Tuesday, June 23, 2009
My Return will be Soon
Dear blogging world. I am typing this from a computer in Laguna Hills because my computer still is not hooked up to the internet as it hasn't been for the past week. There are a lot of comments I would like to make about President Obama and his poor performance at today's press conference today. There is also a page typed last Friday that will show up soon, hopefully this Thursday, and then I will be putting out new material perhaps later that same day.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
TV Stations Go All Digital
As we look out over the dreary overcast one also sees a murky horizon when it comes to Digital TV Stations because ones that came in fine a couple of days ago aren't coming in now, such as channels two, eleven, thirteen, forty, and fifty-eight. Of course this move to digital television might have taken place twenty years ago because in 1988 there was a demonstration of Japanese digital technology, but that was done in analog, so the US thought they'd just leap-frog analog alltogether and go to digital. But now if it's raining you can't get a TV signal or that tree outside your window is suddenly blocking your reception. Of course they can "degrade" the picture by putting up to eight digital stations on one carrier. Hopefully other people haven't had my negative experiences of the past couple of days. The frequencies these new TV signals transmit at are inherently less stable and given to black-outs. Some analog stations still haven't gone off the air yet but run repeats of instructions for hooking up your station converter, half the time in Spanish.
As this writer suspected President Akmadenijab of Iran won re-election with 62% of the vote. Knowing the government in Iran over the previous twenty years, it's impossible to envision it happening any other way. Other people were holding out hopes that "the will of the people" and "dissident unrest" and "opposition parties" would surely win the day and at last we would have a sane ruler of Iran, who would work for peace rather than war. No, those of you who doubt my grim astrological projections won't be getting off that easy. The probability of nuclear war or something close to it, is just as high, if not now higher than it ever was.
THE FOLLOWING WAS TYPED JUNE 12, 2009
Well, like they said in the
We had corn flakes for breakfast with a fried egg and cinnamon toast and just one coffee. Drive radio featured 1983. C-Span 2 featured auto dealers being driven out of business by the Obama policies and all this bankruptcy stuff. The closure of thest Auto Dealerships violates laws in several states but they’re doing it anyhow. Meanwhile on another C-Span station we are subjected to once again these anti tobacco bills where the FDA now will obtain control of tobacco production. This to me is an utterly absurd and unwarranted intrusion of the Federal Government into the affairs of a private corporation where it lacks jourisdiction. Philip Morris, the largest of the tobacco companies likes the bill because they are the largest company and are equipped to deal with the restrictions, and if its competitors are driven out of business it’s no skin off their nose.
David Carradine did not commit suicide but was murdered. The coroner has released his findings. Of course as you know he was found tied up and nude in
The LA Lakers won last night. The Magic led at the half 49 to 37 so I was surprised the next time I checked that station it was 57 to 55 Lakers or something. It was a close, hard fought game from then on. Last night I had dreams about getting in arguments and shouting matches with various people, but I can’t remember the details.
Wolfram will respond if you ask for a State Capital. It’s track record isn’t real good on “unsolicited questions”. Right now it’s almost time for Bernie Sanders.
They may stop adding ammonia to cigarettes if this bill passes because Thom has used the term “free basing” to describe making the blood more alkaline to speed the nicotine to the brain faster, and they have been doing this with cigarettes since the sixties to in Hartman’s words, “to increase the addictive nature of tobacco products”.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Whispers and Imuendos
People with their feet firmly planted on the ground believe firmly in the Conspiracy theory when it comes to the assenations of John and Robert Kennedy. These people don't have a screw loose or something. There is a book out called "Legacy of Secrecy" that is one of the more recent books on the Assasenation of John Kennedy. Two people, San Giancana and Johnny Roselli were killed either before or during their Senate testimony of the Frank Church committee. Roselli testified lin late April of 1976 and was scheduled to testify again in August of 1976. But he disappeared in late July and in early August his dismembered body was found decomposing in a drum cannister in Miami. According to one source, Roselli either fired the fatal shot that killed Kennedy or was with two others who did. This was done from a storm drain on Elm Street in Dallas. Now it's mentioned that the Kennedy adminestration was planning a new planned overthrow of the Castro government in Cuba in December of 1963 but that the Mafia still didn't want this coup to occur, for whatever reason, perhaps because it would give the president new political power to go after them. Also they had to kill Robert Kennedy because there are measures that needed to be taken to clear away all the secrets and shine in a little sunlight on the Mafia's dark, murky past and present- - that only a President could order. So they say that Sirhan Sirhan's family was scared to death of the mafia. Johnson, according to the author, was so afraid of what the Mafia might do that he ordered the