The Republican Debate- Blow by Blow

Today is November 29, 2007 and tomorrow is the fortieth anniversary of the release of the album, “Magical Mystery Tour”. Last night the Republicans held another debate, the one sponsored by You-Tube. I tried to get it on You-Tube but apparently you have to subscribe, so I switched to CNN. Huckibee was speaking when I joined, and they soon had their first break. Apparently they had started before six. They ran till about ten after seven. I think at that time CNN separated from the You-Tube portion of the coverage. Let’s cover some of the issues. Giuliani accused Romney of hiring illegal aliens to work on his yard and Romney countered by saying that the individual workers were hired by the company and the detales of their employment were not his immediate concern, and in this I agree with Romney. Romney pointed out Giuliani’s statement about “If you’re an illegal alien we want you to come to New York”. Another issue was the death penalty and Huckibee was asked “What would Jesus say about this?” Huckibee countered that Jesus would be too smart to run for a political office. This quip struck a chord in me because back thirty years ago everybody in my social circle was expecting the Rapture to come and this world was “All going to burn” anyhow. They say that when you extend the political spectrum fringe enough, the extremes meet on the far side of the circle. Back when I was young, in my twenties, there wasn’t a lot of talk about the Moral Majority. They couldn’t be all that spiritual if they were concerned about the Here and Now, and when my Prophecy book came out endourcing Reagan, it was just Way too Political. I was one of the first Christians to come out against Jimmy Carter, in fact I voted for Ford. All Carter had to say was “Born Again” and he had instant followers. Jesus may have thought he was “smart” not running for office or being involved in worldly affairs but as a Jew did he also approve of the avalanche of anti-Semitism unleashed upon the nation of Israel by the Church at Rome? The next issue to come up was torture, and in this case the debate was a key deciding point for me. John Mc Cain is the only one other than perhaps Ron Paul, to come out firmly and resolutely against torture and water-boarding. If none of the other candidates had the gonads to take this stance then they aren’t getting my vote. Abortion came up. Fred Thompson in his video took a shot at Mit Romney for saying abortions should be safe, legal, and rare. I can’t go for Romney. He’s too much of a poser. What he’s doing is bordering on pandering to the political right saying in essence, “Whatever position you take, I’m to the right of you”. Huckibee is gaining on Romney and I believe the reason why is that he appears more human. Finally there was a question on homosexuals in the military. The guy turned out to be a plant from the Hillary Clinton campaign. If nothing else this is a reminder never to vote for Hillary. What irritated me was that every candidate up there answered the question in careful, detailed fashion, and Duncan Hunter was grilled about his belief “The military will change when the culture changes and they adjust with it”. That’s what I’d call a sensible answer. It may not be relivant twenty years from now whether a trooper is gay or not. But The questioner got more agitated and said “I have not heard a satisfactory answer from anybody up there- do you look forward to the day when gays are freely in the military”. The thing is, the guy wasn’t asking questions so much as he was preaching to us. He was irritating, and at one point is microphone was cut off, then turned back on.

STATE SECRETS

Randy Rhodes has made this kind of a crusade of hers, and I hope she keeps it up. As you know Valerie Wilson had a lot of stuff from her new book "redacted" by the CIA because it was classified information. She wants to show how she was screwed over by giving a blow by blow description, but the government won't allow her to do that. It seems kind of an oxy-moronism that they say she was NOT a covert agent, but in order for Valerie to prove that she was, she has to violate "state secrets". Of course Larry Elder doesn't like stories of torture of prisoners or abductees getting into the public press. But the question comes up just who they are keeping the torture secret from. The victim certainly knows he was tortured. Randi says that in addition to all of these "renderings" to secret locations, even the people in Guantanamo Bay were tortured and that is a "state secret" too. This is deemed the case even though reports of it are comon knowledge and reports of cases have appeared in the New York Times. Randi also has noted that of all the people who are "suspects" according to the government, including people on the No Fly list- - almost none of the people who have been charged with a crime have actually had their day in court. I guess only two of the people in Guantanamo Bay of the seven hundred prisoners once there and the three hundred eventually released- - of the four hundred odd left, only two have had their day in court, so that fifteen year old Iraqi terrorist can count himself lucky his case is at least coming up. What certainly turned me against considering Mit Romney to get my vote is his statement that none of these prisoners are entitled to any civil rights. And of course I guess we have rules that if we are "at war" then the prisoners have the right to be held as prisoners, if not tortur-ees, till at least the end of that war. Of course American Citizens have been targeted as "enemy combatents" by the Bush Adminestration. Whoever is running for President should address and stress these issues as things for the next president to deal with. Fred Thompson and others still speak of the war as something which is going to go on forever because WHENEVER we withdraw will be "too soon" and we will be "admitting defeat" and of course the Taliban will "follow us over here". People like Larry Elder want us to be "At War" all the time, as a pretext for violating the rights of American Citizens.

