Dogon Knowledge

"The world is incomprehensible, thus we must treat the world as it is -- a sheer mystery." Carlos Castaneda

 

The Dogon is a small African tribe in the southwest corner of the Sahara Desert.

 

A thousand years ago, the Dogon collectively refused to convert to Islam. Thereafter, Islamic law classified the Dogon, as well as other groups in the region, as being fair game for slavery, which included the murder of the males and enslavement of the women and children.

 

Consequently, the Dogon established their villages in defensive positions along the walls of sandstone cliffs in an area near the Niger River, south of Timbuktu in Mali, where the tribe has been basically isolated from the rest of the world.

 

The Dogon have a cave on their land with wall carvings over 700 years old. The holy man of the tribe sits at the entrance of the cave to protect it. When he dies, another holy man takes his place.

 

Some of the carvings depict a pod coming out of the sky and landing on three legs. The pod contains amphibious beings, called the Nommo, also known as the "masters of the water," which have fish-like characteristics.

 

The Nommo told the Dogon they came from the third planet out from Sirius. They related a story similar to the Lucifer rebellion within the Bible whereby the Dogon were one of the Nommo races, but had rebelled against the Creator and were relegated to Earth.

 

Robert Temple, a British archeologist, wrote a book in 1976 titled THE SIRIUS MYSTERY, which included the sacred knowledge of the Dogon. It seems the Dogon had detailed knowledge about astronomy for some 4,600 years.

 

Sirius is the brightest star in our sky. Orion's Belt contains three bright stars in a row. If you follow that line downward to the left, you will see a very bright star -- this is Sirius.

 

According to ancient Dogon sacred knowledge, the brightest star in the sky (Sirius) had a companion star that was invisible to the naked eye, with an orbit of 50 years, made out of the heaviest matter in the universe.

 

It wasn't until the early 1970s that this phenomenon could be confirmed by astronomy telescopes. Sirius, now known as Sirius A, is part of a binary star system and has a companion star, a white dwarf called Sirius B, naked to the human eye, which has an orbit of 50.1 years. According to scientific computations, Sirius B weighs about 2,000 pounds per cubic inch -- recent calculations believe it may even be considerably heavier than that.

 

The Dogon also had knowledge of the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, the existence of Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, and many other astronomical facts not discovered until modern telescopes came into existence. Also based on the Dogon knowledge, a red dwarf star was discovered in the Sirius system in 1996.

 

Thus, it has been postulated that the Dogon had been visited by extraterrestrial beings eons ago.

 

The continent of Africa is replete with tribal stories of advanced beings that descended from above (or ascended from below the earth) in ancient times and interfaced with the indigenous peoples.

 

For example, Zulu shaman Credo Mutwa claims that many thousand years ago "there arrived out of the skies, a race of people who were like lizards, people who could change shape at will... who married their daughters and produced a power race of Kings and tribal Chiefs."

 

A couple thousand years ago, an entity named Quetzalcoatl, which means "flying serpent" (reptilian being), was worshipped as the God of Knowledge in Mesoamerica (Central and South America). He was able to travel between the earth and the sky. Many Native American tribes have legends of beings that ascended from the stars.

 

Even the Bible has references to advanced beings who came to earth from elsewhere. In Genesis 4:6, the sons of the gods (advanced beings from beyond the earth) came down from the heavens and cohabited with the daughters of man (earthly women) creating a (hybrid) offspring called the Nephilim, who became the mighty ones (earthly gods, royalty).

 

According to some of the latest scientific discoveries, such as String Theory and Torsion Field physics, there may be as many as 11 dimensions (or 10 or 12, depending on the flavor of the day). Every dimension may contain multiple vibrations (frequencies) which are unaware (unseen, unknown) of other varying vibrations.

 

Life is a mystery. It unravels a bit more and more every day, with every answer leading to 11 more questions. By the time we figure it out, we'll probably have to start all over again, with the invention of fire -- all the way to the invention of My Pillow.

 

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

 

BB -- 11:11

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Quote for the Day -- "We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." Carl Sagan

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Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and Knowledge can sometimes boggle the mind.

