Wednesday, December 24, 2014

My Christmas Message - 2014


Who’s to say whether I should do a posting today or not?   I’m sure people would much rather be celebrating Christmas joy with their families than reading my remarks.  Of course we do need to think about what it means to be a true Christian.  It’s “Peace on Earth – God will to men” and all of that.  We can always use more of that.  We have to hold out the Hope of that and this season is as good a time as any for doing that.  But as we were told in Church, true Christianity means doing a sacrifice of yourself.  In the Age of Rome they had bread and circuses, and a lot of their “circuses” were at the expense of Christians.  Amidst the gladiator games by convicts, the crowd I’m sure cheered when Christians were being thrown to the lions.  And as Thom Hartman says “Torture in the long run does not work”.   In the case with the Christians it’s not just torture but martyrdom, although on the way to martyrdom I’m sure there was a lot of torture, too.  People are prepared to die for an idea if it’s powerful enough.  Certainly the Leninists and other Russian Communists were willing to pay a high price in the body count- - to insure that their nation stayed true to its Communist doctrinal purity.  Of course we in America had Franklin Roosevelt.  Just as it’s argued that Jesus’ coming was Divine providence, could it not be argued that FDR’s coming was divine providence?  Would you not say that he was the right man for the right time and situation?  Interestingly it can be argued that Roosevelt did what he did in terms of the New Deal and all less because “he just loved poor people” but more to save Capitalism from its own greed, which eventually would destroy it.  There were the fascists on one side and the communists on the other, and FDR had to walk that middle path.   Jesus was billed as “The redeemer of Israel”.  Whether he did that I’ll leave to your particular feeling on the subject.  But I think we can argue that Roosevelt “redeemed” or “saved” capitalism.  Actually the fundamentalists themselves admit the startling fact that “We will never live to see the day that Israel is redeemed by Christ” because it happens after we’re gone, because the Rapture of the Faithful has taken place.  Of course if we follow the Neil Savedra (of KFI) doctrine, of how those in Heaven have no way to know what goes on down here on earth because they are in such a constant of euphoric Joy they wouldn’t care anyhow- - - following this logic- - - since it’s something that happens after you’ve died and have no way to prove it- - from a strictly subjective basis, it almost doesn’t matter whether it happens at all.  Yet we talk about it every Christmas how “Jesus was the born redeemer of Israel”.  Well that’s find for a baby dedication, but what about when the baby is three years old- - or six years old- - or older?   In other words- - what about the REST of Jesus’ life?  Some like Judy say ‘Jesus was born to die” and yet if we use a Dr Phil argument “The only reason why Jesus died is because he made a choice to violate a Jewish law that states that you can’t claim to be the Son of God without mighty powerful proof to back it up”.  I guess the proof - - if any, was insufficient.  So Dr Phil would be talking about “Owning your own actions” and “You only got the consequences of your own actions”.  I know that sounds highly blasphamus.  Well pardon me but we of the laity have been routinely “blamed” (after the Jews themselves) for “crucifying Jesus” and we were told that we owe our “redemption” to him.  It’s funny but I don’t feel “redeemed”.  If I am, I’d like to know just the minute it happened, and what proof of it can be offered.  That is- - how was my Life inexorably altered for the better from that moment on, as opposed to before I got said “redemption”?  I’m not trying to be a jerk or anything.  I’m just looking for an honest answer.

Just now after three Hal Sparks is coming on.  Janet and Paul were both talking about how “It just doesn’t feel like Christmas this year”.   People are psychological beings.  You can say that presents and money don’t matter but it’s the “Spirit of Christmas” that counts.  It’s easier said than done, deep down in the recessions of your soul “In places you don’t talk about, where the sun don’t shine” to quote Jack Nicholson.  It’s not just a question of whether I get any money for Christmas but it’s the whole “disfunctionality” of family relations in general that it weighting me down this holiday season.   This morning I had the Thom Hartman show replay from yesterday, but today’s segment was a rerun.  So I turned it to Buck Sexton on the radio and I’ll get to that in a minute.  Then it was the coffee outing in the courtyard.  We had two cups of coffee and I took one Snickers bar from the candy jar, and then put back the over-sized jaw breaker I’d also picked up, and got a “Twix” instead.  There was some kind of a “free raffle” but my slip only said “Merry Christmas” on it.  We had Shepherd’s pie for lunch, an intact piece of pie with a crust and everything.  Loretta says she likes that.  This guy on KFI has such a strange voice I didn’t know whether it was a man or a woman.  It was a real weirdo anyhow, and he babbled for the whole hour about useless trivia.  I guess it was supposed to get us all in the spirit of Christmas.  The Days of our Lives episode was the most outright depressing Christmas Eve episode I think they’ve ever had.  The whole sex thing between Eve and J J makes less than zero sense.  Sonny got a late night phone call with someone extracting still more money from him when he’s already squeezed to the max.  Maybe the Pope’s midnight service would get me into the Christmas spirit.  Too bad I can’t just zap myself there live.  Pope Francis has been attacking difficult social issues.  I wish him God’s speed, and realize he’s going to need it, because of the immense political pressure at least from the Pat Buchannon Catholics nipping at his heels.