Sometimes you get a royal screwing by the government. This is one area where you'd think the libertarian argument would kick in about private enterptize being superior because at least THEY are accountable to their customers, and they don't want to lose a valued customer due to some unfortunate coincidence of event or misunderstanding. I've had problems with my ex internet provider in the past few days. We'll just call them the Neeto-Keno internet company. They conned me into paying a thirty dollar fee for duplicate E mail address. When I called a few days later on November 19th. saying I wanted to cancle the service that was to have started on November 24th. they agreed. They had reminded me, "Of course you know you are already paid up for full service till the 24th." So when I went to the A T M machine on the nineteenth to withdraw money and saw about $29.00 missing from my account, I naturally figured it was the phone bill I had sent off a few days earlier. It's a case of hearing hoof beats and assuming it's horses and not Zebras. In this case it turned out to be Zebras. The Neeto-Keno internet company had made an illegal withdrawal from my account, and they did not put it back. As a consequence I bounced a check and am not out sixty dollars, for a service I didn't want or need anyhow. In the case of the government this screwing-over took the form of people who had enlisted in the Armed Forces betting a reinlistment bonus check. But when they got in for another tour of duty in Iraq they were wounded and had to exit the Military sooner than they had planned, before their tour of duty was up. So they were billed for their enlistment bonus. This messing over of vetterans in hospital beds fighting for their lives in some cases, is heartless and inexcusable beyond belief. Of course you've heard of enlistees being billed for their own equipment. I think Randi Rhodes is right. The backbone of the Army is being broken and we're turning over the defense of our country to corporate stooges, at taxpayer's expense.

GUY OWENS VERSES MARK CAMPBELL

I don't know if you've ever had the feeling that someone was trying to assume your identity and take over your life. As you may know, Chuck Smith made the prediction a while back that the Rapture of the Church would absolutely come on or before May 10th. 1981. As this date approached Mark Campbell decided to write a song for the occasion, "How Late Thou Art" based upon the church hymn. This song talks about graves and some of the Abbey Road mythology. Oddly the song came out just a few days before the attempted assasenation of Pope John Paul II in May of 1981. The song is kind of image filled and was inspired in part by that "Death of John the Baptist" photo in some book about a TV movie, where the camera is looking up from a grave as four desciples are throwing handfulls of dirt into the grave. The shot has a vague resemblance to the Rubber Soul cover. There were also bits in the song intended as a jab at me because of my belief in astrology and "signs of the end that were coming", and the whole religious spell I was under. There was even a jab at Zachery and the ZAC in this song. By early 1984 things had changed completely. I was now no longer living in the Bosc house but was over on Pinewood. I was letting Mark Campbell take over the media mailings and he did it almost exclusively in 1982 and early 1983. He did a better job of it then I ever could. He had moved into my old bedroom at the Bosc house and I felt he was "becomming me". Whenever Dick and Robin and Zachery came over to the Bosc house they were always times when I wasn't there. So Bobby and Pike and Jim saw Zachery but I didn't after October of 1981. I was feeling Jealous of Mark and I kind of re-did the lyrics to "No Imagination" by Blondie. Two changes come right to mind. I wrote 'I don't want to stay with you, I don't want to play with you" and another change is "Eyes that Mimic innocence". I was kind of saying in early 1984, "screw you and screw the ZAC". Meanwhile in 1982 there were things in the letters like I had committed suicide in late November of 1981 by being run over by a railroad on the tracks at Lincoln Avenue by the Freeway. Those of you who've read my Word files from summer 2004 know that Martin Owens was my adoptive grandfather, my father's father, after his biological father flaked out in 1925 at the age of two. My grandmother was originally from- - somewhere around northern Mississippi, we'll leave it at that. She moved to Oklahoma (this was before the days of the dust bowl) along with the older half-sibblings and older brother. There she met Martin Owens who worked on an oil rig. Oddly enough the two boys did not take the last name of the new husband because my grandmother had this fixation that the biological father was really a rich man and had lots of money stashed away, and if the kids kept his last name one day they could claim it. That never happened. Martin Owens died of a heart attack while at work on an oil rig during World War II while pop (or should I say "sunny") was off in the Pacific.

