It took ten years, but authorities finally got one of this dude’s many wives to testify.
All the wives tattooed Ratzon’s name and picture on their arms and the children’s names are all derivatives of his name, according to the court papers.
via Israeli cult leader charged with enslavement, rape – CNN.com.
from Mark:
Isaac Hayes, the musician who so inhabited the role of The Duke, “A Number One, The Big Man,” in John Carpenter’s dystopian thriller, “Escape from New York,” died today while exercising at his home. (That’s Hayes on the left, with costars Harry Dean Stanton and Adrienne Barbeau.)
Hayes’ musical influence is apparent in Carpenter’s soundtrack for the film, which features soulful, heavy bass lines accompanied by the sounds of steel drums.
Exercise was one of the famed Scientologist’s favorite pastimes. His treadmill was still whirring when a family member found him on the floor beside it.
Soul icon Isaac Hayes dies in Memphis at 65 | U.S. | Reuters
Oscar-winning soul singer Isaac Hayes who, along with Al Green, James Brown and Stevie Wonder, was one of the dominant black artists in the early 1970s, died in Memphis on Sunday. He was 65.His friend and former manager, Onzie Horne, told Reuters he spoke to Hayes’ wife, Adjowa, who confirmed that Hayes had died.
Dr. José Luis De Jesús Miranda’s number is 666. But he says the pope is the real devil.
(The Antichrist’s followers milled about this Boston intersection Saturday, seeking new friends: Photo: Courtesy of The International Ministry Growing in Grace.)
from Mark:
The Beast’s peeps were here last Saturday, to “tell the world that God is on Earth and that the Vatican is 
the most evil organization in existence with Pope Benedict XVI as the worst terrorist in the world,” according to Axel Poessy, spokeswoman for the Government of God on Earth.
Poessy, a follower of the Miami-based preacher (and self-described Antichrist) Dr. José Luis De Jesús Miranda, passed those comments along to me in an email this morning.
“The Boston manifestation was an spectacle unto the world,” said Poessy, who is also a model (see a snap from her portfolio, right).
From the photos she sent me, however, it looks like only a small, if passionate, group, had gathered in front of the New England Aquarium for the protest.
Miranda’s disciples come for his “anything goes” brand of positive Christianity. They give their fortunes to him, and get tattoos of his brand, “666,” to demonstrate their devotion to the man.
To read more and how some people are responding to Miranda’s most curious prosperity gospel, click here:
New World Leader Claims He Is Jesus Christ. Con Man or Prophet? by David A. — education, facts, awareness | Gather
De Jesus wears fine suits and diamond-encrusted rings, drives a 7 Series BMW, and, until recently, lived in a 5000-square-foot Miramar home with Corinthian columns and vaulted ceilings. He also travels with a battalion of guards who wear dark suits and conspicuous earpieces. Surrounded by his personal security team and beautiful women, José Luis de Jesús, devoted his speech to striking against religious believers and assured his audience that those who follow his, belong to him.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints reports a “flood of interest” in its Plain Jane threads. I’ve got my eye on the lucky Mormon underwear (right). I imagine there will be a few orders from those with a pervy interest (role-players) in the product. But the FLDS clothes for sale are for kids only. — mb
FLDS Dress
And they did impart of their substance, every man according to that
which he had, to the poor, and the needy, and the sick, and the
afflicted; and they did not wear costly apparel,
yet they were neat and comely. Alma 1:27
Global warming now a core “belief” among environmentalists, says Freeman Dyson
(Love your mother.)
from Mark:
Environmentalism is a secular religion that we can all get behind, physicist Freeman Dyson writes in the Times.
There is just one problem: The movement, Dyson argues, is run largely by non-scientists, and many of those believe that “global warming is the greatest threat to the ecology of our planet.” (See excerpt, below.)
Now any global warming skeptic is being labeled in popular culture as “an enemy of the environment.”
One transhumanist (or H+, short for human-plus) complains that many of his fellows have already bought into the global warming “dogma.” Follow the link, below, to see the comments to this blog post, at Sentient Developments:
Sentient Developments: Freeman Dyson on the ‘religion of environmentalism’ There is a worldwide secular religion which we may call environmentalism, holding that we are stewards of the earth, that despoiling the planet with waste products of our luxurious living is a sin, and that the path of righteousness is to live as frugally as possible. The ethics of environmentalism are being taught to children in kindergartens, schools, and colleges all over the world.
