Pick a Side??

   Pick a side! We are constantly encouraged by the media,the establishment, the press, and social media to align ourselves with one side or the other! Left Twix or right Twix? (like there's a difference.) Batman or Superman? NFC or AFC? Iron Man  or Captain America? Pick a side! Bernie or Hillary? OOOPS! Trump or Hillary? Black or white? Gay or straight? Cops or protestors? Werewolves or vampires? Cats or dogs? Gun control or gun rights? Oh, you've got to pick a side! There's no room for neutrality these days.
   So why must we divide over such things? Who benefits? Whether Batman wins, or Superman wins, DC wins. And whether Cap wins or Iron Man wins, Marvel wins. Whether AFC or NFC, the NFL wins. And whether the Yankees or Red Sox win, MLB wins. So, the red pill or the blue one? Like Twix, is it really a choice at all?  Seems like whoever sets up the rivalries is the real winner, doesn't it?
   Now I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't have favorites; that's just human nature. But more and more, we're being urged to draw a line in the sand and choose one side or the other. They all talk about unity, but sell polarization.
   Well, throughout the ages, God also demands man to pick a side. Moses challenged his people, "I call Heaven and earth to record  this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."  Deuteronomy 30:19. Also before his death, Joshua enjoined the Israelites, "...choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers servedt hat were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15.
   Jump ahead to the days of the divided kingdom, as Elijah confronts the false prophets of Jezebel, he reminds the people it's time to pick a side: "How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him." 1 Kings 18:21.
Christ Himself insisted there is no middle ground between the love of money and the love of God, saying, "No man can have two masters; for either he will hate the one,and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24
   The Apostle Paul put it in black & white when he wrote to the Church at Corinth, "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God; and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?Are we stronger than he?"  1 Corinthians 10:20-22
   Bob Dylan echoed, " you're gonna have to serve someone. It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna hafta serve someone." Why must we choose? Because by not choosing, you've already chosen. There is a default. If you don't deliberately choose God, you implicitly choose the devil. We're already on the Highway to Hell, and that's where we'll stay unless we choose to take the next exit!
   I mean, do you have to teach a child to lie, or to tell the truth? He'll lie all on his own! Do you have to teach him to bite other kids and pull their hair, or must you teach him not to? He can do bad all by himself! Need you teach him to hoard his toys or to share them?  Must you teach him to steal, or to respect others' property? Sin is in our DNA!
   Some will say, "I don't want God or the Devil". Nice try.  But Christ declared, "He that is not  with Me is against Me."  Those are your choices. Concerning Jesus Christ, the Gospel of John says, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him,  to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."
   There is the kingdom of darkness, and the kingdom of light. Pick a side.

Changing Times, Eternal Message

"Christ came into the world to save sinners"

   Awhile back, TV ads declared that orange juice was "simply unfooled around with". Today, I'm going to simply unfool around with the Gospel message and give it to ya the way we used to! Like we preached it back in our street-witnessing days along the New Haven Green, around about  the Yale  campus and up & down Captain Thomas Boulevard in West Haven CT! In case you never heard it like I heard it!

   First of all, who or what is a "sinner" ? A sinner is anyone and everyone who knowingly or unwittingly disobeys God's rules. We're not singling out one group here folks, as the Good Book puts it, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  We all missed the mark of God's standards.

 OK, so what is Christ come to save us sinners from? Going to Hell for the rest of forever? Well YEAH! (Hell is a place or dimension where peope who don't want anything to do with God, and don't want Him telling them what they can't or shouldn't do, go to find out how damned stupid they are.) But more than this, Christ came to save you  from whatever is beating you up right now in this life!

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed  { or empowered} Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."  (Luke 4:18)

   That is, Jesus' mission on this planet is to set people like you and me free from bondages of addictions, fears, guilt, depression, torment and suffering, and feelings of worthlessness, defeat, rejection and failure.  This isn't just a feel-good warm/fuzzy gospel, but real change in your life: from victim to victor. He's not just an emotional crutch, but a whole new set of legs.