The Political Circus

The big news is that Giuliani has sunk to fourth place among the Republicans. Even the mayor friendly media was saying if he cane in third in Iowa he'd win the nomination, and now he's not even doing that. Fred Thompson is beating him. Huckibee is second place. He was interviewed on CNN last week right after Romney. The deal breaker with him is his regressive 23% consumer sales tax that will impact the poor relitively the most. Huckibee went on Chris Matthews last week and stated that he doesn't like the idea that President Bush lied to Scott MeLellon about the outing of Valerie Wilson. How interesting it is how fast THAT story was buried by the media. You would think an admission like that by a Press Secretary would be front page news, but it wasn't. And neither was one of these stories that was repeated ad nausium like how the stores will be doing on Black Friday. At least Huckibee is an honist conservative. He has a continence. It's amazing how many "dirty conservatives" there are out there. Conservatives used to stand for clean government. In fact once upon a time the Republican party used to stand for clean government as opposed to the corrupt leadership of democratic big city political bosses with their political machines. Those days are long gone. What is equally overlooked is even if Bush were guilty of no other crime, this alone would stand as an impeachable offence. I'm getting tired of hearing things such as "We don't have the time" or "we hare other priorities". All the time you are hearing stuff in the news about how this or that permission to violate our rights was just granted by Congress. You know what they say. "Time is all you have". There is nothing else conceivable to congress that would be a better usage of their time than restoring respect for the US Constitution. I could reccomend that you read all three of John Dean's latest books, though I must confess I haven't read them myself, particularly the one about the three branches of government being broken.

I've been reading Jimmy Carter's book on the screwing over of the Palistinian people. Even the deals that look good when summarized in the US press really have negative implications for the Palistinians. Israel didn't really accelerate their settlements in Palistinian territory till the mid 'nineties. And they say there is a "foot print" around the settlements where Palistinians are not allowed. You have The Wall, that is built entirely on Palistinian territory by a foreign government with its security zones. You have things in treaties like how the electronic air waves belong to Israel. Also there are vast amounts of Palistian lands- - from the map it looked like half the territory, that the Isriali government as "appropriated". It's not enough that Palistinians have to go through all these checkpoints to get from point A to point B within their own nation because the land is so fragmented, often the check points are closed down and they aren't allowed to get through at all. Of course Carter's biggest complaint is that Palistianians are dealt with as a second class people in their own land much as Blacks were in South Africa. Carter points out that much of the press coverage of the Mideast situation, and certainly what I've heard from the Evangelical Right, has been inaccurate and unfair to the Palistinians.

On the democratic side the best they can say is that now Hillary is in a tight race, even though she's four points down to O Bama. But the other statistics are much worse for Hillary. She trails Obama even among women. It's only among single women that she leads. If Oprah Winfrey has anything to say about it she won't be winning even here. The better the people of Iowa get to know Hillary and Obama, the more they like Obama, and the more they dislike Hillary. This trend can only continue. Polls indicate that Hillary is lacking in the truth telling department and that people rate Honesty among the highest virtues they are looking for in a candidate. These polls also indicate that freshness and "a new beginning" trumps experiance every time. The same things Hillary is saying about O Bama about experiance, Nixon in 1960 said about Jack Kennedy, and we know how far it got him. Of course it's seldom now that John Edward's name ever comes up. If you're looking for a candidate with Experiance AND credibility, John Edwards is your logical choice, and indeed, Edwards consistently leads in polls that liberal call in stations conduct. Bill Richardson has the most credible position on the Iraq War. This notion needs to be refuted that the Democrats, as a party are for failure in Iraq. On the contrary they are saying that the best way to deal with the situation there now is to put pressure on the Meliki government to get their act together and also use diplomatic tools to coordenate with Syria and Iran. Also it's pointed out that when the British withdraw troops from Bosera, violence actually dropped in that area. Of course now the Austrailian government has changed hands and one less nation will be supporting our policies in Iraq. Richardson is the only major candidate who is truely committed to Ending his war. Republicans don't want the war to ever end. It will Always be the "wrong time to withdraw" our troops in their sight. It's pointed out that Mc Cain is actually to the right of Romney and Giuliani on both the abortion and immigration issues when you look at the stands Romney and Giuliani have taken in the past. Perhaps what should happen is that Mc Cain and Richardson should be the nominees. That way you will get an honist and frank discussion of the issues. Hillary is a polarizing candidate. She would be the worst choice those people who are enlightened agree. She would be the great unifier of Republican forces. She's had "experiance" like an old boxer that hears any bell and comes out punching on reflex alone. This political jousting is not always the best way to solve real problems. What appeals to me about Richardson is that he wants to talk about The Issues. Most liberals would like a dialog on The Issues and cut out this petty political bickering the media so likes to foster.

