Jesus Was Not A Liberal

Today on the Stephanie Miller program they showed a rerun of a segment where this book author comes on and says that Christians aren't being true to their Founder. Well I hate to break the news to you but the Jesus portrayed in the Bible was far from being a liberal. In the first place he said that divorce was wrong in any case except adultry. Also if you married a divorced woman you both were comitting adultry. The idea of his being sympathetic to homosexual marriage is out of the question. He likened marriage back to Genisis and Adam and Eve - not Adam and Steve. On the matter of abortion we have more hope for you liberals out there because Jesus does imply that life begins at birth. And all through the New Testament you have the implication that Life is like a Seed coming to full germanation in Heaven, and that a better Greek translation according to some is that you are "being Born Again" like Dylan says "He who is not busy being Born is busy Dying" Capish? As such I have charged people like Bill Halliday of being a "Spiritual Abortionist" because he aborts would be Christians from their set paths. We could go back to Rush Limbaugh's "Phone call abortion" thing if we want to. Certainly scripture is replete with scriptures like "Hold fast and let no man take thy Crown". Jesus referred to Baptisum as birth with such lines as "You must be Born Again by Water and the Spirit", alluding to baptism. However Jesus when given every oppertunity, like Obama, comes down on the side of the Status Quo every time he has the choice. He honors the Romans in saying that you owe Ceasar your money. Paul says that laws (of Rome) are not for "good people" to fear and adds "They do not carry the sword in vain". Jesus goes further to say that not one jot or tiddle will pass from the Law till "all is accomplished", which I like Chuck Smith infer to be the Second Coming. But this is the Jesus portrayed in the Bible.

However you can clearly "sort out" the Four Messiahs of the Bible and trace the order in which they were added or layered on. Luke was the last to "layer on" the assencion into heaven forty days after death, like Apolonius. These late layerings can bee seen in, for instance, the sole seeming reference to the Trinity in the whole Bible (at the end of Matthew), and references to Jesus having natural brothers and naming them, and also the city of Nazareth itself. But stripping these away, as one should the Christmas Story, which is the story of Mithras, you are left what portrates of two distinct people, and I'll explain. One was of a healing messiah who lived in the north. This messiah was very adept at dealing with demons and had a strong belief in them, and believed that demons came in a whole variety of forms, such as demons of deafness or blindness, or other things. There is another tradition you might call the southern tradition. Here is where you see a Jesus who was combative with pharicees and in John when Jesus refers to the pharicees as Satan, he does not seek to "exorcise" them, as the northern Jesus would have. It says in JC Superstar "A trick or two with leppers and the whole town's on its feet". I don't see healings during "Passion Week". As James Madison would put it "I fail to lay my finger on that portion of scripture". Did you ever wonder what happened to Jesus powers that final week? They even died and worked at different times. The northern Jesus had one year around 35 AD or the year of jubilee. The southern Jesus escaped crusifiction on November 24th of AD 29 during a solar eclipse. The upside down cross like the upside flag is used as a sign of distress. The upside down cross is the cross of Rome, where beliefs of the southern Jesus centered. This southern Jesus was more of a teaching messiah rather than a healing messiah. The "sayings of Jesus" document has no meracles in it, someone pointed out. It was probably an early date when the northern and southern Jesuses merged into one. But like Strawberry Fields Forever, if you read the book of Mark, the "bifercation" can be fairly readily picked up.

Rush Limbaugh had chest pains while on vacation in Hawaii. Someone said he was vacationing close to where President Obama is. Rush is said to be "resting comfortably" now. I would not definitely count this is the last "incident" Rush will have. Like earthquakes, sometimes minor attacks are preludes to major, fatal attacks, often in people like Rush who have this cavilier attitudes about their health and thinks they are "too important" to get sick.

