The Apocalypse is Now!

“When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and lowering.' You know then how to discern the face of the sky, and can you not know the signs of the times?”Matthew 16:2-4

Today I read yet another story about the grim news of climate change. I am not waiting for an Apocalypse because there can be little doubt now that the Apocalypse of Selfishness of which I have written is the Apocalypse of Now. The changes in climate that herald a drastic change in the Earth's climate that has welcomed humanity are now accelerating at an unprecedented rate and severity.

In Scripture Christ mocked those who could not see the signs of what was happening. Are the Climate Change Deniers guilty of the same shortsightedness and is the result going to be an ever acerbating destruction of humanities' habitat?

When I read and hear the rhetoric of the Republican candidates for President (all of them) I am reminding what Jefferson wrote:

"I tremble for my county, when I reflect that God is just." Make that tremble for the world. Of course the irony is that slaveholder Jefferson never acted personally to alleviate the evil that brought the greatest destruction in his country's history.

Yet, in three months we will be celebrating another holiday: Easter. It is the hope of Resurrection that fueled the growth of Christianity but Pope Francis has recognized that God's mercy and forgiveness is not just for those baptized Christians. It is for all humanity. There is always hope for survival, if not for the entirety of humanity, at least for each and every of humanities' members. Let us pray Francis is right.

Read and weep: "Climate Change Across the Map" NY Times 12/31/2015  p. 1
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This is not a promo for my book "Quantum Christ" but if you are interested:

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

Christmas Eve: A holy night indeed

Tonight is Christmas Eve when we celebrate the Nativity of Jesus Christ. The date was arbitrarily established a   millennia and a half ago. It is more than likely he was born sometime in late winter or early spring. However, the magic of this night are attending Midnight Mass; I remember the snow crunching beneath my boots as we walked from the car to the church. Many times it was to hear my aunt Pauline sing she was an outstanding soprano and once sang at Hyde Park for Eleanor Roosevelt.

My favorite Christmas Carol has always been O Holy Night. On this Christmas Eve I will share it with you. It celebrates the transfiguring nature of the Christian myth where human nature is joined by the divine. There are a couple of lines that truly nail it.

"Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

'til he appeared and the soul felt its worth."

And then it continues:

"A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices,

for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn."

Pope Francis has astonished the world by preaching a universal message of love and mercy. He blurs the distinctions between Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and almost every other religion. He has become in many ways the Pope of All Humanity. This Christmas let us pray for the success of his mission and give thanks that he is with us.

And now, the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8uxCiJXFVs

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This is not a promo for my book "Quantum Christ" but if you are interested:

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

The Reichstag fire and Lee Harvey Oswald

I have been asked about my take on the Reichstag fire on Facebook  and I thought I had answered it last night but somehow it didn't load. Now a slightly expanded response. It's not something I have studied extensively but I think I know enough to make the following comment. I analogize it to the JFK assassination so hold on to your hats.

The Reichstag, the Germany's capitol building in Berlin was devastated by a fire in 1933 just when the Nazi's had gained control of the Germany Bundestag and Hitler had formed a government. Wikipedia has an entry on it in case you want some details. It corresponds to what I had read some years ago but goes deeper.

The issue is whether the person accused of setting the fire was an agent of the international communist conspiracy through the Comintern, a loan nut, or a false flag patsy planted by the Nazis. The result redounded to the benefit of the Nazi's who used as an argument for justification of giving dictatorial powers to the newly elected Chancellor, Hitler. From the Nazi's viewpoint it was either a total success of a devious plot or gift from heaven (or hell).

We have a rough analogy in our own time in Lee Harvey Oswald. Was he a lone nut assassin? Was he a Fidel Castro operative? Was he a foil or patsy for hidden (barely) US interests who regarded Kennedy as a traitor for his settling the Cuban Missile crisis without war and indicating that he was prepared to withdraw from Vietnam? To the extent the plotters may have wanted war with Castro, it didn't work. To the extent they wanted continued intervention in Vietnam, it did.

The military-industrial complex profited mightily from the Vietnam War. 56,000 Americans and their families paid dearly (not to mention hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese.)

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel called "It Can't Happen Here" which was a satire about a hypothetical  rise of fascism in the United States. Well that didn't happen here. Or did it?

When I look at the Trump message of exclusion and bias and cozing-up to the despot Putin and I realize just how much he is echoing the bias and prejudices of a significant number of Americans, I am concerned. Trump is not anti-Semitic. But his dream of a white restoration to power echo's the Nazi's anti-Semitism. He appeals to our worse impulses.

This is not a promo for my book "Quantum Christ" but if you are interested:

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

Yet again, JFK [and the Shroud]

I am working to update and mold the material in Quantum Christ into a new book tentatively entitled "The Pope and the Apocalypse [and the Shroud?] Distractions abound including four matters that are still in litigation at one stage or another. Also, current events of an apocalyptic nature including the refugee crisis are a necessary distraction but a component of what I will be writing about.

However, today on Salon.com is a lengthy excerpt about a newly published book on the JFK Assassination that echoes into my life, my family and my abiding interest in the UNSOLVED mystery of the assassination. Also, my belief that those of the scientific community who used the discredited carbon dating of the Shroud to impeach the authenticity of the Shroud are like those who support the conclusion of the Warren Report the Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone nut without co-conspirators. See: Why the Media Want the Inquiries to End, http://www.johnklotz.com/new-jfk.htm

My late brother Herman was a longtime employee of the CIA. I was careful to never plumb Herman for sensitive information that might be classified. Nonetheless we did have a few careful conversations about JFK. Herman initially echoed the CIA back-up story that Castro did it. Indeed, in my opinion one of the aims for the assassination was war with Cuba.  At one point I had a question about something of CIA protocol totally unrelated to the JFK thing: it concerned the protocol for the hiring of an agent (the subject had defected to the Russians). In response, I received a telephone call from David Atlee Phillips who, if you read the citation at the end of this post was a central figure in most "CIA did it" theories. It was brief conversation of no relevance to JFK.