If Man won’t do it, Nature will, William Shatner says.
(In the Star Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror,” Kirk meets a wicked Spock in a parallel universe. He dissuades his first officer from eradicating an uncooperative humanoid race. Image: StarTrek.com)
from Mark:
Star Trek star William Shatner said last week that the earth is striking back against humans with natural disasters.
“They [people] are pressed together, defecating into the ocean,” said Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek. “The earth can’t take it.”
At one point in a long conversation with talk show host Glenn Beck, Shatner decried humankind’s penchant for reproduction. (See clip, and an excerpt from the transcript, below). It is a position he shares with his fellow transhumanist, Max More.
In a strange blurring of real and virtual reality, both Shatner and his Star Trek character are heroes to the transhumanists, who view the human body as limited, imperfect, and in need of artificial augmentation.
The transhumanists also want to bring about “a social order where responsible decisions can be implemented.”
Shatner, a vigorous 74-year-old (he also appears to have been “under the knife”), was on Beck’s show to flog his new autobiography, Up Till Now.
Note: I was a contributing editor to one issue of Glenn Beck’s magazine, Fusion. — mb
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2xn35NpdA]
Glenn Beck – Interviews – Shatner v. Glenn
Well, nature, nature eventually will take care of that problem like they did, like nature does with animals. We’re overgrazing. So when deer multiply, when the natural order of things is disturbed and predators are taken away, for example, the deer, they overpopulate, they eat too much of the food and they starve. And we’re going to — if we don’t curb — how do we stop the overpopulation? I guess it’s by education and saying you’ve got to have less children, you can’t have all the children you want anymore. There’s a difference in the world now. Or nature will take care of it.
A Second Life transhumanist, despite her sim’s ties to movement leaders and government agencies, insists it’s all “science fiction.”
Fishers of pre-posthumans? Second Lifers drop a line in the Extropia sim. (Image: From the Extropia Core website)
by Mark Baard
One of the founders of Extropia said this week denied she is propagating any ideology through the online sim.
Extropia founder and blogger “Galatea Gynoid,” as she’s known in Second Life, this week posted a rebuttal to “certain people” (see excerpt, below) who see more to the sim than an evolving work of pure fiction.
Extropia is an area within Second Life where people, via their 3D avatars, gather to discuss transhumanism, science and science fiction.
Gynoid says she started Extropia so that she and like-minded Second Lifers might enjoy an alternative to the depressing, dystopian sims they found elsewhere in the metaverse.
But Gynoid, by trying to have it both ways, may be trying to duck criticism from those who see the transhumanist agenda at work in Extropia.
By co-hosting events with real life (RL) transhumanists and U.S. government agencies, for example, it is clear that Extropia is more than fiction. It is also a meeting place for believers.
Extropia co-hosted a NASA “future forum” on May 14. And in two weeks, the sim will host a technology and religion conference meant to “re-cast our understanding of ‘humanity’ in the Third Millennium.”
Why “Extropia”? | Extropia Core
There are certain people out there who are insisting you need to subscribe to a particular ideology to be welcome here. The funny thing is, the majority of the Board of Directors wouldnt [sic] be allowed in Extropia if what they said is true. I myself, the founder and owner of the sims, would not be allowed in Extropia if what they said was true. Its utterly, patently ridiculous.
Ding!
I’d read that Second Life developer Linden Lab was prohibiting the press from using its logos, and thought that was ridiculous.
Behold:
Second Life | The Second Life® Brand Center
Guidelines for Press Use of the Second Life Hand Logo(These are excerpts–mb)
Never use a Second Life Hand Logo (or any part or version of one):in any name or logo of a business, news program, or publication, including any website or blog, in a header or banner of a website or blog (so far so good, right?–mb) in the title of … without……in any manner…
in any manner that tarnishes the Second Life brand name or the Logo. (My emphasis–mb)
In other words, you may not publish this logo (below), and say it looks evil.