whole Warren commision report as a vehical for coverint up the truth. There is also false evidence that the Mafia planted against Castro to make him look guilty of things he wasn't. The Book appears to imply that the Mafia was a lot more powerful forty or fifty years ago than it is today. Certain things are beyond doubt. Such as the fact that the first place the Dallas Police department ran after the shots were fired was to the grassn noll, and a lot of ordenary people saw and heard things in that direction too. But there are also a lot of eye witness reports about things that happened on 9 - 11 at Ground Zero, that the government would not like to become general knowledge. Two names worth noting among you Federation fans are Jimmy Hoffa and Johnny Roselli. Roselli has been a very fruitful source for information, Federation people tell me, with a lot of stories to relate. As to Hoffa, we have heard from his guardian angels that it was Hoffa's wish to join the Federation. This whole guardian angel thing is interesting in that at least three times in my life I have experianced the presence of guardian angels of dead people, without any contact with the dead person himself. These three cases are Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, and Marlon Brando. Being "flush" with guardian angels causes one to shall we say, opperate at a higher energy level than normal, saying, thinking, and doing things that one had formerly either lacked the initiative to do, or was prevented from doing before.
Our second of four topics covers that phone call I got from my Mom late yesterday afternoon. Unlike the Beatles with the "Let It Be" album, I'm going to completely redo this report today because yesterday I was perhaps too upset going into a hysterical rant about things. It seems that our esteemed Governor wants to gut programs such as child care and walfare and other services to the poor including whack two hundred dollars off monthly S S I checks, as well as completely eliminate Dental care from medi-cal. Governor Swartzenegger has repeatedly stated that "raising taxes is not an option". Rather than impeach the governor, I'd like to haul off and impeach the entire voting public of California. It's ironic that it takes a slim majority vote to as the proponets say "deny a fundamental right to the citizens" and alter the state constitution, and yet to raise taxes on ANYTHING it takes a two thirds majority vote, which as you might guess, is almost impossible to achieve. There is something systemically wrong with California State government and there has been since Proposition 13 was passed in 1978. There are now rising up some prudent people who want to overturn proposition 13. The sooner the better in my oppinion, and I don't care how they do it, I'd just like to see it done. My only hope is that the cuts I've heard about are so draconian and will throw countless people, and perhaps this writer, into the streets- - that somehow saner minds will pervail. Let's hope so.
Nobody likes an Uncle Tom. You've heard that one, but you know a lot of those old generalizations turn out to be true. There are a couple of "Tom's" I'd like to discuss here. One is Clarence Thomas. Here is a man who in my oppinion is not intellectually qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. He lacks "judicial temperment" and a lot of other essential qualities, too. He almost never asks questions but is content to let others do the talking, and one suspects, the thinking for him, too, like Justice Scallia. Personally I can't get over how hauty Thomas acted at his senate confirmation. In the first place he's a hypocrite benefiting from affirmative action programs when he was younger, and yet turning against them now. One of my pet peves about people in general is those who think they were dropped off by the Mother Space Ship yesterday and somehow have no past. The fact is that everybody who passes judgement on You has their own Past and they "Got Here" somehow. They've lived a life and made their mistakes. But these hypocrits seem to want to step outside their own body and now somehow claim that they are perfect and they have no "past" of their own. The other Tom I'd like to discuss is Tom Bradley. This is the quintessential Uncle Tom. One would wonder how LA could have a Black mayer and at virtually for the same period, have one of the most racist Police Chiefs, at least within my memory, that Los Angeles has ever had. Both Chief Daryl Gates and Tom Bradley left office within months of each other. Tom Bradley was a protogee of Police Chief Parker, whose racism is apparently legondary. Bradley must have done some world class Uncle-Tom-ming to get on Chief Parker's good side. You know that during the tenure of Chief Dayl Gates, there was one racial incident after another and there was all sorts of debates about choke holds and "Blacks don't have veins like Normal People" and all that, and stuff about Latinos also. All of this stuff was going on during the Bradley adminestration and he wasn't inclined to want to do a thing about it. I don't know about you but to me, a person who hates his own race has mental problems or something. Of course the Apostle Paul was an "Uncle Tom" in his day. The only worldly factoid that he was really Prowd of- - -was the fact that he was a "Natural born Roman citizen" whereas others had to obtain their citizenship with a great deal of money. You certainly see him only passing contempt and scorn on his own race. People who allow themselves to be used in Pawns in someone else's game- - are dangerous, just like the Dylan song says. They love to swell with pride but it isn't pride in their own merits but rather a false pride that's foisted on them by their Overlords to Manipulate them, like the morally spineless puppets they are.