By now you've heard of how a trusted Al Qaeda opperative got past CIA check points and walked into their inner sanctum, and detonated a suicide bomb killing many. I find it ironic that I invoked "God's speed" on President Obama and talked about "infiltration of the enemy" in my last posting, and now this happens. This only goes to show that Satan is several steps ahead of me, and why taking him on isn't smart. I really thought sending up a little prayer for our President might be a good thing. We all will have to get used to these full body nude scanners at airports, it seems. Thom Hartman says that personally he doesn't want to be exposed to the radiation. For frequent business travelers, this to me seems a potential problem. It's a temptation, honestly, to relent and say "perhaps racial profiling isn't really such a bad thing if it saves the rest of us inconvenience". Of course if the explosives were in a body cavity, even these scanners would be useless. Sometimes I think Al Qaeda is really stupid, like those tapes they used to send us indicating profound ignorance of American culture. Then they go and pull off something like happened today, causing me to re-think. Thom Hartman and others say the best recruiting of Al Qaeda is facilitated by us and our often rabidly anti Islamic positions and this idea that we are in some kind of Holy Crusade against these people. If you believe that a whole religion is filled with "killing machines" just waiting for orders, this doesn't make for very healthy relations, and one longs for the days of "Detante".

2009 - A Major Disappointment for Progressives

This year of 2009 has been a personally dismal year for yours truly. Money for me continues in short supply and for the first time this Christmas I got absolutely no money from anybody. There have been more “proactive” house cleaning sessions, and at least three times now the TV has screwed up because the ground wire was messed up on KTTV or FOX. Of course in June through the first half of July I was off the internet entirely from June 16^th through July 13^th. More items have been either lost or stolen in the laundry than since I have lived here. My Dad’s possessions have been generally treated as those of an undesirable roommate you didn’t like and were trying to get rid of all traves of. My Mom sold her house at the stratigicly worse time possible last July. I have suffered the loss of a lot of personal items that were stored there. But as I’ve said before,. 2009 has been a nightmare year for progressive, with a President we all believed was one of our own, and voted for him on that basis. And not only that voted for him because of his Promises to us, over and above a candidate, Hillary, who said with her experience she would be able to get more done in congress. We should have listened to her. If a lot of us had that vote to do over, a lot of us would have voted differently. But you had people like Randy Rhodes saying “the race is over” from late February on, when the race was Anything but over. I am getting a little sick of being accused by people like Hal Sparks of “saying I’m not going to vote any more or I’ll vote for the Republicans. I’d like to know WHO is saying this?? Nobody. He’s just making it up! In fact what it means is that progressives have to fight harder and use at the same time more drastic tactics and more innovative or unusual tactics. There is no reason why we have to ask ourselves how many people in congress we’ll lose next year. Rather we should be thinking of gaining new members in congress next year. That we should shoot for. If you plan to lose, your dreams will be realized. This idea of setting ridiculously small goals is becoming a regular sickness in the media. Why do we let either either Sarah Palin or Joe Lieberman define who we are? Why can’t we see ourselves in the image of John Kennedy. You know “Yes we can” should be more than a slogan to win campaigns. If that’s all Obama was shooting for was “getting in” then Rush Limbaugh was right. Berock Obama is a small man. Well now substitute jock Hal Sparks has joined this circular firing squad that liberals seem intent on participating in. If your football team is screwing up and the coach knows which players are screwing up and does not remedy the situation, somewhere down the line you fire the coach. What if one of those players said something like “Why should I try to win the game. My goal was just to make the team. I never knew I’d have to work after that”. Or what if another player said “Hell coach, this is such a crappy team, you’re lucky to have me to begin with. I’ve got options you know”. Two women callers in a row expressed dismay that Obama appeared to be shutting out the left and not caring what they even think, and instead directing all his personal effort twords conferences with people on the right. Hal Sparks accused one or both of them of being shills for the right wing because they were stating the obvious. Not only is Obama screwing up, but he doesn’t seem to care. He’s not even trying to advance the agenda of the left. Some have said that an executive order ending “Don’t ask don’t tell” would “offend” the Republicans in congress. Others such as on the “Frangela” show, are bothered by the anti abortion provisions in both health bills while others are concerned about women’s health issues such as paying for mammograms.

Well, we all want to assume our President knows best. I hope he’s employing the CIA productively in recruiting counter terrorists to infiltrate Al Qaeda and learning all of their inside information. Obviously this would all have to be kept top secret, to be made known, if ever, only upon success and the toppeling of Al Qaeda. One would hope that day would be soon, so that we don’t have to leave in a state of building real or manufactured fear. God’s speed to our President.