   The simple Gospel is that Christ died for our sins, the Just for the unjust. Even as notable thief, murderer, terrorist, and all-around scumbag Barabbas was let go and Christ crucified, so it is with us when we accept God's offer of amnesty. Our Father God will not only delete all the negative stuff from your account with Him, He'll actually credit  His Son's perfect score to your account. 

   And what is He asking of you? Only believe. Believe that God sent His only Son to die on that cross for you and raised Him again from the dead. Don't I gotta clean up my act first?  Really as soon as you realize and admit  you need to clean up your life, He'll clean you up in ways you yourself never could.

   "Therefore if the Son of God shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."  Jesus said. As one who's been emancipated myself, I can tell you it's not hype, not a cliche', and not a sales pitch. I'm not trying to get you to join a church, denomination, nor religion; just letting you know what God is putting on the table.

   Now I know many believe in reincarnation and working out your own karma. But even if that were so, (and the Bible says it's not)  are you gonna turn Christ down when He offers you a GET OUT OF JAIL, FREE card? "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" the Scripture tells us. There's a way off that downward spiral, that crazy merry-go-'round.

  It may not be fashionable these days to proclaim The wages of sin is death, but that's the way it is. (I never was a fashion follower.) Of course the second part of that quote (Romans 6:23) goes, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  And that's what we're talking about (or should be). God is offering you the gift of eternal life with Him,  " remission of sins", that is, dropping the charges against you, and supernatural power to turn you loose from whatever things have got a hold of you now. And He's just waiting for you to say, "Let's do this".

   Why am I taking the time to express this? I'm not sure modern preachers are telling you the story straight. There's been some dumbing down, watering down, and softening up over the years. Some churches wanna be "seeker friendly"  and not offend anybody.  But the Gospel doesn't need any updating, and it sure doesn't need any sugar-coating.

   I just want to make sure you hear it the way I heard it many years ago. A million, million things have changed since back then, but God never changes.  His offer still stands: come to Christ and live.

'til next time, Peace.

Mandela Effect for Dummy's, um, Dummies

   When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? asks Christ in His parable of the unjust judge. Well, my friends something has come along that is the very antithesis of faith! What is the Christ kind of faith? Believing what you don't see? Yes, but more than that!
 All things are possible to him who believes Christ taught His disciples, saying, "If you had faith as little as a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mountain, 'Be removed!' and it would obey you."
   Paul speaks of the faith of Abraham who believed God, Who makes the dead alive and calls those things that be not as if they were. (Romans 4:17) In the Book of Hebrews we are told that faith is the evidence of things not seen. Now I'm taking the time to go over what Biblical faith is in order to show you that what's going around today is the exact opposite!
   Let's compare the Mandela Effect and Flat Earth assertions with New Testament faith. God calls those things that be not as though they were, calling Abraham "Father of many nations" even when he and Sarah were too old to have children. Mandela  calls those things that be as though they were not, saying "that's not the way we remember it!" Christ taught that if you believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Antichrist teaches everything you believe is a lie. Oh, no! The earth isn't a spinning ball! The Sun isn't 93 million miles away! There are no planets! There never were any dinosaurs!
   That's a huge difference, folks! The Bible says faith is the evidence of things not seen; "truthers" say the evidence of things that are seen is false! Christ taught that we can change the world through the Word of God; Antichrist teaches we have chaged the word of God with the world. Flat Earth and Mandela Effect are nothing more than the spirit of antichrist's perversion and inversion of FAITH.  And Christians need to stop teaching and preaching this junk.
   Flat Earthers and Mandelians are unwitting pawns and tools of the wicked rulers of this age (I don't use the I-word, which is a misnomer). You are proclaiming the very concept the evil elite want the public to accept: that we are living in an artificial world created and run by an evil tyrant, whose yoke we must throw off. This story is the central theme of such movies as Pleasantville, The Truman Show, The Lego Movie, The Matrix, and even The Hunger Games. You are preaching the Gnostic version of faith!
   The Mandela effect was hinted at in the first Matrix film when Neo beholds the same cat cross the room twice in a row, deja' vu -like, and is told by his mentor, "That means they're changing something". Listen people, Satan does not have the power to re-arrange reality, not through sorcery, nor through technology. He can't move mountains- believers can!- and he didn't move the continents. And he certainly cannot change what God has said.
   We are not living in an artificial snow-globe built by some evil elf who wants to control us. We are living on a real planet formed by a loving God Who wants to save and heal us. When the disciples passed by the fig tree Christ cursed and saw it dried up from the roots, it wasn't CERN or the Mandela Effect that changed it.  It was faith. 
   So, which will you live by? By faith, believing what you don't see, or by anti-faith, not believing what you do see?
   Thanks to the real truthers out there who are exposing the lies and standing up for the Truth!
And the truth is the same message you've heard all along- it hasn't changed and won't ever change: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Until next time, Peace.