There are four fundamental ways in which I agree with Mormonism over "My Own Faith" so to speak. The Federation has as you know, always had a soft spot for Mormons. None of these polygamy cult stories gets air play up there. The first area of agreement is something I saw in a film while visiting Salt Lake City, that after you die, the memory of your heavenly pre existance will be restored to you. One reason why most fundamentalist protestents cringe at this doctrine is that they want you worshipping the DATE that you decided to "accept Jesus". They would dearly love to see you only as a blank, and hence, programmable slate. But the Bible supports me and the Mormons in that it state "When you die, your soul returns to God, who gave it". The same scripture also says "As a dog dies so dies a man". To me that would mean that if you have to accept Christ to die, than so does your dog" (!) Of course when you die you are no longer in the realm, so far as we know in the Time-Space continuoum. It logically can be inferred that since Time after all is "temperal" that when you escape it, you revert back to whatever state you were in when you entered "Through the Wall". (Selah) My second area of agreement with the Mormons is in their doctrine of who Jesus was and who he was not. Jesus was not the second person of the Trinity because the Trinity Doctrine is tracable to a guy named Athenasius of Egypt who lived at the beginning of the Fourth Century AD. Before this the doctrine of the trinity was unknown and no previous theologian even suggested it. The third fundamental area of agreement is in baptismal regeneration. This is in reference to the often repeated scripture that "Whoever believes in Jesus and is baptized in water, the same shall we saved". Jesus spoke of one being "born of water and of the spirit" to emphasize baptismal regeneration. This seems like a slam dunk that everybody could agree with and nobody could dispute. But the Neo-Protestents don't like it. Because I think their argument is that baptisum puts the focus on the act- - rather than you "in your heart" if you will "submitting to the pastor". Neo-protestents are very pastoral-centric, as you know, and anything which takes attention off of them, even stained glass windows- - is a "No no" to their way of thinking. The fourth area of agreement is in the possability of baptism for the dead. The apostle Paul at one argues that baptisum for the dead is at least possible. Those who argue strenuously against it are basically saying "after death there is nothing so obviously the person can't be baptized". These Neo-Protestents when you analyze their theology believe that basically that Death IS the end. They see death as Nirvana and like the Moslems believe that a sudden, violent death is the most glorius and "honorable" way to go out. ("Die" for you people in Rio Linda) These people don't believe in soul sleep. They don't see the dead as "awaiting judgement" as the Book of Revelation clearly states. These people seem to want heaven to be an exclusive club. They say "Don't bring up the story of what if the missionary's jeep ran out of gas on the way to the village". They say "It's in God's hands" when really they would just rather not have certain people saved. The idea also of loving or caring what happens to an unsaved loved one is something they don't want to think about, being as self centered as they are. (Selah)
Our second of four topics covers that phone call I got from my Mom late yesterday afternoon. Unlike the Beatles with the "Let It Be" album, I'm going to completely redo this report today because yesterday I was perhaps too upset going into a hysterical rant about things. It seems that our esteemed Governor wants to gut programs such as child care and walfare and other services to the poor including whack two hundred dollars off monthly S S I checks, as well as completely eliminate Dental care from medi-cal. Governor Swartzenegger has repeatedly stated that "raising taxes is not an option". Rather than impeach the governor, I'd like to haul off and impeach the entire voting public of California. It's ironic that it takes a slim majority vote to as the proponets say "deny a fundamental right to the citizens" and alter the state constitution, and yet to raise taxes on ANYTHING it takes a two thirds majority vote, which as you might guess, is almost impossible to achieve. There is something systemically wrong with California State government and there has been since Proposition 13 was passed in 1978. There are now rising up some prudent people who want to overturn proposition 13. The sooner the better in my oppinion, and I don't care how they do it, I'd just like to see it done. My only hope is that the cuts I've heard about are so draconian and will throw countless people, and perhaps this writer, into the streets- - that somehow saner minds will pervail. Let's hope so.
