The Virtue of the Referendum

Back in 2002 California was drowning in debt and we didn't see any out of it. Then along came Arnold, the Governator, who ran and won in a recall election. Today California is riding the tide of prosperity and has attracted many businesses to the state instead of driving them away. The moral of the story is sometimes the "no confidance" vote, or "changing horses in mid stream" actually works. Some person recently asked Tony Snow a question. "Why don't we put it to the vote of the Iraqi people whether they want us in their country or not". The idea has logic, but you know how Bush reacts when confronted with logic. The reporter got a lecture about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and how in 1864 the Copper Heads wanted the Civil War over with. This is true. But rather than a negotiated settlement or "cutting some deal" the President believed there was more honor in absolute victory. The only thing wrong with this is that a "deal" eventually was cut, but it wasn't done in 1864 but in 1877. The previous year the United States had one of the most dubious elections it's ever had. That year Ruthaford B Hayse, nicknamed "Ruthafraud" was elected president even though his opponet, Samuel Tilden won the popular vote. Sound fermiliar? Yes, a deal was worked out with congress and the electoral college to withdraw all the troops that were keeping the south in line and insuring that the Black man got his Civil Rights. Contrary to what Larry Elder will tell you, it seems the intrests of the Black man wern't all that important after all. Rather than let the popular vote winner pervail, the rights and intrests of Blacks were sacrificed in the name of expediancy. Getting back to Iraq, the logical person for "referrendum input" is President Meliki. After all he's the winner of a popularly held election in Iraq. If we're really as in favor of democracy as we claim, shouldn't Meliki's oppinion be heavily listened to. Thom Hartman has stated that it's a congressman's job to represent the people rather than tout his own beliefs. However in this case there is no real conflict since the majority of the Iraqi people is Shiite and Meliki is also Shiite, so that you'd think there'd be no problem. If in this country people like Larry Elder and Richard Nixon say that the will of the "Majority" should pervail, then shouldn't the will of the majority of Shiite Iraqi's be the one to be represented? I don't see anything wrong - and it sure would settle the war, for the President to say to Meliki, "You were elected to do a job, to get rid of the Suni bathists and Al Qaida. We would like to assist you in this goal. That's why we went to war. We'll turn a blind eye to the Shiite death squads in the intrest of peace. Because one of our own, Rush Limbaugh said that wars are fought untill one side is the undisputed winner, and then peace comes. We know the Suni should have "rights" of a sort, but they should be kept a minority such as they will not be tempted to keep fighting. There has been enough fighting. In this way your country will have peace with Iran and peace with Syria, so that these countries won't feel threatened by us. After all, Iran helped us in Afghanistan. I guess there are some people who say democracy is immoral. Well, a pacifist would say that the Civil War was immoral and as such they would have to say the democratic election of 1864 was immoral also, and that democracy itself is immoral. Well, this "majority" was a minority for a long time under Saddam Hussein. Now that they have their man in power, shouldn't they have the chance to crow a little. If we have banished half and over half of our enemies and that's a sure thing isn't that better than not being sure whether we'll ever have a victory over ANY of our enemies. Isn't, in other words, half better than none, especially when that "half" represents the will of the majority of countrymen? As I see it that's our only out. What do you think?

They say Bush is going to invade Iran soon before Tony Blair leaves office because Blair's successor in Brittain will be against the war and we have to act in Iran while we still have the support of the Brittish. Others have said that the Brittish only allied with us for some one time oil deal and now that that's done they have no interest in sticking with us. These democrats in this country are trying to pass all these prohibitions against escalation but I doubt whether the President will pay attention to any of them. It seems the people in Iraq are already "voting with their feet" and the nation is spontaniously "ethnically clenzing" itself, as Suni and Shiite make their way into separate camps. Certainly partition is another option we can pursue. How is it that Peace seems to be the one option President Bush doesn't want to pursue? As Randy Rhodes says, you negotiate with your enemies and not with your friends. Certainly having some sort of conversational intercourse ("interraction" for you people in Rio Linda) can have fruitful results as we assess just what it is each side wants and how everybody can best get most of what they want. Both sides I imagine would welcome peace about now.

Back when I was a teenager my Mom had these psychology books and they talked about the "Identification Patient". I was led to believe that this - - Person - - was the one who did all of the complaining and was the most dissatisfied with the current situation. I found out later, like a couple of years ago on the Dr. Phil show that this Identification Patient was instead the person who was CAUSING all the PROBLEMS. But I wonder- - I wonder who someone like Rush sees as the greater enemy - Al Qaida or the liberal democrats. This isn't such a silly question. Remember when Bush was asked about Bin Laden and he said "I don't know- - and I don't really care- - I'm not concerned about him" or some such thing. It's like we've forgotten about both Afghanistan, where we have a democratic investment, and also Bin Laden, the root cause of all this trouble. Or so we thought. But it seems that the root cause with Woodward's and other's books, is traced not to Bin Laden but to George Bush's lust for oil. Indeed the letters Opperation Iraq Liberation stand for O I L. What a coincidence? Now we are actually pulling troops OUT of Afghanistan and into the bottomless pit of war known as Iraq. As George Harrison said in a song "How did things get so inverted and perverted? No one alerted you". It was stated that Eisenhaur ran on a platform of Peace in Korea in 1952 and the American people went for it. Peace was a big seller then. But Bush, like his mentor Nixon, seems to have as his primary goal the desire to devide America into pro and anti war camps, and villify everyone who disagrees with him. So the "Identification Patient" in truth isn't Al Qaida or Bin Laden, but instead the democratic liberal left of this country who want to safeguard our civil liberties. In this capacity our side one a major victory by the Bush Adminestration saying they would no longer engage in surveilance of American citizens without authorization from some Court.

You wonder at times whether God puts things up for a popular vote. The truth is that when the Ten Commandments were given the people gave their concent and said "All these things we will do". Of course it's important to know what IS and IS NOT in the Ten Commandments. For instance Murder is condemned. Anger is not. For those who insist that anger is a sin are playing right into the hands of the enemy. Think about it. If an enemy sees his opponets spending all their time trying NOT to be angry they will soon exaust and exasperate themselves, and the Enemy wins! In like manner bearing false witness is a violation. But all lying is not covered. You can forget about the notion of hiding Jews in Holland because nothing in the ten commandments would prohibit this. On the other hand you have heard it said that the 3rd. commandment doesn't matter because "Everybody lies so don't sware to anything". On the contrary it's a coward will not take an oath and stake his word on something. You have also heard it said "all sex outside of marriage is wrong". You will search in vain in the Old Testament for anyone being condemned for having sex outside marriage, or even going to a prostitute for that matter. Indeed the people in Joshua who visited the prostitute Rahab, who put the red ribbin on the wall to save the people from Divine wrath- - according to Gene Scott and some secret translation he has- - these people who met with Rahab were actually patrons, ie. Johns, and they were not condemned. Judah visited a prostitute and God never condemned him for this- even though she bore two children. She was condemned but HE wasn't. Could it be God knows what it's like to be a man? Lying is not a sin if you're asked what a gift costs and you lie about it. It's the heighth of rudeness to "look a gift horse in the mouth" to begin with and you get exactly the answer you deserve, despite what Act's chapter 5 says. My point is that most people agree that the ten commandments are good. But that doesn't mean you have to pray five times a day or not let your children play vidio games. Indeed it is a specific sin to "Add to the word of God". It says so in Revelation. In Genisis it quotes Adam and Eve as saying "We may not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden - Neither may we Touch it". God didn't say anything about Touching the tree. They added that. Laws are made by governments who are elected by free, enlightened men- - "to promote the general welfare" of society.