Bits & Pieces

   All the citizens and visitors of ancient Athens spent their time  in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear, some new thing, according to St. Luke in Acts 17:21. Well the internet is like my own little Mars Hill right now, so I'm just going to share a few things that have been running around in my brain....

The Antichrist Conspiracy

   Do you believe in conspiracies? Well, King David did, and so did the Apostle Peter! For both these main figures of the Old and New Testaments tell us, The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." Sounds like a conspiracy to me! Pretty ambitious one, at that! Yes, this was partly fulfilled in Jesus' arrest and crucifixion; but the kings and rulers of the world still don't want God and the Bible telling them what they can and can't do.

   Aren't conspiracy theorists crazy? Well for a teen-ager with no miltary experience to take on a giant who's been fighting his whole life single-handedly, or for an old fisherman to step out of his boat in the middle of a storm at sea to walk on the water is kinda crazy...MY kinda crazy! 

   See the kings and world rulers got themselves a new plan to overthrow God and Christ with a little help from their "alien" friends. More on them in a minute. But pretty much everything coming at you in the media means to turn you away that old-time religion and into a new paradigm. More on that in a minute, too!

The Truth About UFO's

   Well ol' Hillary Rodham Clinton has vowed that, if elected President, she will reveal the truth about UFO's & aliens. (Can't wait for that!) Now you all know I'm not a political anything, but to me a statement like that only confirms the public's suspicion of a government cover-up. What "truth" will she tell? That it was all swamp gas and secret test planes?

   It wouldn't surprise me one iota if she came out and declared the "truth" History Channel's Ancient Aliens has been pushing that the damn aliens created us and they are our gods. She could give a speech like Aaron and Rehoboam did with the golden calves: These be thy gods, America!  

Wired

Know what's weird (other than Hillary telling the truth)? There's a push on by mega-corporations to get everybody indulging in the media like, 24/7. Not long ago, a major wireless carrier was offering to waive its customers' data usage charges as long as they used that data for binge-watching TV shows. Now why would they give up a small fortune like that? What's in it for them?

   A major automaker also announced in its ads, that its new vehicles come with enough wi-fi hotspot power to let seven kids play Plants vs, Zombies at once! Why do they want your kids playing video games in your minivan instead of coloring or singing, or, God forbid, looking out the windows at the scenery? What's in it for them?

   Why are they rewarding us for using the internet??? WHY do they want our every idle moment filled with taking in the media's message? The Bible enjoins us, "Finally my brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,  whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."  (Philippians 4:8) Then why do I wanna fill my head with a constant barrage of movies, shows, and songs that are just the opposite?

Generation F

   I remember back in the '80's my Dad saying, "Instead of getting smarter, people are getting dumber and dumber!" If he could see us now! Were not this the most ignorant, Biblically illiterate generation America had ever seen, nonsense like the Flat Earth model and the Mandela Effect would go nowhere. No one would fall for such foolishness if they had any foundation in Scripture, geography, and history. Not to mention logic.