How does Jesus Christ stack up as a Christian when you look at the Bible? This sounds like a silly question but I'm talking about the Jesus on KFI. First of all Jesus said prayer is something you do in public to impress other people, both Christian and unbeliever alike. It is not something you do when you really Expect an answer. Indeed expecting "God" to do anything for you is kind of anathama to the modern Christian like at Calvary. Basically their idealized prayer is to thank God for things like how they aren't a sinner and how God has favored them over their rivals in the work place. Christians and Jesus, too believe that the chief appeal to "Witness" is NOT to quote from the Bible. In fact they have names for people who quote the Bible. They call them "Biblolitrists" (Gene Scott's term) or else "Letterists". I looked it up and there's no such word but Walter Martin uses it. A Christian is supposed to have an inner pride, such as that he doesn't need to pray to God for anything. This looking to God is to them a sign of "immaturety" in others. They don't need God's gifts, such as prophecy or tongues. They're really too "good" for that sort of thing and look at the noses of others who seek these gifts. They look upon the poor and see "Well, it would be wrong to interfear with the path God has them on". And "God has them on a path and knows what he's doing and if I were to give a hand-out I'd be interfearing with God's plan for their lives". (At other times, Jesus merely refers to the needy as "Swine") When you look at things, how different if what Jesus and Gene refer to as the ideal Christian, who sound the trumpet before they give an offering and size definitely takes precidence over sacrifice, how different is this "idealized Christian" who speaks of "Instilling a Godly jealousy in others" when they see your priveleged and bless life with your wife, your, kids, your money and your respectability- - how different is this from say the Priest and the Levite who would not help the injured sougerner on the road to Jerocho in the parable of the good Semaritan? How different is he from the Rich Man in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus. Remember that both these were "religious men". So they all are "religious men". Indeed two of my favorite new testiment sayings against "religious men" is the one about "You travel the sands of the desert to win One convert, and when you have won him you make him twice the child of Hell you yourselves are". (I think of children of Born Agains and the Jesus gene) The other saying is "You lock the kingdom of God in men's faces, yet you yourselves will not go in". I don't know whether this means the volitional WILL or the predictive WILL. It really doesn't make any difference. I believe either translation is correct. They refuse to enter into God's true Kingdom AND when they die they will discover that they then CANNOT go there. (Selah)

There are a few Beatle Anthology songs I think should have been used on official album releases rather than the ones that were. For instance, "All Things Must Pass". I much prefer the version on Anthology III with its lone guitar rather than the schmalts up version on the album. Another candidate is "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". I think the accoustic version is better. Also in the case of O-bla-dee-o-blad-dah, the Anthology version is a hundred percent better. In like matter versions of "I Me Mine" and "Good Night" are better on Anthology. A song like Sexy Sadie, you could go either way. (no that isn't a suggestion) It's almost as if tword the end the Beatles perhaps lost their touch about what a finished song would ideally sound like.

For What It's Worth

You may remember that scene in "Rosemary's Baby" where Mia Ferrow is on this boat and having all these other wild hillucenations from that tannis root she took, and she cries out "This isn't a dream, this is really happening". Have you ever had a dream where you woke and had the dreadful thought, "This dream really happened- - sometime". I had a dream like this the other night where I was in an insane assylum and about to be "punished" by the authorities. I had a lot of disturbing flashback type dreams in mid summer of 1985 that I was sure "Really happened" at sometime in the past. Do you remember what ELO's last hit was? Yes, it was "Hold on Tight to your dreams". Perhaps it's best to hold the reins a little loosely on some dreams. You've heard about the Four Thousand Holes of Lankishire. But which one of those holes represents the REAL universe- as opposed to all the others? You know there are parrellel universes and oblique universes and maybe even perpendicular universes. This is a Universe that exists in a flash of time and has no provable reality before the intersecting plane, or just after it, but only for that one moment. Some say death and heaven may be like this. In like manner our Universe would only have a momentary flash of reality to those people, but otherwise we would have no existance. Just what is "Sideways Time"? You can imagine it, but what is it? Maybe you know what it is but can you really imagine it.

A few days ago some Christian Right friends of mine came out and endourced Mit Romney for President. But when I tried to go to Mit Romney's web site yesterday it crashed my computer. I asked the Federation about what they thought of Mit Romney now. They told me their battle was no longer with the Centaurians, whom I deal with. Also the Federation has had a soft spot for Mormons. This dates back to the time when Zachery was seen as the annointed one and the owners of the ZAC house were Mormons in Las Vegas that gave us a good rental rate. After I moved out of the ZAC house about the first of November 1978 the rent I paid almost doubled. At the same time I was having an economic "crisis" I won't go into. But for the next eight or nine months I lived on my stored up savings, which became depleted. At about the same time I began having dental problems. In fact, looking back on it late October of 1978 would have been the perfect time for the Rapture of the Saints to take place, if it were going to. You can almost "Prove" the rapture had to take place then. ELO's latest album was called "Out of the Blue" and their next album in 1979 was called "Discovery" because those saints left were looking for a message from on high to guide them and "Discovered" ELO song lyrics. Besides this after "Out of the Blue" several members dropped out of the band so that "proves" the Rapture took place right there. Besides this there was a book out called The Crash of 1979. There was also a book out called Conclave, about picking a contraversial Pope. Just how was John Paul I really done in? Was he murdered? What if Pope John Paul II had turned out to be totally corrupt? In February of 1978 I wrote a story in snail mail predicting that the govt. of Iran would be overthrown, which it was in late 1978. Also the church I was in split about in half in late October of 1978. April 30th. 1978 was the last day my Dad ever took family movies of us. Of course if the rapture took place we wouldn't be on earth. Jonestown took place in November of 1978. Also in early December 1978 I wrote the germ of a story that later became the novel, "For What It's Worth" in March of 1979. The plot involves the Rapture taking place in late October 1978. Of course Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Who's to say they wouldn't have kept on going like Chuck Smith and the Bible say, and taken over all of the Mideast, till God nukes them from heaven. You see, there's actually a lot of evidence the rapture took place in late October 1978. With all the evidence we've given you here, how can you come to any other conclusion?