Some say it would be wrong for Bush to meet with Iraqi president Meliki to hammer out some sort of cooperative deal. After they point out that the Bible says not to seek fellowship with the wrong people, even though Jesus did it. Well, did you know that God apparently consorts with at least one "wrong" person. It seems God starts off his day in sort of an executive council meeting with Lucifer planning out what woes will befall mankind today. Does Lucifer have some sort of "title" in this capacity? Yes he does, the Son of God, or rather A son of God. That may be why the Federation says that justice can be had by logic and not seeking after some "God" or deity. Indeed many people such as Fred Price believe you don't need a Pastor to tell you how to think. But sometimes people can "get inside your head". When I first became a Christian I was going to Golden West College learning to be a studio sound technician. But somewhere I got the notion that the music these people were listening to was immoral and that I'd best, for the sake of my spiritual walk, get out of the program. This was far from the ONLY reason I left, but it was one of them. I didn't have my radio antenna set to "my higher self" of I'd have seen the folly of my actions. Christians used to believe, and I still do, that people are born with a contience or higher self that they can look to to get a moral bearing. After all, why should Satan be the only person to exercise "Free will" unfettered? Some Christians say that you should not attack or rail against Satan directly because the "rules of engagement" don't allow it. The Federation would like to see every earth dweller wired into that higher sixth dimension of psychic reality. There is a recent example of my own "seeing through a lie" I'd like to tell you about. At Circuit City when me and [Pete Richards] were buying my HDTV, we asked the salesman to take the power antenna out of the box and hook it up to the TV, "just to see if it really works". Well, it didn't work. Just static. The salesman promptly proclaimed that that is because this is a "digital" antenna so naturally doesn't work. That was a lie. The device was a gain amplifyer and the output was measured in decibles. It was not a digital decoder. Whether the signal was digital or analog made absolutely no difference to the device. And yet many pastors will tell you "Oh you need digital and I'm digital and you're analog. Come to Me. I am the way. I have the Jesus-decoder in my brain". When in reality sometimes it's the Pastor himself that is Blocking the Signal you need to tap into God on your own antenna. We all need to tune in - turn on- - and drop out- - drop out of Religion. (Selah)

The Ice Invasion Cometh

The weather has been making a lot of news in the headlines one way or the other. A few weeks ago it was warm throughout the eastern seaboard and flowers were blooming out of season, and animals that were normally hybernating wern't doing it. Today we have the apparently opposit situation. We have ice storms from Texas to Oklahoma to Misori all the way through Michigan. Oddly enough they say this ice storm is caused by a mass of warm air to the south. Apparently it rains where it would normally snow. Then the rain freezes and you get sleet and ice. So you have icy roads as far south as Austin. Tree branches ice up and break up. Of course when plane wings ice up that's a dangerous thing. Here in Southern California you've been hearing reports of temperatures dipping into the twenties in low lying areas and mountain temperatures have gotten as low as zero. That's rather unusual. There have also been lots of reports of ice on the ground and even drain pipes bursting and forming weird patterns in the ice. Back in the early seventies there was a pattern of increasing ice, for instance, in the Arctic region. People misconstrew all of these scientists back then who were talking about a coming ice age. Actually what the scientists were saying is that there were two trends running counter to each other. There was the air pollution of particulate matter causing a blockage of the sun and global cooling and then you had the CO2 problem causing global warming. Back them scientists wern't sure which trend would win out in the long run. Now we know. We are solving the particulate matter problem in the air and this leaves only global warming unabaited.

Back in the year 1845 they had a massive global cooling problem. A Brittish expidition led by a captain named Franklin launched a massive expidition to find the fabled northwest passage to the Pacific by water. But their trip was doomed from the start. First of all they stored their food in lead cannisters and when all of the crew were examined later every last one of them had abnormally and dangerously high amounts of lead in their system. Three men died on one island early on. As they sailed on the ice got worse and worse and finally they decided to veer south thinking they would find more open waters there. But the ice got worse even in the summer. In the summer of 1846 the ice never melted. They have proved this fact by subsequent drilling of holes in the permafrost. Finally the ship got stuck in the ice. Time passed. The men began dying of scurvy. Their skin including the insides of their mouth turns black. Personality changes such as paranoia were noted. They had brought lemon juice with them but it's a scientific fact Vitamine C loses its potency after a while. They met a tribe called the Inuit. Later in 1869 the old ones were interviewed and they said that the men resorted to canabalism in the end. They all died a horrible death. Some of them turned to the Inuit for food but they could only share so much and had to head off for a hunting expidition the next day. This whole tale is rather analogus of my twenty-odd year history as a Christian. "Turning back" may be something I decided to do after that incident with Frank in Octobor 1987. Even though as a party a few weeks later when the broad sympathies were with me rather than Frank - after all it's Frank who broke one of the ten commandments against me - - in the end it was Frank who ramained a Christian and not me even though people such as [Bobby Hayden], [Jim Cooper], and Ron sided with me. I "retreated" away from the whole scene to a new apartment but I continued to encounter "persecution" from many corners. Later this "persecution" came from people like Kathy and Clint, who I thought were my friends. Of course 1994 for me could symbolize my boat getting stuck in the ice, with a tripple whammy that occurred with me that year. I was doomed. My "end" as a Christian was now only a matter of time. Another analogy I have used on my Christian walk is the Viet Nam war. We were initially brought in by a lie about the facts. Just as I had lied to myself about the facts. I never received the proper back-up when I came under fire. The moralle of people around me was often poor. I was having to opperate under disadventagious engagement rules against the Enemy. I had a president, (my mind?) who knew the situation was bad and getting worse, and yet the only action he took was to escalate my efforts further, which compounded my problems.

Randy Rhodes today was doing a show called "War or No War". If seems if you were to decide to spend the 1.2 trillion dollars on something else you could feed all the hungry and give everybody universal health care and cure cancer and do other things. But Bush doesn't want to do that. President Bush in the Jim Lerr interview, which I saw last night, spoke of the "cracked egg". He said "The egg isn't broken but it is cracked, but we can fix it". Any housewife will tell you if you see a cracked egg in the cartin you either have to use it immediately or else just throw it out. There is no way to put Humpty Dumpty together. Any nursery school kid knows this. Indeed, sometimes it gets exasperating even thinking about President Bush and the War. Jim Lerr asked him about national sacrifice. But Bush's answer to this was "Well the people watch the war on TV and suffer". For all we know they may be seeing the same fifteen seconds of file footage run over and over because that's all they'll let us shoot. One is tempted to tell the troops to do something radical like go AWOL. You don't suppose they could schedule a massive AWOL campaign, do you? Apparently the troops are not even allowed to pettition or sue their own government so a congressman initiated a Bill on their behalf and in three short sentenses declared that this was was wrong. We do have some good news that Democrats have passed a lot of ethics and earmarks regulation legeslation, and have also raised the minimum wage to $7.50. Of course people like Larry Elder are praying that the President vetoes the bill. There seems to be some concerted move of the media not to give us news on what the Democrats have been doing. Their motto seems to be out of sight, out of mind. This whole thing is like a desaster that is happening in slow motion, and there is no way to stop it.