Moslems aren’t the only people with death fancicies. C S Lewis in “The Screwtape letters” romanticized death in the story of a guy who was killed, suddenly of coursee, in World War II and subsequently made it to heaven, which he describes as “refreshing, like a shower in the morning”. Nobody ever asks themselves that question “But what if I don’t die”. This Islamic terrorist known as the underwear terrorist with PDTM explosive in them- enough for a fairly substantial detonation, like the shoe bomber - - failed to die and hence succeed in his mission because the powder failed to explode, but only catch on fire. So the skin was burned off his legs. Not to be indelicate but I wonder if this man has anything between his legs any more or is That part of his life- - over? What I would really like is for someone who has really BEEN to the Other Side and wants to come back and talk about it without violating some “prime directive” or whatever. That would be the block buster Oprah Winfewy interview of all time. The possibilities of what happens after death are endless, and heading the list is the strong possibility that you just might cease to exist. If you plan your death and fail to weigh this possibility you’re working with bad input. People employ the adage “To conquer death you only have to die”, or as Bill Cosby might say “That’s about the Stupidest thing I’ve heard anybody say”. Religious fundamentalism is stupid. People who reach our age and don’t realize that truth are psychologically retarded in their development.

You know you have the Wickipedia for collected knowledge on the internet. Why couldn’t we have a sort of wickipedia-legleslation forum on the internet where everyone proposes legislation contributing little bits and pieces of it, and some editor picks out the best stuff to post. After everyone reads it we can all vote on it – bypassing congress entirely as long as they aren’t going to act. President Obama has shown zero leadership in business and finance reform. People are proposing legislation to bring back Glass-Steagall, that reform package passed by Franklin Roosevelt that kept banks from speculating with our money in risky investments. Why isn’t President Obama leading this fight? Where is the President on this issue? He’s too busy listening to Larry Summers and Timothy Geitner. With Obama what we have is a man who fundamentally lied to us in the campaign, saying that he is a man of change, when he is very much the man of the status quo. You’d never know by the things Obama says about the economy that he’s basically one with the people responsible for it being this way. These state initiatives are disasters because most of them are penned by one lobbyist or the other. If we got the “people”, bright, informed people who use the internet- - involved in the legislative process we would see whether the adage is true, “There is wisdom in numbers”.

President Obama took a break from his Hawaiian vacation today to comment on the bombing attack, that was alledgedly a retaliation for US air strikes in Yemen. Al Qaeda has officially taken credit for the attempted attack. Of course that guy on Sixty Minutes says “They are still planning a bigger attack”. The President promised today that new security steps would be taken. That’s just what every paranoid is hoping to hear. The suspect was on a terror watch list, but not the “No Fly” list. Joe Lieberman wants more liberal use of the whole body image scanners. There was a female substitute on the Ron Reagan program, so that station is four for four as far as having substitutes for their day line-up. Like I say, they must be paid well. She wanted to discuss the topic of racial profiling. She’s all for it saying that the population in general will suffer all these oppressive security precautions but that only those of Arab descent or Moslems need undergo the full rigors of whatever measures we impose. Of course this is just what the government WANTS us to think. They want us as obsessed with terrorism and as angry at Islamists as possible. One lady called and said she was troubled by the whole tone of today’s conversation and she was against racial profiling. Oh, and she said she was African American. She was cut off without explanation except when the host is losing the argument, they just “do what comes natural”. I turned the program off after this because it had ceased to be intellectually respectable.