CNN now has a raging conservative. I don't know how long he's been on the station but he is ravidly anti immigration- - and like Romney wants any state that shows compassion for immigrents to be severely punished by the government. Also he had John Boulton on, who wrote that book saying the thing wrong with Bush's foreign policy was that there were too many carrier liberals in the State Department. There's too much cultural infiltration. Our nation is not ego centric enough. Didn't you know, there is no finer leader than Mushariff, and he is the most qualified man in the land to crack down on Al Qaida. This comentator also is virelently anti Global Warming politics. He thinks Global Warming is a giant left wing conspiracy. None of the scientists have any cradibility and they are all Al Gore pooitical hacks. This is what the other side is saying. Randy Rhodes has pointed out that the crowd at the latest democratic debate in Las Vegas was stacked with Hillary people and they booed O Bama and Edwards when they said stuff that was too enlightened. I don't think RR likes the idea of CNN picking our next nominee. And today we learn that despite this, Hillary is slipping in the polls and it looks like O Bama may be the victor. But if the race is Romney and Hillary I think the lines will be drawn and liberalism can be put to a fair test. I honestly have not made up my mind for any hypothetical line-up, except I think I'll go for Romney in the primary because he best represents social conservativism. Giuliani is doing a melt-down in case you are wondering about him. My friends on the right wing don't like him either, and for a lot of the same reasons.

That Drew Peterson fellow has murdered two wives or something. He is an Illinois police officer who murdered his third wife it appears, even though they ruled it an accident. Now there is a question about his fourth wife, a sweet young thing. This could be the murder case of the year that we will be looking at in 2008.

Injustice abounds in government. The FBI for decades has been using this bogus lead analisis to acertain where bullets from crime scenes came from where normal bullistics cannot match the bullet with the gun. They first tried this "science" in the Kennedy Assasenation. Now this bogus science of chemical analisis of lead has convicted hundreds of people. There are at least a dozen cases where suspects were clearly wrongly convicted. They can't match the bullet with the gun that fired it from chemical analisis because often bullets in the same box are hetrogenious in make-up of their lead. Also there are "matches" to bullets far from the crime scene. Now the FBI is going to come clean on this issue. Let's hope they do. Also our government is in the business of convicting fifteen year old Moslem boys for "War Crimes". Some would say War itself is a crime. But this fifteen year old Afghan boy is a victim of his family and cultural morays and should not be blamed, or thrown in Guantanamo prison. But they say he's lucky he's even having his day in Court because most people in Guantanamo have yet to see a court date with a judge. By the way people in Iowa don't trust Hillary. We don't know if she's going to keep her word on anything. If you want change in the way our government opperates my advice is to vote for someone besides Hillary.

The fat police are after you now. They are demanding that certain large fast food chains post their calories, but that other fast food outlets don't have to say zip. Ones like Wendy's and Mc Donalds and Burger King are the ones who are subject to this government proctology exam. Many sites such as Subway have pointed to the inadvisability of listing calories because there are somany conbinations of foods people can order. I'm against the whole principle of the thing just like I am with smoking. Today they want to regulate it. Tomorrow they'll ban foods with a lot of calories. I wouldn't encourage the government in their "simple thing they want you to do" of listing calories on menus. People can find nutritional material if they want to exercise even a minimum amount of effort to look on internet sites and elsewhere. Now they're saying that younger women are dying of heart attacks more. Anything to scare us all.

We were going to close with some scary quotes from Hillary Clinton but we ran into technical difficulties when I tried to paste the stuff over. Hillary Clinton was compared to all the leading dictators of the twentieth century and the tag line is "I bet you can't tell the difference", just as Rush pointed out you couldn't tell the difference between Al Gore's writings and those of convicted murderer Ted Kazinski in his "manifesto". Ta ta!