There is news that Fidel Castro may be near death. He has suffered complications from three intestinal surgeries. If he dies one of my prayers and hopes will be unanswered. I was hoping that Castro would renounce communism and become a Born Again Christian. I have heard roomers to that effect. I suppose people like Larry Elder or Sean Hannity would like to bring back the Juan Baptista government and let the mafia run things in Cuba like the good old days. People have been saying since 1989 that communism is dead. But when this country thinks of Castro we suddenly go into a forty year time warp. I think we need to expand trade with Cuba just as we have with China and so many other countries, and then relations will improve.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST - mid April 2005

If you call in the Jesus Christ show the host will say reincarnation or worse yet, what we are describing- - Asteral travel- - is quite impossible. If asked to explain he will quote ONE Bible verse, because it’s the only one in the Bible to quote. Yet Jesus’ own view of heaven is so much at odds with what the real Jesus preached 2000 years ago it isn’t even funny. Jesus talked about heaven as a state of harmony and peace among men. He spoke of it as a place of generosity and compassion and concern about your fellow man. Jesus of Nazereth would be shocked someone preaching in his name that heaven was some opium like state where you forget about people you’ve known in the past and are not even aware they ever existed. The host of the Jesus Show might go on to mention the very things we’ve mentioned- - that God specially created our DNA and our cell structure and how our brains work, and that each one is unique and can’t be transferred. Using his identical logic, not only would reincarnation be impossible, but so would any resurrection (a word he doesn’t even use to describe the afterlife) or any life beyond when they lower the coffin lid and inturr you in the ground. If the forgoing proposition is true it doesn’t matter how many unexplained events the Apostles do; it has nothing to do with any known dead man being alive. Some say, “When you reject Jesus it’s amazing the things you will fall for”. This saying contains a lot more rhetoric than truth.

You know back in ninth grade there was a song called “The In Crowd” by Dobie Gray. And he also did that song about “I wanna get lost in your rock and roll”. I don’t like either of these songs now because the guy who wrote them is now one of these narrow-minded condescending Jesus little chauvinists. These people couldn’t tell their ass from a hole in the ground; there’s no way they’re going to “Find Jesus”. Lennon wrote a song about Dylan “finding Jesus”. Let’s get this straight. If reincarnation or astral travel were proved tomorrow, Jesus of KFI wouldn’t believe it. He would say that Whatever evidence we had it was coincidence. The same way if you try to reason with a drug addict hooked on cocaine you’re fighting a losing battle. The only Reality that drug addict knows is his cocaine. That is his “validation” and reason for getting up each morning. All other logic and sensory input is blocked out by the drug. So far scientists have dissected matter down to the very molecule. We’ve mapped out human DNA. And guess what? We haven’t found the soul. We haven’t found God. At one time the Catholic Clergy knew Galileo was wrong. There was just no two ways about it. Dante knew that Hell was a place in the center of the earth and in a rare sign of enlightenment (?) believed that the “Mount of pergitory” was on the south pole on the other side! St. Paul knew there was a “third heaven”, which various Evangelists (who’s word must be taken as infallible) say was “out beyond- - - the universe of stars, just as they are out beyond the sky. Today’s scientists know better. Because in the Big Bang not only matter but also time and space were created. So there is no “out beyond” anything. There is nothing beyond “outer space”. It simply does not exist because it was never created. In like manner there is nothing past the last moment in time or before the very first moment. Pretty soon there is going to arise “A generation which knew not Jesus” when they were young. Indeed, that generation may already be here. There will be no “vestigial remnants of one’s childhood” for evangelists to appeal to. When it comes to Religion, John Lennon’s view is in far less danger of becoming “out dated” than Chuck Smith’s.

OK I wish I could push a button and sent that in E mail. I don’t even think Mike would like that paragraph. Pope John Paul II, sadly, is dead. If there is some “cosmic hand” guiding the world, I don’t know where it’s leading the world to.

NBC Nightly news is coming on and I may watch some of it. Of course there’s news that the Bush economy may be topping out. And there will be no more tax cuts. Kate Roberts has taken all your drugs away. I think maybe now we ought to come to grips with the real problems such as out-sourcing and illegal immigration. The stock market was down over four hundred points last week, which, in the grander scheme of things may not be all that much. Now they say US Corperations may not be paying their fair share of taxes. In WW II it was a 50 – 50 split but now the workers of nation pay 80% of the taxes. Larry doesn’t think Corporations should pay income taxes at all.

Some may say there was an angry tone to some of my remarks today. Well, if I occasionally resort to obscenity it’s only shorthand for a much longer explanation I could give, and have given in the past but am not inclined to go into it now again. It bothers me that Christianity seems distilled down into some in-palatable mixture that may be good for fueling cars but not good for drinking. Farmers in France have a bumper crop of ex-pensive Bordoux wine and somehow even Larry Elder can’t get “market forces” to per-vail. This “distilled down mixture” if what I get Sunday mornings from KFI, and I guess that’s what’s fueling my anger. This whole “screw you” attitude twords everyone who isn’t a clone of what they are. The Christian world is withdrawing. I can pretend it isn’t so but it is. If things change I’ll let you know. I should be thankful things aren’t worse than they are in my life. I should think about what I have, little as it is.

“I do believe in Duffelgangers!- - I do – I do – I do!!!

Governments Instituted Among Men

Deliver your children to the good good life
Give 'em peace and shelter and a fork & knife
Shine a light in the morning and a light at night
And if a thing goes Wrong- - -
- - You Better Make It Right

This is the ziggy prayer, cerca 1978. I think what we lack in religion is the imperitive petition. This is a petetion which by its very nature God had obligated himself to repond to and to which you have an inherent right to expect one. This kind of flies in the face of what many have been programmed to think about God- - ie. that you have no "rights" but you "live under grace". I would like to show the folly of such thinking. Indeed in my book when I talked about the things the Antichrist would say one of them was that he'd demand others call him benificent and gracious. I may have gotten this from the Koran where it says "Thus says Allah, the compassionate and merciful" or some such thing. "Grace" has another meaning. In the olden times it was said that you existed at the "grace" of the King. Others would say "at the pleasure of the king". Since there was no system of laws the Kings were a law unto themselves. If you were pardoned of a crime (and Kings were always charging people with crimes) said pardon would be called an act of Grace and not any merit under law, because again there was no law. Henry VIII could be said to be ruling in a privince of grace. Indeed one of the names of the Kings because your Highness, your Magesty, and your Excellency, was in fact, your Grace. The King wanted to be reminded that he was a dispensor of grace with anybody who addressed it. It should be no surprise that I am no fan of those preachers like John Mc Arthor and Chuck Swendoll and whoever else, who says that we Christians live under grace. To decree as such is to say that we are outside the protection of the Law, which has according to these people, been done away with anyhow. There was a preacher this morning who stated that nowhere in the Old Testament anyhow does it say anything other than that the law is Holy and that the law is Perfect, and that the law is Eternal. Of course under modern Churchianity, it's in bad taste to do anything other than to flatter the pastor and say he's always right. To quote scripture in front of a pastor is tantamount to waving garlic at Dracula. In the scripture we have rights and covenants. Indeed some of that covenent is that if we walk in it God will prosper our lives and heal us if we need it. Most pastors crings at the idea that we should take Jesus at his word, or even Believe the many deliverances he performed, both physically and in the spirit. But Abraham Lincoln once said "No man is above the law, and no man is beneath it". There is a certain equality in human dignity. We are all God's children and created in His image. Rush Limbaugh says that only humans can "contract" for Rights. I think it's a safe bet to say that the light of God's consciousness is in all creation. It's certainly in Black people. It is said by Thom Hartman that enlightened (liberal?) people come together to form a more perfect union and contract with ourselves and with God to pass certain laws that are a reflection of our enlightenment. You are fermiliar with the passage that goes "All men are created equal and endowed with certain inailiable rights and that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I believe the next line goes - - And to secure these Rights and Blessings to ourselves and Posterity, Governments are instituted among men. And among the laws passed by said governments are laws to further human rights. Hence the Civil Rights bill. I cringe when I hear people say that "Market Forces" would have taken care of the Civil Rights problem in time. They had a hundred years and more. Time's up. Martin Luther King spoke of "zeitguist", which basically means a move of the Spirit of Enlightenment among men. The Federation takes "zeitguist" to mean a favorible astrological allignment. We celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday this weekend. It was John Kennedy who said "- - knowing that human rights come not from the Generosity of the State, but from the Hand of God". In the church world your rights and status come not from any inate sense of "being connected with God" but only if your pastor SAYS you are blessed. If you are blessed from a source your pastor doesn't have control over you may be said to be an outsider. Many pastors engage in "shotenfreuden", another of those German words, that means to take pleasure in other's misfortune. You'd be surprised how much shotenfreuden there is in sunday sermons. Since you live under grace, you're not Expected to have any ambition apart from some etherial "will of God". Indeed I was just watching a TV program that said that in Europe there are no presumed "Rights" to anything including the Pursuit of Happiness. In Europe they are class conscious. They like to keep everyone "on the plantation" so to speak, just as they do in church. If you should be graced with wealth and blessings "in the system" the thing to do is to Lord it over others and make them envious you that they are not in the same Economic (or Spiritual, which is the same thing) Class as you are. As Thom Hartman says, upward mobility is discouraged. Again if you doubt me check out how many pastors preach against Fred Price or taking what our so-called Deliveror, Jesus Christ says and does. Because so these people reason "if we ever assirted our Right to anything this would be a "legal" relationship. And "legal" is bad. No. The grandure of the King must not be competed with. He and He alone is the sole dispensor of "Grace". And again the Pastoral-centricity of many churches knows no bounds. It may even be stated that "God has given Me wealth because he knows I can handle it. But Idon't know about you". In some cases it goes beyond apathy to open contempt. Gene Scott has said many disparaging things about poor people and has gone so far as to mock scripture, for instance where St. Paul says "Remember the poor people of Jerusalem". Gene doesn't want these people remembered.