   This generation can't tell real news from satire. They can't tell fact from fantasy! Ironic, because with the world wide web, they basically have the sum total of man's knowledge literally at their fingertips! Yet they can't find New York state on a U.S. map!

   There are idiots on YouTube (or, perhaps schills) saying such utter garbage as, "Dinosaurs never existed" "The sun is only 3,000 miles away" "Planets don't exist" and other denials of established facts I wouldn't even say jokingly! And people believe this guff! But then, they also believe Hillary tells the truth. It's scary! Homer Simpson is our leading Prophet! How is that even possible?

   I give this generation an F!

 The world today is in a sad state of affairs. We are hypnotized and programmed to believe and to do whatever we are told.  I am glad I was born  in a time when there was just one TV in the house, and if you missed your show you had to wait until next week. You couldn't take it with you to watch anytime, anywhere. The light of the body is the eye, and if the eye is filled with darkness, how great is that darkness!

   Who wants us all fat, dumb, and happy? And why? Think about it.

'til next time, Peace.

Mandela Effect: Reality, or Illusion?

"Forever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in Heaven."  (Psalm119:89)
   You know, it grieves me that I have to take time to write about stupid stuff, instead of preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. But, as my blog is about the Church, the World and the times- and we're living in stupid times- well, there ya go. So what is this so-called Mandela Effect? In a nutshell it says things ain't the way we remember them, therefore the things changed.  No, I kid you not.
    As an example, everyone thinks Humphrey Bogart said, "Play it again, Sam!"  in Casablanca. Well, if you go back and watch, he really said something along the lines of, "Whatever you played for her, PLAY FOR ME!" (just a paraphrase.) SO....the theory goes that Bogey really did say "Play it again, Sam" like we all remember, but books and maps and movies and the like are being changed by the power of CERN, the notorious particle accelerator super collider thingey. No, really: I don't make this up!
   Now, good ol' Occam's razor holds that, all things being equal, the simplest explanation is probably or usually the right one. Sure, there could be a complex, convoluted chain of events leading up to an occurence, but generally speaking, the simplest explanation is our go-to. In the above example, it's merely a case of Bogart impersonators flubbing the line, and their rendition of the scene is what sticks in our minds. Case closed. Right?
    The plot thickens. Some suggest that evil CERN has even changed our Bibles! One claim is that CERN changed Isaiah 11:6 from "lion & lamb" to "wolf and lamb" Well, I've been reading & studying the Word of God since the mid-'70's, and it's always said wolf. 
   In the KJV, Isaiah's prophecy of the Millenial Kingdom goes like this:

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them" Isaiah 11:6

   Then why, in the public's memory did the prophecy say the lion and the lamb ?

   Simple. In 1937, when Big Band leader Tommy Dorsey wrote (There'll be) Peace in the Valley, he summarized Isaiah's prophecy of Christ's kingdom this way: 

Well the bear will be gentle, and the wolves will be tame, and the lion shall lie down by the lamb and the beasts of the wild shall be led by a child...

Nothing changed the Bible! Tommy Dorsey reworded the prophecy to fit his melody, and that's the way most people remember it. In fact, setting God's word to music in order to teach is encouraged in the Bible itself (Colossians 3:16)! Nothing sinister or Twilight Zoney about it.

   Your memory is very fluid- there's a reason we have this phrase in our vernacular: "if memory serves me correctly"......cuz a lot of times it doesn't! Memories can easily be changed. Insurance investigators learned back in the fifites that a witness's memory of an accident could be subtly altered just by the way the interviewer phrased a question.

  It looks like this: I see a Dodge hit a Nissan. Now the agents from the drivers' insurance companies chat with me to learn what happened.

 Gecko: And em, at what speed would you say the cars were moving when they rolled into each other?

 Me: I dunno; maybe 25-30 mph?

Gecko: Excellent, Mate! And did you chance to notice if there was a broken headlight?

Me: No...I don't think so...

Now the other car's agent.

Flo: So how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?