The Moral Scurge of Materialism

We've all seen the Ten Commandments movie where Moses is talking to Zephera and she says, "Our lips may not be all painted up like the Egyptian women, but they speak the truth". Elsewhere in the movie it even says "Physical beauty is but a curse to our women". It's not just the notion of sexual defilement by an Egyptian overlord, but the whole lure of the materialistic culture that the women will get sucked up into. Back when this country was being formed we believed that work for work's sake was a good thing and that you should in the words of the Apostle Paul, serve your boss joyfully, working hard, and by doing so bringing honor to God. Certainly in my generation with its high unemployment during the seventies, if you got a job you were grateful to have one, and you did everything you could to hang on to it. How different it is with today's generation of "youngsters" with their blackberries, PDA's and I Pods, and taking time off work early to attend their Yoga classes. Did you see that episode of Sixty Minutes the other night. This younger generation is so full of themselves you can't believe it. But it's only an extremely pampered and watched over ("like fine china", as they have previously said) generation where losing is not in their vocabulary. They were taught in school that competetion was a bad thing and more than that - - anyone who criticized you was a BAD person. I ran into some of this with Nicholas myself. This is the Mr. Rogers generation where Mr. Rogers told you "You are special". This generation believes it and thinks any employer should be thrilled to hire them. Of course Christian young people are told they are "special", too, and Mr. Rogers is a Christian. Christians love to complain about their work- - all the time. They just pick, pick, pick no end about their jobs. And they love to gossip, too. I remember one time in early 1074 where I and a date went into a resturant after seeing the Exorcist. And the service was terrible because the waitresses were Christians. This younger generation has never experianced a real recession like we had in 1974 or in 1980 - 1982. They think the world owes them everything and aren't shy about asking for it. In some ways you can envy them. It's every man who has dreamed of saying to his boss, "Take this job and shove it". In 99% of the cases it's a very unwise thing to do. In some ways Thom Hartman and Randy Rhodes are full of it. Not to disparage their analisis of the economy or anything but our expectations are so high now we forget what the real world is like. We seem to regard having the fastest cable computer around and giant screen TV as well as every manner of exotic health foods as somehow normal and that everyone has the money to throw around on these things. Now they have these cars that talk back to you and to whom you can give oral directions to drive a certain place or to play a certain song and rescue with GPS if you get lost. Thom Hartman says we aren't even paying for gasoline what we ought to and prices were still relatively higher in 1979 than they are today despite the increase. In Bob Dylan's words, "If you're so hurt, why don't you show it". We keep on driving more and more, and our pocket books don't mind a bit, and we expect to spend even more this year. The negative savings rate in this country is alarming but that's for another day. People invest in mortgages and trade in houses like trading stamps. They regard these flexible mortgages as a big game and wonder why they get burned. They shouldn't bail people out for foolishness. I'm a big believer that actions should have consequences. Ironically this is one of my big beefs with Christianity in that they see "The World" as "Evil" so you can go out there and act like a total asshole and then wonder why everybody hates you and go back to your church and whine about it. I think the whole idea of self examination and introspection is a lost art.

Another danger of unfettered materialism is that it numbs us to the reality of news and political events. There is so much "entertainment" out there, this entertainment supplants the real world. Soap opera people become our "best friends" and the war in Troy or Pursia or some other far away place long ago supplants the war in Iraq going on today. Obviously people are too distracted while they are driving. I can't help think that all this distraction detracts from their work on the job performance. But my point is that we are not thinking about the big issues such as civil liberties. In China and to a lesser degree in Russia, they are trading their civil liberties for a new car or new pair of shoes. As long as they are well off with a lot of "things" to boast of, they feel "safe" and not threatened by their government, which denies even basic civil liberties. Now we are seeing the same thing starting to happen in this country. Randy Rhodes said on her show today (or was it Hartman?) how come Republicans hire these advertizing consultents to help word speeches so that bad concepts appeal to the American people, but the democrats struggle over their basic message of egalitarianism. I was going to call this article "Greed, the scurge of the right wing and the need for egalitarianism". Too many words. But it's true. Personally I'm not big on national health care as you know. I think if we try it it will end up in a major disaster where everybody pays double taxes and still doesn't get the kind of coverage they expect. Apparently health care isn't working at all well in Canada. But that said I DO admire the concept of government health care. I see the rationalle for it. And it almost seems like a good idea. I think Thom Hartman is being Biblical when he says the economy is to better society, and not the other way around. I believe their is a Biblical moral element to economic activity. I think it wouldn't hurt us for all of us to adopt more Spartan values, even if Pursia isn't knocking at the door. (And it just might be) I think Jerry Browns ideas are good ones. I think it's a good idea to live a more Spartan, "earth friendly" life. If we walk more or ride our bikes we will be healthier and may be better spiritually, too. As you know I think there is too much enphasis on alcohol consumption in soap operas. I think more of us need to get politically involved with organizations, and in some cases to grow a contience to begin with. I also believe in the Jeffersonian concept of the educated voter. I also encourage you to listen to that John Edwards speech given at that democratic dinner.