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Legal Lunacy

The following true story came in first place in a Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

 

A Charlotte, NC, lawyer purchased a box of expensive cigars, then insured them against fire (among other things).

 

Within a month having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company. The lawyer claimed the cigars were lost “in a series of small fires.”

 

Naturally, the insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious, but the lawyer sued and won.

 

The judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous.

 

Nevertheless, the judge stated that the lawyer held a policy from the company in which it warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire, and was therefore obligated to pay the claim.

 

Rather than go through a costly appeal procedure, the insurance company paid the lawyer $15,000 for his loss.

 

After the lawyer cashed the $15,000 check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson.

 

With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

 

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While the above story has a happy ending, sanity doesn’t always exist in legal matters, as exemplified by the following actual court cases.

 

On June 25, 2002, a woman was awarded $14.1 million by a NY state court after she was hit be a subway train. When it was later learned the woman had been attempting to commit suicide by lying on the tracks when the train hit her, the award was reduced 30 percent, to $9.9 million, because of her “comparative negligence.”

 

In 1998, Terrence Dickson of Bristol, PA, was in the process of burglarizing a house when he trapped himself in the garage which had a malfunctioning door opener and he was unable to re-enter the house because the door locked behind him. He spent eight days in the garage, surviving on a bag of dry dog food and a case of Pepsi. Dickson sued the homeowner’s insurance company, claiming undue mental anguish. The jury agreed and awarded him $500,000. Perhaps he should have sued his parents for mental incapacity as well.

 

In June, 1998, a similar solid citizen, 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles was awarded $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman was too busy stealing the hubcaps at the time to notice that someone was at the wheel.

 

In 2000, Amber Carson of Lancaster, PA, sued a restaurant because she slipped on a wet spot and injured herself. Even though the wet spot was created when she threw her drink at her boyfriend, 30 seconds earlier, the restaurant was ordered to pay $113,500 in damages.

 

Kara Walton of Claymont, DE, tried to sneak through a bathroom window at a nightclub to avoid paying a three dollar cover charge, fell to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. She sued the nightclub and was awarded $12,000 plus dental expenses.

 

In January, 2000, Kathleen Robertson of Austin, TX, sued a furniture store after breaking her ankle tripping over her own son who was running amuck inside the store. She was awarded $780,000.

 

In November, 2000, Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City purchase a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip, Mr. Grazinski merged onto the freeway, set the cruise control to 70 mph and left the driver seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not too surprisingly to most people with an IQ above that of a turnip, the motor home crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not indicating in the handbook that he could not actually do this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a brand new Winnebago.

 

If it weren't for lawyers, we wouldn't need lawyers.

 

A friend from Minnesota recently told me that you could no longer dry your laundry on an outdoor clothesline in the suburbs surrounding Minneapolis. Apparently, it’s the law.

 

Most people I know just want to live a normal life with a basic set of rules protecting them from unreasonable intrusions of other citizens and government agents. Unfortunately, we live in a litigious world of overzealous lawmakers who often make a mockery of judicial restraint by forcing a multitude of rules upon society that seem outright ridiculous.

 

While researching legal sites on the Internet, I discovered numerous absurd laws that actually exist.

 

In spite of the principle of separation of church and state, many frivolous laws pertain only to Sunday.

 

• In Florida, it’s illegal for single, divorced, or widowed women to parachute jump on Sunday afternoons.
• In Massachusetts, it’s unlawful to deliver diapers on Sunday.
• In Thomasville, North Carolina, it’s illegal to fly an airplane over the town on Sundays between 11 AM and 1 PM.
• In Providence, Rhode Island, it’s illegal to sell both toothpaste and a toothbrush to the same customer on a Sunday.

 

Many laws still on the books are clearly out of date.

 

• In Hollywood, California, it’s illegal to drive more than 2000 sheep at the same time down Hollywood Boulevard.
• In Utah, it’s illegal for pharmacists to sell gunpowder as a headache cure.
• In Pennsylvania, motorists driving along country roads are required to stop every mile, send up a rocket and wait 10 minutes for the road to be cleared of livestock before continuing.
• In Nebraska, motorists approaching a horse at night are required to stop their vehicle, send up rockets and throw a tarp over their car to conceal it from the horse.