Christmas With Stu

Stewart Suctliffe has renewed the practice of "overseeing" some key outing events. This is after years and years of not doing this. I went to Knott's Berry Farm last Saturday a week ago and Stewart only saw our group as we were about to leave the park. It was the trio of myself, Pete Richards and Bill Gunderson. In years past like say nearly thirty years ago the trio might consist of me, Pete Richards and David Snow. David Snow must resembles that Bu-bu Higgins guy on "Mama's Family" if you're looking for a simily. Pete Richards made the statement "I'm glad the Snoop Ice Show" made explicit reference to the Biblical basis for Christmas". Stewart wanted to endourse the remark saying that it's time Christmas got a lot little more back to its roots. Stewart made the remark to me one day that he preferred the Rare Earth version of "I'm Losing You" as opposed to the Rod Stewart version, which I had regarded as "definitive version" of this song. I expressed puzzlement at Stewart because I thought it was a Rod Stewart fan and he said "No, I'm a fan of any artist who was ever in the Yardbirds, such as Jeff Beck. But I'm not into Rod Stewart". Stewart remarked that the Rare Earth version of "Losing You" just seemed to have a little more funky soul than the Rod Stewart version.

Yesterday Stewart was waiting already at the house when I am you know who were off getting the Chinese food for our dinner. You can throw out the "in an hour you'll be hungry again" rule with this meal. This is a meal that definitely sat heavy in the stomach. The whole food menu was very protien intensive, and I stuffed myself on almonds, and these cheese log things where I applied thick slices to triscuits. That makes for a heavy orderve. The rice was heavy and not fluffy as Chinese rice usually is. The chow mein was NOT primarily bean sprouts, and the Chicken almond- - very different from the vegetable intensive way it's normally prepared. There was chicken mushroom, and there was brocolli beef, and also sweet and sour pork - - boneless. There were also fried wontons and an egg roll for each of us. The soup was about the worst I've had from any Chinese place. My fortune cookie promised long life. There were numerous conversation "anomalies" that Stewart noted that I won't go into. I had missed his insightful perceptions. In terms of gifts it was a bumper crop, except that I got no money - from anybody, out of a desire to prevent me from having money for cigarettes. There were some nice greeting cards. I got a kaki long sleeved shirt from a brother, and a nice one. I received a digital camera from the other brother, although it's an economy job, if you look at the specifications. There is no zoom. I received two insightful books from my Mom, and this Japanese number calendar game from a cousin who was there. I also got the usual fruit cake, and some dried fruit and nuts in a baggie that I've already eaten.

There was a debate as to whether marijuana can give you brain damage. Well if not that it does seem that marijuana usage when you are young can lead to decreased seretonin output in the brain as an adult, which decreases the ability of an individual to deal with stress in his life. As such those who didn't smoke pot would be at a decided advantage in competetive or stressful situations that come along in life.

Now they are telling us there is a flood of terrorists coming from Nigeria to Detroit to set off explosive devices on US planes. The buzz is now that no electronic devices will be allowed on US flights during the last hour, because this attempt occurred in the last hour of the flight. You know my feeling that most of these measures are 90% terror hysteria and 10% substance.

We finally have George Harrison checking in here on our Beatle album series. I want the listener to have a certain "experiance" and I weighed out which songs to include and omit. Stewart expressly told me it was up to me to select these songs and he would have no input. Except that in the fall of 1962 Stewart claimed (over a decade ago) that he recorded "Hold Me Tight" with that band he was in in Toronto when he played bass. Here is more stuff to read.

Here are two “collectors’ items”. What I tried to do was to get bits that you either don’t hear all that much, or in the case of the British EP that came out in the spring of 1964 in Britain, I wanted all four of this songs featured because none of these songs are included on The Beatles “Red Album”, which seems to me a glairing omission. As to the “six minute jam” version of “She’s A Woman”, Jim Ladd played this track in June of 1992 and I fully expected to hear this track on Anthology but it wasn’t there. This has spaces now but it might not later on.

THE BEATLES – EARLY NUGGETS

Three Cool Cats (Decca Tapes)

Love of the Loved (Decca Tapes)

Bessame Mucho (Decca tapes version)

Sure to Fall (Decca tapes version)

Crying, Waiting, Hoping (BBC version)

Love Me Do (audition version with Pete Best)

I Saw Her Standing There (unreleased version played on KLOS

that’s a little faster and the lead guitar part is less evolved

Hold Me Tight (from With the Beatles) a favorite of Stu Sutcliffe)

The Honeymoon Song (Beatles at the BBC)

Clara Bella (Beatles at the BBC)