Finally there is the whole way in which privatization has ruined us as a society, and yes, Thom, I'm actually saying it. We can't use taxpayer money to fund private organizations. We can't have these No Big contracts we've been having. Harry Truman is right. War profiteering is an offence to everyone. It's an offence to God. Now we have these deals with the phone company where the governments puts in signal splitters so they can minotor our E mails and phone calls. Chelsea on Days of our Lives once redirected E mail from a certain person to her, where she could read it and change or rewrite it if she felt like it, and then send it on as though it came from the other person. Don't think our government isn't tempted to try this. This whole idea in the schools of "teaching to the Test" is one I finally "Get" now. It seems if you take these tests such as SAT they only ask you about reading, grammar and math. Apparently you could be a total ignoramus on such areas as history or geography and have no concept about how our government works. It seems there is a "perfect story" that everyone learns to write. I would imagine they don't grade on original abstract concepts. If this is the case that they are indeed "dumbing downour kids" we need to put a stop to No Child Left Behind immediately. I encourage everyone to listen to the Randy Rhodes show because she says things much more in depth than I can here. Our whole perception of ourselves as a people has been altered by the Republicans. We've been using words they brainwashed us with to describe and think of ourselves, and we wonder why we aren't effective. Christianity does the same thing to you. You use their words, as though somehow forgot your own. We need to "take the battle to the enemy" and we need a candidate (John Edwards) who can run an assirtive and persistent campaign. We need a candidate who won't back down or back-track in his words under pressure. I believe we also need a person who is morally grounded in "God" however you chose to define him. OK, I'll define it. I speak of "God" as a moral force I think we all at one time were alive to and it's a cause that's still stirring in many of us right now. We know what we need to do. To rephrase scripture "Perfect Morality Casteth out all Fear".

I hope O J Simpson gets the book thrown at him. I think we pretty much know what happened now and who said what to whom. O J's karma is finally catching up to him! Sianara!

Running Out Of Time

It seems that we are ready to move to another post. I would like to welcome all casual readers to this blog. Hopefully you will find something interesting here that will turn you into regular readers. In the news we have the Vetterans Day parade in Long Beach where certain veterans will not be allowed to march this year. Veterans Day parades are to honor all veterans who fought in a war defending America around the world and who gave up two or three years of their life volentarily to do so. But it would seem that this year politics has entered into the event. Apparently you are a veteran of lower status if you have since developed a distaste for War. In another news event George H W Bush has now come out and endourced the policies of his son, the President. As you know Bush Sr. has consistently had problems with "W's" Iraq policies, but now the Republicans are all apparently rallying the wagons around in a circle and closing ranks. Nobody is disputing that it's a good thing for Saddam Hussein to be removed. Bush Sr. had a chance to do that with troops over there and he passed on it. To my way of thinking he's really not in a position to talk. Now the media is treating is to this notion that violence in Iraq is way down so "the President was right after all". No, if things are improved over in Iraq we should thank the grace of God for that and rejoyce that this is one less issue to worry about. But in point of fact this year has had the highest casualty rate for troops of any since the initial War surge itself in 2003. I've seen the charts on the internet saying violence is down, but you know these days what sort of propaganda war is being raised by the media. The big news of the past few days is that Mukasey is now sworn in as Attorney General. They didn't waste any time about it. He was voted in by the Senate in a seemingly important night session, and the very next day he was sworn in. Of course the media is orchestrating Giuliani's campaign. The ex Mayor is in seemingly big trouble as one of his many scandals has come to light. His pet nominee for Homeland Security head now has "issues" such as ties to the Mob. I guess Karac (?) was Giuliani's police chief or something, and we know that like our President, Giuliani is very loyal. Loyal to a fault. Now Mc Cain has called the Mayor on this credibility issue and the media is saying "Well, Mc Cain is going to TRY and attack the Mayor on this issue even though nobody else has ever been successful attacking Giuliani on anything". "But if Mc Cain doesn't succeed than the other candidates will "get the message" and won't try it themselves.