Nobody likes an Uncle Tom. You've heard that one, but you know a lot of those old generalizations turn out to be true. There are a couple of "Tom's" I'd like to discuss here. One is Clarence Thomas. Here is a man who in my oppinion is not intellectually qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. He lacks "judicial temperment" and a lot of other essential qualities, too. He almost never asks questions but is content to let others do the talking, and one suspects, the thinking for him, too, like Justice Scallia. Personally I can't get over how hauty Thomas acted at his senate confirmation. In the first place he's a hypocrite benefiting from affirmative action programs when he was younger, and yet turning against them now. One of my pet peves about people in general is those who think they were dropped off by the Mother Space Ship yesterday and somehow have no past. The fact is that everybody who passes judgement on You has their own Past and they "Got Here" somehow. They've lived a life and made their mistakes. But these hypocrits seem to want to step outside their own body and now somehow claim that they are perfect and they have no "past" of their own. The other Tom I'd like to discuss is Tom Bradley. This is the quintessential Uncle Tom. One would wonder how LA could have a Black mayer and at virtually for the same period, have one of the most racist Police Chiefs, at least within my memory, that Los Angeles has ever had. Both Chief Daryl Gates and Tom Bradley left office within months of each other. Tom Bradley was a protogee of Police Chief Parker, whose racism is apparently legondary. Bradley must have done some world class Uncle-Tom-ming to get on Chief Parker's good side. You know that during the tenure of Chief Dayl Gates, there was one racial incident after another and there was all sorts of debates about choke holds and "Blacks don't have veins like Normal People" and all that, and stuff about Latinos also. All of this stuff was going on during the Bradley adminestration and he wasn't inclined to want to do a thing about it. I don't know about you but to me, a person who hates his own race has mental problems or something. Of course the Apostle Paul was an "Uncle Tom" in his day. The only worldly factoid that he was really Prowd of- - -was the fact that he was a "Natural born Roman citizen" whereas others had to obtain their citizenship with a great deal of money. You certainly see him only passing contempt and scorn on his own race. People who allow themselves to be used in Pawns in someone else's game- - are dangerous, just like the Dylan song says. They love to swell with pride but it isn't pride in their own merits but rather a false pride that's foisted on them by their Overlords to Manipulate them, like the morally spineless puppets they are.
There are four fundamental ways in which I agree with Mormonism over "My Own Faith" so to speak. The Federation has as you know, always had a soft spot for Mormons. None of these polygamy cult stories gets air play up there. The first area of agreement is something I saw in a film while visiting Salt Lake City, that after you die, the memory of your heavenly pre existance will be restored to you. One reason why most fundamentalist protestents cringe at this doctrine is that they want you worshipping the DATE that you decided to "accept Jesus". They would dearly love to see you only as a blank, and hence, programmable slate. But the Bible supports me and the Mormons in that it state "When you die, your soul returns to God, who gave it". The same scripture also says "As a dog dies so dies a man". To me that would mean that if you have to accept Christ to die, than so does your dog" (!) Of course when you die you are no longer in the realm, so far as we know in the Time-Space continuoum. It logically can be inferred that since Time after all is "temperal" that when you escape it, you revert back to whatever state you were in when you entered "Through the Wall". (Selah) My second area of agreement with the Mormons is in their doctrine of who Jesus was and who he was not. Jesus was not the second person of the Trinity because the Trinity Doctrine is tracable to a guy named Athenasius of Egypt who lived at the beginning of the Fourth Century AD. Before this the doctrine of the trinity was unknown and no previous theologian even suggested it. The third fundamental area of agreement is in baptismal regeneration. This is in reference to the often repeated scripture that "Whoever believes in Jesus and is baptized in water, the same shall we saved". Jesus spoke of one being "born of water and of the spirit" to emphasize baptismal regeneration. This seems like a slam dunk that everybody could agree with and nobody could dispute. But the Neo-Protestents don't like it. Because I think their argument is that baptisum puts the focus on the act- - rather than you "in your heart" if you will "submitting to the pastor". Neo-protestents are very pastoral-centric, as you know, and anything which takes attention off of them, even stained glass windows- - is a "No no" to their way of thinking. The fourth area of agreement is in the possability of baptism for the dead. The apostle Paul at one argues that baptisum for the dead is at least possible. Those