Now I'd like to talk about the Freedom being the essence of knowing God. Moses said that every man has the light of God's law within him. Many would ask what the Bible teaches about slavery. Well, Slavery is kind of like gravity. Just as when you Die, it's better to go Up rather than Down, but this is not to overrule the law of gravity. And so it is better to be Free rather than Slave. My hunch is that God knows that things like Slavery, and for that matter, Prostitution, will always exist. God says it is a shame to be a prostitute, without advocating the abolition of the profession. It is in the nature of Free men to strike back when struck. In this way women should listen to their feminist sisters and learn the most effective way to fight back when oppressed by a man. So it is that Moses told the Isrialites not to be as they were in Egypt. There is a superior struck you, you were not to fight back. That was a privelege allowed only to Free men. In this way I believe that self defence is a holy trait. If you believe our US constitution is of God, then you also believe that the right to keep and bear arms is a devinely inailable right. Men get their rights from the God, the living and true God, not the antiseptic God of the theologians. Thom Hartman has even stated that the principle of democricy is even seen among animals. It is observed that a hurd of buffalo for example will head for a water hole when the majority of them are standing and pointing in a certain direction. Then the whole hurd will take off in that direction. With flocks of birds or schools of fish- - minute changes in "attitude" in some of the fish or birds will "clue in" the whole flock that this is now the new direction in which to go. I have said that I would rather be around dogs who were raised by moral people, rather than by people who wern't. Does a dog have inherent goodness? Is a dog tought espressly to, for instance, save his master who is drowning or in some other trouble? No. He does this because it's in his inate nature. In the movie Ghandi it was stated not to fear the oncomming horses but to lay down because they will not tread over us. And it was so. The mounted horses came to a halt, despite the express wishes of their riders. When I was a teenager I believed the mind was a blank slate and that environment played a role. Certain wild beasts are the way they are because of their environment. If you're in a resource depleted Serengetti plain and starving all the time, you have to by necessity hunt for your food. And yet there was a shot on TV the other say showing someone hugging and being really cozy with a lion with no fear. It is said that even snakes can be charmed. The only animal that appears morally vapid is the Ape. I have likened Apes to Christions. (see Escape from Egypt) Apes will suddenly "turn on you" and be consumed with hostility and attack you. I have heard of and seen countless examples of this. The only thing there remains to do in such a case is to have the Ape destroyed. The Ape is one of the few others that will commit premeditated murder against others in its own society. But animals seem to know instinctively how best to live.

Not everybody seeks the light. The so called pious Christians have a thing against what they call "Gnosticism". They say gnosticism means "esoteric knowledge". The word esoteric is meaningless in that sentense. The word is knowledge. It's like talking about a percipitus withdrawal. They fixate on the word "percipitus" when the truth is they are against Any withdrawal in Iraq. So it is with knowledge. When did knowledge become a bad thing. We even share our knowledge with animals and they benefit. Teachers of the Word are supposed to be spreading knowledge. Experiance is said to bring knowledge. It used to be people who have had experiance were a thing to be prised. Now they're called whores. Now experiance, and even religious experiances, are seen as a bad thing by people like Chuck Smith. One might ask what are they after. The theripist will never say what you Think about something. They much prefer to ask how we Feel about something. And if we don't give the right answer they will be Glad to Tell us how we really "Feel". It's notible that hypnosis is one thing Walter Martin is NOT against on the left. In a Startrek episode there was this mind-scan device that users could use to plant mental thoughts inside a subject, for Good, but usually for Evil. This is what the evangelist does. He sees the black hole of the human subcontious and sees it as something on which to emplant his own thoughts, or en-grams. It's notible that Evangelists want us to draw our thoughts from the darkness, or this subcontious Black Hole, rather than from the Light of Knowledge. Knowledge is so often counted as a bad thing and they even quote Daniel to canote knowledge being a bad thing. Dr. Dean Edell today says that liberals have more books in their house and more art and classical music. That liberals were happier and more open and curious as a child whereas conservatives as children were fearful, rigid, and inhibited. Some will say that coming to Jesus is coming to the light. In the abstract this is true. But how are fish caught? Does the fish "repent" of being a fish and dream of ways he can become human? Not unless you're the little murmaid. No. The fish is baited. And what are fish for? They are to provide nutriants to those not in the water (or the Church not in the world) The size of the fish stands for the stature of the sinner in the world. The virtue is not in his repentance. The virtue is bagging him in the net and seeing his blank subcontious mind is something that you the pastor can program for your own purposes. We see a teacher as a spreader of knowledge and enlightenment. But their view of the "teacher" is that of a cultish icon to follow and worship. Not even to emulate but only to admire and know that you can never be like him. The success of a "teacher" is not seen in how much knowledge the students have. These people are like liberals. Far left meets far right. Just as the liberal is against objective truth but you are graded on your "Feelings" about a subject, so it is with the endoctrination of the Fundamentalist.

For George Bush to be hostile to Iran at this time is a mistake. He made allusions to Iran in his speech last week, and it might be an alarming sign. If he invades Iran without provacation it will only broaden the whole mideast war unnecessarily and further worsten Bush's own place in the history books. But the song goes "A fool never learns- - and I'm going to do a very foolish thing". There are still a few followers, not of the center, not necessarily of the right, even, but Somewhere, who are still willing to follow President Bush over a cliff. As John Dean said "Once the toothpaste is out of the tube it's impossible to get it back". Or to put it another way, you can't un-fire a shot heard round the world. The best thing to do is take Rush Limbaugh's advice for once. Rush has said "Wars end when one side has an undisputed victory over the other". Let's let shiite and suni fight it out within the confines of the borders of Iraq. Once the war is over- - - peace will follow. A peace where the other side will not be tempted into an uprising.

If this print is still big and hasn't shrunk back to normal size I decree that George Bush will cancle the troop surge and also order a withdraw of fifty thousand troops within the next three weeks. I myself don't know the outcome of this right now.