Thom Hartman had an “Ayan Rand Christmas Card collection”.   Of course Hal Sparks reminds us that Paul Ryan is an avid Ayan Rand devotee.  Hal Sparks reminds too that Paul Ryan is a complete hypocrite in other ways and is not morally qualified to even make the classic “boot straps” conservative argument.   Jeb Bush will be cutting into Governor Christie’s financial support from “The Republican establishment”.  They asked Christie if he was going to mellow out his rhetoric any if he runs and he says “Heck no.  This is what I am!”  In terms of the Republican preference polls Mitt Romney is number one, over twenty percent.  Jeb Bush comes in at second choice for President at fifteen percent.  And all of the other conservative jokers you heard about like Rubio and Cruz, are way down from there.  Buck Sexton was in for Rush Limbaugh.  I had been looking forward to perhaps a little Rush Limbaugh Christmas music.  This Buck Sexton guy spews pure hatred.  He’s a classic venomous flame throwing spewer of racial hatred and had virtually no regard for the facts and his grip on reality is tenuous at best.  He claims to be a former government CIA Analyst.  If he’s the type of person our CIA is filled with, I fear for our country.  He throws everything together.  He says the protests over the Ferguson and NYPD police shootings are all tied in with “Occupy Wall Street” and it’s really all the same people going through “mindless zombie motions”.   He claims to have been right on top of all of these protests, so I guess he’s a New York resident.  (I thought he lived in San Diego)  He stressed how knowledgable he was about these protests.  He used an example of “What if the head of the tea party announced that they intended to kill a certain left wing politician, and then a few days later that politician was found killed” and asks “Would not the liberals link the two events together?”  The answer is of course they would.  But there is no real life situation that in any way relates to the scene Buck Sexton just described.   But then - - he drags in ISIS and says that all of these leftist groups - - ISIS, Occupy Wall Street, and the NYPD police death protestors- - are all working together and are orchestrated by the same “Saul Allinsky type tacticts.  And of course Hillary who is running for President - - and Saul Allinsky are good friends”.   I really felt that Ihad been slimed from even hearing all this stuff.  KEIB obviously has no shame in putting such complete garbage on the air.  Of course KEIB as a radio station is 35th in rating in radio stations, out of a total of 45 or something.  So it’s not like “Everyone in America” is listening to this nut case and somehow roaring their approval.

I happened to think of that Bible verse “a soft answer turneth away wrath”.  That scripture wouldn’t apply very well to President Obama.  He is the recipient of all sorts of vile invective and insult by the Republicans and he virtually never responds negatively to any of it.  Their fierce loathing and anger- resentment- - or him is not diminished one bit.  But a lot of things are not “like they’re supposed to be”.   Sean Hannity said that if we just got out act together and started drilling and extracting shale and fracking all over the place, we could drive the Saudis and OPEC out of business.  Never has there been a completely stupid remark.  The reason is because if the price of oil falls to twenty dollars a barrel, the Saudis and OPEC can still make a profit.  All these pipe dreams of Sean Hannity of promising young people starting out a life time of high wages in a carrier in the oil business- - are drowning in a sea of sludge.   There are those conservatives who warned you to get out of common stocks and into gold and silver.  Now gold is still where it was and the stock market just closed on a new high this Christmas Eve in this year’s “holyday rally”.   So those of you who listened to these right wing alarmists, “How’s that one working out for you?”   We hear endlessly that the reason why the economy is so sluggish is because of “all the new taxes and regulations that Obama has saddled business with”.   Judy complains about “businesses not making money in the first five years” and yet she has been in her Nutrition Product business for twenty years- - so I’m wondering what her excuse is for not making money, if indeed that is the case.  We hear from her endlessly about all of the forms and quarterly reports she has to fill out.   Is she telling me that while Bush was in power none of this was the case?  Buck Sexton on his final call of the show today fielded a caller who was in the military and training Iraqi Air Force pilots.  His words were a little confusing because he says “The Iraqis call the United States - - the friendly side”.  (As opposed to Al Qaeda, I suppose)  But he then slips this barb in at Obama saying “But the President campaigned on a platform of pulling us out of Iraq and so he yanked the rug out from under us leaving these new trainees to languish and eventually to fail”.  I got to thinking about this.  They are being trained, supposedly for three years under President Bush, and two and a half more years under President Obama till summer of 2011 and they’re blaming US because they fell to ISIS troops so quickly?  It’s hard to relate to right wingers because at Thom Hartman puts it, “It’s so rare when you ever hear an honest, consistent argument from these people”.  You just can’t respect them.

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