Sweet Little Sixteen (Beatles at the BBC version)

Lonesome Tears in my Eyes (Beatles at the BBC)

Leaves On The Trees (Beatles at the BBC version)

Money (official “With the Beatles” version)

Long, Tall Sally (Past Masters Vol 1)

I Call Your Name (Past Masters Vol 1)

You Know What to Do (Anthology) George: lead vocal

Matchbox (Past Masters Vol 1)

Can’t Buy Me Love (Anthology version)

Slow Down (Past Masters Vol 1)

And I Love Her (Single US version)

She’s A Woman (unreleased six minute version heard in 1992)

- - - - - - - - -

Some Harrison albums have NO selections off them on this collection. I tried to go for Harrison songs that “made a statement” or were somehow historical music landmarks.

THE MOSTLY GEORGE HARRISON ALBUM

Disk One

Taxman (US mono version)

Piggies (from White Album)

Think for Yourself (Rubber Soul)

Love You To (from Revolver)

Beatles 1967 Christmas Message

Inner Light (from single B side)

Only A Northern Song (Yellow Submarine)

Blue Jay Way (US radio version with fewer overdubs)

It’s All Too Much (from Yellow Submarine)

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (original acoustic version)

Savory Truffle (White Album)

Long, Long, Long (White Album)

Not Guilty (Anthology version)

Sour Milk Sea (unreleased George demo version)

Rip It Up/Shake, Rattle - / Blue Suede Shoes (Anthology)

Disc Two

Come And Get It (Anthology version)

Oh Darling (from “Let It Be” sessions) (Anthology)

All Things Must Pass (Anthology version)

It Don’t Come Easy (George Harrison demo version)

Blow Away (from "George Harrison")

Devil’s Radio (from 1987 album)

Isn’t It a Pity (single version)

When We Was Fab (from 1987 album)

Cocameme Business (from 1989 album)

Deep Blue (1971 single B Side)

Bangle Desh (1971 single A Side)

Ring Out The Old Ring In The New (from “Dark Horse”)

Cracker box Palace (from 33 & 1/3)

This Guitar Can’t Keep From Crying (from “Extra Texture”)

The Art of Dying (from “All Things Must Pass”)

Festivus for the Rest of Us

This is an expression that has been circulating around this year. People have their own ways and traditions in celebrating Christmas and far be it from me to interfere with them. "Viva la differance" is what I say. Some people go to basketball games on Christmas. Others head off to Lake Tahoe. Of course much of our Romanesque tradition comes from the Cult of Sol Invictus or "Unconquered Sun" which kind of merged with the cult of Mithras. In two different web sites lately I have come across a reference to the mass torching of ancient scriptures by the Romans in the late 4th century after the Nicene Creed was established. One of these writings was a Jehovah's Witness publication. You could tell from the frequent references to Jehovah. I am not inclined to give credence to either article. The Emperor was Theodosius I. I don't dispute that there was a move at this time to re-make classic Christian into the Trinitarian formulas we know today. However a bit problem with "mystery cults" is that they didn't write things down because they obviously wanted to be secretive. I have stated, and for you new people this is an eye opener, that classic Gnosticism goes back to a group called the Pythagoreans. This is a group that believes everything traces back to the original "Point" or "The One". From here gods and creation polliferated and became more complex and also underwent a devolution. Original sin is a concept that refers originally to the gods rather than to man. Because it's the sin of the gods that caused them to create this evil Universe. But many refer to the early Christians as Essines even though what the Essines believed was sort of a platonist dualism rather than a belief in a savior messiah. Some say St. Paul was an Essine. We know that "scripture was tampered with" because Paul was described as a "Young man" at the stoning of Stephan, a few years before he got saved. Yet to be a Pharicee, which he claims to be, you had to attain to the age of thirty and many say you could not be a Pharicee unless you were married. We don't know what happened to Mrs. Paul. Many have pointed out similarities on Paul's letters to the apocraphal book of Enoch. I bring out all these factoids to say that Christianity came from a primorial soup of varied and often disperate ideas. We learn much of what we know about St. Paul from the Book of Acts, which is an anti-semetic rant, and Marcion would have no doubt included the book in his cannon had the book existed in 140 AD or whenever Marcion formed his cannon. We know that in one letter Paul refers to Judas betraying Jesus, yet in another letter of Paul we have Judas being among the twelve who saw the risen Jesus. We know in one letter St. Paul refers to the Mosiac law as "Dead" and "Void". But he says in another letter not recognized by Marcion the following "We know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully". In one letter Paul says on the subject of eating meat "Let each man not judge the other", and yet in another refers to teachers who advocate this as "doctrines of demons". He says both "in these troubled times it is better not to marry" yet in another book (again not recognized by Marcion) he says "An Elder should be the husband of one wife and know how to rule his household". One author years ago said that we owe Christianity itself to St. Paul. So I regard him as a key figure who blended all of these items in the primorial soup of doctrine. This is a man whom many point out "Seemed to know almost no detail about anything in the four gospels". He was a man who even regarded historical reality as a wrong notion referring to it as "Knowing Jesus after the flesh". He believed Christ would return in his lifetime, we know from the line "We who are alive will be caught up together and so shall we ever be with the Lord". We're still waiting.