It would seem that Born Again Christianity has done a moral melt-down and sell-out on the abortion issue. Pat Robertson had endourced Giuliani. It would seem that the Christian right no longer cares about abortion. The media is telling us all sorts of things this year. They say that "likability" usually trumps "experience", except in the case of Hillary. Apparently we want the Limbaugh-exque nightmare of some woman with PMS "having a bad hair day" like that program on ABC where someone insults the woman president in the hallway on the way to her office, and the next thing you know she's bombing some country. I guess the "Iron lady" is an image we don't mind here in America. I am really tired of the media personally telling us that our only two choices for President are Giuliani and Hillary. I have said that Christianity has only got about fifty years left. It would seem with this pro abortion decision of Pat Robertson, the tooth is already pretty much decayed to its core and it's now time for it to be extracted. Of course Jesus Christ on KFI made an indellible impression in my mind when he told a caller NOT to pressure his girlfriend into NOT HAVING an abortion but that "It has to be her own free decision". For me abortion is not a sexual issue but one of premeditated murder. Jesus told the caller that "You think by talking to me about the (illicit) sex you had that I'll let you off the hook, but that's not going to happen". Christianity has become a religion that minors on the majors and majors on the minors. Sex before your wedding night or "having an argument with your pastor" or even quitting church are not what I'd call moral sins that would send you to Hell. Other sins besides sex exist. Even if you are not personally corrupt like Giuliani or Bush, the Bible says "If you take pleasure in those who sin, you are guilty". So if you take pleasure in the power intoxicated President or ex Mayor of New York, you are vicatiously sinning. Dr. Dean Edell said the other to some reverand he was on a talk show with "You know, I can cut out a piece of your brain so that you are so sex crazed you start humping that St. Bernard over there". Sexual morality depends a lot on brain chemistry. Of course so do out of body experiances Sylvia Browne is so fond of talking about dependant on brain chemistry. You can stimulate surgically a portion of a person's brain and make him think he is floating three feet above his body. You can also simulate "after death" experiances with brain manipulation. A lot more than we would like to think is explainable with cell biology rather than "Will" or "Moral Character" or "Backbone" or all that other stuff Christians pride themselves on. Now babies are being placed in front of a TV computer screen at one year of age and being educational stuff to watch. I wonder if anybody has thought of propagandizing Jesus to them at this early age. This younger generation is growing up a lot smarter than we were at the same age. I am thinking that they will "outgrow" Christianity in their lifetimes. Dr. Edell talked about accu-puncture. He said it's OK to go to an accu-puncturist if you are otherwise healthy. But no healthy person with a good relation with his doctor is going to make a trip toTijuana to buy Laiatril. Nobody who is "whole" is going to be seduced into a guy selling Heroin in the alley. He'll say "Take your poison and get out of here". In like manner I wonder whether a whole, healthy person really needs Christianity. You see movies of me as a young toddler and one thing I find disturbing is that I seem alone and bored in a lot of these shots. I don't think I personally would have given Christianity a second thought if I didn't have a poor self image and problems in my life.

This year football started late, with 1991 as a reference point. The baseball play-offs ran really late this year. Daylight savings time ended late this year. Pay day was late for me this month. But now we will be greeted with a sea of things that are "early". Thanksgiving will be early. Mardi Gras will be going on while the super bowl is being played. I think Mardi Gras will start in January this year because I saw that Easter this year is on March 23rd. Personally I think they should move it up four weeks to April 20th. Daylight Savins time starts on March 9th. Never has that been that early. So basically everything is out of sync. If you go to a traditional sunrise Easter service at 5:30 by the time the service is over you will still be in almost total darkness. I really think the Church in Rome needs to be consulted about moving the date this year.

Once again I think this writers strike is silly. Go to your windows and shout for all to hear, "I don't need you people who are too full of yourselves, anyway". Life is for the living and not sitting in front of a TV tube. When Christianity dies, who will mourn for it? Some people say that life is in the reward at the end of it. I personally believe the essence of Life is in the Journey, or what is happening right now. If Christianity can fit into that, fine. If "Stories" can fit into my life and add to it, fine. I can make my own religion and I can make up my own Stories if I want to. We need to get to know our neighbors better. We need to stop "Letting other people get our kicks for us", as Bob Dylan says. Some people says "God wants to heal our marriages" or "God wants you to have success". My view is the word "want" doesn't appear in God's vocabulary like those tsunami people on Sixty Minutes. God is an Actualized Being. What God "wants" he gets. Words are things with God. I couldn't prevent God from giving me success if I wanted to, if God were of a mind to do it". Joel Olsteen said "The will of the King is in the hand of the Lord". He was talking about Esther in the Bible. If we need help with Pakistan or Iran or any other leader, or Hez-ballah or Al Qaida, the thing to do is to pray about it and get God's take on the whole thing. Because it's truly God's "script" on the matter that is the only one that counts. Olsteen said that if there is an obstical in your way God will either change the mind of the other person, or take him out of the picture entirely. Sometimes taking an obsticle to Faith in your walk with the Lord involves death, "the final solution". This happened in my life lately with an individual who was continually 24 - 7 a hinderance to my walk with the Lord. My hope and prayer is that God removes Rudolph Giuliani from the political landscape and the sooner that happens the better I'll feel. I don't trust him and don't think I ever will, despite whatever the media says about his being "friendly" and "outgoing" to the people me meets.