Word to the wise....

To Whom It May Concern,

When submitting comments to this or to any blog, please refrain from using disrespectful language and manners, please be sure your comments are factually based (references are always nice), and please do not use these blogs for commercial solicitation. Your comments are welcome provided these conditions are met.

Thank you.

Turtle

Temple Mount ... when does it get destroyed? Not that soon.

I no longer believe the Temple Mount is in danger of imminent earthquake or other great disaster, before the Rapture or Great Tribulations, because in my opinion now, the prophesied destruction on the Mount is much more likely to occur during the earthquake of Revelation 11, upon the deaths and resurrection of the two witnesses that prophesy against the Beast. This event seems also to coincide with the Beast's conquest of Jerusalem which would be on the 1,010th day of the 2,300 days, placing their deaths in January 2015 according to the timetable I elaborated in other blogs. This also means the prophets (who I believe are Elijah and Moses, according to Gene Scott's teaching) would show up about a month and a half to two months before the Rapture, when you count back their 1,260 days of prophesying, or about early August of 2011 on my proposed timetable.

The earthquake of Revelation 11 will destroy a tenth of Jerusalem and 7,000 people, a figure consistent with the number of deaths that could occur in the event of a Temple Mount collapse. Concomitantly, the new Temple would survive the quake... and probably require some repairs, which in Hillelian fashion explains the seeming contradiction between two Jewish prophetic traditions that 1. the Messiah will not arrive until the Temple is built, and 2. he will commission the people to build the Temple when he arrives.

Another sign must apparently accompany the building of the Temple in the first place... the appearance of the red heifer. There is rumor of one having been found in March 2010 and being guarded closely by Jewish religious authorities. But, in order for construction of the Temple to even commence, the red heifer must be sacrificed on the Mount of Olives and its ashes saved for use in the Temple rites... without those ashes, there is no Temple service from what I understand of Jewish law and tradition. So, no red heifer, no sacrifice of it, no ashes, no rites, no reason to build a Temple. Look for it -- if they kill one atop the hill east of the Kidron valley from the Temple Mount and save the ashes, they're getting ready to start construction, and no destruction of the existing buildings on the Mount is necessary except for work that may need to be done in the Garden of El Qas.

Siting the Temple in Jerusalem

The following was sent to http://www.templeinstitute.org as a comment.

Is it true that the Temple cannot be placed on ground that was used for a pagan high place or for pagan sacrifices?

If that is the case, there is an outstanding allegation made by architect Tuvia Sagiv that the site of the Dome of the Rock is a former pagan high place, and in addition to this it's known that the Al Aqsa mosque was built over the Roman Temple of Jupiter. Sagiv's study of the geology of the area suggests that locating any remnant of either the First or Second Temples at the Dome or anywhere north of it would be very unlikely because the bedrock itself breaks through to the surface inside the Dome edifice. Historically, he argues that the wall surrounding the Temple grounds had to be raised to stop a nosy evil king from peering from his palace into the grounds; the sightlines required to substantiate this would have been broken by siting the Temple at the Dome or north of it, regardless of the height of the wall. In the southern location in the garden between the Dome and Al Aqsa, a low wall allows a sightline from that former ancient palace into the area, and a high wall prevents it, according to Sagiv.

So he suggests the likelihood of the Temple having been located in the garden of Al-Kas midway between the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa. Now, when I looked at the aerial photo and mapped diagram you have on the Bird's Eye Guide, I noticed a strikingly similar outline of a rectangular area in the garden, to the southwest of the Bird's Eye Temple diagram, matching the outline of the Temple, Inner Court and Women's Court, and it looks like it would fit very neatly right between the two Muslim structures. This also puts the Holy of Holies much closer to the Western Wall, where it would lie on the other side just to the northeast.

Sagiv himself suggests the Fountain of Al-Kas is centered right about where the Holy of Holies once stood, but I think that if it were located there, it would make it more difficult to ensure access to a clean water supply for the whole Temple; only the high priest would have been able to get to it, and how would it get channeled to the laver of cleansing in the inner court? I think it's more likely that it was on the south side of the inner court where regular priests could get the water to the laver and the altar. The Holy of Holies from what I understand received the blood tokens of sacrifice, so it would have been unsuitable to have the spring feed right under it because of sanitation issues. (Think about where the well of a house usually is. Not under the kitchen or bathroom! Near an outside wall or outside of the house entirely.)

However, it seems to me that the broad points of Sagiv's hypothesis would solve some vexing problems, most notably with having to demolish all or parts of the Dome mosque and with siting the Temple on any former pagan temple or worship site. I was also impressed by his scientific evidence of massive foundations right underneath the garden, as shown in nocturnal infrared imagery of the site. You can view a synopsis of his theory included with the other two major theories of siting in the following link:

http://www.templemount.org/theories.html

And another analysis here:

http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-jerusalem-temple-mount-threshing-floor.htm

So with qualifications, that's my two cents... what do you think?