 

Special rules often exist for women.

 

• In Oklahoma, women are forbidden from doing their own hair, unless licensed by the state.
• In Cleveland, Ohio, women are not allowed to wear patent-leather shoes.
• In Michigan, a woman’s hair legally belongs to her husband.
• In Helena, Montana, a woman cannot dance on a saloon table unless her clothes weigh more than three pounds, two ounces.
• In Kentucky, a law reads that no female shall appear in a bathing suit on any highway within the state unless escorted by at least two officers or unless armed with a club. An amendment to this law states that it shall not apply to females weighing less than 90 pounds nor exceeding 200 pounds, nor shall it apply to female horses.

 

Some laws are downright insane.

 

• In Tennessee, it’s illegal to operate a motor vehicle while sleeping.
• In Alabama, it’s illegal to operate a motor vehicle while blindfolded.
• In Virginia, bribery is prohibited by anyone other than candidates for public office.
• In Seattle, Washington, it’s illegal to carry a concealed weapon greater than six feet long.
• In New Hampshire, it’s against the law to tap your feet or in any way keep time to the music in a tavern, restaurant or café.
• In Texas, to go barefoot requires a five-dollar permit.
• In Oregon, a dead person cannot be required to serve on a jury.

 

Naturally, all this nonsense has inspired me to come up with a few proposals of my own.

 

• In Alaska, it shall be illegal to put lipstick on a pit bull.
• In Arizona, it shall be illegal to refer to the Grand Canyon as a really big hole.
• In Arkansas, it shall be illegal to name a mule after a Baptist preacher.
• In California, it shall be illegal to yell "Fire" or "Charlie Sheen" in a crowded theater.
• In Delaware, it shall be illegal to refer to Joe Biden as the Veep of the Peeps.
• In Florida, it shall be illegal to sell sea shells by the seashore.
• In Georgia, it shall be illegal to expose a red neck or green teeth on Sunday.
• In Hawaii, it shall be illegal to refer to any body parts as the Big Kahuna.
• In Idaho, it shall be illegal to substitute a tomato for a potato in a public restaurant.
• In Iowa, it shall be illegal to wear a John Deere hat while driving a Massey-Ferguson tractor.
• In Kentucky, it shall be illegal to marry your first cousin until after her thirteenth birthday.
• In Maine, it shall be illegal to whistle near a moose during rutting season.
• In Maryland, it shall be illegal to name your first child Mary unless she's a Capricorn or a guy.
• In Massachusetts, it shall be illegal to graduate from college unless you can spell the name of the state.
• In Minnesota, it shall be illegal to fish from a three-legged stool on a frozen lake if it is not frozen.
• In Mississippi, it shall be illegal to utilize explosives or false teeth when catfish noodling.
• In Missouri, it shall be illegal to say “show me” to anyone wearing a raincoat on a sunny day.
• In Nebraska, it shall be illegal to call someone a cornhusker unless they can actually husk corn.
• In New Hampshire, it shall be illegal to ask someone whatever happened to Old Hampshire.
• In New Mexico, it shall be illegal to do the Mexican Hat Dance with an older hat.
• In New York, it shall be illegal to call yourself a Yankee Doodle Dandy unless you're a hairdresser.
• In Ohio, it shall be illegal to discard anything into Lake Erie that's more toxic than Courtney Love.
• In Oklahoma, it shall be illegal to use the phrase "sooner rather than later" during a marriage ceremony.
• In Rhode Island, it shall be illegal to tell tourists that they're really not an island.
• In South Dakota, it shall be illegal to ride a pink Cushman scooter into Sturgis during biker week.
• In Tennessee, it shall be illegal to operate a liquor still in a hollow within 20 feet of dead car.
• In Texas, it shall be illegal to wear a ten-gallon hat if you have a seven-gallon, or less, head.
• In Utah, it shall be illegal to have more than five wives if you can't count to six.
• In Wisconsin, it shall be illegal to wear a cheese-head hat in a duck blind.
• In Wyoming, it shall be illegal to have a powwow with a buffalo on Buffalo Bill's birthday.