Bringing It All Back Home

They have a drug for everything now. There was a drug on Sixty Minutes not so long ago I describe as the "Jesus drug". If you go through some horrible trauma or embarrasment or personal hurt and can't "put it behind you" you just take the Jesus drug and it's the same thing as going to a tent revival and "getting saved". Perhaps some bright soul will give this drug to our vetterans, so they won't blab about their experiances. Perhaps Jesus could personally adminester the entire nation of Palestine this drug in 70 AD so they could all forget they were really Jews and they could get saved. You have to wonder whather George Bush is taking a drug like this. After all he's been "embarrassed" so much so that a person with a normal sense of shame wouldn't want to show his face. Jane Fonda said that if they had had Prozac now, her father would have been more “engaged with her” as a child. May I respectfully disagree. I heard- or more specifically I have read that Prozac drowns out all real feelings about human involvement and creates an overall numbing effect so that you just don’t feel anything. Others have said that sera-tonin is the “accomplishment” hormone. Your brain releases it when you do something decisive to give you the feeling you have accomplished something. [name withheld]’s problem is that he hasn’t accomplished anything in his marriage, but is given a drug to make him feel as though he had. I found the things he said at the [farce gathering] a little hard to take. I’m glad that Jane Fonda and her father were able to “act out the drama” on TV in the guise of a movie. I guess I didn’t entirely know how “personal” Golden Pond was.

I would now like to turn my attention to affairs of national importance that we haven’t been talking about, notably George Bush and the media. I have seen some disturbing signs. For one it was noted, and we all witnessed it, that the networks did not engage in their usual post mastication of the President’s remarks. Randy Rhodes thought the entire speech wasn’t live at all, like the President wasn’t even in condition to do the speech live. Of course there were the jokes about it being the first time Bush had even been in the Presidential library. Some say the speech was flat. I for myself was concentrating more on the actual words or “text” than the manner of delivery, but I will note there was a lack of passion or conviction. But I was surprised that the media signed off right away. Apparently it was more important to get back to “Deal or No Deal”. Well, that is a good question for us all. But the upshot of that is that we did not get to hear the democratic response. This is not twenty years ago. Back then Reagan has a real challenge on his hands. But they would never have done a puff movie on the Reagan administration like ABC did on 9 – 11 like they did four months ago. But turning to a key thesis of the President’s speech – mainly “This is not an open-ended commitment”. I would like to hold the President to his word on this one. He gave us his solemn pledge that he had worked out some deal of cooperation with Meliki and that from now on there would be no more siding with the Shiites and that Meliki would rein the wayward forces of his own government freeing up our troops to do their job. It was noted however that the President was never forthcoming with a Plan B. You always need a back-up plan to give the primary plan teeth. Stated another way as Dr. Phil might, “You have control over what you do but you don’t have control on what others do”. So if others let you down you need to take responsibility for your own actions, you need to “Own It” and proceed from there. The President had no Plan B. He never said what he would do if things “Didn’t work out”. Congelisa Rice’s remarks about “The way to insure success is to not think of the risks” just makes no sense. It is particularly important that you have a Plan B, if the odds for success of Plan A are tenuous to begin with. I would like to hear from the President’s lips just under what circumstances he will say the cause is lost. If you’re a Christian, however, thinking “What if God lets me down” is not an option, so perhaps that’s where the President is coming from. It doesn’t even need to be repeated how many times the people of America have been jerked around. The objectives of the War keep changing. It’s doubtful whether the fall 1992 congressional resolution even has any relivance since there are no weapons of mass destruction, there are no real links between Al Quada and whatever we were fighting in Iraq, and there is no more Saddam Hussein, or Uday or Cushi, or Zardowi. It is further disturbing that we are actually siphoning off more forces from Afghanistan where troops are already short- - only to send more to a losing bet in Iraq. The opium growing industry has really come back- - and that new democracy and newly won rights in Afghanistan are now in jeopardy, all to support a losing war in Iraq. What we need to do is send troops back to Afghanistan and also to Kurdistan to protect that sector, in case Turkey has thoughts of invading them.

But the consequences of this war haven’t been brought home. We know that President Bush refuses to attend funerals of soldiers. We also know that the media is under a ban of showing coffins being loaded on to trucks. Recently the President visited a military base and reporters had it made clear to them that they were forbidden to interview any of the troops. The media should perhaps spend more time interviewing veterans in intensive care wards. Barbra Boxer today talked about burn victims. The nurses see soldiers so disfigured that they keep photos of them in uniform around to remind them that they are actually dealing with a human being. One doctor said that in a four month period he performed between one and two genital amputations every single day. You know there is talk about daughters losing their virginity too soon. But in reality the things that really happen “too soon” are bad things and not good. I would say the “appropriate” time to have your genitals removed is perhaps on a mortician’s slab after you’re dead. Then you won’t care. People have this out of sight out of mind feeling about this war because in rich Republican neighborhoods they aren’t seeing the number of “volunteers” as you see in poor, minority neighborhoods. Of course now they have changed the rules for National Guard and Reservists. You’re not just a “weekend warrier” when you sign up now. It used to be you only had to serve at maximum one year and now they’re saying you cam be made to serve up to four. At least in the Vietnam era once you served your year that was it, for all time. I guess we should be glad at least no shady contracts are being made with pet corporations this time around. Rush Limbaugh on his show today was saying Americans were spoiled and ungrateful for their liberties. Rush is wrong. Americans are grateful. But two emotions can coexist in the same person. Just because you’re grateful for the good doesn’t mean that everything about our government is perfect. The President is looking for a place in the history books and if he’s not careful me may find one: As the most out of touch President we have ever had. When you’re rich, it’s easy to praise God for your riches. When you’re President, it’s easy to see America as one big propaganda film with flags waving and appropriate music playing. If “Failure is not an option” what you’re saying is that “life won’t be worth facing if I lose”. Maybe Bush expects the Rapture to come. If you risk all of your money on Final Jeopardy and lose it doesn’t matter. Runner ups don’t get to keep their money anyhow so it doesn’t matter- and besides the game is over. But the “Game of life” does not end for the rest of us all that “conveniently”. (Selah)

The 115th. Strawberry Revival

It’s hot in here. Today is Wednesday April 6, 2005, and the temperature creped up higher than expected. I see the grammar check is highlighted. I know that being in color means you can use them now and in black and white you have to wait. I went to the store after dinner for two cinnamon rolls and around the corner for coffee. I have been feeling drowsy this afternoon. There’s still stuff I might want to check in the last file. I anticipate this one being done at a much slower pace.

Oscar knocked on the door about five to ten and asked if I was going. I hauled myself down there. Valerie was in the front seat and right off it was evident she was more attentive than normal. She was looking at me outside, and then repeatedly turned around to make conversational coments like the same Philipinos that own this place own hers and also own “where Susan lives”. I guess we’re thinking of the same Susan. There was a new girl named Amanda, who lived with Valerie. I later found out she had only lived there two days. Amanda had a better singing voice than Valerie. She alluded to some posture surgery she needed but if they cut the wrong nerve she’d be paralyzed. On the patio I learned she had a boyfriend somewhere. Valerie told me she was the second longest tenant at nearly a year and only her roommate has been longer- at five years. She said two of the girls were hospitalized for depression, including the one who had attempted suicide. We didn’t take off right away because we had to wait for George. Valerie talked to the driver a lot. We made fantastic time there getting there before ten thirty. I was served coffee and a muffin. On the patio Valerie finally noticed I had new tennis shoes on after several weeks. Another time when I was out of smokes Valerie wanted me to come out with her. For a while nothing was going on in-side and attendance appeared to be way down. Larry remarked, “The wheels are coming off the wagon”. Larry had me sorting this big stack of crossword puzzles, most of which were already in order. Finally Larry gave us a puzzle to do. It was so hard that half of my answers, the ones I even guessed at, had to be wrong. I put it aside to pursue some-thing that was less mentally taxing- - a word search puzzle. I did the whole thing and it didn’t take that long. The word I had the most trouble with was “suitcase”. I went out for a smoke and returned and someone had taken my crossword. I asked Larry for an-other as he was about to give the answers, and he gave me the wrong puzzle. We had ham and cheese sandwiches and chips and a banana for lunch. I only won twice in Bingo and given the generosity today, this isn’t even par. There was a lot of dead time after-ward from 1:15 to 2:00 when we left. There was an-other sexy girl there I’d never seen before. An exotic looking one with light brown hair, but she appeared to be hovered over by this taller brunette. As we got in the van, Manfred told me he won five times. This isn’t unusual. Valerie announced that she was going to sit next to me. She was pro-active in engaging me in conversation the whole day, which is out of character for her. We got to talking about radio stations. Even Las Vegas has two Classic Rock stations. It’s almost as though Olbie Wan Canobe had app-eared at parents’ house and hypnotized them into calling Valerie’s and saying, “Did you know that after we die [Marcus] stands to inherit several hundred thousand dollars?” The last thing she said to me was “See you tomor-row”. At ten to three we were here and I finished watching “Passions”. Fox has fallen out of favor with Allester now. Then I went down to see Oscar, who gave me my money.