AND NOW FOR THE LOCAL NEWS

(RECORDED EARLIER TODAY)

This morning I went for coffee at ten after six. For the fourth day in a row there was no hot water in the shower only today it didn’t even tease for a few seconds of hot. Today it was cold all along so I didn’t even get in. I don’t know if the bakery will even be open tomorrow. We had Raison Bran with toast and butter and jelly and a fried egg and a second on coffee. I had KTLK on till eight and then I switched to a rather different Bill Handel program on KFI. Trying to find something that isn’t a rerun is difficult. Thom Hartman’s program was a rerun. In the news the Senate passed the health bill before the sun was even up in Washington. Someone said that Senator Byrd was the Senate pro temp guy who is fourth in secession to the Presidency. If so this adds a key note on those Republicans who are praying that one senator would die before the vote.

I thought I’d see what Rush Limbaugh had to say. He was foaming at the mouth at all sorts of issue and that show, too, was a rerun. In the first segment he was saying how President Obama is indecisive in not ordering more troops to Afghanistan, and even brought out a Dick Chaney quote. But later on Rush criticized his sending in of 34,000 vaguely implying he dislikes White House leaks. He then said taxes ought to be raised on everyone earning over thirty thousand, to pay for it. He seemed to also dislike the idea of Obama’s explaining his decision to the American Public by TV. He kept calling the President a “small man”. He then attacked this notion of a White House state dinner saying he was “hijacking Thanksgiving”. There’s no pleasing him. Then it was on to global warming and these E mail leaks. We now know that these leaks are ten years old and so utterly irrelevant to the current debate. Tomorrow on KFI will be Jesus Christ and the whole pro war gang celebrating the birthday of the Prince of Peace. On Bill Handel they launched into an attack of the movie “Avatar” because it seemed to put a negative spin on the US playing God with aboriginal peoples of a region, and of course anything that’s anti war is suspect. John and Ken say no matter who gets elected just throw them out of office the next time around. This of course will only insure that lobbyists are the ones running the government because they will be the only ones with experience.

The Health Care bill passed 60 votes in favor and 39 against. People continue to suggest that a public option might be slipped in by the conference committee but if this bill is altered by so much as a hair, it won’t pass the vote in the Senate. Some have even suggested that failing this, a “reconciliation resolution” could be made in the Senate where it would only need 51 votes. Some say “President Obama would never allow this bill to fail on his watch” and also say “the left has to pressure the President into getting things their way”. My response is the oft repeated Dr. Phil quote “Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior” and since when has “the left” ever pressured Obama into anything. It reminds me of Jesus Christ and how some said “If he were arrested he would be forced to take decisive action on behalf of the nation of Israel”. Well, contrary to what George Burnes says in that movie – God doesn’t work best under pressure. He folds like a dried leaf. I don’t know what drives Obama with certitude but it’s got an awful lot to do with not offending any of the drug and insurance companies he’s made deals with to get their support. On the contrary, the bill will only, if anything, be further watered down in the conference committee version and probably have more key provisions stripped from it, perhaps the one that says insurance companies can’t over-charge customers no matter if they’re high risk. The insurance companies don’t like that one. To quote from Dr. Phil again – all the democrats are Enablers of undesirable behavior by the president when they pass such a hopelessly compromised bill

