Et Tu? - A A R P

Well, A A R P the American Association of Retired People has come out in favor of accomodating Paul Ryan and John Boehner and the whole crowd in the Republican House by saying they'll go along with anything Congress passes and won't fight or lobby against it. This is a C change in the power struggle between the Young Turks and the population over 62 because without the aquiessence of A A R P it was doubted that any bill "reforming" Social Security could be passed. Now A A R P has agreed to a boost in withholding taxes, a rise in the retirement age, and also a cut in payments. So you could see the retirement age rise to seventy (after all people are living longer now) and maybe a ten percent cut in benefits, and maybe a hike to eight percent withholding from the current 4.5. percent. After all, you know, we have to "make up" for this year's cut. People know that change is coming and that things will never again "be like they used to be".

Syria has had its biggest protests ever with "tens of thousands" taking to the street to demand the downfall of Bashar Al Assad. Europe had been saying as of several months ago that they wanted to "netogiate" with Al Assad in an attempt to "draw him away from Iran". But now Europe is talking about imposing sanctions on Syria. They should think about doing more than that. As you know the threat here is Shiite Islam and if these two mega-powers get together who knows what hell could be unleashed. Nineteen protesters were killed in Friday's action. But now they say that the "security grip" on the nation is weakening, because the protests are growing in both numbers and ferocity Of course we know that "people are inclined to suffer injustice as long as such injustices are tollerable". Well, the Fourth of July is coming up.

Now they have some new hair dye product that really does what commercials have long liked to claim in that it "gets rid of the gray for all time". When this hair product is used on aging gray mice it turns their fur back to a vibrant, health black, that they had in their youth. The product works by adding protiens to link the hair follicle stem cell to the cells that determine the color of the hair. If the two "are not working together" the hair goes gray, but this product restores the all important pritien link. Of course the traditional hair dye people would love to spread a roomer that this product causes cancer or something so the FDA won't let it on the market. Now we are worried about cancer from suntan lotion, from the lotion itself. Also the government is saying while they block the ultraviolet B rays, most to nothing to stop the A rays, which don't burn like the B's but still cause cancer. Now they are posing the question of "which causes more cancer - eating an apple, drinking from a styroform cup, or talking on a cell phone?" Apparently the answer is none of the above but rather spending over six hours sitting and not getting up and walking around. If more people spent more time just standing and moving around and walking, they say cancer would but more dramatically than all three of these sources put together.

This has been the worst fire season throughout America ever. They say we have had TWICE as many fires in the first six months, than is normal for the entire year! The area of the forests now burning is six times the size of Rhode Island. It's mostly in the south in places like Arizona, Texas and Florida. I've been hearing about droughts in Florida, which sounds strange. Apparently they've been having a lot of dry lightning in Florida. Of course one never knows to the extent at which global warming has messed with our climate and made this one of the strangest weather years ever. They used to be concerned about pine beetles in forests in the Rockies, but I haven't heard that much about that one lately. Of course our prayers go out to all the brave firemen working all hours in harm's way on the front lines.

Today is June 17th which means the first day of summer will be soon. This week in June around here often sees more a dramatic change in the weather than we see in the previous two or three months. This was the case in 1971. I remember on June 7th of 1971 it was an overcast Monday and I did a speech on "Jesus Freaks" for the first time in a tape recording. I had gotten fed up with the continued mind games and I knew it was a topic I could no longer ignore. I believe it was days later that my brother Al came over with several new record albums including Santana III, the new Free album, and also Procol Herum's new album "Broken Baracades". In the title song Pete Richards remarked "This sounds just like the rapture". We didn't know what he was talking about. I gleaned it was about the end of the world. It was later that I learned it would only be the "disappearence" of Christians. There seems to be doubt whether you are raptured with your clothes on or not. Jesus Christ seems to indicate that you just "drop dead' and just your soul departs with the line when the desciples "Where, Lord" and Jesus says, "Where there is the dead body, the vultures will be gathered". It was very soon after this date that I established my own End of the World date of June 16th of 2007 in the mid afternoon. But if you've read a recent posting you know I have set a date of September 28th of this year, late in the evening. To me it's only rational that the body would remain behind. Of what use would a physical body be in heaven anyhow, or in "Hyperspace", as I refer to it as. Nobody has proved that you even possess an immortal soul separate from the body. One reason why I didn't argue for an afterlife in my book is that I had no scientific basis on which to base such an argument. I guess if you're an "intrigalist" to coin a new word, you would say your "conciousness" and your "Will" is an outgrowth of the biological organism, which is your brain and body. You only THINK you are something beyond this. But assuming you have an immortal soul as Catholics and others claim (though the Bible is vague about it) then the question arises why in a single day so many would be "Called Home" or whatever. And would the body just drop dead or do they zombie out with some other spiritual presence? And by the power of what Force is there the dissernment of Souls where you can say "this one will go up in the rapture and these others won't". This would imply that karma gives you some sort of "options" people with poorer karma don't have, and somehow you have the "power" either from yourself or permission of another, to leave your physical flesh habitation. I guess the topic needs more investigation.