Another Side of Marcus Arelius

Arf! – Arf! Arf! – Arf! – Arf! Arf! Arf!

I know you and your ways

Arf! – Arf! - Arf! – Arf! – Arf! Arf!

Better Come To God Today

Arf! – Arf! - Arf! – Arf! – Arf! Arf!

This Will Be Your Final Call

Arf! – Arf! - Arf! – Arf! – Arf!

The Hand Is Writing On the Wall

DON’T LAUGH AT IT; DO IT

OK we’re going to “simocast” with the blog for a while here. This morning I was out on the patio and I was just thinking how blessed I was to have a High Definition TV right in this room here and how in congrewous it was. I was wondering whether I really “deserved it” from a divine perspective. God gave me an answer from TV as soon as I got back inside. They were talking about paying off mortgages early to save intrest payments and should people do it. Suffering or going without in this life is rather similar from a spiritual standpoint to “paying down a mortgage early” in this life. The answer is that you should not do it if you’re buying your first house because that money could be put to much better use in the here and now paying off things like credit cards so those payments don’t escalate. And so there is your answer. Don’t think of the bye and bye when you won’t need the money as badly as you need it now. Last night I had another of those Burt Lombard dreams. As you know “Burt Lombard” is sort of a ficticious identity I assumed when I became a born again Christian though there are only a few snail mail letters to the media where I actually sign it Burt Lombard. “Burt Lombard” was born February 20^th. 1957 and is from Cincinatti, Ohio, just like Steve Johnson. In this dream I was on some sprawling religious “Campus” with lots of gardens and walkways and buildings and lots of stairs to go up and down. Most of the time I was with a croud people going somewhere for an activity. This was like an “Amazing Prophecies” campus or something where everybody believed in the Rapture of the faithful. I was getting that “Burt Lombard” feeling. You know a little bird has been whispering in my ear that I didn’t exactly get my new HDTV through prayer and fasting. (With my recent illness, maybe the fasting part a little) I have to ask myself “Would you have gotten that TV from parents five years ago?” As you know their usual modas opperandi is when they say No they mean No and sometime when they say Yes they mean No. This TV was a “No” as recently as a couple of weeks ago. They said I couldn’t get one. Hence we have a case of water actually flowing upstream. I remember when I was waiting outside the Dentist’s office on an overcast day in June of 2005 and I was talking or perhaps arguing with a representative from the Orion Federation. And they told me that there would be a fundamental change in relation between me and my parents when it came to economics in the coming future. The Federation wants me to give credit where credit is due. If something could NOT have happened five years ago the Federation just wants me to open my eyes and see what has changed. I’m thinking of that scene in the Jim Jones movie where Reverand Jones comes to Father Divine and says “I’ve been having money problems at my church. What do I do?” and Father Divine looks up to heaven and says “Just look to Father and ask. Just- - Ask. Father will provide”. You know, I’d like to be in his position. As some elder spokesman for a religion and people come to me and ask what should they do and I just gaze upwards to heaven and say “Just ask Father”. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to offer people reassurance and know that your words actually have traction.

Another answer I got from the television was one day I was listening to a preacher who made the statement “The night time is for sleeping”. The truth of this statement may not be readily apparent. Jesus in John 7 or somewhere says in response to people who were worried about muggers and robbers, “Are there not twelve hours in a day. If you walk in the light you are protected” or some such thing. “My father works and I too must work. The night is coming when no man can work”. I thought of this saying “The night is coming”. What does it mean? Does it mean that after Jesus gets crucified a horrible persecution will be unleashed so that nothing can be accomplished? Actually what it means that as long as you’re alive it is Day, and when it is Day you work and do the Lord’s service. When the night comes you sleep. In Thesselonians and elsewhere sleep is associated with death. Elsewhere St. Paul says, with perhaps false hope, “The night is far spent. The night is when people party and get drunk. But you are children of the Light”. I kind of think what he means is that the rapture is symbolic of the Dawn. So Jim Morrison is right in a symbolic sense. The rapture comes at Dawn, spiritual dawn. And we also know that as far as Genisis is concerned the dawn of a new day comes at Sumset. I would like to throw out this possibility for you. That the Rapture just might come at St. Patrick’s day at sunset. This is after we go on Daylight Savings Time.

I want to talk just a little about George’s Bush’s speech last night. If Rush Limbaugh were true to himself he’d say to put a sign on the front of your TV saying “This man is a confirmed liar” or some such thing. I guess what any Born Again Christian needs to know by instinct is “How to have Faith”. In this case – how do you have Faith in somebody who has proved unfaithful in the past? How do you develop anew that trust you may have had five years ago? People say “I know already Bush isn’t doing this build-up right”. If we take him at his word, and I trust the president WANTS us to take him at his word- - he wants us to know that he has talked to Meliki and how Meliki has pledged not to do what he’d done before and allow the Shiites to run rampant, but to work in an even-handed way to end sectarian violence. Once we clear an area can the Iraqi government and their own police force be trusted to maintain order? Can we “work together” to deligate duties so that we are all in concert getting a single job done? I think we can hope for that and pray for that. Bush believes if he just had another 22,000 troops he could properly deploy them so that all the bases were covered and there would be no “pup-ups” of violence like John Mc Cain talks about. How does John Mc Cain feel about this speech? Certainly from his statements Mc Cain wanted several times the number of troops we are going to send. Personally if I were president, and I’ve said this before, I would get on TV and tell the American people “I’m looking to You to help me to decide whether to further pursue this war. If we are going to prosecute this war properly we will have to reinstitute the national Draft. Your young men will be at risk, and there will be no deferments. Rich and Poor alike will share in this burden. Are you up to the task? With a Draft I can send the extra two hundred thousand troops we need to meet the required total number of $350,000 to insure that we get the job done. War should not be a thing where only a few people in the country sacrifice and the rest don’t care. The solution to a War is not to “Go Shopping” but rather for mutual national sacrifice, just like our grandparents did in World War II. Are you up to the task?” I’d ask for cards and letters to the White House telling me what to do. And if it was a thumbs down on the draft then I’d end the war and bring the troops home for some long needed rest and relaxation.

More of the Same Ol' Same Ol'

We won't learn much from President Bush on Wednesday night that we didn't already know. Obviously all that extra time he's taken to make his decision hasn't done any good. President Bush plans to increast troop strength by twenty thousand. This is despite the fact that even those who advocate a "surge" say it will take more like two hundred thousand to achieve the effect the President wants in Iraq, ie. to "pacify" the area. They have it all figured out to a scientific ratio to population to troops. Of course Bush isn't listening to either the hawks or the doves on this issue. I have no idea who he's listening to. For the longest time he insisted the generals were telling him we didn't need more troops. Generals Casey and Abasaid were saying we didn't need the extra troops and they said this as long as it made Bush happy. Now Bush has fired those two and put in two others who agree with his new policy. This doesn't seem like a very logical way to run a war. It used to be said the troop increase would only be for four months or so. Now those in the know are saying that increased number of troops, whatever it is, will be in Iraq for the remaining two years of Bush's adminestration and he can let the next President figure out what to do.