Sour Milk Sea

As this recession heads into its third year it's understandable that some people's tempers may be getting a little short, as mine did yesterday in my remarks in Word. I am deleting but one sentence from that in this reposting because it was an over the top remark I have formerly reserved exclusively for Evangelists. But I will be honest in that I have a bias against bloated government, and this Health Care bill before congress vastly expands the size of government and will increase the deficet by literally trillions of dollars. What I find most offensive about this bill, which I didn't even touch upon yesterday, was its dishonest accounting. You get taxed right away for services, but those services are not forthcoming till the year 2014. No wonder that Obama can claim that in the short term it reduces the deficit. Formerly Republicans were the only ones guilty of this practice. But also I don't like all of this "whistling in the dark" stuff of just hoping against hope that whatever is wrong with this bill will get "fixed" down the road. You pro gay advocates out there who have been waiting for "Don't Ask Don't Tell" to be "fixed" have been waiting a long time. Some people who didn't like the Clinton 1996 welfare bill have been waiting for a long time for that to be "fixed". How long did it take for Plecy verses Ferguson to be "fixed"? Hillary Clinton did well to point out that Martin Luther King would not have been such a potent force were there not a Lyndon Johnson to enact his dreams into law. If I were Senator Lloyd Benson I might say "I knew Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson was a friend of mine. And Mr. President, you're no Lyndon Johnson." When Johnson passed Medi-Care in 1965 he did a bold thing. But this current Health bill is anything but bold. About the closest parrellel I cam come up with is the Impeachment of President Clinton by the Republicans. They did it just to prove they could do it, but other than that the whole thing just wasted an awful lot of Congress' time. And now here are the remarks from yesterday

This is after dinner on Tuesday December 22, 2009, the second day of winter. We had some strange casserole and pasta concoction tonight for which there were no seconds with refried beans and green beans. I had two helpings of bread pudding with chocolate icing on it. I went to the bakery for coffee that was actually hot from the pot. Today I would like to talk about a few general principles. At three o clock Ron Reagan dedicated most of the hour (after his right wing idiots gallery of horrors) to discussing the Obama Health Care bill. How many out there are ready for “Obama Care”? I’m not. And were I a California senator I would vote an emphatic “No” on the final bill. Everybody appreciates a strait shooter. But today our host was jerking his audience around with a misleading promo. He said he was going to run down the ten reasons for voting Against the Obama bill that some lady had written in an editorial. That is not what happened. Instead he had a “guest” who like an over-zealous evangelist, did most of the talking throughout the hour. He appealed to highly infantile logic in saying why Obama Care is something every American should embrace. I was taken back to the time when I myself got on welfare, that is Social Security. It’s kind of a period in my life, like Homer Simpson’s grunge period that I haven’t talked about much, as though by ignoring it I could deny that it even happened. I had a lot of fierce arguments with parents, who were the chief protagonists in seeking this government hand-out. All you had to do was to see a couple of doctors who rubber stamped documents and said that you were unemployable. What Obama Care does is require young healthy Americans to take a “leap in Faith” only in this case a leap downward. It’s like a guy who was afraid to dive off a thirty foot spring board into a pool, blindfolded. But one day the protagonist sees old Charlie ascending the ladder to the diving board. And then he sees him jump, and he turns to his friend, “I hope he knows there’s no water in the pool. He said he was afraid into diving in a pool filled with water so I thought "If he's afraid of water, I'll take the water out - - taking the water out might allay his fears.” You remember that story about the little girl who was going to do acrobatics on a high bar at school wearing a dress. And an adult says “I don’t know if you want to do that, people might see your underwear” and the girl responds, “Oh, that’s OK, I’m not wearing any”. People are afraid of shelling out eight percent of their annual income on health insurance they will probably never use. But it’s OK. Just to up the ante, it’s not really a government program. You are doing it with a private insurance company with all of its inefficiencies and CEO salaries. Nobody has figured in the human cost of psychological devaluation. I am reminded of that example from Star Trek in an episode where Scottie was in it, and he was talking with Captain Piccard, who relates the time when a paracitic organism latched on to the Ship and was sucking on the fuel system to gain nutrients. And Captain Piccard tells him “We got shed of that creature by the old trick of souring the milk”. They made it so undesirable and counter productive to engage in that activity he finally gave it up. Healthy Americans who are young and healthy now by virtue of just being alive and breathing air that Al Gore isn’t charging them for yet, now has to take that leap in faith saying “Well I just might get lucky. I might come down with a horrible illness worth eight percent of my income”. For those who extol the virtues of "sharing the risk among the many" I say that the drug and insurance companies have a great little gaming operation going and to quote from "War Games" the 1983 movie, "The only way to win is - Not To Play". Of course there are taxes laid on the middle class including taxes on Union dues used for health care, so I understand. And of course they have to pay top dollar for any medications they get. And if their insurance isn’t adequate, in order to get what is called a Cadillac plan, they are taxed more money. One reason why I always admired Malcolm X more than Martin Luther King, is because the former never denigrated the Black man saying he should see himself as poor and needy. King, especially in his later years, alas, did this more and more. No wonder that if the assasenation of Malcolm X was a comspiracy between J Edger Hoover and Elijah Mohamed, it is Elijah Mohamed who is guilty of the greater betrayal. Hoover knew that if King’s teachings tended to make the Black man dependant and the teachings of Malcolm made the Black man strong, that Malcolm was the greater of the two men to be feared. The radio program promised that they would examine all ten reasons why the Obama Care health bill is such a bad idea, and I would like to have heard that. Unfortunately so much time was expended in making excuses for President Obama’s blanket sell-out, that completion of the roster of reasons was impossible. This whole argument about “getting your foot in the door” is nonsense.