who argue strenuously against it are basically saying "after death there is nothing so obviously the person can't be baptized". These Neo-Protestents when you analyze their theology believe that basically that Death IS the end. They see death as Nirvana and like the Moslems believe that a sudden, violent death is the most glorius and "honorable" way to go out. ("Die" for you people in Rio Linda) These people don't believe in soul sleep. They don't see the dead as "awaiting judgement" as the Book of Revelation clearly states. These people seem to want heaven to be an exclusive club. They say "Don't bring up the story of what if the missionary's jeep ran out of gas on the way to the village". They say "It's in God's hands" when really they would just rather not have certain people saved. The idea also of loving or caring what happens to an unsaved loved one is something they don't want to think about, being as self centered as they are. (Selah)
Sunday, June 07, 2009
The Year of Jubilee
You know, I wish I could bottle Joel Olsteen's sermon this morning and play it back to myself as a subliminal tape like Homer Simpson did last night, to sort of reprogram my mind. The day of Jubilee in ancient Hebrew was a year every fiftieth year where all property would revert back to its original owner. In Jewish tradition they had a great belief in "Rightful Inheritance" and the idea of restoring one of his rightful place was paramount. If we carried this philosophy to Jehovah Himself we might infer that every human is born with an ideal divine legasy of what he would be if he lived a sinless life, just as the Jewish property owner would have his title restored after fifty years even if he was guilty of bad judgement along the way. Some scollars say that AD 35 was a Jubilee year and this was the "favorible year of the Lord" that Jesus referred to in his ministry. In Joel's sermon there was talk of people receiving their physical healing, or getting out of debt or conquering an addiction, or finding a mate, or getting that long due promotion. Joel Olsteen spoke of God "Accelerating the time table" to speed up what to mortal would seem to require a long time to accomplish. What Olsteen hit on here is indeed the central message of Christianity, in that it is a message of "loosing from one's bonds" and of liberation. In the story of the protigal son it says that he was not only forgiven for his sin, as if it had never happened, but this man was to be honored with a robe placed on him and a royal ring placed on his finger. I don't know about you but I know it's a rare day when I think such a story could be about ME. I always see someone else in that exaulted roll. And this is no wonder. Certainly with Jesus of KFI on the radio there is this "addiction" to viewing people as trapped in their roles. So the alcholic and the mental patient alike are not only seen as hopeless, but people whom you should shun and by the way they will "manipulate you" if they ever get the chance. Black people are seen "with people with a lot of excess emotional baggage". And if you think you're in love with someone of either sex, you are sadly informed "They have too much emotional baggage to investment, and you are better off spending your years alone". And these people remind us that the church itself is after all just a "business" like any other business relationship. If you attend and you don't pony up the money you are "stealing" from them. And also in terms of theology the question isn't to ask yourself "Am I free from the bonds of sin?" but rather is "What is my position on the Trinity. If my doctrine of the trinity is correct I can do all the raping and pillaging I want to in war time". And of course when of course it comes to "whitnessing" to the Islamic believers among us- - I remember as a kid our family used to drive along Slaucen and how when you passed the steel plant you could feel the heat of the hot steel. I imagine that even from here Islamists can feel the white heat of rage that Christians feel for them. Obama is trying to reach out to the Islamic culture and give them a new beginning, which is what Christianity used to be all about. (Though in practice this was seldom the case) But now the nay sayers are out against Obama telling him that speaking what he perceives to be the Truth is dangerous and shows signs of weakness. These people would say "Israel does well to have hardness of heart". And "We all know that Jesus is coming back anyhow in the last days to Nuke the Islamo-fasciests, so why even try and "Give Peace a Chance"? Many will say that if the region were meant to have Peace, it would have been reached already because there have been many leaders of Israel and many leaders of the United States, and one would suppose that some combination of leaders would have worked in the past. We need to find out what the motivation is of the Palistinians is, of course. But sometimes I get the feeling that Israel doesn't "Really" want them to have any autonomy at all. Just as with many Christians out there- - a lot of them are saying "Even if that so & so finds salvation he'll ALWAYS be way inferior to Us True Believers, and then go on to innumerate the ways that the people they witness to aren't even fully human to begin with.