Congress isn't going to start their hundred hours till tomorrow. The Democrats plan to pass six major bills in one hundred hours and aren't allowing amendments by the Republicans to screw things up. Already they have made lobbying and earmarks reforms, which are good. It seeme tonight's game between Florida and Ohio State would somehow interfear with the hundred hours. I looked up on the internet which said the other Florida, Florida State beat UCLA, though some web cites didn't even think the game has been played yet. I still am not convinced this congress is going to do anything really novel or radical. Now we have the news that the late associate Justice Renquist was hooked in drugs his first ten or eleven years on the high bench. William Renquist was hooked on phylactid (?) darvon, and codeine. The FBI was inlisted to spy on and blackmail witnesses who would testify against Renquist as his confirmation hearings both in the early seventies and in the 1986 hearings for chief justice. Apparently Sen. Strom Thurmond asked Negroponte to do some stuff. They say that Renquist was constantly slurring his speech on the bench. I don't know what to make of all this. Every day we learn something more radical about our politicians than we knew the day before.

There is a lot of interest in the Kabbalah now, and they're advertizing it on the radio. The more research I do on the topic like in the Wickipedia and Q and A websites, the more I realize I don't know. Let me just say that according to the Federation the Kabbalah goes back to the days of Solomon. Reading "The secret passage of the lion" at the time of Abraham about 1800 BC there was Shem, Noah's son, who was the King of Salem, alias Jerusalem. And after him was Solomon. And it was said that the sons of Darda were those with spiritually elete knowledge. It says elsewhere that Zerah, of whom Darda was one of his sons, was the eldest of twin sons of Tammar, who were sired in a quazi incestuous relation with Judah. Tammar, the mother, tied a scarlet string around the finger of Zerah as he came out of the womb, then he retracted it and his brother Perez came out whole first, but Tammar said "Zerah is the oldest". Hence the dezignation of the Federation of the Zerahites and Dardanians as "The Elder Race". When they ended up going down to Egypt the Dardanians left by Sea first while the Perezites were still in Egypt and sailed to Grece and founded Troy. Later on these Dardanians fanned out Westward and became the Sephardic Jews. The Sephardic Jews are the "Medeteranian" or "Spanish Jews" of the middle ages and the ones most into the kabbalah. Zerah means "Golden Dawn" and I guess the study of the Goldn Dawn is a whole other branch of study, as are the Free Masons, but all three claim to have esoteric knowledge. They are all into spiritual spheres of the body much as chakras in Hinduism are, and are into mysterious number combinations. One article today went so far as to say Greek Mathmeticians got their knowledge from the Kabbalah. Others said Kaballah tradition goes all the way back to Adam. Others say it was a segment of the Mosiac law called the "oral tradition" meaning it was meant to be transmitted orally, whereas God espressly told Moses to write down the Torah, or written law. Since I don't know that much about the Kaballah or even which books they consider Sacred, I have little more to say except they believe in the four archangels, Michael (which means "Who is like God?) and also Gabrael, Raphael, and Uriel, which means "light bearer".

The following was typed Wednesday January 3rd.

This is after dinner. We had fish, rice, and salad and I had seconds. I went out to the bakery for a large coffee and John was there. I hope I left him enough coffee. I guess this is getting to be a “back to normal” day since there will be no football game on tonight and Al Franken is back on the radio. [Actually there was a FOX game with LSU defeating Notre Dame in the Sugar bowl. “According to Jim” made its return to the ABC airwaves last night] Another sign of back to normalcy is that there was a shooting at a High School in Washington state. Today is the eighth and presumably final day of mourning for President Ford. Sarah Jane Moore will be interviewed from her call at 5:30. Ford was laid to rest at sunset on a hill he had picked out himself outside his Presidential museum in Grand Rapids. Jimmy Carter claims that when the two were traveling together he never wanted the trip to end the time with Ford. There was of course a 21 gun salute and a 21 jet flyover in a missing man formation.

Of course congress presumably gets going tomorrow though I hear it will be partying and festivities. I’m with Ed Schultz. Enough of the balling and partying and let’s get on with the game, the task at hand. This congress can’t get going too soon in my book. Meanwhile Randy Rhodes, who spared us by not talking about her dog again today, lamented the death of Saddam Hussein. That’s been the one bright spot in the news lately, that Saddam was hanged and mocked and taunted by guards and the whole thing was tapes on a cell phone and put on the internet. That’s modern day enlightened news as it happened. For some reason Randy’s brain just isn’t plugged in today. She’s talking and lamenting how nobody knows the history of Saddam’s reign. She says the US supplied him with the Saran gas. I’m glad he’s dead. Remember what Vincent Bugliosi said about Charles Manson, “If you decline to give this man the death penalty he will laugh at you from inside his cell”. We’re all tired of looking at the guy’s face and it’s time to put him out with the rest of the garbage. I think Saddam, like Manson got more than a fair trial and exploited everything for his own propaganda purposes.

When the Past Meets the Future

This is a new year where the future collides with the past. As you know in dig.com they talked about this massive of Evangalical Christianity in the rest of the world other than “here”, meaning North America and Europe. Everybody else in the world seems to think fundamentalist Christianity is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The Moslems may have something to say about that. Meanwhile we have all these futuristic devices on the Today show like new ways to get your E mail and some small metallic device that can turn large objects into giant speakers. I can’t even begin to tell you how those work. We hear about Bose electronics that “whisper you to sleep” but nobody ever quotes a price. You have to take it on Paul Harvey’s word that these things reproduce sound better than anything else and apparently money is no object. Leo Le Port was chiding people, apparently like my blogs, who regurgitate the news to other readers rather than let the readers go to an outlet like world net daily or dig.com for their news. Well I’ll tell you I just might stick in more stuff about my personal life because that’s something the readers can’t get in other places. Leo was talking about how science is no longer charting a liniar progression path but there are often quantum surprises. If they ever isolate the graviton they will have discovered the warp principle. The graviton is a circular sub particle rather than a horseshoe style “string” that is “anchored” to something. Circular “strings” are free floating, which means their “influence” is lessoned. Someone likened the graviton not to billiard balls hitting each other, but rather the sound of the balls hitting each other. Science is and has discovered an awful lot of stuff that hasn’t made its way into the popular economy. Some things like cell phones and blackberries or viewing movies on your I pod seems so normal, and yet some of the more mundane chores in this world like unclogging toilets or mowing lawns or lubricating machinery- - are still things that need to be done. Religion is something that is still literally in the dark ages, and yet we expect it to compete in the world of today.

Today is December 31, 2006 and I was thinking of turning the Jesus Christ show on but I absentl-mindedly turned on the TV and Joel Olstein was on. I think we can learn a few lessons from his programs. Glen showed up with coffee while he was on. He remarked how young he looked. I guessed he was forty and Glen thought he was only thirty. He was saying how when you’re driving you have a great big windshield out in front of you protecting you from the oncoming wind, but there is only a little tiny rear view mirror. You’re supposed to spend most of your time looking out at what’s ahead of you. Joel says don’t look back at your sin. He mentioned how David while his son with Bathsheba was still alive drew a lot of prayers and moaning for deliverance but after the baby was taken by the Lord David put the whole affair behind him and moved on. This is perhaps what I should do with Christians in my past. He spoke of Caleb and how he asked God for a mountain when he was eighty and how it was the same dream he had when he was forty. If God makes a promise “The bill is still collectable”, so to speak. He spoke of how David’s older brothers tried to talk him out of fighting Goliath because he wasn’t qualified. Joel says not to let negative people around you interfere with your dreams, and also said “Even if you have good seed you need good ground to plant it in”. I’ll hold that thought. We had waffles for breakfast. It was those little round things and fortunately Richard gave me another because he didn’t want it.

