why should I gain Heaven when I was not born into the same circumstances and, up to the present date, I have been given nearly 23 more years than Marty was given in which to “see the Light”?

One of the standard answers a person might expect from a contemporary Christian attempting to explain the “fairness” of this, is that somehow God knew in advance that Marty – regardless of how many years he was to live – was not going to accept Jesus as his Savior.

Well, if that’s so, if God already knew this when Marty was only 28, didn’t God also know that at the moment Marty was born? And if God knew that at the moment Marty was born, didn’t God also know that the moment BEFORE Marty was born? And never mind the sticky question then of whether or not God had sort of “predestined” Marty not to accept Christ, the real question is: Knowing in advance that this soul known on Earth as Martin Brumer was NOT going to accept his Salvation from Christ, wouldn’t a TRULY loving, forgiving, understanding and merciful God have declined to create that soul in the first place, rather than creating him anyway and then 28 years later banishing him to an eternity in a hellish place?

No, I’m sorry, but I cannot accept the mainstream Christian view of things. Nevertheless, I do believe with all my heart that our Creator lives and that He is all of the wonderfully great things the New Testament says He is. And knowing that my God is a God of love, forgiveness, and understanding, and knowing that “His mercy endures forever”, I believe that He will give us ample opportunity to accept the Atonement for our sins offered as a free gift through the voluntary Sacrifice provided by His Son, Jesus Christ. If that means we need more than one “lifetime” on Earth in which to make the correct decision to accept what is offered, then I believe that God in His mercy and love for His children has enough patience within Himself to grant that to us.

What, is The Lord short on Love and time? Do you suppose that perhaps God is even so loving and Divinely patient that He would forgive our dimwittedness and let us try again to get it right “up to seventy times seven” times?
(Matthew 18:21, 22)

Related Link:
The Reincarnating Jesus: Will It Be His "2nd Coming" Or His 34th?

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.

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WANTED! FOR FORCING FANTASIES ON A TIRED, OLD MIDDLE-AGED DUDE

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There’s a woman on a poster displayed at the post office nearest me. No, she’s not wanted by the FBI. She’s wanted by ME.

This mystery woman is on two posters (three, really, but two of them are duplicates) that are advertising the joys of stamp collecting. Well, I ain’t buying into the idea of joyful stamp collecting, but if anybody could sell me on it, this woman could.

These posters have been on display at the post office for as long as I can remember – that’s a number of years – and they are mounted on the walls underneath clear Plexiglas, above the post office boxes. I have never failed to take notice of this woman every time I’ve had reason to be in that building. Particularly when I’m alone there at night and can just stand there for a few unhurried minutes and study her face and imagine “what might have been” had I found her before the postmaster did.

Because these posters have been on display there for so long, and because they are located just below some fluorescent light tubes, the pictures are now faded. But that doesn’t prevent this girl’s beauty from shining forth.

In case anyone ever wondered what my type is, THIS is my type:

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Brown eyes, long dark hair, cute as a button, and very feminine. Heck, all I ever really wanted was a womanly woman who wouldn’t make me feel gay (but that type went out of style decades ago). This gal has it all, and she’s almost enough to turn a guy into a post office groupie!

I drove to the post office about eight o’clock last night with my Brother’s cell phone camera and a stepstool, so I could get up high enough to take a “STUFFS”-worthy photo of Miss Right the stamp collector. (Nothing’s too much trouble for my art!)

I was hoping to get the picture-taking done quickly and before anyone else entered the post office. Imagine trying to explain that: “Oh, Hi… uhm… Ha!... Well, I just have a thing for this girl, see? And… uh… well, I, uh… See I have this blog and uh… well, never mind. I gotta go; I’m late for the philatelic soiree”.

But fortunately, I did manage to get my pictures taken in time. Just as I was exiting the post office - stepstool in hand - a couple of other Airheadzonans were entering. Phew! That was cuttin’ it close.

Have you seen this beautiful mystery woman?

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Well? Have you seen her? If so, do tell! If I could just learn her address, I’d mail myself to her. Yeah, it would require a lot of stamps, but maybe she’d appreciate that.

In the meantime, if anyone’s lookin’ for me, tell ‘em they’ll find me at the post office, standing there gazing up longingly at my mystery gal and ignoring the old goat from the postal service who’s dogging me with cries of, “Alright, move along now! There’s nothing else to see here".

“Get away from me, postalboy. Ya bother me!”

Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm HERS.

Hmmm… Sometimes I’ve even wondered if Miss Stamp Collector is the ever elusive Emily.

Philatelically Yours,

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.