This morning there was published on Salon an excerpt from a new book by David Talbot. David is not only the founder and first editor of Salon; he has spent a lifetime digging deep in the JFK assassination. I thoroughly recommend the Salon posting. And the next time some scientific expert or skeptic derides the authenticity of the Shroud as being disproved by the "evidence," think JFK and the Warren Report.

http://www.salon.com/2015/11/22/inside_the_plot_to_kill_jfk_the_secret_story_of_the_cia_and_what_really_happened_in_dallas/

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This is not a book promo, but if you are interested in: "The Coming of the Quantum Christ: The Shroud of Turin and the Apocalypse of Selfishness.

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-coming-of-quantum-christ-has-arrived.htm

It includes a 15% discount code on the printed copy which is beautifully illustrated.

Do Unto Others

I am working on a couple of items concerning Pope Francis but the Paris atrocity has taken center stage and on my Facebook page, a relative called me out because I had previously posted a message about our moral obligations to the displaced of the Middle East who are also victims of ISIL. After Paris, how could I now defend my position?

What follows is my response. It's a bit harsh, but  Christians envision a judgment of God much harsher than any words I can write.

In my opinion, anyone who claims to be a Christian who can turn his or her back on the plight of those being driven from their homes is at best a hypocrite. At the worst they should await the judgment: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,  I was a stranger and you did not welcome me..." Matthew 25: 41-43

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, all of the "good" people passed by the stranger in distress, no doubt fearing that he may be a robber or some such. The Samaritans were a people despised in Israel because their religion was a heretical hodgepodge of Jewish and pagan belief.

I have had Moslem-American clients. They were hard working Americans and some were quite successful. Many of them began running newsstands and some of them wound-up owning restaurants.

There was a very touching story about the impact of the Paris atrocity on American Moslems published on the Huffington post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/message-of-support-for-muslims_56479bfbe4b08cda34891bcf  Read and weep. Many did.

That doesn't mean we should clasp vipers to our bosom. It does mean that we should vet as carefully as we can those who seek shelter. I would think we should get their fingerprints, their picture of sufficient resolution and maybe even a DNA sample before admittance. That will take some work and expenditure. Maybe some will object but we do require visas of even casual visitors.

But the sleeping giant of an issue is climate change because the dislocation of millions of people has started and will become the greatest challenge of the next generation. It is predicted that by 2100 the Persian Gulf area will be uninhabitable because temperatures will be in the range of 170 F or so. That's about 80 million who will be displaced.

I don't have to worry about that except that I have grandchildren who I care about who may be around then (Or their children if they as lucky as Rene and I).

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This is not a book promo, but if you are interested I have written a book: "The Coming of the Quantum Christ: The Shroud of Turin and the Apolypse of Selfishness.

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-coming-of-quantum-christ-has-arrived.htm

It includes a 15% discount code on the printed copy which is beautifully illustrated.

Rachel Maddow nails it

Obama has always been an eloquent speaker with the ability to explain complex issues. He is a world leader in sounding the alarm on the issue of client change. However, sometimes he talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. Two examples: Shell giving license to drill in the Arctic and his reticence to bit the bullet on the Keystone Pipeline.

Among the facts about the Keystone are these: It is designed to transmit oil wrenched from tar sands in Canada to refineries in Texas for export internationally. It's a lose lose proposition.

Last week on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow really nailed it and came-up with an alternative job producing program which would solve an enormous environmental crisis, create jobs and make every one safer: upgrade and revitalize existing pipeline and transmission facilities for oil (i.e. railroads) the aged condition of which is currently causing death and pollution.

Win win. We create jobs and ameliorate, if not totally cure, the environmental disaster of current oil transmission whether by railroad or pipeline.

John Klotz

This is not a book promo but is you are interested:

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-coming-of-quantum-christ-has-arrived.html

Coming Events in 2016

As some of you may remember I have published a book: The Coming of the Quantum Christ. There are two YouTubes that has just come on line that relate to my book Quantum Christ.  One is a trailer for a movie to be released by Sony Pictures in 2016 concerning a centurion directed by Pontius Pilate to search the missing body of Christ. The other concerns a conference scheduled next spring on "The Science of Consciousness."

The movie is fiction of course but the events are projections of what is reported in the Gospel. Included is one brief tantalizing scene in which someone is examining a cloth that appears to be the Shroud of Turin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s9g7s8hH9Y

The second is a promo for a conference to be held in Arizona next spring about the Science of Consciousness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJMYzeSwSGU&feature=youtu.beIt is not currently about the Shroud at all but when you view the trailer the relationship should be obvious.

The relationship? The conference organizer is Stuart Hameroff who makes an appearance in Quantum Christ.  The conference not about the Shroud, but Isabel Piczek is an artist who is a trained physicist has described the Shroud as an Event Horizon.

To paraphrase John Muir (and Now Pope Francis): Everything is connected. Hold on to your hats. Next year is going to be a big year for the Shroud.

This not a book promo but if you are interested:

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-coming-of-quantum-christ-has-arrived.html