Michael Savage still banned in Britain?

I sent the following to the Hon. Madam Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton:

"I'd like to know what the State Department is doing to lift the travel ban the United Kingdom has unfairly and possibly illegally imposed on radio talk show host Dr. Michael Savage, Ph.D. I'm told that under the new government of Prime Minister David Cameron, the UK still maintains a list on which this man, who has done nothing but exercise his freedom of speech, a right recognized both by the British unwritten Constitution and the US Bill of Rights, remains lumped in with terrorists and war criminals. Is speech that is controversial and disagreeable to be considered terrorism now? If that's so, how can anyone respect the rule of law under a Constitution in either country that specifies freedom of speech as a right? How can anyone even work for a government in either country that is so blatantly ignoring a law abiding citizen's right to speak his conscience directly to a nation and to the world? What is the United States' answer to this breach of a private citizen's freedoms by an ostensible allied nation that supposedly shares the values of liberty and fair play?"

Temple Mount may be in danger on Tisha B'Av 5770

The following was sent to the office of the Prime Minister of Israel:

It is my deep concern that there may be a lack of preparation for a possible total disaster on the Temple Mount and around the Western Wall. It seems to me there need to be systems in place to evacuate people rapidly in the event that the Mount really is unstable, and some precipitating event like an earthquake or careless or malevolent human activity causes it to collapse, God forbid during a holiday like Tisha B'Av or a Muslim feast day where many people are attracted to the Mount area.

I can't speak to expertise because I'm not an archaeologist or an engineer, I just see certain patterns in the way things are going. Ninth of Av in particular appears to be a very dangerous time historically to be around the Mount. A source called LightofZion.org points to the numerous instances in Jewish history where this particular date has figured in some disaster involving this site. Given that repetition of events, I should think it would be a very good time, if not to convince people to stay home, to at least be absolutely and fully prepared for the unimaginably worst to happen. My concern is tripled this year because of other circumstances such as increased threat of earthquakes connected to solar eclipses (such as the one coming up July 11, just 8 days before 9th of Av commences this year), continued reports of excavation, legal and not, and of rumors of impending war with Iran over its intentions of destroying Israel and acquiring nuclear weapons.

It should be noted that the Shiite sectarians very likely hold a grudge against the Sunni Muslims for their guerrillas having repeatedly and savagely attacked the third holiest shrine in all of Shia Islam -- the Mosque in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq. It is not out of the question that Shiite terrorists may try to avenge Najaf with an attack on the third holiest shrine in SUNNI Islam -- the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa, in other words, the Temple Mount. Shiite-ruled Iran may indeed be looking for a pretext to destroy the Mount by air attack or clandestine means in the event of a war with Israel.

Anyway, please forward this message to the appropriate authorities and may G-d bless the nation of Israel and its people. Shalom.

Does America need to ban Islam via Constitutional Amendment?

Watch this video I found on Sharia Law in America. It will blow your mind if you care about civil liberties. Here are a couple of Christians walking around just asking questions, and they get set upon by security guards working for some Muslim organization, who then lie to the cops about having attacked the camera-carrying Christians who were filming on a public street in Dearborn, Michigan, doing nothing but asking questions!

For best results, right click on the video before playing it and choose option Show All, then if desired left click the full screen icon (a little box with four arrows pointing out) at bottom right on the video.

Federal Jury System Reform

Sent the following to Senators George Lemieux and Bill Nelson, Congressman Bill Young and President Barack Obama:

Is it me or does the Federal jury system just plain suck? It seems to me that working people should not be drafted to do the government's bidding whenever Uncle Sam feels like it. I've been summonsed THREE TIMES in the past TWO YEARS and it is too much! Imagine being sick and having to work security at night, then becoming so alarmingly subject to memory lapses due to poor sleep that this time, you FORGET TO CALL THE JURY POOL! (They call it "failure to appear." It's up to a 3 day jail term and a $1,000 fine. Nice, huh?)

I have a proposal. MAKE JURY SERVICE STRICTLY VOLUNTARY. We have 16 million people out of work and they could use the money. Speaking of which, they should get paid $100 A DAY, FLAT RATE TAX FREE. A nice way to tide them over, without eating into unemployment budgets while serving. And offer them FREE TRANSPORTATION or mileage. And ELIGIBILITY to volunteer again within a SHORTER PERIOD, to make sure jurors are available.

I believe if these changes are made, the Federal Court system will never lack jurors to fill the pools. If impartiality is a concern, keep in mind most defendants will be as poor and likely to be minorities as most of the jurors, and voir dire takes care of that anyway; while the present system results in jurors abusing voir dire to get out of serving because they need to get back to their own jobs. Yes, we know how to fake prejudice. Don't kid yourselves.