And now I would like to turn to what may be unpleasent duty, in that I am forced to recant and retract a few erronious statements I have made. One of them involves two ecclipses of the sun, in December 13th. of 1974 and on March 6th. of 1989. Wolframalpha.com says these two eclipses never happened. We have shall we say a "disagreement" as to history. I remember both eclipses clearly but wolframalpha.com doesn't seem to. Another area is in the real of "Kurtosis". I see that in Excel they have a zero based Kurtosis number and not a three based number. But not only this but the means of calculation is different so that even with the correction of three points, you won't get the same number. My own Kurtosis rating is the best. In my reading of the number it should be base one, not zero or three, and it should then be the square of the ratio between the crest of a bell curve, and where the "hash marks" of standard deviation lines hit the curve. This method would simplify the whole process. In another area there is an alternate method of computing the Golden Mean. It's one half plus the square root of five divided by two. This formula doesn't sound like it would work, but it does. It's my contention that the square root of five should be the basis of wide screen movie screens. The actual number is very close to this but not the same. These are the only issues that are on my mind right now. Sometimes it can be quite a while before a Real News story hits.
I dredged up the following illustration from a mailing to help clarify a mathematical point. Here it is. If you want to appear really smart at a party, here is the whole hyperbolic trig thing in a nutshell. Picture an X and Y graph with 0,0 in the center. Now picture a freeway on ramp going from the eastbound freeway hanging a left to the northbound freeway. Now picture another on ramp going from the west bound freeway hanging a left and going south. These two on ramps just touch each other at the zero zero point. Now picture a third on-ramp from the northbound freeway just to the west hanging a U turn to the right and reaching its southern most point when it crosses the 0 and 1 axis and hanging a U turn and going north again. This is hyperbolic trig in a nutshell.
And now I would like to turn to what may be unpleasent duty, in that I am forced to recant and retract a few erronious statements I have made. One of them involves two ecclipses of the sun, in December 13th. of 1974 and on March 6th. of 1989. Wolframalpha.com says these two eclipses never happened. We have shall we say a "disagreement" as to history. I remember both eclipses clearly but wolframalpha.com doesn't seem to. Another area is in the real of "Kurtosis". I see that in Excel they have a zero based Kurtosis number and not a three based number. But not only this but the means of calculation is different so that even with the correction of three points, you won't get the same number. My own Kurtosis rating is the best. In my reading of the number it should be base one, not zero or three, and it should then be the square of the ratio between the crest of a bell curve, and where the "hash marks" of standard deviation lines hit the curve. This method would simplify the whole process. In another area there is an alternate method of computing the Golden Mean. It's one half plus the square root of five divided by two. This formula doesn't sound like it would work, but it does. It's my contention that the square root of five should be the basis of wide screen movie screens. The actual number is very close to this but not the same. These are the only issues that are on my mind right now. Sometimes it can be quite a while before a Real News story hits.
I dredged up the following illustration from a mailing to help clarify a mathematical point. Here it is. If you want to appear really smart at a party, here is the whole hyperbolic trig thing in a nutshell. Picture an X and Y graph with 0,0 in the center. Now picture a freeway on ramp going from the eastbound freeway hanging a left to the northbound freeway. Now picture another on ramp going from the west bound freeway hanging a left and going south. These two on ramps just touch each other at the zero zero point. Now picture a third on-ramp from the northbound freeway just to the west hanging a U turn to the right and reaching its southern most point when it crosses the 0 and 1 axis and hanging a U turn and going north again. This is hyperbolic trig in a nutshell.
Friday, June 05, 2009
President Obama's Mideast Trip
When I heard the President speak in Cairo yesterday I had no immediate reaction. Others who heard the speech pointed out his pleasing his Arab audience by invoking Arab history and accomplishments, and quoting from the Koran. Personally, I didn't think the accents of Arab words sounded all that authentic. Part of my problem is that if what the President was doing was diplomatic posturing, then in the past Obama has shown himself to be rather shallow. For all his talk about being raised in an Islamic school in Indonesia, I really don't see the "Islamic-ness" rubbing off on him. To me he speaks as someone who in uncomfortable with the whole issue and wishes it would go away. I've seen how he has dealt with other situations like the Revrend Wright issue. First he embraces the man and alludes to "I could no more disown him than I could disown my own White grandmother". In the first place putting the word "White" in that sentense indicates a certain disconfort with race. Next, however, is that Obama did in fact disown his pastor of some twenty years, Revrend Jeremiah Wright. I think a lot of people who have strong roots in a church have trouble with this concept. It sends the message to one and all that "People are expendable".