Me: Oh! at least 45 or 50!

Flo: And didja see the broken headlight?

Me: Now that you mention it, there WAS a broken headlight!

 Hello! Why did my testimony change? Did Big,Bad CERN re-arrange the accident? Why did I tell the lizard one thing and the wacky lady something else? It's that Flo planted a thought in my mind when she said the broken headlight. And my estimate of the speed was influenced by her use of the word smashed. Psychologists know this. Advertisers know it, politicians know it, lawyers know it. Memories are not indelble.

 What if I told you the very first case of the Mandela Effect happened right there in your Bible, back in the Garden of Eden? Watch closely, Ladies & Gents!

And the LORD God took the man,and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil , thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die....

Fast forward awhile later, when the serpent stops by and asks Eve, "Yeah, has God said, 'Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"  And the woman said unto the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ' Ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die'."

   Oh, and just how do take care of a garden without touching the plants? Did God say they couldn't even touch it? How 's Adam supposed to trim it or prune the tree without touching it?Where'd she get that from? She didn't hear it from God 'cuz she was just a rib when God set the boundaries. Maybe her dumb husband explained the rules wrong?

   Or did the serpent confuse her with a carefully crafted question? Hey, um, didn't God say you can't eat from any of the trees in the garden? He knew God didn't say that. He's planting a thought in her mind that God doesn't want her to have good stuff.  Literally the oldest trick in the Book! She took it and ran with it, and in her memory embellished  just a little. So you see we've been doing this straight from The Beginning!

 It wasn't CERN, it was the SERpeNt messing with her mind. Things are different from the way we remember because when we don't remember we adlib. "Or has time re-written every line?" like the song says. The Mandela Effect could really be called the Eve Effect.

   Reality didn't change. Our memories merged with our imagination. And God's Word never changes. CERN isn't changing anything or opening up parallel universes. Don't believe everything you hear. Or think you heard.

Peace.

Flat Out Lie

   "What is Truth?" Pilate sarcastically asked Christ. "Yer lookin' at It!" Jesus might have replied if He thought for a second ol' Pontius really wanted to know.  Well I'll tell you what truth ain't: it's not relative, not subjective, and BTW, it's not new.   There's some stuff blowing around in the Truth Movement that really doesn't belong there. Not everything they say is true!
   Let's pretend there was an ongoing war between the Vampires and the Werewolves. The Vamps are tired of losing battles and unlives, so they come up with this plan, see. They send one of their own, Joe Tooth, to pose as a Werewolf and join their ranks. He looks like a wolf, walks like one, talks like one. But he's a Vampire through & through. Once in with the wolves, he starts talkin' up a storm against the Bats, like he's their biggest opponent. He quickly rises up through the ranks and soon becomes Leader of the Pack. Now that he's in charge, Joe leads and teaches the Werewolves to do stupid things that are bad for them, like swallowing silver bullets. In this way, the Vampires overcome the Werewolves.

   ***This is exactly what the forces of Antichrist have done with the Church.***

   Since Jesus Christ is The Truth, it only follows that the spirit of anti-Christ should also be the spirit of anti-truth. And so, my friends, like our werewolves, the Truthers have been infiltrated with Liars. It only takes a few to get in and start something stupid, then other Truthers pick it up and run with it!

   Case in point: the Flat Earth myth. My Philosophy teacher in college told us, "Lies are like grapes: they come in bunches." meaning after you tell one lie, you have to keep telling others to cover it up. Flat Earthers are like this. Point out we know there really is a South Pole 'cuz people have been there, and they'll take the explorers' words and twist them around. They say planets don't exist, and satellites are a hoax. Yeah, everybody's lying to you except them. 

   I could talk to you about Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Foucault. I could point out it was our old friends the RCC who tried to slience Gallileo and the Heliocentrists, just like they tried to stop Martin Luther and the Reformers from preaching the glorious gospel of salvation by grace through faith! But let me tell you, one thing these liars are counting on and are confident in is that the Bible doesn't say anything, or else says the earth is flat.