Please consider and enact this proposal soon. Thanks for your time.

On my latest federal jury doody

This month of April starting the 13th I was on federal jury duty. Unfortunately, I forgot all about it. I hadn't even read half the material... something about a three month trial, that was something I only learned about on the 15th when I finally found the papers.

I failed to call the federal jury phone number Monday because I was sick, tired, was working that day, and nobody bothers to send you a reminder a few days early so us old farts with CRS can catch up with the times! Then they sent threats, arriving Thursday, which pissed me off, so I expressed my pissoff very eloquently to the court clerk's phone mail twice. Then I finally found the paperwork I was supposed to deal with Monday and called to find that my jury service was no longer required. Probably because I forgot to call them when they wanted me to. So I sent back an essay on their Order To Show Cause form, and it too was eloquent although absent the profanity and histrionics I am so very capable of on the phone.

You know, after being on call for jury duty twice in the past two years they really should have left me the fuck alone. But since they didn't, and I got sick and still had to work nights, and had other distractions, and basically night people just can't even think like day people, and I might actually be getting a touch of Alzheimers because lately I have been forgetting a lot of names, I'm about done with this idea of serving impartially on a jury. Hey, if anyone asks, I hate every ethnic group and both genders, I think he looks guilty, I think corporations are evil or government is depending who's asking, and I'll sabotage every voir dire I get invited to from now till fucking Doomsday! They want to waste their money getting me to open doors to constitutional nullification and preset verdicts, that's what they're getting from me from now on. Fuck them all!

Links to my research on religious topics

For convenience I've decided to gather up all the links to blog posts I've made about prophecy and the Bible and put them all here.

What was the real sin of Sodom?

Jesus Christ did not promise an immediate return! The Second Coming is in the future. http://turtleofxanth.blogspot.com/2007/10/mark-91-matthew-1628-luke-927.html
http://turtleofxanth.blogspot.com/2007/10/context-of-mark-91-matthew-1628-luke.html
http://turtleofxanth.blogspot.com/2007/10/addendum-to-mark-91-exegesis.html

The Rapture -- Could it be Rosh Hashanah in late September 2011?

Nostradamus, Mabus, the Last Days, and Mus'Ab Ibn Umair: the Type of Antichrist

Overview of the Evidence Validating the Gospels and the Existence of God via the Resurrection of Christ

The English Language: A Divine Numerical Design?

Is Iranian opposition leader Mir Hosain Mousavi the Mabus-Antichrist that Nostradamus predicted?

Are Compass Directions in the Bible diagonal to the modern compass? See how Daniel's use of directions limit the national origin of the Antichrist to just ONE COUNTRY -- IRAN.

Tisha B'av and The 2300 Days in Daniel: What if they end in 2018?

Health Care Reform Bill Should Be Repealed!!

Originally emailed to Senator Bill Nelson, D-FL:

I want to comment on the health care bill just passed by the Congress and signed by the President the past week:

You hit on the most vexing issue of this entire bill and that is cost reform. I would never have voted an entire redistribution of the people's wealth to insurance companies and bureaucrats only to find that nothing has been done to control the cost of key items like the entire production of the pharmaceutical industry. This massive law is doomed to fail and doomed to bankrupt the United States and all other programs with it if it is not repealed. I don't in fact think it will be (my opinion of government has fallen that low), but the least we can ask is to re-fix this monster to remove the Constitutional violations against the Commerce Clause and the Tenth Amendment -- Bill McCollum has described them accurately in my view -- and to bring the entire investigational weight of Congress to bear on how costs in this system can be reduced -- after all cost is virtually the entire reason the health care system is in the mess that it is, not access.

I can walk into a clinic or a hospital tomorrow and get access. At least until the months-long waiting periods start under this quasi-pseudo-socialist plan. The problem is how much everything COSTS and all the Congress has done is transfer these heavy costs to us regular working people, force us all to buy expensive care for everyone else including illegal immigrants (due to insufficient safeguards and exemption from having to pay in), destroy our privacy and a good measure of our freedom of choice, and raid other programs already in trouble financially to buoy this thing up. And all in a time of recession where attempts to increase tax revenues and exact premiums will only result in diminishing returns and economic disaster.

I don't know what you Democrats plan to do until November 2010, but unless you take some big steps toward resolving the enormous present and future problems your party has created in the past year, your party will enjoy neither my vote, nor, I suspect, the votes of millions and millions of other people who understand what balancing a budget, ordering priorities, and accounting for Murphy's Law are all about.