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DOGGTOR GUY'S PRESCRIPTION FOR PAIN RELIEF

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But my point is that, if there is a guy in your life, and you want him to get decent medical care, you cannot rely on him or Hillary Clinton to be responsible for it. You have to use a technique that was perfected by wildlife officials for use with bears and rhinoceroses, namely: tranquilizer darts. This is the only way you can be sure of getting a guy to a medical care facility in a timely manner if he has, for example, injured himself during a touch-football game, and you have pointed out that there are bones sticking from his body, plus some aortal bleeding, but he is claiming that this condition will probably go away on its own.

In this case you should fire a dart or two into his body, let him stagger around for a few more plays until he collapses, then strap him to the trunk of the car and take him to the hospital. And when you get him there, be sure to tell the doctors that, in addition to his obvious injuries . . . he has been complaining about his prostate. He deserves it.

~ ‘DAVE BARRY’S COMPLETE GUIDE TO GUYS:
A Fairly Short Book’

‘Dave Barry’s Complete Guide To Guys’ is also a fairly funny book. It was given to me by my dear friend the Flying Aardvark. She knows a “guy” when she corresponds with one.

So, there I am at work last night when suddenly I feel this rather intense pain in the left kidney area. It hurts like hell, but then subsides after about 20 minutes. I get off work and drive home and it starts hurting like that place again.

I brush my teeth, take my melatonin, say my prayer, slide into bed, hoping to fall asleep quickly and wake up pain free in the morning. Well, I fell asleep alright, but woke up again in about 20 minutes with the return of great pain in the kidney area. No position I put myself into would alleviate the pain.

I fall asleep again, I wake up again, again in pain. So now I’m wondering if I have a kidney stone. I’ve heard about those things and this seems to have similar symptoms. Those symptoms being 1) that it hurts like hell, and 2) in the kidney area.

So I get up and tell my brother Nappy about it. No, I didn’t wake him up. After all, it was already 3:30 AM and he was about to start his workout program. Nappy suggests I go to the hospital. Make no mistake about it, one guy WILL suggest to another guy that he should go see a doctor, knowing full well that he himself would NEVER do that under similar circumstances.

Rather than the hospital, I opt for the heating pad. I put it on my back, but 15 minutes is about all I can stand of that. Then I go back to my bedroom to lie DOWN, and ten minutes later I throw UP. Well, there goes the Ben & Jerry’s Key Lime Ice Cream I had earlier that night. Damn! And that’s not cheap stuffs either!

I go back to bed, ah, to sleep, perchance to puke. I could have phoned my old football and wrestling coaches, but I know that they’d just tell me to take two shots of tequila and call them in the morning. And I’d rather take twelve shots of tequila and shut my cell phone off!

In the morning, I call my sister Bonehead (I’ve always called her Bonehead) and I ask her what it felt like to have kidney stones those four times when she did. Hmmm… that’s interesting: she said, 1) it hurt like hell, and 2) in the kidney area.

Well, naturally, she’s certain I need to see my doctor, and offers to drive me there. Instead, I opt for “borrowing” some of her leftover prescription medication. She gives me a plastic bag containing Vicodin and Soma. Her note says: “Vicodin is a painkiller – take one every 6 hours. Soma is a muscle relaxer – take one 3 times a day. Don’t take both together . . . one or the other.” So naturally, I take two of each with one swig of cranberry juice. [My motto has always been: “If you’re only going to have one beer, you might as well make it six Mickey’s malt liquors.”] Cranberry juice just in case it IS kidney stones, which I’m sure it isn’t.

You see, it occurs to me that this pain in the kidney area began about an hour after I cracked the vertebrae in my back at work last night. I was sitting in my chair finishing off the book ‘HOW AN ECONOMY GROWS AND WHY IT CRASHES’ by Peter Schiff (a great book, by the way), when I twisted my torso from side to side to crack my back. Nothing new about this - heck, I crack EVERYTHING: back, knuckles, ankles, knees, elbows, neck, eyelids – you name it, I crack it. Well, except for THOSE. I never crack THOSE! Ouch! It hurts just to think about that. They HAVE been cracked before, not by me, but by an accidental knee.

However, when I cracked my back last night, I did notice a slight twinge and thought to myself: 'Whoa! I think I went a bit too far this time.' So, is it just a coincidence that an hour later I had “kidney stones”? I’m thinkin’ I just badly pulled or strained a muscle in my back near the kidney area.

But nuttin’ to worry ‘bout, folks; I’m a “guy”, I’ll bounce back in no time.

I just sprayed a little Windex on it
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and covered it with Duct Tape.
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I’ll be fine.

"Doctors? I don't need no doctors! I don't have to go to any stinkin' doctors!"

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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