We then move on to the other "landmark statements" in the President's speech yesterday. He for once did not dismiss "Hammas" as only a terrorist organization, but an organization we need to work with since it is such an intrinsic part of Palestinian life now, and they won that election a couple of years ago. Hammas does things besides terror. They reach out to educate and serve the poor and offer free breakfasts, and all those things the Black Panthers used to do. One US Jew yesterday observed of the Mideast situation, "It's too bad that Bill Clinton was term limited and that Yasser Arrafat's term wasn't". We might already have Peace. As much as Robert Schuller embraced Arrafat in his church, Aarafat lived and died a terrorist, and he was never anything else and in the end Peace overtures were doomed as long as he was alive. The President talked about Iraq as a "War of choice". I wish he hadn't said that. All that needed to be said on the subject of Iraq is, "The United States helped overthrow a dangerous world dictator and bring democracy to Iraq, and the people now are adjusting beautifully, and their future looks bright". It at times can be actually distracting and disruptive to your overall message to point a finger of fault at yourself, when nobody is even raising the issue. I think the President did well to choose to believe that Islam is a Peaceful religion and quote from the Koran the line "When an innocent person dies, it's as though the whole human race were murdered". I think putting "Peace" and "Islam" in the same sentence is tenuous at best. What I personally would have done is remind the Arab community that it was while Malcolm X was in the Mideast in March of 1964 that it came to him seeing disperate races worshipping in harmony, that the races were meant to get along with each other. The President then went on to discuss the respective problems and hardships of the Jews and also of the Palestinian people. I'm happy the President acknowledged that the Palestinian people have suffered- - much humiliation and degradations - - at the hands of their occupiers, the Israelis. I dare say their strggle for autonomy far exceeds sixty years. The President discussed Iran saying that all nations should be able to peacefully develop the atom. Wisely I don't think it was a good idea to dwell to long on Iran, their being Shiites and all. What I would do is stress to the Moslem world is that peace is there for the taking if you want it badly enough. The thing you have to ask yourselves is "How tired of war are you"? Racial pride is a powerful thing and I don't fault it per se. The desire to "survive" and "overcome" and "conquer your enemies" is primal among the species of man and it's part of the evolutional survival mechanism God built into mankind. The plain fact is that "survival of the fittest" works a lot of the time. But Obama now has to say that it is their Destiny now- - to live in a world of Peace. And if he can bring Allah into it without being too obvious, so much the better. One thing the Israelis need to face is that these recent west bank settlements need to go. Every time they put one of these up they are volitionally saying "I know we'll never have Peace anyhow, so take THAT you Arabs!" They are hoping that by sheer number of them they will be able to muscle the Palistinians off the land, the way the United States has broken nearly every treaty on the books with the Native Americans.
I respect people who can solve puzzles. I used to be able to beat the computer nearly half of the time in the "Four in a Row" game. But last night I had a bad run of luck. Either I am not as smart as I used to be or somebody reprogrammed the game to make it smarter. There are games involving pieces of metal of hooking and unhooking them they sell at Knott's Berry Farm. I never had much patience with these. But solving puzzles shows not only a sign of patience but also native intelligence. There is one math game where you are supposed to turn all the white dots black, and it's fairly easy to get all but one dot with the rules you play under. But life often faces people with puzzles with more variables than you can program for. Certainly bringing about peace in the mideast is one of these puzzles. You first have to believe it's possible. In wolframalpha.com sometimes when you write an equation you thought was easy, it turns out to be very difficult to solve showing a lot of math work. Some equations aren't just difficult but intrinsically impossible to solve for X and Y. A prudent person should soon realize which contingencies are intrinsically impossible. A world dictator, if there is to be one in the last days will have to have tremendous "people skills". People needn't be "good" to have phenominal "people skills". Many people, likewise, can be basically "good people" in themselves, but really suck at being able to figure out what a client is saying or get into his mind so that you can reach him and help him. We don't live in a pure world of programmable abstracts regardless. So whether any leader or would be world dictator is successful depends on such things as astrological allignment and things beyond his control. I'm sure Alexander the Great had a brilliant mind, but had he been born under different stars, his life might be a different story.