    They're hoping either God was stupid enough to leave Himself without a witness, or else we'd be too dumb to find it. Maybe you're like me and know in your heart the Bible's go to say something to prove these jerks wrong. 

   Remember when the LORD put Job in the hotseat and challenged him with all these questions about science & nature? One thing He demanded was what makes day & night?

(Job 38)Job couldn't answer, (and neither can any Flat Earther) because his generation had the wrong model of the universe.

   But more to the point, God speaks through Jeremiah the prophet, "Thus saith the Lord; if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord."  The Geocentric model puts sun, moon, and stars in a dome above a disc shaped earth. Calculating the size of a finite heaven like that is a piece of cake! (Allegedly the Sun is a mere 3,000 miles away.) And those foundations? Just head down to the Antarctic rim, and climb down over the edge!

    But in the Heliocentric model, the universe is virtually infinite! Astrophysicists' estimates of its size are revised often! And good luck getting down into the core of the earth! Jeremiah 31:37's implied absurdity of measuring the heavens or locating earth's foundation just fits better with the universe we were taught in school.

   Not everyone is lying to us, Church! But some people want us to look stupid and superstitious. For who would believe we have the Truth about spiritual things if we talk nonsense about natural things? I beseech you, please don't jump on this Flat Earth bandwagon as many churches already have. With the pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory, the Sister Act worldly-music-in -the-Sanctuary move, and the LGBT "love is love" morality, haven't we accepted enough lies?

The Work of Deception

   We live in a world of lies. Many we recognize, others delude us.  Some apparel chains were found to be lowering the posted waist sizes of jeans, to make shoppers think they fit into smaller clothes; a postitve reinforcement to keep us buying their brand! Political ads, memes, infomercials, tabloids, and websites all inundate us with innuendo, half-truths, and outright falsehood. Today Dr. Oz warns you not to eat this food, which causes all kinds of maladies; next week he advises you to eat that same food everyday as it is a miracle cure for all your woes!
   King Solomon observed, "The simple man believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going" in Proverbs 14:15, and in 14:7 counsels us, "Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge". In other words, stay away from people who don't know what they're talking about.  Some people lie intentionally, others merely regurgitate lies they've been fed and believed.
   I might have titled this piece The Art of Deception but for the fact that deception doesn't require any special skill. Often just affirming something like you believe it yourself is enough to convince some people! It's almost as if we're hardwired to be deceived; it is far easier to get someone to believe a lie than it is to convince him of the truth. P.T. Barnum is credited with the axiom there's a sucker born every minute. The birth rate is probably much higher!
   My friends, deception, delusion, brainwashing, and hypnotizing are far easier than you imagine. Advertisers, record and movie producers, the press,  and the politicians all know how your mind works, and they know how to keep it from working.  I began years ago, studying the major cults and learning of their recruitment and indoctrination techniques. Later I realized others such as political parties, columnists, advertisers...anyone in the field of persuasion-- used the same kinds of methods.
   Do you know why sponsors pay $5 million for a one-minute ad during the Super Bowl? "'Cuz millions of viewers are watching."  YES: millions of viewers who are emotionally charged cheering for their team, stuffing their faces with comfort food safe in the company of family and friends! We're in the ideal state of mind to be deceived.
    Here's how it works. They shut off the frontal lobe of your brain where reason and judgement dwell, and turn on the limbic system where your feelings and passions rule. How? They stimulate you with sex; humor; music; or shock.  Any one of these stops you thinkin' and gets you feelin'.  So they can slip past your logic filters and get right into your heart. Images, emotions, music, and symbols all can have this affect.
   As I pointed out last time, another way to get you to believe in lies is to cause you to mistrust someone else.  If they can get you to accept everyone else has lied to you, you will be more open to their message. Again I say to you, think critically. Don't watch TV passively. They are preaching you a sermon through dramas, comedies, news, and entertainment. Even kids' cartoons are preaching lies.
   Don't be fooled.