It was only the last two callers to the show at the end of the hour that spoke the truth. It’s the Republicans who are desperate to get this bill passed, because it will give their buddies in the drug and insurance companies everything they’ve wanted. Stocks in drug and insurance companies have skyrocketed in the past few days in anticipation of this bill’s passage. This bill is their Christmas present. You know there is an adage of “Friends don’t stick it to friends”. I had who I thought was a friend “stick it” to me today, economically in a fast talking, slippery and patently unfair deal that he wasn’t going to budge from. Friends don’t deal with friends the way they deal with outsiders. You’ve heard the term of “Jewing you out of something”. Jews don’t stick it to Jews and Black people shouldn’t stick it to Black people. Too bad President Obama hasn’t learned this lesson. Of course I would add that US workers don’t “stick it” to other US workers. And frankly I think trade unionists have more loyalty to their own kind than certain Black people do. It isn’t a Unionist’s idea to give Red China these sweetheart deals that they’ve procured. Nobody is going to stick in any “buy American” clauses in any Obama deal. And nobody is going to allow the importation of Drugs on Obama’s watch. Thom Hartman pretty much put his finger on it when he said that Obama obviously sold out to the drug and insurance companies to insure their continued donations to Democratic Party politicians. In other words it was the Judas instinct. In order to preserve what you think you have to, you end up losing everything that is truly of value to you, like your integrity and the ability to look yourself in the mirror each morning. But one of these days a third party candidate is going to make it in this country. We will overcome our Third Party phobia in order to overcome a more intolerable situation, which is our two party system now where people can vote for a black progressive and get an Oreo Bush clone. Thom Hartman says much of this Afghan war escalation is because Obama has sold out to that dreaded “military industrial complex”. The president is thinking that if he can just act White enough he will somehow be able to achieve some transcendent state of White Nirvana. Is this what the President was really thinking when he wrote “The Audacity of Hope”? Hartman pointed out that those who are looking ahead to Cap and Trade, may see a similar sell-out to the establishment, and this move may be just another boomdoggle for Wall Street traders, trading these Carbon credits like securities. And I'm positively going to strangle the next person who says, "The President is playing chess while everybody else is playing checkers". My response to that one is, "The trouble is this is a Checkers championship!"