 

I would have done all 50 states, but it's against the law.

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Quote for the Day – "The trouble with law is lawyers." Clarence Darrow

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Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where outlaws keep a low profile.

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Anarchy in West Virginia

The greatest threat to individual freedom is an efficient bureaucracy.

 

However, government is a necessary evil.

 

If everyone took responsibility for their own behavior and cooperated on the basis of trust, we would have no need for regulation and oversight. Unfortunately, the human race is imperfect and must enforce a set of reasonable rules to prevent injustice. But the imperfection of the human race often creates a set of unnecessary, unreasonable rules, creating even more injustice.

 

The only sane option is to limit government as much as possible by ensuring the maximum amount of individual freedom, thereby allowing individuals to do as they please as long as they are not harming others or infringing on the freedom of others.

 

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republicans whom I can’t stand, one nation under smog, indespicable with liberty and justice for some, not all.”

 

The above words were inscribed on one of the T-shirts of 15-year-old Katie Sierra, a student at Sissonville High School in West Virginia. Some of her other T-shirts expressed opposition to the war in Afghanistan and similar perceived injustices. The fact that she was a new student with green hair and the World Trade Center Twin Towers had recently ceased to exist didn’t exactly endear her to the rest of the conservative student body.

 

On October 23, 2001, Katie asked the school principal, Forrest Mann, if she could start an Anarchy Club so like-minded students could meet, have discussions and do community service. She presented Mann with the club Constitution that made it clear the club would not tolerate hate or violence. Her stated goal was “to dispel the myths about anarchism, especially the belief that anarchy is chaos and destruction.”

 

Not too surprisingly, this request was about as welcome as a leaky bag of raw sewage. Not only was Katie forbidden to form an Anarchy Club, she was suspended from school for three days for “disrupting school activity.”

 

Webster’s dictionary defines anarchism as “a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups."

 

In other words, anarchy basically means the absence of government. It’s the opposite of hierarchy, which denotes various levels of authority.

 

The Britannica defines anarchism as “the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government – harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being.”

 

There are many people who believe in this way of life. They contend that as both political philosophy and personal lifestyle, social anarchism promotes community self-reliance, direct participation in political decision-making, respect for nature, and nonviolent paths to peace and justice.

 

The anarchy movement has a long history in certain European countries, particularly in France and Germany.

 

As with most utopian schemes, it looks good in theory but won’t work in reality. I remember back in the 60’s and 70’s when groups of dissatisfied folks, often called Hippies back then, rejected conventional society and formed communes. Almost every one of these entities failed, usually within a very short time frame.

 

While being exact opposites, anarchy and communism are almost the same thing.

 

In communism, everyone is considered equal, required to put forth an equal effort and given an equal amount in return. This would be a perfect world as long as everyone felt the same way. But those who disagree are virtually prisoners of the system, often sent off to a padded cell to be re-educated. Plus those in control of the system can’t seem to curtail their greed and provide more for themselves than they allow for the masses.

 

Anarchy has the same drawback. It only works if everyone agrees with it. A world without government is a world without rules and there will always be those who take improper advantage of it.

 

Katie Sierra deserved better. She had an unpopular belief system and wanted to share it with others. Instead of allowing a free flow of ideas, her school principal chose to silence her.

 

America is not a place where the majority rule -- it’s where we are all allowed to think and speak freely.

 

There’s nothing wrong with a little government, especially locally. Personally, I like roads.

 

But if we could somehow reduce the federal government by about 90 percent, that would be fine with me too.

 

Unfortunately, the new Biden administration believes in promising more than it can deliver and delivering more than it can afford. Borrowing against the future and passing the burden of massive debt onto future generations is not only repugnant, it is immoral.

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Quote for the Day – "The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government." Henry Ward Beecher

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Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where freedom is never free.

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