Health Care Reform Bill is Chasing Strange Gods

This letter was sent to Congressman Bill Young, Senators Lemieux and Bill Nelson, and President Barack Obama:

This letter is intended to be read to all members of Congress and the Senate; please feel free to distribute it to all of your colleagues as you see fit.

You know, Washington, DC is an insane town. It is probably the only place on earth, at the only time in history, where enough power to heal the whole world or destroy it has been wielded by human beings. Imperfect, greedy, conniving, power-hungry, ambitious, talented, rich, spiritually all over the spectrum from depraved to decent, God-made, Satan-seduced political creatures who represent both the best and the worst of the very nation that represents, in turn, the best and the worst of mankind.

It is not without good, good reason that God saw to it there be a Constitution instituted to govern this people... this cantankerous, beautiful, powerful, morally decayed but still sometimes faithful tribe of Forgetters that first came to the fore after the twin sons of Joseph sired the most numerous, the most powerful, and the most troublesome parts of the great nation once governed by the wisdom of the two best kings that ever ruled, and fallen into disgrace because the second of those two kings lost his way at the end.

Now it has become apparent that like Solomon, ruler of a justly founded world empire ages ago, the custodians of today's even more justly founded superpower -- more justly founded because it derives its power from the consent of the governed by way of the written word of law, rather than through autocratic whim -- are about to sabotage the very contract by which this nation was founded to lose this nation's birthright for pottage in the manner of Esau.

I bear witness to you who read this that if this republic's leaders so derange themselves from its founding principles, embodied in its foundational written words, that states are played against one another for advantage and the legislative process is short-circuited with bills being declared passed without completed votes, then we will have destroyed the Union of these states as surely as Solomon destroyed the unity of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah at the end by his addiction to strange gods.

Be not addicted to foreign gods, God declared over 3,400 years ago. Do not be like the nations who desire a king over them and who worship idols. I tell you the truth -- if this Congress and this President chase the strange gods of socialism and populist autocracy, and abandon the Constitution that created the greatest nation on earth for the sake of health care or any other cause, you will destroy this nation and you will grieve over what you have destroyed for eternity.

Buddha the Passive Reindeer

Buddha the passive reindeer
Wasn't into doing much
And if you ever saw him,
You would say he ate too much.

All of the other reindeer
Used to sit and watch him grow
They never let poor Buddha
Contemplate his inner glow.

Then one boring wintry eve
Santa came to say,
"It doesn't matter much to me
If you want to be... just be."

Then all the reindeer passed him
Muttering indifferently
Buddha the passive reindeer
Was content to simply "be."

My Letter to CIA Director Leon Panetta

To Mr. Leon Panetta:

I happen to be a very sharp critic of the Obama administration and many of its officials and supporters in Congress; to the point where I have resigned to converting to conservatism to preserve my own sanity and integrity. That having been said, however, I wanted to point you out in some way as what I consider the one bright shining light of this ass-backwards government of ours.

I have now seen you repeatedly, vigorously and passionately defend your agency and its employees against the harshest criticism it has probably ever received in its history; I believe quite unfairly, I might add. Regardless of whatever qualms (many of them) I have about the direction of the policy the Central Intelligence Agency is being asked to follow under President Obama, I at least know there is one person who genuinely -- by the evidence of his actions -- has the best interests of our national intelligence effort at heart, and that's you.

Please keep hanging in there and keep being you. This nation has no better official serving it in the executive branch in these darkening days, and I'm proud of how you have been comporting yourself. You are a Mensch.

07/13/11 -- Update... http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58670.html ... Now Panetta is defense secretary for a week and a half, and demonstrates complete, total, and arrogant ignorance of Arab feelings and customs in his "Make a decision, damn it!" outburst in front of the media, and hence in front of all of Iraq. Anyone who's read Schwarzkopf's autobiography knows you can't resolve anything in the Arab world without long extended conversations, teas, shared meals, exchanges of pleasantries, and a whole lot of politeness. As of this date he has only been there a few days!! And only his second week as Secretary of Defense. If I were the President, seeing this display of childish pique as our avatar to a 6,000 year old civilization, Panetta would be out the door and GONE.

A suggestion for dealing with nonexistent global warming

I lately received a newsletter from Democratic Senator Bill Nelson (FL)about ameliorating impacts on agriculture because of climate change-related policies like carbon trading et al.

Here's a thought: Since we are now having a winter to match 2001 and 2003 in severity and since these three put together comprise the worst I've seen since I moved to Florida in 1992, can we just put "man induced global warming" away for the lie that it is?

And can we act accordingly, by NOT passing stupid draconian measures that would end up slashing agricultural output and starving millions upon millions of people worldwide to DEATH??? Think that might be a better liberal policy to follow -- to -- let me repeat -- NOT starve MILLIONS of people to DEATH???