This paragraph is being typed the next day, January 2nd. just after Ford's moving funeral at the national cathedral. That organ postlude thing had a lot of trippy chord progressions at the end. Of course I guess the congragaqtion are supposed to wait for the body to be escorted out first. I went out for a smoke. Of course there are benefits to actually being IN a wedding party. In the wedding I was in in October 1981 me and the Pastor's Wife were the third and fourth people out of the - - er - uh - - multi purpose room. Some people of course don't want a religious wedding at all prefering not to make a sacramental comitment before God for all eternity. I'm wondering if there is such a thing as a "secular funeral", where you want to celebrate the person's life but you're not really sure they're making it to heaven and don't want to speculate about that. This paragraph howsever is going to be one of those "Inquiring minds want to know" personal paragraphs so if you want to skip over it you can. On December 31st. 1992 on a Thursday afternoon I was coming back from the liquor store with either Colt 45 or the Blue Bull 24 oz. cans. I looked down the street seeing dark smoke and some teenagers saw my expression and said "Your house is on fire". It turned out the apartment complex I was in was on fire. A large swath of the west wall for two stories was blackened. Someone had set a car on fire and smoke was billowing into the air and wafting eastward. Ken had called Joe and Kathy even though they had just recently moved out. The cops were called and they suspected arson. If it was a car fire it must have been a big one. My parents were coming over later to take me to Denny's for my birthday. This tradition had started in 1990 when I turned forty and this was now the third year of doing it in 1992. I had written them a letter in which among other things I disputed my age, ie. my date of birth. I had developed a theory that I was actually born February 25th. and not Newyears Eve. (If I'd been born in England I'd be the next year already) There were some "anomalies" I wanted to talk over with parents. First of all at Christmas dinner my aunt's mother had been told I was due to be born soon and she looked at my mother and said "What are you giving birth to, a mouse?" Apparently she didn't look that pregnent to be due in a week. Then we have "the nine weeks". Nine weeks after I was born the doctor said I had to go to the hospital and quit nursing because something suspected was wrong with my brain. They later did a report saying I had "hypoplasia", which means under-developed brain. They said I'd have a bird head. This proved obviously to be untrue if anyone has seen me try on hats. I'm a real George Lopez contender. Photos of me as a very young baby aren't that comon and there's one labeled "five months" where I look awfully emaciated. When I was four years old there are two notations in my baby book around February 25th. One says "[he] had a good time earing birthday cake" and another one said "He talked about his birthday cake". Why would parents want me to be two months older than I was? I can think of one reason. There was a letter I had sent to parents in December 1992 covering four topics I had intended to write to four different people. I had been in ROP on and off from September 1990 to late February 1992 and gotten three completion cirtificates in Word Perfect, Lotus, and De Base IV. I could have gotten one in BASIC if they'd offered it since I was doing three dimensional arrays and later on graphics. Sometimes the "hopefull flook" can occur where you throw a can of paint against the wall and get a beautiful dezign. Another letter topic was the man from El Paso. Joe and Kathy's name came up. In court they consider the "excited utterance" admissable even though it would normally be considered heresay. Dad had said "You attack Joe and Kathy even though they care a lot for you and are concerned about you". (How would he know that) Admittedly my blog stuff kind of enphasizes the negative. Dad also misquoted a letter passage saying in respect to the Asshole from El Paso "There are places in Hell that are especially hot that are reserved for him" or some such thing. I never wrote that. I've said enough.

Tomorrow of course is Ford’s funeral. It will be the third out of four. Actually, Ford will be getting a longer mourning period than President Kennedy got. Of course we will be treated to more spiritual sentimentality and that’s all well and good. It’s nice to reflect on the workings of God even if you don’t believe in him now. It makes us reflect on our past. But things said at moments such as Funerals don’t necessarily reflect about the way they feel about the present, especially if you’re a President. Ford was a “steady hand” on the economy simply because things had “settled down” a bit from when he took office by the time he left. But to celebrate him for the Nixon pardon is kind of like a guy going through a money crisis and praises his personal Priest because he “gave him the personal strength to eat dog food, which he didn’t think he had.” He’s like a priest that gave a father the cajones to look his kids with holes in their shoes straight in the eye and tell them he can’t afford new ones. He’s like a priest who when your wife of fifteen years committed adultery and then sued you for divorce you decided not to contest the divorce because it might be “traumatic to the court system” but tell your four kids you and mommy wouldn’t be living together. People say that sacrifice and “sucking it up” as Caroline Brady says, is the height of religious piety. So if you’re an old lady rather than hand down those priceless family heirlooms to your kids, you give them to Gene Scott’s church. What an act of generosity! You ask “What does this have to do with national politics?” To quote Dylan again, “Money doesn’t talk; it snares”. The Church got rich because Priests had no children to leave their acquired wealth to so leave it to the church. You know that “bartering system” where you trade real wealth for the hope of a better hereafter” Of course you know a huckster on the street can’t be as hard up as he constantly claims to be; he just wants to make a quick sale- just as Gene Scott wasn’t “some poor desperate guy who needed our compassion and prayers”. He was a rich and getting richer guy laughing his ass off all the way to the bank. You know- - it is said that gay marriage won’t even be an issue with the generation following mine. If that’s true it means marriage will cease to be a “religious” act where God or scripture or covenants are involved in any way. Really President Ford’s passing is saying good-bye to an American era. The times they are a changing. There is a real chance that the republicans may go for Rudy-baby even if he is pro gay, anti guns, pro abortion and pro immigration. After all he’s not running for President as we know him but for Dictator. It’s this sort of fascist regime that Juliani wants to install that these right-wingers are looking forward to. You know, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter this country had never, and I repeat never elected a liberal Democrat on foreign policy. The last time we got close in 1968 the decision was made for us with an assassin’s bullet. The same thing might well occur again with Berock Obama. I’m just saying that the odds of a Hillary – Juliani contest are much higher than I might like to see. The republicans will go “left” if you call Musselini “left” and the democrats will swing right with fork-tongued Hillary Clinton. Let’s face it. Edwards is just too sincere to be President. If sincerity was a sinner he would have won four years ago. Like it or not we may still be a conservative nation despite the best Air America can do. Zel Miller shamed us all for even having hints of doubt about Bush’s war in Iraq and we all fell in line not wanting to be labeled as whooses. The polls really don’t bode as all well for the democrats. History teaches that democrats tend to lose ground as election time approaches and people lose their nerve retreating from those left wing protestations they may have registered in the primary. They say the race will be settled by February. If it’s Hillary and Rudy, the race could well be settled by February. Politicians have a history of quitting far before the delegate count would say they needed to. In Dylan’s words, “They just want to be on the side that’s winning”. People see politics as less an exercise in conscience and more “backing the right horse”, and of “making the right call” at Santa Anita racetrack.

Again they are saying in Iran that the Imam Mahadi will be returning, this time by the vernal equinox of this year. There is a possibility that we could see some gigantic upheaval or major regional war between the Shiites and the Sunnis, or between the “North” and the “South”. If “God” throws in with the “North” in this war than a lot of George Bush’s Arab friends could be crying in their beer. Obviously under such circumstances our President would need prayer because he might be in an agitated mental state. “Pushing the button” might just be an option the President would consider. It is said Iran wants to develop a Nuclear Bomb despite Iran’s repeated insistence they just want nuclear electric power. I don’t want to panic anyone, including myself, but there is a scenario people quote from Ezekiel in the Bible where people from the North- - and Iran and Syria are among these, come down and invade the south, and Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Yemen are among these. The general consensus is that the conflict is “settled” when those of the South set off a nuclear bomb. We have often heard that Bush doesn’t listen to his earthly father, or Collin Powel or Jerald Ford, but rather listens to his “father in heaven” like Jesus did. Jesus was perfectly willing to risk his own life to prove a point. There are things about George Bush I’d best not even say or think about too much. I could be getting ahead of myself. Things could always mellow out.