The Lakers looked great last night, didn't they? - - against the Orlando Magic. I believe this is the year of the Lakers. They set the bar pretty high for themselves this year. If they don't win it all they will have considered it a disappointing season. We should all "raise the bar" on our own expectations so to encourage personal growth. If all of us raised the bar on what we expect of ourselves, others would be inspired by that new positive "something in the air - that wasn't there yesterday" and they in turn will be inspired to reach new heights. (Selah)
We then move on to the other "landmark statements" in the President's speech yesterday. He for once did not dismiss "Hammas" as only a terrorist organization, but an organization we need to work with since it is such an intrinsic part of Palestinian life now, and they won that election a couple of years ago. Hammas does things besides terror. They reach out to educate and serve the poor and offer free breakfasts, and all those things the Black Panthers used to do. One US Jew yesterday observed of the Mideast situation, "It's too bad that Bill Clinton was term limited and that Yasser Arrafat's term wasn't". We might already have Peace. As much as Robert Schuller embraced Arrafat in his church, Aarafat lived and died a terrorist, and he was never anything else and in the end Peace overtures were doomed as long as he was alive. The President talked about Iraq as a "War of choice". I wish he hadn't said that. All that needed to be said on the subject of Iraq is, "The United States helped overthrow a dangerous world dictator and bring democracy to Iraq, and the people now are adjusting beautifully, and their future looks bright". It at times can be actually distracting and disruptive to your overall message to point a finger of fault at yourself, when nobody is even raising the issue. I think the President did well to choose to believe that Islam is a Peaceful religion and quote from the Koran the line "When an innocent person dies, it's as though the whole human race were murdered". I think putting "Peace" and "Islam" in the same sentence is tenuous at best. What I personally would have done is remind the Arab community that it was while Malcolm X was in the Mideast in March of 1964 that it came to him seeing disperate races worshipping in harmony, that the races were meant to get along with each other. The President then went on to discuss the respective problems and hardships of the Jews and also of the Palestinian people. I'm happy the President acknowledged that the Palestinian people have suffered- - much humiliation and degradations - - at the hands of their occupiers, the Israelis. I dare say their strggle for autonomy far exceeds sixty years. The President discussed Iran saying that all nations should be able to peacefully develop the atom. Wisely I don't think it was a good idea to dwell to long on Iran, their being Shiites and all. What I would do is stress to the Moslem world is that peace is there for the taking if you want it badly enough. The thing you have to ask yourselves is "How tired of war are you"? Racial pride is a powerful thing and I don't fault it per se. The desire to "survive" and "overcome" and "conquer your enemies" is primal among the species of man and it's part of the evolutional survival mechanism God built into mankind. The plain fact is that "survival of the fittest" works a lot of the time. But Obama now has to say that it is their Destiny now- - to live in a world of Peace. And if he can bring Allah into it without being too obvious, so much the better. One thing the Israelis need to face is that these recent west bank settlements need to go. Every time they put one of these up they are volitionally saying "I know we'll never have Peace anyhow, so take THAT you Arabs!" They are hoping that by sheer number of them they will be able to muscle the Palistinians off the land, the way the United States has broken nearly every treaty on the books with the Native Americans.
I respect people who can solve puzzles. I used to be able to beat the computer nearly half of the time in the "Four in a Row" game. But last night I had a bad run of luck. Either I am not as smart as I used to be or somebody reprogrammed the game to make it smarter. There are games involving pieces of metal of hooking and unhooking them they sell at Knott's Berry Farm. I never had much patience with these. But solving puzzles shows not only a sign of patience but also native intelligence. There is one math game where you are supposed to turn all the white dots black, and it's fairly easy to get all but one dot with the rules you play under. But life often faces people with puzzles with more variables than you can program for. Certainly bringing about peace in the mideast is one of these puzzles. You first have to believe it's possible. In wolframalpha.com sometimes when you write an equation you thought was easy, it turns out to be very difficult to solve showing a lot of math work. Some equations aren't just difficult but intrinsically impossible to solve for X and Y. A prudent person should soon realize which contingencies are intrinsically impossible. A world dictator, if there is to be one in the last days will have to have tremendous "people skills". People needn't be "good" to have phenominal "people skills". Many people, likewise, can be basically "good people" in themselves, but really suck at being able to figure out what a client is saying or get into his mind so that you can reach him and help him. We don't live in a pure world of programmable abstracts regardless. So whether any leader or would be world dictator is successful depends on such things as astrological allignment and things beyond his control. I'm sure Alexander the Great had a brilliant mind, but had he been born under different stars, his life might be a different story.
The Lakers looked great last night, didn't they? - - against the Orlando Magic. I believe this is the year of the Lakers. They set the bar pretty high for themselves this year. If they don't win it all they will have considered it a disappointing season. We should all "raise the bar" on our own expectations so to encourage personal growth. If all of us raised the bar on what we expect of ourselves, others would be inspired by that new positive "something in the air - that wasn't there yesterday" and they in turn will be inspired to reach new heights. (Selah)
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